Hullo - I just was pointed to this thread on shotts history facebook group, where I was asking about Shuttlehill cottages, also known as Fortissat Hill Head, located in the Hillhead Plantation marked in the old O.S. map.
William and Marion Scobbie lived there in 1841 (aged "70" and "75") and 1851 (in the latter they are recorded as unmarried siblings, and aged "88" & "95") were highly likely to be my relatives - Someone called John Scobbie was my 3x grandfather and he had a brother William, and they were all weavers. (It's possible they were first cousins or otherwise related, I suppose.) Assuming these were three siblings, their parents were Andrew Scobbie and Margaret Marshall, who I know to be the parents of John, my ancestor. The Scotlands Places namebook says the cottages were called 'shuttlehill' because it had been weavers who lived there. There was an Andrew Scobbie who had also been a weaver, and he died at Shuttlehill in 1828, so it all makes sense if that was the father and these were three siblings: Marion, William (5 years younger or so) and John, probably between them in age.
Marion died in 1851 in Shuttlehill (aged "87"). Someone called William who had been a weaver died in 1857 (aged "76") (and this William's parents' names were named as Andrew Scobbie and XXX Marshall). He died in Newhouse, but the death certificate says he was married, though no wife's name was given, and it also says that his son Andrew was present - this Andrew could not give his grandmother's first name, just the surname (Marshall) - so, some mismatches there (ages and marital statuses), hence this is not conclusive. I guess the William that lived with Marion at Shuttlehill in 1841 & 1851 was widowed, not unmarried. They also had a great-nephew John Cooper/Cowper living with them as a boy aged 12 in 1841 and a young man aged 21 in 1851 (coal miner). Perhaps I need to check who he is.
My 3x grandfather John Scobbie (circa 1779-1858) died in Newhouse, and he had a son called William, who was a farmer at Greenside Farm, Newhouse (which is still there). He also had a son called John and a son called George Hill (my 2x grandfather) and some other children. Of course it was his wife who did the hard work! She was Janet Robert/Rabbart.
Their son John was born 1802 and died 1875. This son died at Fortissat colliery - he was a coalmaster (along with his younger brother George Hill Scobbie, b. 1819, who also died in 1875). Together they leased some mining concessions at Fortissat / Shottsmyre / Threep Rigg, instead of farming and weaving. George Hill Scobbie's 21 year old son James Scobbie (my great grandfather) took on these businesses when his father and uncle died in 1875 - that's a whole other story.
Anyway, that's my interest in Shuttlehill - someone called James Dick has also got this genealogical line.
I've posted all this detail because I find it very confusing and I don't want to post something as conclusive online where there is in fact some assumptions in it. I hope I've corrected all the mistakes I made in drafting it.
In 1841, interestingly, a next door neighbour to William and Marion was a Marion Marshall aged 35, with three children aged under 10, surname Steele. She has no occupation. I wonder if she was a niece or great niece of Andrew Scobbie and Margaret Marshall.
