Allison

The name Allison has a long association with the Mearns area. "A History of Mearns" published by Eastwod District Libraries has reference to a "George Alaneon" in a document dated 1494, and a further reference to a "John Allasoune" in a list of heretors in the Poll Tax roll of 1695.

There is also further refernce in "The History of the Alison or Allison Family - In Europe and America" by Leonard Allison Morrison, A. M., published in 1893 in Boston, Massachusetts, as follows 

It was then that Cairnduff, the original seat of the Alisons, passed from them to the Cochranes, Mungo Cochrane having married an Alison, the owner of the estate. After the death of Cromwell, his son Richard succeeded, but soon after he was compelled to abdicate, and Charles II, who had fled to the continent, returned again in 1660. Then, if persecution existed before, it was increased ten fold now. The acts he soon after passed testify to the severity of his reign. By the Corporation act every individual v/ho did not conform to the religion of the state was dismissed from his office, whether civil or sacred. By the Uniformity act 2,000 ministers in England and 400 in Scotland were ejected from their churches and condemned as rebels to the state. By the Conventicle act the Puritans of England and the Covenanters of Scotland were forbidden to assemble in the house or in the field under the penalty of death. Then it was that Claverhouse scoured the moors and mountains of Scotland, slaying with his sword or shooting with his gun all who refused to abjure the Covenant and take the oath of allegiance. These acts awakened a painful commotion in Avondale and surrounding parishes, where the adherents of the Solemn League and Covenant were numerous and powerful. It was in 1664 that a considerable number in Avondale, Kilbride, and Carmunock were banished from their parishes. Among these were James Alison and Archibald Alison, previously of Cairnduff. They refused to attend the Prelatic Church and otherwise aroused the indignation of the curates, hence they were expelled from the parish of Avondale. James Alison escaped to Renfrewshire, and became proprietor of a farm called Kerrs, in the parish of Lochwinnoch. This James Alison remained faithful to the Covenant in his new home. In reading Crookshank's " History of the Church of Scotland," we find this James Alison, along with forty others, compelled to walk through wind and snow to Stirling, where they were imprisoned. We find the very same parties sent to the Canongate prison, in Edinburgh, and after a mock trial conderaiied and consigned to the prison in Dunottar Castle. After remaining there for a time, this James Alison returned to his home and farm in Kerrs of Lochwinnoch. He is supposed to be the ancestor of a considerable number of Alisons that still reside in Paisley, Langbank, and Mearns, in the county of Renfrew. (Full text available at http://www.archive.org/stream/historyofalisono00morr/historyofalisono00morr_djvu.txt)

The first traceable members of the Allison branch of our family history are a Robert Allison, a farmer at Malletsheugh, Mearns,# and his wife Agnes Gilmour. The first actual record of them is the entry in the Mearns parish register of the baptism of their son, James, the next generation in our family history, on 9th June 1782. (For further details of Malletsheugh farm - See Appendix A.) The first actual record of them is the  entry in the Mearns parish register of the birth at Malletsheugh on 2nd June 1782 of their son, James, the next generation in our family history, and his subsequent baptism on 9th June 1782. No record of Robert and Agnes marriage has been found, but would seem likely that James was actually their first child, and therefore any marriage of Robert and Agnes would have occurred circa 1780, with them being born circa 1750. 

The Mearns parish register records the baptism of a further four of Robert and Agnes's children after James. The first of these was Robert, baptised on 5th June 1787, followed by Agnes, baptised on 11th March 1787, Janet, baptised on 6th December 1789, and a second Agnes, baptised on 29th October 1797. (The first Agnes may have died in infancy.)

It is not known when Robert Allison and Agnes Gilmour died, although there is no record of them in the census of 7th June 1841 for Mearns district. There is a record of their gravestone in the "Memorial Inscriptions of Renfrewshire" as existing in the graveyard of Mearns parish church, but unfortunately the majority of the inscription seems to have been illegible at the time of recording. The little that did remain is only sufficient to identify it as their gravestone, without giving any meaningful dates. The stone itself is no longer visible at, or near, the site shown in the diagram in the "Memorial Inscriptions of Renfrewshire", and the assumption is that it was a recumbent stone and probably still exists, overgrown by turf and moss. (For further details of the missing Allison gravestone - See Appendix B.)

Sometime circa 1810, James, the eldest son of Robert and Agnes,  married Margaret Ritchie, the daughter according to her later death certificate, of James Ritchie, a farmer, and Jean Pollok. Her age of 66 given on this certificate, would make her born circa 1791, and the 1851 census gives her place of birth as Mearns, but no record of her birth, or her later marriage to James Allison has been found. (For further details of Margaret Ritchie's parentage - See Appendix C.)

