Person:William Runciman (27)

Birth date

From both DNA evidence and the circumstantial evidence from documents held in the National Archives of Scotland ^S5 that show a Richard RUNCIMAN looking after William of Crail's orphaned children, it was thought that William was the baptism recorded 14 Jun 1717 in the Direlton Parish Registers which reads:

"(Robert) Runseman Gardner in Saltcoats and his wife Janet Sinclair had a S: B: called William Wit. Ja: Heriot and Ja: Robeson" (parents indexed as Robert Runseman, but image only has tail end of the Robert)

The DNA evidence (See RUNCIMAN Surname DNA Project) is that excellent DNA matches have been found between the lines of Thomas & Alison (GRIEVE)RUNCIMAN, and William of Crail's descendants, where Thomas is likely to be the baptism 10 Apr 1720 at Prestonpans "Robert Runciman Gardner and Janet Sinclair had a Son born March 7th 1720 and baptized Thomas Apr: 10th Witnesses James Forrest sievewright and James Begbie weaver

However, subsequent explorations in the NAS papers above ^S5 show that Richard was the grandfather of the orphaned children. William of Crail is now thought to be Person:William_Runciman_(51), baptised 1729 in the family of Richard and Jennet (GOURLAY) RUNCIMAN instead.

For further notes, see William's page in the RUNCIMAN One Name Study

--LornaHen 17:43, 14 November 2012 (EST)

1.   Pay-outs to the widows and children of the Crail fishermen drowned on 21st January 1765, in National Archives of Scotland
   GD/26/12/25.

   payments made to "Richard Runcieman" in respect of William's three orphan children (wife Elizabeth had died 1763). By 1768 the children, and presumably Richard, were living in North Berwick

2. ↑ Lorna Henderson. RUNCIMAN Conclusions, Author Address: Runciman.lornahen.com
   Apr 2010.
3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 Scottish Birth, Marriage, Burial entries (to 1854), Record Type: Scottish BMDB entries (to 1854), File Number:
   Bap. 14 Jun 1717 William s/o RUNSEMAN (gardner in Saltcoats) & Janet SINCLAIR, Dirleton, ELN 705/0020 0046, copy d/loaded Feb 2010.
4. ↑ Scotlands People Index. OPR East Lothian, Scotland RUNCIMAN Births, Author Address: scotlandspeople.gov.uk, Recipient Address: East Lo. (1538-1854)
   Birth 1717 William s/o Robert RUNSEMAN & Janet SINCLAIR, Dirleton, 705/ 0020 0047, extracted from index Feb 2010.
5.   H D W. RUNCIMAN Correspondence, Recipient: L Henderson (1), Address: Edinburgh, Scotland, Author E-mail:
   Pay-outs to the widows and children of the Crail fishermen drowned on 21st January 1765, extracted Feb 2010 from photocopies taken 1980s, from GD/26/12/25 held National Archives of Scotland (NAS), rcvd Feb 2010.
6. ↑ entry reads: "(Robert) Runseman Gardner in Saltcoats and his wife Janet Sinclair had a S: B: called William Wit. Ja: Heriot and Ja: Robeson" (parents indexed as Robert Runseman, but image only has tail end of the Robert)