The Paton Ancestor

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Scotland

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"I went to visit the Ewings family when I was older. They had a nice place with a garden, next to a river. There was a gazebo in the garden where I remember talking to my Grandfather Ewing. He told me that the family name wasn't really Ewing. At some time in the distant past a man of the Paton family had been a deserter in a battle. He didn't dare return to his family, so changed his name to his wife's name, Ewings. Grandfather wanted me to find out who our real relations were. I didn't ever go into it, so I didn't ever know." Jean (Ewing) Kiddoo

Jean's grandfather was James Ewing (1854-1930), the son of James Ewings (abt.1826-abt.1894) who, according to the census records was born in Falkland, Fife, Scotland. Her grandfather's siblings also listed in the census records were Theodore and Johan/Joan/Jean (the spelling varies in different records). Jean's conversation with her grandfather would have occurred before 1927, before she emigrated to Canada, most likely around 1925 when she stayed with her Ewing relatives while having surgery in Edinburgh to have a bunion removed.

There is a marriage recorded in Falkland, Fife on 15 Apr 1819 between James Paton and Johan Ewings, but this is clearly not the deserter as the Paton name is used throughout their records, and there is no record of a son named James.

There is a seaman named James Paton recorded as deserting from HMS Andromeda in 1799: James Paton; Ship's name: HMS Andromeda; Pay book number: SB 42; Rank: Able Seaman; Relation: Mother Elizabeth; When Alloted: 1796; Remarks: Deserted 30 June 1799 Sheerness. ^[1] There is no record of where this James Paton is from, and it does not fit with "deserter in a battle"