Inglis and Broun in Douglas, Lanarkshire

Agnes Inglis and Richard Brown were married in 1705 in Douglas parish - and named one of their children Cornelius (er, that’s two, because the first one died young). Where was she from? How did this name ‘Cornelius’ get into this family?

The answers appear to lie in the small parish of Douglas, in South Lanarkshire, or as it was then ‘Upper Lanarkshire’. After the marriage of Agnes Inglis and Richard Broun in 1705, there is an account in the Kirk Session minutes that name them as anticipating the wedding a wee bit, and their first child was termed ‘bastard’ although the parents were certainly married well before his birth. It should be remembered that Douglas was in the heart of Covenanting country, and hence the terminology may be expected - for this couple and for many others too.

The children of Agnes Inglis and Richard Broun, in Douglas, were:

  • John, born 1705
  • Cornelius 1707
  • Jean 1710
  • James 1712
  • Agnes 1714
  • Cornelius 1717 (this Cornelius married Helen Kyle and their daughter Agnes Brown married George Brown)
  • Barbara 1719
  • John 1721

From this, the surmise is that Richard Broun’s parents were John Broun and either Agnes Jean - bourne out by Kirk Session records which name his mother as Jean Inglis, Alewife in the parish of Douglas and by that time widowed, and a slightly earlier Hearth Tax record showing a John Broun, merchant in Douglas.  Likewise, the surmise is that Agnes Inglis’s parents were Agnes and Cornelius - and indeed there  is evidence of Cornelius Inglis of Scrogto(u)n, a farm just north-west of Douglas village, and his wife Agnes Lithgow. 

Agnes Inglis was born before the start of the baptism records we have from Douglas parish, but there is a Testament Dative for Agnes Lithgow, wife of Cornelius Inglis of Scrogtoun, and Kirk Session evidence for sons William and James also in (or of) Scrogton. There is also a testament dative for James son of Cornelius, dying in 1712 with his brother William as executor, and later in the 1730s there are rent records for another James, tenanting Scrogton from the Douglas estate.

(Inglises go further back in Scrogton, until at least the 1560s, and this may form matter for another page…)

Richard Broun became a mason in Douglas, and according to the Kirk Session minutes had sisters Mary (married to James Inglis, writer in Douglas) and Barbara. The Kirk Session records give a fair bit of ‘gossip’ about them and various other Inglises in the parish, from the 1690s to the 1720s.

At some point the family of Richard Broun and Agnes Inglis moved to Glasgow. Richard is shown to travel, as a mason, in these early KS records, so that there may be have been early associations with other towns including Glasgow. The burial record of Agnes Inglis, in Glasgow, and identifies her as widow of Richard Brown, mason in Douglas - thus giving good evidence for her movement to Glasgow, and hence enabling the connection with the Glasgow/Govan/Gorbals Brown weaver family.

Cornelius Broun or Brown married Helen Kyle, daughter of master weaver John Kyle, in 1738. They had several children including daughter Agnes, who married George Brown, weaver who also became a merchant as discussed in his page.

Edited to fix a couple of typos - the mother of Richard, Mary and Barbara Broun was Jean!)

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