Richard Murdie and Isabel Dunlop came from North Berwick in East Lothian and had 3 daughters: Isabel (1750), Margaret (1754) and Anne (1758).
Margaret married Thomas Punton from Whitekirk in East Lothian. They were married about 1775 and had 7 children: George (1778), Isabella (1780), Richard (1782), Katharine (1785), Anne (1787), Alison (1790) and Thomas (1798). The family moved to Prestonkirk around 1786.
David Levy and Isabella Punton were married in Whitekirk some time in the late 1790s. There was a tax on christening, marriage and burial records from 1783-1793, and many went unrecorded.
David was a sawyer, and was still working as a sawyer well into his 70s.
David and Isabella had 6 children, 4 born in Whitekirk: Andrew (1800), Katherine (1805), Agnes (1807) and Janet (1809), and 2 born in Prestonkirk: Rachel (1816) and David (1821).
The family moved to East Linton at some point between 1809 and 1816. Isabella died at 80 and David at 88.
The Agricultual Improvement Movement (or Agricultual Revolution), which improved the productivity of the farms but put a large proportion of the agricultural labourers out of work, was flourishing in this area at this time. The first effective threshing machine was developed by Andrew Meikle, a millwright near East Linton, in 1787. One of his earliest machines was installed at Phantassie Farm, owned by George Rennie. His younger brother John Rennie (born at Phantassie in 1761), who had been apprenticed to Andrew Meikle, went on to become a famous engineer. The Meikle Threshing machine was versatile, and could be driven by a number of different power sources - horses walking in a circle inside a circular building beside a barn was the most usual. Other options were wind or water mills, and later steam. By the mid 1840s, there were 386 threshing mills in East Lothian - 269 horse-powered, 80 steam, 30 water and 7 wind. Preston Mill in East Linton is a surviving water mill, restored by the National Trust.
The Statistical Account describes what Whittinghame was like in the 1790s:
Whittinghame was the only village in the parish, and most of the population lived on farms. The villagers were virtuous, despite the presence of a public house. The population minded their own business, possibly owing to being thinly dispersed, but regularly attended church.
The only non-agricultural tradesmen are 3 millers, 3 smiths, 4 wrights, 4 weavers and 2 shoemakers, with their assistants and apprentices.
The area was divided between the upper part (Lammermoor, sheep) and the lower part (arable).
Lammermoor had one of the most salubrious climates in Scotland, (owing to its windiness and the exercise required to climb up it), but the soil was no good for anything except sheep. The main arable crops were wheat, barely, oats, peas and beans, turnips, and sown grass. The produce was sent to Haddington Market, to which there was a good road, for which the farmers were taxed. The recently-invented threshing machine was in use.
The farm labourers had houses for their families, and were paid in food rather than money.
The population decreased from 714 in 1755 to 655 in 1790, possibly because there was less need for farm labourers owing to the improved methods of agriculture. Many of their cottages were pulled down.
There were an average of 19 births, 5 marriages and 8 deaths per year.
Only about 40 children went to the parish school.
And it has this to say about Whitekirk:
The climate is dry, pleasant and healthful, and the inhabitants no longer suffer from agues.
The population increased from 968 in 1755 to 994 in 1792. However, it had declined during the earlier part of the century, and in particular 3 fishing villages had completely disappeared, along with the fishing trade. All the remaining population were involved in agriculture. Turnips and sheep were the main products. In 1705, the 6th Earl of Haddington had enclosed the common land, and planted Binning Wood, later followed by 800 acres of new forest, mostly oak.
Whitekirk's parish registers were lost in a fire in 1760.
Whitekirk was originally a chapel beside a Holy Well, whose waters were supposed to cure barrenness. It was owned by the monks of Holyrood, and was a very popular place of pilgrimmage in the middle ages. It was once visited by the future Pope Pius II (a bad sailor ?) in 1435, after a sea journey during which he vowed that he would walk barefoot to the nearest shrine if he survived. (He landed at Dunbar, 7 miles away). The well has since disappeared, since the drainage systems of the early 1800s diverted the water supply.
And it has this to say about Prestonkirk:
Prestonkirk's Parish church (rebuilt 1770) was in Linton, which was the largest of the villages of the parish.
The Parish had much rich and fertile farmland. This was cultivated mainly in wheat, oats and pasture grass, with also barley, turnips and beans. It was a tenant of this Parish who first introduced the practice of fallowing ground to Scotland. Most of the population were employed as agricultural labourers. The landowners were mostly absentees.
The river Tyne was rich in salmon and trout, but only from Linton downriver, owing to the waterfall (or lynn) above Linton Bridge.
The population in 1793 was 397 men, 354 women and 425 children under 10.
Note - the rebuilt church still contains a magnificant 13th century chancel. East Linton bridge dates from the 16th century.
Although East Linton was the largest village in the parish, it never reached the status of a town. During the later 17th century it was granted market rights, (as symbolised by its Mercat Cross) but it always remained predominantly agricultural. Though it was able to support a small numer of non-agricultural trades - such as Andrew Levy's tailoring business.
