A Family History - Part 1John R Smith

compiled 2015

QUEENSBERRY SQUARE CIRCA 1870

Five Generations….

page

Introduction 3

Queen of the South - Dumfries 4

The story of four Grandparents

John Hyslop Smith 7

Mary McKay 12

William James Crosbie 18

Jemima Crawford Wilson 24

Roots 30

Contents

� 3

It was a Saturday in April 1897. Saturdays, of course, were working days then, although often only half-days. It was no surprise that at around 1:30 pm a man was making his way back to Dumfries from his work near Lincluden Abbey. He was a Skinner and Butcher to trade, and probably called in by the farmer at Lincluden Mains Farm to help with the slaughter of some cattle there. Dan McKay was 58 years old and apparently in good health. His wife, Mary, would be waiting for him in their home at 128 High Street. Dan was never to arrive back, because on the road leading from the farm he suffered a sudden, fatal heart attack.

Interestingly, although he was more than two miles from home, he was only a short distance from where, several decades later his grandson would

die in a care home, and his great great grandson would live with his family in the newly built housing scheme at Lincluden.

Almost ninety years before Dan died, a Sergeant in the 103rd Regiment of Foot was taking part in the 1812 War in North America. His part was to share in the defence of Canada against the United States forces in the region of Quebec city. Sergeant Ross was accompanied by his wife, Agnes. In 1813, she gave birth to a son, John, who was promptly christened in the Protestant Church in Quebec, and his details entered in the baptismal register.

On the Somme in 1916, an eighteen year-old soldier wrote his Battlefield Will leaving everything to his mother, and then - like tens of thousands of other soldiers - he simply disappeared in the pulverising storm of shells unleashed….. And in the same conflict, a young man who had not long left these shores to emigrate to Australia found himself returning as part of the Anzac army.

In a tiny village in Southern Scotland, a boy and a girl - born in the same year - would attend the same school, almost certainly in the same class. Aware of each other they must have been. But they didn’t end up together. Fortunately, because one was my great, great grandmother on my father’s side, and one was my great, great grandfather on my mother’s side. If they had married, what effect would that have produced on my family tree?

Ploughmen, coachmen, shepherds, drovers, quarrymen, soldiers, mill workers and miners are all to be found in this story…. the truth is that all of our life energies, directions and outcomes depend on a mixed bag of stories and characters set in a variety of locations. How they come together in this family is the enduring theme of these pages.

Lincluden Abbey - or more properly - Lincluden College

Where I mostly grew up.

9 Jock’s Loaning, Lincluden, Dumfries. That upstairs window was my bedroom.

Introduction

Queen of the South…..where much of the story began

Here where one blow of Bruce’s rangHere where Burns lived, toiled and sang;Where Aird and Carlyle in olden daysTreaded thy twining, twining red-walled ways.For beauty and for high renownWe praise and love our ancient town.1

“When you step out of Dumfries station under the full moon, as I did the other night, and see the needle-pointed electrics of the line and the mellow glow of the Edison-Swan bulbs over at the Railway Hotel mingling with the red and green and yellow of the more distant signal lamps, you are conscious of a certain brisk elation, a verve and movement which is not provincial. In fact, there is something about the clean sharp-cut brilliance of Dumfries not unlike some of the newer French towns - or even one of the more frequented suburbs of Paris.” 2

Samuel Rutherford Crockett wrote these words in 1902. Growing up in Dumfries in the 1950’s and 60’s I could recognise much of that description. Today, not at all. No one now could accuse Dumfries of having a “clean sharp-cut brilliance”. A mixture of poor town management, over-heated business rates and a desperately awful traffic scheme has ruined the town centre beyond repair. High unemployment fuels the situation. Tacky and tawdry shops fill the High Street in the place of traditional family businesses; the streets are dirty, and in Queensberry Square residents sit round looking despondent as they puff their cigarettes - and even some drinking from their beer cans at 11.00 am.

The Dumfries I remember reflected a high degree of civic pride, summed up in the Guid Nychburris week each year- a wide ranging programme of activities for all ages, culminating in a colourful pageant at the Midsteeple on the Saturday. Hundreds of horses clattered through the streets. On the last evening of her reign, school children from all over the town excitedly formed choirs to serenade the young Queen of the South in the Drill Hall at “The Night o’ the Queen’s Musik”. The next day her successor would be brought down the River Nith to her Coronation in a royal barge, accompanied by her maids

from the song penned by G W Shirley, Town Librarian of Dumfries1

“Raiderland - All about Grey Galloway. S R Crockett. Hodder and Stoughton London 19042

G W Shirley was the inspirational Town Librarian who invented the annual Guid Nychburris Festival 1932. He also penned the song "Queen of the South", sung each Guid Nychburris day as part of the numerous ceremonies and events for the townspeople to participate in, celebrating the town becoming a Royal Burgh in 1186

- girls chosen from the Primary Seven classes in each of the Burgh’s schools. There was a sense of engagement and purpose that seemed to permeate the life of the town. Guid Nychburris somehow represented to Doonhamers that they had every cause to believe in 3

the town and its hope-filled future.

The story told here is of a family tree with some roots that spread to Ireland and Lancashire and Merseyside, to the Colonies and to the countryside around the town as well. But by the second half of the 19th Century most of the players had found their way to Dumfries. In many places the journey reflects a persistence, a commitment to doing the best in difficult circumstances. Most of the characters here were either labourers or workers in the several textile mills that were at the heart of the town’s economy.

Many of my antecedents lived in the closely packed tenements around the High Street, Queensberry Street, and the now disappeared Chapel Street. One of the interesting discoveries in researching the family tree has been the frequency with which families moved houses often just a few stairs away. There seemed to be a fair mobility as families expanded or contracted. And normally children didn’t fall far from the nest when their time came to set up their own home.

Life was not necessarily unpleasant, even if it was far from luxurious. But Dumfries was a prosperous town with a rich hinterland of agricultural country feeding the weekly market. And, of course, the mills. The town water supply had been sorted out bringing an end to such dangers as the Cholera epidemic of 1832. Tuberculosis - then called 4

phthisis pulmonalis, or consumption - was a major cause of death, and as we shall see our family history reflects that. Patterns of family life reflected the effects of this tendency to early death, with widows or widowers bringing up children. Sometimes children would be farmed out to other households just to cope with the strains caused by disrupted parenting.

