THE McKAY name is well known in the Nambucca area, perhaps mostly for being one of the two "Macks", the other being McNally, for which Macksville was named.
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This article is not only about the history of the McKays because it has arisen from recent workshops with Museums and Galleries of NSW held at the Nambucca Headland Museum.
The focus of one of the workshops was on recognising items of local significance in our museum. The Blackthorn Cane was one of the first suggested.
The cane itself is known as a shillelagh (pronounced shi-lay-lee) which is associated with Ireland and Irish folklore.
They are traditionally made from blackthorn wood due to it being less prone to cracking. The wood was smeared with butter or lard and placed up a chimney to cure, giving the shillelagh its typical black shiny appearance.
Sometimes shillelaghs were hollowed at the heavy "hitting" end and filled with molten lead to increase the weight. They were originally used for settling disputes in a gentlemanly manner. The manner being as an alternative to pistols.
The cane's history is intertwined with that of Angus McKay. He was born at Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands in 1795.
In 1815 he joined the 78th Regiment of Foot and was dispatched to present day Belgium to join the Duke of Wellington's troops as they battled the French under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte.
If he and the accompanying Scotsmen were lusting to fight against the notorious commander they were to be disappointed. As they approached the plain of Waterloo, the battle had already been won.
Angus was fortunate in missing the battle as it was one of the bloodiest in modern history.
During the fighting on June 18, French casualties totalled about 40,000, British and Dutch about 15,000 and Prussian about 7000.
At one point during the fighting about 45,000 men lay dead or wounded.
The custom of the day was that wives travelled with their husbands and Angus' wife, Jane, was no exception. Her presence is confirmed by the birth of their son Angus Junior at Ostend, a city on the Belgium coast, on December 4, 1816.
On return to home, Angus continued with his army service in Ireland.
The couple had two other surviving children before Jane died sometime around 1824. Angus then married Christina McKay.
Before returning to Scotland he was presented with the Blackthorn Cane around the time of his discharge from the army in 1826.
In the following years after Angus' discharge, life in the Scottish Highlands produced times of great famine and distress.
The Highland clearances occurred when clan chiefs converted open fields to sheep grazing and saw the collapse of many traditional industries. This forced families like the McKays to consider leaving, even though they saw it as a tragic exile.
When sponsored immigration to NSW was promoted, Angus and Christina with seven children and the Blackthorn Cane boarded the SS James Moran for the long dangerous voyage.
The ship in fact barely made it from its anchorage in Lochinver Bay as the Glasgow Herald of November 1838 reports, "It was driven from anchorage by the violence of the wind and narrowly escaped running ashore and being beat to pieces on the rocks".
The news report credited the passengers with "calmly devoting themselves to prayers and imploring the intervention of providence".
There were several other McKay families on board the James Moran and it is likely that some of them were related.
Records show Angus' occupation was that of joiner or carpenter and listed his age at 40 which, because he was actually 43, may have been lowered to qualify for immigration. The voyage took 113 days.
The tale of the McKay family progress from their arrival in Sydney to settlement at Bowraville is another story, but the Blackthorn Cane was a treasured part of their belongings.
Christina Sheridan, granddaughter of Angus and notable for reaching the age of 108 before her death in 1997, inherited the cane and donated it the museum.
This article was sourced from records of the Nambucca Headland Museum and the Bowraville Folk Museum.