M’Donald, Daniel

Published: 01 Feb 2017
Updated: 03 Mar 2020
Researchers: Dr. Andrew Millard, Teresa Rust
Editor: Teresa Rust

Daniel M’Donald, #73 on George S. Stewart’s Captured at Dunbar list
Name variations: Macdannel, MacDonald, Mackdonell; Daniell
Resided: Woburn, Massachusetts

First Generation in the New World

1. DANIEL MCDONALD, was born in Scotland about 1626 and died in Massachusetts. He petitioned the court to be allowed to marry, SARA DAWS.¹

Biographical Notes:
1. IMPORTANT UPDATE! (July 2018)
According to Christopher Gerrard, Pam Graves, Andrew Millard, Richard Annis, and Anwen Caffell, Lost Lives, New Voices: Unlocking the Stories of the Scottish Soldiers at the Battle of Dunbar 1650, (England: Oxbow Books, 2018), on page 253, Daniel is categorized as: Possible [that he is a Dunbar prisoner transported on the Unity] MacDonald, Daniel. Residences: Woburn MA. Appears: 1656. B.c.1626. Testified in Oct 1656 that he “left his wife & two small children alive about seaven yeares & half since”. Stackpole & Rapaport identify him with the Daniel Mackennell of the John & Sara list, but this is not a close phonetic match and the implied date o [Exiles; DR; SPOWS; Ch.7 & 8] For explanations of the category, abbreviations and references see List of Dunbar prisoners from Lost Lives, New Voices

Find his descendants and researchers here.

SOURCES AND NOTES:
On 26 January 2017, Lili Pintea-Redd wrote, “One of my ancestors Daniel McDonnell (MacDonel, McConnell, MacConnell, etc) was one of these soldiers. He is also listed in some later New England legal records being charged as an indentured servant for fornication and getting 20 lashes –as was his partner Sarah Dawes .
Long Quote:
Investigation of the Middlesex County Court Records (ca. 1870 transcription at Massachusetts State Archives, Columbia Point; Thomas B. WYMAN, “Middlesex Co. Court Record Abstracts,” 2 Vols., MS at New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston) provides evidence that Mary MICRIST was Sarah DAWES’s illegitimate daughter born before her marriage to John CRAGGEN (Middlesex Co. Quarterly Court Recs., 1:113-14):

Court transcript;
[7October 1656] Daniel MACKDONELL and Sarah DAWES both serv[an]ts to Jno WIMAN of Woburne, being convicted before this Court of that great sin of fornicaccon by them comitted together, both parties acknowledged the fact, as more fully appeareth in their examinaccon w[hi]ch is on file with the Records of this Court. Also the said Sarah DAWES confesseth that shee is now quicke with Child. the Court ordereth that the said Daniell shallbe whipt with twenty stripes by the Constable of Cambridge, except he give security to the Tr[easur]er of this County, for the Paym[en]t of five pounds sterl[ing] before tomorrow seven of the clock in the morning, and that the said Sarah DAWES shall make her appearance at this next County Court at Cambridge. Jno WIMAN ingaged before the court to pay the said fine of five pounds in the behalf of his serv[an]t within six weeks in Wheate and Rie.

The reason that the couple did not marry is given in Daniel’s examination:
court record;
more over he confesseth th[a]t hee was a married man in Scotland…& has left his wife & two small children alive about seaven yeares & half since.

Daniel was then (1656) aged about thirty (WYMAN’s Abstracts, 1:57). On 30 1m [March] 1657, a writ was issued against Sarah DAWES (Wyman’s Abstracts, 1:64). She appeared in court on 7 April 1657 and was sentenced to twelve stripes but was reprieved when Francis KENDALL paid her fine of 40 shillings.

The same couple was again convicted of fornication on 3 October 1659. This time, Daniel was given the surname MECREST. (That Daniel MACDONELL and Daniel MECREST are identical is indicated by the fact that MECRIST was convicted of fornication a second time with Sarah DAWES; the fornication with Daniel MACKDONELL is Sarah’s only previous conviction on record.) The court record states starkly (Middlesex Co. Quarterly Court Recs., 1:191):
Daniel MEECREST Scotchman being convicted of comitting fornicaccon a 2d time with Sarah DAWES they are both sentenced to be openly whipt twenty stripes a peece.

Although the record of the second conviction is not explicit, it is probable that Sarah was pregnant again. If so, the Mary “MICRIST” who married Stephen FISH was probably the result of the second pregnancy, which would make her about twenty at marriage. During the editing of this article, David L. GREENE made me aware of the Benoni MACKREST who married Lydia FIFIELD on 12 September 1681 (David W. Hoyt, Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts, 3 vols. and supplement [Providence, R.I., 1897-1919], hereafter Hoyt’s Old Families, 1:235-36; the marriage is not in the pub. Salisbury VR). It seems quite possible that he was the child of the first pregnancy. Since he died in Salisbury on 7 August 1690 (VR, 584), his probable stepfather, John CRAGGEN, would have had no reason to mention him in his Will written fourteen years later.”

from web page:
http://www.jowest.net/genealogy/jo/sargent/horton.htm

I suspect there must be other Scottish Prisoners who are listed in the court records of the time.

Thanks for the great WEB site!
Sincerely,
Lili Pintea-Reed

1. Middlesex County, MA: Abstracts of Court Files, 1649–1675. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2003), (Unpublished abstracts by Thomas Bellows Wyman, “Abstract of Middlesex court files from 1649,” n.d.)
   https://www.americanancestors.org/DB432/i/12380/82/138349144 [↩]