From Scones to Corn Pones: How a Gathering of Scottish Clans (and Others) Became Wiregrass Pioneers

By Liz Carson Keith

Liz Carson Keith is a storyteller, like many other Southerners. and this book is about her Scottish family-multiple branches that came to the southern American colonies to escape war, poverty, and religious persecution, weaving into their stories threads of those they married and those they enslaved. Liz begins and ends the book as a travel memo

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: Feb 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9798885907323

Liz Carson Keith

Liz is a retired educator and award-winning writer. She earned a BS Ed in English Education and a MS Ed in Adult and Continuing Education from the University of Georgia. Liz grew up hearing family stories told by her uncles while porch sitting at her grandmother's house. Documenting these stories was the impetus of this book. But the old folks did not want to quit talking. They had more to tell than porch tales.

Book preview

Why We Went to Scotland

I

do not know when I became aware that there was a Scottish seed in me. Even before I could read, I would climb up to my mother’s desk and fetch the little book of colorful tartans and thumb through them, choosing my favorites and next time, choosing others. I was fascinated with the poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson, and though I puzzled over the sentence—

"In summer quite the other way,

I have to go to bed by day,"—

I began to understand that oddity Stevenson pondered on when America switched to Daylight Savings Time, and sunlight lingered long into the summer day. Later, I helped Aunt Evelyn put together a scrapbook of old newspaper clippings Grandmother had saved. Among the clippings was a typed copy of Carson genealogy starting with the generation that embarked from Newry, Ireland. I was happy to think that my ancestors were Irish until my aunt emphatically explained that we were not Irish at all. Carsons are Scot-Irish, she said. And they should not be called ‘Scotch.’ That is a liquor. So I was told. I still did not understand the meaning of it all. But I took her word for it. We were not a spirit. We were not ephemeral. We were a solid people who were misplaced somehow. And I inferred that being Irish was a little tainted though I still thought my O’Neal neighbors were mighty fine people.

After achieving adulthood, I was enticed to join Daughters of the American Revolution, where I traced my lineage from a Keith ancestor. And so, I added another Scot to my line, and after sending in spit, it was determined that about a third of my DNA came from the Gaelic tribes. Most of the Scottish lines that I traced came from my father’s ancestry as they married among themselves in America. These settlers came early, as early as the 1600’s, and most came to Virginia and ports south, so their roots along the Southeastern coast are well established. We are descended from Randolphs, a noble English family of Turkey Island, Virginia. William and Mary Randolph are often called the Adam and Eve of Virginia because of their many descendants. They were wealthy and prominent politically. but this couple was more than that. The Randolph family is the genesis of that wonderful Keith line that is my sister, Ella’s, and my patriot line into DAR

We also have Gordon blood in us, having come directly from Lady Mary Gordon. Gen. John B. Gordon, famous Confederate general under Robert E. Lee, was a cousin of our great-grandfather, Joseph Perryman Carson. By this time, I had learned enough of history to know that Carsons are Scots who moved to Ulster, Ireland, as part of the Plantation settlement during the reign of King James. Lady Elizabeth Keith is one of our ancestors along another Keith line. These are only a few of the many important and prominent Scot families we come from. The most thrilling is that we descend directly from Robert the Bruce, and King James I of Scotland. With that heritage, I felt Scotland was pulling me across the Atlantic.

That is what compelled me to travel there. I wanted to go see for myself. I wanted to see the land that Robert Louis Stevenson wrote about when he went to sleep by day, even when it wasn’t Daylight Saving Time. I wanted to see castles. I wanted to see where those ancient people lived, no matter how squalid or mean it was. I wanted to hear kilt-wearing men play bagpipes. I wanted to hear the rolling brogue on the tongue. I wanted to understand how a Southern woman who had endured blazing summers all her life could descend from this chilled land of staunch, independent people.

I had long ago decided that it is more fun to travel with family than by myself, so I planned our trip to Scotland for July 9–July 20, 2018, and I asked who wanted to go. It seemed that everyone did. In all, my sisters, Ella Carson and Julia Carson Ferguson; Julia’s son Clements and his son Carson; my daughter, Lisha Keith Mendez and her husband Noble Mendez and daughter, Lily; my daughter-in-law, Missy Reed; and my cousin, Anne Carson Gaskins. With me, that made ten travelers. We were all ages and abilities. Ella was the oldest at 71, and Lily was the youngest at 3.

I began planning the trip in January, buying airline tickets and searching for Air B’n’B apartments or houses that were large enough to hold all of us in the right configurations. We had two men, a married couple, a mother and son, three elderly travelers who could not negotiate stairs, and two children. Anything we chose needed to be right. Plus, our lodging had to be cost conscious, offer great views, comfortable beds, and be close to attractions. That was quite a tall order. For Edinburg, I chose a penthouse flat with a lift and free garage parking. It was tight, but it did the job. Everything in Edinburgh was expensive, but this flat had restaurants we could walk to, and we all loved the scene from our windows. We could even see Arthur’s Seat, the main peak of the group of hills in Edinburgh which form most of Holyrood Park.

