Turbulent times

Our kids have been taking it on the chin lately. Their version of the Apocalypse has included a plague, a revival of fascism, a rekindling of white supremacy, increasing fundamentalist intolerance, an economic system that functions for about 0.1 percent of us, and a cowardly collective response to an epoch-making climate crisis of our own creation. OK, we grew up with the aftermath of Watergate, but Trump makes Nixon look like Gandhi. Sure, we felt the looming threat of nuclear annihilation in a cold war, but by the time I was growing up this had become a relative abstraction. Some will argue with that perception, and others will (correctly) point out that the nuclear threat hasn’t disappeared at all, but sits rather like a piece of dirty laundry on top of which it and all these other reeking garments have been piled. Whatever.

My point is that our kids face threats that are more existential than the ones that defined my upbringing, and therefore, as a friend of mine recently said, I will never tell my children we had it harder growing up. Whatever the era of human history, we can agree that those who suffer the most and the longest are the children whenever the grown-ups are acting like children.

Ask them

We can ask young refugees on the move today what it’s like to grow up with genuinely existential threats hanging over one’s head, whether stemming from manufactured crises, war, persecution, or other cause. Their answers might not be so different from the ones we can imagine provided by Scottish children growing up during the Civil Wars, the Jacobite risings, the Highland and Lowland Clearances, and on and on.

Those turbulent times were bound to have left their mark on people like Janet Bonar, one of my sixth patrilineal great-grandmothers, her husband Peter Cromar, who in fact may have been a childhood refugee himself, and their children. Since we’ve already given her husband his due, let’s attempt to explore that world from Janet’s perspective as best we can.

Janet’s early life, possibly in Kildrummy

We are as unsure of Janet’s origins as we are of Peter’s, as there is no confirmable record regarding her birth. There are two records at ScotlandsPeople for Janet Bonars whose time frame potentially work, but the geography is improbable: Forgandenny (80+ miles, 27 hour walk) and Newburgh (76 miles, 25 hour walk) are implausibly far from Aberdeenshire. There is a record of a couple, Adame Bonar (also spelled Bonner, a common variation in the loose orthography of the day) and Margaret Thomson of Kildrummy, who married in 1687. Sadly, there is no other record for the couple. Kildrummy is 16 miles due north from Aboyne, and 14 miles from Lumphanan, both reasonable if longish round-trip walks.

Kildrummy and environs

Incidentally, Kildrummy, close to Alford, is also not far from Clatt or Cattie, places we identified as possibly having a relationship to a John Cromar, potential father to Peter. This correlation could support a theory that the Bonars and Cromars may even have known each other in the late 1600s.

Kildrummy is a town in the watershed of the River Don not unlike those found along the River Dee to the south, though there are some distinguishing features of note. Janet’s family may have attended worship services at Kildrummy’s old kirk, now no longer extant and replaced in 1805 by the unusual bow-fronted Kildrummy Kirk. The now-ruinous Kildrummy Castle is nearby, a large complex that was still in use at the time of Janet’s birth, specifically by the Earl of Mar as a center for rebellion until it was abandoned after the Jacobite Rising of 1715. Prior to that it had a storied history as a royal castle starting with James I in 1435, and even earlier had sheltered a besieged Robert the Bruce in 1306.

Marriage to Peter

In any event, the unconfirmed Adame and Margaret along with their dates are circumstantially compatible with Janet’s birth, recorded in a Family Search entry as an undocumented date of circa 1695 — which, if correct, also works for the birth of Robert Cromar in 1717. What we do thankfully have is a confirmed record of Janet’s marriage to Peter, on 9 October 1716, six months before the birth of Robert in the following April. Though it may appear the couple engaged in premarital conjugation prior to taking their vows, we must recall that Scottish practices of the day include some interesting variations on strictures regarding legal and sacramental cohabitation.

A likely handfasting

Handfasting was a practice of Scottish Gaels, and could have been used to define an unofficiated or “temporary” marriage, sealed by a pledge involving the shaking or holding of hands, with a more permanent arrangement officiated within the span of a year to legitimize any children. We’ve mentioned before that Scots law also provided for several flavors of “irregular” marriage including mutual agreement, a public promise followed by consummation, or cohabitation “by habit and repute.”

It’s clear, if these dates and relationships are correct, that Janet and Peter had some kind of arrangement in accordance with these customs.

Ceremony at the Auld Kirk?

