1. KILMARNOCK: 1666–1863
by Alan Craig Download the PDF of this page (11.1 MB)
My grandmother was Mary Templeton Brown and we have almost no information about her father, other than his surname was likely to be ‘Graham’ (more of that in another story). However, on her maternal side, she was descended from families who emerged in the Ayrshire towns of Kilmarnock and Beith, the main family names being Brown, Pinkerton, Wyllie and Harper. This page tells the story of her Wyllie-Harper forebears.
N.B. — Throughout this text, all of my direct ancestors are marked in purple. All blue text [inside brackets] represents additional information or corrections, and did not form part of the original documents. Copies of the original birth, death, marriage and census records are stored in the Cloud, and can be made available to interested parties upon request. When reproducing the old parish records below, I have kept the original archaic spellings and text, and also laid them out to reflect how they appear in the original documents.
Borland & Caddel
The earliest record we have for ancestors on my grandmother’s maternal side is the birth of my 8g-grandmother, Margaret Borland:
1668 SCOTLAND BAPTISMS: Parish of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire 1Source: BORLAND, Margert (ii); 1668 Scotland O.P.R. Baptisms; 597/ 10 107; Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
Margert Borland procreat betwixt Johne
Borland and Annabel Tailior his wyff.
This record, with its archaic spellings, gives us another generation, and although I haven’t been able to find a marriage for John Borland and Annabel Tailor, we did find baptismal records in Kilmarnock Parish for five of their children (including a set of twins): Annabel & Margaret (i) (1666); Margaret (ii) (1668); Robert (1672); and Elizabeth (1673). Given that all these births seem to have been ‘lawfull’, it is likely John and Annabel married in the early part of 1666. One of the twins must have died before February 1668, as her name was re-issued for our Margaret.
1684 SCOTLAND BAPTISMS: Parish of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire 2Source: CADDELL, Jean; 1684 Scotland O.P.R. Baptisms; 597/ 10 157; Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
Apr: 27 Jean procreat in fornication betwixt John Caddell & Marg Borland
We know nothing else of this family, but our Margaret was to have an illegitimate child when she was 16:
This ‘scandal’ would almost certainly have been the subject of a Kirk Session hearing, but the Kilmarnock parish minutes for 1684 are missing. Margaret doesn’t seem to have ever married John Caddell, but there is a tantalising record of a marriage at Ayr between a “Margaret Borland” and a “John Paton” in 1691 — but we have no way of verifying if this is our ‘Margaret’, and no children were recorded of that marriage.
1706 KIRK MINUTES: Kilmarnock, Thursday September 5th; p.341
Impr: Baylie Paterson Delated Jean Caddal as guilty of fornication
with Alexander [2] Harper. Both were app: to be cited to the next SessionThursday September 12th; p.341
Impr: Being called, compeared Jean Caddal and Alexander [2] Harper
and freely confessed their guilt of mutual fornication together.
Being removed, they were sentenced after the manner of [aye] fornicators
being called again this was intimat to them, and so were dismissed.
However, baby Jean was destined to follow in her mother’s footsteps when she was dragged before the Kirk in 1706; she would have been 22, and her co-sinner 30 (see Kirk minutes left):
Jean at this time was about seven-months pregnant with their daughter Agnes, so a quick marriage would have been necessary for the child to be baptised in the Kirk!
Alexander [2] Harper & Jean Caddel
7g-grandparents
Jean’s co-accused, Alexander, was himself the youngest of five children, and the second of those to be called ‘Alexander’, and we have his baptismal record:
1676 SCOTLAND BAPTISMS: Parish of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire 3Source: HARPER, Alexander (ii) [2]; 1676 Scotland O.P.R. Baptisms; 597/ 10 136; Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
30 March Alexr. [2] Harper procreat betwixt Alexr. [1] Harper & Elspet Harper
Given the dates for the baptisms of his siblings, it is likely his parents, Alexander [1] and Elizabeth (surname unrecorded), were married before September 1657, but no record of their marriage has surfaced. Their children were all born at Kilmarnock: Johne (1657); Robert (1659); Alexander (i) (1661); Agnes (1671); and Alexander (ii) (1676). We know little else of this family, except we do know that the sister Agnes married twice: a James Armour in 1691; and a bonnetmaker Robert Bichet in 1715. She died in Kilmarnock in April 1736, aged 65.
