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Gilbert WILSON of Glenvernoch,Parish of Penninghame, Scotland

Born 1643 Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location

Died Abt 1704

Although the Kirkpatrick/Wilson family chart deposited in PRONI states the Wilson family members who settled in Northern Ireland ,were reportedly from Cumnock on Nith, Ayr, Scotland, there is no evidence to date that Gilbert was actually born there. He lived and farmed in Glenvernoch, belonging to the laird of Castle Stewart,in the Parish of Penningham, and Shire of Wigton, (Research):Recent research suggests that four of Margaret Wilson's brothers (like many other Covenanters) had fled to Ulster in the early 1680s.

In the 16 page pamphlet Margaret Wilson the Martyr; a Genealogical Account of the Wilson Family of Penninghame Parish by John G Wilson (House of Kilwinnet Publications, 1998), it says: "...in the McKinney Papers, which are held in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. A correspondent of mine examined the papers in 1984... a tradition that three brothers, Robert, Samuel and John, arrived in Ireland in an open boat in 1684. Robert married and had a daughter Margaret, and little more is known of him.

Samuel married Martha Kirkpatrick in 1732.

John (b. 1660 or 1666) having arrived in County Antrim in 1684 (bringing with him an oak chair and chest) was at Carrickfergus in 1690 to meet William of Orange. John was given lands at Rashee, Ballyclare.

If the McKinney papers are correct then it would appear that the three brothers were older children of Gilbert Wilson in Glenvernoch...

William Wilson married Elizabeth McIlroy and went to Ulster with his brothers Robert, Samuel and John - though not to the same part of Ulster. The Kirkpatrick family tree in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland records a William as one of the three brothers who crossed in an open boat. This William died in 1721..."

Ref "The Covenanters in Ulster"

Father John WILSON, b. 1603, Stirling, Scotland , d. 1694, Scotland (Age 91 years)

Mother Katherine, b. 1607, England , d. 1694 (Age 87 years) Married Abt 1627 Scotland

Family Jonet MCILWIAN, b. 1647, Wigtown, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location, d. Aft 1711 (Age 65 years)

Married Abt 1666

Some records list Isabell RAMSEY as the wife of Gilbert, yet others Beatrix CRAIB. In the Parishioners Roll of 29th September, 1684 , Gilbert is recorded as the husband , Jonet McIlwian as his wife ,and as such she is recorded here as the spouse.I have seen no other validated record for the others .An Isabell Ramsey is indeed listed in the above parishioners Roll,but as a servant woman of the Laird of Stewart Castle,,under a list for Castel Stewart the Mains.(both locations are within the Parish of Penighame.)

Ref -"A List of the Parishioners' names within the Parish of Penighame. September 29, 1684"-The Scottish Record Society.

In 1684, Gilbert Wilson, a Wigtonshire farmer and his wife attended conformist services. However, their children, Margaret (18), Thomas (16), and Agnes (13), became attracted to the teaching of the Covenanters and attended illegal 'conventicles' to hear their prayers and sermons. Mr Wilson was fined for his childrens' nonconformity, and treated like outlaws, the children took themselves into the hills of upper Galloway and spent months hiding from the troopers.Four brothers of Margaret Wilson, the Wigtown Martyr, fled to Ulster for refuge.

Children

* 1. John WILSON, ,of Wastland,Ayrshire,and Rashee ,Ballyclare, b. 1666, Cumnock on Nith, Ayr, Scotland , d. 1736, Birney Hill, Skerry, Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland (Age 70 years)

