A  SPECIAL  FAMILY  HISTORY  POST  FOR  MY  THOMPSON  RELLIES

from the Border regions of Scotland

THE  DEMPSTERS &  DRYSDALES

WESTER  SHEARDALE

All of the land around Dollar, in Clackmannanshire, was originally owned by the lords of Argyll. In 1605, Wester Sheardale, " held of Dunfermline by Argyll" was feued to William Drysdale.

 

Feued: 

1. (Historical Terms) legal history

a. a feudal tenure of land for which rent was paid in money or grain instead of by the performance of military service

b. the land so held

2. (Law) Scots law a right to the use of land in return for a fixed annual payment (feu duty)

Portioner:  (Scotland) The proprietor of a small portion of a larger piece of land; a laird of a small estate

 

The property remained in the Drysdale family until some time in the early 1800s (before 1826) when it was sold to the Duncanson family of Alloa.

 

We have written evidence for:

1605 - William Drysdale at Wester Sheardale

1620 - Simon Drysdale at the Haugh (pronounced 'hock' of Dollar) - this is a farm on the plain of Wester Sheardale and part of the property. My guess is he's the son who hasn't yet come into ownership of the whole property. A 'haugh' is a floodplain, and this is certainly on one!

1696 - Simon Drysdale, a portioner, at Wester Sheardale. I'm told by local historians that Simon is a very unusual name in that part of Scotland, but the Drysdales seem to have alternated between William and Simon for father and first son. Makes them very easy to find! We are definitely descended from this Simon, who was married to Janet Paton/Patton in 1696. Their daughter Jean was born in 1697 and she married William Dempster, a portioner of Wester Tillyochie

 

The original property still lies to the east of Dollar on the road to Tillycoultry. We visited it and were able to walk all around it. The house has been renovated and is still lived in (now two rental properties) and it dates back to 1605. On one end is the barn and on the other end the stables/ coach building, with servants' quarters upstairs. These buildings are both in ruins and have fencing around to keep everyone out. They are listed, but nothing is being done to them so inevitably one day they'll fall down, I guess.

 The stables / coach building

 Closeup of the plaque over the door of the coach house. Have no idea what it says! Is anyone out there really, really good with magical photo programs?!

 Side of the barn

 The main house, looking towards coach house

 To think that our family once owned all of THIS! Looking towards the Ochils.

 Barn and farm buildings at the Haugh of Dollar farm

 Another photo of plaque over coach house door showing cool family lion!

 The house - you can see where it's been extended onto over the centuries. Part on the right of the photo is the original early 1600 house.

Wester Sheardale

 

 

Some decades after the Drysdales had sold it, the property was bought by John Millar in 1852, and he built a big Victorian mansion (summer and autumn house for the family) in 1855. The house was very grand, but fell into disuse last century and was demolished in 1974. We climbed the hill to find where it had been - you could still see the steps and remains of the terrace.

 

 

 Lex at the top of the stairs leading down to the terrace.

Me on the terrace

 Part of the curved terrace wall you can see on the front of the house below.

It was awfully grand but it's rather ironic that the little Drysdale house is still there four hundred years later and the big mansion lasted just over a century....

DEMPSTERS

In 1686, John Dempster, a Yoeman of Wester Tillyochie, married Agnes Burt, the daughter of John Burt of Easter Balado.  Easter Balado is now a fishery and the house is still there and in excellent condition!

 There is a huge stone wall around the garden

I'm guessing this is the original aspect of the driveway still in use today.

 

Their son William Dempster (born in 1699) married Jean Drysdale in Dollar in 1722. Unfortunately we had no luck in finding Wester Tillyochie; local thought is that the house must be long gone as all of the big houses in the Tillyochie district are Georgian or Victorian.

 

However, we had wonderful luck with the family graves in the old Kinross cemetery, down by Loch Leven, where we found two legible graves:

 

 Our family graves are the two closest in the photo above, and I'm standing between them, below.



