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.

In looking for siblings for our John Wighton, James is an obvious candidate. James was wed to Margaret Forman on May 28, 1737. The Meigle parish records report that James was a resident of Meigle and Margaret a resident of Newtyle at the time of their marriage. The marriage was also recorded in Newtyle on May 27, 1737, one day earlier (James was listed as "Wightone"). The wedding could have been performed in either village.

I found no records of James' birth in either the Meigle or Newtyle parish records. Assuming that James was of average age for a bachelor when he got married (27 years old), that would put his birth year at 1710, two years after John's. However, this is only an approximation. Newtyle had a small colony of Wightons, but it's unlikely that James was born there since that parish began keeping records in 1685. This suggests that James was born in Meigle since the parish didn't start keeping records until 1727. Of course, he might have been born in some other nearby parish that wasn't keeping records early in the 1700s; however, I favour the theory that both John and James were born in Meigle.

James' wife, Margaret Forman, was born in Newtyle on August 28, 1705 making her potentially older than James. Her parents were David Forman and Margaret Shipherd (presumably Shepherd). I could find no further information on her parents. I did find, however, that Margaret had two brothers. Andrew was born in Newtyle on March 10, 1704 and James was born in Newtyle on November 25, 1709. I found no records of any other siblings born either in Newtyle or other parishes. However, there was an Isabel Forman who married in Newtyle in 1728. I could not find any record of an Isabel being born to a David Forman, but it's possible that Isabel was Margaret's sister. It's also possible that Isabel was a member of a second Forman family.

It's possible that Margaret Forman had been married prior to her marriage to James in 1737. In fact there are three recorded marriages of a Margaret Forman (or Foreman) in Newtyle.

1. Margaret FOREMAN married Andrew Kae in 1727. (If it was the same Margaret who married James, she would have been 22 at the time of this marriage. That's a little young. Also, her surname was recorded as FOREMAN while the Margaret who married James was FORMAN. This suggests that there might have been a second Foreman family in Newtyle.)
2. Margaret Forman married Thomas Cathrae in 1735.
3. Margaret Forman married James Wightone in 1737.

I could find no records of any children for either of the earlier marriages, leaving it possible that James Wightone's Margaret was a widow, possibly from her marriage to Thomas Cathrae of Fowlis Easter parish. No matter what Margaret Forman's status, she married James Wightone in 1737 and they had four children born in Newtyle.

• Barbara Wightone, b. April 7, 1738
• Patrick Wightone, b. June 18, 1739
• Thomas Wightone, b. March 22, 1741
• Euphan Wightone, b. April 12, 1743

After these births, the James Wighton/Wightone family disappeared from the records. I found only two remotely possible marriages for the first two children but the marriage dates were at the extreme edge of possibility. I found no possible marriages for the last two children. The children may all have died, or it's possible the family emigrated.

Like John and David, James was very likely an agricultural worker of some kind. Here's another installment on Agriculture in 18th Century Scotland: Part 3 - Transportation. (If you missed any of the previous instalments, you can find them in the Alphabetical Index of the Essays near the bottom of the menu column to the left.

So, were John and James brothers? The data suggest that they were. They appear to be very close to the same age and both were living in Meigle parish when they were married. It's also likely that both were born in Meigle parish since Newtyle records do not show their births. If they were indeed born in Meigle, they almost certainly were brothers. If there were two entirely different Wighton families living in Meigle in 1700, we likely would have seen more Wighton birth and marriages in Meigle than what we did.

There is one more piece of evidence supporting the theory that John and James were brothers. James named one of his children Barbara (b. 1738), a relatively rare name for the Wighton families in Perth and Angus at the time. William Wighton, John Wighton's son, named one of his daughters Barbara (b. 1776). This would not be worth noting if it were not for the relative rarity of that name. Naming a child after an aunt however would be quite usual. This suggests that the two lines from John and James were indeed linked.

Sources

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

LDS microfilm of Meigle's parish records

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

Where to now? To read more about Generation 1 John's immediate 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 James' possible parents and grandparents. The navigation buttons just below will give you quick access to biographies in other generations.