Family Group Sheet

Husband    David Symon [AN032]

Born

 1804, Errol, Perthshire, Scotland (Errol OPR, Errol, Perthshire, Scotland)

Chr.

 

Married

Contracted 27 Jun 1829, Proclaimed 28 Jun 1829, Errol, Perthshire, Scotland (Errol OPR Register of Contracts & Proclamations; 351/7 1804 FR 2169; Errol, Perthshire, Scotland)

Died

17 June 1889, 85 yrs, Errol, Perthshire, Scotland (D/351/1889/18  Errol, Perthshire)

Buried

Errol burying ground, Errol, Perthshire, Scotland

Husband’s Father    David Symon [AN064]                                              

Husband’s Mother    Elizabeth Wilson [AN065]

Other wives

     

Notes: ‘Brick & tile maker foreman’ (son Peter Symon’s marriage cert 6 Jun 1862; ‘Labourer, Brickworks’ (self informant on son Charles Symon’s death cert 28 Dec 1863); ‘Salmon fisherman’ (son George Symon’s marriage cert 13 Aug 1873); ‘Brickmaker’ (dau Elizabeth Symon’s marriage cert 6 Jul 1881); ‘Weaver’ (son Peter Symon’s death cert 1912; informant David Symon b.1832); ‘Salmon fisher’ (son James Symon’s death cert 1923; informant James S Symon b.1872)

 

Wife        Elizabeth Kelt [AN033]

Born

 About 1805

Chr.

 

Died

1889, Errol village, Perthshire, Scotland  (D/351/1889/16  Errol, Perthshire)

Buried

Errol burying ground, Errol, Perthshire, Scotland

Wife’s Father          James Kelt, tenant farmer [AN066]                                   

Wife’s Mother       Barbara Wylie [AN067]

Other husbands

     

Notes:

Children

Sex     Name

Born

Married

Died

1 M  John Lamb Symon

13 May 1830 Errol, Perthshire, Scotland (Errol OPRs, Errol, Perthshire)

Helen McFarlane on 12 Jun 1854, St Mary’s Church, Southampton (Letter from Southampton Archivist to Brian Lamb Symon, g grandson, 1981). 2 sons and 4 daus (Descendants drop-line chart supplied by Brian Lamb Symon, no date, abt 1982).

14 May 1877, 47 yrs, at Sea; Chief Engineer, Royal Mail Steam Packet Company’s ship … (Will of John Lamb Symon dated Nov 1864; executrix and sole beneficiary widow Helen Symon, proved Winchester 18 Aug 1877 by her Oath). Buried Cementerio Británico de Victoria, Buenos Ayres, Argentina (www.cementeriobritanico.org.ar accessed 1 Oct 2008). No death cert found in Scotland.

2 M  David Symon

6 May 1832, Errol, Perthshire, Scotland

 Elizabeth Barclay on 31 January 1860 (N.B. 29 May 1860 per parish register), daur of John Barclay, post runner, Errol.  6 daughters and 1 son (George; b. 20 Mar 1868, Errol; m. Elizabeth Laing; 1 son, 1 daur).

19 March 1908, 75 yrs, Errol.  Buried Errol burying ground.

3 M  James Symon (Jeemie)

22 Sep 1834, Errol, Perthshire, Scotland

Isabella Haggart on 11 Dec 1857, at Errol, Perthshire, Scotland (UPC of Scotland Banns) (M/351/1857/x Errol, Perthshire). 3 sons: David b.1858, William b.1860, James b.1865.

22 Aug 1923, 88 yrs, at Viewbank, Errol village, Perthshire, Scotland (Senility; Cardiac failure) (D/351/1923/20 Errol, Perthshire) (Was bedbound and lived in an upstairs room in nephew James Scotland Symon’s house.)

4 M  Peter Symon [AN016]

9 December 1836, Errol village (Errol OPRs, Errol,  Perthshire)

Margaret Watson Bruce [AN017], 5 June 1862, Errol.  4 daurs, 3 sons.  

17 February 1912, 75 yrs, Errol.  Buried Errol burying ground.

5 M  Charles Symon

14 Apr 1839 at Errol village, Perthshire (Errol OPRs, Errol,  Perthshire)

Single.

