Seeking Abigail

Bay Horse

Bay Horse

Can be a bit of a dark horse
Abigail Burns was recorded as the mother of James Burns (baptism - Scotch Presbyterian chapel, James Street, Whitehaven, 19th December 1802. Image now on Ancestry). She and husband William were then at Scotch Street in the town. There's a later baptism for son Thomas in 1805, same place, and they'd moved just a short way to Queen Street by then.

I'm unable to find any more information for Abigail (her own baptism, marriage, burial) or indeed William, and I've been going round in circles with them for a long time.

Is anyone able to find anything on this pair, please?
 
Sorry, Found the boys but not the parents.
Also mentioned in 'Family Search' as

England, Lancashire Non-Conformist Church Records, 1647-1996

"England, Lancashire Non-Conformist Church Records, 1647-1996", database, FamilySearch (
Code: 
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6D1R-DXT8
: 28 January 2022), Abigain Burns in entry for James Burns, 1802.

Probably just copied over.
 
Yes, I've noticed the transcriptions under Lancashire on FS - they're also under Northumberland. :reading: Thanks for having a look for me, Wendy. :)

The parents have eluded me for ten years. (Abigail is such an uncommon name of the time, too. :headbang: I could understand it if her name was Mary or Elizabeth!)
 
Me too, she is remarkable by her absence isn't she. There seem to be another couple of BURNS families having children baptised in the non-conformist faith at Whitehaven: Thomas & Jane BURNS of High Street in 1812, Tangiers in 1813 & 1816 and then Queen Street in 1819 and James & Margaret BURNS of Darke Street in 1800. Just found another non-conformist baptism at Whitehaven in 1814, an Ann BURN daughter of Colin & Elizabeth BURN of Monkray - not sure she is one of your extended family or not, but the other two families could be couldn't they given the names of the two sons of William & Abigail.

There is a Family Tree on Ancestry for William & Abigail BURNS but no actual details for Abigail except the baptisms of sons James & Thomas. It also has William remarrying but no proof of Abigail's death. There is a Marriage Bond on Ancestry dated 29 September 1811 between William BURNS, widower, Labourer, aged 33, of Greysouthen in the parish of Brigham & Bridget ROBINSON of Greysouthen, spinster, aged 30, but again no actual proof that this is your William BURNS as far as I can see.

Sorry, it all seems to be negative information.

Janet
 
There are a lot of Burns around those parts, particularly in the graveyards. :sceptical:

Thank you, Janet. Not negative information at all, it helps to have someone else set it out in front of your eyes.

I'm not sure now if it's my laptop fan or my brain I can hear whirring.
 
Not sure if it's worth a look but in 1841 there is an Abigail Burns at Newington St Mary Surrey. Has birth year as 1776.
In 1850 the death of Abigail Burns birth year 1777 age 73 16/11/1850 Workhouse St Marylebone
 
Thank you, Sue. It would have been helpful if she had lasted out another year to record a county of birth on the '51 census!
Gut feeling is that it would have been unlikely for her to have made her way down to London from Whitehaven. Ancestry has her down as 'male', too, on both WH and burial transcriptions.

There is also a burial for Abigail Barnes at Stanwix in 1808. :reading: I don't know (bit out of area), but that would fit with the re-marriage of William at Brigham above.
 
Fingers crossed! It would help if we could find any other records definitely pertaining to your William & Abigail apart from their children's baptisms wouldn't it!!

Janet
 
It would, @janetbooth :)

The Will came through at 6.30 this morning, but sadly tells me nothing. Basically, I've received a Probate in favour of the son, the executor, but... no Will attached. :headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

When the document was first produced it would have had the Will attached to it.

(You know when you visit a grand country house and it has one of those enormous mazes made out of yew, and no matter how hard you try to get out you keep running into dead ends? That).
 
:(:(. I know the feeling only too well. Hopefully in the not too distant future we may get some Cumberland parish register images online.

Janet
 
I'll go back to Whitehaven to dig around the archives but I need to unmuddle my head first. :reading:

Still, small steps. I'm piecing tiny bits together on the Greysouthen chap but I'm not convinced he's my man, or indeed Abigail. :confused:
 
Still quietly digging on this one, weeks on.

I still feel that William and Abigail are the correct 4th G-Grandparents on this line. Given the Whitehaven link, I still think that William was at sea a lot which is possibly why there's no sight or sound of him. And you know what they say, what the sea takes, it gives back. He's got to put in an appearance somewhere, eventually. :)

Archie's Mum said:
Not sure if it's worth a look but in 1841 there is an Abigail Burns at Newington St Mary Surrey.
Click to expand...

Sue, I'm going to chase this one up now (it's on the list) - thank you. Having found a connection to Surrey a bit later it's looking a little more likely.

William was the name of the first-born grandson, who like his brothers and nephews also went away to sea, swapping farm life for one on the ocean wave.
 
I know I am coming into this very late!

There was a marriage on 04 Jun 1807 at St. Nicholas, Whitehaven, of William SPENCE, weaver & Abigail BURNS, Widow. Witnesses: George BLENKINSOP, John BRIGGS.

This is from a transcription of the parish registers by Cumbria FHS.

I could not find the burial of a William BURNS at St. Nicholas between 1804 and 1807. Nor indeed was there a burial of a William BURNS in Nev Ramsden's Copeland Index (an index of all the parish registers of the Copeland area of Cumberland up to 1837) between 1804 and 1807. So perhaps he died at sea?

But there is the burial of an Abigail SPENCE, age 34, on 17 Feb 1813 at St. Nicholas, Whitehaven. No further details given in the parish register.

This would suggest a birth for Abigail of around 1778/79.

And also, the Copeland Index has the marriage on 17 May 1802 at Cleator of William BURNS & Abigail NEWTON.

Also from the Copeland Index: Baptism on 19 Feb 1780 at St. Bees: Abigail NEWTON, daughter of James & Betty of Harras, husbandman.

That is the only Abigail NEWTON baptism in the Copeland Index around the right time, with a very wide margin.

As regards baptisms for a William BURNS, I found the following possible ones in the Copeland Index:

Bap. 07 Jun 1779 at Harrington: William BURNS, son of Thomas
Bap. 19 Dec 1784 at Harrington: William BURNS, son of Thomas & Rachel (although this is a little late for a marriage in 1802)

The last baptism of a William BURNS before 1779 was in 1760, so rather unlikely.

There was also the baptism of a William BURN, son of George of Workington, on 07 Jan 1774 at St. Michael, Workington - but he did not have an S at the end of the surname, and Workington does not fit very well either.

It is however possible that William was baptised in the Presbyterian Chapel, or that indeed he was born in Scotland.

Good hunting!

Petra
 
Hi Petra, many thanks for this. And certainly not late at all - I've been 'out of the loop' for a while.

I'm a member of Cumbria FHS and have used Nev Ramsden's index extensively, so not sure how I missed the above. However, I am liking the Cleator marriage between William and Abigail - that fits into the puzzle very nicely. I had recorded William being baptised at Harrington, 7 June 1779, parents Thomas and Isabella... no marriage or death, but I believed he most likely died at sea. The re-marriage of Abigail is a real bonus.

Thomas Burns b. 1805 married Mary Clark - I have her obituary which was passed down in family papers. They had two sons William and Henry who also died at sea.

Thank you so much, Petra.
 
Maybe a red herring but I found some people in Canada who may be them or may be related:
From WikiTree:
Abigail Bradshaw (1799- ) married John Nelson Burns (1791- 1863), child Mary Abigail Buns bon about 1839 on Prince Edward Island, died 1916 (approx).
 
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