Secondary Navigation
Sir Jackie Stewart
Sir John Young Stewart, OBE
(Born Milton, West Dunbartonshire, 11 June 1939)
A triple world championship winner, Sir Jackie Stewart OBE is Britain's most successful Formula One racing driver. His earliest triumphs were not in motor sports but as a clay pigeon shooting champion.
As a teenager he was schooled by his grandfather, a head-gamekeeper on Lord Weir's Eaglesham estate in Renfrewshire. Although he was born in the house next to his father's garage near Dumbarton, Sir Jackie's family roots are literally in the soil of Scotland, as he comes from many generations of farmers on both sides of his family.
Original documents from the resources of ScotlandsPeople, including estate and church records, illustrated the lives of these ancestors, and the sorts of information that can be useful for anyone in search of their rural family history.
Sir Jackie's ancestry
Sir Jackie's exhibition delved 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. The photograph on the right is of Sir Jackie's paternal grandparents, James Stewart and Maggie Stewart Young. James was a head-gamekeeper (click to enlarge). Maggie's ancestors included John Stewart, a farmer from Erskine.Image: Private Collection
Sir Jackie has Clark forebears on both sides of his family but a mystery remained. Was he related to another son of a Lowland farming family, his friend, the late great racing champion Jim Clark?
The document (right) illustrates the importance of horsepower to our ancestors (click to enlarge). 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. All the Farm Horse Tax returns for Scotland can now be searched free online at the ScotlandsPlaces website.
National Archives of Scotland, E326/10/1, p.203
1861 census
The census excerpt on the right shows James and Ann Young's family at Nether Enoch Farm, Eaglesham, in 1861 (click to enlarge). Their unmarried children and one grandson were all working on the farm. James continued there for many years, while his younger brother Alexander set up at Castlehill Farm 3 miles away. Sir Jackie's parents, who were second cousins, were descended from the two brothers.
General Register Office for Scotland 1861 561/00 005/00 006
Rural events in archive
Three films from the Scottish Screen Archive accompanied the exhibition: 'Fenwick Events of 1931' (1931), 'County of Dunbarton' (1947) and 'They Made the Land' (1938) (45 mins total running time).Images of Sir Jackie's exhibition
Sir Jackie paid two visits to the Centre; to inaugurate his exhibition, then subsequently with his family. Photographs from both ocasions are reproduced with kind permission by the photographer, Rob McDougall.
A partnership between the National Records of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon© Crown copyright
