Cambusnethan Cemetery Grave Search - Part 2

[27Ster13]

Blimey I'm in awe thank you very much for sharing that photo and info with me! Had a lot more from you that any of the sites I've been on today lol

[Lodger]

You're very welcome, good luck with the rest of your research.

[27Ster13]

WILLIAM MOFFAT, labourer, Waterloo, aged 69 years, married.
Parents - Robert Moffat & Margaret Downie.

You mention a William Moffat do you have any dates on him? Also the Moffat's are confusing  lol I think it's the son of Robert Moffat who is also called Robert lol  only because Robert Moffat snr's parents are James Moffet and Margaret Jack..
Like I said confusing lol thanks for any help

[Lodger]

Ha! You found my deliberate mistake   

William was buried in the old churchyard on 22nd February 1879.

I spent some time trawling the Plot Book trying to find which plot exactly he was in but no luck.
His name may have been miss-transcribed or he may have been put into common ground there but that's a big maybe. I'll check again.

[Lodger]

I took my information about this William from the gravediggers Day Book (a sort of daily diary of burials).
However, after a detailed search of the old churchyard Plot Book and a valiant attempt at tying up the relevant plots with the information in the Day Book and the Monumental Inscription book, it seems that "William" was entered under that name in the Day Book but, in the Plot Book he is entered as Robert! 
In the Plot Book for this grave there are 5 interments (bearing in mind that no book existed as far as anyone knows, before about 1876) and, according to the book, the owner (post-1870s) was given as John Gilmour. All of the 5 surnames are Moffat. And, what's more, there is a small marker stone at this grave with an inscription - "John Dounie 1782". Dounie = Downie of course and this would just be a little stone to mark his property, a common thing in those days, it stopped strangers taking over the plot. This is excellent proof that the Downies lived in the parish as far back as 230 years ago. It would be relatively safe to now say that Margaret downie's father was John.
The 5 buried there, all surnames Moffat, are -

In the south lair -
ROBERT, aged 5 years. 30th June 1883.
AGNES, aged 3 years. 16th June 1883.
ELIZABETH, aged 11 years. 27th January 1883.
In the centre lair -
BETSY, aged 81 years. 22nd April 1895.
ROBERT, aged 69 years. 22nd February 1879.

I don't know who the Gilmour is, he may have been a Moffat son-in-law.

[Lodger]

I should be in bed by now, not that I need my beauty sleep 

Extracts from the baptism records for Wishaw Relief congregation Church. These records begin at 1831 and end at 1864.

ELIZABETH, 4th child of Robert Moffat, weaver, Beltanefoot (an area of Wishaw) and Isa Prentice.
Born 18th April 1832, baptised 13th May 1832.

JAMES, 5th child of Robert Moffat, weaver, Beltanefoot and Isabella Prentice.
Born 18th December 1833, baptised 29th December 1833.

JOHN, 6th child of Robert Moffat, weaver, Mid Wishaw and Isabella Prentice.
Born 20th March 1835, baptised 5th April 1835.

AGNES, 7th child of Robert Moffat, weaver, Mid Wishaw and Isabella Prentice.
Born 5th February 1837, baptised 5th March 1837.

MARY, 8th child of Robert Moffat, weaver, Mid Wishaw and Isabella Prentice.
Born 10th April 1839, baptised 21st April 1839.

MARY, 8th child of James Paterson, shoemaker, Low Wishaw and Margaret Moffat.
Born 9th June 1833, baptised 16th June 1833.

All were baptised by Rev Peter Brown, for his photograph see the post before your initial one.

[Lodger]

I'll keep on looking, you never know what else may turn up.

Lodger

[Skoosh]

Folks,  we're inclined to forget how common wooden markers would have been in kirkyards, where there was the means these were eventually replaced with stone, otherwise they perished.

Skoosh.

[Lodger]

In the Heritors Minutes for New Monkland May 11th 1778 (HR 779/1) the following statement appears – "The committee empowers the Beadle (sexton) at sight of two of their numbers to through (sic) out stones or lairs which have been wrongfully taken up by strangers not parish men, which have not formerly had burial places in the parish".  So the sexton was to get permission from any 2 of the Heritors before clearing out stones (and presumably the contents of the lairs) of strangers.  At their meeting on 15th January 1795 the New Monkland Heritors are “laying a certain sum on the persons who wish to have permanent burial places or who have grave stones in the churchyard of East Monkland, or may put grave stones theron in the time coming”.  So it looks as though burial spots may not have been permanent for the ordinary folk before about 1790, unless they purchased a plot, as is the norm today.

In the Cambusnethan Session minutes for about the same time there is a description of the charges levied for erecting gravestones, I don’t recall any mention of wooden markers. Wood, in this climate, as Skoosh says, would never last very long anyway. Also in the Cam’nethan minutes is a long, drawn-out dispute over 2 adjoining lairs, (I seem to recall that one belonged to the parish schoolmaster) it was about someone’s headstone infringing onto the other’s property. I may have this written down somewhere, I’ll have a look.