Services of Heirs

[Forfarian]

According to the index to the Services of Heirs, Janet Lesslie, daughter of John Lesslie, shipmaster in Dundee, was served heir of line general to her brother William Lesslie, 9th March 1789.

Does this specifically mean that all of her brothers must have predeceased her?

If not, under what circumstances would a sister be served heir to a brother during the lifetime of their other brothers?

I have checked and there is no testament, either testamentar or dative, of this William Lesslie in the index to wills and testaments at SP.

[GR2]

You have probably discovered this already (and it doesn't unfortunately answer your question), but an 18th century definition of the terms is:

In the succession of heritage, the heirs at law are otherwise called heirs general, heirs whatsoever, or heirs of line, and they succeed by right of blood.

I don't think it implies that the brothers are dead. I have come across an ancestor being made heir general to a cousin in the Services of Heirs in the 1840s when the cousin had no children, but did have closer relatives. In the end the cousin married for a third time and left everything to his wife.

[Forfarian]

Thank you.

That was rather what I feared.

I am looking for evidence one way or the other to prove or disprove a hypothesis regarding the parentage of one James Leslie, and if all of Janet's brothers had predeceased William, that would have been the evidence to disprove it.

I've now seen the original Latin document, which just has the usual phrase 'Gulielmus Lesslie frater Janetae Lesslie filia de mortui Joannis navarchi in Dundee obijt ad fidem et pacem S D N Regis Et quod dicta Janeta Lesslie latrix praesentium est legitima et propinquior haeres Lineae dicti quond Gulielmi Lesslie fratris ejus', which doesn't get me any further.

For the record, the alleged parents are John Leslie and Elspet McKie, whose family, all baptised in Mortlach, Banffshire, were
Janet 20 May 1744
John 1 November 1746
James 8 August and 3 September 1748
William 7 April 1750
Isobel 20 December 1752
Elisabeth 16 September 1755
Patrick 29 November 1760

According to a document I have received, John Sr was the son of Robert Leslie, master mariner in Banff, and John Jr became a farmer at Denside of Montrose.

It would be more than strange if John Leslie, shipmaster in Dundee, was the head of a family all born in Mortlach, which isn't even near the coast, let alone near Dundee.

'My' James Leslie married Jean Spence on or shortly after 13 January 1764 in Mortlach. If he was the son of John L and Elspet McKie, he was only 15 on the day of his marriage, which is not quite impossible but not at all likely.

He is in the 'census' of Mortlach in 1805 with children who died after 1855, so if all of Janet and William's brothers had died by 1789, then 'my' James could not be their brother.

[GR2]

I find it hard to imagine someone settled in Mortlach for so long (whatever he did there) making the transition to shipmaster in Dundee.

I looked in Crammond's Annals of Banff and there was no recorded gravestone to any Robert Leslie at Banff when it was written. There is a reference to one Robert Leslie, postmaster in Elgin, and the only other mention of a Robert Leslie (13-8-1737) is: "Provost Hamilton in Bourdeaux sends a hhd. of strong claret by Robert Lesly as a present for the harbour of Guthrie. It is rouped for eight guineas."

[Forfarian]

Yes. James Leslie in Mortlach, husband of Jean Spence, was a miller. And he was still there in 1805, because a James Leslie, miller, is recorded in the 1805 'census' at Millton of Balveny, Mortlach, with a household including his son Thomas and daughter Margaret, both of whom died after 1855.

I imagine that the Robert Lesly referred to by Cram(m)ond (who, quite irrelevantly, was my 4th cousin 3 times removed) is the one mentioned in the tree I received as the husband of Helen Brockie and alleged but in my opinion unlikely grandfather of my 4th-great-grandfather James Leslie, miller in Mortlach.

(Harbour of Guthrie?)

[GR2]

The original harbour for Banff was the Deveron estuary, but with shifting sandbanks it became unsuitable. They then started clearing rocks out of Guthrie's Haven, which was gradually improved over the years and is now the inner basin of Banff harbour.

[Forfarian]

Thanks, GR2, that is new to me.

I see that it is so named on the 1823 town plan but not on the 1832 or later.