The Homeplace – Inch and Kirkcolm
INCH is shown on this map. This is the parish where we first find Robert McCubbin. His children, James and Mary were both born in Inch Parish.
The following is edited from A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland, Samuel Lewis, 1846.
INCH, a parish, in the county of Wigton, 2½ miles (E.) from Stranraer; containing, with the hamlets of Aird, Cairnryan, and Lochans, 2950 inhabitants. … It is ten miles in length, and in one part nearly of the same breadth, comprising 30,600 acres.
Loch Ryan, situated at the mouth of the Clyde, has long been a secure retreat for vessels entering or leaving that river, and for those navigating the Irish channel, even in the most stormy and dangerous weather, on account of its excellent anchorage and safe shelter off the village of Cairnryan. It is between eight and nine miles in length, from its northern extremity to the town of Stranraer at its head, and is about three miles wide at the entrance.
The chief village is Cairnryan, which contains 196 persons, and is distant seven miles from the parish church; about 100 reside in another village, and a few in a suburb of Stranraer, lately built in the parish. The high road from London to Portpatrick, and that from Glasgow to the same place, pass through Inch, and are daily traversed by mail coaches. The steam-packet, also, running between Glasgow and Stranraer, and that from Belfast to Stranraer, touch at Cairnryan, for passengers and goods. A monthly market, called ‘the Stranraer cattle-market,’ is held from April to October. The parochial school affords instruction in the classics, practical mathematics, and the various branches of a good education; the master receives the minimum salary, about £23 in fees, and has a house and garden.
Kirkcolm
Kirkcolm, possibly named after St. Columba, forms the twenty square mile northern tip of the Rhinns peninsula, with the Irish Sea beyond Milleur Point to north and west, Loch Ryan to the east, and Leswalt parish to the south. Historic remains are relatively few; forts are at Caspin and Corsewall Point, Corsewall Castle is nearby, and the church and chapel of St. Bride’s and Kilmorie. Corsewall lighthouse, on the treacherous north-western coast, looks out to Rathlin Island in Ulster, to Kintyre, Arran and the Cumbraes. It was built in 1815 for the Commisssioners of Northern Lighthouses by Robert Stevenson, engineer father of Robert Louis Stevenson.
Notable for long leases of 21 years to life, there were some forty farms in 1840 on the steep pasture lands, interspersed with some arable. Dairying supplanted cattle raising from about 1820, but Kirkcolm once claimed the best black Galloway cattle in the Rhinns. Commercial fishery was for salmon in the north and herrings and oysters in Loch Ryan, while the Wig’s deep water off Marian Port was a base for Sunderland flying boats of RAF Coastal Command providing air cover to WWII convoys. (from Wigtownshire Pages)
Early Families
I. Robert McCubbin of Inch was the progenator of the following family:
A. James McCubbin 1773 – 1819, was a Farmer. He was born in Inch and died in Kirkcolm. He married Jannet MCINTYRE in 1802 in Kirkcolm. He died age 45 in Kirkcolm. He and Jannet had four children:
1. James, born 1803,
2. Elizabeth, born 1806,
At the cemetery in Kirkcolm is James and family’s gravesite. Erected in Memory of
James McCUBBIN, who died March 1819
Also his wife Janet McINTYRE, died Feby 1863 aged 86 years
Also their children:
Elizabeth, died Decr 1824 aged 18 years
James, died Jany 1827 aged 24 years
And their grandchildren:
Christina McCUBBIN, died July 1840 aged 4 years
Christina, died June 1852 aged 9 months
Anne, died May 1860 aged 18 months
3. Alexander McCubbin, the second son, born 1808, was the most adventuresome of James and Janet’s four children. He was one of the earliest McCubbin settlers in Canada. He married Margaret JEFFREY circa 1835; and we find him on the census of 1851 in Lachute, Deux Montagnes, Canada East (Quebec); a Farmer, living with wife and 6 children.
