| Vol. 6 No. 2 |
July 2002 |
| The Coubrough Times | |
| The Canadian Years | |
Big Picture: 1st Three Generations
| James & Jean (Muir) Cowburgh | Second Generation | Matt & Jean (Allan) Coubrough |
| Third Generation | Thornliebank | Other branches |
| Reunion News | Question Corner | Editor's Corner |
Here it is, summer again! I hope everyone is having a lovely summer. Now that you're here, why don't you pour yourself a cool one and join us in the shade of the front porch? There's lots of catching up to do, and more relatives to meet, too. Some are new to the world, and some are just new to us. Let's start by visiting a few folks we first met quite a while ago.
Everyone knows that James Cowburgh married Jean Muir in Campsie parish, in about 1784. And we all know it was their son Matt who married Jean Allan on March 4, 1831, and that Matt and Jean were the parents of James Coubrough who married Annie MacDonald. The younger James and his father Matt both had herds of brothers and sisters, but who were they all? And whatever became of the rest of their families? The ones who never left Scotland? Let's stroll down for a visit and see.
James Cowbrough and Jean Lapslie's first known son, another James, was baptized in Campsie, on October 30, 1785; it seems reasonable to assume that they were married in late 1784 early 1785. The Campsie parish marriage register for this period no longer exists, so we may never have the exact date or place. Jean's hometown, Luketown, is in Campsie parish, so the odds are good that they were married in that parish.
We know a tiny bit about Jean Muir. She was christened January 5, 1764, youngest of eight children of James Muir and Jean Lapslie: Agnes, 1746; William, 1747; John, 1749; John, 1751; James, 1754; David, 1758; Charles, 1760. We don't know how Jean's father made a living, but her brother David was a weaver in the clachan (1) of Campsie, and her brother William was a grocer there.
The Coubroughs and the Muirs knew each other for quite some time before James and Jean were married: on December 20, 1747, a James Coubrough witnessed the baptism of Jean Lapslie's oldest son, William. Two years later (September 15, 1749), James and John Coubrough witnessed the christening of William's little brother, John. I haven't figured out which Coubroughs these were, but it seems a good bet that James was the father of the man who married Jean Muir--or even the man himself.
As for Jean Muir's husband, James, we know almost nothing besides his name. He was probably born in the mid-1750s, but may have been as early as 1732, or as late as 1760. Since he and Jean lived there after they were married, he probably came from Campsie parish, especially if he was connected to James and John who witnessed the baptisms of Jean Lapslie's sons. The two most likely theories as to his identity are:
Jean and James had enough sons that we can make a good guess at the name of James's father (2). The first son was called James, so that was probably the name of the child's paternal grandfather. There were exceptions to the naming pattern, though, and if the wife's family was wealthier or more important, the first son might be named after her father, and the second son after her husband's father. Thus Jean Muir's father-in-law may have been either James or Malcolm.
If we know little about James's father, we know even less about his mother. Jean Muir had enough sons early in her marriage that we could at least guess at her father-in-law; for her mother-in-law, we can't even do that. The 10-year gap between Jean Muir's fifth and sixth children could have held several other children--or none. We are totally flummoxed here. Were there other children who didn't survive? Who were never registered? Was there some other reason for the break? Did they live somewhere else for a while? Was one of them sick for a long time? Some combination of these? This long childless interval is very odd when none of the other children were more than three years apart.
Whatever the reason, the result is that we can't say with any certainty what was the name of James and Jean's first or second daughter, or even if they had more than one, so there is no indication of what their mothers' names may have been. Barbara, the first recorded girl, was born in 1808. Jean Muir's mother and sister were Jean and Agnes, respectively, and the 1808 girl was the first Coubrough known to have this name. There were other girls called Barbara, but they were later than Jean Muir's daughter. What significance the name Barbara held in the family is a mystery. (3)
Now that we know a little about Jean Muir's family, and nothing about James's, let us move on to their children. Jean Muir bore her husband at least 8 children: James, christened October 30, 1785; Malcolm, chr. September 19, 1787; John, chr. April 5, 1789; William, born May 7, 1791; Robert, chr. January 1, 1795; Mathew, born February 23, 1805; Barbara, born February 10, 1808; and William, born March 20, 1810.
Whenever he was born, whoever his parents might have been, James was a wright by trade. Strictly speaking, a wright is any skilled woodworker. Our James was probably a millwright, the man who made the big wooden gears and the waterwheels for sawmills, flour mills, textile mills, etc. From the baptism records of their children, James and Jean lived in Campsie parish for about five years after they were married: first at New Mills, then at Gloral Fields. Sometime between April 1789 and May 1791, Jean and James moved to Eastwood parish, where, living in Thornliebank, they were forced to entertain themselves by having at least five more kids.
