Today we post some­thing from our more recent past — a let­ter from Robert Camp­bel­l’s North­ern Ire­land descen­dants.  On Jan­u­ary 29, 1927, Char­lotte Mac­Cul­loch, who lived at Ball­yarton, wrote to her cousin Albert Alexan­der Camp­bell in Belfast.  She talks about their shared search for fam­i­ly his­to­ry and explains why Augh­a­lane house were not just ordi­nary farm­ers: “There is no doubt in my mind that …….. right­ly or wrong­ly our “great” con­sid­ered him­self and must have been of some impor­tance. Augh­a­lane house is not built in the ordi­nary com­fort­able farm­house style but more like a house for ‘gen­try’.”  Char­lotte Mac­Cul­loch is the great-aunt of The Camp­bell Quest author Patrick Camp­bell Mac­Cul­loch!  The let­ter was tran­scribed by Frank Collins of the Ulster Amer­i­can Folk Park — the Folk Park gave Camp­bell House Muse­um tran­scrip­tions at the Euro­pean release of The Camp­bell Quest in August, 2009. We hope you enjoy the con­ver­sa­tion of some new­er Camp­bell fam­i­ly members!

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Jan­u­ary 29th 1927.

My Dear Albert.

I have almost decid­ed on our ances­tor!  Of the two papers which Mar­garet John­son sent, and of which I got copies typed you remem­ber, one was evi­dent­ly a writ­ten up one giv­ing no infor­ma­tion except for a peer­age.  The oth­er was an old and fad­ed writ­ing evi­dent­ly done by one of the fam­i­ly many years ago. It was head­ed “9th Earl” but of course gave no con­nec­tion with our branch. How­ev­er a let­ter from the Belfast New let­ter dat­ed May 30th (no year Giv­en) from some one in Brighton ask­ing for infor­ma­tion about the Tyrone Camp­bell fam­i­ly said that a Dun­can Camp­bell fam­i­ly of Inver­ary came to Lon­don­der­ry at the time of the Plan­ta­tion of Ulster by James 1st.

In your book a sec­ond son of the 9th Earl mar­ried twice and if his sec­ond family2 sons Niel and Alexan­der are unac­count­ed for. I think we take your name­sake Alexan­der for our grand sire! The ninth Earl had a son Charles which is only men­tioned as liv­ing in 1718. He also might be our lit­tle hope. Ellen says that some author­i­ty in the fam­i­ly told her that at our time there was only one or two lives between our ances­tors and the head­ship of the clan. Might not this Alexan­der son of a sec­ond son fit in with that?

There is no doubt in my mind that …….. right­ly or wrong­ly our “great” con­sid­ered him­self and must have been of some impor­tance. Augh­a­lane house is not built in the ordi­nary com­fort­able farm­house style but more like a house for “gen­try”. Also that will of his mak­ing his prop­er­ty (but he didn’t suc­ceed) not be sold by any of his sons except to each oth­er was not like the ordi­nary farm­ers wil.  Also he brought Glen­cap­pagh two years after he built that house which shows there must have been some money.

I am send­ing a …. fam­i­ly “tree” but would like to con­nect up with “Alexander’s”

Please let me know- and you won’t offend me by so doing- if I am keep­ing your books too long. I’d like to com­pare the plate with it and also show it to Dean King, but nether thing is impor­tant if I’ve tres­pass­ing on your good nature in lend­ing me the book.

We got two copies of Mr Logan’s book, one for Albert…….. at Christ­mas, and one for Ellen’s birth­day in Jan­u­ary. She says it is very inter­est­ing, I mean the “School Howlers”. We  shall get it lat­er I hadn’t time to read it before it went away.

Love from all here

Yours ever Affectly

Char­lotte.