HISTORY OF THE MACOUN FAMILY 5 



the Rebellion, my father saw no further active service, although 

 the Peninsular War continued almost the whole time he was in 

 the army. Preceding the battle of Waterloo, his regiment was 

 under orders to embark but when the news came of the battle 

 they were not required and returned to London. Before this time 

 he had obtained a furlough and went home to see his father and 

 found that in his absence his elder brother had died and he was 

 heir to the property. After consulting with his father it was de- 

 cided that he would cut the entail off the whole so that my grand- 

 father could leave the property to whom he saw fit if my father 

 did not return. This was before the battle of Waterloo, and my 

 father, not returning again until about 1 820, found that his father 

 had made a will and died suddenly leaving the property to his 

 daughters, except the house and a few acres of land which were 

 left to my grandmother and a maiden sister as long as they lived. 

 On their death it was to go to my father, if alive, and in case of 

 his death to be divided among the other three. At the death of 

 his mother and sister, my father got possession of the house and 

 land, which we still owned when we left Ireland in 1850. My 

 father married Anne Jane Nevin, (my mother) in 1824, and her 

 family were Scotch immigrants of the usual fighting clans, who 

 had come to Ireland after the battle of Bothwell Bridge. My 

 mother's people, being Presbyterians, and having relatives acting 

 as ministers, my father was married in their house by a Presby- 

 terian minister. Before my brother Frederick was born my father 

 was told that if his wife had a son that he would be illegitimate and 

 could not be heir to the property as the law required the child 

 to be born in wedlock which had been performed by an authorized 

 minister of the Church of England, so my father was married the 

 second time by a Mr. Dolling in the church in Maralin. I was 

 born on April 17th, 1831, and my father died in October, 1837 



I remember very little about him but there are a few incidents 

 that happened that I recollect distinctly. My earliest remem- 

 brance is that Frederick and myself were playing along a ditch 

 that ran outside of the garden. In it grew a grass that we gather- 

 ed the leaves of and which when put between our teeth made a 

 sound hence we called it "Squeal Grass." This grass turned out 



