For family historians names, both family and given ones, have a special importance. I have always considered myself fortunate in that I like the Christian names I was given. The second one, John probably came from my mother’s family, but the first, Stephen was a long established family name in my paternal, Bumstead line (I think it was also fairly popular at the time of my birth). My great grandfather was Stephen Bumstead and although he gave his two sons the fashionable, Victorian names of Frederick Walter and George Albert, the latter, my grandfather remembered his father’s name when his only child, my father, was christened Francis Albert Stephen. The Francis came from my grandmother’s family and the Albert obviously from his. My grandfather was certainly someone who didn’t take to his first name as he was always known as Albert or usually just Bert. I have come across this rejection of given names elsewhere in my researches; for instance my wife had an aunt who strongly disliked her Scottish Gaelic name of Vandum and changed it to Vanessa, although she was always known as Vanny.
I have dealt with my direct paternal Bumstead line elsewhere (here) but I have sometimes had doubts about the earliest records I can trace in Ipswich where they originated. Now that the Suffolk parish registers are fully online I’ve been able to revisit them and have attempted to clear up any anomalies that I have discovered. In fact most of my previous conclusions have proved correct but there still remains a question mark regarding the first member of the line I am confident about. The line is fairly unusual in that for four generations I am descended from the eldest son of the family, always named Stephen. Starting with my great grandfather we have:
Stephen Bumstead 1844-1903
Stephen Bumstead 1802-1846
Stephen Bumstead 1778-1841
Stephen Bumstead 1751-1831
This last Stephen is probably the son of another Stephen who died in 1777 but that is not certain. A baptism at St Clements parish in Ipswich, where most of my Bumstead line lived, appears to be the most likely one for him. It records Stephen son of Stephen and Mary Bumstead and is the only possibility around the date of his birth; his burial in 1831 records him as being 80 years old. Of course many events are missing from the parish registers of the time; I have searched without success throughout Suffolk for the marriage of a Stephen and Mary around this period.
Initially I thought I may have found a baptism for this earlier Stephen; there is one in St Clements in May 1719 for a Stephen, son of William and Sarah, who also had an earlier daughter, Mary and a later son, Philip. This was promising as Stephen and Mary also had a son William as well as my Stephen. However I later discovered yet another Stephen Bumstead who, at his marriage in 1748 is described as a widower of St Clements parish (the wedding was at St Matthews). Following this latter marriage the couple had sons Stephen (born and died 1750), Philip and William, all of which seems to link them to the William and Sarah of the 1719 baptism. The fact of these names being used over several generations would indicate the families were all connected in some manner, possibly cousins. My Stephen, born in 1751 also used the name Philip for two of his short-lived sons from his second marriage.
So, unless some other record emerges it seems I cannot be sure which of the mid-century Stephens is the son of William and Sarah, baptised in 1719.
I’ve mentioned before my interest in visiting the places my ancestors lived, even though they have changed substantially since their time. Beyond the few generations that one can normally discover by research there are only the odd locative surname that helps place our forebears. I have very few such names apart from my own; Bumstead obviously indicates one of my far distant ancestors came from either Steeple Bumpstead or Helions Bumpstead in Essex. There is also a good chance that my paternal grandmother’s name, Flexney originates from Fleckney in Leicestershire. Other than that most of my lines’ surnames are formed from patronyms (eg. Peters, Jefferson, Gibbs, Fook) or localities (eg. Hall or Street). Some I cannot guess at but may be nicknames (eg. Snell, Gait).
I have attempted to research all of my family lines but have probably concentrated on some more than others for various reasons. My first interest was in the Flexney family of Oxfordshire. My father had passed on to me some old marriage certificates that helped me at the start of my researching, and I also happened to be living in Witney, Oxfordshire at the time which made research easier, being before the days of the internet when all searching required visits to local record offices. Later on my direct line of Bumsteads was another obvious line. My various Somerset families became an interest and recently the discovery of my Scottish grandfather and his line dominated my time.
As my focus has changed over time I thought it might be interesting to map the birthplaces of past generations to see exactly where the make-up of my ancestry lay. I decided to list the counties of birth of both my great great great grandparents as well as their parents and the results are listed below. I have used Bristol as a separate county (which technically it was).
Ggg grandparents (32)
Somerset 9
Perthshire 8
Devon 4
Suffolk 2
Oxfordshire 2
Gloucestershire 2
Bristol 2
Dublin 1
Yorkshire 1
Hampshire 1
Gggg grandparents (64)
Somerset 19
Perthshire 16
Devon 8
Suffolk 4
Oxfordshire 4
Gloucestershire 3
Ireland (Dublin?) 2
Yorkshire 2
Hampshire 2
Bristol (possibly) 2
Wiltshire 1
Dorset 1
Of course, going even further back might, no doubt, spread the net even further, but in all the lines I have found, bar one, the counties remain in the same proportions. The exception is my Peters line, which in the early 18th century incorporated a family from Bristol which would alter the picture a little.
On a final note it’s interesting to compare the above with the areas which Ancestry, in its analysis of my DNA matches, shows as my ancestral origins. The fact their map shows no background for me in Somerset, Bristol or south Gloucestershire is, I think, a reflection on the rather strange groupings they have adopted. I can see no reason why south-east England should be grouped with north-east France. They have, however been correct in the smaller samples of my ancestors from Ireland and Yorkshire. I have no idea how they came up with the areas North Wales, Lancashire and the Netherlands.
