William Mill and family

As it was a lovely sunny although very cold day I spend part of the morning in the graveyard trying to catch up with more gravestones for this blog. There are still quite a few left to document! The above one which is situated towards the right and near the side wall is one of the older stones and the end of the engraving has become virtually unreadable. But fortunately Sheila A. Scott's book Peeblesshire Monumental Inscriptions pre 1855 came to the rescue once again. This is the text:

Here lyes

Janet Mill daughter to

William Mill in Colly Burn

who died Sept 21 1784 aged

12 years. Also Elisabeth

who died Nov 7 1786 aged

16. Also Cristian Neil

his spouse who died 1

April 1791 aged 55 years

Also the above Willia....(the M seems to be missing)

Mill who .............

And the rest apparently said : died in Edinburgh Dec. 12 1811 aged 87.

I was particularly interested in the Colly Burn as this refers to the house that is our nearest neighbour and that is now known as Coalyburn. And this name of course refers to the mine workings that were here in the past and which still get inspected regularly by the British Coal Board which is responsible for them. The house that is there now is a modern one build no more than around 20 years or so ago, but there must have been an older residence there at some time. William Mill more than likely worked in the mine.