Alexander Trotter of Kettleshiel b1663

[gilest]

Hi I am trying to research Alexander Trotter of Kettleshiel b1663 d 12 Dec 1702/7 and wondering if anyone can help. Parents and relationship to Trotters of Morton Hall?

[Sunlaws]

Hi

Burke's of 1871 suggests that Alexander was the son of another Alexander TROTTER of Kettleshiel who died in 1692

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qmh2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1413&dq=trotter+of+kettleshiel&hl=en&sa=X&ei=tGLAUtj3II2ihgf-7IHICQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=trotter%20of%20kettleshiel&f=false

There is more Trotter information here too, but I can't see any very close connection at this date to the Trotters of Morton Hall. The Trotters had ramified hugely in Berwickshire from at least the fifteenth century.

Regards,
Lesley

[timpl]

I wish I could see when this query was made!

Anyhow I hope this is not too late but I have never found any documentary evidence from his time on Alexander Trotter who is said to have died in 1702.  Burke is NOT documentary evidence from his time.

In the grant of arms to his great-grandson James Trotter in 1803, the Lyon Register records that Alexander, d. c. 1702, was "descended of the antient family of Prentonian".  Again there is no evidence for this.

My suspicion when you cannot account for a connection between families that are likely to be related is that the one is an illegitimate offspring of the other.  And I think that is a good enough assumption here.  But this is not genealogy, just star-gazing.

Lest anyone wonders, I am a descendant of this Alex who d. c. 1702.

Tim Powys-Lybbe

[Sunlaws]

Hi Tim

Gilest posted the original query in December 2013, but has not been active on rootschat since January 2014. However, unless he has changed his email address, he will have received a message, as I just did, telling him that a new post has been made to this topic.

I have no connection to the TROTTERs at all, but was just interested as I used to drive past Kettleshiel on the way from one place of work to another!

Looking further into the Trotters, I see there was a connection between Mortonhall and Kettleshiel. Helen and Keith Kelsall transcribed and published part of the diaries of George Home covering the years 1694-96. I quote from their notes on the Trotters:
"Although Mortonhall in Midlothian is an important Trotter seat, Alexander Trotter... was the new laird of Kettleshiel in Berwickshire, who succeeded his father in 1693 and lived in Charterhall, which with office houses was assessed for nine hearths.(.....) Some years after George Home died, this Alexander married a daughter of Sir Robert Steuart, 1st baronet of Allanbank. Another member of this branch of the family.... is Dr Trotter, who was to marry George Home's sister Julian in 1698."

[Sunlaws]

(Previous post continued)
George Home wrote on 17th March 1696:
"Sr Jo: Home Sr Ro: Stuart & I came to Charterhall to Kettleshiles house young Kettleshile has been ill of the Gravell and past a stone"
(I hope your genetic inheritance from Alexander Trotter doesn't include kidney stones!)
Sadly, Professor Kelsall (who died in 1996) did not transcribe further volumes of George Home's diaries, which continue to 1705, and are in the Scottish record Office, but they may contain further references to your ancestor.
Regards,
Lesley

[timpl]

What an excellent pair of replies, Lesley.  Many thanks.

I have managed to find a copy of the book for a reasonable price and ordered it.

Thanks for the thought but I have yet to get kidney stones, and I now have two ancestors who had this problem, the second being on my mother's side a hundred years after The Trotter incident.

Glad to hear there is still something left to look at in Kettleshiels.

I have been told that the Alexander Trotter who d. c.1702 married a daughter of a George Hume. Do you think this has any relevance to George Hume the diarist?

regards,

Tim Powys-Lybbe

[timpl]

I've been doing a little more hunting around and have found and ordered a CD called "Trotters of Prentonan" which covers many of the Trotter families of the Fogo area of Berwickshire.  This CD is obtainable from the Borders Family History Society and is listed on their catalogue on page 11, which is here <http://www.bordersfhs.org.uk/BordersFHS-SalesList.pdf>.

Tim