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to bottom of pageThe Burgar/Burgess families in Shetland
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Family Groups in the Communicants List of 1749.
The Communicants list is a list of persons attending the Parish Church of Dunrossness in 1749. This list was compiled by the minister, John Mill.
See Communicants List
5. Family Groupings
The Dunrossness Baptism Registers* start in 1753. This register gives the names of the children baptised and the parents of the child, as well as the place of birth. The Dunrossness Marriage Register records marriages in 1754 and 1755. Using these two Registers it has been possible to decide that certain people were probably married pre 1749. Usually, these couples would have children in 1753/4 and not many after these years. In these cases the couple are found to be next to each other in the Communicants List. Twelve such couples have been found so far.
Another series of couples, 12 in all, are found to have married in 1754/5 from the Marriage Register. Many of these are near each other in the Communicants List.
A few examples of family groupings have been deduced so far.
A Burgher family.
George Burgher (No. , of Clumlie, was recorded in the Presbytery Records of 1756 to be 76 years old and married. He was therefore born in 1680. The person below him in the Communicants List is Margaret Williamson and the person below her is Walter Burgher. It is assumed that Margaret Williamson is the wife of George, and Walter is their son. Walter Burgar marries in 1753 and later has a son called George and a daughter called Agnes. The only Burgher persons present in Clumlie other than George and Walter Burgher are Agnes Burgher, a widow, who remarries soon after 1749. This suggests that Agnes Burgher is a daughter of George and Margaret Williamson.
A Fea Family
Thomas Fea and Katherine Burgher and Clementina Fea are assumed to form a family. Clementina marries Andrew MacKenzie and has children recorded from 1760-1768 in Noss. The first child is called Thomas, possibly after her father.
Thomas Fea appears in Court in 1734 and was then aged 26 years, i.e. born in 1708.
A Mackenzie family
Robert MacKenzie (808), Ann Craigie(809), John Mackenzie(810), Andrew Mackenzie(811) and Robert Mackenzie(812) seem to form a family. After Andrew Mackenzie marries Clementina Fea they have children Thomas in 1760, John in 1763, Andrew in 1764 and Robert in 1768. These are the names of his Father-in-Law and his brothers. Brother John has children from 1760 to 1769 and Robert has children 1760-1767.
The MacKenzie family do not seem to have been present in Dunrossness in the 1716 Gifford Rentals. This may mean that they were Tenants of one of the Landlords or that they might be recently arrived in the area.
6. Deductions about the age of persons
Some of the persons in the List are getting married in 1754/5. This is about 5 years after the List was dawn up. The youngest age of marriage would be 16 years. Thus the persons in the List must be at least 11 years old. It seems likely that a Communicant would be a person who had been confirmed in the Church. At the moment it is not clear at which age confirmation took place, but for the purpose of the present analysis I am assuming that it is 14 years. Thus persons in the List are likely to have been born prior to 1735.
If a person is referred to as Senior or 'Eld' then it is likely that he/she will be at least 40 years old. This would mean that he/she would have been born pre 1710.
*In the Dunrossness Baptism Register there are an average of 14 births per year in the 1750s but 35 per year in the 1760s. It thus is likely that a majority of births were not entered into the Register during the 1750s.