26 Dec 1863, Railway guard, 24 yrs, Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, usual residence 7 Dunbar Street, [Tollcross], Edinburgh (“Compound fractures of both legs requiring their amputation”) (D/685-3/1863/1371 Canongate, Edinburgh). Buried Errol burying ground (no gravestone).

6 M  George Symon

24 Oct 1843, Errol, Perthshire, Scotland (Errol OPRs, Errol,  Perthshire)

Margaret Main, spinster, no occupation, 25 yrs, dau of William Main coal merchant & Agnes McFarlane, on 13 Aug 1873 at bride’s home address, 35 West Shaw Street, Greenock (Free Church of Scotland banns) (M/564-3/1873/257 Greenock West, Renfrewshire) (George: engineer/journeyman, bachelor, 29 yrs, usual residence Nevis, West Indies).  One dau: Georgina b. 31 May 1874, Greenock; d. 14 Jan 1875, 7½ months, Greenock (B/564-3/1874/711 Greenock West, Renfrewshire; D/564-3/1875/59 Greenock West, Renfrewshire; Memorial card, undated)

21 Nov 1873, location unknown; no record in Scotland – presumed died at sea or in West Indies (B/564-3/1874/711 Greenock West, Renfrewshire) on birth cert of dau Georgina b.31 May 1874, date of death of deceased father George Symon recorded as the above)

 

Note: there is a record of a marriage in Gourock in 1876 of Margaret Main and James Livingston, but whether this is the same Margaret Main or Symon has not been verified (M/567-2/1876/19 Gourock). 

7 F  Elizabeth Symon (Lizzie)

24 Sep 1846, Errol village, Perthshire (Errol OPRs, Errol,  Perthshire)

Charles Robertson, groom, bachelor, 30 yrs, Inchmartine, Errol parish on 6 Jul 1881, at Errol, Perthshire, Scotland; UPC of Scotland Banns (M/351/1881/8 Errol, Perthshire) (Elizabeth: domestic servant, 33 yrs, Errol village)

No record found in Scotland.  May have emigrated. 

Note:

Compiled by Peter Symon; updated 12 Nov 2008 & 27 May 2015 & 3 July & 13 Dec 2016 & 04 January 2017)

 

 

David Symon signed as informant the death certificate of his brother-in-law Peter Kelt.  It is the only handwriting of his that I have seen, and I'll try to put a copy of it up on this site.   I don't think I have seen any handwritten communication of his son, Peter. 

 

David Symon (1912-1996), great-grandson of David Symon and Elizabeth Kelt, said that David Symon worked on the building of dykes to reclaim land from the River Tay, probably after the collapse of the weaving industry in the late 1830s, and at the behest of the landowner John Lee Allen, Esq, of Errol.  He was also employed at salmon fishing on the Tay.  He later went on to work at the Errol Brick and Tile Works at Fala, Inchcoonans.    He may have had a foreman role there at some point. 

 

John Lamb Symon

Trained in Govan as a ship's engineer probably after early training at Errol works.  Moved to Southampton and married Scottish girl.  Had several children and enjoyed successful career as chief engineer on Royal Mail steamship but "caught a lurgy" and died overseas.  Buried in British cemetery, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

 

David and Elizabeth's eldest son, John Lamb Symon, was said by David Symon, of Waterlooville, grandson of John Lamb Symon, to have left £20,000 in his will on his death in 1877, of which he left £7,000 to his son David, father of David Symon of Waterlooville (personal communication, 2008). That would have made John Symon worth the equivalent of a sterling millionaire in today's money.  His photograph certainly suggests a confident young ship engineer. 

 

Below is the late David E. Symon, grandson of John Lamb Symon, at his home in Waterlooville, Hampshire.   David visited us in Errol in the 1970s, on his much-loved motor cycle, making a trip to discover his grandfather's home village and his Symon cousins.  

George Symon

Memorial card for Georgina Symon, infant death, daughter of George Symon, who had died.

Estate plan of Errol 1835 showing what the place was like at the time the family was growing up in Errol.