My ancestral areas according to Ancestry DNA matches
It is often assumed that our ancestors, prior to the coming of the railways did not travel very far in their lives. Whereas this is true for the majority of them, one or two did undertake journeys that were quite considerable with the transport available. I have noted that my ancestor, Jane Jefferson appears to have moved from rural North Yorkshire to rural North Somerset in the 1790s (here). Several other individuals in my families also moved from distant parts to the capital in the period before railway travel became affordable for the masses.
The most notable for me were the movements of my great great grandparents Stephen Bumstead of Ipswich and Phoebe Ann Gait of Somerset in the 1830s. Stephen (1802-1846) was already in London by 1826 when he is listed in the Electoral register of Ipswich as living in London. I have recounted elsewhere (here) how some of his Wase aunts had already made the same move earlier in the century. Phoebe seems to be in London in the 1841Census aged 17, and her widowed mother, Lydia Horler Gait certainly was (here). No doubt it was the prospect of plenty of working opportunities that lured them, but as in Stephen’s case I’ve discovered another member of Lydia and Phoebe’s family who had preceded them to the capital.
Baptism of Abi Emery
Lydia Gait had an elder sister who I assumed was named Abigail after her mother. In fact, searching the parish register for St Johns, Midsomer Norton I found that on Boxing Day 1790 the entry clearly states just ‘Abi’ . I have never found either a marriage or a burial for her in the Somerset parish registers. Like so many other people in my family tree I left her ‘hanging’, hoping one day some fact might be found. Recently, helped by a ‘hint’ on the Ancestry website, I discovered a marriage at St George the Martyr, Southwark in November 1815 where the bride is given as Abi Emery; the groom was Thomas Ebbutt. At first I was sceptical that this could be the Abi born in Midsomer Norton but following through on other records I found the 1841 census for Abi Ebbutt, recorded as not born in the county of Surrey along with three children, John, Ann and Abi. No marital status was recorded in 1841 but I later found the death of Thomas in 1832. Abi senior is described as “Independent” and the address is Duppas Hill, Croydon. The 1851 census however states that ‘Mrs Abi Ebbutt’ (unhelpfully transcribed as Alice on Ancestry) was a ‘Proprietor of Houses’ and born in Midsomer Norton, Somersetshire. The address is still Duppas Hill. The enumerator himself has made a transcribing error, working from notes, in that he has recorded the youngest daughter, Abi Susannah as a male named Abraham T Ebbutt! At least he got the age correct.
Marriage of Abi Emery and Thomas Ebbutt 1815
I have searched in vain for any other Abi or Abigail Emery born in Somerset around the right time and therefore must assume that the Abi found in Croydon is the same as the Abi, daughter of James and Abigail Emery born in Midsomer Norton in 1790. Piecing together her story form other records it appears that Thomas was a butcher by trade and the son of John and Anne Ebbutt of Croydon. Shortly after his marriage he is recorded as a freeholder living in Butcher’s Row, Croydon. A memorial in St Johns, Croydon records the deaths of John and Anne as well as Thomas and Abi, and Land Tax records of the 1830s show Thomas as a proprietor of ‘houses’ which he leased. Abi died a few months after the 1851 census and her will leaves £300 to her daughter Abi with the residue of her estate divided between John and Ann. The estate may have been considerable as in Thomas’s will of 1831 he left a single property to Abi Susannah (in a codicil written shortly after her birth) and a number of freehold houses ‘near or below the Turnpike at Croydon’ to his wife Abi. There must have been at least three of these houses judging by the names of the occupiers given.
Register of memorials at St Johns, Croydon
To complete the story, Abi Susannah married Matthew Pratt in 1860 but died six years later. They don’t appear to have any family. Ann Sarah married William John Blake, a widower in 1842 and she died at Duppas Hill in 1904 at the age of 85. They had three children and lived a very comfortable existence, having three servants in 1861 and 1871. In 1881 they had four servants; a cook, housemaid, parlourmaid and a nurse. William was Surveyor to the Whitgift Hospital and he died in 1886 leaving an estate of £3,600. Abi’s son John William Ebbutt did not marry and died at Duppas Hill in 1875.
When researching family history it is often difficult to find any details about one’s ancestors the further back one goes. Names and dates can be established form parish records, but unless there are wills, criminal or military records and other legal documents much remains obscure.
Scottish records are no different in this respect, and in fact are sometimes a poorer source than those of England and Wales. Civil registration (births marriages and deaths) did not start until 1855, but they are much fuller than those south of the border, death certificates being especially useful as they give the names of the parents of the deceased. Parish registers are much thinner though. Certainly baptisms seem to be scarcer although usefully the maiden name of the mother is normally included and burials are virtually non-existant. Marriages often give the abodes of the parties, but as they were not considered a religious sacrament, as in England at the time, they could take place anywhere as long as the parties swore oaths before two witnesses. They were often not recorded in parish registers.
Moirlanich, lower centre with Murlagganmore and Murlagganbeg on the left
My great grandmother, Mary McMartin came from a family that for several generations had lived in the lower reaches of the river Lochay, not far from Killin. The three farmsteads of Moirlinich, Murlagganmore and Murlagganbeg all lie within a mile or so of each other and were the places most often occupied by the extended Mcmartin family. Mary’s father, Finlay was born in Moirlanich in 1817.
