1 Andrew Summers (1833-1896) = Margaret Duthie May (1837-1918)

ANDREW SUMMERS and MARGARET MAY (Written by Thomas Summers West 1927-2010)

Name Andrew Summers. Margaret Duthie May. Born Sat. 26 Jan. 1833. Thurs. 4th. May 1837 Place Inverallochy, (Rathen) Cairnbulg, (Rathen) Married Thurs. 3 July 1856, Ward of Cruden, (Port Erroll) Died Fri. 23 Oct. 1896, Midnight. Mon. 4th. March 1918, 5a.m. Place Port Erroll. Port Erroll. Buried Port Erroll. Port Erroll Occupation Fisherman. Parents:- Father Alexander Summers. John May. Mother Elizabeth Carle. Sarah Duthie. ______

Children:-

1. Margaret Summers 6th. June 1857 2. Alexander Summers 8th. November 1859 3. Thomas Summers 24 January 1862 4. William Summers 23 February 1864 5. Andrew Stephen Summers 22nd January 1866 6. James Summers 1st. December 1867 7. John Summers 10th September 1869 8. George Chrystall Summers 24 August 1871, (died 29th August.) 9. George Chrystall Summers 11 December 1872 10.Joseph Summers 17 September 1875 11.Benjamin Summers 17 May 1878. 12. Daniel Summers 28 Sept 1883 died 1906 ______

13 ANDREW SUMMERS (1833-1896)

Andrew Summers, my maternal great-grandfather was born in Inverallochy in the Parish of Rathen in on Saturday 26th. January 1833, the first son and second child of Alexander Summers, fisherman in Inverallochy and his wife Elizabeth Carle [1]. The Rathen recorder seems to have been a little confused or careless in his recording of Andrew’s mother’s name:-

1833 Jan 26th Al. Symmers and Isobel Carle in the seatown of Inverallochy had a son baptised, named Andrew.

‘Symmers’ is the phonetic rendering of the name as pronounced in the dialect, and today the spelling ‘Simmers’ can be seen in the famous Simmers biscuits originally made in Hatton, a village close to . I often heard my mother talk of a ‘warm simmer’s day’. Two years later the recorder got Andrew’s mother’s name 2 Andrew Summers (1833-1896) = Margaret Duthie May (1837-1918)

(Elizabeth) right when he recorded Andrew’s sister Elisabeth’s birth and Summers was spelled as usual with a ‘u’.

Inverallochy is on the northern coast of the ‘cold shoulder’ of the Buchan district of Aberdeenshire to the east of . It and the nearby village of Cairnbulg separated from it only by a narrow stream called the ‘Strype’ were populous fishing villages. Neither had a man-made harbour or a natural one for that matter. The fishermen had to pull their boats up onto the shore above the high watermark when they were finished fishing for the day. There was quite intense rivalry between the two villages and some of their customs and standards of civic behaviour were quite different. Both names are related to nearby Castles belonging to ‘Landed’ families, though these were in ruins by the time of Andrew and his parents and grandparents. Some of today’s National Trust ‘Houses’ e.g. Crathes Castle, that formerly belonged to descendants or branches of the same families have furniture and other artefacts that came from Inverallochy and Cairnbulg Castles.

The 1841 Census of Inverallochy [2] is rather indistinct and I was unable to learn anything significant from the microfilm reel that I searched.

By the time of the 1851 census the Summers family had moved to the parish of Cruden south of . There is an interesting story about this which appears to give an account of why the Summers and two other family groups left their ancestral villages of Inverallochy and Cairnbulg and moved so far south, surprisingly bypassing other fishing settlements such as , Boddam and Burnhaven near Peterhead in the process. I will tell this story when writing about Andrew’s parents who made the move when Andrew himself was only a young lad. The story has two reliable sources and appears to be well known in the mid 20th century folklore of the three fishing villages.

In the Census [3] Andrew is entered as an unmarried fisherman aged 18, born in the parish of Rathen. His sister Elizabeth (16) was also born in Rathen as was his brother Alexander (14). The other members of the family William (8), James (6), Jane (4) and May(6 months) were all born in Cruden. Interestingly, the family had a servant Eliza Stephen, (17) who was born in Rathen. It is possible to conclude that the family moved from Inverallochy in the six years between the births of Alexander in 1837and William in 1843. There is a big gap between the two births in 1837 and 1843. This could be due to the death of one or possibly two infants, or to other causes connected with the move from Rathen.

