APPENDIX A
In Mrs. Eddy's autobiography, Retrospection and Introspection, she gives the following story of her ancestry:
My ancestors, according to the flesh, were from both Scotland and England, my great-grandfather on my father's side being John McNeil of Edinburgh. His wife, my great-grandmother, was Marion Moor, and her family is said to have been in some way related to Hannah More, the pious and popular authoress of a century ago. John and Marion Moor McNeil had a daughter who perpetuated her mother's name. This second Marion McNeil was married to an Englishman named Joseph Baker, and so became my paternal grandmother. Joseph Baker and his wife, Marion McNeil, came to America seeking freedom to worship God, though they could scarcely have crossed the Atlantic more than a score of years prior to the Revolutionary period. A relative of my grandfather Baker was General Henry Knox, of Revolutionary fame. In the line of my grandmother Baker's family was the late Sir John McNeil, a Scotch knight who was prominent in British politics and at one time held the position of ambassador to Persia.
The statements made by Mrs. Eddy concerning her connection with the McNeil family of Scotland having been published in a way that brought them to the attention of that family in Scotland, drew a denial from the granddaughter of the real Sir John MacNeill. In the Ladies' Home Journal for November, 1903, there appeared an article entitled "Mrs. Eddy as She Really Is," introduced by an editorial note which stated: "The writing of this article and the making of illustrations on the opposite page were done with the special permission of Mrs. Eddy, and both pages having been seen by her in proof, received her full approval." In the course of this article, it is said: "Among Mrs. Eddy's ancestors was Sir John McNeill, a Scotch knight prominent in British politics, and ambassador to Persia. Her great-grandfather was the Right Honourable Sir John McNeill of Edinburgh, Scotland. Mrs. Eddy is the only survivor of her father's family, which bore the coat-of-arms of the ancient McNeills. The motto is Vincere aut mori (conquer or die). Surrounding the shield and enclosed in a heavy wreath is the motto of the Order of the Bath, tria juncta in uno (three joined in one)." Soon after this was published it was challenged by a granddaughter of Sir John MacNeill, Mrs. Florence Macalister of Aberdeen, Scotland, who wrote to Mrs. Eddy correcting her statement, and caused a correction to be published in London Truth. She says:
I am the only married grandchild of the late Right Honourable Sir John MacNeill, G.C.B., of Edinburgh, "who was prominent in British politics and Ambassador to Persia," and Mrs. Eddy is certainly not my daughter.
My mother, Margaret Ferooza MacNeill, was the only child of his who reached maturity, though he was three times married; she married my father, Duncan Stewart, R.N., now captain, retired, and died in 1871. Of her six children, one died unmarried, three years ago; five survive, of whom four are unmarried.
I am the wife of Commander N. G. Macalister, R.N., who is at present inspecting officer of coast guard for Aberdeen division.
I wrote to the editor of the Ladies' Home Journal who published Mrs. Eddy's statement, asking him to publish a correction, and I sent a copy of the letter to Mrs. Eddy herself. She did not reply at all, and he excused himself from publishing it on the ground that the correction could not appear for five months.
In March, 1904, after the publication of Mrs. Macalister's correction had been copied widely in American papers, Mrs. Eddy caused a paragraph to be inserted in the Christian Science Sentinel, saying that writers of her genealogy had been accustomed to connect her with the Sir John MacNeill family, and it was supposed she had a right to use the MacNeill coat-of-arms. She notified genealogical writers not to do so thereafter. Mrs. Eddy, however, continues to use the MacNeill coat-of-arms, which is engraved upon her stationery and impressed upon her seal. She defended her continued use of the coat-of-arms in a widely-published statement, issued in January, 1907, as follows:
The facts regarding the McNeill coat-of-arms are as follows: Fannie McNeill, President Pierce's niece, afterward Mrs. Judge Potter, presented to me my coat-of-arms, saying that it was taken in connection with her own family coat-of-arms. I never doubted the veracity of the gift.
Mrs. Macalister, in a recent letter, writes: “I have been amused to find that Mrs. Eddy still uses my grandfather's coat-of-arms on her notepaper, including the motto of the Bath, which even his son, had he left one, would have had no right to use, as the G.C.B. was for life only.”