This wedding in Kinker, as Kincardine O’Neil is referred to by locals, probably would have been officiated at the Auld Kirk (which we’ve seen before in our discussion of John Cromar and Ann George), founded in the 1330’s as part of larger hospital complex. We aren’t sure how this site was chosen, but since tradition dictated the wife’s parish as the choice for the site, this could indicate the Bonars had moved south, as the Cromars had.

Janet and Peter appear to settle in the farmlands around Kirkton of Aboyne and Lumphanan after their wedding. Their children, as recorded:

Children of Peter and Janet

• Robert 1717, possibly born in Aboyne as my 5th patrilineal great-grandfather. We’ll explore his wife Jannet Dun and their children in a future post.
• An unknown Cromar daughter born 1721, place unknown, but with an unconfirmed record having married a William Gordon in 1741 (a William is noted as born in Kincardine O’Neil in 1707 but this feels a bit early).
• A large gap of 9 years, in which one or more children could be unaccounted for.
• An unknown Cromar daughter born 1732, place unknown, with no marriage record.
• Peter, born 1733 in Lumphanan, married 1790 to Catherine Begg, possibly a second marriage given the date, and died 1815 in Lumphanan.
• George, born 1735 in an unknown place, married 1773 to Helen Ogg in Lumphanan, died 1797 in Coull, buried in Kirkton of Aboyne.
• An unknown Cromar daughter born 1735 in an unknown place, married 1755 to Andrew Miln.
• Alexander, born 1736 in Aboyne, married an unknown Shaw.
• John, born 1737 in Aboyne, married Jean Smith in 1762.
• Jean, born 1739 in Aboyne, no marriage record, died 1772 in Aboyne.

In the limited records where birth location has been noted we find children born in Lumphanan and Aboyne. Where we see Aboyne in the record, we assume this to mean the Kirkton and not the current site of Aboyne village centered around Charlestown Green. Where we see Lumphanan, we can conjecture this is in the neighborhood of Auchlossan or Auchinhove, as this later becomes a customary Cromar stomping-ground, though we can’t confirm a residence at Auchlossan for another generation or two.

It appears from this record that the family first lives in Aboyne or Lumphanan from 1716 through the early 1730s, with a definite residence in Lumphanan in 1733, and sometime in the mid 1730s definitively residing in Aboyne.

Life in Lumphanan

The farmland around Lumphanan is surrounded by small crofts and settlements referred to as fermtouns. If a mill is present, preceded in name by the term milton or miln, and if a church is present, by kirkton. In earlier posts we’ve encountered Milton of Auchlossan and Milton of Auchinhove. Cromar cousins not along my direct line have also historically been associated with Bogloch and other settlements. We aren’t certain where Janet and Peter resided in the Lumphanan area but it’s likely to be one of these settlements or one nearby.

The period in which Janet is raising a family here is between the 1715 and 1745 Jacobite Risings, an extremely turbulent time. The Earl of Mar had been routed in 1715 and fled the country, but Jacobite sympathies were rampant among other nobles in the area. Though the Cromars had resettled in Aboyne by the Forty-Five, readers recall the troubles of the Baron of Auchinhove, a local landlord, losing Auchinhove Castle to marauding British victors.

Unrecorded children?

This period seems poorly documented for the Cromars, and this is likely due to the chaos after 1715. Son Robert has a confusing provenance as we know, and the first of several Cromar daughters whose names are lost to time is born. There is a large gap of around 9 years until we encounter another unknown daughter and son Peter. While there are altogether 10 children recorded for Janet, it was extremely unusual for a young farmer’s wife to go nearly a decade without offspring. It’s entirely possible this family had 3, 4, even 5 more unrecorded children in this timeframe. In my research I have found it rare that stillborn children or those who died in infancy or young childhood go unrecorded. On the contrary: memorial stones are filled with inscriptions honoring the young deceased.

Nevertheless, these tragic occurrences are common, and it’s possible that this could explain some of the gap in the record, amplified by hard times. All we can say for sure is the first 4 to 6 recorded Cromar children spent some of their childhood in a farm settlement in the Lumphanan orbit.

The 1636 Gordon map

We haven’t found accurate maps of the area for the 1720s and 30s but we can surmise that settlements were largely a function of geography and access to water, features that endured in these times. The importance of the burns — streams leading to the River Dee — can be seen in the 1636 Gordon map which we’ve encountered before: geographically imprecise, it is a diagrammatically accurate depiction of the relationship between settlements and water.

