Hi everyone!
Hope I'm not flogging a dead horse here, please forgive me, but even after all this time, I haven't been able to let this go!
I found this today:
http://www.rootschat.com/links/08kw/ and it's raised more questions for me than answers. It clearly says that this Dunnottar House should not be confused with the one demolished in 1959
Presuming the last paragraph in that link pertains to the
manse house, then perhaps the wedding of my great great grandparents at 'Dunnottar House' wasn't as grand as I first thought!! The last paragraph pertains to the land of Dunnottar House, including the farming land - this includes Upper Criggie and East Carmount, which is precisely where both sides of the family ancestors are to be found on the census, farming up to 121 acres.
To be precise, the wedding was that of William Duthie and Mary Turriff (my great great grandparents) in 1855. The marriage cert states they were married at the 'House of Dunnottar'. At the time of their marriage, Mary's father Alexander Turriff was a Farmer of 121 acres at Upper Criggie. At the time of the marriage, William was recorded as a Farm Servant at Criggie. The 1861 census has them at Criggie, and William as a Ploughman. In 1871 they have popped away to Fetteresso where William is an Ag Lab. They then return to East Carmount where William is recorded in the 1881 census as Farmer of 110 acres. Upon his death 10 years later, his personal estate was £524. I presume this would have been a lot of pennies in them days??
The reason that has reared it's head again is because I finally laid hands on a photo of my great grandparents, and in conversation with family it was brought up that great granny had been brought up 'well heeled' rather than as just a country farmer's daughter. Of course this made me hark back to the wedding of her parents and gave me pause for thought that they were relatively well-to-do!
Lass x
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(on both counts, the scenery and Freddie!)