John Spence - Cullen Old Kirk

[agray1949]

Cancel my last question.
There is a John Spence who died in 1871 at Mortlach age 89 which would most likely be the one who was born in 1782. And as we know the John I am looking for died in 1850.
So I am still none the wiser as to who his parents were.

[Forfarian]

Yes, the one who died in Mortlach in 1871 was the son of Helen Stewart - his death doesn't state his father's given name. So he can be eliminated from your enquiries.

If he was listed as 55 in the 1841 census, which was taken on 7 June, and assuming that his age is accurate, he could have been born between 8 June 1781 and 7 June 1786.

[agray1949]

Thanks Forfarian
His gravestone indicated a birth of 1786 which matched with the census but I was trying to find his parents by widening the search pattern & the one I saw was a possibility which has now been discarded.

[Forfarian]

His gravestone indicated a birth of 1786 which matched with the census but I was trying to find his parents by widening the search pattern & the one I saw was a possibility which has now been discarded.

If he died aged 64 on 31 March 1850, and his age was accurate, he is more likely to have been born in 1785 than in 1786 - any time between 1 April 1785 and 31 March 1786.

I think your problem is that the Roman Catholic records don't go back as far as that.

The Roman Catholic church at Preshome was built in 1789. It was the first post-Reformation Roman Catholic church to be openly built in Scotland after the official persecution of Roman Catholicism was relaxed, and the earlier records, if there ever were any, have not survived.