Service family at Duns and Coldstream

[Geordie daughter]

Every little helps, as they say...! Researching the background really helps to flesh out the lives of these people, and bring them alive again.

[Glen in Tinsel Kni]

If you visit the google map site and search "Duns Golf Club" then the satellite image will show two large light coloured fields just to the right of the golf club. The fields are the area known as Clockmill. Just above the fields you can see a large area of grass with trees dotted around the edges, that's Duns Castle estate.

[Geordie daughter]

That's wonderful! Thank you, Glen!

[Geordie daughter]

ev
I might have a breakthrough with regard to whom the Service family worked for! I have made contact with someone who is descended from John's brother, George. His youngest daughter Ellen married at Duns Castle in 1902, her occupation being given as 'Domestic Servant,' residing at Duns Castle, and George's occupation was given as 'Estate Carter'! (In 1881, George was an assistant forester, like James.) 

[ev]

 

must be the Hay family then

ev

[Geordie daughter]

ev
It does look like it, doesn't it? Your thinking was inspired, thank you! I'm still not sure how they could have muddled the two families, unless it just sounded posher saying you worked for the Duke. Either that, or the Services changed employers midstream!!

[ev]

like a lot of family stories the detail can get a bit mangled in the telling ,
in this case the Hay family might not have meant a lot outside of berwick but
the duke of roxburgh would have sounded better 
the 1841 census of berwick shows 25 people called Service but only 1 person
of that surname in roxburghshire
3 of the 25 on the 1841 were in duns and another 2 in coldstream

ev

[Glen in Tinsel Kni]

Well the Duke of Roxburghe is probably a more well known title than The Marquis of Tweedale/Marquess of Tweeddale.  

And it's probably fair to say the two prominent families probably crossed paths at some point or other.

Though going by what ev posted while i was typing this you might want to ignore the above 

[Geordie daughter]

ev, those statistics do rather seem to back up the theory that the Services were in the employ of the Hays, though Glen did mention in an earlier post that the Duke held some land in Berwickshire...now, if we can figure out which parts, maybe both stories were true!!

...and as you and Glen both said, the Duke of Roxburghe does have a certain ring to it  . Great for name-dropping!