A “Doonhamer” is a citizen of Dumfries - said to have come about because those working away 3

from home in Glasgow, when asked by friends what they were doing at the weekend would reply “I’m going doon hame!”

see my article “The Giant Cholera” in the Scots Magazine, January 19784

� 5

Rosefield Mills didn’t survive the depression. The nearby Troqueer Mills were destroyed in a fire and never reopened.

Mills, large and small are today in various stages of dereliction or re-designing as housing. Other industries lost include the Carnation Creamery, Uniroyal Rubber works, and two ICI plants.

Dumfries High Street c.1890

In this history you will discover moments of shocking tragedy, mysteries still to be resolved, and glimpses of everyday life among people living their lives in the Queen of the South.

The narratives that follow largely speaking are divided into four. Each one concentrates on one of my grandparents, mainly on their antecedents. When these have been explored we will be able to see how the four strands come together into my own immediate family.

A Church and a Street

� 6

St Andrew's Roman Catholic Cathedral, Dumfries, built in 1815, had been the seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Galloway since the restoration of the hierarchy in 1878. As a result of a Scottish reorganisation in 1947 the Catholic population of Galloway greatly increased in number and the centre of population shifted from Dumfries to Ayrshire. The Bishop of Galloway, in an attempt to be nearer to the greatest number of his people, moved his place of residence to Ayr in the 1950's, although he retained his Cathedral Church in Dumfries. Many of my antecedents (catholics, from Irish descent) were married in this church. Tragically, in May 1961, St. Andrew's Cathedral was ravaged by fire, and shortly afterwards the damaged building was demolished: all but the Spire and the St. Ann's Tower were removed. The decision was made to build a new Church over the old Cathedral crypt, but at the same time the Bishop petitioned Rome to move his Cathedral to Ayr - a petition that was granted.

At the opposite end of town a mystery waited to be solved. Many of my antecedents on all sides lived around the town centre of Dumfries. Addresses on the High Street and Chapel Street keep cropping up.

I thought I knew Dumfries pretty well but I had no idea where this street was. Once I got hold of an 1890’s map I knew exactly. The area had been reconfigured. Andrew Rankin’s, the Ironmonger where my father worked, occupied the building at the High Street end, and he parked his car in a close where his ancestors lived. I wonder if he knew?

� 7

John Hyslop Smith (1900-1952)

Peter Smith was born in 1838 in Ireland. His father was Hugh Smith, his mother Mary Milligan. It’s not clear when and why he came to Scotland, and the first indication of his presence is when on 21 September 1862 in St Andrews Roman Catholic Church in Dumfries he married Mary Reid. Mary was a girl from Dunreggan in the Moniaive area. Their first daughter, Agnes, had been born a month previously at Dunreggan on 28 August.

It appears that Mary, who was illiterate and signed through her life with “her mark”, falsely declared to the Registrar at Moniaive that she and Peter had married the previous day (27 August), which may very well have been the day when they lodged the Banns at the Church in Dumfries. In the days before computerisation and centralisation of records there was a good chance of getting away with such a gentle deception - and so the record of Agnes’ birth showed that she had been born in wedlock - just!

More children came along. Hugh was born in 1863 at Locharbriggs, but sadly died just a month short of his 9th birthday. In 1865 my great-grandfather, James Smith, was born at Kirkton. And then William Matthew Smith was born in 1871. William Matthew grew up to become a Slaughterhouse Worker, and died in the Dumfries Infirmary in 1948 at the age of 77 years from Colon Cancer. He lived in Barrie Avenue.

Peter in his early years had worked as an agricultural labourer and then later when he moved into Dumfries as a plasterer’s labourer. He was to die young, at the age of 47. He died from phthisis pulmonalis (tuberculosis) at 2:30 in the morning with his family around him on the 15th of April 1885. His death took place at 7 Chapel Street.

But the real tragedy was still to come. Mary moved back to High Street at No 109. In 1886, daughter Agnes had an illegitimate baby girl and called her Robina. Later in her life, Agnes married twice and was widowed twice. She lived to the age of 77 and died at 50 High Street on 7th January 1940 from a cerebral haemorrhage.

Moniaive has existed as a village since at least the 11th Century. DUNREGGAN was a separate village on the other side of Dalwhat Water. The hump-backed bridge over Dalwhat Water was built in 1661 and rebuilt by William Stewart in 1796. The avenue of trees leading into Moniaive was planted to shade parishioners on their way to Glencairn Kirk, Kirkland.

PETER and MARY’s Family

Peter Smith 1838-1885 Mary Reid 1835-1895

Children

Agnes Smith 1862-1940 (Wright, then Donnelly)

Hugh Smith 1863-1872 James Smith 1865-1927 William Matthew Smith

1871-1948

But what of Mary Reid, the girl from the country village of Moniaive who fell in love with a young Irishman called Peter, who had to get married to him, who lost a son at the age of 8, who lost her husband and had to cope with another set of worries when her daughter brought an illegitimate baby home….. for whatever reason, and maybe as a result of mental illness or emotional distress, on Christmas Eve 1895 she went to the Coal House at nearby No 25 High Street, and committed suicide by hanging herself.

A household in Gasstown, 19015

One of the households in Gasstown (known locally at “The Trench”) in 1901 consisted ofJAMES SMITH and his wife JESSIE (aged 35 born 15 August 1865 at Penpont). Andfour children.

James was a Freestone Quarryman, and had been born to Peter and Mary Smith. Peterwas a General Labourer, and had died by the time when son James married Jessie Hyslopon 22 December 1887. At the time of his marriage, James was a coachman on the Dukeof Buccleuch’s Drumlanrig Estate near Durisdeer, and drove the doctor’s carriage. His bride, Jessie was a domestic servant, and the daughter of a senior coachman, Peter Hyslop.

