The lost families of Robert Buchan born 1813

Robert had three separate families, and the distancing of time has led to two of his children being 'lost'. To the world of 2022 there had been knowledge of only the last, legally sanctioned and documented one.  DNA discovered the earlier two children, importantly because these children went onto have large families, and over time, descendants of these large families tested their DNA with Ancestry.

Robert's place in the family

Robert was the sixth child and fifth son of George Buchan and Jean Johnston born in about 1813 based mostly on his age at death in early January. He is my x3 great grandfather. No-one has yet found a baptism record for him. He lived in close proximity to his Buchan family all his life, with the likely exception of a few years in Edinburgh in the mid 1830s. Most of his life was lived in Borthwick Parish, till about 1860 when his second youngest child Jemima was born in Newbattle Parish. Newbattle is immediately to the north of Borthwick Parish, and was an area of concentrated coal mines. He continued to work till his death in an industrial accident in 1887 in Newbattle Parish.

Robert's signature of the death certificate of his brother George

His families

Family 1 - son Robert who emigrated to Melbourne Australia in 1852

Family 2 - daughter Jane, whose daughter carried on the Buchan name

Family 3 - the 7 children of Margaret Ireland whom he married in 1846

He probably married Janet McRae/McCrae around 1833/4 because of the existence of a son Robert, who was recorded on the 1841 census with him in Borthwick Parish. The boy was named Robert Buchan, which suggests his parents were married. Interestingly Robert junior was later recorded as being born in Edinburgh on the 1851 census, the first census to record finer detail for the birth place and address other than Parish level. His family members in this census were recorded as born in Borthwick, except for young Robert now aged 17, and his first cousin Jane Buchan, aged 9 and daughter of Andrew Buchan, who was born in Dalkeith. Every one else was born in Borthwick Parish. Jane was born on 1 April 1841 according to her baptism record. How infuriating that no such record exists for Robert born about 1834! I have searched the Edinburgh city parishes as well, and the Leith Relief Church, see below, and looked for any Robert born to any Jane* in Midlothian between 1832-36.

Robert (1834-1882) married Margaret Bain 1860 (Australia) = 10 children

The reality of Robert (b1834) being born in Edinburgh is led credence by the fact that another child was born in Leith in 1835 fathered by Robert senior. Leith is the port for Edinburgh City, and is also about 12 miles north of Borthwick Parish. Jane Drysdale was born on 30 September 1835 in Newhaven (part of South Leith), and baptised on 30 December 1835. No father is recorded in her baptismal record, and her mother was Jane Drysdale. Three times in November/December, Jane refused to name the father of her child to the church elders of the Leith Relief Church, and yet we can be certain that she knew it. 

Jane Drysdale (1811-1848) was born in 1811 in Inveresk, Midlothian to William Drysdale (c1775-1845) and Jean Clark (1785- ). The Drysdale family had all moved to Leith by 1841. She was their second daughter and third child. She was living in Newhaven when she married David Wyllie, Shipmaster of Citadel St, Leith on 30 June 1837. Two Wyllie siblings for Jane were born by the time that the 1841 census recorded the family, all named Wyllie in South Leith: Jane 25, Jane aged 5, Annie 3 and David aged 1. The father David is recorded 'at sea' for this census, usual residence Leith, Midlothian. Another daughter, Margaret, was born in 1844. 

The Wyllie family lived at 71 Shore, Leith

On 19 October 1848 Jane Drysdale, aged 35, wife of David Wyllie seaman, died of cholera. They were living at 71 Shore, Leith. By the time that the next census was taken, young Jane was now known as Jane Drysdale Buchan. Aged 14 (though really 16, but perhaps her age was changed to fit with her mother's marriage), she was living with her maternal grandmother, yet another Jane Drysdale and an aunt Helen Drysdale. Her widowed grandmother Jane was a 62 year old lodging house keeper living at 73 Shore, Leith. Her step father was living with the Shea family and was still a seaman. His last address before death in 1883 was the Poor House, North Junction Rd, North Leith. 

Jane's stepsiblings were dispersed. I have not found Annie. In 1851 David was boarding with the Calder family while Margaret was a visitor to the Wallace family. Both may have been related families. All the ages are incorrect. There are DNA links to the Wyllie family.

Jane Drysdale Buchan (1835-1895) - married William Richardson 1859 = 7 children

Robert married Margaret Ireland (c1823-1898) on 31 Jan 1846 in Borthwick. She was the second known daughter of Michael Ireland (1795-1851) and Christine Easton (1786-1866), who wed in Borthwick in 1814. Robert and Margaret had six daughters and only one son, not surprisingly called George, the name of Robert's father. He had already named a son Robert. The children were:

Christina (1846-1920) - married David Anderson 1873 = 4 children before 1887

George (1848-1925) - married Christine Mulvaney in 1870 = 10 children, 7 before 1887

Jane Johnston (1851-1924) - lived with Thomas Anderson = 3 or 4 children, 2 before1887

Margaret (1853-1883) - married David Galloway in 1875 = 2 children before 1887

Helen (1857-1933) - married John Black in 1891 = 2 children after 1887

Jemima (1860-1948) - married George Richardson in 1881 = 5 children, 3 after 1887

Isabella (1863-1915) - married William Murray in 1888 = 4 children after 1887

Robert had 9 children, all of whom went on the have children themselves. In total he had 47 grandchildren, 37 of whom were born in Borthwick or neighbouring parishes and so he would have known those born before 1887.

