The Cross Family goes a few generations back to Linen manufacturing times

Old map of Coupar Angus

When writing the last story, I must have been distracted, as I didn't follow up on a child for Jessie I had marked as “female unknown”. We genealogists can't help ourselves. A genie friend read the previous blog story, "Jessies and their Legacy- the Cross family story," and she researched the name of the unknown girl I had mentioned just because she happened to have Scotland's People open!

Agnes Ducat Cross death 1856

Thanks  Lorraine.  The unknown baby was Agnes, who died aged three of Tabes Mesenterica, which is an historic term for a tuberculosis infection, swelling and calcification in the abdomen of children. It was a wasting disease. In this case, she suffered for eight months.

In line with Scottish naming patterns, the name Agnes Ducat Cross was something to follow up. One of the things that I wanted to follow up was who was James Cross's father. I had selected a couple of parents for further investigation, as James's parents, George and Agnes, and one other. I only had to search for a marriage for George and Agnes Cross, and there it was. George Cross had married Agnes Ducat in Kettins, Angus in 1824. Bingo!

George Cross m Agnes Ducat

On the first attempt, the Ducats were well-documented and extended my family tree back to nine great-grandparents. Another story beckons. So there they were in the 1840s in Coupar Angus in Perthshire a town I knew very little about.

Perth, Coupar Angus and surrounds

Coupar Angus was a small market town on the River Isla, split between Angus and Perthshire. In the 1841 census, the first nominal census recorded, about 2,532 people in the parish, with most families working in linen weaving, leather, agriculture or trades tied to the Abbey and Market Square. Linen had taken off between the 1750s and 1800s, and the town had tripled in size, largely because of linen manufacturing arrived and the new town pike roads boosted trade.

By the early 1800s, Coupar Angus was already a market and manufacturing centre, with weaving as a main work for the labouring classes. The town's economy was built on hand loom weaving of linen, mainly the coarser grades of cloth. Soil was good for growing flax Families worked from home, the farmers grew the flax, their wives spun the yarn and the men wove it in winter. Weaving was a cottage industry throughout the villages until factories began to dominate.

Approximately 200,000 yards of linen cloth were woven each year. Although linen work was the chief employment, pay was low. An able-bodied man could earn about five shillings to six shillings per week in the 1840s, and the trade was often feeling periodic slumps.

George Cross and Agnes Cross nee Ducat

 Upon investigating the discovery of these two, I checked the 1841 and some 1851 census and made the story more interesting.

George and Agnes were born in 1787 and 1796. Having four children, James b 1826, Mungo Ducat Cross b1828, Catherine Ducat Cross b1833, and David Ducat Crossb 1836. Alas, Agnes Ducat had passed away, just before the 1841 census was taken, leaving George and his two boys, Mungo Ducat-Cross, and David Ducat-Cross to appear on the census. 

George and family 1841 Census

Catherine Ducat was discovered living with her 30-year-old maiden aunt Agnes Cross b1803 nearby at Borlatch or George Street Coupar.

It makes sense, one of the little motherless children living with an aunt. The other son, James, was living elsewhere in Coupar with the Taylor family as a 15-year-old brewer of spirits. Mr Taylor was a brewer, brewing and spirit dealer.

George was a gardener born in Coupar Angus, Perthshire, and in 1851 he was living in Touttie Street, in the parish of Alyth.

George Cross 1851

George continued to live in Touttie Street until his death from epilepsy in1859. He was buried in the Coupar Angus churchyard. His will left an inheritance of 66 pounds, nine shillings, and four pence, to his three remaining children, Mungo, Catherine, and David. James had died in Edinburgh in 1854.

Catherine Ducat Cross 1851- the census which reveals much

There's a bit of a story behind where Catherine was living in the 1841 and 1851 census. She's living with her aunt, who's living with her uncle, and her deceased aunt's husband, John Mackie, aged 87. He had been a linen manufacturer and married to Agnes Cross. Agnes's brother James, aged 86, is an ex-farmer.

Agnes Cross, George's sister, is listed as a general servant, aged 47. And Ketty, or Catherine Cross, is a dressmaker, aged 17, in the 1851 census. There’s hints a plenty about the extended familyin this document.

Ketty is still living with her aunt in the 1861 census, in the same street, George Street. Agnes is head of the household, and her aunt Agnes died later in that year of a tumour. Agnes’ sizeable will is shared between a niece Margaret Cross, a local church, a local minister who later married Catherine Duvat Cross, who inherited the rest from her Aunt. It seems Agnes  was more than a housekeeper, but more living under her own means, as she left about 950 pounds to Catherine.