In the 1901 GENERAL CENSUS all forms were meant to accurately reflect each individual's5

status as of 31 March/1 April 1901 and the household they spent the night in. People who weretravelling or living abroad were recorded at the location where they spent the night. All of thedetails from the individual forms were later sorted and copied into The Census books.

� 9

from The Ordnance Gazetteer ofScotland 1882-1884.

Gasstown, a village in Dumfries parish, Dumfriesshire, 1½ mile SSE of Dumfries town, under which it has a post office. It was founded about 1810 by Joseph Gass. Pop., with Heathery Row, (1871) 521, (1881) 467.

Reproduced by permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of HMSO. © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved.

The children (in 1901) were:

PETER SMITH (19 November 1888)With both grandfathers being called“Peter” it was no surprise that the first son wasgiven that name. Peter was born at ?39 Buccleuch Street, Dumfries. The next known 6

address was Castlehill Cottage. 7

Peter emigrated to Australia and in a future work we shall tell more of his story. In the meantime, a Peter Smith with the same birth year and from the same county is documented as having landed at Brisbane on the SS Omrah on the 22 December 1910. His own family history suggests 1912 although there is no record that matches that. Either may be correct. We do know, though, that on 4 June 1914 he married Annie Anderson Donaldson. In 1915 he signed his attestation for War Service with the Australian Army and embarked for war on 11 May 1917.

HENRIETTA LAURI SMITH (27 August 1891) (Her registered middle name was Laurie -her grandmother Hyslop’s maiden name - subsequently she seems to have reduced it to“Lauri” perhaps in error.) She was born in, Castlehill Cottage in Troqueer Parish - andtherefore across the river in Kirkcudbright-shire. (Before the amalgamation of Dumfriesand Maxwellton in 1929.)

MARY REID SMITH (25 August 1893.) Her place of birth was given asGateside of Freuchie. That may possibly be referring to a house not far from Gasstownwhere the family lived in 1901. I remember Aunt Mary perfectly well. She lived just acrossa field from us in Lochside, Dumfries, as an old, profoundly deaf lady. My mother used tocook meals for her that would be rushed across the field to Syme Road.

JOHN HYSLOP SMITH (30 August 1900) (my grandfather) was born at Gasstown.

After the Census, was born -

JAMES REID SMITH (10 May 1903) was born at Gasstown. He married at the age of25 when he was living at 19 Friars Vennel in Dumfries, and working as a commercialtraveller. His bride was Davina Murray Dinwiddie, five years his senior. She was agamekeeper’s daughter from Mouswald, and the wedding took place there on 24December 1928 in the family home - Ardcriffel. I just remember the death of Uncle Jim,but I more clearly remember visiting Auntie D in the years that followed. She kept

Not sure of this address - the writing on the record is almost illegible6

Remarkably, probably the next occupants of Castlehill Cottage in Troqueer Parish had a child7

born there who was a very well documented emigrant to Australia. http://www.nls.uk/catalogues/online/cnmi/inventories/acc13121.pdf

� 10

JAMES and JESSIE’s family

James Smith 1865-1927

Jessie Hyslop1865-1906

Children

Peter Smith 1888-1960Henrietta Lawrie Smith

1891-1961Mary Reid Smith 1893-1973John Hyslop Smith 1900-1952James Reid Smith 1903-1956

labradors including a very handsome Golden Labrador called “Flake”. She also had anice collection of books and I used to enjoy particularly reading stories of “TheMcFlannels.” from her shelves

At 11.00 pm on 20 March 1906, in the home at Gasstown, tragedy struck. From the records we can see that, either without any warning, or within a very few hours of taking unwell, Jessie suffered a fatal heart attack. Baby James was only three years old. 8

Peter would have been 15. The death was certified by Dr Robert Watt as due to “cardiac syncope”. Undoubtedly today there would have been a Procurator Fiscal’s post mortem ordered.

On 27 December the following year (1907), James re-married. His bride was Agnes Cowan, a domestic servant three years senior to him. This was her first marriage. Son Peter (by now over 16) signed as one of the witnesses.

By the time of the next Census in 1911, the family lived at 50 High Street in Dumfries. James had left the harder work of being Stoneworker/Quarryman and reverted to his early working days with horses, firstly as a Carter, and then as a Stableman. Peter had left home. Henrietta was 19 years old, and working as a Machine Worker - undoubtedly in one of the many mills in Dumfries. She married comparatively late in life. Her marriage to James Alexander Herries took place in 1941. Mary was 17 years old in 1911 and is described as a “Mender” - another occupation related to the mills.

John married Mary McKay in 1918. They had three sons, the middle of those was my father, John (Jack) McKay Smith. My grandfather’s Painter’s business failed in the 1940’s with serious implications for the whole family. Sadly, like his grandmother, he took his own life on 31 January 1952. “on the main railway line opposite the lands of the Dumfries and County Golf Club”.

James Smith, the father, died on 23 July 1927 at 13 Friars’ Vennel, Dumfries. The cause of death was certified as cardiac disease, following on a number of lung conditions.

The doctor certified duration of illness as less than one day.8

� 11

Above: James Smith and his second wife AgnesRight: Mary Reid Smith (b.1893), Peter Smith (b.1888), Henrietta Smith (b.1891)

� 12

A full house at No. 13 Chapel Street

The occupants at No 13 Chapel Street on the night of 31 March 1901 were listed in the Census as:

Rose Templeton 53Janet Templeton 21Mourdsina Templeton 19Maggie JaneTempleton 15James Mcwade 12Maggie Mcwade 9Wm Farquharson 3Janet Craik 3mth

Rose Templeton, the head of the house, had been born Rose Anne (or sometimes Roseann) Smith around 1851 in Leitrim, Ireland. Her father was Thomas Smith, and her mother Mary Smith (nee Ford). At the age of 23 she was living in Dumfries, and was listed as a Domestic Servant. She lived then at 10 South Queensberry Street, an area of cheap housing and lodging houses.

Rose Smith was pregnant. Either she had come to Scotland to seek work as a Domestic Servant and fell pregnant there, or more likely, she had to leave her home town and come to Dumfries to have the baby. In any event, Mary Anne Smith was born on 2 September 1874 and was duly registered as “Illegitimate”.

