Genealogy Wise
Primrose family Scotland
For anyone who is researching Primrose in Scotland. The family originates in Culross/Kincardine, Perthshire (now in Fife). My Primroses ended up in Lanarkshire and Ayr, then scattered around the world.
Janet Primrose & Richard McMillan
Hi! I found a posting by Linda Temple on another site and it really filled me in on the side of my family I had been looking for. However, at the time (last summer I think) she was not sure what had happened to this couple listed above. Now, I'd like to return the favor by addding some stuff that may be of interest to Linda as well as to other Primrose members:
Here is what I have found:
Janet Primrose (b. 1790) married Richard McMillan in 1817. He was a manufacturer of cotton and proprietor of a weaving business. They had William 1821), Margaret (1821), John (1825-1891), Richard (1828), Elizabeth (Jean?) (1830). Although the family business was apparently started in Maybole, it seems they moved to Glasgow. The 1851 census shows all the children except Margaret living with their mother in Glasgow. Richard is shown as visiting his married daughter Margaret Dunlop, at their home back in Maybole. Thomas Dunlop, Margaret's husband, was also a cotton manufacturer's agent (perhaps Richard's agent?). Among their children was Jessie Primrose Dunlop, Richard's granddaughter.
Of their children, I don't know much about William, but John (and perhaps Richard) emigrated to Canada in 1862, when the depressed cotton industry in Scotland was affecting family fortunes. John apparently started out in Montreal at what he knew best, weaving, but had bought some land believed to have oil and soon went out to Petrolia in Lambton, Ontario to look after his lands. He became one of the founding fathers of the oil business in Petrolia, which was the first localized oil industry in the world. He, and other smaller scale oil refiners, was put out of business by the monopolization of the oil industry by Standard Oil.
Meanwhile, John married a girl named Jeanie/Jenny Shaw. Children of John & Jeanie: George Primrose McMillan, Jessie Primrose McMillan (1866), Victoria Alexandrina McMillan (1867), John Primrose McMillan (1873-1922). Since I have a photograph of a glorious mansion with some tiny people standing in front, and on the back it says, "J.P.D. (Jessie Primrose Dunlop?) & Sir Archibald McInnes Shaw, Lord Provost of Glasgow," with the notation: "V. Alexandrina's cousin." V. Alexandrina was my great-grandmother. I found a Jean McInnes Shaw, listed as sister to Archibald McInnes Shaw and daughter of James Shaw, founder of Shaw & McInnes Ironworks in Glasgow. Since the dates show that James had to have fathered Jean at 12 and the mother, Johanne P. McInnes Show to have given birth to Jean at 10, it seems more likely that Jean is sister to one or the other parent, or perhaps an orphaned daughter of Johanne's older sister and later adopted by the Shaws. I cannot work out this contradiction, but Jean seems to have disappeared from Scotland, when none of the other Shaw children left.
She shows up as the wife of John McMillan, married in 1864 in Ontario. Then in 1867 the roster for the passenger ship, the St. George, shows a Richard and Janet McMillan in first-class cabins. They are travelling with their grand-daughter, Jessie Primrose Dunlop, and a "Miss Fraser" to Canada.
Sir Archibald later married a "Miss Fraser" who seemed to not exist in Scotland for a while before the marriage, so I wonder if it is the same Fraser. Haven't gone into that one yet.
Jessie Primrose Dunlop went on to marry Thomas McKenzie in Canada.
If you have any questions or corrections, let me know!
Here is what I have found:
Janet Primrose (b. 1790) married Richard McMillan in 1817. He was a manufacturer of cotton and proprietor of a weaving business. They had William 1821), Margaret (1821), John (1825-1891), Richard (1828), Elizabeth (Jean?) (1830). Although the family business was apparently started in Maybole, it seems they moved to Glasgow. The 1851 census shows all the children except Margaret living with their mother in Glasgow. Richard is shown as visiting his married daughter Margaret Dunlop, at their home back in Maybole. Thomas Dunlop, Margaret's husband, was also a cotton manufacturer's agent (perhaps Richard's agent?). Among their children was Jessie Primrose Dunlop, Richard's granddaughter.
