David’s great-grandfather was from County Antrim, Ireland. In 1641 was “compelled to flee for their lives, the Papists under that bloodthirsty ruffian, Sir Phelim O’Neil, having commenced to murder the Protestants and were sparing neither sex nor age. Our family, consisting of an old man and his wife and an only son, found means to escape the sword of their enemies, left their native county and all that was dear to them and came to Scotland and settled near Braidwood in the parish of Carluke, near opposite Crossford. Being weavers to trade they lived there enjoying that peace they could not find in their own country. Then the old man and his wife breathed their last and were buried in the churchyard of Lanark, County Town, upper ward of Clydesdale. But the first of our ancestors I have any knowledge of is David Easton, the grandson of that young man who fled with his father and mother.”229

I suspect that the Easton family at some ancient time had moved from England or Scotland to Ireland, before they “escaped” to Scotland in 1641 as described above.