I don't know when James and Jean died. I didn't find them in any census, but then the earliest one available was taken in 1841. There was no civil registration of births, marriages or deaths in Scotland before 1855, and James and Jean didn't leave any wills. It seems safe to say they passed on sometime between the second William's birth in 1810 and the first census in 1841 (when they would have been about 75-80).
James & Jean Muir's kids
James was christened, as we have seen, on October 30, 1785, but we know nothing else about him. He probably lived to be at least 10 years old, since if he had died before that, his name would have been re-used for one of his younger brothers, but that's about the best we can do.
Malcolm, christened 1787, was a calico printer, perhaps in the same printfield where his father was a millwright. On June 19, 1807, Malcolm married Agnes McKinnon, in Eastwood parish. They had at least two children, though there may have been others in the gap between James in 1809 and Robert in 1821. See Third Generation, below.
John was christened on April 5, 1791. He was not more than two years old when his family moved from Campsie to Thornliebank. Due to its general flatness and plentiful streams, Eastwood parish was home to a number of textile mills: looms, bleachfields (4), calico printing (printfields), etc. Except for farming, calico mills were pretty much the only game in town. The work was usually no easier, but it was often easier to get, and it did pay better, so it was no wonder that many of the area's young people turned to the factories for work. And, taking what work was available, John became a power-loom tenter (5) in a local mill.
On April 9, 1808, he married a very young Catherine Andrew. They became the parents of at least six children, though there may have been others in the 10-year gap between Jean and Robert. See Third Generation, below.
William, christened May 7, 1791, was Jean Muir's fourth child, and the first born in Eastwood parish. Except that he probably died very young, we know nothing about him. It is unlikely his parents would have had two living children with the same name, but he could have been as old as 19. Had he died before Robert and Matthew were born, one of them probably would have been called William, to keep the names in the correct order.
Robert was christened January 1, 1795. The parish register gave his father's name, but not his mother's. There was only the one adult James Coubrough in the parish, though, so this must have been the right family. We have no idea what happened to him.
Mathew, born February 23, 1805, was the sixth known son of James Coubrough and Jean Muir. He married Jean Allan in 1831, and you already know the rest of that story. See also Third Generation, below, for details.
Barbara was Jean's first known daughter, born February 10, 1808. We don't know when she died, if she was married, if she had any children, or even why she was called Barbara.
Last is another William, born March 20, 1810. This boy is most of our case for his father having been born in the 1750s, rather than in 1732. If William's father had been born in 1732, he would have been 78 by 1810 (his wife was 46). It is not impossible that young William's father would be nearly 80 when his last child was born, but it isn't very likely either. I don't know what happened to this William; he may be one of our many "strays," or he may not have lived past his first birthday.
In the last issue, I mentioned that, while we have tracked down five of Matt and Jean's eight children, we still didn't know what had happened to the other three. Thanks to an on-line edition of the 1901 British census, we have a few more answers. First, though, a quick summary of the story so far.
We know next to nothing about Jean Allan. The 1851 census, said she was 40 years old, so she was probably born about 1810 or 1811. It also said she was born in Thornliebank, but I can't find a birth or baptism record in the parish register. The 1841 census gave a William Allan, age 25 (6), living in Matt and Jean's house. He was probably Jean's brother, but since that census didn't give relationships to the head of the house, we can't say for sure. I haven't found him in any records either, and Jean's parentage remains a mystery.
Matt Coubrough (1805) and Jean Allan were married March 31, 1831, in Eastwood parish, county of Renfrew, Scotland. We don't know for sure when Jean died, but it was sometime between Christmas day, 1851, when her son Matthew Gibb Coubrough was born, and December 27, 1865, when her daughter Jane was married. Her husband was 68 when he died of "bronchitis and dropsy" on November 10, 1873, in nearby Pollokshaws. They had ten children: James, January 26, 1831, Robert, October 22, 1832; Jane, April 10, 1834; Barbara, January 20, 1836; Mathew, September 1838; Ann, April 19, 1840; twins Malcolm & William, in about 1845; Margaret, in about 1849, and Matthew Gibb, in 1851. See Third Generation, below, for more.
Children of Malcolm C & Agnes MacKinnon
James (1809) joined the Army and, in 1847, married Catherine McFarlan. They had two kids: Ann, in 1849, and Malcolm, in 1851. James died in Glasgow, July 13, 1871, of a "disease of the liver." Catherine died November 4, 1871, in the Garland Road Lunatic Asylum, at Partick.
Robert, Agnes and Malcolm's other son was also in the Army. On April 18, 1854, he married Margaret Wilson. A little over a year later, on August 13, 1855, Robert died of tuberculosis. He was 34 years old, and left no children.
