Mary Thomson (1802)

Born 22 Mar 1802 in Blackwood, Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Ancestors

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Alan Runciman [send private message]

Biography

Name

Name: Mary Thomson^[1]

Birth

Date: 22 March 1802

Place: Blackwood, Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, Scotland^[2]

Christening

Date: 30 March 1802

Place: Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Note: Extracted from the multiple family baptism entries 1804^[A] :

"The following are the children of John Thomson Nursery Man at Blackwood house and Christian Goodlet his spouse Registrated (sic) as follows viz

a Daughter Born 16 Sept 1786 baptized the 24th of said month named Helen

a son Born 25th Oct 1790 baptized 31st said month named William

a daughter Born 3rd Sep 1794 baptized 12th said month named Margaret

a son Born 13th Aug 1796 baptized 26th said month named James (LDS have 21st)

a son Born 8th Apr 1798 baptized 20th said month named John

a child Born 8th Apr 1800 baptized 10th said month named Lewis

a child Born 22nd Mar 1802 baptized 30th said month named Mary

a child Born 24th Jun 1800 baptized 11th July the next named Catherine^[3]

Marriage

No marriage has been identified. There are unsourced family trees which show Mary marrying a Thomas Newman in Foxton, Cambridgeshire. The Newman marriage does not appear to be validated with a source and is discounted. Consequently the earlier attachment showing this couple as spouses has been removed. Further evidence is required before this marriage would be accepted or positively disproved.

Later research :-

The census record of the Thomas Newman household in 1851^[4] shows his wife Mary was declared as being born in Foxton which provides proof that it was not Mary, the subject of this profile, who married him.

Family Connections of Interest

John Potter - A Scottish Covenanter hanged for his religious beliefs in Edinburgh 1680. This connection may explain the absence of records for Catherine & associated family in the Authorised Church. For several generations descendants of Covenanters & other persecuted religious minorities often lived & married within their like-minded peer groups sharing their Presbyterian beliefs.

Isobel Callender, wife of the above-mentioned, and member of a short-lived band of fanatical Covenanters who became known as Gibbites (known also as the Sweet Singers).

William Martin, who emigrated from Edinburgh in 1848 & became an eminent pioneering New Zealand horticulturist. He bought land & created renowned gardens of national repute which he named ‘Fairfield’. The rhododendron ‘Marquis of Lothian’ is a William Martin hybrid & is amongst his landmark horticultural achievements. Locally in Dunedin there is a Rhododendron Week held annually in October. A road in the area is named after him. WikiTree profiles have not yet been created for his son & grandson, both also William, who continued successfully in the business after him.

Death & Burial

No details of either event have been successfully researched.

Notes

[A] The Thomson & Goodlet families are descended from strong Scottish Presbyterians (refer to the section headed ‘Ancestors of Interest’). The wording of the baptism of all their children in the Lesmahagow Parish of the Church of Scotland in 1804 indicates that the parents worshipped outside the Authorised Church (The Church of Scotland) in what would have been a Non-Conformist Presbyterian church. Each of their children were presumably christened initially by a Non-Conformist minister(s)/church(es) but in 1804, on the birth of their daughter Catherine, the parents chose to have all their children formally ‘registrated’ by the Authorised Church. Notice that the wording of the OPR differs for the youngest child Catherine in that it records she is baptised within a month of her birth in the Lesmahagow Parish Church, as opposed to the process applied to the older children which is a registration of an earlier christening. This may reflect one of 3 directions in the parents' action:

• possibly Lesmahagow Parish had recently ordained a minister who followed a stricter Presbyterian conduct more in line with those of Non-Conformists. (Interestingly, a new church was built in 1804, perhaps coinciding with the ordination of such a new minister.)
• the Church of Scotland offered an established and stable structure in each parish regarding, for example, formal school education and life-time poor relief if needed. Although far from common, examples of the pragmatic registration of earlier non-conformist baptisms by sympathetic ministers are seen throughout Old Parish Records.
• a softening in the parents’ religious approach (this is considered unlikely)

Sources

1. ↑ Source: #S3222
2. ↑ Source: #S3233 Page: Births & Baptisms children of John THOMSON, nurseryman Blackwood House, & Christian GOODLET, from multiple family entry in 1804, Lesmahagow - 649/00 0020 0168, copy d/loaded Aug 2013
3. ↑ Source: #S3233 Page: Births & Baptisms children of John THOMSON, nurseryman Blackwood House, & Christian GOODLET, from multiple family entry in 1804, Lesmahagow - 649/00 0020 0168, copy d/loaded Aug 2013
4. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1851," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SGRW-P1B : 12 September 2019), Mary Newman in household of Thomas Newman, Foxton, Hertfordshire, England; citing Foxton, Hertfordshire, England, p. 9, from "1851 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO HO 107, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.

• Source: S3222 Title: "Scotland and Beyond" (2004) plus subsequent research by Alan RUNCIMAN, Ros RUNCIMAN, Lawrence FLETCHER, Lorna HENDERSON & many, many others, Compiler Address: UK, Australia and New Zealand Abbreviation: "Scotland and Beyond" (2004), plus subsequent research Author: Diane Middleton Jen Jelley Alan Runciman Ros Runciman Laurie Fletcher Lorna Henderson and many others Publication: Jul 2013 Note: imported on 2013/07/24 at 15:44:27.
• Source: S3233 The online website of The Registrar of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk. People Search Titles comprising: Old Parish Record (Abbreviation: OPR) to 1854, Statutory Records from 1855, Census Returns, Valuation Rolls, Poor Relief and Kirk Sessions.