Chapter 2: Donald Ross and Mary Butler
Donald Ross was born in the Parish of Nigg in the County of Ross-shire, in the
Eastern Highlands of Scotland, in about 1787.
Nigg is a small village just north of the Firth of Cromarty. It is opposite the town of Cromarty, which is about 20 miles north of Inverness.
Nigg is a small village just north of the Firth of Cromarty. It is opposite the town of Cromarty, which is about 20 miles north of Inverness.
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Inverness and Nigg
The source of this information is the 1851 Census of Scotland, recorded as of
the night of March 30, 1851. This is the earliest official record we have that
mentions Donald Ross.
Village - Gartsherrie, Parish - Old Monkland, County – Lanarkshire
Chelsea Pensioners were retired veterans of the British Army of that era.
‘Eligible soldiers who could not be housed in the Royal Hospital at Chelsea were termed out-pensioners, receiving their pension from the Royal Hospital but living outside it.
In-pensioners, by contrast, surrender their army pension and live within the Royal Hospital. In 1703, there were only 51 out-pensioners, but by 1815 this figure had risen to 36,757. The Royal Hospital remained responsible for distributing army pensions until 1955.’
In 1851, Donald Ross and his family were living in Gartsherrie, which was a village near Glasgow. (It is now part of Glasgow). The census taker in Gartsherrie was probably not familiar with the names of the parishes in Ross-shire, and he wrote down Naig instead of Nigg. This is a classic census error, made because information provided verbally by one person is written down by another.
Village - Gartsherrie, Parish - Old Monkland, County – Lanarkshire
| Address | Name | Relation | Age | Occupation | Where Born |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Quarry Row | Donald Ross | Head | 63 | Chelsea Pensioner | Ross-Shire, P of Naig |
| Mary Ross | Wife | 54 | Ireland | ||
| William Ross | Son | 16 | Ireland | ||
| Daniel Ross | Son | 14 | Ireland |
Chelsea Pensioners were retired veterans of the British Army of that era.
‘Eligible soldiers who could not be housed in the Royal Hospital at Chelsea were termed out-pensioners, receiving their pension from the Royal Hospital but living outside it.
In-pensioners, by contrast, surrender their army pension and live within the Royal Hospital. In 1703, there were only 51 out-pensioners, but by 1815 this figure had risen to 36,757. The Royal Hospital remained responsible for distributing army pensions until 1955.’
In 1851, Donald Ross and his family were living in Gartsherrie, which was a village near Glasgow. (It is now part of Glasgow). The census taker in Gartsherrie was probably not familiar with the names of the parishes in Ross-shire, and he wrote down Naig instead of Nigg. This is a classic census error, made because information provided verbally by one person is written down by another.
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1851 Census of Scotland
This Census information poses some interesting questions for us to try to
answer. Why did Donald Ross retire so far from the highlands of Ross-shire? Why
were Donald’s wife and both of his children born in Ireland? Why were the
children born so late in the lives of both Donald and Mary?
It also provides an opportunity to introduce the ‘forbidden subject’. When I was quite young, my father told me that I was partly English, partly German, partly Scottish, and partly Irish. I thought I knew about the English, German, and Scottish parts, but I had no idea who the Irish ancestor was, so I asked. To my surprise, my father didn’t know either. I had stumbled into the ‘forbidden subject’ for the first time. No one ever talked about the Ross ancestors, and my father didn’t know anything about his Irish great-grandmother. These stories will unfold in future chapters.
We can use the 1851 Census information to deduce or guess several parts of Donald’s story. However, the reader is cautioned that this is how family myths get born. Future research and new evidence may result in corrections later.
The Highland Clearances:
There were two periods of major clearances: 1782-1820 and 1840-1854. These were times of great hardship and dislocation for the highland people, who were nearly all tenant farmers. Entire communities were evicted from their homes and land, and had to find new places to live and new ways to survive.
Many families emigrated from Scotland to America, Canada, or Australia, usually under appalling conditions. Others moved into towns like Inverness, or into the large industrial centres like Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Liverpool. Some just died, of disease, starvation, or exposure. Large numbers of Scottish men joined the British Army during these times. There were not a lot of good alternatives.
We can only guess how any of this affected Donald Ross. He was born in 1787, near the beginning of the first period of Clearances. He probably joined the British Army sometime around 1804, right in the middle of the first period of Clearances. By the time he retired from the Army, after a minimum of 30 years service, there was probably no home to go back to. This could explain why he was living in Gartsherrie, as a Chelsea Pensioner, in 1851.
