Happy new year Everyone! C’mon in. There’s lots of gossip about the cousins, so take your coat off, pour yourself a cup of tea, and come toast your toes by the fire. We’ll have a visit with James and Jean.

Eastwood 1793

The village of Thorney Bank is of recent vintage, but has grown rapidly over the past ten years. In 1783, most of the inhabitants were farmers and their tenants. Then, in 1789, Mr. Alexander Crum bought a piece of land near the stream, and began building a large calico printing establishment. Mr. Robert Osborne had built a similar factory there a few years previously, which, being much smaller, had contributed little to the local economy. Mr. Crum hired skilled building craftsmen, and skilled print-workers (from as far away as France) to establish the factory and train Scots workers. By 1793, mainly due to factory expansion, the parish population has increased to 2642 persons, in 558 families; slightly over half are men.

While the Reverend Mr. McGill, writer of the Eastwood account, didn’t specify his parishioners’ occupations, I think it’s safe to say they were similar to their Campsie neighbours, as noted by the chatty Reverend Mr. James Lapslie. In the late 18^th century, boys who reached the age of 10 were considered old enough to begin earning a living. This is Mr. Lapslie’s reason for dividing the male population into boys below 10 and “males above 10 years of age.”

Minister Lapslie tells us that in 1792, there were 882 boys under ten in his parish. Two hundred attended the parish’s four schools; the rest were “infants in their parents houses, capable of no employment.” Of the 800 males above 10 years of age, there were 8 “Gentlemen who live on their rents,” 2 ministers, and 2 excise officers, who, together, would have constituted the parish gentry. The four school-masters and the surgeon (Note 1) would have been respectable tradesmen, in the same class as tenant farmers (96), though they were above the shop-keepers (11), farm servants (90), and house servants (11). At 346 men, textile manufacturing trades such as weavers, dyers, and bleachers were the largest group; miners and limestone quarriers were a distant second at 96. Twenty-six more were what we might call retail textile workers: tailors, shoe-makers, lint-dressers & glovers, and stocking-makers. The rest were miln-wrights (6), blacksmiths (9), students (Note 2) (4), carters (10), labourers (20), millers (7), one grave-digger, a house carpenter and 17 publicans.

Given their status in 18^th-century society, and their limited number of career options, Mr. Lapslie is to be commended for his accounting of the women in his parish. It is less detailed than his account of the men, but at least we can be sure that there were indeed women there. From the accounts of some of the other parishes, one might be forgiven a suspicion that they had no women at all. In his “Table Shewing how the 800 females are employed in 1793,” Mr. Lapslie says that the vast majority were wives (410) or daughters (170) of the local householders, 136 were domestic servants, (Note 3) 12 were “sempstresses and mantua makers,” and 3 were midwives. “The remaining seventy-one are either widows or unmarried women, who reside in cot-houses. Of the married women and young persons...there may be about one hundred and sixty who pencil calico in the printfields.”

Journeyman miln-wrights like our James were in the upper stratum of the world of tradesmen, and were much better off than their unskilled brethren. Mr. Lapslie says miln-wrights made 1s 8d per day, or about £22 a year  (Note 4); only masons were better paid (about £2 a year). than wrights. Man-servants, on the other hand, made about £10 per year, while their female counterparts were paid about half that. While servants had the additional compensation of being fed and housed, the skilled tradesman was responsible for feeding and housing himself and his family. At the same time, it could be argued that the servants worked longer and harder for their small wages than an independent tradesman, who was free to work pretty much at his own pace. Unskilled labour was very hard work for very little pay. Women spinning wool were paid 4 pence, (Note 5) plus victuals, for 10-14 hours’ work, though they might be doing it in their own homes. The poorest paid were the (often seasonal) jobs that required that required no skill or experience; for example, digging potatoes paid half a penny per peck and might not include food. The village that grew up around the factory was at first called Thorney Bank, named for the multitudes of thorn bushes that grew everywhere on the banks of the creek. For many years, there was no official spelling for the name of the village, it being noted as Thorn Bank, Thorneybank, Thornie Bank, etc. Finally, about 1820 or so, the name was officially accepted as Thornliebank. No seems to be quite sure how the “lie” got in there, though possibly it came from thorns on the “lee bank” of the stream.

Mr. Crum was obviously in need of labour, both skilled and unskilled, when he began building his factory. Unskilled labour was fairly plentiful: all he had to do was offer high wages and farm hands came running. Skilled labour was harder to come by. Some tradesmen, such as blacksmiths, stonemasons, and wrights, might be lured by high wages; others, such as engravers, printers, dyers, and bleachers had to be “borrowed” from established works, or even temporarily imported from as far away as France. These last usually stayed only long enough to train the factory’s own workers, with most of them going home to France at the earliest opportunity.

A miln-wright (Note 6)  named James Coubrough was one of those who responded to Mr. Crum’s call. We don’t know exactly when he moved from Campsie parish to Eastwood, but we do know that it was very early in the factory’s existence. Mr. Crum seems to have purchased the land sometime in 1789, and construction started late that year or early the next. When his first two children were born, Jim worked at a mill at Glorat Field, in Campsie parish. They must have still been there in April 1789, when their third son,, John  (Note 7) was christened in the Campsie parish church, but odds are the whole family had moved to Eastwood parish by May 7, 1791, when the fourth son, the first William, was born in Thornliebank. (As yet, there was no church in Thornliebank, so when William was christened a week after he was born, it had to be at the parish church in Pollokshaws.) This is the closest we can come to a date for their move. When Alexander Crum began building his factory, Eastwood parish was nearly all farmland. There was no local accommodation for workers or their families. While some workers may have lived in huts on the construction site, unless they had friends or family in the area, most men with families would have had to find homes in Pollokshaws, a mile or so away. As an employee, Jim’s house in Campsie parish would have been attached to his job, even though he paid rent to live there. If he was laid off or quit to work elsewhere, his family would have had to move out immediately. With a possibly pregnant wife, and at least three small children, finding a home of some sort would have been a high priority.

By 1793, the factory was well-established, mill-wright James had a good job at the Crum's new calico works, and the family was well-settled  (Note 8) into the new village of Thorney Bank. Besides erecting the factory buildings, James and his fellow carpenters had had to build houses for their families. By 1791, James, Jean, and their four sons, Jim Jr., Malcolm, John, and baby William, were safely ensconced in their new home. Now that they’re settled in, let’s pay them a visit.

As a miln-wright, and one of the first inhabitants of the new village, Jim’s house is pretty big. But with four small children, there isn’t much room to spare—especially on the rainy winter days when it’s too cold and damp for the little ones to go outside. By the standards of their 21^st-century descendants, it is dark and cramped; for Jean and Jim, it is large, modern and well-lit.

The entrance door is in the centre of one of the long walls of the house. Walking into the house, we see the fireplace on our right and the beds on the left. Like many new homes, the Coubroughs have two rooms, with a fireplace at each end of the house. At the kitchen fire, which is built into the outer end wall, there hangs an iron kettle for porridge and another for boiling water; a shelf on the wall nearby holds three metal spoons, a large kitchen knife with an iron blade, a pewter plate each for Jim and Jean, a jug for milk, and a small tin pail for beer. There are also a couple of large wooden bowls for kitchen use, and from odd bits of wood, Jim has carved several small bowls and spoons for the children’s porridge.

