Benvan House, home of the Stewarts, is situated some 300 feet above sea level, overlooking Murlough Bay. It enjoys a magnificent view, not only of the Bay and Rathlin, but also of the Scottish Coast, from the Mull of Kintyre to Islay. On an exceptionally clear day, one can see the Paps of Jura, misty and blue, in the distance. Why the Stewart family left their native home in Scotland, over two hundred years ago, is an interesting and intriguing story. Many people, no doubt, will be familiar with the history of the Appin Murder, one of the most famous ‘murder mysteries’ in the annals of our times. Robert Louise Stevenson was fascinated by the story, and he immortalised it when he used it as the basis of his famous novel ‘Kidnapped’and its lesser known sequel ‘Catriona’.
Some seven years after the famous ‘Forty Five’ rebellion, Colin Campbell of Glenure, was murdered in Lettermore Wood in the Appin on 14th May 1752 by an unknown assassin. In the events that followed, Allan Breck Stewart was accused of committing the crime and his kinsman and guardian, James Stewart of Appin was arrested, charged and held for trial. He was tried at Inverary and although he pleaded not guilty, reiterating his innocence throughout, he was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. His execution took place on 8th November 1752 at Cnap a’Caolis in Appin, his body being kept on the gibbet, for all to see, from the day of his death until January 1755, when it was allowed to be removed for burial.
According to the Stewart family story, handed down from one generation to the next, the ill-fated James had a brother John, who it appears was at sea around the time of these occurrences in Appin. When he arrived home, it was to find that his brother had been hanged as a criminal, his estate confiscated and his family in disgrace. As there was little future for the Stewart family in Appin, he decided to take his family away from Scotland and to start a new life elsewhere. They travelled to Ireland via Arran Island and are said to have landed at Murlough.
Somehow the then Earl of Antrim heard of their plight and offered them sanctuary and as there may have been a vacancy at Benvan, which at that time was part of the McDonnell Estate, they found shelter there, as tenants of the McDonnell’s. The family liked the site of their new home as they could look out across the sea towards their beloved Scotland. It is to be remembered that in those days, there were many inhabitants in the area and there were resident tenants at Benvan who because of the hard times have since emigrated.
Among the members of the family that John Stewart brought with him, were two female relatives, possibly sisters, who retained their native Gaelic and who taught his grandson James, 1854-1950, their fluent Gaelic, when he was a boy. All the hills and hollows at Benvan have beautiful Gaelic names that are really rare. This James was the last Gaelic speaker in the District and many people visited him to hear him.
Most of the younger members of the family followed the tradition of the times and emigrated, although several stayed and married locally. James, however, went to sea and travelled extensively and eventually reached Australia where he visited his sister Rose, who had settled in Sydney and his brother Patrick who was Lord Mayor of Perth, away back in the 1880s. On his return to Sydney he married a girl from home, Mary Gillen, in St Mary’s Cathedral, and shortly after his marriage in 1895 they had to return home when the sad news of his brother Andrew’s death reached him. They voyaged back on a ship called the Bremen and settled into their new life at Benvan. They had two children Mary Elizabeth and Patrick James. Pat, as he was commonly known, died at the early age of 37, but his sister is still alive and resides at Murlough. James during his long and interesting life has left a lasting memorial of his work, as all the buildings around Benvan area fine example of his expertise as a stone mason.
Sadly, the last of the direct male line of the Stewarts has gone, but whilst there are people who keep alive the memory of those who have gone before them, then the history of the Stewarts and those like them, will not be allowed to be forgotten.