Glenbuchat Heritage

155 Isobel Michie

Isobel Michie Glenbuchat

The following is correspondence received from Jean Cook of New South Wales Australia, regarding her relative Isobel Micha and a reply from her distant relation, John Michie of Aberdeen. Many thanks to them for giving permission for this article.

Pictures above show:
1 Isobel Michie
2 Michie Croft at Sloggie Glenbuchat
3 Michie Family
4 Map of Sloggie near Badenyon
5 Michie Family making hay
6 Mrs Michie at the Garnet Stone
7 Entry for Isobel Michie into the Glenbuchat Male and Female Friendly Society
8 Jean Cook with Charles, John and Mary Michie in Aberdeen July 2024

Click for Michie Family at Badenyon and Scalan


Emails from Jean Cook (nee Prior)

My interest in the Michie family stemmed from my Hadden family connections.

Margaret Grant, my great grandmother, was the ninth child of Mungo Grant and Isobel Michie. She was born in 1838. She married James Hadden, farmer of Fordoun, in Garvock on 27th June 1868. He was a widower with three young children. Margaret at that time was a single girl with an illegitimate daughter (Georgina Cummins Grant b 1866). Georgina’s father was thought to be one George Cummins.

Georgina was a dressmaker, never married, lived in Auchenblae and my mother and I visited her on our annual holidays in Scotland when I was a child.

James Hadden’s first wife Elizabeth had died in 1867 at the birth of their fourth child. I suspect that Margaret Grant was employed initially as a housekeeper as she had daughter Georgina to support and James was left with three young girls.

After their marriage, James and Margaret went on to have another nine children.

Mungo Grant died in 1841. Margaret would hardly remember her father and was only 12 when her mother Isobel died. Isobel's death certificate stated, Widow, Tailors wife, Pauper. A sad end.

Mungo was born and lived in Tomintoul. A Tailor by trade. Both Mungo and Isobel are buried there.

Margaret Grant died in 1890. Her youngest son Charles MacPherson Grant Hadden, obviously named after her old brother, was my great uncle and I knew him well. He lived in London as did my family and he visited us often.

Charles’ older sister Mary Ann Hadden was my grandmother. She married William Fyfe. They lived in Stonehaven.

William Fyfe was a Stonemason and was in charge of the building the War Memorial at Dunnottar.

I have done extensive research on the Hadden, Grant and Fyfe families.

As regards Michie family details, I think you have far more details than me. I have only gone back to Alan Michie and Ann Cameron. The grandparents of Isobel.

I am now 85. Live in northern New South Wales, Australia. My husband and I arrived in Sydney in 1963 via Canada and New Zealand.

I still have three older cousins in Scotland and visited annually pre Covid.

I was planning to visit Tomintoul but it seems like a difficult place to get to by public transport with a bus from Keith only going there on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. This visit may or may not happen.

I live in northern NSW, Lismore to be precise. A beautiful country town of some 45,000 people. Climate, sub-tropical. Very hilly, green and lush, especially this year as we have had more than our fair share of rain. I moved here in 2009 after living in Sydney for 40 years. My son had moved his family to Queensland some years before. Brother Alec moved north when he retired.

Alec lives some 400km south of here half way between Port Macquarie and Taree. He is on 25 acres of mainly bushland (tree covered). He is still quite active. Belongs to a model aero club and is still building and flying model aircraft. He was an aircraft engineer in a past life. I will be spending time with him next week as we celebrate our respective birthdays. So, it will be 85 for me and 97 for him, or 58 and 79 as I will put on the cake. He has his son William living with him. William is 72 and also very active.

There were four children in my family.
William John Hadden, b 1923,
Jesse Alexander Mead (Alec) b 1927,
Mary Adelaide Florence b 1930
and me Jean Agnes b 1939. Surname Prior. Father was William Edward Mead Prior b 1885 mother Esther Lily Fyfe b 1902.

Eldest brother Bill was in the RAF in WW2. He stayed on after the war and was stationed Germany. He was killed in a flying accident in September 1946 aged 22.
Alec worked at de Haviland’s; sister Mary died in 2000 aged 70.
I am still going strong. As the sign on the top of my printer reads ‘I intend to live forever, so far so good’.

My late husband, Gordon Cook, died in 1999 aged 65 after a short battle with Cancer.

Gordon and I migrated to Canada in 1961. Visited NZ for 6 months in 1963. Came to Australia supposedly for a 6 month visit and stayed. Sister Mary and husband came to OZ the following year. He worked for the Atomic Energy Commission. Brother Alec and family came a year later. My parents, who had left London and were living in the Isle of Wight, decided to come here in 1973 after Gordon and I visited in 1972. Father celebrated his 89th birthday on the ship coming over. He enjoyed 4 years here before he died in 1979. Said it was the best thing he had ever done. Mother died in 1998 aged 95.

So, the family is: me in Lismore, brother on the NSW mid north coast. Son Simon and wife Tess in Brisbane. Granddaughter, husband and 3 great grandchildren in Nambour, Queensland plus unmarried grandson. Daughter and husband plus granddaughter in Bundaberg, Qld. So, you can see where my travelling comes in. Bundaberg is 600km north, a 7-hour drive. My children are Simon 58 and Sarah 51. Sarah’s son lives here in Lismore.


