Recently Asked Question 1

1.  We wonder if our ancestors lived in or near Inverary in Scotland?  
Marylyn, the long gone Jos. W. Buck, and I all visited there because it’s the home of the Clan Campbell chief, the Duke of Argyll (and fascinating on its own). The chances are that none of our ancestors lived in Argyll since long before 1750, if ever. I say that because I couldn’t find any Joseph Campbells in the Argyll censuses that have survived. And because when I visited the National Archives in Edinboro, a fellow researcher (who seemed to know his stuff) told me that the given name ‘Joseph’ was extremely rare in Argyll in that time period.

Were they indeed part of the Clan Campbell?  
Yes, but of which branch? Unlike most surnames, all Campbells are descendants of a common ancestor. In Scotland, clan membership is patrilineal, so all born with that name (or adopted into it) are part of the clan. And if you’re male, only those carrying that surname are part of the clan. (A Scotswoman can chose whether to remain in her father’s clan or to join her husband’s clan.) The main branches of Clan Campbell are: Campbell of Argyll, Campbell of Breadalbane, Campbell of Cawdor, & Campbell of Loudoun. All of the writings in the 1880s to 1920s of “our” Campbell ancestors assume they were Campbells of Argyll. But that may have been the only branch most Americans of that period were aware of.

I believe Inverary, Scotland was a part of the Scottish Lowlands. This came up in conversation of the Highland Clearings—and also the Lowland Clearings—what a terrible time that was in Scottish history.
Yes, it was a terrible time. One in which greed trumped responsibility. It’s mentioned in my post, https://blog.campbellluggblackwell.com/2022/02/15/cotswolds-part-4-published-au-11-2021/. Inveraray is at the northern end of the Kintyre peninsula, the tip of which is the closest point in Scotland to Ireland. It’s connected underwater to Ireland, via the Giant’s Causeway, near which in N. Ireland Joseph Campbell live as a schoolboy,

I don’t know what part of the social-economic scale they came from.  
They certainly had the means to remove themselves and their children to Northern Island, and eventually secure passage to America, and were in a position to buy land on Beechers Island, PA.
Actually, money wasn’t needed to move from Scotland to N. Ireland. Most of the land was owned by English landlords, who lived in England. They felt their rule would be more secure if they increased the percentage of English speakers in the population and the percentage of Protestants, so they offered a bounty to Presbyterian Scots to immigrate to N. Ireland. There are indications that our Hazlett & Campbell men worked in the iron foundries, which were relatively well paying jobs, We don’t know how the older of Joseph & Mary’s children financed passage to America, There’s an unsubstantiated oral tradition among the Hazletts that Sam & Sally Campbell Hazlett came as indenture servants. Excerpts from the elder Jos. Campbell’s diary state that some of their money for passage and life in America came from selling the remainder of a lease they had on property in Derry. It took 4 years of payments for the purchase of the Strait and Beecher properties to be complete. Joseph Sr.’s brother, John was one of the purchasers. Until then he had a tailor shop and was a land agent in Philadelphia, so he may have provided a significant part of the funding, We don’t know how many acres they purchased, but quite a few. The Beecher property was on the south side of the river, from Thornbottom Creek at least to opposite the mouth of Strait Creek. And the Strait property went from the present Nelson Cem. on east of Strait Creek. Land was selling for about $3/acre then.