Robert Fairbairn

     
     Robert Fairbairn was born cir. Jan 1729 at Drygrange, Par. of Melrose, ROX, SCT.^2,4,5 He was baptized on 5 Jan 1729 in the Par. of Melrose, ROX, SCT; Robert s: to John ffairbairn & Bessie fflint in Drygrange Milne Bapt: Wit: Tho: Anderson & Robt Pringle.⁵
     Robert Fairbairn married Agnes Landreth on 6 Jan 1757 in the Par. of St Boswells, ROX, SCT, The 9th day Robert Fairbairn and Agnes Landreth both in this parish gave up their names in order to marriage and gave in Bond and Caut.. with twelve shillings Scotts money to the poor box in .. of their .. were married by .. banns upon January 6 day 1757 years.⁶
     Robert Fairbairn died aft. 1771 ?Kelso, ROX, SCT.⁷
     Robert Fairbairn and Robert Fairbairn at Melrose, ROX, SCT, say 1775 were possibly related, one married to Agnes Landreth 1757, the other marr. Margaret Elliot and of an age to be a child of Robert and Agnes, particularly as naming pattern of children fits.⁸
     John Fairbairn is likely to be the family patriarch for the families of Archibald? Fairbairn, Robert Fairbairn, Archibald Fairbairn, Archibald Fairbairn, William Fairbairn, John or David Fairbairn and William Fairbairn.
The Archibald with the ? after his name has to have existed, as the Fairbairn Surname DNA project provided a DNA match between a descendant of Archibald Fairbairn and Alison Crosser, likely first son Archibald born Whitsome, Berwickshire, and a descendant of Archibald Fairbairn and Mary Grierson/Giessen's, son George, baptised Bowden, Roxburghshire. These two families are contemporaries in time and fairly close by place.
I assigned the name Archibald? as father of the Archibald who married Alison Crosser from my assumption that the 1783 baptism of an Archibald to an Archibald, hynd of Whitsome Vaults, is their likely eldest child.
Prompted by this unexpected success I researched the other Archibald and have now convinced myself that his father was Robert, and grandfather John (marr. Bessie fflint), this all being from both naming patterns of the children, and the baptisms being in the right area and timeframe as there are no convenient wills left around for us to find. The extended family also end up in all the right places (Smailholm and Kelso). There's even an Archibald as a witness to one of the baptisms, and a Thomas Anderson.

Statistics on the Family Tree DNA site show that at a 36 out of 37 marker match ( exact matches at the 12 and 25 tests) there is a 90% probability that the common ancestor was no more than 8 generations ago, and 95% that it was no more than 10.
My calcs are that a grandfather to the two known to exist Archibalds would cover 8 generations in total, so this seemed good enough reason to join the families up in this way, it may however be a generation, or two, further back.

An additional line joined this extended Fairbairn family with an unexpected match between these Archibalds and a descendant of William Fairbairn and Jean Wanless, who had emigrated to Quebec. This 67/67 match between a descendant of the Archibald who married Mary Grierson, and a descendant of William Fairbairn and Jean Wanless. and the 64/67 match between the Crosser line and these two lines has led me to join up the families as per the linked charts.
You can read about this research journey on my Fairbairns page.^9,2,10,11