Andrew next appears in official records when he married Margaret May on 3d. July 1856 [4 ]. He is described as a fisherman, aged 23, resident in Ward Cruden (as Port Erroll, later Cruden Bay was still called in 1856) and Margaret, an 18 year old domestic servant. They were married after banns called according to the forms of the Free Church of . Margaret’s father, John May, was described as deceased, but all the other three parents were alive. Neither Andrew nor Margaret was able to write, but each put a cross, which was witnessed by the minister George Brown, on the Certificate. This rather surprising lack of literacy was I believe due in both cases to their earlier circumstances. Their family went on to become very prosperous and achieving citizens and they themselves in later days appear to have become quite affluent. The witnesses were John Chrystall and Thomas Summers. John Chrystall 3 Andrew Summers (1833-1896) = Margaret Duthie May (1837-1918) was almost certainly a servant at Slains Castle, seat of the Earl of Erroll where the Census shows the name in the ranks of the castle staff. He was obviously a witness for Margaret who probably also was a servant there. I have been unable to identify Thomas Summers. He does not appear to be Andrew’s brother or uncle as far as I have been able to establish. Most probably he was a cousin. There were several Summers families in Ward, Cruden at the time. Later on Andrew and Margaret were to incorporate ‘Chrystall’ in the names of two of their children. Their second son, born 24 Jan. 1862, was named Thomas, the first having been called after his paternal grandfather Alexander. I will return to this in writing about Margaret in subsequent pages

By 1871, Ward Cruden had been renamed Port Erroll in recognition of the building of the harbour and other improvements made to the village by the Earl of Erroll. The Census [ 6 ] shows Andrew (36) and Margaret (31) with their daughter Margaret (14) and sons Alexander(12), Thomas (9), Andrew (5), my grandfather James(4), and John (1). The house, No24, had three rooms with one or more windows.

By 1881, as elsewhere, the census gave street names and numbers for the houses instead of Enumeration Book numbers. The Summers family [7] were still living at the same house with 3 rooms with 1 or more windows - 5 Green St. Andrew (47) and Margaret (43) have staying with them Thomas (18), William (15), John (11), and three new sons George (9), Joseph (5), and Ben (3) who was the last of their children.

At this point I should say a little more of my grandfather’s brothers since I will have no particular occasion to mention them later. Thomas, a fisherman aged 18 in 1881, features in the account I have given of my grandfather James Summers’ early fishing career in the 1890s. At that time Thomas had a sail drifter called Families Pride and several of the brothers notably James and John worked the boat with him out of Peterhead. James and William both described as employed fishermen and bachelors appear in the 1891 Peterhead Census [8] as lodgers in their brother Andrew’s house in Stewart Street.

So it appears there was a mass movement of the Summers sons to Peterhead around that time. Although I have not looked for confirmation, it is fairly certain that Thomas must also have moved to Peterhead by then also because of the presence of his boat ‘Families Pride’ PD1320 in the PHD harbour lists [9] and his designation as her master/owner.

It is also apparent that not only was Alexander, then 22, missing from 5 Green St. in the 1881 census, but that Andrew (14) and my grandfather James (13) were absent. Alexander had probably left home by 1881. I am tempted to think that Andrew and James may have been staying with their grandparents Andrew & Elizabeth, who also lived in Cruden by then over the census night.

Unfortunately I was unable to find a Seaman’s Ticket for my great-grandfather Andrew Summers at the PRO, Kew during my searches there. These certificates were required by fishermen who were active between the years 1845 –1854. I would have expected Andrew to have started fishing ca 1850 or 1852, but certainly the pressure on registration was waning by then. So, I have no idea of his physical appearance as I have from a Seaman’s Ticket for his father Alexander and his son James’ 4 Andrew Summers (1833-1896) = Margaret Duthie May (1837-1918) photographs. My mother was only one year old when he died in Port Errol at midnight on 23 October 1896 so her invaluable help was, on this occasion, unavailable. Andrew’s Death Certificate [10] records Bright’s disease, of uncertain duration, and ureamic poisoning (4 days) as the cause of his death. His third youngest son John recorded his death. He was buried in Cruden Bay churchyard. I do not know the location of his grave, but his wife Margaret May survived until 1918 and there may be a marker on the grave put up by her sons who were quite well-to-do by then. In addition her second youngest son Joseph died in 1901, and she herself may well have elected to raise a stone for him. All three are likely to be buried in the same lair.

