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Hi Annie,

My post wasn't really a query.

Isabella Johnston (daughter of Andrew Johnston and Euphame Clephane) married James Forrester.

Their daughter Mary Forrester was the second wife of Rev Brown.  Their daughter Helen Brown married George Fortune.

I wasn't sure the Fortune descendants had this information about this maternal side of the family.

Hurworth- yes thanks, that information is recorded and Forrester has remained a family name, borne by both my father and his cousin.

You asked if Rev. Brown's daughter "married a Rankin." It was John Fortune, tenant of Caiplie and Pilmuir, who  married Christian Ranken, the eldest daughter of Isobel (Fowler), widow of William Ranken, tenant of Barnsmuir.  Captain Ranken and John Fortune wereneighbours and founder members of the Crail Golfing Society.

John Fortune took over the tenancy of Barnsmuir, which passed to his son George Fortune, (husband to Helen Brown) and it remained in the family till  the 1890s. William Ranken’s only son William Erskine (‘Willy’) died at sea aged 14 on service with the Royal Navy  in 1803, So, sadly, no-one’s daughter married a Ranken of that ilk.

The clarification regarding New  Saughton and Old Saughton is very helpful. There seems to be some confusion however over the name "Saughton Hall. " Just to clarify further- or muddy the water more-  the name of Saughtonhall- owned by the Bairds in the C18th, is a tidying up of 'Saughton haugh" HAUGH being  an area of meadow land by the river and SAUGHTON originally being a settlement identified by the willows or SAUGHS along the watermargin.   It has nothing to do with the word HALL

However, when an estate house was built at Saughtonhaugh (St Cuthberts) in 1623 it began the gentrification process  by which HAUGH was transformed  into HALL. To add to the confusion, by the C19th it was also being referred to as "the old mansion of Saughton."

It may be that houses  at either New Saughton and Old Saughton are referred to as "Saughton Hall" in the records but the word HALL tends not to be used to identify an estate house in Scotland much before the C19th with influence from the south. Often abbreviated to HA', it refers more commonly to the principal tenant's dwelling on an agricultural holding- 'HALL of such-and-such'. These on occasion could be occupied and expanded by landed proprietors so that 'HALL of Auchencairn" , for example,  might become the name of an estate house by default.

From all this much confusion arises!
 

 Lizzie, thanks for filling in the details

From a quick look, I haven't been able to find any references to New Saughton from the mid- C18th. In the 1750s on the Water of Leith  just west of Edinburgh Old Town were the properties of Saughton and Saughtonhall. 'New Saughton' may have been established later as a division of one of these or might have been an alternative name for either. Place names could be quite fluid at this time.

As for Charles' marriage in Lincolnshire, do you know that she was a local girl?  Could he perhaps have met her earlier on the Fifeshire Fencibles' travels? By the way, if it is useful, I have a falrly detailed note of the Regiment's travels following their departure from Fife.

You are quite right about Anstruther Thompson being the CO. I was writing off the top off my head. There were, though, two officers surnamed Erskine serving in the Regiment.

As for the Fencible Cavalry being "Provisional Cavalry Regiments" when first raised, that could well be although I never came across that term before. Certainly, for what it's worth, the Regimental  Paylists and Muster Rolls are mostly inscribed 'Fife-shire Fencible Cavalry'
 
If I turn up any useful information on C18th Saughton,  or the Gilchrists, I shall of course  pass it on.

JF
 

Lizzie this is a little late but there are some  strange parallels between your family history and mine. My ancestor William Ranken (g.g.g.g grandfather) was born in Edinburgh to an exciseman  who was also a nurseryman. John Ranken's will details the hundreds of trees in his nursery. His brother James and father William were also both gardeners. Family tradition states that they were involved with the gardens at Saughtonhall, but the only reference I have found is to William Ranken  being gardener at Lord Somerville's  house at Gilmerton (Liberton Parish) also known as 'The Drum.'

 There is a circumstantial link with the Baird's of Saughtonhall in that my ancestor enlisted in the   regiment where the notorious Captain Sir James Baird of Saughtonhall commanded a company, the 71st or 'Fraser's Highlanders', raised for the American War in 1776.  My ancestor had already formed a connection with another officer of the 71st, Colonel Sir William Erskine, a relation of the Bairds, having run away as a rebellious 17-year old to join the regiment Erskine commanded previously, the 15th Light Dragoons.

Under Erskine's  patronage my gggg grandfather rose to be a successful staff officer in America.  At the end of the war he retired to Fife as tenant of a farm let him by William Erskine where he lived quietly until 1793 when he joined the Fife-shire Fencible Cavalry (commanded by another Erskine).  After serving on the Regimental Staff, he took over as a troop commander until he fell ill and died of causes unknown in 1799.

 That is how a gardener's son from Edinburgh ends up in the Fifeshire Fencibles!

if you have any details about Saughtonhall in the period, I should be delighted to read them. 

For a brief overview on the Fife Fencibles, see here:
http://thaneofife.org.uk/fencible-cav.html

Fencibles weren't militia but regular regiments raised specifically for domestic defence and  serving only in the British Isles. Patriotic worthies were authorised to recruit regiments locally in Scotland, as indeed were many regular Line regiments raised in Scotland in the second half of the 18th. This gave them a distinctly local character resembling that of the militia but, despite starting out essentially as groups of neighbours in uniform, Fencible Cavalry regiments, unlike the Yeomanry, were not merely glorified Home Guard units but operated under standard rules of military discipline. They could be moved to anywhere in the British Isles the government required.