Occupation -- Baron/Barow/Bakow? Officer

[GeoffTurner]

Hi all,
I am helping my cousin trace her Scottish roots (we are both in Australia) and we have found an occupation that we hope someone might know about. On the death certificate of Margaret Donaldson at Scone in 1855 it says both her father James Donaldson and her husband John Gellatly were what looks like Baron/Barow/Bakow? Officer (see attachment). In the 1841 Census, John and one of their children, Janet, were at Village Of Airntully, Kinclaven. Airntully seems to be about five miles north of Scone. I don't know if the location would give any hints about the occupation. Perhaps John was working there and Janet went with him to look after him (John was 71 and Janet was 35). John's occupation is given as "Linen H L W", which might be a transcription error (I don't have access to the Census original). He is not in the 1851 Census and Margaret died in 1855 as a pauper.   
Any suggestions much appreciated. Geoff Turner

[Neale1961]

Baron Officer
https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/glossary/b

[GeoffTurner]

Thanks. I have also found him as a weaver, which makes sense in that area, and that might explain the "Linen H L W" on the census return -- home linen weaver of some sort. I guess a Baron Officer might not have been a full-time job.

[Elwyn Soutter]

Thanks. I have also found him as a weaver, which makes sense in that area, and that might explain the "Linen H L W" on the census return -- home linen weaver of some sort. I guess a Baron Officer might not have been a full-time job.

HLW normally means hand loom weaver, ie worked by hand rather than water or some other external power source. Traditional Harris Tweed is still made using handlooms.

[GeoffTurner]

I always appreciate what I can learn in Rootschat. Thanks again from both my cousin and I.

[Forfarian]

an occupation that we hope someone might know about. On the death certificate of Margaret Donaldson at Scone in 1855 it says both her father James Donaldson and her husband John Gellatly were what looks like Baron/Barow/Bakow? Officer (see attachment).

Unfortunately the attachment is so small that I cannot read what it says.

(I don't have access to the Census original)

You have exactly the same access as everyone else - www.scotlandspeople is pay-per-view, not a subscription site.

Linen HLW is short for 'Linen Hand Loom Weaver'.

[GeoffTurner]

This is the death certificate in full, for what it's worth.

[GeoffTurner]

I'm also looking for ideas on how I could find a confirmed death/burial date for James Donaldson, the father in Margaret Donaldson's death certificate. He was christened at Scone on 11 Jul 1735, with his father named as William Donaldson. He married Christian Blythe at Scone on 8 Dec 1764. The most reliable Ancestry tree I have found says he died at Scone on 13 Sep 1795, but cites only other Ancestry trees. 

We have two graves which could be him, one in 1795 and one in 1814, when he would have been about 79 (grave says that man was 72). The 1814 one is at Kinkell churchyard at Auchterarder -- at least 15 miles from Scone. The 1795 one is at Logie, Fife -- more than 20 miles away, on the other side of the river -- and it is indecipherable. But Find a Grave says he died and was buried on 8 Jun 1975.

The Auchterarder grave says: Erected by William Donaldson Mason, Trinity Gask in memory of His Father JAMES DONALDSON who died 8th April 1814 aged 79 years and His Mother HELEN SMITTON who died the 9th Dec 1830 aged 85 years.

James Donaldson's father was William, so another William is promising, although of course it is a very common name. The complicating factor is that this James' wife is named Helen Smitton, whereas Margaret Donaldson's mother was Christian Blythe.

We don't know when Christian Blythe died (all we know is that James and Christian both died before 1855). It is possible that Christian died and James married Helen Smitton as a second wife. But all the mentions of this family I can find are around the Auchterarder area, not Scone.
 
So I am not convinced that either grave (and therefore burial date) is correct. I prefer the 13 Sep 1795 death at Scone, but just would like to be able to find a reliable basis for accepting that.

As always, any help much appreciated. Geoff

[Forfarian]

I think you are right to doubt the relevance of the Auchterarder or Logie burials as being the one you are looking for. Never trust anything you find online, and especially anything you find in an online tree on Ancestry or similar web sites, as you have no idea where the information came from.

I see that Scotland's People has only one baptism of a child to James D and Christian Blyth*; David, baptised 1780 in Scone, but there are baptisms there of numerous children to James D, no mother named, including two Margarets, one in 1765 and one in 1773.

You can safely dismiss the Kinkell/Auchterarder/Trinity Gask stone. The eldest recorded child of James Donaldson and Helen Sm*ton was Janet, baptised in 1774 in Trinity Gask. As this is six years before the baptism of David to JD and Christian Blythe's youngest child, the families overlap, therefore Helen Smitton is not a second wife of your JD, and it follows that the Kinkell/Auchterarder grave inscription is a red herring.

I can't comment on the Logie one, but it does seem unlikely.

I see that there are 207 recorded burials of James Donaldsons from 1780 onwards, of whom 18 were in Perthshire. As there are 526 recorded baptisms of James Donaldsons before 1780, there are obviously plenty of unrecorded ones.

Have you looked at the JD who was buried in Scone on 3 September 1780? And have you looked at the baptism of David D in Scone on 22 August 1780? Does either record contain any useful additional details?

Only a small proportion of gravestones are on FindAGrave or elsewhere online. There are only 74 people buried in Old Scone on FAG.

Assuming that the JD who died in Scone in 1780 isn't Christian Blythe's husband (or even if he is), it is possible that there is a stone in Scone old kirkyard commemorating a JD who died on 13 September 1795. You need to follow up all the references on the Ancestry trees until you get back to one that isn't just a copy of another one, and then find out where that tree's information came from.

There are booklets of pre-1855 monumental inscriptions in Perthshire, available from https://tayvalleyfhs.org.uk/ or https://www.scotsgenealogy.com/