Peter SAWERS esq of Netherkirkton House - Looking for his Ancestors

[aspicer84]

It has been written in an article that Peter SAWERS was a great grandson of a SAWERS of St Ninians and married 4 times.  Id love to find out more about his parents and grandparents if someone would be kind enough to help!  Ive attached the newspaper article from 1859 after Peters death

[Ruskie]

Whoever wrote that isn't too sure of his facts is he?   
 
Is someone mentioned in this article an ancestor of yours? I am thinking that as the family appear to be wealthy, there are likely to be other records of them. Have you explored google, online trees etc. for clues?

The obvious thing to do it draw up the outline of a tree using what can be gleaned from the article, then look to Familysearch and Scotland's People for proof. I suppose it depends on how close these people are to you as to whether you will want to pay for the information you need from SP.

[aspicer84]

Ive put together a family tree on ancestry, and have purchased Peter's will from Scotlands people, along with death record that listed his parents as Margaret HAY and Robert SAWERS of Black Loch but thats as far as I can get it seems... hit brick wall!

[Ruskie]

The article names his mother as Margaret Kay. 

As Peter did not have any children you are obviously not descended from him. Who are you descended from?

[Ruskie]

I have only had a bit of a look so far, but I found mention of a John Sawers of St Ninians who died in 1809 aged 83 or 89 (difficult to read the numbers). Source: "Scots Magazine 1809". He might fit in somewhere.
 
It might also be worth considering misspellings of that surname.

[Ruskie]

What age was Peter when he died in 1859?

[Ruskie]

I found this in the index on SP:

SAWERS
PETER
ROBERT SAWERS/MARGARET HAY
M
25/07/1773
495/
10 296
Cumbernauld

Presumably it is the record of death that you have purchased. What is the date? 1773? Is this Peter's date of death? I thought he died in 1859 - or was that one of those articles written a lot later than the event, hence the vagueness of facts?

[aspicer84]

In Peters will he mentions his two Natural born sons Robert Gordon SAWERS and John Stevenson SAWERS, and daughter Isabella McFarlane SAWERS. Robert is my 2nd great grandfather. I’m not sure who Their mother was... Peter was around 80 Or 85 when he died in Nov 1859.

[Forfarian]

That index listing mentioned by Ruskie is a baptism. SP indexes 5 baptisms of children to Robert Sawers and Margaret Hay: unnamed child 1762 (tempting to think that this is his 'eldest brother' John, named in the newspaper article), Marion 1765, Robert 1768, James 1770, Peter 1773. Peter's death index says he was 86 when he died, which fits a baptism in 1773.

The 1851 census transcription lists at Nether Kirktonfield, Neilston a household headed by Peter Sawers, Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Linlithgow, Justice of the Peace, and bleacher employing 16 men, 33 women, 3 boys and 5 girls, born Dunbartonshire, Cumbernauld. It gives his age as 40, however, so I think if I were you I'd want to check the original to see if I agree that it is 40. The 1841 transcription says he was 45, which is also questionable.

As he owned land, the obvious source to look in is the Registers of Sasines. This is the record of changes of ownership of land in Scotland since the 16th or 17th century. They are mostly indexed, and they usually tell you the relationships of the people when there is a change of ownership. Neither the Registers nor the indexes are available online. You have to go to the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh (or get someone to go on your behalf) to view them.

I see that in the 1851 census Peter Sawers, 42, born New Monkland, was listed as the Free Church minister at Gargunnock.

The Scotsman has many articles referring to Rev Peter Sawers. The earliest of these relate to litigation between him and his brother Henry over the execution of their uncle's estate. Later on, Rev Peter Sawers was convicted of defrauding the North British Railway by tampering with the date on a railway ticket, and this led to a long series of litigation and proceedings both in court and at the Free Kirk Presbytery, Synod and General Assembly. Unfortunately the images available online are very poor and I was able to decipher only about a third of them. I did not find an obituary.

He seems to be the Peter Russell Sawers, aged 70, who died in Edinburgh Newington in 1885.