Rhu kirkyard contains the graves of several McAuslands. This second article in the series looks at:

2. The mystery of Archibald McCaslan, tenant in Inverlauran and Janet McAuley

There some interesting entries in “Rhu Kirk Cemetery Monumental Inscriptions in Dumbartonshire by John Fowler Mitchell, C.I.E. and Sheila Mitchell (Scottish Genealogical Society, 1969)” to which Richard McAuley has added additional transcriptions made by him in 1989 and 1995; these are shown in brackets […].

“Archd McCaslan tenent in (Inverlauran) d July 17(4) ae 6- yrs; also Janet McAulay d Nov 17(8)2″
[the marker has initials “D McA” (on left side) and “K McA” (right side) of impaled arms but the heraldic devices are too eroded to distinguish but in the center of K McA’s arms illustrates three animals, one in fess, one in chief, and one in base, quite possibly boars for MacAuslan, but these are whole animals rather than merely the three boar’s heads cabossed or erased as are found in the Buchanan’s arms].“

Inverlauren, High Inverlauren, Low Inverlauren, Wester Inverlauren and Easter Inverlauren

Inverlauran was in Luss parish but was actually considerably closer to Rhu Church than Luss church which may explain why McAuslands from Inverlauran were buried at Rhu.

As can be seen from Charles Ross’ 1777 map, there were in fact two different places with the name of Inverlaran (also known as Inverlaurin, Inverlauren, Inverlarin, Innerlaran, Innerlarran etc). In some documents these are easily distinguished as Easter Inverlaran (1753-1774) and Wester Inverlaran (1699-1778), but others make reference to High Inverlaran (1701-1851), Low Inverlauren or simply Inverlaran (1691-1911).

Thanks to the National Library of Scotland’s OS 6 inch seamless maps assembled from maps published from 1843 to 1882 and the 25 inch map sheets XIII.14 and XIII.15 published in 1862, we can tell that to the west there was High or Wester Inverlauren, also known simply as Inverlauren, while to the east there was Easter or Low Inverlauren.

Who was Archibald McCaslan, tenant in Inverlauren?

The fact that Archibald McCaslin, tenant in Inverlauren and Janet McAuley had arms on their gravestone is fascinating as few tenant farmers would have matriculated arms. Unfortunately years of erosion have increased the difficulty of interpretating the arms and the dates on the stone.

The arms do not appear to resemble those matriculated by Major Robert McCasland of Newlandmuir or those of James McAuslane, esquire (above), both of which have a lion rampant.

Instead, from the description of the three boars, they appear to be more similar to McAusland arms of unknown origin offered for sale in shops and online (below). It is not known by whom or when the arms below were matriculated, but as there were only two grants of arms to McAuslands (or variants of the surname) between 1672 and 1921, it seems likely that these arms were either matriculated in Scotland before 1672 or pehaps in a different country, possibly Ireland.

As for Archibald McCaslin himself, no tenant of Inverlaran of that name has as yet been identified and exactly who he and his presumed relative Janet McAulay might be, remains, at least for the present, a mystery.