Stewarts of Balquhidder

[AmandaDickson]

My great great Uncle was George Hepburn Stewart, b 1875. The second son of William Downie Stewart, bap. 26 June 1842, and grandson of Alexander Stewart in Westwood, bap. 27 Jan 1805 in Kincardine parish.

While browsing the trademe site I noticed a Stewart / Cadzow 1887 marriage certificate for sale. There is no reserve. Perhaps someone is interested in buying this. This is not my direct family line.
trademe.co.nz/Antiques-collectables/Documents-maps/Documents/auction-169492725.htm

Amanda Dickson

[Ryk]

Amanda

Welcome to the group. Thanks for the pointer to the certificate. Are you looking for assistance in tracing the origins of Alexander Stewart in Westwood. Also, do you know where William and George were born/bap'd?

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

[Ryk]

[Ryk]

Ah, yes, there it is...This is Kaye Lally's family: Donald Stewart in Edinample:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rykbrown/other_stewarts_of_the_south.htm#Donald%20STEWART%20in%20Edinample
_________________
Ryk Brown
Descendant of the Stewarts of Dalveich (Ardvorlich)
Sliochd Iain Dubh Mhor

[AmandaDickson]

Hi Ryk,

Not sure if you are asking me if I know the info or offering it but I will detail what is relevant to my branch.

William Downie Stewart (bap 1842) arrived in Otago in 1861. he married Rachael Hepburn 29 October, 1868 in the Knox Church, Dunedin. Rachel died 11 Nov 1878, he died in 1898. They had the following family:
Alexander Westwood Stewart, b Dunedin Aug 1869, d. 2 feb 1870 Dunedin of meningitis; Rachelina Hepburn Stewart b. Dunedin 22 Apr 1873, m. George Whitefield Armitage 4 Mar 1903 at Crookston West Otago, d. Dunedin 14 May 1944,; George Hepburn Stewart b. Dunedin 1875, m. Elizabeth Woodhead Herbert Jan 21 1913, d. Nov 20, 1915. buried: Portianos Military Cemetery, Lemnos Plot: V. D. 172; Mary Downie Stewart b Dunedin 13 Nov 1876, never married, d. Dunedin 27 Mar 1957; William Downie Stewart b. Dunedin 29 Jul 1878, never married, d. 29 Sept 1949. All, except George are buried in the family plot, Southern Cemetery Dunedin.

I have photos and some other details of their lives. They were very prominent politicans and citizens. A very brief account appears on my website rootsweb com/~nzlwo/stewartgh

[Ryk]

[Belinda]

I couldn't find the website Amanda described, but when I went to rootsweb and did a search I found details of the ancestors of William Downie Stewart on another site, curated by Ken Doig, at
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=doigk&id=I40288

I didn't look far, but it seems to agree with what Ryk has deduced. Did you already know about these ancestors, Amanda, or are you still looking?

Belinda

[AmandaDickson]

Hi list,

the url i posted...if you add dot html on the end it will open the page... sorry. i just assumed you would try that.

I know most of the details of the family from this site and other information, as the family were so well known. One thing I have learnt ; that so many of the siblings came from Scotland. I really need lots..and lots of information on Westwood in Scotland where Alexander Stewart (grandfather of GHS) came from. George H. Stewart named his sheep property, here in NZ, Westwood. From the time he bought the land in 1898 my family has owned it. (My father was a favourite great nephew of Elizabeth, GHS's wife) I am writing a book on the history of West Otago, the farming practices and the people there over the past 150 years. It is all very significant as George was one of the first students of Lincoln College, a great farmer and greatly respected man in the community, and alas so little has been written about him, and lots about his father and siblings. The only direct descendants of this branch are the Armitage family, the great collection of papers etc in the Canterbury museum is a bonus. If anyone has reams of data on Westwood in Scotland i would love to know. Amanda

[Ryk]

Westwood is not a distinct place, per se. It's a laneway. It's full name was Westwood Lane (sometimes referred to as Westwood Line). It was one of eight rural roads that cut through the Blair Drummond Moss. Westwood had ten farms on it. Despite its name, Westwood was located at the east end of The Moss.

Your ancestor, Alexander Stewart, was actually born on Wood Lane (a.k.a. Woodline) at the west end of The Moss. The following link is a census of the inhabitants of the Moss conducted in 1814/15 and shows Alexander's father, Duncan Stewart, and his family residing at #16 Wood Lane, with your Alexander shown there as a boy. Presumably, when Alexander grew up he got his own farm on Westwood Lane at the other end of The Moss.

http://www.chuckspeed.com/balquhidder/history/Blair_Drummond_Moss_Census_1814.htm

We have a map of The Moss, or 2/3 of it anyway, from 1814. You can see exactly where Duncan Stewart's farm was located. Unfortunately you can only see the first three farms of Westwood Lane as the remainder is cut off. But we don't know which farm was Alexander's anyway. The Moss Census was conducted when he was a boy and the later civil censuses in 1841 and 1851 don't specify which farm he lived at (at least the Ancestry.com transcriptions don't, but if you get the original film it might give you the farm number.)

The map is here: http://chuckspeed.com/balquhidder/history/Moss_Census_Map.html

The Blair Drummond Moss was a portion of the larger Flander's Moss -- the portion that was contained within the bounds of the Blair Drummond Estate. On modern maps it is located just west of Stirling and south of Doune near the location of the present-day Blair Drummond Park. If you get a modern Scottish OS map of the area you'll be able to see that many of the streets in that area still bear the same names: Wood Lane, Kirk Lane, Summer's Lane, etc. In 1766, Agatha Drummond, wife of Henry Home, Lord Kames, inherited the estate of Blair Drummond -- a lovely abode which they discovered was mostly swamp! Instead of being dejected by inheriting 1500 acres of swampland, Lord Kames undertook the mind-boggling task of draining the swamp, converting it into habitable farm land, laying roads, and settling hundreds of farming tenants on it. And many of those tenants came from the Balquhidder area. Life on The Moss was miserably hard and it's no wonder that many of the inhabitants chose to emigrate!

In terms of "reams of data", I'm not sure what more there is. But if you're looking for a more general picture of life on The Moss then I would commend the following article to you: http://www.chuckspeed.com/balquhidder/history/The%20Moss%20Lairds.htm (This article is indexed on our main page here:
http://www.chuckspeed.com/balquhidder/balquhidder%20stewarts.html )

This article will give you a very good description of what The Moss was and what it was like to live there. As far as anything more, then you can try googling "Blair Drummond Moss" or "Flander's Moss" or search for those topics at your local library. However, if you have some specific questions we can do our best to answer those.

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

[AmandaDickson]

Hi Ryk,
I have recently been sent a copy of the book written by Dr. Charles Moore on the Stewarts of Dunedin. He has gone to great lengths trying to write as much about the children and grandchildren of Alexander and Mary Downie Stewart. Ten siblings who came to NZ in the 1800's. There is a little information on the Scottish ancestors and his trip back to Scotland. I intend visiting Dr and Betty Moore very soon.
thank you for the info you helped me with so far. I am most grateful. Amanda