The Battle of Corunna:
The Death Notice for William Ross says that he was the son of Donald Ross, a veteran of the Battle of Corunna. This is consistent with the designation ‘Chelsea Pensioner’ in the 1851 Census.
The Battle of Corunna took place on January 16, 1809. It was a critical event of the Napoleonic War, sometimes compared with Dunkirk in World War 2. The British didn’t win, but it was considered a victory. After a lengthy retreat, they escaped from a situation that could have been a military disaster. A brief account follows.
‘The army marched into the port of Corunna on the night of 11th January 1809, many of the troops in a state of exhaustion. The French were some distance behind but the fleet was not in harbour. The transports did not reach Corunna until 15th January 1809.
Moore formed his army south of Corunna between the village of Elvina and the sea. The French carried out a frontal attack on the British line with the emphasis on the British right flank at Elvina. The French took Elvina but were driven out by the 42nd Highlanders and the 50th Foot. They counter-attacked and recaptured the village. Short of ammunition, the two regiments returned to the assault led by Moore and the French were driven out again at the point of the bayonet.
It also provides an opportunity to introduce the ‘forbidden subject’. When I was quite young, my father told me that I was partly English, partly German, partly Scottish, and partly Irish. I thought I knew about the English, German, and Scottish parts, but I had no idea who the Irish ancestor was, so I asked. To my surprise, my father didn’t know either. I had stumbled into the ‘forbidden subject’ for the first time. No one ever talked about the Ross ancestors, and my father didn’t know anything about his Irish great-grandmother. These stories will unfold in future chapters.
We can use the 1851 Census information to deduce or guess several parts of Donald’s story. However, the reader is cautioned that this is how family myths get born. Future research and new evidence may result in corrections later.
The Highland Clearances:
There were two periods of major clearances: 1782-1820 and 1840-1854. These were times of great hardship and dislocation for the highland people, who were nearly all tenant farmers. Entire communities were evicted from their homes and land, and had to find new places to live and new ways to survive.
Many families emigrated from Scotland to America, Canada, or Australia, usually under appalling conditions. Others moved into towns like Inverness, or into the large industrial centres like Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Liverpool. Some just died, of disease, starvation, or exposure. Large numbers of Scottish men joined the British Army during these times. There were not a lot of good alternatives.
We can only guess how any of this affected Donald Ross. He was born in 1787, near the beginning of the first period of Clearances. He probably joined the British Army sometime around 1804, right in the middle of the first period of Clearances. By the time he retired from the Army, after a minimum of 30 years service, there was probably no home to go back to. This could explain why he was living in Gartsherrie, as a Chelsea Pensioner, in 1851.
The Battle of Corunna:
The Death Notice for William Ross says that he was the son of Donald Ross, a veteran of the Battle of Corunna. This is consistent with the designation ‘Chelsea Pensioner’ in the 1851 Census.
The Battle of Corunna took place on January 16, 1809. It was a critical event of the Napoleonic War, sometimes compared with Dunkirk in World War 2. The British didn’t win, but it was considered a victory. After a lengthy retreat, they escaped from a situation that could have been a military disaster. A brief account follows.
‘The army marched into the port of Corunna on the night of 11th January 1809, many of the troops in a state of exhaustion. The French were some distance behind but the fleet was not in harbour. The transports did not reach Corunna until 15th January 1809.
Moore formed his army south of Corunna between the village of Elvina and the sea. The French carried out a frontal attack on the British line with the emphasis on the British right flank at Elvina. The French took Elvina but were driven out by the 42nd Highlanders and the 50th Foot. They counter-attacked and recaptured the village. Short of ammunition, the two regiments returned to the assault led by Moore and the French were driven out again at the point of the bayonet.
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Battle of Corunna
After the death of Sir John Moore at Corunna, the Duke of Wellington took over command of the British forces until the final battle at Waterloo in 1814. We don’t know whether or not Donald Ross served under the Duke of Wellington.
In 1809, the British transport ships were sailing ships, and it was not a very
safe way to travel. From another account, we have a summary of British losses at
Corunna. The numbers include 287 men drowned on the return voyage to England,
and an additional nine drowned in Corunna harbour.
Donald Ross survived these dangers. We don’t know anything more about his service in the British Army, but more might be learned by searching British Military records at some future time. We have no more evidence about Donald until he appears in the 1851 Census of Scotland.
What follows is just my best guess at the rest of Donald’s story. We know his wife Mary was born in Ireland, in about 1796. From the Marriage registration of their son William we learn that her maiden name was Butler. We have not done any Irish genealogy, so we don’t have any official record of her birth or of her marriage to Donald Ross.
Since Donald Ross was a soldier in the British Army, it is reasonable to assume that he was assigned to duties in Ireland sometime after 1809. In those days soldiers signed up for a minimum of 30 years, so he didn’t leave the Army right after Corunna. Their first son William Ross was born in Ireland in about 1834. At that time, Donald was 47 years old, and Mary was 38, so they probably had married late in life. This could have been at the time when Donald left the Army, if he had signed up at age 16.
Their second son Daniel Ross was born in Ireland in 1836. Sometime after 1836 the family moved back to Scotland, in time to be recorded in the 1851 Census. The Potato Famine in Ireland took place during this interval.
The Potato Famine:
‘The Great Irish Famine refers to a famine, and its aftermath, in Ireland between 1845 and 1851. The famine was caused initially by potato blight, which almost instantly destroyed the primary food source for the majority of the Irish people. The blight explains the crop failure but the dramatic and deadly effect of the famine was exacerbated by other factors of economic, political, and social origin. The impact of the Great Famine in Ireland remains unparalleled, in terms of the demographic decline. The Irish population fell by approximately 25 percent in just six years, due to a combination of excess mortality and mass emigration.’
We can speculate that the famine may have been the reason Donald and Mary left Ireland, but we don’t really know. The Army may have moved him back to Scotland before the famine started. In any case, they would not have been much better off in Scotland, because the potato blight struck there too. It was a major contributor to the second period of the Highland Clearances.
Donald Ross and Mary Butler are named on the Marriage registration document for their son William, in Gartsherrie, in 1856. I assume they were both still alive and attended the wedding, but we don’t really know. A search of the Scottish Records did not result in any further records. I could not find them in the 1861 Census or the 1871 Census, and I could not find Death registrations for either of them in Scotland. Perhaps they returned to Ireland, or moved somewhere else. We also don’t know anything about their son Daniel after 1851. There are opportunities here for further research.
We do know quite a bit about Donald and Mary’s son William, who became known as the Scotch Queen’s Park Preacher and died in Toronto, Canada in 1896. His story will be told in the next chapter.
Donald Ross survived these dangers. We don’t know anything more about his service in the British Army, but more might be learned by searching British Military records at some future time. We have no more evidence about Donald until he appears in the 1851 Census of Scotland.
What follows is just my best guess at the rest of Donald’s story. We know his wife Mary was born in Ireland, in about 1796. From the Marriage registration of their son William we learn that her maiden name was Butler. We have not done any Irish genealogy, so we don’t have any official record of her birth or of her marriage to Donald Ross.
Since Donald Ross was a soldier in the British Army, it is reasonable to assume that he was assigned to duties in Ireland sometime after 1809. In those days soldiers signed up for a minimum of 30 years, so he didn’t leave the Army right after Corunna. Their first son William Ross was born in Ireland in about 1834. At that time, Donald was 47 years old, and Mary was 38, so they probably had married late in life. This could have been at the time when Donald left the Army, if he had signed up at age 16.
Their second son Daniel Ross was born in Ireland in 1836. Sometime after 1836 the family moved back to Scotland, in time to be recorded in the 1851 Census. The Potato Famine in Ireland took place during this interval.
The Potato Famine:
‘The Great Irish Famine refers to a famine, and its aftermath, in Ireland between 1845 and 1851. The famine was caused initially by potato blight, which almost instantly destroyed the primary food source for the majority of the Irish people. The blight explains the crop failure but the dramatic and deadly effect of the famine was exacerbated by other factors of economic, political, and social origin. The impact of the Great Famine in Ireland remains unparalleled, in terms of the demographic decline. The Irish population fell by approximately 25 percent in just six years, due to a combination of excess mortality and mass emigration.’
We can speculate that the famine may have been the reason Donald and Mary left Ireland, but we don’t really know. The Army may have moved him back to Scotland before the famine started. In any case, they would not have been much better off in Scotland, because the potato blight struck there too. It was a major contributor to the second period of the Highland Clearances.
Donald Ross and Mary Butler are named on the Marriage registration document for their son William, in Gartsherrie, in 1856. I assume they were both still alive and attended the wedding, but we don’t really know. A search of the Scottish Records did not result in any further records. I could not find them in the 1861 Census or the 1871 Census, and I could not find Death registrations for either of them in Scotland. Perhaps they returned to Ireland, or moved somewhere else. We also don’t know anything about their son Daniel after 1851. There are opportunities here for further research.
We do know quite a bit about Donald and Mary’s son William, who became known as the Scotch Queen’s Park Preacher and died in Toronto, Canada in 1896. His story will be told in the next chapter.
Descendants of Donald Ross and Mary Butler