Sunday, May 29, 2011

The Year Was - 1745

Scotland was in a wee bit of an upheaval in 1745. Bonnie Prince Charlie had arrived to lay claim to the throne and the Jacobite Rising started. My ancestor Frances Pierre (or Pirie) arrived into the world during all of this tumult through Scotland and much of England.  I wonder if the Pirie family were pro or anti Charles?
The family lived in Newtyle Parish, a few miles north of Dundee, and had done so for many a year. Dundee itself, was heavily garrisoned by the Jacobites in late October of 1745.
Eventually the Pirie family moved to Dundee by way of Lundie, Auchterhouse, Backmuir and Liff .
This is one of my families that spelled their surname in a variety of ways, even amongst the siblings e.g. Pourie, Pierry, Pierre, Pyrie, Piery, Perry, and Pirie. The surname, seemingly, is of early medieval English origin and means "someone who owned or lived near a pear tree." Somewhere I also have information that the name originated in France.

I wish I could say I know lots about Frances, but I don't and I only know little bits about the straight line family I am descended from until it gets to my great great grandparents generation :)

Some other events
"God Save The King" sung for the first time in public.
Jacobite Rising which led to the Disarming Act of 1746 that prohibited the wearing of the kilt and the playing of bagpipes (till 1782).
Court of Session Act, Scotland
Highland Peasant Uprising
Jacques Duval performs first cataract surgery, France
Cattle plague - Gloucestershire
Battle of Prestonpans
First recorded ladies cricket match takes place near Guilford, Surrey
Skirmish of Clifton Moor (last land battle on English soil)
Treaty of Dresden
1st Carillon Bells in America shipped to Boston from England
Yoshimune Tokugausa - shogun of Japan resigns
Battle of Fontenoy
Schonbrunn Palace chapel is concecrated


Some famous births
Henry James Pye - poet
Johan Peter Frank - Entomologist and physician

Some famous deaths
Robert Walpole - first PM of Britain
Tomass Antonio Vitali - violinist and composer
Jonathan Swift - writer

We are about half way through our trip to Scotland. Even with the funky weather we have managed to get about a bit and enjoyed seeing lots of historical sites. Tomorrow we are planning on going back to Glasgow to visit Kelvinside. Hopefully this time round we won't get caught in any type of weather that cancelled all trains last week (we got 'home' on a bus).
So it appears that Scottish regional libraries are none too happy that they are not being given copies of the new 1911 census records. It has the potential to make it somewhat inconvenient for those people visiting, or living in, very specific areas if they do not have access on-line to ScotlandsPeople or physically to Edinburgh. I for one, did a huge amount of research at Stirling Cental Library the last few times I visited.

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