Barbara Wighton was baptized on March 26, 1776 in Meigle. As with her parents' other children, she was born in Potento.

It's impossible to know if Barbara lived past her infancy and married. There were no Barbara Wighton marriages in Meigle, but it's possible that she married elsewhere. I found one such possible marriage (below).

• A Barbara Wighton married Patrick Hunter in Tealing in 1794. Tealing is two parishes north of Dundee which makes it relatively close to Meigle. There were no children recorded to this marriage so we can't confirm lineage through a grandchild's middle name.

Barbara was a relatively uncommon name in this period - at least for the Wighton families. I found two other Barbara Wightons in the birth records in this period. A Barbara Weighton born in 1774 in Kinnettles. The parish of Kinnettles is just south of Glamis. There was also a Barbara Wighton born in Liff & Benvie (next to Dundee) in 1760. All three locations (Meigle, Kinnettles, Liff & Benvie) are close enough to Tealing to be feasible.

The ages of the potential brides are not good fits to the 1794 marriage. The Meigle Barbara would have been 18 while the Kinnettles Barbara would have been 20. Marriage at 18 or 20 was not unheard of, but their ages do seem a little young. The Liff & Benvie Barbara would have been 34 if she married Patrick Hunter in 1794. This also seems unlikely unless it was a second marriage for her. Or, Patrick could have married an entirely different Barbara. I'd rate the Meigle Barbara a poor fit for the marriage due to her very young age.

Barbara did not appear in the 1841 census - she would have been 65 at the time. Nor did I find her in the post 1855 death certificates when she would have been 79 or over.

The relative rarity of the name Barbara raises an interesting question. Was she named after an aunt? I'll show the potential relationship in the following table.

All of the people in the above chart were born in Meigle or Newtyle. I was unable to find any information on the Barbara born in 1738 other than her birth. She may have been living when the second Barbara was born in 1776, or she may have been long dead. The fact that there were two Barbara Wightons within two generations of the Meigle Wightons, and the relative rarity of that name does lend some support to the theory that John Wighton (b.1709) and James Wighton (b.1710) were brothers.

For more information about Scotland during this period, you may wish to read about Education in 18th Century Scotland.

Sources

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

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

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