Who are the Bartholomews of Linlithgow?

Part 1: From wool merchants of Linlithgowshire to a map engraver in Edinburgh

Archibald had nine children, all born in Linlithgow. The family database tracks the descendants of two of his sons, Archibald Bartholomew junior (b.1716) who was married but had no surviving sons and George Bartholomew (1718-1805) who like his father is recorded as a successful merchant in town in his own right (pictured above).

George married Anne Andrew in 1745. Together they had seven children, of which only three John, Andrew and Anna survived to adulthood.

George's eldest son John Bartholomew (1754-1816) moved across the Firth of Forth to settle on fertile farm lands gifted by his father in Baldridge near Dunfermline. He would be known as 'Laird of Wester Baldridge'. He fathered two children out of wedlock, Isabell b.1782 in Linlithgow and George b.1791 in Edinburgh, before settling down with Hannah Turnbull with whom he had five children. There are no known living descendants today from this marriage.

John's brother, Andrew Bartholomew (1759-1824) had a more turbulent life. He married Janet Rankin and together, they had thirteen children. Janet died sadly after the birth of the last child in 1801, leaving Andrew to care for the children alone. He continued working in his father's merchant business from their joint home in the High Street in Linlithgow. This impressive house still stands today and is known as Annet House (see separate panel on this page). Andrew had accumulated considerable wealth with properties and farmland in and around Linlithgow with his father. Andrew became a partner in the later ill-fated Merchant Banking Co. of Stirling. The bank collapsed putting Andrew into financial difficulties. In 1804, all of his assets were sequestered. He was given sanctuary from his creditors in the Abbey of Holyrood in Edinburgh pending settlement. This process lasted several years. In 1811, he would remarry.

In spite of Andrew's bad luck with his financial collapse, his surviving children did well. His daughter Mary b.1792 married Alexander Callander and settled in Glasgow. Son Alexander married twice, first to Barbara Clapperton who died after the birth of their sixth child, and then to Elizabeth Hume with whom he had three further children. This family was based in the Glasgow and Paisley area. There is a surviving branch of Bartholomews descended from Elizabeth's eldest son John Alexander Bartholomew (1849-1920).

George's youngest daughter, Anna Bartholomew (1761-1800) married Scottish lawyer Ralph Bowie. They emigrated to Pennsylvania. There is no male line remaining with the Bartholomew name from that marriage.

We return first to John's son George Bartholomew (1791-1871). It is from him that the Bartholomew engraving and map-making tradition started. Younger George was born out of wedlock to Margaret ‘Peggy’ Aitken in Edinburgh. It is unclear how his father supported him in his early years with his education, but aged 13, George's skills in copperplate engraving had been noted and he was offered a 6-year apprenticeship at Daniel Lizars. As the first of six generations of mapmakers the Bartholomew name would become well-established in cartographic and geographical circles the world over.

In May 1815 George married Anne McGregor (1791—1849). They had four sons and six daughters, of whom the eldest son, John Bartholomew subsequently called senior, was born in 1805, some ten years before the marriage.

Take a journey through the lands of the Scottish Bartholomews with this interactive version of this interactive version of Bartholomew's Half-Inch map. Start in Linlithgowshire and let your mouse or fingertips explore further.

Click on image below and zoom in and out of the map to find many of the places, large and small, which are mentioned in the database.