Stouts, the Fair Isle and boats to Orkney, Aberdeen, Leith and Canada

The Fair Isle has approx 65 permanent residents (census data 2020). Back in the mid-1800s, the 1,900-acre Island was home to around 400 people. This would be the largest population recorded in the island’s history with the exception of 6 weeks in 1588 when 300 sailors from the El Gran Grifón, flagship of the Spanish Armada were shipwrecked and lived with the islanders.

The oldest Stout (Stott)

The oldest Relative with a record of Birth is Rita Deans’s 7th Great Grandfather James Stout (born 1640) on some records he is referred to as Stout and on others as Stott. Little is known about James Stout only that he is born in 1640 and married a woman of French descent named Elizabeth Truax. His father David is mentioned in the parish record but he has no records of his own that can be found.

The main concentration of Stouts at this time is in northern England, Orkney and the Shetland Isles.

For some context on that time. In the 1640s King Charles, I is on the throne. Witch-hunting is a widespread practice, in Edinburgh Mary Kings is abandoned and The Great Plague is rife in Scotland.

James has a son also named James Stout born in 1670, he marries Elizabeth Cromartie. They have 4 children

Elspeth Stout

Jesabella Stout

Margaret Stout

Thomas Stout