Notes:  Malcolm Fowler claimed outright in his book, They Passed This Way, that Scribbling Archie was the son of Laughlin and Margaret Johnstone McNeill of Scotland but offered no proof. I do not support Fowler's claim, and do not believe that Daniel of Taynish was Archie's father, there being no proof for that claim either. In researching Daniel of Taynish, I strongly feel it is more likely that Daniel of Taynish and Archibald Bahn McNeill were most likely brothers, sons of Neill McNeill of Taynish and his wife Marie Campbell.
     I do still question the order of Archie's sons' births if only because Laughlin and John (two of seven sons), figure so prominently in their father's legal initiatives around the time of the Revolution, a time when Archie's oldest children were coming of age. The two co-signed many deeds with Scribbling Archie and the two sons bought land together early on with the help of their father.
    "Archie Bahn" probably arrived in 1739 with the Argyll Colony. Archie was too young and being as yet unwed he did not head a family at that time, so he did not receive a grant in 1740. If Farquard Campbell, a baronet — nearly the same age as Archie, also unwed and a new arrival with the colonists — did not get a grant in 1740 it isn't likely Archie recieved one. Doubtless there were any number of able-bodied, unwed men their age in the colony in 1740 who did not measure to grant specifications. "Bluff Hector" McNeill was also of that age and it appears he, too, did not receive a grant. However, in 1741 it appears Archie may have purchased one, at the mouth of New Hope Creek above the forks of the Cape Fear River at the Haw and Deep Rivers and in his will in 1801, bequeathed it to his son Daniel in Nova Scotia.
    Fowler also stated that Archie got the nickname 'Scribbling' by possessing a character that was "insignificant, below standard, scrubby" and that he "liked to take life easy", a claim which in the light of more recent and intensive research by A.I.B. Stewart is possibly only partly accurate. It seems that "Scribbling", "Scrubblin", or whatever deviant the nickname takes, are colloquial pronunciations of Skeroblin, there having been a set of Skeroblin McNeills in Scotland (Skeroblingorry?). Even in his will Scribbling Archie mentions John Skeroblin McNeill, his son-in-law from Skeroblin, a farm in Scotland. Yet, a double intentre—Skeroblin morphing into something like Scribbling—would have proved a catchy joke by Archie's contemporaries. "Archibald Bahn" was a contemporary and more accurate moniker for him as it is said he was blond (Bahn meant blond and fair in Gaelic) as well as heavyset like the Bahn McNeills, while the Bluff McNeills were taller and less handsome.
    It is not known when exactly Scribbling Archie was born, though his tombstone states 1720, as does his wife Jennie's tombstone. However, a letter exists dated 1768 that states Jennie was "no' quite 40" that year, thus the date of her birth is accepted as about 1729. Their marriage took place, it is said, in 1748. The true birth order of their children is unknown; and though Daniel and Margaret's birth years are known, the general birth order of his sons seen below comes from Everett Kivette's detailed, and reliable, research. I, however, am of the belief that Laughlin and John were two of his oldest sons.
    According to Daniel Parker's history of Daniel McNeill and his descendants written in 1901, Archie and his wife Jennie may have been living on Lower Little River as early as 1752, the year their son Daniel was born. Some sources say they moved from the Bluff area to Lower Little River after the Revolution. The original grave sites of Scribbling Archie and his wife Jennie at that location, and all other graves in that cemetery, were moved a few years ago. Here is an extremely interesting, if long, video of the graves' removal.