News: Famous Scots exhibition races to the finish with Sir Jackie Stewart

From Monday 9 November a new exhibition in the six-part 'Famous Scots' series uncovers Sir Jackie Stewart's remarkable farming roots. A triple world championship winner, Sir Jackie is Britain's most successful Formula One racing driver. His earliest triumphs were not in motor sports but in clay pigeon shooting competitions and championships. He received tuition from his grandfather, a head gamekeeper on Lord Weir's Eaglesham estate in Renfrewshire. Although Sir Jackie was born in the house next to his father's garage near Dumbarton, his family roots are literally in the soil of Scotland, as he comes from many generations of farmers on both sides of his family.

The exhibition delves into the lives of these farming ancestors, particularly around Eaglesham and Mearns in Renfrewshire, where several families were tenant farmers. James Young (born 1786) had two sons who were each to become a great grandfather of Sir Jackie's, one on each side of his family. Further back, we trace the journey taken by his Ayrshire ancestors. His great great grandfather, a ploughman named Alexander Stewart, died a pauper, but his son eventually became a small farmer, and his grandson was the gamekeeper who moved to Renfrewshire.
 

Original documents from the resources of ScotlandsPeople, including estate and church records held in the National Archives of Scotland (NAS), illustrate the lives of these ancestors, and the sorts of information that can be useful for anyone in search of their rural family history. In 1797 Gilbert Clark, farmer in the parish of Sorn, Ayrshire, was taxed two shillings for his farm horse (to help the war effort against the French). He was probably the same Gilbert Clark who was Sir Jackie's great great great grandfather. A composite image of the entry is shown here. All the Farm Horse Tax returns for Scotland can now be searched free online at the ScotlandsPlaces website (link on left-hand side of this page).

Sir Jackie has Clark forebears on both sides of his family, but a mystery remains. Was he related to another son of a Lowland farming family, his friend, the late great racing champion Jim Clark?

Thanks to the Scottish Screen Archive three vintage films accompany the exhibition: Fenwick Events of 1931 (1931), County of Dunbarton (1947) and They Made the Land (1938) (45 mins total running time).

The exhibition is open to the public in the ScotlandsPeople Centre, Edinburgh, until 31 December, Monday - Friday, 9.00 - 4.30. It will also be open on the following weekday evenings from 6.30 until 9.00pm: 11, 16 - 19 and 24 November, and 14 and 15 December. More dates may be added, so check the ScotlandsPeople Hub website for details of these and other opening times.