I have just seen your post of three weeks ago and I am a member of the Murdoch family of Dalbeattie. I can also confirm that, like you, I have struggled with Alexander Murdoch, the baker, who just seems to vanish into thin air.
Ebenezer Murdoch (1761-1806) and his wife Grissel Riddick (1761-1834) had two sons. These were Samuel Lowden Murdoch (1784-1858), a master shoemaker who, with his wife, Jane Young (1787-1879) had 11 children, including the two youngest: Alexander Murdoch (1827-1868), a mariner who drowned in Hull Docks; and Charles Donaldson Murdoch (1829-1860), a master mariner who died at sea as Master of the brig Irongray which was lost on a voyage from Matanzas, Cuba to Great Britain at the end of 1860.
The second son of Ebenezer was Alexander Murdoch (1795/6-1830), who was also a master mariner. I have not been able to find any information about his death, but maybe he succumbed to the flu epidemic of 1830. He married Ann Copeland (or Copland or Coupland), the daughter of William Copeland, Merchant of Dalbeattie, in Edinburgh on 16 September 1822 and they had two children in Colvend with the same names as Samuel’s two youngest children, above. Charles Donaldson Murdoch was born in 1826. I have been unable to trace anything further about him and I presume that he died in infancy. This would fit with Samuel choosing the same name for his youngest son who was born three years later. Charles Donaldson was the well-respected miller and farmer of Barcloy Mill at Colvend and Samuel and his family lived at the Mill Cottage, which may have been owned by Charles Donaldson. When Charles Donaldson (the miller) died in in 1855, Samuel Murdoch was the informant and was present at the death.
And so to Alexander’s youngest son, yet another Alexander, who was born in 1830, four months after the death of his father. It is this Alexander who became a baker. In 1841, he was aged 11 and living with his mother and Margaret Gilson in Dalbeattie. In 1851, his mother Anne, was a pauper, mariner’s widow, born Edinburgh and living in Dumfries Road, Dalbeattie with her son, Alexander, 20, a journeyman baker. Here the trail goes cold and I have been unable to trace anything about Alexander Murdoch, the baker, or his mother, after 1851.
Unfortunately, this does not seem to throw much light onto your problem with Alexander Murdoch, the baker, born in Scotland about 1835. The discrepancy in date of birth between 1830 and 1835 does not necessarily rule out the possibility that these are one and the same person and it would partly answer my problem with the disappearance of ‘my’ Alexander from all Scottish records. I will try and research a bit more about the background of your ’Alexander’ to see if it throws up any other data to prove or disprove the possibility of a connection.
In a later post, you mention the Alexander Murdoch who drowned in Hull Docks . He was indeed married, to Isabella Dempster of Dunscore, Dumfries and they married in Bristol on 27 November 1859. They had two sons, Samuel Murdoch and William Dempster Murdoch. Following the rather unfortunate circumstances behind the death of Alexander, which you will be aware of from the coroner’s report, Isabella started a new life with her children in Guernsey. If you search Under Murdoch in Rootschat, you will see a post from me which outlines the development of that family which became prominent in Guernsey. I was seeking information on more recent events in that family, which I suspect may have died out last century. Although the post has had nearly 1000 hits, I only received one reply!
Let us hope that we can find find a new clue to resolve our joint quest to trace more information on an Alexander Murdoch, a baker, born in Scotland between 1830 and 1835. It would be great if we are looking for the same man, but equally intriguing if there turns out to be two of them.
John Murdoch
