Barbara Jean Haliday and William Boyd the grandparents of Mary Boyd (wife of Art Bagnall)

Barbara Jean Haliday, the daughter of Robert Haliday and Margaret Steel, was born in Sept 1809 in Mouswald, Dumfriesshire and baptized “before several witnesses” on October 16^th of the same year. 

Mouswald Church where Barbara Jean Haliday was baptized

  © Copyright Paul Marston and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

William Boyd was born in Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire about 4 miles south of Mouswald. It is impossible at the moment to say with any certainty who William’s parents were. There were  at least two William Boyd’s baptized in Ruthwell in 1811 and much more research is needed to ascertain which, if either, is the William that married Barbara Haliday/Halliday.

Until fairly recently it was a principle of Scots Law that marriage was constituted by mutual consent and thus in many cases the marriage contract was either by an exchange of promises before witnesses or by betrothal and consummation or by cohabitation and repute. These were known as 'irregular marriages'. In Barbara and William’s case the acknowledgement of their marriage was noted in the Caerlaverock parish register:

Wm Boyd and Barbara Halliday acknowledged an irregular marriage on the 21^st November 1830  

Caerlaverock Church where Barbara and William acknowledged their "irregular" marriage

Of the seven marriages recorded by the vicar that week three were irregular. It may be useful to search through the Caerlaverock Kirk sessions as it is highly likely that these couples, including Barbara and William, were brought before the Kirk minister and elders to acknowledge and accept rebuke for their irregular marriage. They would have been in good company as Robert Burns suffered the same fate 40 years earlier in Ayrshire!

William and Barbara had at least seven children most of whom were born in the parish of Lochrutton, Kirkcubrightshire.