Reply from John Michie
Saturday, May 25, 2024 3:05 PM

Dear Jean,

I am writing from my office on Union Street Aberdeen which once was the HQ for Chivas Regal, a name you are bound to recognise.

The premises now host one branch of a local Community Pharmacy Group (Posh name for a Chemist Shop) run by the sons of Charles Alexander Michie who, with the rest of his family, left the Glen sometime before the start of the 1900s and well before the 14-18 war as two of the boys served in the Medical Corp. Helen served as a Prison Wardress at the Aberdeen jail, Craiginches, and Willie (on the right) was farming by that time.

They all worked extremely hard and did well!!

However, I’m very glad they left the Glen although I have memories of it when we all gather for the regular Annual service at the Ald kirk on the Hill on the 3rd Sunday in Augus
I will see if I can get some of the family tree condensed for you to do some investigation and look forward to hearing from you.

Aberdeen has one of the best Family History Societies in the UK!

Jean Cook’s visit to Aberdeen

In July 2024 Jean Cook, the writer of the comments above, made a trip from Australia to Aberdeen. Here she met with the members of the Miche Clan in Aberdeen, John and Mary Michie and Charles Michie.

They made an outing to Tomintoul, Glenbuchat (site of Sluggie the old family home and the Glenbuchat Old Kirk and Kirkyard.

A lunch was held at the Royal Northern Club in Aberdeen and the picture above was taken there.



Isobel Michie Family Tree

John Michie
Birth: 07 Aug 1716 in Glenbucket,
Death: 1768 in Glenbucket.
Father John Michie
Mother Hellen Gordon
Marriage
Margaret Duff
Married on 02 Dec 1736 in Glenbucket
Children
1. Allan Michie, b. Abt. 1736, Glenbucket, d. date unknown.
2. Sophia Michie, b. 11 Dec 1737, Glenbucket, d. date unknown.
3. John Michie, b. 04 Nov 1743, Glenbucket, d. date unknown.
4. Harry Michie, b. 18 Mar 1748, Glenbucket, d. 30 Nov 1810, Glenbucket.

Allan Michie
Birth Abt. ?1736 Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Death Unknown
Parents
Unknown father
Unknown mother
Spouse
Anna Cameron
Marriage 9 Feb 1775 Glenbucket, Aberdeen, Scotland
children
William Michie 1762–1828
Sophia Michie 1785–

William Michie
1762–1828
Birth Bef. 13 May 1762 Glenbucket, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Death 12 May 1828 Glenbucket, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Parents
Allan Michie 1750–
Anna Cameron 1755–
Spouse
Margaret Stuart 1760–1831
children
Jane (Jean) Michie 1792–1878
Isobel Michie 1797–1858


Isobel Michie 1797–1858
Birth Bef. 28 Oct 1797 Glenbucket, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Death 11 May 1858 Tomintoul, Banffshire, Scotland
Parents
William Michie1762–1828
Margaret Stuart 1760–1831
Spouse
Mungo Grant 1792–1841
children
Hellen Jean Grant 1823–
Charles McPherson Grant 1825–
James Grant 1826–1864
George Grant 1828–1867
Jane Grant 1829–1857
Gregor Grant 1830–1848
Mary Grant 1832–
Anne Kinnaird "Annie" Grant 1837–1922
Margaret Grant 1838–1890

Margaret Grant 1838–1890
Birth 2 Jul 1838 Tomintoul, Banffshire, Scotland
Death 23 Dec 1890 Fourdon, Kincardine
Parents
Mungo Grant 1792–1841
Isabella Michie 1797–1858
Spouse
James Hadden 1838–1912
children
Isabella Hadden 1868–
Jane Ann Hadden 1870–1957
Maggie Hadden 1873–
James Hadden 1875–1957
Mary Ann Hadden 1877–1954
Jemima 1875
Selena Grant Hadden 1880–1976
Sarah 1883
Charles MacPherson Grant 1885

Mary Ann Hadden 1877–1954
Birth 10 Feb 1877 Arbuthnott, Kincardine
Death 12 September 1954 Skene, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Parents
James Hadden1838–1912
Margaret Grant1838–1890
Spouse and
William Fyfe 1874–1938
children
Selina G Fyfe 1899–1981
Gregor M Fyfe 1900–
Esther Lily Fyfe 1902–1998
John Fyfe 1904–
Mary Fyfe 1906–
George Fyfe 1908–1908
Florence Fyfe 1910–
Agnes Fyfe 1912–

Esther Lily Fyfe 1902–1998
Birth 30 Mar 1902 Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, Scotland
Death 24 March 1998 Glenfield, New South Wales, Australia
Parents
William Fyfe 1874–1938
Mary Ann Hadden 1877–1954
Spouse
William E M Prior 1885–1978
children
William John Hadden Prior 1923–1946
Jesse Alexander Mead 1927
Mary Adelaide Florence Prior 1930–2000
Jean Agnes Prior b 1939.