James Dewar (abt. 1720 - 1765)

Born about 1720 in Fife, Scotland [uncertain]

Husband of Margaret (Beveridge) Dewar — married 4 Jul 1749 in Crail, Fife, Scotland

Descendants

Died 21 Jan 1765 at about age 45 in Crail, Fife, Scotland

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Alan Runciman [send private message]

Biography

This biography was partly auto-generated by a GEDCOM import, supplemented by manual additions by Alan Runciman, a descendant of one of the other victims who drowned with James.

Birth

Birth:

User ID: FE162F19-D8F3-4ABA-B245-4B32F22C1F15

Record ID Number: MH:IF8

Date: Estimated at around 1720 based on his wife's age.

A baptism record has not been found which looks plausible.There are no Crail baptisms of a James in the likely time period. The only (weak) candidate is James b 1737 making him only 12 years old at time of marriage, below the minimum age for marriage of 14 for males (12 for females). There is no extraordinary or explanatory note on his 1749 parish marriage entry which could have added weight to James being below age. It's worthy of note that their first child didn't appear until 1755, when this James would have been 18. The principal factor is that his wife Margaret Beveridge is recorded in the notes retained in the Widows & Children's Fund as being aged 42 shortly after her husband drowned in 1765. Following typical ageing convention of couples this would suggest a birth year for James somewhere between 1715-1725. It's possible he's born elsewhere in the county or indeed outside the county which makes further matching to a specific baptism unlikely without further clues.

Place: Scotland. No record has been found to indicate where although it is most likely to be in the east of Scotland.

Marriage

James married Margaret Beveridge on 4 July 1749 in Crail. As was the custom in the Crail records no information is recorded other than the bare minimum:

'June 30th 1749 James Dewar & Margaret Beveridge married July 4th' ^[1]

Occupation

James was a fisherman based at Crail. There were many fishing boats working from the harbour with the waters around the Isle of May opposite well-known as a rich fishing ground. The usual catch was herring but also mackerel, crab & lobster were brought ashore at Crail. At the time of his drowning James was on an 8-crew boat believed to be skippered by William Runciman. This is concluded by the order of names listed on the Register of the Dead as it was the custom that the skipper was always named first on a crew list.

Those who drowned together were :

William Runciman/Runseyman/Runsheman

James Dewar

John Brown

Andrew Taylor

Henry Burn/Burns

James Keay/Key/Kay/Kae

Thomas Cunningham

John Ramsey/Ramsay

Different spelling variations are shown as they have appeared in the Parish Records & The Widow's Fund.

Death

Death:

User ID: F7B41107-58D9-4D0C-B74E-95232035D724

Record ID Number: MH:IF9

Date: 21 JAN 1765

Place: Crail, Fife, Scotland

Cause: Drowned 'in the mouth of the harbour while going a-fishing' along with 7 others.

The somberly titled 'Register of the Dead' from Crail Parish Church.

The entry ^[2] reads:

'This morning were drowned in the mouth of the Harbour as they were going a-fishing the following eight persons viz

William Runcyman, James Dewar, John Brown, Andrew Taylor, Henry Burns, James Kae, Thomas Cunningham, married persons and John Ramsay unmarried,'

A 250th anniversary commemoration for the drowned fishermen was held by the descendants of the 8 fishermen in Crail on 16 May 2015. See Crail Fishing Disaster page for the known history and further information.

Sources

• Source: S3 Record ID Number: MH:S3 User ID: AF40ED0F-2350-44A2-A9F2-70E97EFCC236 Author: Peter Cavers Title: Cavers Tree Web Site Text: MyHeritage.com family tree CONT Family site: Cavers Tree Web Site CONT Family tree: Cavers Tree Media: 53573041-1 Type: Smart Matching Record ID Number: MH:SC1 Page: James Dewar Event: Smart Matching Role: 1001176 Data: Date: 12 MAR 2013 Text: Added by confirming a Smart Match Quality or Certainty of Data: 3

(Note: birth date manually amended from 1737 by Profile Manager for the reasons stated above)

1. ↑ https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ Filing Ref Marriages 417/ 20 19 Crail
2. ↑ Register of Scotland File Ref GD 26/12/25

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Alan Runciman for creating WikiTree profile Dewar-160 through the import of Crail Disaster 041113.GED on Nov 4, 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Alan and others.