The Burgar/Burgess families in Shetland

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Summary of the Burgar head of family in 1720 living in Dunrossness.

Four Burgar males appear in the Bruce Muniments ⁴. for rentals in Hillwell in 1712-1717.  Two additional males appear in the Gifford Rentals ⁵ which cover the whole of Dunrossness in the same time period. Thus there are 6 families recorded in about 1716.

See Summary of Part 1 of the Bruce Muniments

See Summary of Part 2 of the Bruce Muniments

See Summary of Gifford Rentals

The six people recorded in the above documents are:

Note that there is no distinction between Hillwell, Brake of Hillwell, Lud and Gord, so it is not exactly clear where in the Hillwell area the first 4 Burgar in the List above are living

See family tree for Burgar derived from records that existed pre-1720

John, Robert and Laurance are the persons that were recorded in the Baillie Court records of 1694 and 1700 and are the son's of George Burger and Jeanet Williamson. George Burger (born about 1630) is not in the rentals and so presumably died pre-1712.

The George Burger above is recorded as being 76 years old when the Quendale estate was sold in 1756. ³⁶  He was thus born in about 1680.   Since he is named George,  we feel that he is the son of George (born about 1630). He was also married to Margaret Williamson, possibly a cousin on his mothers side.  Marrying cousins was quite common at this time. 

In the Gifford Rentals there are 6 Williamson males in the document.  Four of them are in Hillwell, Gord or Garth, all of which are well south of Clumlie.  A further Williamson is much further north than Clumlie.  The sixth Williamson is in a place, Flatherbastr?,  that I have not been able to trace.  Since Burgar and Williamson are surnames that are not found around around Clumlie it is possible that George Burgar and Margaret Williamson were married near Hillwell and then moved north to Clumlie.  All of this hints at George (b. 1680) being the son of George Burger (b. about 1630).

Malcolm Burgar occurs in various records.  He may be the son of George Burger (born 1630) (in which case he would be born about 1675) or it is possible he could be the son of Laurence (or Robert) in which case he would have been born around 1690.

It must be emphasized that the above birth dates are only approximate and are unlikely to be known with any certainty. They are merely to indicate the age range of the siblings with Laurence and Robert being the eldest, John and Jean being intermediate and, maybe, George being the youngest.

A John Burger appears in a Court Case in 1720.

See details of this Court Case 1720

This John Burger appears to be an agent for Robert Sinclair, the Laird.  The Laird is accused of forcible entry to a cousin's house and making off with most of her possessions.  The John Burger seems to be held in high regard by Robert Sinclair, since he is handed £66.

There are two John Burgar in Hillwell at this time. There is John senior (born about 1770) and John (born about 1690), the son of Robert. The first would be 45 years old at the time, the younger one would be about 25 years old.  It is more likely that it is the elder John Burger who is involved in this case.

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