James Harper ¹

  General Notes:

Case for James' parents being Alexander Harper and Mary Fraser:

Considering that James' first known son was named Alexander it seemed likely that this would be the name of his father. A search came up with a James Harper born 1782 Forgue to an Alexander Harper, "of Raichin". The Bogs of Raich and Raich farm are south east of the town of Forgue and on the road to Lenshie, about 2k away and the residence of James at the time of the baptisms of his known children. Lenshie is in the parish of Auchterless, place of James and Helen's marriage.

The 1782 baptism gave no mother's name. A search of Alexander Harper marriages in the area turned up two - one to Mary Fraser in Inverkeithny in 1777 and one to Isobel Leslie in the same parish in 1780 (see below).

A search for other children of an Alexander Harper in the area turned up the list below. This turns out to be made up of three families. I initially considered a second marriage but the names and birth dates of the children don't allow this.

Firstly there is Alexander Harper, of LittleMill, and Isobel Leslie with their two children Alexander and Jean. These two are witnessed by "Alexander Harper Senior" so we could assume his grandfather was Alexander also. This would fit with Alexander Harper b1750 Inverkeithny to Alexander Harper and Jannet Alexander (note Jean is a variant of Jannet).

Secondly we have our Alexander Harper, "of Raich", and Mary Fraser with five children. The death certificate of Alexander b1780 confirms his mother was Mary Fraser.

The remainder are the children of Alexander Harper, of Conland Mill/ Lint Mill, and Margaret Hall. I can't find their marriage but the death certificate of George Harper, b1793, gives this as his mother's name. There are other references to the Conland Mill Harpers who seem to have been quite affluent.

This is not definitive but seems to be the best option we have and a lot more likely than what I originally had (James born in 1791 to a John Harper of Monqhitter).


22/05/1777HARPERALEXANDERMARY FRASER/MINVERKEITHNY/BANFF158/00 0010 0308
13/08/1780HARPERALEXANDERISOBEL LESLIE/MINVERKEITHNY/BANFF158/00 0010 0310


05/01/1778HARPERANNEALEXANDER HARPER/FFORGUE/ABERDEEN194/00 0010 0287CONLAND MILL (Patrick Harper & Alex Cope?)
22/07/1778HARPERWILLIAMALEXANDER HARPER/MFORGUE/ABERDEEN194/00 0010 0288 ** DUPL****
22/07/1778HARPERWILLIAMALEXANDER HARPER/MFORGUE/ABERDEEN194/00 0010 RAICH
04/07/1779HARPERBARBARAALEXANDER HARPER/FFORGUE/ABERDEEN194/00 0010 0290LINT MILL (Patrick Harper & John Blair?)
20/07/1780HARPERALEXANDERALEXANDER HARPER/MFORGUE/ABERDEEN194/00 0010 0292 RAICH
24/10/1781HARPERISOBELALEXANDER HARPER/FFORGUE/ABERDEEN194/00 0010 0295 CONLANDMILL
11/08/1782HARPERJAMESALEXANDER HARPER/MFORGUE/ABERDEEN194/00 0010 0296 RAICH
18/02/1782HARPERALEXANDERALEXANDER HARPER/ISOBEL LESLIEMINVERKEITHNY/BANFF158/00 0010 0190 LITTLEMILL
20/07/1783HARPERALEXANDERALEXANDER HARPER/MFORGUE/ABERDEEN194/00 0010 0298 CONLANDMILL
17/10/1784HARPERMARGARETALEXANDER HARPER/FFORGUE/ABERDEEN194/00 0030 0064 RAICH (James Harper and William Reid)
25/06/1784HARPERJEANALEXANDER HARPER/ISOBEL LESLIEFINVERKEITHNY/BANFF158/00 0010 0192LITTLEMILL
28/06/1786HARPERMARGARETALEXANDER HARPER/FFORGUE/ABERDEEN194/00 0030 0072 CONLANDMILL (Alexander Shand and John Wall)
16/04/1787HARPERELSPETALEXANDER HARPER/FFORGUE/ABERDEEN194/00 0030 0076RAICH
29/06/1788HARPERHELENALEXANDER HARPER/FFORGUE/ABERDEEN194/00 0030 0083CONLAND MILL (Alexander Shand and John Wall)
16/01/1790HARPERELIZABETHALEXANDER HARPER/FFORGUE/ABERDEEN194/00 0030 0090CONLAND
16/11/1791HARPERJOHNALEXANDER HARPER/MFORGUE/ABERDEEN194/00 0030 0099CONLAND
05/05/1793HARPERGEORGEALEXANDER HARPER/MFORGUE/ABERDEEN194/00 0030 0107LINTMILL

  Chronology:

He resided in 1813 in Conland Mill, Forgue, Auchterless. ⁵

He resided in 1815 in Lenshie near Auchterless, Aberdeen. ⁶

He resided in 1817 in "in Lenshie". ⁷

James married Helen Milne, daughter of James Milne and Helen Fraser, on 4 Feb 1813 in Auchterless, Aberdeen.^{1 2} (Helen Milne was born on 24 Dec 1791 in Auchterless, Aberdeen ⁸.)