"In loving memory of Peggy Auchterlonie or Birrell, who died 16th Feb 1894 aged 82 years" The small gravestone lies in the foreground at Crail churchyard.

A Freeman of Crail

The son of Robert Auchterlonie and Jean Hutt, William was born at Dunino, Fife, in 1758. In 1779 he married Jean Farlie, and they had seven children. 1805 saw William become a freeman of Crail, a small fishing village on the East Neuk of Fife, and ten years later he became a Deacon of the town.

His sixth child was named after him, William, born in May 1789, and like his father, he became a weaver. He married Margaret Mitchell at Crail in 1809 and four of their children included John (who married Agnes Westwood in 1834), Margaret (more affectionately known as Peggy), Robert (who married Margaret Wilson in 1841 at Crail), Ann and Jane.

River Mersey

While John carried on the family tradition of weaving, Robert became a journeyman mason and one of his sons, also Robert, went to Glasgow to study law, and then onto Theological College at Edinburgh, where he became a minister at Dalry Independent Chapel.

Peggy Auchterlonie married John Birrell, a ship's carpenter, on the 2 June 1838 back at Crail. They had two children, Andrew Birrell, and Margaret Mitchell Birrell (who later married William Horsburgh) before John lost his life by drowning in the River Mersey in July 1840. The Auchterlonie name lived on in two of the eight Horsburgh grandchildren - Margaret Auchterlonie Horsburgh and William Auchterlonie Horsburgh.

Crail in 1883 by William York McGregor

Names married in:

---

Name Notes:

Links of interest:

---