Who Do You Think You Are - Olivia Colman 9th Jul

[Blaquiere Talbot]

Many thanks Merry. Lots of homework to do. Dunbar's brother Robert was Lt-Col commanding Scots Guards and died at his mother's house in Portman Square 13 April 1804. Dunbar's death had just reached England the week before so she lost both sons within a week! No wonder she demanded Charlotte be sent to her! Incidentally, that confirms the 1803 death date so correct then Charlotte would have been one when her father died so that reinforces my theory that Seraphina headed to Calcutta with her to start a new life. What a tragic life she had. Pity she never knew both daughters did so well!

[Merry]

Is that right that all you have for Dunbar's father is:

William Hunter ? –1786
BIRTH Hexham, Northumberland, England
DEATH 1786

What are your sources for his birth and death?

(EDIT: I'm guessing the death date just means 'before his widow remarried'?!)

[Merry]

Oh - but is this Dunbar's birth record (ScotlandsPeople)? His father has been transcribed as Charles, but the mother, Elizabeth McLellan, is the name you have:

HUNTER, DUNBAR JAMES
Father: CHARLES HUNTER
Mother: ELIZABETH MCLELLAN
born/baptised 06/02/1773
Parish No: 685/1
Ref: 340 160
Parish: Edinburgh

Additional info from FMP transcription, above date is his birth date, bap 28 Feb 1773, father's occ Merchant, residence College Kirk. The FMP entry has surname Charles rather than Hunter on their transcription, no middle name and first name Duncan not Dunbar, but the dob, father's forename and mother's full name are all the same as above, so it would definitely be worth viewing the image on SP to see exacty what was written.

and this would be his brother you mentioned in your last post:

HUNTER, ROBERT
Father: CHARLES HUNTER
Mother: ELISABETH MCLELLAN
born/baptised 02/08/1771
Parish No: 685/1
Ref: 330 381.
Parish: Edinburgh

Additional info from FMP transcription, above date is his birth date, bap 29 Aug 1771, father's occ Merchant, residence Old Kirk

there's also:

HUNTER, CHARLES
Father: CHARLES HUNTER
Mother: ELISABETH MCLELLAN
born/baptised: 19/07/1769
Parish No: 685/1
Ref: 330 124
Parish: Edinburgh

Additional info from FMP transcription, above date is his birth date, bap 31 Jul 1769, father's occ Merchant, residence Edinburgh.

[Merry]

For the next gen back there are these children for Robert Hunter and his wife Elizabeth Inglis. These index entries are from SP but the transcripts of the records on FMP show Robert's occupation as teacher on all but the first entry (John), where no occ is recorded:

HUNTER JOHN - ROBERT HUNTER/ELIZABETH INGLIS FR5301 (FR5301) M 11/06/1734 685/1 190 433 Edinburgh

HUNTER ANNE GORDON - ROBERT HUNTER/ELISABETH INGLIS FR5436 (FR5436) F 08/08/1735 685/1 200 130 Edinburgh

HUNTER JANE - ROBERT HUNTER/ELISABETH INGLIS FR5590 (FR5590) F 10/11/1736 685/1 200 431 Edinburgh

HUNTER ROBERT - ROBERT HUNTER/ELISABETH INGLES FR5772 (FR5772) M 13/01/1738 685/1 210 292 Edinburgh

HUNTER ALEXANDER - ROBERT HUNTER/ELISABETH INGLIS FR5995 (FR5995) M 18/09/1739 685/1 220 121 Edinburgh

HUNTER CHARLES - ROBERT HUNTER/ELIZABETH INGLIS FR6118 (FR6118) M 15/12/1740 685/1 220 368 Edinburgh

Jane is presumably Jean who died in 1823 (my earlier post).

Here's the marriage of Robert and Elizabeth:

HUNTER ROBERT ELIZABETH INGLIS/FR1655 (FR1655) 10/06/1733 685/1 470 97 Edinburgh

The announcement of Robert's appointment as Professor of Greek at the University is in this paper (FMP):

10 December 1741 - Caledonian Mercury - Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland

Yesterday I saw the entry for when his name was put forward for the post at the university (earlier in 1741 I believe) and that stated he was a teacher in a private school at that date. Of course I can't find it now when I am under pressure to get some other jobs done! I will have to leave it at that for now....!

EDIT: I forgot I hadn't posted the transcription for the burial of Robert H's wife (FMP):

Title Mrs
County Midlothian
First name(s) Elizabeth
Last name Inglis
Page 308
Archive reference OPR 685_1/97
Year Range 1771-1785
Burial year 1783
Item 6
Burial date ? Sep 1783
Record set Scotland, Parish Deaths & Burials 1564-2017
Next of kin relationship Relict of
Next of kin name Robt Hunter
Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records
Subcategory Parish Burials
Place Edinburgh
Collections from Great Britain, Scotland

My apologies if you have all this already! I've only been looking at the Talbot of Stone Castle tree on Ancestry.

