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As a refugee, my ancestor, Andrew Young, changed his surname when he reached safety. "...Mary Young Lamont's four sons changed their names. John, the oldest, took the name Sitlington, which was the name of a "burn" or small stream on their Scotland estates. The two middle sons took the names White and Green. It has been stated that the White son may have been named William. The youngest son, Andrew, took his mother's maiden name of Young for his new surname...."
Their grandson John, my 5x great-grand Uncle, became Capt. John Young, aid to Gen. George Washington and ancestor to Senator John McCain. Annie Houston is from the same family as Texas' Sam Houston.
On another Web page, John, who became Capt. John Young, aid to Gen. George Washington and ancestor to Senator John McCain, is described as their grandson.
John McCain describes his ancestry, and mine, in his book, "Faith of my Fathers," available at the West Branch of the Saint John Regional Library.
"The Youngs, of the Clan Lamont from the Fifth Cumbrae Islands, arrived in America earlier than the McCains, having first fled to Ireland during England's "Great Rebellion." In 1646, Mary Young Lamont and her four sons crossed the Irish Sea in open boats after her husband and chief of the clan, Sir James Lamont, and his clansmen were defeated in battle by the forces of Archibald Campbell, the eighth Duke of Argyle.
The long-feuding clans had fought on different sides in the civil war, the Campbells for Cromwell, and the Lamonts loyal to Charles I. After surrendering to the Campbells, two hundred Lamont men, women, and children had their throats cut by the Villainous duke, and Sir James and his brothers spent five years in a dungeon.
Fearing further reprisals, Sir James's wife and sons wisely fled their hostile land, adopted Mary's maiden name, Young, and settled quietly in County Antrim, Ireland, Two generations later, the family immigrated in the person of Hugh Young to Augusta County, Virginia.
In 1764, Hugh's sons, John, a captain in the Augusta County militia, and Thomas, fought a brief skirmish with Indians in the Battle of Back Creek. Thomas was killed and scalped. Like his descendants, Captain Young was not one to suffer such an insult quietly. He tracked the killers for three days, fought them again, killed a number of them, and recovered his brother's scalp, burying it with Thomas's body.
It was John Young who, as a militia captain during the Revolutionary War, caught the attention of George Washington, joined the infantry, and was welcomed to the general's staff. Valorous and exceedingly diligent about safeguarding his family's honor, John Young set an example emulated by generations of Youngs and McCains who eagerly reinforced the family reputation for quick tempers, adventurous spirits, and love for the country's uniform.
Joh Young's three elder sons all died in childhood. His fourth son, David Young, held the rank of captain in the United States Army and fought in the War of 1812. David's son, Samuel Hart Young, moved the family to Mississipi, where Samuel's eldest son, Dr. John William Young, fought for the confederacy.
The fifth of Samuel Young's eight children, Elizabth Ann, united the McCain and Young families by her mariage to my great-grandfather, and their union gave life to two renowned fighters, my great-unce Wild Bill and my grandfather Sid McCain."
Later, John McCain wrote:
"As a boy and a young man, I may have pretended not to be affected by the family history, but my studied indifference was a transparent mask to those who knew me well. As it was for my forebears, my family's history was my pride. Whe I heard my father or one of my uncles refer to an honored ancestor or a notable event from our family's past, my boy's imagination would conjure up some future day of glory when I would add my own paragraph to the family's legend. My father was a member of the Society of Cincinnati, an association of direct descendants of General Washington's officers. His evident pride in claiming such distinguished ancestry gave me the sense not only that I had a claim on my country's history, but that it would fall on me to represent the family when the history of my generation was recorded...."
Robert Young, Jr. is the uncle of my 3x great-grandfather, Isaac Glass Young.
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