William Sutherland, Badbea

William Sutherland, my G G G G Grandfather is the first tenant of Badbea with marriage and birth records in the Latheron Old Parish Registers (OPR). These can be located at the ScotlandsPeople website. 

The Roy Map of 1747-55 shows buildings and cultivated land at Badbae (Note: there are a number of variations in the recorded spelling of Badbea).

William Sutherland was born in Ausdale about 1745. His father was David Sutherland. His mother’s name is unknown. No birth record has been located.

9^th June, 1770. William Sutherland in Ausdale and Christian Finlayson in Langwell were matrimonially contracted in order to marriage. Latheron OPR.

William was then about 25 years of age, living at Ausdale probably with his father David Sutherland. With Ausdale already occupied by about eight families, there would have been little chance of William getting a house or lease there so he may have made an approach to the Langwell proprietor of the day for a lease, or other arrangement, allowing him to occupy Badbea.

About 1770 William and Christian moved to Badbea. Here they built a stone house or occupied an older dwelling, and started married life. They must have been either desperate or determined as Badbea was a very difficult and desolute place to live.

The family of this marriage was the following:

David was the first born. He has not been located in the OPR but his tombstone has details. David died in 1854. 

Kenneth, was born about 1772 - 1774. His name has not been located in the OPR but he is shown on the Badbea monument.

Found in the Latheron Parish OPR are: 

June 1775 – William Sutherland, Badbeath, a son Alexander

18 August 1777 William Sutherland, Bad Bhae, a son Robert.

8 August 1787 William Sutherland, Badbae, a son Malcom.

January 1790 William Sutherland Badbae , Ausdale, a son James.

David is the only son of the marriage of William and Christian who seems to have survived into adulthood. 

No daughters of this marriage have been located.

Dues payable for entering baptisms were 6 ½ pence for each entry, a similar amount for a marriage, so if the family was poor, baptisms of children sometimes did not happen. The Latheron Parish baptism records at this time do not give the name of the mother of a child baptised.

Christian Finlayson died sometime between the years of the recorded birth of her last born child, James, in 1790, and William’s re-marriage in the year 1797. Christian would have been most likely buried in the old burial ground of Berriedale but no grave site for her can be identified amongst the many unmarked stones in this ground.

The old Berriedale burial ground.

THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED IN 1911

TO COMMEMORATE THE PEOPLE OF BADBEA

BY DAVID SUTHERLAND OF WAIRARAPA AND WELLINGTON NEW ZEALAND

SON OF ALEXANDER ROBERT SUTHERLAND, BORN IN BADBEA 1806

AND WHO LEFT FOR NEW ZEALAND IN 1839, WHERE HE DIED IN 1877

WILLIAM SUTHERLAND’S FAMILY

WILLIAM, MALCOLM, KENNETH, DAVID

ALEX ROBERT (ABOVE MENTIONED, N.Z.)

JOHN, CHRISTINA, MARGARET, ESTHER

Note: The names recorded on the  above panel are not entirely accurate