Despite their surname, the Bains were not members of the Scottish Clan MacBean (McBain). They were really a branch or sept of another Highland Scottish clan, Clan Mackay. John Bain Mackay, sometimes known as John Ban, was the ancestor of this family (Ban is Gaelic for "fair," as in "fair-haired"). He had two sons, George and David, who carried on the family name in Scotland. The younger son, David, moved to America with his children and assumed the English name of Bain. In America, both sons made their living as merchants in various towns across the country. The brothers' daughter, Mary, married William Meade, one of the early settlers of what would become Meade County, South Carolina. Their son, Edmund, became the first president of the Bank of Columbia. Because they were well-to-do merchants with honorable military records, the American government allowed each of David's children by law American citizenship, even though they all lived in South Carolina. These children included Eliza McCallum and her brother Alexander; the former married a Mr. Williams and the latter married Mr. Pinckney. Through this last marriage, both siblings came into contact with Thomas Pinckney, the father of our next topic. When Thomas Pinckney married Eliza McCallum, he brought her family into close contact with himself and his wife Elizabeth.