From Alan Hattle of South Africa:
Further to the focus on the weekend of 18/19 July on the fisher families of the Greenses, Berwick-upon-Tweed, I am hoping that someone will be able to give me clarification on the Burgon(e) side of my family tree.
My great-grandfather John Hattle married Isabella Elspeth Burgon(e) in Berwick in 1865, and her birthplace (November 1844) in censuses is given as Sunderland. Several descendants after that were given the middle name of Burgon (my father, born 1914 in South Africa) was John Burgon Hattle.
My research notes were all lost in a fire, so I need to follow this line up again, but I suspect the following:
Isabella Elspeth Burgone was the daughter of James Burgone and Elizabeth Douglass, and had siblings Mary (born 1840), Peter (born 1846) and possibly Elizabeth (born 10 years later in 1856).
James Burgone was possibly the son of John Burgon and Mary Fowlerton (I have copies of family letters from the early 1950s in which my grandfather and some siblings try to unravel the family tree, and comment that they believed Isabella Burgon(e)'s father was a James, and that her grandmother was a Mary).
And I suspect John Burgon was one of the sons of Peter Burgon and Ann Elliott, whose line down through other sons seems to be well-documented.
I have no knowledge of the ancestors of Elizabeth Douglass, other than her mother was probably a Sarah.
Regarding the name Burgon/Burgone, I have a copy of a 1954 letter to my grandfather from his sister, Mary Burgon Hattle (then living in Edinburgh) in which they discuss the difficulties of tracing the family tree, and at one point, Mary writes,
"By the way Mother's birth and marriage lines as she always told us it should be and we copied on her headstone - Burgone. The E she said gradually got dropped - perhaps considered locally "Swank", though her Rothesay cousins went a step further and added the Y - Burgoyne. French ? extraction which may add a thrill to .....'s (I can't make out the handwriting) imagination. I remember Alice was keen for me to join Edin. P O savings bank lent me 2/6 and to put Mary "Burgoyne" but at Ber got matters put right told them Burgon these things can be very awkward later on."
Alice was one of Thomas and Mary's sisters - great aunt Alice married Alexander Duncan late in life (1927 at age 49) in Hartington Gardens, Morningside District, Edinburgh.
If you can help Alan, please put a comment below.
Celebrating 900 years of Berwick's history and cultural heritage.
Hi Alan, I may be able to help with some of your enquiries. My maternal grandfather was Ralph Burgon Jameson, born in the Greenses in 1877. He was a descendent, through his mother Eleanor Burgon, of Peter (also known as Patrick) Burgon and Ann Elliott. I have researched the Burgons and Jamesons quite extensively in the Greenses and can confirm the data that you quote in your posting. I may also be able to add to it. I have written a short history of the Greenses which may also be of interest to you. Perhaps you would like to contact me by email at brian.hunt@sbcglobal.net and add a posting to this stream that I know you have tried to contact me.
ReplyDeleteBrian Hunt