There were only three male Wightons who appeared in the Meigle or Newtyle church records during the period that our ancestor John Wighton lived in the area. One was our John. The second was David and the third was James. This small number of males suggests that they came from a single father and mother. Had there been two different Wighton families in the Meigle/Newtyle area at beginning of the 1700s, one would expect there to have been more than three children. Also, the presumed birth years of the three men permit there to be one family as well. (With two families, it is possible for two children to be born in the same year.) However, none of this is conclusive proof.

David Wighton first appears in the records in Newtyle with the births of his three children. Like John, his own birth was unrecorded. Since David's marriage was not recorded either, we will have to estimate his birth year from the birth year of his first born (1729). Using the average of 27 years for a Wighton bachelor to get married, I'll suggest 1701 as the year that David was born and 1728 for the year he got married.

Although we do not know when David married, or the name of his wife, we do know that he lived in Henderston Farm east of Newtyle for at least a couple of years since at least two of David's three children were born there. Henderston Farm's location is shown by the yellow oval on the map below. Note how close that is to Meigle.

David probably had the following 3 children. We have to record this as an assumption since the records show no mention of a mother - not that it would have done any good since we don't know the name of David's wife. There were no other bachelor David Wightons in Meigle or Newtyle at the time, nor were there any such bachelors in other neighbouring parishes. Therefore, the odds are very high that these were his children

• John Wightone, b. August 25, 1729, Henderston Farm, Newtyle
  • It's probable that John married Ann Smith on March 25, 1758 in Meigle. Both were residents of Meigle parish at the time. We can only say that the John Wighton who married Ann Smith is probably David's son because there were no other appropriately aged John Wightons in the area. If David's son John did marry Ann Smith, he would have been 28 at the time which puts him very close to the average age of other Wighton bachelors getting married. I had no success finding children from this marriage.

• An unnamed male Wighton, b. January 19, 1732, Henderston Farm, Newtyle

• Elizabeth Wighton, b. December 12, 1735; bpt. December 29, 1735, Newtyle.
  • Elizabeth may have married a James Dow from Auchterarder in 1759. That would have put her age at 24 which is entirely reasonable. Auchterarder is about ten miles south-west of Perth which makes it a long hike from Newtyle. I found no children of this marriage. Or, Elizabeth may also (?) have married Thomas Anderson of Dundee in 1765. This couple had one child, Mary Anderson, in Dundee in 1766.

To give you a sense of what life as a Scottish farmer was like, here's the second installment on Agriculture in 18th Century Scotland: Part 2 - Farming Equipment

So, were John and David brothers? The ages are about right. The birthdates for David's children suggest that he was a little older than John, perhaps 7 years as I have speculated. Unlike the Meigle church, the Newtyle parish was recording births before 1700. The fact that David's name does not appear in those records supports the theory that David was born in Meigle to the same man and woman who were John's parents. Newtyle is very close to Meigle so David's appearance in their records in the 1730s is consistent was a man moving away from his family's homestead. If John and David weren't brothers, they were certainly cousins.

Sources

Family Search, The LDS Genealogical Website: (http://www.familysearch.org/)

ScotlandsPeople Database (http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/)

David and Mary (Wighton) Maxwell (Generation 9) provided the information on Henderston Farm and Elizabeth's baptism date.

Where to now? To read more about Generation 1 John's family, just click top to make a selection from Generation 2's genealogical table at the top of this page. Or, you might read The Origin(?) of the Meigle Wighton Line for some speculations on the town(s) where our line originated and speculations on John's and David's possible parents and grandparents. The navigation buttons just below will give you quick access to biographies in other generations.