Author Topic: Birkenburn Farm , Keith  (Read 15216 times)

Offline NancyMacJ

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Re: Birkenburn Farm , Keith
« Reply #18 on: Tuesday 25 June 13 19:39 BST (UK) »
Thank you for the map - I'll head back over to the cemetery on my way to Aberdeen to get a photo.  Thanks!
Macdonald - Baleshare, North Uist, Scotland
Stuart - Tomintoul
Bremner - Keith area

Offline Celeste Goulding

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Re: Birkenburn Farm , Keith
« Reply #19 on: Thursday 06 February 20 02:13 GMT (UK) »
I recently came across a reference to Birkenburn Farm in a Last Will and Testament document for William Stuart dated 1799.
William Stuart died 23 June 1800 at Fort St George, Madras, India.
In the 3 page document, he is described as an Assistant Surgeon and referred to as Dr William Stuart,  who is in the service of the Honourable East India Company. He requests his executors to sell his belongings and property, pay his servants wages, pay his debts, and then remit the rest of the money to his father John Stuart Esquire of Birkenburn, near Keith, North Britain.

I found this document on the Find My Past website:
British India Office Wills & Probate, William Stuart, Madras, 1799

Offline NancyMacJ

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Re: Birkenburn Farm , Keith
« Reply #20 on: Thursday 06 February 20 20:35 GMT (UK) »
Thank you for posting - quite fascinating.

My ancestor James Macdonald (1799-1847) of North Uist married a local Keith girl Margaret Bremner (1806-1871)and left her a widow in 1847 with 5 children, including a son Robert Graham Macdonald born 1844 at Birkenburn according to a family bible. He was apparently named after the local secessionist minister Robert Graham. My assumption is the family were members of the Secessionist Church in Keith as none of the 5 children have birth records.

The Stuart name is prominent in my family history although I am not descended from any Stuart. Margaret Bremner's sister Elspet Bremner married John Stuart and she and her husband emigrated to Ontario, Canada before 1850. John Stuart founded Ingersoll Mills and made oatmeal. His son Robert (1851-1926) later founded Quaker Oats and was a first cousin to my great great grandfather Angus Macdonald MD (1836-1886) (see Wikipedia) through the Bremner sisters. Angus' sons, my great grandfather Robert John Macdonald and his brother George Macdonald, emigrated to the US in the 1890's to work for Quaker Oats. George Macdonald married his 2nd cousin Margaret Stuart, the daughter of Robert Stuart. My grandfather Ewen Macdonald also worked for Quaker Oats.

The known Stuart family progenitor Robert Stuart (1767-1852) was a retired Army pensioner and was born in Rothiemurchus, Inverness and died in Dufftown, Banffshire. His wife's surname was also Stuart, Christian (Stuart) Stuart died in Ingersoll, Ontario in 1874. Her birth family appear to be from near Dufftown, Banffshire, but moved to Tomintoul, Kirkmichael, Banffshire before she was born.

Stuart is as common in Scotland as Smith is in the US. I'll try to see if Dr William Stuart son of John Stuart of Birkenburn is related somehow. May be a needle in the haystack, but worth a try.

Thanks again,
Nancy Macdonald Jordan
Houston, TX





Macdonald - Baleshare, North Uist, Scotland
Stuart - Tomintoul
Bremner - Keith area

Online Forfarian

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Re: Birkenburn Farm , Keith
« Reply #21 on: Thursday 06 February 20 22:17 GMT (UK) »
LIBINDX has references to James McDonald and Margaret Bremner. Their names are on a gravestone in Botriphnie Kirkyard.

James McDonald died 6 December 1847 at Blackhillock, Keith, aged 48.
Margaret Bremner or McDonald died 27 December 1871 at Keith, aged 65. You can download an image of her death certificate at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk. It should tell you the full names of both her parents including her mother's maiden surname.
Their son John died 28 October 1869 at Llanberis, North Wales, aged 22. His death was registered in Carnarvon but there's not much point getting a copy as English and Welsh death certificates don't include information about the deceased's parents.
The same stone mentions James Gordon, died 18 September 1867 at Insch, aged 44. His death certificate might explain why he is on the same stone.

I am not sure if the family at Croftgibb, Grange in 1851 is them; There are Margaret, aged 44, widow, pauper, born Keith; daughter Betty, 12, born Aberdeen; sons Robert, 6 and John, 3, both born in Keith. As Margaret is described as a pauper there should be something about her in the Keith Parochial Board records.

In 1841 there are two households listed at Birkenburn: one headed by James Jack, farmer, aged 45 and the other occupied by 4 farm labourers, so it's probably the bothy.

