Redhill near Petty

[fetchmybeer]

Hello, all.  I am researching a descendant whose obituary (which can be found at her findagrave page  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10222682) states the following.

"The deceased ... was born in Nairn, Red Knock Shire, Scotland, in 1806 and was 92 years old the first of August."

Now the town and shire are obviously mixed up, and since it's an obituary, this was information relayed by surviving children or grandchildren several years after she left for Canada and eventually settled in the US. 

I tried to find a Red Knock with no luck in Nairn, but did find a Redhill (Knock apparently means hill) just outside of Petty, which I believe was part of Nairn in 1806 and throughout most of the 1800s.  I believe that Redhill is part of Allanfaern. 

The closest match I could find for this Margaret McGillivray is a birth in June of 1806, registered in Petty.  The baptism says she was actually born in Tornagrain, which is in the immediate area.  Redhill, Petty, and Tornagrain all appear to be within a stone's throw of each other.

So I guess my question is do the locals know if Redhill was ever called Red Knock?  Would there be some other Red Knock in present day Nairn?  While I realize that very little can ever be 100% when researching things like this, things do appear to be aligning pretty well.  I have already managed to go back a few generations based on this into some Clarks, McKenzies, and McIntoshes, but don't want to go back further if it's going to be a waste of time.  Any help on "Red Knock" would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you in advance!

[Forfarian]

I tried to find a Red Knock with no luck in Nairn, but did find a Redhill (Knock apparently means hill) just outside of Petty, which I believe was part of Nairn in 1806 and throughout most of the 1800s.  I believe that Redhill is part of Allanfaern.

So I guess my question is do the locals know if Redhill was ever called Red Knock?

Knock is certainly from Gaelic cnoc, which is a small hill, but mixing the English word red with cnoc doesn't make sense. Red hill in Gaelic would be cnoc ruadh, with the adjective following the noun. It usually anglicises as Knockroy.

Redhill and Allanfearn are both among the farms and other properties owned by Arthur Forbes of Culloden House, according to the 1855 valuation roll.

I had a look at the introduction to the Statistical Account of Scotland https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk/static/statacc/dist/parish/Inverness/Pettie which places the parish of Petty (Pettie) in the county of Inverness, not the county of Nairn, except for a small part: What is now called the parish of Pettie comprehends the united parishes of Bracholy and Petyn, situate within the ancient province or diocese and the modern synod of Moray, and in the county and presbytery of Inverness; with the exception of a pendicle of Lord Cawdor's property, called Calder's Braichlich, which is valued in the county of Nairn.

The site of the kirk of Braichlich is just north-west of what is now known as Brackley - see https://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/NH8052 and Wikipedia says: The protrusion of Nairnshire into Inverness-shire along the Old Military Road (Calder's Braichlich) is in the parish of Petty. (It doesn't give a source for that statment). Brackley is at the crossroads where General Wade's Military Road meets the main road between Inverness and Nairn. Tornagrain is about two miles further west, and Redhill a further two miles west of that.

So while Braichlich/Brackley may be in the part of the parish of Petty that was also in the County of Nairn, I am pretty sure that Redhill was not. The only old map I have found, so far, showing Petty, is https://maps.nls.uk/view/74400137 - you need to zoom in to find Petty at the top. The boundary of the county of Inverness is in yellow and that of the county of Nairn is in pink, but it does not show the parish boundaries.

Many of the assorted anomalies in parish boundaries were rationalised in the early 1890s, so later maps are not much help. However I have looked at the boundaries of Petty as delineated in the old one-inch Ordnance Survey map, and I see that Redhill is very nearly as far as it is possible to get from Calder's Braichlich and still be in the parish of Petty.

So to summarise, if your Margaret MacGillivray really was born in the county of Nairn, it wasn't at either Redhill or Tornagrain, neither of which is or ever was in the County of Nairn.

What were the names, in order of birth, of the children of William Mason and and Margaret MacGillvray?

What about David MacGillivray who witnessed the marriage? Was he Margaret's younger brother? Do you know anything more about him? Did he marry? What were the names of his children in order of birth?

[fetchmybeer]

Thank you for the detailed response.  I should add that her husband's obit (he was Irish) states he was born "near Cork in the County of Limerick", and neither Cork nor "near Cork" would be described as in the County of Limerick.

I actually believe the witness to her wedding was a Daniel and not David (the handwriting is not clear.  When I first examined it, I thought David, but when looking at it the other day, it seemed to clearly be Daniel, so perhaps it depends on how much coffee or beer I've had), but regardless, I have not been able to find records for either name from the same parents in Petty.  I also don't know what became of him in Canada.

My Margaret's children were, in order:  Mary, Margaret, James, John, Jenny, and Boaz (!?).  Following common naming procedures from the time, this would indicate that her mother was named Mary, and her father John.

The parents for Petty's Margaret McGillivray are Iver (sometimes Anglicized as Evander) and Jane Clark.  Obviously, this doesn't match up to the names of my Margaret's children.  The children of Iver and Jane that I've been able to track are, in order:  William, Isobell, Margaret, Thomas, John, Iver, Ewen, and Jane.  Per the obit, Ewen would be the youngest brother who went to Canada, and it's definitely not Ewen on the marriage certificate as a witness.  I don't know what became of Ewen. 

Iver's parents were William and Isabel McIntosh.  Jane's parents were, I think, John Clark and Anne McKenzie.  So the names of their children do not appear to be strictly adhering to naming conventions at the time, but they are close enough, I guess, or at least indicate a tendency toward tradition.

[Forfarian]

Hmmm. It does seem to be rather unclear.

Re Evander, see http://www.whatsinaname.net/php/search.php?action=search2&search_name=evander

Presumably you don't have the names of William Mason's parents either? If they had been James and Margaret, that would have been a small piece of evidence towards Margaret's being John and Mary.

There are two listings of Ewen McGillivray, aged 20, in Petty in the 1841 census, though it could be the same person listed twice. Iver and Jane's son Ewen would have been 24 on census day 1841, but adults' ages were supposed to be rounded down to the nearest 5 years so 20 fits exactly. If this is the son of Iver and Jane, then he can't be the brother who emigrated to Canada, therefore Margaret can't be the daughter of Iver and Jane. Unless he emigrated back to Scotland from Canada. And in that case, who is David/Daniel?

[fetchmybeer]

I can't find any record of William Mason that matches what I know.  Irish records are notoriously spotty, so I don't hold out much hope. 

I've never been there (yet), but I'm guessing that there may be more than a few occasions in Scotland-- particularly in the Highlands-- where somebody was born on or by a "red knock", so hope is wearing thin on this one I guess.  I did find a Margaret born Nov 1 1806 in Dyke, Moray to a James and Margaret, which seems to fit a little better, but again...not Nairn and no "Red Knock."

I also noticed a Margaret born earlier in 1802 to Iver and Jane Clark and baptized in Croy and Dalcross.  Perhaps this Margaret died young and was "replaced" by the 1806 Margaret.