John McClintock was the eldest son of Alexander McClintock of Taughboyne, Co. Donegal, who was possibly the first of the family to settle in Ireland, by his wife Agnes McClean (widow of Mr. Stinson or Stevenson) of Argyllshire. It is believed he was the son of another Alexander McClintock [McKlintock] by his wife Catherine Rogers. The Muster Roll of Ulster made in 1630, shows "Alexander Mc Lentock," bearing a sword and pike, on the lands of the Duke of Lennox, in the Barony of Rapho, County Donegal. The Duke of Lennox, at this time chief among the king's friends, may have granted the arms himself.
Alexander married AgnesMcClean in Glasgow in 1648. Alexander's name appears as having paid the Hearth Tax in the parish of Taughboyne in 1665. He is believed to have lived at Trinta House (also Trintaugh) where he died on 6 September 1670. (At Trinta, on the estate above the house, there is a high black rock, a spur of the mountain Dooish (black mountain), subsequently mined for slate.) He was buried in Taughboyne churchyard. Agnes died on 6th December 1696 and was buried in the same place.
Alexander and Agnes had at least three sons and a daughter. Their eldest son, John McClintock (1649-1707) married Jenet Lowry and is dealt with below. The second son William McClintock (1657-1724) married Elizabeth Harvey. The third son, Alexander McClintock (1660-1689), was a lieutenant in the British army and married Sarah Young. He died on September 14th 1689, less than 50 days after the Siege of Derry was lifted. Alexander and Agnes's daughetr Jane McClintock married a Mr. Porter.
Born in 1649, John was 21-years-old when his father died. He is sometimes described as 'of Treintamucklach' [ie: Trinta?], which he inherited following the death of his 29-year-old brother Lt. Alexander McClintock in 1689. He was ancestor of the McClintocks of Drumcar, Lisnavagh, Seskinore and Red Hall.
On August 11th 1687, he married Jenet Lowry whose family subsequently added the name of Corry and were given the title of Lord Belmore. One might have though 'Jenet' was a typo but that is the spelling given on her tombstone. Jenet was the fourth daughter of a prosperous landowner called John Lowry of Aghenis, Co. Tyrone, whose first wife, a daughter of Mr. Hamilton of Ballyfallon, Co. Tyrone. She is said to have died at Londonderry during the siege of 1689 but this does not quite make sense chronologically if Jenet McClintock was the daughter of John Lowry's second wife.
By his first wife, John Lowry, a Scotsman who had settled in Ulster, had a son William Lowry, who went to the East Indies and died unmarried, and three daughters - Elizabeth who married Francis Perry of Tattyreagh, Co. Tyrone; Margaret who married John Keys of Cavancurr, Co. Donegal; and Mary who married Archibald Woods of Trinsallagh, Co. Donegal.
By his second wife Mary Buchanan, John Lowry had two more sons - John who died unmarried and Robert Lowry who married Anne Sinclair and succeeded at Ahennis - and four more daughters. Catharine, the eldest daughter, maried Sameul Perry of Moyloughmore (Mullaghmore), Co. Tyrone, the estate adjacent to that of John Forster. Rebecca, the second, married William Moore of Ballymagrane, near Cappagh. The Moores and Lowrys were influential families in Co. Tyrone and many of their men were attainted by James II's Parliament in 1689. Anne Lowry, the third sister, married Robert McClintock of Castrues, Co. Donegal, and Jenet, or Jane, was the youngest gal who, as stated above, married John McClintock of Trintaugh.
It would seem that John and Jenet sought refuge in Scotland during the wars of 1689. They were certainly over there during the Siege of Londonderry, where their first child John was born on 1st February 1689 although the baby did not survive infancy.[i] The McClintocks returned to Ireland soon after peace was re-established and had some thirteen children, of whom seven survived. These were Alexander of Drumcar (see below), William (see below), John of Trintaugh (see below), Robert of Castruse (see below), James, Mary (who was born on Feb 2nd 1690, married Gray, Esq, of Donegal) and, perhaps, Katharine or Catherine (who married Mr. Keys).
John passed away on 3rd September 1707 aged 59 and was buried beneath a white marble slab in the south side of Taughboyne Church Cemetery. In his will, dated 1st September 1707, he left his wife £20 per annum and the lease of Trinta during her life or widowhood, and £50 to dispose of by will, besides ten cows, two of the best horses, and twelve sheep; to his son Alexander a freehold in St. Johnstone; to his daughter Mary, £40, and to daughter Katherine, £20. Each child was named in the will and bond was given by Alexander McClintock, October 4, 1719, as the guardian of the living minor children, named James and Robert. The fact that the son George had died before the bond was given is important. Jenet, widow of John McClintock, died December 28, 1739 and was buried alongside him, as were his son John and daughter-in-law Susanna in due course.
