Ancestors of Robert McCutcheon - William Hugh McCutcheon

William Hugh McCutcheon

#11, (1 Sep 1858 - 14 Sep 1939)
William Hugh McCutcheon|b. 1858\nd. 1939|p11.htm|Hugh McCutcheon|b. 1828|p707.htm|Helen McKissock|b. c 1836\nd. 1915|p708.htm|Hugh McCutcheon|b. c 1788\nd. 1869|p709.htm|Ann Steven|b. c 1792|p710.htm|Andrew McKissock||p716.htm|Jane Hall||p717.htm|

Relationship   Great-grandfather of Robert Stewart McCutcheon.
Last Edited   25 Nov 2007
Charts   My ancestors
Line of descent from Robert Dinsmuir
Hugh McCutcheon's descendants

Father   Hugh McCutcheon (4 Oct 1828 - )
Mother   Helen McKissock (c 1836 - 3 Jul 1915)

Birth* 1 Sep 1858 Dailly, Ayrshire, Scotland1,2 
Marriage* 20 Dec 1880 Helen Ferguson; 18 Monteith Row, Glasgow, Scotland 
Marriage* 25 Feb 1892 Annie Dunsmore; Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, Scotland 
Death* 14 Sep 1939 Old Townhead Road, Townhead, Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, Scotland 
Occupation* Blacksmith1,2 
Note* ORDINARY DECREET BOOK OF AYR SHERIFF COURT; ELLEN MCKISSOCK VERSUS HUGH HUTCHESON;

"At Ayr, the fifteenth day of March, eighteen hundred and fifty nine years. Sitting in judgement, James Robson esquire, Advocate Sheriff substitute of the County of Ayr, in an action before the Sheriff Court of the said county, at the instance of Ellen McKissock, residing at Plantinghead in the parish of Dailly. Pursuer against Hugh Hutcheson, cattle dealer, Girvan, defender, the said Sheriff substitute, in absence, decreed and ordained and hereby decrees and ordains the said Hugh Hutcheson, defender to pay to the said Ellen McKissock, pursuer, the following sums of money, as his proportion of the inlying expenses and aliment of an illegitimate male child, of which the pursuer was delivered on or about the first day of September 1858 and of which the defender is the father,viz. £2 sterling of inlying expenses; Item the sum of £6 sterling for nursing, clothing and aliment to the said child from the date of his birth, age and until it shall arrive at the age of ten years, complete said sum of aliment to be payable quarterly, and per advance with the legal interest of said sum of inlying expenses from, and since the first day of September last, and of each quarter aliment from and since the time it has fallen, or may hereafter fall due until paid, but under dedication always of the sum of 8 shillings, paid at various times to account of the inlying expenses and aliment. And superceding a execution on said decreet until each quarter aliment paid first come and begone, and reserving right to the pursuer to apply for an additional aliment on the expiry of said ten years; if said child shall then be unable to earn it's own subsistence; item the sum of £2 and 1 shilling sterling of taxed expenses of process, besides 3 shillings farther as the dues of extracting and recording this decreet, signed 3 June 1859 ".

Notes from the birth certificate of William McKissock; WILLIAM MCKISSOCK ALTERED TO WILLIAM HUGH MCCUTCHEON; " An action taken relating to a paternity of a child named William McKissock at the instance of Ellen McKissock of Plantinghead, in the parish of Dailly against Hugh Hutcheson, cattle dealer, Girvan, the Sheriff Court of Ayr, on the 15th of March 1859 found that the said child was the illegitimate child of the aforesaid parents. March 29, 1859".



