Earlston Hunter and Young Family Connections

Blog reader John Gordon has been in touch with information on his ancestral links with Earlston. These include:


The Whale and Clendinnen families,  Gingham Manufacturers 
The Hunter family of blacksmiths 
The Young  family of joiners

John's grandmother inspired him to find out more about his family history and provided him with much of the information, that included  family trees, notes and photographs.  These are especially valuable when documentary evidence is not readily available on ancestors  born before the first census returns in 1841. 

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In Earlston,  the Hunter family was traced back to James Hunter  - according to the family notes "He was the village blacksmith  - his forge stood near to where the railway station is now."

His son Andrew Hunter carried on the family business and married Isabella Bunzie (?).  They had four sons and one daughter.  Robert and James followed their father into the trade, but James died at the age of 19, kicked by a horse, according to the notes on the family tree.  Son Andrew became a joiner.

Youngest sonWilliam Hunter was baptised in Earlston Parish Church in 1792.  Like his brother Robert, he became a joiner but at one point worked as a grocer in Bristo Street, Edinburgh.  There are two notes on his tragic death at the young age of 25

"William  Hunter was engaged to Margaret Young, but he fell into bad health and died suddenly " and "He was engaged to Margaret Young and died from a cold caught on a coach on Soutra Hill."

 

A silhouette of William and a note amongst the family papers.  

The family gravestone (above)  in Earlston Churchyard reads:

In memory of Andrew Hunter, late smith in Earlston who died 10.4.1809 aged 53 years;  also James Hunter,  his son who died 11.1808 aged 19 years;  also Andrew Hunter, his son who died 12.5.1822 aged  27 years;  also William Hunter his son who 22.11.1822 aged 23  and Isabella Bunvae (?), his spouse who died 18.6.194-(?) aged 78 )?).

So Isabella experienced the loss at an early age of  three of her four sons.

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 Only daughter Margaret Hunter was born in 1786.   At 20 years old, on 10th February 1806, she married William Young, like his father, a joiner in Earlston, who later set up business in Edinburgh.  

Margaret Hunter and William Young had seven daughters and two sons, including another William.  This William Young was in the army and in the 1851 census was a grocer in Canongate, Edinburgh.  

A copy of his undated and unsigned will  began

"I William Young  Corporal in his Majesties 55th Regiment of foot, now or lately stationed at Chinsurah Bengal, East Indies, only son and heir apparent of William Young, wright in Edinburgh.........

He makes provision for  his mother Margaret Hunter Young with life rent of properties in both  Earlston and Edinburgh - thus indicating the family were of some standing.  The document is wordy and detailed as to the dimensions of the Earlston property. 

"Two slated houses of two stories and garden and are bounded as follows:  by the property of John Long, Weaver in Earlston on the east;  the fluther park belonging to George Baillie Esquire of Jerviswood on the south;  the property of George  Pringle's heirs   and the street or green of Earlston on the west;  and the property of Agnes Long and the street or  green to the north."

The 1855 Earlston Valuation Records  for 1855  (available on line at  ScotlandsPeople  lists Margret Young of Edinburgh  as owning four properties in the village, with the tenants George Fairbairn, George Fisher, Henry Glendinning and Elizabeth Glendinning.

Margaret Young, nee Hunter,  died 20th August 1870 at 63 Dundee Street, Edinburgh, buried in the New Calton Burial Ground, Edinburgh. 

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The Auld Earlston Blog  welcomes contributions from readers, 
including memories of what life was like,  growing up in the village. 

Contact:  auldearlston@aol.com 

THANK YOU