Jean Traill married Thomas Neill, an Exciseman, from Edinburgh. They had a son:
B H Hossack in his "Kirkwall in the Orkneys" makes reference to Thomas Neill and his Orkney connection:
| A small garden near the head of the Strynd was, in the middle
eighteenth century, the Botanic Garden of Kirkwall. Neil refers to
it in his "Tour":- "Having been informed that a Dr Sutherland (long
ago deceased) , a pupil of the great Boerhaave, was in the frequent practice
of resorting to a small glen, called the Guills of Scapa, to gather
simples, which he dispensed in his medical practice, curiosity led
me to carefully to examine the spot. I observed a large bed of distort
(polygonum bistorta), a remnant I presume of the Doctor's dispensary."
It may be stated that Mr Thomas Neill of Cannonmills House, Edinburgh was
married to Jean Traill, daughter of Patrick Traill of Elsness, hence his
interest in Orkney, and that he was a leading member of the Royal Botanical
Society, hence his interest in "the little kail-yard possest by Hugh Sutherland,
M.D."
Kirkwall In The Orkneys (1900), B H Hossack, p197 |
It is likely that Dr Hugh Sutherland mentioned is the one whose son, William Sutherland, married Henrietta Fea.
In 1766, Patrick briefly revived the litigation in respect of the Elsness estate.
A Dr Patrick Neill who wrote the "Tour Of Orkney and Shetland", which appeared in book form in 1806. It had in 1804/05 appeared in serial form in the "Scots Magazine." There is some confusion of sources over which Patrick Neill this was.
Although the author visited Stronsay on a number of occasions, he also still had some difficulty in untangling his Fea relations as shown by a letter to the Misses Fea at Airy, the unmarried daughters of Patrick Fea of Airy and Stove.
| Dear Ladies,
We missed Lieut. Gourlay's cutter but I hope we shall catch Mr Urquhart going down in another cutter - You are now in my debt at least one letter. I never learned whether you received a pamphlet on Orkney which I sent you. Could you inform me who Mr Fea Surgeon was, who wrote on Orkney and Fisheries about twenty years ago. Is he still alive? Dear Ladies,
From Tales of An Island (1987), W M Gibson,, p116 |
The Neill descendants of Thomas Neill were printers in Edinburgh.