Baptism of Peter McMartin. His Gaelic name, Padraig was often anglicised as Patrick as well as Peter
It is Finlay’s father Peter who is the main concern of this account. He was the son of another Peter Mcmartin and his wife Mary McKercher and was baptised at Killin Church on December 11, 1787. In 1811 he married Christian McDiarmid at the same church and together they had seven children before Christian’s death sometime in the 1830s; their youngest, Helen was born in the summer of 1830. In searching for more information I consulted a list of ‘Heads of Households’ for the parish of Killin which commenced in 1835. This had been instituted when the Church of Scotland decided to remove the right of lairds to appoint parish clergymen and instead open the post to election by all the members of the church in each parish. The list includes the names of the heads (males only!) their occupation and the abode. A final column was left for notes; these latter include the occasional ‘dead’ or ‘left the parish’, but against Peter McMartin, farmer of ‘Murloganbeg’ is the bare word ‘Scandal’. I assume this meant he was excluded from parish matters.
This obviously intrigued me and it took a little digging in the records to attempt to find out what the scandal was. Unfortunately the minutes of the parish elders no longer exist so there are no firm details to prove anything. I strongly suspect however that the scandal involved Peter’s relationship with Margaret Ferguson who was to become his second wife in 1837. The accounts of this second marriage are convoluted indeed. The first we have is from the register of Kenmore church at the other end of Loch Tay. This simply records the couple ‘proclaimed their marriage on January 22 1837. A later record in the Killin register maintains the date was January 1st and that the marriage was celebrated by a Rev Duncan Campbell in Lawers (a village halfway between Kenmore and Killin) the following day. It states that all these proceedings were ‘irregular’, but following the payment by Peter of the ‘Proclamation Dues’ to the Clerk of Killin, the marriage was recorded as being proclaimed there on July 8th.
The entry in the Killin parish register recording the marriage of Peter McMartin and Margaret Ferguson
Did Peter and Margaret try to cut corners in some way or muddy the waters? One possibility is that the scandal of 1836 involved the fact of them cohabiting or indeed the birth of a child out of wedlock. One further consideration is Margaret’s age. We don’t have a baptism for her, but according to the ages she gives on later censuses and the age on her death certificate she must have been born around 1821. This would have made her 16 at most when she married Peter; he was 49. The 1841 census reveals another interesting fact. Living with Peter and Margaret are three children; one is Helen, Peter’s youngest daughter with Christian aged 11. The two others are his children with Margaret – Catherine aged 4 and John aged 9 months. This would place Catherine’s birth early in 1837 as the census was taken in June. She may have been born as early as July 1836 in fact. Oddly enough, her age was given as 13 ten years later and was stated as 24 when she married in 1864. It looks like a covering of the tracks although the marriage age may be just a normal reduction to appear younger than her spouse.
The facts of the case are unlikely to come to light but it does give a slight insight into the often anonymous life of one ancestor.
I’ve written before on the quest to find the identity of my maternal grandfather and summarised the potential candidates in the article The Campbells are coming (here). Since writing it I’ve discovered a few more details about my Campbell family, and one of them has eliminated one of the candidates.
James, the fourth son of Peter and Mary Campbell I referred to as a ‘mystery man’ as I couldn’t find anything about him as an adult, although I wasn’t surprised, it being a very common name. However, a newspaper report of his death aged 12 has been found which explains the lack of records. It seems he was sitting on the railway bridge over the river Lochay one evening with friends, watching salmon when he fell into the water. His body was found an hour or so later, the search being hampered by the oncoming night.
Account of the death of James Campbell. Dundee Advertiser April 14th 1894
Map showing the bridge over the river Lochay (top left). the Killin Hotel outbuildings can be seen just to the south-west of the bridge and the Campbell’s house would have been one of the cottages shown just south of it.
The second fact to come to my attention has confirmed my link to the Campbell family. I have made contact with a granddaughter of Mary Christina Campbell and we share a DNA match which indicates that we are second cousins. So I now have exactly the proper matches with both descendants of Mary Christina and also John Campbell, the eldest son of Peter and Mary. which confirm my descent. The lady has also shared with me photos of Mary Christina, who was, of course, my great aunt.
Finally I have found a marriage for the youngest daughter of Peter Campbell – Ann, or Annie (and in the newspaper report of the wedding, Nan). Ann was always shown living with her mother in Killin, until the latter’s death in October 1923. Just over a year later, on November 18th 1924 she married Samuel McLellan in Glasgow, at the home of her sister Janet. I haven’t traced Samuel’s origins yet, but he was a widower and a Farm Grieve (manager) living in Taymuilt in Argyll.
So I now know that my grandfather was one of either Peter, Finlay or William Campbell. All three died unmarried and I have no evidence to place any of them in Bristol in October/Novemeber 1917. The most obvious reason would be military service, but unless they volunteered Peter and Finlay would have been too old for conscription; I’ve not been able yet to find any record of a military record for the three brothers though, but of course, many records are lost. The only other possible link would be the tobacco trade. On my mother’s birth certificate in July 1918 my grandmother’s occupation was ‘Tobacco Factory Hand’; no doubt she worked in one of the Imperial Tobacco’s many sites in Bedminster, where she is recorded as living. In the 1921 census Finlay Campbell was employed by the Glasgow Tobacco Warehouse Company as a warehouseman. The latter was the major tobacco importing and warehousing company in Scotland and still exists today. Was it possible that Finlay was at some point seconded to Bristol?
