The Coubrough Times July 2006

Happy Summer Everyone! C’mon in. We have some new cousins, and new stories about “old” ones. We’ll see Australian war veteran Alexander T. Coubrough in the US, and that at least one of the cousins had sufficient rank to call on US president Theodore Roosevelt—twice. Our standing as the first Canadian Coubroughs is challenged, and the new French Connection may be related to the challenger. There’s lots more gossip, so pour yourself a glass of iced tea, and let’s have a visit.

Luketown, Campsie — Saturday last was a very special day. A typical June (Note 1) morning, it had dawned cool and cloudy, but the sun did not fail to appear, and the rain kindly waited until evening. It was a perfect day for a wedding.

In the soft summer dawn, Jean Muir leaped from her bed. She was bursting with excitement–and a little scared, too: Today she would marry a dark-haired lad, a carpenter who worked in a linen mill. She had washed her hair the night before, with warm, heather-scented water. Now, with the moon barely out of the sky, she stood in her linen shift, brushing the sleep from her long red hair—and chattering nervously to her friend, Agnes, who had come to help her get ready. When even her hair crackled with suppressed excitement, she tied it back with a thin leather thong. She and Agnes had spent weeks, carefully stitching the long seams of a soft woollen gown. After Agnes had slipped the new yellow dress over Jean’s head, and tied up the laces—making sure there were no knots. Then they went down the stairs for a bite of cheese and bread, with a little ale to wash it down. Just before they followed Jean’s father, James, out the door, Agnes set a small wreath of fresh summer flowers on Jean’s head.

Meanwhile, just up the road at Glorat, a carefully-dressed young carpenter was nervously pacing the floor of his father’s house. Though the sun was barely up, James Coubrough had been dressed in his new kilt (Note 2) and fine new linen shirt for hours—scared half witless, but just as excited as the auburn angel he was about to marry. His already-married brother sat calmly at the table, a glass of ale and a bit of bread in front of him.

Scowling, James replied, “I’m sure I’ve forgotten something... I’m not sure I’m ready for this.... I don’t know what I could have been thinking.... Have you the ring? I don’t think I can do this... ”

“It’s too late to worry now,” his brother laughed. “Ye’ll have lots of time for regret later. We’d best get going, for we’ve that bit of a walk, and mustn’t be late.”

With that, they stepped into the road, closing the door behind them. As they walked towards the parish church, in Clachan, their friends joined them, in anticipation of both the coming ceremony and the wedding breakfast, sure to offer plenty of meat and ale for all. And for the stouter of heart, there was to be whisky, too. The party grew bigger and noisier, until even James could no longer be grim.

In an extraordinary stroke of good fortune, they reached the church door just as a party of giggling girls came from the other way—an auspicious beginning that bode well for the marriage. The groom and his brother entered the church first, followed by the bride and her parents. The rest of their families and all their friends filed in while Jean and James took their places in front of the minister.

After a long sermon and a short ceremony, in which he placed a silver ring on the third finger of her left hand, and in which a red cord symbolising courage, strength and passion, bound their wrists, they emerged, laughing, into the sunlight—surely another good omen—where their friends pelted them with flowers and barley or wheat, in hopes of ensuring fertility for both Jean and the household. After many hugs and kisses, with much laughter and not a few ribald jokes, the whole crowd set off for Luketown and the wedding breakfast. Along the way, they were beset by flocks of local children loudly demanding the scatter. Obligingly, James reached into his sporran for a handful of small silver coins. He tossed the coins over their heads, the little flocks dissolving instantly in the race to collect them.

By the time they were back in Luketown, with the sun now well up in the sky, the day was growing warm. And with all that walking, they were eager to dig into the waiting feast. Jean was her parents’ youngest child, and her father had spared no expense for this wedding. The table literally groaned under the weight of the cheese, bread, cakes, and cold roast meat. The thirst-quenching ale had not been forgotten, and for those with an extra-strong thirst, or who needed a bit of extra courage, a small cask of whisky stood on a stool in the corner, presided over by the bride’s father. A bit nearer the centre of the room, but not far from the stool, was another smaller table, with a stack of small, sweet cakes piled on it. (Note 3) The cakes were gifts from the couple’s friends—one cake from each guest. After everyone was mostly finished eating, Jean and James stood at opposite sides of the pile. As custom demanded, James leaned across it to kiss his new wife. He leaned far over, and she stood on her very tippy-toes to reach him, but they managed not to knock the cakes over, which would have been monstrously unlucky. When the whistles and shouts attending this success had died down, Jean’s mother, Jean (Lapslie) Muir, took from under a napkin a specially-baked bride cake. Sad to be losing her baby girl, but eager to ensure a successful transition from girlhood to wife and mother, the elder Jean held the cake over her daughter’s head (Note 4) , and slowly crumbled it. When she had made as many small pieces as she could, ensuring not only fertility for her daughter, but prosperity for their marriage, she hugged her little girl, and stepped back. This was the signal for Jean’s married friends to welcome her to their circle. Agnes Muir lifted the wreath of flowers from her little sister’s head, and undid the lace that held her hair back. They swiftly braided Jean’s red hair, then tied a linen kirtch (Note 5) over it, showing that she was, at last, a married woman, and would no more be seen in public with her hair unbound.

It was late that evening, but not yet midnight, when James and Jean set out for their new home at Glorat. Their friends fell in around them, to keep them company on their long walk. Despite the hour, the air was filled with laughter and helpful suggestions as to how they should spend the rest of the night. No doubt James and Jean found this advice less entertaining than did those who gave it, but there was no help for it. They gave in with good grace, and even managed to laugh themselves at some of the more amusing bits. When they finally reached their new home, James pushed open the door to find that despite the warmth of the June night, some one of their friends had been in to light the welcoming fire—just a small one, but a welcome none the less. Just to make sure she didn’t stumble in the doorway, which would cause serious bad luck for years to come, James picked up his bride and quickly stepped inside. He set her down, then turned back and firmly shut the door on all the well-wishers.

We don’t know when or where James & Jean married. It was probably in the parish church, in the Clachan of Campsie, sometime before their first known child was born in the fall of 1785, but it could just as easily been a hand-fast marriage or something similar. As late as the 1930s, if a Scots couple lived together as man and wife, and their community knew them as a couple, (Note 6) the marriage was just as legal as if they had been church married.

We don’t know when James was born, or where, but Jean was born at Luketown, in December 1764. The parish register says Jean & James lived at Glorat when their children were born. It seems reasonable to suppose he already lived there at the time of his marriage, though he could have been at neighbouring Kincaid. There seems to have been print- or bleach-fields at both places.

I have no idea what colour Jean’s hair was, or James’s either. Given the number of blue-eyed red-heads among their descendants, however, odds are good that at least one of them was a carrot-top. Neither do I know that Jean’s best friend was called Agnes, but it was a common name, and Jean almost certainly knew at least one Agnes besides her older sister.

