William Goudie (father of Thomas Cuthbert Goudie and Andrew Goudie)

We may never have a personal story of the immediate life of William Goudie, father of Thomas Cuthbert Goudie, but there is a lot we could make a story of. The tombstone at Old Maybole Cemetery reads rather mournfully. Almost all of his children died in childhood, his two wives perished before he did, and it is there at the cemetery they were all interred. It's often said that in modern times we cannot imagine the kind of attitudes towards death and grieving they had in the past. How do people go on? In this day in age, the death of one child is enough to sap any will for life.

From what we can read, he was born in 1786, possibly to Henry Goudie and Mary nee Muir. He married Helen Pollock (Or Hellen Bollock) in 1813 at the age of 25 and had a daughter Jane (circa 1818-1824), a son, John (circa 1820-1829) and another son also called John (circa 1823-1824), then Henry in circa 1822. But as apparent on the tombstone, Jane and the younger John died on the same day, 22 May 1824, without any record of of how it happened. Robert would have been born around this time. In 1827, Andrew Goudie was born: He was the only child of Helen Pollock who survived to adulthood. In 1829, Helen Goudie was born but then the older John and Henry died during the same period in successive months. Helen then died three years later. Mary(1834-1852) was born two years after that, just one year before her mother, Helen Goudie nee Pollock died age 43. William Goudie then married once more, to Margaret Brown (1803-1841). Robert died in 1840 just a few months before Thomas Cuthbert Goudie was born. Mary Brown died the following year, and finally in 1845, William Goudie also passed away, leaving Mary Goudie (11 years old), Andrew Goudie (18 years old) and Thomas Cuthbert (5 years old) without parents.

He is the first person we have in the Goudie lineage with a lot of detailed documentation from a birth record, a will (a bonanza of information) and census records. From the last census, 1841, we know he was a grocer. Mary Goudie wasn't living with them. (She died later at the age of 16.)

The fact that he did die in 1845 is well documented in his will. His will fleshes out a lot of his life. He had land, a sister, Margaret (married Leckie), and even an illegitimate son, William who was living in Glasgow at the time. 

Unclear areas: The tombstone leaves the problem of the William Goudie mentioned at the bottom of the tombstone at the date of 2 October 1888, age 79. This cannot be the same William as there are other birth-dates recorded and it would have meant William married Helen Pollock at an unfeasibly young age. The date and age means that this William Goudie was born circa 1803. (This could plausibly be the illegitimate son if conceived when our William was a teenager but would seem unlikely.)

Another area was noticed by Peggy Goudie: At the point she was researching, the will was unknown. She had noted: "Papa (i.e. Thomas Cuthbert Goudie) has a walking stick which has an inscription on: 'Presented to Wm. Goudie, treasurer of the Carrick Reform Association, 1857.'" She also records a marriage certificate with 1863, and a third wife mentioned elsewhere: Elizabeth Cuthbert Muir. (I cannot find information on the Carrick Reform Association, but for background, Carrick was a district in Scotland that later became South Ayrshire. The main reorganisation of Carrick into Ayrshire, was in 1889 with the Local Government (Scotland) Act. I don't know if there is any connection between this kind of reform, or something more moralistic.)

I can only assume that there is a separate William Goudie who played a role in the early life of Thomas Cuthbert Goudie.