John Hutcheon, with his wife Margaret
Thomson, lived at Inverveddie, either at the farm or more likely at
the Meal Mill, from the date of their marriage in 1750 (or thereby) until
1765, when the whole family moved to Dens Mill.
Dens mill has been known as "Denny
Mill" for many years. Indeed I think that the great reference book -
J.B.Pratt's "Buchan" - refers to it as such.
John's son George Hutchison, who
married Christian Keith, was born at the Dens Mill shortly after the
family arrived there, and must have lived there until he married
Christian., in 1797. They then moved to the Runrig Farm Town of Gask,
where they spent the rest of their days, he combining farming with his
other noted skill - that of a "Wright", who was a cross between a
carpenter and a millwright, though he may also have been a Ploughwright.
At that time the English, Iron-framed and
Iron-shod ploughs, introduced by Small, of Forfar, (His descendants are
the people who make the delicious Forfar Tablet ) they had not yet arrived
in Buchan, and the old Scotch Plough, made of wood, with only the Share of
iron, had to be built every year by the Farm town's Wright.
But then the local Wright also had the
frequent job of raising the wooden members to support the cottage roofs
thatched with heather and broom, over walls of turf. Quite possibly
George and Christian, being relatively well-to-do, had a house with stone
walls, though they weren't as common in Buchan as in, say, Cromar.
The wooden roof frame members were a valuable and carefully preserved
possession where timber was scarce, so while thatch and turf walls were
dispensible the timbers had to be carefully preserved by the Wright.