Beall / Bell / M'Bell
In Scotland the name Bell
is the English equivalent of Mhaoil - the genitive form of
Maol
("bald" in modern Gaelic, but originally "shaven-headed"
and thus "tonsured") - which forms the
stem of the two Gaelic forms of the surname MacMillan: Mac-Mhaol-ain
and Mac-Ghille-Mhaoil.
This is because the Gaelic "mh" - the aspirated form of the
letter "m" - is pronounced like the English "v";
as is the aspirated form of the letter "b". So MiIl / Mell /
Maol / Mhaoil =Vaoil = Bhaoil / Baol / Bell / Bile
and the proof of what seems to the modern English speaker a rather
incredible nominal transmogrification
can be found in the second oldest genealogy of
the MacMillans where the clan's eponymous,
whose Gaelic nickname was Gille-maol, appears as Gili-bile.
The gill of the
name M'gill is another version of the same,
and at least one example can be found of the equivalent
form McBell (Malcolm, Daniel and Alexander Bell appear on a tax
list for 1795 in Richmond Co., North Carolina).
America also retains examples of the old Scottish spelling Beall,
most notably in a prominent family from Fifeshire
who were early owners of parts of Georgetown, in what is now the city of
Washington DC.
In Scotland the name Bell can be traced back to the 13th century in the diocese of Dunkeld, where Cormac, the father of Gilchrist Maolan / Gillemaol, had been bishop between 1116 and 1132. A Master David Bell was a canon there in 1263, and Thomas de Perth, dictus Bell was an “Official” of the diocese in the same year. William Bell, Dean of Dunkeld in 1329 was actually elected Bishop of St.Andrews (the Primate of the Church of Scotland) in 1332, though his appointment was never ratified by the Pope due to English pressure at the papal curia. Another Thomas dictus Bell was a canon of Dunkeld in 1340. In the circumstances it seems extremely probable that these religious “Bells” were in fact all MacMillans. While most Bells north of the Highland Line may be MacMillans, those further south - particularly in the Borders - claim to be a separate clan. It seems likely however that some at least of those in Galloway - who lived adjacent to the MacMillan lands - may also have been MacMillans, since the earliest Bell on record there is one Gilbert fitz Bel, which is the Norman-French equivalent of Gilbert mac Mhaoil; and the earliest recorded MacMillan in Galloway, who was a contemporary of this “Bell”, was also called Gilbert (for the implications of which see below the "Border Bells").
THE
INVERARY BELLS
Tradition records that one of the MacGilbiles/MacGilveils in
Lochaber left there and settled in Argyllshire near the head of Loch Fyne,
at a place called Badokennan. His descendants colonised the nearby Glens
Shira and Aray, and the records of Inverary parish are rich in references
to the Clann ‘ic ‘illemhaoil under a variety of
spellings. The tenants of Drimfern in Glen Aray appear in the Register of
Inventories in 1690 as McIlveill, while their neighbours at
Tullich can be found in the Hearth Tax records of 1694 as McIlvoyle.
Both families are recorded in the Old Parish Registers (from their start
in the 1680s) as McIlvoils, along with many others so named; and
many MacMillans too; a distinction being traditionally kept in the area
between the MacGhillemhaoils from Lochaber, and the MacMhaolains from
Knapdale and Kintyre. 
The
Old Parish Registers indicate a remarkable fading of this hitherto
flourishing clan in the 1700s; which after two entries in the 1760s,
disappears altogether. Even the most ruthless clearances of the next
century failed to achieve so complete a wiping out of an ancient tribe.
The records also reveal, however, an equally extraordinary blooming of
Bells at exactly the same time; a name hitherto unknown in this Parish
Register. The explanation is not far to find. The first of these Bell
entries is the baptism in 1743 of a daughter Mary to Archibald and
Christian Bell - a couple whose marriage can be found fourteen years
before under the name of Mcllvoile. Other Bell families of the
1760s also appear in these registers in the 1750s bearing the ancient
Gaelic form of MacMillan. The sudden nature of the name-change indicates
an arbitrary decision by the Minister or Session Clerk to do away with the
old Gaelic name in the church records. The above evidence suggests,
however, that this new name was by no means as alien to the old one as
others that were "Englished"; such as MacDhunnshleibhe (more
usually found as MacLeay), which became Livingstone. In neither case was
this likely to have been of much concern to the contemporary clan members
so re-christened, as Highlanders did not normally use surnames in the
mid-eighteenth century. The most concrete evidence of these Bells'
connection with Clan MacMillan is to be found in the burial ground at
Inverary. Among the many Bell gravestones there is one - pictured left -
commemorating Angus and his wife Ann Munro, farmers at Tullich. At the top
of this handsome monument, erected in 1897 when Angus died in the 96th
year of his age, the family have engraved their ancient clan name MAC
ILLEMHAOIL.
