Mustard/Musterd (Cromarty)

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For family tree see Munro/Mustard (Cromarty & Guyana) on Ancestry (subscription required)

In 1835 Walter Mustard, a tenant at Eathie (near Cromarty), married Sophia Munro, whose brothers Alexander and John Munro had been in Demerara. Sophia had inherited about £150 from her brother John, together with a third share in a debt of about £1000 owed to him by Donald Grant, in Demerara.

Walter and Sophia had three children, John [1836-88], Isabella [b1840] and Alexander [1843-76]. However, by 1843 the family had moved into Cromarty and there were financial problems. Walter left, probably for Guyana, leaving Sophia and the children. In 1848 Sophia applied for, but was refused, poor relief from the parish; and in 1851 she was working as a seamstress in Glasgow.

Their two sons both went to Guyana, where Walter ran a successful cattle ranch - Letter T on the Mahaicony.  By this time they were spelling their surname ‘Musterd. Later Walter was described as ‘that old and eccentric colonist’ who had, with his two sons, acquired Planation Highbury, formerly the property of Sir Henry Barkly. [Walter Rodney, Guyanese Sugar Plantations in the Late Nineteenth Century, Georgetown, 1979 p76]

Alexander died in Guyana in 1876, described as ‘a native of Cromarty’ (The Colonist, 4 April 1876) and John in 1888.

I am grateful to have discovered online the research of Lisa Henderson which has made this identification possible.