Bailie of Keler

[mareanna]

This is George Main's occupation on the 1841 Scottish Census.  He and his family are in Kelso, Roxburghshire, so Keler is possibly a mis-transcription for Kelso 

What is a Bailie, (tried googling it but got nothing)? 

His daughter, Harriet Main, married James Edwards MD and they were the parents of artist and author Lionel Dalhousie Robertson Edwards.

[BridgetM]

A baillie or bailie is a civic officer in local government in Scotland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baillie

[stanmapstone]

What is a Bailie, (tried googling it but got nothing)? 

I can't understand that  Googling brings these sites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baillie
http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/difficultwords/data/d0001944.html

Stan

[mareanna]

I google the whole lot as a phrase in the hope of finding what a Bailie does and where Keler is in one go.  Obviously tried too hard 

The following census George is listed as a "writer"

[jessden]

Are you sure that the word is Keler? Could it be Kelso in very bad handwriting?

You mention that on the next census his occupation was that of writer - i.e he was a lawyer.  He would be just the sort of person who would have been on the town council in a small place like Kelso. A Bailie was a senior councillor and would sit in the local court as a magistrate.  Possibly the nearest equivalent in an English town would be an Alderman.

Jessie

[mareanna]

Thanks jesden - it hadn't occurred to me at all that "writer" could be anything other than novellist, so that's really interesting to hear that it is keeping with his previous civic status.   

I've had a look at the resources from the Roxburgh board but couldn't see any references for listings of Baillies for Kelso.  I haven't checked the original census returns to see if Keler is a mis-translation for Kelso as I've used an awful lot of credits tracing the Scottish marriages/births down the line and reached the bottom of the purse for the time being.

mareanna

[jessden]

Hello again

I would be 99% certain, without having seen the original, that he was in 1841 a Bailie of Kelso.  He lived in Kelso and would have not have been a Bailie of some other town - besides there is nowhere called Keler in the area.  I will, however, have a look at the 1841 census on microfilm just to check but I may not get round to doing this until next week.  I will also check to see if there is a history of Kelso that might mention him.  I do not think, however, that there is any reason to doubt that he was a Bailie.  This was an office that would come to town councillors in turn and in 1841 he was no doubt very proud of the fact that he had become a Bailie.  This was probably why he gave that as his occupation rather than his profession of writer - which was how he earned his living.

Incidentally in 19th century Scotland a writer is always a lawyer (nowadays we would call him a solicitor) rather than a person who wrote books.

Jessie

[mareanna]

This is turning out to be an interesting and well-connected family.  One of George Main’s daughters (Harriet b 1839, Kelso) married James Edwards MD (b abt 1810 Chester – his third wife) and one of their sons was illustrator and writer Lionel Dalhousie Robertson Edwards RI RCA (mainly horse and hunting scenes).  Another of James and Harriet’s sons was Brigadier General FitzJames Maine Edwards CB CMG DSO ADC IA (1861 – 1929) who married Eva Lilian Stewart (b 1865 India).  It appears that her line goes back to Robert the Bruce.  Can't swear to that though but she is in Debretts 

There are some interesting biographies on t'internet for Lionel and his upbringing.

I did look on map sites for Keler, but came to the conclusion it should be Kelso, either that it was an old form of the town's name no longer on modern maps.   

cheers
mareanna