Note “Lumfannan” and “Achinhove” along a Lumphanan Burn which sometimes contained a Loch of Auchlossan, alternating between drained and full over time (we see it prominently here). Note also “Coul” and “Obyne” along the Tarland Burn, fed in part by the Loch of Aboyne, as well as “Kincarn” on the banks of the Dee. These all appear as places of interest to Janet and Peter as well as their children. Turnpike roads don’t appear until near the end of the century, so it’s possible these tributaries sponsored roads between settlements, with a few muddy crossroads connecting them.

Life in the Kirkton of Aboyne

Recall the description of the Kirkton from John Henderson’s Aberdeen epitaphs as a “hamlet” which “never included more than a few straggling cottages of primitive construction” and sparsely populated. The social center was, of course, the thatch-roofed Saint Adamnan’s Kirk. The ministers of the Kirk would certainly have counted among people the Cromar family may have known. According to Henderson, they included Rev. George Shepherd (1716-52) and Rev. William Forsyth (1752-93).

Janet and Peter seem to have settled in Kirkton of Aboyne for the remainder of their days, meaning they had 30 to 40 years to develop a social network in the settlement. I have no doubt that, at least within the confines of social stratification in the day, everyone knew everyone else, and probably socialized and worshipped together. Bonds of friendship often became bonds of family, so it’s interesting to imagine how the Cromars may have developed these relationships. We can reconstruct this a bit by visiting the burial ground at Kirkton of Aboyne once again, to identify other persons likely encountered by the Cromar family as neighbors:

Allied Families in Kirkton of Aboyne

• The Ogg family’s Stone 70 contains several Oggs buried between 1780 and 1846. Their count in the burial ground is second only to my family. The Cromars were well acquainted with the Oggs, having joined in matrimony through Helen Ogg and George Cromar. Elizabeth, Isabella, John, Margaret, William, a second John, and a third John probably represent about 3 generations who were neighbors. Other Oggs at other stones who they may have known as youngsters include a James at Stone 50, died 1836, and a James 1816, Jane 1832, and Peter 1833 at Stone 53. Margaret Mason is also recorded on that stone in 1838.
• Rogers interred with the Oggs at Stone 70 include Rachael 1832 and John with no date.
• A Steven named Elizabeth is also recorded with the Oggs in 1826.
• The Milne family is joined by the Cromars when Catherine Cromar weds Peter Milne. Prior to that, contemporaries to Janet Bonar and Peter Cromar include William and Margaret with the variant name Milnes, both died 1774, at Stone 28. Contemporaries to their children might include Robert 1817 and Andrew 1822, Stone 23; Ann 1816 on the Wilson’s Stone 34; and James 1828 and Ann 1838, Stone 30.
• Ann Milne 1816 married into the Wilson family, whose Stone 34 includes Robert 1814, Nathaniel 1815, and a second Nathaniel 1816. Euphemia Angus is memorialized with them, 1808.
• Janet Robertson is memorialized with Charles Brown on Stone 71, both in January 1794. Robertsons marry into the Cromar family a century later.

Other Neighbors

• One of the earliest stones belongs to the Davidson family, beginning with George 1750 and John n.d. on Stone 25. Others in the family are on Stone 26, including another John 1839, a third John, a Janet, and a Jean, all with no date.
• Several Neils are found at Stone 31: Isabel 1812, Peter 1823, Janet 1828, Barbara 1829, and Peter 1833. A Robert 1836 is found at Stone 32.
• Grants are recorded on Stone 2 beginning with Grigor 1815, Lewis, and Margret, both with no date. Stone 4 continues with George 1820 and Catherine 1834.
• Jean Thomson married into the Duncan family and is inscribed on Stone 8 in 1801 alongside Duncans including Robert 1781, Joseph 1818, and Alexander and Isabel, both 1834. Other Thomsons are found on stones with later dates.
• The earliest Walker memorialized at Stone 62 Margaret 1834, followed by Isabel 1835 and William 1835. We find other Walkers including William 1841 on Stone 61 is 15 and John 1843 at Stone 15.
• Several Chapmans are found on Stones 41 and 42: William 1790, Margaret 1792, Elspet 1802, Alexander 1806, another William 1826, two Elspeths 1802 and 1812, and another Margaret 1823.
• On those same stones we find Isabella Calder 1788 and John Ewen 1838. Another Ewen, Margaret 1834, is inscribed on Stone 40.

