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Hi Jim,

Mine email was removed, too. Thank you moderator! Need to figure out how to PM you-will do.

Katy

OH my!

Why hadn't I thought that they could be the same couple??

And thank you so much for the will information! I'll look into that.Would be interesting as I have no information of their marriage or if their child Peter Bennet Marshall (the original) ever had any siblings.

Thank you so much!!

Thanks very much for your time and efforts, Forfarian, it will take me a bit to digest...

I looked again at the record for the Jan. 1, 1816 marriage for Robert Marshall in Bathgate.
It is a single column listing of male names with fees paid and is headed as "Proclamations".
No female names appear on the list, and the search I did also indicates that in Bathgate between 1814 and 1816 there were several Proclamations listed on January 1 of each year with no female name listed.
So, yes, you are correct, someone didn't like records keeping.

Peter Bennet Marshall's baptism listing has him "born of fornication" on Feb. 8, 1816 and baptized May 2, 1816 in Bathgate. I am assuming that the church pressured Robert to marry at the last minute, in the month before the child was born.

Thanks for the tip on the church minutes, now I have even more of a reason to go to Scotland, haha, not happening...

My feeling on the Slammanan Marshall/Arthur group is that they are a coincidental and parallel family with the same names. I have looked at that marriage registry and 2 of the children's birth registries, yes, it all takes place in Slamannan. THAT Robert and Jean were married in 1810 and I have constructed their family group. I can't invent an explanation for why Peter would be born in a different place, during the period the other children were being born in Slamannan, AND born of fornication. Unless Jean Arthur had an affair and everyone knew the child wasn't Robert's and so she had the baby in the town from Slamannan? I don't think so.

Jean Arthur was such a common name. I have found a death record for one from Bathgate in 1841, she was 46 and died of a fever. That would make this person 20 in 1816, which I assume would be a predictable(?) age to have a child born out of wedlock.

I have also found a mortcloth listing for a Jean Arthur in Torpichen from 3.24.1816. That would be a month and 2 weeks after the birth of the baby. The mortcloth is rented by a James Arthur. I did find a Robert Arthur and Elizabeth Bennet in Torpichen who had several children, starting in Torpichen and continuing in Bathgate. One of the children was named James, born in Torpichen in 1803. Another was named Jannet (Jean?), born in Torpichen in 1796. This could be an explanation for the lack of siblings for Peter Bennet Marshall, and an explanation as to why he may have been living with his uncle in the 1841 census.

And the family I have found for Robert Marshall-father's name Pitter-he would name his only son Peter-had a Thomas born in 1795. Hm, the ages of the Thomas listed on the 1841 and 1851 census don't make sense in any way.

I guess the church records would be the key.
Thanks very much again!
Lilliancat

Hi Loobylooayr,

Thanks so much for any help with all this.

Yes, I believe I did see that 1841 census awhile ago, the one listing a Pitter as living with Thomas Marshall's family, and I must reconsider it, thanks for bringing it to my attention. It may be very likely that something happened to Jean Arthur that prevented her from raising the child? I will go back and take a look at the family that I "selected" as most likely being Robert Marshall's, and see if he had a brother named Thomas.

One of the problem I am running into is that EVERYONE has such similar names.

Thanks so much again!
Lilliancat

Of course, you are correct as well. I only just became aware of the fact that the Armagh evaluation was done in 1864. Previous to learning that I had assumed the James Little in Roughan was Alexander's father. I don"t know how long the tenant farmer leases were, perhaps the Littles weren't farmers and were only laborers on farms, in which case there would be no record of them, I suppose.

Upon emigration to Scotland they are swept into the mining and ship building trades, which don't really seem to be vehicles to economic freedom. The pattern of the names remains consistent, with James and Alexanders repeating over and over every 30 years until the last Alexander is rumored to have been living as a hermit in a field in Bailleston, Scotland and becomes untraceable. His father, the last James, flees back to Ireland (Liminary, Ballymena) after some tragic circumstances in Glasgow and more than likely expires in a haze of alcohol.

I'm assuming the Littles weren't in Ireland long, I have found an Alexander Little, father of Alexander and James Little (b.1769) from Saltcoats, Ayrshire, right on the coast. He is a Couper, a dealer of horses and cattle. If the elder child Alexander inherited his father's estate, it would make sense for James to take some livestock and rent some cheap farmland 13 miles across the water.

I'm aware this approach to genealogy reeks of a "made for TV" mini series.