The only M(a)cDonald in the same or the next enumeration district is a 15-year-old farm labourer named Hugh McDonald.

There is a Bremner family at Herickburn: William, 55; Elspet, 55; Jean, 15; Hellen, 12; and William, 7. Maybe this William is a brother of Margaret and Elspet?

Blackhillock is in the next enumeration district. It's on the opposite side of the main Keith to Huntly road. See https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=57.5239&lon=-2.9313&layers=6&b=1 and https://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/NJ4348

The 1865 valuation roll says that the proprietor of Birkenburn was the Earl of Seafield. The Seafield estate papers (some 2½ tons of them!) are in the National Records of Scotland, and I found in them a letter written by my umpteenth great-grandfather to the Earl's factor. According to the NRS catalogue there are writs of Birkenburn 1854-1933. See https://catalogue.nrscotland.gov.uk/nrsonlinecatalogue/search.aspx and search for catalogue references starting GD248.

Robert Graham was ordained minister of Keith United Associate Church in 1843, just after the Disruption in May 1843. However he had been elected in March 1843, before the Disruption, so his ordination had nothing to do with the Free Church, and there is a biography of him in Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae. Also a history of this congregation, which was Antiburgher. He resigned in 1847 and went into the Church of Scotland in Dundee then Abernyte. The easiest way to look up all this is through the General Index at http://www.ecclegen.com.
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.


Offline NancyMacJ

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Re: Birkenburn Farm , Keith
« Reply #22 on: Friday 07 February 20 01:41 GMT (UK) »
Thanks Forfarian,
I pretty much have all the information you wrote - I've actually been to Scotland 4 times in the last 20 years of studying it. Went to Botriphnie kirkyard and Grange Cross Roads where Margaret Bremner Macdonald lived at Croft Gibb after her husband's death. I think I've pretty much played out that line.

I was replying to someone who posted about a Dr William Stuart who died in India in 1800 and proceeds from his estate were sent to his father John Stuart of Birkenburn.

My questions were regarding these Stuarts of Birkenburn. Could they be related to the Stuarts who emigrated to Canada and the US and founded Quaker Oats?

I've also studied the Stuarts in America for 20 years so I know about them. Dr William Stuart is new to me and I do not know if he is related to the Stuarts of Quaker Oats. It's a common name in Scotland, so perhaps not.

Anyhow thanks for your assistance. Much appreciated.

Macdonald - Baleshare, North Uist, Scotland
Stuart - Tomintoul
Bremner - Keith area

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Re: Birkenburn Farm , Keith
« Reply #23 on: Friday 07 February 20 08:57 GMT (UK) »
I was replying to someone who posted about a Dr William Stuart who died in India in 1800 and proceeds from his estate were sent to his father John Stuart of Birkenburn.
There's a will of John Stuart esq, late of Birkenburn, thereafter feuar in Fife Keith, dated 4 April 1844.

Esq implies he owned land, and if so there should be something in the Registers of Sasines. LIBINDX has a reference to John Stuart, son of John Stuart of Birkenburn and Helen Anderson of Mudhouse, who sold Birkenburn to the Earl of Seafield in 1824 and died in Fife-Keith in 1837.

A John St*art was buried in Keith on 3 March 1844. I think he must be the John Stewart living in the Square, Fife-Keith in 1841, aged 70, with Jean, 60; Ann, 60 and Cathrine, 50, all born in Banffshire.

The 1851 census lists Jane Stuart, 76 with her sisters Ann Stuart, 73 and Cathrine Stuart, 69, all annuitants and all born in Keith.

Ann Stuart, daughter of John Stuart, Birkenburn, died in Keith in 1864. Her death certificate describes her father as 'Landed proprietor' and says he mother's maiden surname was Ann Stewart. An announcement in the Banffshire Journal confirms that she was a daughter of John Stuart, Birkenburn.

There are baptisms of children to John Stuart and ? Stuart in Keith
Patrick 5 June 1774
Jean 24 November 1776
Anna 24 July 1778
Katherine 5 August 1781
Elizabeth 16 July 1785
George 14 April 1791

There's a notice in the Aberdeen Journal in 1823 inviting anyone having claims against or debts due to the late Mr John Stuart, of Birkenburn, to submit them to Mr John Stuart, Birkenburn.

The death of Jane, eldest surviving daughter of the late John Stewart Esq of Birkenburn, was announced in the Elgin Courant on 5 December 1856.

Catherine Stuart, mother's maiden surname Stuart, died in Keith in 1868 aged 87.

