ABSTRACT
John Ramsay McCulloch was born on March 1, 1789, at Whithorn, Wigtownshire, in that part of Scotland known as Galloway. 2 The family were the owners of a small estate called Auchengool near Kircudbright and of property in Kircudbright and Isle of Whithorn. 3 McCulloch's father William died only five years after his eldest son's birth 4 and his grandfather Edward not long after that. 5 McCulloch's mother was Sarah, daughter of the Rev. James Laing, Minister of Glasserton, 6 and the latter, though without legal authority, moved into the house in Whithorn where his widowed daughter and grandchildren were living, and took control of their legal affairs and possessions. His daughter had apparently married without his consent but this hardly explains the ill treatment which she and her two sons John Ramsay and Edward received, nor his attempted misappropriation of McCulloch's property, for both of which there is a fair amount of evidence. 7