Under the kitchen shelf, in a place of honour near the fire, is a small, heavy, wooden box that holds Jim’s tools. As a journeyman, he owns his own tools, and is expected to bring them along when he goes to work. Tools are very expensive, and there is a good possibility that Jim has inherited some of his. The edge tools have iron blades, prone to rust in the damp climate, and wooden handles, both of which must be kept dry, and regularly wiped down with hog fat.

Like most of his neighbours, Jim’s household furniture is home-made. Even though his main expertise is the building of the large gears and other fixtures of a mill, Jim’s knowledge wood and its properties means his furniture is of a higher quality than some of his neighbours have. In the centre of the room, not far from the fire, is a heavy plank table, with its top well scrubbed. Its corners are square, its joints are smooth, the top is level, and the legs don’t wobble. Stools for Jim and Jean stand one at each end of the table, with benches for the children at each long side.

At the other end of the house, there are two beds, one on each side of the fireplace, built into the corners to save space: one for Jim and Jean, and the other for the three older boys to share. Baby William sleeps in a cradle near his parents. The beds are wooden frames, attached to the outside wall on two sides, and supported by a post on the other corner. The mattresses are large canvas bags, filled with straw. Jean hopes to be able, someday, to stuff it with wool, which though it is prone to lumps, is softer, warmer, and quieter, and less attractive to bugs. The canvas sack is supported by a grass rope which zig-zags between the two long sides of the frame. Sometimes, when the weather is very damp, the rope stretches and the bed sags so that James and Jean find themselves nearly on the floor! The mattresses are nice and fat when they are first refilled (once a year, or so, after harvest), but they are pretty thin by the time a year has passed! When she refills the mattresses, Jean always makes sure to put in some rue, wormwood or southernwood to keep the bugs away. There isn’t much else in the bedroom, which takes up rather less than half the house. James and Jean live well with much less in the way of moveable goods than their 21^st-century descendants would consider essential. Set into the wall between the beds are a few pegs which hold the family’s extra clothes—an extra shirt and pair of breeches for Jim, and an extra shift for Jean. A covered basket on the floor holds diaper rags and an extra shirt for each of the boys. At the foot of Jean’s bed is the wooden chest which holds the family’s extra blanket, Jim and Jean’s winding sheets, and any finished cloth Jean might have woven but not yet sold.

In the main room, against the far wall, is one of the household’s most important pieces of furniture: Jean’s loom. As a newlywed Scotswoman, one of her very first household chores had been the rather grim task of weaving enough cloth to make winding sheets for her and her new husband. Now, she makes not only all the clothes on her family’s backs, but the cloth they are cut from, as well. And she sometimes earns a bit of extra money by doing piece-work weaving for one of the cloth merchants in Glasgow.

Beside the entrance door are pegs holding the outdoor cloaks. Unlike her mother, who had dressed her family in home-spun wool plaiding, by the time of our visit, Jean dresses her family in “English cloaths”; that is, breeches, shirts, and coats with waistcoats (Note 9) for the men, calico dresses for the women, and “thread stockings ” (Note 10) for both. These days, even in Campsie, only the poorest and most old-fashioned cling to their bare-legged plaids and kilts. Here in lowland Thorney Bank, no respectable person would be caught dead in such an outfit; as the wife of a journeyman miln-wright, Jean makes sure her family wears English clothes.

Statistical Accounts  Back to top

In the late 18^th century, in “Enlightenment Scotland,” knowledge for its own sake was in fashion. Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776), was widely read, and the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica was published in Edinburgh (1768 - 1771). In May 1790, Sir John Sinclair, MP for Caithness and lay member of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, proposed a detailed parish-by-parish survey of Scotland. He sent a series of 166 questions to all 938 parish ministers in the country. They were to report, among other things, on the geography, climate, population, agricultural and industrial production of their parishes. Not all of them responded by Sir John’s deadline, but by June 1799, all 21 volumes had been published.

Every parish eventually responded. As one might expect, given the wide variety of education and interest of the writers, some of the accounts, like that for the parish of Campsie, are very detailed, and some are barely more than political-religious rants.

Our James and Jean were actually living these events while they were being written, giving them an immediacy we could not otherwise attain from this distance of time. The Eastwood parish account was published in 1794. James and Jean had left Campsie and moved to Thornliebank at least three or four years before. While Thornliebank is physically located in Eastwood parish, I have also included bits from several other parishes where Coubroughs were known to have lived. The village of Thornliebank was only about five years old at the time the Account was published, and the minister of Eastwood was not a chatty sort. He appears to have written under duress, and had very little to say about his parish. Notwithstanding their minister’s assertion that the people of Campsie parish had held onto the old ways longer than their neighbours, I suspect people who lived in Strathblane, Killearn, Drymen, and other nearby parishes, must have done things not all that differently from their Campsie neighbours. And our Jean and James had, after all, spent most of their lives in Campsie.

Eastwood  Back to top

The Reverend Mr. Stevenson McGill has little to say about his parish, and less about Thornliebank. Since the village been there less than five years at the time of his writing, this is perhaps to be expected.

“Parish of Eastwood , by the Rev. Mr. Stevenson M’Gill (Note 11)

“The parish of Eastwood lies about three miles S.W. from the town of Glasgow, surrounded by the parishes of Cathcart, Mearns, Nielston, Paisley, and Govan. The greatest length of it may be about four miles, the breadth of it about three; but its form is very irregular, so that its dimensions in different quarters greatly vary.

“A very populous village, named Pollock-shaws, lies in that part of the parish which approaches Glasgow. It is situated in a fine valley, interspersed with trees, and watered by the river Cart and the Auldhouse burn. On the one side, it is skirted with neat bleachfields in constant verdure; on the other, with well cultivated inclosures; and affords from the surrounding eminence, a delightful prospect of a manufacturing yet rural village.

“Natural History.—The natural historian will find, in several parts of this parish, objects meriting his attention. In the neighbourhood of Thornlie-bank, a small village, there is a stratum of schistus, which has particularly attracted notice. It is a good many yards in thickness, and contains a great variety of marine productions, in a petrified state. Specimens of several genera of shells are found in fine preservation.

“Manufactures.—The manufactures carried on, are chiefly the weaving of muslins, bleaching, printing of calicoes, and cotton spinning. In the weaving branches, there were employed, in 1793, about 470 looms: In printing, bleaching, and the occupations connected with them, about 226 men and boys, and 174 women. There are also two cotton mills in the parish, which in the same period, employed above 600 persons of different ages. The principal printfield here is among the oldest in Scotland. The parish seems well adapted to manufactures; and in general, the people are more healthy than those usually are who follow such occupations.

“Population.—The population of this parish, in 1793, when its numbers were taken, amounted to 2642 young and old persons, divided into 558 families. Of this number, 1349 are males, 1293 females. Below 10 years of age, 361 are males, 351 females; below 20, 352 are males, 304 females; below 50, 505 are males, 480 females; below 70, 106 are males, 136 females; below 100, 25 are males, and 22 are females. The average number of persons per family is somewhat more than 4-3/5.”

Campsie  Back to top

The Reverend Mr. Lapslie, of Campsie parish, appears to have taken his duty as the parish Account writer very seriously. He answered many of Sir John’s questions, some of them in great detail, and all in an engaging style. I have used only a few short extracts here. Should you care to read all 70 pages, copies may be found on Edinburgh University’s web site http://edina.ac.uk/statacc/.

