RootsChat.Com

I have been extremely fortunate to have been able to follow one particular line of my family back to my 3x great-grandfather, James Glasgow.  This is in spite of me going down a couple of blind alleys in the past, following the wrong people with the same name.  I now have the evidence, I think, in the form of statutory, OPR and census records to be pretty sure I’m on the right track.

James, my 3x great-grandfather, was born 1 Jun 1799 at Kilbirnie Ayrshire, and baptised on 8 Jul 1799.  He lived and worked as a Cot HLW (a weaver) in one of Kilbirnie’s cotton mills, and he died in the town on 25 Oct 1862.  His OPR birth record states that he was the “natural son of James Glasgow at Nether Miln and Ann Houston at Newton”.  (I presume that ‘Newton’ refers here to Newton Street, Kilbirnie, as it often does in old documents, rather than the settlement at Ayr).

I suspect but cannot prove at the moment that Ann Houston is the person described in the 1841 Kilbirnie census as:

   Ann Houston   65   Montgomeriestone Street   b. Ayrshire,

and in the OPR death record as ‘an old woman’ at Montgomerieston, who died 19 May 1845.  She was probably born either in 1763 (parents: William Houston, Jean Barr) or in 1765 (parents: James Houston, Marion Burns), both at Kilbirnie, although this would make her about 76-78 at the 1841 census, not 65; and it would make her 80-82 when she died.  This isn’t inconceivable, given the description of her as an old woman in the death record. 

However, I’m unable to fathom out exactly who James’s father, James Glasgow Snr, was.  The 1799 OPR birth record gives no occupation for the father, unfortunately.  SP shows birth records for 18 James Glasgows born between 1730 and 1790, but only four in Ayrshire.  Two were at Kilwinning (1736 and 1750), one at Irvine (1744) and one at Kilbirnie (1750).  The rest were born in Glasgow, Midlothian and the Borders.

What’s interesting about the Kilbirnie birth is that this James Glasgow is a son of Dr Robert Glasgow, the Kilbirnie surgeon, and Margaret Allen; and he is a grandson of Rev John Glasgow, minister of Kilbirnie Auld Kirk.  The Glasgow family’s property at Padvenholm adjoined Nether Mill/Miln, so he is a possible candidate.  But strangely in view of the prominence of his forbears, I can’t find any information about him that would help to eliminate him from my search – or not.  The Kilwinning birth in 1736 seems a little too early but the 1750 Kilwinning one and the 1744 Irvine birth are both plausible, as the settlements are not too far away from Kilbirnie and the father would be just 48-55 years old in 1798-99.

I just don’t know where to go from here to find James Glasgow Snr, so I’m hoping that maybe a fresh pair of eyes can suggest new ways to progress this.

Iandj

I am wondering if anyone knows where Dreybulls is in Kilbirnie.

I have an OPR marriage record for Kilbirnie parish from ScotlandsPeople showing that “Gavin Riddet at Bridge married Agness Logan at Dreybulls” on 23 June 1793.  Gavin Riddet is my 4 x great-grandfather.  According to the OPR birth and death records, he was born in Kilbirnie in 1760 and died there, “a cotton spinner and an old man”, in 1839. 

I thought I had also placed Agness Logan too, but I fear I went off on the wrong track by identifying the wrong Agness.  So I am finding clues about Agness hard to track down at present.  Her Dreybull place, as indicated in the marriage record, is the only firm evidence I have so far.

Strangely, Dreybulls doesn’t show up in Scotlands Places at all.  I have also googled Dreybulls and the only web references I can find to this place indicate that some members of the Whiteford family of Kilbirnie were living there around 1810.

So what kind of place is Dreybulls?  Could it be a street?  A farmstead?  A hamlet?  Or maybe simply a house? Any help would be appreciated.

Ian