Marriages of this generation are recorded between the years of 1752 and 1781. Some members of this generation, who would have come to adulthood shortly after the middle years of the 18th century, had a sometimes quite substantial holding of land in places including upland farms in the Sidlaws (e.g. Goddens), part-arable, part-pasture farms in Strathardle (highland Perthshire) and Strathnairn (southern Inverness-shire), where the black cattle economy was important, communal farms in townships on Tiree and North Ronaldsay, Orkney's northmost island, and arable farming on the richer land of the Carse of Gowrie (e.g. Clashbenny, Kingdom and Flawcraig, all wholly or partly in Errol parish).   The families in the Carse of Gowrie, and possibly those in Strathardle and Strathnairn, would probably have lived through the most intensive phase of agricultural improvement.  The religion was generally presbyterian, sometimes seceder, but in the highland glens it was more likely to be episcopal.  Some of the ancestors are conjectural.  Of the maximum possible of 128  members of this generation, some 18 (about one in seven) are known with a high degree of certainty, based on records of births or baptisms. 

128.

129.

130. George Wilson

Conjectural.  Kinnaird parish, Perthshire. 

131.

132. John Kelt

Conjectural.  Farmer in the Godens, Kilspindie parish, Perthshire.

133. Agnes Scot

Conjectural. 

134.

135. 

136.

137. 

138. 

139.

140.

141.

142.

143.

Tenant (or subtenant) 'in Wester Pitcarmick', Kirkmichael, Strathardle, Perthshire.  m. Janet Ferguson, 22 Dec 1752, Kirkmichael, Perthshire [bride's given name written as 'Jannet' on marriage register record and on births of two last sons].  1 daur & 4 sons (dates of baptisms): Janet, 5 Dec 1756; Donald, 1 Nov 1759; William, 18 Feb 1762; Alexander, 16 May 1765; David, 16 Oct 1768.  This last born, David, is the only such named boy in Kirkmichael parish to be born around this period, making him the putative father of John Bruce (grandson of the present John Bruce), born 21 Feb 1805.  John Bruce was recorded as being 'in Pitcarmick' at the time of the birth of his last baptised child, David, in 1768.

The black cattle economy was important in Strathardle, lying on one of the main droving routes and with Kirkmichael itself being the location of a busy cattle market.  Effectively farmers supplemented a large part of the income they required in order to pay rent, after selling the oats and barley they cultivated on their ploughgate (or 'plough of land'), from money made from raising and selling cattle.  During the latter years of the 18th century, however, landowners began to populate the strath with sheep.  A new road was built to the east of the river Ardle, which cut farmsteads off from the former communications thoroughfare.  Although the farms continued to be occupied until well into the 19th century, the estate owners had taken them back into their own hands.  The strath rapidly became depopulated. 

The connection between the farms of Pitcarmick, Stronamuck and Dalvey and members of the Bruce family is recorded from at least the middle of the 17th century until the early 19th century, and probably dates back much longer.  The 1649 Rental of the County of Perth (Gloag, 1835; cited in Hooper, below) record one Alexander Bruce, paying £64 for his lands and Mylne of Pitcarmack, two separate mentions of a John Bruce, paying £66-13-04 for Wester Pitcarmick and John Bruce, yreof, £16-13-04 for Tomnamone, and James Robertson of Stronymuick and oyr lands, £110-00-00. 

Bruces are also cited in the Valued Rent Book of the Shyre of Perth 1705 (Exchequer records E106/26/1, cited in Hooper, 2002): John Bruce (possibly the father or grandfather of the present John Bruce) at Wester Pitcairmick £62-00-00; John Bruce, Easter Pitcairmick £25-13-04, for a part of Tellen's feu £3-00-00; John Bruce, Tomnamoon, with Ashintully's feu £24-06-08; John Bruce, at Pitcarmock miln with Telon's feu £84-00-00.

The Perthshire Valuation Rolls for 1771, in the Exchequer Records (E106/26/2), record the following farm rentals: Easter Pitkermock £26-13-04; Wester Pitkermock, with Tomnamoan £86-06-08; Pitkermock, Miln £84-00-00; Stronamuick £58-00-00. (Source: Janet Hooper, A Landscape with Meaning, PhD thesis, Archaeology, Glasgow University, 2002.)  

