More Plantations: The Russell Family Revisited

Having looked recently at my plantation and slave owning Madan and Nisbet ancestors, I need to revisit my Russell ones (see earlier posts here). This is mostly going to be more genealogical because trying to fathom the complexities of how the estates of these and other related families got passed on from generation along with other legacies needs way more time to unravel than I can commit. And not least because that’s something that still appears to be ongoing at the Centre for the Study of legacies of British slave ownership (who have even cited this blog). I will try and tackle some of the ownership and passing on, but this post is also an attempt to check previous findings having found more about these families, including their plantation and slave owning.

The Trotters of Mortonhall

Mortonhall near Edinburgh

While I try and come to terms with my ancestors’ role in slavery in the West Indies my cousin Hamish Maclaren has added some new branches to the collective family tree of Maclarens, Birtwistles and Many Other Families that he’s been building at Rootsweb. He’s managed to help me go back a few more generations with the genealogical dead end I’d mentioned in my earlier posts, this includes John Trotter, 1st of Morton Hall going back to Thomas Trotter, of Catchelraw:

The digital portrait collection

The Wedding of Giles Simon Kirby and Angela Mary Julie Birtwistle 1952

This post is a version of my Genealogical dead ends revisted post, but it’s about the photograps and illustrations I’ve found of my ancestors rather than just their names. I’ll do one about places sometime, and also about biographies, etc. I have set up a photostream on FlickR so you can see all the images in a slideshow, and I will link to the individual photos from the names of ancestors I have identified below. 

Mansfield, Ramsay and related banking families

Portrait of William Ramsay of Barnton (1732-1805) by Sir Henry Raeburn

I’ve been avoiding writing up this chapter of my Scottish ancestors from Edinburgh for a few years now because it involves some transcription from one of the only books/journals I’ve bought for this project: ‘From James Mansfield to Ramsays, Bonar & Company: some notes on the story of a private bank‘, by Zella Ashford, in ‘Book of the Old Edinburgh Club‘, vol 6 (2005).

Closest Scottish Ancestors and Relatives

Scottish Ancestors Chart

I’ve been putting together a Scottish Ancestor Chart of my closest Scottish Ancestors for my mother’s Christmas present. It shows how we are related to both Clan Maitland through my great grandmother Alice Marie (Elsie) Maitland and to the McDonnells of Keppoch through my great great grandmother Christina Mary ‘Theresa’ McDonnell of Keppoch. I’ve also shown how our Ramsay of Barnton ancestors fit as we are descended from both George Ramsay of Barnton and his sister Alison Ramsay who married Sir John Marjoribanks.  A huge chunk of this as been helped by all the photos from my cousin Charles Daniel, but Viscount Maitland kindly provided me with the snippet of the Maitland Pedigree and Lyon and Turnball kindly gave me the copy of the portrait of William Ramsay of Barnton by Sir Henry Raeburn. George Graham has also been a great help with all the detail as I just skim the surface while trying to join the dots.

The Nisbets of Carfin Connection

I’d recently written to Mark Nesbitt of the Nesbit/Nisbet Society. I explained that I was trying to find out more about my Nisbet ancestors having discovered that I’m connected to Nisbet family through Alice Anne Nisbet who married George Ramsay Maitland in September 1848. Mark has kindly sent me a number of pointers including an extract from The Nisbets of Carfin by John A. Inglis (1961), and I’ve included the relevant ancestry below.

My Marjoribanks Ancestors

Having only just realised that I’m descended from the Marjoribanks family (see here), I’d thought I’d take a look at this branch of my ancestry. According to the entry on the wiki about the Origins of the Clan, Princess Marjorie was the only daughter of King Robert the Bruce. She married Walter Stewart, High Steward of Scotland, in 1316. She was thus the mother of the first of the royal Stewarts, and received as part of her marriage settlement lands in Renfrewshire which became known as Terre de Marjorie, later Marjoribanks (pronounced ‘Marchbanks’). I’m still not sure how the Robert Marjoribanks of that ilk that I found on the Stirnet.com site is connected, but that’s as far back as I’ve got so far.

The Marjoribanks Connection via the Ramsays and Maitlands, and on to Castle Gogar

I’ve been trying to work out how I’m connected to the Marjoribanks family and realised that George Ramsay Maitland married Alice Anne Nisbet in September 1848. She was born around 1825 in INDIA, and was the daughter of Josiah Nisbet, of the Honourable East India Company’s Civil Service (HEICCS), and Rachael Marjoribanks.

Rachel was the daughter of Sir John Marjoribanks (1st Bart of Lees, Lord Provost of Edinburgh) and Alison Ramsay (daughter of William Ramsay of Barnton). This means that William Ramsay of Barnton was the great grandfather of both Alice Anne Nisbet and her husband George Ramsay Maitland (see table below).

Ramsay’s revisited 3 (amendment)

Whoops turns out I’ve made a mistake about the Ramsays. Peter Ramsay ran the White Horse Inn, in St. Mary’s Wynd, Edinburgh. Boswell seems to have frequented the Inn and Dr Johnson even stayed there. His death was recorded in the Scottish Register on Jan 1st 1794 (from Edinburgh Old and New: Volume II):

At his son’s house of Gogar, Co. Edinburgh, Peter Ramsay, Esq., formerly an eminent innkeeper at the Cowgate Port, in which station he acquired upwards of £30,000. He has left one son, William Ramsay, jun., Esq., a banker in Edinburgh, and one daughter, the widow of Captain Mansfield, of the South Fencible Regiment, who lost his life in Leith in 1779, when attempting to quell a mutiny.

This makes William Ramsay (junior), the cousin rather than brother of my ancestor George Ramsay of Barnton. Interestingly, they ended up with the same son-in-law.

Ramsays revisited part 2

As mentioned, in my previous post on the Ramsay Family (Ramsays revisited part 1), the first Ramsay ancestors I can trace are a a Mr Peter Ramsey, a vintner at Cowgate Port, and his brother William, “the first proprietor of Barnton” I’m descended from William and there’s 3 children I’ve traced so far. They all seem to get married in 1791.