The parents of John Hosie who married Mary Russal/Russell in 1778 in Abbey parish, Paisley, Renfrewshire are unknown. There are other families in Renfrewshire at the same time. A record of a gravestone in the Gaelic Churchyard in Paisley indicates that John had died before Mary's burial in 1808. But only Gaelic immigrants to Renfrewshire were buried there. So was John born in the North. A story is told of Hosie's Well in Aberdeenshire in regard to the Battle of Harlaw in 1411. Hosie had just married and rushed off to the Battle but was captured by the Ketterines. After some years, he returned to find his bride married again. So he went into the Bennachie Hills and died near the well.