Elizabeth Taylor's third birth was special: twins! Elspet and William were born/baptized on December 23, 1794 in Newtyle. (Note: it was not uncommon for Scottish parents to baptise more than one child at the same time. The presence of two sets of twins in the family (Betty and Robert too in 1800) suggests that Thomas and Elizabeth may have adopted that practice.) This biography focuses on Elspet.

There were 5 marriages in Scotland between an Elisabeth, Elizabeth, or Elspet Wighton between 1812 and 1828. Only one was a possibility for our Elspet - a marriage between Elisabeth Wighton and Alexander Young in 1825 in Coupar Angus. Elisabeth would have been 31 at the time which I think is a little old for that period. I researched Elisabeth Young's family as far as I could - finding in the process the births of her four children. However, these data did not tie Elisabeth Young to Elsept Wighton, born in Newtyle. To make that link, I needed to find an entry in the 1861 census (which showed the birth locations) or a death certificate (which showed parentage). There were far too many Elizabeth Youngs in Scotland in 1861 to pursue the census leads. Furthermore, there was no Elisabeth Young death certificate.

In checking the possibility that Elspet was unmarried, I looked for an El* Wighton in the 1841 census. Unfortunately, this kind of search picks up the situations where a woman outside of our family (for example, named Elizabeth Smith) marries a Wighton male. Due to the popularity of Wighton males on the marriage marketplace, it can make for a lot of fruitless searching when you're looking for a Wighton female.

In the absence of confirming data, I am unable to say with any conviction that Elspet Wighton lived past her childhood. The fact that Thomas Wighton and Elizabeth Taylor decided to name their sixth child Betty, a derivative form of Elizabeth, is a mild hint that Elspet may not have lived for very long.

For the teachers in the audience, or if you happen to be reading this biography on February 2nd, here's a description of the Scottish Candlemas tradition.

Sources

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

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

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