Person:Janet Allan (5)

Janet Allen’s origins have yet to be established. The age given when she died suggests that she was born around 1746. Her first confirmed sighting is on 14th December 1777, when she married John Scott at Fowlis Wester in Perthshire.

Janet and John went on to have three children between 1778 and 1789. Their first two children, boys called Alexander and William, were baptised at Fowlis Wester in 1778 and 1780, and their baptism records both note that the family lived at Milton of Abercairny, a hamlet to the west of Fowlis Wester adjoining the Abercairny estate. Their daughter Ann’s baptism from 1789 was in the neighbouring parish of Crieff, and gives the family’s abode as Dowald, a hamlet to the east of the parish which was less than a mile from Milton of Abercairny.

John worked as a gamekeeper. Given the locations where the family lived it seems highly likely that he worked on the Abercairny estate. His son William would also go on to be gamekeeper at Abercairny.

All three of Janet’s children lived to adulthood. Her son William and daughter Ann both married and had children in the Fowlis Wester area during Janet’s lifetime. It is not clear what happened to her son Alexander, although he is known to have outlived Janet.

Janet died on 30th June 1822, and she was buried at Fowlis Wester. She was said to be 75 years old. Her husband John survived her by four years.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Fowlis Wester Churchyard, Perthshire, Monumental Inscriptions (Scottish Monumental Inscriptions).

   1832 / ERECTED / By ALEX and WM SCOTT / To the Memory of their Mother / JANET ALLEN who died the / 30th June 1822 aged 75 [1746/7] / Also their Father JOHN SCOTT / who died the 18th August 1826 aged 72 years [1753/4]

2. ↑ There were two Janet Allans baptised at Fowlis Wester about the right time to match the age given for this Janet: one on 3rd March 1745 who was the daughter of William Allan, and another on 23rd August 1747 who was the daughter of Andrew Allan. Further evidence would need to be found to establish whether either of these is her.