Introduction / Families / Robert Groat and Janet Guthrie / John Groat and Margaret Bain

John Groat and Stewart Seatter

John Groat (b. 2nd July 1840) was the fifth of the six children of John Groat and Margaret Bain. In April 1865, he married Stewart Seatter (b. 12th October 1843), a daughter of George Seatter and Mary Seatter from Twiness in Westray.

John was a farm servant at Clifton. He and Stewart had four children:

• John Groat who as born at Twiness on 12th June 1865 and married Betsy Seatter (b. 14th June 1866) in Westray in 1905. She was the daughter of Thomas Seatter and Margaret Mainland. John and Betsy had a daughter Margaret Mainland Groat (b. 30th June 1907) who married David Hewison in 1929.

• George Seatter Groat who was born on 29th December 1866. He was a farmer and died at Wood Cottage in Eday on 12th April 1946 at the age of seventy nine.

• Mary Stewart Groat who was born on 13th January 1869 and married William Burgar of Cott in Pharay

• Jessie Groat who as born on 22nd August 1872 and died at Wood Cottage, Eday on 9th June 1960, aged eighty seven.

The family had moved to Outquoy in Westray by 1881 where John again worked as a farm servant. They subsequently moved to Fersness in the West Side of Eday and were certainly there by 1891.

John died at Fersness on 8th November 1901 at the age of sixty. Stewart survived him by another twenty four years, dying at the Stackald in the South End of Eday on 7th January 1926 at the age of eighty two.