Rachel Hogg

We don't really know an awful lot about Rachel, just the people around her.  She was born to David Hogg and Mary McGregor in Leith and I get the feeling that they were on the edge of being nouveau-riche.  David always prided himself on being a master saddler and he seemed to have his own business and he certainly employed others in the business.  Rachel was still at home at the age of 18 with no occupation while her 13 year old brother was working as a saddler, presumably for his dad.  I'm not sure then how her dad would have taken to her marrying a steamboat stoker, which did seem like a lower level in society.  When David died, four years after the marriage he was worth nearly £400, a lot of money in those days and the fact that Rachel didn't have an occupation suggests that he didn't want his daughter to have to go out to work.

Once she was married she was well occupied looking after ten children and constantly moving home, documented elsewhere but taking in Leith, Uphall, Linlithgow, Bathgate, Dalkeith and Bonnyrigg (that we know of).  She even looked after her daughter Jessie's illegitimate son Allan, fathered by my great-grandfather Allan.  Sadly she died of a brain haemorrage aged only 50, not long after her husband had died aged 44.  This left a relatively young family to look after each other but, with ten of a family, the firstborn were adults before the last ones came along.

I noticed that she had children named Jane and Janet and also Elizabeth and Isabella. Both pairs could be considered the same name. We have examples in our tree of Janets sometimes being called Jane or Jean and Isabella is the Spanish form of Elizabeth.