I only know of one John Welsh born in Hawick in 1865 and he was the son of Robert Welsh, woolsorter, and his 1st wife Margaret Wilson (m.1865). By the time Robert Welsh married his 2nd wife Margaret Chisholm in 1871, he was a confectioner.
Robert Welsh was the son of Thomas Welsh, woolsorter, and his 2nd wife Jane Kedie (the widow of a man called Bell). Thomas Welsh was previously married to Betty Lamb. I'm afraid there are lots of widows and widowers and second marriages in this story.
Thomas Welsh, born in 1807, had an older sister called Martha Welsh born in 1803 - my 3 x great-grandmother - and an older brother called Christopher Welsh born in 1800. There was a sister called Agnes born in 1796 or -97 (must check) but I don't know any more about her.
Their parents were Thomas Welsh and Jean Ballantyne, m.1795 in Glasgow. Jean was a "Residenter in Glasgow", and I think I may have succeeded in identifying her family in the Calton area of the city. Thomas Welsh was a soldier stationed in Glasgow with the 7th Regiment of Fencibles, also known as the Southern Fencibles or Hopetoun Fencibles. I believe he was born in Roxburghshire in 1775. After his regiment was disbanded he became a coachman to Gilbert Chisholm Esq. of Stirches, Hawick.
Much of my knowledge of Thomas Welsh was gleaned from the Wanted notice published in the Edinburgh Courant and Kelso Mail in July 1808, when the procurator-fiscal's office in Hawick was taking a keen interest in his whereabouts. At the Martinmas term (November) of 1807 he had been given his three months' wages in arrears and had promptly headed into the sunset, deserting his service and abandoning his wife and 4 children. The last sighting of him by someone who knew him was at Leith docks, with an unknown woman in tow, "seeking a passage for the North". His family were reduced to poverty overnight and had to beg the Wilton kirk-session for handouts. One stipulation was that Christopher, Martha and Thomas all had to be baptised at once, something their parents had neglected to do.
When I started researching my Welsh ancestors in Hawick several decades ago, before email became common and before Scotlandspeople, I discovered a lively little network of Welsh descendants who regularly corresponded with each other - by snail-mail, of course! They were all descended from the branch of the family that this Rootschat thread is concerned with, the one that goes back to Thomas Welsh and Jean Ballantyne's youngest son Thomas (b.1807). I was included in their correspondence by a descendant in Tamworth, Staffs., and I learned a lot about that branch, and told them about my discoveries. I think that Robert Welsh the confectioner - I have at least one photo of him - became a respected member of Hawick society and I believe there was a church connection. Must rummage through my old notes. And I know that an American descendant, Irene Welsh, became an opera singer but made the mistake of going to Berlin in 1914 to study singing, and was detained for the duration of WWI as an enemy alien. Well, from the time that the USA entered the war, I suppose. She finished up as a cinema usherette back in the States.
Mustn't rattle on too much here - I'll just mention that I was contacted out of the blue years ago by a descendant of the eldest of the 4 siblings, Christopher Welsh, and he turned out to be a deputy headmaster whose office in Edinburgh was just a few hundred yards from mine. Christopher Welsh became a coachman like his ne'er-do-well father.
I'll be glad to answer any questions, but I don't know anything about your John Welsh and his life in Northumberland.
Harry Watson
(Edinburgh)
