Finding Isabella and Dan Inglis

 It was unplanned, but it made perfect sense. Late on a day of checking out the the places where Robert and his family lived, and heading towards Newtongrange, a mining village, I suddenly saw a sign to Borthwick Castle.

This is the majestic tower house, where Mary Queen of Scots once stayed before fleeing somewhere else, again. And where I sought the daily hiring rate - £10,000 but room for 30-40 guests overnight! But this does include dinner and breakfast.

The Church and churchyard were in front of the castle. So I stopped and wandered around. The Castle and church are on a rise, with rather steep sides down to a stream of some sort on the right, and just deep gullies on the left where farms spread out over the hillside. There were some old graves here. A series of terraces, mostly overgrown, led down to the stream. The oldest gravestones were here, not many, a few of the local landholding families. Back up on the main churchyard I wandered around all sides of the church - important to do. I took some pictures of some interesting ancient designs.

I was 90% around when I saw the first resident of Newlandrig buried in Borthwick Churchyard. I had assumed that most people in Newlandrig were buried in Newbattle Churchyard, like the Buchans, as it was so much closer.

Interesting I thought. Not one short row closer to my car, and the rows were only about 8 headstones long, I found it. In excellent condition, just a slight lean. Covered in green lichen so that it was no longer a gray or reddish stone. The Buchan name leapt out, as it does. 

Isabella Buchan, sister of Robert, and her husband Daniel Inglis were buried in Borthwick Churchyard. They died just three weeks apart in January and February 1878; death certificates just say 'of old age'. I had no expectation of finding anything. This churchyard was not on FindAGrave as I believed, so that explains it not being on any Ancestry tree. It was a bona fide find.

Erected clearly by their children, but who? Nearby was another family member. It read "Erected by James Buchan in loving memory of Anne H Mills his wife who died Newlandrig 22nd Jan 1888 aged 64 years. George their beloved son died 17th April 1890 aged 32 years. William their beloved son died 12th Nov 1896 aged 33 years. James Buchan Kelley their beloved grandson died 16th Sept 1899 aged 9 months. The above James Buchan died 26th Sept 1904 aged 74 years. David B Kelley his grandson died 15th Oct 1908 aged 5 years. Also his daughter Ann Henderson Buchan beloved wife of Wm.T. Kelley died 11th Mar ? 1925 aged 55. [And on the plinth] Also William Thomas Kelley beloved husband of Ann Henderson Buchan died 15th Sept 1925 aged 65 years."

Could there be more?

There was "Andrew A. Buchan died 1932 and his wife Mary Thomson died 1971" - they are not on my tree. However later research back in Australia has found him. He is the son of Isabella Jane Armstrong, born in 1874 and illegitimate. James Buchan names himself as grandfather on the birth registration, so I think that his eldest son George Buchan, aged nearly 17 at this time, is the father. The other son is only 11. On the 1881 census, Andrew's first, he is named Andrew Armstrong. On the 1891 census, after the putative father George has died, he is now called Andrew Buchan. Perhaps George refused to acknowledge him. The headstone states he died in 1838 but he actually died in 1936, so don't believe everything written in stone.

Andrew lived all his life with his grandfather James until the old man's passing. He is the fourth known Buchan fatality in coal mining - a very dangerous workplace. 

As a disappointing aside, I hoped to take my own picture of the headstone of Isabella and Robert's youngest brother Alexander; he who had travelled the furtherest from the family home to die in Roxburghshire where I just happen to be staying. I found Maxton Churchyard easily enough, and the image is on FindAGrave; but two careful circuits of the area did not reveal it. there were about 10 headstones lying face down, and I suspect it is one of these.

However there was success to come.