John MacNie’s birthplace

A brick wall breached

Written as part of Amy Johnson Crow’s “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge. This week’s topic: Brick Wall

I had traced my father’s family back to John MacNie and his wife Jean McCulloch who lived near Stirling in 1812.  But there I stuck for several years, since I could not find John’s birthplace or birth family. 

I knew of their seven children, whose baptism records told me precisely where they lived, for the Parish register on all seven records listed Gartur as their residence.  Gartur is a farmhouse on the estate of Lord Murray of Polmaise in Cambusbarron, near Stirling. 

St. Ninians Church where the MacNie children were baptized

The Stirling County Archives holds the Polmaise estate papers, and from reading through everything I could in one all too short afternoon I discovered several references to John MacNie.  In one document, a letter dated August 6, 1833, from the estate factor to William Murray of Polmaise, was written: 

John McNey has given up cutting the drains at the cuts near the bridge on the new road as they are become so hard that he can make little progress and as the drains to protect the mounds are made the others being done just now are not so material.  (His name was spelled three different ways in this document).

Initially I assumed that John was a ditch digger, but I later deduced that he was probably overseeing part of Murray’s drainage projects:

Sir William Murray Esq. of Touchadam and Polmaise, Vice-Lieutenant of the county, and principal heritor of this parish, first introduced that system of draining, which was known by the appellation of ‘wedge-draining,’ but which has since been more appropriately designated ‘thorough draining.’ (1841 New Statistical Account, St. Ninians.)

One of the ditches dug to drain the Carse of Stirling, An account of this work can be found in a BBC documentary from which this clip was taken: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00c3k3n

I also learned that John was an entrepreneur in his own right, who rented a significant portion of land, known as Hayfield, from Polmaise.  The grasslands were apparently a common source of income at the time. 

By 1841 John and Jean had left Gartur and were living in Denny, the other side of Stirling.  Both were “not born in county”.  In 1851, still in Denny, their birthplaces were given as in Perthshire, in a parish beginning with M, but the rest of the name was illegible.  Perthshire and Kinross archivists suggested the parish of Moulin.  The 1861 census record was nowhere to be found.  

Jean’s death 1859 certificate recorded that she was aged about 70, so born about 1789, that she was the daughter of John McCulloch, farmer, and Janet (Stewart) McCulloch, and that she had died, suddenly ‘probably of heart failure’.  But John’s 1867 death certificate was a disappointment. His age at death was 75, so he was born about 1792.  But his father was given as” ___ McNie, a smith”, and there was no information as to his mother.  And here I was stuck.  

East Boreland, Denny, where John and Jean lived, 1840s-1860s.

That missing 1861 census record was the missing link and I kept searching for it.  I couldn’t find it on Ancestry, and it was not to be found in Scotland’s People, but when I put out a request to the family history community I was told by some good soul that it was available on findmypast.  Sure enough it was listed there, but with no original document.  When I inquired as to the source I was told it was at the Public Records Office in London, but that too was only a copy.  The original was in the Falkirk Archives, and with the help of a wonderful archivist there I was finally able to see, in clear beautifully clear handwriting, a microfiche copy of the original census record, informing me that my great great grandfather had been born in Port (of Menteith), Perthshire, Scotland.  

From there I was able to identify John as the son of Duncan McNie and Margaret McLauchlan of Port of Menteith, born 14 August 1791.  And how do I know that this is the right family?  That one piece of information on John’s death certificate that his father had been a smith led me to Duncan MacNie, the blacksmith in Port of Menteith. 

Port of Menteith, at the foot of the Trossachs. Photo: scotlandschurchestrust.org.uk

The story of John’s father, Duncan the blacksmith, is for another day.  For today it is enough to celebrate the collapse of a longstanding brick wall.