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Showing posts with label Carham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carham. Show all posts

Sunday, 15 September 2024

Anthony Cleghorn and Margaret Jane Murray

The River Tweed at Carham
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Walter Baxter - geograph.org.uk/p/270077
Viewed from England at Carham, the village of Birgham in Scotland is on the left

Anthony Cleghorn married Margaret Jane Murray on 15 Sep 1770 at St Paul's ChurchShadwell. Not the current church, built in 1821, but the old church, traditionally known as the Church of Sea Captains. Both "of this parish", bachelor and spinster, respectively and both were able to sign their names. Witnesses were George Cleghorn (presumably a relative) and an Andrew Hedly. Literate people, with family at the wedding, probably hadn't 'run away' to London to marry, but what brought them there and when, isn't clear.

Anthony Cleghorn was baptised at Carham, Northumberland on 17 Mar 1745, the son of John Cleghorn. There is a marriage, in Carham, of a John Cleghorn to an Isabel Edmiston, on 27 Mar 1733, who may well be his parents.

It isn't possible to go any further north than Carham, without going over the border into Scotland and with a name like Murray, there's an enormous probability that was where Margaret Jane origins were. Sadly, trying to find the right Murray in Scotland is like trying to find the right Jones in Wales or Sweeney in Ireland! So, for now at least that's as far as we can go. 

The couple had at least three children, all baptised at St Paul's, Shadwell: 
  1. Isabella Cleghorn b. 7 Jul 1771, bap. 28 Jul 1771
  2. William Guthrie Cleghorn b. 1772
  3. Ann Phillis Cleghorn b. 1777
On the baptism record for the 21 day old Isabella Cleghorn, daughter of Anthony and Margaret Jane, in 1771, it gives the family's address as Farmer Street, Shadwell and Anthony's occupation as a Baker.

On 23rd May 1782 ("the twenty second Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord GEORGE the Third"), in the Parish of Saint Paul Shadwell in the County of Middlesex, Anthony Cleghorn was one of twelve "good and lawful men" of the jury at the Coroners' Inquest into the death of an infant, James Le Plasterer. We can be certain Anthony Cleghorn was alive then.

So far, I've found no further records for this couple.

St Paul's Church, ShadwellJ Shepherd, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons