Belhelvie Old Kirkyard
THE HISTORY OF THE LEITH FAMILY OF ABERDEENSHIRE
The Origins of the Name
The surname is probably derived from the town of Leith, which is now part of the city of Edinburgh. The name appears in Aberdeenshire as early as the 14th century. A William de Leythe from the parish of Oyne was a burgess of Aberdeen in 1342 and represented the city in parliament in 1367.
Our Leith Ancestors
Our earliest known ancestor to bear the surname Leith was Alexander Leith, who was a wool-comber by trade in the parish of Foveran, which lies some ten miles north of the city of Aberdeen in the north-east of Scotland. In 1767 Alexander and Margaret Adam had an illegitimate son called John, who was born at the farm of Hill of Fiddes in Foveran, where Margaret probably lived. Nothing else is known of Alexander and Margaret.
Nothing is known of John's early life, until in 1797 at Foveran he married Catherine Chapman, the daughter of Patrick Chapman and Isabell Mutch. The couple went to live at the farm of Mains of Shiels in Belhelvie, the adjacent parish to the south. There they had at least 7 children, Margaret, John, Isabella, Alexander, Thomas, Catherine and James. By 1841, the family had moved to the nearby farm of Howlands, where Catherine died in that year. John continued to live there and died in 1858 at the great age of 91. He left a will, his estate amounting to £157. They are buried together in the old kirkyard of Belhelvie, where their gravestone still stands.
Of John and Catherine's children, Margaret was born about 1797 and died in 1808 at the age of 11 and is buried with her parents. John was born on 1798 and was living with his parents in 1841. He was a grocer to trade, and probably unmarried. John died in 1848 aged 49, and is also buried with his parents.
Isabella was born in 1800 and married William Henderson in 1833 and they went to live at the nearby farm of Stirlinghillock. Isabella and William had at least 3 children. Sadly, William died in 1841 at the age of 46, and Isabella and the children moved to Howlands where her father was the farmer. There Isabella died of cancer in 1858, just before her father.
Alexander was born in 1802, and in 1837 he and Elizabeth Mutch of Copplestone farm in Belhelvie had an illegitimate child, Alexander Leith. Five years later in 1842, he had another illegitimate child, Isabel Leith, with Mary Mutch who lived at Chance Inn farm in Belhelvie. It is not known whether Elizabeth and Mary Mutch were related. Alexander senior died at Howlands in 1857, aged 52, and left an estate of £42. He is also buried with his parents.
Thomas was born in 1804 and died in 1820 at the age of 16. He is also buried with his parents.
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Catherine was the last child and was born in 1809. About 1837 she had an illegitimate daughter, Catherine junior. Catherine continued to live with the family at Howlands until at least 1851, but by 1881 she was living alone at No. 11 Hutcheon Street in Aberdeen. She died in 1894 at the age of 85 and and is also buried with her parents. |
Belhelvie Old Kirkyard |
The youngest child James was born in 1812, and his life is described below.
James was born in 1812 at Mains of Shiels farm in the parish of Belhelvie. In 1836 he married Mary Kemp, the daughter of James Kemp and Margaret Keith. They went to live at the nearby farm of Whitehills, and while there they had 5 children. Around 1847 they moved the short distance to Chance Inn farm, and there had another 4 children. In 1858 James died at the age of only 46. This was a sad year for the family, as James's father and sister Isabella also died then. Mary continued to farm at Chance Inn with the help of her unmarried children until at least 1871, but by 1881 she had gone to live with her daughter Elspet and her husband William Murray and their children at Greens farm in the adjacent parish of New Machar. By 1891 she was living with her eldest daughter Catherine at Tillyfour farm in Foveran parish, where she died in 1894 at the age of 82. James and Mary are buried together at the old kirkyard of Belhelvie.