“Parish of Campsie, by The Reverend Mr. James Lapslie, Minister (Note 12)

“The parish of Campsie measures eight English miles in breadth, and seven in width, following the two great lines of road which intersect the parish nearly at right angles; the mean length is about six miles, and the mean breadth six; containing about 36 square miles, and allowing only 400 acres to every square mile, the amount will be 14,400 acres; it contains 101 plough gates of land, valued at 6429 pounds (Note 13) Scots.

“It is bounded on the North, by the parish of Fintry; on the West, by Strathblane and Baldernock; on the South, Calder and Kirkintilloch; and on the east by Kilsyth; forming a distinct commissariot along with Hamilton, forming the commissariot of Hamilton and Campsie.

“It is presumed, that the winding appearance of the strath in general, and particularly of the glens near which the parish church is situated, has given rise to the name Campsie, or Camsi, which, in the Celtic language is said to signify crooked Strath or Glen. Of course, the Clachan of Campsie is the place of worship of the crooked Glen....

“... What is now stiled consumption, seems to have been unknown in this district about 60 years ago; and I believe generally unknown in Scotland: Many causes have been assigned for this fact, by medical men. Where people were clothed in plaiding, which somewhat resembles flannel, as was the case till very lately in this district, and where they seldom were confined to work in warm houses, as is now the case, great colds, the forerunners of consumption, would not easily affect them.

“Population.—In this present year, 1793, when the numeration was made, there were 2517 souls. The population of this parish has increased 900, since December 1783, the number then being 1627. In Dr Webster's account it is given up at 1400. From several facts in the possession of the writer of this account, the population of this parish seems to have decreased from the Revolution till the year 1763. The chief cause which has been assigned for this circumstance, was the throwing several small tenements together, making one large farm, whereby a number of families were thrown out of bread, and obliged to emigrate to large towns for their daily subsistence.

“Character, Morals, Genius, &c.—The inhabitants of this district, during the last and early part of this century, were somewhat conspicuous for drinking and fighting with their neighbours: If any person in this parish, however mean his situation, had received an injury or affront from an inhabitant of another parish, his neighbours considered themselves bound to support him, and to avenge his quarrel: such conduct, however, seems to have proceeded more from pride and rustic gallantry, than from a settled malevolence of disposition. The more improved manners, and a more general intercourse with society, have in great measure, done away with this turbulent disposition; still the natives of Campsie may be considered as a keen tempered people, by no means averse to expose themselves to bodily danger at any time: the young people have no objection to military life, being fond of novelty and adventure; during the present war, no less than 28 have enlisted in the land service, and seven have entered on board the navy; these remarks chiefly apply to the lower class of people. The gentry, for at least these 40 years, have been remarkable for their sobriety, decent behaviour, and oeconomical habits; of course, they are all in prosperous circumstances; rigid oeconomy was not the virtue of their forefathers.

“Appearance of the Inhabitants, and Diseases. —The inhabitants of this district may be considered as uncommonly healthy; they are a clean limbed, well made people, rather lean of flesh, in general from five feet seven to six feet high; one half of the young men being above five feet ten, scarcely any above six feet: There are a few who live to a very great age; although, in general, the heads of families live to the age of seventy; which circumstance would induce me to style the place more healthy than if we found extraordinary instances of longevity: there is one circumstance to be taken notice of, which is, the uncommon number of accidental deaths, being somewhat more than two per annum; during the last ten years there were no fewer than twenty-three (Note 14).

“...Miscellaneous Observations.—It may be here proper to mention a remarkable fact, which marks very much the turbulence of the times, and the impotence of the laws, so late as the year 1744. The father of the present minister of Campsie paid black mail to M'Grigor of Glengyle (Note 15), in order to prevent depredations being made upon his property; M’Grigor engaging, upon his part, to secure him from suffering hardship, as it was termed; and he faithfully fulfilled the contract; engaging to pay for all sheep which were carried away, if above the number seven, which he styled lifting; if below seven, he only considered it as a piking; and for the honour of this warden of the Highland march, Mr John Lapslie having got fifteen sheep lifted in the commencement of the year 1745, Mr M’Grigor actually had taken measures to have their value restored, when the rebellion broke out, and put an end to any further payment of black mail, and likewise to Mr M’Grigor’s self created wardenship of the Highland borders.

“The last instance in this district of a Baron of Regality exercising the jurisdiction of  pit and gallows (Note 16) over his dependants, is said to have been exercised by the Viscount of Kilsyth, in the 1793; having condemned one of his own servants to be hanged for stealing silver plate from the house of Bancloich: the fellow was executed upon a hill on the barony of Bancloich, styled the Gallow-hill; a part of the gibbet was lately found lying in a swamp, adjoining to this field of blood.”

In the dated sections below, Mr. Lapslie compares the state of his parish at various periods. The names he gives are the authors of earlier statistical surveys. Sir John Sinclair’s Accounts were not the first such venture in Scotland, just the best known.

In 1714 John Coubrough & Jonet Buchanan would have had four of their first five daughters living. The children of John Coubrough & Helen Stevenson (Ellrig) would have been grown up. Their son William and his wife, Mary Moir, would have had three children of their own. —Ed. “...Year 1714

1st, Only three cows said to have been killed for winter beef in the whole parish, the gentry excepted.

2nd, The wages of a man-servant for half-a-year, 9£ Scots; some of the best get 12£ Scots; a woman-servant, 6£ Scots for half-a-year.

3d, No wheaten bread eat in the parish.

4th, No inclosure whatever in the parish, except about the gentlemen’s gardens or woods.

5th, No cart or chaise; the gentry rode to church on horseback.

6th, All broad ploughs, the horses yoked abreast.

7th, The men wore bonnets and plaids, and plaiding waistcoats, and plaiding hose; no English cloth whatever was worn by the inhabitants, the gentry excepted.”

In 1744, Henry, Helen and Agnes, children of William Coubrough & Mary Moir, were all married, with young families of their own, as were John & Jonet’s children Jean & John. William C, Mary Moir, John Coubrough& Jonet Buchanan had all passed on. MalcolmCoubrough& Marrion Reid would marry the following year. — Ed.

“Year 1744.

1st, The better sort of farmers joined and got a cow for a winter mart, betwixt two of them, the price then being thirty five or forty shillings (Note 17) only for a fat cow.

2d, No chaise as yet kept in the parish; some few carts, but these were used only to carry out manure in the spring; the wheels were not shod with iron; and the moment the manure was carried out, these timber wheels were taken down till next spring.

3d, Perhaps about five or six inclosures were made in the parish; it must be owned, though few, they were most substantially built; they remain entire and firm to this day.

4th, No wheaten bread, no English cloth used by the inhabitants.

5th, A man servant’s wages from 30 shillings to two pounds per half year; a woman’s from nine pound Scots to one pound Sterling; servants in this period uniformly got a pair of hose and shoes besides their fee.

6th, No potatoes, carrots or turnips &c. were used by the inhabitants, only a few (Note 18) were planted in their yards, for the pot.”

In 1759, the families of Henry, Helen, and Agnes were half-grown. Their brothers William and James had also married and had families by this time. John, son of Jonet Buchanan & John C, was about to marry for the third time, and his sister Jean’s kids were mostly grown. Our own James was somewhere between seven years old and three years in the future; his wife, Jean Muir, wouldn’t be born for five years yet. —Ed.