• 2. Margaret WILSON, The Wigton Martyr, b. 1667, Cumnock on Nith, Ayr, Scotland , d. 11 May 1685, Solway Firth , Wigton, Scotland (Age 18 years)
• 3. Samuel WILSON, b. Abt 1668, Cumnock on Nith, Ayr, Scotland. , d. Yes, date unknown
• 4. Thomas WILSON, ,of Glenvernoch,Parish of Penninghame, Scotland, b. 1669, Cumnock on Nith, Ayr, Scotland d. 1734, Penninghame, Wigtown.Scotland (Age 65 years)
• 5. William WILSON, b. Abt 1670, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland d. 1721, Perth, Scotland (Age ~ 51 years)
• 6. Robert WILSON, b. Abt 1671, Cumnock on Nith, Ayr, Scotland d. Yes, date unknown
• 7. Agnes WILSON, b. 1672, Cumnock on Nith, Ayr, Scotland d. Yes, date unknown

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Excerpted from "The Drowned Women of Wigtown: A Romance of the Covenant" in "Mr. Napier's Memoirs of Dundee" ed. by Joseph Irving (Glasgow, 1862)

How the Romance of the Drowning of the Women at Wigtown was expanded into its present dimensions for the first time in the Session-book of the Parish of Penninghame.

p. 2: In April 1685, two women in the humbler ranks of life were tried before a Special Commission at Wigton, in Galloway, for crimes against the State— in so far as they were alleged to favour the principles contained in a document, published towards the close of the preceding year, known as Renwick's Apologetical Declaration. Refusing to disown these principles, by accepting an Oath of Abjuration framed for the purpose, they were sentenced to be drowned, in conformity with instructions laid down by Government for the guidance of the Commissioners.

...Opening up, as the subject does, a troubled chapter in the history of Scotland, it is yet unnecessary to enlarge on the excesses committed on either side, during that sanguinary struggle between the executive and a large portion of the people. Apart altogether from its connection with the war of rival Churches, the occurrence at Wigton has an interest, in the perplexities of the evidence by which it is illustrated, that may well place it among the most mysterious causes celèbres of the country. If Margaret Lauchlison, an old woman of seventy, and Margaret Wilson, a young woman of about twenty, were really executed at Wigton, it is not too much to say, in the face of documents recently brought to light, that a public murder, such as no other Government ever overlooked, was perpetrated under the semblance of official authority. If they were not, history, special as well as general, has lied for nearly two hundred years.

...Two years after the trial, viz. in 1687, it is stated, in a general way, in Shields' Hind Let Loose, that

“Neither were women spared; but some were hanged, some drowned—tied to stakes within the sea-mark, to be devoured gradually with the growing waves, and some of them very young, some of an old age.”

In a pamphlet, printed in 1690, said by Patrick Walker to have been written by the above “famous Mr. Shields,” and entitled A Short Memorial of the Sufferings and Grievances, past and present, of the Presbyterians in Scotland: Particularly of them called by the Mickname Cameronians, under the head of “Those that were killed in cold Blood, without Tryal, Convic

tion, or any colour of Law,” the following occurs:— “Item, The said Coll. or Liev.-Gen. James Douglas, together with

the Laird of Lag, and Capt. Winram, most illegally condemned, and

most inhumanely drowned at Stakes within the Sea mark, two Women.

at Wigtoun; viz., Margaret Lauchlan, upward of 60 years, and Margaret Wilson, about 20 years of age. This foresaid fatal year, 1685.”

In 1691, a pamphlet, entitled A Second Vindication of the Church of Scotland, mentions that

“Some gentlemen (whose names the anonymous writer forbears to mention) took two women—Margaret Lauchland and Margaret Wilson, the one sixty, the other of twenty years of age—and caused them to be tied to a stake, within the sea-mark, at Wigton, and left them there till the tide overflowed them, and drowned them; and this was done without any legal trial. 1685.”

p. 14 Wodrow, 1722.