I can only speculate that when he started fishing ca 1850-52 he did so in small un- decked open boats, but that as the family prospered and Port Erroll became quite a busy fishing village he moved on to bigger sailing boats such as the Scaffies and Zulus. He would not have been involved in fishing from steam drifters. When he came to Ward Cruden ca 1837-42 it would have been a small subsistence-fishing village and he would have grown up through it’s prosperous years when it acquired a harbour and became Port Erroll. It was a thriving community and Andrew probably sensed its decline as the advent of the steam drifter made it fairly certain that its prosperity would soon wane. Bigger deep-water ports such as Peterhead , and Fraserburgh took over from the small fishing villages. But he would certainly have spent his active fishing career during a very upbeat period for his village and the fishing industry.

Almost certainly his ‘T’ name was Hog. I know that my grandfather James Summers’ ‘T’ name was Hog’s Jim. That leaves little doubt as to the identity of Hog ! It is also possible to track his residency in Cruden Bay over his later years through the Property Register, though of course it tells nothing of the man himself. Unfortunately the Cruden Valuation Rolls are not as informative as those for the Parish of Gamrie where ‘T’ names were given to distinguish a greater plethora of Wests and Watts, almost all of whom were named James or John! There were many Summers families in Port Erroll, but not nearly as many as the Wests and Watts of and .

Information Gleaned from the Cruden Valuation Rolls. The archives of the Central Library in Aberdeen hold several of the Port Erroll Valuation Rolls from the year 1880 onwards. The officials who drew up these rolls prior to 1890 used a numeration system which differed from that used by the decennial census takers who adopted the Postal Address Street/Number from 1881 onwards. The Rolls’ house numbers, unfortunately, varied from year to year as the village expanded over the boom years of this period. I have used those Rolls that are still available from 1880 to 1918. The former were the earliest I could find and the latter corresponded to the death of my great-great-grandmother Margaret May who survived Andrew’s death by 22 years. They piece out a fairly confident assessment of where they lived in the village.

In the 1880 Valuation Roll [11] Andrew appears to be either Andrew Summers Jr. in New Block No1 or Andrew Summers at New Block No6. I am inclined to favour the second possibility. His father’s name was Alexander so there was no reason to refer to him as Jr. House No 2 was occupied by James Summers and No 4 by John Summers. In all cases the rent was £6-10s per annum payable to the proprietor, the Earl of Erroll. 5 Andrew Summers (1833-1896) = Margaret Duthie May (1837-1918)

The 1881-82 Roll [12] reveals an almost identical picture. The presence of an Andrew Summers (Fishcurer) in house No. 134 (Hillside Cottage) maybe explain the Andrew Summers Jr. noted above. There is also a Thomas Summers whose trustees have seven tenants each paying £4 p.a. at No. 136. In all probability these are some of the Summers descended from the Summers family group that migrated from Inverallochy to Ward Cruden ca 1840. However I will not pursue the possible family links.

In the 1884-85 Valuation Roll [13] the New Block appears to be renamed (at least by the officers concerned) as The Terrace and Andrew Summers is the tenant in No15 on ‘the upper flat’. Here almost certainly this denotes an upper level of the ‘Terrace’. It is unlikely that ‘flat’ had the housing context of the present day in the 1880s. The yearly rent was still £6-10s.

By the time of the 1892-93 Valuation Roll [14] House No. 279 was redesignated as No. 4 Green Street and had Andrew Summers (Fisherman) as tenant again, but now at a rent of only £2-10s. Housing inflation had plummeted as the decline in the fishing industry became marked in the small coastal villages. Money and resources were now concentrated in the herring industry in the bigger ports such as Peterhead. – But, there also the bubble burst at the end of the 1914-18 War and the depression of the 20s almost killed off the fishing industry. Only the onset of the 1939-44 European war ensured its survival. Towards the end of the second millennium modern undersea detection methods became so efficient that they now threaten to kill off the fish reserves themselves. But, this is another story that I have already told in the chapter titled “Family Fishermen and Their Boats” q.v.

