John and Agnes each moved out of Glasgow before marrying. We learn this from their marriage banns documents. Like many Christian denominations, the Church of Scotland required a betrothed couple to declare their intention to marry through marriage banns. Banns is a Middle English word meaning proclamation, for they were read in church services for three Sundays preceding the wedding. A marriage without banns was termed an irregular marriage, in which the couple had to pay a fine to the Kirk to legitimatize it.
If the bride and groom haled from different parishes, banns were to be read in each parish. That was the case with John and Agnes. The following image is of the banns from Kilbarchan Parish, where Agnes was living at the time. The priest recorded that John lived "in the Parish of Kilmalcom" whereas Agnes was "in this Parish." He did not need to specify Kilbarchan, for the banns register was specific to that parish.
We also have a record of the banns read from Kilmacolm Parish, where John was living. It was submitted on the same day: Saturday, May 19. Frank Darroch received the following transcript from the Scottish Ancestry Research Society:
John Darroch, Blacksmith in the Burnside, and Agnes Greenlees, in the parish of Kilbarchan, gave in their names to be proclaimed in order for marriage upon the 19th day of May 1849.... [2]
Again, since the Kilmacolm priest recorded the banns for Kilmacolm parishioners, John's parish need not be named, for he was living there right there in Kilmacolm. Likewise, the priest did specify that Agnes was from a different parish (Kilbarchan). The banns reveal a detail that narrows down where John was living: "in the Burnside." Now where, exactly, was the Burnside? I had previously looked many times for that location, but until I realized it was in Kilmacolm, I had been stumped. This new information takes us down an interesting path.
The term burnside means "beside a large creek or small river," of which there are many. But the upper case B implied a place name as opposed to a generic location. Enter my wife, Donna, who loves a good mystery. She uncovered an obscure reference to Burnside in a 19th-century parish history which implied a specific place. [3] She then uncovered a series of aerial photographs entitled "Burnside, Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire." Here is one taken in 1958, with the village of Kilmacolm peeking out from the top left corner.
The aerial photographs covered a wide area, without pointing to a specific place. Buoyed up by Donna's find, I jumped back into the search and found a building called Burnside Place right in the village of Kilmacolm. It is less than 100 meters from the Old Kirk and near the center of the village. Today it houses a modern-day law office. This gave no confidence to denote the site of a former blacksmith shop. But the street name did, for it is located on a lane called Smithy Brae. We now knew we were on to something.
Donna subsequently found a history of Kilmacolm given by an old salt who described the village as it was at the end of the 1800s. Referring to "Smiddy Brae" he said, "There were two Smith shops which were a never-failing attraction for the boys." [5] His description aligns with: 1) the Kilbarchan banns document stating John was living in Kilmalcolm, 2) Frank's transcript from Kilmacolm Parish, describing John as a "Blacksmith in the Burnside," and 3) the local historian who said a blacksmith shop(s) existed by Burnside Place. Bingo!
The 1841 Census shows the Village of Kilmacolm as having 84 houses and 377 residents. If the Burnside on Smithy Brae was John's actual location, he was plying his trade close to where his future father-in-law, William Greenlees, was living. John and William probably knew each other more than I had previously presumed. (This new discovery means I will need to re-write my previous post to correct and incorporate these new locations. In the meanwhile, I will move forward with the current story.)
The following vignette starts in Kilmacolm, supposing John had just obtained William's blessing to marry his daughter. It then moves to the village of Kilbarchan, where Agnes was. The date is that of the wedding banns above: Saturday, May 19, 1849.
John left William's place and raced to the Old Kirk to submit his and Agnes's names for the marriage banns. He made the 90-minute walk to Kilbarchan with a spring in his step. He felt the whole world was with him. His plan was clear: marry the girl of his dreams, move to Ontario to join his cousins, and start a successful blacksmithing business. It was all so straightforward! Once in Kilbarchan, he made a beeline for the kirk and submitted their marriage banns there. Then he proceeded to Agnes's workplace to propose again.
