Where We Belong (the sequel)

Gavinburn Cottage, Scotland

On July 1st to 3rd, 2023, the Paton Clan met at our ancestral home, Gavinburn Cottage, Old Kilpatrick, Scotland.  This is a continuation of the story posted yesterday …

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Continued….

The Paton family is very closely related to the Erskine clan.  Paternal naming traditions being what they are, only the men kept the Paton name.  Along the line, Paton women married Erskine men. When the Patons emigrated to Canada in 1906 – 1908, the Erskine clan was with them, and we are connected to this day.

We have a direct family connection to the people who this bridge is named for.

The bridge above is the Erskine Bridge.  When grandpa lived at Gavinburn it would have been the Erskine Ferry connecting communities north and south of the River Clyde.  The Erskine family lived on the south side of the river in Erskine Parish, so the families would have travelled back and forth on the ferry. 

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The town of Old Kilpatrick and the church there, are named after Saint Patrick.  St. Patrick is best known as the patron saint of Ireland, but he was born in this area in the early 5^th century (c 410).  Our name, Paton, is derived from “the place of Saint Patrick”. 

The concentration of the surname Paton is heavy in this area.  As you walk around the town you may see it.  There are many tombstones in the churchyard with “Paton” engraved on them.  I don’t have any information on who they were or how we are connected, but Paton roots grow deep in this place.

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Browning is also a local name.  It is derived from “brun” which means “dark”, as in dark hair or dark complexion.  Taylor’s ancestors originated in Renfrewshire or Lanarkshire, just south of here.

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As you wander around the town of Old Kilpatrick, look for this building.  The dairy where the family sold their milk and cream was located in the centre section of the building.  The Clydesdale Bank was on the west corner (a financial institution still occupies the space). 

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I have a theory, and it is only that, but I imagine that the evening milk would sit overnight in the cool barn, and the morning milk would be added to it.  In days before refrigeration, the milk would have to be transported to the dairy before it spoiled.  I assume that Great Grandpa and the uncles would have timed the delivery of milk so that the kids could ride the horse and cart home from school.  It would have been a long walk uphill after class for small children.  Kindness, that I know was part of my Paton grandparent’s nature, would surely have inspired such a gesture.

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There was a grocer on the opposite end when Grandpa lived here, which is probably where the bag of penny candy he is holding came from.  It is now a convenience store, which is where this bag of candy was purchased. 

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These cards are family heirlooms.  They are attendance and tithing records for special services at Old Kilpatrick Church.  The Token cards reveal that our family attended Old Kilpatrick Church from 1904 – 1908, and probably many years before.  The cards are a record of the Paton Family attending services on “Sacrament” days, which were three Sundays each year when baptisms were performed.  Two of the dates on the cards correspond with days shortly after Billy and Annie were born and are likely their Christening dates.

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While the family was living at Gavinburn, the world was changing rapidly.  Subsistence agriculture was in decline, industry and mining were booming.  There was incentive to leave the farms and work in the shipyards or other industries in the area. 

The Patons were never going to own land.  In this feudal system of lords and servants, they could work a lifetime and never get ahead.

Some of our ancestors left the farm and went to work in industry.  

At the time my grandpa was born, 1904, they were still officially living at Gavinburn, but great grandpa was working in a chemical (ammonia) factory in Glasgow.  Grandpa Billie was born in East Glasgow while his father worked at that factory.

When the Canadian government offered land to farmers willing to move to Saskatchewan, the Patons jumped at the opportunity.  In Canada, the family could continue to farm, which they had for generations, and they would have an opportunity to buy more land as their farms prospered. 

Between 1906 and 1908 the Paton / Erskine clans emigrated to Canada.

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It was a good move for the generations that followed.  The opportunity Canada provided has been advantageous for each of us. 

I won’t go into the struggle your great grandparents and grandparents went through in Canada to forge the opportunity we have all benefited from, but I will say that their sacrifice through pioneer days, the Great Depression, and two World Wars, all contributed to the opportunity we enjoy, to live, to travel, and to prosper. 

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We have the people of Gavinburn to thank for our good fortune, and their legacy lives on.  The farmland the Paton’s acquired over the years has been passed from generation to generation.  I am fortunate to have inherited four quarter sections of farmland in Saskatchewan, three 160-acre plots near Arcola, and one at Gravelbourg.  At some future date, I will transfer that land to you, and you will become stewards of the land your ancestors pioneered.

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Gavinburn and this area is the ancestral centre of our universe.  Everything we are as individuals, everything we have become as a family started here, in the water of the burn, the barn, the town, the church, and this house.  It all began here, in this doorway. 

This is home, this is where we came from, this is …

… Where We Belong.

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