Mccalmont, Thomas I

He became a Covenanter (Scottish Presbyterian) preacher and left his homeland in or around 1667 because of the religious persecution and crossed the few miles of sea to Ireland in a fishing boat.

From ." "Memoranda made the 29th of April 1883 by George Byreh McCalmont of the City of Bradford, County of McKean, State of Pennsylvania, from information received from John S. McCalmont of Franklin, Pa., John B. McCalmont of Altona, Knox Co., Ill., and Janet R. McCalmont of Bellefont, Pa.", and from information contained in a memoranda made in the year 1885*, by Rev. Thomas McCalmont of Highfield, Southhampton, England, a copy of which was sent by his widow, Emily G. McCalmont, who still resides at Highfield:

"Thomas McCalmont was a native of Western Scotland. He was a covenanter preacher and escaped from Scotland in a fishing boat about the years 1666 or 1668 to avoid persecution on account of his religious convictions, under the reign of Charles the Second. He settled on a farm in the Parish of Cairncastle being the name of a parish in western Scotland in which there was a remarkable cavern called Cresoplin which was one of the retreats of the Covenanters in the days of persecution in the reign of Charles the Second from 1660 to 1680.
There is a branch of the family now living in the neighborhood of Oben in Argylshire, Scotland. This family has a tradition of some of its members having emigrated to Ireland more than two hundred years ago. One of this Highland family, who is curious in matters of genealogy, thinks he has identified his family with that of Buchanan and refers those whom it may concern for information on the subject to an old book published in Glasgow entitled "The History of the Ancient Sur-names, Particularly the Clans" by Wm. Buchanan of Auchur 1792. This Highland gentleman of Oben, Scotland, thinks he has traced connections or branches of his family to Holland, Switzerland, and America.
Thomas McCalmont, the Covenanter preacher, has three sons: John, James, and my great-grandfather Thomas, all Covenanters. John held a farm called Clarkstown in the Parish of Cairncastle, County Antrim, Ireland, and some of his descendants are still living in the North of Ireland or were in the year 1855. One of them named Hugh went to the West Indies where he was drown. The inscription on John's old Bible is "John McCalmont, his book. God give him the grace therein to look. Born the first day of March 1709." James, son of Thomas the Covenanter preacher, I know nothing more of."