As best as I can tell, there are only two published works that name the mother of William Archibald (1781 – 1845) of Saltcoats, Scotland, and both books refer to her as “Jean S. Cowan” or “Jeanet Cowan”. The two books I’m referring to are Donald MacLean’s William Archibald and his wife, Isabel Wood (1979) and Donald Whyte’s Dictionary of Scottish emigrants (1986).¹ Here’s an example from Whyte:

For researchers using the National Records of Scotland website, this may cause some confusion because most records for Jean are indexed under the surname “Slowan” or “Sloan”, not “Cowan”. How did this discrepancy occur between the Scottish indexed records and the only published sources referencing this family?

The answer probably lies in the handwritten parish records, microfilm copies of which Maclean and Whyte were likely using for their research before online tools were available. For instance, in the baptism record below (click the image to enlarge) Jean’s last name does appear to read as “Cowan” with a preceding space that seems to indicate a middle initial that resembles a “t” (thus, “Jeanet” in Whyte’s rendering).

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1777 – Birth and Baptism Registry – Hugh Archibald²

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Transcription (by me, using names as indexed): “November 1777 – Archibald Sailor in Parkhouse and Jean Slowan his wife had a lawfull son Hugh born the 2nd and baptized the 6th.”

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Looking closer at that “t” in the context of the rest of the entry, however, we’ll notice that it’s the same character as the capital “S” in “Sailor” and, indeed, that first capital “S” stands apart from the rest of its word. This is our first clue that a) Jean’s “t” could be a capital “S” and b) this “S” is not necessarily a middle initial (“Jean S. Cowan”, in MacLean’s reading) just because there’s a space separating it from the succeeding block.

Turning our attention, then, to that capital “C” in “Cowan”, we may note this letter’s resemblance to the lowercase “l” in “lawfull” written five words after. Without the Scottish index to help MacLean and Whyte, it’s easy to see how they read a “Cowan” into this entry, but, we, with the benefit of this index, are led to compare the letters in their wider context.

In the baptism record below, we see that the stand-alone capital “S” was not a fluke but seems to be a practice. And what we once thought was a capital “C” now looks like an “L” and again closely resembles the “l” in “lawfull”:

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1779 – Birth and Baptism Registry – Abigail Archibald³

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Transcription: “July 1779 – Archibald – Hugh Archibald Sailor in Saltcoats and Jean Slowan his spouse(?) had a lawfull daughter named Abigail born the 7th, baptized the 9th. The Mother Sponsor in absence of the Father.”

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In the marriage register for Hugh and Jean below, we see clearer evidence – especially now that we have an eye for that misleadingly stand-alone “S” – that Jean was a “Sloan” (with an alternate spelling, “Slowan”) and not a “Cowan”:

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1775 – Marriage Registry – Hugh Archibald and Jean Sloan⁴

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Transcription: “Marriages year 1775 – Hugh Archibald Sailor and Jean Sloan both in Parkhouse gave in their names for Proclamation of Bann Sept 18th. Were married the 26th.”

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Perhaps if MacLean and Whyte had seen the above document before the baptism records, it would have led them to read the later documents with different eyes.

Or… if they’d first seen the baptism entry below for Hugh and Jean’s last child, there may have been little doubt about Jean’s/Jane’s true surname:

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1786 – Birth and Baptism Registry – Robert Cuningham Archibald⁵

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Transcription: “Sept 1786 – Hugh Archibald Shipmaster and Jane Sloan his spouse(?) had a lawfull son named Robert Cuningham born 13 Aug and baptized 17th”

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Considering the consistent indexing of these records as “Slowan” and “Sloan”, I’m ready to conclude that those surnames are correct for Jean in my family history, but it’s worth taking a quick look at a few more documents just to know what MacLean and Whyte were seeing during their research:

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1781 – Birth and Baptism Registry – William Archibald⁶

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Transcription: “October 1781 – Hugh Archibald Sailor in Saltcoats and Jean Slowan his spouse(?) had a lawfull son named William born the 18th. Baptized the 23. The Mother Sponsor in absence of the father.”

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The baptism record above, for son William (who, you’ll remember, is the subject of both the Whyte excerpt at the top of this post and the MacLean book generally), may very well have been the first Archibald document either author examined in the early phases of their projects and, yes, the name really does look like “Jeanet Cowan” and not “Jean Slowan”, even though the later is how this entry was later indexed.

And finally, we have daughter Martha’s birth/baptism entry below. This one’s a little harder to de-cypher (particularly the first name) but we can clearly make out “loan” in the surname and, indeed, the entry is indexed as “Jean Sloan”:

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1784 – Birth and Baptism Registry – Martha Archibald⁷

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Transcription: “April 1784 – Hugh Archibald Sailor in Saltcoats and Jean Sloan his spouse(?) had a lawfull daughter named Martha, born the 14th, baptized the 17th. Mother Sponsor in absence of the Father”

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To conclude, I’d say the two main lessons to take from this analysis are: 1) even when you have reliable published family history sources, always look for original documents to support or refine their claims and 2) when interpreting document handwriting, scrutinize individual words and letters in context with similar letters appearing elsewhere in the document.

As always, good luck in your future research and… happy hunting!

Sources:

¹ Whyte, Donald, A dictionary of Scottish emigrants to Canada before confederation (Toronto: Ontario Genealogical Society, 1986-2005), vol. 1, p. 8. MacLean, Donald W., William Archibald and his wife, Isabel Wood, Restigouche County pioneers : their background and their family (Fredericton, NB: D.W. MacLean, 1979, updated 1991), p. 1, appendix chart for William Archibald (1781-1845).

² “Old parish registers – Births and Baptisms,” ScotlandsPeople (https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/advanced-search/church-registers/church-births-baptisms/opr-births#form: accessed 30 May 2023), search: Hugh Archibald, Male, 1777, Ardrossan.

³ “Old parish registers – Births and Baptisms,” ScotlandsPeople (https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/advanced-search/church-registers/church-births-baptisms/opr-births#form: accessed 30 May 2023), search: Abigail Archibald, Female, 1779, Ardrossan.

⁴ “Old Parish Registers – Marriages,” ScotlandsPeople (https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/advanced-search/church-registers/church-banns-marriages/opr-marriages: accessed 30 May 2023), search: Jean Sloan, 1775, Ardrossan.

⁵ “Old parish registers – Births and Baptisms,” ScotlandsPeople (https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/advanced-search/church-registers/church-births-baptisms/opr-births#form: accessed 30 May 2023), search: Robert Archibald, Male, 1786, Ardrossan.

⁶ “Old parish registers – Births and Baptisms,” ScotlandsPeople (https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/advanced-search/church-registers/church-births-baptisms/opr-births#form: accessed 30 May 2023), search: William Archibald, Male, 1781, Ardrossan.

⁷ “Old parish registers – Births and Baptisms,” ScotlandsPeople (https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/advanced-search/church-registers/church-births-baptisms/opr-births#form: accessed 30 May 2023), search: Martha Archibald, Female, 1784, Ardrossan.