“Upon the 11th of May, we meet with the barbarous and wicked execution of two excellent women, near Wigton—Margaret M“Lauchlan and Margaret Wilson. History scarce affords a parallel to this in all its bearings; and, therefore, I shall give it at the greater length, and the rather, because the advocates for the cruelty of this period

. have the impudence some of them to deny and others to extenuate

this matter of fact, which can be fully evinced by many living witnesses.” Having explained that his narrative is mostly formed on an account supplied by the Minister of Penninghame, “who was at pains to have its circumstances fully vouched by witnesses whose attestations are in my hand,” the Historian of the “Sufferings” goes on to explain the condition in life of Gilbert, father to Margaret Wilson. He had conformed to Episcopacy, was in good circumstances, had been fined for the irregularities of his children in refusing to listen to the incumbent, and, latterly, was prohibited from harbouring or speaking to them. Their home then was the hills, bogs, and caves. Gilbert Wilson appears to have died in straitened circumstances about 1704; but his wife was living when the Minister compiled his account of the martyrdom in 1711–“a very aged widow, upon the charity of friends;” as also, his son, Thomas, a youth of sixteen, in 1685. In February of that year, three months before the martyrdom, this son had taken to the hills, with his sisters, and continued wandering till the Revolution, when he entered the army in Flanders. He had afterwards returned to this country, settled down in his father's room, and is described as ready to attest all that was written by the Minister in 1711. The two daughters of Wilson, who fell into the hands of the Judges at Wigtown, were Margaret, aged eighteen, and Agnes, “a child not thirteen.” “Jointly with Margaret M'Lauchlin or M'Lauchlison, these two sisters, after many methods were taken to corrupt them, and make them swear the Oath now imposed—which they steadily refused—were brought to their trial, before the Laird of Lagg, Colonel David Graham, Sheriff; Major Windram, Capt. Strachan, and Provost Cultrain, who gave all three an indictment for rebellionBothwell Bridge [fought in 1679], Ayr's Moss, and being present at twenty field-conventicles. . . All three refused the Abjuration Oath. . . The Assize bring them in guilty, and the Judges pronounce their sentence—that, upon the 11th instant [they were tried in April], all the three should be tied to stakes fixed within the flood-mark in the Water of Blednoch, near Wigtown, where the sea flows at high water—there to be drowned.” The girl, Agnes, was relieved “by her father, upon a bond of an hundred pounds sterling.” “During her imprisonment, Margaret Wilson wrote a large letter to her relations;” to which she added “a vindication of her refusing to save her life by taking the Abjuration, and engaging to Conformity; against both she gives arguments with a solidity and judgment far above one of her years and education. This barbarous sentence was executed the foresaid day— May 11; and the two women were brought from Wigtown, with a numerous crowd of spectators to so extraordinary an execution. Major Windram with some soldiers guarded them to the place of execution. The old woman's stake was a good way in beyond the other, and she was first dispatched, in order to terrify the other to a compliance with such oaths and conditions as they required—but in vain; for she adhered to her principles with an unshaken steadfastness. When the water was overflowing her fellow-martyr, some about Margaret Wilson asked her what she thought of the other, now struggling with the pangs of death? She answered, What do I see but Christ (in one of his members) wrestling there? Think you that we are the sufferers? No, it is Christ in us, for he sends none a warfare upon their own charges. When Margaret Wilson was at the stake, she sang the 25th Psalm, from verse 7th downward a good way, and read the 8th chapter to the Romans, with a great deal of cheerfulness, and then prayed. While at prayer, the water covered her: but before she was quite dead they pulled her up, and held her out of the water till she recovered, and able to speak; and then, by Major Windram's orders, she was asked if she would pray for the King. She answered—“She wished the salvation of all men, and the damnation of none.” One deeply affected with the death of the other, and her case, said—‘Dear Margaret, say God save the King, say God save the King.” She answered, in the greatest steadiness and composure, ‘God save him, if He will, for it is His salvation I desire. Whereupon some of her relations nearby, desirous to have her life spared, if possible, called out to Major Windram—‘Sir, she hath said it; she hath said it.” Whereupon the Major came near, and offered her the Abjuration, charging her instantly to swear it, otherwise return to the water. Most deliberately she refused, and said—“I will not; I am one of Christ's children-let me go. Upon which she was thrust down again into the water, where she finished her course with joy. She died a virgin-martyr, about eighteen years of age; and both of them suffered precisely upon refusing Conformity and the Abjuration Oath.”

