Hi Peter and List The Bute ancestor I would most like to have as a dinner guest is naturally the one I hope could tell me enough about our family so I could have a family tree going back to Adam and Eve! Hopefully he would be able to fill in my many gaps about his descendants too. It would be great if he would also tell me about his personal life and the way of life in general at the time. My ancestor of choice is DONALD(1) GILCHRIST, son of John (1), but I don't know when he was born nor when he died! He was a merchant of Rothsay, Notary and Chief Clerk of Buteshire and Sheriff deputy at the time of his death. He married Elizabeth BOYD and they had (at least) 2 children: Donald (2) and John (2). I don't know when Elizabeth died either. Donald(2) married Jane Simpsoun and they had a child Robert. I know nothing more about Jane but presumably she died as Donald married again to Phinguel STEWART in 1645. They had at least 2 children: John (3) and Helen (1). Donald (2) died in 1672 and Phinguel in 1688. They are buried at Kilmichael. John (3) born c1670 was a writer in Kilmichael. He married Joan BANNATYNE and they had 3 children John (3) born c1691, Donald born c1695 and James born c1699. Joan died and then John married a Miss Lamont. They had 5 children: Alexander, Dugald, Robert, Helen and another girl. Miss Lamont died and then John (2) married for the 3rd time to Elizabeth Kelburne. He died at Balliemore and his tomb is in the churchyard at Kilmichael. Helen (1) married John POLLOCK but that's all I know of them. JOHN (2) married Helen STEWART in 1645. He was a Sheriff clerk of Bute in 1639 and Town Clerk of Rothsay in 1649. He was also a Notary and baillie. ** In deed of Dalrymple reg July 20 1661, John MacGilchrist baillie of Rothsay, gives bond for a loan to Major William Campbell dated 4 December 1649 in which Donald MacGilchrist Town Clerk of Rothsay is termed said Johns brother and is his cautr. The said Johns wife is named Helen Stewart as other deeds prove so he was the same John who, with consent of Helen Stewart his spouse, gives a loan to Ninian Stewart of Ascog in 1639 and is there called Sheriff Clerk of Bute (see Dalrymple April 10 1662) *** As you can see I have many gaps in my knowledge and would love to fill them in with the help of my dinner guest so, amongst other reasons, I could go one better than my husband's ancestry. He can trace his mother's Douglas family back to c770. That's the Red and Black Douglas families. On second thoughts, may I have ALL my ancestors to dinner and they could answer all my family history questions in one fell swoop! I'd love to meet my ancestor Christian Shaw, daughter of Christian GILCHRIST. Christian Shaw was a woman who knew how to get what she wanted - whatever the consequences! Born in 1685, the eldest daughter of the Laird of Balgarran, she was one of the earliest recorded Scottish female entrepreneurs, responsible for establishing the Paisley fine thread industry. Christian Shaw married comparatively late in life, at the grand old age of 32. She married respectably, especially given her history, a man of the cloth, Reverend Miller. He died three years into the marriage leaving Christian Shaw a modest amount of money. Accompanied by her mother, Christian set out on a tour of northern Europe. This was a relatively common activity for the moneyed single woman seeking a husband. But it was not a husband that interested Mrs. Shaw. The Dutch made the best thread in Europe and Christian set out to discover how they did it. A middle-aged woman and her elderly mother who expressed an interest in spinning would not have been regarded as suspicious. They should have been. Christian was an excellent learner and there is some suspicion that as well as observing and learning the techniques employed by the Dutch, there was an element of industrial espionage as crucial components of Dutch spinning equipment were smuggled to Scotland. Sma' Cots - Weavers Cottages in Paisley from c. 1740 On her return to Paisley, Christian set up in business, hiring staff and installing equipment. Possibly her shrewdest move was to use her connections with the aristocracy, who travelled to southern climes regularly, to set up a distribution network. These wealthy women would show the high quality goods that Christian's thread manufacturing now produced, to their equally wealthy and influential counterparts in Bath, or wherever else was fashionable that season. There was nobody else in the UK producing work of the quality of Mrs. Shaw and orders soon poured into Balgarran. By 1820, the industry started by Christian Shaw, would employ 7,000 people in Paisley alone. But her contribution to the industrialisation of her home town is not the reason that Christian Shaw is primarily remembered. She, at the age of 11, was responsible for the deaths, by strangulation, of seven members of this small Scottish community. The year was 1695 and Christian was 11, the oldest child in an expanding family. She started having severe fits. Retrospectively, it has been suggested that these were to get some attention for herself, as she was no longer the baby of the family. Whatever the reasons, the fits got worse and included vomiting all sorts of rubbish; hay, barley, straw, bones, rags. She was taken to the best doctors that family money could buy, but no cure was forthcoming. Until, Christian pinpointed the cause. It was witches putting a spell on her. She named 21 people, who were duly arrested and tried before a court of seventeen judges. Och, ye jist cannae beat a guid witch burnin' Fourteen of the accused were found not guilty and released. The remaining seven were sentenced to death by burning at the stake, the proscribed "cure" for witches. Six of the unfortunates met their end in this way on 10th June 1697. The remaining prisoner, John Reid, committed suicide in prison. And remarkably, the fits stopped afterwards. So, you didn't cross Christian Shaw. How much her reputation influenced her ability to transact business is open to speculation. SORRY - this is turning into a book. I'd love to meet my convict ancestors too and why oh why did my gt gt grandfather change his name - they were married under one name but soon after marriage changed it and all their children were registered under the new name. Regards Lori Australia