A few years ago, Sally and I stood on land that had been owned by her great-great-great grandfather, Samuel McCully, in the 1780s. From almost on the shore of Cobequid Bay, looking inland toward the community of Great Village, Nova Scotia, one had to wonder what had prompted the family to move on to New Brunswick, Ohio, Iowa, and finally to Oregon. Of course, we stood there on a lovely summer day with gentle breezes blowing, roses a-riot, and the smell of new-mown hay in the air. Perhaps the incentive would have appeared stronger at some other time of year?

THE EARLIEST McCULLYS IN THE MARITIMES

Family tradition has it that Sally's line of McCullys came to Nova Scotia from Northern Ireland. While tradition in this case seems reasonable, and might be accurate, there is so far no link between the earliest positively-known North American McCully of the line and parents in Northern Ireland or anywhere else. The earliest definite record we have is from Nova Scotia in 1778.

The first things we thought we knew about "our" (Sally's) McCullys in the Atlantic Provinces turned out to be wrong. A McCully descendant a generation or two before us had gone from Oregon to Nova Scotia to check out the land of her ancestors. She found reference to a Samuel McCully who apparently had come to Nova Scotia from Northern Ireland in the 1760s, and thought she had found the father of John McCully, Sally's great-great-grandfather, the earliest ancestor for whom the family had any information. (John reportedly was born in Nova Scotia in 1784.) The Samuel in question has since been found not to have been the father of John McCully, but a representative of another early family. And the John McCully descendant's mistake was not to be the last made about these folks. In fact, confusing information on the Nova Scotia McCully origins was published in fairly recent times by one of the chief researchers of the Public Archives of Nova Scotia [1]. The problem has been that almost every other male McCully in early Nova Scotia and New Brunswick was named Samuel - and most of those not named Samuel were named William. No wonder the confusion.

Who were these earliest McCullys in Nova Scotia, when did they arrive, where did they come from, and how were they related? There are still some significant unanswered questions about them, but I think some progress has been made. Below is a summary and some analysis of what I know and don't know. I'd be pleased to hear from anyone with additional information or ideas.

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If you had McCully ancestors in Maritime Canada before 1780, they were almost certainly attached to one of three family lines of McCullys identifiable in Colchester County, Nova Scotia. The relationships of these families to one another are unclear, but substantial lines of descendants have been traced from each of them.

(1). Samuel McCULLY [for convenience, identified by us as "Samuel of Onslow"], husband of Elizabeth (one of the two McCullys who were named original Londonderry, Nova Scotia grantees), almost certainly came to Nova Scotia from Northern Ireland in 1761 on one of Alexander McNutt's ships, probably "Hopewell" [9]. Joseph McCULLY, Samuel and Elizabeth's first son, was allegedly "born in the barracks" in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1762. This information was not put into print until 1900 [2], but the birth year is corroborated by cemetery records [3]. McNutt's ships did not reach Halifax until October 1761 [4, 9], too late for the new arrivals to get settled on the land before winter, so the Government provided quarters for them [hence, "in the barracks"].
We have been unable to find any primary sources of information on "Samuel of Onslow." In fact, we only know his name for certain from one 1788 land deed, wherein his sons Joseph and Samuel identify themselves as "the heirs of Samuel McCully Senr. (Senior) Deceased" [5]. From what we can gather from family records, land deeds, township books, and cemetery records, it seems fairly certain that he and Elizabeth had only three children: Joseph (1762), Samuel (1764) and Elizabeth [ca 1766?]. Assuming Joseph was born within the first two years of Samuel and Elizabeth's marriage, and assuming that Samuel married at a typical age for the period (say, 20 to 30 years old), Samuel might have been born between 1730 and 1740. The Northern Ireland origins of most of the approximately 250 people in McNutt's party [9] are undetermined, but of sixteen families whose geographic origins are known, ten were from County Donegal and four were from County Derry. One speculation based on this is that "at least four-fifths of McNutt's settlers were from the Foyle and Swilly districts and that most of the remainder were from the valley of the lower Bann" [6]. There are almost no government records for those counties prior to 1800, and only a handful of Presbyterian church records, so tracing a specific McCully connection back to Northern Ireland has so far been unsuccessful.
Samuel died by 1767 (no record of his death or burial have been located), his wife Elizabeth married 2nd Hugh TEAKLES/TACKLES, and by about 1796 she and her second family, plus the families of her children Samuel and Elizabeth, had moved to New Brunswick. In the early 1800s, the only descendants of Samuel and Elizabeth living in Nova Scotia were from the family of their first son, Joseph McCULLY.