In the meantime, in nearby Lochmaben a thirty-year old labourer by the name of John Templeton was mourning the loss of his wife, Jane Graham, who had died on 2 August 1873 from tuberculosis. She left a two year old boy, Irvine. (Many years later he was to be the Security Guard at Arron-Johnston car building plant at Heathhall.) Somehow, Templeton and Rose Smith met, married and set up house in Dumfries with children Irvine and Mary Anne. Other children were born to the couple in quick succession.

John Templeton’s own health began to fail from what was described as “general tubercular disease”, and he died on 7 September 1895 at 30 High Street, Dumfries. He was aged 50.

The illegitimate child born to Rose - Mary Anne - had married Daniel McKay, and at the time of the census was living in a tenement at 49 High Street.

� 13

Rose moved to 13 Chapel Street, and probably in order to earn an income, she began taking in child boarders - hence the list of occupants at the 1901 census includes four children aged from 12 years down to 3 months. This practice was a relatively common one in an era where stable family life was often only a luxury afforded the better-off classes.

Rose Templeton, my great, great grandmother, died on 13 October the following year (1902). She was 45, and had been suffering from Pyelitis - an inflammation of the renal cavity, and cystitis. Neither condition would be likely to cause death nowadays, but without modern medication it was possible for them to lead to kidney damage and ultimately kidney failure and death. Her death took place at 131 High Street.

The story of Mary Ann Smith9

As we have seen, Mary Ann was the daughter of Rose, and registered as “illegitimate” after her birth on 2 September 1874. She was born at 10 South Queensberry Street, and by the census of 1881 was living at 14 High Street.

In 1894 she married Daniel McKay on 3 July at St Andrews pro-Cathedral in Dumfries. 10

Daniel’s occupation was as a shepherd. Their family came in two tranches. Mary (my grandmother) was born in 1896, her brother Daniel in 1898. There was a gap then until 1905 when Robert (Bobby) was born followed by Hugh in 1908. 11

Son Daniel Mckay (1898-1916) was called up to the First World War and joined the Highland Light Infantry. (10/11th Bn HLI Service no : 25369). Thus it was that at the age of 18 he found himself in the hell of the Battle of the Somme. Private Daniel Mckay was Killed in Action on 30 July 1916. Just thirteen days before his death, he made his Battlefield Will, leaving everything to his mother.

“Smith” is, of course, a common name! There is no discoverable connection between Mary 9

Anne’s mother, Rose who came to Dumfries from Ireland before Mary was born in 1874 - and Peter Smith who also came from Ireland and married Mary Reid in 1862. There is a temptation to think that when Rose was found to be “in trouble” she was sent to her uncle’s. But that can be no more than speculative.

Daniel’s father - another Daniel - was the Butcher who died on the road from Lincluden in 189710

In the census of 1891 Mary Anne is named as “Head” of the house and there is no sign of 11

husband Daniel. Where was he? Possibly at his work as a shepherd. Presumably when he returned children were produced again.

� 14

Daniel’s remains were never recovered. His name is among the 72,195 listed on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme - a war memorial to missing British and South African men who died on the Somme and have no known grave.

Robert Wood McKay (1905-1983) I remember Uncle Bobby very well. He lived all his life with his sister - my grandmother, Mary McKay, and her husband John. He always gave the impression that he had served on the Western Front - which of course he could not have done. He had been a postman and after he retired he sat by the fireside, doing his horses, smoking his fags, and with a glass of whisky at his side. Uncle Bobby was hopelessly flamboyant and told the most inappropriate stories. In the veiled language of Newspaper Obituaries - “he never married!”

Remarkably he was the longest living of the family!

Hugh McKay (1908-1980) married Elizabeth Doig.

The oldest of the four children was my grandmother, Mary McKay (1896-1970)

The Family of John Hyslop Smith and Mary McKayJohn and Mary married on the 16th December 1918 in the Free Church in Irving Street, Dumfries. This was opposite the Congregational Church in which their second son, John McKay Smith, played such a major role. The building became an Auction House after the church dissolved in 1924.

They set up house at 103 High Street, later moving across the River Nith to live in Church Street at No 39. John was described as a kind and gentle man. He in course of time set up his own Painter and Decorating business. John and Mary had three sons. The oldest boy, Daniel, joined his father in the business. The business started to go downhill. Debts mounted.

My father, meantime was working as Department manager with Binns Ltd and doing well. He was persuaded (against my mother’s wishes) to go into the business. He had no notion of how bad things were. As the months went by he became more and more

� 15

depressed and was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. All my parent’s possessions and their house had to be sold - even my mother’s engagement ring, but there still wasn't enough to avoid bankruptcy. Uncle Jim Smith - my grandfather’s brother - loaned enough to pay off the creditors. My mother and father spent the next eight years repaying them.

Even although the debts were all covered, my grandfather, John, who had been suffering from deepening depression and probably guilt, took his own life on the railway line to Glasgow on the last day of January 1952.

Mary moved house to No 26 in Church Street, and I remember that house very clearly from regular visits. She died in Dumfries Infirmary in 1970 from an intracranial haemorrhage.

Three Sons

Daniel McKay Smith was born in 1919. He married Georgina (Ina) Martin in 1946. They had two girls - my cousins. Mary McKay Smith was born in 1947 - the same year as I was. I remember that sometimes she would come on holiday with us to the Solway shore, so it was a bit like having a sister for a while. We always got on well. Her younger sister Avril Smith was born in 1952.

Daniel died in 2000, ten years after the death of Aunt Ina.

John McKay Smith, my father, was born in 1923. He was blind in one eye from birth, and not particularly in good health he was sent away to

� 16

John and Mary’s Family

John Hyslop Smith (1900-1952)Mary McKay (1898-1970)

Children

Daniel McKay Smith (1919-2000)John McKay Smith (1920-1993)

Robert James Smith (1930-1993)

John Hyslop Smith and Mary McKay

The legal papers around the failed business..

distant relatives in St John’s Town of Dalry in Kirkcudbrightshire where he lived for several years. Living with Granny Simpson and the family was a real joy to him, and he looked on Dalry in many ways as his home.

