Brief Life History of John
When John Witherspoon was born about 1836, in Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, his father, John Millar Wotherspoon, was 15 and his mother, Margaret Drummond, was 14. He lived in Lanark, Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom in 1841. He died on 29 December 1881, in Scotland, United Kingdom, at the age of 46.
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Family Time Line
Sources (2)
- John Witherspoon in household of George Witherspoon, "Scotland Census, 1841"
- Legacy NFS Source: John Witherspoon - Published information: birth-name: John Witherspoon
Parents and Siblings
World Events (7)
1838 · Jenners Department Store Opens its doors
Jenners was founded by Charles Jenner as a department store for the community. The original building was destroyed by a fire in 1892 but, with a new design in mind, the store was reopened in 1895 with new features. It was named Harrods of the North after it was given Royal Warrant in 1911 and was visited by Queen Elizabeth II on its 150th anniversary. It was sold to the House of Fraser in 2005, which in 2008, made much needed improvements to the store.
1843
Dickens A Christmas Carol was first published.
1854 · Great North of Scotland Railway
Being one of the two smallest railways in 1923, the Great North of Scotland Railway carried its first passengers from Kittybrewster to Huntly in 1854. In the 1880s the railways were refurbished to give express services to the suburban parts in Aberdeen. There were junctions with the Highland Railway established to help connect Aberdeenshire, Banffshire and Moray counties. The railway started to deliver goods from the North Sean and from the whisky distilleries in Speyside. With the implementation of bus services and the purchase of the British Railway the Great North of Scotland Railway was discontinued.
Name Meaning
Scottish: of uncertain origin. Black tentatively mentions the possibility of a habitational name derived from Middle English and Older Scots wether ‘ram’ + Middle English spang, spong ‘long narrow strip of ground’. The compound makes an intelligible (but unrecorded) minor placename, but this form is unrecorded in Scots. Nor is there any evidence for wither as a variant of wether ‘ram’. If, in spite of these difficulties, the explanation is right, the form of the name must have been altered by folk etymology, influenced perhaps by Middle English and Older Scots wither (as a verb ‘to dry up’, as an adjective ‘hostile, opposite’) and spon ‘spoon’ or ‘roofing shingle’.
History: John Witherspoon (1723–94), Presbyterian minister and teacher, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was born at Gifford, near Edinburgh, Scotland, and came to North America in 1768 after being recruited as president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University).
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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