Mary Stewart
Abt 1767 - 1837 (~ 69 years)
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Name Mary Stewart [1, 2] Born Abt 26 Jun 1767 Easter Glentarken, Comrie, Perthshire, Scotland 
Gender Female Died 1837 Person ID I17643 Brown Genealogy Last Modified 19 Sep 2024
Father John Stewart, in Easter Glentarken, b. Abt 8 Feb 1734, Ardveich, Comrie, Perthshire, Scotland , d. Abt 1820, Lochearnside, Comrie, Perthshire, Scotland (Age ~ 85 years) Relationship natural Mother Margaret McLaren, b. Abt 1740, Balquhidder or Comrie, Perthshire, Scotland , d. UNKNOWN Relationship natural Family ID F4464 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family Duncan McIntyre, b. Abt 1760, Dalveich, Balquhidder, Perthshire, Scotland , d. UNKNOWN Married Between 22 Jan and 14 Feb 1785 Balquhidder and Comrie, Perthshire, Scotland [1] - Groom from Balquhidder, bride from Comrie
Children 1. John McIntyre, b. Abt 16 Oct 1785, Leachin of Achra (near Dalveich), Balquhidder, Perthshire, Scotland , d. UNKNOWN [natural]2. James McIntyre, b. Abt 8 Apr 1787, Achra, Balquhidder, Perthshire, Scotland , d. UNKNOWN [natural]3. Katharine McIntyre, b. Abt 26 Oct 1788, Leachin of Achra (near Dalveich), Balquhidder, Perthshire, Scotland , d. UNKNOWN [natural]4. Margaret McIntyre, b. Abt 12 Dec 1790, Dalveich, Balquhidder, Perthshire, Scotland , d. 16 Sep 1876, Derry, Comrie, Perthshire, Scotland (Age ~ 85 years) [natural]5. Janet McIntyre, b. Abt 13 Jan 1793, Dalveich, Balquhidder, Perthshire, Scotland , d. UNKNOWN [natural]Last Modified 19 Sep 2024 Family ID F8064 Group Sheet | Family Chart
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Notes - She is believed to be the Mary Stewart from Comrie parish who married Duncan McIntyre from Achra and had a family in Leachin and Dalveich. There are only two Mary Stewarts born in Comrie in the right date range to have married in 1785 to Duncan McIntyre. The other Mary Stewart is recorded as having married Peter Ferguson in St. Fillans. A third option is Mary Stewart, b 1757 in Dalveich, daughter of Donald Stewart, but there is no evidence that Donald's family later moved to Comrie parish, and Mary had no sons named Donald, so that family can likely be eliminated. That leaves the family of John Stewart and Margaret McLaren in Easter Glentarken and latterly in St. Fillans as the only viable option for Mary's birth family.
Private papers for "Mary Stewart in Glentarken (1767-1837)" are referenced in a modern cookbook in which Mary describes the quality and usages for home-churned butter in the Highlands in the late 1700s. The reference also gives us Mary's date of death.
"...from a manuscript study of the Life and Times of Mary Stewart (1767-1837), a native of Glentarken in Perthshire, written by her great-grandson in conjunction with Mrs. N. Watt of Comrie:
"'Butter, on the farms, was used for cooking, but was not otherwise usually eaten; for the most part it was mixed with Archangel tar and smeared on sheep; the butter and the natural oil in the fleece gave resistance to wet, and the tar had an antiseptic quality.'
"Predictably, though, the scarcity of fat for cooking meant that such things as pies became luxury items: vegetable oils were not used at the time.
"Several of the more fastidious early travellers in Scotland were repelled by the butter. One can sympathise with their complaint that it was invariably full of cows' hairs." (The Good Scots Diet and What Happened to It? by Maise Steven, Aberdeen University Press, July 1, 1985, p. 41)
Mary's marriage was registered in Balquhidder and Comrie:
22 jan 1785 • Balquhidder, Perthshire, Scotland. Contracted Duncan McIntyre in Achra and Mary Stewart in the parish of Comrie dues 2s str.
14 feb 1785 • Comrie Perthshire. Dun McIntyre Balquhidder parish and Mary Stewart in this were listed and after being regularly proclaimed were married 14 Febry
- She is believed to be the Mary Stewart from Comrie parish who married Duncan McIntyre from Achra and had a family in Leachin and Dalveich. There are only two Mary Stewarts born in Comrie in the right date range to have married in 1785 to Duncan McIntyre. The other Mary Stewart is recorded as having married Peter Ferguson in St. Fillans. A third option is Mary Stewart, b 1757 in Dalveich, daughter of Donald Stewart, but there is no evidence that Donald's family later moved to Comrie parish, and Mary had no sons named Donald, so that family can likely be eliminated. That leaves the family of John Stewart and Margaret McLaren in Easter Glentarken and latterly in St. Fillans as the only viable option for Mary's birth family.
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