Robert James Smith was born in 1930. In 1951 he married Elizabeth Chambers. They had one son, my cousin Robert, who died at the age of 61 in 2012. Uncle Bert worked as an Electrician in the Carnation Creamery factory. In their earlier days they lived up beside the Dumfries Museum, and then moved out to the Heathhall area. Aunt Betty collapsed and died suddenly in the house in 1981 at the age of 49. Bert died in 1993.

� 17

`

Janet CoultartDavid Crosbie

David Crosbie 1814-1882

Isabella Kennedy 1818-1891

The antecedents and descendants of WILLIAM JAMES CROSBIE

John McKay Smith 1920 - 1993

Mary Crosbie 1923-2015

John R Smith 1947-

I Jean McKemmie 1950-

Rebecca 1980-

Jennifer 1982-

Deborah 1986-

Adam Lucas 1982-

Isaac 2013-

Ezra 2015-

James Crosbie 1840-

Sarah Kennedy ? - 1897

Siblings of James Crosbie

Margaret b.1842 Janet b. 1844 David b. 1846 Helen b.1848 Mary b.1851 Joseph b.1857 William b. 1859

James C Crosbie 1874-1966

Joan Pagan 1875-1902

Siblings of James C Crosbie

William b.1863 Elizabeth b. 1865 Mary b. 1867 David b. 1869 Ellen b. 1871 Margaret b. 1873 Isabella b. 1874 (twin)

William J Crosbie 1898-1940

Jemima C Wilson 1900-1971

George Crosbie 1926-2015

Margaret Ingram 1930-

William Pagan 1836-1903

Agnes McMinn 1835-1910

Siblings of Joan Pagan

Thomas 1880-1922 John 1863-1939 Elizabeth 1865-1914 Agnes b.1867 William b. 1868 Samuel 1871-1946 James 1877-1891 Robert 1880-1915

Archibald Pagan b. 1802

Georgina Farries b. 1811

At ConheathThe tiny village of Kelton lies between Dumfries and Glencaple. There in 1840 on 17th January, a boy, James, was born to David Crosbie and his wife Elizabeth Kennedy. David was a servant at Conheath Estate.

James grew up and by 1851 when he was 11 the family was living at Moorpark, Caerlaverock. He was by now the oldest of six children, the youngest, Mary, being only a month old on the night of 30-31 March, the census date. The line goes on through

James who was born in 1840. When he was 21 years old we find him working on the opposite side of the Nith at South Corbelly Farm in the shadow of Criffell, near New Abbey. The farm was owned by Isaac Graham. Isaac and Jane Graham had four children, and four farm servants including James.

In course of time, James married Sarah Kennedy, and they set up home at 171 High Street, Dumfries, although he continued his work as a Farm Servant. Children were born at regular two year intervals - six of them. When the time came for the seventh to be born, it came about that after Isabella Steele Crosbie was safely delivered on the 18th September 1874 at 3 pm, James Cowan Crosbie appeared at 3:30 pm. Probably it was this dramatic increase to an already large family that brought about the move to 14 King Street thereafter.

Sarah Crosbie (nee Kennedy) died in 1897 in Dumfries Infirmary aged 54 years, a victim of diphtheria, after three weeks illness.

On 30 September, 1897, James Cowan Crosbie, grown up to the age of 23, married in St John’s Episcopal Church in Lovers Walk, Dumfries. His bride was Joan Pagan.

� 19

The Family of David and Elizabeth Crosbie

David CrosbieElizabeth Crosbie (nee Kennedy)

James Crosbie (1840)Margaret Crosbie (abt 1842)

Janet Crosbie (abt 1844)David Crosbie (abt 1846)Helen Crosbie (abt 1848)

Mary Crosbie (1851)

The Family of James and Sarah Crosbie

James Crosbie (1840)Sarah Crosbie (abt 1843)

William Crosbie (abt. 1863)Elizabeth Crosbie (abt. 1865)

Mary Crosbie (abt 1867)David Crosbie (abt 1869)Ellen Crosbie (abt 1871)

Margaret Crosbie (abt 1873)Isabella Crosbie (18 Sept 1874)James Crosbie (18 Sept 1874)

St John’s Church, Dumfries where James and Joan married

The Pagans

Like James, his new wife came from an agricultural background. Her grandfather, Archibald Pagan had been born at Kirkmahoe on the 5 May 1802, to Thomas Pagan and Jane Robison. Archibald, an agricultural labourer, married Georgina Farries at Annan on 20 February 1835. By the time of the 1841 census they were living in Annan, and were still to be found there in 1851.

It is through William Pagan that the line descends, and here is a bit of a mystery. It looks as if William married Agnes McMinn, a girl a year older than himself, who was born at Kirkgunzeon (a village around 9

miles from Dumfries near Dalbeattie.) That wedding took place on 4 October 1859. But it happened in South Africa near the Cape of Good Hope. However, their oldest child - Thomas Archibald Pagan - was born in 1860. He died in Dumfries in 1922 (having been married three times). His death certificate shows that his father, William, was a Ship’s Carpenter. So at least that may have been why he was in South Africa. Did Agnes go sailing with the crew, and then got married because she was pregnant with Thomas Archibald…?

Back in Scotland, William continued to work as a joiner, and raised a family at 26 King Street in Maxwelltown. For some time William’s mother, Georgiana, lived with the family as did William’s brother, Thomas.

William died on 9 January 1903 aged 67 years, of a cerebral haemorrhage. Agnes died on the 12 November 1910 aged 75 years, of senility and heart failure. She died at 21 High Street, Dumfries.

Their daughter, Joan, married James Cowan Crosbie as already stated.

� 20

1851 Census at Howgill Annan

Archibald Pagan 45Georgina Pagan 40

William Pagan 15Margaret Pagan 12John Pagan 10Janet Pagan 7an unbaptised son 1 monthJohn Pagan (Archibald’s brother) 35 - a journeyman joinerJune Pagan 2

William and Agnes’ family

William Pagan (1836-1903)Agnes McMinn (1835-1910)

Thomas Archibald Pagan (1860-1922)

John Pagan (1863-1939)Elizabeth Pagan (1865-1914)

Agnes Pagan (1867- )William Pagan (1868- )Samuel Murray Pagan

(1871-1946)Joan Pagan (1875-1902)

James Payne Pagan (1877-1891)Robert Pagan (1880-1915)

Howgill, Annan, where the family lived.

