The Rae part of this story is the first of my Di’s maternal side, it is steeped in Scottish history. This story begins in Glasgow almost 150 years before she was born and although my great gran was born in Bo’ness the earlier 5 generations on her parental line were born in Glasgow.

10th Generation

James Rae & Agnes McGhie

James Rae is where we begin. He married Agnes Mcghie in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, on 20 May 1787 (Glasgow didn’t become a separate lieutenancy until 1893) They had 7 children. The marriage certificate shows that over a 5 months period there was only 2 weddings in this parish. In that year – 1787 there was only 14 wedding in total in the parish.

This is very unusual and shows that although we think of Glasgow as a city there was small communities within, from his son’s death certificate it states James was a farmer and the most likely reason for being part of a small congregation. The map below show’s Glasgow around the time they were wed.

Agnes was born in Renfrew on 5th March 1769 to John McGhie (Workman) and Katherine McCoal. Agnes also had a sister, Janet who was born the following year in 1770. Census records show that Janet lived in the Gorbals, Glasgow. Renfrew is situated near the beginning of the Clyde river and well known for shipbuilding. I would think the girls both moved to Glasgow for work

John Parker & Mary Henderson

Anne Parker married John Rae in 1810 aged 21. her parents were John Parker and Mary Henderson. John and Mary were married in the Gorbals on 8th January 1785. I have found records for 5 of their children, George, Janet, Peter, David and Robert.

in 1810 John was a Dyer and until the mid-1800s all dyes came from natural sources, such as insects, roots, or minerals. Producing them was difficult and expensive. The certificate indicates that John would have used Jute to dye the fibers. These fibers are often used to make burlap – a coarse, inexpensive material used for bags, sacks and other industrial purposes.

John died aged 76 in 1824. The cause of death was paraletick which I believe is many little stokes slowly losing use of his sight, limbs etc

Unfortunately I can’t confirm any further information past the 10th Generation for James Rae, John Parker and Mary Henderson and the rest of this page is information I have found on James Rae’s wife, Agnes McGhie heritage.

11th Generation

Agnes’s parents were John McGhie and Katherine Coul.

John McGhie was baptised on 8th February 1743 in Hamilton he married Katherine when was he was 18 years old on 31st December 1761. Records show Katherine was born in 10th December 1742 in Rathven, Banffshire.

I struggled to work out why Katherine had moved to Hamilton but the 1700s was when emigration to America begun, the Jacobite Rising was taking place and the Highland Clearances begun. Any of these would be reason enough for a young lady with dreams for the future to move to a more built up area. The Highland Clearances occurred from around 1750 to 1860. It is estimated around 70,000 people emigrated from the Highlands and the most likely reason behind the move.

Again I have struggled to find the parental line of McGhie. This, like the line’s above are because a marriage certificate shows maiden name and a link to where they may have originated from and this helps mainly with the maternal line.

12th Generation

The birth certificate above shows that Katherine’s parents were Andrew Coul and Elspet Sinclair and the certificate below shows Andrew’s parents. That is only 2 certificates that link 3 generations (A gem of a find from 300 years ago!)

Andrew was born on 23rd June 1717 in Markinch, Fife. He married Elspet Sinclair in Rathven on 3 November 1741 and started their family the next year. This shows that Andrew moved from the central belt of Scotland to the Highlands – the exact opposite from the generation before.

Elspet was from the village of Cullen, just along the coast from Rathven, . Cullen’s wealth in the 1700s was built on textiles and thread making in particular. This links Weaver’s and Dyer’s, both jobs in the textile industry in the generations that followed.

Findochty is where the family lived. Findochty had a castle was built by Clan Gordon in 1568 and gifted to the Ord family, who subsequently developed Findochty village as a fishing port. The people of Findochty speak in the Scots dialect of Doric and the accent can be thick and hard to understand for outsiders.

13th Generation

Another generation back shows another birth and marriage in another area, this family line move a LOT!

Daniel Coul and Janet Haliburton

Daniel was born on 31 July 1698 in Brechin, he married Janet in Markinch, Fife on 26th April 1716. Janet was born in Coupar Angus on 9th Feb 1696 as was her older brother William, however, Janet’s siblings Jean and Isobel were born in Brechin. This is the most likely way Daniel and Janet met before they moved and married in Fife.

George Sinclair & Janet Howie

Other than Elspet’s birth the only other information I could find to follow this line was that on the 17th January 1730 Janet Howie, wife to George Sinclair died and that she was buried at Findochty.

14th Generation

John Coul & Jean Symson

John was born on the 26th September 1669 in Brechin to Alexander Coul and Marat Goodale and his wife Jean was born on 1 January of the same year to John Symson and Helen Sklaitter in Lothian.

James Halliburton & Martha Gray

Janet Halliburton’s parents were James Halliburton and Martha Gray, I can not confirm the parentage from here as there were many James Halliburton and the female was not named, but I do know that they were from Kettin in Coupar Angus due to other records that are available.

Kettins is a parish, in the county of Forfar; containing the villages of Campmuir, Ford of Pitcur, Ley of Hallyburton, and Peatie, 1 mile from Coupar Angus. Even the name is a link.

The line goes further back to his George’s great grandfather Captain Andrew Hallyburton of Pitcur who died in the The Battle of Pinkie took place on 10 September 1547 on the banks of the River Esk near Musselburgh, Scotland. This was the last pitched battle between Scotland and England before the Union of the Crowns, it was part of the conflict known as the Rough Wooing. It was a catastrophic defeat for Scotland, where it became known as “Black Saturday. This was also the year of Henry VIII’s death and when Mary Queen of Scots was an infant and queen of Scotland.

This line goes further and further back due to the royal connections in the family and although I will not claim a Royal connection as I haven’t completed my own research this line can be traced to Robert the Bruce through Sir Walter Halyburton, III, Lord Halyburton of Driletoun who married Lady Isobel Stewart – Granddaughter to Robert II.