William Muir (1853-1913)
Posted Apr 24, 03:23 am by Mary Muir
My grandfather always said “If you start shaking the family tree, you are going to get the willies.” In this case, what he was referring to was the fact that our family REALLY liked to use the name William. My grandfather was the third in the line of being called William Muir. He also broke this family tradition by not naming one of his sons William. He left that task to some of his cousins.
The first William Muir is quite an interesting man. He started the illegitimate son of Jane Muir and Maxwell McKie and ended up being a land owner in Stewarton, Scotland. The farm, Gilmill, is still held in Muir hands and the family is still raising cows on the farm. William was born in 1853 in Dailly, Scotland. His mother, Jane Muir, left him and his sister, Agnes in the care of her mother, Agnes. Jane died in 1963 of consumption.
The main picture of this site shows William Muir with his wife and two youngest children. They are in front of Parkside, a farm which was part of the Lainshaw Estate. Today there is nothing left of the house other than a few stones. After living in Parkside they moved to Gilmill where William died in 1913.