THE REVEREND SOMERLED'S
MACMILLAN-BELLS
The clan's historian, the Reverend Somerled
MacMillan, makes a reference in the Bell section of his book "The
MacMillans and their Septs" to distant cousins of his in Oban who
were called Bell rather than MacMillan. In researching Somerled's family
one discovers that the Bell connection was a lot closer to the late clan
historian than he perhaps realised; he, no doubt knowing his own descent
so well, probably never bothered to look at the records regarding his
immediate ancestors. Somerled's great-great-grandfather Donald, as a
MacMillan living in the late 1700s on the borders of Lochaber, would
probably have called himself - in so far as he ever used a surname - Mac'illemhaoil.
The two children of Donald that we know of - Dugald and John - are both
recorded in Oban in the mid 19th century with the name Bell; having been
born, according to the census record, on the nearby island of Lismore.
John's descendants continued to be called Bell, and are the cousins in
Oban to whom Somerled MacMillan refers in his book. Dugald's first two
children however, who were born in Torosay on the island of Mull, were
baptised there with the name McMillan; though back in Oban his younger son
Donald was registered as a Bell. We don't unfortunately have a record of
the surname with which his fourth son John was baptised - Somerled
MacMillan's grandfather - but we do know that he was married in Oban in
1872 as a Bell; five years before Dugald himself died there, also as a
Bell. When John emigrated to Glasgow, however, he preferred to be known by
the name of MacMillan; presumably because he realised that his true clan
identity would not be understood under the name Bell, as it would be back
in Oban and Lismore. Somerled's father was, therefore, christened Samuel
McMillan in 1880, as was Somerled himself in 1909 (he later preferring to
use the Gaelic form of his christian name). The final twist in this
septname saga - so far discovered anyway - is that one of Somerled's
uncles was married in the Lowlands in 1920 under the name of Bell, though
the indexes enter him as McMillan (of which name there is not a trace on
the certificate).
An appreciation of Reverend Somerled MacMillan's family history is important because his own brief references to it have been erroneously used by some Bells in America to suggest that Somerled was always a Bell and never really a MacMillan; and indeed that no Bells were ever MacMillans! A proper understanding of the use of, or more to the point the non-use of, surnames in the Gaidhealtachd might suggest quite the contrary conclusion: that in fact all Bells are really M'millans. Such a simplistic claim would, however, be equally absurd, given the mystery that still surrounds those early Bells whose modern descendants - while admitting a lack of evidence to prove anything about their ancestors' origins - so vehemently denounce what they call "the MacMillan-Bell myth". A considered approach to the whole question of what a clan is and how it evolves might allow a more acceptable light to be shed by a M'millan historian upon the origins of at least some of these "Border Bells".
THE
"BORDER BELLS"
The recognition of the likelihood that many of the southern Bells may
also have been in origin M'millans (as suggested by the record of the 14th
century Gilbert fitz Bel) would not in any way harm the Border
Bells' claim to have become a separate clan - as they do indeed appear in
the royal records of the sixteenth century - any more than the universal
acceptance of the MacAlisters' descent from the MacDonalds derogates from
their recognition as a clan in their own right. All modern clans evolved
from earlier clans - the Clann an Mhaoil (the MacMillans) from the Clans
Cormaic and Aibertaich (from whom come the surnames MacCormack and
MacAverty) and Clan Donald (the MacDonalds) from Clann Somerhairle
(surname, MacSorley) - and the same process of surname evolution/choice
would have happened in the middle ages in the then Gaelic speaking
Southern Uplands of Scotland as in the Highlands. This is not to deny that
some "Border Bells" may have come from England - and
would therefore have had nothing to do with the MacMillans - but a French
origin for any Scottish Bells looks extremely dubious. It is clear, for
instance, that the patronymic appelation "fitz", which appears
in English records relating to Dumfries and Galloway in the fourteenth
century, is simply the Norman-French version of the Gaelic patronymic "mac";
and no more indicates a French origin for the fitz Bells than it
does for their contemporaries the fitz Canes, who are
simultaneously to be found recorded as McKans.
Bells who can prove that their ancestors came from the Borders, and
particularly from the Middlebie and Kirkconnel areas of Dumfries-shire,
should indeed look to the successors of the Bells of Blackethouse as their
chiefs; but in doing so might care to distance themselves from the
insulting claims put forward by some leading figures in The Bell
Family Association of the United States that Bells who accept a
connection between their own name and that of MacMillan have been fooled
and are perpetuating a myth. The truth has long been clear in the
Highlands of Scotland, as it is to genealogists and Gaelic scholars
throughout the home country today, whatever may be thought in California.
Fortunately the many Border Bells elsewhere in the world who accept their
name's ancient connection with the MacMillans will find a happy home in
the Clan Bell Society Scotland; for which see
www.clanbell.co.uk