Help me decipher this Inverness, Scotland place name

May 12, 2015 6:11 PM

I have obtained a birth record from Inverness, Inverness-shire Scotland from April 1824. I can read it all except the following word at the beginning: "Donald Chisholm (Farmer, "XXXX") It could be a farm, burg, town, street or something else. Any ideas? Thanks!
posted by brbmaroon to Grab Bag (15 answers total)

The last five letters are almost certainly "apley," based on comparison with other examples in the image. The first looks to be an "M."

Note that in the image, there is no comma between "Farmer" and "Mapley." I would wager that Mr. Mapley was Mr. Chisholm's employer/landlord.
posted by bricoleur at 6:17 PM on May 12, 2015

Teapley is my guess...
posted by cecic at 6:43 PM on May 12, 2015

It says "Kapley," but I suspect this is a misspelling—perhaps of "Copley."
posted by Knappster at 6:53 PM on May 12, 2015 [3 favorites]

I agree with Knappster. It's definitely *apley and I think K is correct because the first stroke of the letter is similar to the R elsewhere on the page, and there doesn't seem to be a way the second stroke makes sense without lifting the pen from the page. I think the second stroke started on the right.
posted by Gable Oak at 6:57 PM on May 12, 2015

My best guess would be "Hapley," an uncommon but not unheard-of Scottish name. I also agree with bricoleur's employer theory. "Kapley" seems out of keeping with the region and the general correctness of the other spellings on the page.

Do you have a bit more of this page to show? Maybe there's another capital [H/K/M] for comparison.
posted by katya.lysander at 7:12 PM on May 12, 2015

I was thinking it was a boxy capital G, "Gapley."
posted by lily_bart at 7:45 PM on May 12, 2015

I think it is an R and the pen ran out of ink in that stroke or something. Because I agree with Gable Oak that it looks very similar to the other Rs on the page except that the curved part of the R just seems to end.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 7:55 PM on May 12, 2015

As evidence towards my theory, Googling Inverness and "Kapley" turns up nothing (and Kapley doesn't sound like a Scottish name/word), but Inverness and "Rapley" shows this result. It looks like it's a surname to me.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 7:57 PM on May 12, 2015

I will add that there is nothing on Google for Inverness and either Mapley, Gapley or Teapley. Not that Google is the arbiter of everything but... just saying.

Hapley does appear to be a possibility as katya.lysander stated, but it seems like it would be quite unusual to me to do the vertical line of the H as two separate strokes like that. I do think it's fascinating that we can all look at the same thing and see 5 different letters (so far) that aren't very similar to one another!
posted by treehorn+bunny at 8:06 PM on May 12, 2015

Looks like "Farmer Kapley", and like bricoleur, I would assume he was the employer. Compare to the Ks here and here and also look at the Rs in these links, and look at the Rs in other words in the same birth record - like Revd. (Rev with superscript d, an abbreviation for Reverend) and Roderick.
posted by gudrun at 8:07 PM on May 12, 2015

I'm almost persuaded over to the R side, if it begins with an inkless stroke that then gets flooded. Also, there is a Rapley Farm, albeit in Surrey. Seems an unlikely connection, but there you go.
posted by katya.lysander at 8:26 PM on May 12, 2015

There are Kapleys in the Inverness area, it is a name there. There are Chisholms still with a Highland Wear place, just googled around a bit. The Kapley name might be Chisholm's mom's maiden name.
posted by Oyéah at 9:28 PM on May 12, 2015

The 1861 Scottish census records a Roderick Chisholm - who was born in 1824 - living in the village of Kiltarlity. There appear to be a number of Chishom connections with this place (see this question for example). That would make the writing a pretty poor transcription of the word - but then it is not an easy word to transcribe.
posted by rongorongo at 3:57 AM on May 13, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks everyone -- this is all very helpful. Lots of leads to follow!
posted by brbmaroon at 9:20 AM on May 13, 2015

The Ordinance Survey's Online Map system is quite good if you are looking for a particular farm or small place name - better than Google maps, anyway.
posted by rongorongo at 9:39 AM on May 13, 2015