Mowat Westerdale

[nikitah]

Love it see yo there then. Nikitah 

[spittalhill]

Neil Mackay not related as far as I know, Nikitah. There were Mackays at Strathmore, however. One was a gamekeeper in my time living in Spittal in the 1940s/50s.

[nikitah]

Oh well worth a try, Roderick Ross was  also a Gamekeeper, his son Donald trained as a bootmaker with John Sinclair at Westerdale, later moved to Reiss and had his own business there the building still stands and belongs to some of his descendants Many thanks, Nikitah.

[johnnyleech]

It appears to me that Mowat is about as common as a surname in Scotland as Smith is in England.Correct me if I am wrong but it seems that there have been two different groups of Mowat settlements in Scotland,one by the Vikings and the other by the Normans coming up from the south.These are the Mowats that I am related to.They were in the Canisbay and Freswick area.

[nikitah]

Hello, johnyleech, thanks for your interest, it's a long time since I've been here, I'll have to put my thinking cap on. If I remember rightly all the Mowats are said to have come from Wales then settled around Aberdeen before spreading to Northern Scotland, I've not made a connection with your Mowat's but neither have I  got any further back than John and Isabella. My husbands Grandmother always maintained they were descendants of the Vikings, but which branch I've no idea. If you find anything else I'd be very interested, Many thanks Nikitah.

[Scottish Janealogy]

This may be irrelevant but could be worth bearing in mind.  The Rev James Bremner, minister of Walls and Flotta, in the Old Statistical Account (1790s),  states that the population of the parish had increased by 71 between 1788 and 1794 "what accounts for this increase of 71 is, the settlement of a colony of Highlanders who had been forced to emigrate from Strathnaven [sic] where their farms were converted into sheep pasture."  See http://stat-acc-scot.edina.ac.uk/link/1791-99/Orkney/Walls%20and%20Flotta/ (select the non-subscribers link on the first page)

If people came to Orkney, some probably went elsewhere too. I have vague plans to look at the group who came to Walls - some day.

This link may also be useful for background: http://www.strathnavermuseum.org.uk/genealogy/

[nikitah]

Thank you,Scottish Janealogy and many  thanks  for the links. I live in hope that some day something will come to light. Alistair Phillips and Uncle George have caused a lot of sleepless nights. We visited Strathnaver a few years ago, a wonderful experience, sadly we never got to the museum, who knows, maybe some day we will get there. Take care, Nikitah