The Wighton family in Cargill goes back to 1664 when James Wighton married Janet Davidson. There are some hints that James may have had two brothers at that time. This suggests that there could have been at least one family in the town in 1600.

Starting with James, the records show a second generation of three Wightons marrying prior to 1700. That second generation produced a third generation of Wightons who, in turn, would marry between 1720 and 1740. At this point, the generations become fuzzy, but it's possible to discern some families that can be traced five generations backwards from 1750.

Population growth continued between 1750 and 1800. Some families were quite large - for example an Alexander Wighton had 11 children between 1765 and 1784. His wife's name was not mentioned in the records - she may have been too tired to speak. Between 1760-1770, there were five families (about 25 Wightons) living in Cargill. Between 1780-1807, there were four families (about 13 Wightons). Then, there were none. John Wighton and his wife Jean Wighton were the last family to have children in Cargill (Andrew, 1804, Lilly, 1807). Their son, Andrew, went on to become famous as the Andrew Wighton, music collector in Dundee.

You may have wondered about John Wighton's marriage to Jean Wighton. Since a Scottish woman's maiden name was traditionally entered in the marriage records, this suggests that Wighton was Jean Wighton's maiden name when she married John. There were two other marriage records of a Wighton marrying a Wighton: John Wighton and Elspeth Wighton, in Kirkmichael in 1748; George Wighton and Elisabeth Wighton in Dundee in 1798. This may have been a recording error, or simply a case of astute people knowing a good thing when they saw it.

Back to the Cargill Wightons.... Here's an interesting observation. The last generation of families present in Cargill consisted of three or four distinct families established after 1750. However, none of these families could be linked to a previous generation of Cargill Wightons. Previously, Cargill had had a history of Wightons living in the town for multiple generations. At this point in the 18th century, Cargill parish records were reasonably complete so if this last generation of Wightons had had links to previous Cargill Wightons, they would have been discernible. Why would the Wightons after 1750 not be descendents of the previous families?

So, we have a few mysteries. Why did Cargill have a Wighton presence when other agricultural communities were losing their Wightons? Why were the Wightons who lived in Cargill after 1750 from other towns? Why did the Wighton presence in Cargill end in the early 1800s?

If you have read the History of Cargill, you already know the answers. Although Cargill was a major population center for us in some of the years of the Industrial Revolution, it was not an Industrial Revolution town, such as Dundee or Glasgow. In fact, Cargill could be deemed to be a refuge from the changes facing Wighton families of that period. While landowners throughout the Lowlands were raising rents and driving off the small farmer, Cargill with its government managers was an exception that attracted small farmers, including the Wightons, to the area. This explains why the Wighton families in those years appeared to be newcomers to the area and not members of the established families in the village. However, when the annexed lands were returned to the original owners, and as the Industrial Revolution changed the face of Scotland, the Lowland Clearances came to Cargill and the parish's Wighton population was forced to leave. Cargill became our second largest center during the industrial revolution because the farm rents were held artificially low for several decades and because the Lowland Clearances were delayed during those decades. In time, however, the Wighton farmers in Cargill faced the same pressures as in other villages and they were forced to leave when their leases expired.

For those of you interested in any information about the Meigle Line of Wightons, I found no evidence to suggest that any Wightons from the Meigle line lived in Cargill. The towns were somewhat distant from each other.

Sources

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

Previous reading: The History of Cargill