THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF THE ROTTENSLOUGH IN 1761, WITH MARRIAGE DATES AND NOTES

Estimated Population: Total 81; Males 45; Females 36.

Notes:

N1....Alex McKenzie was the widower of Mary Sutherland who died in November 1756.

N2....This family were not recorded after son James's birth in 1761 and probably moved out of the area in the early 1760s.

N3....Jean Matheson was the widow of John Farqhuar, skipper.

N4....William Neilson does not appear in the records after 1755 and may have moved to Buckie where two of his daughters settled and son William was a witness in the 1760s, and so the family is recorded but not counted here.

N5....Margaret Sharp was the daughter of deceased John Sharp and Janet Smith, now married to Charles Mackay. Margaret married Alex Sinclair around 1760, the date of which probably fell within the missing records.

N6....Robert Miller died in July 1753. Only William, Jean, Helen and Margaret are known to have reached adulthood. William was still in Portessie in 1767 when he had a natural son John to Margaret Taylor then. Later in the same year he married Elspet Philp from Cullen and in 1768 their first born was born in the kirktown of Rathven. His sisters Helen and Jean married outside the village and so it is assumed that the family moved away in the 1760s.

N7....Daughter Margaret Smith married John Hay and moved to the Seatown of Cullen in 1765, or she married Alex Coul in 1766. (see N9). It seems that Janet did not survive. Son James was the progenitor of the Smith,Bodie line.

N8....Charles Mackay was not recorded after 1755 and probably died in the early 1760's. Only his son Charles seems to have survived or at least to have stayed on in Portessie.

N9....Daughter Margaret Smith married either John Hay of Cullen Seatown in 1765, or Alex Coul in 1766. (see N7). Son George seems not to have survived.

N10...An elder daughter Margaret died in childhood.

N11...An elder son, Alex had died and the first James didn't survive. Daughters Janet and Margaret married George Murray in 1762 and John Jappy in 1767 respectively and both moved to Buckie. Daughter Isabel married George Flett in 1768 and moved to Findochty. Later records suggest that the second James may not have survived or moved away. Son John was the progenitor of the Smith,Latin line.

N14...From later records, Elspeth Smith can be identified as Beatrix Smith, daughter of Alex and Margaret Smith, while James Farquhar was probably the son of John Farquhar and Jean Matheson, although another James Farquhar from Buckie was recorded here in 1747.

N16...Margaret Barrie had a natural son to William Hay. Charles Mackay was the sponser and so she was probably not local but an incomer which suggests a viable economy attracting workers from other parts.

N17...Alex Simpson was the first Simpson recorded in Portessie. He most probably was from the Simpson family then farming at Loanhead, a half-mile from Portessie. Jean McBay was the widow of Alex Campbell and had moved to Portessie from Findochty with her two surviving children after her marriage to Alex Simpson. She was the daughter of John McBay and Isabel Ross.

N18...James was John Wright's natural son; the mother was not named.

N19...William Wilson was the first Wilson recorded in the village of Portessie. He may be the same as the witness recorded in 1750 who lived in the Kirktown of Rathven. Like Alex Simpson, he was probably another farm worker turning to full-time fishing for a living.

N20...The marriages of Alex Smith,Laird and Elizabeth Robertson and of Alex Sharp and Jean Wilkie probably took place between October 1758 and July 1761 when none was recorded. W. A. has 14.6.1760, but cannot recall the source. Alex Smith, a second generation Smith, was the son of John Smith,`Laird' and Jean Garden.

N21...Another unrecorded marriage. Alex Sharp, a second generation migrant, was the son John Sharp and Janet Smith.

N22...John Smith was the son of Alex Smith,Laird and Margaret Smith.

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