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I don't see a problem with Macky as a variant of Mckay or Mackay. It's all in the pronunciation, and I don't see any reason why Macky could not be pronounced 'mac-EYE' the same as McKay and Mackay.

The thing is although my possible ancestor's, Barbara's, parish baptism is spelt Macky as with two other children of the family, the other four children have it spelt Mackie.  It also seems that the Mackie spelling was the correct one for the family because there are quite a few mentions of them in the Sinclair of Freswick Family Papers in the National Records of Scotland and they are all spelt Mackie, so it seems that that was the spelling/pronunciation that was intended. 

Ok, so there is a parish baptism record for a James Mckay, son of John Mckay in Forse in the parish of Thurso, Caithness.

As this is in the Thurso parish registers I am inclined to believe that the location mentioned as "Forse" is in fact "Forss" which is a place in the parish of Thurso and about 3 miles west of the town of Thurso itself.

However, there was another place actually called "Forse" in the county of Caithness but which was in the parish of Latheron and which was roughly over 20 miles south from Thurso.

Surely if it was recorded in the Thurso parish register it would actually be Forss in that parish and if it had been in the Forse in Latheron then it would have been recorded in that parish.

I know the spelling of place names in the parish registers varied a lot but there is a difference with the modern spelling of the two places.

Hi,

I am looking for the name of the wife of John Mckay/Mackay who was a merchant in Thurso, Caithness in the late 18th century. The following citation is from the book Caithness Family History (1884, p. 132) which says that he married one of the daughters of James Mackie an Excise officer and his wife Janet Sinclair:

3. William (Sinclair), physician in Thurso, who married, in 1742, Barbara, daughter of Robert Sinclair of Geise, and died in 1767. He had four sons and four daughters, all of whom died young except, first, Dr. William, afterwards of Freswick ; second, Janet, who married James Mackie, an officer of Excise, and had two sons, William and George, and several daughters. George attained the rank of Major- General in the Army, and had a large family of sons and daughters, and in 1826 resided in Caen, in Normandy. One of his sisters married John M'Kay, merchant in Thurso, and had issue. Third, Jane, the other surviving daughter of Dr. William Sinclair, married Allan Robertson of Tarrel, Captain in the 42d Regiment. He was afterwards in Wares, and had several sons and daughters.

I have found various mentions of this John Mackay, merchant in Thurso on the online catalog of the National Records of Scotland. Non of the catalog descriptions mention his wife. It is important to me to verify whether or not his wife was named Barbara as this would rule out the daughter named Barbara of James Mackie and Janet Sinclair as being my ancestor.

There are 10x baptism entries in the parish of Thurso for children of John Mackay and Jean Mackie, although I have not paid to view them yet so cannot confirm if it is John Mackay the merchant there.

Thanks,

Mike.

Hi all,

I have a possible lead that my 5th great-grandparents were James Mackay and Janet Sinclair who lived in and around Thurso, Caithness. It is looking like he was born in about 1754 according to army discharge records, but I think I have found her parish baptism record and it is dated 1743, making her 11 years older than him!

My second great-grandmother was two years older than her husband, but this one is stretching it a bit too far. I also had a 3rd great-grandad who it is confirmed was 19 years older than his wife, he being born in 1812 and she in 1831. However, it was normal in those days for the man to be a lot older than his wife, not the other way round.....

Is it even conceivable that a woman in those days would be 11 years older than her husband, with him being married to her at the minimum legal age of 14 ?

Hey, I do have other candidates for the parish baptism record for Janet Sinclair and still quite a few to look at. The baptism records for her and James Mackay's early children mostly say that they were living in the town of Thurso and the ones which do not, do not give a location. I have often found that couples moved to the woman's place of residence to have children in these times, so she may have been from the town.

The problem I've got is that I am pretty much certain about the dates for her husband James Mackay. I am pretty certain that after their last child was born in 1778 that he joined the British Army in the same year and served in the 76th Foot under the Earl of Caithness, before moving to other regiments. He discharged twice from the army, first in 1802 aged "about" 48, and secondly in 1814 aged "about 60". The two records both match up with ages and suggest that he was born in about 1754, which in turn means that he would have only been about 14 when his first child was born in 1768. I know this is less of a problem with men, but it is still a bit on the young side.

The other problem is that I am pretty sure I have the same James Mackay on rent records in the village of Armadale, with his "widow" being recorded in place of him from 1833 onwards. This would mean that he lived to about 79, which is fine, but his "widow" appears in the rent records until 1849. I know women generally live longer than men but this is stretching it a bit, especially in those days.

Although the 1768 OPR for their first child does not give their location in the parish of Thurso, it does give the witnesses as William Mackay of Kinloch, who I know died in Thurso in 1772, and Patrick Doul of Oldfield which is very close to the town of Thurso. The 1770 OPR for their second child does say that they were then living in the "town" of Thurso and the witnesses are William Sinclair and Helen Sinclair. I am just wondering if this William Sinclair was Janet's father as there is an OPR for a Janet Sinclair dated 1743, daughter of William Sinclair, also "in town". This would make her 25 when her first child was born in 1768 and 35 when her last child was born in 1778 which fits nicely, but does not account for the young age of her husband James Mackay as per the military records.

It also does not account for the rent records in the village of Armadale where I believe they lived at a later date, but I am now thinking that this could have been one of the sons named James born to James Mackay and Janet Sinclair.