When researching family history one quickly discovers that not all the information found in documents is truthful or accurate. My own great grandfather for instance gave his father’s name as Benjamin Bumstead, upholsterer in 1860 when he was baptised as a 16 year-old, and George Bumstead, cabinet maker eight year later when he married Louisa Peters. He may be forgiven, perhaps for his father, Stephen Bumstead a painter and plumber, died when he was only two years old. He himself was listed in the 1851 census with the surname of his step-father, George Rogers, but it seems strange that his mother did not tell him his father’s true name, as it was identical to his.
And so I come to the marriage certificate of one of Louisa’s grandsons, Edward Thomas Roberts dated November 15, 1915, the wedding taking place at St Aldhelms in Bedminster, Bristol. The details for Edward are correct and the bride is named as Edith Baker who signed in a clear neat hand. Her father is stated to be Alfred John Baker, a tinplate worker and her address is 22 Leadhouse Road. The witnesses are Henry George Fear and Gertrude Roberts, the latter presumably Edward’s sister, Harriet Rosina Gertrude Roberts. But checking further not all is at it seems.
1921 Census Alfred John Fear
In the 1921 census Edward and his wife Edith are found, along with their two eldest children Edward Stanley and Olive May, living in the household of one Alfred John Fear, a sheet metal worker and the address is 22 Leadhouse Road. Also in the household is Alfred’s sister-in-law, Rosina Bryant who is the housekeeper. The 1911 census records this household (then at 34 Leadhouse Road) as Alfred John Fear, tinplate worker as well as Rosina Bryant, Edith Fear and her brother Gilbert John Fear.
1911 Census Alfred John Fear
It is clear that Edith Baker and Edith Fear are one and the same, so why was the name Baker used at the marriage? I can only assume that the name Fear would cause problems. The answer may lie in the life of Edward Roberts’ mother, who was the daughter of Louisa Peters, born out of wedlock, prior to her marriage to Stephen Bumstead, my great grandfather. She was baptised Rosina Fear Peters and her father was purported to be Samuel Fear, which is born out by the deliberate middle name and the record of a court order, making him pay a weekly allowance to Louisa. Rosina is always listed as a Bumstead in censuses following her mother’s marriage although she signs as Rosina Fear Peters on her own wedding in1891. Could it have been that Edward’s father might object to a Fear in the family, or possibly even his mother might have? I have traced Edith’s Fear ancestors back three generations and they appear to have always lived in Bristol and I can find no relationship to Samuel’s family in Chew Magna. A mystery indeed.
A previous article tells something of my ancestor Duncan McIllhuaish alias Campbell of Margdow (The McIllhuaish family of Carwhin) and I have just discovered two possible references to his family in the National Records of Scotland. They are found in the archives of the Breadalbane Campbell family who owned most of the land in the area of Loch Tay. The first, dated December 16, 1793 reads as follows:
Memorial of Duncan McGibbon, Margnaha, tenant in Margnaha, for an exchange with Duncan McIllhuaish, his neighbour in Margdow, the petitioner having provided a son as recruit tho his neighbour did not
This entry is from a list of petitions to the landlord, the fourth Earl of Breadalbane presumably requesting that their respective holdings be exchanged. The background to McGibbon’s pleading dates back to January 1793 and the start of the war with Revolutionary France. Lord Breadalbane had decided to raise a corps of men, The Breadalbane Fencibles to serve only within Scotland, or further south should an invasion take place. He was very keen for as many members of the regiment to hail from Perthshire and especially his own lands. The response was so positive, that within a week he offered to raise a second battalion. In all, of the 2,300 men who enlisted 1,600 came from the Earl’s estates.
In the end, the regiment, which had grown to three battalions by 1794, was never called upon to serve outside Scotland, although the 3rd were stationed in Ireland for a time. Although stood down in 1797, the Earl treated those who served with favour. Some were granted tenancies free for life and others were found employment in the area. Those who did not supply sons were equally regarded with disfavour and this may be the reason for the wording of Duncan McGibbon’s proposal. In truth, Duncan McIllhuaish’s eldest son in 1793, also Duncan, was only twelve years old and it may well be that McGibbon’s appeal failed for that reason. We do not know the outcome, however a second petition may shed light on this. This was dated December 1797.
Memorial and petition by Duncan Campbell, residing with his mother, occupying a croft in Margdow of Carwhin, to a lot in Edramucky annexed to house occupied by Hugh Cameron there, bankrupt
This could well be Duncan McIllhuaish’s eldest son, possible hoping for a piece of land with a dwelling that was known to soon be vacant. Edramucky is a little to the west of Margdow, no more than a mile or two away. Should this be Duncan’s son it suggests that the elder Duncan had died by 1797 and also his tenancy at Margdow had lapsed as the son is not referenced as a tenant. It also shows that Duncan’s family were referred to by the surname of Campbell as my ancestor John, the second son always was. Again, the outcome of Duncan’s petition is not known, but his brother John my great great grandfather was variously described as a cowherd, shepherd and forester, so certainly not a tenant farmer as his father had been.