James Allison and Margaret Ritchie's first recorded child was a son, Robert Allison, whose birth was recorded in the Mearns parish register on 5th August 1811. Over the next twenty-two years the births \ baptisms of another eight of James Allison and Margaret Ritchie's children were recorded in the Mearns parish register: - Jean Allison, born.7th July 1814; Agnes Allison, born 15th July 1816; Margaret Allison, born 3rd March 1819; James Allison, born 7th April 1821, Janet Allison, baptised 28th February 1823, William Allison, born 1st August 1824, (next generation in our family history); Janet Allison, born 21st July 1828; Elizabeth Allison, baptised 26th February 1833. (For further details of James Allison and Margaret Ritchie's other children - See Appendix D.)

By the census of 1841 for Mearns, James Allison, his wife Margaret, and seven of their children were living at Malletsheugh farm, near Mearns village. James had presumably taken over the farm, as eldest son, after the death of his father, Robert. There were in fact two other James Allisons along with their families farming nearby, James Allison and his wife Janet Craig at Westfield and James Allison and Agnes Russell farming at South Faulds. (For further details of these "other" Allisons- see Appendix Q)

1841 Census (7th. June)  Mearns (571)  Book 3.  Page 18.

Malletsheugh farm, by Mearns village.

By the census of 31st March 1851 James and his wife, Margaret, were still resident at Malletsheugh farm, but only their sons, and their youngest daughter, Elizabeth, seem to have been still living with them.

1851 Census (31st. March)  Mearns (454)  Book 7.  Page 2.

Malletsheugh farm, by Mearns village.

** This age would seem to be incorrect as it would make Margaret aged only 11 at the birth of her eldest son Robert.

In this census the farm was identified as being 50 acres, with a Janet Ritchie, a house servant, and James Andrew, identified as nephew, in the house along with James Allison and his family. James Andrew was in fact the eldest son of Jean Allison, (James Allison and Margaret Ritchie's eldest daughter), and her husband William Andrew. They had been married on 15th June 1838 in Mearns, and James was baptised on 5th July 1838. James Andrew was therefore the grandson of James Allison and Margaret Ritchie, not their nephew. It is possible however that the details in this census were supplied by one of James and Margaret's children, who would have correctly identified James Andrew as their nephew. This would also go some way to explaining the obvious inaccuracy of Margaret Ritchie's age in this census.

Six and a half years after this census, , on 29th October 1857, Margaret Ritchie died aged 66.  She was laid to rest in the Mearns parish church graveyard along side her second eldest son, James, who had died four and a half years previously, on 9th May 1853, aged 32. (For further details of this Allison headstone - See Appendix E.)

On 8th June 1860 William Allison, James and Margaret's youngest son, who was running the Malletsheugh Inn at the time, married Christina Allison, a female servant in Paisley. (For further details of the Malletsheugh Inn - See Appendix F.)  Christina was baptised in Mearns parish, on 10th November 1834, the daughter of Hugh Allison, a roadman at Loganswell Toll on the Kilmarnock Turnpike road, (For details of Turnpike/Toll Roads - See Appendix G.), just up from the Malletsheugh farm, and Janet Todd. (For further details of Christina's parents and family - See Appendix H.)

With the marriage of William Allison and Christina Allison we come up against a problem. Their "son", Andrew Todd Allison, who is the next generation in our family history, is certainly the son of Christina Allison, being named after her maternal grandfather, Andrew Todd. However his birth occurred some six years before his mother's marriage to William Allison, which must shed some doubt on William Allison being his father. Unfortunately no record of the birth of Andrew Todd Allison, if in existence, has yet been found to settle this matter one way or other. Whatever the case, in the census of 8th April 1861, he is recorded  as the son of William Allison, (not as step-son), living with his father, mother and baby sister, Margaret who had been born, at the Malletsheugh Inn, five and a half weeks before the census, on 27th February 1861.

1861 Census (8th April)  Mearns (571)  Book 8. Page 8.

Malletsheugh Inn, by Mearns village.

Back at the Malletsheugh farm itself, William's widowed father, James Allison, aged 78, was living with his eldest son, Robert, and three grandsons, James Andrew, already mentioned, James Leggat, baptised 9th November 1843, the son of James Allison's second eldest daughter, Margaret and William Leggat, married 3rd October 1841 in Mearns, and Allison Carse, baptised on 8th June 1854, the "natural" son of James Allison's youngest daughter Elizabeth and William Carse. He also has two "servants" in residence, Mary Hopkin, a dairymaid, and Janet Cameron, a domestic servant.

1861 Census (8th April)  Mearns (571)  Book 7. Page 11.

Malletsheugh farm, by Mearns village.

A year and a half after this census William and Margaret had a second daughter, Janet, born on 2nd December 1862.

