Jane Allison

Jane was noted as Jean and even Jeanie in the censuses so I think we can assume that Jane was the Sunday name, as in many instances in our tree.  She was born to Alexander Allison, one of many shoemakers in the town, and Dorothy Hardie, both of whom had pretty pure Linlithgow heritage as far back as we can trace.

If you look at her marriage record it says that their banns were proclaimed three times before their marriage.  This means that they were read out in church to give anyone with an objection time to register it before the marriage took place.  The types of objection would be a previous marriage which had not yet been annulled or prohibited degrees of kinship such as cousins.  There have been no calling of banns since 1978 in Scotland but it was a major part of the Church of Scotland's ceremonies in days gone by.  There are also references in some very old notices of deposits being made which were returned if the first child waited more than nine months before showing.

By the age of 18 she was working in one of Linlithgow's papermills, an industry which had been in the town for a couple of hundred years before then even.  This article (which looks unfinished or badly researched) gives some more detail.  Sadly, as a widow, she ended up in the poorhouse before dying of "old age" at 60!