Jane Bayne (née Hay)

Daughter of Charles Hay and his wife Jane née Brodie who were living in Jamaica in the mid 1780s-1790. Left Jamaica before 1817. Married James Bayne, physician in Nairn, Scotland, where she died in 1865.

1. Jane, daughter of Charles and Jane Hay, was born 09/01/1789 and baptised 04/05/1790 in St Dorothy, Jamaica. Her brother William Hay (1782) and sisters Margaret Brodie Hay (1784) and Barbara Hay (1785) were baptised in Kingston. The names of her parents and her birth c. 1790 are confirmed from her death certificate where her father's occupation is given as "Landed proprietor". Her place of birth, Jamaica, is confirmed in the 1851 and 1861 census entries for her, at Cumming Street, Nairn.

2. Robert Burnett registered 9 enslaved people in St Catherine, Jamaica, as attorney to Miss Jane Hay, absentee, in 1817. Robert Ross registered 10 enslaved people in St Catherine, Jamaica, as attorney to Jane Hay now Jane Bayne in 1823.

3. Nine children were born to James Bayne and his wife Jane Hay in Inverness-shire 1818-1832, the eldest baptised in the parish of Kiltarlity and the rest in Dores. Eight of these children were living with James Bayne age 50, physician, born Scotland and his wife Jean Bayne age 40, born Scotland [sic] at Firhall, Nairn, in the 1841 census, with two other women (Eliza Hyter age 20, "Ind[ependent means]" born Scotland and Jean Dingwell Fordyce age 55, "Ind[ependent Means]", born Scotland) and three female servants. Five of these children were living with Jane Bayne at 4 Cuming Street, Nairn in the 1851 census where her occupation was given as Annuitant and her birth as c. 1790 in Jamaica. 4 of her children were living with her at 5 Cuming Street, Nairn, in the 1861 census. Although no marriage has been found for James Bayne and Jane Hay, the death certificate of their eldest child, Helen Isabella Menzies née Bayne at 10 Cumming Street, Nairn, 13/11/1901, confirms her parents as James Bayne, Medical Practitioner, and Jane Bayne Maiden Surname Hay.

4. Jane Bayne, widow of James Bayne, Doctor of Medicine and daughter of Charles Hay, Landed Proprietor and Jane Hay MS Brodie, died 19/10/1865 at 10 Cumming Street, Nairn, age 75. The informant of death was her daughter Helen I. Bayne.

5. There is a portrait of Jane Bayne (1790-1865) at Nairn Museum.

6. Her father may be the Mr Chas. Hay, late of Clifton Pen, Jamaica, who died 14/08/1805 and was buried 17/08/1805 in Aberdeen. Alternatively, he may be the Charles Hay, second son of the late William Hay, of Newhall, county of Edinburgh, who died on his passage from Jamaica in 1796.

T71/862 Kingston claim no. 1567.

1. www.familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Records Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online]. General Register Office for Scotland Deaths 1865 123 082. 1851 and 1861 censuses online.

2. Ancestry.com, Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834 [database on-line], 1817 and 1823 - St Catherine.

3. www.familysearch.org batch nos. C11101-2, C11096-2 and C11096-4 (where Jeremiah Coghlan and Jane Erskine are misindexed as being two sets of twins, each with one forename, rather than two individuals, each with two forenames). 1851 and 1861 censuses online.

4. General Register Office for Scotland Deaths 1901 123 086.

5. http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/jane-hay-17901865-166935 [accessed 12/11/2012].

6. GROS OPR Deaths 168/A 200 59 Aberdeen; Gentleman's Magazine vol. 75 part 2 p. 882 (September 1805); Edinburgh Magazine, or Literary Register, April 1796 p. 322.

We are grateful to Richenda Wakefield for her assistance with compiling this entry.