On 9th January 1865, James Allison died, aged 82, and was laid to rest alongside his wife, Margaret Ritchie in the graveyard of the Mearns parish church. The farm was inherited by Robert, his eldest son, who had married Mary Hopkin, (the dairymaid in the 1861 census), on 8th July 1862 in Hutchesontown, Glasgow. (For a transcription of James Allison's will - see Appendix N.)

William Allison, James's youngest son, was bequeathed the rent free tenancy of "a tenement" on the lands of Malletsheugh for life. This bequest may well explain why, on the birth certificate of his next child, a son William, born on 8th May 1865, he is recorded as living at simply "Malletsheugh", working as a farm labourer, (probably for his brother Robert on the Malletsheugh farm), having seemingly left the Malletsheugh Inn, and his job as spirit merchant there.  

By the census of 3rd April 1871 William Allison and Christina Allison's family had increased with the births of three more children, Christina on 23rd February 1867, Jane on 12th December 1868, and James on 5th January 1871, all born at Malletsheugh, Mearns, with their father's occupation recorded as farm labourer/ ploughman. The family's income seems to be being supplemented with the inclusion of a lodger, Catherine Black, a bleachfield worker at one of the neighbouring bleachfields.

1871 Census (3rd April)  Mearns (571)  Book 8. Page 10.

Malletsheugh, by Mearns village.

Andrew Allison their? eldest son, is not living at home at this time, and in fact was working at Hillhead South farm, for John Armour as a farm servant.

1871 Census (3rd April)  Mearns (571)  Book ?. Page ?.

Hillhead South farm, by Mearns village.

Over the next seven and a half years William and Christina's family was completed with the births of a further two daughters, Elizabeth on 23rd June 1874, and Agnes on 10th September 1878. Both children were born at Malletsheugh, with William's occupation being recorded as farm labourer on Agnes's birth certificate. On the birth certificate of Elizabeth, William's occupation is given as "Feuar", referring to William's tenancy as bequeathed to him by his father.  (For further details of the children of William Allison and Christina Allison - See Appendix M.)

Two and a half years after the birth of William and Christina's last child, their? eldest son, Andrew Todd Allison, married Mary Marshall. (For further details of a Marshall/Allison connection - See Appendix I.) The marriage took place on 29th November 1878, at Townhead, Mearns, where Mary was employed as a female servant, although she was born at Scott's Land, Milngavie, on 21st February 1857, the daughter of William Marshall, a quarryman/contractor, (deceased by 1878), and Annie Henderson. She was the eighth on nine children, although William Marshall had had five previous children by his first wife, Mary Brown. (SEE MARSHALL FAMILY HISTORY).

Andrew Allison and Mary Marshall's first child, a daughter Annie, was born at Malletsheugh on 9th June 1879, but for the census of 4th April 1881, the family were living at 3 St. James Street, Govan.  Andrew, the father, is listed as a "Railway carter", presumably providing a delivery/transport service to and from nearby stations and goods yards. (Note - Andrew Allison is missing from the LDS 1881 census transcription  - this is from the original!)

1881 Census (4th April)  Govan (644-13)  Book 30. Page 14.

3 St. James Street, Govan, Glasgow

 William and Christina Allison, Andrew's parents, were still at Malletsheugh, along with their children in the 1881 census.

1881 Census (4th April)  Mearns (571)  Book 8. Page 1 & 2.

Malletsheugh, by Mearns village.

Six months after this census, on 29th October 1881, William and Christina's eldest daughter, Janet, gave birth to a "natural" child, a son Hugh. The birth occurred at the Malletsheugh Inn, and  although the father's name is not recorded, the birth certificate is of interest as the birth was registered by the grandmother, Christina Allison, and instead of a proper signature, it simply bears her "mark", a cross, suggesting that she was unable to write. (The Malletsheugh Inn was being run by an Alexander King at this time.)

Three weeks later, on 18th November 1881, Andrew Allison and Mary Marshall's second child, a son William, was born. He was born at Whitehill, Shotts, where his father, Andrew, seems to have been working as a Farm overseer.

Andrew and Mary remained at Whitehill, with Andrew as farm manager/overseer for the next eight years. They had a further three children over this period with the births of Andrew Todd, on 7th February 1884, Mary Marshall, the next generation in our family history, on 6th October 1886, and Janet born on 12th January 1889.

The  year after Janet's birth, back in Mearns, Christina Allison, Andrew's mother, died, on 17th January 1890, at Malletsheugh, aged 55.

For the census of April 1891 William Allison, Andrew's recently widowed father was visiting his married daughter Margaret.  She was living at Nethershields farm, Glassford, Lanarkshire with her husband, William Hamilton, a farmer, and their two young sons, James, aged 3,  and William, aged   Note that one of the general servants, Christina MacDonald, from Stornaway, spoke Gaelic as well as English, and the farm servant John Hendry is no relation - as far as I know!