As for the wedding day itself, any given day in Scotland has a good chance of being cloudy, then changing to sun and/or rain and back again. Marrying on Saturday was most likely to make a happy marriage, June was the luckiest month, and yellow was a lucky colour. I combined all three: Jean & James were married at least 25 years in a time when they would only have expected to live about 50 years. Both at least in their 20s when their first known son was born in 1785, they must have done something right.

Fertility rites—tossing flowers and grain, crumbling the bride-cake, etc.,—were Scots customs that must have still had some power. Jean raised seven of her eight known children, and there may have been more in that mysterious space between Robert and Mathew The rites ensuring prosperity and good luck were Scots customs, too. The “scatter” showed both the groom’s generosity and his ability to earn/accumulate wealth: he could afford to toss away a few coins, because he would have no trouble getting more. A bride tripping over the door-sill of her new home could bring years of extreme ill-luck to the household. The obvious solution was for her husband to carry her in. Another version of this ritual (though I’m not sure it was Scots) held that the first of the couple to set foot in the marital house would be the ruler there. If the groom carried his wife, his would be the first foot, and he would be the king of his castle; if his wife went first, he had no hope of ever ruling his own roost.

We know James & Jean had some sort of arrangement because they were together long enough to have at least eight children. We know Jean’s date and place of birth, and who her parents were; we know nothing of her husband’s origins. We know where/when the children were born, that sometime between the third and fourth sons, they moved from Campsie parish to Eastwood (though not why), and that most of their children stayed in the Eastwood area. The rest of this story is pure invention.

1. In our search for James Coubrough and Jean Muir, we have tried to discover the fate of as many of their descendants as possible. We have long since found out what happened to their son Mathew and most of his children; the ends of some his grandchildren, however, remains a mystery, but we recently stumbled over one more. Matt & Jean Allan’s daughter Jane married James Campbell in Pollokshaws, on December 29, 1865. They had six children, but except for two boys who died in childhood, we had no idea what became of them. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I was surfing an on-line index of marriages in Ontario, and there she was:

On January 8, 1918, at Hamilton, Ontario, Janet Morrison Campbell, spinster, age 47, daughter of Jean Coubrough & James Campbell, married widower James Gowland, 58, son of John Gowland & Abigail Holley. The witnesses were Grace Howard and Janet B. Campbell, who was likely either the bride’s cousin or her sister-in-law. According to their marriage license, Janet was a nurse, and James was “moulder,” most likely in a steel factory. I haven’t found anything else about them, except that Janet was only about 55 when she died of “paralysis & haemoerrage (stroke)” on March 27, 1925, at Hamilton.

2. Wilbert Atwell, third child and oldest son of Billy Atwell and Flora Jane Coubrough (Note 7) , was known to his family as Wilburt, or just Burt. According to Ontario Vital Statistics, though, his name was William. Apparently the name was too unusual for the registrar to copy it correctly.

Not long ago, Iain MacFarlane, a Buchanan researcher, sent me a page from the 1851 Scots census. He had ordered it for the Buchanan family at the top of the page, but two doors down was a Robert Coubrough, iron moulder, and his family. Robert had been born about 1817, but I had no such Robert in my files. When I looked closer, I saw the reason: he had been born in France!

We had heard rumours of an artist and several others of our name living in Paris, but we had not been able to find a shred of evidence, let alone proof. It occurred to us that Robert might have been the son of a soldier, so we looked for birth certificates of Coubroughs born outside Britain. Robert’s parents turned out to be a Malcolm & Catherine Coubrough, and Robert had indeed been born in France, at Norrente Forte, on 10 November 1817. The certificate said Malcolm was a private in the 71^st Regiment of Foot. Overseas births registers followed the English format, giving no surname for the child’s mother and making it impossible to tell from the birth register which Malcolm and Catherine were Robert’s parents.

Our best candidates for the job are Malcolm Coubrough & Catherine McCoull, married in Glasgow 6 August 1815. Their daughter Catherine was born in Glasgow, 4 September 1815, but there is no Scots record of any other children. If they left the country soon after the girl was born, as a soldier might, there would be no Scots records, even if their were other children. The only other possible candidates are an as-yet unknown couple who might also have been foreign-born. This seems less likely in light of the fact that Robert came home to Scotland to marry and raise his own family, but is not impossible.

By the 1851 census, Robert was living in Shettleston, Lanark, with his wife, Agnes, and their three children: Robert, 5; Malcolm 3; and Catherine, 2 months. Agnes had been born in Glasgow, and all three children had been born in nearby Shettleston. Probably Agnes & Robert were married in Scotland; but I have no proof either way.

When I ordered French Robert’s birth certificate, I also bought one for a Catherine Coubrough, born in Niagara, Canada. Again, the father was a soldier named Malcolm Coubrough, with a wife named Catherine, and again, no mother’s surname. With over 30 years’ difference in the birth dates of Robert & Catherine, it seems unlikely that this was the same couple, but they may have been related. Little Catherine was born at Niagara, 4 March 1851, to a corporal in the Royal Canadian Regiment. (Note 8) These folks were likely the Catherine (62) & Malcolm (66) Coubrough who died in January and March 1886, respectively, at Hamilton, Ontario, though hard proof is still lacking. The only useful bit in the death certificate was that Catherine was an Irish-born Roman Catholic. No birth place was noted for Presbyterian Malcolm. He was of an age to have been French Robert’s brother. He may himself have been Canadian-born, which might explain his being in the RCR.

One this is for certain: Catherine’s birth kicks the stuffing out of our claim to being the first Canadian branch of the tribe. She was born six months before Jim Coubrough and Annie Macdonald were even married, and nearly three years before Grampa Matt’s birth in January 1854. If her parents stayed in, or returned to, Canada, as they appear to have done, chances are Catherine did too. Even though we have yet found no other trace of her, the mere fact of her birth has made us the Johnny-come-latelies.

I have also got my hands on a copy of a Chelsea Pensioner’s record for a Malcolm Coubrough, of His Majesty’s 71^st Regiment of Foot, aka 71^st Regiment of Foot. Said Malcolm, born in Barony parish, Lanark, a weaver by trade, was 14 years old when he joined the regiment, on 6 February 1806. He trained as a bugler, but being so young, he pretty much worked for his keep until 6 February 1810. The army started paying him on that date, so it’s probably safe to assume that he turned 18 that day. If he really was 14 when he signed up in 1806, he should have been born about 1792. The only Malcolm I have in my files from around this time was the second son of Malcolm Coubrough & Rabina Reid, who was born 10 September 1790, in Glasgow. The pension record was dated 1^st November 1835. Malcolm, then aged 43-9/12, 5feet 10 inches tall, with light brown hair, grey eyes, and a pale complexion, was “born in the parish of Barony in or near the town of Glasgow in the County of Lanark by Trade a Weaver.” He had “attested [signed up] for the 71^st Regiment of Foot at Glasgow in the County of Lanark on the 6^th February 1806 at the age of Fourteen.” Rabina Reid’s husband was the son of Malcolm Coubrough and Agnes Thomson, one of two branches of the family known to have been in Glasgow in the 1790s.