“Year 1759

1st, Carts were become more numerous, there being then about twenty in the parish, their wheels shod with iron.

2d, The broad plough still continued in many places, though, in general, the horses were now yoked, two and two; still there were no fanners for the milns or barns, the farmers being obliged to winnow the corn in the fields.

3d, A man-servant came now to receive fifty shillings and three pounds Sterling per half year; and a woman twenty five or thirty shillings only per half year.

4th, There were now two wheeled chaises in the parish; and English cloth began to be worn occasionally by the better sort of people, along with worsted stockings, and buckles in their shoes.

5th, Potatoes (Note 19) were still only cultivated in lazy beds.

6th, Very decent farmers thought it necessary to have some part of a fat cow or a few sheep salted up for the winter.

7th, By the leases granted by the proprietors of land at this time, the tenants were taken bound to inclose some part of the farm; still there was no sown grass in the parish, and the cattle grazed promiscuously in the winter season.

8th, There were no clocks in the parish, except in the houses of the gentry and principal inhabitants.”

1794 is the time of the Statistical Accounts. James & Jean had four or five children by now, and had been ensconced in Thornliebank for 3-5 years. This is about the time James & Jean disappear from the church records, and we lose track of them for the next 10 years. MalcolmCoubrough & Jean Buchanan will marry in about two years, and Malcolm’s brother James will marry Helen Thomas in 1795. —Ed.

“Year 1794

1st, There are nearly two hundred carts in the parish, perfectly equipped for any draught.

2d, There are four post-chaises, and three coaches, and one two wheeled chaises, kept by the gentry, in the proper style.

3d, The wages of a man-servant betwixt five pounds and six pounds (Note 20) per half year, and a woman’s from two to three pounds, ditto.

4th, Potatoes is now universally used by all ranks of people, for at least six months in the year.

5th, Wheaten bread is now used universally used by every description of people; there being no less than two bakers stationary in the parish, besides some hundred pounds value of wheaten bread brought annually from Kirkintilloch and Glasgow.

6th There have been near three hundred fat cows killed annually about the Martinmass time for winter provisions; besides the mutton, beef, and lamb, killed through the season, by two butchers residing in the parish.

7th,Every lad now dresses in English cloaths and fancy vests, with thread or cotton stockings; and every girl in cotton stuff, black silk cloaks and fancy bonnets.

8th, The quantity of liquor drunk in the seventeen public houses in this parish must be very great indeed; as, I have been told that four and five pounds, at a reckoning, have been collected from a company of journeymen and apprentices on a pay night (Note 21).

9th, The houses of every decent inhabitant of this parish consist at least of a kitchen and one room, generally two rooms, ceiled above, and often laid with deal floors, with elegant glass windows; and I believe, few of the tradesmen sit down to dinner without flesh meat on the table, and malt liquor to drink; Such is the relative situation of a parish in the year 1794, when some designing people used every effort to convince them, that they were poor, and miserable, and enslaved.”

Strathblane  Back to top

When I visited in August 2005, Strathblane parish church was a moderately elaborate stone building. It was obviously built well after Mr. Gibb’s 1794 parish account. He plainly thought the Duke of Montrose, his parish’s patron, could have had a bit more concern for the state of the church.

“Parish of Strathblane (County of Stirling) 

 By the Rev. Mr. Gibb. (Note 22)

“The parish of Strathblane takes its name from the river Blane, which rises in it, and runs through the whole extent. Blane is a contraction of two Gaelic words signifying warm river. The literal interpretation, consequently is, “valley of the warm river;” a name fitly appropriate to this parish, which from its situation, enjoys a peculiarly mild atmosphere. Lying on the south side of the Lennox hills, it is sheltered by them from the inclement winds of the north; while the reflection of the sun’s rays from a light sandy soil, produces an agreeable temperature of the air at all seasons.

Church, &c.—The church is a mean building, erected in the beginning of the present century; and having never been lathed or plaistered, the bare walls and roof without ceiling present a very sorry appearance for a place of worship. ... His Grace the Duke of Montrose is patron.”

New researchers

Since the last edition of this edifying publication, several “new cousins” have come on board the Coubrough search project.

1. Peggy is connected to a grandson of Gertrude Rosamond Laflin, b 1892, whose mother was our very own Barbara Allan Coubrough. I previously reported that Gertrude had married a Clifford Ghostley, and had not had any children. Not surprisingly, I was a bit confused. Thanks to Peggy, we now know there were indeed a Clifford and Gertrude Ghostley, but they were not directly related (Note 23) to our Barbara. Barbara's daughter, Gertrude Laflin, actually married William Walter, in about 1915. They had five children, all born in Hennepin County, Minnesota: Douglas, Louise, Virginia, Merna, and Helen.

According to Peggy, Gertrude's daughter Louise remembers a family story, which said that Barbara had gone to Minnesota, after a friend of hers “married a rich man who lived on Lake Minnetonka”, an outer suburb of the city of Minneapolis (Note 24). Barbara went to work as a domestic servant for her friend’s family. The 1910 Census says that she arrived in the US in 1884. Louise is thought to know the name of the friend’s husband, but not how Aden and Barbara came to meet, or why they chose each other. As Peggy says, “it's most probable that Adin knew the husband. The Laflin Family had substantial land holdings about 10 miles to the north-east of there. Adin & Barbara's first child, Clifford, was born April 1887, so apparently it didn't take long for Barbara to work her magic.

2. Mark Dunning, who lives in England, is a 4^th-great-grandson of Emilie Park (Note 25), younger sister of Euphemia Stewart Park who, in 1806, married John Coubrough, b 1761, son of John C, b 1717, & his third wife, Jean Livingstone. Mark is in possession of a family tree made by his grandfather, which has some interesting details about his ancestors—and ours—that shed a bit more light on the few facts we have. According to Granddad's tree, Euphemia Stewart Park’s husband was the paymaster of the Renfrew Volunteers; he “owned a weaving factory in Renfrewshire, and later became a merchant in Glasgow. He was “born in Strathblane and lived in the parish until 1781 when he went to Renfrew, remaining there until 1813 when he moved to Glasgow. He has been traced to seven addresses in Glasgow --- Gallowgate, Bell St., Wilson St., Clyde Buildings, Candleriggs, Rose St. and Renfrew St. He was made a Burgess Freeman of the Burgh of Renfrew on 19 December 1795. He was a Baillie (bailiff) and in 1806 was Fiscal for the Burgh of Renfrew. He became an Ensign in the company of Renfrew Volunteer Infantry in September 1803 and was promoted to Lieutenant January 1807. He was Lieutenant of the 2nd Regiment Renfrewshire Local Militia September 1808, and promoted to Captain June 1813. Appointed Paymaster of Renfrew Volunteers Infantry 10 August 1804. A Freemason and earlier a member of the Stirlingshire Charitable Society, he appears to have been a man of extraordinary force of character, an intimate friend of James Smith of Jordanhill, author of ‘The Life of St. Paul’ and other works. Politically, he was closely associated with Campbell of Blytheswood and many others. His portrait was in the possession of John Couborough of Blanefield.”

Also according to Mark, “Uncle Harold (Harold Ross b.1852) says that his father and mother met by chance an a coach in the Trossachs.” Rather a romantic little tale, don’t you think?

