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« on: Wednesday 12 February 14 23:17 GMT (UK) »
Hi Sancti,
1750 Mather, William (Reference CC8/8/113 Edinburgh Commissary Court)
In William's will he bequeaths money to his brother John and also to John's children. Money is also bequeathed to his daughter Mary. There is no reference to his parents or any other siblings.
1752 Public Records Office - Catalogue Reference:Prob 11/796 Image reference 396
Mary makes a bequeath to her uncle John Mather and his wife. Also to their children.
Reference to Mary's will also appears in "The Commissariot Record of Hamilton and Campsie"
(Mather, Margaret, eldest lawful daughter to the deceased John M., merchant in Hamilton, and Katherine Strang, spouses, and cousin-german of the deceased Mary M., of the par. of St. Ann, Middlesex T. 28 Jan. 1757)
The information from both wills I feel provides sufficient evidence that John and William are brothers. There are older records in Hamilton for the Mather name but I cannot make the next step backwards until I find their parents. I have found 6 Mather births in the OPRs from 1673 to 1693 but no John or William.
There is also a marriage in 1689 between a John Mather and Jean Alston in Hamilton. John's grandson Gavin Mather married Euphemia Alston in 1831. This could just be a coincidence.
William