alexander mclaren my great, great, grandfather, buried in doune cemetery girvan, born 20 June at thornhill Perth1846
died 25 June1915 at cairnhill cottage dailly ayrshire
alex worked most of his later life at killochan castle as a gamekeeper
his son also alexander started his apprenticeship as a gamekeeper at the castle
i am trying to find (1) what was life like for a gamekeeper in the mid 1800's?
how much was he paid compared to other men, say working on the farm?
(2)when were shotgun license's issued?
(3)what would he do for money after he retired,? he would have to give up his tied house where would he live ,as with other retired people, perhaps no one retired they perhaps just kept on working.
alex
Alex
It won't give you a full answer, but you should establish the ownership of Killochan Casstle, - the Old and New Statistical Accounts may help you - see
http://edina.ac.uk/statacc/ , - if not try Groome's Gazetteer or Slater's Directory, or the 1872/73 listing of "Scottish Landowners and Heritages".
Assuming that you can establish that information, then check with Ayrshire Archives, - start with
http://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/libraries/localhistory.htm, - they may redirect you, and National Archives of Scotland on
http://www.nas.gov.uk/ , - there is also an index, not yet complete, at
http://www.dswebhosting.info/nas/, to see if there are any estate records extant, - the very best possible outcome would be to find that there are extant estate records and that they mention Alexander MCLAREN
A Google may help in terms of ownership, - see
http://www.ayrshirescotland.com/clans/cathcart.html for a start !. although it looks as if the castle building didn't exist at that time.
I'd have been very wrong in my guess as to ownership, as, around there the Kennedy's were
the major landowners.
As to your other questions, and I emphasize that I'm speculating, I doubt if it was necessary that early to have a licence for a shotgun, - only 12 police forces were established in Scotland before 1824, mostly in city/urban areas
(going off on a sidetrack, the claim that the London Metropolitan Police were the first police force in the UK to be established by statute is totally incorrect, - in England perhaps, but not the UK !!) and I doubt if it would have been necessary to have applied to the Sheriff.
If the house was "tied", - i.e. related to the employment, then it all depended on the estate owner, - a good one would let his retired employees stay on, a less-than-good one would evict them
In terms of general info on what life was like for such estate employees in that era I'd be disappointed if a good Google doesn't lead you to dome interesting and helpful sources.
If need further comments, don't hesitate to PM me !!
ibi