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1. Several years ago, when my mother and I visited Australia, we found two men named Alexander Thomson Coubrough and Victor Thomas John Coubrough listed in the Australian military records in Canberra. We later found that they were brothers, and that both had been at Gallipoli, in Turkey, when it was evacuated in December 1915. Thomas, the younger brother, was sent first to Egypt, for R&R with the rest of the able-bodied ANZAC troops, then to the Somme. He perished there, in the great battles of July 1916.

His brother, Alexander, was evacuated home to Australia. Because home was so far away from everywhere else, ANZAC troops were only sent home if they were completely unfit for any further military service. We assumed that since Alexander was sent home, he must have been either missing a few pieces, or so shell-shocked that he didn’t know his own name. I eventually discovered their parents to be Charles Coubrough Ruth Ellen Roberts, of whose five children only Alexander and Thomas had survived infancy. There the matter rested for several years.

Records continue to be digitised, and made available over the Internet all the time. One of the more recent additions is the complete “set” of United States draft registration cards from 1917-18. All men in the US between the ages of 18 and 60 were required to register for the draft. It didn’t necessarily mean they would be drafted, but they did have to register. Some time ago, via another electronic collection, I found that Alexander T. had arrived in San Francisco in about 1916 or 1917, but I didn’t know how long he was there, or whether he had ever gone back to Australia. Enter the draft card collection, where Alexander Thomson Coubrough had registered on September 12, 1918. As a citizen of Australia, he was not subject to the American draft. Even had he been American, though, he probably would not have been drafted. The tall, slender, blue-eyed redhead had an "injured right leg," and a "disabled right hand," undoubtedly a legacy of his tour in Gallipoli, and the reason he was shipped home instead of following his baby brother to the Somme. Alex eventually went back to Australia, where he became a temperance campaigner. On his draft registration, he gave his wife as his next of kin, so she must have been alive at that time, but I don’t know what became of her. Alex died at Launceston, Tasmania, in 1972.

2. A while back, I told you of a Malcolm Coubrough & Jessie Russell who lived at Homestead, Pennsylvania, USA. They had one son, another Malcolm, who was born in 1912. The only Malcolm I had found who fit the bill seemed to have been the son of Malcolm Coubrough and Mary Cameron. A little while after I posted this to my web site, I had an e-mail from Merle Whipple, who said that she had the marriage certificate for Mary Cameron’s son. The certificate showed his wife as Mary Livingston Fyfe, and Ms Whipple wondered what had become of Mary if her husband had later married Jessie Russell. I didn’t know, but now I just had to look.

Conveniently, Malcolm had also had to register for the US draft. His registration card gave his home address, his birth date, and listed his wife as his next of kin. There could no longer be any doubt: The man married to Jessie Russell was not the man who had married Mary Fyfe. Mary’s husband was indeed the son of Malcolm Coubrough and Mary Cameron; Jessie’s husband was the son of Malcolm Andrew Coubrough and Helen Templeton. Mary Cameron’s in-laws were Malcolm Coubrough and Agnes McKinnon, while Jessie Russell’s in-laws were John Coubrough and Catherine Andrew. Catherine’s husband, being the younger brother of Agnes McKinnon’s husband (sons of JamesCoubrough & Jean Muir), Jessie’s husband was a first cousin of Mary Fyfe’s husband, but they were definitely not the same man.

3. From an on-line index of ships listed in the Lloyd’s Register of British and Foreign Shipping: The copper-sheathed brig NORVAL, 294 tons, and with a loaded draft of 14 feet, was built in 1824, in New Brunswick. In 1850, her owner & master, Captain W. Coubro, made a trip from London to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania, Australia). I’m not exactly sure which Coubro this was, but it was most likely a William, and from the spelling of the name, he must have been one of the Ellrigs.

4. A few years earlier, the Sydney Morning Herald (15 July 1841) carried an advertisement stating that the Herald (911 ton), under "Capt. Caubro, Agent Gilchrist and Co. had "Shepherds $25 per year with rations," and "female farm servants $12 per year with rations."

The next day (16 July 1841), the same paper carried this article: "The ‘HERALD’ arrived yesterday with 383 emigrants, under the superintendence of Dr Wark. She spoke no vessels connected with these colonies, but fell in with a vessel on the equator which reported having seen the _ _ _ _ before, the ‘Helen’ from Liverpool with emigrants, bound to Sydney, which may therefore be expected daily. The emigrants per ‘Herald’ arrived all in good health, and the general cleanliness of the vessel reflects great credit on the captain, _ _ _ _ and officers; and more particularly so as there are a great number of children, amounting to nearly one hundred, on board of her. The migrants themselves passed a vote of thanks (in a meeting they called a few days prior to their arrival) to the doctor and those in authority over them. They are principally Irish, from the County of Londonderry, and a few Scotch mechanics and shepherds who can be well recommended. This vessel has only been 14 weeks on the passage, and we are happy to say that Captain Coubro has always been most fortunate in making trips to the Colony in about the same time. One seaman, two emigrants, 10 infants from teething and other complaints, and 2 girls from influenza, died during the voyage of the Herald."

And 10 days later (25 July 1841), this sad notice: "(Drowning) A Mr Hobson was drowned on a "water mess" boat transferring him to the Emigrant Ship ‘Herald’ in bad weather on Sydney Harbour." Poor Mr. Hobson. If he was boarding the Herald at Sydney, he had probably intended going home to Britain.

5. Still in Australia, a place called Circular Head is located at the far north-eastern tip of Tasmania. In 1866, there was a school there, operated by someone named Cowbro. The census index where I found the name says that the school was operated under the Board of Education, but gives neither a first name nor a gender for the schoolmaster. With no first name, it’s hard to say for sure who it was, but there are a couple of possibilities. The clerk, William Coubro, b 1809, son of Henry Cowbrough and Wilhelmina Cowbrough, had gone to Australia in 1833. He died in the state of Victoria, in 1869, but could have been in Tasmania three years before. Judging by the spelling of the name, and the location, however, it was more likely to have been the Thomas Cowbro who married Isabella Wilson, or even their son. We know that Thomas and Isabella both died in Tasmania, in 1889 and 1880, respectively, but we don’t know anything else about them. We don’t know if they had children, or even exactly when they were married. Since they were both born before 1820, and given the nature of frontier schools, they could certainly have had a son old enough to run a school in 1866.

6. We have known for quite a while that the John Coubrough who married Margaret Herald was the son of William Coubrough and Christian Dun. We also knew that John and Margaret had gone home to Scotland in 1866, shortly after their son Thomas died. They had been home about 10 years when John died, too, in November 1877. Since Margaret died in Melbourne, in 1902, she presumably returned to Australia, though we don’t know when. John and Margaret had 8 or 10 children altogether: five born in Australia, James at sea on the way home, and the rest in Scotland. Thanks to a couple of generous contributions to the project’s research fund, I have recently been able to buy a few more marriage certificates (Note 26). We still don’t know what became of most of the children, but we have a few more clues.

Christina, John and Margaret’s oldest daughter, was about 20 when she married John Christie, in Glasgow, in 1880. In the Australian records, John and Margaret had a daughters named Christina and Kestrina, both born at Reedy Creek, in 1868. Kestrel is an old nick-name for Christopher, and I suspect that “Kestrina” and Mrs. John Christie were the same person.

Johanna, the third child, married William Robertson, 1883, also in Glasgow; we don’t know if they had any descendants.

