Thomas Maisters in Bo'ness 1775

[pavane]

Can anyone help me find some ancestors? Thomas Maisters (or Masters) and his wife Elizabeth nee Scott had a son Thomas born in Bo'ness on June 11 1775.
Thomas (junior) later settled in Guernsey where he died in 1848.
But I know nothing more about his parents, their marriage etc. He is my only known ancestor from Scotland.

[GR2]

Thomas was illegitimate. The entry for his baptism in the Bo'ness register reads:

         4th September 1775
Thomas Maisters Merchant & Elizabeth Scott
had a naturall Son born 11th of June & babtized
2d September 1775 named Thomas

[pavane]

Thanks for that. It also tells me that Thomas (senior) was a merchant. Is there anywhere I could find more about him?

[GR2]

The obvious thing to do is to look at the minutes of the Bo'ness kirk session as you would expect something there, since they investigated "fornication" and rebuked/fined the perpetrators. However, there seems to be no mention of the case, unless it is taken up much, much later.

There is always the possibility that it was dealt with by a neighbouring parish.

There is no will for Thomas senior.

I'll root about some more.

[ColC]

Record as posted but just to add this was the only child named Maisters born in Scotland on the church records to 1854. There are no Maisters Marriages or Deaths to 1854.

THOMAS MAISTERS   Baptised    THOMAS MAISTERS/ELIZABETH SCOTT    02/09/1775   Bo'Ness

There was one females Masters baptised in Aberdeen RC church in 1885 & 5 other CofS baptisms
1813 – 1829, various places.

Colin

[pavane]

Thanks again for your help. I have no knowledge of where this Thomas Maisters might have come from. Maybe not even from Scotland, but Maisters sounds Scottish.

[ColC]

Looking on Ancestry the name seems quite prominent in England, there are several records for the name going back to the 16th Century.

The best birth I could find for Thomas the father of Thomas was baptised 8 Jul 1741 Nantwich, Cheshire, England, his father was also Thomas but I can find little else to add to that.

Colin

[pavane]

OK thanks. I will carry on looking in England then. So my only Scottish ancestor would be Elizabeth Scott then.

[pavane]

FYI:
Thomas Maisters was christened 2, 3 on 2-9-1775 in Bo'Ness, West Lothian, Scotland.
He died on 30-7-1848 in St Peter Port, Guernsey, Channel Islands, Britain.
He was buried on 4-8-1848 in St Peter Port, Guernsey, Channel Islands, Britain.
He married Ann Groves on 17-4-1813 in St Peter Port, Guernsey, Channel Islands, England.

They had the following children:

Elizabeth Maria Masters was born on 25-6-1815 in St Peter Port, Guernsey, Channel Islands, Britain. She was christened on 2-7-1815 in St Peter Port, Guernsey, Channel Islands, Britain.
Address 1841 York Place Guernsey

Emma Esther Masters born between 1816 and 1821
Address 1841
Market Place, St Peter Port, (Islands) Isle of Guernsey (Islands), Channel Islands

Emma was my gt-gt-grandmother