Of their children, I don't know much about William, but John (and perhaps Richard) emigrated to Canada in 1862, when the depressed cotton industry in Scotland was affecting family fortunes. John apparently started out in Montreal at what he knew best, weaving, but had bought some land believed to have oil and soon went out to Petrolia in Lambton, Ontario to look after his lands. He became one of the founding fathers of the oil business in Petrolia, which was the first localized oil industry in the world. He, and other smaller scale oil refiners, was put out of business by the monopolization of the oil industry by Standard Oil.
Meanwhile, John married a girl named Jeanie/Jenny Shaw. Children of John & Jeanie: George Primrose McMillan, Jessie Primrose McMillan (1866), Victoria Alexandrina McMillan (1867), John Primrose McMillan (1873-1922). Since I have a photograph of a glorious mansion with some tiny people standing in front, and on the back it says, "J.P.D. (Jessie Primrose Dunlop?) & Sir Archibald McInnes Shaw, Lord Provost of Glasgow," with the notation: "V. Alexandrina's cousin." V. Alexandrina was my great-grandmother. I found a Jean McInnes Shaw, listed as sister to Archibald McInnes Shaw and daughter of James Shaw, founder of Shaw & McInnes Ironworks in Glasgow. Since the dates show that James had to have fathered Jean at 12 and the mother, Johanne P. McInnes Show to have given birth to Jean at 10, it seems more likely that Jean is sister to one or the other parent, or perhaps an orphaned daughter of Johanne's older sister and later adopted by the Shaws. I cannot work out this contradiction, but Jean seems to have disappeared from Scotland, when none of the other Shaw children left.
She shows up as the wife of John McMillan, married in 1864 in Ontario. Then in 1867 the roster for the passenger ship, the St. George, shows a Richard and Janet McMillan in first-class cabins. They are travelling with their grand-daughter, Jessie Primrose Dunlop, and a "Miss Fraser" to Canada.
Sir Archibald later married a "Miss Fraser" who seemed to not exist in Scotland for a while before the marriage, so I wonder if it is the same Fraser. Haven't gone into that one yet.
Jessie Primrose Dunlop went on to marry Thomas McKenzie in Canada.
If you have any questions or corrections, let me know!
Carolyn MacKenzie
Jessie Primrose Dunlop MacKenzie was our great grandmother.
Jessie actually married John MacKenzie and her brother was named Thomas. Thomas came to Canada, I figure about 1870 as he is on the 1871 census living with Jessie and John in Petrolia. Jessie died in Toronto in 1939 and is buried in Petrolia. Brother Thomas died in Winnipeg in 1925. All of Jessie and John’s children were born in Petrolia as well as Thomas and Elizabeth Dunlop’s children.
Margaret McMillan’s husband Thomas Dunlop as you mention was an agent as was his father Robert Dunlop. I would think that 2 grandfather’s of Jessie Primrose Dunlop , Richard McMillan and Robert Dunlop were contemporaries .
I do have some Montreal address for John and Jeannie McMillan for 1874 through 1877
I do have some family information on Jessie Primrose McMillan and Herbert Dawson- they were a prominent family in Edmonton Alberta if you don’t have it.
From an old book written about 1906
William McMillan (1821) was in the “stone business” and died in Chicago (I can’t find out when)
Richard McMillan (1828) was in the “oil business” and died in Bothwell Ontario (I can’t find a record)
I really don’t know how accurate this is- as I do see a William McMillan living in London Ont. In 1871 as an oil refiner- could be the right William the age is correct.
It also says that Jeannie Shaw McMillan’s father was John Shaw – Jeanie and John’s marriage record in on Scotland People site- it would show Jeanie’s parents names.
From another source:
Elizabeth (1830) married Edward Goodier- she died in 1861 in Scotland- I would think at childbirth as the un-named baby the same year- I just haven’t looked at the record yet.
If you want what I have just let me know and I can send it to you.
regards Carolyn
Dec 26, 2009