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(2) William McCULLY ["William of Masstown," for identification purposes in this review] was probably the other original McCully grantee at Londonderry, Nova Scotia. If his reported birth year of 1746 is correct [7], he would have been old enough to qualify for land under the original Londonderry grant of 30 October 1765 [8], or would have had time to acquire land by the time the "official" grant list was finalized in 1775.
The first record we can find of a William McCULLY in Nova Scotia is in a 1774 Londonderry census, in a household comprised of a man, a woman, and a male child, the adults born in Ireland and the child in America. This is almost certainly "William of Masstown," his wife Isabella (WILSON), and their son Samuel McCULLY (born 1773). If the census is accurate, it confirms that William was born in Ireland, but when and how he came to Londonderry is unknown. If he came with the McNutt settlers in 1761 - when he was only about 15 years old - he likely came with some one else. No evidence for or against his coming in 1761 has been found. (Some researchers feel that he came with his parents and siblings. I'll discuss that below.) McNutt brought at least two more ships from Northern Ireland, in November 1762 and in 1765 [11], when William might have arrived as an adult. Apparently there are no passenger lists from these later trips.
William and Isabella lived out their lives in Londonderry, and had children Samuel, Mary, William, Hugh, Margaret, John, Elizabeth, Isabella, and Robert. A number of the children continued to live in the area, and there are currently William and Isabella descendants there.

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(3) Samuel McCULLY ["Samuel of Londonderry"] has not been discovered in Nova Scotia records until November 1778, when he sold 500 acres of land at Londonderry. I have been unable to find a deed showing when he acquired that land. He did not appear on the 1775 list of Londonderry grantees, so he must have obtained the land after that date by purchase, inheritance, or possibly by marriage. He likely married ca 1779-1780 (wife unknown), as their first child was born ca 1781. We have no early records for Samuel, but using the same criteria we used for "Samuel of Onslow" above, he could reasonably have been born between say 1749 and 1759. If he came with the McNutt settlers, he certainly was in the care of relatives or friends, or was indentured. (I haven't seen any information that suggests there were indentured servants on the McNutt ships, but there were many to New England.)
Samuel was "of Londonderry" in November 1778. He and his wife had sons William (1781), John (1784), and Samuel (1785), but we have found no record of where the children were born or where they were living during those years. Some time in the 1780s, Samuel purchased from John Mahon 600 acres of land at Great Village, near Londonderry. For some reason, the deed did not get recorded until 6 August 1788, after Samuel was dead. The land was held in trust until the boys came of age. All three were living in Horton, Kings County, Nova Scotia in 1809. No record of Samuel's wife has ever been found, and we assume she also died relatively young. The three sons of Samuel McCULLY moved to New Brunswick before 1815, and none of this line lived in Nova Scotia after that date.

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DISCUSSION: With only "Samuel of Onslow's" arrival date known, we can't take for granted that all three McCully lines were in Nova Scotia in the early 1760s, or even by 1770. The problems associated with assumptions about early arrival are:

(a) The names on the Londonderry grantee list: There is only one list of Londonderry, Nova Scotia, grantees, but (as noted above) it was not compiled by the British Government until 1775, almost fifteen years after the original grantees arrived. In those intervening years, original grantees died or sold their lands, new arrivals were "voted in" by the current residents, people acquired land by marriage or inheritance, etc. There was so much confusion by 1775 that the Government essentially "threw up their hands" and said that it didn't matter who was there in 1762 or any year after that - the 1775 list was THE OFFICIAL LIST. Therefore, the grant list doesn't tell us much of anything about the early McCully families, except that "William of Masstown" and "Elizabeth of Onslow" [Samuel's widow] had land there in 1775, and "Samuel of Londonderry" didn't. If he was in Londonderry in 1775 or before, he apparently didn't own land.