Robert's working life

Robert's first recorded occupation is labourer in Newlandrig in 1841, and this may have been as an agricultural labourer.  During the 19th century agriculture was decreasing as an industry in Borthwick as enclosure of farms and improved mechanisation meant fewer jobs for individuals. People, and in particular men, were leaving Borthwick for jobs in the bigger townships, see post on Borthwick Parish.

As was the convention for the 1841 census, ages were rounded down to the lower of the 5-year brackets. By this convention he was recorded as 25, but he was probably about 28 years of age. He was living with his mother Jean, his elder brothers James and William, his sister Helen and his son Robert aged 7. His married siblings Isabella Inglis and Alexander were recorded on the same census page.

In 1851 he was working as a Brick Tile Maker, and probably working at a Tile Works near his home in Newlandrig. This is the occupation that his son Robert recorded on his own marriage certificate (in 1860) as the occupation of his father. He is more accurately reported to be 37 years of age.

Newlandrig, adjacent to Tile Works Wood, where Robert lived after his marriage in 1846

In 1861 Robert was still working as a Brick Tile Maker, and his son George was employed with him at the age of 12. The 1861 census records his address as "Lothian Bridge, Newbattle' so it is almost certain that he worked at the Brick &Tile works shown below, rather than somewhere near Newlandrig Burn.

In 1871 he was working as a Tile Maker, while his daughter Helen was a 'worker at brick works' at the age of 13. Her younger siblings Jemima and Isabella were still scholars. Their address is now Newtongrange, Newbattle, and it is probably the same location, as this is the name hidden by the box 'Select a historical map.'

Lothian Bridge, Newbattle near Brick & Tile Works

Wider view of Borthwick and Newbattle Parishes, with Lingerwood Colliery marked in yellow

1881 saw him working as a labourer, aged 67. He was living with Margaret and an 18 year old grand-nephew named William Buchan (possibly the grandson of his brother George), and his 8 year-old grandson Robert Buchan (son of his son George). Their address was Smithy, 1, Newbattle, Midlothian. The later Lady Victoria Pit or Colliery was also sometimes called Smithy Pit, so these were probably houses built for mine workers. Could these cottages below have any continuity with his home in 1881?

Cottages at Smithy, Newtongrange

Scotland's first Solar Meadow is built at Newtongrange, Edinburgh University, Midlothian Campus.

Robert was working as a carter when he died on 18 January 1887, in the depths of winter. He died at 8.40am at Lingerwood Colliery in Newbattle Parish, aged 74 years. His death certificate records his death as 'instantaneous' and as a result of an accident. The informant was his son George, then living in Gilmerton in Liberton Parish. The Register of Corrected Entries, a wholly Scottish system of recording the outcomes of investigations into all non-natural deaths, reported that the cause of Robert's death was that he was 'runover and killed by waggons in motion on a colliery line.'

The Lingerwood Colliery was owned by the Marquis of Lothian.  It opened in 1798 and closed in 1967. From 1915-1946 it was owned by the Lothian Coal Co. Ltd, thereafter by the National Coal Board. The National Mining Museum Scotland is on Lingerwood Rd in Newtongrange. The museum is located within the restored Lady Victoria Pit Colliery which is just 500m from the Lingerwood Colliery, but which did not open until 1895. 

Robert's brother George also died at Lingerwood Colliery in 1869, when he was struck by a crane and suffered fractured ribs and clavicle and internal injuries. To compound the reality and tragedy of working in coal mines, George's grandson George also died there in 1890 aged 32. He was also crushed by a wagon. His younger brother William had been living with the doomed granduncle Robert in the 1881 census. The Durham Mining Museum lists 112 men who died in mining accidents. All 3 men named Buchan were from our family. He may be buried in Newbattle Cemetery, which opened in 1813.

Although I need to find more detail if possible on where he was working as a Brick Tile Maker in his middle age, several things are clear. Work was to be found in mining and manufacture in the last half of the 19th century in Borthwick and surrounding parishes. Working class men of all ages needed to work to survive. After his death, his widow Margaret continued to live with the two young Buchan men, William and George, who were with her and Robert in 1881. However the household had moved to 117 High St, Dalkeith. Note this is now the address of St Nicholas Buccleach! Dalkeith became the main administrative centre for rural Midlothian, and the parish of Newbattle formed its southern border. Margaret died on 11 March 1898 in Purcell's Close, Dalkeith of heart disease, a passageway off the High St. She was 75 years old, and only one of their 7 children had predeceased her which is how it should be.