There had also been an incident around 15 years earlier, around 1830, but I can’t find any other information about it, other than the reference in the second 1884 description. I had addressed a young, girlish creature several times as “Miss,” until she began to speak of her husband, and I discovered that a frightful error had been unwittingly committed. And it’s no surprise maybe that my wife was in the same primary school (and all our siblings). Peter Irvine (47), miner hewer, from Whithorn, Wigtonshire, Margaret Winters (42, wife of 20 years), and six children (aged from 4 to 20), two employed as hewers, one as a coal picker above ground (aged 14). James was in the right place to profit from coal mining — and profit he did. By 1932, James’s occupation at the age of 55 was recorded as road labourer, and as labourer in 1936. “Shirka” is an interesting name: there are a few BMD entries with this surname spelling, one indicating a continental immigrant name connection (first name Petras). There are 1,876 entries in the census district, and here are the ones on pages 583/1 8/ 6 and 583/1 8/ 7 showing the Hays and some of their neighbours. Peter McGregor (65) stone mason, from Dunkeld, Perthshire, Helen (60, wife of 40 years), three of their ten children, William (27) coalminer – hewer, Helen (19) dressmaker, Sam (16) brickworker. https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/enclosure-acts-industrial-revolution/, https://noisybrain.wordpress.com/2019/01/06/david-laughland-scobbie-and-marion-young-dick/, Agnes b(orn or baptised) 10/05/1807 Straiton, John, b(orn or baptised) 18/12/1818 Coylton, Elisabeth, b. On 23rd February 1844 aged about 21 he was married to Susan(na) McChesney (aka Chesney and some other variants). She had been born in Kirkmichael, Ayrshire on the 26th November 1850. By 1837 he would have been aged 25. Well researched & well written. 1885. Very interesting . In Woodside, neighbours Jane (aka Jean) Thomson and Helen Hay were widows. Sundrum.” Sundrum is just to the south west of this image: Samuel had been a coal miner at least since the age of 13, and he lived in Woodside with his parents and some siblings (1861, 1871). Well, I’ll leave the link where I mention that on here, in case someone reads our comments and is intrigued by this or the other Uddingston comment and might benefit from a quick link. If you require a coal mining investigation, Phase 1 Desk study, Coal mining risk assessment (CMRA), Phase 2 Intrusive site investigation, geotechnical investigation, ground investigation or you need a contaminated land survey or landfill gas survey, trial pitting or Borehole Drilling please do not hesitate to contact one of our regional offices. The photos are physically similar in size, aspect ratio and appearance, suggesting the same camera was used (perhaps unsurprisingly). But thank you! She had been born in Coylton in 1886. Until 1996 Scotland still had two “bank” holidays at New Year: the 1st and 2nd of January (building in some recovery time). They only had a short marriage because both died young. There is a considerable infusion of Englishmen and their wives, who sigh for the “up-stairs and down-stairs” of home. Susan may have had recurring chills and fever due to the systemic inflamation of her body, before abscesses developed in various parts internally, such as the lungs and kidneys. James died of miner’s asthma (of 5 years duration), and Susan of (5 days) pyaemia, a type of blood poisoning (aka septicaemia). it expanded greatly to around fifty homes. My mother-in-law Nessie (Agnes Inglis Erskine, later Kinnis, 1929-2017) came from a small family. “Coylton is one of the smallest civil parishes in Ayrshire in geographical sense, but it boasted a sizeable population during the peak of the coal mining industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. James Hay (47) coal miner, Susan (49, wife), eight children: Samuel (23) coal miner, James (18) coal miner, John (16) coal miner, Margaret (14), Hugh (11), Elisabeth (9), Andrew (7), Susan (4). Check 1891 census 583/ 9/ 7 for Samuel for completeness to see his job and neighbours. There was one other Hay listed in the 1836 Heads of Household list in Coylton parish, (Thomas Hay from Gadgirthholm), and in the 1841 census there were 4 men called Hay in the district who were old enough to have been involved in a mining accident around 1830, including Hugh, incidentally (but he would have been only about 13 years old, which is possible but might have merited mention in the newspaper). I was glad I found your writings about the first Hay family to settle back in Scotland, from living in Ireland! “Andie was a peripatetic tailor and lived in Ayr.”, John Kiltie (25) ploughman, from Stoneykirk, Wigtonshire, Grace Smith (27, wife), from Ayr, two sons: John (4) born in Dailly, Martin (2) born in Coylton, and Grace Richmond (57, mother-in-law), from St. Quivox.
They were next-door neighbours, both coal-miners, and both around the right age for this sad tale. The twin thrusts of the railway and the iron industry ‘revolutionised’ the distribution of the county’s collieries. Some more photographs, linking these Hay ancestors to our present lives, even though the photos were taken half a century ago. The mines vary from being very shallow to extending 250 to 300 metres below the ground”.