(b) Written references to early arrivals: We all based many of our early assumptions about the arrival of these early families on a 1967 article by Phyllis Blakely [1], and on Edith Fletcher's 1984 book "Scotia Heritage" [10]. Blakely apparently obtained most of her early family information from a 1900 account of Joseph McCULLY's descendants [Reference #2, the origin of the "born in the barracks" statement], and possibly from a 1927 biography of Jonathan McCully, a grandson of "William of Masstown." She also - not surprisingly - badly confused the various Samuel McCullys in the first and second generations, so her report gives us no new information on origins. Edith Fletcher's book also confused the Samuels, but compounded the confusion by erroneously interpreting information on the Williams, Elizabeths, and Josephs, as well. As a result, she introduced an earlier generation of McCullys: i.e., William and Elizabeth, the alleged parents of "William of Masstown", a currently unknown Joseph, and a Samuel who she said "left the community" (page 168). However, later in the book she said that the elder William and Elizabeth were the parents of "William of Masstown", Elizabeth (McCULLY) SKINNER [who, we are positive, was "William of Masstown's" daughter], and a Samuel, but no Joseph. She also made some serious errors transcribing data from the 1770 census (page 152) and in transcribing and/or interpreting information on land deeds (pp.168-169), making it impossible to treat her early McCully information as at all credible.

Was there an earlier William McCully than "William of Masstown?" As noted above, Edith Fletcher's discussion of an earlier generation is hopelessly garbled. However, Curtis McCULLY (1907-1988), a great-uncle of Stacey (McCULLY) CULGIN who currently lives in Debert, Nova Scotia, passed on information late in his life that also identified a generation earlier than our "William of Masstown" [12]. The possibility that this earlier generation existed in Nova Scotia has prompted speculation that this older William McCULLY was a brother of "Samuel of Onslow", the father of "William of Masstown", and possibly the father of "Samuel of Londonderry", as well.
It is tempting to give Curtis McCully's reminiscences more credibility than Fletcher's information, in that they include personal information about the individuals, with the type of anecdotes that often get passed word of mouth from generation to generation. On the other hand, the information had been filtered through many generations before he passed it on, and by his old age he had undoubtedly been exposed to the William-Samuel-Elizabeth-Joseph confusions from other sources. He would not have been the first, and clearly wasn't the last, to mix all the similarly-named McCullys [13]. Through the years, no one has found one gravestone, probate record, land deed, or other primary written record of this earlier generation. Granted, there are not many for anybody in Nova Scotia prior to 1800, but one would think something would have survived.

Besides the lack of tangible evidence of this earlier William McCULLY and the other proposed family members, the land record raises some questions. The parental William allegedly was alive until almost 1800 [11], yet only one William McCULLY household was included in the 1774 census, and only one William McCULLY was named as a Londonderry grantee in 1775. "William of Masstown" was approximately 28 years old in 1774, and married. Shouldn't there have been two William McCULLY households, or shouldn't the parents have shown up in the household of "William of Masstown?" And why did only one William claim a share of the Londonderry grant? Both would have been eligible in 1775, and an extra 500 acres would certainly have been desirable in the family, even if the elder William was no longer farming or maintaining his own household.

There is also a question of generation designations on land records. "William of Masstown" is clearly the man identified as "William Sr." (as the name of Isabella, his wife, appears on a number of the documents with "William Sr."), and his son William is just as clearly "William Jr.". Before William Jr. became involved in land transactions, all land deed references are to William and Isabella, i.e. "William of Masstown." If there were three generations of Williams, would these have been the designations used?

Could "Samuel of Onslow" have been the uncle of "William of Masstown", as suggested by some [14]? It would not have been impossible, and could mean that William came to Nova Scotia as part of Samuel's family. Unfortunately, no ship passenger lists or early censuses are available to confirm or refute the possibility. "Samuel of Onslow" would have started his family at least sixteen years later than William's father, even later if "William of Masstown" was not their firstborn. That would not have been completely out of the question, but probably was not too likely. Speculating on relationships, it is just as realistic to think that "Samuel of Onslow" and "William of Masstown" were brothers. Samuel could have been born as late as say 1740, making only a 7 or 8 year age difference between them.

