| Notes |
- Family #54.
Does not appear in OPRI or parish register; but added to IGI 1992 edn.
Married Margaret Whyte, 1827.
This is a rather remarkable family. Three siblings of this family (Peter, Margaret and Barbara), together with a cousin (Barbara, daughter of Thomas b.1807), married four siblings of another family, the Huttons (Barbara, David, Andrew, and John); and that’s not all. A brother and a sister of father Peter (Thomas b.1807 and Agnus b.1810), together with his daughter Elizabeth, married Janet, George and Henry Allan Welsh, who were siblings; and his son John married Christina Welsh, their cousin. Double weddings, between two sets of siblings, were and are far from unknown; but it cannot be often that one family is quadruply linked with two other families in this way. The suggestion has been made (by Bill Dunsire of Seahouses) that all three families - the Dunsires, the Welshs, and the Huttons - belonged to the Christian group called ‘The Brethren’, founded in 1830, which strongly encouraged marriage ‘within the kirk’. But marriage certificates for John and Christina Welsh, and for Margaret and David Hutton, indicate that they were married according to the rites of the Established Church. Peter and Barbara Hutton married in the U.P. church. When George Dunsire married Janet Cairns (who later was well-known among 'the brethren'), it was according to the forms of the Church of Scotland. But George and Janet's son George married Elizabeth Hayworth in 1902 according to the forms of the 'Christian Brethren', and many of their descendants are members of that community.
The story does not end there. Barbara Hutton, who married Peter b.1841 in 1859, later married Thomas Dunsire b.1841, his cousin, in 1867. And finally: all of the four Hutton children who married Dunsires were the grandchildren of Barbara Dunsire b.1791 (sister of Peter b.1805 and Thomas b.1807), who married David Reid (1813), and whose daughter Christian married Walter Hutton in 1837. So they all married their cousins once removed. (This imbroglio is slightly clarified by extra charts in the book The Dunsire Families of Fife.)
Peter b.1805 was a collier in East Coaltown (Methilhill). They were still in Methilhill in 1881, at 9 Front Row; but Peter died in 1882, ‘of old age’. Margaret Whyte in 1891 was a widow living with her daughter Christine and son-in-law Thomas Dryburgh at 111 Cairns Square, Buckhaven. Margaret died in 1895, ‘of senile decay’ aged 89, at West Wynd, Buckhaven. [Both confirmed by Statutory Deaths Index.]
Somewhat surprisingly, the researches of Maureen Noble show that in the Eastern District of Wemyss Roll of Paupers for 25 February 1872 appear the names of Peter Dunsire and wife, aged respectively 67 and 65, 'frail', allowed 2s.6d. relief: they appear again in August 1873 and February 1874, allowed 2s.6d.
A high proportion of the fourteen children lived to marry and have children. As before, we will glance at the families of the female members of the family, before detailing the male descendants: those of Andrew b.1831, Thomas b.1833, John b.1835, Peter b.1841, George b.1843, and Robert b.1850.
Elizabeth b.1829 married Henry Allan Welsh, a collier also b.1829, in 1852. They had five children: Margaret 1853, Christian 1855, Elisabeth 1857, Archibald 1859, and Peter 1861. (Henry’s parents were Archibald Welsh and Christian Thomson.) Christian b.1831 married Thomas Dryburgh in 1866. But the IGI records the birth on 20JAN1860 of a baby Janet to a Christian Dunsire, the father’s name given as James Grieve. With Thomas Dryburgh, Christian registered James 1867, Margaret 1869, and Janet 1872. In the 1891 census this Janet’s age is given as 18 - she is Thomas’ daughter, not James Grieve’s. But also in Buckhaven in 1891 lived James Grieve(58) and Isabella (73), with Janet Grieve
(31) - quite possibly Christian Dunsire’s illegitimate child of 1860. [I am indebted to Maureen Noble for this. James Grieve comes into her family tree too.] Rachel b.1837 married William Semple, and had four children: Hugh 1859, Peter 1860, Margaret 1862, and William Farley 1864.
Janet b.1839 may have died in infancy; no marriage is indicated. Margaret b.1845 married David Hutton, her brother-in-law, as already noted: he was a coal miner living at the Links, Buckhaven. Their children were Margaret 1865, Walter 1866, Peter 1868, David 1871 and Christina 1873. The witnesses at the wedding were George Dunsire and Janet Cairns, who would marry each other the next year. Barbara b.1847 married Andrew Hutton, her brother-in-law twice over, on New Year’s Day 1866; they had Margaret 1866, Walter 1869, Christina 1870 and Barbara 1874. Joan b.1853 probably died young; no spouse is evident.
|
English
1805 - 1882 (76 years) 
Has 12 ancestors but no descendants in this family tree.
Set As Default Person 
1767 - Yes, date unknown
Dunsyre, Andrew
Submit Headstone Photo 
Dunsire, John
