My great uncle, Harry Fannin Wing, always has good stories about the family. Recently, he e-mailed me one of the most interesting to date. Through the Montgomery and Appleby lines, it seems that we are related to Sir Walter Scott's original inspiration for Lochinvar: James Montgomery.

Harry included the following article that details the arrival of the Montgomery brothers in this country.

Search for Religious Freedom Brought Four Montgomery Brothers to America

Written by Mrs. Thomas Norman Eldridge for Atlanta Journal

Read the poem Lochivar here.
  James Montgomery with three brothers, about 1750, was driven from Scotland for religious opinions and sentiments and took refuge in Ireland. There they remained until about the time of the American Revolution. Religious persecution arose in Ireland. They determined to take shelter in the wilds of America. The four brothers entered the struggle for Liberty, and the immediate ancestor of this family, though but a lad, followed his father to field and bore his musket like a veteran.

In 1756 James settled in Pendleton, S.C. in what is now Craven County, with his wife, Margaret McClellan. She died and he later married Susannah Strange, who died Oct. 8, 1804. He died Jan. l, 1808, in Jefferson, GA.

Margaret McClellan originally lived in Netherby, north of the Esk River on the western coast of Scotland, 40 miles from Aberdeen.

The romantic marriage of Margaret McClelland and James Montgomery is told in Sir Walter Scott's "Lochinvar". As was his want, Sir Walter Scott seems to have inquired with particularity into the facts, and the names he gives were actual names of near kindred of the McClelland family, some of the Grahams [Graumes] and Fenwicks. Some of these emigrated to the colony of South Carolina where the kinship with the Montgomery family was recognized. Sir W. Scott changed the names of the hero and heroine for obvious reasons. The Montgomery family was prominent in South Carolina.

We know from family records that Susannah Strange and James Montgomery had at least five children; Virginia Montgomery, their fifth child, was born in 1787 and married James Appleby. There is more confirmation, though, from a personal letter that Harry provided exerpts from. Miss Erma Appleby of Washington, D.C., wrote Mrs. Edward Rawson Dent with the following information:

"---My authority for this story is from cousin Lula Montgomery Appleby of Pulaski, Tenn. who has traced the Montgomery line back 287 years. Her husband, Samuel Cicel Appleby was a descendant of the first William's son, John. All of the Georgia Applebys are descended from James Montgomery who was the original Lockinvar who stole his bride from Neatherby in Scotland just as she was about to be married to someone else, her parent's choice not hers. Sir W. Scott wrote this lyric about the event and incorporated it into "Marmion". James Montgomery took his bride to Ireland where she died leaving three sons and one daughter. James Montgomery later came to America landing at the port of Charleston. He, James, settled in Jackson Co., Georgia, [my note: a county next to Hall] and must be buried there. I never knew until she [cousin Lula] that Lochinvar was an actual person. I always supposed him to be a fictitious character. All of the kin names in the poems are actually families in her lines she says. So you have at least one very romantic character in your line!"

Imagine that!