Yvonne Hall MacMillan,
Antigua, British West Indies
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Now, let’s re-introduce Yvonne Hall MacMillan. After Handel and I met Yvonne we were invited back to her house for dinner where the stories of the old days and pictures were remembered fondly. Yvonne spoke of her father telling stories every night after dinner and finally her mother would write down notes as he was talking. One of the stories was about the Cranstoun family, I have the document she provided me. Robert Langford Hall was saying, “the house we occupied was one owned by Mr. Cranstoun in Nevis St. Mr. Cranstoun was my Godfather and father to Artie, Maisie McIntosh, Florrie Bethel, Mrs. Mercer, etc. Mr. Cranstoun was a great friend to your grandfather. I think that the house is now owned by the Straffe family and is rented out. It was a great mistake when the Cranstoun’s sold that house but family quarelling is responsible.” This bit of information was brilliant and provided a new incite into the family after my grandfather had left. Yvonne went on to say that as her grandfather was getting older he sent her father, Robert Langford Hall, to “Artie” to “become a man” as he was the best marksman on the island and excellent with animals.
I asked if anyone knew of a plantation called Seaforth’s as it was the one plantation I had yet to find. Leonard MacMillan looked at me a smiled and said, “Yes it’s the property behind the house, why?”, I explained about David Cranstoun and when I said Buckley’s he told me to come with him. We went out the front of the house high on a hill with the most spectacular view. He said, “before you in the valley is Bendal’s and high on the hill is the start of Buckley’s.” I was astounded! I told him that Percy Bennett Kelsick was the Overseer at Bendal’s and Myrna’s father, Hugh Hamilton Bethel, was an engineer at Bendal’s. Leonard took me back into the house and out on the patio he said, “See the red house down there? Yvonne’s grandfather bought the Overseers house at Bendal’s and had it moved down there, of course he added on to it but that’s it.” Then he took me back into the living room and picked up a bronze horse. This was a real life, modern day history lesson from someone who actually knew my family, FANTASTIC!
"When they sold their house Aunt Maisie gave me this horse.”, I could see this bronze horse was a prized possession. Yvonne's brother Vernon lives higher up on the hill and joined us for dinner and as we were talking he disappeared and returned with a few books and referred to them as we were talking. I gave my wife a little nudge and said see. It just amazes me that the old families are so proud of their heritage and they have gone to great strides to preserve their history. Yvonne's daughter has compiled a Hall family history which I would say is as indepth as this story if not more. Robert Langford Vernon Hall Sir Robert Hall (1909-1994) was a politician in Antigua and Barbuda. Hall was an opponent of the dominant Antigua Labour Party throughout his career. He was politically active mainly during Antigua and Barbuda’s time as a West Indies Associated State. During the 1960's, Hall led the Antigua and Barbuda Democratic Movement. This very loose political organization was most significant for the role it allowed Hall to play in the creation of the Progressive Labour Movement (PLM) in 1968. After the party won four by-elections, it became Antigua and Barbuda’s first parliamentary opposition party. Hall was the first leader of this party and the first Leader of the Opposition in the state, but he relinquished this role to George Walter before the 1971 general election. Hall served as Deputy Premier of Antigua during the Progressive Labour Movement government of 1971-76, and during that period he was also the first Minister for Agriculture in the state. Agricultural policy had been divided among several separate civil service bodies during the previous administration. His flagship policy was diversification of agriculture away from the archipelago’s heavy dependence on sugar exports, and to increase the cultivation of other crops, such as the pineapple. Hall assumed the leadership of the Progressive Labour Movement for a second time in time for the 1980 general election, due to the electoral defeat and subsequent imprisonment of his predecessor, George Walter, on false corruption charges relating to PLM economic mismanagement. Though a free man by 1980, Walter had been barred from participating in the election. This oppression diminished the appeal of opposition parties, and Hall left the legislature in 1984, three years after the full independence of Antigua and Barbuda. Robert Hall died in 1994, and was posthumously knighted by the United Progressive Party government that came to power in 2004. Outside politics, Hall was a planter and farmer, as well as a former civil servant in the field of agriculture. He was one of the only white people active in Antiguan politics. Yvonne never mentioned too much about her father, perhaps I had blinders on still trying to understand my family, and did not hear or understand, so I found some information on him myself. Now I understand that in order to understand ones family one needs to learn about other families who are connected in one manner or another. I would love to go back to Antigua and talk to Yvonne and her husband, "Mr. MacMillan" again.
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As the evening progressed it was said that the Hall family lived in the house once owned by 
Oh, the stories continued. All evening Yvonne kept saying, “Aunt Maisie, Aunt Alice, Aunt Florrie” and then it hit me just how close the Cranstoun and Hall familes were. Now, I knew from William that his mother "Maisie" sang. So I asked Yvonne did "Maisie" sing? “Oh, Dear Lord could Maisie sing”, she said, "We would go over to her house and she had a piano and would sit down and play and sing us a song."
He said, “You see this horse, I always admired this horse. It belonged to Aunt Maisie and sat on her piano. Everytime we would go there we’d say hello Aunt Maise and hello Mr. McIntosh, we always called him "Mr. McIntosh."
