Person:Christian Spring (1)

Christian Spring was born in Udny, the humble daughter of a gardener. In Aberdeen, when just over 20, she met and caught the eye of Archibald Farquharson, the 7th laird of Finzean, who was nearly 60 and as yet unmarried. They were married in 1792, in the Birse parish church, and lived at Finzean House in that parish. (Much of Birse parish, as well as much of Lumphanan parish, were part of the Finzean estate.) The Spring family were so honored at their sister marrying so well that Spring descendants for several generations were named Archibald or Christian and/or had Farquharson as a middle name.

The year after they married, Archibald and Christian had a son, Archibald, but the elder laird died only a few years later, leaving behind a young widow and 2-1/2-year-old son. That same year, Christian's older sister Isobel married Robert Sherrat, and they joined Christian at Finzean, where Robert Sherrat was overseer of the estate until the young laird came of age.

Christian remained at Finzean even after her son married in 1814, as his wife had an nearby estate of her own, Blackhall, and the young couple initially lived there. In 1823, Archibald and his wife moved back to Finzean, and Christian then took up residence at Auchinhove Cottage, part of the Finzean estate in Lumphanan (the parish north of Birse across the Dee River), where she would live out the remainder of her life. Her niece Mary Sherrat lived nearby, and Christian was close to Mary's children, some of whom lived at Auchinhove (both while Christian was alive, and afterwards).

Christian died in 1849, having outlived her husband by 53 years and her son by 8 years. In her will, she provided for her brother Robert in Aberdeen, her niece Mary Sherrat, her nieces by Robert, and a number of grand-nephews-and-nieces by Mary. (Her other siblings presumably were already dead, and her other known-living Sherrat niece and nephew had emigrated to Canada.) She is buried in the Farquharson enclosure, a prominent group of gravestones, in the Birse kirkyard.

1. ↑ Church of Scotland. Parish Church of Udny. Parish registers, 1744-1854. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1978).

   Church of Scotland, Old Parish Registers, Parish of Udny (1744-1854).

2. ↑ Death date is known from her gravestone in Birse kirkyard (see photo).
3. ↑ Christian Spring gravestone, Birse kirk