This latest family history mystery item involves the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Pattison (she, the former Miss Agnes Stevenson), who lived in Edinburgh in the early 1800s.
Agnes Stevenson was born c.1733-ish in Stewartstown, county Tyrone. She was the daughter of William Stevenson (c.1691–c.1765) and Ann Stewart. Ann Stewart was a daughter of Andrew Stewart (1672–1715), the de jure 7th Baron Castle Stewart, while William was the son of Captain James Stevenson of Stewartstown (d.1747).1 In about 1750, William Stevenson took his family to Scotland where, at Dalhousie on the banks of the river Esk (south of Edinburgh), he conducted a linen bleaching concern.
At some point, Agnes married a Rev. Mr. Pattison of Edinburgh: his forename is unknown to us. After raising a family, it appears that the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Pattison were still alive and residents of Edinburgh in the early 1800s.2 Unfortunately, I have had no success in learning Mr. Pattison’s first name, let alone the names of their children.
A Rev. John Pattison of the seceding church lived in Edinburgh, dying there before 1797. However, his wife’s name appears to have been Christian. Records for their marriage and respective deaths, and any remarriage John Pattison might have made, have not been found on the Scottish government’s genealogy website, Scotland’s People.
Rather than recite the long list of records and archives consulted for all things Stevenson and Pattison (Fasti Scotticanae, parish records, newspapers, &c.) suffice to say that I have not been able to find Agnes Pattison née Stevenson. The purpose of this short blog article, then, was to describe the pieces of this genealogical puzzle on the very faint hope that any descendants find this Mr. and Mrs. Pattison by working backwards from their more recent ancestors. It seems likely that they will have difficulty moving farther back than Agnes Stevenson and her husband, the Rev. Mr. Pattison. Hopefully the twain shall meet! (penned 30th January 2020)
Source citation for this page: — Kilpatrick, Alison. “An 18th century family history mystery: Stevenson and Pattison :: Agnes Stevenson of Stewartstown and the Rev. Mr. Pattison of Edinburgh.” Online at Arborealis, arborealis.ca/2020/01/30/stevenson-pattison-mystery/, accessed [insert date of access].
Image credit: — Shepherd, Thomas Hosmer. Edinburgh from Calton Hill, c.1817-40. Digital image online at the British Museum; archival ref. 1871,0812.1728. Image is licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Follow the links to learn what you can do with this image and the obligations/restrictions imposed upon re-use.
Footnotes:
- Registry of His Majesty’s Court of Prerogative in Ireland. Administration and Will (Prerogative), of James Stevenson, Stewartstown, merchant, dated 23 March 1744. Copy obtained from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, PRONI ref. T1009/16 (16 pages). Extract and transcript by Alison Kilpatrick, 2014-03-28.
- Crossle, Dr Francis Clement (1847–1910), and Philip Crossle (1875–1953). Crossle Genealogical Abstracts. Typescript extract of will of Robert Stevenson of Belfast, Co. Antrim, Surgeon. Notebooks held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (Belfast). PRONI ref. T/283/A. Copy obtained and transcribed by Alison Kilpatrick, 2016-02-22.
