| Notes |
The first descendants of the MacNaughts of Galloway known to use the
name "McNitt" are found in the tax records of Ulster Province in the
mid-1600s, a time when many families with names derived from MacNaught
emigrated to the northern tip of the Emerald Isle. Early in the
century they came to lease fertile farm land at favorable rates. In
the later part of the 1600s they arrived as refugees, driven from
their homes in Galloway by religious persecution. Whenever possible,
they settled together in communities centered around a Presbyterian
church. For some reason, perhaps it was the familiar and fertile
terrain, descendants of Clan MacNaught had an affinity for Donegal
County in an area called the Laggan, or lowlands.
Between 1710 - 1720, John McKnitt of Ulster Province settled on a 1,
000 acre tract called "the Strand" in Somerset County, Maryland. Two
sons, Robert (b. 1685) and John (b. 1687) were born there. John later
moved to Cecil County, Maryland and son John McKnitt II acquired the
Strand. Other descendants included John McKnitt III and John McKnitt
IV who, according to Cecil County records, amended his name to John
McKnight.
In "The MacNauchtan Saga," V.V. McNitt speculates that "members of the
Maryland McKnitt family may have removed to the Carolinas and other
places in the South, where the surname McKnight is often encountered."
There is no evidence that any of these McKnitts/McKnights changed
their name to McNitt in the Colonies -- although they did use a
remarkable total of 18 surname variants. Still, the Ulster-Scot
"McKnitts" and "McNitts" doubtless share a common ancestor, probably
named McKnight or MacKnight, who lived in Galloway 500 or 600 years
ago.
The ancient Picts, whose lost language is at the root of the McNitt
name, migrated from Continental Europe in the area of what is now
Austria and the Czech Republic, at about the time Romulus is said to
have founded Rome -- roughly 700 BC.
The Picts were fierce warriors with a penchant for full-body tattoos
-- so fierce that the Romans built Hadrian's Wall rather than conquer
them. Pictish kingdoms dominated northern Caledonia (in what is now
Scotland) until they were subsumed by another group of Celts, the
invading Scots tribes of Ireland. Of the Picts, who had ruled
Caledonia for perhaps a millennium, little more was heard following
Kenneth MacAlpin's conquest of the Central Highlands in 846 AD.
By 1000 AD a tribe, or "clann," descending from the Picts -- although
now unmistakably Scottish in their speech, customs and religion -- was
well established along the valley of the river Tay in the Central
Highlands north of Edinburgh, living in rough stone cots, tending
sheep and farming what fertile soil could be found.
In Gaelic, "clann" means children -- and while the influence of church
and state was often tenuous for Scots families living in remote
Highland locations such as the Tay valley, the power of the elder
chief over the life, death and loyalty of his Clan was absolute. This
power, along with all livestock, estates and titles, passed from
father to oldest son.
Family feuds were among the ancient many Pict traditions absorbed by
the Scots invaders. To ensure the peace, hostile Pictish tribes would
often "pledge," or exchange, children whose lives would then depend
upon their parents' restraint. Such children were generally chosen
from among the most promising youth, and were called "nechtans" -- or
literally, Little Pledges.
At some point, one such youth became known by the name "Nechtan,"
which over the centuries evolved into Nauchtan -- just as MacNauchtan
later became MacNaghten, MacNaughton, MacNaucht, McKnight and,
eventually, McNitt.
It was also the custom of Scots tribes to use the patronymic term
"mac" to refer to a male child as the son of his father. Hence, among
the Scots, John's son Robert was known as MacJohn.
At the urging of the Scottish King, Malcom III Canmore, this custom
was largely abandoned in the late 11th century in favor of the English
tradition of fixed family surnames. It is likely that at about the
time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, the oldest son of a tribal chief
named Nauchtan whose Clan inhabited the valley of the river Tay in
Scotland's Central Highlands was the first to use MacNauchtan as a
surname in the modern sense.
Around 1100 AD, when Scottish Clans first took permanent surnames,
members of this tribe designated themselves as MacNauchtan, and were
granted extensive land holdings in the Strathtay, eventually becoming
recognized as the "Thanes of Lochtay," or barons of the Loch Tay
region. Thus, Clan MacNauchtan is itself older than recorded Scots
history.
Several authoritative genealogical studies of early Scotland assert
that the MacNauchtans descend from three Pictish Kings of Caledonia
named Nechtan who ruled at various times between 458 and 730. It was
the last of these Nechtans who during the early 700s converted to
Christianity and made a decision that influences Scottish history to
this very day. According to historian John Prebbles:
"A stranger is said to have brought a parcel
of bones to the house of Nechtan.
Nobody doubted his claim that they were
the true relics of the apostle Andrew,
least of all Nechtan, King of the Picts,
whose recent conversion to Christianity
probably required an act of credulous faith.
The stranger was allowed to build a shrine
for the bones on the coast of Fife,
and Scotland thus acquired its patron saint
and the ultimate site for its first university.""A stranger is said to
have brought a parcel
of bones to the house of Nechtan.
Nobody doubted his claim that they were
the true relics of the apostle Andrew,
least of all Nechtan, King of the Picts,
whose recent conversion to Christianity
probably required an act of credulous faith.
The stranger was allowed to build a shrine
for the bones on the coast of Fife,
and Scotland thus acquired its patron saint
and the ultimate site for its first university."
While King Nechtan, and our relationship to him, may be more legend
than fact, it is a fact that in 1164, King Malcolm IV gave the
MacNauchtan Clan control of lands in the Highlands to the west of
Strathtay, in return for aid in controlling the rebellious
MacDougalls. This was the beginning of a movement of the clan chiefs
from Strathtay that would eventually end in Argyll.
In the early 1200s, the MacNauchtan assisted the Scottish King in
driving Viking settlements from the western coast, and were rewarded
with estates extending from the south shore of Loch Awe to the North
shore of Loch Fyne on the Argyll peninsula -- a region of lush glens,
fertile farmland and temperate climate.
Here Alexander III King of the Scots, granted Gilcrist MacNauchtan
extensive landholdings -- including, in 1267, a castle located on
Fraoch Eilean ("heathery isle") in Loch Awe. A parchment dated 1247
and affixed with the seal of Gilcrist MacNauchtan is among the oldest
charters still existing in Scotland. For the next four centuries the
Argyll MacNauchtans were a formidable force, producing many knights,
barons and bishops who played a significant role in the tumultuous
events of the period.
From MacNauchtan to McKnitt:
In an era when names were rarely written -- except perhaps on birth,
death, marriage and tax records -- spelling was a casual affair.
Family names were often spelled several different ways within in a
single document.
We shouldn't be too surprised, then, if one John MacNaucht -- possibly
Gilchrist's oldest son -- should drop the "-an" from his name at about
the time he moved from Argyll to Galloway near the English border
where he, too, was granted a royal estate. We might even sympathize
with him, since "-an" was a diminutive suffix, much like "-ie" is
today.
With the Anglicization of Scotland, by 1600 many old Gaelic and
Pictish words had been modified to suit Anglo-Saxon sensibilities,
particularly in border territories such as Galloway. MacNaucht
(pronounced MacNawkt) was especially difficult for English speakers,
who often translated the name as "MacKnight" or "MacNeight." It was
also common practice to abbreviate the patronymic Mac as "M'," which
eventually came to be written as "Mc."
Thus, in the span of a dozen generations, the surname adopted by a son
of Nauchtan during the Middle Ages gradually evolved into a score of
variants including McKnight, McNeight, McNaight, McNeit, McKnitt and
others.
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Abt 1660 - 1714 (54 years)