5 x Great Grandmother
9th Generation
I have very little information on Marion Sharp, the only record I have is the 1841 census record of her with her son William, luckily this census record tells it’s own story.
It tells us that Marion was a coal bearer – Bearers were normally the wife and children of the collier or a close relation. The main reason for this was that the collier was paid simply to hew the coal, but also to bring it above ground to be sold. By using his own family to carry the coal, there was no need for a collier to spend money employing other bearers which would reduce his profit. Marion wasn’t married but she did have a child to William Burnet, Engineman
The old system known as ‘bearing out’ was common in the smaller collieries of the east of Scotland. It involved the use of women and children carrying heavy loads of coal on their backs from the coalface to the shaft. Then they would climb a series of ladders to bring these loads to the surface. Load commonly weighed over 120lbs, and could be as high as 170lbs.
We also know Marion was living with Margaret Gray in this census. 10 years later, in the 1851 Margaret was married to David Nicholson and William was living with them. I believe Marion had already passed away by then. It is clear that William’s father was married to Isabel Bell at this time and didn’t take the child in. It states that William was Margaret’s nephew but as I have no other records for Marion I can not confirm this.
Marion is also the eldest of the group, she may have given the younger ladies a roof over their head in return for rent or help with looking after her son. It is unclear if the 11 year old girl was also a coal bearer.
The larger page of the census shows that although Marion wasn’t living with her child’s father many of the names in my family tree are close by – George and Elizabeth (the child’s grandparents are living 2 doors down) and a further 2 doors along is the Hamilton’s..the next, and last family of the part of my family tree.
This was a small community, There was only 127 houses in Grangepans Village in 1841, everyone must have known everyone and I would like to think they looked after one another. Cowdenhill was the street/hill into Grangepans
Marion must have had a hard life as an unmarried women trying to scrape a living for her and her young son. Giving her son the name of the father when he was married to another women was a very proud statement to make
Marie's Genealogy 