John Miller, of Glenorchy

John Miller

• Birth: ABT 1555 in Glenorchy, Argyllshire, Scotland
• Marriage 1 Barbara MACKAY b: abt 1555 in , Married: about 1575 in Glenorchy, Argyllshire, Scotland

Children

1. John MILLER b: abt 1580 in Glenorchy, Argyllshire, Scotland married Agnes Campbell

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notes

Current events: Presbyterian Church of Scotland, referred to as the Kirk, founded along Calvinist principles of John Knox (1560); Scotland enacts a law for the "Punishment of Strong and Idle Beggars and Relief of the Poor and Impotent" (1579).

• "By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes [slopes],
• Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond,
• Where me and my true love were ever wont to gae,
• On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond."

This line of Scottish Millers married into the Mackays of Strathnaver and later the Campbells of Argyllshire, both pro-British Protestant Highland clans. The assumption follows that sometime in the late 1500's the Millers also became Protestants as did most of the Scottish population, except for some Catholic Highlander holdouts who later proved to be very troublesome for the Protestant rulers of Great Britain in the Jacobite wars.

The Millers were not an official Scottish clan. Traditionally, they were a sub-clan, a sept, of the Clan MacFarlane that occupied the glens at the head of Loch Long and along the lush western shores of famous Loch Lomond, 15 miles south of John Miller's birthplace in Glenorchy.* Many streams cascade from craggy highlands down through woods and green pastures into this picturesque lake in MacFarlane country. The powerful Campbells bordered the MacFarlanes to the north and west of Loch Lomond and were known for hiring skilled craftsmen for their ambitious projects.

This is pure speculation, but John Miller's ancestors could have received their surname from operating grain, woolen, or lumber mills for the MacFarlanes. Small mills, such as Lorn Mill, have long been associated with Loch Lomond, the largest freshwater lake in Great Britain. History is full of instances where nameless orphans, illegitimate children, refugees, runaways, and fugitives have wandered into a tribal territory, made themselves useful, accepted local customs and religions, and taken family names from occupations, attributes, or local landmarks. There could be no more poetic origin for a family line than the "bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond." For this modern Miller descendant who has walked Lomond's shores, it would not be a dead end but a beautiful beginning.

"What say you to a natural basin of pure water, nearly thirty miles long, and in some places seven miles broad, and in many above an hundred fathoms deep, having four and twenty habitable islands, some of them stocked with deer and all of them covered with wood; containing immense quantities of delicious fish ..." --18th Century novelist Tobias Smollett on Loch Lomond.

The MacFarlanes of Loch Lomond, along with their associated families such as Allan (handsome), Bryce (freckled), Gruamach (gloomy), Macgreusich (son of a shoemaker), Monach (wealthy), Parlane (a measure of grain - 3 bushels of barley), Stalker (huntsman), Webster (female weaver), and Weir (a dam across a small stream to raise its level before running it into a millrace), were among the first of the Highland clans to become Presbyterians in the 16th Century. The MacFarlanes and their families fought against the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, at the Battle of Langside in 1568 where they distinguished themselves by capturing three enemy standards and playing an important part in the Protestant victory there.

• The following sources list 'Miller' as an associate family of Clan MacFarlane and/or place the Clan MacFarlane homeland at Loch Lomond: "Clans & Tartans of Scotland" by Iain Zaczek; "Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia" by George Way and Romilly Squire; "Scottish Clans and Tartans" by Neil Grant; macfarlane.org - the Official Homepage of the International Clan MacFarlane Society, Inc.; loch-lomond.net subpage "The Clans Of Loch Lomond - MacFarlane"; and electricscotland.com.

LP