The Origins of the

Auchmithie Eatons

February 2011

1 Objective To find the earliest sign of immigration of the Eaton family into the county of Angus and more specifically into the village of Auchmithie prior to moving to Arbroath and elsewhere in present times.

Source To Trace family roots from existing family tree via Censuses, Old Parish Registers and the International Genealogy Index provided by the Church of the Latter Day Saints . Seek out historical information on the lives and occupations of the Angus people to attempt an assessment of their character. For the present, documented assertions that the EATONS historically emerge from the South of England via the borders town of AYTON and hence to Angus is ignored, the writer is not yet convinced of this route.

Research The IGI Register for the county of Angus gives information on names in two packages, ie Births and Marriages both grouped in chronological order in smaller dated groupings. Accepting that the extracts are prone to human error at the time of their original transcription and should be checked against original registers for authenticity, they do provide a very good base for the purpose of this analysis.

The following listings include all derivations of the name EATON, EITTEN, AITON, AYTON etc. although names such as EASSON are not. The criteria is that the name must sound close to the local pronunciation of EATON i.e. ETIN. In the times that the general population could not read or write, collection and register of names undertaken by more learned people would mean that the spelling was their own interpretation at that time and must have led to variation. By the mid 1800’s derivations disappear and the spelling as EATON is almost total in the county.

The name variations are of interest simply because of their variety, these are the variations:

AETON, AITON, AITONE, AITTAN, AITTEN, AITTIN, AITTON, AYTON, EATEN, EATIN, EATINE, EATON, EATTAIN, EATTAINE, EATTEN, EATTIN, EATTON, EEATTAINE, EITEN, EITTIN, ETEN, ETON, ETTEN, ETTONE.

A comment to make is that some of the spellings have a continental ring to them, French maybe, we did have the Auld Alliance for many years with French troops helping out at that time on Scottish soil.

2 IGI compilations It is to be assumed that all figures and references will now relate to the name EATON and its derivations only, numbers given are not absolute and slight error must be accepted. Some of the marriage names will have been included in the Birth totals. The International Genealogy Index freely available from the Latter Day Saints website gives the following figures:

Number of Angus Births over the period 1612 to 1875 = 344

Number of Marriages over the period 1646 to 1875 = 97

Total number of EATONS = 441

Since the interest is mainly in earlier births these can be extrapolated and only those persons known to have been born within a narrower period should be examined. A comparison between the size of local groups is also important, consequently the following table relates to only those parishes with meaningful numbers at earlier periods.

The earliest dates that births were recorded in the county parishes differ so absolute comparisons are not made.

Parish Period No. of Births

Arbroath 1772-1802 4

Brechin 1612-1754 72

Cortachy & Clova 1662-1820 21

Dun 1642-1698 6

Dunnichen 1820-1854 12

Edzell 1684-1820 4

Farnell 1699-1867 7

Forfar 1633-1636 2

Kinnell 1657-1820 5

Kirkden 1650-1820 4

Montrose 1615-1820 9

St Vigeans 1669-1690 11

Stracathro 1709-1820 17

What is evident from the table above is the predominance of EATONS in Brechin and Cortachy while Stracathro also ranks high, parents are not included. The following shows the earliest birth dates known for the EATONS listed.

AUCHMITHIE: Helen AITON/EATON born about 1735 in Auchmithie parents unknown

John EATON born 1752 in Auchmithie of parents William EATON & Margory BEATTIE

There were no EATON births in Auchmithie before 1700

DUN : George EATON b. 1694 in Dun of parents John EATTEN & Janet BURN

3 There were 6 EATON births in Dun before 1700

CORTACHY & CLOVA: Helen ETEN born 1678 of parent Alexandr. ETEN (mother not given)

Alexander EATEN born 1680 of parent Allexr. EATEN (mother not given)

There were 4 EATON births in Cortachy before 1700

BRECHIN : Margaret EATTIN born 1621 of parents John EATTIN and Jonat SCOT

John AITTEN born 1626 of parents Jon AITTEN and Jonet SCOT

There were 46 EATON births in Brechin before 1700.