Malcolm the bugle boy is almost certainly the father of French Robert, and may be the grandfather of Niagara Catherine. The Chelsea Pension record says Malcolm served “two years and five months in France, seven years and four months in Canada, two years and ten months in Bermuda and the remainder [of 31 years 178 days] at home.” The timing is right for him to have been the one who married Catherine McCoull in Glasgow, in 1815. Their daughter Catherine was born in September that year, in Glasgow. If they left soon after the baby was born, or if his wife joined him later, he would have been in France long enough to have had another child there. It is unlikely he was the father of Niagara Catherine, since he had already been out of the army for more than 15 years by the time she was born, but he could have been her grandfather. He was in Canada for more than 7 years and could have had a son named Malcolm born there about 1820—a son who liked it so much that he came back as a young man and stayed the rest of his life. The younger Malcolm’s birth date is uncertain, and he too could have been born in France.

Over the last 10 years, I have written the names of a lot of places that Coubroughs and Cowbroughs called home. In some of my more recent searches, I have found gazetteer descriptions of quite a few. I visited several of them on my trip last summer, and I thought it might be interesting to include descriptions of some of the more “popular” locations.

Campsie Parish (Note 9) was originally associated with the old Church of St Machan, first established at Campsie Glen during the twelfth century, beside the reputed grave of the saint. The parish church was moved to Lennoxtown in the 1820s, but remains of the older church can still be seen in the graveyard at the Clachan.

Campsie Parish has some interesting place names. At one time there was a 'Kirktown of Campsie' at Campsie Glen, beside the parish church, a 'Newtown of Campsie' at Lennoxtown, where a new town was built during the late 18^th century to accommodate workers employed in new industries there, and a 'Milltown of Campsie' at Milton, where there was a mill. The significance of this is only slightly diminished by the fact that the mill at Milton was not the principal parish mill, which honour belonged to Lennox Mill at Lennoxtown.

During the late eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth Lennoxtown was the focus of flourishing industrial development, based on the mining, textile printing and chemical industries. This was in sharp contrast to the scenic beauty of the surrounding area, epitomized by Campsie Glen, renowned as a tourist attraction. Down to the end of the eighteenth century it was inaccessible to visitors, but then it was thrown open to all by the local landowner, John McFarlan of Ballencleroch, who by doing so gained great popularity with the local people. The great beauty of the Glen and the hills above continues to be appreciated by the many visitors to the area each year.

Baldernock Parish is remarkable as a quiet, rural, unspoiled area of land, located entirely within a 10-mile radius of Glasgow City Centre. The few lucky people who live there can genuinely claim to dwell in the countryside, and yet they are able to reach the city in the briefest of time, by the shortest of journeys. This was the ideal of the nineteenth century settlers of Lenzie and Bearsden, until those places became so saturated with housing that their rural aspect was forever lost. The same might have happened to Baldernock, for when Bardowie Station was opened in 1905 an extensive housing development was planned, of about 500 commuter dwellings. In the event, only half a dozen or so were built at that time, with a few more in later years, and the local railway was closed to passengers in 1951. The busy traffic in commuters' cars from Torrance, along the Balmore/Bardowie/ Allander road, serves as a reminder of what might have been. All other roads in the parish retain their quiet, rural aspect.

In his Rambles Round Glasgow, published 1854, Hugh Macdonald wrote enthusiastically about Bardowie Parish. Bardowie Loch he described as 'Bardowie the Beautiful' and asked 'if a glance of it would not more than repay thee for a summer day's journey'. Bardowie Castle was 'an edifice of moderate size, somewhat timeworn, yet withal wearing an appearance of quiet coziness and comfort'. Bardowie Mill was 'an old and diminutive meal mill' inactive for want of water at the time of his visit. The former Kirkhouse Inn, beside Baldernock Church, was a 'comfortable public-house where refreshment of excellent quality for man and beast may be obtained'. Balmore was 'an excellent specimen of an old-fashioned Scottish clachan'. Nearby he encountered some antiquaries pondering the origin of a square block among the stepping-stones across the River Kelvin. Their idea that it might be Roman was derided by a passing milkmaid who identified it as 'Redbog's auld cheese-press'.

Macdonald's Baldernock can still be recognised and appreciated today. The meal mill at Bardowie has long since been converted to a sawmill, but still retains its waterwheel. The Kirkhouse Inn beside the parish church is now a private dwelling. The stepping stones across the Kelvin at Balmore have been superseded by a footbridge. However, the three giant boulders on Craigmaddie Muir, known as the Auld Wives' Lifts, can still be visited (with appropriate permissions), as can most of the other parish features mentioned by Macdonald. At Baldernock Church the little stone building at the gate should be noted. This was built for local people to maintain a night watch against the depredations of 'resurrection men' (body snatchers) keen to sell practice material to the Glasgow medical schools. The kirk itself has enjoyed some considerable fame as the setting for Graham Moffat's famous play Bunty Pulls the Strings, first performed at the Haymarket Theatre, London, in 1911.

Kirkintilloch was a place of importance in Roman times, when a fort was established there on the east-west barrier across Scotland, nowadays known as "The Antonine Wall". This was constructed around 142AD as a boundary line between Roman civilization and wilder territory not under permanent Roman control. For a short period it replaced the more southerly "Hadrian's Wall". The departure of the Romans was followed by a Dark Age when little is known of Kirkintilloch's history, although the name "Kirkintilloch," in its original form of Caerpentaloch "The Fort at the Head of the Ridge," dates from this period. Light began to dawn again during the twelfth century, when the prominent Comyn family established a castle in central Kirkintilloch, with a parish church to the south (...now occupied by the Old Aisle Cemetery). The Burgh of Kirkintilloch was created in the year 1211, and a local market was held weekly thereafter.

In medieval times Kirkintilloch was situated on an important highway between Glasgow and the east, and indeed the town's axis lay very much on an east-west alignment at that time - West High Street, High Street and Eastside. A bridge over the Luggie was established at an early date, and was of vital importance in keeping the highway open in bad weather. The parish church was moved from the Old Aisle to central Kirkintilloch in 1644. Improved transport links in the form of the Forth & Clyde Canal (1773) and the pioneer Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway (1826) led to the establishment of important new industries - cotton, weaving, Iron Founding and boatbuilding. During the twentieth century these all faded away, but there was an attempt to replace them with new ones during the period of Glasgow Overspill, around 1960. This met with only limited success, but the Overspill project resulted in the construction of many homes, both in the rented and private sectors, with a consequent increase in the population of the ancient burgh.

The Auld Kirk at Kirkintilloch Cross dates from 1644 and is one of Kirkintilloch's oldest buildings. Until 1914 it served as the parish church, but in that year the new St. Mary's Church was opened at the other end of Cowgate, to take its place. The Auld Kirk was then used as a Sunday School. Since 1961 it has been the town museum. The nearby Barony Chambers was erected in 1814-15 and formerly served as the town hall, council chambers, court house, school and jail. Today it serves as offices for East Dunbartonshire Council's museum service.

