Christian Spring (1768-1849)

Genealogy

 * Sex: Female
 * Born: 2 Oct 1768, Udny, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
 * Died: 30 May 1849, Auchinhove Cottage, Lumphanan
 * Buried: Farquharson enclosure, Birse kirkyard, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Pedigree
Christian was the daughter of Robert Spring. Her mother was probably Margaret Marns (known to be the mother of her next older sister Mary).

Siblings

 * George (b. 1760, Banchory-Ternan)
 * Isobell (b. 1762, Banchory-Ternan; married Robert Sherrat; lived in Birse and Lumphanan)
 * Mary (b. 1764, Udny; not known to have married)
 * Robert (b. 1771, Udny; married Margaret Gordon; d. 1860, Aberdeen)

Spouses

 * Archibald Farquharson of Finzean

Offspring

 * 1) Archibald (b. 1793, Birse; married Frances Russell of Blackhall; d. 1841, Birse)

Biography
Christian Spring was born in Udny, the humble daughter of a gardener. In Aberdeen, when just over 20, she met and caught the eye of Archibald Farquharson, the 7th laird of Finzean, who was nearly 60 and as yet unmarried. They were married in 1792, in the Birse parish church, and lived at Finzean House in that parish. (Much of Birse parish, as well as much of Lumphanan parish, were part of the Finzean estate.) The Spring family were so honored at their sister marrying so well that Spring descendants for several generations were named Archibald or Christian and/or had Farquharson as a middle name.

The year after they married, Archibald and Christian had a son, Archibald, but the elder laird died only a few years later, leaving behind a young widow and 3-year-old son. That same year, Christian's older sister Isobel married Robert Sherrat, and they joined Christian at Finzean, where Robert Sherrat was overseer of the estate until the young laird came of age.

Christian remained at Finzean even after her son married in 1814, as his wife had an nearby estate of her own, Blackhall, and the young couple initially lived there. In 1823, Archibald and his wife moved back to Finzean, and Christian then took up residence at Auchinhove Cottage, part of the Finzean estate in Lumphanan (the parish north of Birse across the Dee River), where she would live out the remainder of her life. Her niece Mary Sherrat lived nearby, and Christian was close to Mary's children, some of whom lived at Auchinhove (both while Christian was alive, and afterwards).

Christian died in 1849, having outlived her husband by 53 years and her son by 8 years. In her will, she provided for her brother Robert in Aberdeen, her niece Mary Sherrat, her nieces by Robert, and a number of grand-nephews-and-nieces by Mary. (Her other siblings presumably were already dead, and her other known-living Sherrat niece and nephew had emigrated to Canada.)

Disambiguation
An online search of Church of Scotland records (which are comprehensively extracted in the IGI) shows one other Christian Spring born around this time, the daughter of David Spring and Margaret William christened in 1773 in Banchory-Devenick. It can be shown that the Christian Spring who married Archibald Farquharson of Finzean had a brother Robert, a sister Isobel who married Robert Sherrat, and a sister Mary. Isobel and Mary both followed Christian to Finzean. In Christian's will, she identifies her brother Robert as well as the children of her sister Isobel. The Christian Spring daughter of Robert (b. 1768, Udny) has all of those siblings, while the Christian Spring daughter of David (b. 1773, Banchory-Devenick) has none of those siblings. Thus, the Christian Spring who married Archibald Farquharson is the daughter of Robert, and not the daughter of David.

Contributors
TomChatt