John and Janet McClintock’s eldest son, Alexander McClintock, was born on 30th September 1692. He most likely went to Dublin in about 1710 where he read law and became a barrister of note during the early Georgian Age. In 1734, he was noted as ‘Attorney, Common Pleas’. In 1725, he married the wealthy Rebecca Sampson who came from a prosperous Dublin family. As they had no children, Alexander became, in Colonel Bob McClintock’s words, ‘the fairy godfather to his nephews and nieces’, although he notably excluded his nephew and nearest natural heir Dr. James McClintock (son of William) from his will. He purchased the Drumcar property in Co Louth which he left to his nephew John McClintock, grandfather of the first Lord Rathdonnell. He established another nephew Alexander McClintock at Seskinore in Co Tyrone. And he ‘left money to many of his nephews and nieces’. When he died in Dublin on 25th May 1775, he was buried in Dunleer, a couple of miles outside Drumcar. His last will was dated 10 July 1772 and proven on 8 June 1775.
John and Janet McClintock’s second surviving son William McClintock was born on 9th January 1696/7. Tradition locates him in Cappagh, Co. Tyrone, 'a bleak and sparsely settled district'. He was apparently not on friendly terms with his eldest brother, Alexander. The precise cause of this family bust up is unknown but Mervine (1913) attributes it to jealousy, stating that their father showed 'a marked preference' for his son John, as evidenced by his will where the younger John was named as executor. John's characteristics, says Mervine (1913), 'indicate that he was distinctly a " business man " in the modern phrase.' What Alexander had to do with this is unclear, but William's grandson apparently had such a marked aversion to the name 'Alexander' that he could barely say the name. Nor were they allowed to mention the name of Trinta and when a nanny mentioned that she had heard of a family called McClintock from Trinta, she was very nearly dismissed on the spot.
William may have moved to Cappagh to be close to his aunt Rebecca Moore, sister of his mother Jenet. He appears to have operated as a doctor, as his son James learned the medicine profession from him.
In 1738, he married Isabella Forster. The marriage probably took place shortly after the death of her father, John Forster, of Tullaghan, Co. Monaghan, who left her a legacy of £400. She died on 14th May 1773.
William died in early March 1774. According to Mervine (1913), William's will was written for him on his deathbed on February 24, 1774, just ten days before the day of his burial.' The will described him as " weak in body". He bequeathed to his grandson Robert, son of Dr. James, 'the loom that had belonged to his [since deceased] son Robert in his lifetime" . He distributed other effects among his three children, namely James, Jenet and Margaret. To Jenet he left "the house and land, the " horse furniture " (harness, wagons, etc.,) and a heifer and calf, with half of the sheep; the other half, and the rest of the cows, to her sister ; the household goods were to be divided between the daughters ; Jenet to give her sister board and lodging for one vear, and one guinea.' James Moore of Letterbyne, and William Moore of Killstrole, both in the parish of Ardstraw, were made overseers, and the testator's son Dr. James McClintock of Reaghan in Cappagh was appointed executor. Witnesses, Charles Ker and John S. Moore. The will was never proved, though filed and indexed in Dublin.
Their son James McClintock was born in 1739 and, instructed in the art and practice of medicine by his father, became a county doctor. He also farmed land at Reaghan, near Cappagh. He married Margaret Lemon (1737-1823). When H.S. Hetherington, an Irish-American, visited the area in about 1830, the elderly Dr McClintock was a well-known character locally, regarded as the Oracle or local Pope, and he 'could outspell the whole school and was also the best writer'. He was said to have been a stiff, conservative figure, and was presumably greatly miffed that when his extremely wealthy uncle Alexander McClintock of Drumcar died in 1775, he was completely overlooked in the will, despite the fact that he was Alexander's nearest natural heir. Margaret died aged 86 in February 1823. The doctor died aged 93 on November 20th 1832. They had four sons - William (b. 1866), Robert (died young), Hugh (survived by daughters), John (see below) - and a daughter Mary (b. 1868).