True to the mores of the time, Joan was four months pregnant when the marriage took place. My grandfather, William James Crosbie, was born on 15 February 1898. Sadly, his mother did not live long to enjoy her new son. On 11 August 1902, when she was 27 and William James only four years old, Joan died of the still endemic tuberculosis.

The received story in my family is that, after Joan’s death, William was brought up by his grandmother and thoroughly spoiled to the detriment of his character. If this is true it could only have been Agnes Pagan, since Sarah Crosbie (nee Kennedy) was deceased by this time. But then again Agnes died in 1910, and the cause of death was given as “senility”. So any surrogate parenting that William had from that source must have been of short duration. But supposing this to be the case, it meant that William had lost two significant mother-figures by the time he was 12 years old.

Meanwhile, his father remarried on 2 December 1904. Mary Jane Aitken was 22 and the illegitimate daughter of Margaret Aitken, a dairymaid. On the marriage certificate bride and groom quote the same address - almost unheard of that they should have been cohabiting in those days. But Mary Jane’s occupation is given as “domestic servant”, so perhaps she was in that capacity to James.

William James Crosbie

According to the record, my grandfather died on 4th October 1940. He seems to have had the misfortune to fall into No 3 Dry Dock in Goole, West Yorkshire. The Dock wasn’t so dry after all because the cause of death is given as “drowning”. The Coroner for the

West Riding, Will Bentley, held an inquest on 8th October, and the verdict returned was “Misadventure.”

This was the end of a sad story, relayed to me through the years by family members. William and my grandmother, Jemima Crawford Wilson, married on 22 July 1921. From the early days it seems that things were difficult. Alcohol and an aversion to monogamy - both on the part of William - seems have plagued the marriage. My mother, Mary Rae Crosbie, was born in 1923 and her brother, George McRae Crosbie in 1926. William had left the family house on more than one occasion, and eventually moved with another woman to West Yorkshire. His occupation

at the time of his death was given as “Pavement Artist.” The mean little street (Doyle Street) where he (and presumably his new woman) lived was right beside No 3 Dry Dock.

� 21

My grandmother was always keen to recognise him as her husband - even on her gravestone in Troqueer Churchyard, Dumfries - because some in the town gossiped that her children were illegitimate and she was determined to give the lie to that notion.

� 22

No 3 Dry Dock, Goole

Funeral Cards

Mourning cards became popular during the early 1800s. Victorian mourning customs were comprised of rituals and strict rules of etiquette. The symbols of mourning were carefully observed, and were used to denote the social standing of the family.

� 23

` The antecedents and descendants of JEMIMA CRAWFORD WILSON

John McKay Smith 1920 - 1993

Mary Crosbie 1923-2015

John R Smith 1947-

I Jean McKemmie 1950-

Rebecca 1980-

Jennifer 1982-

Deborah 1986-

Adam Lucas 1982-

Isaac 2013-

Ezra 2015-

William Wilson 1835-1908

Jemima Crawford 1834-1896

William Wilson 1869-1925

Mary Ann Elizabeth Rae 1871-1936

Siblings of William Wilson

James b.1871 John 1873-1880 Grace b.1878 John b.1880

William J Crosbie 1898-1940

Jemima C Wilson 1900-1971

George Crosbie 1926-2015

Margaret Ingram 1930-

Siblings of Jemima Wilson

Elizabeth 1895-1983 William 1898-1978 John Rae 1903-1903 John 1904-1980 James 1906-1979 Margaret 1908-1913

William Wilson

Janet McCaig

James Crawford b. 1794

Catherine Milligan b. 1802

John Rae 1837-1914

Elizabeth Ross 1838-1904

James Rae

Margaret Glendinning

John Ross 1813-1877

Mary Pollock d. 1884

John Ross

The 103rd Regiment of Foot was serving in Canada during the 1812 War. This was a war that lasted two and a half years, and for most of that time the 103rd were stationed on the frontier between Canada and the United States. Among the troops was a Sergeant by the name of John Ross. As was often the case for officers, commissioned and non-commissioned, his wife was along with him. On 28 August 1813, she gave birth to a baby boy, whom they named John. On the following day, baby John was baptised in St Andrews

Presbyterian Church in Quebec City.

We next find John Ross Jnr grown up and working as a smith in Glasgow - where on 20 November 1835 he was married to Mary Ann Pollock, by Mr John Forbes, one of the Ministers of Glasgow. The couple eventually settled in Muirkirk in Ayrshire, where John worked as an Engineer at the newly opened Railway Station, and they lived at No 4 Railway Station Row. John Ross spent the rest of his life there, rising to the post of Locomotive Supervisor. He and Mary raised six children in the railway house. One of them, James, by the age of 20 was working through his apprenticeship to follow in his father’s footsteps. Sadly in 1870 he contracted Typhus and died.

It seemed appropriate, somehow, that John himself should die in the Railway Station, from a heart attack, on 19 December 1877.

Their oldest daughter married John Rae, another Engineer - but their path was going to take them furth of

Muirkirk. John Rae was a Dumfries lad, born on 10 Oct 1837. (Elizabeth appears to have gone to Glasgow to work as a Domestic Servant and met John there.) They were married in the kirk at Muirkirk on 7 June 1867.

Work took them to England (which was going to lead to a strange quirk of fate.) They lived at 56B Forth Street, Kirkdale, Lancashire and by the census of 1881, their family comprised:

� 24

Baptismal Record - St Andrew’s, Quebec

Muirkirk Railway StationJohn and Mary Ann’s family were:

Elizabeth Nelson Ross (1838-1904)Mary Ann Ross (1846- )

David Ross (1848- )James Ross (1850-1870)

Isabella Ross (1852- )Janet Ross (1857 - )

The Census of 185156B Forth Street

John Rae (45)Elizabeth Rae (41)

James Rae (13)John Rae (11)

Mary E. Rae (9)David Rae (7)

Margaret J Rae (1)

David emigrated to Canada, arriving on the SS Athena at Montreal on the 27 July 1914 at the age of 39.