Children of John C & Catherine Andrew
John Coubrough and Catherine Andrew had six children. Like her mother-in-law, Catherine has an unexplained space of 10 years between her second and third children. James and Jean are the only ones for whom we have found baptism records. The other three have been verified by other sources, but there may still be other unknown children.
James, was Catherine's first child, born October 2, 1808. That is all we know of him.
Jean, born October 11, 1810, married Joseph Gibb in 1828. They lived in Thornliebank. It was their only son Joseph, born 1829, with whom young Matthew Gibb Coubrough was living at the time of the 1801 census. Joseph Jr. eventually married Jane Martin. They, too, lived in Thornliebank, where they raised six children: Jane Coubrough, 1854; Jane Martin, 1856; Anne Gourlay, 1857; Joseph, 1858; Barbara, 1860; and another Joseph, 1867.
Robert was born about 1820. He also lived in Thornliebank. A cloth lapper in a textile mill, he was married twice. His first wife, in May 1840, was Margaret Clark MacDonald. They had four children before Margaret died about 1850. Of Margaret's four kids, we know nothing about Robert, born about 1842, or his youngest brother, James, born about 1848. The only daughter, Margaret Steel, born about 1843, married Samuel Waterson in 1866 and had five kids of her own. John MacDonald, the third of Margaret MacDonald's four children, moved to England, where he married Annie Inwood in 1870. Annie and John had four daughters and one son. Their third daughter, Annie, was the grandmother of Carolyn Elvidge Willis, of Tallahassee, Florida.
When Margaret died, she left Robert with four young children who ranged from about 2 to 7 years of age. With his daughter only about 5, he could not expect her to look after the house, and working 14 hours a day in a cloth mill, he would have been hard-pressed to do it himself. His sisters lived nearby, and his mother was around to help out, but Robert was still a young man; in 1852, he married again, this time to Mary Sandilands (or Sandles), a young widow with a small daughter of her own. Robert and Mary had three more children together: Archibald, in 1853, David in 1856, and Jeanie in 1857.
Only David survived childhood. In 1881, he married Mary MacKay Smith and in about 1912, they moved their whole family to Montreal, Quebec. Mary and David had ten children: Robert, born 1881, died in infancy; Hugh, born 1882, married May McEwan and had 10 kids; David, born 1885, never married and died in France in 1917; Isabella, born 1881, married Charles Pullar and had 3 kids; Robert, born 1890, died in infancy; Andrew, born 1892, married Jessie Cobb and had 3 kids; Mary, born 1894, married Frank Darlington and had 5 kids; Charles Gilroy King, born 1897, married Jessie Arba and had two kids (the older one, Dave, lives in Mt. Pearl, Nfld.); John, born 1899, married Beatrice Hiscock and moved to Detroit, where they had three sons (the oldest, John, lives in Dillon, Colorado); and Susan Sarah Simpson, born 1901, married Frank Laurens.
Catherine was born about 1822. She married Samuel MacCready on December 31, 1840. They lived at Barrhead and they had at least 8 kids, though there may have been others in the 12-year space after their first Catherine: James Coubrough, May 1841; Catherine Andrew, October 1842; John, born about 1854 (married Margaret Bell); Walter Menzies, August 12, 1856; Matthew Coubrough, November 1, 1858; William Coubrough, November 30, 1860; Matthew Coubrough, April 21, 1863; and another Catherine, July 13, 1868.
Samuel and Catherine may also have had a daughter named Barbara, who would have been born between about 1843 and 1853. A girl named Catherine McCready was born to a single woman named Barbara McCready in Barrhead, in 1870. This would have been the right age at the right place at the right time to have been Samuel and Catherine's daughter, but I have not proven this.
Barbara, born about 1830, is another mystery girl. On May 12, 1849, a Barbara Coubrough married David Aitkenhead, in Barrhead, Renfrewshire. In the 1851 census, she is 21 years old and has two children: William, 1 year, and Catherine, 9 months. John Coubrough and Catherine Andrew are known to have lived in Barrhead, and Barbara said in the census that she was born in Eastwood parish. Based on this, I believe her to be Catherine Andrew's daughter but have not yet confirmed it.
Malcolm, John & Catherine's youngest son, born about 1834, married Helen Templeton on September 7, 1853. They had 9 children: Janet, 1854; John, April 12, 1856; Catherine Andrew, July 9, 1856; Elizabeth, February 23, 1861; Margaret, May 6, 1864; William, May 16, 1867; James Templeton, April 3, 1870; Malcolm Andrew, January 11, 1873; and Helen Templeton, 1879. Of these children, John married Annie Kerr in 1882, and was the great-grandfather of Jean Coubrough Schofield, who lives in Kent, in England. James Templeton married Agnes Barton in 1897. James and Agnes had no children of their own, but in 1929, they adopted a boy named James Lafferty. The boy took the Coubrough name, and sometime after the Second World War, he moved to New Zealand; he was the father of Jim Coubrough who owns the Wilderness House bed & breakfast on the South Island.
