HARVIE first four generations and the start of distilling

It seems that the whiskey distilling began in the area around Hill of Balgair, in Stirlingshire. We found a circular window with a date of 1721 above that could well have been used by the HARVEYs, but there is only the one cottage remaining at that place out of what was five, so it isnt certain. David’s father and grandfather had visited much earlier and believed that this was where it all started. David writes:

According to the ‘Lineage of Harvie Families in Strathendrick & Mentieth’ drawn up by T.G.B. (Barnett) Harvey, January, 1938, our branch of the HARVEY (HARVIE) family traces back to John HARVIE, one of three brothers (the others were Patrick and William) in Court Hill of Balgair, Buchlyvie, Stirlingshire, in the 1630s.

John HARVIE’s son who we call John II, was born c.1660 in Balgair, and appears to have married his first cousin, Janet HARVIE, daughter of William. They had three sons, John III, William and Andrew. 

John III, our ancestor, married three times, first to Janet MCILCHRIST (also a relative) and then in August, 1721 to Helen RISK of Kippen Parish, our ancestor, and after Helen’s death (August, 1726) to Isobel URE [1, 2 and 3 children by successive wives]. John HARVIE and Helen RISK lived at the Hill of Balgair and had two sons, John who died young and Thomas, b. c1723.

Thomas HARVIE married Margaret BAUCHOP [also a local] on Jan 2nd 1747 and they moved to Barns of Clyde in 1752, subsequently taking the farm of Schannochyle in 1772. Thomas and Margaret had 7 children, who all lived long enough to marry. John, the eldest, was born in Provanston,1748, and married his second cousin, Marion MORRISON. John started the Yoker distillery in 1770, (according to the Lineage, though this conflicts with the ‘Both Sides of the Burn’ account which says 1740) and bought Garthamlock, outside Glasgow, in 1799, died c. 1830. John was the first Harvie to sign his name Harvey. Of Thomas and Margaret’s other children: James (1749-90) was a farmer at Gallowhill, Paisley, m. Elizabeth Miller (1748-1817); Helen and Janet, twins, born 1751, Janet marrying Daniel MACFARLANE of Port Dundas distillery; Thomas, who emigrated to Philadelphia in 1795 with his family; Mary, m. Russell, and William, recorded as living at Schannochyle.

Click for HARVEY Click for homepage and index; click for all-Harvey family.

John HARVEY and wife Marion MORRISON’s son John died in 1847. His will, transcribed, can be found here