Robert Miller, Coal Master, Knowehead, 1798 - 1855

[ChristineCK]

Hello
My 4x great grandfather Robert Miller (Ayrshire 1798 - 1855) erected a rather elaborate family gravestone in Irvine in 1834. The inscription reads-

Robert Miller Coal Master Knowehead
And Janet Murdoch his spouse
In memory of their son
Andrew Miller who died 7th January 1834

etc etc

Everyone in our family tree for ever has been a plain old coal or iron miner so I'm curious about Robert calling himself a coal master rather than a miner. He had enough money to buy and engrave this stone, it has a poem engraved on the reverse too so if you paid by the letter in the 1830s he wasn't scrimping.

I wonder if anyone might have any insight into what Robert's work might have been like, whether he was in fact higher up the ladder than then average coal miner?

I know that in 1830 he was living in Shewalton, on the gravestone dated 1834 he says Knowehead/ Knowhead, by the 1841 census he's in Kirkland, Dreghorn and is a miner rather than a master. I don't know if there is anything particularly interesting about those areas?

Robert died early in 1855, I guess just before statutory registration, so I don't have anything more.

I just like to imagine as much as I can what their lives would have been like. We're not important enough to leave detailed records about individuals, so I find small details like master rather than miner curious.

Thank you

[ChristineCK]

Oh, in the 1851 census he's at Redstone coal pit as a miner. So I guess if he had delusions of grandeur being a master he didn't last long. He was still mining aged 54. What a life.

[CaroleW]

Civil registration started 1.1.1855.  Robert died March 1855

[CaroleW]

Per Scotlands People

Robert Miller death in Ayrshire in 1855 aged 58 mmn Cuthbertson RD Dreghorn

[ChristineCK]

Wow, I thought his mms was Templeton, not Cuthbertson. But that's definitely him, correct wife and children. Hmm. Thank you

[CaroleW]

Have you downloaded the death cert to get his parents christian names

[CaroleW]

Interestingly - SP have 2 marriages in Ayrshire on the same day but in different RD's.  Probably the same couple but spelling of surnames slightly different

27.9.1822 Robert MillAr to Janet MurdocH - Kilmarnock
27.9.1822 Robert MillEr to Janet MurdocK  - Stevenston

[ChristineCK]

Have you downloaded the death cert to get his parents christian names

Yes I have, thank you. The names of his wife and children are correct so the record you found is definitely him. I hadn't found it before because family stories told me his mother was a Templeton so I was stuck.

I see he died of consumption. Poor guy. I'd love to find an ancestor who lived a comfortable life and died a good death. Robert's wife Janet died in a fire. Her dc states "body badly burned" which is just so depressing.

But I guess we must be made of tough stuff to have survived all these generations.

[CaroleW]

I can’t find a birth for him with a mmn Cuthbertson nor can I find a Miller/Cuthbertson marriage

What were his parents christian names on the death cert?