|
13/11/2006
Home
Up
02 Alexander
07 James
15 Thomas
| |
Genealogy of George Hutchison and Christian Keith.
Hutchison family tree.
Keith family tree.
Children.
| ref |
Name |
Born |
Died |
Biography.(Baptismal witness names in
brackets). |
| |
Alexander |
22 Nov1798 |
16 Mar 1800 |
|
| |
John |
1799 |
1817 |
(Rev Mr Torry & James Hutchison) |
| 151 |
George |
21 Aug 1801 |
17 June 1861 |
1828. Jessie McDonald. |
| 02 |
Alexander |
10 May 1803 |
8 May 1890 |
1850. 1840 E.L?. Agnes Daniel. |
| 07 |
James |
14 Feb 1805 |
5 Jan 1892 |
1832. Mary Castel. (James Johnston & James
Hutchison) |
| |
William |
6 Oct 1806 |
20 Jan 07 |
UM. |
| |
Robert |
19 Sept 1807 |
? West Indies. |
Not known if married. (James Johnston & George Morison) |
| |
Mary |
3 Dec 1809 |
1893 |
1838. James Reid. |
| |
Peter |
23 Aug 1811 |
28 Feb 1882 |
Susannah Stevens. |
| |
Barbara |
25 May 1813 |
11 Nov 1897 |
19 Nov 1835. Alexander Annand. |
| |
Thomas |
25 May 1815 |
13 Sep 1887 |
UM. |
| |
William |
16 Oct 1817 |
18 Sep 1871 |
UM. 1871 Census shows - 24 Marischal Street,
Peterhead: William Hutchison: um: aged 51: lodger: draper employing 2
assistants: b. Cruden. |
Baptismal witnesses.
James Hutchison is presumably George's brother, and perhaps George Morison is
the son of James Morison and Mary Keith. I've failed to find any further
information about George Morison. The Johnstons were friends or perhaps some
sort of family connection from way back. They appear as baptismal witnesses as
far back as the children of Thomas Forbes in Ardiffery, brother or cousin of
George Forbes who married Elizabeth Ross. They also appear as witnesses to the
children of Thomas Simpson and Barbara Forbes.
OPR. EL to TMH 15 June 1996.
Dear Garth,
You've no idea of what a large can of worms you've stumbled into in asking
about George H and Christian, and their locations, but here goes:-
We have as yet very little knowledge about goings on in Cruden around 1800.
Possibly the papers of the Earl of Errol's Estate may exist and may have a
lot of information, but I doubt it. (Lady Errol has a house near Colliestone,
but it's not her main residence) The Elphinstone Institute at Kings College
may have some data, but we've never found time to explore their records
with them.
Around 1800 when Geo.H and Chris. K were married the farming scene was
almost unrecognisably different from the present. Each farm was virtually a
self-contained hamlet with a population which might number 50 persons. One
of their number would be responsible to the landowner for collecting rents,
and presumably for organising the allocation of farming duties and rights.
The community would include:-
Subtenants, whose main occupation would be farming
Part time farm workers whose main occupation was something else -
Weaving; Tailoring, Shoemaking;Carpentry;Blacksmithing, etc., which they
combined with farm work. "Grassmen" or "Grasswomen" who paid rent for the
right to graze one or more cattle on the farm. Herds - usually children or
geriatrics - paid to keep cattle off growing crops.(They didn't have fences
nor dykes then) Pensioners - really Paupers - who lived off the charity of
the rest of the community.
George H was a Wright and Farmer, although his father was a Miller - a
superior rank - George was the youngest son and had to fend for himself.
His work would entail making the ploughs which were built of wood every year
for the season; putting up timber roof members to carry the thatching
material; making bits of furniture, etc.; and looking after his own share of
the cultivated land of the farm.
Every year, the same (roughly) one third of the farm was ploughed by the
communal plough - a wooden implement made by the wright, pulled by a team of
up to twelve oxen, (no horses then, except for riding by the wealthy) and
attended by a dozen men from the farm. Very slow work, spread over a very
long time. The farm of Gask must have comprised about 500 Acres of which
about 150 might have been ploughed each year. (The same 150, over and
over again: only the best land.) This would have taken them 150 days: a big
8-furrow reversible used today would need ten days or less. And it was
necessary in those days to plough several times a year to try to control
weeds. Today, one application of Glyphosate is enough!
The whole scene changed in a surprisingly short time, although in the North
east the improvements lagged well behind - say - the Lothians. By 1841,
when the first formal censuses started, the land had been divided into
smaller farms with single occupancy and hired hands to work them; fences or
hedges or dykes had been installed, drains of clay pipes had been laid;
(brickworks had been built to produce them, now mostly disused or
dismantled) all of the land on each farm was now subject to cultivation and
rotation of crops including the grazing land. Fodder crops like turnips had
arrived, enabling cattle to survive the winters; Lime was being spread to
release soil nutriments, etc. So, although George and Christian stayed on
at Gask while these changes were occurring, their family became more nearly
modern farmers.
This required capital, and probably Christian was an heiress whose money
helped their children into farms.
Their son James H and Mary Castell rented the farm of Berrymoss in Cruden.
I'm not clear about the origin of Berrymoss: it may have been part of a
Farm Town of Aldie, which still exists as a farm with a handsome mansion
house; or it may have been an area of waste which James broke in to
cultivation.
James's older brother Alexander farmed at Gask. By his time Gask would have
been divided so that Alexander farmed 50 acres of the original - say - 500
acres. I guess that George senior lived with him until his death (George's
) in 1844. Alexander and his wife Agnes Daniel moved on to
Teuchan. An informed guess suggests that the move probably occurred in
1863/4, when his brother Thomas moved from Teuchan to Cardiff. Alexander's
occupancy of 50 acres of Gask along with some six other occupiers of smaller
areas suggests that as late as 1861 the farm structure was in a transitional
state - neither wholly "Runrig" nor single occupancy. George may have built
the first modern house on the modern farm of Gask. Who knows?
All that needs summarising, so:-
George & Christian Gask "Farmtown" then Gask farm till 1844.
Their family:-
John Not known
George Braemar, etc.
Alexander & Agnes Daniel Gask farm till 1863/4, then Teuchan.
James & Mary Castell Berrymoss till his son, Alexander, died in
1911.
Robert, Mary, Peter, Barbara - all moved away
Thomas Teuchan farm till 1864, then
Cardiff. Died at Berrymoss
William Draper in Peterhead
TMH. Oct 2003. |
Gask. Go to www.multimap.com and enter
postcode AB42 0PT in the search box.
|