Thread by @OfKnockamillie

No-one has asked but here's a thread about adopting the handle @OfKnockamillie
To start this thread, Knockamillie is the name of land perched above the village of Innellan, overlooking the Firth of Clyde south of Dunoon #Argyll
Today you could blink and you'd miss it 👀 /1

I've seen many different spellings over the years in my research including, Knochamelie, Knockamellie, Knockamely all of which makes research *interesting*
(I became an etymological detectorist to try and determine the word's origins from the #Scots #Gaelic ) my theory is /2

Knockamillie (modern spelling) as per the road name has evolved from the Gaelic 'cnoc' or 'cnocach' meaning hill or hilly and 'maille' which I have seen translated as cape or promontory which would fit with its elevated peninsula location overlooking the Clyde (red map pin) /3

A good spot for a castle then? My 4th great grandfather Henry #Campbell of Knockamillie was the last of my family to be of this land. Henry was descended from the cadet branch of Campbells of Dergachy and the House of Ardkinglas canmore.org.uk/site/40749/kno… /4

We never knew any of this before I started researching #familyhistory. I knew that my beloved grandmother was a Campbell by birth. She did impress on us that her family were 'Campbells of Argyll' which I took to mean of location not understanding intricacies of #Clan kinship /5

I make this thread to record this #ancestry proven through DNA matches and documentary evidence, not to be boastful of castles and Campbells but to note the hard times that befell many #Highland families in the 18th and 19th centuries. In Henry's case, his first wife, Alice /6

aka Alicia also a Campbell by birth ran off with a mutual married cousin Colin Campbell of Ardnahow - incidentally this pair were grandparents to Colin Campbell, Lord Clyde who has a rather wry expression that suits him en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Cam… /7

The point being that the interconnectedness that made the clan system so successful for generations could also rock the foundations of families when things went wrong. My 4 x gg father Henry remarried Elizabeth Colquhoun my 4 x gg mother but he still lent a large sum to /8

His former brother-in-law Campbell, Laird of Sunderland who promptly died in great debt. The lands of Knockamillie had to be sold (as told in a letter by Henry's daughter, Mina) Reference Campbells of Sunderland, National Library of Scotland. Thus fortunes were tied together /9

Campbell blood being thicker than water or broken unions. Which in turn speaks to me at least of the Gaelic word 'dùthchas' which is about the interconnectedness of people + land, and people belonging to land, not land belonging to people. So @OfKnockamillie means all of that /10

Henry lived on #Islay until his death. His grandfather had been minister there at #Kilchoman
Henry's son Duncan lived on Islay until his death. Clearances meant Henry's grandchildren left for Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Turkey - below James Lindsay Campbell, Henry's gg son

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