Rev. Joseph Kalloch, First President
Kalloch Reunion Association
(Served 1867-1884)
 

Introducing the Kalloch Family

For a thousand years Scotland was the home of the MacKellochs, forerunners of the Kalloch and Killough families.

Related to the MacDonalds, generally by blood and often for purposes of common defense, were a number of families, frequently referred to as "septs."  One such family was the MacKelloch family, inhabitants of the old kingdom of Dalriada.  The MacKellochs were a mainland family and the name itself identifies the origin as a church lake in the Loch Linnhe region.  There were many spellings of the name, including "MacKellaigh" and "MacKellaig;" however, all lived in West Central Scotland and all owed allegiance to the MacDonalds.  In some instances in West Scotland the prefix "Mac" was dropped and thus the family in Inverness was called "Kellough" and in Argyll became the "Kelloch" family.

The MacDonalds maintained several churches on their lands.  Usually these kirks were located on "holy ground;" that is, on sites that had a religious significance generally dating from pagan times.  The records show that the MacKellochs were hereditary guardians of an ecclesiastical structure in the MacDonald domain and the surrounding estate.  The word Killough, not surprisingly means "Church by the Lake".

Without much doubt, before 1600 A. D. the Killoughs went by the original name, MacKelloch, and after their migration to Ulster changed the spelling to conform to the local usage and became "Killoughs."

Our first known direct ancestor was John Killough.  He came from the island of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.  Circa 1580 or 1590 he was with a unit of mounted Scots mercenaries in France.  His son John II, known as John of Drogheda, joined a regiment of heavy horse in Ulster and in 1649 served with Cromwell's New Model Army.

By about 1660, John II and his wife Mary (Hyde) Killough, with son John III settled in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.  John III married Anne McNeil and they had three sons, Robert (b. 1681), John IV (b. 1689), and James (b. 1692).  Son James stayed in County Antrim, and Robert and John IV came to America.

Robert with wife Margaret (Finley) Killough and their sons Allen, Finley and John, and John IV with wife Jean (Young) Killough, came in the ship "William" from County Antrim, Northern Ireland to Boston in 1718.  From Boston they journeyed to Freetown (now Assonet), Mass., near Worcester. 

The English Congregationalist living there did not welcome the influx of Scots Presbyterians.  John IV however, determined to make the best of the situation decided to stay, and his sons Samuel and John were born there.  After a few years John IV joined fellow Presbyterians on the migration to Pennsylvania where they were to find a better sort of religious toleration.  Robert and Margaret had another son David probably born at Worcester, but they soon moved to Portsmouth, N.H. where he set up a fish oil factory.  When this burned Robert and his family also went south to Pennsylvania.  Only their son Finley stayed in New England, a first settler in the Upper Settlement of St. Georges (now Warren), Maine.

Finley was only about 14 when his first child David was born in 1725.  This may explain why he came north in 1735 with his parents-in-law who settled across the St. George's River.  His wife Mary Young was 11 years his senior.  For several generations none of the Maine Kellochs named their children after Finley's father, Robert, making it likely a family dispute was associated with this move.

Of Finley and Mary's children, John and Matthew settled in what is now the town of St. George, Maine, David and Alexander in what is now Warren, Maine, Margaret Boyd in Boothbay, Maine and Mary Brown perhaps in Boston, Mass.

Our Name

Finley and his family were in Nova Scotia during King George's War in 1745 when New England forces, supported by the British Navy took over the fort from French troops.  He stayed there for some time to help garrison the fort.  Around this time Finley re-adopted the Scottish spelling "Kelloch" for our name.  Finley's parents, siblings, and his uncle John and family who moved on to Pennsylvania kept the Irish spelling of the name "Killough".

Kelloch seems to be the preferred spelling of our name until after 1800.  Then we diversified.  Witness the old St. George Cemetery where in a radius of 30 feet you can find it spelled Kelloch, Kallock, Kalloch, Keller and Kellar.  Gravestones for husbands and wives spell it differently side by side in St. George and West Rockport.  Why?  Illiteracy, family disputes, whimsy?  We don't know.  Spell it as you like!  The Reunion spells it Kalloch probably out of esteem bordering on reverence for our first Family Reunion Association president, Rev. Joseph Kalloch.

Kalloch Family Reunion Association

We believe that our Reunion is the oldest in America.  When Eliza Butler came home from Indiana for a visit in 1866 her family gathered several times.  At one gathering it was suggested that it would be good to gather all the Kalloch clans on a regular basis, among them our founding twins, Nancy Wall and Rev. Joseph Kalloch.  The first Reunion was held 6/23/1867.

The 142nd annual Kalloch Family Reunion was held on August 15, 2009 in South Thomaston, Maine.  Our next reunion, the 143rd, will be held on the third Saturday of August 2010.
 

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Portions of the above text are from: Historical Background of The Killough Family, by Stephen P. Killough, and Introducing the Kalloch Family, by Peter T. Richardson, 1992.   Tartan at the left side of the page is the "Modern MacDonald Tartan" from the Clan Donald-USA website (used with permission).  

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