Of Mary Anne, James, John, and Catherine, we still know little more than there names. One of the marriage records I found, though, has another little mystery attached. On March 17, 1916, a woman named Minnie Coubrough married a man named John James Martin. The registration gave his age as 21, and hers as 35. It also gave her parents as John Coubrough and Margaret Herald, both deceased. John and Margaret did have a daughter called Mary Anne, a name often shortened to Minnie. Mary Anne was known to have been alive in 1881: in the census she was 17 and living at a sanitarium or hospital of some sort, in Shettleston. This is where the mystery comes in: If Mrs. Martin was really 35, she must have been born about 1881. Trouble is, Margaret Herald’s John had died in 1877. So here are the questions: If Mrs. Martin was really Margaret’s daughter, and was really 35 in 1916, who was her father? If she was really Mary Anne, b 1864, she would have been 52; did she look young enough to pass for 35? Or was she just lying because she thought it was bad enough being 15 years older than her husband, let alone twice that? I’ll keep looking.

7. William Coubrough and Christian Dunn, whose oldest son, John, married Margaret Herald, also had four other children. I have at last found marriages for all of them, and descendants for the ones who had them:

Margaret married James Strang, on July 9, 1848. They had at least one son, James, born in 1852.

Catherine married Donald McVicar, in 1847. Donald seems to have either worked for Catherine’s brother James, or been his business partner. They had nine children: Christina, 1848; Alexander, 1850; Catherine, 1852; Jemima, 1857; Jemima, 1859; Williamina, 1860 – 1863; John & Donald, 1862; and Joan, 1868.

James married Catherine McKay in 1848.

Janet married William Blair, in 1849, in Barony parish. They had four known children: James, 1850; Christina, 1851; Margaret, 1852; and Williamina, 1856.

James, a spirit merchant in Glasgow, and Catherine McKay had no children of their own. They both left wills giving each other life use of their estate. When they had both passed on, the entire considerable estate was divided among the children of James’s sister Catherine and her husband Donald McVicar. James and Catherine’s will actually cleared up another old question. The birth record indexes I had seen listed what appeared to be two women named Catherine Coubrough married to men named McVicar: one Donald and one Daniel. Looking at the actual records, it seemed that the children either belonged to cousins of similar age, or they all belonged to the same family. The latter possibility seemed the most likely, but there was the small problem that the fathers’ names were different. Mr. McVicar had been James’s right-hand man, and in his will, James specified him as "Donald McVicar, also known as Daniel McVicar, married to my sister Catherine Coubrough." There could be no doubt as to Mr. McVicar’s identity, and even less that the McVicar children all belonged to the same family.

7. John Coubrough, son of JohnCoubrough & Euphemia Park, married Mary Ewing in 1836, in Campsie parish, and had 10 children. Of their sons William, b 1851; David, 1857; Robert, 1860, and George, 1863, we know nothing except their names and birth dates; of the other six:

James, born 1837, married Janet McFarlane in 1857; they had eight children. Their daughter Elizabeth, b 1860 (2^nd child & eldest daughter), married Mathew Wilson.

Catherine, born 1839, married Richard Gillard in 1861; they had six children.

Janet, born 1842, married Donald McMillan in 1870; they had five children.

John, born 1844, married Agnes McIsaac in 1871; it is not known if they had any children.

Mary, born 1846, married Donald McKenzie in 1867; they had three children.

Euphemia, born 1854, married Stewart Raeburn in 1875. They had three children before she left him in July 1882 (shortly after their son James was born). We don’t know why Euphemia left Stewart Raeburn, but from a rather bitter-sounding entry on the birth certificate of her daughter Euphemia (who later married Arthur McGettigan), it is possible that he threw her out.

Euphemia later had three more children, all apparently by the same man. Since she never divorced Stewart Raeburn, she couldn’t legally marry the father of her other children, but they may have lived together. Under Scots law, the birth certificate of an illegitimate child cannot name the father unless he is physically present in front of the registrar to claim paternity. None of the certificates for Euphemia’s last four children gives the father’s name, but all of them have a stamp saying that the father had later gone to the registrar and claimed the children as his. I haven’t yet seen the register of corrections, to find the father’s name, but when Euphemia’s youngest son was married, he gave his parents as John Coubrough and Euphemia Raeburn.

8. Euphemia Coubrough Raeburn’s daughter Euphemia, born 1886, was 19 years old when she married Arthur McGettigan on September 15, 1905, in Barrhead, Renfrew, Scotland. They had at least one daughter, Kate, together, but the girl was not Euphemia’s first child. She was barely 17 when her son David was born in October 1903. The poor lad was only 10 months old when he died in August 1904; no father’s name was given on either the birth or death certificate.

9. Malcolm Coubrough and Jean Buchanan’s son Archibald and his wife, Margaret Pairman, had six children. We know little or nothing of any of them, other than the eldest son, Malcolm, who married Agnes Blackman, in Biggar, Lanark, and took her back to New Zealand with him, where they spent the rest of their lives, and where their descendants still live. My recently acquired collection of marriage certificates has given us a couple more clues: Mary Coubrough who married Thomas Noble in Glasgow, in 1882, was the fourth of Margaret and Archibald’s children. There was another surprise, too. A while back, I found a couple named Robert Noble & Jessie Coubrough, who had been married in 1878. As it turns out, not only was Robert the older brother of Thomas Noble, but his wife, Jessie, was the older sister of Thomas’s wife, Mary. I also found this notice in the on-line index of the Auckland, NZ, Weekly News (02.09.1915). I have not yet been able to determine if Trooper Archibald’s mother was Mary or Jessie—or neither:

“NOBLE, Trooper Archibald Coubrough, who has been wounded while serving with the Auckland Mounted Rifles was, prior to enlisting, country traveller for Messrs John Court Ltd.

9. William Coubrough, son of John Coubrough & Mary Binnie Davidson, married Annie Souter in 1886; they had six children: Annie, 1888; Feroozah Stewart, 1889; William, 1891; George, 1894; Mona, about 1897; and Mary, 1900. I don’t know what became of Annie, William or Mary; of the other three, we know their spouses, but not whether they had any children:

Feroozah Stewart married James Lawns in Paisley, Renfrew, in 1915.

George married Agnes Love, daughter of James Love and Elizabeth Strathern, on November 11, 1925, at Mid-Lodge, Coodham, Symington, Ayr.

Mona married William Grant Cullen, son of William F. Cullen & Agnes Spence, 11 December 1929, at Killearn, Stirling.

10. George Coubrough married Sarah Gibson, 31 December 1861, in Glasgow. George, brother of John Coubrough m. Mary Davidson (#9 above) was the son of John Coubrough and Christian Dun. Christian Dun’s in-laws were William Coubrough and Margaret Gourley; I haven’t been able to find out if either of them was related to William Coubrough & Christian Dinn (aka Din, or Dunn), whose son John was married to Margaret Herald.

They had seven children, but we know little about most of them. Sadly, George died in 1874, aged only 36. Sarah, left with six children under 12, never remarried. Though she survived George by about 13 years, she was still only 44 when she died in 1887. Of George and Sarah’s children:

John, b 1862, married Catherine Miller, about 1889. They had at least four children: George, Jeanie, Sarah, and Alexander.