Children of Matt C & Jean Allan
James, born January 26, 1831, left home before he was 20. He joined the Army (probably the Royal Artillery), married Annie MacDonald, and was the first Coubrough to move to Canada (in 1853). He and Annie had one son, Mathew, born January 8, 1854, and three daughters: Flora Jane (Jenny), born February 8, 1856; Mary Ann (Minnie), May 13, 1858; and Barbara, May 1860. Matt married the girl next door, Liz Brown, and raised 16 children of his own. More on them later. Flora Jane married Billy Atwell and had 9 children. Mary Ann was seriously disabled and unable to care for herself. Her sister, Flora Jane, took care of her after their mother died in 1902. Barbara married a mystery man and became a space alien herself.
Robert, born October 22, 1832, was a colour mixer in a calico factory by the time he was 18. He was just 21, when he married Agnes Morton on January 3, 1854. They had six children, but they weren't lucky enough to raise them all. Their first child, and only son, another Matthew, was born December 15, 1854. The poor little guy was only 13 months old when he died on January 28, 1856, after an illness of "hydroencephalus, four weeks." Little Matt's first sister, Isabella, was born three months later, on May 9, 1856; she was followed by Jane, January 28, 1858; Agnes, January 19, 1860; Barbara, November 12, 1861; and Violet, September 14, 1863. We haven't yet tracked down any of these girls but they are on the list.
Jean and Matt's first daughter, Jane, born April 10, 1834, was verging on elderly when she married James Campbell on December 29, 1865. They also had six children, of whom only five lived past infancy: James, born September 27, 1866, Jane, February 17, 1868; Matthew Coubrough, June 9, 1869; Janet Morrison, October 29, 1870; Robert Coubrough, June 2, 1873; and another Robert Coubrough, July 20, 1874. I don't know exactly when her husband died, but Jane was a widow when the census was taken in the spring of 1901. Only her youngest daughter, Janet, was still home.
Barbara Muir was born January 20, 1836; the poor little thing died before she was five years old.
Matthew, born September 1838, did not live to see his third birthday. Perhaps he was also a victim of whatever illness took his sister Barbara.
Ann, born April 19, 1840, you will recall, was her father's assistant in the calico factory where he was a printer. She is the first of the mystery children: the last I saw of her was in the 1851 census, where she was said to be 12 years old. I don't know what happened to her after she grew up or even if she did.
Malcolm was born about 1845. The first record I found of him was the April 1851 census, where he was said to be 6 years old. He grew up to be a watchmaker, still single and living at home when he died of "phthisis pulmonalis" (tuberculosis) on April 2, 1873, at the age of 27.
William, Malcolm's twin brother, is the second mystery child. I have found no record of him other than the 1851 census, where he was said to be six years old.
Margaret was born about 1849. She too was first seen in the 1851 census, when she was said to be two years old. Until very recently, she was also a mystery, but in mid-June, I found her in the 1901 census. Aged 52, she was still single, and living with her older sister, Jane Campbell, in Jane's home in Pollokshaws. Maggie and her niece, Janet, age 30, were both employed as cotton weavers. Janet's mother, Jane, as head of the household, did not have an outside job. The three of them lived in two rooms of what was probably a single-family house divided into tenements.
Matthew Gibb, was a Christmas baby, born December 25, 1851. In the 1861 census, young Matt was a boarder in the home of Joseph and Jane (Martin) Gibb. On January 13, 1874, he married Margaret Dowall. The fifth child of James Dowall and Sarah McOscar, she was seven years Matt's senior. They too had six kids, of whom only five grew up. Matthew seems to have been a rather ill-fated name for sons in this family: Margaret and Matt's firstborn, still another Matthew, was born October 28, 1874; he was barely 6 years old when he died in the late fall of 1880. His birth was followed by: James Dowall, February 5, 1876; Joseph Gibb, abt 1877; William Dowall, May 7, 1879; Jeanie Allan, October 10, 1881; and John, 1883.
The 1891 census says Matt and Margaret lived in Thornliebank, where he was a clerk in a calico factory. With seven of them living in their three rooms, things must have been a little crowded. During the day, Margaret would have had the place to herself, though perhaps she took in weaving, piece-work or other children to help make ends meet. Her husband and her two oldest sons had jobs (James, 15, was a junior clerk, and 13-year-old Joseph was an office boy); her three youngest children (William, 11, Janie, 9, & John, 7) were all in school.
