Quote Originally Posted by cajunscot View Post
The family was of the Irish Catholic gentry and Jacobites, but Sir William, being the politically pragmatic fellow he was, converted to Anglicanism and abandoned most of his family's pro-Stuart leanings.

T.
Blast it, with just one click I see you're right- the name was originally something like MacShane and Johnson was an anglicization. Another happy illusion destroyed by bothersome facts! I won't be telling this to people claiming them as Scottish ancestors- but I WILL try mention it to some British-hating Irish colonial descendants I know of.