A Gentleman's Son or a Servant

[Pandabean]

Well I have finally decided to work on the Boyd Family line who originated from Galston/Ayr in Ayrshire. After finding the death of an ancestor whose parents were not known on his death cert I took an educated guess and tried to find a birth for him and I think I have. A few things pointed me this way, William's grand-daughter's middle name is Manson and I cannot see any other reference in that family for Manson, so perhaps the middle name came from her Gran? The ages and place of birth for William in the 4 Census Records I have seem to be pretty consistant, as I am sure many of you have found ages can vary wildly in the records. So the ages firmly planted him being born 1799 give or take a year and he was born in Ayr.

So on I went and found William Boyd born 1799 in Ayr, Ayrshire to William Boyd and Janet Manson. So in the attached certificate.....aww I just realised I cant use the gallery Anyways the father of William is William and on the certificate it gives his occupation as Gentleman's Son or Servt, but I am not sure which. The main word looks like son, but at the end there is a post-script t which may make it servt.

Let me know what you think of the image linked below and I shall pay you money if you say and agree it is son ....just kidding its most like Servant.

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r290 ... d-crop.jpg

Regards,
Andy

[SarahND]

Sorry, Andy... It looks distinctly like servt to me He was the nat(ural) son, so assume they were not married.

All the best,
Sarah

[Pandabean]

Awww and here was me hoping that I found something we all jump over the moon at if we find in our tree. Ach well back to hunting then. The interesting thing is that there is a history of Boyds in Ayrshire and there has been some work done on them going back to lords etc. So I guess I got carried away

The interesting thing is William (b. 1799) named one of his sons Gilbert Findlay which I thought was a bit weird and wonder where they plucked that one from. Gilbert went on to become a Spirit Merchant and seemed to be quite wealthy by his death, I found his will and he left behind about £200, which I imagine would be quite a bit of money. Not as much as the previous person on the other page who left a whoping £3600.

So what would a Gentleman's servant have done? I have seen other servants mentioned but none were reffered to as a Gentleman's one. Would there be a way to see who he would have worked for.

[Russell]

Hi Andy

My best guess is that 'Gentleman's servant' would equate these days with the services a valet would offer.
Setting out his best gear for going riding, A different set of clothes for when he was visiting someone in his carriage, putting his stone 'pig' hot water bottle into his bed, laying out his night attire, pouring a snifter of his favourite brandy or making up a hot toddy; all that type of personal service.
My approach to locating likely Gentlemen would be to start with the first Statistical Account for the parish and see how many heritors are named then work through a map of the area from early 1800's and list the 'Big Hooses' on it and see which were still around in the New Statistical Account. If she was in Galston his employer couldn't have lived far from there so that limits the search a bit.
Ayr Library may have some records which would help in the search too. Heritors provided the main income stream for the local church so they would also be part of the Kirk Session which would mean accessing the Kirk Session notes (probably with NAS) to look for possible candidates.

It's quite a task but not insurmountable.

Russell

P.S. The birth would almost certainly be mentioned in the Session records since he appears to have accepted responsibility. Whether he was just a nice guy or had his arm twisted by the Session would be of interest too.

[Pandabean]

Thanks Russel that has definately given me some things to think about. I never thought about the session records what likely information is given in them? Its just that I have another church session record I want to look up for a marriage where the people were originally rebuked.

I guess I will add it to the list of things to do at NAS.... so far the list is up to two people . Might be a while before I get down there.

[Tracey]

The title of this has reminded me of a poem written by a footman i think in the 1700's

"The life of a gentleman’s servant is something like that of a bird shut up in a cage…
I would rather be like a sparrow or a lark, have less housing and feeding and rather
more liberty. A servant is shut up like a bird in a cage, deprived of the benefit of the
air to the very great injury of the constitution."

One of those i will always remember