Lennoxtown area’s focus in former times, was the busy Lennox Mill, where tenants of the Woodhead estate brought their corn to be ground. There were several corn mills in Campsie Parish, but this was arguably the most important. Lennox Mill was located near the site of the recently demolished Kali Nail Works.

A significant event in the history of the locality was the opening, during the late 1780s, of the calico printing works at Lennoxmill, on a site adjacent to the old corn mill. Calico is a type of cotton cloth, and the printing of cotton cloth was soon established as a major industry in the area, also at Milton of Campsie. It was to provide accommodation for the block makers and other cotton printing workers that the village of Lennoxtown was established, during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Streets of houses were planned and built according to a formal plan. Lennoxtown was at first known as 'Newtown of Campsie', to distinguish it from the 'Kirktown' or 'Clachan' of Campsie, at the foot of Campsie Glen.

During the nineteenth century Lennoxtown grew to be the largest centre of population in Campsie Parish. Another important industry was soon established, namely a chemical works, by Charles Macintosh (of waterproof clothing fame) and his associates. At first the principal product was alum, a chemical employed in the textile industry. Alum schist, the basic ingredient in the process, was mined in the area. The works came to be known as the 'Secret Works', presumably because of the need to keep the industrial processes secret.

During the 1790s many of the Lennoxmill workers supported Thomas Muir of Huntershill in his campaigns to establish democracy in Scotland, and a Reform Society was set up in Campsie in 1792. However, the parish minister, the Rev. James Lapslie, saw to it that there was also some opposition to Muir's ideas in the area. An important milestone in the drive towards democratization was the establishment of a local co-operative society, the Lennoxtown Friendly Victualling Society, one of the earliest of its kind in Scotland, in 1812.

The growing importance of Lennoxtown was underlined by the removal of the Parish Church from the Clachan to the 'New Town' during the 1820s. Plans for the new church were prepared by David Hamilton, a well-known Glasgow architect. A Roman Catholic Church was erected in 1846 (originally St Paul's, later renamed St Machan's), one of the earliest post-Reformation Catholic churches in Scotland, apart from those in cities and large towns.

The decline of the industries that flourished during the nineteenth century, and also the later nail-making industry (and indeed the famous Victualling Society) has left Lennoxtown in a kind of post-industrial limbo, from which it has been difficult to escape. However, progress continues to be made, and many people have found the foothills of the Campsies at Lennoxtown an attractive location to set up home.

Milngavie (pronounced 'mill-guy') is in the former Parish of New Kilpatrick, created by the division of the old Parish of Kilpatrick in 1649. Although most of the parish was in Dunbarton-shire, Milngavie was for many years in Stirlingshire. The anomaly was removed in 1891, with the transfer of Milngavie to Dunbartonshire. The town was by then a police burgh, a status achieved in 1875. A great deal of interest has centred on the origin of the name "Milngavie," partly because of the unusual pronunciation. The "Miln" is undoubtedly the town's familiar mill on the Allander, but agreement has yet to be reached on the latter part of the name (should it be 'Gavin' or 'Davie'?).

In former times Milngavie was notable for its variety of industry. At different times, over the years, there was a linen mill, bleach works at Clober, Craigallian and Craigton, a calico printfield near the site of the present railway station, a distillery at Tambowie, and a dyeworks at Burnbrae, while on a site just north of the town centre there was a cotton mill and later a paper mill.

The local Mugdock and Craigmaddie reservoirs, fulfill an important role in the supply of water to the city of Glasgow.

With the decline of its traditional industries, Milngavie has acquired a reputation similar to that of Bearsden, as a pleasant place for members of the city business and professional community to establish their homes. Milngavie station was opened as long ago as 1863, yet the local railway still fulfils its intended purpose of transporting large numbers of local people into the city each day.

Milton of Campsie ('Milltown', as occasionally spelled) is thought to be a comparatively modern name, although some of the local mills were hundreds of years old. There were at least three corn mills near the village, all attached to large estates, namely Glorat, Lochmill (for Antermony Estate) and Frenchmill (for Kincaid). There were in addition at least two other mills, both lint mills for the processing of flax for the linen industry. Perhaps it was Frenchmill, very close to the village, that gave rise to the 'Milton' name, although this is unclear.

A great leap forward took place in 1786, with the opening of a calico printing works at Kincaid. This signified an important change in the local textile industry, from linen to cotton. Kincaidfield, as it was known, was soon providing employment for a large number of workers, and the village of Milton began to grow significantly in size.

A second printfield was opened at Lillyburn during the 1790s. It was converted to a whisky distillery in 1826, but soon reverted to calico printing. Throughout the nineteenth century the local textile printing industry continued to flourish, but Kincaidfield closed in 1901 and Lillyburn in 1929. The works at Kincaid was demolished, but Lillyburn was converted to a pulp packaging manufactory, and continues to fulfill this function at the present time, although somewhat scaled down.

Milton of Campsie derived great benefit from the opening of a centrally-placed railway station in 1848, on a branch line built during that year from a junction on the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway, at Lenzie, to Lennoxtown. It served the village well for over a century, until closure in 1951, by which date, road transport options had been greatly improved.

Visitors to Milton today should perhaps make a point of visiting Kincaid House, the ancient seat of the Kincaids of that ilk. So much of Milton's history is closely linked to that of Kincaid. It was the Kincaid estate mill at Frenchmill that seems to have given the village its name, and it was on the Kincaid estate during the 1780s that the calico printing industry, so important to Milton's economy during the nineteenth century, was first established.

The owner of Kincaid estate during the 1830s, John Lennox Kincaid Lennox, inherited nearby Woodhead and combined the two estates. He built Lennox Castle to serve as an appropriate dwelling for the inheritor of extensive landed property.

When in the Lillyburn area, visitors should remember the important McNab family who once owned the calico printing works there. Alexander McNab (1819-97) was responsible for the supply of gas and running water to the village of Milton and provided funding for the building of a public hall, in 1887. His framed portrait can be seen at the hall, in Craighead Road. Another significant local family, the Stirlings of Glorat, still own the Glorat Estate.

1. Alexander T. Coubrough, you will recall, was the younger of two surviving sons of Charles Purvis Coubrough and Ruth Ellen Roberts, of Fitzroy, Australia. Last time, I told you that I had found his US draft registration card from the First World War. We knew he was disabled to some degree: When Gallipoli was evacuated in December 1915, he was sent home to Australia, rather than first to Egypt or England, and then to the Somme, as his big brother Victor did. The draft card also spoke of physical disabilities. Why would he undertake such an arduous journey?

What could lure a man who could barely walk into taking ship for a long sea voyage, then travelling overland all across the US? The answer seems to have been one we can all understand: cash.

From the lips of one who lived and fought and bled in it, Washingtonians will be given the opportunity today to hear the tragic story of the Dardanelles. Sergt. Alexander T. Coubrough, of the Australian Anzacs, a wound-scarred veteran of that campaign, who has been brought to this city by the American committee for relief in the Near East in connection with the District of Columbia Near Eastern relief drive, will speak during intermissions this afternoon at the Palace, Columbia, Knickerbocker and Rialto moving-picture theaters.

Tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 o’clock he will address a gathering at the home of Mrs. Walter R. Tuckerman, at Edgemoor, in the interest of the Near East drive.”

Speaking tours were, in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, not only a form of entertainment popular with both “celebrities” and their audiences, but a common means of raising funds for a cause. The speaker, who might be a “scientist,” novelist, politician, temperance activist, or just someone who liked to hear the sound of his own voice, would advertise the topic and date for a lecture, speech, or book reading. The audience paid a fee, usually based on the popularity of both the topic and the speaker, to come and listen. After the show, cash taken at the door would be split between the speaker and his sponsors, in whatever proportion had been previously agreed. According to the US draft card, Alex had a “disabled right hand, & injured right leg.” In common with many veterans of his era, he must have found it hard to get a regular job, and pensions were pretty much unheard of. Pensions, even for disabilities like missing eyes or limbs were considered to make people lazy and thus dependant on their government handouts. The people in charge of such things actually believed they were doing these veterans a favour by letting them and their families starve because they couldn’t get work. For Alex, a speaking tour must have been a ray of hope in what could have been a hopeless world.

At first glance, Alex seems to have been speaking to raise money for a cause he may or may not have believed in, but there was more to the story. Alex had sailed to the US aboard the SS Ventura, whose passenger list noted his occupation as “Recruiting Organiser.” He was obviously giving speeches around the country, as noted in the Post article, but just as obviously, he was more than a mere talking head. Perhaps he was looking for people, as well as money, for his cause? In any event, he most likely lived off his share of the tour proceeds. He had left Melbourne for San Francisco on February 20, 1918. September found him in New York City, registering for the US draft, and in February 1919, we see him in Washington DC, giving his “scarred ANZAC (Note 10) veteran” speeches. Being in the US for least a year, he would have had to feed himself somehow, and it seems unlikely that he was well enough off that he could afford to live out of his own pocket for that length of time. We don’t know how long he was in the States. He may have gone home soon after the post article, since the war was over by then, and certainly went back before he married Hilda Thorn in, Australia, in 1924, but the exact date is a mystery.

2. William Kay Coubrough 3^rd son of William Coubrough (Note 11) and Catherine Wedderburn, was married twice: first to Janet Rattray, who had no children; then to Margaret Carstairs, with whom he had two daughters. The younger girl, Wilhelmina Wedderburn, never married, staying on after her mother died, to keep house for her aging father. The older daughter, Margaret Elizabeth, was about 30 when she married Andrew Marshall in 1886. They had two children: George Leslie, about 1888, and Margaret W., about 1889. Andrew & Margaret both died in Edinburgh, so I was somewhat surprised to find their son George in an Ontario marriage register. George Leslie Marshall, son of Andrew Marshall & Margaret Coubrough, married Gwendolyn Harriet Grier, daughter of Thomas Grier & Harriet Keating, 15 September 1915, at Toronto, Ontario. George was definitely one of ours, but I don’t know if Gwendolyn was related to “our” Alex, who married Barbara Coubrough in Regina in 1919.

3. Malcolm Coubrough (Note 12) and Isabella Markie brought their family to Canada in 1915 (Note 13) . Malcolm and his sons William and David were all in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War. After the war, William married a local girl named Lillian Brazier, and they had four kids of their own, all born in Brantford, Ontario: David, Genet (Janet), Dorothy Mae, and William John. David’s fate is unknown, Genet and William John both died in infancy, and Dorothy Mae moved to Ohio, in the US, where she died in 1997.

As for the rest of Malcolm & Isabella’s children, David married Evelyn Macdonald, and Christina married a man named Neff. I don’t know what became of the others, or whether David and Evelyn had any children. Christina had at least one daughter, Bonnie, who was married to a man named Morris.

4. Jessie Coubrough, daughter of David Coubrough and Mary Dymock, married Donald Mckay, 9 April 1869, in St. George’s parish, Edinburgh. They left for Canada not long after. Their first child, William, was born in Toronto 18 July 1870, but they probably moved to Lot 28, Concession 9, Esquesing Twp within a year or so. They had at least five other children, all born in Canada: Mary, about 1871; Donald 1879; twins Alexander & Philip, 1 Jan 1884, and John, 15 Aug 1887.

William McKay married Annie Mary Sinclair, on March 2, 1904. They farmed lot 30, concession 9, of Esquesing Twp, about a half-mile from William’s parents. Their one known son, Robert Earl, was born 25 November 1904.

On December 27, 1893, Mary McKay married William Kirkwood, son of Robin Kirkwood & Martha McEmery. William & Mary farmed Lot 5, Concession 11, in Erin Twp, Wellington Co., Ontario. On the marriage registration, William had given Erin Twp as his birth place. so they had likely moved onto or very near the Kirkwood family farm. William and Mary had four children that I know of: Robert Oliver, 1896; William McKay, 1898; James Palmer, 1900; and Donald Coubrough, 1904. There appears to have been a change, in 1969, of the name on Donald’s birth registration. Originally recorded as James Coubrough Kirkwood, the 1969 correction has parentheses added around the first two name. “Donald Cobourough” is block-printed above. Presumably Donald was still living in 1969 (else why bother changing the name?), but I don’t’ know anything else about this branch of the tribe.

5. Violet May Johnson, daughter of Agnes Coubrough (Note 14) and Joseph Johnson, married Stanley Alfred Mott, son of Henry George & Emily Eliza Mott. I don’t when or why Violet came to Canada, though possibly it was to visit her aunt, Annie Coubrough Culpin. At any rate, she married Stanley Mott on October 25, 1922, at All Saints Church, in Westboro, Ontario. I don’t know if they had any children.

6. James Coubrough, 28, born Scotland, and his wife, Sarah Chadwick, 27, lived on Mason Street, Hulme, Lancashire, England. According to the 1851 census, they had no children.

James and Sarah had been married on July 30, 1843, at the Cathedral, in Manchester, Lancashire, England. According to the census, James was an “engraver.” Given that Manchester was a textile town, and that nearly all the Coubroughs who went to England were involved in either shipping or cloth manufacture, it seems likely that James engraved the plates used to print patterns on cloth, such as calico. James was the right name at the right age at the right time to have been the son of Robert Coubrough and Mary Hunter. I can’t be certain, though, since he and Sarah don’t seem to have had any children by whom to guess the names of James and Sarah’s own parents. Sarah died in about 1872, but I haven’t found a record yet for James.

7. Catherine Coubrough who married Jeremiah Rutledge is no longer a mystery lady. After being paralysed, probably by a stroke, for six months, Catherine lived just long enough to see in the new century. At the age of 78, she passed away 1 January 1901, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. We have known for years that she was only 22 when she married Jeremiah 20 January 1838, but it was only recently, when I found her death certificate, that we learned her parents were Malcolm Coubrough & Catherine McFarlane. Malcolm’s parents, of course, were William Coubrough and Margaret Gourley (Note 15) . Jeremiah & Catherine had four children that we know of: John, about 1840; William Coubrough, about 1847; Janet, 4 May 1856; and Margaret, 22 March 1858.

