Family Tree (Denison, Douglas, Harvey, Helmcken, Mackenzie, Maclean, Maclennan, McTavish, Norcross, Riley)

William Andrew Mackenzie was born 30 September 1868 in Ardross, Rosskeen Parish. He was only about 4 years old when his mother passed away in 1873 from tuberculosis. He was raised by his father and aunt, Margaret, who lived in the family household for many years following her sister's death.

William was not living in the household by 1891 according to the census of that year, so it appears he moved before he was 21-22 years of age. Perhaps he left around the time his father retired and moved to Inverness, and one family recollection states that he lived for a time in Glasgow and then went to South Africa to pursue a career in shipbuilding in the mid 1890s. Two ship manifests have been found that confirm when he may have left England for South Africa, possibly on 13 April 1893 or on 12 December 1896.(1) The ages on the manifests do not match exactly with his birth year of 1868, but ship manifests often do contain minor errors.

The Boer War(2) was between the years 1899-1902 and William was in the service in some capacity, possibly as a Scout. There was no conscription so he likely joined voluntarily, possibly the Lovat Scouts.(3) However, searches of various military and service databases have yet to produce any conclusive information. The period of his life between the ages of 22 and 36 remains somewhat a mystery, however, the following note from Alan Toft, who often communicated with William Revington and Atha Maclean, sheds some light on William's life:

William Andrew Mackenzie Maclean was regarded as a charming gentleman if, perhaps, a little eccentric – according to his son. He was the youngest son(4) of Rorie of the Highlands. He was born in Scotland, emigrated to South Africa, where he met his wife and where his two eldest sons were born (William and Rod) – Kenneth was born in Winnipeg. He fought in the Boer War and moved to Canada under medical advice. He was apprenticed in the shipping trade in Glasgow and sent to South Africa by his employer, John Hacks. In Canada he was the manager of the plant department at Ashdown's hardware store in Winnipeg.

William and Mary Rogers Smallman were married on 27 April 1905 in Somerset East, South Africa when he was 36 years of age and she was about 31. Their marriage certificate lists William's occupation as 'storekeeper' from Pretoria, Transvaal.

Mary gave birth to their first son, William Revington, in Pretoria on 10 February 1906. And on 8 May 1907, Mary gave birth to their second son, Roderick, in East London, South Africa.

On 17 February 1908, William and his wife Mary and their two sons, boarded the Union Castle steamship S. S. Saxon in East London, South Africa and sailed to Southampton, England, arriving 29 February 1908.(5) Presumably they stayed and visited William's siblings, Roderick and Mary, and their families for about five months before proceeding to Canada. On 23 July 1908, the family of four boarded the S. S. Tunisian steamship in Liverpool and arrived in the Port of Québec on 31 July 1908.(6) Upon arriving in Canada, they proceeded to Winnipeg where Mary gave birth to her third child, Kenneth. Sadly, Mary died in Winnipeg at the young age of 38 in 1912 after contracting tuberculosis, just shortly after Kenneth was born. This left William alone with three very young children. He would have been 43 years of age at the time of Mary's death.

The following note is from Alan Toft, and shares some insights to Mary's life:

Her mother's family came out from Somerset, England as part of the Grahamstown Settlers of 1812. She emigrated, with her Scottish husband, whom set met in South Africa, and their family, to Canada in about 1912.(7) She never settled in Canada. She'd been used to a life with servants in South Africa and life in pre-Great War Winnipeg was harsh. In fact she died only shortly (2 days?) before her husband had planned to take her and their three children back to South Africa. When she became ill she went to stay with her brother, Claude Revington Smallman, who had a cottage at Winnipeg Beach. She died there, probably of a heart attack in about 1914.(8)

In January of 1915, two and a half years after Mary's passing and shortly after the start of the First World War, William, along with two of his sons, William and Rod, boarded the Allan Line steamship Pretorian in Saint John, New Brunswick and set sail for Liverpool, England.(9) They then proceeded to either Lincoln where William's older brother Roderick was living with his wife Caroline and children, or more probable, to Ealing Common in London, where his sister Mary was living with her husband, James MacBean, and children. William had taken his two sons, aged 8 and 7, to be under the care of his siblings in England and to attend school. The two boys attended and resided at Taplow Grammar School west of London in Buckinghamshire. Alan Toft has written the following:

After his mother died in 1913, Bill (and his brother Roderick) were educated in England at Taplow Grammar School in Buckinghamshire and Collingwood College near Lee in Kent. He remembers his father taking the two of them over to England shortly after the First World War broke out. Bill remembers them staying with the MacBeans at Ealing Common and then his father returning to Canada where the youngest son, Kenneth, had remained.

William had left his youngest son, Kenneth, in the care of his brother-in-law Claude (Mary Roger's brother) who lived in Selkirk, Manitoba. William then returned to Canada nine months later on the S. S. Carthaginian which departed Glasgow on 28 September 1915 and arrived at the Port of Québec on 9 October.(10)

As for the two boys, William and Roderick, they returned to Canada in 1920 after living in England for six years. They were just 14 and 13 years of age when they boarded the S. S. Grampian, which departed Southampton on 8 June and arrived in Montréal on 19 June. Spending eleven days at sea on your own at that young age would have been quite an adventure!

William Andrew never re-married and eventually moved to British Columbia, and lived for a time in Horsehoe Bay. During his time in Winnipeg he worked at a hardware store. He resided with William and Roderick and their families at different times in his latter years. He was moved to Shaughnessy Hospital in August 1951 and died 6-7 weeks later on October 15, 1951. He was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver on October 18.

