Moses Wyllie

Moses Wyllie was born and baptized on August 24, 1773 in Pollokshaws, Eastwood Parish, Renfrewshire, Scotland, the son of James Wyllie and Margaret Deans, who had married the year before. He had at least one younger brother, Thomas, born in 1776. Moses is my husband’s 4th great-grandfather.

Like many Scottish families, the Wyllies repeated names across generations, so this Moses is a different man from the one I’ve written about previously. The surname appears in records as both Wyllie and Wylie, a common variation in Scottish parish registers.

Moses as recorded in the Scotland birth register (1773)

Pollokshaws in 1773 was a small village beside the White Cart Water, a clear river that powered early textile work and fed the wide bleaching greens where cloth was soaked and laid out to whiten in the sun. A few stone cottages stood near the water, and families mixed farm labor with spinning and weaving. Most residents were tenants of the Maxwell estate at nearby Pollok House, and daily life moved at a quiet, steady pace.

By 1796, Moses had left Eastwood Parish and moved about 17 miles southwest to Kilmarnock in Ayrshire. He married Janet Armour (or Armor) after proclamation on December 2, 1796, and worked as a weaver, later described specifically as a cotton handloom weaver.

Moses and Janet as recorded in the Scotland marriage register (1796)

Moses and Janet had at least five children, all born in Kilmarnock. Four of the birth records clearly identify each child’s birth order, allowing their family structure to be reconstructed even though the fourth child’s record has not been found. Their children, following traditional Scottish naming patterns, were:

1. Moses, born November 22, 1798, baptized November 25; named for his paternal grandfather, Moses Wyllie.
2. Thomas, born May 19, 1800; named for his maternal grandfather, Thomas Deans.
3. James, born August 5, 1802; named for his father, James Wyllie.
4. Unnamed daughter, birthdate unknown; likely named Mary after her maternal grandmother, possibly Mary Bowman.
5. Margaret, born August 30, 1808; named for her paternal grandmother, Margaret Deans.

Birth record for son Moses (1798)

Birth record for son Thomas (1800)

Birth record for son James (1802)

Birth record for daughter Margaret (1808)

The Wyllie children began forming their own households in the 1820s and 1830s. Son Moses married Mary Thomason in 1822; Thomas married Janet Dreghorn in 1823; James married Margaret Gilchrist in 1826; and Margaret married Robert Wyllie in 1835. All but Robert were living in Kilmarnock at the time of their marriages; Robert lived in the Low Church Parish.

In the 1841 census, Moses appeared alone on Back Street in Kilmarnock, working as a woolen‑loom weaver. This suggests that Janet had died before the census date of June 6, 1841. He was difficult to find because the enumerator wrote his name as “Mosey Wyllia” and recorded his age as 60. Adult ages in 1841 were rounded down, often by several years, which explains why he appears younger than his true age of about 67. His residence on Back Street also aligns with his daughter Margaret’s address when she married Robert Wyllie in 1835.

Moses in the Kilmarnock, Scotland census (1841)

By 1851, Moses was a widowed lodger, age 78, living in the household of Margaret McRay in Kilmarnock. The home also included Margaret’s daughter Janet Miller, her cousin Gavin Alston, an orphan named Ann Pairns, and another lodger, William Connell. The census described Moses as an “old weaver (pauper),” indicating he was no longer able to support himself through his trade.

Moses in the Kilmarnock, Scotland census (1851)

Moses likely died sometime after the 1851 census (taken March 30) but before December 30, 1854. This timing places his death just before Scotland introduced statutory civil registration on January 1, 1855. No death record for him appears in either the statutory registers or the Old Parish Registers on Scotland’s People, suggesting his death was not recorded, or the entry has not survived.

Kilmarnock in the years Moses lived there was a busy weaving town where handloom weavers worked in small shops or in the front rooms of their cottages. The narrow streets around the town center were lined with modest homes, workshops, and the steady activity of the textile trades. As mills and shoemaking grew, families like Moses and Janet found regular work in weaving while still living close to the surrounding farms and open fields. Moses likely led a simple working life, spending long days at his loom.

A handloom weaver in Kilmarnock during his lifetime would have worked at a large wooden floor loom—a sturdy, practical machine that filled much of a cottage room and produced the steady clatter that defined a weaver’s day. It would have been built mostly of oak or pine, with a wide rectangular frame standing several feet tall. Moses would have sat on a simple bench at the loom, using his feet to work the pedals that moved the threads into position. With his hands he sent a small wooden tool carrying the thread back and forth through the loom, then pulled the heavy frame toward him to press each new line of weaving firmly into place.

An example of the type of loom Moses might have used.
Catalan manual loom, photo by Enfo, licensed under CC BY SA 3.0, via
Wikimedia Commons. 

References

• 1841 census (1841 Census Questions), National Records of Scotland.
• James Wylie, Statutory Registers, Deaths 644/8/297, National Records of Scotland, 1873.
• James Wyllie, Old Parish Registers, Births 597, Kilmarnock, National Records of Scotland, 1802.
• Margaret Deans, Old Parish Registers, Births 562, Eastwood, 1752.
• Margaret Deans, Select Counties, Scotland, Church of Scotland, Marriages, 1615–1854.
• Margaret Gilchrist, Old Parish Registers, Marriages 597, Kilmarnock, National Records of Scotland, 1826.
• Margaret Wylie, Old Parish Registers, Births 597, Kilmarnock, National Records of Scotland, 1808.
• Moses Wylie, Old Parish Registers, Marriages 597/60 84, Kilmarnock, National Records of Scotland, 1796.
• Moses Wyllie, Census 597/20/30, National Records of Scotland, 1851.
• Moses Wyllie, Old Parish Registers, Births 562, Eastwood, 1773.
• Moses Wyllie, Old Parish Registers, Births 597, Kilmarnock, National Records of Scotland, 1798.
• Moses Wyllie, Old Parish Registers, Marriages 597, Kilmarnock, National Records of Scotland, 1822.
• Mosey Wyllia, Census 597/11/11, National Records of Scotland, 1841.
• Robert Wyllie, Old Parish Registers, Marriages 597, Kilmarnock, National Records of Scotland, 1835.
• Thomas Wyllie, Old Parish Registers, Births 562, Eastwood, 1776.
• Thomas Wyllie, Old Parish Registers, Births 597, Kilmarnock, National Records of Scotland, 1800.
• Thomas Wyllie, Old Parish Registers, Marriages 597, Kilmarnock, National Records of Scotland, 1823.