Hi Thisty
Good to get for message. What you say actually confirms my thinking - that Margaret was the illegitimate daughter of Jane Lawrie - born before Jane married James Kidd in 1830. However, George Rae, maybe for some very good reason, wanted to cover up the illegitimacy, so wrote the names of David and Margaret Laurie as Margaret's parents. It was possibly even the version that Margaret Rae told her children. They would not have been aware of what information Margaret had given for census returns and Jane Kidd's death record. Since Jane did have a brother David, with a wife Margaret, then they were the most obvious names for George Rae to choose. He probably didn't know that David's wife was a Margaret Oliver - so just 'plumped for' the same M/S - Laurie.
I can also add further support to this version of the story. The reason that I came across Jane Laurie (later Kidd) in my research was that I suspected her to be the single mother of a Jane 'Melville', born in Jedburgh in abt 1820. Jane 'Melville' married a Robert Lamb in 1839 - and in 1841 they were living at 19 Queens St. (same house as David Laurie) - with their young two sons - David Laurie Lamb and Andrew Lamb. Jane Lamb was named as Jane Melville when she married - but on her gravestone she is named as Jane Lowrie (yet another spelling!) and on her death record she is described as the illegitimate daughter of Jane Laurie, former domestic servant.
So it looks to me as if Jane Laurie, brother of David, may have had two illegitimate daughters - Jane in abt 1820 (no baptism record) and Margaret in abt 1822. But it seems that David Laurie played a significant part in their early lives - hence Jane Lamb named her eldest son David Laurie Lamb - and George Lamb chose David Laurie and his wife Margaret as 'stand-ins' for Margaret's parents.
Hope all this helps to confirm your thinking.
Now a general query - does anyone know whether they kept such documents as Bastardy Bonds in Scotland? These existed in England about this time and, in cases where benefit was needed for the single mother and child, were drawn up as a contract to make sure that the child's father contributed a regular set sum towards the child's upbringing.
Cheers everyone - pz40