The information for this family comes from a photograph of a memorial stone in Newburgh taken by Gordon Will. John's occupation is given as Shipmaster.



The absence of spouse details for both Jane and John may mean they never married, also the lack of mention of Alexander could be because he moved away and died in Aberdeen.

ANESFHS Ancestor Chart 3955 gives Alexander's parents as Alexander + Ann Bean of Foveran.

Neil Watson has written with the following details about the children of Alexander:

...John Mutch the Shipmaster had a small fleet of lighters which carried goods up and down the Ythan, my ancestor, George Watson, the spouse of Elspet was one of his skippers.

I have found out that George (my gggrandfather) was drowned off Newburgh pier and I would appreciate knowing the circumstances. I also know that he was born in 1826, but I don't know for sure where. Elspet was his 2nd wife, his first wife died in childbirth.

Jenny Hughes has done excellent research on this family line. She has both confirmed son Alexander as family line A30 and details of daughter Jane's children.

She wrote:

"Now for Jane Mutch, daughter of Alexander Mutch and Janet Henderson, and listed on the photographed headstone at Newburgh:

Jane does not appear to have ever married, but she did have three children. The eldest of these, my great grandmother, Elspeth McDonald or Mutch is listed above in the 1861 census. I have found, also on Scotland's People, the Kirk Session Minutes, where James McDonald confesses paternity and Jane is disciplined for this, her third offence. She then had a son, John, and there is another Kirk Session Minute about this baby, but the father is not so clearly identified. A few years later, she had another daughter, Mary, and I have not found mention of this baby in the Kirk Session Minutes.

I do know Elspeth married a stonemason, named John Adam from Kemnay. They had their oldest sons in Aberdeen, Scotland by the time they emigrated, along with Elspeth's sister Mary on the ship "North" arriving in Sydney, Australia on 24th December, 1883. They brought a granite headstone with them on the ship, and it is similar in size and grandeur to the one photographed. They had several more children in Australia.

Mary also married and had a number of children. Both women were well respected members of their families and communities. The two sisters remained close for the remainder of their lives, Elspeth dying in 1933."