Which John was the father of William CLEGHORN 1830-1895

[Keith Sherwood]

Hi Everyone,
I'd like to try and revive a thread I begun about 12 years ago into the origins of William CLEGHORN, who  I see now was apparently born in 1830 out of wedlock in Chirnside to a 16-17 year old John CLEGHORN and 23-24 year old Jean WATERS.  Two years later this John CLEGHORN married a Margaret SIMPSON and they had many more children together.  At the time (in 2008) I was under the vague mpression that he might have been the son of a John CLEGHORN, b.1792, who was in turn the son of Robert and Janet (nee REID) CLEGHORN.
However since then most of the evidence (on Ancestry trees, for instance) suggest he was the son of the John born son of Robert's brother William and his wife Christian (?) BROWN.  Although the birth date of this John CLEGHORN is given as 1813, I cannot find a suitable baptism in the Chirnside area for him.  Though there is a 3rd June 1813 baptism for a John CLEGHORN in Edinburgh , parents James and Alice.
William CLEGHORN did extremely well for himself later in life, running (and owning?) a jute mill in Dundee, employing hundreds of people by 1881.
I realise this all sounds very muddled, but I simply would like to discover whether there is indeed a Chirnside baptism for a John CLEGHORN in 1813, son of William CLEGHORN, with siblings Peter, Mary and Janet...
It's just such a mystery still who his real father was otherwise...
Many thanks for any assistance in advance,
Keith

[trish1120]

Do you have Johns Death Cert from ScotlandsPeople?

Trish

[Forfarian]

For the avoidance of duplication, here are old threads mentioning Cleghorn
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=277286.0
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=277342.0
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=351893.0

[Forfarian]

However since then most of the evidence (on Ancestry trees, for instance)

Never, ever, trust anything you find online unless it's an image of an original document. In particular, and especially, do not trust trees on Ancestry or similar commercial web sites. They are not good 'evidence' for anything. Use them only as a pointer for further research.

What happens is that people, especially in the old days before so much primary information became available on Scotland's People, would find just one possible candidate, and would assume that he was the right one, whereas in fact the records of the right one were missing.

Then others come across the tree with the wrong information in it, and copy it to their own tree without checking, and before you know it there are dozens of trees all over the place with the same wrong information.

[Millmoor]

There is an MI from Chirnside with the following inscription:

" By William Cleghorn, merchant Dundee grandfather William Cleghorn feuar Chirnside 5.5. 1833 65 years grandmother Christian Brown Cleghorn 23.12.1848. father John Cleghorn slater Chirnside 16.12.1874 61 years. ".

William

[Forfarian]

Excellent find, Millmoor.

[trish1120]

Well done William

[DonM]

To add some flavour to Mathew's great find.

William Cleghorn of Dundee was formerly a waste merchant, decided to get into the jute business and also acquired a mill in Blairgowie.  By the many newspaper accounts he seems to have had an interesting albeit challenging life with labour strife and so forth and as a good merchant kept his nose reasonably clean.

In his early days in Dundee he bought and sold just about anything, from waste to importing merchandise and buying/selling tenements.  He was the son of John (a slater)/Jean Waters.  He was only 64 when he died in 1895 of Hemiplegia (9 years) and born 1835 in Chirnside.

Btw...William his son carried on with his fathers businesses until his death in 1928 and left a generous legacy to some of the employees.  The firm continued until the 1950's.

Don

[Keith Sherwood]

Oh, my goodness me - Trish, Forfarian, Millmoor and Don M!
Thanks so very much for getting your willing hands onto this.  Rootschat never ceases to amaze me in this respect.  There I was, wide awake and unable to get to sleep again at about 3.30 this morning, and suddenly the unsolved CLEGHORN question popped into my head.
Got up then and spent several hours (as you do, time flying by) looking things up and trying to piece together old trails.  Finally, before retiring to bed again, made what I thought might be a forlorn post on here.  And now, having caught up on my beauty sleep...
That MI on the gravestone clinches the whole thing, doesn't it?  Many thanks again,
Keith