William Beaton

With no birth record for Walter Beaton, his parents, William Beaton and Janet Dagger, were identified from finding a brother.  A move across to Ayrshire, like Walter, and an engineering background help us piece together the story of the family.  William was an engineer in all records except his marriage where he was a watchmaker, a pretty specialised engineering job.

Like his son and his grandson, William didn't stick in one place.  Born in Dunbar he was already living in Tranent when he married Janet in Leith.  This is a bit strange as they were both born in Dunbar and they returned there for the births of their first two registered children (only three were recorded).  The other registered birth to the couple was in Prestonpans in 1827 which ties everything together. 

The family obviously moved from Dunbar to Prestonpans which is why we find Walter and his brother John, both born in Dunbar, living in Prestonpans in 1841.  Their parents William and Janet had by this time moved to Ayrshire shortly to be followed by Walter.  They stayed north of the river in Ayr, in the Newton and Wallacetown areas and there, after living on their own, William and Janet moved in as boarders with an unmarried 30 year old Margaret Divine and her 7 year old illegitimate daughter Ann McCall.  I wouldn't mention this except that after Janet's death in 1858, William married Margaret, at least 30 years his junior.  Without delving into the morals of a 72 year old man marrying a 42-year old woman a short time after his first wife's death, this is useful for us as it gives his parentage on the marriage certificate, Andrew Beaton, sailor, and Helen Crail.

It took a while to find William's death certificate due to an indexing problem on the Scotlandspeople site but it was found 4 years after his second marriage.  His wife Janet was buried in Newton Burying Ground so we may yet find some information from a headstone there.  Her own parents are given as Andrew Dagger, a seaman in the merchant service and Isabella Brown.

Both sides can be traced back a bit further but the writing becomes less legible and all sorts of shorthand obscures the content and there isn't much of interest apart from names and dates.  However, we can deduce that the Dagger branch comes from the Cockburnspath area and they had their own ways of spelling Isabel.  Isoble, Isable, Isbel, Isbell and Isobell all feature in the records.