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My Relative from 18th Century: George Hodge

By Nick Hodge | December 26, 2008

georgehodge_1745_p2

This is page 2 of a con­tract between Charles and Robert Fall of Dun­bar, Scot­land and the fish­er­men of Crail, Fife, Scot­land.

Charles and Robert Fall held many interests in Dun­bar in the 18th Cen­tury. They also had fam­ily con­nec­tions in Fife. In an agree­ment signed by them on the 9th Novem­ber 1745, the fish­er­men of Crail agreed to deliver their catch of white fish to them for a period of 6 years. This shows the final part of the con­tract made between the Falls and the fish­er­men of Crail. Here, agree­ment is made for the car­riage of fish, not­ably saithe, to the Fall’s cel­lars, to be paid by them. At the end are the sig­na­tures or ‘marks’ of the fish­er­men of Crail. The most east­erly of Fife’s fish­ing ports, Crail Har­bour dates back to the 16th cen­tury. At one time the vil­lage was an import­ant her­ring sta­tion. The few fish­er­men left today fish inshore, mainly for shellfish.

On the left hand side, just below the fold, there is the fol­low text: “George GH Hodge mark.” In this instance, George Hodge could not sign his name, and there­fore marked with a “GH”. I am related to this George Hodge.

George Hodge was born in 1717 to George Hodge (him­self born in 1686) and mother Kath­erin Mon­crief in Crail/Fife, Scot­land. He was 32 when he marked this doc­u­ment. His younger brother was a James Hodge, where my paternal line descends.

crail harbour 1850s

Crail Har­bour: The har­bour was ‘new foundit’ in 1610, des­troyed in 1707, and what is shown here dates from the rebuild of 1728.

The fish stocks in this area star­ted to drop in the later part of the 18th Cen­tury, and there­fore there was not enough room in the fam­ily busi­ness. As the younger brother, James Hodge left the fam­ily busi­ness and slowly drif­ted north to St Andrews in the lat­ter half of the 18th Cen­tury. From 1764 in Crail, 1766 in Kings­barns (3.5km north of Crail) and 1771 in Brown Hills (just south of St Andrews). This George Hodge is also the wit­ness to the birth of James Hodge’s first and second chil­dren: Andrew and Mary. The third child of James Hodge is a John Hodge; again from where my paternal line des­cends. This John’s son, Melville, emig­rated to South Aus­tralia in 1853.

In the 1841 census, Mary Hodge (daugh­ter of James Hodge, born in Kings­barns in 1766) is lis­ted as liv­ing in Thor­gate, Crail. Based on the pos­i­tion in the census, it is likey she was liv­ing with the Scotts of Crail at this time.

I sus­pect that James trav­elled north either as a farm labourer, or as a hand loom linen weaver; as was his son. Kings­barns has a noted his­tory of both. And golf­ing, but I doubt my fam­ily was of the cor­rect glass for golfing.

Note: This inform­a­tion was found using the http://scran.ac.uk sys­tem. Scran is:

Scran — part of the Royal Com­mis­sion on the Ancient and His­tor­ical Monu­ments of Scot­land — aims to provide edu­ca­tional access to digital mater­i­als rep­res­ent­ing our mater­ial cul­ture and his­tory. This is provided through the wholly owned trad­ing arm Scran Ltd. We are one of the largest edu­ca­tional online ser­vices in the UK sup­port­ing over 4,000 schools, lib­rar­ies, col­leges and universities.

Topics: family, history, personal, sastories | 5 Comments »

5 Responses to “My Relative from 18th Century: George Hodge”

  1. Hodge Family History Update | www.nickhodge.com Says:
    December 26th, 2008 at 6:31 pm

    […] My Rel­at­ive from 18th Cen­tury: George Hodge […]

  2. Mark Cohen Says:
    December 28th, 2008 at 9:18 pm

    So cool!

    http://scran.ak.uk = http://scran.ac.uk

  3. Nick Hodge Says:
    December 29th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

    Mark– fixed URLs, ta.

  4. Audrey Bowne Says:
    February 5th, 2009 at 4:32 am

    I am doing research (genealogy)on my moth­ers HODGE fam­ily. They were from Grenock.Gourock Scot­land. Some of the fam­ily went to Aus­tralia and Canada. Are you related ?
    thanks
    Audrey Bowne
    Seattle State of Wash­ing­ton UISA

  5. Nick Hodge Says:
    February 5th, 2009 at 8:32 am

    Audrey

    I can trace my Hodge ancest­ors to Crail, Fife, Scot­land (and con­tin­ued in the east­ern part of Fife until one emig­rated to Aus­tralia in the 1850s) into the early 18th Cen­tury — and I am “stuck” at this juncture.

    We may be related; but I doubt that any records exist that may/may not con­firm this.

    The source of “Hodge” is “Rodger/Rog” which seems to be com­mon­ish in English/Cornish speak­ing peoples in the middle ages.

    Nick

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