The Old Family
and how we got here
Magdalene was probably Maddie or Lena or some other variation and her name was spelled a few different ways in the records whereas Boswell seemed to be consistent (although Boswel, Boswall or Boswal were also found in the Abercorn records around that time) but the combination is an unusual enough one to make her easy to find in the records. In fact, she was the only one of that name ever born in Fife as far as I can determine.
Limekilns sounds far away but it's actually less than four miles from Philpstoun as the crow flies or, more relevantly, as the boat sails across the Forth. There is a gravestone in Abercorn churchyard for her parents, George Boswell and Janet Crawford, showing that the whole family moved over, not just Magdalene. She was the oldest of seven children, all girls. What bad luck for a farmer! Only Magdalene was born in Limekilns and the others in Abercorn giving a date of around 1798 for the move across the water.
The United Association Burgh Seceders was one of the splinter groups of the Church of Scotland as things started falling apart into Free Churches and Congeregationalists and so on. We are lucky that the Church of Scotland seemed to allow the records of these groups to be added to their own. There is an interesting diagram of the splintering of the Church in Scotland over the years showing the Frees, the Wee Frees and the Wee Wee Frees who, remarkably, split into two again in 1989! The full story can be read here.
Stop Press - George Boswell had a son in 1809 after all those girls. I bet there was a party in the Boswell house that night.