David Darling b. 1792 East Lothian

[Koromo]

Hi

My ggg-grandfather was Rev David DARLING, a missionary with the London Missionary Society. He moved to London c1811, married 1816 Rebecca (from Northants) in Finsbury, London, and five days later he and his new wife set sail for Tahiti where they lived for the next 40 years.

Luckily for me, he and wife and two of his daughters returned to England for a visit in 1851. The census has him aged 59, an 'Independent Missionary to the Heathen,' born Dunbar, East Lothian. This puts his date of birth at 1792. (HO107/1724/192/10)

He retired to Australia in 1859. The NSW online BMD index has his death at Sydney in 1867, and shows that his father's name was also David.

Through a long process of increasingly narrow searches on Scotland's People, I have established that there were two David DARLINGs baptised around 1790 in East Lothian. One in Dunbar 22 Aug 1789, father's name Adam; the other at Innerwick 29 Dec 1792, father's name David.

I know quite a lot about Rev David DARLING as a missionary, but this is my first real attempt to find his Scottish family.  Before I start laying out cash, how confident can I be that I'm on the right track? Were there lots of DARLING families around Dunbar at that time?

With thanks
Koromo



PS. His four children were named: Adam John, Mary Ann, Eliza and Jemima

[Gadget]

Hi Koromo 

SP shows 32 baptisms in East Lothian 1770-1800 for Darlings.

The couple in Dunbar was Adam Darling and Mary Landels and the one in Innerwick was David Darling and Margaret Liddell

Adam and Mary had the following children

1884 - Elizabeth
1787 - Agnes
1789 - David
1793 Mary

(no other couples showing in Dunbar at that time)

David and Margaret are just showing with the David 1792


The only other David is in Spott married to a Mary Cairns

Given the names of his children (possibility of the naming conventions being used) , I would be more tempted by the Dunbar couple  as David's parents. It could be that the informant to David's death might have got the wrong information. However, the 1851 census shows him as being b. 1792 so this is evidence for the Innerwick David.

Is it possible for you to attempt to trace the two David's (marriages, births of children, deaths, wills, censuses, etc.) to attempt to discount either or both of them.


Gadget

[Gadget]

Here's a parish map of East Lothian that might help track them:

http://scotlandsfamily.com/parish-map-lothians.htm


Gadget

[Koromo]

Hi Gadget

Had a little "Oooo" moment there seeing the LIDDELL name, because athlete Eric Liddell's parents were LMS missionaries too — however his ancestors seem to be from around Stirling. There are heaps of IGI Liddell/Liddles in Scotland, including:

David Darling m. Margaret Liddell, 27 May 1775, Cranshaws, Berwick (Extracted M117344 )

The LMS started in the 1790s, supported by dissenting/independent/evangelical denominations. It made me wonder if Rev DD was born outside the Scottish establised church, but I think it more likely that he came under the evangelical influence after he got to London. (cf. GenUKI article)

From what I've read about the sort of man that Rev DD was, if he said he was 59 in 1851, then he was 59!  He originally was a carpenter and later ran the LMS printing press for a few years on Tahiti so he must have had an eye for accuracy.

I like the baptism at Dunbar with Adam as father because it is Dunbar and his son was named Adam.

I like the baptism at Innerwick because it ties in with the father's name on the death info, and because it is 1792. He might not have stated Innerwick on the census 'cos he himself didn't know, or he didn't expect an English enumerator to know where it was.

This family line could keep me going for years, but my first step is to order the Australian death cert and cross my fingers that a daughter was the informant.

Thank you for your help, and the map!
Koromo

[still_looking]

Hello,

I have Darling relations in my ancestry; from researching my line I'm pretty sure that the David (son of David) you mention isn't the David that went to Tahiti. We have him down as a witness to his sister's wedding in 1811 and dying much later than 1867.

I'll provide more information later.

S_L

[Koromo]

Hi S_L

That is interesting!

I have since discovered that when my Rev David DARLING died in 1867 in Australia, all his four children were living in other parts of the world.  The informant's name on his death certificate is completely unknown to me, maybe a neighbour because he died at his home in Sydney, so unlikely to have known Rev David's parental details.  The certificate also states that he was 77 so makes his birth year 1790.

Now that I can eliminate the 1792 baptism of your David son of David, I'm quite happy that my David was the son of Adam of Dunbar — he did, afterall, name his son Adam too.

Thank you very much for telling me about your DARLING relative.  I can stop wondering now.

Koromo

[still_looking]

Slight correction in case anyone else reads about the Darlings; the witness in 1811 was a David Darling but not necessarily the 1792 David Darling (it could have been his father). The event witnessed was the baptism of Alexander Nisbet, son of Peter Nisbet and Agnes Darling.

The David Darling born in 1792, married Alison Young on the 30th Nov 1816 at Duns.

S_L

[smidget]

David Darling & Mary Cairns married in 1768 in Cranshaws, Berwick were my 4X ggrandparents. They had two children that I know of, William b. 1776 in Spott, East Lothian and my 3X ggrandmother Beatrix b. 1785 in Longformacus, Berwick. Beatrix married James Barrie.
I thought my David Darling was probably born around 1745. I can't find death records for David Darling, his wife Mary, James Barrie or his wife Beatrix Darling. I know Beatrix was still alive in 1851, living with her son David Barrie and I can't find her in the 1861 census so I thought her death record should be easy to find but so far, no luck!
I have a death record for David Darling, shoemaker died in Duns in 1827 aged 78 years. I don't know if this is my David but I'll attach it in the hopes that someone can use it.

Removed image as Rootschat only permit part of Crown Copyright images is allowed to be posted on Rootschat. You can post the part of the image that your research relates to.

[familydar]

Hi Smidget

Just a thought about Beatrix's death, have you eliminated a remarriage between 1851 and 1861?  You say in 1851 she was with son David, I wondered if she was a widow.

best wishes
Jane :-)