John Rutledge married Margaret Calderwood, 31 December 1861, in Abbey parish, Paisley, Renfrew. They had seven children: John, 5 June 1862, High Church, Paisley, Renfrew; William, 21 August 1863, Abbey, Paisley; Helen Hamilton, 14 October 1865; Margaret, 3 May 1868; Catherine Coubrough, 21 April 1870; Agnes, 11 July 1872; and Robert, 27 October 1874. The five youngest were all born in Glasgow: Margaret in Milton district, the rest in Bridgeton.

William Coubrough Rutledge married Jane Dobbie on 26 March 1866, in the Bridgeton district of Glasgow. They had at least five children: Catherine Coubrough, 8 December 1868, William, 29 October 1871 (both High Church parish, Paisley, Renfrew); and Jane Dobbie, 15 February 1874, Bridgeton, Glasgow; Maggie, abt 1877, and Jeremiah Dobbie, abt 1883. I had thought that Jane died before 1911, but this may not have been the case.

Her children Maggie and Jeremiah were in Ontario by 1898. Maggie married Walter Whitefield at Hespelar, Ontario, on April 28, 1898, and her brother Jeremiah was one of the witnesses. When Jane’s husband married the widow Ellen Buckridge, 17 September 1911, he said he was a widower, but he might have fibbed.

The 1901 census for Hespelar, in Waterloo county, Ontario, has a family named Rutledge with a Jane at the head. The writing is very faint. I couldn’t make out if Jane was marked as widowed or married, but her daughter was said to be married, though her husband Walter was not present.

The 1911 census for the same place has the same family. Though the ages are a bit off, Jane is definitely said to be widowed. The same three children are at home:

With the exception of little William, the whole family was born in Scotland, immigrated in 1886, and were “Brewisters” (i.e., brewers) by way of occupation. All the birth dates are different, especially Jane’s, which has moved back 10 years. It is, however, the same family.

Neither entry has any sign of William Coubrough Rutledge as a member of this family. However, he was married to Ellen Buckridge in September 1911, so he probably hadn’t died before the March census. When Maggie Rutledge was married to Walter Whitefield (also curiously absent), in Hespelar, in 1898, she gave her parents as William Rutledge and Jean Dobbie, and a Jeremiah Rutledge was one of the witnesses. When Jeremiah was married in 1921, he gave the same names for his parents. Neither marriage record mentions William Rutledge’s middle name, and it is possible that there were two different William Rutledge and Jane Dobbie families who came to southern Ontario, both having sons named William and Jeremiah, but it does seem to be a lot of co-incedences.

While there could have been two William Rutledges with wives named Jane Dobbie, the odds of there being two William Coubrough Rutledges in the same place at the same time seem quite small. It must have been “our lad” that married Ellen Buckridge in 1911. Far from being dead, he had actually got younger! Assuming he was at least 19 when he married Jane Dobbie, in 1866, he could not have been born later than 1847. He had to have been at least 64, in 1911, but his marriage license says he was 55. Marriage seems to have agreed with him: He was married a third time, on 14 April 1916, to Jane Patterson. Nearly 50 years after his first marriage, and 5 years after the second, he should have been nearly 70. The license says he was 54! According to his wife, recorded only as “Mrs. W.C. Rutledge,” William was 59 when he died of prostatitis and cystitis on 8 January 1921, at Hamilton, Ontario; he was really at least 75, and probably closer to 80.

Catherine and Jeremiah Rutledge’s daughter Janet married a man named Jamieson. Janet reported her mother’s death to the registrar, but I don’t know anything else about her, her sister Margaret, or their father, Jeremiah Rutledge.

8. RICHARD COUBROUGH, as of March 2006, was free on bail. After nearly 35 years in prison, for a crime he still insists he didn’t commit, his appeal is now in front of Scotland’s supreme court.

A couple of years ago, when Scotland first began these judicial reviews, Richard seems to have asked that his be one of the cases they looked at. He was turned down flat. Not long after, someone else was freed on testimony from a forensic psychiatrist, who said that the odds of someone remembering a 24-word sentence, verbatim, after several days, were mind-bogglingly small. Richard applied again for an review. His idea was that if it was nearly impossible for one person to remember a 24-word sentence, then it must be even less likely that the four people whose testimony had convicted him could all recall exactly the same 32 words, in exactly the same order. He was apparently turned down again, but when he called a TV station and asked for an interview, his review was finally granted. (I don’t know if he gave the TV interview, but keeping his mouth shut was likely a condition of his review being granted.) So far, however, I have no word of the outcome.

9. The GRO(S) (Note 16) on-line index of the 1841 Scots census (Airth, Stirling) has an entry for a "Mrs. Coubrough,” aged 55. Though no first name is given, the family lived at Dunmore, there are two sons, James and Thomas, at home, the whole family was born in Stirlingshire, the sons are farmers, and Mrs. Coubrough is said to be the widow of a seaman. It has to be the family of Wilhelmina Cowbrough, daughter of daughter of William Coubrough &Jean Auld. Wilhelmina’s husband, her cousin, Henry Cowbrough, son of James Cowbrough & Elizabeth Boyd, had died in 1838. She would have been about 58, in 1841, but the way that census recorded adults’ ages, she could have been as much as 59 or 60 and still been noted as 55. This census didn’t record relationships of people in the house, but the census James and Thomas were probably the sons Wilhelmina is known to have had by those names. Taking the names and occupations of the men, together with the address, Mrs. Cowbrough was almost certainly Wilhelmina.

1841 Scotland Census Record [Census place] Civil parish: Airth County: Stirlingshire Parish Number: 469; ED: 7; Page: 1

10. About a year ago, in England’s National Archive, I came across a will for William Cowbrough Watt, a surgeon in the Royal Navy. By his middle name, he had to be ours, so I ordered the will. In it, he left everything he owned to his sister, Margaret. The will was probated in 1849, so he had probably died not more than a year or so before. I had only one Watt family married into the Cowbroughs. Sure enough, two of their three known children were William, born abt 1795, and Margaret, born 1808.

The next place I found William’s name was on an 1840 list of Naval Surgeons, where he was noted as being on half pay. His seniority date 22 February, 1819, was likely when he had first joined the navy. Half-pay meant the Navy was paying him much less than his normal pay because he was not posted to a ship at the time the list was made. Sending naval officers ashore in peacetime, and giving them only half (or less) of their normal pay saved the government a fortune.

The next story is from a Rootsweb mailing list discussing Port Jackson, Australia convicts. The Georgiana I was a convict ship .

“In the early years of convict transportation, colonial authorities treated surgeons... shabbily [with] no instructions issued ... about their return voyages. Many of them were, in fact, left on shore in New South Wales.... Some even were forced to pay for their return passage (up to 100 pounds) out of their own pockets. [I]n 1815, the Transport Board took up the surgeons' cudgels and the Home Department was induced to issue explicit instructions about their treatment.

