Tree       Contact       Index       Bing Maps


George Stuart

1808 - 12th June 1880

George Stuart’s grave, Oathlaw, Forfarshire

Photograph by Ivan Laird, 2019


The baptism of George Stuart, son of John Stuart and Charlotte Boyd Cattanach, was recorded in the Birse (Aberdeenshire) Parish Register, in an entry dated 12th July 1808:

John Stuart in New Milne had a child Baptized named George – Peter Stuart and James Collie

George never married and in every census return in which he appears, between 1841 and 1871, he is entered as the parish schoolteacher, residing with his elder brother, Harry Stuart, in the Manse of Oathlaw, Forfarshire.

George was an active genealogist and wrote a pedigree, an extract from which refers to a ring ‘bequeathed to you (W.L.) by the late Rev. Harry Stuart of Oathlaw’. The Rev. Harry Stuart had himself obtained this ring from his great-uncle, Harry Gordon, who was a captain in the Marines; it had the latter’s name in full engraved around it.

The extract goes on to identify George as a third cousin to Lord Brougham, since his Lordship’s great-grandmother, a lady of surname Gordon and Christian name unknown, was also aunt to George’s grandmother, Helen Gordon, an assertion stated to be attested by a tombstone in the Kirk of Tullynessle. The extract was addressed by ‘R.S.’ (Robert Stuart?) of The Bank, Lumphanan, Aberdeen, to ‘W.L.’ (William Leiper?), and dated 19th July 1898.

Extracts from correspondence 1850-98, various

George received extensive and generous provision in Harry’s 1877 Deed of Settlement and an 1880 codicil thereto; in addition to various specified legacies, he was also appointed Harry’s residuary beneficiary. However, it has to be questioned whether George ever benefitted materially from this source, considering that he survived Harry by less than three months. From Item 4 of George’s own inventory (infra), it emerges that he never received the only (Martinmas) installment of his annuity payable to him in his own lifetime or the pecuniary legacy of £5 due to him for acting as a Trustee & Executor; also that at the time when his own estate was being set in order, the residual value of Harry’s could only be estimated.

George Stuart, late teacher, registrar and Inspector of the Poor of Oathlaw (single), died on 12th June 1880 at 7h 50m am at the Manse of Oathlaw. He was entered as 72 years of age. The causes of death were certified as disease of the heart, from which he had been suffering for three years, and congestion of the brain, seven days. The informant was Elizabeth Kydd, house keeper, who was entered as present in the house at the time of death.

George Stuart is credited by Bulloch, at p. 131, with having undertaken very substantial researches and these, together with the reminiscences of his brother Harry, form the basis for the major part of what has been preserved concerning the Gordons of Terpersie and their descendents.

Inventory

The following entry appears in Confirmations & Inventories, 1880, at p. 685:

STUART, George.
Value of Estate, £1,070 16s 7d. 		2 September. – Confirmation of George Stuart, Registrar, Parish of Oathlaw,
who died 12 June 1880, at Manse of Oathlaw, intestate, granted at Forfar,
to John Stuart, Architect, Balgair, Bridge of Dee, near Aberdeen, Executor
dative qua next of kin.

The detailed version of the Inventory (Wills and testaments Reference SC47/40/47, Forfar Sheriff Court, pp. 108 - 110) runs as follows:

1. Cash in House     £7  -   6
2. Household Furniture and other effects belonging to the
deceased conform to Inventory and Valuation thereof
under the hand of D M Graham Licensed Valuator Forfar


  121 10  1

3. Principal sum due to the deceased by the Royal
Bank of Scotland conform to Deposit Receipt by
the Agent of said bank at Forfar dated 19th
January 1880 £110  -  -
Interest thereon to date of oath to Inventory      1  5  8





   111  5  8

4. Amount due to deceased by the Executors of the
deceased Revd Harry Stuart Minister of Oathlaw as
follows vizt
Annuity at the rate of £40 per annum from 18 March
1880 being the date of the death of the said Harry
Stuart to Martinmas 1880 said annuity being
payable in advance



 £26  1  7

Pecuniary Legacy payable to deceased as
one of the Trustees and Executors of the
said Rev Harry Stuart


    5   -  -

Estimated value of the residue of the
the (sic) estate of the said Harry Stuart
falling to deceased


620   -  -













   651  1  7

5. First half of money stipend for crop 1880 falling to
deceased as next of kin of the said deceased Rev
Harry Stuart in name of Ann due by Colonel
Greenhill Gardyne of Finaven



    45  16  9

6. Augmentation of Stipend payable by Exchequer for half-year
ending Whitsunday 1880 falling to deceased as next
of kin of said Revd H Stuart also in name of Ann



    13   7  6

7. First half of Stipend for crop 1880 also due to deceased
as next of kin of said Rev H Stuart in name of
Ann due by the following parties.
Colonel Gardyne of Wolflaw £4   3    -
Captain Gray of Carsegray  1  11  10
Colonel J. G. Kinloch of Bankhead  2    8    9
Miss S. G. Lyell of Kinnordy  6  10    2
George Duke of Newbarns  6    -     9









    20  14  6

8. Amount due to deceased by Messrs Cochran and
Anderson Advocates in Aberdeen being amount
of debt due deceased by P S Brown Leven Fifeshire &
recovered by them



   100

£1070  16  7

It therefore emerges that the bulk of George’s estate at the time of his death consisted of legacies he was awaiting from Harry’s estate and of sums due to him as Harry’s next of kin.

John Stuart, architect, residing at Balgair Cottage, Bridge of Dee, near Aberdeen, was decerned to the office of Executor qua one of the next of kin to the deceased by the Sheriff of the County of Forfar, by means of a Decree Dative on 15th July 1880. This apparently refers to the son of George’s brother Robert Stuart; when Robert had died at Balgair in 1864, John acted as informant.

John Stuart, Executor of the deceased George Stuart, sometime Registrar of the Parish of Oathlaw, compeared in presence of Thomas Adam Esquire, one of Her Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for the county of Aberdeen, at Aberdeen on 20th August 1880 and was solemnly sworn and examined.

John Peter Anderson, solicitor in Forfar, compeared before Alexander Robertson, Sheriff Substitute of the County of Forfar, on the following day, the 21st, and gave in the Inventory and oath to be recorded in the Register of Inventories Etc., kept at Forfar for the Commissariot of Forfar.