However, Alexander [2] eventually became a glover and he must have been reasonably prosperous, because he was able to afford a servant — a servant he was obliged to marry after getting her “with child”:
1706 SCOTLAND MARRIAGES: Parish of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire 4Source: HARPER, Alexander & CADDAL, Jean; 1706 Scotland O.P.R. Marriages; 597/ 50 114; Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
Alexander [2] Harper Glover in Gleib, and Jean Cadall servant to the said Alexander Harper, both their first marriages, were booked and consigned (beside two merks for Kirk dues) eight merks of penalty, at Kilmarnock on Saturday Septr.: 7th. Witness: Andrew Wilson, Neaber in Gleib, and Mathew Dicky kirk Officer, and after orderly proclamation three several Sabbaths, now married on Munday Septr.: 30th. in the Kirk of Kilmarnock, by Mr Francis Finlayson Min: witnesses aforesaid, and forfealted their whole penalty, for fornication before marriage, but the Session exacted only two pound, and got up the rest by appointment of the Sess: June 13 – 1707
This record gives us a good deal of information, but some translation is required. The ‘gleib’ is what we now spell ‘glebe’, the lands that form part of the minister’s benefice, usually next the church, and which he could use to raise some income. This ‘glebe’ can be found on our map of old Kilmarnock. The “merk” was a Scottish silver coin in circulation during the 17th century; it was valued at 13s 4d — exactly two-thirds of a pound Scots, or about one shilling in English coin. The word ‘neaber’ is old Scots for ‘neighbour’, and ‘forfealted’ means ‘forfeited’. So, Alexander and Jean were married, charged 2 merks for the wedding, and fined 8 merks for their sinful pre-marital fornication — and they would now be permitted to baptise their first child, who was born one month later.
In all, Alexander [2] and Jean were to have at least eight children in the 22 years they were married: Agnes (i) (1706); Agnes (ii) (1709); Elizabeth (1712); Alexander (1715); Marion (1718); Jean (1721); John (1724) and Margaret (1726). We know a little about some of these children. The first and last – Agnes (i) and Margaret – died as infants. In 1735, Elizabeth married a glover, James Crooks; however, she died of “decay” about nine months later. In 1746, Alexander Jnr. also died of “decay” when he 31; he was unmarried, and this was the same year that his only brother, John, married. John’s birth was recorded in 1724:
1724 SCOTLAND BAPTISMS: Parish of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire 5Source: HARPER, Alexander & CADDAL, Jean; 1706 Scotland O.P.R. Marriages; 597/ 50 114; Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
Alexander [2] Harper Glover in Kilmk, and Jean Cadall, both their 1st
marriages, had their 7th child born on Munday July 6-1724 — and
baptized John on Thursday July 23-1724 – by Mr Paislay.
This entry conveniently counts John as the “7th child”, which happily matches the records we have for this family.
The Kilmarnock Kirk was considerably better at recording parish deaths than most in Scotland at that time, so we are lucky to have the burial records for some of the children above, and particularly fortunate to have their parents’ deaths entered in the Register of Mortality as well. Jean was the first to pass on:
1728 SCOTLAND DEATHS: Parish of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire 6Source: HARPER (Caddal), Jean; 1728 Scotland O.P.R. Deaths; 597/ 60 392; Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
December – 1728
Wednesday | 11 | Jean Caddal spouse to Alex: [2] Harper Glover – – –
As you can see, Jean had no cause of death recorded, and no age given (she was only 44). Alexander [2] was left a widow with six surviving children, the oldest being 19, and the youngest 4. In those days, a working man in these circumstances would have married again as soon as possible; however, Alexander [2] didn’t marry again for just over five years:
1734 SCOTLAND MARRIAGES: Parish of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire 7Source: HARPER, Alexander & Couper, Jean; 1734 Scotland O.P.R. Marriages; 597/ p.267; Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
Alexander [2] Harper Glover in Kilmk his 2d marriage, and Jean Couper,
in Crawfordland Miln, were booked on Friday Jany 11-1734, and consigned eight
merks of penalty – and after orderly proclamation three several Sabbaths were
married at Kilmk on Munday Jany 28-1734 – by Mr Paisley – got up their penalty
No birth has been found for Jean Couper, so we have no idea how old she was, or who her parents were. However, we know from this marriage record that she had been living 3.5 km (2 miles) north-east of Kilmarnock town at Craufurdland Mill when she married Alexander [2]. That mill lay on the south bank of Craufurdland Water, about half way to Fenwick. No children of this marriage have been found.
Alexander [2] Harper died 22 years later, and in his burial record he was marked as having died of “Age”, and he had exactly one year added to his actual age. We have no record of his second wife’s death, and his son John [1] would be the next link in our ancestral line.
