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- the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia
Newton Stewart is a former burgh town in the historical county of Wigtownshire and now in Dumfries and Galloway in southwest Scotland.
The town is to the west of the River Cree which was the border with the county of Kirkcudbrightshire, and is sometimes referred to as the "Gateway to the Galloway Hills". It was located within the parish of Penninghame (#11 on map). (Newton Stewart is estimated to be just to the top right of the number 11.) The village of Minnigaff, Kirkcudbrightshire is now considered to be part of Newton Stewart.
The main local industries are agriculture, forestry and tourism. The town hosts a local market, and a number of services to support the farming industry. Newton Stewart lies on the southern edge of the Galloway Forest Park, which provides a large number of jobs to the town.
History
The town was founded in the mid 17th century by William Stewart, fourth and youngest son of James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Galloway. (William Stewart is mentioned here in WeRelate with no further details except his name.) The "New Town of Stewart" was granted burgh status by charter from King Charles II, allowing a weekly market and two annual fairs to be held.
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It was on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Ninian at Whithorn in 1329 that Robert the Bruce forded the river where the present bridge stands. Designed by John Rennie the Elder and built in 1813 the present bridge replaced the old bridge of 1745 which was destroyed by floods in 1806.
The industrialist Sir William Douglas (died 1809), best known for founding the planned town of Castle Douglas, also established cotton mills in Newton Stewart, which was renamed "Newton Douglas" in his honour but soon reverted to Newton Stewart.
Granite from the area was used in the construction of most major docksides in Britain.
Research Tips
- official civil (from 1855) and parish registers (from when first produced) for births, marriages and deaths for all of Scotland
- original census images for all years available (1841-1911).
- collections of wills and testaments and
- property tax listings
- an extensive collection of local maps
- kirk session records for individual parishes (added in 2021 and not yet complete).
This site is extremely easy to use. There are charges for parish register entries, collections of wills, and census listings (the 1881 census is free to view, also on Ancestry and FindMyPast). The charges are reasonable and payable by online transfer. Viewing the kirk session records is free, but a charge will be made for a copy.
- The National Library of Scotland have an online map collection of historic and modern day maps which can zoom in on a specific farmhouse or street in a town. Their collection also includes London and some counties of southeast England.
- Gazetteer for Scotland contains an article for each parish from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland by F. H. Groome, (published 1882-4) and short details about each parish today including names of small settlements within a parish.
- The FamilySearch Wiki explains a great many legal terms only found in Scotland and provides a gazetteer for genealogists for each parish across the county. It reviews the availablility of parish registers.
- GENUKI Scotland which provides for each Scottish parish (indexed by county), amongst other data, complete quotations from A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1851) by Samuel Lewis, John Bartholomew's A Gazetteer of the British Isles (1877), and possibly other gazetteers from individual counties and regions. It is worth reviewing one of its county pages to see what is available online or in print from local archive providers. Each county page has a "Where in ---shire is .... ? section--very helpful in pinpointing the small places below parish level.
- A list of Burial Grounds in Scotland is now available on the website of the Scottish Association of Family History Societies.
- The Statistical Accounts of Scotland Online provides access to digitised and fully searchable versions of both the Old Statistical Account (1791-99) and the New Statistical Account (1834-45). These uniquely rich and detailed parish reports, usually written by local Church of Scotland ministers, detail social conditions in Scotland and are an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Scottish history.
Notes for Wigtownshire
- The Dumfries and Galloway Family History Society website may point to material of interest to the general researcher. Amongst their publications are indexes for the 1841 census. These are prepared as small booklets, one for each parish, and are alphabetically indexed transcriptions. Obtainable from the D & G FHS, address at website.
- The FreeCen Project has a searchable (not browsable) transcription of the whole of Wigtownshire online for the 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses, with the 1871 census partly completed.
- The Wigtownshire Pages is an accumulation of links to various websites with genealogical information about Wigtownshire, including Births, Marriages and Deaths from the Wigtown Free Press, an index of a list of people living in Wigtownshire in 1684, and a small website of monumental inscriptions.
- Wigtownshire Links is a similar webpage to the one above which may include other websites.
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