2 cows and £15 in 1821!

 There is a great new way to delve into the Kirk records of Scotland. It is called 'Full text search' on FamilySearch, and is powered by AI. It took me a while to delve into these as they are only available at an affiliate library of this church. Fortunately Family History ACT, my local group, is one such library. You need a free account, and then I typed in 'Buchan' in the keyword search and 'Borthwick, Midlothian, Scotland' - after all that is the name of the blog!

490 records appeared. I was particularly looking for kirk session minutes or accounts. It was not long before this record appeared, dated 3 November 1821:

Excerpt from Borthwick minutes Nov 1821, image courtesy of FamilySearch

I think this reads: "Item 5 Widow Buchan - has 7 children at home, the oldest son gets 9 shillings/per week constant at Vogrie - another is employed occasionally at Women's Work - 5 are unable to work. She has 2 cows and £15 in Bank. The meeting having taken the above into consideration order Widow Buchan to be struck out and the others to remain as formerly."

This is great! As early as 1821, compared to the first valuation rolls of 1855 on Scotland's People, the Buchans have cows, so it is probably the same house in 1821 as they had in 1855. On that rental the Buchan house is the only one listed as "house and byre." 

It confirms that James, the eldest son, is working for the Vogrie Estate, suggestive of having taken over his father's role as forester. And he is earning 9 shillings a week, constantly, so 36 shillings a month - much more than the 4 shillings a month his month was given from the poor relief. He would be still working for the Vogrie Estate in 1855, as the house was rented from the estate.

Who are the '7 children'? In November 1821 James is 22 years, George is almost 19, Isabella is about 15, Andrew about 13, Robert about 9, Alexander about 5 and Helen 3 and a half. Missing is second eldest son William who was then aged 20, and has probably already begun his apprenticeship to become a joiner/carpenter. William is the only one to have 'a trade' that required an apprenticeship.

Through frugality and undoubtedly hard work, Jean has saved £15. Perhaps her husband George had left her with an even bigger asset at his death in April 1818 which she had used to feed and house her children.

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So far I have also seen the 'poor roll' determined at a meeting in May 1819. Widow Buchan was awarded 4 shillings monthly, out of a total of £4 8s per month for 17 families. I am still looking for earlier ones following the death of George.

In May 1820, she is again recorded as receiving 4 shillings per month, but the ominous notation of "inquire" is against her name. She is one of 6 names/families out of 20 thus singled out. Jean Johnson [Widow Buchan] received no money in the June 1822 meeting of heritors.

Excerpt from Borthwick minutes October 1820, image courtesy of FamilySearch

The circumstances of the four other people listed above to be 'inquired', excluding William Cranstown, were quite rightly perceived to be more needful of relief:

"1. William Torrence at Crichton - a  cripple - has two children at home unable to work

2. Widow Penman Stobhill - is about 70 years of age - and very frail - receives no assistance from her sons who are colliers & have large families - 5 or 6 children each.

3. Betty Clerk at Loquharriot - not able to work out of doors - her children pay her house rent.

4. Widow Inglis able to work - one child at home also able to work."

Widow Inglis is likely the mother of Daniel Inglis, who Isabella Buchan would marry in 1831 aged 25. And it is Isabella and Daniel Inglis, living in Dalkeith in 1834 with John Buchan who provide the most tangible link between the Borthwick and the Newbattle Buchans.

Readers are reminded that there were about 25 houses in Newlandrig since it's population appears in the 1841 census; and that there is no other Buchan family in Borthwick than ours. So although Widow Buchan's residence is not mentioned here, for so many reasons she is certainly ours.

Baby Highland Cows, almost certainly not the sort the Buchans had

The joke of the Trafalgar Tour of Britain my son and I took in 2008 was the 'search for the Heeland Coo". It took many days to finally find one. There is a Highland Cow stud at Burra in New South Wales, I pass most days and I always see them.

I considered the black Angus, Ayrshire and the Galloway as potential cows Jean may have owned. But I feel a good contender is the Scottish Shorthorn, which are usually red. It is well-known for being a homegrown forager, whose milk is very high in protein. It was in the past an all-purpose dairy cow. They live up to 18 years and can weigh 700kg.  The white shorthorn is much rarer and has even better milk.

Scottish shorthorn

I will continue to search the Borthwick, Newbattle and perhaps Dalkeith Kirk records for more mentions of our family, in the hope that we'll learn more about their lives and times.