Introduction / Families / Drever

William Drever and Barbara Shearer

William Drever may have married Barbara Shearer around 1805. Certainly, a “lawful” son was born on 29th March and baptised on 18th April 1807. His parents are not known with certainty as he died prior to 1855. However there is the possibility that he is a son of Thomas Drever and Ann Hourston and hence a brother of David Drever who led to the generations of Drevers on Pharay.

Barbara Shearer was born in Eday about 1786 and the daughter of George Shearer and Ann Liddle.

From baptisms and census records, we can determine that William and Barbara lived on Pharay for a time:

• Thomas Drever b. 29th March 1807, Eday / Pharay who married Margaret Thomson

• David Drever b. 21st September 1812, Pharay

• Ann Drever b. 21st September 1812 Pharay who married William Harcus

• John Drever c. 4th October 1815, Eday or possibly Westray who married Jean Harcus

• Mary Drever c. 26th August 1816, Westray

• Jane (Jean) Drever b. abt 1820, Westray. She lived at Stencro with her widowed mother and subsequently her sister Betsy. Jean died there on 8th July 1887. She never married.

• James Drever c. 16th November 1821, Westray who married Isabella Bews

• Elizabeth (Betsy) Drever b. about 1823, Westray

They moved to Westray around 1815 and appear at Whitlet in the 1841 census with their son John and youngest children, James and Elizabeth (Betsy). William, a meal miller according to daughter Betsy’s death record, died before 1851. Barbara was at Stencro by that time and lived there for the rest of her life with her daughters Jane and Betsy as well as Betsy’s daughter, also named Betsy Drever. Barbara died on 4th March 1872. She was eighty six.

A Westray gravestone records the following:

David Dreavar 1821 MD 1835

It is thought that these inscriptions relate to the deaths of David Drever, c. 1812, and Mary Drever, c. 1816.