Dumfriesshire
Robert Hay Nicol and Henrietta Wright, Bill's great, great grandparents, came to Kentucky from Dumfriesshire, Scotland in the 1840s.  Robert's parents were David Nicol and Agnes Hay; Henrietta's parents were William Wright and Agnes Kirkpatrick.  For much of his adult life, David Nicol was the Gardener at the Drumlanrig Estate in Dumfriesshire.

We visited the area around the Drumlanrig Estate after the MacRae tour.  We toured the Drumlanrig Castle (the estate house) and the gardens.  We also saw the Gardener's Cottage in Mallyford, which is the home of the head gardener and was so when the 1841 census was taken, which lists David, Agnes, and their family as living in Mallyford.  Thus, they probably resided in that house.

We went to the Covenanter's Cemetery, on a farm near Thornhill, where William Wright and Agnes Kirkpatrick are buried, and to the cemetery in Penpont, where David Nicol and Agnes Hay, William Nicol (their eldest son) and Ann Todd (his wife), and George Nicol (another of their sons) and Agnes Jardine (his wife) are buried.
Drumlanrig Castle Drumlanrig Gardens Gravestones
Scotland 2009 Home