The Scrymgeour Family

¹ Peter Scrimger of ‘Hellhole’
- had a son named James
- baptised on 7 Jul 1765 in the church at Caputh, Perthshire, Scotland.

The only reference to a place called ‘Hellhole’ I can find is this “in Perthshire the A984 road from Meikleour to Coupar Angus at Halhole” but there is nothing on a map that I can find. Somewhere along the A984 on this map.

² James Scrimger of Perth
- married Anne Bisset on 23 Jan 1807 also at Caputh.

                                

                        Meikleour

 

                                                               

James was in the Perthshire Militia, he & Anne were living at Meikleour when their children were baptised at Caputh, they are:-

- Margaret born 21 Oct 1807 bap 3 Nov 1807

- Peter born 22 Dec 1812 (possibly bap 24 Jul 1813 Brabourne, Kent) Note how the entry seems to be squeezed in between two other entries as if it had been added much later, it also doesn’t mention that Peter was baptised, although seeing the entry was in the church register one would presume that is the reason it was there. There seems to be some contention about Peter’s baptism, it seems he might have been baptised in Brabourne, Kent. As the branch of my tree goes through his brother John Bisset I will leave Peter to the experts!

- Janet born 26 Mar 1817 bap 2 Apr 1817
- Anne born 25 Jan 1819 bap 31 Jan 1819
- John Bisset born 10 Aug 1821 bap 13 Aug 1821

In 1841 I found wife Anne & daughter Janet still living in Meikleour, James had probably died by then. No sign of Ann or Janet in the 1851 census.By this time I had run out of credits with Scotlands People so the transcribed records on ancestry.com is what we have now. Here is John listed as a ‘painter journeyman’ living in Edinburgh in the 1841 census. Note that he is living at the same address that was given on his marriage to Elizabeth Hislop. I make note of this because his middle name is not listed on the marriage entry, nor indeed on most of the documentation I’ve found except for his baptism and his headstone!

Source: Parish: Edinburgh St Cuthberts; ED: 18A; Page:  4; Line: 590; Year: 1841.
Name: John Scrimgeour
Age: 15
Where born: Scotland
Civil parish: Edinburgh St Cuthberts
County: Midlothian
Address: Brunswick Street 20
Occupation: Painter Journeyman
Parish Number: 685/2

³ John Bisset Scrymgeour
- married Elizabeth Hislop on 13 Sep 1845 at St Cuthbert's Church in Edinburgh.

John Bisset & Elizabeth's children were born in Scotland except for their youngest two daughters, they are:-

- James Leibeg born 12 May 1846 bap 1 Jun 1846 at Blairgowrie, Perthshire

- Peter born abt 1847 Blairgowrie    ) _{possibly twins}
- William born abt 1847 Blairgowrie )
- John born abt May 1850 Blairgowrie
- Robert born abt 1853 Blairgowrie or Edinburgh
- David born 18 Mar 1856 Edinburgh
- Margaret (Maggie) born 15 Oct 1858 Edinburgh
- Janet (Jessie) born 1861 Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand
- Annie born 1862 Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand
(Elizabeth's death certificate says she had 4 male & 4 female issue living at the time of her death - see further for more children with her second husband).

Here we have a badly transcribed 1851 census giving mostly only initials instead of given names, you can work out which children they are from the above dates although the initials don’t quite match up and the youngest one is listed as a female! The only girl in the family (before they left Scotland) wasn’t born until 1858.

Source Citation: Parish: Blairgowrie; ED: 4; Page:  1; Line: 4; Roll: 374; Year: 1851.
Civil parish: Blairgowrie
County: Perthshire
Address: Browns Place
Occupation: Room Painter
Household Members: Name & Age
John Scnymgeour 30 born Caputh, Perthshire
El Scnymgeour 26 born Aberdeenshire
J Scnymgeour 4 born Blairgowrie
W Scnymgeour 3 born Blairgowrie
SC Scnymgeour 3 born Blairgowrie
J Scnymgeour 10 mths born Blairgowrie

 

On the 25th Aug 1860 they arrived at Port Chalmers on board the vessel ‘Pladda’ from Glasgow. The passenger list consisted of 371 people, all from Scotland:-

Scrymgeour John, wife, 6 sons and 1 daughter.

 

Not quite four years after arriving in NZ John passed away from pneumonia on the 5 Mar 1864 in Dunedin where he is buried in the Southern Cemetery.

Two years later Elizabeth married John Gilfillan Reid in the Dunedin Registry Office on the 1 August 1866, he was a bachelor aged 42 and she a widow aged 40. The witnesses were Alex, a bootmaker of Dunedin, & his wife Agnes F Coutts.

John & Elizabeth’s children were all born in Dunedin, they are:-

Johanna Gilfillan Reid born 21 May 1867 died 2 Sep 1947
Alfred Graham Reid born 1868 died 1951
Louis Lorne Reid born 27 Sep 1870 died 27 Sep 1945

On Christmas Day of 1871 there was a terrible boating tragedy on the waters of Macandrew Bay in Dunedin and Elizabeth lost three of her sons in one fell swoop.  William & Peter aged 24 and John aged 22.

⁴ James Leibeg Scrymgeour died on 20 Mar 1893 in Dunedin, no marriage found.

⁴ Robert Scrymgeour died in 1943 aged 89, no marriage found.
⁴ David Scrymgeour m Sarah Amelia Kincaid on 21 Jul 1881, he died on 26 Apr 1924.
⁴ Margaret Scrymgeour married James Smith Millar on 1 Jul 1880, she died in 1927.
⁴ Janet Scrymgeour married Robert Kennedy on 18 Apr 1878, she died 1 Jun 1901.
⁴ Annie Scrymgeour married Robert Gray on 13 Oct 1883, no death determined.

David & Sarah’s children are:-

⁵ Robert John Somerville Scrymgeour 29 Apr 1883 - 3 Jun 1975
⁵ William Kincaid Scrymgeour 1885 - 1963
⁵ Amelia Elizabeth Scrymgeour 1887 - 12 Oct 1969
⁵ David Neil McCulloch Scrymgeour 1893 - 29 Mar 1937

John Gilfillan Reid passed away on 10 Nov 1879 & is buried in the same plot as five of his step-sons. Block 28 Plot 2 Southern Cemetery, Dunedin. Elizabeth in her later years must have gone to live with her son, Robert, &/or daughter, Johanna, in Dannevirke, she passed away at the relatively young age of 73, on the 9 Mar 1899, after a most eventful life and is buried there in the Settlers Cemetery in George St.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That’s where my research on this Scrymgeour line finishes. I’m very careful with my research and try to prove most of it as I go along but sometimes it’s impossible and you just have to take an educated guess at it! If you see anything on this blog you don’t agree with or if you can add anything I’d be very pleased to hear from you. Please don’t forget to include your email address if you leave a comment.

Dawn Scotting