Ref. M2
THE MATTHEWSON or MATHISON FAMILY
Mike’s gr-great-grandfather, John Mason married Mary Mathison according to a proclamation at St Cuthberts, Edinburgh 16.8.1823, the bride being the daughter of Donald Mathison of 7 Drummond Street. (For Mason family see Ref. M1)
A search for a death entry for Mary produced one for 28.7.1833 at Canongate, the wife of John Mason of 234 Cowgate, aged 45. Cause of death: “dropsy”. We have decided to go with that.
This would give a date for her baptism as, say, 1787/89, which, incidentally, would be reasonably near to that of her husband. There was a family having children baptised at St Cuthberts 1783 to 1788, the father being Donald Mathison and the mother Janet Mowat but no Mary is mentioned. We prefer the one obvious alternative, i.e. a marriage at Canongate, Edinburgh, 25.11.1788 between Donald Mathison and Henrieta McLeod. Admittedly, we have found no indexed offspring in this case also but in later generations, the Mathisons did not always trouble the Church about a birth. We are strongly influenced by the fact that in 1829 Mary’s one and only daughter was named Henrietta. That name was shared with perhaps 30 other girls in Scotland, who, amongst that year’s baptisms were outnumbered by Margarets, for instance, by a factor of around 100 to 1, so on a best conjecture basis we accept Henrieta McLeod, daughter of Donald McLeod, as a 3 x gr-grandmother of Mike. Curiously, 5 days before our favoured marriage proclamation there was another between Alexader Mcleod and Marrion McLeod, daughter of Malcom McLeod, again residents of Canongate. One of Mary’s sons was named Alexander, as it happens!
November 2020
Young Family History 