John, sadly, died at the age of 19. But it is Mary Ann Elizabeth Rae who carries our story forward.

The Wilsons

We can start this important part of the story with William Wilson who was born in 1835 in the Parish of Glencairn, his family living in Moniaive. His parents were William Wilson and Janet McCaig.

(Musing: William was my great, great grandfather through my mother’s line. In 1835 there was also born Mary Reid, my great, great grandmother on my father’s side, and she was brought up in the same small village. If they had grown up and married, what would that have done to my family tree?)

William began working life as a ploughman before becoming engaged as a miner in the coal industry that was booming in the Kirkconnel and Cumnock areas.

He was married twice. First of all in 1859 when he was aged 24 to Grace Kerr. In 1866 Grace died of tuberculosis. Two years later William married Jemima Crawford. His family consisted of:

Grace Kerr Wilson married Andrew Park, a coal miner who was a descendant of Mungo Park the famous Scots explorer of Africa, who at one time worked as a surgeon here in Peebles. Grace and Andrew’s oldest daughter was Jemima (Mima) who became a

� 25

William Wilsonwith Grace Kerr

Mary Kerr Wilson (1858- )Agnes Wilson (1860- )Janet Wilson (1862- )Jane Wilson (1864 - )

William Wilsonwith Jemima Crawford

William Wilson (1869-1925)James Wilson (1871- )

John Wilson (1873-1880)Grace Kerr Wilson (1878- )

John Wilson (1880-)

Deaconess in the Church of Scotland. When I first went up to Edinburgh in 1966, she had retired and was living in a flat at 2 Elgin Terrace. I stayed there until I became established.

It is not clear why William and family moved down for a time to West Derbyshire. But the later years of the 19th century found them living in Bootle. His occupation changed to Farmer.

While they were there, their oldest son, William, met and married Mary Ann Elizabeth Rae (see above). The marriage took place in Baliol Road Wesleyan Chapel, Bootle on 15 September 1895 - only a few weeks before the birth of their first born, Elizabeth on the 25th October.

Now events took a rapid turn. The likelihood is that Jemima Crawford, wife of William, at the age of 59 became unwell with a mental condition, which may or may not have been related to the happenings around her oldest child. The whole family packed up and returned to Kirkconnel, while she was admitted to the Crichton Royal Institution in Dumfries - a leading facility for the treatment of psychiatric illnesses. William went back to the coal pit. Jemima died the following year on 2nd December 1896 from pleurisy.

And in the midst of all this, more sadness. William and Jemima’s son, John, who had married Catherine Murdoch in 1892 had a baby girl just ten days after her grandmother’s death. Unsurprisingly her parents called her Jemima Crawford Wilson. But that little bit of happiness was short lived because baby Jemima died on 27 April 1897 from bronchial pneumonia aged just four months.

When my grandmother was born to William and Mary - the next girl child in the family - they chose to call her Jemima Crawford too. That must have been hard for the bereaved parents, and yet it was not uncommon practice at that time to name a child after the recently departed.

Father William lived on with daughter Grace and Andrew. He died in 1908 from endocarditis; his heart let him down, as did his son’s.

Son William worked first of all as an agent for Singer Sewing machines - very popular requirements for any household at the turn of the century. Later he was to become an insurance agent. The family moved to Dumfries into 6 Roseland Terrace, Ryedale, Troqueer. This became an important family home to three generations.

He died very suddenly and during the night, after a bronchial illness, from heart failure in 1925. His death wasn’t discovered until the morning. My grandmother on her way to work in the mill was met by a neighbour who told her to get down the road because her father was dead!

� 26

6 Roseland Terrace as it is today

The Family of William Wilson and Mary Ann Elizabeth Rae

Elizabeth Nelson Wilson (1895-1983) married George MacRae, a baker. They lived on New Abbey Road in Maxwelltown, and had one daughter, Moira. George had his bakery at the foot of Maxwell Street. A hard worker, he built up a good business. In later years they went to join their daughter and her husband (Norris Haigh) in their Bed and Breakfast business in Blackpool, and then moved to Brighouse in Yorkshire to retire.

Aunt Lizzie and Uncle George made an annual state visit back to Dumfries and stayed with us in Jock’s Loaning, Lincluden.

These seven to ten days were looked forward to by all, and the wider family would gather to see them.

William Wilson (1896-1978) Uncle Willie served in France during World War 1 and was gassed in the trenches. This led to him suffering from breathlessness for the rest of his life. Towards the end of his life he was a neighbour of ours in Jock’s

Loaning, living with his daughter, Mary, just three doors away. He was married to Elizabeth Johnstone, and they had several children - William, who played football for Clyde FC and was a long distance lorry driver; Andy, who had a successful Painter and Decorator Business; Mary, married to Jim Lennon, who suffered throughout her life from a psychotic illness and took her own life at the age of 52; and Mima, married to Norman Edgar.

Jemima Crawford Wilson (1900-1972) This was my grandmother. Unhappily married, as we have seen, to William James Crosbie, she worked in the mills for most of her life, latterly with the Wolseley Knitwear company. She had two children who survived; my mother, Mary Rae Crosbie and my uncle, George MacRae Crosbie. Their story follows later.

John Rae Wilson (1903-1903). This wee boy sadly didn’t live long, and was born and died in Sanquhar in a matter of five weeks. The cause of death was bronchial pneumonia.

John Wilson (1904-1980 ) As we noted, it was an example of the custom of the times that when another boy was born the following year he was given the same name as the one who had passed away. Uncle John was married to Aunt Jean (Moscrip). They had two children, William and Elizabeth. We had regular social visits to their home in Greenbrae.

James Wilson (1906-1979 ) Uncle Jimmy was married to Aunt Minnie (Kennedy). Another important figure in my childhood. He would cycle out every Saturday morning from Dumfries to Lincluden to visit his sister, my grandmother. He worked as a mechanic (as did Uncle John) in Robertson’s Mills. Towards the end of his working life, Robertsons opened a small unit in Castle Douglas and Uncle Jimmy was sent down there to manage

� 27

The Wilson Boysfrom L - George MacRae (married Lizzie); John; Jimmy; Willie. Playing in Robertson’s Knitwear’s Pipe band.

the factory. Their house on Eastfield Road was another regular visiting stop for our family. Jimmy and Minnie also had two children, Jim and Maureen.

