Thomas Douglas of Yetholm

[Ken S]

 On Scotlands people a birth entry reads .... Thomas Douglass.. Herd? in Shotton & Oliver Young his spouse had a son born and baptised 21 first James ... May 10 1805 Yetholm because of the old hand writing some of this is hard to read .. what I am thinking is 'herd' might mean (and I know he was a shepherd) that he lived in or near Yetholm but his sheep herd was in Shotton Northumberland ?
 He moved (with his family) up to Sutherland in about 1819 and is buried up there.

[Sunlaws]

'Herd' is the usual Scottish word for shepherd. I think he lived and worked at Shotton, but as it is not much more than half a mile from the border and from the nearest farm on the Scottish side, Yetholm Mains, the church in Kirk Yetholm is by far the nearest, compared with about 7 miles to Kirknewton

[Sunlaws]

Worth noting, too, that Douglas and Young are among the most common names among the Yetholm gypsies. See

http://www.douglashistory.co.uk/history/articles/gypsies.html#.YkHuySjMKUk

[Ken S]

Sunlaws .. thanks for that .. I did not know that Herd was scotish for shepperd. My Thomas Douglas married Oliver Young )Oliver died in Sutherland in 1855 and there is quite a long record on that death. Their oldest son William came to Canada in about 1839 ... and I am descended from that William (William married Hellen Paterson at Tongue Sutherland in 1824.
 Hence my Moms maiden name was Douglas