Hugh Alexander

Hugh Alexander was a slater in all the censuses but a master plasterer on the death record.  You don't just suddenly become a master plasterer so it's fair to conclude that he always was both slater and plasterer.  They are trades which always seem to have gone together and slater and plasterer (or plater and slaisterer, a humourous spoonerism) is a common business combination in Scotland.  Why, I don't know, as the skills seem to be quite different?  Maybe the plastering was primarily on the outsides of the building so the same man would waterproof the whole house.

His father was a wright, which means joiner, and his son was a mason's labourer so between them they could build you a house.  There may actually have been some logic in this covering all the trades rather than having a family specialism.  Unusually for the time in Scotland, Hugh signed with an x.  Schooling was not compulsory until 1872 but Linlithgow was well-supplied with schools and most would have been educated at least to the level of being able to sign their name.

Hugh lived all his life in Linlithgow and going by the addresses which can be specifically located (High Port, St Michael's Wynd, 15 High Street) it seems The Star and Garter would have been his local.  It was certainly there at the time.

His parents are known and a marriage is found for them in 1797, another of the irregular marriages which seem to feature in Linlithgow at that period.  His parents are also found in the 1841 census but his mother's age is given as 55 which would make her birthyear 1886 and also make her 11 at her marriage.  Someone is telling fibs.  The 1841 census would register anyone up to age 59 as 55 but that still doesn't make it believable.  She was born outside the county but the 1841 census doesn't specify where.  There is a 79 year old Janet Alexander born in Tillicoultry in the 1851 Linlithgow census which ties in nicely.   A birthyear of 1872 would make her 25 at the marriage and 38 at the birth of her last child.  Her own birth is easily found in Tillicoultry to Robert Bennie and Margrat McNab but that's as far as we have yet gone with her ancestry.