Harrower Family Tree » Andrew Leitch (± 1768-????)

Personal data Andrew Leitch 

• He was born about 1768 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland.Source 1

  See note 8.

• Occupations:
• in the year 1808 Coal Hewer in Kelty. Birth of Son John Allan in Kelty, Fife, Scotland.Source 2
• in the year 1791 Coalhewer. 20/05/1791 LEECH, ANDREW JANET BEVERIDGE (Old Parish Registers Marriages 424/ 100 249 Dunfermline) in Rosebank, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland.Source 1
• in the year 1810 Coal Hewer. Birth of Daughter, Janet in White Rushes, Beath Parish, Cowdenbeath, Fife, Scotland.Source 3
• before 1879 Farmer (Son John register of death 1879).Source 4
• in the year 1794 Coalhewer, Birth of Son, Andrew in Halbeath, Fife, Scotland.Source 5
• in the year 1803 Coalhewer. Birth of Daughter, Elspit in Kelty, Fife, Scotland.Source 6
• Resident:
• in the year 1808: Kelty, Fife, Scotland.Source 2
• in the year 1810: White Rushes, Beath Parish, Cowdenbeath, Fife, Scotland.Source 3
• in the year 1791: Rosebank, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland.Source 1
• in the year 1794: Halbeath, Fife, Scotland.Source 5
• in the year 1803: Kelty, Fife, Scotland.Source 6

Household of Andrew Leitch

He is married to Janet Beveridge.

They got married on May 20, 1791 at Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland.Source 1

Child(ren):

1. Andrew Leitch  1794-1863 
2. William Leitch  1797-????
3. Elspit Leitch  1803-????
4. John Allan Leitch  1808-1879 
5. Janet Leitch  1810-1888 
6. Robert Leitch  1801-1876 

Notes about Andrew Leitch

1. Birth year as per note 8.

2. 20/05/1791 LEECH, ANDREW JANET BEVERIDGE (Old Parish Registers Marriages 424/ 100 249 Dunfermline)

3. Andrew Leitch stated as being Farmer (Deceased) on death register of John Allan Leitch

4. Ref Occupation in 1810 -
The Rise of Coal Mining
Prior to 1850, Cowdenbeath was just a collection of farms. The area was divided into four districts named after local farms: Kirkford, Foulford, White Threshes and Cowdenbeath farm, located close to the present day site of Central Park. Local inhabitants of these focal points of growth, which were merging into a single town, met to decide on a name for the emerging town. The eventual decision was narrowed down to either White Threshes or Cowdenbeath - Cowdenbeath was the chosen name.

At the time when the coal trade started it's boom, Cowdenbeath was divided into a few districts named after the various farms. One part was called Cowdenbeath after the farm near the present No. 7 Pit. Another part was called White Threshes, called after the farm just on the Burgh Boundary on the Burntisland Road not far from the present Labour club Rooms and Hall, better known locally as the Ritz. Another part was called Foulford, after the Foulford Estate, acquired later by the Cowdenbeath Coal Company, who took over the Forth Coal Company, known before as the Oakley Coal Company. This district was in the vicinity of Union Street, and some distance to the East Foulford pit was sunk. This pit was not very far from the original Foulford pit, which previously belonged to the Lochgelly Coal Company and which later, was used as an auxiliary shaft for the new pit. There was however two other districts - Kirkford, in the vicinity of Cross Keys on the Old Perth Road, and Moss-side, named after the farm there. In consequence of the steady increase in the population, caused by this development the village was now assuming the proportions of a town, and it was felt by the inhabitants that the time had come when the various districts should be under one name.
A public meeting was called for this purpose, and according to the late Mr. Archibald Hodge and the late Provost Marshall, the choice narrowed down to two names---Cowdenbeath and White Threshes--- and the former was the ultimate decision. Later, in 1890, when the question of a name arose again at the proposed formation of the village into a burgh, two names were mentioned this time - Cowdenbeath and Foulford-and again Cowdenbeath was decided upon.

5. Name - Andrew Leech - Marriage to Janet Beveridge 1791

6. This name does not occur on any of the main maps used by this survey, from Ainslie/Fife (1775) to OS 1 inch 2nd edition (1899). Silver (1987, 114) writes of the old road across Moss Morran as ‘the old White Rashes road’, and this is a more likely form for the name, rashes being the Scottish word for ‘rushes’, the kind of plant which thrives on marshy ground. White Rashes or Whiterashes occurs as a place-name in various parts of the Scottish lowlands e.g. by Old Meldrum ABD. Note that thrash or thresh is an alternative form of Sc rash ‘rush’ (CSD).

7. Davie Allan. Facebook 20.01.2020 (Re Cowdenbeath History)
It seems though time was playing tricks and largely second hand recollections weren’t quite 100% accurate. There is no evidence of an area called White Threshes locally in any records or maps. It maybe seems there was an error of recall and that the correct name of this area was White Rashes. The Directory of Fife place names when considering Thistleford gives some relevant information - ‘Ford where thistles grow (in abundance)’. Both the ford, Thistle Ford, and the small settlement deriving from it, Thistleford, are named on the OS 6 inch 1st edition. The ford itself, over the Lochgelly Burn, was on the old road north from Burntisland, called on the above-mentioned map ‘The Old North Road’. passing through Montquey and Balmule (Aberdour Parish), it crossed over Moss Morran where the ethylene plant now is. Owen Silver, in his excellent book on the roads of Fife, refers to this road as ‘the old White Rashes road’. .

The 1851 census does not have any White Threshes recorded but Beath Parish has a village named White Rashes within its bounds - 10 houses there with 66 occupants. On the Census schedules it is next to two houses at Birnie (Birnie Ridge of course being the last two houses as you leave Cowdenbeath). Holman’s book suggests that White Rashes lay somewhere between Paul Place (DCI tearooms) and the Ritz. The 1861 census does not show any place named White Rashes (or Threshes) but some of the people who lived there in 1851 are still neighbours in what is Cowdenbeath - suggesting that the decision for the area’s name to be Cowdenbeath was taken between these two censuses. This possible error is being perpetuated with a White Threshes Road now being created up behind Craigbeath Court.

8. Very Likely parents for Andrew may be the following:-
NAME: Andrew Leitch, FATHER: Andrew Leitch, MOTHER: Betty Wilson, BIRTH: 13 Aug 1768, BAPTISM: 17 Aug 1768, Dunfermline Associate Session, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. Of those recorded, Andrew Leitch and Janet Beveridge's 3 children born in Dunfermline, were all baptised at Dunfermline Associate Session, Dunfermline! Those born in Beath were not!

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