Margaret Wilson (1908-1913) - wee Maggie. The death of Maggie at the age of four cast a long shadow of regret over the family, and it was still talked about regularly fifty years later. She was a sickly child - suffering from bronchitis from the age of six weeks, and dying from heart failure following an attack of gastro-enteritis. I remember being shown a lock of her hair that was kept as a memento (and was buried with my grandmother when she died.) It was Maggie’s funeral that necessitated the purchase of the burial rights in Troqueer Cemetery.

The next generation

Mary Rae Crosbie and George MacRae Crosbie

My mother and my uncle were brought up by my grandmother, Jemima. Uncle George was a young man in the house when I was a toddler, and I remember with affection looking forward to him coming home from work. He was too young to be called up in WW2, but as a boy he served as a messenger for the Air Raid Precautions unit. He remembered being on duty the night that a German bomb fell on the Masonic Hall at Gretna, just as a meeting of the Gretna Royal Arch Chapter was breaking up. 28 Masons were killed. It was thought that the aircraft was on its way back from a raid on Belfast. Much of George’s life was devoted to the Brotherhood of Freemasonry, and he rose to very high rank indeed.

In 1951 he married Margaret Ingram, and they had a very happy marriage through 64 years. She was a tremendous support to him both in Masonry and his other interests. I was a page boy at their wedding, and the very first time I remember seeing television was watching at their house. It was a very large box and a very tiny screen - and the event was the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. George was an electrician to trade, and highly regarded as a journeyman and as a trainer of future apprentices. His other great interest was in football refereeing. As an SFA referee, he was on the whistle at many of the major matches around Scotland, and also travelled to Spain and to Norway as a linesman.

George died in January 2015 after a long illness, during which Margaret had cared for him sacrificially. Many masons attended his funeral. He was a fine man, and I have the happiest memories of him.

Mother and Father

His older sister, Mary, went to work in a Chemist’s shop when she left school. She and Jack married on 21 December 1944. Jack had been serving in the RAF in spite of his ongoing eye troubles. I was born in Charnwood Nursing Home off the Annan Road on 12 April 1947.

After the sad events surrounding the collapse of the family business, my parents moved up to the Glasgow area while my

� 28

father went back to the retail sector. He worked mainly for the Clydesdale Manufacturing Supply Company in Greenock, Renfrew and Paisley. When they returned to Dumfries he went to work for Jardine’s the Ironmongers in the “Back Street” - South Queensberry Street.

When my father’s only good eye began to fail it was clear that he was going to have to wait until he was blind before surgeons could undertake the risky business of operating on the cataract. Eventually, this was done in Carlisle Infirmary, and was successful, but only after many years of diminishing vision. For part of that time it was not possible for him to work.

When he returned to work he went to Andrew Rankin (Ironmongers). One of his roles there was to travel regularly around smaller shops and joiners’ businesses who were Rankin’s clients throughout the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright. Given his upbringing in Dalry, this was a great pleasure to him.

They were both utterly devoted to the Congregational Church in Irving Street, Dumfries. My mother ran the Sunday School, and my father was the Church Secretary (only two of

the roles they undertook.) My father became right-hand man to a succession of ministers - Dahlia Grigor, Tom Mearns, John Sandell, and Ken Hilton. He began to be asked to lead worship in many churches throughout the region - mainly Church of Scotland. He found this challenging, but my mother was a constant support to him. In the meantime, she was appointed to the Central Committee of the London Missionary Society and its successors. This necessitated trips to London

and speaking in many places. She did this with great skill. She was called to be the President of the Womens’ Union of Congregational Churches in Scotland for the period 1982-1984, and then in 1993 she was

appointed by the WU to be a Life President - a post that brought her great joy.

She was a hands-on grandmother and played an important part in the upbringing of her three grandchildren - whom she adored. She was over the moon in her last years at the birth of her grandson, Isaac, and talked about him often.

My father died suddenly in 1993 (while we were away on holiday in Yorkshire). Having moved to Edinburgh when we came there in 1998, my mother lived on independently and only spent her last two years in a Care Home where she died on 2 May 2015. She had been over the moon in her last years at the birth of her great-grandson, Isaac, and talked about him often.

The day of the funeral was also the day on which her second great-grandson, Ezra, was born.

� 29

Mary Rae Crosbie

Irving Street Congregational Church, Dumfries. Now sadly closed.

� 30

!FIVE!GENERATIONS!–!my!roots!

John!McKay!

Smith!!

1920!@!1993!

Mary!

Crosbie!

1923@2015

!!

John!H!Smith!

1900@1952!

Mary!McKay!

1896@1970!

William!!J!

Crosbie!

1898@1940!

Jemima!C!

Wilson!

1900@1971!

James!

Smith!

1865@1927!

Jessie!

Hyslop!

1865@1908!

Daniel!

McKay!

1872@1921!

Mary!Ann!

Smith!

1874@1926!

James!C!

Crosbie!

1874@1966!

Joan!Pagan!

1875@1902!

William!

Wilson!

1869@1925!

Mary!Rae!

1871@1936!

John!R!Smith!

b.!1947!

Peter!

Smith!

1838@1885!

Mary!Reid!

1835@1895!

John!

Hyslop!

1822@1888!

Henrietta!

Laurie!

1822@1872!

Daniel!

McKay!

1836@1897!

Mary!

McKinley!

1838@1898!

John!

Templeton!

1842@1895!

Rose!

Smith!

1847@1902!

James!

Crosbie!

b.!1840!

Sarah!

Kennedy!

d.!1897!

William!

Pagan!

1836@1903!

Agnes!

McMinn!

1835@1910!

William!

Wilson!

1835@1908!

Jemima!

Crawford!

1834@1896!

John!Rae!

1837@1914!

Elizabeth!

Ross!

1838@1904!

� 31