The 1891 Census [15] clearly identified Andrew’s family as staying at No.5 Green Street no matter what number the Rolls officers dreamed up!

By the time of the 1897-98 Valuation, Andrew had died. The Roll [16] showed the tenancy of 5 Green Street to be in the hands of John Summers of 8 Harbour Street. I have no doubt that this was Andrew’s son John (b. ca1870) holding its roof over his mother and younger brothers’ heads. Margaret continued to live at No. 5 Green Street for the rest of her days and her death certificate in 1918, and other information beyond the rolls, confirms this. The 1907-08 Roll [17] records Margaret Summers (widow) as tenant at £2-10s. The 1911-12 Roll [18] listed the area at No.338 (5 Green Street) as a building site as belonging to the Earl of Erroll, with Margaret Summers (widow) as its tenant at £2-10s. and No 339 was “house (tenants erection) No. 5 Green Street, Margaret Summers (widow)”!

14 MARGARET MAY (1837-1918)

Margaret Duthie May was born in the village of Cairnbulg in the Parish of Rathen, Aberdeenshire on 11 May 1837, the third daughter and fourth child of John May, fisherman and his wife Sarah Duthie.

Her next appearance in official records is in the 1841 Rathen Census [20] for the village of Cairnbulg. There she is listed, aged 4, with her father John and mother Sarah both aged 38, her older brother John (11), and her sister Isabella (9), brother 6 Andrew Summers (1833-1896) = Margaret Duthie May (1837-1918)

Thomas (7) and baby sister Ann (1). Her oldest sister Christian is not given as present. By the time of the 1851 Census [21] her mother Sarah (48) is designated as a widow, fisherwoman and head of the household. Christian (22) now appears as an unmarried fisherwoman. Isabella (19) is similarly described and Margaret (13) also. Ann (10) is now described as a scholar and a new sister Barbara (8) appears for the first time.

From these data it seems that Margaret’s father must have died sometime between 1842 and 1851. However, the absence of any further children after Barbara suggests that it is more likely to have been 1841-1845. I was unable to find Barbara’s birth in the OPR ca 1844 although all the older children were registered. This suggests a serious family upset ca 1844 and leads to the suggestion that this was the most probable year of his death. I have assumed that he was lost at sea.

At that time Margaret would have been old enough to feel the loss of her father quite intensely. The sudden disappearance of the family breadwinner with so many young mouths to feed must have caused considerable upset to the whole household. Though they all rallied round including Margaret herself by the time of the census when she as only 13 years of age she must have had a hard life from an early age. The absence of her two brothers, John and Thomas who would have been 21 & 17 respectively if alive in 1851 and 14 &11 in 1844 suggests that they might have been lost with their father in a family boat at sea. If this is correct it must have been a traumatic time for the family.

On the occasion of the 1861 Census [22] only Sarah (60), a ‘mender of nets’, Christian (33) and Barbara (17) , both described as fisherwomen remained in the house. Margaret had migrated to Port Erroll in the Parish of Cruden and in 1856 when she married Andrew Summers on 3 July [4] she was described as a domestic servant aged eighteen. ( She had in fact just turned 19, but since she could not write at that time she probably could not do the arithmetic accurately either) In the 1850s Port Erroll was rapidly becoming a prosperous fishing village, but the most probable place for a domestic servant to work was very obviously Slains Castle, seat of the Earl of Erroll, on the headland just above the village. Significantly neither of her brothers acted as a witness at the wedding of their sister ( and the first to be married!) but a John Crystall and a Thomas Summers did. The latter was probably one of Andrew’s cousins, for there were many young Summers in Port Erroll at that time. However, Chrystall is not an Aberdeenshire name, but it occurs amongst the Slains Castle domestic staff. Later on another very strong link with the Castle will become evident in these paragraphs when I refer to Andrew and Margaret’s youngest son Ben. So I feel fairly certain that Margaret was a servant at the castle in 1856.