p. 102ff:

Wodrow makes no reference to the Session-book of Kirkinner, or to its minister. But he tells us:—“I shall mostly give my narrative of it” (the martyrdom in question), “from an account I have from the fore-mentioned Mr Rowan, now with the Lord, late minister of Penninghame, where Margaret Wilson lived, who was at pains to have its circumstances fully vouched by witnesses, whose attestations are in my hands.” This jesuitical mode of stating his authorities, extremely characteristic of Wodrow, means no more than this, that he had obtained an extract, certified by Mr Rowan, acting as clerk, from the Session-book of Penninghame, of precisely the same kind and character as that which we have quoted from Kirkinner, except that, in Mr Rowan’s hands, the melo-dramatic tragedy had become fully developed in all its martyrological glory. This Session-book is still preserved in the parish of Penninghame, not having been removed to the Register House in Edinburgh, where that of Kirkinner now is. There was printed, however, at Newton-Stewart, in 1826, “Extract from the Session-book of the parish of Penninghame.” This contains, inter alia, a long history, domestic and martyrological, of the two Wigtown sufferers, but more especially of the family and sufferings of the “maiden of eighteen,” whom the minister of Kirkinner had failed to find, or, more strangely still, had omitted to notice. We learn from Wodrow that the Penninghame story was gathered and prepared by his friend Mr Robert Rowan, minister of that parish, who primed him therewith for his own history of the martyrdom. Having no reason to doubt that the Newton-Stewart publication is a faithful and accurate transcript from the original record, we shall give it here as the Penninghame version, which Wodrow had transferred to his pages very nearly verbatim. The following minute of Session, dated 15th February 1711 (as extracted in the Newton-Stewart print), discloses the instructions upon which the parish minister had proceeded:– “The General Assembly, and their Commission, having recommended it to Presbyteries, to cause an exact account of the sufferings of people in every paroch, for their adherence to the covenanted work of reformation, in opposition to the late Erastian Prelacy, to be collected by Sessions, with the best documents and attestation of them that can be had by the respective Sessions, and the Presbytery having frequently recommended the same,—the minister presented a collection of the sufferings given up to him by the persons best acquainted with them, which being read, the Session informs of several material things that are wanting, and orders them to be insert and presented. Sederunt closed with prayer.” It would appear that, upon this occasion, too, the minister had been sent to try again, and that accordingly he had produced a second batch, which was added to the former; and then, on the 25th February 1711, the following is minuted:–

“The particulars that were wanting, in the account of the sufferings of people under the late Prelacy, being insert in the former account, all was produced and read: the tenor whereof follows.”

After a variety of less important sufferings with which the record commences, we come to that destined to constitute the very pink of Scotch martyrology:—