By the spring of 1901, the family was somewhat better off. All five kids were still at home, but they all had jobs, and the home, having four rooms with windows, was bigger than the one they had occupied 10 years before. Matt, 49, was still a clerk, as were both James, 25, and William, 21; Joseph, 23, was a Distiller's agent (as in whisky salesman); Jeanie, at 19, was a tailoress; and John, 17, was an apprentice engineer.
James Dowall Coubrough came to Canada before the first World War. On November 8, 1915, when he enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force (CEF), he gave his father as his next of kin. Matt, 64, lived at 89 Elderslie Street, Glasgow. As far as I know, James never married. He died in 1926.
Matt and Margaret's son Joseph, died in Glasgow in 1906, aged 29 years, but I don't know what of.
James and Joseph's brother William married Jane McArthur in 1904 and had six kids: Matthew, Elizabeth, Margaret, William, Jean McArthur; and Mary Crawford. William and Jane moved to Belfast, Northern Ireland, in about 1911, and their two youngest daughters were born there. William died in Belfast in 1936, and Jane in 1967, also in Belfast.
Jeanie, Margaret Dowall's only daughter, was married to Robert Campbell, in 1906, in Glasgow. They had no children.
As for John, the baby of the family, I only know that he was born in 1883, in Glasgow, and that he was still lived at home in the spring of 1901.
Quite a few Coubroughs lived in Thornliebank, so I thought it might be interesting to know a little bit about the village. This is from an 1870's gazetteer:
Thornliebank, a village in the parish of Eastwood, or Pollock, Upper ward of the county of Renfrew, 1 mile (S.W.) from Pollokshaws, on the road to Glasgow; containing 1620 inhabitants. This village, which is of modern date, owes its establishment to the introduction of the cotton-manufacture and works connected with it, in which, with the exception of about thirty families, the whole of the inhabitants are employed. It is almost exclusively the property of Messrs. Crum, whose very extensive works have long been carried on here; its proximity to the coal-works of the parish, and its plentiful supply of water, rendering the place peculiarly favourable. The houses, inhabited chiefly by persons employed in these works, are comfortable, and neatly built, and the whole village has an aspect of cheerfulness and prosperity. The spinning of cotton affords occupation to more than 150 persons. About 120 are engaged in power-loom, and nearly fifty in hand-loom, weaving. The printing of calico is carried on extensively, employing nearly 400 persons; and 200 more are occupied in bleaching and finishing. An act was passed in 1846, authorizing the Glasgow and Neilston railway company to make a branch upwards of five furlongs (7) to Thornliebank. A school has been opened in the village, for the children of persons employed in these several works; the master has a good house and garden provided for him by Messrs. Crum, who have also erected a commodious schoolroom The school is well attended; and the fees, though moderate, produce a competent income.
Here's the latest on some other branches I have been tracking down. They could run (some moved to Canada and some to the US) but they couldn't hide from government! I found some of them in vital registrations, some in the census records, and some in immigration records. Bless the bureaucrats and their pointy pencils!
1. A couple of years ago, I had an e-mail about a John Coubrough who had married Margaret Murray in Glasgow. John and Margaret had had three sons: William, John, and Richard. The elder John was thought to have been born "about 1860, in Scotland," and had died quite young. Margaret later married a Malcolm Fraser. William and his brother John moved to Florida; no one knew what had happened to Richard.
I eventually found the birth registrations for their children, one of which gave his parents' marriage date. I later found a death registration for the same little boy: Richard had been only a few months old when he died, which explains why no one knew what had happened to him. But after two years, I still seemed no closer to finding out who John was. Enter the Scots statutory register of marriages. Add a little cash, and no one can hide for long: John Coubrough, son of William Coubrough and Margaret Ure, had married Margaret Murray, daughter of Richard Murray and Margaret Young, on April 18, 1876, in the St. Rollox District of Glasgow.
And now for the connection: John's father, William, was the oldest child of John Coubrough, and Christian Dun. Christian's second son, another John, married Mary Binnie Davidson. Christian Dun's husband was the son of William Coubrough and Margaret Gourley. William, in turn, was the son of William Coubrough and Agnes Wright, who belong to the Ellrig line.
2. For about 5 or 6 years, I have been puzzled by an Andrew Coubrough, living at Stonewall, Manitoba, who I had seen in a census index. I had his wife's name (Mary), but I couldn't connect him to anyone. I knew he wasn't ours, but I could find nothing else.