Through DNA matches I have accepted that my ancestor, Jane Jefferson, although marrying in Chew Magna, Somerset was actually born in Yorkshire (here). Jane was baptised on July 26th 1778 in the church of St Michael and all Angels in Hudswell, a small village a few miles to the west of Richmond in North Yorkshire. The village stands at the top of a wooded ridge overlooking the river Swale. The Victorian OS maps show the area to be mainly agricultural although there were limestone quarries and the odd coal pit nearby. Although so close to Richmond, Hudswell was actually part of the parish of Catterick and St Michaels was in fact a Chapel of Ease for the area. The present church is a rather dull Victorian building, the one known to my Jeffersons having been demolished.
Hudswell in the 1860s
The furthest back I’ve able to trace Jane’s family is to a Thomas Jefferson whose son George was baptised at St Michael’s in 1646. Nothing more can be discovered of Thomas, apart from the possible birth and death of twin boys, Peter and Thomas in 1660. Needless to say, in these early registers, mothers are not named and I’ve not discovered a death for Thomas either. George Jefferson appears to have been a yeoman farmer. There is a marriage for him at St Johns, Hipswell (another chapelry of Catterick) in 1686; his bride was Margaret Hodgson, also of Hudswell and they had two sons, William (1687-1762) and Jacob (b & d 1694). I was surprised to work out that George must have been about forty years old at the time of his marriage, and Margaret was 36. It was only when I examined his will, that I realised he must have had a previous marriage. The will names sons Thomas, George, John and Peter as well as William. There are possible baptisms for some of these in the parish register, entered as sons of George and Mary, and there is also a burial for a Mary Jefferson a few years before his marriage to Margaret, but I’ve not found a record of this first marriage as yet. William would have been named for his maternal grandfather, William Hodgson.
George Jeffersons ‘hand and seal’ 1713
George died in 1713 and his will indicates that he possessed at least two farms. One he leaves to his son Thomas, presumably the eldest, named for his grandfather; it was a farm George had purchased from a Ralph Coates, and although the wording of the will is a little confused here, it seems to have been leasehold as George states the transfer was with the leave of his landlord. The will further states that after Thomas it was ‘ to com to my Son William Jefferson’. Presumably Thomas, who would have been around 40 at the time had no family and William would have been 27. Sons George and John only received £1 each, but the reference to son Peter is rather obscure:
‘As for my Son Peter Jefferson If he Should Come for the farm where on I Live I order him to pay to my wife the Sum of five pounds for chargis for his Son’
Does this mean Peter was absent but had left a son with his father and step-mother? In any case, Margaret was to have the family house for her lifetime and was appointed sole Executrix. She died in 1727.
There were other Jefferson families in the neighbourhood but I’ve not as yet identified all the relationships. However George’s son Thomas died intestate in 1728 and administration of his estate was granted to his brothers George and William who both made their mark (their father George had signed his will); George is noted as living in Bedale. My line continues with William Jefferson, who interestingly married Isabel Thompson in Hudswell in 1714, just a few weeks after his father’s death. William was, presumably a very industrious and successful yeoman farmer. On his death in 1762 he leaves to his family at least five dwellings and three ‘farms’ as well as a share in the land and produce of the “town fields’ which I take to be the remains of the medieval communal field system.
William and Isabel had seven children that I can find; two daughters and five sons , but the will he left, written a year before his death in 1762 presents some questions. Virtually all of his real estate, houses and land, was left to two sons, William and Thomas, about equally. The remaining farm (called Robert Atkinson farm) was left to the youngest son, John ‘conditional that he come and reside thereon’. Should he refuse his brother Thomas (who presumably would get it) was to pay him either £30 or £1.10s annually for life. A son named Peter is not mentioned in the will so I presume he predeceased his father. The final son, George (my ancestor) was to receive £15, to be paid in two instalments, a year apart, the same amount being left to a son-in-law who was to get his in a lump sum at once. This is a fascinating insight into the dynamics of this family for George was the eldest son of William and Isabel and yet receives the least of all of them in his father’s will, and that to be ‘rationed’. The bulk of the inheritance going to William and Thomas indicates the trust and esteem William had for these two (Isabel had died in 1731 shortly after the birth of John, her youngest) as they also were to receive the residue of William’s personal estate after some bequests to his daughters and their children. William Jefferson, the favoured son died just seven years after his father; he left no will, his wife had predeceased him and his brother Thomas was granted administration of his estate, William’s three children being all under the age of 11.
The marks of William Jefferson and Ellen Bumstead 1762
One curious aspect of the will of William senior to me, is the name of one of the witnesses. The first witness with a fine signature is John Hay; the hand looks very similar to writing of the will and I wonder if John was a lawyers clerk, or perhaps a lawyer himself. The other two witnesses made a mark, Robert Tinkler and Ellen Bumstead. Now Bumstead is quite a rare name and almost totally confined to East Anglia and the south-east of England at this time. I wonder what brought Ellen to North Yorkshire at this time and who was she? There are no other Bumstead entries in the North Yorkshire parish records apart from a burial of Eleanor Bumstead at Richmond in 1788, presumably the same lady. Perhaps she was a servant in the lawyer’s employ.
