Hello Geoff, Thanks for your very detailed response and your background knowledge. I used the film on the LDS site and had found the two following baptisms in the Ryton Parish Registers - although it took me a long time working through the pages of the actual register. Like you - I thank Bishop Barrington every day for ensuring the details which are so helpful to us were provided-in terms of origins of the parents and the number in the family of the children. I had wondered about the Crowley Iron Works but didn't know enough about the local activities of the firm to make the link. Most helpful thank you. My problem now is finding the baptism of William which so far I have not been able to do in the Ryton Registers but they are hard to follow as they jump backwards and forwards between burials, baptisms and marriages. Appreciate your input once again. Jill Forster, Sydney > > In Ryton parish registers (I use a microfiche of the reliable H >M Wood transcripts up to 1812, available for purchase from >Northfiche via Northumberland Record Office at Woodhorn), I found >these two consecutive entries (I shall expand Wood's abbreviations): > >1806 Dec 25 Colquhoun, Rebecca (b Sep 18, 1803), 1st daughter of >William Colquhoun of Winlaton, smith, native of this parish, by his >wife Isabel Oliver, native of this parish > >1806 Dec 25 Colquhoun, William (b Nov 9), 1st son of the same. > > At the time, Winlaton was part of the parish of Ryton (Holy >Cross). It is not unusual to find someone living at Winlaton being >called a smith, as he was almost certainly an employee of what had >been the Crowley Iron Works (by then Crowley Millington & Co). That >was a very remarkable organisation, worthy of more study, written up >in detail in many places and the subject of a fascinating >full-length hardback book by Prof Flinn of Edinburgh University >c1961, called "Men of Iron: the Crowleys in the Early Iron >Industry". Briefly, Crowleys bought in bulk iron, as bars and >sheets, and their workmen then worked on it, almost as a "cottage >industry" to make it into all sorts of iron goods. At Winlaton they >specialised in small items: at Winlaton Mill it was edge tools (and >clandestine experiments in early steel-making) and at Swalwell it >was heavy goods (ships' anchors, chains for mooring ships, etc). At >Winlaton they made small chains (suitable for shackling slaves!), >implements for the plantations (hoes, rakes, spades, shovels, etc) >and domestic items (patten-rings to raise shoes above the dirt on >the streets, locks, bolts, nails, etc). > > Hawks' iron works in Gateshead became a major rival to >Crowleys, and that might be the reason for your family's Gateshead >connections. In William and Isabel's day, Crowleys were going flat >out and doing very well indeed out of the Napoleonic Wars, as they >had a lucrative exclusive contract from the Admiralty to provide all >the iron work for Royal Navy Ships of the Line, as well as supplying >their usual goods to the ever-expanding colonies. They were to >suffer a great reverse in 1815 when the Napoleonic Wars ended and >they were caught up in the inevitable post-war depression. > > You will notice that both William and his wife, Isabel, were >"natives of this parish" - ie they had been born there. That is an >excellent clue, only given between 1798 and 1812. It may not be >true, of course, but it usually is. > > Rebecca Colquhoun married James Wears at Winlaton on 19 May >1833. That was only about the ninth wedding to take place in >Winlaton St Paul's church. I have no more detail of this wedding >but the parish registers (try the on-line BTs) should tell you >whether it was by licence or after the calling of Banns, and they >may (though not necessarily) give a little more detail. You should >be able to see whether the parties signed their names or made a mark >(usually a cross), and who the witnesses were, as well as who the >clergyman was. They will not tell you anything about the parentage >of either party. Geoff Nicholson > >

Jill: Like you, I can't find anything suitable in Ryton parish registers, but I have looked in my own database of both Co Durham (nothing suitable) and Northumberland baptisms, and I have found a William Colquhoun baptised at Newcastle's Castle Garth Presbyterian church on 26 April 1778, having been born on the previous March 21. His parents were Robert and Jane and he was the eldest of six children they had baptised there. Of course, my database is far from complete, so there might well be other suitable William Colquhouns baptised elsewhere. This William would have been aged 25 when he married Isabella Oliver at Gateshead on 6 June 1803 - a very likely age. Also, with an originally-Scottish surname such as