 

Grave 1

HERE LYES JOHN DEMPSTER SON TO JOHN DEMPSTER & AGNES BURT WHO DIED 26 MRCH  1716  HIS AGE  26  &  JANET DEMPSTER DAUGHTER TO JOHN DEMPSTER  & AGNES BURT WHO DIED IN JULY 1715(? not entirely sure of this) HIR AGE 24

WILLIAM DEMPSTER PORT OF W TILLIOCHIE  BORN 1699 AND DIED 1741

JEAN DRYSDALE HIS SPOUSE  DIED 1762  AGED 64  JOHN DEMPSTER THEIR ELDEST SON WAS BORN 1723 AND DIED 1794 & CATHERINE LAING  HIS SPOUSE DIED 1781 AGED 50

 

In smaller writing underneath:

JAMES DEMPSTER DIED 27TH JUNE 1878(?) HELEN MOORE HIS SPOUSE DIED 12TH JULY 1871 AGED 57

ALSO THEIR CHILDREN

JOHN DIED 16TH JUNE 1844 AGED 3

JAMES DIED 16TH MARCH 1866 AGED 48

JESSIE DIED 2ND APRIL 1902 AGED 67

MARY WIDOW OF P.MCLAREN DIED 9 OCT 1918 AGED 73

ANDREW DIED 4TH JUNE 1914 AGED 71

CATHERINE JANE DIED 7TH FEB 1922 AGED 8(?)6

 

Obviously the 19th century Dempsters decided they might as well join the ancestors and use up the grave slab!

 

Grave 2

IN MEMORY OF

JOHN DEMPSTER W TILLYOCHIE WHO DIED AD 1596(?) JOHN DEMPSTER WHO DIED 1671 ELIZABETH BARCLAY HIS SPOUSE WHO DIED 1676

MARY DRYSDALE SPOUSE TO WILLIAM DEMPSTER PORT OF TILLYOCHIE WHO DIED 1817 AGED 55 YEARS & THEIR TWO SONS JOHN DEMPSTER WHO DIED APRIL 1816(?) & WILLIAM DEMPSTER WHO DIED 28TH ? 1827 BOTH AGED 13 (OR 18)

From here it gets too weathered to decipher, but there's another portioner and a Catherine.

Again, later Dempsters reusing the earlier stone.

We don't have the grave of John Dempster and Agnes Burt, though, so theirs must be one of the illegible ones, as I'm sure they must be in the same cemetery as their children.

 

DEMPSTERS OF LESLIE

Leslie is a small town in Fife. Simon Dempster, the son of William Dempster and Jean Drysdale, was the minister of the anti-burgher church here for about 11 years from 1757. The old Anti-burgher kirk is located at 132 High Street and is behind an undertaker's and joiner's building, where it's used as a storeroom.

 132 High Street

 The back of the church



 The church from the front

We found the family grave in the old kirkyard behind the big Church of Scotland on the edge of town.

 In loving memory of the Rev Simon Dempster

12 years Minister of the seceding congregation of Leslie

Who entered into his Rest

16th April 1799 in the 74th year of his Age

Distinguished for

PIETY

Attainments in Sacred learning

Unbending Integrity

Fidelity in the Pastoral Office

AND HIS

Exemplary Deportment in all the Relations of life

ALSO

Nicholas Campbell his spouse who died June 1777 aged 41

and their son Simon Dempster who  died August 1826 aged 58

(Obviously a great bloke and we all take after him!!)

 

The family grave is the one on the edge of the weeds and poison ivy, closest to camera.

 

Nicholas too was held to be extremely pious; I found this extract about her:

Mrs. Jameson's father was the eldest son of the Rev. John Mackersy of Kinkell. He held the farm of Cultmalundie, near Methven, and was an elder and manager of the Secession Church at Methven, under the ministry of his uncle, the Rev. John Wilson, and of his cousin, the Rev. John Jameson.

Mrs. Jameson's mother, Catherine Dempster, was a daughter of the Rev. Simon Dempster, Secession minister of Leslie, in Fifeshire. Mrs. Dempster's mother was a very godly woman. On one occasion, she said to her daughter: " I have got from the Lord the promise of you, and your seed, and your seed's seed." She thus expressed her inward conviction, which she regarded as a Divine monition, that God would answer her prayers for her posterity.

Well, she got her prayers answered. I wonder how many descendants she has by now?!