Hutchisons and Strathmartine

David Hutchison, my 6th Great Grandfather, married Ann Anderson on June 18, 1765 in Strathmartine, Forfar, Scotland. The marriage record states he is from Strathmartine parish, while his wife was from parish of Dundee, Forfar, Scotland. I was unable to find a record of birth or death for either David or Ann, as they were not require to register such information until 1855. As mentioned in the earlier posts, their son Thomas, my 5th Great Grandfather, was born in Murroes, and perhaps a daughter Janet, but by 1841, his son Thomas is back in Strathmartine, so I am not sure how long or why the Hutchsions were in Murroes, Forfar, Scotland. I did some earlier research into the histoy of Murroes, now I plan to look into Strathmartine.

I was able to find more records for David's son Thomas in Strathmartine. I know that he was living there in 1801, as his marriage record of July 28, 1801 to Catherine Sturrock in Strathmartine states they are both of that parish. Also, in the 1841 census, Thomas' occupation is an agricultural laborer in Strathmartine, and in 1851, he is a railway station keeper at Baldragon in Stathmartine. By the time his son William marries in 1857, Thomas' occupation is now a weaver, location not listed. However, from Thomas' death record of December 14, 1859, I do know he was buried in the Strathmartine churchyard. Thomas' wife, Catherine, died only two days later, Dec. 16, also buried in the churchyard. So it seems most of their lives were spent in Strathmartine.

There is a lot of historical information I can find that relate to Thomas' life. I first looked into the Google book online,The New Statistical Account of Scotland (pub. 1834-45), for the area of Strathmartine, which starts on p. 54. According to the book, the parishes of Mains and Strathmartine were combined in 1799, which is why they are most always listed together. There still remained two school masters for the two areas, and three burying grounds. So it looks as if Thomas and his wife Catherine are probably buried in the burial ground of where the old church stood in Strathmartine. This book also states that the church registers for Strathmartine only exist from 1783 on, as the school house had a fire in that year which destroyed the older records. Thomas was probably born around 1785, but his record of birth does not seem to be recorded.

The population for both parishes in 1801 was 1442, in 1831 it was 2011, with an average family size of 4-5 children. About 25% of the population in the combined parishes worked in agriculture, as Thomas did. The others were mostly tradesmen. According to the Statistical Account book, in the 1830s, there are 10 proprietors in these combined parishes, only 2 having mansion houses. I am not sure if this means that most of the agricultural workers are tenants to these land owners, but that is my guess. The close proximity of Dundee, in order that farmers may sell their grains and other food, has allowed these tenants to succeed, where other parts of Scotland have experienced decreased price and demand for such crops. This book also lists typical food that Thomas and his family probably consumed for this time period, which are fish, pork, sugar, tea. The main food for the poorer class for at least half the year are potatoes.

Also of note for this time period of the early 1800s, is the increase of Irish and Highlanders into the area, due to the potatoe famine and clearances of tenants from landowners. They seem mostly to have worked in the bleachfields and spinning mills, not very pleasant work. This probably would have been an interesting group to Thomas' family, as the book suggests "they are not of such habits as to improve public morals."

Something which would have been of great interest to the people of the area, including Thomas, was the new railroad from Dundee to Strathmore in 1825. Thomas would later work as a railway keeper, probably for Baldragon station, as that is the area they were living by the 1851 census.

Thomas' seven children, including my 4th great grandfather, Peter, would have gone to school at the expense of 14s to read and write. If they were also to learn math it would have cost L1, and to add Latin would be at an expense of L1 10s, according to this statistical book.

In the following book on Google, Angus or Forfarshire, the land and its people, descriptive and historical‎ by Alexander Johnston Warden - 1884 , there starts a description of Strathmartine on page 282.