The other abode I chose was a granite house close to Aberdeen. Aberdeen is known as the Granite City, and I wanted to see the area from where the Keiths had hailed, so it was high on my list. This is also an area where many Gordons settled, too. This house, located in Lumphanan, was spacious, and it served as our launching spot for trips to the highlands and to Aberdeen city.

Finally, because in the Carson Clan’s early days we were connected to the Isle of Man, I booked a beach house there.

But before we relive this wonderful trip, I think we need some explanation of the clan’s history … yes, starting from early Scotland, but also following the clan in the American Revolution times, the era of the War Between the States, the early Tifton Carsons and their lives, and much more before we take that grand trip. We need to know who we were so that we can better know who we are today. We need the lessons, the hurts, the successes, the personal stories that prepped us for this trip.

—Liz Carson Keith

Keiths in Scotland

I

married Jack Ernest Keith, but the Carsons have two different ancestors from the Keith lineage as well. One is Lady Elizabeth Keith from Martha Godwin Raines’s line, and the other is the Rev. James Keith from Charlotte Briggs’s line. Though the lines appear to be separate, the lines both go back to the Great Marischal of Scotland. I expect that Jack’s line also goes back to the same line, too, though I have never been able to prove it. You don’t carry that distinguished name without having that lineage. The Keith family has held, from the earliest ages, the dignified post of Great Marischal of Scotland. Without attempting to trace the hereditary line of the Great Marischals of Scotland from the year 1010, when Robert, the direct ancestor of this family was invested with that dignity by King Malcom II, we will begin with Sir William Keith, Great Marischal of Scotland. He was the 11th in direct line from the founder, who died prior to 1476, and he was titled Earl Marischal of Scotland.

Lisha Keith Mendez Reenacts

Saving the Honors

Our Keith ancestor helped save the Scottish Honours during the reign of Oliver Cromwell in 1649. Cromwell had been named Protectorate of England, and England’s king, Charles I, had been beheaded. Charles’ son (later Charles II) arrived in northeast Scotland in a bid to retake the two kingdoms.

When Cromwell invaded Scotland, Charles II was quickly crowned at Scone, but the Honours could not be returned to Edinburgh Castle as the castle had fallen to Cromwell’s army. Cromwell and his followers were voraciously destroying all things royal and of the Anglican church, so to prevent the Scottish regalia from being destroyed as the English Honors had been, the King ordered the Earl Marischal to take the Honours and many of the King’s personal papers to safety at Dunnottar Castle.

Dunnottar Castle

Dunnottar, the home of the Earl Marischal, was a mighty stronghold on the North Sea. Cromwell’s men immediately laid siege to Dunnottar, and though a scratch garrison of 70 men attempted to hold off the enemy for 8 months, eventually they saw they were losing. So, they lowered the crown, scepter, and sword over the Castle’s seaward side where an old fishwife hid them in her huge basket meant for gathering seaweed. She took them to a church in Kinneff, a village several miles to the south, where, the minister there first hid them at the bottom of a bed in his house until he could bury them more securely in the church itself.¹

The minister and his wife first wrapped the jewels in linen cloths and then buried them at night under the stone floor of the church. Every three months, they dug up the Regalia at night to air them and to preserve them from dampness. The Honours remained hidden for nine years during the Commonwealth while the English army searched for them in vain.²

The Honours now reside in Edinburgh Castle where all can admire them. Photographs are not allowed, but facsimiles of them are on display, and visitors can photograph those.

Our Keiths in America

The American Keiths came early, and while our line is illustrious, its beginnings weave a tangled and bizarre tale. Our Keith, the Rev. James Keith, came to Virginia as a refugee from the Jacobite rising of 1719. Though the Scots planned numerous risings against the English, this one, sometimes referred to as The Nineteen, was a Spanish-backed landing in Scotland, part of a larger rising in South-West England to restore James Francis Edward Stuart to the throne of Great Britain.

Spain had planned a two-prong punch. First, a small fleet would land in Scotland and raise support in the west to distract the British army. Then the larger fleet would land in South-West England, march to London, and dethrone King George I. Unfortunately, the storms delayed the larger fleet; many ships were damaged and forced back to Spain for repairs. Earlier and before the storms hit, the distraction fleet had set sail without encountering difficulty, and it landed on the west coast of Scotland near Lochalsh.

The Spaniards set about recruiting Highlanders, but many clans were wary and did not join. After many setbacks, the small group of Highlanders and Spaniards faced the British at Glen Shiel. Though the size of the armies was similar, the British possessed mortars to bombard the Jacobite position. The Highlanders were driven from their position and the Spaniards surrendered. The Jacobites fled to avoid capture and execution as traitors.

