Robertsons and Stewarts

[bevj]

Hello all
Thanks to some great help in this thread http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=791766.0 I have found that my 5 x great grandmother was Elizabeth Robertson from Perth, born in 1779 to Robert Robertson and Elizabeth Stewart.
It looks like this is not going to be easy to follow up, since I understand that Robertson and Stewart (Stuart) are just about the most common surnames in Perthshire   
I have found some siblings for Elizabeth, all born in Perth:

Margaret    1768
Robert   1771
James   1774
Duncan   1777
William   1781.

So just maybe Robert's father was Robert and Elizabeth Stewart's parents were James and Margaret, but I have no idea if there are any earlier children around because I have no idea when they got married.
I have scoured the records I have been able to find, and can't find a marriage for Robert Robertson and Elizabeth Stewart (I also looked for variants such as Elspeth, Isobel, Isabella, etc.).  Well, not quite true, I did find one marriage in Perth, but it took place on 22nd December 1747 in Blair Atholl.  Even if the bride was very young at the time, I can't see how she could still be having children in 1781.  But I can't find any other possibility despite there being dozens and dozens of Robert Robertsons   
I've checked FreeReg (which has very few records for Perthshire), ScotlandsPeople and Archives.org, which has a very long list of old Perthshire records.   I'm new to this county and wonder if there's anywhere else to look.  And can anyone advise on how to unravel the Robertson and Stewart families, which seem to be like Perth's answer to Smith and Jones?

Many thanks in advance
Bev

[Rosinish]

Sorry I can't help with the names but I smiled when I saw your post & thought 'Oh Dear'! 

Can you confirm whether they were from Perth (City) or Perthshire please?

Annie

[Rosinish]

Were the children all baptised in the same place & did the baptisms give any clues as to which part of Perth they were living?

Annie

[bevj]

Hi Annie

Oh dear..... is it that bad?   
The records of the children all say 'Perth, Perth', from which I deduced that they were born in the city of Perth and not just in the county of Perth.
I see that there are various Robert Robertsons  having children in Blair Atholl, but these are all with different Stewart ladies. 
Thanks for your interest

Bev

[Rosinish]

Yes, it's that bad with those names & many with same forenames as well as many Robertsons marrying Robertsons & ditto with Stewarts 

Just a pity they don't give areas in Perth 

Annie

[bevj]

Hello again Annie
I found some credits lying around so I have bought the image of my ancestor Elisabeth Robertson's baptism and it does throw a bit more light on the matter, though from what you have said, I don't know if it will help much!!

Perth, March 27th 1779,  Elisabeth Robertson, lawfully procreated betwixt Robert Robertson, fisher, and Elizabeth Stewart his spouse, and baptized March the 28th by the Revd. Mr. Baird, Minister at Collace Perth, March 29th 1779, was born.

So not Perth city, despite what the index said. 

Bev

[Rosinish]

Bev,

Being a 'Fisher' would be likely Robert Snr. fished on the River Tay.

Maybe a look on Scotlandsplaces site for Collace for something/anything?

There's plenty of Robertsons listed on SP for Collace i.e. I can't fathom why Elizabeth was under Perth rather than Collace which has it's own Parish on SP?

Do you know where the children were later when they married & died?

There's a Will (with no occ.) for 'a' Robert Robertson living in South Street, Perth (City/County), 10 credits maybe worth a look if you know where Robert Jnr. was later?

Robertson Robert 3/6/1825 residing in South Street of Perth, Perth Sheriff Court, SC49/31/3 which may be his son Robert & of course without viewing it's hard to tell & depending on his occ. as not everyone made wills?

Annie

[Throth]

a) Don't worry about the different spellings of wife's name.  The early registrar just seems to have adopted the French spelling (Stuart) with all Stewarts.

b) 1768, Robert is a labourer, so no gentry background here. 1771 he is described as workman. A fisher by 1774 and still in 1781 where it says "fisher in Perth'.

c) Later baptisms have no connection with Collace.  It just may be that the usual Minister was away and the Minister of Collace was standing in for him.

d) Have you gone through the Perth Burials which are on-line?

e) We see no obvious connection with Blair Atholl parish, but Dull parish has nearly as many Stewarts and Robertsons.  It is odd that there does not seem to be a marriage listed in Perth, but it may have been an irregular marriage in Edinburgh

Sorry that we can't be of greater help,

Throth (www.borenich.co.uk)

[bevj]

Many thanks for that information, Throth

I came to the same conclusion about the reference to Collace, that it's a red herring.  Elizabeth's baptism is the first one on the page, and all the children which follow are baptized by the Minister of Perth.  So as you say, it's very possible that the Minister of Collace was standing in for the day.  Also, I have searched the statistics for Collace and found that there were no fishermen in the village (OK, a bit later, in the 1790's, but one would think that maybe the father or one of the sons would still be a fisherman).
Similarly I have scoured ScotlandsPlaces but found no obvious reference to this family.

I've gone through the Perth burials but there are so many Robert Robertsons that, without knowing about how old Robert might have been, it's a pretty hopeless task.  and without knowing when he got married to Elizabeth Stewart, I don't know if there were more children  before the ones I have found (which makes it uncertain what the parents' names were).
They were obviously married somewhere!  I am wondering if the names have been badly transcribed in some record or other.

Oh well, I have got a lot further back with this branch of my tree than I ever thought I would be able to, and I still have to follow up Elizabeth's siblings, which should be fun 

Thanks again, I will keep looking and will let you know out of interest, if I do find anything out, though if you who are experts in the area can't, I don't hold out much hope of success.

(There are some more baptisms on the page I purchased from ScotlandsPeople which I am happy to forward to anyone researching the families:
Andrew Scott (John Scott/ Janet Laurence)
John Archer (Peter Archer / Margaret Gow)
James Honey (John Honey / Mary Scott)
John Constable (John Constable /Catherine McKinnon)

Best wishes and thanks again
Bev