Where was Kenneth Murchison born?

[Forfarian]

Kenneth Murchison was born in 1794, son of Kenneth Murchison, surgeon in the service of the East India Company and his wife Barbara Mackenzie. Kenneth Sr bought Tarradale House in Ross-shire in 1788, and everyone has assumed that Kenneth Jr and his elder brother Roderick were both born at Tarradale. Kenneth Sr died in Bath in 1796. Barbara remarried and eventually died in Bristol in 1836.

I found Kenneth Jr in the 1851 census, lodging in 21 Southwick Crescent, Paddington. In the same househol was his half-sister Frances, wife of General Martin White, whom I cannot find in the 1851 census. Nor can I find any of them in the 1841 census, which is not surprising as Kenneth Jr was Governor of Penang and Singapore, and Martin and Frances had twin daughters at the Cape of Good Hope in 1841.

Frances died in Tunbridge Wells in 1851, Kenneth Jr died in London in 1854, and Martin White died between 1851 and 1858, possibly in Bath in 1856, so the 1861 census can't help either.

The puzzling thing is that according to the census Kenneth Jr was born, not in the north of Scotland, but at Weymouth, Dorset.

Can this be true? Or has the enumerator perhaps made an error, missing out Frances' husband's name, age etc, but putting his birthplace against his half-brother-in-law?

How might I find either a baptism of Kenneth Murchison or a baptism of Martin White in the Dorset records?

[groom]

FamilySearch has this

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NB21-HY5


Kenneth Marchison
Christening  :  1794
MELCOMBE-REGIS, DORSET, ENGLAND
Father: Kenneth Marchison
Mother :  Barbara

[Forfarian]

Thank you, groom.

I did look at FamilySearch but for some reason it did not produce that listing. Strange.

[Forfarian]

Have no found some newspaper announcements of the death in Bath on 18 July 1856 of Lieutenant-General Martin White, in his 90th year. So he was born about 1796. I note that one of the announcements was in the Leeds Mercury so he may have had Yorkshire connections.

[groom]

Have no found some newspaper announcements of the death in Bath on 18 July 1856 of Lieutenant-General Martin White, in his 90th year. So he was born about 1796

Is that a typo? If he died in 1856 aged 90, he was born about 1766.

[nanny jan]

Hi,

Dorset OPC has the baptism:

http://www.opcdorset.org/WeymouthMelcombeFiles/MelcombeSM-Baps1791-1800.htm

Scroll down to 15 June 1794


Nanny Jan

[Forfarian]

Have no found some newspaper announcements of the death in Bath on 18 July 1856 of Lieutenant-General Martin White, in his 90th year. So he was born about 1796

Is that a typo? If he died in 1856 aged 90, he was born about 1766.

It is indeed a typo. I have written down 1766. Apologies.

[groom]

Have you got access to Ancestry as his will is on there - nearly two pages?

[Forfarian]

Dorset OPC has the baptism:

Thank you, nanny jan, that is great.