Alexander Gregory - Help clarify Marriage and Occupation Please

[jeffery1_6]

I am desperately hoping someone may be able to help me solve a mystery:

I have found details of
          'Alexander Gregory Session Officer of Dunnottar had Joseph bapt 26 Oct 1800.'

Does anyone know what a Session Officer is please, and what he would have done?

I wondered if it had anything to do with the Law Courts of the time?

If it's the same Alexander Gregory I'm looking for, he had a daughter called Helen or Ellen born around 1809-11. On her marriage cert it says her father was a parish clerk. Perhaps he changed jobs?

Alexander the session officer and his family appears to disappear off the Dunnottar parish register after 1806. Helen (or Ellen) in the census returns says she was born in Aberdeen. 

I have found 2 marriages for Alexander Gregory and a Margaret Guthrie:

' 23 July 1796 Alexander Gregory in this parish and Margaret Guthrie in the parish of Old Machar gave in their name for the proclamation of their Banns in order to marriage and were married.'

There is also an IGI index for them marrying on 24th July 1796 in Old Machar, Aberdeen, but I haven't been able to see the entry for this one as the film is in Salt Lake City.

Is one of these likely to be the reading of Banns and the other the actual marriage?

It would seem likely that this might be the right family, especially if they moved back to Aberdeen?

Any help on any of my many quieries would be very much appreciated............

[Davmil]

Alexander Gregory born c 1761 Dunnottar, Kincardineshire was a son of George Gregory (farmer at Wester-Gallowtown, Dunnottar 1704-1788 & his wife Ann Duncan 1724 -1799.
Alexander married 23 Jul 1796 at Dunnottar to Margaret Guthrie, 5 children :- James Robert, Joseph, Janet & George. Alexander was a farmer at "Newtonleys" & "Uras"(or "Urras"),  Dunnottar.
His brother was (Rev, Dr) James Gregory b 1747 Dunnottar and died at Stonehaven 8 Sep 1829 and married my 4 x great aunt Annabella Milne 1752-1837. I am not aware of Alexander having a dtr Ellen/Helen.
Regards
David Milne

[jeffery1_6]

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post. Your information has been most useful 

Kind regards

[bleckie]

Hi

The link below will give details of session clerk

http://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/3133/session_clerk.pdf

Yours Aye
BruceL

[GR2]

The session officer, usually called the kirk officer, is not the same as the session clerk. The session clerk, usually the schoolmaster, kept the parish registers and session minutes. The session officer was paid much less. He attended meetings of the session and carried out their orders. He is the person later usually called the beadle.

[jeffery1_6]

Thank you all for taking the time to respond to my post….all feedback is most welcome and very helpful.

Just wish I could find me Alexander Gregory…he is proving very illusive! Any further help would be much appreciated

[MonicaL]

Hi 

Sometimes you get clues as to possible maternal and paternal grandparents' names from the names people used for their children. Particularly common with Scottish and Irish families and referred to as 'naming pattern'. Not always followed, or in strict order, but can throw up some clues - see www.halmyre.abel.co.uk/Family/naming.htm

If Helen was born in Aberdeen, the parish registers of this time very often simply named father and not mother. Do you know who John White's parents were? Have you got a list of John and Ellen's children from the time they married, particularly the early born children?

From 1851 (you have already kindly posted the refs and locations here www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=374008.0):

John White 42
Ellen White 41 b. Aberdeen
Agnes White 8
William White 6
John White 3

You have their marriage as being in Hornby, Yorkshire on 3rd June 1840. Were there more children not showing above who may have died young? Any surnames used as middle names for any of them?

Hard search for you 

Monica

[jeffery1_6]

Thank you for your response and link….very much appreciated.

John himself was born Fremington or Grinton, Yorkshire.

I believe John White's  parents were John White (b circa 1781) and Deborah Peacock (b circa 1781). His siblings were Agnes (b. 1802), Mary (b. 1804) and Ruth (b. 1806)

His grandparents were William White and Elinor Thwaits.

It may be that their children's names come from his side of the family?

I couldn't find anything to indicate that there had been earlier children who may have died, but obviously that's not to say there wasn't.

They didn't marry young - John (batchelor, 31, footman) and Helen (spinster, 29, laundry maid) married at St Mary's Church in Hornby on 3rd June 1840. Both were living in Hornby at the time of their marriage. His father, John was a husbandman. Her father, Alexander was a Parish clerk

Would so love to find a lead on this Scottish ancestry!