“Gilbert Wilson in Glenvernoch, in Castlestewart's land, being a man to ane excesse conform to the guise of the tymes, and his wife without challenge for her religion, in a good condition as to worldly things, with a great stock on a large ground (fitt to be a prey), was harassed for his children who would not conform. They being required to take the test, and hear the Curats, refused both, were searched for, fled, and lived in the wild mountains, bogs, and caves. Their parents were charged on their highest peril, that they should neither harbour them, speak, supplie them, nor see them; and the contrey people were obliged by the terror of the laws, to pursue them, as weal as the souldiers, with hue and cry.” “In February 1685, Thomas Wilson, of sixteen years of age, Margaret Wilson of eighteen years, Agnes Wilson of thirteen years, children to the said Gilbert: The said Thomas, keeping the mountains, his two sisters, Margaret and Agnes, went secretly to Wigtoun to see some friends, were there discovered, taken prisoners, and instantly thrust into the thieves hole, as the greatest malefactors, whence they were sometymes brought up to the Tolbooth after a considerable tyme's imprisonment, where several others were prisoners for the like causes. Particularly ane Margaret M. Lachland of Kirkinner paroch, a woman of sixty-three years of age. “After their imprisonment for some considerable tyme, Mr David Graham Shireff, the Laird of Lagg, Major Winram, Captain Strachan, called ane assize, indicted these three women, viz. Margaret M'Lauchland, Margaret Wilson, Agnes Wilson, to be guilty of the Rebellion at Bothwell-bridge, Airds-mosse, twenty field conventicles, and twenty house conventicles: Yet it was weel known that none of these women ever were within twenty miles of Bothwell, or Airds-mosse; and Agnes Wilson, being eight years of age at the time of Airds-mosse, could not be deep in rebellion then; nor her sister of thirteen years of age, and twelve years at Bothwell Bridge its tyme. The assize did sit, and brought them in guilty, and the Judges sentenced them to be tyed to palisados fixed in the sand, within the flood mark of the sea, and there to stand till the flood overflowed them, and drowned them. “They received their sentence without the least discouragement, with a composed smiling countenance, judging it their honour to suffer for Christ's Truth, that he is alone King and Head of his Church. Gilbert Wilson forsaid got his youngest daughter, Agnes Wilson, out of prison, upon his bond of ane hundreth pounds sterling to produce her when called for, after the sentence of death passed against her; but was obliged to go to Edinburgh for this before it could be obtained. The time they were in prison, no means were unessayed with Margaret Wilson to persuade her to take the Oath of Abjuration, and hear the Curats, with threatenings and flattery, but without any success. “Upon the 11th day of May, 1685, these two women, Margaret M‘Lachland and Margaret Wilson, were brought forth to execution.

They did put the old woman first into the water, and when the water was overflowing her, they asked Margaret Wilson what she thought of her in that case? She answered, “What do I see but Christ wrestling there; think ye that we are the sufferers? No, it is Christ in us, for he sends none a warfare on their own charges. Margaret Wilson sang psalm 25, from the 7th verse, red the 8th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and did pray, and then the water covered her. But before her breath was quite gone, they pulled her up, and held her till she could speak, and then asked her if she would pray for the King? She answered, that she wished the salvation of all men, but the damnation of none. Some of her relations being on the place, cried out, “She is willing to conform,'—being desirous to save her life at any rate. Upon which Major Winram offered the Oath of Abjuration to her, either to swear it, or to return to the water. She refused it, saying,—‘I will not, I am one of Christ's children, let me go. And then they returned her into the water, being a virgin martyr of eighteen years of age, suffering death for her refusing to swear the Oath of Abjuration, and hear the Curats.

“The said Gilbert Wilson was fined for the opinion of his children, harassed with frequent quarterings of souldiers upon him, sometimes ane hundreth men at once, who lived at discretion on his goods, and that for several years together, and his frequent attendance on the Courts at Wigtown, almost every week, at thirteen miles distance, for three years time, riding to Edinburgh on these accounts, so that his losses could not be reckoned; and estimat (without doubt) not within five thousand merks; yet for no principle or action or actions of his own, and died in great poverty lately. A few years hence, his wife, a very aged woman, lived upon the charity of friends; his son, Thomas, lived to bear arms under King William, in Flanders, and the Castle of Edinburgh; but had nothing by his parents to enter the ground which they possessed; where he lives to certifie the truth of these things, with many others who know them too well.”

