Pearman/Lourie St Nonance, Fife

[Jonosue]

My great-grandmother, Jemima Pearman, was born 28 October 1831, 'begat in fornication', of Catherine Lourie and James Pearman, and baptised 18 December 1831. I understand that Catherine and James would have had to appear before the church court, and that there would have been a record of the outcome of this kept in the church records. Is there anyone out there who has access to these records, or knows whether they are still in existence? Both their names appear on my grandparents' marriage lines, but I know that James was postmaster in Barbadoes,  that Catherine married a John Souness in 1836, and that she died in 1848. Not a happy life, I am guessing! I would really like to know more about Jemima's birth, and would be grateful for any information or leads.
many thanks.

[MonicaL]

Unfortunately, what you are looking for, Kirk Session minutes, are not currently available online but would have to be viewed at the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh in person. There are plans to digitise these types of records in the future, but it is a massive project and no dates for this have yet been released unfortunately. See www.scottishdocuments.com/placePage.aspx?placeRef=20571&vAllVol=yes

Limited access to this type of record has been made available in different parts of the country (such as Dumfries-shire, see Kirk Session links on the left www.dgcommunity.net/historicalindexes/default.aspx) but that does not help you here.

Additional background info here http://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/St._Monance_or_Abercrombie,_Fife,_Scotland

I am guessing you have already details of Catherine's children following her marriage to John Souness, census entry for 1841 for the family etc.

Monica 

[Jonosue]

Thank you very much for your helpful response. I am sorry it has taken me so long to reply....it has taken me till now to find the Reply button, which does not appear on my ipad.
Poor Jemima, she had a pretty hard time of it, while James Pairman appears to have swanned off back to Barbadoes to a life of luxury, having seduced one of the local lasses. I hope one day I will be able to find out what the church made of it, and whether he was made to 'do penance.' At least he accepted responsibility for his daughter, in that his name appears on her marriage lines and her death certificate.
Thank you again.

[MonicaL]

He may not have accepted paternity of Jemima unfortunately. Hard to say really with the info to date. Jemima was able to give her reputed father's details on both her marriage cert and then the informant to her death gave same info, without any checks done on the infomation given at that time.

Good that you have the info you do to be able to pin down her father Hard to follow up anything when it is just a blank space for father's name in later registrations for many illegitimate births.

Monica

[hdw]

Can we please change the name in the heading of this thread to either St. Monance - the old spelling - or St. Monans - the current one?

Would Catharine Lourie be the "Katharine Lowrie" born in St. Monans in 1806 to Thomas Lowrie and Katharine Thomson? Lowrie is an old surname in St. Monans and has persisted up to recent times. I grew up in Cellardyke, just 3 miles to the east, and one of our neighbours when I was a boy was a Lowrie who was of St. Monans stock. Indeed, his father was a Thomas Lowrie, and the grandfather was one of the St. Monans fishermen drowned in the terrible storms off East Anglia in 1875. They are commemorated by a striking memorial in the shape of a fishing boat in a cemetery in King's Lynn.

Another St. Monans Lowrie married a sister of my great-grandfather and gave up the fishing to become master of the Forth ferry in the days before the Forth Road Bridge.

Harry