Dr. James and Margaret McClintock's youngest son John McClintock (1784-1856) grew up in Cappagh and died in Philadelphia. In 1707, he had a major quarrel with his father over a local beauty deemed to be of inferior social class called Martha McMackin. Aged sixteen, she was the daughter of Patrick McMackin and Catherine Rogers, of the parish of Newton Stewart, County Tyrone. Her father was closely involvde with the Wesleyan Methodists and John Wesley had actually used the Rogers' barn as a meeting place. An epic romance ensued:
'Learning of the opposition of the young man's family, Patrick McMackin promptly forbade the young man's suit, and soon after sent his daugher to join her brother in America. John McClintock was at first at a loss what to do, but learning that James Gowen, one of Martha's suitors, favored by her father, had gone to Philadelphia, he started at once for the same place. Arriving there, with no clue except that which might be found by watching Gowen, his efforts were for some weeks unrewarded, until observing that Gowen was absent at intervals, he followed him to the village of Soudersburg, where John McClintock, a convert to Methodism, was married April 19, 1808, to Martha McMackin.' (Mervine, 1913)
He prospred as a merchant for many years but suffered a reversal of fortune in 1830. A number of freinds, including John Gowen, came ot his rescue, appointed him manager of a bank and he later became part owner and chief manager of the Beaver Meadow Coal Mines. He was described as "a man of middle height, with light hair and eyes, and " of unusual intelligence ; alert in movement, irrepressible in temper, persistent, tenacious, and a man of mark in his religious communion." He never returned to Ireland but later dispatched his son James to erect a headstone to his parents in Cappagh graveyard. His wife Martha died on 4th July 1840. The following year, he married secondly Brigitta McGovern. John died at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on 24 May 1856.
John and Martha had seven sons, Dr. James McClintock M.D. (1809-1881); the theologian, abolionist and university president John McClintock Ph.D. (1814-1870); the soldier William McClintock (1817-1847) who was killed at the battle of Buena Vista; Robert Burch McClintock (1819-1889); Samuel Ross McClintock, MD (who disappeared in the California Gold Rush of 1849), Emory Waugh McClintock (1842-1900) and Edgar Wakeman McClintock (1844-1880), as well as three daughters Jane (1811-1884), Martha (1821-1900, married Joseph Graydon) and Margaret (1828-1856, married Rev. William Godman).
For more on this branch, including the influential Emory McClintock, see THE McCLINTOCK GENEALOGY (1913), reprinted from Volume One of The Genealogical Register and edited by William M. Mervine of Philadelphia. (http://www.archive.org/stream/mcclintockgeneal00merv/mcclintockgeneal00merv_djvu.txt)
This lead to this information was provided by Dr. James McClintock's great-grandson Tom Barr in May 2010.
John and Janet McClintock’s fourth surviving son Robert McClintock was born on 27th October 1702 and lived at Castruse [sometimes Castletrues] and married Helen Harvey. He died at Castrues on 18 November 1758 (sometimes given as February 1757). Their surviving children were John, David, William, Henry, Rose, and Helena. His son William McClintock, aka ‘Stuttering Willy’, lived at Prospect House. A close friend of Lord Exmouth, he was father to Henry McClintock who served with distinction during the bombardment of Algiers in 1816 at which the young Captain William McClintock Bunbury was also present. Sadly this line died out with Henry who had no children.[ii]
John and Janet McClintock’s third surviving son John McClintock of Trintaugh was born on 27th March 1698 and married Susanna Maria Chambers (1700-1742) of Rockhill, Co Donegal, in 1723. They had sixteen children of whom at least six died young. These included William McClintock of Lifford, John McClintock of Drumcar (who succeeded to the bulk of his uncle Alexander's fortune and married Patience Foster), Alexander McClintock of Seskinore, Rebecca McClintock (who married Lawrence O’Hara) and James McClintock of Trintaugh (who married Dora Beresford McCullach). It is quite possible that Susanne herself died in childbirth, given her age and the number of children she had in 19 years of marriage. She was buried beneath a white marble slab in the south side of Taughboyne Church Cemetery where her parents-in-law and husband also lie. John died on 26th May 1765 at the age of 67.
John and Susanna McClintock’s eldest son William McClintock was born in 1724. He was subsequently disinherited when he married his first cousin Francelina Nesbit. His wealthy uncle Alexander McClintock provided him with some support while he lived in Lifford. Colonel Bob McClintock supposes William to have been ‘rather a pathetic figure, living in a small way and watching his younger brother James playing ducks and drakes with the property to which he was the natural heir. We may hope that his wife for whose sake he had given up his inheritance made this sacrifice worthwhile’. William and Francelina had a son Alexander McClintock who is said to have ‘died in India’. Colonel McClintock wonders was this the ‘unusually accomplished’ and ‘amiable’ McClintock mentioned in William Hickey’s memoir.[iii] This branch appears to have died with Alexander. Howvever another line of thought holds that Alexander did not "die in India' but that the expression was a euphemism common among the landed gentry when they wished to close the official records of a black sheep. The same theory holds that this was Alexander (1762-1800) who married Anne Alexander in 1788 and had two sons, John and Alexander. It is certainly notable that young Alexander is mentioned in the will of Alexander McClintock, the Dublin barrister, which was written after the stated death of Alexander.