Mary Isham Randolph

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, a grandson of our Keith forefather, and one of the most outstanding Chief Justices of our nation, recorded the story of his grandmother, Mary Randolph, whose details could have been lost without Marshall’s little pamphlet, which he wrote of his life. Marshall is not our direct ancestor, but an uncle by many times. Marshall was descended from James Keith and Mary Isham Randolph, the granddaughter of William Randolph of Turkey Island and Mary Isham of Bermuda Hundred—colonial grandees sometimes referred to as the ‘Adam and Eve of Virginia. Among their descendants are Thomas Jefferson, Robert E. Lee, and generations of Randolphs, as well as our line, which is carried by Isham Keith, Revolutionary War soldier. One Randolph married a Key, who produced Francis Scott Key, author of the Stars Spangled Banner.

Among the first English settlers to arrive in Virginia, the Ishams and Randolphs quickly made their mark in the colony. Henry was the first Randolph to arrive in Jamestown in 1635 where he built a successful business. In 1659, Henry was named clerk of the House of Burgesses. A few years later, nephew William arrived to study law, later following his uncle as the burgesses’ clerk. Eventually, William became attorney general of the colony. In 1680, he captured the heart of Mary Isham, daughter of Henry Isham, one of tidewater Virginia’s largest landowners and the social arbiter of the families living on the south bank of the James River. The Randolph-Isham union proved remarkably fertile. There were nine children and thirty-nine grandchildren. Each of the children married well, and the family holdings multiplied.

Mary Isham Randolph, Marshall’s grandmother, was an independent minded young woman who visited her uncle on Dungeness Plantation following her father’s death. It was there that she scandalized her family by running off with the Irish overseer, Enoch Arden, according to Marshall in his autobiography, Chief Justice John Marshall: The Events of My Life.³

Mary Randolph is often referred to as being blooming into womanhood when she met Enoch Arden at Dungeness. The effect of this meeting was disastrous for both of them. After her elopement, she and Arden spent months fleeing her enraged family. Some sources say that the pair were married secretly, but their marriage is questionable. Her late father was the chief militia officer of Goochland, where Tuckahoe was located. Few officials would be foolish enough to marry the daughter of the late chief militia officer to such a scoundrel, as the Randolphs painted Arden.

Col. William Byrd, a neighbor, records in his diary that after traveling to Tuckahoe, he found Mrs. Randolph packing her bags, preparing to journey to Goochland.

"Here I learnt all the tragical Story of her Daughter’s humble Marriage with her Uncle’s Overseer. Besides the meanness of the Mortal’s Aspect, the Man has not one visible Qualification, except impudence, that recommend him to a Female’s inclination. But there is sometimes such a Charm in that Hibernian Endowment, that frail Woman can’t withstand it, tho’ it stands alone without any other recommendation. Had she run away with a Gentleman or a pretty Fellow, there might have been some excuse for her, tho’ he were of inferior fortune, but to stoop to a dirty Plebian, without any kind of merit is the lowest Prostitution.

I found the family just enraged at it …"

[Punctuated as per Virginia Magazine of Historyn and Biograpgy (1924) See pp. 392–393.]

Since Mary’s father had been dead for about three years, her male relatives probably included her brother and cousins, all ready to avenge the family honor. By the time the Randolph posse tracked down the lovers, Mary had birthed a baby. The lovers were living on Elk Island on the James River. In the middle of the night, the enraged kinsmen descended on the lovers unawares, killed Arden and the baby, kidnapped Mary, and hustled her back to Tuckahoe.

That is the version that John Marshall tells. But others say no. The alternate version of the story, more obscure, I admit, insists that the Randolphs would have found murder distasteful, and instead, they paid off Arden to disappear. A baby? What baby? You decide.

But this is what I think. Mary’s brother inherited a fortune when he was only 20 years old, and at that age, he lacked restraint. There he was, furious with his sister, his anger had been festering for months, and by the time he burst into the cabin with his cousins, what do you think he did? Have a nice tete a tete? Offer Arden money? No. I think not. He went in with sabers flashing. The results were inevitable. Was there a baby? Probably. Mary was a very fertile woman. The Randolphs would have wanted all evidence of her ill-chosen alliance dissolved. Or, at least, that is my way of thinking. The fact that it was their flesh and blood meant little to them. It was half Irish overseer. Poor Mary, who was so devastated by the affair, suffered a complete nervous breakdown. Her family treated her carefully, according to all accounts, not mentioning the horrors she had witnessed, as she slowly recovered.

This brings us to the next part of our story, the meeting of Mary and James Keith. You will recall that James had participated in The Nineteenth, the disastrous Spanish invasion of Scotland that was supposed to restore Jacobite rule to the island. The Highlanders had failed to rally, and though the Keith clan backed the revolt, they lost to the British. The Spanish surrendered when they saw they were defeated, but the Spaniards would be treated as prisoners of war to be ransomed back to their country. The Scots were in mortal