Still more

• Numerous Gordons on the flamboyant Stone 64 of later date are predated by Peter 1804 on Stone 1 and Duncan on Stone 47.
• Along with Peter Gordon on Stone 1 we find an Alexander named Alexander, died 1774, and on Stone 6 a Mary, 1803.
• Mary is interred with the Merchants, Alexander 1803 and John 1830.
• William Gauld on Stone 49 in 1822 is joined by kin George 1825 and Margaret 1834. The Neils had married into this family with Margaret, died 1848.
• The MacHray family’s earliest record on Stone 16 is Peter, 1839.
• The Birss family’s earliest record is Isaac on Stone 18, 1844.
• The Begg family record begins on Stone 22 with James, 1842.
• The Innes family begins on Stone 54 with Isobela, 1836, and Charles with no date.
• Nicolsons are recorded on Stone 5: Helen 1812 and John with no date.

If the burial yard is any indication, there appear to be more than two dozen families present in the Kirkton at the time the Cromars reside there, several of whom intermarry with my family. Given the large size of rural families at the time, we could easily say there were in excess of 300 citizens in the thrall of Aboyne Castle and its lords.

Changes in the order of things

During the time Janet and Peter are in Aboyne, the Forty-Five rebellion erupts and is quelled with disastrous consequences for Scotland’s people. A perusal of the list of rebels found in the contemporaneous document with the Proustian title A list of persons concerned in the rebellion, transmitted to the Commissioners of Excise by the several supervisors in Scotland in obedience to a general letter of the 7th May 1746, and a supplementary list with evidences to prove the same indicates no direct activity by the Cromar family in the uprising, though the names of some of the families above make a showing.

By 1745, Peter is 55 years old, not too old to fight by some accounts, but he is obliged to stay with Janet and keep a large brood fed at home. It is also entirely possible that the Cromars sided with the status quo, though if our theory regarding Peter’s origins is true, it would be a stretch to think he’d side with the government that sent his kin fleeing for their lives. However, something other than rebellion happens to disrupt the order of things, something that may have affected the Cromars even more consequentially than the put-down of revolt and subsequent occupation.

Agricultural disruption

That disruption is the radical shift of agricultural land management that occurred a few years after Culloden, around 1750. The old fermtoun model was abandoned and land was subdivided into single farmsteads and new planned villages. At the time, the Cromars would have been under the tenancy of the Earls of Aboyne. This line of peerage was created or perhaps revived for Charles Gordon in 1660, passed to his son Charles in 1681 as the second Earl, thence to his son John as the third Earl in 1702, and on to another Charles as the fourth Earl from 1732 until 1794. In upbeat reportage from Henderson’s Aberdeen epitaphs, this Charles was a so-called “improving” landlord for the parish:

Besides giving every possible encouragement to the tenantry, he formed large plantations and built no less than forty miles of stone fences, upwards of five feet in height, for the purpose of enclosing and subdividing the extensive lands.

Such “improvements” served to disrupt the way of life known by Aberdeenshire folk (for better and for worse, it should be said), probably far more than the battles of the Jacobites.

Goodbye to our toun

We can also bear witness to the eventual eclipsing of of the Kirkton as a viable community starting with the creation of the village of Aboyne by the first Earl Charles in 1671. The name Charlestown can be seen on several maps for this new village, and in fact the Village Green, an unusual feature which the Earl imported from English town planning, still goes by the name Charlestown Green. It would seem his newer village was adapted by subsequent Earls as one of the “planned towns” in the new order of things.

360 view over Charlestown Green in Aboyne Village. From this vantage one can pan to see Aboyne Castle and Loch of Aboyne, beyond which one can find the Kirkton of Aboyne burial ground. | Embedded interactive from Google Maps

The mystery of Janet’s final days

Janet’s final days are as shrouded in mystery as her orgins: breadcrumbs yes, but nothing that can be substantiated. A note by Ron Cromar suggests Janet passes away on 9 September 1789, nearly two decades after Peter Cromar’s well-documented demise, and approaching the ancient age of about 94.

Unfortunately Janet Bonar does not turn up in the family plot in Aboyne under any kind of spelling variant. Instead, Ron’s date is only backed up by a crowd-sourced Geneanet tree with no documentation, and worse, a location far from Aboyne: Strathmiglo, Fife, about 80 miles south in the Midlands, halfway between Dundee and Edinburgh. How could, and why would, Janet end up so far away, with no other documented family in that area? Keep in mind she was already 75 years old when husband Peter passed. A search for any other confirming documentation or inscription anywhere in the watersheds of the Rivers Don or Dee, to my mind the most likely places for burial, leads nowhere. Janet’s final resting place is lost to the turbulent history of Scotland for now.