The story of my line becomes quite obscure from this time on. It would appear that George Jefferson was not trusted by his father with land, or much cash and it suggests an attitude to life not in keeping with William’s. Sadly no will exists for George or any of his children so we only have parish register entries to guide us. He married Mary Kilburn at Hudswell in 1738 and it appears that they had eight children, three boys and five girls between then and 1759. One of the daughters, Frances later had an illegitimate child baptised at Hudswell and her sister Mary may have done the same, although one can’t be sure owing to the name being more common. George died in 1771 and it is his second son, another George (born 1742) who was the father of Jane who moved to Somerset at some point in the late 18th century. Jane’s mother was Anne Bowbank who George had married in 1763.
Marriage of George Jefferson and Anne Bowbank 1763
Another curiosity is that I cannot find a death/burial for George anywhere. He was certainly alive in 1814 when his onlyson (yet another George!) died and named his father as one of his executors, along with a friend Thomas Pratt. Only Thomas appeared at the probate hearing and it is noted that probate be ‘reserved to George Jefferson the other executor when he shall lawfully require the same’.
I have always wanted to visit any place associated with my ancestors; this is largely a matter of intellectual interest and I cannot claim to experience any spiritual connection to anywhere I’ve visited so far. Mostly such visits involve seeing towns and villages with their churches where my forebears were baptised, married and buried. Very occasionally I’ve found a house still extant in which they lived and extremely rarely a headstone in the churchyard. I recently discovered my maternal grandfather’s family in Scotland and I was able this month to visit the village they inhabited and some of the actual sites of their homes.
Killin Hotel with the stables on the right
I’ve established, by multiple DNA matches, that my great grandparents were Peter (or Patrick) Campbell and his wife, Mary McMartin, and they lived in the or near the village of Killin which is now in the Sterling Council District, but historically is in Perthshire. Killin sits at the southern end of Loch Tay near the rivers Lochay and Dochart, which combine before entering the loch. My wife and I had flown from Bristol to Glasgow and hired a car, before driving up the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, arriving at the Killin Hotel where we were booked to stay for five nights. I had chosen this hotel as Peter Campbell was recorded as working and living there in the 1861 census. The hotel has suffered two fires since Peter’s time, but still retains much of the ground plan and appearance of the original. No doubt, as a post boy, working on the hotel’s coaches, he would have slept in the stables on the east side of the hotel itself.
Screenshot
The Hotel with the new church on the right from a 1872 advertisement
The hotel is beautifully sited, next to the river Lochay, and immediately in front of the ancient burial ground and site of the medieval church at Killin. The old church was demolished and a new one built in front of the hotel in 1744. The only remains of the previous one is the font which no doubt has seen the baptism of many of my family. A new cemetery was established a short distance away, near the ruins of Finlarig Castle in the 1930s.
The old burial ground at Killin
The new church at Killin from the hotel car park
Killin font
Breaking away from my ancestral quest, I spent most of the first day playing a round at the Killin Golf Club, which was hosting a competition for senior golfers. Sadly my score did not trouble the winner’s list, but maybe I was distracted by the glorious views over the river and hills surrounding us! The whole area has outstanding landscapes and stunning vistas even from road levels. I can’t imagine how glorious they are from the hills and mountains around. Following my sporting exploits we had time to visit the Moirlanich Longhouse, just a mile or so from the village. Now in the charge of the Scottish National Trust it is a wonderfully preserved example of what life must have been like for so many of the inhabitants of the Highlands, still stuck in the decor of Victorian times, although inhabited by the Robertson family until 1968. There are excellent videos available on You Tube of the interior, including the papier maché chimney front.
The fabulous setting of Killin Golf Course
On the morning of our second day I attempted to find one of the crofts on the northern side of Loch Tay where my Campbell ancestors lived in the 18th century. Peter’s father, John had been baptised in 1778, and his parents’ abode given as Carwhin. Other baptisms of his siblings show the actual property to be Marg Dow, and that his father’s surname changes to Campbell from McIllihuaish at some point. There were several other McIllihuaish families in the area at the time and all seemed to have made the same change. John’s father was Duncan, and a Duncan McIllihuaish is listed in the Survey of 1769 at Margnaha, another croft just a hundred yards or so to the west of Margdow. I don’t know where exactly the family might have lived as several families are given in each named croft lease. Using 19th century Ordnance Survey maps it is possible to identify where the ruins of these properties lie, and I was able to double-check them against Google maps.
19th century OS map of part of Carwhin
My route, although mostly shown as a track on modern maps, required me to remove my shoes and socks, roll up my trouser legs and wade across a small stream; without a towel available it was a slightly uncomfortable trek down the hillside, across fences and gates and through bracken to finally reach Margnaha. But it was well worth while. The best preserved of the surrounding crofts, it was easy to make out the layout of the longhouse, shared by humans and animals, as well as several outbuildings and enclosures.
