Mcleod

[Peterd500]

Anyone got a William MCLEOD pre 1855 burial/headstone say at Trostan Westfield or Halkirk?

He was a tenant farmer at Achnavast in Thurso parish up to at least the 1832 marriage of his youngest child Andrew to Anne GRANT. Achnavast is near Tostan Westfield. A daughter's 1866 death info has him deceased by 1866.

Wife was Janet HENDERSON. Children unaccounted for who could have died young and might be buried with him are David bap 1798 and Ann bap 1800.

William & Janet married 1789 at Halkirk parish (a couple of children were born at Harpsdale) and had their first child Margaret baptised in 1791 so if William was at least 16 when he married (probably older) then he would have been born by 1773 at the latest.

Peter

[macleodrup]

william macleod b.1765 in watten, married janet henderson b.sep 1761 in thurso, on 28th dec 1789 in halkirk

[Peterd500]

Thanks mcleodrup

The marriage register entry gives no indication of birth or baptism of either party, just residence when they married. In fact the marriage was solemnized on 29 Dec rather than 28 Dec according to the original entry. William resided at Harpsdale in Halkirk and Janet resided at Backlass in Watten which is very near Houstry of Dun (Houstrydun in the old registers).

i.e.

OPR Watten Marriages 178928 [Dec]
MCLEOD & HENDERSON
William MCLEOD in Harpsdale in the parish of Halkirk & Janet HENDERSON in Backlass were contracted in order to marriage & after ordinary Proclamations & no objections offered their marriage was solemnized December 29th.

The dates you give are merely baptismal possibilities in OPR registers, I don't think anyone has proved or disproved them. They get latched onto because there are few possibilities in the very patchy parish registers that far back especially for William for whom the pickings are slim indeed. I was hoping that cemetery data giving an indication of birth year might help.

William & Janet had children at Harpsdale in Halkirk parish and also some nearby places until their last child was baptised 1805, then we find William at Achnavast in Thurso parish in 1809 at a witness for his daughter Margaret's marriage to John Oman, she being resident at Achnavast. That pattern continued for marriages of other, i.e. the Achnavast location fpr residence in each case and also William as a witness for most, sometimes described as a tenant.

The 1765 possibility is for a William MCLEOD whose parents James MCLEOD & Elspet MCBEATH resided at Toftingall. There were siblings Donald 1760 and Anne 1764.

The 1761 possibility for Janet is to parents Andrew HENDERSON & Anne DOUGLAS who lived at Oust which is close to Achnavast. Andrew and Anne had quite a few issue when at Oust. One researcher has a child Christian born at Lieurary but I think that is based on the residence of that sibling at marriage because the baptism in the OPR for Thurso definitely gives her parents' residence as Oust.

Thurso OPR Births 1761
Septr 6 Janet Daur to Andrew HENDERSON & Anne DOUGLAS in Oust
Witness William MACKAY & John FINLAYSON

Janet's marriage has her resident at Backlass in Watten parish in 1789 and there are one or two Watten possibilities for her including Jean baptised 1763 to David HENDERSON & Jean MACKAY who resided at Houstrydun which is a very short distance from Backlass. For most of their issue the mother is called Jean MACKAY but in the case of one of the sons, John baptised 1769, she is called Jannet MACKAY. If Jean the mother can be Jannet as well, then so can Jean baptised 1763.

Backlass features little for HENDERSON in Watten OPR, just one other example some years down the track, so it doesn't seem to have had a HENDERSON family there. It doesn't feaure as a residence of parents for any Janet HENDERSON baptised in Watten OPR. Maybe Janet was just working there when she married.

These are not the only baptismal possibilities for Janet but they are the best ones location-wise and the dates are good. Which do I choose, assuming that one is correct? She could come from the Houstrydun family of David HENDERSON (=Jean/Jannet MACKAY) close to Backlass or she could come from the Oust family of Andrew HENDERSON (=Anne DOUGLAS) close to Achnavast which could have been a factor in William & Janet ending up at Achnavast. Janet's sons were David then Andrew plus she had daughters Ann and Janet, so it's a coin toss naming patterns-wise.

The problem for anyone who may have been researching these MCLEOD in the past is that William and Janet's children resided at Achnavast with William the witness and father described as a tenant at Achnavast. That points one to Thurso possibilities for their origins as it did me for some years. It wasn't until I finally found my ancestor Catharine SINCLAIR in the 1841 census household of her mother Catharine. Catharine HENDERSON ex SINCLAIR nee MCLEOD the mother turned out to be the daughter of William MCLEOD & Janet HENDERSON which pointed me to Halkirk as the residence of William & Janet and their 1789 Watten marriage with William resident at Harpsdale and Janet at Backlass.

I don't think anyone has properly put the MCLEOD family together before now. Getting further back, or at least proving possible links further back could be an issue but at least from now on I can concentrate on pulling together the descendant strands.

Peter