Thomas Hunter

Thomas Hunter was born in Inveresk in 1792.  Inveresk was a parish but it consisted of three conjoined entities, Musselburgh and Inveresk on the east side of the River Esk and Fisherrow on the west side.  It's unclear which of these is the correct one but Inveresk itself seems to be full of houses for the gentry so I think we can discount that option.  The 1841 census says High Street, Inveresk but there are High Streets in Fisherrow and Musselburgh but not in Inveresk  The next two censuses though locate him on the east of the river i.e. Musselburgh.  Having said that, his wife died in between those censuses in Fisherrow High Street.

Although he was born and seemed to have lived most of his life in the Musselburgh area he was cohabiting with Isabella Culbertson in the Canongate at the time of their marriage.  He was a coal carter though and would probably have spent much of his time taking cartloads to Leith Docks where Isabella 's father worked as a porter and that would be how he met her.  After their marriage they returned to his home town.  Sadly, he was a pauper at the end of his days.

Musselburgh is a contender for the title of Scotland's oldest town having a bridge whose foundations were built by the Romans.  It also claims the oldest golf course in the world which is, these days, inside the horse race course.  The Open Championship was held here six times in the olden days.  It really isn't much of a course though, to be brutally honest.

In my research I came across an amusing article about a riot at the races involving Irishmen but also colliers so there's a chance our Thomas could have been involved.