G5 - Thomas Shiels (1795-1839) & Barbara Jean Cranston
Thomas Shiels was born in 1795, the second child of Robert Shiels and Annie Dickson. He was christened on September 27, 1795, at Traquair in Peeblesshire, Scotland. Thomas grew up in the Scottish Borders, where the Shiels family had become firmly established.
Thomas & Barbara Jean — A New Chapter
Thomas Shiels married Barbara Jean Cranston on April 5, 1817. Their marriage record identifies her as Barbara Cranstoun and names her father as Thomas Cranstoun.
Their marriage began a remarkable chapter in the Shiels family story. Thomas and Barbara Jean established their family at East Mains near Coulter, where they raised the generation from which our direct family line continues.
Their lives also became closely connected with the Duke of Buccleuch and his family — a relationship that influenced both of their lives in very different ways.
Thomas & Barbara Jean at East Mains
East Mains, near Coulter, became the Shiels family home during the generation of Thomas and Barbara Jean. Thomas’s 1839 burial record gives his residence as Eastmains, providing a direct documentary link between the family and the property.
East Mains would remain closely connected with the Shiels family for generations. What began as a family home in the countryside would eventually become a place to which later generations returned, even after their working lives increasingly centred on nearby Biggar.
The property remained in the Shiels family for nearly two centuries, becoming one of the longest-lasting physical links between the generations of our family in Scotland.
The Death of Thomas Shiels — A Family Story
In 1949, Thomas’s grandson Jack Shiels recorded a family account that had been passed down through the generations. He wrote that Thomas became a gamekeeper for the Duke of Buccleuch and was an expert with a gun. Jack went on to say that Thomas was shot by a poacher and badly wounded. Although he survived, according to Jack, “he never was the same man after.”
Thomas died in March 1839 at the age of 43. The parish record confirms his residence as Eastmains and records his burial at Culter.
According to the family story, the Duke of Buccleuch honoured his former gamekeeper by erecting a marble slab at the head of Thomas’s grave bearing the words:
“Here lies a Gallant and true Scotsman
Barbara Jean — Life After Thomas
After Thomas died in 1839, Barbara Jean was left to raise their children on her own. Her grandson Jack Shiels later recorded how the Duke of Buccleuch continued to play an important part in her life.
According to Jack’s 1949 account, the Duke arranged a room in the village and paid Barbara Jean a “living wage” to teach the local children. Jack described her simply as “a wonderful teacher.”
Jack also preserved a remarkable personal connection to Barbara Jean’s teaching years. Around the turn of the century, he recalled speaking with a man who had attended her school. The former pupil praised Barbara Jean and told Jack how fortunate he was to have had such a capable grandmother.
Barbara Jean continued teaching until the age of eighty-one. For more than forty years after Thomas’s death, she carried on — raising her family, teaching, and remaining part of the community in which the Shiels family had put down its roots.
Barbara Jean at East Mains — The 1841 Census
Just two years after Thomas’s death, the 1841 Scotland Census provides another clear connection with the family home. Barbara Shiels is recorded in Culter, Lanarkshire, with her address specifically given as EASTMAINS.
The distinction is useful: Culter was the locality, while East Mains was the Shiels family home and property within that area. The record therefore helps explain why both names appear throughout the surviving family documents.
Barbara Jean remained connected with East Mains for the rest of her long life. More than forty years later, records surrounding her death in 1882 would still identify East Mains, Culter as her home.
Barbara Jean — East Mains to the End
Barbara Jean outlived Thomas by more than forty years, but East Mains remained her home.
Her death record shows that she died there on November 24, 1882, at the remarkable age of 90. The record again connects her directly with the property, identifying her residence as East Mains and recording her death in Culter.
Her death record shows that she died there on November 24, 1882, at the age of 90. A brief notice published in the Hamilton Advertiser a few days later described her as being “in her 92nd year,” illustrating the small discrepancies that sometimes appear in historical records.
A brief notice published in the Hamilton Advertiser a few days later made the connection even clearer:
“At East Mains, Culter, Biggar, on the 24th ult, Barbara Cranston in her 92nd year, widow of Thomas Shiels.”
Those few words neatly bring together the places that appear repeatedly in the family records — East Mains, Culter and Biggar — and show that more than forty years after Thomas’s death, East Mains was still very much the Shiels family home.
The Next Generation
Thomas and Barbara Jean raised a large family of eight children — six sons and two daughters. Together they represented the next generation of the Shiels family and the beginning of a much wider family story.
In the generations that followed, their descendants made new homes far beyond Scotland, including Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. From East Mains, branches of the Shiels family would eventually spread across the world.
Robert 1817-1894: Robert married Janet Scott in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Some family trees have identified Robert as having died in the United States, but that record has been shown to belong to Robert Hunter Shiels. At present, we do not know whether Robert and Janet remained in Scotland or emigrated to North America.
Thomas 1819-1897: Thomas married Elizabeth Prentice and emigrated to Quincy, Illinois, United States. They moved to Canada for a short time to be close to their brothers before settling in North Dakota. Their descendants are spread across Canada and the USA.
Jean 1821-1907: Jean married James Anderson and emigrated to Wingham, Ontario, Canada in 1853. They raised 8 children.
James 1824-1827: James died at only 3 years of age.
John 1826-1908: John immigrated to Canada in 1850 and settled in Grey County, Ontario. He married Janet McNair and they had a large family. Only the eldest and youngest of their nine children married, and their descendants eventually spread across western Canada.
George 1828-1906: George travelled to Canada with his brother John in 1850. He married Susanna Wortley and settled near his brother in Cranbrook, Ontario. His descendants remained in Ontario and the northern USA.
Anne 1831-1877: Anne married Robert Walkinshaw and they had four children in Scotland.
William 1833-1911: William remained in Scotland. He married Agnes Brown and raised a large family. They lived at East Mains for most of their lives. Many of William’s children and grandchildren left Scotland and settled in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The Story Continues
Thomas and Barbara Jean’s eight children carried the Shiels family into a new generation. Some remained in Scotland, while others — or their descendants — established new lives across Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. From this one family at East Mains, several distinct branches of the Shiels story began to take shape.
Our direct family line continues through their son John Shiels (1826–1908), who left Scotland for Canada in 1850. His journey begins the next chapter of our family story.