DILDARG anyone?

[Anna Moir]

Is anyone else researching this name in the Lethnot & Navar/Edzell area in the 1700s? DILDARG appears to have become DUNDAS by the 1830s, so I'm also interested in any theories as to why the name change.

 My ancestor was Elizabeth DILDARG (later DUNDAS) who married Peter/Patrick STOOL/STEEL circa 1747. They produced a few children in Lethnot & Navar before moving to Menmuir.

I'm particularly interested in John Dildarg, school teacher in Fern between 1762 and 1799, and who was married to Rachel Spark.

Robyn

[Rescobee]

Hi - - not sure how old your message is.

I have encountered the Dundass/Dildarg surname many times and can't provide an answer. In all my genealogy research, over 15 years now, I have never come across Dildarg again. My connection is with the STEEL's, who are my direct ancestors. David Steele married Elizabeth Dildarg in Menmuir in 1770. Scotlands People lists 5 children born to them in Lethnot and Navar. They are

1776 Isabel Mother's name Dildarg
1780 Joseph  Mother's name Dildarg
1783 John  Mother's name Dildarg
1788 James  Mother's name Dundass
1791 William  Mother's Name Dundass

[Forfarian]

Intriguing indeed.

G F Black's The Surnames of Scotland says that it is of local origin from old lands of the name in Angus, and the eariest reference to it dates from 1656 in Brechin.

Using the 'quick Search' on Scotland's People for D*ld*rg produces 63 baptisms, 21 banns and 7 burials, all of which are in Angus except two of the banns, one of which is in Marykirk and the other in Colinton. There are no post-1855 records and no census records.

Five of the baptisms are one family, in Forfar between 1827 and 1835, but there are no others later than 1800. The last marriage is in 1852 - one of the Forfar family - and there are three other banns and one burial after 1800.

The 19C Forfar family is in the 1841 census as Dargie (two transcriptions agree) and the widowed wife and one daughter are still there in 1851. The daughter's banns are the very last ever record of the surname.

So at least one lot of Dildargs can be accounted for by a change of name to Dargie, but it doesn't explain why the name seems to have become all but extinct by 1800.

[AlanBoyd]

In The history and traditions of the land of the Lindsays in Angus and Mearns, with notices of Alyth and Meigle by Jervise, Andrew (1853), linked below (at archive.org), there appears an item entitled:

Extracts from Petition and Complaint of Mr. George Tytler, Minister of Feme, to the Heritors of the Parish, against John Dildarg, Schoolmaster. –January 15, 1778.

The immediate cause of the quarrel between John Didarg and George Tytler  arose from Dildarg propagating the doctrine of the " unlawfulness of eating blood."

http://tinyurl.com/28n5ufc2

[AlanBoyd]

30 July 1896: Arbroath Herald

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN AULD CRUSIE
MEMORIES OF BYGONE DAYS
II
...
QUEER WORDS AND PHRASES.
There were words and phrases common in my youthful days that I do not hear now. Bauef was always used for beef, tawbuid for prison, a small window was a bole or bolie, buistie was a boy, &c., while the surnames of Jolly and Dundas were respectively Jillie and Dildarg. Arbroath was Arbroad. Here is a curious expression used to children when at meals –"say awa bairns, gar the wind strick upon strait leather; "the meaning of which was—"eat well, and let the wind blow upon a well-filled stomach.". "That's nae mows," was applied to something difficult of accomplishment; but all these words and sayings are fast disappearing from my memory.

I remember an old man of very considerable intelligence –a keen politician– who used to look in on a forenight, and whose sayings used to puzzle those gathered around the hearth. I can only now remember one or two of them—"A lawyer's ploo aye brings siller wi' the first fur;" "if thirty thrave of sheep loup the dyke hoo mony klues (hoofs) clatter." He was a very interesting old man, and related his reminiscences of the latter half of the last century to eager listeners. In politics he was an advanced Liberal having suffered somewhat from "cleanness of teeth" by the paternal Governments of these days.

[Forfarian]

Mr. George Tytler, Minister of Feme

George Tytler (1706-1785) was minister of the parish of Fe(a)rn(e) (not Feme) in Angus from 1745 to 1785.

One of his claims to farm, apparently, is that his son James (1745-1805) was the first person to ascend in a balloon, and also edited the bulk of the second edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica.

See https://archive.org/details/fastiecclesiaesc05scot/page/397/mode/1up?view=theater