Apologies for the (extended) delay in responding! I didn't get a notification about updates to posts as I missed the last one from 2017!
So in response to runacrossthesea - I got the information on David Laidlaw/ Laidley's occupation, and geographic locations from William Laidlaw's birth certificate and the 1911 census.
Residence:
1793-1805 S Mains Farm, Sanquhar
1806-1811 Auchenleggart, Sanquhar
1811-1822 Glenside of Marnaham, Dalrymple, Ayrshire.
After that point, births, deaths, marriages and census data has enabled me to trace the tree to current day. Patriarchal line is as follows:
David Laidlaw Bc.1770 - c.1822 Dalrymple, Ayrshire (Ploughman then farmer)
William Laidlaw B 1798 S Mains Farm, Sanquhar D 1871 Tarbolton (Farm Labourer - Carter)
John Laidlaw B 1836 Craigie, Ayrshire, D 1896 Hazelbank, Lanarkshire (Carter & horsedealer)
James Robert Laidlaw B1871 Tarbolton, D 1941 Hamilton (horsebreaker, carter, steelworker)
Walter Roper Laidlaw B1910 Dalziel, Motherwell. D1993 Motherwell.
Cameron Walter Laidlaw B1949 Motherwell. (my dad)
I'm very fortunate in my line of the Laidlaw family tree, as they commonly used their mother and grandparent surnames as middle names for their children which makes life a lot easier when cross referencing and verifying information. Also my grandfather often told us that his great grandfather was a horsebreaker from Tarbolton so I was looking for the horse connection throughout!