More on Kirkpatrick names!

Again from Records of the Closeburn Kirkpatricks by Charles Kirkpatrick,  this fun little tid-bit:

“Amongst the Kirkpatricks, from earliest times, ‘Roger’ and ‘Ivone’ were favourite and common names. In our family there were only two ‘Johns’; one lost amidst the mists of the past, though figuring in the Ragman’s Roll.

“In later generations, few of the eldest sons escaped being called ‘Thomas’, thereby causing confusion amongst their descendants when trying to distinguish them.

“These ancestors of ours not only married two or three times, but in those days of large families, there were often two of a name, where one child having died, the parents christened a later arrival with the same name.

“In Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe’s family, there were two Isabellas, one John William and one William John!

“He has pointed out that a ‘nephew’ was frequently alluded to as a ‘grandson.’

“All these complications seem designed to tease antiquarians.”