Some surgeons later took advantage ... and disregarded instructions [to] return home on the first available direct ship after their arrival. Delaying their return meant they could make a profit by working on the homeward bound voyage of their choice. Ill health was the most frequent excuse for delaying their return. Surgeons claimed their health was greatly impaired during a voyage in charge of convicts. There also was collusion by the local surgeons to defeat the Commissioner's regulations.

[I]n 1831 ... three surgeons were anxious, apparently, to return home via India. Believing that the Georgiana was to convey troops to India, Surgeons John Tarn, William Conborough Watt and James Osborne all applied for the post in medical charge of the detachment. To their great consternation, they learnt that the Georgiana was to take troops, not to India, but to Mauritius. All three immediately sought to withdraw [and] successfully avoided making the voyage to Mauritius.”

On 25 March 1843, William was appointed Deputy Medical Inspector of Hospitals and Fleets, Malta. (Note 17) Now the "head medical guy" at the Royal Navy Hospital, William appears to have been on Malta for some time, possibly even before he was promoted to deputy inspector, and long enough to gain himself a reputation as a pioneer in the use of anesthesia in surgery. This is the final paragraph of an article in the Journal of Euromed Pharmacy (Note 18)

“On the local scene [Malta], one must pay due respect to the pioneer anaesthetists of the nineteenth century—Sir Thomas Spencer Wells, Dr. William Couborough Watt, Dr. A. J. Burmester.... These individuals among others ensured that through their practice advances in anaesthesia were introduced in Malta soon after their introduction elsewhere.”

When William joined the navy in 1819, he would have had to buy a commission. Advancement in the Royal Navy of his time was not always based on merit. While he probably did earn at least the right to be considered for his eventual appointment to deputy inspector in Malta, he may have had to pay a few pounds to boot. He was probably already a doctor before he joined the navy. Assuming he started university at 17 or 18, and allowing time to complete his medical studies, he would probably have been around 24 or 25 when he joined the navy—just about right for Thomas & Mary Watt’s son born in the 1790s.

Margaret Cowbrough, daughter of Henry Cowbrough & Christian Wright (Note 19), married Thomas Brown in Slamannan parish, 12 March 1774. Their second child, Mary, born about March 1777, married Thomas Watt, and had at least three children: William, b abt 1795, Thomas (no dates), and Margaret, b 1808. I have no other information about Thomas.

Besides marking him as ours, William’s middle name seems to have figured large in his identity. All of the few records I found, except the census, have his middle name spelled out in full. Possibly his maternal grandmother was the source of his good fortune?

Presumably neither William C. nor Margaret Watt ever married, since his will left her everything. The lawyer entrusted with the will was near Edinburgh, though Margaret lived in London. In the 1841 census, William C. Watt, 45, Surgeon Navy, born Scotland, and Margaret Watt, 30, Independent, lived at 1 Belgrave Square—one of several “Parties living on the North side of Lower Belgrave – Pimlico.” (Note 20) The Ancestry.com census index has Mary Wales, 55, and Rebecca Dore, 20, in the same household. I’m not sure they lived in the same house as William & Margaret, but they may have been servants. It’s unlikely Margaret did her own housework. Pimlico was a posh address: One of the neighbours was a house called Buckingham Palace. The Watts, apparently, were not among the ne’er-do-well branches.

12. Lieutenant Colonel Coubrough, LVRA, must have been a man of some social standing. The Washington Post (Note 21) reported that he had been on a three-months’ tour of the US, and that he had visited President Roosevelt twice: once shortly after his arrival, and again the day before the article appeared. A mere Lieutenant Colonel would not have sufficient rank to be making social calls at the White House, and being retired, it likely wasn’t official business that took him there. While the Post doesn’t give the colonel a first name, calico factory owner Anthony Park Coubrough’s son, John, a life-long professional soldier, is a prime candidate for the “tall distinguished soldierly looking man... with close cropped grey hair, military mustache and ruddy complexion...” that the Post reporter had met in the lobby of Washington’s Ebitt House hotel.

I don’t know if Lieutenant Colonel Coubrough had moved to the US, or if he just a frequent visitor. The Washington Post interviewed him again at the Ebitt House , 11 June 1905. Possibly LCol Coubrough wasn’t thinking of those new-fangled aeroplanes (Note 22) when he commented on how right the president was to insist on having a “great American navy.... The policy of the United States is to have one of the greatest navies in the world, a small army is all you need, because there is not the remotest danger of invasion.... The war between Russia and Japan (Note 23) seems to be nearing a close, and it is ending properly. The idea of the Japanese ever becoming a peril, or of there being any yellow peril, to my mind, is nonsense.”

Anthony Park’s son John died in November 1921, twenty years before Pearl Harbour.

Went Off from a Drove coming from the Fair of Doune, on Wednesday the 5th inst. betwixt St. Ninians and Larbert, A BROWN HUMMEL’D HEIFER, of the West Highland breed, about L.4 price. She had some cuts in her far Lug (Note 24), and had no other mark.—Any person who can give information of her to James Cowbrough, at Jaw, by Falkirk, will be Handsomely Rewarded.” (Note 25)

This James must have been of the Falkirk branch, but I don’t know which one. He was the right place at the right time to have been Mary Moir & William Coubrough’s son, husband to Elizabeth Boyd. Mary’s husband was a drover, as was his father. Possibly her son could have been a cattleman, too?

13. The Victoria, Australia, public record office web site (Note 26) has a database of inward-bound ships’ passengers. On the list are Margaret “Conghbrough,” age 50, and Donald Conghbrough, 15, who arrived aboard the Orient in December 1887. These were the widowed Margaret Herald and her youngest son. Margaret and her husband John Coubrough (Note 27) had gone back to Scotland in 1866. He died in Glasgow in 1877, leaving her with a herd of young children. Most of those children seem to have stayed in Glasgow, so they probably grew up there. Margaret died in 1902, in Melbourne.

14. A search for “Co*br*gh,” on the same site turned up a few other “Unassisted Immigration” Coubroughs. They paid their own way, unsubsidised by government, church, etc. Some of the spellings are very creative, but I’m fairly sure most of them are ours. All but the last two embarked from the same place, possibly Liverpool; the index gives only a code letter for the name of the port.

Index of Inward Passenger Lists for British, Foreign and New Zealand Ports 1852-1923

Margaret, 50, is M. Herald, as above. William, 5^th child of Henry & Wilhelmina Cowbrough, may have gone to Australia as early as 1833, but the 1869 trip was likely his last. He died 16 December 1869, at the age of 61.

Margaret Aitken & William Coubrough had a son Thomas who would have been about the right age for the young man aboard the Tiptree in January 1857. The girl Jane, a year younger, on the same ship, was possibly Thomas’s wife. Margaret Aitken’s youngest son, William, was Jane Bryson’s husband. (Note 28) If his brother Thomas moved to Australia, it may have been the reason William dragged his own family, in the 1860s, first to New Zealand, then to Australia.