MONTROSE: Jean EATEN born 1671of parent John EATEN (mother not given)

John EATTIN borny 1669 0f parent John EATTIN (mother not given)

There were 3 EATON births in Montrose before 1700.

Analysis of the above gives no clear picture of family movements apart from noting that most and earliest births occur in Brechin. Attempting to co-relate individual entries apart from finding common parents becomes more difficult the further back in time one goes.

The Auchmithie EATONS

An extract from the Family Tree of the writer gives who is generally understood to be the earliest EATON inhabitant in Auchmithie, the tree is given in ascending order for convenience of explanation:

William EATON/AITON b. 19 April 1727 in Dun married Margory (Margaret) BEATTIE b. about 1725,

Margaret’s background is unknown.

They had seven sons, the first born being John EATON on 24 October 1752 in Auchmithie, John is the first male EATON to be born in Auchmithie.

The last born of the family, Thomas EATON was born 3 October 1769 in Auchmithie.

The father of William EATON b.1727 is reputed to be:

George EATON/EATNE b. 19 August 1694 in Dun and married to Isabel FIFE/FYFE b. about1706,

A gravestone in Dun Cemetery gives George Eaton died 3 Jan 1744 aged 52 and wife Isobel Fife died 25 Mar 1756 aged 50 giving a difference in their ages of 12 or 14 years. A marriage date of 11 Jul 1714 in Dun for a couple with the identical names has been found but does not fit. These anomalies have yet to be resolved.

A George EATTEN is also recorded b. 19 August 1694 in Brechin, this must be the same person and duplication may be due to the closeness and inaccuracy of the boundary between the two parishes or inaccuracies of the IGI Register. George was a Weaver at Balnillo, just West of Dun village which appears to be only a field away from the parish boundary line, it is assumed he was a Hand Loom Weaver at his home address.

Tracing Isabel FIFE has proven difficult, the only suitable name given by “Scotlands People” is an Isabel Fife born 14 February 1697 in Edinburgh of parents James FIFE and Elizabeth FINNIE. Other Isobel FIFE’s occur in Angus but do not fit well.

4 George and Isabel had seven of a family.

It is reasonable to believe that John EATTEN and Janet BURN are the parents of George, their first born. Although there are no dates for this couple it can be assumed their birth dates would be in the region of 1673.

John EATTEN and Janet BURN had four children, the first two in Dun and the latter two in Brechin. It may be they lived in an area close to the parish boundary and anomalies in registration or boundary definition might suggest that they were all born at the same residence. It could equally be that they lived at the same address as that given for son George EATON and Isobel FIFE.

The village of Dun is only a stones throw from from the River South Esk and Montrose Basin with prospects for fishermen, did George enjoy a dual occupation?

Census Records

The Census Records only appear in 1841 but are useful in assessing family movements, the following table gives a fairly accurate assessment of the EATON dispersement in 1841.

1841 Parish Eatons

Arbroath & Arbirlot 15

Brechin 29

Cortachy & Clova 0

Dun 0

Dunnichen 8

Edzell 0

Forfar 0

Kinnell 0

Kirkden 2

Montrose 17

St Vigeans 15

Stracathro 0

Note: A proportion of St Vigeans Parish encompasses a fair part of the environs of Arbroath Burgh.

The total number of EATONS shown in the complete 1841 Angus Census is 93

All names are spelled EATON with the exception of one EATEN & one EATTON.

The 1881 Census for EATONS in Angus gives a total of around 90 so no effective change over those 40 years.

5 Discussion

The continuation of a family name is normally the prerogative of the male gender therefore no female EATON name forms part of the discussion.

The starting point for this discussion is to find from which area the original EATON family emigrated arriving at the close knit fishing community of Auchmithie. Historically this area comprised two nearby communities, one being the Farmtoun of Auchmithie and the other the Seatoun of Auchmithie so if they came from a farming area they may have started off on the landward side of Auchmithie and moved over to fishing because it was more profitable to do so.

