Person:David Tilloch (1)

This may be the same person who was recorded working as a salt master at the West Pan at Bogie, Fife in May 1725. It is recorded in other sources that the Tullochs worked as salt walkers, an occupation that was reported to run in families. Salt makers were said to be "born not made" and therefore it tended to be hereditary. Between 1606 and 1775 salters were bonded labour, a form of serfdom, and were barred from moving to a new employer without consent and regularly subjected to corporal punishment and imprisonment. The form of serfdom was abolished in 1775. [S1]

In 1787, a survey of the salt industry showed the following locations: [1]

Another salter, William Tilloch, was reported as working in Bogie in 1730 and his skills were so good that he was considered capable of managing two pans. However, two years later he was accused of stealing salt and iron from the girnal for which he was whipped and then transported to Holland.

The Kirk Session records of Culross, another salt producing place 25 miles west of Wemyss, mention a William Tulloch in 1636, who may also be related:

29 May 1636: Quo die compeared Wm. Tulloch, who inacted himself that if it should be proven that he or anie of his [assistants] were working at the saltpans in time of divyne service [i.e. on Sunday, when work should be stopped], he should be content to be put in waird [prison], and to live there 8 dayes on bread and watter on his own charges.

A number of Tulloch/Tilloch people are mentioned in Culross who had married into the Younger family of saltmakers: [2]

Agnes, daughter of George Tulloch/Tilloch, married James Younger 28 Feb 1672

Jane, daughter of George Tulloch/Tilloch, sister of Agnes, married Thomas Younger 21 Aug 1680

Andrew, brother of Agnes, witnessed a marriage in 1674 and two baptisms in 1681 and 1683

George, witnessed two baptisms in 1676 and 1683

William, witnessed a baptism in 1678

George Tulloch was born in 1637 in Torryburn, where he married Margaret Wright in 1655. He moved to Clackmannan and died in Kennet Pans, a church elder and a "prosperous man". George was the son of John Tulloch, who had married in Torryburn in 1633 and was descended from a family of Tullochs who lived at the Preston saltpans in the mid 1500s as shown in their wills.

The Clackmannan OPR record 9 Tulloch births in the 1680s/90s, who are possibly the aforementioned children of George & Margaret Wright.

Andrew & Margaret Hodge had a daughter Janet (1671), William (1675), James (1678) and Alexander (1681);

William & Margaret Tulloch had children Margaret (1679), William (1687), Cristian (1689) and Marion (1691);

George & Janet Baike had children George (1685), Agnes (1688), Thomas (1691) and Anna (1694); note they married 1680 in Airth, Stirling

A will was registered for a Christian Tilloch, widow of Thomas Inglis, living in Clackmannan, dated 1716 and John Tilloch, living in Saline parish north of Culross in 1730. [3]

A scholar called William Tulloch was recorded at Clackmannan Grammar School in 1699. [4]

Possible also a relation of John Tullis, listed as minister of Wemyss in 1590 - see Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae - Synods of Fife and of Angus & Mearns, p78.

1.   Whatley, Christopher A. The Scottish salt industry, 1570-1850 : an economic and social history. (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, c1987).