Several colleagues and I have traced the ancestry of Senator John
McCain in some detail. A newspaper reporter from Scotland telephoned to
ask about the Senator’s possible Scottish roots; the reporter wrote of
McCain’s male-line Scots-Irish heritage and of his descent from (St.)
David I, King of Scotland (died 1153). This last descent (and from
David’s grandson William the Lion, King of Scotland, died 1214) through
Mrs. Anne Coddington Fenner, an early eighteenth century immigrant to
North Carolina, is McCain’s best Scottish royal line. His best English
royal descent is from Edward I, King of England (died 1307), an ancestor
of Mrs. Fenner through the Waller, Hampden, Ferrers of Groby, de Verdun
and de Clare families. An ancestral uncle was the poet Edmund Waller
(born 1606, died 1687), and an ancestral first cousin was English
Parliamentary leader John Hampden (born about 1595, died 1643). McCain’s
best French royal descent is from Louis VII, King of France (died
1180), and his best Spanish royal descent is from (St.)
Ferdinand/Fernando III, King of Castile (died 1252).
Senator
McCain’s immediate ancestry, as traced to date, is very largely
Southern. He was born in the Panama Canal Zone; his parents were born in
Iowa and Oklahoma. His grandparents were natives of Mississippi,
Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas. Earlier forebears were born or died in
Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia. One
great-grandmother, Mrs. Margaret Garside Vaulx (mother of Mrs. John
Sidney McCain, Jr.), was baptized March 4, 1849 at St. Michael’s Church,
Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, England. The Senator’s male-line
immigrant ancestor was a Scots-Irish Hugh McCain who came to Caswell
County, N.C., about 1778 (Hugh’s son Joseph McCain had a son William
Alexander McCain, father of the first John Sidney McCain). Not
surprisingly, since they are both Southern, McCain and First Lady Laura
Bush appear to have ancestors in common. To date no connection has been
found between McCain and the Southern ancestors of Senator Barack Obama.
Research by several genealogists continues.
Gary Boyd Roberts
Ancestors
William the Lion, King of Scots
(St.) David I, King
of Scosts
Edward I, King of England
Louis VII, King of France
(St.)
Ferdinand III, King of Castile
Plus earlier forebears Eleanor of
Aquitaine, William the Conqueror, Charlemagne, and various early German
Holy Roman Emperors
Notable Kin:
First Lady Laura Welch Bush
English
poet Edmund Waller
English Parliamentary leader John Hampden