In 1824, David and Isabella's eldest son Andrew married Elisabeth Hunter in East Linton, very shortly before the birth of their eldest child Elisabeth. They had 2 more children, David (1825) and Andrew (1828). After his wife's death, Andrew married Eliza Reid and had 2 more children, Isabella (1831) and Catherine (1833). The children's baptisms were all witnessed by Thomas Reid, including Elisabeth Hunter's children. (It is possible that these 2 wives were the same person. There is no record of a death and remarriage). Then Eliza died, leaving Andrew to bring up 5 children alone. He was a tailor, and brought up his sons to follow in this profession.
David and Isabella's daughter Janet married Andrew White, and had 3 children born in East Linton - James (1827), John (1833) and Ann (1839). The children's baptisms were witnessed by their uncles Andrew Levy (James) and David Levy (Ann).
David and Isabella's youngest son David became a sawyer like his father, and moved to Edinburgh, where he married Elizabeth Mitchell from Perth. They had 5 children: William (1855), Isabella (1858), Alexander (1862), James (1865) and Henry (1869).
Meanwhile, their former neighbours, still living in Whitekirk, were working as agricultural labourers at Lawhead, a farm on a hill: John and Mary Lawrie, with offspring John (1820), Jean (1821), Ann (1825), Robert (1828), Margaret (1829), Janet (1831) and James (1835). The eldest son John married Agnes Kedgley in 1845, and had at least 5 sons.
Their employer and landlord was the farmer Andrew Howden, an agriculturalist whose experiments were recorded in the New Statistical Account. Undoubtedly the Lawries would have provided the manual labour for these experiments. Amongst his reported researches were:
Jean (or Jane) married John Hogg (carter), and died of cancer in 1895, aged 74. They had 3 children, Robert (1857), John (1858) and Mary (1860).
The New Statistical Account describes what Prestonkirk was like in the 1830s:
The population rose to 1812 in 1821, but had fallen to 1765 by 1831. The reason given was that several farms had been merged, so that less labourers were required. Also, a college for dissenting clergymen had closed down. The village of Linton had a population of 715, or 40% of the total for the parish.
Of the 407 families in the parish, 291 were employed in agriculture and 85 in trade, manufacture or handicraft. The farm servants were paid mainly in food rather than money. The landowners were still mainly absentees.
The Parish Registers were in good order, and most of the births and marriages of the area had been entered. There was an average of 38 births, 15 marriages and 23 deaths per year. The inhabitants tended to be very healthy, and there were seldom epidemics.
The river Tyne still contained large trout and small salmon, also eels and flounders. An attempt was made to open a passage through the waterfall to allow salmon to spawn further upstream. This not only failed, but destroyed the waterfall too.
The post office in Linton had a daily mail delivery from Edinburgh. The London Road (now the A1) passed through the parish, with daily mail and stage coaches.
The parish church was enlarged in 1824, and could seat 800.
There were 5 schools in the parish (all in Linton), and all the population could read and write, except some of the oldest people. However, the children's school attendance was somewhat seasonal, as they worked part-time on the farms.
The Minister blamed the lowering of the duty on spirits for the dissipated habits of the young men of the Parish.
Andrew Meikle, the developer of the threshing machine, lived in the Parish.
And it has this to say about Whitekirk:
This parish had less rain than its neighbours, but this did not cause drought. The grain had a superior quality. There were very strong winds, but the population were healthy.
The population were all agricultural labourers, many of them itinerant, but the numbers employed on the farms remain constant. The population rose from 994 in 1792 to 1062 in 1834.
The parish records have not been uniformly kept with very great accuracy.
Note - Whitekirk Parish Church was burned down in 1914 by Suffragettes, but restored in 1917.
In 1843 the Free Church of Scotland was formed. The births and marriages of its members were not necessarily recorded in the Parish Registers. That also goes for all the other Presbyterian splinter churches, formed both before and after the Free Church.
In 1849 Andrew and Elisabeth Levy's elder son David (a tailor like his father) married the Innkeeper's daughter Agnes Wight. They moved to Leith, and their story is here.
In 1851 Andrew and Elisabeth Levy's second son Andrew (a tailor like his father and brother) married Janet Lawrie from Whitekirk. They had 9 children: Mary Ann (1851), Andrew (1853), Elizabeth (1855), Janet (1857), John (1861), David (1863), Catherine (1866), William (1869) and Agnes (1872).
In 1857 David and Isabella's youngest daughter Rachel gave birth to an illegitimate daughter Ellen, who was the subject of a paternity action at Haddington Sherriff Court later that year. Her father was a carter, William Faitchen. Rachel died a few months later, leaving the baby a zero-parent family. The baby lost her grandmother Isabella when she was 2 and her grandfather David when she was 7. (Ellen took after her mother, giving birth to two illegitimate children later on).
