19^th MAY - RONALD MACKENZIE

Happy 184^th birthday today to my maternal Great-Great-Grandfather, Ronald MACKENZIE. Born on the 19^th May 1830, Ronald was baptized at the parish Church in Urray on the 28^th May 1830.

  

The middle child of 5 children of agricultural labourer Donald MACKENZIE & his wife Mary (nee MCLENNAN), Ronald rose from humble beginnings to become a man of some substance.

My post back on the 28^th March covered the married life of Ronald and Janet (nee INNES). In this story I tracked his progress through the census returns from his beginnings as a farm labourer on the Coul of Fairburn Estate to his situation at the age of 50 where he was Manager of the Railway Hotel in Dingwall.

When Ronald passed away in October 1887 he was only 57 years old. It’s quite ironic that as a publican he died of liver and heart failure. The final official document I have for Ronald is his will in which he leaves quite specific bequests to his widow and children.