And thus the descendants of William Hugh have McCutcheon for their surname instead of McKissock ! All though his life thereafter he was known as Hugh McCutcheon - traditionally the oldest of McCutcheon males has the name 'Hugh'
My great-grandfather spent his early years in a cottage in Plantinghead, which is sited two miles west of the village of Dailly. Nothing remains today of the cottage just bushes and a row of boulders. Here he lived at the time of the 1861 census, a 2 year old, the other persons in the cottage were his mother Helen, an unmarried domestic servant, and her Irish grandmother Agnes Hall, a 72 year old widow.
Four years later Helen (or Ellen, as she was sometimes known as) married John Stewart, an agricultural labourer, seven years her junior, also from Dailly. John took his stepson into his house but young Hugh kept the McCutcheon surname, even when his two Stewart half-brother were born.
My great-grandfather's occupation was a blacksmith, and a family boast is that he wrought the best horseshoes in Ayrshire. According to my Aunt Jean McCutcheon my great-grandfather lived at one time in Maidens on the Ayrshire coast, situated next to the Turnberry Hotel. But when he married in 1880, to another lass from Dailly , Helen Ferguson, it was at Montieth Row in Glasgow, overlooking Glasgow Green. By the timne the 1881 census came round the couple had moved to Elder Street, Govan with their name as McHutchison - the spelling of the name has been on occasion 'problematic' as regards the spelling, especially in the early years. A few months later Hugh and Helen had moved to another house in Govan and there their eldest child Helen (or Nellie as she was known) was born.
Hugh and Helen had two more children Henry and Hugh, both born in Govan. But some time after Hugh was born (in 1887) the family moved back to Ayrshire, to the town of Kilbirnie in the north of the county. Kilbirnie was a town where the main industry had been weaving, but in 1841 the Glegarnock Steelworks opened and this brought an influx of people not only from all over Scotland but from all over the world, and would provide work and material for blacksmiths such as my great-grandfather.
Tragedy struck the family in October 1890 when Helen died in childbirth.
In 1892 Hugh married my great-grandmother, 19 year-old Annie Dunsmore from nearby Lochwinnoch. There was an age gap between them of almost fourteen years. How they met I have no idea, but the marriage endured until Hugh's death in 1939 and it produced nine children. For the first few years the McCutcheons lived in Kilbirnie, then around 1898 the family moved to a tenement in Aitkenhead Road in the Mount Florida district of Glasgow. By the time the eighth child, Herbert was born in 1912, the McCuctheons were living in a house in Ellis Street in the centre of Coatbridge. Certainly the heavy industry would have provided work for Hugh and I believe he had his own blacksmiths shop in the area. Sometime my great-grandparents would move to a bungalow in the Townhead district of Coatbridge, and would name it 'Dunmore', perhaps with a nod to Annie's family. And it was here that he died in September 1939, eleven days after Great Britain declared war on Germany. It was only at the time of his funeral that the 'William' part of his name come to the family's notice.
Unfortunately I have no photograph of my great-grandfather, and have relied on my aunt's childhood memories of him. Being a blacksmith obviously he was physically strong. From my aunt's recollection he was a rather scary stern elderly character to his grandchildren. He had a curved moustache, and was also a pipe-smoker, in fact he had at his side a pot which he used as a spittoon. He certainly had an eventful life, and too this day I have been unable to establish exactly how many grandchildren he had, and research so far shows they number in the high 30s.3 
Residence* 1881 21 Elder Street, Govan, Glasgow, Scotland1 
(Widow(er)) Death 25 Oct 1890 Helen Ferguson; Leadingbank, Kilbirnie, Ayrshire, Scotland, Puerperal septicemia4 
Residence 1901 101 Aitkenhead Road, Govanhill, Glasgow, Scotland2 
Residence bt 1912 - 1919 21 Ellis Street, Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, Scotland5 

Family 1

   Helen Ferguson (excluded)
Children  1. Helen Stewart McCutcheon (excluded)
  2. Henry Alexander Fairlie McCutcheon (excluded)
  3. Hugh Ferguson McCutcheon (excluded)

Family 2

   Annie Dunsmore (21 Aug 1872 - 9 Jan 1963)
Children  1. Marion Grahame McCutcheon (excluded)
  2. John Stewart McCutcheon (excluded)
  3. William Dunsmore McCutcheon (excluded)
  4. George Buchanan McCutcheon (excluded)
  5. Margaret Jane Dunsmore McCutcheon (excluded)
  6. Robert Stewart McCutcheon+ (1903 - 1978)
  7. Annie Dunsmore McCutcheon (excluded)
  8. Herbert Buchanan McCutcheon (excluded)
  9. Grahame McCutcheon (excluded)

Citations

  1. Scottish GRO, 1881 census for Lanarkshire.
  2. 1901 Census for Glasgow.
  3. Robert Stewart McCutcheon, Nov 2007.
  4. Copy death certificate: Helen Ferguson, 25 Oct 1890.
  5. Copy birth certificate: Herbert Buchanan McCutcheon, 16 Jul 1912.