Ainslie / Esslemont connection

[Cully]

My wife is an Ainslie, her grandfather was George Birnie Esslemont Ainslie ( quite a mouthful ).
Civil records, a copy of his birth certificate showed his father as Thomas Barclay Ainslie and mother as Isa Bella Williamson Bain.
So far, so good.
A little more investigative work on the internet reveals that Thomas was born " Thomas AINSLIE " on 26.08.1880 (Illegitimate) Is that the right spelling ?
his mother was MARY AINSLIE born about 1863, but his father is the million dollar question.
I know from the 1881 census that Mary was living with a "Pedlar" called Robert Barclay ( born about 1869 ) who she later married and that Thomas was at this time 7 months old.

On Thomas' birth certificate the father is marked as unknown!
When Thomas married he had changed his name to take on his step fathers surname and became "Thomas Ainslie Barclay" 04.01.1906.On his marriage certificate his fathers name is struck through-------------
Thomas' first child Thomas died as an infant 7/12 but by this time Thomas had changed his name again to presumably carry on his mothers maiden name, and became Thomas Barclay Ainslie as detailed on his second sons birth certificate, ( George Birnie Esslemont Ainslie).
But why name your son George Birnie Esslemont ?

Is it because Thomas' true father was indeed George Birnie Esslemont 1860~1917, seems a great coincidence.
G.B. Esslemont  was born and bred in Old Machar, Aberdeen married a Clementina MacDonald (b. 1890 Old Machar, Aberdeen) and had six children first born when George was 31 yrs. old ?He was an Ex M.P. for the Rubislaw district of Aberdeen, his father and grandfather were prominent people.

So the question is, how do I prove or disprove Thomas Barclay Ainslie paternal line was Esslemont ?
Would it show on his death certificate which I have not yet traced ? Is there an obscure will or document/ memoirs to prove my theory or have I just reached a brick wall?
Can anyone help ?

[janetm]

would there be any Parish Bastardy Records for the area you are looking in. Many parishes named the supposed father ( name and shame?)
Jan

[Cully]

thanks i will try that
 cully

[John Cullum]

I have stumbled across a Baptism for Thomas Ainslie on 25 November, 1883 at St. Cuthberts, Carham, Northumberland.
So Mary gave birth to Thomas (illegit.) on 26.08.1880 at St. Andrews , Fife and had him christened in England as above 3 years later presumably because she couldn't in Scotland?
I have a register entry no. 456 but cannot retrieve the original document, can you help please?

[Forfarian]

The original post is quite old but I have a few observations, probably not all that useful.

Yes, it is extremely common for an illegitimate child to be named after its natural father. It's also common for a child whose birth is registered as plain given name and surname to 'acquire' middle names later in life.

It's also not unusual for a child to be known by its stepfather's surname.

As for Thomas' birth certificate, the name of the father of an illegitimate child can only be recorded on a birth certificate if the father accompanies the mother to the Registrar's when she goes to register the birth, and signs the register at that time. It cannot be added later, though sometimes there will be something in the Register of Corrected Entries, if, for example, the mother has raised an action for paternity in the courts.

An illegitimate child is legitimised by the subsequent marriage if its parents, provided that they would have been free to marry when the child was conceived. Sometimes parents would have a birth re-registered to show if as legitimate but it was not essential.

There are no 'Parish Bastardy' records as such in Scotland. Illegitimate births regularly came before the Kirk Session, who would attempt to 'discipline' the parents, in an evidently rather vain hope of discouraging them and others from committing similar sins in future. It is possible that the Kirk Session of St Andrews might have taken Mary Ainslie to task for her illegitimate child, though by 1880 the practice was waning. In any case the minutes of the Kirk Session of St Andrews and St Leonards, as catalogued in the National Records of Scotland, don't appear to include records of discipline for around 1880.

When you say you have a register entry no 456, what exactly do you mean? Where did it come from? It's not the GROS birth record, which has reference 1880/453/170.

I can't think of any circumstance which would actually have prevented the baptism of Mary's child in Scotland for as long as three years if she had gone through the kirk 'discipline'. If this Thomas Ainslie baptised in Northumberland in 1883 is indeed the one born in St Andrews in 1880, it is likely that Mary didn't comply fully with the Kirk 'discipline' and/or was moving around with her pedlar and just never got round to having Thomas baptised.

As for George Birnie Esslemont, it's possible that he was Thomas' father, but it's also possible that Thomas' second son was named after George Birnie Esslemont for some other reason. I don't think you can read anything into that.

[Isabel H]

There are currently 2 other threads on this. It would be better to stick to one to avoid confusion.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=765649.0
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=766300.0

Are you sure you are looking at the correct Thomas Ainslie? The one b. 26.08.1880 at Denhead, St Andrews, was there with his mother and grandmother in 1881. No sign of Robert Barclay.

[Isabel H]

So... 1881, Denhead, St Andrews, Fife, with mother and grandmother, both Mary Ainslie.

1884 marr. Robert Barclay & Mary Ainslie, Dundee

1991 Aberdeen, St Nicholas, Berry St: household including Robert Barclay, Mary Barclay, Thomas A Barclay, and other Barclay children born Dundee, Glasgow, Aberdeen. 

1901 Aberdeen, St Nicholas, Causewayend: Same household +1 more child

Robert Barclay was a  hosepipe weaver in these censuses.

16 Sep 1918 Aberdeen Evening Express Roll of Honour shows Pte Thomas Barclay Ainslie killed in action. Son of Mr & Mrs Barclay, husband of Isabella Bain, son in law of Mr & Mrs Robert Bain.
See also CWGC website.

You can find the marriage and censuses on ScotlandsPeople - I've only seen the transcripts on FindMyPast.
Also the birth and death of a Thomas Barclay Ainslie in Aberdeen, 1906.

No obvious Esslemont connection, it could just be someone they admired, or perhaps related to the Bain family?

No suggestion from censuses that this Mary & Thomas ever went south of the border. The Carham baptism seems unlikely to me, although not impossible, but there are a lot of Ainslies called Mary and Thomas.