Who was this boy?
 

Glencreggan - A Highland Home in Cantire by Cuthbert Bede was published 1861.

In the book, the Revd Edward Bradley (Cuthbert Bede was his pen name) recouunts his stay in Kintyre in Argyllshire in 1859.

The book contains evocative descriptions of how people lived in this remote part of Scotland. An area, where many of my ancestors came from.

He describes Barr school - where many of my family went - as follows:

'The children were about 70 in number...all of the children were bare-footed and bare-legged, to an English eye, a peculiar feature in a parish school.

'Among the scholars was a black boy, who a fortnight before, had arrived from the West Indies, and whose tawny complexion and woolly hair looked very remarkable among the red-headed and fair-visaged Highlands.'

I've tried to identify this boy in the census records, but haven't been successful.

Barr (Glenbarr) is in the parish of Killean and Kilkenzie in Argyllshire.

Can anyone shed some light on this puzzle, please?

There's a boy called Charles A Nancy at Cambeltown (which after much struggling I think is three or four miles away???). He is a boarder aged 13 in 1861 and Ancestry have transcribed his place of birth as Spargh Tom, Jamaica, which I presume is Spanish Town rather than some sort of bolognese sauce!

The trouble is, there are probably other boys in the area who were born in the West Indies, but don't say so directly, having the (probably badly transcribed) name of one of the islands. Having seen many baptisms of black children in London records, I realise the majority have British sounding names, which doesn't help thoe search much. :o

Is this another recipe? The transcription of the occupation of the head of household where Charles Nancy was staying in 1861.

Ratief F Farm Schl Campt Bake

Merry, that's astonishing! Brilliant work finding that record. V impressed. Thank you. Can't be too many Jamaican boys in Argyllshire at that time - campared to say, London, Liverpool or Bristol.

Interesting menu, too - a starter of Ratief F Farm Schl Campt Bake, followed by Spargh Tom and finished off with Suphatert of son :d:d:d

The 1817 slave registers of Jamaica on Ancestry have a Cha. Nancy, 80, colour: negro, origin: Creole. Owner: William Murray.

Btw - C/Town is about 12 miles from Barr/Glenbarr.

Charles's surname is Harvey on Findmypast's transcription of the 1861 census.

*Wonders if he grew up to be a samartive beguine bleaner, like one of my Scottish rellies?*

OC

Now you're just being silly.

Ah - explains why I got 'nul point' when I searched FMP for Charles Nancy. I'm so impressed that thanks to GF, we have a name for a boy referred to in a book written in 1859.

Older relatives used to tell me that they were told of a black ('dubh') boy who went to Barr school. As a truculent teen, I dismissed this. Years later, I read that passage in Glencreggan and thought: They were right.

And now I have a name. Thank you again.