Thomas Train was born in 1787 in Kintyre. He married Janet Campbell in Campbeltown on April 8th, 1816. Janet was the stepdaughter of Thomas Cairns. They had 13 children over a span of 20 years. Thomas obtained his certificate to be qualified as an assistant lightkeeper in 1823 and the family moved to the lighthouse at the Mull of Kintyre, a very remote location without a road and inaccessible by sea. There is now a one-track road to the lighthouse with many hairpin turns.
The lighthouse was perched on the land 240 feet above the sea. They lived on the lighthouse grounds until his death in 1841.
He was buried in Southend Argyll along with his children who had predeceased him. His youngest child was only 4 at the time. We learn from letters that Thomas Train had contemplated moving to York in 1833. His father-in-law Thomas Cairns. His stepfather states that he didn’t want to encourage or discourage him from making the move but cautioned him that it took about 2 and a half years to establish a farm
with crops so he would need sufficient funds to cover that time. He also noted that the Canada Company had made a fortune selling the lands they got from the government and that land prices were rising quickly. He lets Thomas Train know that it isn’t a very religious environment and that he had to consider that he was established in Scotland already.
We learn from other letters that perhaps Thomas was unhappy with the head lighthouse keeper, Mr. Harvey who had taken part of his garden space. The assistant keeper’s cottage fell into disrepair over the years but has been recently restored.
It also appears that Thomas Train’s son, also named Thomas, was good friends with William Cairns, the son of his father-in-law, both being born in 1818.
