Foley Historical Group's Digital Collection

Oastler Farm, p. 20,21

The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

20 settled in Marchand, Pennsylvania around 1820 taking his mother's name Smeaton, and dying there in 1856. Isobel's daugher Margaret Couper married William Rankin Thomson (II). This marriage resulted in the three sons, namely, William Thomson (III), David Couper Thomson, and Frederick Thomson. Watson Kirkconnell in the 'Scottish Tradition in Canada1 (McLelland and Stewart, Toronto, 1976) considers that the name McTavish had a lowland equivalent, namely, Thomson. This could be as the Thompson family in the Dundee area lived only a few miles southeast of one of the main entrances to the highlands, namely, the Pass of Killiecrankie. McTavish itself is Gaelic for son of Tamma, i.e. Thomas. The first dated record of the Thomson family was the marriage of Andrew Thomson to Margaret Hogg in 1736. Her father and grandfather had both, in the past, acted in the capacity of burgess to Pittenweem in Scotland. Andrew became town carrier of Pittenweem and, as such he carried letters and money to Edinburgh. In 1749 he was given an allowance for services rendered. Pittenweem must have been close to the country estate of the Earl of Airlie as one of the Thomson family became a courier as well for the Airlie family. As a side line he considered it expedient to gather the news he heard in Dundee, write it on sheets of paper and carry these to the Earl who in turn started to pass them to friends. These handwritten news sheets became in such demand it was decided that in the future they should be printed. This became the start of the Thomson entry into the publishing business. The oldest son of Andrew Thomson, namely, John, also became a carrier for Pittenweem. He was the father of Captain William Thomson (I) 21 who became a shipowner in Dundee. William had three brothers who went to Australia. He was drowned with his ship the Christian and all hands in 1828. It is likely that it was this man who started building in Dundee the first known motorized ships of size. He produced the first geneological charts of the Thomson family interlocked with the other families to which they were inter-related. A kinsman, James Couper Osier of Dundee, improved the Osier section and completed a more comprehensive chart printed by D.C. Thomson 6 Co., Ltd., Courier Office, Dundee, in 1923. Of the family of William Rankin Thomson (II) one will receive mention, namely, David Couper Thomson. He eventually controlled the rural press of Scotland and left an estate of several million. He took charge of D.C. Thomson & Co. at the age of 23. The strain of carrying on with both the publications business and the ship-building enterprise became too great and he dropped out of ship-building. When he died at the age of 93 he was still in charge of publications as he possessed outstanding vitality. A few months before he passed away he had a visit from Margaret Graham, granddaughter of Andrew Oastler of Oastler Lake, Parry Sound District, Ontario. She found him to be hospitable and very witty. He showed surprise when she told him that her brother, Professor Thomas Oastler Graham, could not learn at school. This surprise may have been prompted by the fact that Mr. Thomson was governor of the nebulous University of Dundee. He worked hard to establish this University but his plans were thwarted in part by the University of Aberdeen.

Keyword(s) to search
Oastler
Powered by / Alimenté par VITA Toolkit
Privacy Policy