Help reading Sophia Chalmers birth cert.

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 12:11 am

I just posted a baptism certificate for Sophia Chalmers to the gallery. Can anyone read the word after James Chalmers? It looks like Hattie to me but I never was able to find a place in Newhills with that name.

http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... ?pos=-1427

Carol

Gallery URL added - AndrewP

Post by **AndrewP** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 12:51 am

Hi Carol,

As much as it appears to say Hattie, I can see no such place in Newhills. The nearest is Wester Hatton. Could Hattie be Hatton?

All the best,

AndrewP

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 12:57 am

Hi Carol

I wonder if it is Slattie ? There isn't another Capital S to compare it with but it doesn't look quite the same as the Hazlehead just above it. The angle of the upstroke looks subtly different and the MOIR birth just below it looks more like a modern 'S'.

Russell

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 1:08 am

Hi Carol

Found it

It must be a farm Mains of Sclattie

Go to http://www.old-maps.co.uk/indexmappage2.aspx

Co-ordinates 389300809600 should bring it up.

There should be a 'I'm keeping my fingers crossed' Smiley.

Russell

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 1:41 am

Thanks for the URL Andrew!

I think Russell is probably correct that it starts with an S, but whether it's Slattie or Sclattie I can say. I don't have anything to reference either one by unless I can find the place on a more modern map. Somewhere I had a map that had places like Maidencraig and Kingswells on it. It was an older map--1900--maybe, but it seems to have disappeared from my lists!

I'll keep looking. Thanks to you too, Russell!

Carol

I need a Smiley with two arms and hands sticking out of a pile of papers and folders, flailing wildly!

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 1:52 am

Hi Carol

The map I tried to direct you to on old-maps.co.uk was for 1869.
I'm sure now that SCLATTIE was the name.
Key in Newhills then the numbers.
There is a farm - Mains of Sclattie
Sclattie Quarry and Stoney of Sclattie just to the north of the co-ordinates I gave you (389300 809600)
I'm sure the name wouldn't have changed that much in the sixty or so years from Sophia's birth.

Russell

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 2:59 am

Hi Russell,

I found it on your map but was having trouble zooming in enough to read the placenames around Sclattie. This looks like it might have been a mill town-as in grinding grain type mill. James Chalmers was listed as a farm overseer on Sophia's death cert. and also on son George's marriage cert. if I remember correctly.

Carol

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 11:57 am

Hi Carol

If you move the map area to the left a couple of clicks then up one click Mains of Sclattie shows as a typical large farm steading. A black block of building with a semi-enclosed court yard. The title itself 'Mains of....' holds the clue to a farm owned by a gentleman who could afford to build solid, large stone buildings and to hire in a manager to run it for him.

The same farm owner probably owned the Sclattie Mill off to the East of the farm and tenant fartmers on his land were probably obliged to have their grain milled at this mill. That way the landlord could ensure that he got his share of the crop (part of the rent they paid)
The clue to the nature of the parish is in the OPR record. All the entries give a specific place where the father was located (Not always where the child was born). These names are the farms or steadings in the area many of which are no longer in existence as farm fields were enlarged over the years. For some, the only trace left of their ever having been there is a name of a burn or coppice of trees.
I find it intriguing to locate a church sitting on its own - no town or village nearby yet it is the focal point of a parish. Folks obviously walked or , rode a horse(& cart !) to get to Sunday worship and must have trailed in from miles around.
We hardly walk thirty yards these days yet they would walk thrity miles to reach the farmer who had fee'd them for the next six months or a year.
Carrying their worldy goods too.

Russell

Archiver · Post by **Archiver** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 3:26 pm

Definitely Slattie. The name survives today as Sclattie in various street names in the area. It's pronounced Slaytay or Slat-tay - not sure where the letter 'c' comes into it, as it's a silent letter.

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 10:13 pm

Russell,

I've run into those farm settlements a few times especially up in Banffshire. The churches and maybe a school of some kind if the landowner supports it with land and money just sit out in the middle of somewhere with no town around them yet if you read the statistics on them, they served large populations of people from the surrounding areas. And if the landowner encouraged it, then a town would develope. Usually that meant building a road too which was a double edged sword, easier to move goods to market, harder to bring your workers back home once they were out in the world!

Archiver: Thanks for the input on Sclattie/Slattie. I have one more clue to add to my file on the Chalmers.

Carol