The Westie/Wastie surname

(Published in Fife Family History Society journal Vol 11 No 3)

 

I had never given much thought to the name Westie. I didn’t know it was an unusual name, since a number of relatives had it as a middle name. I did, however, wonder how the name had come into our family. My father couldn’t tell me much about the name - he just knew that it came from somewhere in his father’s ancestry.

On my first trip to New Register House, I decided to search the male line of the family until I found a Westie. I didn’t have to search for long. I already knew that my dad’s grandparents were Helen Donaldson Erskine and David Reid, and when I found their marriage certificate I discovered that David’s mother’s maiden name was Jane Westie.

I quickly realised that the name was not a common one. It was not listed in any books on the origin of surnames, and there were very few entries in the telephone directories. When I looked at the IGI I found a very limited number of Westies (view these), all of whom were located in Fife. I decided to try to find the connections between all these Westies.

It didn’t take long to piece all the Westies into one family tree. They all, including my Jane Westie, turned out to be descended from David Westie and his wife Elizabeth (Betsy) Myles. That explained the prevalence of the name David in the family. David and Betsy came from Muirhead in Kettle, and they had their first two children there before moving to Leslie c. 1830. The spelling of the surname appears to have changed slightly when the family moved from Kettle - it was originally Wastie. They had four more children in Leslie, then moved to Coupour in Auchterderran parish, then to Thornton Farm (also in Auchterderran parish  Thornton.jpg) where they had 15 acres of arable farm at the time of the 1861 and 1871 censuses. I discovered from the censuses that the family were mainly employed in farming. David Westie’s occupation was variously given as farmer, carter, crofter, and cow feeder! His father, Robert Wastie, had been an agricultural labourer.

I have found a number of instances of the name Wastie (view these), mainly in Fife and Glasgow, which I have been unable to connect to my family. It is possible that the Wasties originated in the Glasgow area then moved to Fife. There are also a number of names such as Waste, Westy, Wasto(u)n, and Waster which may be related. My next challenge is to try to connect these people into the jigsaw. Maybe one day I’ll be able to say with pride that my family were a bunch of Wasters!