Be that as it may, Margaret obviously maintained her affinity to the fishing community. Most of the fishermen in Port Erroll hailed originally from the neighbouring villages of Inverallochy or Cairnbulg in Rathen. Margaret would only have been about 1-6 years old when Andrew and his family left Inverallochy so it is scarcely feasible that she might have known him as a young girl in their native Parish.

Once she was married her family came quickly. Her first child was a daughter, Margaret, born on 6 June 1857, and was to be the only girl amongst the 11 children she bore over the next 22 years. My descent from her comes through her fifth son James, born 1 December 1867. My mother, her granddaughter Mary Ann, knew her 7 Andrew Summers (1833-1896) = Margaret Duthie May (1837-1918) very well from an early age and was always fascinated by and very fond of her ‘Grannie Port Erroll’ as she called her. As a young girl she was always particularly intrigued by where they all slept at night when everyone was in the house at once. But Margaret just laughed and said “ Ah weel, we just had to manage”. ‘A townie’ like my mother used to her parents spacious house in Peterhead probably looked on her Grannies village home as very small, but by the standards revealed in the census it was relatively big, having three rooms with one or more windows! I suppose having nine of her ten surviving children as boys must have eased the sleeping arrangements considerably.

Though neither Margaret nor Andrew could write at the time of their marriage this is a reflection of their difficult times as children rather than their innate mental capabilities. I have just referred to Margaret’s harsh early days, but as I will say later in tracing the history of Andrew’s parents Alexander Summers and Elizabeth Carle q.v. Andrew also had a difficult time in his early life and his schooling was probably badly interrupted or truncated. Nevertheless Andrew and Margaret’s children all ‘did well’ and became substantial citizens :- skippers of herring drifters, ship owners and fish-curers.

My mother related that in her early days at least even with such a numerous young family she foraged far out into the countryside around Port Erroll with a creel of fish on her back helping to sell her husband’s catch. She was always ‘on the go’. Indeed she had to be all her life, and it looks as if her hard work ethic was passed on to her children all of whom seem to have followed her example. Her husband was probably the same, but unfortunately I have no stories of him, no physical description from a Seaman’s Ticket and no photographs. On the other hand there is a studio photograph of Margaret, probably taken when she was in her 70s. She looks quite a regal old lady in her Victorian dress. Andrew who was 4 years older than her died in 1896 [10]. She was 60 at the time, but survived him for another 20 years being virtually 80 when she died [23] at 5 Green Street, Port Erroll on 4 March 1918. Her son William then living at 8 Sinclair Road, Torry, Aberdeen reported her death.

In conclusion, I mentioned above that I would return to her possible service with the Earl of Erroll’s staff at Slains Castle. I have already mentioned that one of the witnesses at her wedding was John Chrystall and that the name Chrystall is not found in Aberdeenshire. In fact Andrew and Margaret gave two of their sons the middle name Chrystall. The first was George Chrystall Summers [24] born on 24 August 1871. He survived only 5 days, dying from debility at birth [25] on the 29th .

However Margaret was determined to incorporate the name in her family and was obviously not of a superstitious nature for she named her next son George Chrystall [26] when he was born on 11 Dec 1872. This George Chrystall survived and was awarded his Skippers’ Certificate in due course [27] However perhaps the most significant connection with Slains Castle comes from her last-born son Ben. He was born Benjamin Buchan Summers [28] on 17 May 1878. My mother knew him well and told me on several occasions that when he was small Margaret was asked to allow him to be adopted by the castle. However, she would give up one of her dearly beloved sons even to them. However, my mother said he was virtually brought up in the castle, and was a playmate for the Earl’ son. She used to joke that there was no room for her Uncle Ben in her grannie’s house anyway. However that may be, in due 8 Andrew Summers (1833-1896) = Margaret Duthie May (1837-1918) course Ben became the Earl’s Butler at Slains and accompanied him everywhere when he moved around the country. During the 1914-18 war Ben joined the Army as the Earl’s batman. I inherited a photograph of him in his Army uniform from my mother. To me the Uncle Ben situation clinches the case for Margaret May being a ‘domestic servant’ at Slains at the time of her marriage in 1856. My mother did not tell me about the earlier connection which I deduced from the evidence I uncovered on paper and of which she may have been unaware. [Slains Castle, now a total ruin is also well known for its connection with Bram Stoker, the writer of the Dracula Stories. I use the word ‘also’ advisedly. I prefer the ‘Uncle Ben’ connection!]