Eleven years younger than his disgraced and disinherited brother William, James McClintock would have been 30 when he succeeded his father John at Trintaugh in 1765. Three years earlier, he had married Dorothea (Dora) Beresford McCullach, daughter of Henry McCullagh [McCullach] of Ballyarton, Co Donegal. James was an extravagant individual and apparently counted 29 hunters and coach-horses in his stable, and always drove with four horses in his coach. This apparently reduced the family estate so much that Trintaugh had to be sold soon after his death in 1786.
Born in 1764, Henry McClintock was the only son of James and Dorothea McClintock. His wife Mary Caldwell came from Ballybogan near Lifford. They lived at Rathdonnell although Colonel Bob McClintock states his belief that the house was ‘never a family home, but rather in the nature of a shooting lodge’. Henry and Mary McClintock’s only daughter Dorothea McClintock (1795-1877) succeeded to the remaining property, furniture and contents of Trintaugh. She married the Rev Robert Alexander, son of General Alexander, and became the mother of the Most Rev William Alexander (1824-1911), Archbishop of Armagh (1852) and Primate of All Ireland (1896-1911). In 1850, Dr Alexander married the hymn-writer CF Alexander (All Things Bright and Beautiful, Once in Royal David’s City, There is a Green Hill Far Away etc). In 1961, their granddaughter Mrs Rhodes was living in Lulworth Cove where she still apparently possessed some furniture from Trintaugh. Rathdonnell House was sold in 1920 after the death of the Primate’s son who was drowned when a German submarine torpedoed the SS Leinster in 1918.
James and Dorothea McClintock also had one daughter Susanna Maria McClintock, born in 1767. She married Rev Samuel Montgomery. Their son Sir Robert Montgomery, KCSI (1809-1887) married Ellen Lambert and was father to Rt Rev Sir Henry Montgomery (1847-1932), KCMG, Bishop of Tasmania. Sir Henry married Maud Farrar and they were parents of Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery of Alamein.
Amongst the relics of Trintaugh to survive was the ‘very interesting’ McClintock tablecloth, made when Ulster’s linen industry was at its peak which was last recorded by Colonel McClintock as being in ‘a very tattered’ condition and with the late Mrs HF McClintock ay the Red House, Ardee, Co Louth. Her husband had a loom set up and made a number of copies which were distributed around the family. 'Apart from a floral border, some 15 inches wide, the cloth measures 7’6” x 5’3”. At its centre is the coat of arms with the motto ‘Virtute et Labore’ and around it are various devices depicting cock-fighting, racing and drinking, hounds and one figure which seems to be a man tilting at a dummy. At each end are the words ‘JOHN McCLINTOCK, TRINTAUGH’. There is no date but the figures are dressed in early 18th century fashion.
FOOTNOTES
[i] "A History of the McClintock Family" by Col. R.S. McClintock, pub. 1961. As an aside, 1689 also saw the birth of William Mitchell in Virginia. He later became a Revenue official in Dublin where he died in 1804 at the astonishing age of 115.
[ii] See RS McClintock’s booklet for two letters written from Lord Exmouth to William McClintock that sing of young Henry’s praises in the battle.
[iii] At Madras in July 1769, Hickey was proposing to sail to China and Mr Chisholm, the second officer of the ‘Plassey’ in which he was about to sail ‘brought a remarkably fine looking young man about 18 years of age’ by name of McClintock ‘who had been about three years in India and was going on a sea voyage for the recovery of his health’. They shared a cabin and Hickey continues, ‘I had reason to be highly satisfied with my companion for, during the nine subsequent months that we were inseparable, I never once heard an angry or ill-natured word from his lips, so placid and fine tempered a lad I never met with; he was also unusually accomplished and an excellent scholar’.
They remained together and returned to England, reaching London in April 1770. Hickey continues: ‘In May 1770, my much esteemed friend McClintock took leave of me and embarked for India, having been little more than a month in England, but he was an uncommonly prudent young man and anxious to get back to his duty. With real grief I afterwards learnt that two days after landing in excellent health in Madras he was attacked by one of the fevers of that inhospitable climate which in four and twenty hours terminated his life. A more amiable and accomplished young man never existed’.
Quoted in 'A History of the McClintock Family" by Col. R.S. McClintock.
With thanks to William Bunbury, Andrew Bunbury, Olive Brown, Tom Barr and the McFarlands.