The 'Planter' Cup 1799

The 'Planter' Cup, the McClure Cup, was gifted to the safe-keeping of Irvine Burns Club in May 1979 by Mr F D McJannet. It links Irvine with a time of attacks on merchant ships, when every successful defence was rewarded with either or both of silver plate and cash. The engraving on the cup represents a naval engagement.

Capt. David McClure (b. 1768; older family spelling 'Maclure') was a native of Ayr, the son of the lawyer whose excessive claims against his tenants, such as Robert Burns' father at Lochlie, caused much litigation. In 1799, his American ship, the "Planter", was attacked by a privateer, a privately-owned armed vessel commissioned by the French government, during the undeclared war with France 1798-1800, to capture merchant shipping. Captain McClure successfully fought off the attackers - his account is in the link below - and a grateful Lloyds of London presented him with the one-gallon cup (along with a pair of one-quart cups and a ladle), hallmarked in London in 1796. The inscription records the captain's name, the ship name, and the event date. For reasons which are still a mystery, the captain's name on the Lloyd's list, in the "Times" report, in the "Naval Chronicle 1799", and subsequently in the "History of the Liverpool Privateers" (1897), The Dictionary of American Fighting Ships and a Wikipedia entry, is given as John Watts (after whom a 20th c. US destroyer was named) - why is David Maclure praised on the cup and John Watts in those sources?

The cups passed to his spinster sister Anne Maclure of New Harmony(*), Indiana, who, in 1841, sent them back across the Atlantic to her nephew William McJannet (1806-1891, son of Anne's sister Jane and James McJannet), later to be our 1845 Club President. A banker of the British Linen Co., he resided at Longford, the home farm, managed by his father James McJannet (d.1839), of the Eglinton estate; his aunt Helen lived in Ayr and was blind. Two days after the cups reached Irvine, William's second son was born, so the new arrival was named William David Maclure McJannet "in memory of your generous brother and my brave uncle" and later christened out of the cup. The cup then passed to him (1841-1926), a solicitor, our Club President in 1870, then purchased from him by his brother Archibald Crawford McJannet (1845-1922), also a solicitor, our Club President in 1878. It then passed to his son Arnold Franz McJannet (whose mother was German) (1876-1953), a solicitor, our Club President in 1929 and the author of "The Royal Burgh of Irvine" (1938). On his death it passed to his spinster cousin Mary McJannet. On her death in 1976, Douglas & Diane McJannet, having no issue of their own, so being the last of the line, and living in Suffolk, decided that the cup should be kept in the town where so many of the family had enjoyed its possession, and this was arranged through Irvine Burns Club Past President Dr J Montgomery. The two smaller cups passed to his brother William (1878-1952), whose widow unfortunately passed them to a silver dealer who melted them down. The whereabouts of the ladle is unknown. (A connection may exist between W D M McJannet's second wife Jessie Goudie and the 1866 Club President James Goudie, but that has not (yet) been investigated.)

We are indebted to Rhona Munro, and her Canadian cousin Andree Rinella (née Stevens), both great-great-grand-daughters of William McJannet (nephew of the captain), who visited 'Wellwood' to view and hold the cup in 2013. They supplied a copy of the full account of the action, and we were able to supply them with a copy of a helpful (but with some inaccuracies) family letter of 1942 from A F McJannet in Irvine to his cousin C V Stevens, the grandfather of our visitors, in Glasgow. Their visit prompted us to document this incredible story of the privateer attack, of the cup's travels, and of the puzzling elements in the story.

The first puzzle is that exactly the same story of the 'Planter' action is credited to Captain John Watts, the ship's recorded captain when the ship proceeded to Dover. The second puzzle centres on Whitehaven, where the two lady passengers subsequently visited the parents of "William Aicken [sic] who was killed in the action", though the account does not include him as dead or wounded; the ladies had helped all they could, but he had expired after requesting them to tell his parents that "he died in a good cause". The third puzzle concerns when the latter part of the letter, detailing the rewards, was written - nowadays, five days would not be long enough for the ship to dock and for the underwriters to inscribe and send the cup, though perhaps, in those heady days of many such actions, the reward may have been quickly organised.

(We regret that the image does not currently appear when viewed on a mobile phone.)

* Footnote: David McClure's brother William (1763-1840), visited New York in 1782, made his fortune in London, and emigrated to USA in 1796. He has a Wikipedia entry as the 'father of American geology' and as a social experimenter on new types of community life; in 1824 he collaborated with British social reformer Robert Owen in the development of the community of New Harmony. Perhaps his emigration prompted that of his brother David and sister Anne. None seem to have had issue, prompting Anne to send the cup to the family in Scotland.