1756 SCOTLAND DEATHS: Parish of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire 8Source: HARPER, Alexander (ii) [2]; 1756 Scotland O.P.R. Deaths; 597/ 60 468; Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
January – 1756
Tuesday | 20 | Alexander [2] Harper – – – | disease: Age | age: 80 [79] years 9 months |
John [1] Harper & Mary McRae
6g-grandparents
Unlike his parents, we have found no marriage entry for John [1] in the parish records, and no Kirk Session hearings either (whew!). We know he had five children, all legitimate, so we can presume he was legally (and respectably) married to Mary McRae sometime before July 1747, when his first child was born:
1751 SCOTLAND BAPTISMS: Parish of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire 9Source: HARPER, John [2]; 1751 Scotland O.P.R. Baptisms; 597/ 20 132; Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
Dec 19 |
John [1] Harper Glover in Kilmk. & Mary Mcrae, both their
1st. marriages had their 3d child born on Munday December 16-1751, &
baptized John [2] on Thursday December 19-1751 by Mr Leslie.
All his children were numbered in the baptisms, and born in Kilmarnock. Also, in every baptismal record he was noted as being a “glover”, so he had followed in his father’s footsteps. I have found no birth record for his wife, Mary, but this couple had five children: Jean (1747); Alexander (1749); John [2] (1751); Robert (1755); and William (1757). John [2]’s entry (see left) was very similar to the others.
Again, we have very little information about this family other than the baptismal records, but we do know from other researchers that the son William married Jean Hunter in 1779, and that he died in 1814 (aged 56).
John [2] Harper & Elizabeth Osburn
5g-grandparents
John [2]’s life is as opaque to us as his parents’ lives were, but he was noted a ‘shoemaker’ rather than a ‘glover’ like his father and grandfather were. In 1768, he married a Janet Morton, and 13 months later he married Elizabeth Osburn. Both marriages were officiated by the same minister:
1768 SCOTLAND MARRIAGES: Kilmarnock, Ayrshire 10Source: HARPER (Caddal), Jean; 1728 Scotland O.P.R. Deaths; 597/ 60 392; Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
John [2] Harper Shoemaker and Janet Morton
both of this parish were married Febr 22d
1768 by Mr Oliphant1769 SCOTLAND MARRIAGES: Kilmarnock, Ayrshire 11Source: HARPER, Alexander (ii) [2]; 1756 Scotland O.P.R. Deaths; 597/ 60 468; Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
John [2] Harper and Elizabeth Osburn both of this
parish were married at Kilmk March 23d 1769
by Mr Oliphant
We must presume that his first wife had died early in the marriage as there are no children recorded for this couple. Childbirth itself could have been the cause, and this was a common tragedy in those days. What also remains unclear about this family are the number of children born to John [2] & Elizabeth. We know from the death certificate of their daughter Mary (my 4g-grandmother) that these are her parents, and that her birth year would have been 1769 — but no baptismal record has been found for her.
In March 1771, there is a baptismal record for an unnamed “second child” for this couple (with John marked as a ‘weaver’); we can guess that this child barely survived its baptism. Exactly two years later, there is a baptism for and Andrew, the “fourth child and first son” for John Harper, weaver, and Elizabeth Osburn. This tells us that there must have been three daughters previously, and we can therefore deduce that the ‘unnamed child’ must have been a girl. Our Mary, ipso facto, could be their first or third child, and there is still one child unaccounted for in the records.
Finally, in 1777, we have the only other baptismal record discovered for this family: “… their seventh child … baptized John …”. This tells us we must be missing four baptisms for John and Elizabeth, but searches for these have been in vain. However, this brings us to the another branch in this family, and we must temporarily jump north to Beith in North Ayrshire.
WYLLIE & SHEDDON of Beith & Lochwinnoch
In 1733, three years after Mary Harper might have been born, my 5g-grandfather James Wyllie came into this world somewhere in the Dunlop Parish, but was baptised at Beith:
1733 SCOTLAND BAPTISMS: Parish of Beith, Ayrshire 12Source: WYLLIE, James; 1733 Scotland O.P.R. Baptisms; 581/ 20 164; Beith, Ayrshire.
James son law’ll to William Wyllie in Dunlop
parish born June 17 bap 24
Sadly, the mother’s name is not recorded, but we do have the father, of whom we know nothing else. James was 28 and working in Park, just over the county border in Renfrewshire, when he tied the knot with Isabel Shedden at Lochwinnoch in 1761:
1761 SCOTLAND MARRIAGES: Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire 13Source: WYLLIE, James & SHADDEN, Isobel; 1761 Scotland O.P.R. Marriages; 570/ 20 62; Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire.