An obituary of Alexander Kynoch says that his wife was Magdalen, daughter of James Stephen and granddaughter of John Stuart on Birkenburn. Magdalen Stephen, one of six children of James Stephen and Mary Stuart, was baptised in Keith on 7 May 1826.

So as well as the listed baptisms, there were at least two more children - John (d 1844), Mary (m John Stephen) and probably another, William, (d 1800 in India). Or could John S of Birkenburn have been married twice, first to Helen Anderson and then to Ann Stewart?

There are four baptisms of children to John St*art and Helen Anderson
John, 14 December 1764
William, 1 September 1767
Robert, October 1768
Alexander, 21 November 1769

There are numerous newspaper references to John Stuart of Birkenburn as a cattle breeder and dealer in the 1850s and 1860s. Also to a William Stuart, farmer, Mains of Birkenburn. However there don't seem to have been any Stuarts actually living at Birkenburn in any census. 

So, putting together information gleaned from a variety of sources, there seem to have been at least 5 John St*arts of Birkenburn
(1) born 1733, married Helen Anderson, died 1822
(2) married Ann Stewart
(2) son of (1) above, born 1764 and died 1837
(3) son of (2) above, died 29 February 1844, buried in Keith 1844 3 March, apparently unmarried
(4) cattle dealer after 1851

Unless (1) and (2) are the same person, and the 1837 death date is spurious .... so many questions, so few answers :(

At any rate, I think it's clear enough that the John Stuart who married Elspet Bremner and founded the Quaker Oats dynasty can't have been a Stuart of Birkenburn unless the connection was much further back.

Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.

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Re: Birkenburn Farm , Keith
« Reply #24 on: Friday 07 February 20 11:02 GMT (UK) »
Another snippet, from an item in the Banffshire Journal in 1869, quotes a monument in the kirk of Keith: Sacred to the memory of the Gordons and Stuarts of Birkenburn, 1845 - the first Gordon of Birkenburn, a son of Lesmore, in Rhynie, acquired the estate about 1550. The family failed in three co-heiresses about the middle of the last century. One married Mr Stuart, Minister of Drumblade; a sceond, Mr Milne, Minister of Inverkeithny; and the third, known as 'Lady Catherine Gordon', died in Fife-Keith. John Stuart, son of the Minister of Drumblade, sold Birkenburn to the Earl of Seafield, and erected the stone from which the above inscription is copied.

Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae has: John Stewart, born Lhanbryd 1700, son of Walter Stewart, minister of Lhanbryd; educated Marischal College; ordained to Lhanbryd 23rd March 1727; Called to Drumblade 24th September 1734; died 9 February 1743. He marr 10th August 1732 Magdalene (died 2nd May 1783), daughter of William Gordon of Birkenburn, and had issue: John (great-grandfather of Professor James Cooper DD); Jean; Mary; Magdalene.

SP has baptisms of James and Jean, children of John Stuart and Magdalen Gordon, in Keith on 5 May 1733.

Reverend Professor James Cooper DD (1846-1922) was the son of John Alexander Stephen and Ann Stephen or Cooper, who was the daughter of James Stephen and Mary Stuart or Stephen, the daughter of John Stuart of Birkenburn and Ann Stuart/Stewart.
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.

Offline hanes teulu

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Re: Birkenburn Farm , Keith
« Reply #25 on: Friday 07 February 20 13:50 GMT (UK) »
"A system of heraldry speculative and practical" - Alexander Nesbit, Edinburgh 1722

Chapter IV   "Of FOURFOOTED BEASTS     Page 317
Alexander Gordon of BIRKENBURN, descended of Lessmore, the first cadet of that family, carries as Lessmore, within a Bordure Argent, Crest;a Hart's Head couped, proper, charged with a Crescent Argent. Motto Bydand

Offline NancyMacJ

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Re: Birkenburn Farm , Keith
« Reply #26 on: Saturday 08 February 20 03:48 GMT (UK) »


At any rate, I think it's clear enough that the John Stuart who married Elspet Bremner and founded the Quaker Oats dynasty can't have been a Stuart of Birkenburn unless the connection was much further back.


[/quote]

Agree - not likely same Stuart family.

I just wonder why Margaret Bremner Macdonald gave birth to her 4th child at Birkenburn in 1844? Her husband (James Macdonald) died at Blackhillock in 1847 according to his gravestone. Blackhillock is a place name, while Birkenburn is a farm across the road. He may have died at the farm and they wrote Blackhillock on the gravestone as a place name. Who would they have known in 1844-1847 at Birkenburn Farm that would have given them refuge?

Thanks for your help.
Nancy Macdonald Jordan


Macdonald - Baleshare, North Uist, Scotland
Stuart - Tomintoul
Bremner - Keith area