Catherine Ducat Cross and John Barr

Catherine married John Barr, the local reverend, later in 1861. John and Catherine had six children. Previously, Reverend Barr, who was born in Derry, Ireland in 1822, obviously featured in Agnes and Catherine's life, as received an inheritance from Agnes Cross and he married Catherine a few months after Agnes' death. He had come to Glasgow Uni in 1847, and was a divinity student after graduation.

He was ordained in February 1857. Barr was a popular minister and received an urgent request to join the Original Succession Church in Philadelphia who were undergoing expansion. This was not approved by the Synod and Barr remained in Coupar Angus. They married on the 30th of October 1861 in Glasgow. He died in August 1872. He is buried in Coupar Angus churchyard with many local and visiting clergy attending.

Both he and Catherine are commemorated in the Coupar Angus Abbey churchyard with a memorial headstone erected by friends.

Catherine and John's Memorial

 

“Erected by a few friends in affectionate remembrance of Reverend John Barr, who for 15 and a half years was the original session congregation. Coupar Angus died 4-8, 1872, aged 50. -verse- and his wife Catherine, Ducat Cross, died in 14-6, 1906, aged 73.”

Catherine lived in Glasgow until 1906, living off her own means, presumably from money inherited from her aunt, father, and perhaps a stipend from her husband's church. She died aged 73, and she had been living with three of her children, Agnes 36, John 34, an engineering clerk, and Margaret 32, who was a cape machinist. The value of the estate was 40 pounds.

 

Mungo Ducat Cross

James and Catherine's first brother was Mungo Ducat Cross, born in 1828.

 

Mungo Ducat Cross marriage

Mungo Ducat Cross death

He married Jean McIntosh in 1849 in Alyth and they welcomed five children. After starting his working life as an apprentice Tinsmith, he became a baker for Mr. McLeish. One unfortunate day in 1863, at age 35, he dropped dead at work of suspected heart disease. Although stout and thickly built, he was in the prime of his life.

A well-attended concert in aid of his widow and family was held in the local hall. £2.14 was raised and several locals offered their talent, including the Ritchie Band and other amateurs who entertained the audience. After he died, the females of the family worked in a linen factory as power loom weavers.

David Ducat Cross 1881 census

David Ducat Cross
The youngest of James' brothers was David Ducat Cross, born in 1836. Originally, we saw David at age five years in the 1841 census, shortly after the death of his mother. Ten years later, he was working at 15 as a servant farm labourer for the Fairweather family. He moved on to a career as a coachman, stableman. A career, a number of people in our family have followed. In 1864, he married Elizabeth Hunter and together they had three children. David Ducat Cross died in 1912 in Dundee.

I'm also interested in taking the parentage back further.

John Cross b 1773-1833 Coupar Angus -5^th great grandfather

So, George's father was John Cross who married Julia (or Emily or Maria) Henderson in 1796 in Coupar Angus. His profession is listed in two different documents as an ironmonger but also as a grocer.

John Cross m Emily Henderson

 

During his working life, he was a member of the Royal Arch Lodge of Masons in Coupar Angus. He was held in high esteem and received an elegant and valuable snuff box in thanks for his work as Master of the Lodge. The Lodge had been in a poor financial state when he took over 20 years before. At the time of the gift, the situation had been rectified with over a thousand pounds in the kitty. In his probate notice in 1833, he is mentioned as a merchant. His parents are still a work in progress……..

Patrick or Peter Corse b1745, Cargill -possible 6^th great grandfather
I have researched the name Cross or Corse. There is enough evidence of a very large family baptised under the name of Corse with father Patrick or Peter Corse married to Agnis Robertson.

A name change Cors, Corse means Cross 

 

In all, there were 10 children, two of which fit in with the James Cross, in the 1851 census living with Agnes Cross, born 1803. James Cross is her uncle aged 86. And another attributed to Patrick ie Agnes Cross, deceased, who was married to John Mackey 86, who was also living with Cross relatives in 1841-1851. More to research.

The surname Corse is a Scottish Midlothian or Orkney name, from Corse in Saint Ola Kirkwall Orkney mainland or from other places in of that name in mainland Scotland derived from north northern middle English.  Cors or  Corse meaning  “Cross”.


Understanding the Scottish naming pattern saw me make some genealogical assumptions which opened up research and expansion of the family story. The Scottish naming pattern goes like this:

So the Scottish naming pattern can be useful in extending the family tree or has it? In my case, I think they sometimes pleased themselves.

Understanding Freemasonry; that's another quest!   

 

Next stop the Ducat family……….