August
29th Jas. Wyllie in Park in this, & Isabell Shadden in
Beith, parish
This couple had six children between 1761 and 1772. The first child was born at Gallowberry, about 12 km (7 miles) south-east of Lochwinnoch, and the next four back at Park. The last of their brood arrived at at Lochhead by the shores of Barr Loch, just a few hundred yards west of Park: Margaret (1761 at Gallowberry); Janet (1763 at Park); James (1765 at Park); Isobel (1767 at Park); Martha (1770 at Park); and Thomas (1772 at Lochhead):
1772 SCOTLAND BAPTISMS: Parish of Beith, Ayrshire 14Source: WYLLIE, Thomas; 1772 Scotland O.P.R. Baptisms; 581/20 350; Beith, Ayrshire.
August
Thomas | Son lawful to James Wyllie & Isbell Shedden in Lochhead Lochwin
| born 20th, baptised 21st
We will return to the Parish of Beith in a later chapter to look at another branch of this family, but for now we’re heading back to Kilmarnock. We don’t know when young Thomas left Beith, but the next that we find him was when he married Mary Harper in 1792.
Thomas Wyllie & Mary Harper
4g-grandparents
By the time Thomas was 20, he had left Lochwinnoch and moved south to the booming industrial town of Kilmarnock. It was here that he met and married Mary Harper:
1792 SCOTLAND MARRIAGES: Parish of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire 15Source: WYLLIE, Thomas & HARPER, Mary; 1792 Scotland O.P.R. Marriages; 597/ 60 68; Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
12. Octr. 1792. Thomas Wyllie & Mary Harper both in this
parish after lawful proclamation were married.
We know from information in the birth records we have found for Thomas and Mary’s offspring that there were 13 children in all — however, we have only found 10 of those in the parish records. Conveniently, every record we do have numbers that child in order, and four of them even give the son/daughter number as well. For instance, the second child born was Robert, and his baptismal record states in part: “… Robert Wylie first son and second child of Thomas Wylie Weaver and Mary Harper his wife …”. This was all going well for the first seven children, but then we miss numbers 8, 10 and 11. Sadly, one of the missing records is for their daughter Ann (my 3g-grandmother), but we can estimate from her death certificate that she was born around 1810, making her a candidate for the missing 10th or 11th child — the other two seem lost to history … maybe.
All of their children were born in Kilmarnock, and in each record, Thomas is marked as a “weaver”. So here’s the list of children we know of: Elizabeth (1st daughter, 1793); Robert (1st son, 2nd child, 1795); Margaret (2nd daughter, 3rd child, 1797); Jean (4th child, 1799); Janet ( 4th daughter, 5th child, 1800); Mary (6th child, 1802); Thomas (i) (7th child, 1804); Agnes (9th child, 1807); Ann (no record, ~1810); Thomas (ii) (12th child, 1812); Jean (13th child, 1814).
We know very little about any of these children other than Ann. We do know that Jean married William Foules of Edinburgh in 1820, and that Agnes married John Gardiner in 1844. Mary probably never married, as she was living with her mother in the three census records from 1841–61, but we will need to look at her again shortly. However, Ann Wyllie was to marry twice. She had two children with her first husband, and six with her second, and their story is told on this page.
Two illustrations from the mid-1800s that look south from Kilmarnock Cross. Bank Street is to the diagonal right with the Leigh Church prominent. These scenes would have been quite familiar to our Wyllie and Harper families.
The Years 1841–1863
Thomas Wyllie was still alive and working when the census was taken on 6 June 1841. He was then living in Bank Street with his wife and two daughters, just around the corner from his daughter Ann (wrongfully named “Margaret”) and her second husband:
1841 SCOTLAND CENSUS: 37 Bank Street, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire 16Source: WYLLIE, Thomas & PINKERTON, James; 1841 Scotland Census; 597/ 20/ 5; Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
Thos. Wyllie; 70 [68]; Hand L.W. [hand-loom weaver]; born Ayrshire
Margaret Wyllie [Mary Harper ?]; 70 [72]; born Ayrshire
Mary Wyllie; 30 [38 ?]; H.L.W. [hand-loom weaver]; born Ayrshire
Agnes Wyllie; 25 [34]; Dress Mkr. [dress-maker]; born AyrshireNelson Street, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire
James Pinkerton; 25; Carpet Weaver; born Ayrshire
Margaret Pinkerton [Ann Wyllie ?]; 25; born Ayrshire
Daniel [2] Noble; 10; born Ayrshire
Thos. Noble; 5; born Ayrshire
Mary Pinkerton; 1 month; born Ayrshire
We’ll deal with the Pinkerton family later, but the enumerator had not been particularly accurate with the Wyllie family details either. Peoples’ ages for the 1841 census, right across Britain, were routinely (kinda mostly) lowered to the nearest ‘5’, so Thomas should have been marked as 65. His wife was also wrongly named as “Margaret” (!!), but at least her age was in the ball park. The two daughters should have been marked as 35 and 30 years old respectively but, for some reason, several years were taken off their real ages … or were they?
