by Jonathan Tucker

This is the 28th article about the life and descendants of Micum McIntire. This is the third article in a series that reviews and addresses a selected number of the popular myths, legends, and misconceptions about the life of Micum Mcintire.

As was noted in the previous article, much of the “history” about Scottish clans and individual ancestors was ‘discovered’ or written during the Colonial Revival Period in the late 1800s and early 20th century. It is often heroic, involves dramatic, melodramatic, or romantic situations or actions, and is nearly almost always historically inaccurate and wrong.

One of the ways you can tell that an unlikely story is about to begin is if the phrases “it is said” or “tradition recalls” or similar language is used—that is the equivalent of the orchestra tuning up for a show.

The subjects of this review are assertions about Micum’s life in the New World and in York, Maine. This article may be modified as new information becomes available.

Myth: Micum Carried His Possessions from Scotland in a Wooden Box.

Probably not. Robert Harry McIntire’s “Descendants of Micum McIntire“–aka ‘the Red Book’–reports on page 18 that Micum:

“ . . . is said [tall tale alert] to have packed all of his possessions in a small wooden box, whereupon he was placed upon the good ship Unity.”

Micum would have been herded aboard the Unity for the first time around October 20, 1650, having been marched out of Durham cathedral and traveled north to the port at Newcastle. At that point, it is profoundly unlikely that Micum would have had any possessions left to carry, beyond the clothes he wore. The English soldiers would have strip-searched the prisoners and taken anything of value or utility at Dunbar or afterwards, and then in the cathedral at Durham, it would have been necessary to trade any items of value for food or for fuel to keep warm. To have placed any small items he might have somehow hidden upon his person in a visible wooden box would have ensured their confiscation.

It is more likely that someone in the family in York in later generations invented the story to add romantic resonance and meaning to an existing small old wooden box in the garrison. It could well have been Micum’s box. He might have acquired just such a box for his valuables—as he slowly acquired valuables—during his term of indenture In Oyster River or afterwards in Newichawannock (South Berwick), or even in York. But he didn’t bring one from Scotland.

Myth: Household Furniture and Utensils in the Garrison in the Late 19th/early20th Century Came From Scotland.

Extremely unlikely. The Red Book (p. 15) reports that:

“Much of the furniture and many of the cooking utensils still contained in the house were, it is supposed [tall tale alert], brought over from Scotland.”

As noted above, Micum was a prisoner of war. His disposition was uncertain and was not decided on until after he was imprisoned in the abandoned cathedral at Durham. This was not a voluntary emigration during which he or any of the other prisoners would have had the time or opportunity to plan or pack. In England, Micum likely had few to no possessions of any size to carry with him, or any way to plan for or arrange the transport of any household possessions like furniture and cooking utensils back in Scotland.

Myth: Micum’s Young Wife Brought With Her a “Pound Stone” from Scotland

Nope. First, there was no young Scottish wife who came to the New World with Micum. Second, it is very unlikely that any ‘pound stone’ was brought over from Scotland. A story repeated in the Red Book (p. 15) indicates that:

”Tradition recalls [tall tale alert] that as Micum’s young wife was about to embark for America, she picked it [the stone] on the shore and packed it with her belongings since, as she supposedly explained, ‘There may be neither scales nor weights for me to measure my butter and my cheese in that savage land.’ The ‘Pound Stone’ was lost in the fire which destroyed the nearby McIntire homestead in 1922.” 

It is entirely possible that Micum had had a wife and perhaps children in Scotland—he was about 25 when he was captured. But no record of his having had a wife in Scotland surfaced during his lifetime (or since), and such records did surface for other Dunbar Scots, notably James and Peter Grant in Berwick.

No Scottish women traveled with the Dunbar prisoners following their capture or followed them to the New World afterwards. Some few Scottish women were captured at much later battles and transported as prisoners, but not at Dunbar. Irish women refugees fleeing Cromwell’s depredations in Ireland—some with children—were rounded up and trafficked to New England in 1652 and 1654 to serve as indentured servants and as potential mates for the Scots and other settlers. But Micum did not marry an Irish bondwoman.

English settler Dorothy (MacNair) Pierce was the only woman to whom Micum was wed in New England. As the previously-married daughter of a fisherman and one of many women in a close-knit wider community, Dorothy would not have had to resort to Scottish beach stones in order to gauge fair weight for her household produce or purchases.

Finally, the only person who might have had a chance to bring a stone from Scotland was Micum himself. The last shoreline he could have grabbed one from before being force-marched on board ship would have been at the port at Newcastle, which was not in Scotland but in Northumberland, England. You can decide for yourselves the likelihood that the English guards escorting the prisoners would have allowed any of the Scots to pick up and carry a 1 lb. stone big enough to serve as a weapon. 

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The ‘Creative’ Power of A Stage Set

These brought-Scotland-with-him-or-her tales are classic Colonial Revival invention, with a strong domestic Victorian component. Several of the stories are, tellingly, completely consistent with the intentions illustrated by a photograph of the interior of the Garrison shown opposite where the stories appear in the Red Book (see pp. 14 and 15). In the photo, taken after the 1910 ‘restoration’ of the Garrison, the interior walls have been wallpapered in decorative mid-19th century style. Domestic antiquarian implements—a wash tub, some scales, a simple storage box set on a table, and others—are arranged about the hearth and on the mantle. It is a turn of the 19th/20th century stage set, and it and these stories reflect one another. This is the stage set that Robert Harry McIntire viewed when putting together his 1940 genealogy, and did not update or correct its assumptions when the genealogy was revised in 1983.

