Stewarts of Balquhidder

Jared · Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 4:17 am Post subject:

Yes, that's pretty much the reconstruction that occurred to me last night after reading your discussion above:

Alexander Stewart, 5th of Gart'n
Robert Dubh Mor Stewart, c 1605
[Duncan??] Stewart, c 1635
[Robert??] Stewart, c 1670
Donachie/Duncan Stewart, c 1700.
Rob MacDonachie Stewart
_________________
Descendant of the Stewarts of Londonderry, N.H., a cadet branch of the Stewarts of Gartnafuaran

Ryk · Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 4:28 am Post subject:

Ryk · Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 12:03 am Post subject:

Okay, I seem to have stumbled upon an HUGE can of worms! But a delicious one! a_makeitstop

David Stewart in London
David Stewart, the lawyer and land surveyor, and his brother Robert Stewart can be found in the 1841 census in St. George Bloomsbury parish, Holborn division of Ossulstone hundred, St Giles in the Fields registration district, Middlesex, England. In the same census in Holborn division of Ossulstone hundred, St. Giles in the Fields registration district, but in St. Giles in the Fields parish, instead of St. George Bloomsbury parish, is another David Steart, born about 1819 in Scotland and working as a "J Buker". I'm guessing the J is "journeyman". "Buker" could be "baker", but the "u" is clearly not closed on top. In fact, the "u" has a dot over it and could actually be "ir". There are three other entries on the same page with the same occupation and each equally hard to read, but they all seem to have a dot over what looks like the first arm of the "u". So it could be "Birker". I've never heard of a "Birker". Maybe it's an old occupation that I don't know.

I also don't know my London geography, but I'm guessing these two parishes must be adjacent as they're in the same division of the same hundred.

This David may be no relation at all to the ones we're studying, but the fact that he's from Scotland and living so close by gets my attention. Especially after the following....

Stewarts in Letter of Ardcheanochdan
The 1841 census shows the following Stewart families all residing at Ardcheanochdan in Callander:

Residing at "Letter Ardcheanochdan #8" 1841
David STEWART, b abt 1816, farmer, head
Cathrine STEWART, b abt 1806
Margaret STEWART, b abt 1806
Mary STEWART, b abt 1816
Christian STEWART, b abt 1821

Residing at "Ardcheanochdan #8" 1841
Robert STEWART, b abt 1801, agricultural labourer, head
John STEWART, b 1826, agricultural labourer
Mary STEWART, b abt 1771

Residing at "Andage Ardcheanochdan" 1841
Rev. Robert STEWART, b abt 1806, minister

The 1851 census shows what certainly seems to be the first of these families residing at "Letter". There are some significant discrenpancies with some dates, but that's not unusual with these early censuses and especially reallying on Ancestry.com's transcriptions.

Residing at "Letter" 1851 (all born Callander, except where noted)
David STEWART, b 1817, grand farmer of 25 acres, employing 2 labourers
Christian STEWART, b 1805, sister
Mary STEWART, b 1819, sister
Mary STEWART, b 1822, sister (duplicate name is according to Ancestry's transcription -- likely one of them is an error for "Marg")
Robert STEWART, b 1839 in Edinburgh, nephew (more on him in a moment!)

The same family again in 1861

Residing at "Letter Strathgarntey" 1861
David STEWART, b 1815 in Calln, sheep farmer
Margaret STEWART, b 1811 in Calln, sheep farmer's sister
Christian STEWART, b 1831 in Calln, sheep farmer's sister
Ross STEWART, b 1841 in Leith, Edinburgh, nephew, student
Jean STEWART, b 1843 in Leith, Edinburgh, niece, seamstress

Interestingly, I can find NO birth/baptism records for any of these Callander-born Stewarts (and more below). So the later children of Duncan Stewart in Breanachoille and Letter who don't have baptism records in the Callander OPR seem to be no problem at all.

This entire family seems to have no baptismal records post 1803 in Callander. That would strongly suggest to me that they were dissenters and refused to have their children baptised in the parish church. If we were able to locate the records of whatever dissenting chapel was operating in Callander we may just find a whole pile of our elusive Stewarts there!

Now to analyzing the above...

Letter
I would suggest that "Letter", "Letter (of) Strathgartney", and "Letter (of) Ardcheanochdan" are all the same place. The fact that the same family is living in each of those places in three consecutive censuses and the fact that the alternate names are never repeated from one census to the next suggests that they are merely three different names for the same place. It would suggest to me that the properties of Breanachoile, Letter, and Wester Ardcheanochdan were considered one continuous (and rather large!) farm. And on a map this is not unfathomable.

It certainly appears that David Stewart, the household head, is the same person from one census to the next. The names of his sisters are fairly consistent even if their ages fluctuate wildly. I wish we could see the originals to verify the transcriptions. I've found the quality of Ancestry's Scottish transcriptions to be poor.

Mary Stewart
Mary Stewart, b 1771 in the 1841 census above and residing in Letter Ardcheanochdan is just the right age to be the widow of Duncan Stewart in Breanachoille and Letter. And she's residing on the same property as her late husband tenanted.

