Janet McAdie

I think we can assume that Janet was actually called Janet and not Jean or Jane as the only variation in the records is a single Jannet.  She was born into a crofting family in the bleak Caithness countryside at the time that the land was being cleared of people to be replaced by sheep.  Certainly if you visit the crofts of South Dunn, near Watten, where she grew up, the crofts are ruined and sheep graze around them.  The croft in those days tended to be a long building with people in one end and the animals at the other end, the warmth of the animals supposedly helping the people.  I'd have thought that more than warmth would waft through though.  The ruined croft I visited (see the page on Caithness crofts) was subdivided although both ends are for animals now.

Janet had an illegitimate son, George, by a Wick boat carpenter, David Bruce, while they were both teenagers.  No marriage ensued but I suspect that contact was maintained as George later became a ship model maker on Clydeside.  The fact that George was Bruce rather than McAdie suggests that the parentage wasn't secret.  Janet stayed in the croft with her parents with George but later left him in their care while she went off to wed David Sinclair, a farmer (not a crofter) in Thurso  This was seemingly a step up as she then stayed in a 4-roomed farmhouse.  George later followed her and lived with Janet, her husband and her six new children, George being a whole ten years older than the eldest of them.  There are a couple of strange census entries concerning the children.  In 1851, a 3 week old child, later called Janet, was recorded as "name unknown".  This is quite strange because there was no doubt about it, the girl was going to be named Janet after her maternal grandmother.  At 3 weeks, no child is still nameless.  In 1861, 2 week old Elizabeth is recorded as a Domestic Servant!  The enumerator or someone else scored this out for obvious reasons.

By 1871 they have gained a grandchild but lost eldest daughter Janet.  I find this strange as the grand-daughter can only be Janet's child.  Since this 2 year old is named David Henderson it means that young Janet must have married a man named Henderson (or just had a child by him and given the name, as with George Bruce) and lived in his house, passing the child onto the grandparents to look after.  This situation is confirmed in 1881 as Janet and David now have two daughters with them and four grandchildren, each with a different surname.  At first this looks baffling but some of the customs in operation in this area at that time seem to be different from ours nowadays.  Firstly, Janet is just as likely to be listed in the censuses by her maiden name of McAdie than her married name of Sinclair.  It doesn't mean she wasn't married.  Also it seems that children would carry the father's surname even if the birth was illegitimate.  Finally it seems that the granny would be used as a childminder while the parents worked.  Where the children slept at night is unclear but in another tree I found two brothers in Leith recorded both with their granny and their mother suggesting they were with Granny during the day and Mum at night and the timing of the enumeration caught them at both.

It seems that Janet did well out of her marriage, and in 1871 David was listed as being a farmer of 50 acres, 7 months arable which sounds relatively OK to me.  In contrast, her father was farming 12 acres in Watten.  Things seemed to take a downturn for David though as in 1881 he was listed as a farmer son, not a farmer, then in 1891 as a farm servant then in 1901 he is gone!  However, I wouldn't trust everything in the 1891 census as David's birthplace has now shifted from Thurso to Halkirk and the two grandchildren still staying with them have now become Sinclairs.  In that same census, the next entry is for her son William and his family but the enrty is not separated by a line as are all other entries, suggesting the properties are only loosely separated and are possibly even in a different part of the same house.

Ten years later David had gone and Janet was living with her grandson William, a flagstone cutter, quarries of this sort being commonplace in the area and roofs, floors and even walls being made of the stuff.  In 1871 Janet had 7, yes, seven quarry labourers staying in her house along with her husband, five children and grandson.  In contrast, in 1901 William and his new wife had a 2 month old baby and his 80 year old granny staying with them.  This was only for a year and a half though.  Bronchitis, heart disease and pneumonia saw to that!

The Sinclairs were recorded as living at Bardnaclavan then Waas then Bardnaclavan then Waas but I reckon they are both just general names for areas which sort of overlap.  I don't think they moved far if at all.