George Milne, Supervisor of Excise in Banff

[Gabriel 54]

George Milne, born c 1705, Died c 1755, was Supervisor of Excise in Banff. He married Margaret Duff of Corsindae, (1712-1803)
Their son, James, married Jean Gordon of Farskane.

Whilst the above facts are correct to a certain degree, I find few dates for either of the Milnes/Milns.
I also cannot find any clues to which Milne family they belong to. My old friend Robin de La Lanne Mirlees was of the opinion that they might have been members of the Milns of Grange family. But, as yet, I have not found any leads to the origins of the father, George.
George's widow married secondly in 1755, John Stewart, also supervisor of Excise in Banff, son of John.
Could anyone point me in the right direction?

[ColC]

I guess this is Margaret below.
MARGARET DUFF   BAPTISM   JAMES DUFF/ANNA CUMMING   06/01/1712   GRANGE

Is this George I wonder?
GEORGE MILN   BAPTISM   WILLIAM MILN   01/02/1711   BANFF

MARGARET DUFF   MARRIED   GEORGE MILNE   30/11/1732   BANFF

MILNE   JAMES   GEORGE MILNE   BAPTISM   10/04/1732   BANFF

There are death records on SP in Banff 1718 – 1754, sadly no George but I wonder if this is he below?

MILN   GEORGE   DIED    16/07/1753   SPEYMOUTH

Colin

[Gabriel 54]

Thank you colin,
This is indeed the Margaret Duff, and the marriage seems to concur with the details of the son James
It could well be the death date of George, as I would suspect she would wait a wee while to re-marry.

This seems most plausible.

thanks again, Peter

[Forfarian]

Do not rush to assume that the George Milne who died in Speymouth was the one who was an excise officer in Banff, just because his date of death is roughly at the right time and there isn't another candidate.

George Milne/Mill/Miln/Milln is a very common name. There were 362 George Milnes in the 1841 census in Scotland, including surname variants. Of these 21 were in Moray and 35 in Banffshire. in the 168 years since the start of civil registration 1547 George Mil(l)n(e)s have died in Scotland. That's over 9 every single year. Even allowing for the increase in population (the current population is 4 times what it was in 1750) there would still have been multiple deaths of George Milnes every year in the 1750s.

According to LIBINDX George Milne who died in July 1753 lived at Hatton (not sure which one!) and was buried at Dundurcas. This information comes from a microfilm MF A Sp 1 that is not in the list of microfilms on the web site, so I can't say what this source is, but it wouldn't be difficult to find out.

On Scotland's People there are records of baptisms in Speymouth of seven children to George Milnes between 1740 and 1751 by three different mothers:

Mother Elspeth Miln(e), married 1739 in Speymouth
Isabell 1740
Margaret 1741
Alexander 1743
Robert 1744

Mother Elizabeth Innie, married 1743 in Speymouth
John 1745
Anne 1748

Mother Margaret Duncan
Isabell 1751
and the next baptism in Speymouth with father George is in 1780.

As Elspet Milne's son Robert was born after the marriage of Elizabeth Innie, there must have been at least two different George Milnes having family in Speymouth who could be the one who died in 1753. The fact that the last baptism is in 1751 tends to support the idea that this is the case. There could also be older George Milnes who do not feature in the registers of baptisms in the 1740s and 1750s.

These baptisms also overlap with the dates of marriage of Margaret Duff (1732 and 1755), so these George Milnes, whether there are two or three or more of them, cannot be the one in Banff.

Why would the one in Banff be the one who died in 1753 in Speymouth, when there were at least two candidates in Speymouth itself? You would need some very solid evidence to prove it.

[Gabriel 54]

Thank you for your input!  ,, Serious detective work is needed i can see. thank you for your input, I shall think hard on this and see what other clues I can find!
Peter