John M'Clellan

John M'Clellan
Church	Church of Scotland, Church of Ireland
Personal details
Born	1609
Died	1650
Nationality	Scottish
Denomination	Presbyterian
Occupation	schoolmaster, minister
Alma mater	University of Glasgow

John M'Clellan (also spelled M'Lellan, M'Clelland, Mackleland, Makclellan, and Macleland; 1609–1650) was a seventeenth century teacher and minister. Educated in Scotland he started work as a schoolmaster at Newtownards. He also began to preach there initially with the sanction of the church. He took part in an unsuccessful attempt to sail to America on board the Eagle Wing in 1636. After this he returned to Scotland where he became a minister where he served from 1638 until his death in 1650.

Life

Emigrants memorial, Larne commemorating the first ship to leave Larne for America in 1717. The Eagle Wing left Groomsport in 1636 and was over half way there when they turned back. (The Mayflower sailed in 1620).

M'Clellan was born in Kirkcudbright in 1609. He was the son of Michael M'Clellan who was a burgess of Kirkcudbright. John was educated at University of Glasgow, graduating with an M.A. in 1629. After this he was employed as a schoolmaster at Newtownards, County Down.^[1][2] He was licensed to be a preacher in Ireland, but later deposed and excommunicated by the episcopalian authorities. Nevertheless he continued to preach, but being obliged to flee, returned to Scotland in 1638. In September 1636 he and other Scots and English puritans to the number of 140 sailed for New England in a ship called the Eagle Wing, which they had built for the purpose.^[3] They were chiefly Presbyterians, but some of them inclined to Independency and others to Brownism. Including M'Clellan here were four Scots ministers on board: Robert Blair, their leader, John Livingstone, James Hamilton, and John M'Clellan. Meeting with a great storm halfway across the Atlantic, they were obliged to put back, and returned to Lochfergus, where they had embarked nearly two months before. Returning to Scotland M'Clellan was admitted to the united parish of Kirkcudbright, Galtway and Dunrod in 1638. M'Clellan was a member of the General Assembly that year, and of the Commission for 1642, 1648, 1649. In 1642 and 1643. He was appointed to go to Ireland for periods of four and three months respectively. He declined the Professorship of Divinity at Edinburgh. He died in the early part of 1650.^[4]

Family

He married

• (1) Marion, daughter of Bartholomew Fleming, merchant, Edinburgh, who died without issue about 1640
• (2) Isobel M'Clellan, who survived him, and married secondly, Thomas Hall, minister at Larne, Ireland^[4]

Works

• Description of Galloway [in Latin] (Bleau's Atlas Scotice, 1662)
• A Letter to John, Lord Kirkcudbright . . . with a Sermon (1720)^[4]

Bibliography

• War Committee of Kirkcudbright^[5]
• Reid's Ireland, i., ii., 42
• Stevenson's Hist.
• Baillie's Letters
• Acts of Pari., v.
• Murray's Hist, of Galloway
• G. R. Inhib., 8 July 1663^[4]

References

Citations

1. Reid 1853, 112.
2. Livingstone 1845, 331 et passim.
3. Kirkpatrick 2015.
4. Scott 1917, 417.
5. Nicholson 1855, 215-220.

Sources

• Baillie, Robert (1841–1842a). Laing, David (ed.). The letters and journals of Robert Baillie ... M.DC.XXXVII.-M.DC.LXII. Vol. 1. Edinburgh: R. Ogle. pp. 147 250, 252, 255.
• Baillie, Robert (1841–1842b). Laing, David (ed.). The letters and journals of Robert Baillie ... M.DC.XXXVII.-M.DC.LXII. Vol. 2. Edinburgh: R. Ogle. pp. 48, 92, 94.
• Baillie, Robert (1841–1842c). Laing, David (ed.). The letters and journals of Robert Baillie ... M.DC.XXXVII.-M.DC.LXII. Vol. 3. Edinburgh: R. Ogle. pp. 55, 97.
• Blair, Robert (1848). M'Crie, Thomas (ed.). The life of Mr. Robert Blair, minister of St. Andrews, containing his autobiography, from 1593-1636 : with supplement of his life and continuation of the history of the times, to 1680. Edinburgh: Wodrow Society. pp. 104, 140, 146.
• Howie, John (1870). "John M'Clelland". In Carslaw, W. H. (ed.). The Scots worthies. Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier. pp. 197-200. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

• Kirkpatrick, Laurence (2015). "The "Eagle Wing" 1636". The Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
• Livingstone, John (1845). Tweedie, William King (ed.). Select biographies. Vol. 1. Edinburgh: Printed for the Wodrow Society.
• Morton, Alexander S. (1914). Galloway and the Covenanters; or, The struggle for religious liberty in the south-west of Scotland. Paisley : A. Gardner. pp. 70, 458.
• Murray, Thomas (1832). texts The literary history of Galloway. Edinburgh: Waugh and Innes. pp. 99-100fn.
• Nicholson, John, ed. (1855). Minute book kept by the war committee of the Covenanters in the stewartry of Kircudbright in the years 1640 and 1641. Kirkcudbright: John Nicholson.
• Reid, James Seaton (1853). A history of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, comprising the civil history of the province of Ulster from the accession of James the First ... Vol. 1 (3 ed.). London: Whittaker; [etc].
• Scott, Hew (1917). Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae; the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation. Vol. 2. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. p. 417. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• Thompson, Mark (2006). "The Dawn of the Ulster-Scots - Part Five: The Arrival of the Presbyterian Ministers" (PDF). The Ulster-Scot July 2006. Archived from the original on 28 July 2007. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
• Thompson, Mark (2006). "The Dawn of the Ulster-Scots - Part Six: Three Ulster-Scots Spiritual Revivals,the Death of Montgomery and the "Eagle Wing" sets sail" (PDF). The Ulster-Scot July 2006. Archived from the original on 28 July 2007. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
• Thompson, Mark (2006). "The Dawn of the Ulster-Scots - Part Seven: Scotland's National Covenant, The Black Oath and the 1641 Massacre" (PDF). The Ulster-Scot July 2006. Archived from the original on 28 July 2007. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
• Wodrow, Robert (1842). Leishman, Matthew (ed.). Analecta: or, Materials for a history of remarkable providences; mostly relating to Scotch ministers and Christians. Vol. 3. Glasgow: Maitland Club. p. 58.