Married John Bruce, Kirkmichael parish, Perthshire, 22 Dec 1752.  1 daur and 4 sons.  Her given name was written as 'Jannet' on her marriage registration record and on the records of the baptisms of the last two of her five children to be baptised at Kirkmichael. Probably she would have gone by the Scots diminutive 'Jessie', although Gaelic was certainly her mother tongue. 

146. 

147. 

148. 

149.

Farmer, Logierait parish, Perthshire.

151. 

152. 

153. 

154.

155. 

156.

157. 

Tenant, subtenant or cottager in "Leisfolds" [post-enclosure, Leitchill farm, east of Easter Tarsappie and west of Grange of Elcho] at time of marriage, July 1745, with Isabel Norwel "in Stonebridge" (OPR 391/3 Rhynd).  Was "tenant in Craighead" in the parish of Rhynd, 1784, at time of marriage of daughter Helen Watson (OPR 387/20 Perth, marriage record for David Hall and Helen Watson, Jan 1784, p. 88).  No record of birth or death yet found.   Roy's military map here shows the whole of the area on the right bank of the Tay, from Perth east to Elcho and beyond, as a patchwork of unenclosed openfields in the late 1740s.

160.

161.

162. 

163.

Pendicler (smallholder), Kingdom (farm), Errol parish.  Son of James Melville, farmer and Kate Campsie, b. ?, m. Catharine Playfair 4 Aug 1781 Errol, 2 sons & 2 daurs.  By his younger son, James, Lawrence Melville is the great-grandfather of Lawrence Melville, solicitor and tenant farmer, author of two local histories of Errol and the Carse of Gowrie: Errol: Its Legends, Lands and People (Perth, 1935) and The Fair Land of Gowrie (1938).

Daughter of James Playfair and Helen Sim, b. 5 Mar 1749, Errol parish.  m. Lawrence Melville, 4 Aug 1781, Errol; 2 sons & 2 daurs.  Given name possibly Katherine or Janet. Great-grandmother of Lawrence Melville, solicitor and author, q.v. [entry 164].  There are records of Playfair tenants in this area of the Carse of Gowrie from at least the early part of the 18th C. and probably much longer before.

166. Thomas Shaw

167. Jean Hendry

168-191.  [to be completed]

192. Magnus Swanney. 

(Information supplied by Mrs Karen Wood, Berriedale Farm, South Ronaldsay, Orkney.)

193. Mary Martin. 

(Information supplied by Mrs Karen Wood, Berriedale Farm, South Ronaldsay, Orkney.)

194.-207.  [to be completed]

208. Alexander McDougall, Tiree

209. Katharine McLean, Tiree

210. Unknown

211. Unknown

212. Farquhar McKinnon, Tiree

213.

214. Malcolm Macarthur, Tiree

215.

216-225.  [to be completed]

226.  Farquhar McGillivray. 

The following is a largely conjectural genealogy of Farquhar McGillivray, Farmer, Daviot & Dunlichity parish, Inverness-shire, b. about 1745 or earlier; m. 1759 or earlier Marjory Fraser.  Supposed children identified are: 3 daughters, Henrietta, Janet and Catherine [Entry 113], & 1 son, William.  No information about where or when died or buried.  At the end of her life, Farquhar's daughter Henrietta McGillivray lived with her sister Catherine's and the latter's family at Croftcroy, Farr, Inverness-shire.  An obituary for Henriretta appeared in the Inverness Advertiser on 18 May 1866, p.2, col. f, reporting a purported age of 107 years at the time of her death on 10 May 1866, at Croftcroy.  However, her age reported in the 1851 Census was 70 or 80.  Probably it is the same Henrietta McGillivray who is mentioned in the will of Janet McGillivray, who married John Mackintosh, tenant in Balnacarnich of Easter Aberchalder (in Stratherrick).  This Janet made a last will and testament at Balnacarnich of Easter Aberchalder on 1 April 1807 in which she 'declares she cannot write', states that 'considering the marriage betwixt me and my said husband has subsisted for many years and we have no children of our marriage now in life', she left all her effects to her husband and after his death any remainder 'shall be be equally divided betwixt his relations or such persons as he shall direct and my brother William McGillivray in Brin and my sister Henrietta or their children' [but no mention of Catherine].

256. [first]

257.

228. James Melville, Errol

229. Katie Campsie, Errol?

330. James Playfair. m. Helen Sim, Errol, 19 August 1732. Lived in 'the Abbey' at Seaside.  d. about 1751.

331. Helen Sim.

511. [last]

512-1023.  No ancestors so far identified.