Charles McDowal (née McQuhae)

Nee McQuhae, widow of the original claimant Alexander M'Dowal (q.v.), and awarded compensation with others as her husband's executor and trustee for Two Mile Wood in St Catherine, Jamaica. The co-awardees were Rev. Stair McQuhae (her half-brother), Quintin Kennedy and John Phillips (each of whom q.v.).

Her Christian name is unusual: marriage and death records however confirm that Charles was female.  

1. Charles McDowal was born 28/07/1778, the daughter of Rev. William McQuhae (1737-1823) and his first wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Park of Barkip, physician (Elizabeth died 07/01/1780). Her father remarried, to Mary Lawrie, in 1782. Her eldest brother Richard (born 1766) died in Jamaica in 1805.

2. Alexander McDowal or McDowall was shown as owner of Two Mile Wood in the Jamaica Almanacs in 1817 and 1833. The estate appears to have passed to William McDowal, the son of Alexander M'Dowal by an earlier marriage: William died in 1838.  

3. Banns were read for the marriage of Alexander McDowall in Maybole and Charles McQuhae in Ayr 30/11/1828 in Maybole. Alexander McDowal was shown as the owner of Two Mile Wood in the Jamaica Almanacs in 1817 and 1833. In 1841, Charles McDowal, age 55, was living at Cullean Cottage, Ayrshire, with Ann age 17, Mary age 16, Bonella age 14 and two female servants. She was at the same address in 1851, age 71, with two female servants and one male servant (Ann had married and Mary and Bonella were visitors in the household of Thomas Ainsworth in Preston, England).

4. Charles McDowal, female, age 66 [sic] years, born St Enox [sic - Quivox] Manse where she lived for 26 years, died 20/01/1855 at 8 Barns Street, Ayr, daughter of William McQuahe, minister of St Enox and Elizabeth nee Park. The informant was Bonella Macdowall, step-daughter.

T71/852 St Catherine No. 546. http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/MCQUHAE/2001-02/0982727231 [accessed 13/12/2011].

1. Hew Scott, Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae; the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation... (1928) vol. 4 p. 66.

2. Jamaica Almanacs 1817, 1833. Will of William McDowal, 'at present residing at Liverpool... but about to proceed to Jamaica' dated 13/10/1836 and dealing with Two Mile Wood transcribed at 'Wills of William Fraser and William McDowal' www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com [accessed 13/12/2011].

3. O.P.R. Marriages 605/00 0050 0033 Maybole; 1841 census online; 1851 census online.

4. 1855 McDowal Charles (Statutory Deaths 578/010039). Other sources including censuses show her date of birth as c. 1778, implying that she was 76 at death.

We are grateful to Angela Milne-Picken for her assistance with compiling this entry.