_Vailima_, _June_ 1894.
MY DEAR BOB,—I must make out a letter this mail or perish in the attempt.
All the same, I am deeply stupid, in bed with a cold, deprived of my
amanuensis, and conscious of the wish but not the furnished will. You
may be interested to hear how the family inquiries go. It is now quite
certain that we are a second-rate lot, and came out of Cunningham or
Clydesdale, therefore _British_ folk; so that you are Cymry on both
sides, and I Cymry and Pict. We may have fought with King Arthur and
known Merlin. The first of the family, Stevenson of Stevenson, was quite
a great party, and dates back to the wars of Edward First. The last male
heir of Stevenson of Stevenson died 1670, £220, 10s. to the bad, from
drink. About the same time the Stevensons, who were mostly in Cunningham
before, crop up suddenly in the parish of Neilston, over the border in
Renfrewshire. Of course, they may have been there before, but there is
no word of them in that parish till 1675 in any extracts I have. Our
first traceable ancestor was a tenant farmer of Muir of Cauldwells—James
in Nether-Carsewell. Presently two families of maltmen are found in
Glasgow, both, by re-duplicated proofs, related to James (the son of
James) in Nether Carsewell. We descend by his second marriage from
Robert; one of these died 1733. It is not very romantic up to now, but
has interested me surprisingly to fish out, always hoping for more—and
occasionally getting at least a little clearness and confirmation. But
the earliest date, 1655, apparently the marriage of James in Nether
Carsewell, cannot as yet be pushed back. From which of any number of
dozen little families in Cunningham we should derive, God knows! Of
course, it doesn’t matter a hundred years hence, an argument fatal to all
human enterprise, industry, or pleasure. And to me it will be a deadly
disappointment if I cannot roll this stone away! One generation further
might be nothing, but it is my present object of desire, and we are so
near it! There is a man in the same parish called Constantine; if I
could only trace to him, I could take you far afield by that one talisman
of the strange Christian name of Constantine. But no such luck! And I
kind of fear we shall stick at James.
So much, though all inchoate, I trouble you with, knowing that you, at
least, must take an interest in it. So much is certain of that strange
Celtic descent, that the past has an interest for it apparently
gratuitous, but fiercely strong. I wish to trace my ancestors a thousand
years, if I trace them by gallowses. It is not love, not pride, not
admiration; it is an expansion of the identity, intimately pleasing, and
wholly uncritical; I can expend myself in the person of an inglorious
ancestor with perfect comfort; or a disgraced, if I could find one. I
suppose, perhaps, it is more to me who am childless, and refrain with a
certain shock from looking forwards. But, I am sure, in the solid
grounds of race, that you have it also in some degree. {332}
I. JAMES, a tenant of the Muirs, in Nether-Carsewell, Neilston,
married (1665?) Jean Keir.
II. ROBERT (Maltman in Glasgow), died 1733, married 1st; married
second, Elizabeth Cumming.
[Of ROBERT and 1st marriage: William (Maltman in Glasgow), of him:
ROBERT, MARION and ELIZABETH]
III. ROBERT [of Robert and Elizabeth Cumming] (Maltman in Glasgow),
married Margaret Fulton (had a large family).