Deux-Montagnes is a municipality in southwestern Quebec, Canada, on the north shore of the Riviere des Mille Iles where it flows out of Lake of the Two Mountains (Lac des Deux Montagnes). It is the seat of the Regional County Municipality of Deux Montagnes in the greater Montreal region.
Alexander and Margaret had eight children:
a) James, born circa 1838,
b) George MCCUBBIN, born 1840, who married Emma. He appeared on the census of 1911 in Terrebonne, Ste Sophie, New Glasgow, Quebec; head of household, age 70, living with wife and children, Albert, b1880, Maud, b1883, and Ivan, b1892. Lovell’s Province of Quebec lists him as a Miller.
c) Margaret MCCUBBIN born circa 1842 in Canada.
d) Janet MCCUBBIN born in 1845 in Canada.
e) Alice MCCUBBIN born in 1848 in Canada.
f) William MCCUBBIN born in 1851 in Canada. He appeared on the census of 1901 in Sainte-Therese, Terrebonne, QC, Canada; head of household, age 50, a ‘Cultivateur Montranes’. Mother Margaret, age 85, at same address.
g) Charles MCCUBBIN was born circa 1854; Source:
h) Alexander MCCUBBIN married Helen Marjory MANSON; Source: Census 1901. He was born 1860 in Quebec; He appeared on the census of 1901 in Saint Eustache, Deux-Montagnes, Quebec; Head of household, a Cultivateur, living with wife and children, Gladys, b1896, Stuart, b1900, George, b1903, Beatrice, b1904, Elsie, 1909, and Alice, b 1910.
4. Charles McCubbin was born circa 1813 in Knock-Coid, Parish of Kirkcolm, Wigtown. He appeared on the census of 1841 in Kirkcolm, employed as a ‘male servant’ at West Balscallock. He married Agnes THOM, 1846 in Kirkcolm. He appeared on the census of 1851 in Spoutwells, Kirkcolm, head of household, living with wife & children & widowed mother.
He was a Farmer of 40 acres. He appeared on the census of 1871 in Spoutwells, Inch; Head of Household, age 60, farmer of 40 acres, living with wife Agnes, daughter Betsy, 21, son Charles, 17, Appr Draper, Agnes, 15, Jessie, 11, a Scholar & William, 9, a Scholar.
Charles and Agnes had eleven children, all appear to have been born at Spoutwells; James, b1847, Betsy, b1849, Charles McIntrye, b1854, Jess Agnes, b1855, Agnes, b1856 (married John Kissack in Maughold, Isle of Man), Jessie, b1860 and William b1862, who appeared on the census of 1881 at Maughold, Isle of Man. Four of Charles and Agnes’ children died young – two Christinas, Maggie Jane and Annie Jane died young.
Their eldest son, Charles McIntyre McCubbin was born 1854. He appeared on the census of 1871 in Spoutwells, Inch; living with parents & siblings, Age 17, an Appr. Draper. By the time he was 23 he had left home and married Lizzie Jane [e] WHITE 1877 in Stockport, Cheshire. He appeared on the census of 1881 in 75 Grosvenor St, Chorlton on Medlock, Lancashire, England; a Travelling Draper. By 1891 he was living at 55 Higher Ardwell, Ardwick, Manchester; age 37, a Credit Draper, living with wife and children, Daisy, 12, Edith L, 10, Charles R, 8, Harold, 6, Agnes, 4, James 2. Eldest 4 children were Scholars. By 1901 he was a Draper living at 73 Shakespeare St, Chorlton on Medlock, Manchester, South Lancashire, age 47, head of household, with wife and ten children. Charles had clearly made his way in the world, stepping up the ladder from Apprentice Draper to a qualified *Draper. Charles and Lizzie Jane’s ten children, all born in Manchester, were: Daisy, b1880, Edith Lillian, b1881, Charles, b1883, Harold William, b1886, Agnes, b1886, James, b1889, Florence, b1891, Godfrey Arthur ‘Goff’, b1893, Violet, b1894, and Gladys, b1889.