Mary Rogers' father was Thomas Revington Smallman and her mother was Esther Trollip. The Trollip's were among the British 1820 settlers to South Africa. And her father, Thomas, an accountant, was born in 1821 in Tipperary, Ireland, and settled in South Africa. where he met his second wife, Esther Trollip. According to Thomas' death certificate, his first wife was named Mary Ann Fillingham (nee Collins) and they had one son together in Ireland named William. His second marriage to Esther produced three children: Claude Revington, Mary Rodgers, and Reginald Trollip.

The Trollips were a well known family among the 1820 settlers. Esther was the daughter of Jacob Trollip and Rebecca Rogers. Jacob and Rebecca married in 1833 at the ages of 17 and 25 respectively.

There is a tragic story regarding the death of Rebecca at the very young age of 19 in the summer of 1835 when Esther was just an infant, during the Sixth Kaffir War which took place that same year. Jacob Trollip had been working at his sister's and brother-in-law's farm, Rhoda Trollip and James Collett.(11) The story is recounted in the book Footprints in the Karoo:

Jacop Trollip, a mason, was working with James Lydford Collett on the farm and when James and his wife Rhoda were away one day natives attacked the house and came at Jacob with assegais.(12) His wife, Rebecca, intervened and was fatally injured, and their eighteen-month old baby daughter, Ester, was slightly wounded in the hip. James and Rhoda reared this child as one of the family.(13)

Another account of the story has been provided in a letter by Pat Short, which Alan Toft included in his notes:

The following is taken from the letter of Pat Short, quoting portions of the book by Doria Trollip Gordon:
'Jacob Trollip was born in 1808, baptised in Frome 7 May 1808, and died at Brak River, Cape Colony, 21 February 1859. He was a mason. He was married early in 1833... to Rebecca Rogers, born in Westbury, Wiltshire, in 1816, the daughter of Robert and Sarah Rogers. She met with tragedy. From the diary of James Lydford Collett (brother-in-law of Jacob): "I found to my extreme grief they (the Kaffirs) had severely stabbed Mrs. Jacob Trollip in the right side, who, with her husband, were living with me. It soon became evident her recovery was hopeless. She expired the following day." Quote from Mrs. Gordon's book: "The attack was made on 13.5.1835, and was intended for Jacob, not for Rebecca. She was at the time breast-feeding her daughter, Esther, who was 18 months old, when the natives attacked. Somehow she interposed herself and, instead of Jacob being killed when the Kaffirs threw their assegais, she received the wound through her right side, of which she died at Elephant Fountain (Collet's farm) 14.5.1835. The assegai also slightly wounded young Esther in the hip, but she survived, carrying the scar for the rest of her life." Esther was their only child. Jacob remarried (Margaret Auby) and had a son, William Josephè.'

Sadly, Rebecca's father, Robert Rogers, was also killed only five months previous to her death in December 1834, at Tyumie [sic] Mission, according to Southey.

Mary's son, William Revington, wrote the following note regarding his mother's family, the Smallmans and the Trollips:

Grahamstown Settlers, left England about 1812 with a General Graham, Methodists from Devon and Cornwall. My great grandmother was killed in one of the Zulu raids. The assegai pinned a baby by the foot but it killed my great grandmother. My grandmother was widowed, by the name of Trollip. She married the second time to a Smallman. The Smallmans and the Revingtons were very close in Dublin dealing in linen in London, Ontario, Canada. The Smallmans became very wealthy. My grandfather Smallman was high up in the Bank of South Africa. My name, William Revington Maclean, comes from this union.

Notes:

1. "W McLean was born about 1866. At the age of 27, he left England on April 13, 1893, and arrived in Cape Town, South Africa." Source: https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/28877969?h=07c81d

"Mr W McLean was born about 1866. At the age of 30, he left England on December 12, 1896, and arrived in Cape Town, South Africa." Source: https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/28877683?h=a16ddf

2. The second South African War broke out in 1899, resulting from a long-term struggle for supremacy in southern Africa between British colonies and the Boer republics of Transvaal and Orange Free State.

3. The Lovat Scouts was a British Army unit first formed during the Second Boer War as a Scottish Highland yeomanry regiment of the British Army.

4. He was the second youngest son; Donald was the youngest.

5. S. S. Saxon passenger list; arrived in the Southampton 29 February 1908.

6. S. S. Tunisian passenger list; arrived in the Port of Québec 31 July 1908.

7. They arrived in Canada 31 July 1908.

8. Mary died in 1912 from tuberculosis.

9. S. S. Pretorian passenger list; arrived in the Port of Liverpool 16 January 1915.

10. S. S. Carthaginian passenger list; arrived in the Port of Québec 9 October 1915. Oddly, William is listed on the manifest as being 60 years of age when in fact he was only 46. It also states that he had previously been in Canada from 1874 to 1914, a period of 40 years. These wildly inaccurate errors are either the result of a very careless ship's log keeper or perhaps William intentionally provided him with false information.

11. James Lydford Collett was married to Rhoda Ann Trollip, Jacob's older sister. There is a book about their life titled, A Time to Plant: Biography of James Lydford Collett, Settler, by Joan Collett, published in 1990.

12. An assegai is a pole weapon used for throwing, usually a light spear or javelin made up of a wooden handle and an iron tip. The use of various types of the assegai was widespread all over Africa and it was the most common weapon used before the introduction of firearms. The Zulu, Xhosa and other Nguni tribes of South Africa were renowned for their use of the assegai.

13. Footprints in the Karoo: A story of farming life, pages 132-133, by Joan Southey.