Re: John Kirk, of Bowmore, Islay
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In reply to:
Re: John Kirk, of Bowmore, Islay
Christine Blair-Murray 1/03/04
Unable to connect you to the family of John Kirk and Mary Fletcher who died at Bowmore, Islay, Scotland-..... with the information which I have.
John Kirk of Bowmore, Islay was a carpenter and contractor as well as the proprietor of a licensed public house.The name of the hotel might have been "Bowmore House".
He died March 30, 1898, aged 74 years.He was predeceased by his first wife, Mary Fletcher, daughter of John Fletcher on October 16, 1879. He remarried, probably at Bowmore on September 25, 1881 to UNKNOWN.
John Kirk was a son of John Kirk and Catherine (nee Murray) Kirk of Newbondriggs Cottage, Muckart (or Muckhart), Perthshire, Scotland, and a grandson of John Kirk and Margaret (nee Hoggan) Kirk.
John Kirk left Muckart and went to Glasgow area where he worked in a shipyard as a ship carpenter with his brothers Andrew and Thomas.It is not clear whether his wife Mary was with him in Glasgow. When he went to America from 1852 until early 1855 his wife and children were living in Bowmore, Islay. John Kirk worked in Boston, Charleston, Augusta and New York before he returned to his wife and family in Bowmore.He had planned to emigrate and purchase a farm in Kincardine Twp, Bruce County, Ontario (where his brother Andrew Kirk would purchase land and where his brother James Kirk would also later settle with his family) Apparently he changed his mind upon his return to Scotland and he stayed in Bowmore for the remainder of his life.
John Kirk's brother Thomas Kirk emigrated to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia where he worked in a shipyard and later as a carpenter for a railway company.He left many descendants in Nova Scotia. His wife was Emeline.
I have responded to you directly by email.