To verify specifically this unique mixture of the marvellous, and the nonsensical, there is, as may well be supposed, not an attempt. But at the conclusion of the record, the whole catalogue of sufferings, has this general attestation applied to it:— The value, as an attestation, of this extraordinary specimen of fanatical mystification, we intend to bring to the test in a subsequent section. Meanwhile we may here point to it, as throwing some light upon that deceptive statement in Wodrow's narrative, that his friend the minister “was at pains to have the circumstances fully vouched by witnesses, whose attestations are in my hands.” Nothing of the kind is to be found in any volume of Wodrow's collections. Manifestly this means neither more nor less than the general attestation at the conclusion of the Session record, which, so far from being an “attestation by witnesses,” has not even a special reference, quantum valeat, to the drowning tragedy at Wigtown. If there were such attestations by eye-witnesses, we ask, where are they, and who were the witnesses : If there were any eye-witnesses at all, to that fearful scene, there must have been hundreds. Was there not one, then, to attest it to the reverend David Williamson, who was collecting such sufferings immediately after the event "

“The Session having considered all the above particulars, and having certain knowledge of the truth of the most part of them, from their own sufferings, and eye-witnesses of the foresaid sufferings of others, which several of the Session declares, and from certain information of others, in the very tyme and place they were acted in, and many living that have all these things fresh in their memory; except of these things concerning Gilbert Milroy, the truth whereof they think there is no ground to doubt of: They do attest the same, and orders ane extract to be given in their name to the Presbytery, to transmit to superior Judicatories. Sederunt closed with prayer.”"

• This Penninghame record is entitled,—“A brief Information of the sufferings of people which are most remarkable in the parish of Peninghame, within the shire of Wigtown, upon the account of their adherence to the Reformation of the Church of Scotland, and their refusing to conform with Prelacie, with the occasions of their trouble, especiallie from the year 1679 to the year 1689.” It will be seen that these collectors in the year 1711, are just imitators of the collectors in 1687, whose papers we disclosed in Part I. (see before pp. 64-68), and none of which papers contain any notice whatever of this wonderful Wigtown martyrdom in 1685.

Wodrow, justly suspicious that his narrative may not be credited, gives some account of the rebel wanderings, in after life, of young Thomas Wilson; and adds, that he “lives now in his father's room, and is ready to attest all I am writing.” But we are by no means prepared to admit that Thomas Wilson really was ready to attest any thing at all, merely because Wodrow is so bold as to say so in his loose and jesuitical manner. The Session record had phrased it more cautiously,– “where he lives to certifie the truth of these things,”—the precise things, not being specified. It is not easy to appreciate the extent, or value of an attestation that was never made. But even supposing that the Orange rebel, as Wodrow describes him, had actually attested the fate of his sister as narrated by the martyrologist, it would just come to this, that Thomas Wilson had attested for truth that which is proved to be false, as did the Kirk-sessions of Kirkinner and Penninghame.

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An exract from "Wilson-Thompson Families, Being an Account of the Descendants of John Wilson ,of County Antrim, Ireland, whose two sons, John and William, founded Homes in Bucks County" by Warren S. Ely,1916 " JOHN WILSON, whom tradition makes the ancestor of the Wilson family from Antrim, Ireland, which was transplanted to Bucks county about 1730 or 1735, was a nephew of Gilbert Wilson mentioned in the foregoing narrative. According to the family tradition, John Wilson was in the employ of Gilbert Kennedy, Earl of Cassilis, and clandestinely married the daughter, Isabelle Kennedy, and fled with her to County Antrim, Ireland, a few miles east or southeast of the town of Antrim. Mrs. Wilson was invariably known as Lady Isabelle, or Isabelle of Cassilis. The Wilson family, however, was an armorial family having a coat of arms representing a shield surmounted by a naked white hand holding a dagger. In the background was a half moon and three stars. The family cherished traditions of the bravery and prowess of their Scottish forbears. One clearly defined tradition relates that upon a certain occasion when a ship driven on the coast was in danger of being taken by pirates or mutineers, the bravery and promptitude of the Wilsons saved the vessel and all on board."

http://www.genealogy.kirkpatrickaustralian.com/archives/getperson.p...

http://www.genealogy.kirkpatrickaustralian.com/archives/getperson.p... and http://www.genealogy.kirkpatrickaustralian.com/archives/getperson.p... (with minor edits)

