William Wighton and Margaret Finlay's first child was baptized on November 16th, 1762 in Potento, Meigle. Presumably, the boy was named Patrick after his grandfather on his mother's side.

Patrick Weighton married Elspet Waddel in Meigle on August 13, 1796 at 34 years of age. Elspet was not born in Meigle, and it was impossible to determine where else she might have been born since there were far too many Elspet Waddells in the records to pursue that line of inquiry. In addition to Elspet, three other Waddells were married in Meigle (Mary, 1790; James, 1793; and Alexander, 1796) around the same time; however, I could not find one Waddell family with all four of those names. Thus, all we can say is that Elspeth may have been a sister to the three other Waddells who married in Meigle. However, we don't know that for sure. At the time of the marriage, both Patrick and Elspet were residents of Meigle parish. (Source: LDS Microfilm of Meigle parish records.)

As the eldest of nine children, I would have expected Patrick to remain in Meigle and take over the farming of Potento after his father William died. However, I found no record of this happening. That may have been because William was no longer farming - you may recall that he became a corn dealer at some point and we weren't sure if he was doing that in addition to his farming. For whatever reason, I found no evidence of Patrick remaining in Meigle - for example, there were no records in Meigle parish of any children born to Patrick. In fact, there were no records of any children born anywhere in Scotland to a Patrick Wighton (in any surname variant) during this time frame. The name Patrick was not a common forename for Wightons and I found no children that could have remotely been his, even assuming a second marriage for him.

It's possible that Patrick died shortly after his marriage but we have no evidence of that. (The LDS microfilm did not have a copy of Meigle's kirk sessions minutes for that period.) I searched to see if Elspet might have remarried but there were too many Elspet Waddell marriages and no way to determine if hers was one of them. She didn't remarry in Meigle.

It's very possible that Patrick and his wife became the victim of the Lowland Clearances. When I was reviewing the LDS microfilm of Meigle's parish records, I noticed that Meigle had far fewer births at the end of the 18th century than it did in mid century. Marriages were similarly reduced. The population of Meigle and the surrounding area had clearly dropped by the time Patrick and Elspet got married - undoubtedly because of the clearances. Thus, Patrick may have been forced to search for employment as a farm labourer somewhere in the area, or he may have moved to a nearby city and found work there. Perhaps they had children but didn't register their births?

Alternatively, Patrick and his wife may have emigrated. That would explain why there were no records of any births in Scotland. I did a worldwide search through the LDS site for any children born to Patrick and Elspet but found nothing. I prefer to think of them as emigrating to North America or Australia. That way, there's a chance that one of Patrick's descendents will be looking for information about his ancestors and will find this web site. Patrick did not appear in the 1841 census - he would have been 79 at the time. Nor did I find him in the post 1855 death certificates when he would have been 93 or over.

Sources

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

LDS Microfilm of Meigle parish records

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

Scots Ancestry Research Society (March 26, 1971). Report to John L. Wighton

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