William Martin

William was a ploughman, a farmer, a dairyman and a farm grieve (foreman) at different stages of his life.  He certainly worked on the land and for a while on one of the most unusual farms in Scotland, that of Inch Island farm near Alloa, an island in the Forth reachable only by boat.  The island seemed to have a moat, which I can only surmise was to stop the cattle from drowning in the Forth.

The name William Martin is very common in Scotland and has made it difficult to distinguish his records from others.  His parents were known to be William Martin and Christina Drysdale but no marriage or children can be found for this couple.  His own census records suggest he was born in Clackmannan around 1826 but there is no trace of him in 1841 and in 1851 he is found in a shared house with no family around.  He hasn't been found yet in the 1861 census but he did marry in Glasgow in 1862.  However, since his wife Marjory was still in Saline in 1861 I see it as either a runaway marriage or just an adventure.  I really don't believe she went to Glasgow on a whim in her thirties, met a man from roughly her home area there and married him very soon after.  It's more possible he went to Glasgow to seek his fortune, came back to fetch his sweetheart from back home and take her to the new life in the city, later to concede defeat and go home again.  While this is a romantic notion it's a bit unlikely as there wasn't a great demand for ploughmen in Glasgow High Street!

He can't be found once again in 1891, a year after his wife's death and a year before his.  More research is needed to find out where he was hiding during all those censuses.

Even his 1851 census gives us problems as Sheilling Hall can't be accurately located.  The modern Ordnance Survey map shows this location in the middle of the countryside nowhere near any town but there's nothing there in 19th century maps.   Alloa has a bus depot at Shillinghill and I've opted for this as the location but I'm not 100% sure about it.

 

He did marry late in life, at 36 years old and it's no surprise that he and Marjory only had two children which is a shame as there was plenty space in the seven roomed house on the island.  From Inch Island he moved to Carsiepow or Kersiepow Farm near Alva where there was this entry in the 1885 Valuation Roll (my wording) -

inhabitant of house on farm, no rent payable
William Martin, dairyman
James McNab is the tenant and pays 245 0 0
owner is Archibald Moir, banker, Alloa

It's interesting to see the hierarchy here.  A banker owned the ground but he let it out to a tenant farmer who worked the ground and made money for himself and to pay the ground rent.  The tenant farmer employed agricultural labourers to do the hard work and made one of those workers the grieve with responsibility to ensure that everyone did their fair share.

Regarding the name William Martin, there were 447 people of that name in the 1841 census in Scotand, rising each census to 989 in the 1911 count.  Contrast this with the name Allan Old with as few as 1 in 1851 and a maximum of 6 in 1901.