1. CATHERINE2 MANSON (DAVID1) was born August 03, 1812. She married JOHN HOSSACK January 23, 1829.
Notes for CATHERINE MANSON:
I think that I have found the parents of Catharine Manson. David Manson and his wife Catharine Sutherland had a daughter Catherine Manson who was baptized 3 Aug., 1812. I believe these people to be the parents of Catherine who later became the wife of John Hossack and the parents of David, my grandmother's father.
I got an e-mail from N.Z. today, 27/1/00, from Lyall Mitchell who is also researching Hossacks from the Cromarty area and he sent info about a Hossack family in the 1841 census. David was 7 years old at the time which would give him an 1834 birth year, which is the year of the birth of my g-grandfather; his mother, Catherine, was 27, his oldest sibling was 11, which suggests a possible marriage year of 1829. This agrees with the marriage entry for David's parents John Hossack and Catherine Manson, in the Parish records for Cromarty and dated 23 January, 1829. There is no mention of John Hossack in this 1841 census record. He was a fisherman. He may have been away at sea or in port somewhere else on the night of the census.
David's siblings are, as detailed in the 1841 census - James 11, Job 9, David 7, Robert 5, Andrew 2.
Notes for JOHN HOSSACK:
At the time of John's marriage to Catherine Manson the entry in the Cromarty Parish record says :
" 23 January 1829 John Hossack & Catherine Manson, Fishers, both in Cromarty, were married."
In the 1834 Cromarty Parish record there is a birth entry : "David L(egitimate) S(on) to John Hossack and Catherine Manson, Fishers, in Cromarty, was born 29th January and baptised 14th February 1834."
Someone sent me an entry taken from the 1841 census record where there is a David Hossack, age 7, if I remember correctly - I have mislaid the information - there were other siblings and the mother was Catherine. This confirmed, for me, that David's mother and John's wife was Catherine Manson. John is not mentioned on this 1841 list. He may have been away from home on the night of the census, or dead? Need to check this out. He was a fisherman - maybe enumerated at a fishing port other than on his home turf.
On the 23rd December, 1859, the marriage certificate of David Hossack and Helen Clunas gives the following information - David was 25, which is the correct age of the David born in Cromarty in 1834, his father is John. Unfortunately the registrar forgot to record the mother's name. John Hossack was, at the time of his son David's marriage, a Farrier.David's place of residence at the time of his marriage was Drumon, Cantray (or something like that!) I am unfamiliar with the place names and the registrar's writing is unclear.
The 1881 census record for David Hossack and Helen Hossack and family, records that David was 46 at the time, which, depending on the date of the census, would give him a birth year of 1834 or 1835. It also records that he was born in Cromarty. In the International Genealogical Index there is no other record of the birth of a David Hossack, in Cromarty, for years around that time, so I think that I have the correct line.
Something to note is that errors in the calculation of ages and dates is very common in census entries, marriage certificates etc. Obviously the birth entry is likely to be the most accurate as far as the year of birth, and therefore correct age, goes. The entry was made in the parish register when the child was baptised and, in most cases, shortly after the birth.
Tying the Hossacks to the Fraser family was easy. In 1881 my grandmother, Jessie Hossack, was 7 years old as recorded in the census which makes her birth year 1873 or 1874. Jessie's marriage in June 1894 to Hugh Fraser shows her age to be 21.Her parents' names David Hossack and Helen Clunas, appear on Jessie and Hugh's marriage certificate.
When in Scotland in February, 2000, my cousin, Hugh Fraser, said that his father had told stories of a relative who was one of only 7 men in his regiment to escape, unscathed, after a battle. He could not remember who this relative was, nor when it happened, but the story goes that when his wife heard the news, without hearing the names of the survivors, she "died of a broken heart." Her husband was one of the 7 survivors.
I was browsing through "The Days of the Fathers in Ross-shire" since coming back from Scotland and came across an entry about the 1809 war in Spain - where Sir John Moore died at the Battle of Corunna, about which the poem "The Burial of Sir John Moore" was written. Look it up! He was well-loved by the troops. It is a moving poem :
"Not a sound was heard; not a funeral note,
As his corse to the ramparts we carried ..."
The entry in The Days of the Fathers... is about a Hector Maclean who, with his regiment, went to Spain with the army under Sir John Moore.
"Hw went through all the adventures of the memorable retreat that terminated in the battle and victory of Corruna. Of all his regiment there were only seven who, on landing in Britain, were healthy and unwounded and Hector was one of them."
I wonder if this can be the occasion. It does sound like it. I hope to contact archives to find out the names of the seven survivors. I do not know if this is a Hossack/Fraser/Matheson etc relative but am recording it here in case I do not get any more info tracked down.
Child of CATHERINE MANSON and JOHN HOSSACK is:
