CHAPTER I 

 1831-1850 



History of the Macoun Family — Early Life in Ireland — 

 Many Amusing Episodes and Incidents of Childhood. 



IN writing my memoirs I intend to give at the very commence- 

 ment a sketch of what I know of our family history. I was 

 born on April 17, 1831, in the parish of Maralin, called also 

 Magheralin and, in ancient times, Linn, County Down, Ireland. 

 The parish of Linn was very old as in the Annals of Ireland it is 

 stated that it was assessed, in the reign of Edward the First of 

 England, for a contribution towards one of the crusades. Our par- 

 ish church was apparently very old and its graveyard, which was 

 elevated somewhat above the surrounding ground, was also very 

 old. I remember that our seat in the church was next to the Earl 

 of Clanwilliam, and the rector, when I was leaving, gave me a 

 paper in which he told me that we were one of the oldest families 

 in Maralin. This paper is still in the possession of one of the 

 members of my family. The graveyard was very interesting on 

 account of the names on the tombstones of those who had died 

 there over two hundred years ago. Amongst others, I noticed 

 that a member of our family, James Macoun, had lived to be 105 

 years of age and was buried here in Maralin. Later I learned 

 more of his history from my uncle, Joseph Kincaid and James Bell 

 — two old men when I was a boy. The James Macoun, known 

 in our family as the "old man," was born in 1601 and died in 1706. 

 He was, as far as we know, our first progenitor to settle in Ireland. 

 Before this the family was Scotch. This first Irish ancestor evi- 

 dently fought under Cromwell. 



What I am going to refer to now is from information received 

 from the two old men previously mentioned and from Macaulay's 

 History of the reign of William the Third. 



In 1641 a rebellion took place in the north of Ireland called 

 the Forty-one War. This rebellion was an attempt made by the 