Last winter, I found Andrew's family in the Manitoba census for both 1891 and 1901. In 1891, the household consisted of Andrew, his wife, Mary, and three children: William, age 6; Ellen, 5, and Robina, 3. Andrew's mother, Ellen, was living with him, so I was able to identify him as another Ellrig. Andrew Smith Coubrough was the elder of two sons of Henry Cowbrough and his second wife, Ellen Smith. Henry, born 1814, was the 8th child of another Henry, b 1774, and his wife, Wilhelmina, who was her husband's cousin. Henry, b. 1774, was the son of James Coubrough and Elizabeth Boyd. Wilhelmina was the 7th of ten children of James's brother, William, and Jean Auld. William and James were sons of William Coubrough and Mary Moir, so, as you have guessed by now, Andrew was a third cousin of John Coubrough who married Margaret Murray.
A few weeks after finding Andrew in the census, I had an e-mail from a descendant of his wife's sister. According to the writer, Andrew and Mary had one son, William, who died when he was about 9 years old. (Which would be why the boy was in the 1891 census, but not the 1901.) He also said there were two other daughters: Andrina Caroline, born about 1890 (who died when she was about 6 months old), and Caroline, born about 1892. The three girls who grew up all married and raised families of their own. According to the 1901 census, however, Andrew and Mary actually had five daughters: besides Ellen, Robina, Andrina, and Caroline, there was also a girl called Wilhelmina, born in 1898. Some of the daughters are thought to have moved to Saskatchewan, but that's all we know.
3. The next story is a little closer to us: Last summer, just before the reunion, I had a letter from a woman who told me her grandfather, yet another James Coubrough, had been the son of John Coubrough and Annie Kerr. She knew John's parents were Malcom and Helen Coubrough, but she didn't know which one; nor did she did know Helen's maiden name.
I have long known that Annie Kerr's husband was the oldest son of Malcolm Coubrough and Helen Templeton, but at the time I got the letter, I didn't know where Malcolm hooked on either. Annie and John were in the 1891 census, but they then had only one daughter, Annie, and no sons. I eventually found them in the 1901 census, where they had five children, including eight-year-old James. (Annie had had 6 children, but baby Margaret, aged 4 months, had died in 1891.) I knew this was the grandfather and his family, but its connection to the next story was a pleasant surprise.
4. The fourth tale starts about four years ago, with an e-mail from Wellington, New Zealand. In 1929, a James Coubrough had been adopted by James and Agnes Coubrough, "an older couple" who lived in the Wishaw area of Glasgow. James, a plumber, was thought to have had had several brothers and sisters: John, William, Kate, Elizabeth, and Malcolm. One of the sisters had married a man named Hynd, and had a daughter, Elizabeth. Could I tell which line this was?
At last, the answer is yes: James Templeton Coubrough was born April 3, 1870, the 7th of nine children of Malcolm Coubrough and Helen Templeton. In 1897, James married Agnes Aitken Barton, in Wishaw, Glasgow. (I believe they had one child, who did not survive infancy, but have not yet confirmed this.) Helen Templeton's husband, Malcolm, born about 1834, was the youngest son of John Coubrough and Catherine Andrew. John was the fourth son of Jean Muir and James Coubrough.
5. Last fall, a letter from Johnstone, Renfrew, Scotland, included a copy of a long letter. This letter had been written in the 1890s by a Robert Coubrough, and was addressed to his daughter Jeanie. Robert's wife had left him some time before, taking their baby girl with her. He hadn't seen his Jeanie since, and he wanted her to know something of her father's family, since he was sure the girl's mother would never tell her.
The letter writer didn't know who Robert's wife had been, but did have a family tree showing that she was a descendant of Robert Coubrough and Mary Hunter, so it was easy to identify them as Ellrigs. Little Jeanie and her mother were another matter, but, once again, you can't hide from the census-taker. In the 1891 survey, Jane Coubrough, age 1, was living in the home of her grandparents, Robert and Jane Clark. Jane's mother, Margaret, was listed under her maiden name of Clark, though by 1901, she was again using Coubrough. Jeanie is said to have come to Canada, but no one knows where. Nor do we know if she read her father's letter, or even whether she ever saw her father again.
6. A while back, I mentioned that I had found the family of Malcolm Coubrough and Marion Callan Moore, of whose three children (Thomas Maxwell, Charles Malcolm, and Annie Hamilton), only Charles had lived long enough to marry and have a family of his own. I also told you that Thomas was only 12 when he died of scarlet fever, but I didn't know when. Not long ago, I saw him in the index to the 1902 statutory register of deaths, where he was said to be 22 years old, not 12. As far as I know, he was unmarried at the time of his passing.
7. Census records often tell us all kinds of things we want to know. They also have stuff we might like to leave buried, though it may be less painful if those involved are not too close to us. Such is the case of Jane Bryson and her husband.
