Edinburgh Branch

Edinburgh Branch (formerly Main)

This page sets out information that we have found about the Edinburgh branch of Fairholm in Scotland.

So far, we have 501 people on this tree.

This branch now starts with James Fairholm and Margaret Greig, who were possibly married in Edinburgh in 1762. James was a wig maker. They had three sons and three daughters, but so far we only have descendants for their eldest William Fairholm / Fairholme, who married Jean McGill in 1798 at Liberton, Edinburghshire, (later Midlothian, but now part of Edinburgh City). Many of their descendants have stayed in the Lothians, but others have spread throughout Southern Scotland, and into parts of England and beyond.

Up to the mid 1800s, there were several recorded variants of the surname - Fairholm, Fairholme, Fairm, Fairon, and Ferme. But these eventually evolved as Fairholm, except for one family group in Southern England, which is known as Fairholme.

Hawick

Hawick (pronounced 'hoyk' rather then 'hay-wick') is the largest town in the borders area. It has a history associated with hoisery and knitwear manufacture.

Fairholm family members lived in the town over several generations; including on the street shown in the photograph from the late 1800s.

In 1901 Anstruther & Agnus and their daughter Mary were living at 6 Union Street and William & Mary and their four children were living at 22 Dickson Street. The house on Union Street still exists, but Dickson Street and the nearby area has been redeveloped.

We have lost the source of this image and so we have not been able to seek permission to include it on the site. If anyone knows the owner of the copyright then please let us know.

The Emily - Amelia Puzzle

In the mid-1800s near to Edinburgh two woman seemed to have married two men called Anstruther Fairholm - Emily Williamson and Amelia Clark. Each had several children and they lived in the same area. However, the ages of the children overlapped and there was only one Anstruther. Was there a problem with the records? Was Anstruther a bigamist? To complicate matters further Anstruther's surname was variously recorded as Fairholm, Fairm, Fairms and Ferme.

Emily Williamson married her Anstruther in 1839 and there are records for three children born between 1840 and 1846.

No record was found for the marriage of Amelia Clark and her Anstruther, but they had three recorded children between 1844 and 1857.

Anstruther had other children for which a baptism record has not been found yet so their mothers are not known from records.

After a lot of head-scratching and extensive research, three records led to an interesting conclusion:

1. The birth record for Catherine Fairm in 1855 states that she was the eighth child of Emily Fairm (nee Williamson) and states the number of Emily's children by gender and how many had died young. The total of children does not match the number of children shown as born by Emily Williamson to Anstruther by that date or with the addition of the children with unknown mothers.

2. Amelia Fairholm's death certificate for 1880 states that her mother was Amelia Clark and that her father was reputed to be William Williamson.

3. In the 1841 and 1851 censuses Anstruther's wife was recorded as Amelia Williamson or Fairm and Amelia Williamson respectively.

In the absence of any further evidence, it appears that Emily and Amelia were the same person. For some unknown reason, it looks as if she used two different forenames and one of two surnames for her maiden name, but did not do so consistently from one particular time. Clearly, she had no idea how frustrating this would turn out to be for family researchers in the years to come.

Photograph by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

Edinburgh - capital of Scotland

The city is situated on the south side of the Firth of Forth, and as part of the Central Lowlands, was subjected to successive waves of invaders and settlers from all parts of Northern Europe over several hundred years. It is uniquely situated astride two glaciated ridges, separated by a deep trough; an ideal location for its fortified castle and walled town.

From mediaeval times, the town spread along the southern ridge, astride the Royal Mile, that ran from the Castle to Holyrood Abbey. As the population grew, the town walls restricted development, and extra housing had to go upwards. But the overcrowding continued. By 1700, the population of about 30,000 was huddled into large tenements close to the smelly trough, until the area became squalid, and acquired the name Auld Reekie. Various Fairholm families lived there over the years, and some were trades people outside the town walls.

In 1767 an Act of Parliament approved the extension of the city boundary, which allowed a "New Town" to be built on the northern ridge. This was on a grid-square plan, with wide streets and large Georgian houses. The deep trough was drained, and during the next 80 years, bridges were built across it, to join the Old and New Towns, and some roads were built at two levels. By 1801, the population of Edinburgh, and the adjacent port of Leith, had grown to 83,000. As the population increased during the next 200 years, the City of Edinburgh's boundaries were progressively expanded to take in surrounding parishes and townships in Edinburghshire County, sometimes resulting in changes to place name descriptions in official documents, such as censuses and certificates.

Migration to England

Several families from this branch relocated from Scotland to England.

North East England

William Fairholm moved to Newcastle by 1899 with his three youngest sons : James, Adam and Francis. William remarried to Agnes Sadler, James Fairholm married Jane Ann Mewes and Adam married Elizabeth Blaylock Forster. At the same time, their cousins Anstruther Fairholm (who married Elisabeth Jane Slight) and his brother, David, (who married Louisa Forster) also moved to the area.

Just to add some complexity - the wives of Adam and David were sisters. And for more complexity, it seems that William married his eldest son's mother-in-law. The tree below summarises the relationships. There were more siblings than are shown.

The first two brothers worked in the coal industry and the other pair in the building industry.

The families were associated with Newcastle, Tynemouth, Gateshead and Morpeth. There are current-day descendants of James and Jane Ann.

South East England

George Fairholm / Fairholme (who married Christina Bracks) moved to Kent by 1878. The family extended into Essex later on. William Hogg Fairholm, their eldest son, remained in or returned to Scotland, but one of his decendants also moved to Kent (in the 1960s). Today, George's family seems to exist in a single male line in Scotland and a single male line in England.