Speymouth is the estuary of the River Spey with the parish of Speymouth on one side and the parish of Bellie on the other.
News to me, and I live in Bellie
In 18th and 19th century terms, Speymouth would be interpreted as the parish on the west bank of the Spey. It would not include anything on the east bank. This is not to say that people born in Speymouth were never baptised in Bellie (or Urquhart or Dipple, the other neighbouring parishes), especially if they did not happen to belong to the Church of Scotland.
Scotlands People have a baptism of a John Stewart in Bellie, 20th May 1784, to parents Robert Stewart and Margt McKay. There are 3 other children to these parents on SP:
Robert Stewart - 21st Dec 1786 - Robert Stewart & Margt McKay - Bellie, Moray
Alexander Stuart - 24th July 1789 - Robert Stuart & Margaret McKay - Rathven, Banff (next door parish)
Jannet Stuart - 12th August 1792 - Robert Stuart & Margaret McKay - Rathven, Banff
Noting that two of these children were baptised in Bellie and two in Rathven immediately makes me wonder whether they belonged to the curious little
quoad sacra parish of Enzie, which was partly in Rathven and partly in Bellie, and seems to have had slightly fluid boundaries. It was only formalised as a parish in 1836, but its church was built in 1785. I've come across 18th and early 19th century records of people who seemed to be alternately in Rathven and Bellie. Things are further complicated because Bellie had an Episcopalian congregation, and the large proportion in Enzie were Roman Catholic*. The surviving Pisky and RC registers are indexed in LIBINDX.
*It is said that there were more Roman Catholics in the Enzie in 1801 than in the City of Glasgow.
Just thoughts, but might be worth checking this family out on SP to see if there are any clues in the registers.
Absolutely agree.
