William Rynsiman (abt. 1712)

Born about Mar 1712 in North Berwick, , East Lothian, Scotland

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

Biography

William Runciman was the son of William Rynsiman & Jean White, the only brother of Richard Runciman. William joined the Army at the age of about 20 in what was to become the 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards. He served with them for almost 30 years; his last years of service were in The Seven Years War , at least some of which was spent in Canada.

There is no record of a marriage or family although given his service history it is difficult to know whether this would have been practical and, if so, where in the world such evidence could appear.

Name

Name: William /Rynsiman/ ^[1]

Baptism & Birth

Birth:

Date: ABT MAR 1712

Place: North Berwick, Haddingtonshire, Scotland

His baptism is recorded in the Parish Church of North Berwick, with no date of birth shown. A modest addition to this information is provided on William's admission into the Chelsea Pensioners in later life. His birthplace is recorded as 'born near North Berwick'. This combined information indicates he was born in the parish of North Berwick where his parents attended church but not in North Berwick itself. It’s probable he was born in a farm cottage in the surrounding area.

Baptism^[2]:

Date 23 March 1712

Place North Berwick, East Lothian, Scotland

William's baptism entered in the Parish Record of North Berwick Church.

Occupation

A corporal of the 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards in 1762, coinciding with William's final calendar year in service.

William is recorded in UK 'Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Register of Soldiers who served in Canada'. According to the register William was 51 years old and 'worn out' at the date of 'admission' (5th April 1763) having served in the 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards for a period of '29 2/3rds years'. This is within weeks of the ending of hostilities in Canada which resulted in a British victory over France. It is not stated how much of his service was spent in Canada.

He is recorded as being 'Born near North Berwick'. He is described, as almost all other entrants on the same page are, as 'a labourer'.

An army pensioner could either be an 'in-pensioner' in Chelsea Hospital or an 'out-pensioner' who chose, and was able, to live an independent civilian life. William was an out-pensioner. There is no evidence to indicate whether he returned to his native North Berwick parish.

The extract from the Admissions Register, believed to be for William

The period of service accounts for the greater part of his adult life and may partly explain why there is no male Runciman witness at the family baptisms of his nephews and nieces (his brother Richard's children). William is Richard's only brother.

3rd Regiment of Foot Guards^[3]

The regiment now known as the Scots Guards traces its origins to the Marquis of Argyll's Royal Regiment, a unit raised in 1642 by Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll in response to the 1641 Irish Rebellion. After the Restoration of Charles II, the Earl of Linlithgow received a commission dated 23 November 1660 to raise a regiment which was called The Scottish Regiment of Footguards.

It served in the 1679 Covenanter rising of 1679, as well as Argyll's Rising in June 1685, after which it was expanded to two battalions.[4] When the Nine Years War began in 1689, the first battalion was sent to Flanders; the second served in Ireland, and fought at the 1690 Battle of the Boyne, before joining the First in 1691.[5] The combined unit fought at Steenkerque and Landen, as well as the 1695 Namur. After the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, the regiment returned to Scotland.

18th Century

The Guards remained in Scotland during the War of the Spanish Succession; retitled The Third Regiment of Foot Guards, it moved to London in 1712, and did not return to Scotland for another 100 years. During the 1740-1748 War of the Austrian Succession, the First Battalion served at Dettingen in 1743 and Fontenoy in April 1745, a British defeat famous for the Gardes françaises and Grenadier Guards inviting each other to fire first.

Both battalions were in London during the 1745 Rising; an engraving by William Hogarth shows them marching to take up defensive positions in North London. However, the Jacobite army turned back at Derby, and in July 1747, the Second Battalion was sent to Flanders, where it fought at Lauffeld, before the war ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.

In the absence of a modern police force, the military was often used for crowd control.

Relations' Profiles of Interest

William's nephew was William of Crail, a fisherman who drowned in the mouth of Crail Harbour in 1765. During the years of research to discover William of Crail in church records this William was considered as one of the possible candidates to be William of Crail. The conclusive identification was only made by the discovery that the name of William of Crail's father was Richard.

Crail Fishing Disaster History and Latest News. William is an uncle of William of Crail who drowned with 7 others in the 1765 Crail Fishing Disaster. A 250th anniversary commemoration for the drownings was held in Crail on 16 May 2015.

Runciman Lineage 1b-The Early Generations As the name implies this Profile covers the latest research known of the earliest ancestors on the 'Crail' Line.

Scotland and Beyond In 2004 a family history of the William Runciman of Crail line was published. The latest research & continuing updates are now published on WikiTree & several other online genealogy sites rather than in print. As Scotland and Beyond has been out of print for some time Jen Jelley & Diane Middleton, compilers & publishers of the 2004 book, originally had kindly agreed to make their publication available in PDF format. But increasing sensitivity over personal security halted that intention. This link provides further information from which it's possible to email a specific query about an ancestor.

The Runciman Cradle Tour provides the reader interested in seeing some of our ancestral locations with a suggested itinerary and their association to the family.

Similarily there is a Crail Trail for those who wish to visit where William of Crail spent his married/working life and eventually to meet his early death from drowning.

There are also 3 other Runciman 'lineages' which thanks to DNA testing are now discovered to be branches of the same lineage with a Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) in the 1600s, most likely in East Lothian or the Scottish Borders. Lorna Henderson manages a One Name Study which gives a good insight to our Crail Line's relationship to the other DNA-related lines - as well as the non-related lines. (there's a glitch with link-manually search for website runciman.lornahen.com)

Sources

• Source: S102 Title: OPR East Lothian, Scotland RUNCIMAN Births, Author Address: http://scotlandspeople.gov.uk, Recipient Address: East Lothian, Scotland Abbreviation: OPR East Lothian, SCT RUNCIMAN Births 1538-1854 Author: Scotlands People Index Publication: 1538-1854 Repository: #R146
• Repository: R146 Name: Scotlands People (http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/) Address: City: Edinburgh State: Midlothian Country: Scotland

1. ↑ Source: #S102 Page: Birth/Bap.? 23 Mar 1712 William s/o William RYNSIMAN & Jean WHITE, North Berwick, Haddingtonshire, 713/00 0020 0332, extracted from index Feb 2013
2. ↑ Source: #S102 Page: Birth/Bap.? 23 Mar 1712 William s/o William RYNSIMAN & Jean WHITE, North Berwick, Haddingtonshire, 713/00 0020 0332, extracted from index Feb 2013
3. ↑ Extract from Wikipedia entry at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_Guards

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Alan Runciman for creating WikiTree profile Rynsiman-4 through the import of RUNCIMANAlansPaternal4WikiTreeAug2013.ged on Aug 29, 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Alan and others.