Archibald, 22, was probably Margaret Pairman & Archibald Coubrough’s youngest son.

Thomas, 52, on Sir John Franklin, may have been a son of John Cowbrough & Jean Cowbrough. Their son married Isabella Wilson or Isabella McCrow. (Note 29) He may also have been related to Thomas who had been on the Tiptree six months earlier; I have no proof of either speculation. I haven’t yet figured out who John or “Mr” belong to.

15. The Utah Genealogical Society (Note 30) web site lists" Marriages performed by Elias Smith,” where I found this. They obviously belong to us (possibly to William Coubrough & Rebecca Hamilton, married 1820, in Louisiana, USA). I thought the form of the entry was amusing.

“Robinson, Samuel; Colborough, Miss Ann, 1876 Oct 28 Samuel of Mill Creek Ward, Salt Lake Co., Ann of Ogden, at Smith's home (1st marriage for both, of advanced age).”

16. The 1841 Scots census for St. Ninians, Stirling, has a Thomas Cowborough, age 55. Said to be a farmer, he is listed as an inmate of William Simpson’s asylum. Thomas was of an age to be a son of Agnes Reid & James Cowbrough, son of Christian Wright & Henry Cowbrough. In 1841, Agnes’s son, christened Dec 1783, Falkirk parish, would have been about 57—well within the 55 – 60 denoted by the census age.

1. Mary Muir married John Coubrough, great-grandson of Jonet Buchanan, in 1841. Was she related to James Coubrough’s wife, Jean? Mary, born in 1812, daughter of Agnes Carruth and Thomas Muir, who would have been contemporaries of our James and Jean.

2. Jean Coubrough who married David McAuslan was the daughter of Jean Muir & Robert Coubrough. Was this Jean Muir related to either, or both, of the other Coubrough wives? Again, Robert and his wife would have been contemporary with our James & Jean. Robert & Jean lived at Kirkintilloch, which is about two miles from Campsie, and only slightly more from Strathblane. Robert & Jean were married about 10 years after our James & Jean left Campsie, but they could have been connected.

As for Robert, he was the right name at the right age at the right time to be the youngest son of Malcolm Coubrough & Marrion Reid, but there is no other evidence to support this. Robert and Jean had only one known son, John, and three daughters: Elizabeth, Jean, and Elizabeth. The children were all born in Kirkintilloch, except the 2^nd Elizabeth, born in Campsie, 20 November 1811.

3. Robert Coubrough and Janet Muir had a daughter named Elizabeth born 27 December 1811, in Campsie. Who was this Robert? based on name and probable age, he is also a candidate for the son of Marrion Reid, but there is no other evidence for this, either.

Was Janet related to any of the other Muir women? It seems a bit too much of a coincidence that there would be two children with the same name, born so close together, and both having parents with such similar names. Was there a mistake in the parish register? Were these the same folks known as Robert Coubrough & Jean Muir? Janet had no other known children. Was this a hand-fast marriage, where the couple separated after a year? Was she the same girl as the one born November 20? Or were there two couples: one Jean & Robert, the other Robert & Janet?

4. On 20 May 1793, Thomas Coubrough, wright, and Janet Muir, spouses in Eastwood, became the parents of a boy they called Thomas. Thomas the Wright had the same trade as our James. At first we thought that there was a mistake in the register, and that the child might have actually belonged to James Coubrough & Jean Muir. After all, the boy fits smack in the middle between William (1791) and Robert (1795). Unfortunately, we have no other evidence to support this. Who was Thomas? Was his wife related to our Jean? Or any of the Muir women married to Coubroughs at the same time?

5. On 3 August 1833, one Robert Tennant murdered his boss by bashing his head in with a sledge hammer. Tennant, 24, was a labourer hired to break stones for building the Toll Road between Beancross and Kerse Toll, in Falkirk parish. William Peddie, 70, was the crew foreman. On the morning of 3 August, District Superintendent Borthwick had instructed Peddie to fire Tennant. Borthwick had that very morning seen Tennant lying drunk in the road, near where he was supposed to be working. Dismissal did not sit well with Tennant. Upon hearing the news, he had a loud argument with the foreman, took a sledge hammer to poor old Peddie’s head, dragged the body into a field, and apparently laid down for a nap. On 2 October 1833, Tennant was hanged for murder.

One of the witnesses at the trial was a John Coubrough, who said he had found Tennant sleeping in a field, late in the afternoon of 3 August. Was John Coubrough one of Mary Moir’s tribe? Was Robert Tennant related to our Jean Allan? Jean’s mother seems to have been a Jean Tennant, and a man who was 24 in 1833 would have been only a year or two older than our Jean Allan.

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Old parish registers, the source of much of our information about our ancestors, often name the place where a family lived. The names, of course, made perfect sense to the folks who lived in them. A few hundred years and a few thousand miles later, we may not recognise these places, or know where they were in relation to each other. In Canada and the US, a place name commonly refers to a town, city, or other municipal organisation. For our Scots and English ancestors, the place in the parish register was more likely to have been the name of the estate, mill, farm, or factory where the father worked. Many had local housing, so the family often lived at the same “address.”

Maps can be a great help, showing where places are, and the distances between them. But most modern maps don’t show the names of the old estates or villages—or the villages themselves, for that matter. Many places named in the registers no longer exist, or have been swallowed up by other places. The National Library of Scotland has recently made available on-line, copies of maps from as long ago as the mid-1500s. I even found one showing Jean Muir’s home town, Luketown, slightly west and south of Clachan (Campsie), where they were married. Glorat, where James probably worked before he married Jean, and where they lived afterwards, was south and slightly east of Clachan. Kincaid, where James may also have worked, was further east, along the same road.

Maps 1–3 are in Stirlingshire, going west to east. Map 4 is Thornliebank, in Eastwood parish, Renfrew, and map 5 is a view of the larger area around Eastwood parish. All the maps are part of bigger maps, for Stirlingshire & Renfrewshire, enlarged to show some detail. Maps 1 – 4 are about 3 inches to the mile; map 5 is about 1 inch to the mile. See full maps and order copies from the National Library of Scotland at http://www.nls.uk/digitallibrary/map/early/index.html. I hope they will help you see who lived where, and give some idea of the distances our ancestors travelled as they lived their lives.

Map 1: This area is near the far western edge of Strathblane parish. At the top left of the map is Duntreath Castle, seat of the Edmonstone earls. Just to the south-east is Spittal, family of home of Agnes Edmonstone who was the first wife of John Cowbrough, b 1717, son of John Cowbrough & Jonet Buchanan. Anthony Park Coubrough, first Coubrough owner of the calico printing factory at Blanefield, was the grandson of John b 1717 and his third wife, Jean Livingstone. This is the area marked “Printfield” on this map. At the far right of this map is Blairtummock (just above “Douglas”), once home to James Coubrough and his wives (1) Margaret Murdoch & (2) Maggie Smith, now a bed & breakfast establishment.

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