The 1910 reimagining of the ‘restored’ interior of the Garrison had very little to do with Micum’s domestic life or the interior of his home during frontier life in York in the mid-late 1600s. The domestic interiors of that period would have been profoundly simpler, much darker (bare wooden or white-washed walls, dimmer in the light provided by fewer, smaller windows), more primitive, and more utilitarian. And the reason is that the interior of Micum’s real and unromantic home would have been located in a completely different building. Not the large, spacious garrison that Micum’s son John McIntire bought from Alexander Maxwell in 1707, but Micum and Dorothy’s much smaller and simpler homestead cabin further west along Cider Hill Road. That building burned down in 1922. It is that building and interior setting where Micum and Dorothy lived their domestic life together.

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Myth: A Dying Alexander Machanere (MacNair) “Gave” Micum His Wife and His Land.

Well, sort of. We all know the family tale that, nearing his death, Alexander Machanere called his cousin Micum to him and “bequeathed” Dorothy and his house to Micum for her “protection in this wild country.”

It would not be surprising if Alexander had spoken to his cousin Micum in a foresightful way, and had bequeathed to Micum his home and personal possessions. Nor would it be surprising if MacNair had bound Micum under traditional familial and clan obligations, and possibly under oath—a very Scottish thing to do—to take on the responsibility of caring for and protecting Dorothy. But other aspects of the tale are questionable, for two reasons.

First, the stagy, back-of-the-hand-to-the-forehead death’s bed scene, complete with imagined dialogue, has the strong odor of Victorian-era Colonial Revival elaboration or invention:

“At the point of death, Mackaneer is said [tall tale alert] to have sent for his kinsman and to have said, ‘Micum, I am dying and am grieved to leave my wife without protection in this wild country. It is not fit place for a woman without a husband or brother, so I bequeath her and all my land and property to you, if you will take them and do fairly by each.’” (Red Book, p. 20.)

Second, and more importantly, in this just-so tale Alexander bequeaths not only his wife and his property (house and personal possessions) to Micum, but also his land, “so I bequeath her and all my LAND and property to you.” The problem is, there was no land to bequeath. There is no record of Alexander Machanere ever owning any “land” at all. It was Alexander Maxwell who owned the land on which Alexander MacNair and Dorothy’s house sat. The house had been built there with Maxwell’s permission and probably his help, since Machanere was sickly and an invalid. All of the property Alexander Machanere (MacNair) plausibly owned that he could bequeath to Micum was the house itself and some few personal possessions. It was instead Alexander Maxwell who subsequently deeded the land on which the house stood and its surrounding plot to Micum and Dorothy in September 1671, possibly as a wedding present.

These local York tales, published by Robert Harry McIntire in the 1940 and 1983 editions of the Red Book, presented a consistent vision, but that vision had little to do with historical reality.

Mythically Presented, But Likely True: Micum “Got Up A Spree.”

Despite the by-now familiar heroic trappings, this classic tale of a large, powerful Micum prevailing in a drunken brawl has a ring of historical authenticity about it, for three reasons. First and most importantly, the story was reported in an earlier (1868) Preble family genealogy* that identified the losing party in the brawl as a real and documented person—young York sailor Sam Treathy. Sam was the brother of Joanna Treathy, wife of Dunbar Scot Thomas Holmes, and someone Micum would indeed have known and likely associated with.

Second, getting drunk and fighting was not atypical behavior among the former Scottish prisoners, whom we should remember were also former soldiers. They had a history of being brought before the Puritan authorities for drunkenness and brawling, often with one another.

Finally, it has been said [tall tale alert—this time on me] that MacIntyres have a general tendency to be taller or larger than average, perhaps a legacy of our blended northern Irish, Viking, and Pictish heritage.

So while “the spree” is another stirring tale, it is one that, embellishments notwithstanding, was likely based on a real event.

* “Genealogical sketch of the first three generations of Prebles in America: with an account of Abraham Preble the emigrant, their common ancestor, and of his grandson Brigadier General Jedediah Preble, and his descendants,” George Henry Preble, David Clapp & Son printers, Boston, 1868.

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The most definitive and comprehensive current source for information on MacIntyres in general is the “Clan MacIntyre: A Journey Into the Past,” Martin L. MacIntyre, Regent Press, Berkeley, CA, 2018, second edition.  Copies may be purchased by contacting the author at martin.macintyre@juno.com .

The definitive genealogy is “Descendants of Micum McIntire,” Robert Harry McIntire, revised edition, 1983, Bookcrafters, Chelsea, MI.  This is often referred to as the “Red Book” among Micum descendants because of its bright red cover.  New copies may be obtained through the Gift Shop on this website:  https://micummcintireclanassociation.org/shop/?product-page=2.  Used copies can still be obtained from time to time through online booksellers.

Those interested in pursuing their own genealogical connections to Micum McIntire may submit question through this website at:  https://micummcintireclanassociation.org/micum-mcintire-genealogy-questions/