Alison Purves (1806 - aft. 1886)

Born 10 Jul 1806 in Heardrig, near Eccles, Berwickshire, Scotland

Wife of John Lindsay — married 1 Aug 1835 in Coldstream, Berwickshire, Scotland, United Kingdom

Descendants

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Biography

Alison Purves was born on July 10, 1806, at Heardrig and baptized "in church" on August 3, 1806 at Eccles, Berwickshire, Scotland (see ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk). Her parents were James Purves and his wife, Ann or Anna (Mill or Mills) Purves.

Notes: (1) This woman's given name is listed as "Alison" and "Allison" and "Alice" in different records at different times in her life, although she was actually baptized as "Alison". (2) Alison's birth year (of 1806) does not correlate accurately with her ages as given in the census data for 1841 (30 years), 1851 (40 years), and 1861 (52 years). (3) About a mile north of the village of Eccles there was a "Purves Hall" in the late 1700s and early 1800s that belonged to a family of significant status.

Alison is said to have married John Lindsay on August 1, 1835, at Coldstream, Berwickshire, Scotland. The Edrom parish register states that they “were married at Coldstream ... without proclamation of Banns and had their marriage confirmed by the Session on the 6th February 1836” (at Edrom).

In 1841 Alison and her husband John were living at the home of her parents at Broomdykes, Edrom, Berwickshire (with three children of their own).^[1]

By 1851 they had moved to Samieston, Jedburgh, Roxburghshire.^[2]

By the time of the 1861 census in Scotland, "Allison" is recorded as living at Swinnie Farm House, Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, with her husband, two children of her own, her mother -- Ann (Mills) Purves, four children with the surname Davidson, and two others.

There is no sign of Alison (Purves) Lindsay or her husband John Lindsay in the Scottish census data for 1871.

It is not entirely clear what happened to Alison after the 1861 census. What we know for sure is that:

• Her youngest daughter, Grace Allan Lindsay, was married in Ballycolla, Queens County, Ireland, in 1873
• Her husband, John Lindsay, was a witness at that marriage and he died at Abbeyleix Demesne, Queens County, in 1885
• When John Lindsay's will was probated in Dublin on April 15, 1886, it was "proved ... by Alice Lindsay of Ballyneil County Kilkenny Widow the sole Executrix"

It therefore seems most likely that Alison (Purves) Lindsay accompanied her husband and daughter to Queens County, Ireland, between 1862 and 1872; lived on -- in or near to Abbeyleix -- until her husband's death in 1885; then moved to Ballyneale to live with her daughter in late 1885, by which time she was about 79 years of age.

At this time we can find no record for the death or burial of an appropriate Alison or Allison or Alice Lindsay at Ballyneale (or anywhere in Ireland) between 1885 and 1910 (when she would theoretically have been 104 years old). She is not living at Ballyneale by the time of the Irish census in 1911.

Sources

1. ↑ 1841 Census: Parish: Edrom (738); ED: 4; Page: 17; Year: 1841 from Ancestry.com. 1841 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: 1841 Scotland Census. Edinburgh, Scotland: General Register Office for Scotland. Reels 1-151. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland.

   PURVES: Jas 60 Shepherd Ag Lab; Ann 60 (assumed to be. Ann's parents) ~~~

   LINDSAY: John 25 ; Alice 30 ; Ebinezer 4, James 2, Janet 2 Mo

   all were born Berwickshire

2. ↑ 1851 Census: Parish: Jedburgh; ED: 1A; Page: 15; Line: 11; Roll: CSSCT1851_202; Year: 1851 from Ancestry.com. 1851 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: Scotland. 1851 Scotland Census. Reels 1-217. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland.

   LINDSAY: John 34 ag lab b. Greenlaw; wife Alison 40 b. Eccles; Children: Ebenezer 13, James 11, Janet 9, all b. Edrom; Robert 3, Grace 1, both b. Gordon; Mother-in-law: Ann Lindsay 74 b. Hutton.

   If Ann's mother-in-law relationship to John is correct, should be Ann Purves, not Lindsay ~~~

• Pope D. One Man's Family, the History of John Lindsay. published by Pat. Pope, F.N.Z.I.P. 2007.
• Detailed information about this individual is accessible on Ancestry (see https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/19962126/person/20435814796/facts)
• Birth and baptism, in ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk (see https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/image-viewer/opr_births/opr_records-2521645
• Marriage, in ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk (see https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/image-viewer/opr_marriages/opr_records-7754796)
• Scottish census data for 1841, 1851, and 1861
• Probate of will of John Lindsay, in FamilySearch (see https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9TMB-2Z4)