We know more about their fourth son, Godfrey Arthur, as his daughter-in-law, Heather McCubbin of Australia, married his namesake, also Godfrey Arthur, and has been in touch with the McCubbin Family Association. Heather relates in an email
“I married Godfrey Arthur McCubbin (‘Arthur’) 40 years ago in Britain and we emigrated to Perth, Western Australia in 1969. I recently decided that it was time we knew just a bit about the family for our son and grandson to “inherit” and so, due to an elderly cousin on Arthur’s side of the family, I managed to get quite a bit of info from her before she died.”
Godfrey ‘Goff’ married Annie Agnes TRAVERS. They had three children.
Goffs occupation was Textile Buyer.
“He went out to West Africa fairly regularly for this purpose. He was born in Manchester and brought up in Brighton Grove, Rusholme, Manchester,” relates Heather.
They had three children.
Occupations
Farmer, Farmer of 40 acres, Cultivateur Montranes, Miller, Apprentice Draper, Travelling Draper, Credit Draper, Draper, Textile Buyer
Draper is the now largely obsolete term for a wholesaler, or especially retailer of cloth, mainly for clothing, or one who works in a draper’s shop. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. The drapers were an important trade guild. (from Wikipedia) Some draper’s became tailors as well.
Leaving Home
To Canada
Alexander left Wigtownshire when most of his compatriots remained on the farms. He was one of the earliest McCubbins to arrive in Canada.
To England
Following the tradition of one or two of the sons of a farmer, Charles apprenticed as a Draper then moved on to England.
Military Service
Godfrey Arthur MCCUBBIN – Manchester Regiment, Recorded as Sergeant. Source: Ancestry.com. British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920.
Writes Heather, “Godfrey (Goff) was in the infantry a Captain and he was somewhere in Europe during WW1. Arthur seems to think that it was Germany.”
Facts of Interest
Scots – Quebecers
Scots have long and historic ties with the province of Quebec. The early Scots who arrived in the province were crofters and fishermen.
In 1763, the French population of Quebec was approximately 55,000 when France handed it over to Great Britain under the terms of the Treaty of Paris 1773 that ended the French and Indian War.
By the beginning of the 19th century, the Quebec population was expanding slowly as immigration began from Great Britain. many Scottish immigrants, saw unlimited opportunity in this huge forested land. The bond between Scotland and France, however, also extended to numerous other areas such as the Gens d’Armes Ecosssais (Scots Men-At-Arms). who guarded the kings of France for nearly three hundred years. Today in France there are many descendants of these Scots who have lived there for centuries. Some of these Scottish immigrants settled in Quebec City but many with an entrepreneurial drive kept moving west to Montreal, which at the time was little more than a small port town on the St. Lawrence River. By far the majority of the Scots arrived in Quebec with little more than the shirt on their back.By the first decade of the 1800s, Montreal had grown to around 9,000 inhabitants and the Scottish immigrants who chose to make Montreal their home soon began to play a key role in the city’s cultural, scientific, and business life. Although at their peak, the Scots made up only a small percentage of Quebec’s population, they had an impact on the city of Montreal and the Province of Quebec far beyond their numbers. Starting from an almost non-existent economic base, they were instrumental in improving the Province’s commercial prospects by exploiting an untapped hinterland. They transformed the small fortified town into the business hub for much of the St Lawrence basin and worked to enhance the Province’s economic power. Scots led a wave of immigrants seeking a better life that saw Montreal’s population grow from 9,000 in 1800 to 50,000 by the year 1850. (Excerpted and edited from Wikipedia)
Five Generation Descendancy Chart
Contributors: Margaret Anne Broscomb, Heather McCubbin
Sources: Scottish Canadian, Wikipedia