the Wilsons were either part of the Gunn Clan or the Innis Clan and our Wilsons were part of the Gunn Clan as Abe Gunn can tell you.
I don't give a toss what some bloke I've never heard of called Abe Gunn says. I am looking at the facts as recorded in primary sources, and only those facts. Everything else is irrelevant.
All of the Hawick Wilsons know which Clan they belong to.
Balderdash. Most Lowland and Border Scots do not and never did belong to any historical clan, or if they do they don't care. There were and are probably millions of 'sons of William' out there who are descendants of Williams who had absolutely nothing to do with any clan. Some of them have undoubtedly been brainwashed by the brigadoon industry into believing that they belong to Clan Gunn or Clan Innes. Maybe even some of the canny folk of Hawick. Believing something doesn't make it a fact. Some people believe the Earth is flat or that Covid-19 is caused by 5g phobile networks.
So many irregularities in this Australian fairytale of epic proportion that need to be buttressed with so many explanations without documentation.
The documentation is there in those primary sources, and it is corroborated by the secondary sources: newspaper reports and the Hawick Word Book (which of course you have to dismiss because it doesn't contain your interpretation of the facts).
Be so kind as to note that in my summary I cited only the baptism record, marriage and death certificates, the census, the trade directories and Walter's own diary, all of which are primary sources recorded at the time of the event by the people concerned. There is no need for any other explanations, with or without documentation.
Multiple times I have found reference of BW as a 1st Cousin 5x removed to James Wilson, Economist but never have I seen it stated for what it MAY (on the 12th of never) be, illegitimate 1st Cousin 5x removed.
So? The fact that someone is illegitimate doesn't negate a cousinly connection.
Are we getting to the point now? That you just don't want to have to admit to illegitimacy in your family?
Illegitimacy was a fact of life in Scotland. The bulk of the records of most Kirk Sessions deals with the rather futile efforts of the Kirk to extirpate 'sin' in the form of extramarital fornication. After the first year of statutory registration, the authorities were horrified that the average rate of illegitimacy was 9.1%, and that in some rural counties it was more than double that. Don't take my word for that, of course. See
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-0289.1987.tb00419.x They were Quakers by now and wouldn't have associated with a bastard.
If Jessie had illegitimate half-brothers and half-sisters and if they are related as Brett claims but can not prove, Walter still would not have been associating with his bastard cousin (if Brett's Great Great Grandfather was actually the cousin of Sir James Glenny Wilson), Sir James Glenny Wilson because James was a Quaker with high moral standards from a family with high moral standards. They were Quakers that didn't believe in war, debt and being louses creating children out of wedlock - you follow me here? If you want to be louse, that's fine but you can't be both a louse and a Quaker being part of a Quaker family or be a Quaker and hang around louses. My family also made the Quaker Chapel in Hawick - so they were really into the Quaker lifestyle all the way.
And here I was, naïvely imagining that Quakers were gentle, forgiving and open-minded, not a bunch of narrow-minded bigots intent on visiting the sins of the parents on innocent children. Such an unChristian way of looking at things, don't you think? But thank you for putting me right about that.
Illegitimate children had to be brought up somewhere, and Walter says that he was brought up by his father, and that although he was born in England he was taken across the Border soon afterwards and never set foot again in England for 21 years. There is no reason to doubt what Walter himself recorded about his own life.
Facts are chiels that winna ding. Whether you like it or not, the primary sources show that Brett is descended from a bastard line of your Wilson family, and no amount of obfuscation or futile wool-pulling on your part is going to change that. Get over it.