1891 Census (6th  April)  Glassford (645)  Book 4. Page 2.

Nethershields farm, Glassford, Lanarkshire

**English and Gaelic speaker

Andrew and Mary had moved from Whitehill and were living at Cityside, Shotts, although Andrew, the father's, occupation remains farm grieve (manager).

1891 Census (6th April)  Shotts (655-1)  Book 6. Page 1.

Cityside, Shotts.

Although it was at Cityside that Andrew and Mary's sixth child, a son David, was born, one month after this census on 29th June 1891, by the birth of their seventh child, a son Robert, on 14th September 1893 the family had returned to Whitehill, as it was there that his birth was recorded.  A further two children were born at Whitehill to Andrew and Mary before the turn of the century, Margaret born on 19th December 1895, and John born on 9th November 1898 and it is at Whitehill that we find the family for the census of 1901. Sadly their son David, born on 29th June 1891, is missing from the census having on 24th June 1896, just before his fifth birthday.

1901 Census (1st April) Shotts (655/1)  Book 3 Page 1.

Whitehill Farm, Shotts.

Seven months after this census Andrew and Mary  had their tenth and final child, Christina, born on 15th August 1901.   Sadly two years later, on 7th November 1903, their eldest son, William, (born 18th November 1881), died, just a week and a half before his twenty-second birthday. (For further details of Andrew Allison and Mary Marshall's children - See Appendix J.)

Back in Mearns, William Allison, Andrew Allison's father?, was living closeby the Malletsheugh Inn in one of the farm cottages. (The census record for William Allison is the one immediately following that of the Malletsheugh Inn).

1901 Census (1st April)  Mearns (571/2)  Book 5 Page 2.

Malletsheugh, by Mearns village.

On 19th May 1910 Andrew and Mary's oldest daughter, Mary Marshall Allison gave birth to a baby girl Mabel Marshall Dalglish Allison. The baby was born at Craighead Farm where her parents had been farming since 1908\09. The birth certificate does not give a father's name but the Mabel's descendents were led to believe that Mary was working as a maid and the father was her employer, (?? Mr Aitken ??) who had an invalid wife, and possibly with no children of his own.. The father wanted to bring her up in his household, but his family wouldn't hear of it. He did provide money to look after the child  until she was 14, when she left school. The baby Mabel was taken under the wing of her grandparents and grew up at Craighead Farm., whilst Mary got on with her life. (for further details of Mabel's life and her descendents - See Appendix O)

On 16th April 1912, Andrew and Mary's oldest daughter, Mary Marshall Allison, now aged 25, married Thomas Law, a timber salesman, who was living at the time in Falkirk. Thomas Law was born on 16th September 1878, at Netherhouses farm, Armadale, near Bathgate, the son of Hugh Law, a farmer, and Susanna Robb. (SEE LAW & ROBB FAMILY HISTORIES)

By the time of Mary's marriage, her father, Andrew Allison, was installed at Craighead farm, Salsburgh, Shotts, and as it was no great distance from Thomas Law's parent's farm of Netherhouses, it is probable that the parents of the bride and groom were already acquainted. (For further details of Craighead Farm - See Appendix K.)

Thomas and Mary's first child, a daughter, Mary, was born on 10th November 1912, at Bankrigg, parish of Yester, but their second child, also a daughter, Susanna Margaret, born two years later, on 12th September 1914, was born at St. Ives, Laurieston, Falkirk. Sadly Andrew Allison, Mary's father, died on 30th May 1914, at Craighead, five months before the birth of this second grandchild. He was buried in Kirk O'Shotts graveyard beside the two sons that had predeceased him, William and David. 

Back in Mearns, William Allison, Andrew Allison's father?, and great-grandfather to Mary and Margaret, died at  Malletsheugh on 22nd December 1915, aged 90, having outlived his son by a year.

By the birth of Thomas and Mary's next child, a son, Andrew Allison, on 23rd November 1916, the family had moved to 9 St. Ronan's Terrace, Morningside, Edinburgh, as it was there that the birth was recorded. This was to remain the family home for over sixty years, and it was here that Thomas and Mary's family was completed with the births of a further two children, Thomas on  11th April 1921, and Janet Allison Spence on 9th August 1927.

Three years after the birth of Janet Allison Spence, her sole remaining grandparent, her maternal grandmother, Mary Marshall, died, aged 73. She died on 19th March 1930, at Motherwell Hospital, although her usual residence was given on the death  certificate as Mill farm, Gartness. She was laid to rest alongside her husband, Andrew Allison, and her two sons William and David in Kirk O'Shotts graveyard.