The origins of Rev. George Meiklejohn/Micklejohn

Kristina Simms of Perry GA, in an essay of 2004 entitled Micklejohn, states that, "Many sources describe Rev. Micklejohn as living to the ripe old age of 100 or 101, and if this is true, working backward from a death date of 1818, he would have been born ca 1718. Whether he was actually that old is debatable."(1)

A birth date as early as 1718 does indeed sit uncomfortably with the remaining chronology of his life. Simms herself has doubts about George being a centenarian at his death, saying, "Alfred Stratton Lawrence, in his article on the parson, expressed doubts that Micklejohn was really a centenarian when he died, but probably in his eighties."

Simms also states that "Verifiable information about George Micklejohn’s life on the other side of the Atlantic is hard to come by" again echoing Lawrence who wrote, "Where he came from, who his antecedents were, when and where he was ordained, and how old he was, I have been unable to find out."

I will suggest that there is no mystery about George's origins. Donald Whyte, in his "Scottish Emigrants to the U.S.A." of 1903, lists "Meiklejohn, Hugh (Rev.) From Saline – Shaw, Fife. To North Carolina before 1800, Clergyman. M. Mary Cree (1744-1823). Son [of] ev. Dr. Hugh M., minister of Abercorn, West Lothian and Professor of Church History at Edinburgh…" (2)

Simms seems to have some doubts about this information, writing "We do not have proof that this information is correct. On the other hand, the reference has to be to George Micklejohn since he was the only Rev. Micklejohn in colonial North Carolina. Sometimes he is listed as 'George H. Micklejohn.'" The only doubt I have is about his name being Hugh. It is a matter of contemporary record that it was George not Hugh who married Mary Cree. Perhaps Whyte was confusing George with his son Rev. Hugh Meiklejohn.

The statement "M. Mary Cree (1744-1823)" seems to be ignored by American researchers, perhaps because it is clear evidence that George Meiklejohn's marriage to Elizabeth Lockhart in North Carolina was bigamous. Saline Shaw was a farm in the parish of Saline in Fife. The farm was held by Hugh Cree, Mary's father, who died c1773 leaving Mary and her three sisters a quarter share each in the farm. The marriage of George Meiklejohn and Mary Cree is recorded at Saline in 1763. It had also been noted in the Parochial register at Tullialan, suggesting that George was living in that parish. His baptism record however is at Culross, Perthshire, in 1733 (3). Tullialan, Culross and Saline are all within a few miles of each other and there were Meiklejohn families, probably related, at the first two. This baptism date is consistent with his education as a minister at St Andrews from 1755 to 1761, and his marriage to Mary two years later at the age of thirty. She was then aged 32.

Simms has inserted the word [of] into her quotation from Whyte. This is not correct. In the shortened form used for such directories, the entry shows that George Meiklejohn had a son Hugh who was minister of Abercorn, etc. Hugh's birth at Saline was recorded there in 1764, seven months after George and Mary's marriage. In fact, because Hugh also became Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the most senior churchman in Scotland, his life is well documented. It was at his house that Mary Cree's sister Margaret died in 1820 (4). Hugh's birth date was later moved forward a year, perhaps to avoid any stigma of illegitimacy.

The error in stating that Hugh's father was also named Hugh may indeed be an error - Hugh was less than two years old when his father left for America and may, many years later, have confused his father's first name with that of his maternal grandfather Hugh Cree; or, as with his change of birth year, Hugh may have deliberately muddied the water, not wishing to encourage public knowledge of his father's abscondment to America or perhaps his move to the Episcopalian (Anglican) church.

A similar process may have taken place in America where several legends about George Micklejohn have circulated about the reasons for his migration (1). Maybe he wished to hide the true reasons for his marriage breakdown (whatever they were) or his qualification for the ministry under a Presbyterian regime. It is significant that when she died, sixty years after her marriage to George, Mary was described as "relict of George Mickeljohn, Preacher of the Gospel."

The sources of these errors are a matter of speculation. What seems certain is that George Meiklejohn who moved to North Carolina in 1766 had married Mary Cree in 1763 at Saline, Fife, and was the father of Hugh Meiklejohn, born 1764 at Saline, who became Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. It is also clear that Mary was alive when George went through a form of marriage to Elizabeth Lockhart in America. Indeed Mary survived him, regarding herself as his "relict" (widow) and so not as divorced.

(1) Baldwin-Bibb County GaArchives Biographies: Mickeljohn, Family 1766-1860
(2) A Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to the U.S.A. Donald Whyte, 1903.
(3) Old Parochial Registers of the relevant parishes.
(4) The Edinburgh Magazine Vol. VI, Jan-Jun 1820, p 390.

For more details of George Meiklejohn see his entry in the Cree Genealogy Database.