William Coubrough, youngest of William Coubrough and Margaret Aitken's nine children, was a printer by trade. In 1859, he married Jane Bryson, daughter of Archibald Bryson and Janet Steven, in their home town of Falkirk, Stirlingshire.
Jane and William stayed in Falkirk long enough to have at least two children. But either a need for adventure or a need for work took over, and they moved to New Zealand, where their son William was born in 1869. Though another son, John, was born at Auckland in 1871, by 1874, the novelty of the new country had worn off and they headed home to Scotland. William and Jane's sixth child, Emma Jane, was born at sea, near St. Helena, on the way home.
After they got home, Jane and William were together long enough for their last child, Helen, to be born at Falkirk, in 1878, but by 1881, they may have been separated: the census said Jane was married, but also was head of the house, rather than wife. Though I have so far been unable to find out where William was in 1881, by April 1891, he was living and working in Glasgow, still not home with his wife.
In the index of the 1901 census, I found two men named William Coubrough listed in Peterhead, in Aberdeen. When I found both men in the actual census pages, one of them was a young man of about 35, who I didn't recognise, but the other was William the Printer, age 66. In the census column "relation to head," I was somewhat surprised to find the word "convict." I have since discovered Peterhead's claim to fame: a huge, maximum-security prison! (8)
These folks are Ellrigs, but otherwise, a pure mystery. I have no idea why William was in prison, or how long he was there; why they went to New Zealand, or why they left. Jane and her youngest daughter, Helen, were living in Falkirk in 1901, but I have no idea what happened to them after that. Jane's oldest daughter, Janet Steven Coubrough, had married Beaument Burrell, in 1889, and moved to Montana, USA, shortly after. Janet died there in 1892. Emma may have married a George Clark, in 1898, in Glasgow. Jane's husband, William, probably died in about 1910, but I don't know what happened to the rest of the family.
8. In the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries, Ellis Island was the main entry point to the US, from Europe; pretty well everyone entering the US had to go through there, including people just passing through on their way to Canada.
Among the Coubroughs at Ellis Island, was a woman named Ann, who, on September 1, 1912, was en route to Chicago with her children: Ellen, 3½, and Arthur, 10 months. Luckily for me, Ann was joining her husband, Arthur, who had come out some time earlier, and she had just come from her mother's home in Scotland, so I had the whole family in one fell swoop. Ann, daughter of Ellen Morrison, had married Arthur Coubrough, son of Margaret McKim and William Coubrough, in Glasgow, in 1906. In 1922, Ann was again at Ellis Island, on her way home to Chicago, but this time she had three kids: Margaret had joined the family in 1914. They were all US citizens, Ann's husband having been naturalized in 1918.
I don't know what happened to them after that, but I do know that Ann's husband, Arthur, was born in Glasgow, in 1883, the 7th of nine children. His father, William, was the son of Bethia Lancaster MacMillan and another William. I am fairly sure they are Ellrigs; now I just have to prove it.
9. Another ship's manifest entry that caught my eye was a baby boy named Malcolm. The ship's manifests for immigrants are very detailed and often include not only names, dates and places of birth, but physical descriptions and names and addresses of friends or relatives, both in the place they left and in the place they were going to. Thus, we find that when the SS Columbia landed at New York on December 7, 1912, Jessie Coubrough, 32, was 5 feet, 2 inches tall, and had brown eyes and dark brown hair. She had come from the home of her mother, Mrs. Flora Russell, at 234 Saracen St., Possil Park, Glasgow, and was on her way home to her husband, Malcolm Coubrough, at 130 - 17th Avenue, Homestead, Pennsylvania. She had lived in the US for two years, and her son had been born at Homestead.
I have since found the elder Malcolm's parents, but it is a very short line. Jessie Russell's husband, born in 1872, was the youngest of seven children, and only son, of Malcom Coubrough and Mary Cameron. Mary and Malcolm had married in 1856, in Rutherglen, Lanarkshire, but I haven't the foggiest idea who Malcolm's parents were. I don't know what happened to Jessie and Malcolm, but their son (the 1912 baby), died in Florida in 1984.
It's not too early to plan your trip to Katikati, New Zealand for the 2nd Coubrough Reunion, which will be held Easter Weekend (19-20 April 2003). The cost per person will be $50 NZ, or about $38 Cdn ($25 US), which pays the hall rental and the miscellaneous stuff for the party, but does not include meals, which will be "pay as you go." Accommodation are available, but you will have to make your own arrangements. Registration payments must be received not later than January 30, 2003. Send your payment to:
Here's what Geoff has to say: "There are motels, homestays, hotels and holiday camps galore around and in Katikati. Have a look at www.manz.co.nz or email katikati@ihug.co.nz Katikati is 2 hours comfortable travel south from Auckland.
