Family:John Palmer and Mary Gibson (1)

The marriage took place before civil registration. Marriages in the parish registers of Kirkcudbrightshire are very scarce. It is possible that if a minister performed the service at the bride's home, a common occurrence, it was not recorded in the register.

In 1855, the year that civil registration came into effect in Scotland, John Palmer was appointed the first Burgh Registrar for Rothesay. He had to fill in the long birth cerificate in use only for 1855 for his son James, born in February. Amongst many other questions was the place of the marriage of the parents. The answer written is "Kirkcudbright". Whether this meant the town of Kirkcudbright or the Stewartry (=county) of Kirkcudbrightshire is not known. John Palmer was Clerk of the Session (he wrote up the minutes of elders' meetings) as well as being Burgh Registrar. I am pretty confident he and his wife were married before they had all those children.

John was a schoolmaster in Southwick, a part of the parish of Colvend, from about 1833 until he was appointed Burgh Schoolmaster in Rothesay in January 1844. Mary Gibson, his wife, was a local girl whose parents had a farm named Auchenlosh.

1. ↑ See Family History.