1. LACHLAND McGILLIVRAY b. 1726, Inverness, Scotland, m. SEHOY, a Tuskegee IndianLackland McGillivray came from Inverness Scotland and arrived in the America's
January 10, 1736 at Tybee Roads at Savannah Georgia. He came as a servant of Joseph
Machintosh and was sixteen years old. Lackland fell in with some traders in Carolina
and went to Coweta with them. They paid him with a pocket knife, and he traded his
knife to the Indians for some skins. From there he began his life as a trader. In
1742 Lackland was an interpreter for James Bullock. He left the Carolinas in 1744
and set up a trading house at the Hickory Ground (Ochaiapofa) in the Upper Creek
nation. He took for his wife the daughter of a Tuskeegee Creek woman of the Wind
Clan.
Picket, in his History of Alabama, says that Lacklands wife was the half breed
daughter of the French Commander at Fort Toulouse by the name of Marchand. In none
of the records of the French, British, or American do they give anyone by that name
as ever being there. The first person to be in command of the French in the Creek
nation was Phillip de Hautmesnil de Marigney de Mandeville. He was put in charge of
the troops that went to the forks of the Alabama and Coosa Rivers to build Fort
Toulouse. LaBlond de Latour was commissioned to do the building. In 1717, when the
fort was compleated, he was given command.
Picket also says that when the Swiss garrison and the Indians mutined in 1722
that this Marchand was killed. The word Marchand translates to Trader. It is most
probably, for this reason, that when the Indians told the story to Picket he was
missled to believe that Marchand meant the commander of the fort, when in reality
they were refering to the Commander of the Traders. In 1722 LaTour was in New
Orleans. The French records do not show the command changing from 1717 until 1727
when the command was given to a Marchand de Courtel, the Trader of Courtel.
Picket says that Lackland's wife, Sehoy, was 16 when he took her to wife. It
cannot be true. The Frenchman was killed in 1722, and Lackland did not come to the
nation until 1742. At that time, if she really was the daughter of the said
Frenchman, she would have been at least 20 years of age.
Lackland was for many years to have English influence on the Creek nation, and
became a wealthy trader and large land holder in Georgia. When the Revolution began
Lackland chose to remain loyal to the British, and gave aid to them. The American
government in Georgia banned him, and he was never to return. When the British were
defeated the Americans confiscated all of Lackland's land. In 1783, not wanting to
give up his British citizenship, Lackland returned to his home land.
Jennette, the younger daughter, married LeClerc Milfort. He was a Frenchman,
and when he returned to France she went with him. Sophia, the oldest of Lackland's
children, married Bemjamin Durant and mothered 12 children.
Alexander was born in 1759, and was the second child of Lackland and the third
of Sehoy that is recorded. In 1773, at the age of 14, he was sent to Charleston to
be educated. From there he went to Savannah and worked in the accounting house of
Samuel Elbert. Some time in early 1777 Alex was given a British commission and sent
back to the nation. The British, knowing of his Wind Clan heritage, sent him to
stabilize the Indians and hold them in the English interest. Because he was the
leading man in line for the chieftainship, in 1783 he became the leader of the
entire nation, and set up the first form of national government ever. (In the book
"Indian Traders of the Southeastern Spanish Borderlands p,24n, it is stated that
Alexander was born Dec.15,1750.)
Alex had three wives and fathered four children. One of his wives was Vicey
Cornell. His child by Vicey was named Peggy, who married Charles Cornell, her second
cousin. Alex daughter, Elizabeth, married Chief Capt. Isaacs of Coosada. In 1813 the
hostiles killed him and their son. Another daughter was named Margaret.
McGillivray's son, Alex Jr., went to Scotland and lived with his grandfather,
Lackland.
John W. Caughey, "McGillivray of the Creeks" says that Jacob Moniac was Alex
father-in-law. It is likly that Elizabeth's mother was the daughter of Jacob. In
Hawkins, "Sketch if the Creek Country", 1797, it is stated that Vicey had one little
girl. This was Peggy. It is known that Vicey was Alex last wife. After his death
she married Zack McGirth and had five more children.
Alexander had no fighting ability, and lead but one war party in March of 1779
into Georgia. LeClerc Milfort says that when the fighting broke out Alex went and
hid in the bushes. It is stated that Alex drank heavily, and had a severe case of
the Gout and Siphillis.
Alex died 17 Feb. 1793 at the house of William Panton in Pensacola. He was
buried with full Masonic honers in the city of Pensacola.