INTRODUCTION AND COMPENDIUM.
11
visited in my behalf, and many very interesting epitaphs copied. This class of
work was usually undertaken for me by rectors of the churches or the parish
clerks. To some I have paid a stipulated fee; others have kindly forwarded
the results of their search gratuitously. In several instances, church histo-
rians, being acquainted with the records, have drawn elaborate tabular pedi-
grees in "broadside" for me, filling in names and dates, with chronological
classification.
From members of the English and Scottish branches of the family I learned
that many of their kindred had settled in the British American Provinces, and I
pushed my inquiries into every considerable city and town in those dominions,
but for some reason unknown, some Canadian families have not responded to
my wishes, and consequently the genealogy of those branches will be found
very incomplete.
As the records of different families were received, the envelopes containing
them were all numbered, and an epitome of their contents written on the out-
side; then these were all classified, tied in bundles, and packed away. In 1873,
the work of composition was commenced, and for sixty days, during which
I attended to all my professional duties (being a settled pastor), I employed
all my spare time in writing, frequently at my work till past midnight, and
perhaps the most discouraging feature of that task was the fact that more
than one-half of the manuscripts was re-written, in consequence of my dis-
satisfaction with the arrangement of names and the classification; this change
necessitated the loss of more than one thousand pages of carefully written
foolscap copy, besides hundreds of pages that have since been cut out to make
room for addenda, and re-composed. No more confusing piece of classification
and composition was ever undertaken than that of compiling from thousands
of letters, copies of wills, deeds, commissions, account-books, ancient Latin
inscriptions, copies of grave-stones, family Bibles, old framed tablets, marriage
and baptism certificates, petitions, business charters, bills of sale, notes,
receipts, memorandums, diaries, muster rolls, subscription papers, and other
papers too numerous to mention here. This will be better appreciated when it
is known that the matter comprising some pages in this book has been taken
from twenty different sources. These circumstances expose a work of this
class to many liabilities to errors in dates and the spelling of proper names;
these will, no doubt, be discovered after the book is in print and when too
late to correct them. Of course, many of the original letters and old doc-
uments were nearly illegible and difficult to read; these have been transcribed
as carefully as possible, and when discrepancies appeared I have adopted that
rendering which seemed most reliable; where documentary evidence was want-
ing, statements have been made as probabilities and approximates. Traditions
have been given as historically true only when well authenticated by according
testimony. Errors caused by the carelessness of those who furnished me rec-
ords, I am in no way responsible for; some are, no doubt, the result of over-
sight upon my own part.
It has been my purpose to incorporate a generous biographical element into
this book, but it has been impossible to obtain sufficient interesting materials
of that class to give the composition anything like uniformity in appearance.
The biographical sketches of members of the Scottish and English families were
largely taken from local papers and popular magazines, but some of them have
passed through the hands of the family and received their approval; many of the
sketches in the American families have been written or revised by the relatives,
and were endorsed as substantially correct.