Three views of the remains of Margnaha
Following my return to the car, again having to cross the stream, I headed for the hotel to change footwear before we visited the village of Kenmore, which lies at the northern end of Loch Tay. Kenmore is a charming estate village, built by the Campbell (no relation!) Earls (later Marquesses) of Breadalbane, who had moved their main residence from Finlarig Castle near Killin to Balloch (present day Kenmore) where they built an enormous stately home, Taymouth Castle in the early 19th century. The village was rebuilt to house the tenants and tradesmen required to service the big house. After exploring the village we visited the Crannog Centre just south of Kenmore. A crannog was a Stone Age dwelling built on stilts in the loch. A previous reconstruction burnt down a few years back and a new one is about to be constructed, but in the meantime several land-based houses have been constructed using archaeological evidence, and demonstrations of various techniques of the period are displayed and explained; cooking, woodworking, metal working and so on. A fascinating open air museum.
Kenmore
Our third day was spent with a distant McLellan cousin who had travelled up to Killin from Edinburgh to meet us and show us around the village. It was a very enjoyable occasion with plenty of insights into the local connections of his and my ancestors. It was, for me, a chance to view at leisure the prime beauty spot of Killin – the Falls of Dochart.
The Falls of Dochart
I also had the opportunity to see the house where my great grandmother, Mary Campbell lived in 1921. It was a small cottage on Main Street and may well have been the home the family lived in following her marriage to Peter Campbell in 1866. If so, it must have been an incredibly cramped household, Peter and Mary having ten children of whom eight survived into adulthood. Nowadays it has obviously been modernised, with an extension at the rear and a bedroom inserted into the roof area. It is now a holiday let I believe.
The home of Mary Campbell in 1921, now (above) and c1900 (top, extreme right)
Our final full day was spent in a visit to Aberfeldy and the near-by Castle Menzies, ancient home of the clan leader of that name. Despite the dreary weather forecast we had feared, this was the only day of our stay when the rain appeared, from time to time. The Castle was a very interesting experience. The ancestral home of the Menzies clan chiefs, the part open to the public is largely 16th century with additions and alterations, whilst the Victorian wing seems to be in private hands. Most of the castle is lacking furnishings, although the main reception hall has retained its 18th century decorations and has been restored intelligently. The ground floor, which has had many uses over the centuries, is mainly a lumber area, with many of the most interesting items from the past stored there, including the local nurse’s tricycle and a stove for keeping multiple hot-irons up to temperature. Several of the rooms have displays of historical information regarding the Menzies and the McGregors (needless to say the Campbell do not have a favourable mention!) and there were many fascinating portrait paintings.
Castle Menzies
On returning to Killin I made a brief tour of the modern cemetery in case any of my family were buried there, but with no results, as I expected. Just a hundred yards or so further on stand the ruins of Finlarig Castle, the original home of the Breadalbane Campbells. The castle, reputedly haunted, was certainly a very eerie place being surrounded by tall trees and seemingly isolated from the surrounding countryside. Besides the ruins themselves there remain a ‘beheading pit’ where the Campbells disposed of their enemies (mostly McGregors) and a ‘hanging tree’ where the non-nobles were executed. Not a welcoming place. Even more sad are the remains of the family mausoleum which was built in the early 19th century on top of an earlier medieval chapel, and was the burial place of all the Breadalbane line. For tax reasons, the roof was demolished in the 1940s and the building fill in with rubble. The only graves on view are outside the mausoleum, being those of the last Marquis, Gavin (d 1922) and his wife Alma (d 1935). These at least have been recently restored to a better condition.
Finlarig Castle with the ruined Mausoleum (centre) and ‘Beheading’ Pit (above)
On Sunday we left Killin and returned to Glasgow airport by a different route. I first of all wanted to see Balquhidder, a village just south of Killin, where my ancestor Hugh Campbell married Mary Ferguson in 1763. The old Kirk is now a ruin, replaced by a new church a little to the north in the 19th century, but some of the walls remain and there are several memorials to the McLaren clan chiefs whose resting place this was. Also, just outside the old Kirk, are the graves of the folk hero Rob Roy McGregor and his family. Balquhhider was his final home.
Balquhidder Old Kirk with the McGregor graves
My final stop before the airport was at the village of Aberfoyle. One of my possible grandfathers (although seemingly the least likely) was Peter Campbell (b 1872) the third son of Peter and Mary.
Aberfoyle Cemetery with area utilised from c1930 onwards
He was killed in a rock fall whilst working in the Aberfoyle slate quarry in 1935 and there is a record of his burial in the cemetery there. I had hoped that the quarry company may have provided him with a headstone, but if they did, I couldn’t find it. What was there however was another ruinous Kirk with two cast iron mortsafes outside. I had heard of such things before, but never seen one. They were used prior to and during burials in the early 19th century to deter grave robbers. They safeguarded the body before burial and then were sometimes used as a coffin until the corpse had so degraded that they were no longer in danger of being used for anatomical dissections. It is strange to find two of these items so far from the site of any hospitals of the time, showing perhaps how far the fear of grave robbing spread. A rather gruesome ending to a very enjoyable few days in Breadalbane.
I have given a brief summary of my Scottish ancestors before (here) and I have now tried to look more deeply into the Campbell line, finding some problems I hadn’t realised before.
