Notes on the probable origin of the name Gemmill or Gemmell

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vicinity, but shortly afterwards removed to the adjoining
farm of Muirside. The exact date of his entry to Muirside
is not known, but Matthew Fowlds, of Greyston Knowe,
Fenwick (a most remarkable man in many ways, and who
died on 31st January, 1907, in his one hundred and first
year), told me that he, when eleven years of age, went to
Muirside as herd laddie to Alexander Gemmill, and
remained there during the years 181 7, 18 18, and 18 19.
He also told me that he had often heard my great-grand-
father speak of leaving Raithmuire and going to Ruschaw
before settling at Muirside. Mr. Fowlds described
Alexander Gemmill as then a tall man about 60 years of
age, beginning to get white, and to stoop. His wife was
Mary M'Taggart, from Campbeltown, or near there. She
was a woman of more than ordinary intelligence, very fond
of reading, with much of the romance and poetic tempera-
ment of the Celt. Their little daughter Mary died, and on
the family tombstone in Fenwick Church Yard, are engraved
the following lines, which are said to have been composed
by her as an epitaph for her daughter and herself : —
" In calm repose my mortal parts doth rest
" The wreck of nature's overwhelming tide
" No waves of trouble now disturb my breast
" Still as my daughter mouldering by my side."
Alexander Gemmill had two sons and three daughters : —
(1) Thomas Gemmill, my grandfather, born in 1790.
(2) Margaret Gemmill, who married a Mr. Anderson
and went to America.