Anonymous |
Caldwell
Mar 23 2008, 6:46 PM EDT
My ancestor John Caldwell was born in St Quivox Parish to Allan Caldwell and Janet Guthrie, the elsdest son apparently and there was a family of seven children - the last born at Old Rome. Allan was a collier and probably originally worked at the mines of Newton on Ayr untilthey were worked out and then probably at Gatesise or the mines near Riccarton. I don't know where John's parents came from, when they were born, when they married or when they died. I have a clue that Janet may have come from Irvine as there is a birth there that is about the right age to a John Guthrie and Janet Brown.
John Caldwell came to Galston before 1799 as he was in the Muster Roll of that date. He married Mary Morton around about that time as their first child was born in 1801. He worked as a papermaker at the Straith mill near Greenholm and their children were born either at Straith or one or other of the Maxwood farms nearby. Mary died and John seem to have moved into Galston and the family must have known the Yeudall family. John married Agnes McClanachan as his second wife and had a total of 13 children by his two wives. Sons who stayed in the district were John from thje first marriage who married Annie Woodburn and David from the second marriage who married Isabella Robertson. There were a share of tragedies and early deaths. The family seems to have gone back into coalmining.
A problem for genealogists in Galston is that there were a number of John Caldwell's. There was the son of William and Elizabeth Breckenridge. John Caldwell of Loudoun Parish with his wife Janet Mair and big brood of sons and "oor" John who married firstly Mary Morton and then Agnes Breckenridge and who had another John.
Mary Morton may well be the daughter of Matthew Morton and Mary Richmond of Gowanbraeheid farm in the upper Irvine valley east of Priestland.
(to be continued)
Tom Caldwell
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Anonymous |
RE: Caldwell
Mar 23 2008, 6:52 PM EDT
John and Mary Morton's eldest son was Allan who married Janet Hunter - about 1853 Allan and Janet emigated to Sydney Mines, Little Bras d'Or, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia with their three young children. Allan was unfortunately killed in a coal mine accident about three years later. Janet remarried a few years later to an Allan Parker who may also have been from Galston. In any case some of the children's descendents moved on to Boston and others to Montreal but there are still Caldwell's in Cape Breton Island form this family - if they are listening (smile).
Tom Caldwell
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Anonymous |
RE: Caldwell
Mar 23 2008, 7:11 PM EDT
My family are descended from the second son of John and Mary Morton - Matthew. Matthew married Helen Walker whose father Matthew seems to have been in the army. He was in the Veteren's division stationed at Fort George when helen was born but obviously came back to Galston where Mary met Matthew Caldwell. After their first child was born they moved to Riccarton where Matthew mined coal. He died aged 45 from causes unknown to me but probably related to mining and left a family of seven to be brought up by a relatively young widow. The eldest child Anne married very late in life and I suspect she had her life circumscribed by assisting to provide for and bring up her younger siblings, In any case a census shortly after Matthew's death had Anne aged 21 as a "sewer" and the eldest two boys aged 15 and 12 as "coalminers". My Greatgrandfather Joseph was still a "scholar" aged 8.
The eldest son John also married late but stayed with coalmining and took his family eventually to New Craighall colliery near Musselburgh before finishing his working life whilst living at Buckhaven in Fife.
The second son Matthew married fairly young and had 8 children with Johanna McKenzie. Mining affected his health and he died aged only 37 from miner's lung disease at Lugar. He left another young widow. When the eldest son reached 21 the whole family migrated to Australia - they obviously had had enough.
The third son Joseph also mined - married Janet Wilson and had a large family of 13 surviving children. Joseph must have nervously looked over his shoulder at the early death of his father and of his brother and considered his own expandig family. Sometime when he was in his late forties he "got out" of mining and into Aerated Waters that were a growth industry at the time of the temperence movement. He died the son of a poor coalminer's widow but a relatively wealthy man.
Tom Caldwell
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Anonymous |
RE: Caldwell
Mar 23 2008, 7:29 PM EDT
My Grandfather Tom was the youngest surviving child of 15 born to Joseph and Janet Wilson. When I was a young child and shortly after my grandfather had sold his own Aerated Water factory in East Shaw Street Kilmarnock to the Scottish Co-operative Society trading as "Hendry's" my parents moved to Bankhead Cottage - one of the walls of this property was a common wall with the Loudoun Kirk - and I vaguely remember the church building over the wall. We were back in our family district but my parents did not know.
I started school at the Barr School Galston where perhaps my ancestor's had also been schooled - I did not know this. I walked the time- worn path that ran past Bankhead into Galston when I went back and forth to school. I played with and walked to scholl with George Berger whose father was a German pow who opted to settle in Scotland after WWII and who worked at Ladyton farm.
Later in life when I mentioned to my mother that I had "discovered" our family had lived in Galston she said that she had not known - she also commented that when we had lived in Galston at Bankhead she had not known of any other Caldwells living in the area. There may have been some others not met or known of but the number of Caldwell families and their prodigious number of children should have meant vast numbers of Caldwell descendents. Most surely must have moved on.
There is a lesson there and it is surprising that so few Caldwell's in the world can trace ancestry back to Galston. Perhaps you have not tried hard enough (smile).
Tom Caldwell
PS - of course we moved on as well - I have spent most of my life living in Australia and have actually met some of the descendents of my GGrandfather's brother whose family emigrated to Gympie in 1884.
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