View of Hutcheon Street, Aberdeen
Hutcheon Street Railway Station ticket office, now a private dwelling
| Amy Louisa Hutcheon's Great-Grandparents |
|
The Story of Four Families Amy Louisa Hutcheon Wighton was descended from four Scottish families. On the paternal side - the Hutcheon and Heckton families; and on the maternal side, the Burns and Blues families. Since these roots go back to the 18th century, we don't have a lot of information on the great-grandparents - but here's what we do know. The Hutcheon Family |
|
|
| View of Hutcheon Street, Aberdeen |
Hutcheon Street Railway Station ticket office, now a private dwelling |
|
AL(H)W's great-grandfather was George Hutcheon who was born in Aberdeen around 1778 or 1779. We have no information on George's wife. Margaret Herrald tells us that "The name of Hutcheon means Hugh’s Son, and it is affiliated with the Clan MacDonald, so I read in the Clan Book of Tartans. Hodgson and Hutchison and other variants were the same name originally." The Aberdeen Hutcheons "must have been people of position and affluence, for there is a street in Aberdeen named for that family, and a station on the North British Railway, named Hutcheon Street Station, just outside of the city a little – a train stop after leaving the Main Station in Aberdeen. My mother told me that on one of our trips north to Peterhead, by train." (Source: AL(H)W) (From the Internet, we learn that the railway station was closed in 1937.) We believe that the Hutcheon family in Aberdeen got its affluence from shipping. At some point, George Hutcheon left Aberdeen and relocated to Montrose. "George Hutcheon arrived at Montrose from Aberdeen with one large oak trunk or chest as it would now be called. No one knows what he had in his pocket book, no one, I suppose had the temerity to ask. In due time he married. His wife died leaving a daughter. He married a second time and had a son. His second wife had a little money of her own and her husband invested it in a sailing boat for coastal trade and the Baltic trade. He gradually built up quite a bit of money and bought always more boats and left all to his only son, having adequately settled his daughter, or daughters. I am not sure if there was one or two." (Source: AL(H)W) I was unable to find any reference to George's daughter(s) or to his son in the genealogical records. From Margaret Herrald, we did get 1802 as an approximate year of birth for George's son, William.
The Heckton Family According to ALWH, her other great grandfather (on the paternal side) was Harry Heckton who kept an inn situated in New Wynd - this was a street in Montrose. Harry appears in the birth and marriage records as Henry Heckton and he married Mary Simpson on November 22, 1795 in Montrose. Interestingly, only the records of their first born showed the mother's name as "Mary Simpson." The later children's mother was shown as Mary Smith. I found no records of a second marriage. The Heckton children were as follows:
The Burns Family On the maternal side, AL(H)W's great-grandfather was Thomas Burns. A passing written comment from Margaret Herrald that her grandmother had been sent off to stay with relatives in Hamilton, Lanark led to my discovery of the great-grandparents and a large contingent of grand-aunts and grand-uncles. Hamilton is about 12 miles south-east of Glasgow. In the 19th century, the town was associated with the textiles, mining, and engineering industries. Thomas Burns married Katharine Lowrie (also written as Laurie, Lawrie, Lourie) on June 4, 1775 in Hamilton. All of their other children were also born in Hamilton.
The Blues Family AL(H)W's other maternal great-grandfather was John Blues, a master seaman. The surname has also been spelt as Blews. We know that John Blues married a Margaret Strachan but not necessarily where or when. We do know that all of their children were born in Montrose.
Sources Margaret Serzans Letter from Margaret Herald to Harry Latta Wighton in 1953 Letters from Amy Louisa Hutcheon Wighton to John Latta Wighton and Ella Peterson around 1939 Various web sites, including: ScotlandsPeople Database (http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/) The Latter-Day Saints website: http://www.familysearch.org/ |