James McGregor and family of Edinburgh Scotland 1841.

[tenterfieldjulie]

Thanks to JBee's help I have been able to identify the family of Ann McGregor and then found she had a twin sister Isabella. Ann also named her daughter Isabella and she was my friend Deb's ancestor who came to Australia. So very delighted to make the connection.

I would like some more help please, on Ancestry in the 1841 Scotland Census is the correct family - James Mcgregor age 30 St Cuthberts, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland (Miller) and his family. Ref. 685/2

Their Address is transcribed as Haugh St Braid Lands. I have found a Haugh Street in Edinburgh, but I am puzzled by the Braid Lands. Is this a bad transcription :eek:, or can anyone shed light on it please:confused:? Thanks. Julie G

[kiterunner]

Have you looked at the image on Scotland's People, Julie? Or at least at the FMP transcription? Ancestry's transcriptions of the Scottish censuses are pretty bad.

[kiterunner]

Okay, found the FreeCEN transcription which should be more reliable, and it says Braid Lands too, so I guess it is correct.
http://www.freecen.org.uk/cgi/search.pl
(this is just a link to FreeCEN; you will need to search for James McGregor age 30 in Midlothian, 1841 census.)

[kiterunner]

There is an 1841 census street index for Edinburgh (PDF):
https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//research/census-records/street-indexes/1841/1841-edinburgh.pdf
It includes Braid Lands.

[tenterfieldjulie]

Thanks Kite that is wonderful.

[tenterfieldjulie]

Look what you find when googling :D

THE BRAID HILLS HISTORY

The Braid Hills are more trachyte and andesite lavas erupted in Lower Devonian times as part of the Pentland Hills Volcanic Formation. They are about 410 million years old. There is a viewpoint indicator on the summit, and a bridle path encircles the two golf courses.

LOCAL AREA HISTORY

Although nothing of it now remains, Braid Castle stood above the Braid Burn from the 12th to the 18th centuries. The first recorded owner of the lands of Braid is a Sir Henry, or Henri, de Brad, or de Brade, who is named as sheriff of Edinburgh in 1165 and 1200. He was probably descended from a Flemish knight named Richard de Brad (or de Breda) who came to Scotland with David I. Henry owned lands from Braid right down into the Pentlands, and Bavelaw Castle seems to have been another of his properties, as in the early 13th century he is recorded as having granted the lands of Bavelaw to Holyrood Abbey.

The lands of Braid were apparently owned by the de Brad family until 1305, after which it’s unclear who the owners were. But by 1485 they were owned by James Fairlie of Braid, and the Fairlie family continued to own them until 1631, when Sir Robert Fairlie sold Braid to Sir William Dick, later styled Sir William Dick of Braid. Following Sir William’s death in 1655, the Exchequer seems to have sold “the lands and barony of Braid, with the manor places, houses, biggings, yards, orchards, barns, byres, stables, dovecots, meadows, muirs, marshes, mill, mill-lands, multures, sucken, sequels and whole pertinents thereof” to a John Brown of Gorgie Mill. Early in the 18th century a new house was built on the Braid estate, and this probably marked the end of Braid Castle. Interestingly on John Adair’s map of Midlothian from around 1682 a large house or castle named Bread is shown on the north bank of the Braid burn, to the west of a walled garden. However on Richard Cooper’s updated 1735 version of Adair’s map, a new property named Hermitage has appeared to the east of the older building. This would appear to confirm the crags above the Hermitage of Braid as the most likely location for Braid Castle. In 1772 the lands of Braid were bought by Charles Gordon of Cluny, and in 1785 he commissioned Robert Burn to build a new house, Hermitage of Braid House. The Braid estate remained in the Gordon family until 1937, when a John McDougal gifted the estate to the City of Edinburgh, buying it from the Cluny trustees. It is now a Local Nature Reserve run by the City of Edinburgh

HISTORY OF BRAID HILLS HOTEL AND THE LOCAL AREA

The Braid Hills Hotel stands on a hill above Pentland Terrace and Comiston Road in Edinburgh and has excellent views over the city.

Built in 1886 the hotel truly is an Edinburgh landmark.

Since then the hotel has been immortalised within the pages of Muriel Spark's ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’, providing our motto to be the crème de la crème of Morningside.

James McGregor was a miller.