![]() My birth-mother's Scottish maiden name is Munro, passed down to her from her father, John Brent Munro. His father Burton Munro of Novi, Michigan (1887-1963) was raised by his father James Leonard Munro (1849-1935). James as a young man moved to Novi from his father's farm, Bedent Baird Munro (1804-1871), in Bloomfield, Michigan. Bedent had come west earlier by way of London, Canada where his parents Solomon (1772-1845) and Sarah Baird Munro, lived. Solomon is said to be the son of Donald Munro (1738-1806) whose 1765 land grant from King George III, buoyed and carried along the stream of time, ended up in my hands. What does this document from 1765 reveal? Colin G. Calloway's The Scratch of a Pen describes Donald Munro's pre-revolutionary America as one of uncertainty. Despite the certitude of this piece of parchment emblazoned loudly with King George's name securing Donald Munro a patch of land for his service in the French and Indian War, Calloway describes a 1763 America as "a crowded and often confused stage." (Calloway, p. 17). To set this historical stage, just in a period of 30 years France would hand North American territories to Great Britain, transfer Louisiana Territory to Spain, Spain transfer Florida to Britain, and Britain recognize the former thirteen colonies as the Untied States. All this was done with Native Americans scrambling and securing their own future on a contested land they knew as home. As for Donald Munro's gifted land, Calloway confirms that the "British Government provided land grants for veterans, and many disbanded Scottish soldiers staying in America after the war." (Calloway, p. 58) These were given "on a graduated scale according to rank: 50 acres for privates, up to 5,000 acres for those holding the rank of major and above." (Calloway, p. 94) However despite this administered system, this profit "from the greatest land boom in history" was not based on free land (Benard Bailyn, p. 23). These were disputed lands that were occupied and identified with the Indians of the Six Nations. Donald Munro's land claim would be stitched and tethered to a mangled patchwork of speculative land claims most of which would be ultimately wiped-clean with the creation of the United States. It would be within this speculation of the future that Donald Munro laid his quantum of hope. It is perhaps remarkable for Donald Munro to have made it this far. If his past in the 77th Regiment of Foot was anything like what is described by historians, Donald Munro overcame quite the gauntlet to secure this uncertain future. The British army was "notorious for the brutality of its discipline even in a brutal age." (Calloway, p. 84) Specifically the 77th Regiment that Donald Munro served in, encamped on Staten Island at the end of the French and Indian War, had "an appalling causality rate" and suffered from a litany of health issues: "diphtheria, scarlet fever, dysentery, broken bones, rheumatism, venereal disease, wounds, coughs, chest pains and smallpox." (Calloway, p. 83) If Donald Munro is the same person that is linked to a Daniel Munro in stories circulating on Ancestry.com, Donald would eventually leave the former colonies a banished Tory, a loyal subject of England, finally settling in Nova Scotia, a place which was inflicted with its own "British initiated" diaspora of French Arcadians between 1755 and 1763 of which over 3,000 sought refuge in France. (Calloway, p. 161) In this sense, Donald Munro, an exile himself would make home on land of exiled people only affirming the fickle winds of fortune during this time, blowing indiscriminately on the landscape. If there is one constant in the story of the family Munro it would be not much like any other family story- one of trying to find and secure a home. More to come. SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
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John A. StempienJohn A. Stempien maintains the blog and website, Family Munro and is the co-editor of The Liberty Hyde Bailey Gardener's Companion. He lives in west Michigan with his family. Archives
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