Archibald Fairbairn

     Archibald Fairbairn was estimated to have been born say Mar 1783 in the Par. of Whitsome & Hilton, BEW, SCT, this date being taken from the Whitsome baptism, which may or may not be him.⁵ It is possible that Archibald Fairbairn was baptized on 16 Mar 1783 in the Par. of Whitsome & Hilton, BEW, SCT, father Archibald was a hynd, resident on the now extinct farm of Whitsome Vaults, no mother mentioned so it may not be this Archibald he belongs too, and although he is a tad earlier than I would expect for someone saying he was 50 in the 1841 census, Archibald and Alison (CROSSER) did have a son (my Walter) who said he was born in Swinton, which is very close. In addition, the 1841 shows that he wasn't born in Roxburghshire, which does add some weight to this theory So on balance, I believe it is highly likely to be this Archibald's baptism.^6,1,2 Some sources show Archibald as born bet 1787 - 1791 in BEW?, SCT, this being the likely age from the 1841 census, albeit not always accurate.⁵
     Archibald Fairbairn married Janet Scott on 1 Apr 1810 St Boswells, ROX, SCT, OPR and igi only give A., but subsequent children's christenings give Archibald as father, so I assume it was Archibald who married Janet.⁷
     Archibald Fairbairn was assumed to have died in May 1842 at St Boswells, ROX, SCT, (Janet shows up in 1851 as a widow living with son Walter, and there's a mortcloth payment of 3/- on May 22nd for "Archd Fairbairn" in the St Boswells OPR).^8,9,10 He was buried on 22 May 1842 at St Boswells, ROX, SCT, (date assumes the mortcloth was paid for the day he was buried).¹⁰
     
     In Feb 1819 Archibald Fairbairn was a steward (place possibly Haspark?) at Howpark, Coldingham, BEW, SCT, when dtr Alison born.¹¹ By 1841 Archibald Fairbairn was a gardener (on son Archibald's marriage cert).³ He was shown as a land steward on dth cert of dtr Alison in 1876 ?Melrose, ROX, SCT,⁸ in Oct 1894 he was shown as a farm manager on son Walter's dth cert.¹²
     Archibald Fairbairn and Janet Fairbairn appeared on the census of 7 Jun 1841 at Greenwells Glenburney, Par. of Melrose, ROX, SCT, and are assumed to be husband and wife. They were enumerated as Archibald, ag. lab. 50, not b. cty, Janet 40, b cty. Assumed children: John 20, joiner; Helen 25, Walter 15, ag lab; Catharine 12, all but John b cty.⁵
     Another person (descendant Martin F) has (or once had) this Archibald as the son of Archibald Fairbairn and Mary Grierson. I believe he belongs with Archibald and Alison because of the naming pattern of the children of Archibald and Janet. Archibald and Mary would also have had rather a hard time fitting him in between their other children. This conjecture has had weight added from the dna testing which shows a close match, but not identical, with a descendant of Archibald and Mary. The families are therefore highly likely to be related.^13,14
     The Fairbairn surname dna project has come up trumps - again.
I began to suspect that the family of FAIRBAIRNs I was tracing around in Ontario and Alberta just might belong to the family of an Archibald who married Jane Blakey in Tynemouth in 1841. Much later, I realised that I'd never actually checked this marriage cert. When this was remedied I was very interested to see that this Archibald's father was another Archibald.
Given that the one married to Jane was given as born about 1813 in Scotland in most available records, and the only Archibald son of Archibald I had in my database of Fairbairns was the one baptised in St Boswells in 1813 to Archibald F. and Janet Scott, it was looking even more likely that I'd found out what had happened to this latter Archibald, albeit that the father was shown with an occupation (gardener) that I hadn't associated with him. (Up till now I had assumed he had died prior to the 1841 census).
Thanks to a McKee researcher connected to the Ontario branch of these Fairbairns (who only knew their ancestry back to the Robert who married Martha Almira Huston), a descendant was convinced to represent his line in the Fairbairn dna project.
The preliminary results (Apr 2009) showed a 12/12 match, and by May they showed a 64/67 match, with the known descendant of Archibald and Janet (Scott) Fairbairn. QED, especially as two of those markers are unique in the project to this line, and marker cdya of 36 is shared with Martin the known descendant of Archibald and Janet (Scott) F, and none of the others in the project.
I am still, however, looking for a proven representative of Archibald and Alison (Crosser) Fairbairn as the Archibald married to Janet Scott link to them is not fully proven.^14,15