Clandestine marriage 1758

[jennyblain]

Certainly Sholto is an interesting name. However the parents seem to be moving from one village or farmtoun to another, so are likely to be farm labourers - and daughter Agnes married a farm labourer. There may be some connection, possibly a wrong side of the blanket thing at some point. There are relatively few Sholtos around, and it's certainly a Douglas name, and usually gentry, with a bit of legend attached.

I have, though, found two Sholto Douglases nearby - one dying in Cockpen in 1774, no other information given (so not the child of Robert and Mary, as parent names are given on that page when it's a child), and I'm wondering if he could be related to Robert. There seem to be a good number of 'non-gentry' Douglases in the area, but I've been quite unsuccessful with finding a likely birth for Robert, or indeed for Mary Carse. The other Sholto is one who is married in Canongate in 1795, to Helen Aitken daughter of an Alexander Aitken, labourer in Dalkeith, and they have a few children (including another Sholto). This Sholto is a gentleman's servant, which is interesting, but I've no evidence of him being connected though going only by his age he could be the son of Robert and Mary.

Brick wall time...

Jenny

[jennyblain]

Just to clarify the above message - there's a family of James Douglas and Marjory Lindsay in Cockpen, with children including a Robert and a Sholte, also a David, but there are no evident James or Marjory among the children of Robert Douglas and Mary Carse. It's geographically likely but that is, at present, all.
Jenny

[mckay]

For your interest I am also investigating a clandestine marriage; that of my ancestors from Abbotshall, Fife who had one. In fact I have just found out today that all marriages in Abbotshall from 1799 to 1806 were clandestine. That is a lot of marriages. Somebody must know why this occurred.
Jim

[jennyblain]

Hi Jim,
From the Genuki entry I see that 'After Record for 1806, are four leaves containing 'Clandestine Marriages', 1784 - 1807.' There also seem to be several pages of 'irregular' entries of baptisms, in the same period.

Can you give examples of the wording for entries? Does it say where they went to be married? My first guess might be that they were seceder or episcopalian families, maybe a bit more organised than a few couples sloping off, and the first statistical account does say that there were many seceders in the parish (see below). However I'd have thought that four pages (even if eight sides) might not hold all the marriages in these 23 years, though it would be a good many. Have you been able to see any of the pages before these?

The minister of the time was a Mr George Shaw, and his entry in the first statistical account details the ministers and religions as:
'One minister of the established church, and a person who preaches to a small Cameronian meeting. The number of the Established Church 1338, of Seceders 798.'

I look at the Kirk Session records might be rewarding.

Best,
Jenny

[Currie]

Hello Jenny,

In case Jim doesn’t get back there’s something here, but I’m not sure what to make of it if the marriages are supposed to be over a 23 year period. http://hosborn.websitetoolbox.com/post/ ... fe-5257480

And if I’m reading this FamilySearch search results page correctly there were nearly 400 Abbotshall marriages just in the 1790s. (although that’s probably 200 marriages, 400 participants) Maybe this link will work. https://www.familysearch.org/search/rec ... =1700~1790

So the four pages of clandestines would be only a small proportion of the whole that possibly someone has weeded out. Guessing wildly, maybe someone unqualified had been standing in for Rev. Shaw on his days off.

“Principles of the Criminal Law of Scotland”, 1832, has a good chapter on clandestine marriages. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=RoI ... J&pg=PA543

The very useful book mentioned by Falkyrn earlier in this thread is available at the Internet Archive, “A Handbook of Husband and Wife According to the Law of Scotland” 1893. http://archive.org/stream/ahandbookhusb ... landestine

All the best,
Alan