On the assumption that George and Isobel EATON moved from the village of Dun, their journey would have been via the coast road between Aberdeen and Dundee, one of only two roads passing through Angus at that time, the road would pass within a mile of Auchmithie suggesting that their belongings could have been transported by the local carrier.

Laying aside the possibility that the first EATONS came from further afield, there is a good case for arguing that they originate from within the county of Angus. Cursory examination suggests that there were very few if any EATONS in the adjoining counties. If they all come from the same lineage then the name would have been recognized for quite some period within the county before the build-up of a substantial family community by the early 1700’s.

Angus is renowned for its good agricultural soils and possibly the reason for a surge in the growing of Flax for the spinning of course linen and home weaving for export to other areas and countries before industrialized processing commenced in the county around 1730. The first Flax Spinning Mill in Angus was set up at Douglastown in 1792 on the Kerbet Water which is 2 miles from Glamis on the way to Forfar. The next mill followed at Glamis village in 1806. The first factory housed power looms were installed in Valleyworks Brechin about 1853.

If, as it appears, the first EATONS formed a community in Brechin, what caused this event prior to the late 1600’s?, the landowners would be the cause of movement by offering better living accommodation than that experienced earlier for whatever purpose. What form of work would be available for attracting people from the farmlands? The Gazetteer of Scotland 1803 mentions the manufacture in Brechin of “Osnaburgh” a course tow based linen cloth used for sacking and sailcloth in the 1730‘s which became an expanding export worldwide and “employing many hands”! The product would be exported by boat down the River South Esk to the port of Montrose returning with tobacco for preparation in the Brechin tobacco Factory. The Right of Passage for goods ferried upon the water of South Esk is mentioned in Brechin Burgh archive Papers of 1433. Are these industries the cause of an influx of EATONS?, if so where did they come from?

Cortachy and Clova Parish records a high number of early births, this parish is hill country and generally used for agriculture and perhaps flax cultivation. An interesting observation is that the River South Esk flows from Glen Clova past Cortachy, through Brechin then on via Dun before entering the Montrose Basin. All of these areas carried a high proportion of EATONS, is this significant?

The mid to late 1600’s were troubled times, the French wars aggravated the export markets, the clans were rebelling against the English, troops were billeted in Brechin and even more unfortunate, harvest failures caused great famine, particularly in the North East of Scotland for about four years. The migration of Scots to Europe and particularly Poland was high at this time.

The Bubonic Plague visited Brechin for a second time in 1647 causing the death of 600 people, about two thirds of the population then, with the poor sent out to the moor at Murlingden and housed in miserable ‘Plague’huts to die unheeded. Another disaster occurred in 1672 when a conflagration destroyed about 60 houses.

6 Conclusion

It is probable that even earlier EATONS were resident in the parish of Brechin but due to the lack of recorded evidence it is not possible to form an opinion. The New Statistical Account of Scotland states that in Brechin the earliest baptism records started in 1612 but until 1753 records are sparse. Marriage records commenced in 1700 but for many years there were no records prior to 1749.Early records of death are also very difficult to obtain.

If our future Auchmithie Fishermen were first resident there why would a family wish to flit to a wild wind swept coastal zone at Auchmithie?. If they originated from the Dun area they were very close to a sea fairing community in Montrose Basin and it may have been the case of moving from a troubled area for betterment although Travelling itself would have been difficult.

Another slightly strange reflection is, why was the spelling of the name as EATON given preference in the 1700’s over say EATIN or EATEN bearing in mind that EATON is the historic English spelling and at that period in history the Scots and the English were not exactly bosom buddies. In the latter part of this study after a little research it was found that at the end of the Roman occupation about 400AD the borders were split into three buffer States supported by Cavalry Troopers and ruled by the Kings, Tacit, Patern Pesrut and AETERN, these are apparently Mediterranean names. Now, AETERN is not all that distant from EATEN, EATIN or EATON, a slip of the tongue is all that is required!

Alas for the moment the research comes to a halt. Perhaps the circulation of this document will encourage others to expound further supposition or knowledge.

Jim Eaton.

February 2011

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