She died on the 29th March 1871 in Hillhead, (aka New Coylton), at the age of 85. With over 18 years in the business, several regional offices offering a nationwide service, highly qualified and experienced professional staff, and its own drilling equipment, Geoinvestigate is best placed to give the most competitive and professional coal mining investigation service in Ayr and the bCentral Ayrshire Coalfield. Is the car window slightly less open and the hair slightly different, or is that impression just due to the exposure and focus of the photo? ( Log Out / Hi, this has been an absolutely fascinating read especially as I can relate to quite a few of the area’s you have mentioned. These houses had two rooms with windows. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5376488, https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5376490, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Mcmillan-425, https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/, https://www.myheritage.com/names/james_hay, https://one-name.org/name_profile/mcchesney, this is a link to the geo-referenced map online. Both of them had pre-deceased their daughter’s wedding. John Hay (42) coal miner, Jean (42, wife), five children: Helen (13) muslin sewer, Jean (11) muslin sewer, James (8), Agnes (5), John (2). Her parents were James McChesny general labourer and Elizabeth MacTaggart. (Her parents were John McClure and Elizabeth Stewart a few dozen metres along the road). She was 28, working as a shop assistant and living at 30 Carbieston, Low Coylton. Bardouran (#20). This helps support the hypothesis that this is all one family. Her eyesight would have been affected, and without treatment, her sight could have been permanently damaged or lost. Local lore has it that he fed his customers with salt herrings which became known as “Joppa hams”. The areas of Low Coylton, Hillhead, Joppa, along with contemporary housing estates such as Barngore and Highpark form today’s Coylton village. Coming soon I’ll present Samuel from the next generation, but it would be useful here to present him in a list of all his siblings, collated from the various census returns above and the Scotland’s People index of births (1855 onwards) and their OPR list of births in Coylton with parents James Hay and Susan McChesney (aka McChesnie, Chesnie and Chesney) between 1844 and 1854. Woodend Cottage. In the 1901 Census, more than half Ayrshire’s people (in 9,936 families) lived in homes of only one or two rooms. (How they “met” and their 60 years of marriage is a topic in another story.). Details not certain. (11), Mary Marson (8), Agnes Fulton (20), servant, from Monkton, Alexander Bell McIntyre (19), servant, from Kilmarnock. (#25), Quintin Young (59), coalminer – hewer, from Dailly, Margaret (56, wife) from Kirkmichael, unmarried sons William (22) coalminer – drawer and Thomas (17) coalminer – hewer, grandson John Wilson (19) pithead labourer, grand-daughter Margaret Young (15). Love the way that you find out interesting aspects and diverge, that’s the kind of thing I do. Woodside and Woodend were described in more detail in volume 17 of the Ayrshire Ordnance Survey name books (1855-57). I was trying to work it out do you reckon it was the 1950s? I’ll also be leaving out what I know about the small number of descendants from below the fold (born since 1919), for privacy reasons, but I will add information in a private printed version in an appendix, for family. Indeed, my great grandmother Mina Laughland (1852-1945) was brought up in the manse on Church St., because her father was the minister in the U.P. There are 2,657 entries for the census district. Yes: I am referring to contemporary (late 20th & early 21st century) issues like vaccination, antibiotic wastage and the human contribution to climate change.
Fabulous. Like his elder brother William, Samuel married “the girl next door”. It seems that pus-forming (“pyogenic”) bacteria (e.g. (I’m often going to put the names of Nessie’s direct ancestors in bold face, on first/main use and if needed later given that the same names appear over and over!). There is a similarity perhaps: it was a two day holiday, people worked 6 days a week otherwise, and people weren’t paid if they didn’t work. Sadly I lost connection to a Dick relative who wrote to me once, about 15 years ago, in reply to one of mine, asking for some help identifying photos, and I lost the letter (which I recently re-found) but it was too late – phone number no longer functioning.
But first I’m starting with my wife’s maternal grandparents in Generation Zero. I don’t suppose there is evidence that they were returning to Scotland though rather than having deep Irish roots.
31 July 1846.
Longer term… the Scobbie mining businesses. for West Ham (1892-1895) and Merthyr (1900-1915). It was worth a look to see if the 1871 census reveals anything, especially because it looks like Janet McMillan was on the same page as a Coylton McMillan family. With his wife and children, he was living in Bardouran, nearby. But other strong connections poke through the genealogical facts below. Agnes Inglis Hay (1912-1932).
More importantly for a family tree, there was a woman. Her parents were William Inglis, labourer, born in Ireland around 1850 and Sarah Milligan, also born around 1850. Having only a handful of relatives (in Switzerland and Lincolnshire), was part of her identity, at least as expressed to me in the context of family history. There was an incident at a local mine in 1844, on Monday 16 December, involving a John Thomson aged “about sixty” and a work-mate called Hay. in 1923(?). William and Mary are the same couple as the couple married 7 October 1864 at 83 Dale St. Tradeston, Glasgow.
Recall the size of the Hay families above, or their neighbours, and how they had to be squashed into a single room. Keir Hardie was a world-famous figure, and he would have been known to Hay and Scobbie families alike. He has left a wife, near her confinement, to deplore his unhappy fate.- Surely it is time the authorities were looking into those accidents, now almost of daily occurrence – not one-half of which ever find their way in the public press. It’s impossible for me to ignore a trivia/factoid on Susan’s disease from Wikipedia so here is a serious aside. In 1871 the family had moved a few metres to Woodend. There are 1,440 entries for the census district. Whoops! Four John Hay births in Ayrshire look like contenders – one in Maybole (1875). 1881, Samuel and Janet were in Woodside, a couple of doors down from his elder brother William. James, John, Robert, William,Helen(Nelly), Thomas McMillan Hay (1880-1902), who died aged 22. There are 1,542 entries for the census district.