Finally there is one other tiny thing from my paternal great-great-grandmother ‘Maggie May’ as my mother fondly called her. This is a funeral card that she had printed for the funeral of her second last son Joseph who died [29] aged only twenty five on 15 June 1901. I expect it was sent to his brother my grandfather James Summers at 4 Wallace Street Peterhead and that my mother who was only a young girl of some 5-6 years kept it as a family memento. Joseph was single, a fisherman, and lived at 5 Green Street with his mother.

T. S. West Aberdeen January 2000

Sources 1 Old Parochial Records, Parish of Rathen, Births, Village of Inverallochy, Andrew Summers 26 Jan. 1833 (Frame Ref 1100) Aberdeen Central Library. 2 1841 Census, Parish of Rathen, Aberdeenshire, Enumeration Book 6, Inverallochy. 3 1851 Census, Parish of Cruden, Aberdeenshire, Enumeration Book, Port Erroll. 4 Marriage Certificate No 8, 3 July 1856. Andrew Summers = Margaret May, Ward Cruden, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. 5 1861 Census, Parish of Cruden, Aberdeenshire, Enumeration Book, Port Erroll, 6 !871 Census, Parish of Cruden, Aberdeenshire, Enumeration Book, Port Erroll No 24 7 1881 Census, Parish of Cruden, Aberdeenshire, Enumeration Book, Port Erroll No 5 Green Street. 8 1891 Census, Peterhead District, Enumeration Book 5 (pp46-47) 1 Stewart Street. 9 Mariners Almanac 1895, Port of Peterhead, PD 1820 ‘Families Pride’; see also 1902 (pp334-335) PD1820, Families Pride. 10 Death Certificate No 42, Andrew Summers 23 Oct. 1896, Parish of Cruden, Aberdeenshire 11 Valuation Roll, Parish of Cruden, 1880-81, Archives, Central Library, Aberdeen 12 Valuation Roll, Parish of Cruden, 1881-82, Archives, Central Library, Aberdeen. 13 Valuation Roll, Parish of Cruden, 1884-85, Archives, Central Library, Aberdeen. 14 Valuation Roll, Parish of Cruden, 1892-93, Archives, Central Library, Aberdeen. 15 1891 Census, Parish of Cruden, Aberdeenshire, Enumeration Book, Port Erroll. 16 Valuation Roll, Parish of Cruden, 1897-98, Archives, Central Library, Aberdeen. 17 Valuation Roll, Parish of Cruden, 1907-08, Archives, Central Library, Aberdeen. 18 Valuation Roll, Parish of Cruden, 1911-12 Archives, Central Library, Aberdeen. 9 Andrew Summers (1833-1896) = Margaret Duthie May (1837-1918)

19 Old Parochial Records, Parish of Rathen, Village of Cairnbulg, Births, Margaret May 11 May 1837 20 1841 Census, Parish of Rathen, Aberdeenshire, Enumeration Book, Cairnbulg 21 1851 Census, Parish of Rathen, Aberdeenshire, Enumeration Book, Cairnbulg 22 1861 Census, Parish of Rathen, Aberdeenshire, Enumeration Book, Cairnbulg 23 Death Certificate No 5, Margaret Summers, 4 March 1918, Parish of Cruden. 24 Birth Certificate No George Chrystall Summers 24 Aug. 1871, Parish of Cruden, Aberdeenshire. 25 Death Certificate George Chrystall Summers, 29 Aug. 1871, Parish of Cruden, Aberdeenshire. 26 Birth Certificate George Chrystall Summers 11 Dec. 1872, Parish of Cruden, Aberdeenshire. 27 Skippers Certificate No 2500A George Chrystall Summers, Register of Skippers’ Certificates (Fishing Vessels) BT 138/2, PRO, Kew. 28 Birth Certificate Benjamin Buchan Summers, 17 May 1878, Parish of Cruden, Aberdeenshire. 29 Death Certificate, Joseph Summers, 15 June 1901, Parish of Cruden, Aberdeenshire.