William Rynsiman (abt. 1673)

Born about 1673 in Haddingtonshire, Scotland [uncertain]

Husband of Jean White — married 5 May 1700 in North Berwick, East Lothian, Scotland

Descendants

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

Biography

Name

Name: William /Rynsiman/ ^[1]

Lineage Patriarch

Although not identified to a particular individual, William is known to be the father of the family of Runcimans baptised in North Berwick, making him the furthest back Runciman traced on the lineage termed 'William Runciman of Crail' . The lineage is designated as Lineage 1b and matches 3 other lines all prefixed as Line 1 in their designations: 1a, 1c & 1d. Strictly speaking, they are all branches of Lineage1 rather than separate lineages. This allocation of categories pre-dated the subsequent DNA knowledge of a shared common ancestor. Further information is maintained on the Runciman DNA Lineage website.

Birth

Date: Estimated around 1673

Place: Possibly Haddington, Haddingtonshire, Scotland^[2]

Notes

(The following note is an extract from The Early Generations.) :-

The name of Richard's father is not as evident as we would have wanted, but it would be wrong to regard it as questionable. The small 'glitch' surrounding his name is worthy of discussion but thereafter of dismissal. According to the 1701 church record of Richard's baptism his parents are 'John Runciman & Jean White', with no sign of such a marriage.

Clearly this entry is erroneous. An Old Parish Record dated 5 May 1700 was unearthed in which the marriage of William & Jean is entered, incorrectly indexed by Scotland's People as 'Bunciman', an indexing error which had prevented previous researchers from its discovery. It was only when I changed tack and focused on searching the index for only 'Jean White' marriages rather than any search for a non-existent indexed 'Runciman' that the secret of the erroneous index was revealed! According to the Registrar's index Jean White had married a William Bunciman, which accounts for the fact we could never find a marriage for William Runciman!

The 'flowery' R which caused mis-indexing

So it turns out Richard is baptised some 11 months after his parents' marriage, on 13 April 1701. William & Jean had been a couple since 1700 and unfortunately it seems the church session clerk made an error in 1701 when recording Richard's baptism.

Additional circumstantial indicators exist, though with the discovery of the marriage in 1700 they are not really necessary: there is no evidence in parish records of Jean White ever having married anyone other than William. Secondly, son Richard went on to name his first son William, (being 'William of Crail') in line with the tradition of naming the first born boy after the paternal grandfather.

So, satisfied that Richard's father is a William, is it possible to identify which William this can be? One possibility is that William, born in 1673 in the parish of Haddington, East Lothian, is the earliest Runciman we can say with tentative confidence is 'ours'. Records of this era rarely offer conclusive proof as to identities and that is so here. However this particular William is the only recorded candidate in the right location at the right time. It must be remembered that not all church records of this era have survived. For example Tynninghame church records before 1695 have not survived and Whitekirk parish records were all lost in a fire in 1761. Both are neighbouring parishes to North Berwick parish and could have held the baptism record of 'our' William.

Marriage

Husband: William Rynsiman

Wife: Jean White

Child: Richard Rynsiman

Child: Clara Rynsiman

Child: William Rynsiman

Date: 5 May 1700

Place: North Berwick, Haddingtonshire, Scotland^[3]

Reference

Reference: 70465

Sources

• Source: S102 RUNCIMAN Births, OPR East Lothian, Scotland 1538-1854 Repository: #R146
• Repository: R146 Scotlands People (http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/) Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland
• Source: S3 RUNCIMAN Analysis, http://Runciman.lornahen.com Author: Lorna Henderson Repository: #R156
• Repository: R156 Name: RUNCIMAN One Name Study http://RuncimansAll.blogspot.com
• Source: S55 Marriage: "Church of Scotland: Old Parish Registers - Banns and Marriages"
  National Records of Scotland
  (ScotlandsPeople : accessed 12 July 2023)
  William Bunsiman marriage to Jean White on or after 5 May 1700 in North Berwick, Haddingtonshire, Scotland.
  citing Parish Number 713, Ref 20/289, Frame 347.

1. ↑ Source: #S102 Birth/Bap.? 1703 to 1715: Isobell (1703), Clara (1706), Jannet (1709), William (1712), Anna (1715), all children of William RYNSIMAN & Jean WHITE, Nth Berwick, ELN, 713/00 0020 xxxx, extracted from index Feb 2013
2. ↑ Source: #S55 Bap. 13 Apr 1701 Richard s/o John RYNSIMAN & Jean WHITE, Nth Berwick, Haddingtonshire, 713/00 0020 0292, copy rcvd from Alan R, Oct 2012
3. ↑ Source: #S55 Old Parish Record of Marriage at North Berwick, Haddingtonshire, Scotland - Index Ref No on Scotlands People 713/00 0020 0289 eventually found by Alan Runciman in April 2016 indexed as 'Bunciman'. Bap. 13 Apr 1701 Richard s/o John RYNSIMAN & Jean WHITE, Nth Berwick, Haddingtonshire, 713/00 0020 0292, copy rcvd from Alan R, Oct 2012

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Alan Runciman for creating WikiTree profile Rynsiman-2 through the import of RUNCIMANAlansPaternal4WikiTreeAug2013.ged on Aug 29, 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Alan and others.