You'll notice on some of my posts map references usually of the form AB12341234. These are Landranger Series Ordnance Survey references and are a handy way of finding a place on my preferred mapping site which is Streetmap. It has decent maps on all scales - ones that give useful information, unlike Google maps for the UK.
Once you've got a map on Streetmap there is a handy little link hidden away at the bottom of the page marked "Click here to convert coordinates" That gives a window with all sorts of co-ordinate schemes. The nearest postcode one is what to use if you want to use Google Maps.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Andrew Dempster 1706-17??
Transcript of Baptism of Andrew Dempster 1706
Old Parish Register Births: 188/0010 0016
Drumblade, Aberdeenshire
Old Parish Register Births: 188/0010 0016
Drumblade, Aberdeenshire
Septr 27 1706
John Demster in Newton had a Child baptized named Andrew witness
????es Shearer in Dunkewell and Alexr Murray in Newton
William Dempster 1705-17??
Transcript of Baptism of William Dempster 1705
Old Parish Register Births: 188/0010 0013
Drumblade, Aberdeenshire
Old Parish Register Births: 188/0010 0013
Drumblade, Aberdeenshire
March 19th 1705
John Dempster in Newton had a child baptized named
William witnesses Sir William Gordon of Lesmore younger
and William Morison in Newton
John Dempster fl1683-1708
The earliest ancestor whom anyone has found with a reasonable degree of certainty is John Dempster, who was presumably born in the 1650s or 1660s and who married Janet Gordon on 31st May 1683 in the parish of Rayne in Aberdeenshire.
John Dempster is considered to have had at least four children
Of course the major difficulty is in connecting the John Dempster at Rayne who was fathering children in the 1680s with the John Dempster at Drumblade who was doing the same in the early 1700s.
The baptisms of William and Andrew, whose descendants this account largely deals with are very likely those of brothers as their father (no mother listed in the baptismal register) is described on both occasions as John Dempster in Newton. The other child is descibed as the child of John Dempster in Chapelton.
Newton is now most probably the place called Newtongarry at Ordnance Survey map reference NJ57223939. Chapelton is still marked on the maps as such and is about two miles from Newton at NJ58503710.
There is a family tradition that our Dempsters are descended from the family that were the lairds of Muiresk and the rather grand witness list for William's baptism does suggest that at the time the family were doing reasonably well. William was a relatively unusual name in the family before that time and it may be that young William was named after the first witness in the list "Sir William Gordon of Lesmoir, younger". He would have been William Gordon (c1690-1725) the only son of Sir William Gordon of Lesmoir 5th Baronet and father of Sir William Gordon of Lesmoir 6th Baronet.
The Gordons of Lesmoir are an interesting family. They were one of the most important recusant families in the north east with a Gordon of Lesmoir of an earlier generation, (James Gordon SJ, 1553-1641) being Louis XIII's confessor, at the same time when the eldest son of the Gordon chief (the future 2nd Marquis of Huntly) was commander of Louis XIII's guard. When or if the Gordons ceased to be Catholic I don't know, but they were to be well known Jacobite sympathisers in the 18th century.
The Gordons were the major landowners in the parish of Drumblade at the time. In 1715 their property was considered to have a rental value of £1,200 Scots out of a total for the parish of £3,066:13:6. At the time a Scots Pound was worth 1/12th of a Pound Sterling.
John Dempster is considered to have had at least four children
- Robert Dempster, baptised 22 September 1689 at Rayne
- William Dempster, baptised 19 March 1705 at Drumblade
- Andrew Dempster, baptised 27 September 1706 at Drumblade
- James Dempster, baptised 5 May 1708 at Drumblade
Of course the major difficulty is in connecting the John Dempster at Rayne who was fathering children in the 1680s with the John Dempster at Drumblade who was doing the same in the early 1700s.
The baptisms of William and Andrew, whose descendants this account largely deals with are very likely those of brothers as their father (no mother listed in the baptismal register) is described on both occasions as John Dempster in Newton. The other child is descibed as the child of John Dempster in Chapelton.
Newton is now most probably the place called Newtongarry at Ordnance Survey map reference NJ57223939. Chapelton is still marked on the maps as such and is about two miles from Newton at NJ58503710.
There is a family tradition that our Dempsters are descended from the family that were the lairds of Muiresk and the rather grand witness list for William's baptism does suggest that at the time the family were doing reasonably well. William was a relatively unusual name in the family before that time and it may be that young William was named after the first witness in the list "Sir William Gordon of Lesmoir, younger". He would have been William Gordon (c1690-1725) the only son of Sir William Gordon of Lesmoir 5th Baronet and father of Sir William Gordon of Lesmoir 6th Baronet.
The Gordons of Lesmoir are an interesting family. They were one of the most important recusant families in the north east with a Gordon of Lesmoir of an earlier generation, (James Gordon SJ, 1553-1641) being Louis XIII's confessor, at the same time when the eldest son of the Gordon chief (the future 2nd Marquis of Huntly) was commander of Louis XIII's guard. When or if the Gordons ceased to be Catholic I don't know, but they were to be well known Jacobite sympathisers in the 18th century.
The Gordons were the major landowners in the parish of Drumblade at the time. In 1715 their property was considered to have a rental value of £1,200 Scots out of a total for the parish of £3,066:13:6. At the time a Scots Pound was worth 1/12th of a Pound Sterling.
The Dempster Family Archive Blog
Easter 2009 sees my foolhardy decision to launch a Dempster Family Archive Blog. The aim is to bring to a slightly wider audience the work that I've done on our family history.
This is a private blog so if you're seeing it now you've been invited (and have accepted). I've done it that way because I don't want everyone and their auntie to have access. I'd like to keep it to our group of cousins. That also has the advantage that I'll be able to make it multi-author in the long run - once I get the hang of this blogging thing and will therefore be able to let you all in as authors rather than just commentators.
We'll see how it goes.
This is a private blog so if you're seeing it now you've been invited (and have accepted). I've done it that way because I don't want everyone and their auntie to have access. I'd like to keep it to our group of cousins. That also has the advantage that I'll be able to make it multi-author in the long run - once I get the hang of this blogging thing and will therefore be able to let you all in as authors rather than just commentators.
We'll see how it goes.
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