Meals from Friday evening have been arranged at the Katikati RSA and are to be paid for by attendees at the time. Meals range from $10 to $20 (9).
MENU
Breakfast ($10.00) Buffet breakfast consisting of Sausages, Bacon, eggs, hash browns, Croissants and toast. Tea and coffee
Lunch ($10.00) Fresh breads, Lasagne or fish, Chips, Salad. Tea and Coffee
Buffet Dinner ($20.00) Hot ham off the bone, Roast Chicken, Hot vegetables, Salad. Dessert. Pavlova and fresh fruit salad. Brandy snaps.
There is lots to do and see in the sunny Bay of Plenty."
Here are some of the things I am working on. If you know the answer, please don't keep it a secret.
1. Annie's daughter, Barbara, is a space alien. (10). We know she married and moved to the US, possibly to Minnesota, but we have little else to go on, except a picture. The picture, was thought to be Barbara herself. I recently examined the back of the picture more closely, and had to revise my thinking. The inscription reads "My Aunt Barbara Coubrough Lochland Dad's sister Family in Minn. [signed] Clifford Lochland. It has a photographer's stamp from Minneapolis, Minnesota. It occurs to me that the picture must be Barbara's daughter. If it was 1860 Barbara herself (Grampa Matt's sister), the writer would have had to have been one of Grampa Matt's sons. We know Grampa Matt had no sons named Clifford. Even if he did, the son would have been Coubrough, not Lochland. Clifford Lochland, the picture writer, must have been a son of 1860 Barbara's son, and the picture must have been her daughter. If so, 1860 Barbara must have had at least two children: a girl named Barbara Coubrough, and a son, whose name we don't know, but who must have been the father of the writer. 1860 Barbara was still at home, unmarried, in April 1881, so her son was not born before that. Assuming this son was at least 18 when his own son was born, and that the writer was at least 14 or 15, the note was unlikely to have been written before about 1915. At that late date, the writer most likely knew how to spell his own name, so we could be onto something. I shall be looking into it, but if this rings a bell with anyone, don't be shy.
3. Another Coubrough in the Ellis Island records was a Scott Peter Coubrough. He gave a friend's address in Scotland, and a landlady's address at his destination, Bagdad, Florida. He must be one of ours, but which one…. I have added him to the space alien list.
4. After the mystery girl in 1808, a child named Barbara shows up at least once in every generation. Trouble is, they aren't all in the parish registers and I haven't any idea which families they belonged to. As Catherine Andrew was the only adult Catherine Coubrough in the area in 1830, I am fairly sure she was the mother of the Barbara who married David Aitkenhead, especially since the first Aitkenhead daughter was called Catherine. The others are not so easy. For example, there was one in the 1861 census who was 32 years old, unmarried, and living with her 72-year-old mother, "Mrs. Coubrough." Barbara had been born in Glasgow, but in 1861, she and her mother lived in Rutherglen. No first name is given for her mother, and I have no idea which branch she belonged to. James and Jean Muir's line seems to be the only one with the name Barbara so the odds are good that they are all ours, but just who were they? I'm still trying to figure that out.
Some trees on the web site have been updated, and I hope to have them all done before the end of the year. I am working on getting more pictures up, but it may still be a while yet. Also in the works is a list of "most wanted" people. I hope that by posting what little I have about them, I can jog someone's memory and they will tell me where these strays belong.
Correction
July 1999, pg 14: The birth date of John MacDonald Coubrough (lower right) should be 1845, not
1854, as stated.
Notes:
1. A clachan is a village. It often had the parish church, but was not necessarily the commercial centre.
2. This naming pattern was in use from at least 1650. A first son was nearly always named after his father's father; 2nd son for his mother's father; 3rd for his own father, & 4th after his father's oldest brother. Girls were named the same way, but started with their mother's family: First girl after her mother's mother; 2nd after her father's mother, etc.
3. This unusual name is partly why I think there must have been other children. Jean & James apparently named their sons by the pattern; if, as seems likely, they named the girls by it, too, the first daughter should have been another Jean, after James's mother-in-law.
4. Lengths of woven fabric were laid out on the ground so the sun could bleach them white before printing.
5. I haven't been able to find out what a power loom tenter did. He may have been a "tender," as in a sort of maintenance man.
6. This census rounded adults' ages down to the nearest 5 years, so William could have been nearly 30.
7. Five furlongs = about 1 kilometre.
8. The Peterhead institution is today a maximum-security prison used for serious sex-offenders.
9. Prices are in NZ dollars.
10. Space aliens because they seem to have come out of nowhere, and belong to no one.