At the request of my sister, Cathy, I am going to write about some theories on where John Loggan, our American immigrant, might have come from. We know from records that he “was descended from a long line of Scotch barons deriving their name, Celtic in origin, from the ancestral home, Logan, in Ayrshire.” We also know from these same records that he was Scotch Presbyterian.
Source For Above: A National Register of the Society, Sons of the American Revolution, Volume 1 By Sons of the American Revolution, Louis Henry Cornish, Alonzo Howard Clark
Back in January of 2013, a gentleman emailed me and told me of a website called “clanlogansociety.com” and “electricscotland.com” which he was Vice President of. His name is James C. Logan. At the time we had no idea if we were related, but he gave me some information on some interesting Logan’s. Since then we have found that we share the same 3rd great-grandfather, Lemuel H. Logan. James has done extensive search on this line using records as well as DNA. There is a DNA project that uses numbers to distinguish families. Ours is #1034.
According to James, DNA links us, John Logan #1034, directly to the Gawn Logan family #1032 which suggests our Logan line immigrated from Scotland to Ireland, where they lived perhaps several generations before moving on to Connecticut.
They are no doubt closely related. With the differences in age, it could well be that Gawn is actually descended from John and the connection has not yet been identified. Alternatively, Gawn may descend from a brother or some other near relative of John.
John arrived in the Colony of Connecticut in about 1729 or so with enough wealth to purchase a farm. James thinks the funds came from his inheritance or possibly a sale of a land grant in the Ulster Plantation. DNA indicates that we are related to some Logan’s from Ayrshire, Scotland. He found a Walter Logane who left Ayrshire about 1610 for the Ulster Plantation and obtained a land grant in 1617. He thinks Walter may be John’s great-grandfather.
Ref. for below: Jonathan Bardon, The Plantation of Ulster, Gill Books, Dublin, 2012, ISBN 978 07171 5447 0, pp. 77. Perceval-Maxwell, M., The Scottish Migration to Ulster in the Reign of James I., Belfast, 1973, pp. 57.
“Sir Hugh Montgomery, 2nd Viscount Ards, received his land grant from King James I of England (James IV of Scotland) on the condition that he settle English and Scottish Protestants on their estates. Sir Hugh returned to Braidstane [in Ayrshire] during the winter of 1605/06 with the purpose of inducing his neighbors to join him. The surnames of the Scots who took letters of denization in 1617 include Catherwood, Boyle, Harper, Barkley, Moore, Hunter, Thompson, Logan, Crawford. Agnew, Adair, Wilson, Williamson, Cunningham, Cathart, Maxwell, Allen Fraser, Aiken, McDowell, Harvy, Semple, Anderson, Kennedy, Martin, Speir and Montgomery.”
Ref. for below: Sir Hugh Montgomery, The Montgomery Manuscripts, (1603-1706), Archer & Sons, Belfast, 1869 (from the library of the University of Toronto), pp 5, 94, 117, 322.
“All the substantial persons – Persons of this class generally took out letters of denization soon after they came to Ireland. The following received such letters of denization in 1617, the majority of them having settled on Sir Hugh Montgomery’s estates, probably ten years prior to that date. Viz.” John Wyly of Ballyhay………………… Walter Logane of Proveston……………..Alexander Speire of Gray Abbey. – fm. Calendar of Pat. Rolls, James I, pp. 326339. ” (Interesting to note is that the name Wyly is one of the families with whom John came to Connecticut with.)
So, yes indeed, we are related to the Scottish Logan’s — and most probably to the Logan’s of Restalrig, as some of this family moved to Ayrshire after the last Baron of Restalrig (the 7th Baron) was deprived of his title and land holdings by a huge miscarriage of justice which can be read about here.
Read more about the Logan’s of Restalrig at
From James’ website, “During the reign of Robert the Bruce, the barony of Restalrig, on which the town of Leith is built, passed by marriage into possession of the Logans, and soon afterwards occurred the most heroic episode which stands to their name. Sir Robert and Sir Walter Logan were two of the knights who accompanied the Good Sir James of Douglas in his expedition to bury the heart of King Robert the Bruce in the Holy Sepulcher. On the plain of Granada, when the little body of Scottish knights found itself hemmed round by Moorish spears, and Douglas, throwing his master’s heart far into the press, rode after it and fell, Sir Walter and Sir Robert fell with him.”
You can read all of their researched articles on Restalrig at this link, Restalrig or the Logan’s at History of the Logan’s
Another interesting read is The Logan’s of Restalrig-Scot Clans
Click on each picture below for the description.
Again, genealogy is documenting with records from person to person. There is a huge gap of missing sources from our John Loggan b. 1699 to the 7th Baron of Restalrig, Sir Robert Logan b. 1555, but there are a lot of a remarkable concurrences of events happening here to suggest we are on the right track.
Loganalogy- The Family Historian 
3 thoughts on “Logan Theories- Restalrig, Scotland”