"Did you ask my father this time?"
"Aye. And your father said yes."
"Then it is two times yes," she said. "Don't forget to submit our names for the wedding banns."
"Done. I did it in Kilmalcolm this morning and then here this afternoon." John said. "And I reserved our passage for June 9th."
That's when John's well-laid plans started to unravel, just a bit. Agnes's eyes widened.
"What? You already reserved our passage?"
"Aye. I thought we had agreed..."
"No, John, we didn't agree to anything. Don't take me for granted."
John's face fell.
Agnes's voice softened. "I like your get-it-done attitude but sometimes you make plans before confirming with me. We talked of moving to Ontario but when did that become a definite plan?"
In John's long-held desire to move to Ontario, he had always assumed his future wife would not question the decision. That was how it worked with his folks. Father called the shots and Mother complied, in spite of longing to join her parents and siblings in Ontario. His father was determined to stay put, so stay put they did. Make no mistake, Agnes was excited to start married life with John--she just wasn't ready to leave her family yet. The closer the date, the more she showed her reluctance. John tried his best to persuade her.
"Agnes, everyone is emigrating. We may as well go right away and be among the first."
"I didn't realize it was a race! How can I leave when Grandfather Findlay is ill and Father can barely make financial ends meet? Besides, we still don't have enough money for our fare."
"We have two pounds, 12 shillings."
"John, that's five pounds short of what we need--half a year's wages for me! How will we get the rest in three weeks?"
"This is meant to be. We can make it work."
"If it was meant to be, don't you think we'd be further along than this?"
"Have faith, Agnes. If we do our best, God will provide."
Agnes wasn't convinced. She had faith alright. Faith helped her through those difficult years following her mother's death. And why does faith need to be a leap into the unknown? It takes just as much faith to stay put, to hang on, to accept the lot you've been given. Agnes realized there was not much use arguing. John was as determined to go as Agnes was to wait.
Agnes paused, then said, "Okay. How be we put this to the test? If the money magically appears, I'll take that as a sign Providence favours us leaving. If not, we stay here for now."
A realization also came to John. His long-held dream of emigrating was on hold again. Oh, well. It did not deter him one bit. Ontario was worth the wait, and so was Agnes.
In the above vignette, I speculate that Agnes was torn about starting a new life with her fiance and leaving her family. I empathize with her. There is little doubt she would have had some misgivings since she and her father were so close. There is also ample evidence she and John were strapped for cash, for when they did eventually leave, they had only enough money to land them in Montreal. They had to borrow from a cousin to continue on their way. Obviously, their money for passage materialized in time, but only enough to cross the Atlantic.
In the next post, we will discover the source of their newfound funds. We will also see that if Agnes had had a choice, she might have chosen a different source.
References:
[1] Image from "Parish Marriages & Banns 1561-1893." Copyright held by ScotlandsPeople Center, a government body. May be used for personal use or non-commercial websites.
[2] Frank Darroch, A Darroch Family in Scotland and in Canada, (Harriston, Ontario, 1974), 16.
[3] James Murray, Kilmacolm: A Parish History, 1100-1898, (Paisley, Scotland, 1898), 258.
Note: This book also relates the story of Robert Greenlees, a farm labourer in Kilmamcolm, who sought redress from the court due to an unprovoked attack he received in 1750. Agnes's great-grandfather's name was Robert Greenlees. I cannot confirm it is the same person, but the name, age, and place align nicely. (See pp. 165-66 of the above book for that story.)
[4] Aerial image of Burnside, used with permission from http://ncap.org.uk/frame/8-1-12-1-226-987, retrieved May 2, 2023.
[5] Memories of Kilmacolm: A talk given by Brown McMinn Esq. in old St. Columba Hall on the evening of Tuesday, 9th February, 1953, unpublished, https://www.kilmacolmcivictrust.org/images/docs/BrownMcMinn.pdf, retrieved April 30, 2023.