At the time of the 1841 Census, Ann Murdoch was living with her widowed father James Murdoch and several siblings at Fore-Rigg, a division of the lands of Rigg.
On 19th June and 21st June 1846, William Smith (Old Cumnock) and Ann Murdoch (New Cumnock) entered their proclamation of banns of marriage at Old Cumnock Parish Church and were married on 3rd July 1846. The couple settled at Dumfries House Gatehouse, one of the residences of the Marquis of Bute, the leading landowner in the parishes of Old Cumnock and New Cumnock. Other titles of Marquis of Bute, include Earl of Dumfries and Baron Cumnock (Old & New).
Their first child Catherine was born at the Gatehouse on 18th August 1846, almost 8 weeks after their marriage. The consequence for William Smith was to appear before the Kirk Session on 28th September 1846 ‘to confess himself guilty of antenuptial fornication and being suitably admonished and rebuked by the Moderator, he was restored to the privileges of the Church’.
A son, William (1848) was born at the Gatehouse and soon after the family moved to the nearby Woodhead, a row of houses reserved for those working on the Dumfries Estate. It was here that Jane (1850) was born. The 1851Census recorded their address as Woodhead Row, and William’s occupation as an ‘ironstone pithead man’.
The current Marquis of Bute sold off the Dumfries House Estate and it was later saved by The Prince Charles Foundation in 2007, now The King Charles III Foundation.
The family later moved to the small village of Loans, parish of Dundonald, Ayrshire about 20 miles north-west of Fore-Rigg, New Cumnock, where William found work as a farm servant and then ploughman.
Three other children were born at Loans – James (1852), Robert (1854) and Annie (1859).
The family then headed down south to Fylde in Lancashire, England, sometime before the 1871 Census. By the time of the 1871 Census, William and Ann were living at Westby with Plumpton, along with children James and Ann. He had established himself as a successful market gardener and had no fewer than 7 servants in his household. Ann Smith (nee Murdoch) passed away in 1888, aged 68 years while William died four years later, aged 77 years.
Eldest daughter Jane later married grocer Edward Jolly, while son Robert initially found work in nearby Ormskirk before settling in Brighton, Sussex.
Children of James Murdoch and Ann Fleming & their Spouses
NEW CUMNOCK HERITAGE 