Sophia KAY or KAYE, Blandford, Dorset, born around 1751

[LizzieL]

Timing sounds about right, but a wharfinger seems a long way from a Colonel.

Going back to the Scottish Colonel John Kay, his will is available from the National Archive for a small fee.

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D320119

[LizzieL]

Just found will on Ancestry. No mention of a daughter Sophia, in fact I can't see any mention of any children of his own or a wife.

[ndmhine]

I found all sorts of references to the Lt Col John Kay who was in the 12th regiment of foot, but I have nothing at all to indicate that this could be the same person who was the father of Sophia.

He must have enlisted in the army around 1756 and eventually rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the 12th Regiment of Foot. He was wounded at the battle of Minden in 1759 and was commended in some way.

Wounding at Minden: https://archive.org/stream/recordoftwentyfi00canniala/recordoftwentyfi00canniala_djvu.txt
Promotion to Lieutenant: http://search.findmypast.co.uk/bna/ViewArticle?id=BL%2F0000545%2F17680801%2F015%2F0055&browse=true
Promotion to Brevet Major: http://search.findmypast.co.uk/bna/viewarticle?id=bl%2f0000554%2f17801127%2f016
Promotion to Major: http://search.findmypast.co.uk/bna/viewarticle?id=bl%2f0000045%2f17860621%2f003
Discussion of his acquiring Glenboig: https://archive.org/stream/strathendrickits00smit/strathendrickits00smit_djvu.txt

MIDDLE GLENBOIG alias GLENBOIG CUNNINGHAME.
"... The successive proprietors of Elizabeth Adam's half were John Buchanan, her son, and Andrew Buchanan, her grandson; the latter sold it to Peter Spiers in 1792, and he almost immediately disposed of it to Lieut.-Colonel John Kay. Margaret Adam's half was, in 1723, in possession of John Adam, who, by his wife, Margaret Kay, had at least three sons : Robert, Alexander, and Andrew,
and a daughter, Helen, born in 1 728.2 They seem to have sold their share of it to William Kay; and his son, Lieut.-Colonel John Kay, was the next proprietor, and Middle Glenboig became reunited in him. In 1795 the Colonel disponed the property in favour of his nephew, Alexander Ure, merchant in Glasgow;"

I cannot find evidence of John Kay being stationed in Blandford, Dorset, in the 1770s, but there was a military camp there at the time, so it is not unlikely that if he had a daughter she might have come to know the son of local gentleman James Knight snr.




It's distinctly possible that the Fintry, Bermondsey and Blandford John Kay's are either all the same person or three different ones. Nothing to link any of them together except the names.

[LizzieL]

I think the Scottish Colonel Kaye is just a coincidence, I can't find anything to link him to Sophia either.
If the only evidence for Sophia's father is in a biography of her son written by a third party, there might be errors and the military connection confused with her husband's militia service.

What do we know about Sophia? She was a spinster, about 26 when she married and living in Blandford. We assume she is from the same social class as her husband. The marriage record refers to her as a sojourner, which I think means she had only been a resident of Blandford for a short time. The marriage was by licence - is that significant? She signed her name on the record as Kay without an "e".

[ndmhine]

Just wondering if I might bump this up in case it gets noticed by people with fresh eyes. There is an enduring mystery here as far as I'm concerned, that I wish I could solve.

Is Sophia Kay who married in Blandford in 1777 and died in 1820 aged ~69, daughter of "Colonel John Kay" the same one as born in Bermondsey to "John Kay, Wharfinger of Mill Street" and Rosa Hill who he married a year earlier and who died a few years later. Names and dates fit but locations don't.

I researched what a Wharfinger was and it was a reasonably high-status, literate profession with overall responsibility for a dock. Not inconsistent with later signing up as an army officer.

LizzieL: you summarised pretty much all I know about Sophia before her marriage there.