My great grandfather’s line is easy to take back two generations because of the details included in the Scottish Registration system. As death certificates give the names of the parents of the deceased, as well as the father’s occupation we can be sure of Peter’s parents – John and Mary Campbell (née Campbell), and from John’s death certificate we know that his father was Duncan Campbell, a farmer; sadly his mother is not given which is unusual. However, the naming system still then generally used in Scotland gives us a clue. John and Mary had nine children, Duncan, James, John, Janet, Elizabeth, Donald, William, Peter and Mary. Following the naming system this would show that John’s parents were Duncan and Janet, whilst Mary’s would have been James and Elizabeth. In the latter case this is born out by Mary’s baptism at Fortingall in 1798, where her parents are given as James Campbell and Elizabeth McLellan of ‘Innerinan’, possibly Inverinian in Glen Lyon.
John’s birthplace is always given as Carwhin, a district on the northern side of Loch Tay, not far from Killin but actually in Kenmore parish. His birth date from census records is indicated as 1782/3. Checking the baptism registrations in both parishes there are the entries as follows:
12 January 1773 Killin John son of Duncan McIllhuaish & Janet McNaugtan
28 July 1776 Kenmore Christian daughter of Duncan McIlluhaish & Janet McNaughtan
14 September 1778 Killin John son of Duncan Campbell & Janet McNaughton
9 January 1781 Kenmore Duncan son of Duncan Campbell & Janet McNaughton
12 January 1783 Killin John son of Duncan McIllhuaish & Janet McNaughton
2 October 1785 Killin Donald son of Duncan Campbell & Janet McNaughton
8 February 1788 Killin Patrick son of Duncan Campbell & Janet McNaughton
26 December 1790 Killin William son of Duncan Campbell & Janet McNaughton
20 April 1794 Killin Janet daughter of Duncan Campbell & Janet McNaughton
All resident in Carwhin.
Are we looking at two families here? One a Duncan McIllhuaish and another a Duncan Campbell both married to a Janet McNaughton; or is this one family with the father being known by two surnames? The former seems unlikely for several reasons. First of all if we consider them as one family, the spacing of the children’s births looks normal; and it would be odd for the three McIllhuaish baptisms to be spaced as they are – 1773, 1776 and then 1783 and no more. Likewise the place of baptisms would be split between Killin and Kenmore in both families. A final clue that we are looking at one family comes from the abodes given in the parish registers; all of them name Carwhin as the district of the parents home, but both the Kenmore entries identify the individual farm name. This is Marg Dow in the case of Christian and Marg Dubh for Duncan. This the same place (‘the black merkland’, Dow being close to the pronunciation of the gaelic Dubh) and is shown on 19th century Ordnance Survey maps. Now of these two baptism entries, one is the name of McIllhuaish and one Campbell. I feel that this confirms the case for one family with a father having or being known by two different surnames.
The use of varying surnames was not uncommon at the time; there are many examples to be seen in contemporary records. The surname McIllhuaish (with its variant spellings) mainly occurs in the parishes of Killin and Kenmore, with one or two in neighbouring parishes. Parish register baptisms show 82 in total, ranging from 1647 to 1784 of which 15 were in Kenmore, one each in Fortingall and Balquhidder and the remainder in Killin. It would seem that the several families using the name had dropped it by 1790, many of them using Campbell instead. This may represent a sign of loyalty to their landlords, the Campbell Earls of Breadalbane, or simply self-interest in aligning themselves to the dominant family in the region.
It would thus appear that Duncan’s father was named John, and despite two sons of that name presumably dying early he persisted with using it. However, there is an anomaly in the Killin register for the third John. Under the heading for 1783 an insertion has been made which reads:
Decr. 25 Dun. Campbell & Janet McNaughtan Carwhin a lawful son John
This entry does not include the word baptised and so would seem to indicate a birth date, with the baptism, under the father’s name of McIllhuaish following 18 days later. Although uncommon, it is not unknown for some births to be recorded, as well as baptisms. This must be my great great grandfather.
It would appear that Duncan and Janet married c1771/2, which would probably place Duncan’s birth around 1745. There are two possible baptisms that might fit this date: Duncan son of John McGilhuaish and Katherine McKenlayroy in 1750 and Duncan son of John McGilhuaish and Katherine McCallum in 1746, both in Killin, but this is entering the realms of guesswork. The list of baptisms mentioned above indicate that all the McIllhuaish individuals were one related family, as the Christian names used were extremely limited, the vast majority of males being Duncan, Donald, John or Peter/Patrick. The earliest baptisms given the fathers’ names as either John or Duncan and are dated 1647, 1649 and 1650.
Rough extent of Carwhin on modern map
The 19th century OS map referred to earlier clearly shows the farmstead of Marg Dow in Carwhin, which is on the northern side of Loch Tay. Also shown are two nearby farms: Margnaha and Margeraggan. In 1769 a survey was made of the holdings of the Breadalbane Campbell estates which included most of the Loch Tay area. The holdings were listed individually with the tenants named. In Margnaha one of the three tenants was a Duncan McIlihuas who could well be my ancestor.
I consulted a modern map but no houses are now shown in the area, however reporting to Google maps aerial images, I found the following:
This is exactly the area covered by the 19th century map and one can clearly see the ghost images of the ruins of the three farms and also the lane leading down to them from the Killin to Kenmore road. There must be some walls still remaining from the farms.
The 1769 survey also lists several McIllhuaish tenants in Carwhin and the neighbouring Morenish district:
Carwhin:
Carrie, Duncan. Croftvellich, John. Margnaha, Duncan. Kiltyrie, Patrick
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