[Blaquiere Talbot]

Again many thanks Merry. Amazing! This will take a while to digest!
Richard

[Merry]

I keep seeing information about Burella Hunter, wife of Arthur Campbell who she married in 1779. Burella died 03 Jul 1822 at Auchmannoch (reported The Scots Magazine 01 August 1822). Unfortunately, I can't find a burial record for her to pick up her age and the FMP transcription of the memorial inscription for Arthur and Burella doesn't help either:

Mauchline Churchyard, Mauchline, Ayrshire

Inscription Sacred to the memory of Arthur Campbell, Esq. of Auchmannoch d. 11.3.1*48 aged 91 and Mrs Burella Hen**** his wife her d. *** and affectionately by their **** Robert Campbell ****

Some Ancestry trees and lots of webpages say she is the dau of Robert Hunter the professor, but also that she was a lot younger (b 1858??) than his other children and that her mother was Mary Hannay, but we know Robert was married to Elizabeth Inglis and she outlived him. Of course she could still be his child, but it's perhaps unlikely.

I did wonder if Burella was a granddaughter of Robert rather than daughter, as, if she was born in or about 1858, that could be a possibility. Presumably she would have to be the daughter of John or Alexander as Charles' children were mentioned by their mother in her will in 1815 when this Burella was still alive.

I have not been able to prove the wife of Arthur Campbell is a relation of your Robert Hunter, but in looking, I came across another Burella Hunter who died in London in 1857 aged 82 (so born about 1775, so possibly about 17 years younger than the other Burella). This younger woman is recorded on the London 1851 census at 18 Grove Terrace Camberwell. In 1851 she is shown as a 74 year old unmarried woman, born in the City of London, in the house of her cousin, Ann Pattison a 45 year-old widow. There is a will for this Burella Hunter which I read quickly, but at the time I read it I didn't know whether she was anything to do with you, so didn't make any notes, but it did mention a whole lot of relatives, so that will keep you busy!

I later found this (FMP):

Kilmarnock Weekly Post and County of Ayr Reporter 07 November 1857

At Montpelier Villa, near London, on the 24th ult., aged 82 years, Burella Hunter, daughter of Alex. Hunter Esq., M.D., and granddaughter of the late Robert Hunter Esq. of Pisgah, Ayrshire, and Bridge Castle, Professor of Greek at the University of Edinburgh.

So, from this we know Alexander Hunter b 1739, son of Robert, became a doctor and probably came to London if his daughter was born there.

I've not found a baptism for Alexander's daughter as yet , nor a marriage or death for Alexander, but might have another look tomorrow!

[Blaquiere Talbot]

Many thanks Merry. Again amazing! Much to digest. May I ask you to help on another mystery which goes far beyond me? Captain Thomas Ajax Anderson was another 3rd great-grandfather. He was also in the 19th Regiment of Foot in Ceylon. Lt-Col Dunbar Hunter was his CO. He is very well known as a poet. His first wife was Julia ? but no one has ever found her surname. They had two daughters. Emma Anderson was born in Ceylon in 1804 and Julia Anderson was born in Lahore in 1807. Julia married my 2nd great-grandfather Henry Christian Talbot at St John’s Calcutta in 1825. Why can no one find Julia Sr’s surname? Again the 1804 Ceylon date brings up memories of Seraphina? Was Julia also a “burgher”?

[Merry]

I read this summary of his life,

https://jnvlieland.blogspot.com/2013...-anderson.html

which I noticed doesn't even mention his second marriage. I see Ancestry has a record of the second wedding, possibly because Sarah Hollowell applied for a pension and so someone (in 1824) checked the records to be sure they were married. None of the datasets I've looked at for Ceylon go back as far as 1800-1804 when the marriage to Julia should have taken place. I note the second marriage (or I should say, the army's transcription of the record) gives Sarah's condition of spinster, but no mention of Thomas being a widower (that's not surprising as quite often more information was given about the bride than the groom, I'm just pointing it out!).

I do find it slightly surprising that in that mini-biography the writer mentions it was customary for Europeans to marry young at the time in India/Ceylon and specifies that Thomas was 20 at his marriage. Almost as if he wanted to write who Thomas married,but hadn't found a record of it!

Do you have a death record for Julia? Where did you find the birth records for their two daughters?

[Merry]

Back to where I was last night....

Here's a link to the will of Alexander Hunter, Dr of Physic dated Sept 1782 and proved Oct 1782:

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...33a&pId=490859

Wife Judith, only child Burella and mentions his father, Robert Hunter, Professor of Greek

and a link to his burial record:

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...aa&pId=1898254

This could be his marriage to Judith, though of course at the moment we don't know how long he had been in London:

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...ue&pId=1210362

and Judith's burial (aged 68 in 1806):

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...b&pId=46010165


Here's a link to the will for his daughter, Burella:

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...988&pId=620213

If you have any problems with reading the wills, I don't mind typing them out, but don't have the time to do that now.

[Blaquiere Talbot]

Merry: Re: Do you have a death record for Julia? Where did you find the birth records for their two daughters? I am afraid we are now getting back into the dark ages when I did everything manually with LDS microfilm so it will take some time but there are scanned documents in his Ancestry gallery. Ancestry also has a new post re Julia Sr: "Born in Holland on ABT 1780. Julia NA married Thomas Ajax Anderson and had 2 children. She passed away on 1807 in Ceylon." But I can't find the source! Maybe Dutch or, more likely, "Dutch Burgher"?