Meanwhile, in Edinburgh, Charles Lochhead (plumber) married Janet Nicol in 1832. Their children were Jane Ann (1833) and James (1840). They belonged to the United Associate Secession Church, and lived in a crowded tenement in William Street through the 1830s, but had moved from there by the 1841 census.
James Whitelaw married Jane Ann Lochhead in Glasgow on 10 May 1852. Their eldest child James was born there, but he died of convulsions in 1855. He was followed by Charles in 1857.
At some point they moved to Bonhill in Dumbarton, where their next son James was born in 1860, followed by Robert in 1862. It is not known why they spent these few years in Bonhill, as they were not connected with its major industry.
However, they had moved to Hutchesontown by the time that Lawrence was born in 1865.
Jane Ann Whitelaw died there in 1869 at the age of 39, having gone into a decline 3 years earlier. She left 4 small boys - Charles (12), James (9), Robert (7) and Lawrence (4).
The following year, Lawrence died in Govan Poor House aged 5.
James remarried, to Bridget. No record of this marriage exists, but she registered Lawrence's death as "Bridget Whitelaw, stepmother".
The New Statistical Account describes what Bonhill was like in the 1840:
Bonhill is on the river Leven, between Loch Lomond and the Firth of Clyde, which was both navigable and tidal at that point.
The population increased rapidly since the establishment of bleachfields and printfields (from 1768), which became its principal industry. Dutch immigrants established bleachfields in the 1720s, for which the area had become famous.
The population expanded from 901 in 1755 to 2310 in 1791, and had reached 3874 by 1831. Most of the population lived and worked in the Vale of Leven, where the bleachfields and printfields were.
By this time, there were 9 separate works, using steam engines as well as water wheels, and employing about 4000 adults and 700 children under 12 (many as young as 7). However, many of the children could read, and some could write. They attended evening and Sunday schools.
The Vale of Leven Mechanics Institution had been operating since 1834, giving lectures in hired rooms on Saturday nights, with the students paying fees for a 6-month lecture course.
There were many different religious denominations, but only 1 independent church (with 80 members).
Charles Whitelaw remained in Glasgow and became an iron-moulder. He married Mary McFarlane and had 6 children: Mary (1881), Robert (1882), Archibald (1884), Jeannie (1887), Charles (1889) and Peter (1890). Mary continued to work as a cotton-thread winder.
Robert Whitelaw followed his father into the slating profession, but died of tuberculosis in 1880.
East Linton had acquired a railway station by the later 1840s. Maybe that was what brought James Whitelaw there ?
By 1870, fewer agricultural labourers were required, and many people had to change to other occupations.
In 1872 education became compulsory for all children under 14. East Linton had been well supplied with schools anyway, and attendance had been good during the non-farming seasons.
Meanwhile, Andrew and Janet Levy's children were growing up. They did not just leave home at 14, but tended to leave the area to seek work elsewhere, mainly settling in Dunbar or Edinburgh.
Janet's father John Lawrie died of bronchitis in 1866 in East Linton, followed by his widow Mary Pringle Lawrie in 1872, aged 77.
Janet's illegitimate baby followed shortly after her cousin Ellen's first illegitimate child, Robert (1877), who was followed by Jemima (1879). The children both took their father's name of Badger. Robert was later apprenticed to a tailor, following the Levy family tradition.
In 1881, Janet Levy narrowly avoided having a second illegitimate child by marrying James Whitelaw just before the birth of Janet (JLW). She was followed by Jane (1883), Isabella (1886), Barbara (1888), James (1892), William (1895) and Wilhelmina (1900).
William died at 6 days old of internal convulsions.
Isabella became a milkmaid at 14, but disappears from the records after that.
James and Janet Whitelaw's children grew up and went out into the world:
Janet (JLW)'s further history was already known to her descendants.
Jane (27) married Robert Henry Summerfield, a golf greenkeeper, in 1911. They moved to Gullane. Robert died in 1949, aged 78. Jane died in 1963, aged 79. She had moved back to East Linton. Their daughter Elsie was born at Aberlady in 1914, followed by Jessie in 1915 and Robin in 1918, both born in Coldstream. Jessie married Ninian Douglas in 1944.
Barbara gave birth to an illegitimate child, George in 1913, then married Robert Bathgate in 1914. He was coal miner who then joined the navy as a stoker, becoming Leading Stoker on HMS Undaunted. Their elder daughter Barbara was born in 1915. Barbara died of influenza 3 days after giving birth to Helen Jessie in 1918. JLW and her eldest son (then a toddler) moved to Barbara's house in Costorphine to look after the children. George died in 1995 aged 82. Helen died in 1999 aged 81.
Wilhelmina (21) married John Thorburn (20), then a railway clerk, in 1921. He eventually became an office manager. She died a widow aged 86, in 1987. They were married by Declaration - an old form of civil marriage. Their 3 daughters Jessie (1922), Elizabeth (1924) and Wilhelmina (1935) were born in East Linton.
James and Janet Whitelaw both lived in East Linton until their death from old age, Janet at 81 in 1939 and James at 86 in 1946.
Later generations containing people who are still alive are not mentioned here.