William Paton m.1790 Annie Sinclair – Potential Breakthrough
I think I might be onto something in my research of William Paton / Patton who married Annie Sinclair on the 16 Jan 1790 and it hinges on the name Ninian.
For years we have been able to find anything beyond William & Annie, it seemed to come to a “dead end”.
Then in the 1990’s I found a link to John Sinclair (1740-1794) & Barbara Maxwell (1740- ) for Annie.
The Maxwell name comes down through the family as a second name. Some people claim that Robert Patton (1797-1869) was a Robert Maxwell Patton but I’ve never found anything to substantiate that ….. yet. I do however know that his Grandson was Robert Maxwell Patton, son of John Dunn Patton (Robert & Matilda’s son).
Anyway, I digress.
I’ve always wondered where the name Ninian comes from, which also comes down through the family.
It first appears to show up when Robert & Matilda (nee Russell) named two of their sons Charles Ninian & Ninian Purves. The latter Purves coming from Matilda’s mother’s maiden name (Jane Purves / Purvis). And later occurs when William’s grandson, William (1828-1909) in Australia also names his son Robert Ninian.
Well tonight hopefully I’ve found something in addition to what I found a few months ago.
I knew that the Paton / Patton family had strong connections to Edinburgh and that’s what prompted me to start looking for any connection for William.
I discovered John Paton (1735 – ) and Elizabeth Anderson (1737- ) who had a son William so I “adopted” them as Williams parents.
Today I started to research Elizabeth Anderson, and discovered that her father may have been Ninian Anderson. Ninian’s father, who was also named Ninian married an Elizabeth Paton on the 13 August 1702. Ninian & Elizabeth had three children, John, Mary & Ninian.
“Paton (Patoun, Patton), Elizabeth; Ninian Anderson, merchant 13 Aug 1702
Book: Volume 5. The Register of Marriages. (Marriage) Collection: Midlothian: Edinburgh – Register of Marriages, 1701-1750″
Ninian’s father, also named Ninian was born around 1638 and married Susanna Duglass (sic), I imagine that would be Douglas (1643-1707).
Whilst this is not “proof-positive” of William’s parentage it does give me a very strong sense of wanting to investigate more and identify some other links to confirm this finding.
But in short, I’m excited. I’ve established links in the past on less, re-uniting families in other countries and providing families with that lost link.
The other link to this is the birth of Charles Corsie Patton (William’s Great-Grandson). Whilst over 100 years later, in 1903 Charles was also born in Leith, Edinburgh. I think that only goes to prove that there’s a strong family link to the Patton / Paton name in this area over that timeframe.
If correct then William’s Great-Grandmother was also a Paton. Elizabeth Paton.
Hopefully there’s some people out there reading this right now saying “Hey, that’s my family too”. All I can say is contact me.
In short, again, I’m excited and that’s all I need. Stay tuned.