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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Lanarkshire => Topic started by: nvb272 on Monday 30 March 20 18:26 BST (UK)
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Hi
I'm doing some research and found some one who was born 1873 it says parish of Shotts actual birth place- Fortissat, Hillhead.
I can find Fortissat but not Hillhead so assume it was maybe a house and not an actual village, Just trying to clarify what Hillhead is/was.
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Have a look at
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=55.83476&lon=-3.82994&layers=6&b=1
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ok, and clearly one was not looking too well!
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The old house of Fortissat still exists but the lairds thereof decamped to Hamilton having won a watch & exploited the minerals on the estate. They held onto Fortissat possibly used as a shooting-box? Maybe miners cottages.
Skoosh.
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In 1865 John Meek was the proprietor of Fortissat. The tenant of Mains of Fortissat was Robert Hamilton, and the tenant of Easter Fortissat was one of my Storrys, James Storry (1829-1883). The 1865 valuation roll also lists cothouses at Hillhead, Springbank and Fortesiet (sic) Colliery owned by James Meek, but does not name the tenants or occupiers. Nor does the 1875 VR.
William Waddell (1765-1843) and Agnes Thomson had at least two sons born at Mains of Fortissat, in 1792 and 1800. Their son John later farmed at East Redmire and then at Blackhall. John's grandson James Wilkie Weddell was a prominent architect. William was a son of James Waddell and Christian Bryce in Easter Baton, but I have not been able to work back any further than this James.
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These Meek's had Fortissat since the mid 1600's. They moved to Cadzow Bank, Hamilton where John Meek of Fortissat was the provost, dying there 1893, age 77. The family were Covenanters & the Shotts Parish flag, carried at Bothwell Brig, was found hidden in the loft of Fortissat in 1897, now in the Hamilton Museum. The ninth laird of Fortissat was John Croill Meek b.1872, who moved to Walkerburn, Peebles. One of that family, James Meek, was a Moderator of the Church of Scotland & George Meek of Campfield, surgeon, founded the Falkirk Bank.
James Meek the novelist from Dundee is off the Fortissat Meek's.
Skoosh.
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@nvb272, just heard from a buddy anent Scobbies who ran 3 pits on Fortissat estate, one living at Hillhead in the 1841 census, Wm Scobbie 70, a weaver, Marion Scobbie 75 & John Cooper 12. The census has Fortissat Mains, Fortissat, Hillhead & Fortissat House.
Hillhead was a row of four dwellings & was aptly renamed Shuttlehill sometime between 1841 & the 1890's. They were gone by the time of the Great War.
Skoosh.
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Apparently these four hand-loom weavers cottages were formerly thatched! ;D
Skoosh.
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No body mentioned how the place got its name, or the Fortissat Stane, where 40 sat. still there today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5RDWhuj1B0
From the signing of the National Covenant in 1638 to the Revolution in 1688, the struggle between Presbyterianism and the Episcopacy went on until it reached its height in the killing times - 1684-1685. Shotts and the adjoining parishes of Monkland and Cambusnethan were strong supporters of the Covenant, and many conventicles were held within their bounds. The principal place for field preachings in the parish of Shotts was on a large moss between Benhar and Starryshaw. It was here at a place once known as the "Deer Slunk" that Donald Cargill preached on the Sunday after Richard Cameron's death, 26 July 1681. John Kidd also preached here to a large, armed conventicle. Nearby is the large whinstone boulder which has been known since the time of the martyred Alexander Peden as ‘Peden’s Stane’.
There is a Covenanter's stone in the kirk yard to a certain William Smith, who fought at Rullion Green in the Pentlands in 1666. In 1678, the Duke of Monmouth, with an army of 10,000 men, camped for ten days at Muirhead, about three miles east of Kirk o’Shotts. They were on their way by the old bridle road, to Bothwell Bridge where they defeated the Covenanters. It is reckoned that 160 Shotts men took part in the battle; 13 were killed and 33 taken prisoner.
James.
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James, the Shotts parish flag carried at Bothwell Brig was found many years later hidden in the loft at Fortissat. Now in the Hamilton Museum?
Skoosh.
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Hullo - I just was pointed to this thread on shotts history facebook group, where I was asking about Shuttlehill cottages, also known as Fortissat Hill Head, located in the Hillhead Plantation marked in the old O.S. map.
William and Marion Scobbie lived there in 1841 (aged "70" and "75") and 1851 (in the latter they are recorded as unmarried siblings, and aged "88" & "95") were highly likely to be my relatives - Someone called John Scobbie was my 3x grandfather and he had a brother William, and they were all weavers. (It's possible they were first cousins or otherwise related, I suppose.) Assuming these were three siblings, their parents were Andrew Scobbie and Margaret Marshall, who I know to be the parents of John, my ancestor. The Scotlands Places namebook says the cottages were called 'shuttlehill' because it had been weavers who lived there. There was an Andrew Scobbie who had also been a weaver, and he died at Shuttlehill in 1828, so it all makes sense if that was the father and these were three siblings: Marion, William (5 years younger or so) and John, probably between them in age.
Marion died in 1851 in Shuttlehill (aged "87"). Someone called William who had been a weaver died in 1857 (aged "76") (and this William's parents' names were named as Andrew Scobbie and XXX Marshall). He died in Newhouse, but the death certificate says he was married, though no wife's name was given, and it also says that his son Andrew was present - this Andrew could not give his grandmother's first name, just the surname (Marshall) - so, some mismatches there (ages and marital statuses), hence this is not conclusive. I guess the William that lived with Marion at Shuttlehill in 1841 & 1851 was widowed, not unmarried. They also had a great-nephew John Cooper/Cowper living with them as a boy aged 12 in 1841 and a young man aged 21 in 1851 (coal miner). Perhaps I need to check who he is.
My 3x grandfather John Scobbie (circa 1779-1858) died in Newhouse, and he had a son called William, who was a farmer at Greenside Farm, Newhouse (which is still there). He also had a son called John and a son called George Hill (my 2x grandfather) and some other children. Of course it was his wife who did the hard work! She was Janet Robert/Rabbart.
Their son John was born 1802 and died 1875. This son died at Fortissat colliery - he was a coalmaster (along with his younger brother George Hill Scobbie, b. 1819, who also died in 1875). Together they leased some mining concessions at Fortissat / Shottsmyre / Threep Rigg, instead of farming and weaving. George Hill Scobbie's 21 year old son James Scobbie (my great grandfather) took on these businesses when his father and uncle died in 1875 - that's a whole other story.
Anyway, that's my interest in Shuttlehill - someone called James Dick has also got this genealogical line.
I've posted all this detail because I find it very confusing and I don't want to post something as conclusive online where there is in fact some assumptions in it. I hope I've corrected all the mistakes I made in drafting it.
In 1841, interestingly, a next door neighbour to William and Marion was a Marion Marshall aged 35, with three children aged under 10, surname Steele. She has no occupation. I wonder if she was a niece or great niece of Andrew Scobbie and Margaret Marshall.
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In 1841, interestingly, a next door neighbour to William and Marion was a Marion Marshall aged 35, with three children aged under 10, surname Steele. She has no occupation. I wonder if she was a niece or great niece of Andrew Scobbie and Margaret Marshall.
Not much in the way of help but worth considering...
(A) - It was quite common for widowed women to revert back to their maiden name i.e. she may have been Marshall but married to a Steele
(B) - It was common for illegitimate children to be brought up by their 'reputed' fathers' surname
Annie