Residing with her is Robert Stewart, born 1801 who matches perfectly with the eldest son of Duncan Stewart in Breanachoille and Letter. The relationship of John, born 1826, is not given. He could be Robert's son. The absence of baptismal records is frustrating!

The other household, with David as its head, I would suggest that David and his sisters are also later children of Duncan and that David became his heir in Letter, while Robert had Wester Ardcheanochdan. Admittedly, this is based on circumstantial evidence.

Nephew Robert/Ross and Niece Jean/Janet
Now we turn to the tantalizing niece and nephew in the 1851 and 1861 censuses. Robert Stewart appears in the 1851 census as born 1839 in Edinburgh, and in 1861 his name is shown as Ross (a known nickname for Robert. Actually Ross is sometimes used as a diminutive of Robertson.) Ross is shown born 1841 in Leith, Edinburgh -- close enough that I'm confident they're the same person. The 1861 also shows a niece Jean born 1843 in Leith, Edinburgh.

Checking the IGI for Robert Stewarts born 1839 +/- 5 years in Edinburgh and their are several. I won't go through them all here (though I did go through them myself) because once I found the right one it was exceedingly obvious! Robert/Ross and Jean are brother and sister from the following family:

Angus STEWART, m. on 29 SEPT 1827 in Callander to Janet STEWART. Children:

I've been so far unable to find this family in census records. (If you go looking, beware there is a contemporary Angus Stewart and Margaret McGregor living in Edinburgh whose chidren match very closely).

Janet Stewart, the mother of the above family would be just the right age to be the daughter of Duncan Stewart in Breanachoille who was born in 1803 in Breanachoille. And the onomastics fit, as their second son was named Duncan and their first daughter, Mary. And the fact that Janet and Angus were married in Callander and their first child was born in Letter just clinches it for me.

Angus Stewart's Family
Now, it's when we turn to Janet's husband, Angus Stewart's family that things get VERY interesting! The name Angus is not a forename native to our Stewarts. However there is ONE Angus Stewart in the Callander OPR and he was born in 1779 in...you guessed it...Archeanochdan! His family is:

James STEWART and Janet MCDONALD (no marriage)

1. Angus STEWART, b abt 1803 (no birth record). Suggested to have married Janet Stewart, dtr of Duncan Stewart of Breanachoille.

Angus Stewart husband of Janet Stewart (whom I'm suggesting is the daughter of Duncan of Breanachoille) had an eldest son named John. I am suggesting that Angus is the son of John Stewart (#4 child of the preceding family). Again, we are confounded by the absense of baptismal records for Strathgartney families post-1803!

But take a look at the pattern of the births of their children: They start in Appin! then move to Glenbuckie and then to Ardcheanochdan -- following the same migration patter as the earlier branch of Invernahyle who "came with one of Glenbuckie to Glen Finglas."

Onomastics would suggest that Janet McDonald, mother of this family, was the daughter of a Donald McDonald. Stewarts of the South describes a family of McDonalds from Glen Lyon who came to Balquhidder right after The '45 and started buying up land, including Inverlochlarigh, Invercarnaig, and Craigruidh (purchased from the Monachyle family when they became lairds of...Glenbuckie!) The McDonalds in question were John and Donald McDonald (presumabely brothers). And they were presumably on good business terms with the new laird of Glenbuckie as they'd just purchased his former property of Craigruaidh. Presumably David of Glenbuckie welcomed one of McDonald's daughters as one of his tenants.

And, presumably, Janet McDonald's husband was from Appin.

That's when the other shoe dropped.... This whole exploration into the family Robert McDonachie Stewart began from our earlier attempts to find the family of James Stewart b. ca. 1765 from Invernenty, whom we later concluded was of Clan Appin and who later immigrated to...where? ...to PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND!

The two Jameses cannot be the same as they have conflicting children and wives. But the fact that they're both from Appin, migrating to Balquhidder about the same time makes it tantalizing to think that they might be related and then couple that with the two separate connections to PEI establishes a very intriguing pattern!

Perhaps David and Robert Stewart (sons of Rob McDonachie) became insterested in PEI in the first place because they had kin who were already living there.

Okay, I really need to get a life.... Laughing

_________________
Ryk Brown
Descendant of the Stewarts of Dalveich (Ardvorlich)
Sliochd Iain Dubh Mhor

Ryk · Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 2:10 am Post subject:

Belinda · Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 8:18 am Post subject:

Ryk mentioned Letter:

Ryk · Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 6:11 pm Post subject:

I have now updated the Gartnafuaran page with the substance of our discussion above:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rykbrown/gartnafuaran.htm#III%20Branch%20-%20Sliochd%20Rob%20Dhuibh%20Mhoir
_________________
Ryk Brown
Descendant of the Stewarts of Dalveich (Ardvorlich)
Sliochd Iain Dubh Mhor

Ryk · Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 5:59 am Post subject:

And sometimes my imagination can run away with me...

The family of Angus Stewart above has now been identified and belongs to Glenbuckie IX - Sliochd Glenmagaolric.
_________________
Ryk Brown
Descendant of the Stewarts of Dalveich (Ardvorlich)
Sliochd Iain Dubh Mhor