JOHN LEYDEN of Denholm (b.1775)

[hdw]

I’m interested in John Leyden the Denholm linguist (and much more!) and am trying to establish his family-tree. We are told his parents were John Leyden and Elizabeth Scott, and the International Genealogical Index (IGI) has John the father born 1746 in Cavers parish, and his marriage to Elizabeth Scott taking place in 1770 at Melrose.

However, Scotlandspeople - which is a more reliable source - has John Leyden marrying an Isabel Dods in 1770 in Melrose, “both in this parish”. And there is also an Archibald Leyden in Bedrule who married Betty or Elizabeth Scott in 1770 in Hobkirk.

Does anyone know for sure who the parents of John Leyden were?

Harry

[terianne]

check out the denholmvillage website - you'll find a report of john leyden

[ev]

Hi ,

Some websites have his christening as 8th September 1775 Cavers Roxburgh , parents John Leyden and Isabel Scott -
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VQHW-8Y4



ev

[hdw]

Yes, but I can't find a marriage for that couple. In about 1776 they are supposed to have moved to Henlawshiel farm which was occupied by Isabel(?) Scott's uncle Andrew Blythe. I can't find out anything about this man. Young Leyden was supposedly taught to read at Henlawshiel by his grandmother, but which grandmother? Not many women were literate at that time. Too many unanswered questions.

Harry

[terianne]

To say most women of that time were illiterate is a very sweeping comment and very short sighted

The church schools were very common and home schooling was too

Your comment may be more feasible in the urban environment but would also to men too

[hdw]

I must have downloaded hundreds of birth, marriage and death certificates from a much later period than this, especially of people in the east-coast fishing villages, and well into the 19th c. many women in the fishing villages could only make an x on their marriage-certificates, or the grandmother would make an x when registering a birth in the family. But that's not to say that there weren't plenty of exceptions, and one should never generalise about such things, I agree with you there.

Harry

[Sunlaws]

It's also important not to confuse illiteracy with the inability to write. Reading and writing were taught separately, with reading coming first. Fees were payable for each separate subject, so money was often not expended on girls, who would have no need to write (!) The only quote I can immediately find refers to Caithness, but I'm sure it would have been similar throughout Scotland. From the New Statistical Account 1836:
"All between 6 and 15 years of age can read, but the females are not commonly taught to write".

Regards,

Lesley

[Sunlaws]

The indefatigable Douglas Scott, in his Hawick Word Book, says of Andrew Blyth:
"Farmer at Nether Tofts in Cavers parish..... He was the uncle of Isabella Scott, who was the mother of John Leyden. He later lost his sight and Nether Tofts was taken over by Leyden's father, also John."

Andrew Blyth was therefore Leyden's great-uncle.

Regards,
Lesley

[James Russell]

I can only find a mother for John Leyden [1775  Cavers] but not for the
other six [6]