Genealogy Chat

Hi Jennifer Don't get too excited - I have it on excellent authority that my family are 'related to the Seymours, you know'. I havent been able to make any connection to ANYONE called Seymour, but if yours should turn out to be mine, just remember, I am older than you. Marjorie

I've downloaded the will now but it is very hard to read. I can see Mary Seymour Munro which I expected as well as 'my natural son George'. Hmmmm?

thank you - I haven't done the will. That is a good idea. I'm off tothe National Archives now and failing that, I will be on the rainy day thread :)

I suppose you already have Hugh Munro's will; if not you can download it from the National Archives Documents Online. It is: Will of Sir Hugh Munro of Fowlis , Angus 30 May 1848 PROB 11/2075 and it is 7 pages long. Kate.

Also - I have checked Clan Munro and that's how I know the story of Hugh and Jane Law and her sister. I'm also going to the Guildhall Library just to check the St Botolph reference in case. I have even tried going back and searching for all the Law's around that period but none seem to have come up with the right answer. This can be so frustrating - but very rewarding , don't you think? Addictive even!

Thank you all for your messages! In reply- I found the IGI reference to Hugh Munro and John Thomas Munro but I thought the date was out. It was 1798 and John Thomas could only have been born after the second marriage. As you point out - the first marriage to Jane Law took place in 1801 so John Thomas must have been born around 1806 - after Jane Law died and Hugh married her sister. If I do find the connection I'm looking for you will see fireworks going off over the Epsom area (I've been searching for a while now!)

All the best in solving your mystery. Do keep us all up to date with your progress. In my husbands family there is a story handed down that when the parents of Campbell twins died, the uncle put them on a boat and told the captian to loose them, so that he could get the family fortune. One of the twins ended up in Sussex and that's how the Campbells got south from Scotland. I have only been able to trace the our Campbells back to a marriage in 1791. But the interesting thing is that from the Brighton 1851 census I've found that all but 1 Campbell families in Brighton are related. Don't think I'll ever get back further.

Also, an entry from Boyd's Marriage Index: 1801 MUNRO HUGH LAW JANE MARYLEBONE (ST MARY LE BONE) MIDDLESEX This suggests that Hugh and Jane got married in 1801 in England? Kate.

Is this any help, from FamilySearch? JOHN THOMAS MUNRO Male ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Event(s): Birth: Christening: NOV 1783 St Botolph Without Aldgate, London, London, England ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Parents: Father: HUGH MUNRO Family Mother: ELIZABETH -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Messages: Extracted birth or christening record for the locality listed in the record. The source records are usually arranged chronologically by the birth or christening date. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source Information: Batch No.: Dates: Source Call No.: Type: Printout Call No.: Type: C006338 1780 - 1796 0370932 Film 6901255 Film

how do you go about finding all that information ?? All I can find are dates of Baptisms!!

Hope you get to the bottom of the mystery.

I have followed my Munro family history back as far as I can which is: In 1825 Robert Hugh Munro was born in Clerkenwell. His father's name was John Thomas and his mother's name was Sarah. I know this because I went to the London Metropolitan Archives and saw the original parish record. John called himself a traveller but later, on Robert's marriage certificate in 1855 he called himself an organ builder. I have a theory that John Thomas was the son of Sir Hugh Munro, 9th Baron of Foulis. Hugh married Jane Law in 1794 in England and 1801 in Scotland. She was George the third's cook! She gave birth to a daughter, Mary Seymour who was christened in St Mary's Marylebone in 1796. After that Jane Law drowned in the loch in Scotland. Hugh then married her sister in London and I believe had children, one of which was my John Thomas. Jane Law's father was Alexander Law but I can't find him or his other daughter anywhere. Hugh Munro fought the Munro's of Culrain for 26 years for the right for his daughter Mary Seymour to inherit the estate. They finally won the case which I think was fought in the House of Lords. Hugh and Mary both died one year after winning and the estate went to the Culrain Munro's anyway. The children from Hugh's second marriage would have been considered illegitimate I think , and so couldn't have inherited the estate, however, the story persisted in my family that we should have inherited Foulis, having an earlier claim through the Munro's of Culcairn. I need to prove that my John Thomas was the son of Sir Hugh Munro -for history and not any other reason. I have things in my family that could only have belonged to the Munro's of Culcairn - documents and objects. When I saw the family portraits at Foulis I recognised my father and his brother in their faces- particulalry the portrait of Hugh. Does anyone have any clever ideas?