Greetings to all, In respnose to the post Irene Fulton wrote below, I will present, in parts, an article which appeared in the Kilmarnock Standard dated 27 August 1881. When my sister, Roberta, & I went back to Scotland in 1996, we did research in The Dick Institute, at Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland. This is the article which I found most interesting: ( Please keep in mind the print was badly blurred in the microfilming and some words or unreadable, I will put a _____ when I can't read the word\words.) Florence Fulton Wolfe >-----Original Message----- >From: Forrest Fulton <fifulton@earthlink.net> >To: FULTON-L@rootsweb.com <FULTON-L@rootsweb.com> >Date: Saturday, April 01, 2000 2:22 AM >Subject: Robert Fulton - Steamboat >>Hello, >>Last June I was in SLC and looked at the book, Ayshire, The >>Story of the County by John Stawhorn, Ayrshire Archaeological >>& Natural History Society 1975. FHL 941.42 H25j >>>>p 113 - Steam navigation had been pioneered in Scotland and >>among its progenitors was James Taylor who was born in >>Leadhill in 1758 & spent the latter years of his life from 1770 >>til 1825 as a mining engineer in Cummoch. The idea was taken >>to America by ROBERT FULTON himself of Ayrshire >>farming stock and developed here by Henry Bell whose Comet >>in 1812 began regular service on the Clyde. >> >>In the Ayrshire areas of Kilmarnock, Kilmaurs and Fenwick >>I did not find any Fultons in the marriages or births which >>would lead me to think of Robert Fulton's family. If they >>were from Ayrshire, it was some other area. >> >>Irene Fulton >*********************************************************** >From the Kilmarnock Standard 27 August 1881- Ayrshire Notes & Queries. ROBERT FULTON THE AMERICAN ENGINEER. Letter from Mr Cochran-Patrick MP. ( To the Editor of the Kilmarnock Standard) _____ Woodside, Beith, 22 Aug '81. Sir, your note about the birthplace of Robert Fulton raises a very curious point which is not yet settled. Some years ago, my late friend, Mr W S Lindsay, the author of the extensive and well known work on Merchant Shipping, made a careful examination of the question, but without a satisfactory result. The note he made will be found on page 387 ?(587) of his vol IV, which I herewith send in case you may wish to____ it for the information of your readers. I would be glad to hear if any new light can be thrown upon the matter, and more especially if we can come to a satisfactorily claim Fulton was an Ayrshire man. I remain, sir, your obdt servt, R. Cochran-Patrick The following is the note referred to; In the life of Henry Bell by ? Morris, Glasgow 1844, there is the following letter from Mr Bell to a Mr John McNeill, It is dated Helensburg, 1st March 1824, and is as follows: "Sir, I this morning was favored with your letter. In reply to your inquiry, respecting the late Robert Fulton, the American engineer, his father was a native of Ayrshire, but of what town or district I can not say. He went to America where his son Robert was born.." As Aryshire is my own native country, curious to ascertin if the Robert Fulton of whom Henry Bell writes was any conection of an old man named Fulton who rented a farm belonging to Lord Ailse in the district of Carrick about four miles from the town of Aye where I was born, and where also I was educated under a very dear uncle the Rev. William So???, after whom I was named. Old Fulton (or rather old "Ballie", which was the name of his farm and that by which he himself was better known) and his family was members of the United Presbyterian Church, of which my uncle was minster. On his ministerial visits to Ballib, I used, as a boy, frequently to accompany him, perhaps, more for the good fare which was produced on those occasions than for anything else. Old Ballie or Fulton __ __( 1827-1829) a man of somewhere about 80 years of age, and I remember he frequently spoke of an elder brother who had settled in America whose son became a "great man," What that greatness consisted of, I do not recollect, but as it was something in my boyish days had,with the good fares, made a lasting impression on my mind, it came fresh to my recollection when I read the letter I have just quoted in the life of Henry Bell, and I wondered if the "great man," the nephew of old Ballig, was the Robert Fulton of the world wide fame. Through my friend Mr T M Geineil(?) of Ayr, I ascertained that the grandson of the old man whom I knew now occupied the farm Ballig, from this person, however, no reliable information could be obtained as to the position or fate of his ancestors. Perhaps, that was not suprishing, as the schollmaster does not appear to have paid many visits to Ballig since the days of my boyhood, Resolved to trace the matter still futher, I applied to my friend and school compaion Mr H G Reid of the H M Stationary Office, who, from his literary ___ as editor of his father-in-law's great work "McCulloch's Commercial Dictionary", readily lent a helping hand! He in turn applied to his friends in Scotland and among others to a Mr. Cochran-Patrick of Woodside, in the parish of Beith, Ayrshire, where the Fulton usally appear to have their orgin. Mr Patrick, himself, a getleman of considerable literary__ __ and ___ __ antiquarian respectfuly heartly joined us on our voyage of__ and with some trouble found a Mr James Stevenson, residing on his own property in Lockwinock, who said he knew all about the Fulton family and who made the following statement in writing, which I give in his own words as follows: To be continued.... Florence fwolfe@frontiernet.net