Jane Fulton, b 1863, married Peter Strang, son of John Strang and Annie MacFarlane, on December 27, 1898, in Glasgow. I thought that this girl died young, as her younger sister Janet was also recorded as Jane. However, in the 1891 census, they were both alive and well and living together in their parents’ public house. Sadly, Jane had been married only about four years when she died February 18, 1903, in Gargunnock, Stirling. If either Peter or his wife were related to Robert Strang and his wife, Janet Cowbrough, the connection was a distant one, since Robert and Janet were married nearly 150 years before Peter and Jane. Peter’s mother, Annie MacFarlane, may have been related to one or more of the other McFarlane women who married into the Coubrough tribe. There is no evidence either way.

Christina Dunn, b January 20, 1866; d 1867, in Glasgow.

Janet Morris Fulton, b 1868, married Colin Moir, in Gargunnock, Stirling, in 1914. Janet seems to have been the sole operator of the public house after Jane married in 1898. Probably Colin Moir assisted in its operation after he married Janet in 1914, but I don’t know what happened to the business after Janet died in 1942. Her husband buried her at Gargunnock, Stirling.

Sarah’s son William was born March 27, 1870, at Gargunnock, but nothing else is known of him.

George Fulton, b April 18, 1872; d 1873, Gargunnock, Stirling.

George Fulton b: December 04, 1873, Gargunnock, Stirling, Scotland d: June 24, 1924, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

11. Almost from the beginning, we have encountered records that gave the occupation of various Coubroughs a “power loom tenter.” We assumed it had something to do with maintaining the operation of a power loom, but we could find no specific information. Then, just the other day, when I was looking for something else altogether, I stumbled across a definition on Scot Roots (www.scotroots.com/). A “tenter” was a “Mechanic who tended and repaired apparatus, for example a weaver's power loom.” Now we know!

Question corner  Back to top

Here are some of the things I am still working on.

1. James C. Brown & Annie Thompson were married early in 1862, in Scarborough Township, county of York, Upper Canada, but I don’t yet have the exact date. Does anyone know for sure?

2. The tombstones of Jean Buchanan and AP Coubrough may not mark the ends of an unbroken line after all. Having further studied the pictures I took last summer, it appears that there are other, apparently unrelated, stones in between. The question now is: Were Jean Buchanan’s and Anthony Park’s families buried so close to each other just by chance, or were they directly related?

3. I found this notice on the Royal Navy Minewarfare and Clearance Diving Officers' Association web site. Gordon was obviously a man his family could be proud of, but I don’t know who they were.

“SMILLIE Gordon Coulbrough Rank: A/LS Unit: ? Date Gazetted: 1 Feb 44

Award: DSM; Citation: Minesweeping - DSM awarded for courage, keenness and skill in a dangerous and valuable minesweeping operation.”

4. And the perennial questions: What is the cause of the huge gap between Robert and Matt, fifth and sixth sons of James Cowburgh and Jean Muir? And who were James’ parents? Almost certainly Jean Muir’s husband was the only James Coubrough in Eastwood parish in the 1790s, but as we have seen, he probably wasn’t the only Coubrough. Most likely, he moved his family from Campsie to Eastwood because he got a better job, but how did he get that job? Was he recruited directly? Or did he hear about it from a friend or relative? Was he the only Coubrough who went at that time? Or did Thomas and Robert go too? Were they related to each other, or to James? Were they there first, and that’s how James came to be there? Where were they, and what were they doing in the years between 1795 and 1805?

5. As has been noted, James and Jean Muir almost certainly moved to Thornliebank because James had work there, but did he have the job before he moved his family? Did he get laid off or fired from the job at Glorat Field? Did they move to Eastwood and stay with relatives while he looked for work? And if they did stay with family, were they his relations, or hers? Almost certainly, the family would have been turned out of any housing that was attached to James’s job in Campsie the minute he quit working there, so his family would have been “in the street,” so to speak. They probably moved to Eastwood parish the same time he did, but there was no housing in Thornliebank (since there was no village yet) at that time, and the family would have had to live somewhere.

I had long thought that Jean and the children might have stayed behind with relatives in Campsie, but this might not have been the way it happened. They might have moved at the same time as James, and stayed with family in Eastwood parish. Super-sleuth Barbara McCue has discovered Muirs in Eastwood at least as early as 1753, when one Martha Muir married James Findlay (Note 27) at Pollokshaws. James and Martha’s children would have been nearly the same age as our James and Jean, and were certainly contemporaries. The Findlay’s seem to have lived in the Auldhouse area, which is very near Thornliebank’s Main Street, the Crum’s printworks. It would have been only a 10-minute walk to the printworks, and it was only a mile or so from the parish church, which was then at Pollokshaws.

Was Martha Muir a relative of our Jean Muir? Were the Findlays the reason James took the new job in the first place? Is this the answer to whether Jean moved to Eastwood at the same time as her husband, or whether she went later? It certainly would have been more convenient for his wife and children to be at Auldhouse or Pollokshaws than for James to have to traipse back and forth to Campsie, a distance of about 35 miles, as the crow flies. Given the state of the records for the area, we won’t likely know the answer any time soon.

6. Yet another of the questions we have been asking for years is: Who were the parents of the James Coubrough who married Jean Muir? Was he the grandson of John Coubrough and Jonet Buchanan? The great-grandson of Malcolm Coubrough and Margaret Smyth? Son of MalcolmCoubrough and Margaret Waters? Or did he belong to someone we haven’t even found yet?

Malcolm Coubrough and Margaret Smyth had a son named James, b Campsie parish, 1667, who married Christian Din and had a child, b 1696, whose name seems to have been Malcolm. This Malcolm is probably the man who married Margaret Waters, in about 1736. Unfortunately, the only “proof” of this connection is that Margaret Waters’ first son was called James, presumably after the child’s paternal grandfather. The parish register where the birth of Christian Din’s child is recorded gives only the names of the parents and the witnesses: neither the name nor the sex of the child are written down.

More certainly, Margaret Waters had a son named James, b 1752, who would have been about 33 when Jean Muir’s first son was born: the right name at the right age at the right place at the right time to have been Jean Muir’s husband. This doesn’t quite square with Jean Muir’s first son being called James, and the second one Malcolm, but there are several possible explanations.

Generally, a family’s first daughter would be named after the wife’s mother, and the first son after the husband’s father. We have, however, seen any number of cases where the first daughter was named after the husband’s mother, usually if the wife’s mother was living, but the husband’s mother was not. And there are instances where a first son was named after the wife’s father, often if the wife’s family was of higher social standing than the husband’s, or if the husband didn’t know or didn’t get on with his own father. Jean’s father was yet another James, and we have no idea if he was still breathing when his youngest daughter married. There are even cases of a first son named after a parent’s older brother that had died young. Any of these could explain why Jean Muir’s first son seemed to be called James. And with the second son being Malcolm, the same arguments support MalcomCoubrough & Margaret Waters being Jean’s in-laws being.

At the same time, perhaps a more likely possibility is that Jean Muir’s son James, christened at Campsie, in October 1785, may have been her first known son, rather than her first-born son. In the absence of a marriage register, I assumed Jean and James had married the year before, in the same place. I recently discovered, however, that the reason I couldn’t find a marriage register is that no registers were kept, for the period from about 1720 to about 1785. We have no documentary evidence whatsoever that James and Jean were actually married in 1784, or even in Campsie, for that matter. Any children born before James would not be recorded either. It is entirely possible that Jean Muir’s first son was called Malcolm, and the boy christened in the fall of 1787 was the second boy with that name. All of which, of course, would fit perfectly James’s parents being MalcolmCoubrough & Margaret Waters.

