Robert Easton, was he or wasn't he?.....

[ninatoo]

Hi all,

I guess I am writing in need of some confirmation, or some encouragement, or both. I have a bit of a puzzling paper trail that I hope you good people can help me sort out.

Robert Easton or Easdon was my gggg grandfather, born 1781 in Abbey, Paisley to John Easton/Easdon/Esdon and Mary Adam/s. in 1800 he married Agnes McCouit/McOuit and had five known children, the youngest being my ggg grandfather William Easton, born 1811.

So far so good!

Robert, a Chelsea Pensioner, died in 1862 in Low Chruch Paisley. I have the death registration and it has the correct parents. It is signed by Samuel Workman, son in law. But here is where it gets sticky! His wife is listed not as Agnes McCouit, but as Jane McGowan.

Well I thought he must have married again, so I searched and did find a marriage to Jane in 1848 on the IGI. I obtained Jane's death registration and it was also signed by Samuel Workman but father Robert is listed as a shawl weaver!

So the obvious thing was to obtain a record of Samuel's wife..it turned out to be a Jane Easton, and looking at the marriage registration AND her death registration it gives her mother as Elizabeth Muir!

WHO? I haven't been able to find anything out about her!



And to make it more confusing, apparently a Robert Easton and Elizabeth Muir had a number of children between 1821 and 1832 according to the IGI, repeating names already used by Robert and Agnes.

Now I am certain that my Robert Easton DID marry , or at least had children with Agnes McCouit. My ggg grandfather's death registration lists them as his parents, and there are four entries for this couple's children in the OPR's at SP.

My thinking about the whole scenario is this:

Robert married Agnes McCouit and had five or so children before she died (before 1821). He then married Elizabeth Muir and had some more children before she died (before 1848). So then he married Jane McGowan to see him out...

The trouble is that I can't find him with any certainty in the censuses! And since the marriages and deaths of his first two wives (if they were indeed HIS wives) are before 1855 it is really hard to get concrete leads!

Looking back at this post it seems obvious that the Robert Easdon who married Agnes McCouit and Jane McGowan are the same, and that since Samuel Workman was his son in law AND his wife Jane Easton's mother was Elizabeth Muir on both her marriage and death registrations, it seems to follow that Robert also married her, doesn't it? And the concrete proof would have been if Samuel Workman had listed the other wives on the death registration of Robert, but he didn't.

So, thoughts anyone? What would you think if this was your paper trail???



Nina

[Russell]

Hi Nina

It seems perfectly reasonable to me that a man with young family would marry fairly quickly after his first wife's death to have someone at home to look after the children. There were so many early deaths, especially in urban areas, and with no family support the only other option was to put the children into care. In other words the Poorhouse.
We have a David Watson in Kilrenny who married Helen Keay in 1748 and had 4 children. When she died around 1756 he married Agnes Watt and had another 4 children. She died in 1764 so he married Elizabeth Mitchell in 1765 and had another 2 children. His eldest child would only have been only 20 when the last one was born and quite a few would still have been at home.
It took us quite some time to untangle that one but gathering in all available facts about the children and using OPR entries we eventually got it sorted out.
Abbey, Paisley seems a problem at first but addresses from the census may cast some light on where they were. An example of that is -one of ours was in Abbey and the address was Ferguslie. They then moved to Wellmeadow which was Low Church, Paisley but is actually only a mile in toward the centre of town.
If you can find where they lived there are several knowledgable folk for the area who can keep you right.

Robert could have been both Chelsea Pensioner and shawl weaver.
Most Paisley men were shawl weavers or cotton hand loom weavers around that time (i.e. before the process was mechanised and the men became redundant!) If he had signed on in a Militia for a campaign he could have returned to his old trade afterwards.

The best of luck with this one

Russell

[ninatoo]

Thanks for the reply Russell,

I have managed to find Robert on the 1841 census with his wife Elizabeth and their children. His occupation is given as Cotton Hand Loom Weaver (Pen), which I assume is short for pensioner...so it looks like he was indeed both a pensioner and in the weaving trade. So do I start jumping up and down with glee yet???

In 1851 I think I found him, and this time he is a Chelsea Pensioner (Labourer).

I can't find him in the 1861 in Renfrewshire however. He died in 1862, so he should be there...but he is missing! He would have been quite an age by then, as his death registration gives his age as 88, but I have his birth year as 1781.

Nina