| James and Mary had 9 children in all, of whom two, the first John and another whose name is not known did not survive infancy. Of the remainder, Catherine was born in 1837 and married David Cruden Sharp in 1859. Her life is described in "The History of the Sharp Family". |  |
| Catherine Leith (1837-1925) c1909 | |
| James was born in 1838, and in 1860 he married Catherine Garden Wood, the daughter of John Wood and Elizabeth Kemp, and who was James's cousin once removed. James and Catherine had at least 5 children, including two poorly sighted sons, probably James and William. This eyesight problem may have been an inherited condition due to their parents' close blood relationship. James farmed at various different farms in Belhelvie parish, including Howlands, Overhill and Backhill. In 1901 Catherine died at the age of 61. James continued farming, and about 1920 he moved to West Maldron farm at Torphins in Kincardine o' Neil parish. By 1925 James had retired and the tenancy of the farm was taken on by his grandniece Christina Murray's husband William Jamieson. The night James and his sons were moving out, a fire broke out which badly damaged the steading. It is believed it may have been caused accidentally by one of his almost blind sons. James retired to Ingleneuk, Torphins, and in 1928 he died at the age of 90 at Bridgend, Fyvie, the home of his son John. |  |
| James Leith (1838-1928) |
Mary was born in 1841 at Whitehills, and in 1863 she married William Moir. William was a farm servant at first, but later farmed his own croft, Hill of Keir in Belhelvie parish. Mary and William had at least 7 children. William died in 1917 at Hill of Keir, while Mary lived until 1925, when she died at the age of 84 at Boddam Cottage in New Machar parish. They are both buried in Belhelvie old kirkyard.
Mary's sister Margaret, born in 1844, married William Moir's twin brother Robert in 1864. Robert was a farm labourer like his brother and also later farmed his own croft, firstly at Craibadona in Foveran parish, and later at Woodland Croft in the parish of Dyce. Margaret and Robert had at least 8 children. Robert died in 1915, while Mary died in 1926 at the age of 82. They are also both buried in Belhelvie old kirkyard.
Isabella was born in 1846 at Whitehills, and lived successively at Chance Inn, Howlands and Chance Inn, all in Belhelvie. It is not known whether she married, or when she died, but she was still alive in 1925.
Elspet was the first of the Leith family to be born at Chance Inn farm, in 1848. In 1879 she married William Murray, a son of George Murray and Christian Reid. William and his younger brother James had been born and brought up in the parish of Chapel of Garioch, about 16 miles west of Belhelvie, but as a young man William had obtained the tenancy of Greens farm in New Machar, the adjacent parish to the west of Belhelvie. (In 1882 James married Mary Ann Sharp, Elspet Leith's niece - see "The History of the Murrays" and "The History of the Sharp Family" for more on James and Mary Ann). After their marriage Elspet lived with her husband, widowed mother and growing family at Greens until at least 1892. By 1899 the family had moved to Hill of Ardo in Belhelvie parish, as in that year William sadly died of heart disease at the age of only 51. Elspet continued to farm Hill of Ardo until at least 1911, but later went to live with her four surviving children at Mains of Shiels farm in Belhelvie parish, where she died in 1927 at the age of 79. William and Elspet are buried together in New Machar kirkyard.
A first John having died in infancy in 1850, William and Elspet's next child, born in 1852 at Chance Inn, was also called John, and his story is told below.
John was born in 1852 at Chance Inn farm and in 1880 he married Barbara Simpson Manson. They had 14 children, all born at Chance Inn, where John and Barbara lived for the rest of their lives. Barbara died in 1926 and John in 1928.
| Of their large family, Alexander Manson was born in 1880, and emigrated to the USA. Mary was born in 1882 died in 1901 of typhoid fever at the age of only 19. James was born about 1886 and is known to have married. John was born about 1887, Margaret about 1888 and William about 1890. David Sharp died at birth in 1891. A second David was born about 1893, and is known to have eventually emigrated to the USA. Christopher Manson was born in 1894, married Maggie Jane Duncan in 1931, and had two children. Arthur Smith was born in 1896, married Patricia Riddell, and had three children. Arthur's descendants still farm at Chance Inn today. Stewart was born in 1900, and Isabella Penny in 1902. There were also Catherine and Elspet, whose dates of birth are not known. |  |
Alexander and Barbara Leith |
© Robert James Carson 2004. All rights reserved.