Hi all,

I wondered if anyone has any information regarding the above?

Going back to 1880 in my tree, my ancestors, two brothers, had a whipmakers' shop at 36 Chambers Street, Edinburgh, called 'G&J Leggat'. They had the Royal Warrant for being Whipmakers to the Queen on the front of their shop - would there be any lists anywhere showing this, or any information about their business? I have a picture of their shop found on Google from the 1880 Edinburgh Trade Directory, which shows the Warrant on the shopfront, but this is all I know.

Also, in June 1920, a set of triplets were born into my family in Manchester, England - Theresa, Annie and Margaret Collins. Their parents were David Collins and Mary Ann Collins (nee Ryan). According to my grandmother, they received the Royal Bounty which was given to parents of multiple births at the time. Unfortunately none of the girls survived to One Year Old. Does anyone have any information about the Royal Bounty, are there any documents which would feature the triplets? Would triplets all born alive at this time have been very rare?

Any information would be really helpful - thanks to anyone in advance! :)

Records associated with Royal Warrant holders are in the National archives, Kew see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/rdleaflet.asp?s...

There are no facilities for registering multiple births in the Civil registration system, although often they are fairly obvious being consecutive entries in the registers with the same surname and usually on the same page. It's more obvious in the local registrations that are online like Lancashire & Cheshire BMD.

The Royal Bounty for multiple births was instituted by Queen Victoria see this explanation from the Australian Archives [ignore record references] at http://www.naa.gov.au/naaresources/publications/research_gui...

A Paper submitted to The Royal Society in 1928, entitled “Triplet Children in Great Britain & Ireland” included:

“The existence of the Royal Bounty for triplets provides a potential source of information, of which it is believed scientific use has not previously been made. The records of the Royal Bounty, in the charge of the Secretary to His Majesty’s Privy Purse, constitute in effect a special registry of triplet births, including the great majority of cases in Great Britain and Ireland”

The full text pdf document is at http://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/coll/special/fisher/7... , the document starts at page 286 and on page 289 is information about survival rates.

So records of the Privy Purse are what you’re looking for and I believe they are in the Royal Archives. I suggest you contact the Royal Archivist to confirm where the records are and how you can obtain a copy of anything about your family, see http://www.royal.gov.uk/Contactus/ContacttheRoyalHousehold.a...