7. Last time, I told you about an Alexander Coubrough and one Jane Allan, who had a daughter, Elizabeth. I wondered if Jane might be a relation to our Jean Allan (m. Matt Coubrough). I still don’t know who Jane Allan was, if she was our relation, or if she was legally married to Alexander, but I may have discovered who he was.

Jane and Alexander’s daughter married Joseph Falconer in Glasgow, in 1879, which should mean that she had lived in Glasgow for at least a little while before she was married, and had possibly grown up there. Alexander is not a particularly common name in the Coubrough tribe, and the only one I could find who was even close to the right age at the right time was born in 1833, in Glasgow, youngest of eight children of Robert Coubrough and Margaret Primrose.

Name and location, of course, don’t exactly constitute hard proof, but Robert’s family had been in Glasgow for well over eighty years by the time Alexander was born. The odds that he might have lived there and had a daughter grow up there are pretty good. Naturally this leads to another question: Who were Robert’s family?

8. Margaret Primrose’s husband was the eldest son of Rabbina Reid & yet another Malcolm C. Other than her name, we know nothing about Rabbina. She may or may not have been related to Marrion Reid (confusingly also married to a Malcolm Coubrough); there is no evidence either way. Her husband, however, appears to have been the son of Agnes Thomson & still one more Malcolm Coubrough. Agnes’s husband was probably born around 1710 or 1720, and he is the question: who was his father?

Agnes & Malcolm seem to have called their first son Gavin, a name seen nowhere else in the tribe. This Gavin later married Margaret Towart. Agnes Thomson’s second known son, born 1753, was called William, which may have been the name of Malcolm’s father. The Campsie parish register has a William Coubrough whose son Gavin was baptised in 1731. No mother’s name is given, so it is impossible to say whether the same William had other children. However, the 1731 Gavin would have been close to the same age as Agnes Thomson’s husband, and there are only three Gavins in the whole Coubrough shrub: William’s son, b 1731, Agnes’ son, b 1751, and Margaret Towart’s son, b 1780. William, father of 1731 Gavin, was probably also the father of Agnes Thomson’s husband. The next question may well be impossible to answer: Who was William’s father?

12. Jim Coubrough and Annie Macdonald had four children: Matt, m. Liz Brown; Flora, m. Billy Atwell; Mary Anne, and Barbara, m. Aden Laflin. We have tracked down families and places of last rest for all but poor Minnie.

Born in the spring of 1858, not long after her family arrived in Dawn Township, Minnie seems to have been mentally and physically handicapped. I don’t know how severely she was disabled, but she probably was not capable of living on her own. Sad as this is, though, it’s worse that we don’t know what became of her. She was known to be alive and living with her parents in the spring of 1901, when the census taker came around. Her mother’s will, written in February 1902, specified that Jim was to have use of their home farm until his own death, and presumably Minnie would stay with him. Annie’s will also specified that, when Jim was done with it, their daughter Flora was to be the sole heir to the farm. Along with the farm, however, Flora was to inherit the care of her sister Mary Anne.

Liz and Flora moved their families west in 1909, to join their husbands who had homesteaded in Saskatchewan. Minnie would have been about 50, if she was still living, so she would likely have gone along for the ride. So far, though, I have found no trace of her. She was not living with Billy and Flora at the time of the 1911 census, she is not known to have been buried in the Elrose, Saskatchewan, cemetery where Flora and Billy are, and I have found no record of her death in Ontario. Does anyone know what happened to Minnie? It saddens me to think that she lies alone and forgotten.

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Please note that this is a private, non-profit project; higher rates outside of Canada are the result of usurious postage rates. This paper’s sole purpose is sharing our family’s history. If you make copies, or share it with others, I ask only that you say where it came from.

e-mail: myrna@coubrough.com

1. Surgeons were considered tradesmen, since they charged a set fee for their services. Physicians, on the other hand, were usually "gentlemen," and didn’t necessarily get paid for their work. Back

2. Young men at university-level studies, rather than children at the local grammar school.  Back

3. Compared to 11 men. Back

4. 1 shilling 8 pence; roughly $16 a day, in 2006 Canadian dollars. Back

5. 4 pence is equal to about $2 now, plus food; half a penny would be 25¢. (2006 Canadian dollars)  Back

6. Mill-wright; miln is an old word for mill and applied to any establishment of that sort.  Back

7. Later married to Catherine Andrew.  Back

8. From this point, my story of James & Jean’s home is a sort of "historical fiction." It’s based on fact and on general history of the period, but some details, such as the location of the furniture, are pure imagination.  Back

9. The type of vest worn as part of a man’s suit. A British vest is a garment known to Canadians as an undershirt.  Back

10. That is, knitted from a spun yarn, rather than cut flat from plaid cloth and stitched up the back.  Back

11. Old Statistical Account, volume 15, pp 199 – 213.  Back

12. Old Statistical Account (1793), volume 15, pp 315 –381  Back

13. The annual amount of rent to be obtained from the land, rather than the selling price.  Back

14. Of these 23 deaths, 11 were in coal mines; 3 people drowned, 2 died of exposure on the Fells, and 3 in mill accidents. The "stroke of a horse," a quarry, a falling tree, and a fall from a bridge accounted for the rest.  Back

15. Also known as Rob Roy McGregor.  Back

16. Pit and gallows: a laird’s right to punish tenants’ wrong-doing however he saw fit, including by torture, hanging and dismemberment.  Back

17. About $300 today. (2006 Canadian dollars)  Back

18. Kail (kale) is a "leaf cabbage" that doesn’t form heads. Today, it is mainly a flower-garden ornamental in Canada.  Back

19. Eventually, many Scots were so dependant on potatoes that when blight struck there in about 1852-3, the Highlands suffered a potato famine. Fewer people died, and the hardest-hit communities were the most remote, so the Scots famine is less famous than its Irish predecessor.  Back

20. Double what they were in 1759, but still 1/3 less than in 1714.  Back

21. A skilled tradesman might make £5 in three months. Then as now, booze was a high-profit business.  Back

22. Old Statistical Account, pg 563.  Back

23. Charles Ghostley and his first wife had a son named Clifford, who married Gertrude Hawkins, making her Gertrude Ghostley. Charles Ghostley's second wife was Emma Laflin, daughter of Adin Laflin by his first wife. Gertrude Ghostley, then, was the "step-daughter-in-law" of Emma Laflin Ghostley, but no relation to Emma's own stepmother, Barbara Coubrough Laflin. Back

24. Possibly the reason why the picture we have was taken in Minneapolis? If it is our "Barbara Lochland," she would have been 23 or 24 – about the right age for the girl in the picture. Back

25. Mark is a shirt-tail cousin of Euphemia Park’s descendants, but not connected to any other Coubroughs. Back

26. Unlike their English counterparts, which give only the fathers’ names, Scots marriage registers give the names of all known parents.  Back

27. James Findlay & Martha Muir’s daughter Martha, b 1762, married a John MacDonald. John & Martha's son Robert married Margaret Steell. Their daughter Margaret Clark Macdonald was the first wife of Robert Coubrough, son of JohnCoubrough & Catherine Andrew.  Back