I’ve been busy and am struggling to catch up! So two days today, with an Alexander from Aberdeenshire who became a successful merchant in London and Sunderland, a Hutcheon from Cruden who was a farm servant and cattleman, and my Fraser half great uncle who died aged 21 from tuberculosis.
13 March 1785
Baptism of William Alexander and Chapel of Garioch, Aberdeenshire, son of my gggggg uncle William Alexander and Isobel Galloway. William took himself off to England and did very well for himself. In 1810 he married Ann Guest, a ship-owner’s daughter, at Bishopwearmouth, Sunderland and they had three children born there before moving to Newington, London: they had two children baptised there in 1824, when they were living at Union Buildings, Kent Road and William was a merchant. In 1841 William is at Bishopwearmouth with his married daughter and son in law: his son in law was also a merchant and probably did business with William. William’s wife and two other daughters (his son seems to have died young) are at 7 Stepney Green, Tower Hamlets. In 1851 William is at 11 South Terrace, Kensington with 2 servants – his wife is with their widowed son in law at Ford Hall, Durham. William Alexander died in London in 1855 and was buried at Kensal Green.
12 March 1862
Baptism of James Davidson Hutcheon at Cruden, Aberdeenshire, son of my gggg uncle Keith Hutcheon and his second wife Ann McPherson. He is with his parents and siblings in 1871, in Cruden, his father a tailor and letter carrier and his mother a seamstress. In 1881 he is working as a farm servant at Mains of Waterton, Ellon, a farm of 300 acres. In 1885 he was working as a farm servant at Mains of Amrage, Ellon, when he married domestic servant Annie Fraser: she Midtown, Cruden with 2 children and in 1901 James is a cattleman at Wateridgemuir, Logie Buchan with no children but with a 4 year old boarder, which usually means they were looking after a relative’s orphaned child. His son is nearby working as a farm servant and his daighter is a domestic servant in Aberdeen. In 1911 Keith is still a cattleman and is living at Craighall, Ellon with wife Annie, the orphan from 1901 who is now an apprentice grocer, and a grandson who is the son of his daughter. His son has migrated to Canada. James Davidson Hutchison died in 1927, age 65, at Cruden.
13 March 1908
Birth of my half great uncle Alexander Fraser at Hatton Lodge, Aberdeenshire, son of William Fraser and his second wife Helen Ann Morgan. Alexander is with his parents and siblings at Hatton Lodge in 1911, though shortly afterwards the family moved to Mosside Croft, which William Fraser took over from when his father died. Alexander worked as a farm servant but died in July 1929, age 21, of tuberculosis, and is commemorated on the headstone at Cruden Kirk.