Thomas had departed this world by the time the 1851 census was taken (see below), and his daughter Agnes had married John Gardiner in 1844, so that left just one daughter, and an unknown grandchild, James Black, who remains a mystery (likely the illegitimate son of one of the daughters).
1851 SCOTLAND CENSUS: 37 Bank Street, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire 17Source: WYLLIE, Mary (Harper) ; 1851 Scotland Census; 597/ 12/ 26; Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
Mary Wyllie [Harper]; Head; Widow; 81; Sewer dresses; born Kilmarnock, Ayrshire
Mary Wyllie; Daur.; Unm.; 40 [48 ?]; Sewer dresses; born Kilmarnock, Ayrshire
James Black; Grandson; Unm.; 7; Scholar; born England
But let us focus on the daughter Mary. As you can see, she was given an age that would have her born in 1811 — and that might be a scribal error, except that we get exactly the same in the 1861 census (see below):
1861 SCOTLAND CENSUS: 39 Bank Street, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire 18Source: WYLLIE, Mary (Harper); 1861 Scotland Census;1861 597/ 12/ 4; Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
Mary Wyllie [Harper]; Head; Widow; 92; born Kilmarnock, Ayrshire
Mary Wyllie; Daur.; Unm.; 50 [58?]; Mangler; born Kilmarnock, Ayrshire
So, either this daughter Mary is a perpetual and consistent liar about her age, or … was she a second ‘Mary’, accounting for one of the missing baptismal records for this family? If the second is true, then the first ‘Mary’, born in 1802, would have died before 1811, and this ‘Mary’ got the recycled name, and is really “Mary (ii)”. This, I think, is the most likely explanation. Her mother, though, lived to the ripe old age of 93:
1863 SCOTLAND STATUTORY DEATHS: Kilmarnock, Ayrshire 19Source: WYLLIE (Harper), Mary; 1863 Scotland Statutory Deaths; 597/ 71; Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
Mary Wyllie, Widow of Thomas Wyllie, Carpet Weaver
—
died: 13th February 1863 (8:45 pm) age: 94 [93] years
at: 37 Bank Street, Kilmarnock
—
father: John [2] Harper, Heddle Maker (deceased)
mother: Elizabeth Osborne or Harper (deceased)
—
cause: Age doctor: J. Borland M.D.
informant: Robert Wyllie, Son (present)
One interesting piece of information from this record is that Mary Harper’s father was given as a “heddle maker”. A heddle is a wire or rope device with an eye that separates the warp threads of a weaving loom for the passage of the weft (best to look it up on Wikipedia!). The story now passes to her daughter Ann who had married twice, and was living close by with her family.
➤ Go to the next chapter to read about the Pinkerton family.
This map was from a survey of Kilmarnock in 1809. The Wyllie family is noted in Bank Street, but around the town there are several surnames synonymous with our family: Brown, Millar, Harper, Wyllie, Findlay, etc.
See the relevant maps (maps open in new browser tabs):
References
Hello, I came across your site whilst researching my family tree. We share John Pinkerton as our 6th great grandfather. My line of decent is from Robert Pinkerton who married Isabella Taylor. They had a daughter called Jean Pinkerton who married John Goldie in Kilwinning Ayrshire. Great to meet you!
Hi Nicola,
And great to meet you, too! A lot of that side of my family came from Kilmarnock, with Pinkerton marrying into the Brown and Wyllie families, and then on to yet another Brown family! I also have Browns from Ayrshire on my mother’s side, so it can get confusing, especially when my great-granny, Annie Brown, first married an unrelated Alexander Brown – however my granny was from another father!
A real puzzle for our common ancestor is finding out who John [1] Pinkerton’s first wife was – I have what was seemingly his 2nd marriage in 1756 to Janet Blackwood – but a 1st marriage eludes me. His son, John [2] Pinkerton, married Jean Findlay, of whom we know very little, except that she had been a servant for William Stewart, a well-known smuggler from Collenan! :-)
I have birth and some marriage records for most of that family, so let me know if you would like to have them. If you like, I can link you to the family Dropbox where I keep copies of all certificates, and also my Ancestry.com tree. Let me know. :-)
Cheers,
Alan