The Rodin, Rathven & Stonyfold, Rathven

[Forguette]

Mans would be Manse, and a bigging is a building. Usually one being/or just recently built.
 Although several seem to retain that, eg. 'New Bigging' as a name. The geograph link you sent, think the map on it had a bigging at Rathven.
For some reason, I have never been able to get the maps on nls to appear on screen, and the map search box doesn't interact with me. Tried many, many times, and settings, over the years. I know not why.

[Forguette]

I think entire would be entrie, no proof of that though.
Burnside is another poser, in the births alone, there is Burnside... of Buckie, of Rathven, of Tynet, of Arradoul, of Walkerdales, and just Burnside.

[Forfarian]

Mans would be Manse

I don't think so, in this context. 'A building on the Manse of Rathven' makes no sense at all, but 'a building on the Mains of Rathven' makes perfect sense.

There are dozens of places called Burnside. I think that originally all of them would have been 'Burnside of xxxx', but in many cases the 'of xxx' has disappeared over time, but without knowing what xxx was there is no chance of pinpointing which one it was.

[Fordyce]

Yes, "entry" makes entire sense.

Help again please! My Clarks (see my original post) came from Mains of Buckie. Is Mains of Rathven a different place? There are these confusing adjacent entries in Farm Horse Tax Rolls for 1797/8
- James Bennet Mains Buckie 1 horse
- James Bennet Mains Rathven 2 horse
- James Burges Mains Rathven 1 horse
I know it's long after. And I think I remember looking into once before, but I cannot find any details.
I have innumerable references to Mains of Buckie (my Clarks). The OPR has several references to the Manse of Rathven (e.g. 1786 and 1796), some for a Miss Ann Grant, and only one for Mains of Rathven - for the same Miss Anne Grant! It looks as though I should conclude that 'Mans of Rathven' is 'Manse of Rathven'.

So, to quote Cramond again, "...Mr Wm Scrogie to have the other half [of the corn on the glebe], and the whole beggin on the mans sall be mortified to the use of the Kirk in all tyme coming." He had taken over from Mr John Logie, and it seems he had taken over "the croft pertaining to the vicarage" in 1627. The "mans and gleib" is written in 1580, being part of "the haill vicarage of Rathven".

The buildings on the 'Mans of Rathven' are described on 11 Sep 1649 and again on 26 Sep 1650. The former starts with "A sklait house, watertight, a laighe hall, a double dor, five windows, whereof one is glasse....". The whole place was decrepit; kitching, barns, stable and byre are mentioned.

I'm sure I'm missing a lot, possibly some things very obvious, but even the contemporary locals seem confused as to its name: Manse or Mains.

I'm not going to get involved with multi-Burnsides! I tore my hair out once with multiple James Clarks from multiple Burnsides and I'm not doing it again! Not enough hair, for one.

[Forfarian]

Very confusing!

There were various Burges(s)/Bennet(t) marriages in Rathven in the late 18th/early 19th centuries, some of them Roman Catholic.

James Burgess in Thornybank (RC) was married to Elizabeth Bennett in New Mill (Protestant) in 1828 by the RC priest at Preshome. Their son William, baptised RC, became minister of the Church of Scotland at Ardallie near Old Deer in Aberdeenshire.

The minister of Rathven at the time was George Grant, who died in 1789. Miss Anne Grant might be his daughter Anna, born 1750, died 1791, except that she married John Wilson, so unless it was a very brief marriage indeed it can't be her - she would have been referred to as Mistress, not Miss, once she was married, or indeed before that if she was aged anything much over her mid-20s.

There doesn't seem to be a listing of Rev Grant in the horse tax rolls, but he is listed as having one female servant in 1777/1778. (I find it hard to believe that there were only 11 female and 6 male servants in the whole parish of Rathven!)

LIBINDX has references to Mains of Arradoul, Buckie, Cowfurach, Findochty, Gollachy, Oxhill, Rannas, Tannachy and Thornybank, but not Mains of Rathven.

[Forguette]

There is another ref to mains of Rathven 1792 Nov17 Elspet Stenson (Stevenson?) md Wm Forbes from Shore of Buckie.
Fordyce, I have to say, sorry, but I reckon your James Clark at Mains of Buckie, is the same James Clark from Burnside of Buckie. Moving to Mains shortly before his marriage. Birth witnesses is how I came to this conclusion.

[Forguette]

Stoneyfold makes a few mentions, different spellings each time. Stoniefold. Stonnyfold.

[Fordyce]

Forguette, thanks for your continuing interest.

My direct ancestor 5xgtgdfather James Clark in Mains of Buckie married Elspet Andrew. I have that he was born 1724 Burnside [of Buckie] s/o James Clark b c1690, but it's by no means certain this is my ancestor especially where for years many sources had had him, and still do, as b 1727 s/o John Clark & Margaret Robertson in Woodside of Rannes. There are in fact four or five contemporary James Clarks: in Burnside of Buckie, in Rannes then Woodside, in Arradoul, and in Freuchnie (then/and) in Hilton.

If you want a bevy of James Clarks, here's his baptism: "6-1-1724 : James, Lawll Son to James Clark & Janet Clark in Burnside was baptized witnesses James Clark in Woodside & James Clark in Arradoul." - Rathven OPR. I like to understand the relationship of the witnesses to the parents.

Anyway, that's not the issue. His father was James Clark who married first his cousin Janet Clark then secondly Isobel Geddes: this James Clark was in Burnside of Buckie throughout. That's settled as much as it will ever be.

But my research is earlier up the Janet Clark line as well as earlier up the James Clark line, along both of which is where you hit multiple James Clarks. One such being James Clark in Arradoul (I have deemed him the witness in 1724) who married Isobel Ritchie abt 1706 (she died in Stonyfold); they had a son James Clark in Arradoul and/or Stonyfold and/or the Rodin who had the illeg child James Clark.

The Rathven OPR is easy to search - http://charlesflett.co.uk/genealogy.htm
I have downloaded each transcribed segment and combined them into one searchable file.
I am fortunate in also having a complete set of photos of the actual microfilm so I can verify the transcription. (No, I am not offering lookups - use ScotlandsPeople!)
So I probably have harvested every occurrence of Stonyfold and variations.

Forfarian, thought you might follow that up! Everything does seem to point towards Manse rather than Mains.

To sum up, I'm going to have to accept for the moment that Rodin/Rodden is the prior name that persisted occasionally for what became the Manse of Rathven (plus glebe) and whatever dwellings there were associated with it, and that the couple James Clark (being son of James Clark a heritor in Arradoul and a Kirk Elder & Isobel Ritchie) & Jean Watson were in Arradoul at the time of their illeg child's birth and baptism in 1732. Jean Watson disappears (possibly with the child) and James Clark marries Margaret Green in 1734. Full of holes, but where would we be if we ever completed our research?

[Forguette]

Have you found this site? It's got a lot of background info on the area if you do a search on Rathven. Very interesting.
https://www.scalan.co.uk