Killin in Perthshire is a peaceful Scottish village north of Edinburgh at the western head of Loch Tay. The west end of the village meets the beautiful Falls of Dochart which you cross over via a stone bridge. The village has been around for millenia, with stone circles as testimony to its ancient history. Its proud Scottish heritage includes the MacNab clan, once dominant in the area. By the end of the 18th century, when our ancestors left their homeland, the primary village industry was weaving the local linen, made from the flax grown in the area.
It seems likely that the McDiarmids lived and worked in this town prior to their departure for new lands in New Brunswick. Our first known ancestor, Archibald McDiarmid (1759 – 1841) appears to have hailed from this area. The only confirmed source of information we have on Archibald McDiarmid’s birth is the following report in the New Brunswick Courier on March 13 1841:
d. Mascareen, St George parish, Charlotte Co., 5th inst., Archibald McDIARMID, age 82, native of Perthshire, Scotland and resident of Charlotte County past 40 years.
It seems certain that Archibald McDiarmid was born around 1760 in Perthshire, Scotland. We are pretty confident he married his wife Catherine in Scotland, and they both made their way to Canada. By 1800 they were both in Canada, and had settled in New Brunswick.
The number of McDiarmids, and Archibald McDiarmids, who arrived in Canada around that time is pretty extraordinary. There are plenty of McDiarmids in Perthshire as well, and Archibald is a common Scottish name. In fact, there are two Archibald McDiarmids born to a John and a Katherine, both from Perth, and both born within two years of each other, and three Archibald McDiarmids born within three years of each other from the same Parish. Without other clear evidence about which of these actually left for Canada, it is impossible to know Archibald’s parents (although there are many guesses on the online genealogy databases).
There are lots of competing records of Archibald McDiarmids in Canada who arrived around that time. They settled in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. We can, from the death notice, trace our ancestry back to the Archibald McDiarmid who settled in Mascarene, Charlotte County, New Brunswick around 1800, after the influx of Loyalists and as the new colony was coming into its own as a powerful economic force on the eastern seabord of North America.
In 1804, one Alexander McArthur fell on hard times: his property was seized and sold at auction. The land consisted of two lots of 50 acres each in the Parish of St. George, Charlotte County. The land was part of what was known as the Mascarene grant, and sat at the entrance of the Magaguadavik River (so named by the Maliseet First Nation, the original inhabitants of the area). The public auction took place on September 22, 1804. For 56 pounds and ten shillings, Archibald McDiarmid acquired this land, and it is here that he stayed as a yeoman farmer and raised his family.
The Magaguadavik River wanders almost 130 kilometres in New Brunswick before emptying into the sub-basin of the Bay of Fundy known as Passamaquody Bay. The area still has an element of wilderness to it: beautiful forest and rushing river. Like many early settlers, Archibald McDiarmid had the opportunity to make a life for himself here, with his wife Catherine. Together they had three sons: John (1809-1879), Archibald (1813-1872), and James (1818-unk), all of whom appear to have been born in New Brunswick (I say “appear” because some death certificates of their progeny suggest they were born in Scotland, however, the timing of the land grant, which is a strong piece of primary evidence, suggests not).
Archibald received a land grant in 1810, this time for 200 acres. He ended up living near the McVicar family – with whom one of his sons would be united in marriage.
A life near the sea appealed to Archibald and Catherine’s children as two of them ended up as lighthouse keepers or harbour masters. Archibald Jr. stayed Charlotte County, with his wife Mary Ann McVicar. He is listed as Harbour Master in 1851. His brother James is a farmer, living next door to Archibald Jr. with his wife Barbara.
John McDiarmid, married to Anne, became the lighthouse keeper at Point Midgic and died there in 1879, and his widow was still there in 1894 until her death at the age of 80, earning $200 annually for the pleasure of watching for ships in distress. This could not have been an easy life. Somewhat isolated, perched on the Bay, watching for fishermen, including her own children, that may have gotten into trouble.
Archibald Jr.’s children were all girls but for Silas (1853 - 1923), who left his home in Mascarene as a young man of 20. He joined the pharmacy business of E.J. Mahoney in Indiantown, an area of Saint John in the old north end by the water. The area was ravaged by fires in the late 1800s which destroyed homes and blocks of buildings, the worst one in 1877. It was around this time that Silas left Mr. Mahoney’s business and set himself up with his own drug store at the corner of Charlotte and Duke Streets. He passed this business along to Hazen J. Dick, his sister-in-law’s husband.
Silas’s next business enterprise opened in the Royal block at the corner of King and Germain. His wholesale business, the McDiarmid Drug Company, was later moved to Market Square and sold to the National Drug and Chemical Company. Silas’s business ventures were all successful. He and his wife, Ada Upham Curry, lived well in Saint John, and holidayed in exotic locales such as Bermuda.
It was 1922, as Silas was entering his 7th decade, that he became quite ill. Hazen Dick took over the retail business while Silas retired to recuperate. During this year, his wife, Ada Upham Curry, whom he married in 1885, died in a car accident. Silas himself died not long afterwards of myocarditis or inflammation of the heart.
Silas had seven daughters who were all raised in Saint John and were part of the successful business families of the city. Alice Pearl McDiarmid married William Henry Hayward, himself owner of a successful mercantile business. Enid McDiarmid married Harold Rising, a business man. Grace Chalmers McDiarmid married Frederic Stephen Smyth. Ada Mariam McDiarmid married Kenneth Allison Wilson, a barrister in the city. Audrey Elizabeth McDiarmid married druggist Louis Alberton Titus. Elsie Barbara McDiarmid married Lewis McCoy. Lulu Georgie McDiarmid married Donald Walker Armstrong, a bondbroker.
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| McDiarmid sisters (including their married names) - clockwise from top left: Enid Rising, Audrey Titus, Lou Lou Armstrong, Elsie McCoy, Alice Hayward, Ada Wilson, Grace Smith |