Colquhoun one might expect that the first immigrant generation (at least) would have been Presbyterian, and there were several such churches in Newcastle (plus the Independent/Presbyterian at various times one in Swalwell). If you are interested and think this probably really is your William, I can let you have the similar details of his five younger siblings. Geoff Nicholson -----Original Message----- From: Jill Forster <[email protected]> To: northumbria <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, 25 Apr 2013 2:45 Subject: Re: [NMB] Colquhoun Thanks Hello Geoff, Thanks for your very detailed response and your background knowledge. I used the film on the LDS site and had found the two following baptisms in the Ryton Parish Registers - although it took me a long time working through the pages of the actual register. Like you - I thank Bishop Barrington every day for ensuring the details which are so helpful to us were provided-in terms of origins of the parents and the number in the family of the children. I had wondered about the Crowley Iron Works but didn't know enough about the local activities of the firm to make the link. Most helpful thank you. My problem now is finding the baptism of William which so far I have not been able to do in the Ryton Registers but they are hard to follow as they jump backwards and forwards between burials, baptisms and marriages. Appreciate your input once again. Jill Forster, Sydney > > In Ryton parish registers (I use a microfiche of the reliable H >M Wood transcripts up to 1812, available for purchase from >Northfiche via Northumberland Record Office at Woodhorn), I found >these two consecutive entries (I shall expand Wood's abbreviations): > >1806 Dec 25 Colquhoun, Rebecca (b Sep 18, 1803), 1st daughter of >William Colquhoun of Winlaton, smith, native of this parish, by his >wife Isabel Oliver, native of this parish > >1806 Dec 25 Colquhoun, William (b Nov 9), 1st son of the same. > > At the time, Winlaton was part of the parish of Ryton (Holy >Cross). It is not unusual to find someone living at Winlaton being >called a smith, as he was almost certainly an employee of what had >been the Crowley Iron Works (by then Crowley Millington & Co). That >was a very remarkable organisation, worthy of more study, written up >in detail in many places and the subject of a fascinating >full-length hardback book by Prof Flinn of Edinburgh University >c1961, called "Men of Iron: the Crowleys in the Early Iron >Industry". Briefly, Crowleys bought in bulk iron, as bars and >sheets, and their workmen then worked on it, almost as a "cottage >industry" to make it into all sorts of iron goods. At Winlaton they >specialised in small items: at Winlaton Mill it was edge tools (and >clandestine experiments in early steel-making) and at Swalwell it >was heavy goods (ships' anchors, chains for mooring ships, etc). At >Winlaton they made small chains (suitable for shackling slaves!), >implements for the plantations (hoes, rakes, spades, shovels, etc) >and domestic items (patten-rings to raise shoes above the dirt on >the streets, locks, bolts, nails, etc). > > Hawks' iron works in Gateshead became a major rival to >Crowleys, and that might be the reason for your family's Gateshead >connections. In William and Isabel's day, Crowleys were going flat >out and doing very well indeed out of the Napoleonic Wars, as they >had a lucrative exclusive contract from the Admiralty to provide all >the iron work for Royal Navy Ships of the Line, as well as supplying >their usual goods to the ever-expanding colonies. They were to >suffer a great reverse in 1815 when the Napoleonic Wars ended and >they were caught up in the inevitable post-war depression. > > You will notice that both William and his wife, Isabel, were >"natives of this parish" - ie they had been born there. That is an >excellent clue, only given between 1798 and 1812. It may not be >true, of course, but it usually is. > > Rebecca Colquhoun married James Wears at Winlaton on 19 May >1833. That was only about the ninth wedding to take place in >Winlaton St Paul's church. I have no more detail of this wedding >but the parish registers (try the on-line BTs) should tell you >whether it was by licence or after the calling of Banns, and they >may (though not necessarily) give a little more detail. You should >be able to see whether the parties signed their names or made a mark >(usually a cross), and who the witnesses were, as well as who the >clergyman was. They will not tell you anything about the parentage >of either party. Geoff Nicholson > > .. Please remember to snip most of the earlier message before you post any reply...... Thank you! 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