MOIR Henry
Hit a brick wall many years ago when trying to find the origins of Henry Moir, a compositor of London who married there in 1804. Descendants in Australia (via his son Henry Christopher Moir) always believed the family origins to be Scottish.
The National Archives at Kew have made their downloads available at no cost because of Covid so I have been browsing and found an index which contained a number of documents including the name Henry Moir and his brother Robert relating to conviction for High Treason for involvement with Jacobites in 1747. It mentions a place of origin as Teviotdale, Roxburghshire. I cannot access the actual documents as they are not digitized yet and I do not know the final fate of those two men.
I do not know if there is a connection between the Henry Moir of 1747 and the Henry Moir of 1804 but I definitely think it is worth exploring. I would appreciate any nudges in the right direction please. Regards, Jennifer Bell
This is one of the notes on file:
Documents concerning the case of farmer Robert Moir and his brother Henry Moir, a surgeon and apothecary of Tivot Dale [Teviotdale, Roxburghshire],under sentence of death for High Treason, in New Gaol, Southwark [Surrey]. Filed with: Folio 134. Petition to the King from Moir brothers recounting how they were forced to join the [Jacobite] rebels after encountering them on their way home from Dalkeith [Midlothian], how they escaped, were arrested, and were imprisoned in Berwick [Northumberland] and New Gaol. Folio 135. Petition as above. Folio 136. Petition as above, with dates of conviction, sentence and proposed execution noted.
Comments
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Jennifer,
I'd suggest you check out https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/, the official website of Scotland's records, some of which are free to search and/or view. You should at least be able to see from search results if there are many other Henry Moirs who fit your ancestor's profile.
In the Legal records section of the website, for instance, you can freely search testaments (wills) and view the detailed search results, which may help you to eliminate any possible matches for Henry. Church records on the website should cover the time period you are researching and again, the search results show the child's and parents' names in christenings, and both spouses in marriage records. Quite often the actual images of these church records show very little more than what you see in the results.
Re. the London connection, you might find trade directories useful as you know Henry's occupation. They can be found at http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll4.
Hopefully some of these records will help you in your research.
Alison Spring
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