What about "William of Masstown" and "Samuel of Londonderry" being brothers? Again, it is within the realm of possibility. They apparently started their families within about 8 years of one another, and might have been only 4 or 5 years apart in age. "William of Masstown" was a witness when "Samuel of Londonderry" sold land in November 1778. William's home lot was just across the road from the land Samuel sold, which might suggest a family connection. On the other hand, Samuel may not have owned the land very long (it was identified as John CLARKE's grant in 1775), so William acting as a witness may be no more significant than John VANCE, another neighbor, acting as the other witness to the transaction. If they were brothers, one wonders why Samuel wasn't enumerated in 1774 in William's household (since Samuel likely was not yet married). One also wonders why, if they were close kin, there is no indication that William had anything to do with Samuel's young family after he died.

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LATER MARITIME CANADA McCULLYS

After 1800, a number of other McCULLY families came to Maritime Canada, particularly in the 1830s. I haven't studied these families in any detail. If you are looking for a McCULLY connection in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, you might want to check them out. I plan to put some of the details up on my website later, but it's not high priority for me. In the meantime, if any of the families look interesting to you, contact me and I'll tell you what I know.

A. William McCULLY ["William of Tatamagouche"]: J. C. Jowsey's 1988 book "Cumberland County Families" [15], identifies a William McCULLY who came to Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, about 1830, and had four children who lived in the Tatamagouche - New Annan area: William, James [b. 1830, m. Christine McLEOD], John, and Mary [1834-1883, m. Kenneth McLEOD]. So far, we can't tie this group to any other line.

B. James McCULLY ["James Alexander of Elgin"]: This James McCULLY was known in later life from Elgin, Albert County, New Brunswick, but family information suggested he was born in Nova Scotia between 1825 and 1829. He was married to Mary Jane LEEMAN; possibly also to a second wife. His children, most of whom stayed in the Elgin area, were Lydia Ann, Lavinia Jane, James H., William Warner, Martha A., Alexander Wellington, Bamford A., Amanda, Parsis Lillian, Ida Bell, and John. James apparently used his middle name, Alexander, on many occasions, and the family name was often spelled McCULLAH. This line is apparently not connected to the earliest McCullys in Nova Scotia. Recent information from Linda [McCULLY] McNALLY of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, is that this family was from the Pictou area of Nova Scotia. I have no details, yet.

C. William McCULLY ["William of Hopewell"]: The 1851 census of Albert County, New Brunswick, included the family of a William McCULLY, age 35, born in Ireland, his wife Margaret (born in New Brunswick), and a daughter Elizabeth, age 2. This William allegedly came to New Brunswick from Ireland in 1833, but it seems possible he could have been the son of the next family, who allegedly arrived in 1837 but more likely came about 1833.

D. Jane McCULLY ["Jane of Sussex"]: The widow Jane McCULLY was 60 years old at the time of the 1851 Kings County, New Brunswick, census. She presumably came from Ireland in 1837, but her age and those of five daughters still living with her would suggest she actually arrived about 1833. The daughters living with her in 1851 were Jane, Catherine, Margaret, Isabella and Hannah. We haven't determined the husband's name.

E. James McCOLLEY ["James of Saint John"]: In 1834 the brig "Ambassador" from Londonderry, Northern Ireland, had the following passengers for Saint John, New Brunswick: James McCOLLEY, age 30; Mary, his wife, age 30, and their daughters Jane [age 2] and Ann [age 2]. On the ship as a member of the crew was Daniel McCOLLEY, age 24, likely a relative. It seems likely that these last three families, and the one following, are closely related, and in fact [despite some discrepancies in ages and recorded names] may represent fewer than four families.

F. William McCULLY ["William of Sussex"]: The 1851 Kings County, New Brunswick, census records the family of this William McCULLY as having arrived from Ireland in 1837 [the given ages and birthplaces of their children agree with that date]. William was born about 1801, and his wife Margaret about 1816. Their children at home in 1851 were Ann, Alexander, William, Margaret, Robert, another Ann, John, and James.

REFERENCES
1. P. R. Blakeley (1967), Jonathan McCully, Father of Confederation. Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society 36:142-181.

2. H. Piers (1900), Biographical review of the province of Nova Scotia. Boston: Biographical Review Publishing Company. Page 104, biographical note on William McCully, great grandson of Samuel and Elizabeth McCully.

3. Public Archives of Nova Scotia, Cemetery records from Onslow, Nova Scotia. Record MG5 - Volume 21, No. 7, Onslow Cemetery: Joseph McCully died March 1810, age 48.

4. J. M. Murphy (1976), The Londonderry Heirs. Privately published: Middleton, Nova Scotia. Page 79-80: "The last of the North Irish immigrants to Nova Scotia in 1761 arrived on October 9... the lateness of their arrival made it impossible for them to settle on their lands until the following spring. As they were 'indigent people, without means of subsistence, most of them had to remain in Halifax during the winter, depending on the charity of citizens and on provisions supplied by the provincial government.."

5. Public Archives of Nova Scotia - Colchester County deeds, Book 2, page 333: 27 December 1788, Joseph and Samuel McCully sold 500 acres in Mass House Village, Londonderry, their original land grant, to Robert McElhenny.

6. J. M. Murphy, ibid., page 83.

7. Information from Stacey (McCully) Culgin, Debert, Nova Scotia.

8. J. M. Murphy, ibid., page 86: "The following information was finally found in an official land grant book; the township of Londonderry was established on October 30, 1765, by a grant of 100,000 acres to Robert Barnhill and 96 others." Apparently all copies of the original grantee list were lost, and the provincial government published a new list on 10 February 1775. It is believed that this "official" list may vary considerably from the 1765 original - due to lands being sold and bought, heirs acquiring lands throught deaths, original grantees never showing up to claim their lands, etc. Only some of the 1775 grantees can be positively identified as having had land grants in 1765.

9. A. W. H. Eaton (1912), The settling of Colchester County, Nova Scotia, by New England Puritans and Ulster Scotsmen. Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Third Series, Volume 6, pages 221-265.

10. There are two records in E. L. Fletcher's "Scotia Heritage" (Hantsport, N. S.,Lancelot Press, 1984) of a William McCULLY in Londonderry, Nova Scotia, but one seems to be erroneous, and the other raises a question I haven't been able to address yet. In the first instance, Fletcher included (pp. 152-153) information reportedly from a 1770 census of Londonderry, showing a William McCully in Mass House Village, with 6 people in his household (1 man, 3 boys, 1 woman, 1 girl), all born in Ireland. Two other transcriptions of the census, in J. M. Murphy, ibid., page 103, and W. H. Eaton, op.cit., pp. 262-263, do not show any McCullys. Fletcher's household composition does not fit any known or suspected McCully household of that period: "Samuel of Onslow" was dead, and his wife and children were living in Onslow; "William of Masstown" was not yet married, nor was "Samuel of Londonderry." If, as been suggested by others, there was an older generation of McCullys in the area, the parents of "William of Masstown" and possibly of "Samuel of Londonderry, neither William or any speculative siblings would show up in a 1770 census as "boys."
The other Fletcher record (page 191) is of a William McCully as a signer of a 1771 letter requesting that Reverend David Smith be appointed minister to Londonderry. Both Murphy (page 128) and Eaton (page 264) show Reverend Smith as already present in Londonderry in 1771. I need to see the letter to determine what it really says.

11. W. H. Eaton, ibid., page 257.

12. Information provided in a letter to us from Stacey Culgin 10 September 1996.

13. There is a wonderful story passed down through the family of William McCully, the eldest son of "Samuel of Londonderry," in which "Grandfather Kollock McCully" appears as a Quaker escaping to New Brunswick from the turmoil of the American Revolution. The true story is that the relative in question is a blend of two grandfathers, William McCully being one and Simon KOLLOCK. William McCully apparently arrived in New Brunswick from Nova Scotia fairly peacefully (but clearly not as a Quaker), while Simon Kollock fought actively with the British forces against the American rebels and arrived in Nova Scotia as a Loyalist whose offenses against the new republic were considered too severe to be pardonable.

14. For instance, at Jane Wile's website, "GeneJane's Homepage," http://genealogynet.com/resident/genejane/index.php

15. J. C. Jowsey (1988), Cumberland County Families. Privately published: Truro, Nova Scotia. McCully information on page 58.