Although the Kirkpatrick/Wilson family chart deposited in PRONI states that the Wilson family members who settled in Northern Ireland was reportedly from Cumnock on Nith, Ayr, Scotland, there is no evidence to date that Gilbert was actually born there. He lived and farmed in Glenvernoch, belonging to the laird of Castle Stewart, in the Parish of Penningham, and Shire of Wigton,

In 1684, Gilbert Wilson, a Wigtonshire farmer, and his wife attended conformist services. However, their children, Margaret (18), Thomas (16), and Agnes (13), became attracted to the teaching of the Covenanters and attended illegal 'conventicles' to hear their prayers and sermons. Mr. Wilson was fined for his childrens' nonconformity, and treated like outlaws, the children took themselves into the hills of upper Galloway and spent months hiding from the troopers. Margaret Wilson was executed (the Wigtown Martyr), and four of her brothers fled to Ulster for refuge.

In the 16 page pamphlet Margaret Wilson the Martyr; a Genealogical Account of the Wilson Family of Penninghame Parish by John G Wilson (House of Kilwinnet Publications, 1998), it says: "...in the McKinney Papers, which are held in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. A correspondent of mine examined the papers in 1984... a tradition that three brothers, Robert, Samuel and John, arrived in Ireland in an open boat in 1684. Robert married and had a daughter Margaret, and little more is known of him.

Samuel married Martha Kirkpatrick in 1732.

John (b. 1660 or 1666) having arrived in County Antrim in 1684 (bringing with him an oak chair and chest) was at Carrickfergus in 1690 to meet William of Orange. John was given lands at Rashee, Ballyclare.

If the McKinney papers are correct then it would appear that the three brothers were older children of Gilbert Wilson in Glenvernoch...

William Wilson married Elizabeth McIlroy and went to Ulster with his brothers Robert, Samuel and John - though not to the same part of Ulster. The Kirkpatrick family tree in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland records a William as one of the three brothers who crossed in an open boat. This William died in 1721.

Ref "The Covenanters in Ulster"

Some records list Isabell RAMSEY as the wife of Gilbert, yet others Beatrix CRAIB. In the Parishioners Roll of 29th September, 1684, Gilbert is recorded as the husband, Jonet McIlwian as his wife, and as such she is recorded here as the spouse.I have seen no other validated record for the others. An Isabell Ramsey is indeed listed in the above parishioners Roll, but as a servant woman of the Laird of Stewart Castle, under a list for Castel Stewart the Mains. (both locations are within the Parish of Penighame.)

Ref -"A List of the Parishioners' names within the Parish of Penighame. September 29, 1684"-The Scottish Record Society.

Father John WILSON, b. 1603, Stirling, Scotland d. 1694, Scotland

Mother Katherine, b. 1607, England , d. 1694 Married Abt 1627 Scotland

Family Jonet MCILWIAN, b. 1647, Wigtown, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location, d. Aft 1711 Married Abt 1666

Children

1. John WILSON, of Wastland,Ayrshire,and Rashee ,Ballyclare, b. 1666, Cumnock on Nith, Ayr, Scotland d. 1736, Birney Hill, Skerry, Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland

2. Margaret WILSON, The Wigton Martyr, b. 1667, Cumnock on Nith, Ayr, Scotland d. 11 May 1685, Solway Firth, Wigton, Scotland

3. Samuel WILSON, b. Abt 1668, Cumnock on Nith, Ayr, Scotland. d. Yes, date unknown

4. Thomas WILSON, of Glenvernoch Parish of Penninghame, Scotland, b. 1669, Cumnock on Nith, Ayr, Scotland d. 1734, Penninghame, Wigtown, Scotland

5. William WILSON, b. Abt 1670, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland , d. 1721, Perth, Scotland

6. Robert WILSON, b. Abt 1671, Cumnock on Nith, Ayr, Scotland, d. Yes, date unknown

7. Agnes WILSON, b. 1672, Cumnock on Nith, Ayr, Scotland, d. Yes, date unknown