Cutcheon or McCutcheon? Scotland or Ireland?

[Brutushedge]

I have been trying to trace details of Samuel Cutcheon, who was married to my 2nd great aunt, Levinia Banton. There are several changes between using Cutcheon and McCutcheon, as well as places of birth changing from Scotland to Ireland. I wondered if anyone else had encountered similar changes, and if there was any reason that these might be conscious changes by the individuals? Here are the details I have so far:

March 25, 1868: marriage of James Banton (my 2x great grandfather) to Martha Windus in Manchester. Witnesses are Livinia and Samuel CUTCHEON. Both use signatures rather than marks. Livinia (also spelt Levinia and Lavinia) is James Banton's sister.
Sure enough, I have found Samuel CUTCHEON marries Lavinia Banton in Hull, June 1859.
1861 census: Newton Heath, Lancs. Samuel is a stone mason, gives birth place as Scotland, uses name CUTCHEON.
1871 census: Newton Heath, Lancs. Samuel is stone mason, gives birth place as Glasgow, uses name McCUTCHEON (having signed his name CUTCHEON on marriage certificate in 1868).
1881 census: Clee with Weelsby, Lincolnshire (both McCutcheon and Banton have connections with this area). Samuel still stone mason, gives birth place as IRELAND, uses name CUTCHEON.

Tracing the family back:
1841 census: Wigtownshire, Scotland. McCUTCHEON family listed: Thomas and Jane with children William, Samuel, Thomas, Jane and Charles. Transcript says Samuel born in IRELAND.
1851 census: Grimsby, Lincolnshire. McCUTCHEON family listed: Mother Jane and children William, Samuel and Thomas all born in IRELAND, Jane and Charles in SCOTLAND (plus Mary born in Lincs). William is a stone mason, and Samuel is mason's labourer.
Throughout the name McCUTCHEON is used.
ALSO: the same Jane McCutcheon (Samuel's mother) appears in the 1871 census, Clee in Lincolnshire, birthplace SCOTLAND (having given IRELAND in 1851).
In 1881, again in Clee, Jane gives birthplace as SCOTLAND
In 1891 in Clee, the birthplace is given as Grimsby (surely an error or a lie!)

I understand that mistakes and changes like this are often found in these records, but I wondered if anyone knew of any specific social or political reasons at this time why families might drop the Mc from a name (as with Samuel) or change a birth from Ireland to Scotland?
 Anyone encountered similar changes? Or am I looking into this too deeply?? Apologies for the length of this post!

[Elwyn Soutter]

The Mc & O’ prefixes to surnames in Ireland are detachable and it’s very common to see someone who is Rafferty in one set of records and O’Rafferty in another. Likewise for names beginning with Mc. Indeed many Irish genealogy search engines such as the 1901/1911 census on the nli site will automatically search for both options. So nothing odd about being McCutcheon one day and Cutcheon the next. It’s the same name, and the Mc just means you are son of. No subtle cultural reason for the change.

Regarding the change of place of birth, it appears that the family probably moved from Ireland to Scotland prior to the 1841 census. Some of the children were born in Scotland but Samuel was recorded as born in Ireland. I wonder if it is that he himself didn’t know where he was born, and for many years just assumed he was born in Scotland as most of his siblings seem to have been. Perhaps at some point he learned he was born in Ireland.  His parents appear to have given conflicting information about their children’s places of birth in the 1841 & 1851 censuses, so Samuel could be forgiven if he too didn’t know for certain where he was born. (No birth certificates in Ireland before 1864).  And I assume he would have been too young to remember living in Ireland. So he probably just gave his best guess, which varied with the passage of the years.

[JACK GEE]

A lot of movement between Scotland and Ireland has occurred over the centuries for family or socio-economic reasons.

cheers
Jack

[Brutushedge]

Thanks Jack and Elwyn.
Very useful information, particularly about the dropping of O' and Mc. It was the inconsistency that intrigued me, but I guess, as you say, that is human nature.

[Skoosh]

Trotter's "Galloway Gossip!" has this name as, MacHutcheon (real name), MaCutcheon (pronounced), Cutcheon (familiarly) Hutcheson (genteel wey!) 

Skoosh.

[Brutushedge]

Ha! Thanks Skoosh!
Must put "Galloway Gossip" on my Christmas list!

[Skoosh]

Long out of print BH but you might find a copy online! Very funny!

Skoosh.