The Anderson Family: Introduction
The section gives details of my father's ancestors, including the Anderson, Veitch, Williams and Tricker families. The Andersons originated in the Blackford area of Perthshire from where Peter Anderson, my great great grandfather, moved to Edinburgh where he married Jane Veitch. Robert Jnr. Anderson, my great grandfather, went to London where he married my great grandmother, Martha Williams, from Stowmarket in Suffolk. Her parents were James and Eliza Williams (nee Tricker). Alfred Anderson, my grandfather, emigrated to New Zealand in 1908.
Single clicking onto an image in the "full research" section will open it up at its full-size; hover your pointer over the image once it has opened up to see the caption.
The Anderson Family
My great-great-great grandfather, Robert Snr. Anderson, was a sheep farmer in the Blackford area of Perthshire, Scotland; his date of birth and parentage are uncertain but his parents may have been John (christened 18 November 1759) and Jane Anderson (formerly Aitkin), married on 17 July 1781, who had a son named Robert born at Biggs and christened on 11 August 1782. Wester Biggs farm is sited close to Cockpl(e)ay farm where Robert Snr. subsequently lived.
Reference is made to John and his son Robert Snr. in the trial papers of a William Crichton who was hanged in Perth on 4 November 1803 for stealing sheep, 28 of which were the property of John Anderson. The sheep were driven by William Crichton to Glasgow where they were sold to fleshers (butchers). Sue Broadway has transcribed the details of this trial in Perth, at which John and Robert Snr. both gave evidence, and added her own notes. She points out that only two people were hanged in Scotland in 1803 and the next hanging for sheep stealing did not happen until 1818. Of 480 people sentenced to hang in Scotland between 1800 and 1868, 207 were reprieved. Sometimes the sentence for sheep stealers was commuted to transportation for 7 years, or more if a great number of sheep were stolen.
Blackford, Perthshire, Scotland
Sue Broadway has also found a notice, dated 6 Jan 1814, in the Perthshire Courier mentioning Cockplay and Biggs being up for letting by auction for ten years and a similar one in 1824 for the next ten years. The 1814 notice describes Carim, Cockplay and Biggs as consisting of about 1,660 acres and that they were valuable and extensive sheep farms in the Ochills, containing excellent hill pasture. The 1824 notice says that the farms were “presently occupied” by John Anderson when he would have been aged 65. John’s death date is unknown but, when Sue looked at Scotlands People for a John Anderson burial after 1824, she found several dates including 1829, 30, 32, 33, 36 and 39. We can take our pick. We don't think he was alive by the 1841 census.
Another article found by Sue concerns John's son Robert and probably John too as he was still around two years later. This is a report in the Perthshire Courier, dated 11 June 1822, of a fire (started “wilfully it is supposed”) at Cockplay (Copelay) naming it as the farm steading of Robert Anderson. The house survived but farm premises and some stock were lost. Robert himself was “dangerously burnt” but the report notes that “favourable hopes are entertained of his recovery”. My great great grandfather Peter, son of Robert, would have been only 2 years old at the time this terrible thing happened to his family. Sue could not find a burial for a Robert Anderson in Blackford after this so hopefully he recovered. She has two possible burial dates for Robert, assuming he stayed in Blackford, of 22 May 1833 or 6 Jan 1837.
The Andersons have been traced two further generations back to John's father, Robert (born 1739), and Robert's father, William. They all lived in the Blackford area. Robert Snr. married Helen Gray in Blackford on 4 November 1805, the month after the battle of Trafalgar. She may have been the Helen born to John Gray and his wife Louisa (formerly Eadie) and baptised in Blackford on 1 October 1783 but this is unproven. A member of the Eadie family, William Eadie, set up a small brewery in Blackford in the early 1800s and one of his fourteen children, James Eadie, subsequently founded a brewery in Cross St., Burton-on-Trent, in 1854. This is interesting because I worked in the brewing industry in Burton-on-Trent and still live in the town.
Robert Snr. and Helen lived at Cockplay farm, south-west of Blackford, and had seven children, the youngest of whom was my great-great grandfather, Peter Anderson, born at Cockplay, Blackford, and baptised on 13 August, 1820. Helen, the fifth child of Robert Snr. and Helen, married Charles Warburton, a dyer from Edinburgh; she died of dementia in Edinburgh, just after the census in 1881. William Warburton, a son of Helen and Charles, moved to Norfolk in England and then, with a number of other Warburton family members, on to Woolwich where many of them worked in the arsenal. Caroline Bagshaw, a great-great granddaughter of Helen and Charles Warburton, provided this information.
No record has been found of Robert Snr. and Helen living in the Blackford area at the time of the 1841 census, further confirmation that they were either dead by then or had perhaps moved elsewhere.
Family Trees
The fan chart and word documents below give detailed family trees for this branch of my family. Single click on the fan chart for a clearer view.
Ancestors of Eric Robert Anderson
The Anderson Family Tree - 9 Generations (MS Word document - 114kB)
The Tricker Family Tree - 10 Generations (MS Word document - 40kB)
Photographs
Here is a selection of images connected to this part of my family. Single clicking onto a photo will open it up at its full-size; hover your pointer over the image once it has opened up to see the caption. Alternatively, visit the Anderson Gallery page to see all of the photos with captions:
