FIFE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY JOURNAL
NEW SERIES No 34 Summer 2015
CONTENTS
Contents,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,1 Editorial,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.,,,2 Flesh On The Bones,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,3 Crail Fishing Disaster,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,31 Miss Betty Stott,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,32 The Fife Family History Society,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,33 Waterloo,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,..,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.34 Shorts,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,36 The Fife Gravestones Conference,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,39 The End of An Era,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,; ,,,,,,,,,,,,,40 Buffalo Bill in Kirkcaldy. ByTom Cunningham,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,42 John Goodsir. A Scottish Anatomist and Pioneer. By Michael Tracy,,,,,,,,,,,,,44 Chairman`s Report: AGM, 9 June 2015,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,62 Fife Family History Society: Accounts, 2014-15,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,64 Fife Grave Stones Conference, 2015,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,65 Syllabus, 2015-16,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,66
The next Fife Family History Society Journal will be published in Jan 2016. All articles to the editor by 31 December 2015.
ARTICLES WANTED. Once again the Editor appeals for articles. It would help if these were typed and sent by computer disc or e-mail attachments, but they do not have to be. Please send the articles on in normal spacing, not space and a half or double spacing. Notes should be put at the end of the article, and not as footnotes. This will all help in editing. Hand written articles will also be accepted, but there may be a delay in these appearing in the Journal.
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EDITORIAL
SUBSCRIPTION. Please note that renewal date for subscription to The Fife Family History Society has been changed from 30 September to 1 January. This means that for this year only you have a bonus 3 months subscription. This is to let us change over to the new renewal date. Membership can be paid by sterling cheque or online by Paypal via our website – www.fifefhs.org You can download the form from the website if you would prefer to pay by post.
ELECTRONIC JOURNAL. We are now offering an Electronic Journal. Electronic membership is £10 for everyone, both at home and abroad. The reduction in price reflects the fact that we don`t have to print or post your Journal. One plus is that photos are in colour! If you would like an emailed PDF version of the Journal, please contact our Membership Secretary, Frances Black, at [email protected]. Please make sure that you have given her your up-to-date email and/or address, so that our records are up-to-date.
THE DISCUSSION BOARD on our Website is also open to non-members. Please take time to scroll down the entries, as The Discussion Board is non- searchable. You may find someone you can help, or someone who can you in your research. Email addresses are kept private.
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FLESH ON THE BONES
Sometimes, in collecting books, one is fortunate in finding with them an original letter/letters, or newspaper cuttings These can be valuable in themselves, and all help to extend one`s family history. Here are some of these letters/newspaper cuttings wich the Editor has come across.
BALMERINO. In the Second Edition of Balmerino and its Abbey (1899), by the Rev James Campbell (1828-1914), which was a presentation copy from the Author to Sir Arthur Halkett of Pitfirrane, Baronet, there is a letter from Campbell to Sir Arthur, dated 4 July 1900, The letter was written after a meeting of 24 old soldiers of the 42nd Reg of the Crimea the day before, 3 July 1900, and on the next page is written, probably in the hand of Sir Arthur, “Dr Campbell was Chaplain to the Highland Brigade throughout the Crimean campaign, 1854-5,” while Halkett was their Commander-in-Chief. The letter goes as follows: “Dear Sir Arthur, Please to accept the accompanying volume as a memorial of a day of much enjoyment to me. We reached the station in comfort – thanks to your so kindly sending us in a close carriage. It rained a good deal while we waited for the train, which was late, but being under cover we suffered no inconvenience, while I drove home from Wormit station it was all quite fair, so all ended well. Mr Ferguson returned to Edinburgh yesterday, He was much gratified by his visit to you – as I am sure every individual of the company was. It will be a red-letter day to all of us. We parted from Major Wood [factor at Falkland Palace] at Ladybank, from which he was to drive to Falkland. With kindest regards to yourself and the ladies. I am Yours truly, [signed] Jas Campbell. P.S. I shall carefully preserve the tobacco pouch. It must have cost the ladies much work to prepare so many and so nice bags.” The Rev James Campbell was minister of Balmerino from December 1857 until his death (unmarried) on 27 June 1914.
COLLESSIE. The Editor has, in his collection, a Scrap Album, kept by Miss P C Duncan, Cargill House, Letham, Collessie from 1894 to c 1920. The Album reveals that it was given to Miss Duncan by “a friend” in 1894. It consists, among other items, of family groupings, all of which unfortunately are unnamed. There are coloured photographs cut out from magazines, and pressed flowers. At the rear are newspaper cuttings, mostly of Royal Family during 1st World War, and all undated, apart from one of King George V visting Royal Scots at Redford, from The Evening Dispatch of 10 July 1920.
CRAIL. The Churchyard Memorials of Crail (1893) by Erskine Beveridge. Privately printed by Beveridge, a Dunfermline linen manufacturer (Erskine
3 Beveridge & Co Ltd, St Leonards Works), and noted antiquarian, 113 copies only were published. No 75 of 113 was a Presentation Copy from the Author to Sir James D Marwick, with accompanying letter (with envelope), dated 13 Dec 1893, from Beveridge to Marwick. The letter reads: “Dear Sir, I was exceedingly gratified to have your kind letter as to my book on Crail. You have shown so deep an interest in the Royal Burghs, in the matter of the Convention Records, that I hope you will like to have a copy of my volume for your private library. This I am sending by rail tomorrow, with the greatest pleasure on my part, & trust that you will accept it. I only wonder that I had not thought of it sooner. There is another point – photography – upon which our interests meet. If I remember correctly, you were one of the leading lights of the Edin Photo Soc in the year 1867, when my younger brother and myself became members – at the early ages of 14 and 15 respectively. I think we must have been the youngest members. The Saturday excurstions to Slateford, Gorebridge, etc, were great pleasures to us.
“You mention Camprere or Viera. That town and Middleburgh have had a great interest for me ever since I went through Halyburton`s ledger. I am glad to see that the New Spalding Club is likely to produce a volume upon their archives relating to the Scotch traders. The Camprere Churchyard is just such an one as I would like to explore.
“I am beginning to work at the Old Churchyards of West Fife, including Culross, but the subject is a large one, so that it is with no light heart that I attempt it [Beveridge`s Monumental Inscriptions of the Churchyards of West Fife, and also Elie in East Fife – all manuscript and kept by Dunfermline Central Library - , have been published by The Fife Family History Society]. Believe me, Yours sincerely, [signed] Erskine Beveridge.
CUPAR. Cupar: The Years of Controversy; Its Newspaper Press, 1822-1972, by A J Campbell (Fife Family History Society, 2009), has a letter from former BBC Foreign Correspondent and Independent MP, Martin Bell, dated 7 Dec 2009, thanking Mr Campbell for sending him a presentation copy (Note: his grandfather, Robert Bell, and the latter`s brother, A B Bell, were proprietors of the Fifeshire Journal in Cupar from 1886-87; their father, a merchant in Edinburgh, bought the newspaper for them). The letter reads: “Dear Mr Campbell, Thank you so much for your kindness in sending me a copy of your book on the Cupar (Fife) Newspaper Press from 1822 to 1872. It filled in a lot of gaps for me. Only last month I was speaking in St Andrews to promote a book of my own on the MP`s expenses scandal. I mentioned in passing that my grandfather, Robert Bell, had started his journalistic career in Fife, but I had not known which newspaper. Now I know…I shall pass the book to my sister, Anthea Bell (translator of the Asterix cartoon among her many other accomplishments), since she is the keeper of the family archive. I know the information will also be of great interest to her son, Oliver Kamm, who is now leader writer on The Times. If I am ever asked onto the BBC series “Who Do You Think You Are” I shall certainly know where to start, and give credit where it is due. Yours sincerely (signed) Martin Bell”
4 INVERKEITHING. The Farm at Backyards. The Story of an Urban Farm (1990) by the Rev George Hastie of Cairns Church, Cowdenbeath, has a newspaper clipping on “Farmyard memories recalled,” from a local unnamed newspaper, perhaps the Courier, when he launched the book telling the story of the farm, and presented all the farm bills and receipts and documents, along with a collection of over 120 photographs to Inverkeithing Museum. Mr Hastie`s grandparents took over the 40-acre Backyards Farm in 1916 and in 1974 the steading was demolished to make way for the Deas Road housing development. When his grandparents arrived from East Lothian in the middle of the Great War, Backyards was a dairy farm. There wasn`t much money in dairy farming then, so the couple changed direction and concentrated on intensive vegetable production. They were then able to rent 100 acres at Belleknowes and become large scale potato producers. In the 1930s his father, Ander, one of 4 children, took another step in diversifying the family business by becoming a potato merchant. After the 2nd World War the acreage was gradually whittled away by housing developments, the approach roads to the Forth Road Bridge, and the Belleknowes Industrial Estate. By 1970 all farming had ceased, and four years later the farmhouse was demolished. . Always interested in local history, Mr Hastie had been building a collection of photographs showing how Inverkeithing was changing, but it was only when he returned to Fife in 1988 after being minister at Burdiehouse in Edinburgh for 12 years that he decided to write the book
KINGHORN. Hepburn`s Handy Guide to Kinghorn and Vicinity. With Historical Notes. And A List of Houses and Apartments; Books in The Library, etc, By Gabriel Setoun, and Published by I & M Hepburn, Stationers, Kinghorn, c 1925, has a letter from Mrs N Hepburn of 122 Marchmont Rd, Edinburgh, dated 8.v. (no year), tipped in at the rear, which reads as follows: “My Dear Geddie, I enclose of copy of my sisters` `Guide Book.` I have done what I could to make it a success and I hope you will be able to give it a favourable notice. The description is perhaps not quite in the Guide-Book English, but I have tried – in the limited space – to convey as much information as possible and to make it readable. Kindest regards to all;” NOTE- Gabriel Setoun, was the pseudonym of Thomas Nicoll Hepburn (1861-1930), author; his book on “Barncraig,” was written around West Wemyss, where he was born, the son of Alexander Hepburn, tailor
CHARLETON, COLINSBURGH: Eighty Years` Reminiscences (2 vols, London, 1904), by Colonel John Anstruther-Thomson. The copy in the Editor`s possession is a presentation copy from the Author to Miss Lena Meiklejohn, “in remembrance of her valuable assistance, March 1904,” with ALS Anstruther-Thomson, dated Luzon, Brixham, S Devon, March 24 (1904), to Miss Meiklejohn.
The House of Arnot, and Some of its Branches. A Family History. By James Arnott (Brigade Surgeon-Lieut-Colonel, Indian Medical Service, retired): (Edinburgh: Printed by T & A Constable, and Published by William Brown, 18a George Street; 1918); original black cloth. This copy formerly belonged to an Edward W Arnott, and has his bookplate (loose, within torn brown envelope); also loose newspaper clippings of Arnott Births, Marriages
5 and Deaths, 1927-1936, from The Times; also postcard, franked Chiswick, 13 Jan 1933, to E W Arnott, “Wraystone,” Wray Park Road, Reigate, Surrey, from G W South, Antiquarian and Genealogical Bookseller, 76 Burlington Lane, Chiswick, London W4, offering him for sale “The Arnott Family of England & USA. A Collection of Valuable Genealogical Papers (mostly typed: List of Wills, 1800-1860; Army Lists; BMD; Pedigrees), in one lot at 30s, post free;
Genealogy of the Family of Barclay of Cullairney in Fifeshire, of the Family of Barclay, Lord of Brechin, in Angus-shire, and of the first Lords Berkeley of Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, from the year 1066. The Barclays of Collairnie were an ancient family in Fife, who held the lands for over 450 years, from at least 1350 to 1790. Their progenitor was Sir David de Berkeley of Carny, who was killed at the Battle of Bannockburn, 24 June 1314. The first Baron of Collairnie, David Barclay, fell at the Battle of Pinkie, 10 September 1547. The burying place of the Barclays of Collairnie for generations was in the Old Kirk and Kirkyard of Creich. Over a niche in the wall of the Church, evidently intended for an altar tomb, the arms of Barclays of Collairnie are carved, and it is probable that the earliest members of the family are buried here. In July 1839, when digging a grave within the old Church of Creich, there was discovered a tombstone, on the top of which are carved two figures, one of a man in a complete coat of chain mail, and the other of a lady in a long embroidered robe. On the outer edge of the stone, which is bevelled, is an inscription in old English characters. The stone was evidently erected by David de Berclay in memory of his wife, Helena de Douglas, who died 29 Jan 1421, which accounts for the date of his own death being left blank. In 1790 Sir Henry Steuart-Barclay of Collairnie sold Collairnie, Kilmaron, Hilton, and Pitblado to Francis Balfour, M.D., of Fernie,
The book above is in manuscript, prob c 1850, written in black ink and bound up in black cloth boards in a probable later binding. It has 140 folios, of which 139 and 140 are blank, and preceding folio 1 is a page of coloured manuscript Barclay coats-of-arms, with accompanying typed description; at rear of the book is a series of loose manuscript and printed notes on the Barclay family collected by Hugh Arthur Hay-Barclay (b 1901) XXII of Collairnie, who was a vet surgeon, with his photograph, photograph of his father, David Hay-Barclay (1853-1930) XXI of Collairnie, and a carte-de-visite of Robertson Gourlay Wilson by David Campbell, photographer in Ayr. There are 2 photographs of Inchrye House (the ancestral home of the Balfours of Pilrig) before it was knocked down; and 2 loose bookplates of Hay of Paris in Perthshire. There is a clipping from the Daily Telegraph of 28.6.1969 of a letter from Arthur Hay of Park, re the male descent of his family, and the reply from The Daily Telegraph, dated 8th July 1969, to Hugh Arthur Hay-Barclay re getting in touch with this Arthur Hay of Park. Also draft copy of letter which Hugh Arthur Hay- Barclay wrote to this Arthur Hay: “With reference ot the letters on families with unbroken male descent, I can claim that I am XXII male descendant of of the Ist Sir David de Berkley of Collairnie Castle, the ruins of which stand about 7 miles NW of Cupar, Fife. The first recorded Collairnie Barclay was killed at Bannockburn fighting the English under Bruce on June 24, 1314. Arthur
6 Barclay, Heir Male XIX [of Collairnie] married his first cousin, Jane Hay, daughter of Hugh Hay of Paris, Arngask, Glenfarg, Perthshire, a cadet branch of the family of Errol. The house was sold by my grandmother, widow of Arthur Hay-Barclay, as my father, David Hay-Barclay XXI of Collairnie was still a minor. The house is now known as Fordel House, Glenfarg.” Also letter from John M Playfair of Baltilly House to Hugh Arthur Hay-Barlcay. There is also an original one-paged printed Genealogy of Hay of Paris in Perthshire, dating from the 18th century, with manuscript notes in ink at side On the front pastedown is another bookplate of Hay of Paris, also embroidered stitching, “Paris House,” underneath which has been written in ink at a much more later date: “Paris House became Fordel of Glenfarg. On sale to General Kirkland, thence General Marindin, Governor of Edinburgh Castle;”
A Genealogical Account of The Family of Beatson. By Alexander John Beatson. Two editions were published in 1860, the second “strictly limited” to 70 copies. The Beatsons were originally Border families who inhabited the valley of the Esk in Dumfries-shire. The surname was formed by the adding of “son” to Bat, Baty, or Batie, which are diminutives of the Christian name, Bartholomew. It is thought that the clan Batie were forced out of England in the latter half of the 11th century by the Norman invaders and into the Scottish borders, where they sought the protection of Malcolm Canmore. Some Border Baties were quite troublesome and by an Act of 1587 and similar earlier Acts these Baties were transported northward of the Forth. It was not a wholesale deportation of the clan, but these Batie transportees laid the foundations of the numerous families of Beatson found in Fife in the 17th century.
In the Genealogical Account of the Families of Beatson (1860) and also in The Story of the Surname of Beatson by William Burns Beatson, which was published in The Genealogical Magazine, Vol III (1899-1900), the authors concentrate on one Fife family, whose progenitor was James Beatson (1598- 1674). In 1645 this James Beatson obtained a tack for 16 years of the lands of Norther Kilrie and Pasker Milne in Kinghorn parish from the Earl and Countess of Moray, and shortly afterwards he became Chamberlain to the Earl of Dirleton, on whose estate of Innerwick in the County of Haddington he resided for several years. Whether he was a native of Fife or an immigrant from the Borders or from some other part of the Kingdom is uncertain, but there was a tradition in the family that he was a Cavalier who had to leave Lancashire on account of his attachment to the cause of Charles I. This is by no means improbable, for in January 1650 the future King Charles II, when in Scotland, granted to James Beatson half of the lands of Balbairdie for his faithful and generous services to the Crown. Afterwards he acquired the lands of Kilrie, by which title he is designated on his monument, which used to stand in Kinghorn Churchyard. He died on the 9th May 1674 (not 1647 as recorded in Robert Monteith`s “Theater of Mortality” (1713). His wife, Marjorie Walker died 22 March 1676. From this family came the Beatsons of Kilrie, the Beatsons of Vicarsgrange, the Beatsons of Glasmount, the Beatsons of Balbairdie, the Beatsons of Northern Pitteadie, and the Beatsons of Rossend Castle (all in Kinghorn and Burntisland parishes), and also the Beatsons of Powguild, Contle, Micklebeath and Pitkennie in Fife, Mawhill in Kinross, and also Campbeltown in the West of Scotland. Several members of the family
7 rose to prominence in the Indian Army and East India Company Service and other spheres, including Lieut-General Alexander Beatson (1759-1833), who was Governor-General of St Helena from 1808-1813, before Napoleon was imprisoned there in 1815; also George Steward Beatson (d 1874), surgeon- general in India and principal medical officer of the European troops stationed there; and Robert Beatson (1741-1818), author of “General View of the Agriculture of the County of Fife” (1794).
The copy in question is inscribed G S Beatson, 1871. This is Surgeon- General George Stewart Beatson (1814-1874), the 3rd son of Captain Henry Dundas Beatson of Campbelltown, and Margaret, daughter of Roger Stewart of Greenock. He entered the Medical Staff in 1838, served in Ceylon from 1839 until 1851, when he became Surgeon of the 51st Light Infanty. He was promoted Surgeon-General on 1 May 1863, and was principal Medical Officer of the British troops in India from 1863-68 and from 1872 until his death at Simla, 7 June 1874, of heart disease and pleurisy, He was appointed Honorary Physician to Queen Victoria, 13 March 1866. There are clippings of obituary notices from the Army and Navy Gazette (13 June 1874), The Lancet (13 June 1874), and The British Medical Journal.
It is obvious that the book continued in this branch of the family, for there are newspaper cuttings on 2 of the Surgeon-General`s sons – Sir George Thomas Beatson (1848-1933), and Major-General Finlay Cochrane Beatson (1855-1933). The former was a cancer specialist in Glasgow, and pioneer in the field of oncology, developing a new treatment for breast cancer. Major- General Finlay Cochrane Beatson served as Instructor at the Staff College at Sandhurst from 1889 to 1898, and among his pupils were the future Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig and many other future higher commanders and staff officers of the 1st World War. He will be long remembered for his studies of Wellington`s campaigns in the Napoleonic Wars. His first was “With Wellington in the Pyrenees,” which appeared in 1914, and was followed by :Wellington: The Crossing of the Gaves and the Battle of Orthez” (1925), and “The Bidassoa and Nivelle” in 1931. He died at Guildford on 20 Aug 1933 aged 78. There is also a manuscript note on another son, Colonel W J A Beatson, who died at Marseilles in December 1908.
Also with the book is a 2-paged manuscript biographical account of Major- General Roger Stewart Beatson (1812-1896), Royal Engineers – brother of the above Surgeon-General George Stewart Beatson – written on very fragile blue paper, which is wrinkled and chipped at the outer edges. Another brother was Surgeon-General John Fullarton Beatson (1816/17-1898) of the Bengal Army.
An extensive hand-written family tree also comes with the book, as well as an original photograph of Surgeon-General G S Beatson
Genealogical Memoirs of The Echlin Family, Compiled from Various Authentic Sources, with Extracts from A Manuscript Memorial composed by George Crawfurd, Esq., in The Year 1747. Second Edition – Revised and Enlarged. By Rev John R Echlin. For Private Distribution (ND, c 1880);
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The Echlins were an ancient family in Inverkeithing parish, owning the lands of Pittadro from at least 1457 to 1609. The first known laird was William Echlin, whose name appears in October 1457. He was probably the grandfather, if not the great-grandfather of the next known, James Echlin, who acquired the lands by inheritance in about 1504-05, and married Janet, dau of “Forbes of Joneleth,” but probably Tours of Innerleith, who died before October 1539.
Next in succession was his eldest son, William Echlin, who married before 1542 Alison, dau of Sir John Melville of Raith and sister of Sir James Melville of Halhill, the autobiographer. They had at least two sons, Henry (his successor) and James, but possibly three, for the John Echlin of Pittardo, Master of Arts, who taught literature and philosophy in St Leonard`s College, St Andrews, where he died in November 1603 aged 52, and whose memorial stone is now in the St Andrews Cathedral Museum, can perhaps be identified as another son. Henry Echlin died on April 1 1608, and was succeeded by his eldest son, William Echlin. In Jan 1609 the lands of Pitmilly were apprised from him at the instance of John Monnypenny, fiar of Pitmilly. He married Margaret Henderson, daughter of James Henderson of Fordell. This Lady Pittadro was later noted as a witch, and died in prison in Edinburgh, either by self-strangulation or poisoning, “but we leave that to the judgment of the great day” (Lamont`s Diary)
Later the Echlins became Baronets at Echlinville, County Down, in Ireland. The first was Sir Henry Echlin, who was knighted 5 Nov 1692, and created a baronet on 17 Oct 1721. He died 29 Nov 1725. “It may be mentioned, that owing to the reckless extravagance of some of the Family (to wit, the 3rd and 4th Baronets, and their wives), their property already considerably diminished by the faiilure of the male issue of Sir Robert Echlin (the 2nd Baronet), and the marriage of his daughter with Francis Palmer, was utterly squandered and lost. Since that period of folly and ruin, the “Echlins, Baronets,” have been reduced to a state of comparative poverty. A short but interesting sketch of this sad portion of the Family History will be found in Sir Bernard Burkes`s “Vicissitudes of Families, 3rd Series, p8. The present baronet, Sir Thomas Echlin, is endeavouring, by a life of honourable industry in the Royal Irish Constabulary Depot, Phoenix Park, Dublin, to obtain a respectable livelihood.”
The author, Rev John Robert Echin (1811-1891), curate at Ambleside in Westmoreland in 1840, writes in the Introduction to this book: “Several years ago I printed verbatim from the above Manuscript [Crawfurd] (with the notes and cited authorities, 100 copies for private distribution, adding an Appendix, compiled by myself, setting forth the more modern lineage of the Family. The edition being long since exhausted, and applications for copies being from time to time made by Friends and Relations, it occurred to me to print a Second Edition of the Pamphlet, with the needful corrections, together with such further family memoranda as I have been able to procure.” It is probable, therefore, that this Second Edition also consisted of 100 copies, as it is very scarce today. The copy I have seen comes with some loose ephemera, including a manuscript family tree, a printed genealogical lineage, some family
9 photographs, and a note on the death of Sir Thomas Echlin, 7th Baronet. There are also 3 obituary notices of the Rev John Robert Echlin from the “Lakes Herald” and “Record,” both of 18 Sep 1891; and the “English Churchman” of 15 Oct 1891, and some loose newspaper marriage and death notices, including that of his son, Captain Frederic Echlin, who died at Sandgate, Kent, on 12 Dec 1906. A pencil note tells us that the book was “Bought at an auction in Rabat (Morocco)”
Henderson Chronicles. A Roster of the Descendants of Alexander Henderson of Fordell, County Fife, Scotland, three of whose sons emigrated to the American Colonies prior to 1740, and settled near Alexandria Va. Compiled by John N McCue, 1915. Laid in are three letters, two of which are manuscript; of the two latter letters, one is from Mrs Nobel E Baskett of Kansas City, Missouri, dated 17 Sep 1948, concerning the Hendersons in the book; the second is from Elva Goodhue, dated 8/6/1948, and relates many interesting details of the family – for example, it mentions that two early ancestors were murdered by Indians in 1764 in Virginia; the third letter is typed, from Dorothy V Keck, Out-of-Print Books, of 1360 West Riverview, Decatur, Illinois 62522, offering the book for sale at $35 US, post paid
KENNOWAY: Richard Kennoway and His Friends (London; 1908) was written by Katharine Steuart, pseudonym of Agnes MacIver Logan (d 1928); presentation copy in 1928 from Anne H Hamilton of 6 Carvarron Rd, Caulfield to a Mrs Elis Wilkie of Horsburgh, Almadale, with letter, dated 16 Dec 1928, within addressed envelope, and reads in part: “I am sending you a copy of R Kennoway & His Friends. ..I have a glossary somewhere which I will let you copy when I can lay my hands on it. Some of the names are real, some fictitious. RK is Richard Greig, who married a sister of Great Grandmama Clow (nee Morison) and had some descendants in Scotland, whom we know and love, including the Authoress…;”
ST ANDREWS. The Lyons of Cossins and Wester Ogil, Cadets of Glammis (Edinburgh: George Waterston & Sons, 1901) by Andrew Ross (Marchmont Herald), has the signature of William Morgan Playfair, St Andrews, 1904, on forward end paper, and the ink stamp of Col W M Playfair on front pastedown opposite; the book deals in part with the Playfair family of St Andrews, and also the Rev Charles Jobson Lyon, minister at St Andrews; with the book comes 5 pages of manuscript notes, in the handwriting of Colonel W M Playfair, from a small note-book, on The True Story of Fanny Schaffalitzky – Plowden – adopted daughter of Dr George Playfair, father of Lyon, 1st Baron Playfair of St Andrews
Introduction and Illustrations in The Melvilles, Earls of Melville and The Leslies, Earls of Leven (Privately Printed, Edinburgh; 1890) by Sir William Fraser, presentation copy from Sir William Fraser, “To my respected friend, David Chalmers, Esq., of Redhall, with all Kind regards, 20 June 1891;” gummed to rear pastedown is a manuscript letter (with accompanying envelope), dated 32 South Castle Street, Edinburgh, 3 May 1893, from Sir
10 William Fraser to the above David Chalmers of Redhall, enclosing a copy of the seal of James Chalmers of Gadgirth, who was Secretary to the leading committee of the Covenanters, Argyll, Montrose, and others
ANSTRUTHER. John Nairne (1711-1795; Mininster of Anstruther Easter) And His Descendants, by C S N (ie Charles Sylvester Nairne) was Printed for Private Circulation by Messrs Mccorquodale & Co Ltd, Edinburgh,1931); has the bookplate of Baron Horne of Stirkoke, and a manuscript letter (loose) to Lady Horne, from the compiler, C S Nairne, dated Winchester, 24 January 1931, and goes as follows: “Dear Lady Horne, Thank you for saying that you will take a copy of ‘John Nairne and his Descendants.’ Your family have all responded generously to my circular, and I am only hoping that I will give them fair value for money. I am sorry that Helen Nairne`s (Mrs Hall`s) picture will not be included. I have had to limit pictures to about 10, and actually I was unable to get a photograph of Mrs McVean`s picture. She is not my sister, but a very distant cousin, one of the Cowan branch – as you know one of Helen Hall`s daughters married Hugh McCorquodale, and the other Alexr Cowan, while her brother, Dr James Nairne, was my great-grandfather. His picture is to appear. I will let you know when to send the money, when you get the book in a few months time. Yours sincerely, C S Nairne – Mrs Sherlock has ordered a copy”
The Platt Lineage. A Genealogical Research and Record. For Private Circulation (NewYork: Thomas Whittaker; 1891), by G Lewis Platt; has the ink inscription of “Spencer Ewart (purchased 1911)” on front pastedown, and was a presentation copy to Frederick Platt Higgins, Esq, with regards of the Author, Sept 20, ’92; and enclosed is loose manuscript letter, dated New York, 22 September 1892, from the author, G Lewis Platt, Rector of St Paul`s Church, to Higgins, which begins: My dear Sir, I am glad to mail to you to-day a copy of my work, entitled: “The Platt Lineage.” On the forward end paper is also written: “Spencer Ewart, 1911 (purchased at a bookshop in St Martin`s Lane)”
ST ANDREWS. Notes on The Scottish Family of Playfair. By Rev A G Playfair. Third Edition, October 1913. Published by the Author. This is inscribed Jane Playfair Chrystal Menzies, Aldham, near Colchester, 1920. The volume contains 3 loose pages of typed notes on the Playfair family, written by Sir R Lambert Playfair. Also there is a manuscript letter from Jean P C Carleton of Whins, Farnham, Surrey, dated 12 March 1956, to her cousin, Charles (no surname present), which gives a provenance of the book, and reads in part: “I stayed with Margaret Lee two years ago and she told me that on her death I was to have her Playfair book, and asked if I was to send you my copy, which isn`t such a full one. I was born in Morningside Manse in 1882 (my father was minister of the Parish Church)…I am sorry my book was written on, but it was done before I knew I was to have Margaret`s one…I was married to a Menzies for many years, hence the name on front of my book, but he died, also many years ago”
DUNFERMLINE & KIRKCALDY. A Souvenir of William Robertson. Nat., Dunfermline, 17 March 1829. Obit., Kirkcaldy, 22 April 1902 (Kirkcaldy:
11 Printed for Relatives and Friends; 1903). At one time the family had in their possession a pedigree showing their descent from the ancient family of Robertson of Struan, but that pedigree was lost, and the family could not trace their descent beyond an Andrew Robertson, miller or maltster at Milesmark, in the late 18th century. With the book comes a printed card from The Scotsman of 13th August 1903, which reads: “A ‘Souvenir of William Robertson,’ an ex- Councillor of Kirkcaldy, whose loveable character and public spirit gained him many friends, has been prepared by his son, Mr David Robertson. The little volume, printed in tasteful form by the Allen Lithographic Company, Kirkcaldy, contains a good deal than is of more than merely local and personal interest in its pictures of life, character, and bygone customs and in its specimens of Scots lyrics, some of them written by the subject of the souvenir and set to music by his intimates”
Robert Dick, Baker, of Thurso. Geologist and Botanist. By Samuel Smiles. (London: John Murray, 1878); Tenth Thousand. Inscribed on title page: “C M Maynard; purchased at John Knox`s House, Edinburgh, June 13 1941;” there is a manuscript note (undated), signed “Iain,” and apparently in a different hand, as follows: “I thought that this would interest you. I came across it in the course of looking for a book on Botany. I saw this book just when Myrtle was down here, but at that time it wasn`t for sale. I don`t know whether this is the same one as is in the Thurso Library or not”
KIRKCALDY. The Life of Alexander Stewart. Prisoner of Napoleon and Preacher of the Gospel. Written by himself to 1815, abridged by Dr Albert Peel to 1874. With a Preface by his Grandson, Sir P Malcolm Stewart, Bart (Printed at the University Press, Oxford; 1947; Second Impression, 1948), Published for The Sir Halley Stewart Trust by George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 40 Museum Street, London. A copy seen has 2 loose compliments slips (one from Sir P Malcolm Stewart; and the other from the Sir Halley Stewart Trust) and also a typed letter, from Sir P Malcolm Stewart, Bart, on Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Limited, London, headed notepaper (he was President of the Company), dated 6 September 1949, and addressed to “My dear Jean,” and goes as follows: “In the hopes that it may interest you I am sending you, under separate cover, a copy of the life of my grandfather, Alexander Stewart, whose story has been described as an epic of perseverance in adversity. My ancestors lost their lands in fighting for the Stuart cause and moved to Kirkcaldy where they were humble God-fearing people. However, I leave you to read the story for yourself. Do not overlook that there is a map at the end of the book showing my grandfather`s journeys across France and back, mostly in chains. I thank you for your willing help on the occasion of our delightful visit to Alastair, which we so much enjoyed. With all good wishes, I am, Yours sincerely (signed) P Malcolm Stewart.” From the Sir Halley Stewart Trust slip (actually a letter, dated March 1949) we find that: “The book was at once acclaimed as an important historical record. It describes how a very remarkable man triumphed over appalling horror, suffering and peril, and it reveals his unique character. Accordingly, the Trustees decided to sponsor a further edition so that this valuable work became available to the public. They also decided that, having regard to the fact that the Rev Alexander Stewart and Sir Halley Stewart were such
12 vigorous Congregationalists, a copy should be presented to all Ministers of the Denomination”
John Thomson of Duddingston. Landscape Painter. His Life and Work, with Some Remarks on The Practice, Purpose and Philosophy of Art. By Robert W Napier. (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, Tweeddale Court; 1919); The copy seen also contains a loose clipping on Thomson of Duddingston from the Scotsman of August 31 1940; an article on Duddingston, An Old-World Retreat, from the Scotsman of March 8 1932; and a manuscript letter, dated March 15 1932, from the Author, R W Napier, which goes as follows: “To Mr Ballingall, Sorry I cannot at the moment lay hands on printed sheets of reviews of my book, ‘Thomson of Duddingston,’ but I jot on the other side a few extracts from the reviews and opinions I can recall, and no doubt this will be sufficiently useful to you (signed) R W Napier.” Thomson`s progenitors resided at Weddersbie, and were the proprietors of the lands of Newton of Collessie
Historical Account of The Family of the Trails of Blebo, Fifeshire. Manuscript account, written before 1850; on 3rd page is written: “Wm Brown, Aberdeen, 17th June 1850. This MS given to me this day by our family when convened and appropriating some of our mother`s Books, etc.” Below this is written in another and later hand: “Given to me by my dear Father, R Brown;” the R Brown is probably the R Brown-Borthwick whose name and address (The Ulers, near Kestwick, Cumberland) is written on forward end paper, opposite his bookplate, which has been gummed to the front pastedown; a total of 63 leaves, with additional blank leaves bound in;
Genealogy and Descendants of Rev Thomas Guthrie, D.D., and Mrs Anne Burns or Guthrie, connected chiefly with the Families of Chalmers [Aberdeen] and Trail [of Blebo], to which Mrs Guthrie belonged, through her Mother, Mrs Christina Chalmers or Burns, and her Great-Grandmother, Mrs Susannah Trail or Chalmers. Also including references to the Families of Guthrie and Burns. Compiled from Family Records, Letters, Diaries, Will, Tombstones, Title Deeds, Newspapers, Church and Parish Registers, Minutes of Church Courts, State Papers, and Contemporary Literature. With Ninety-Six Illustrations. By Charles John Guthrie (K.C., Sheriff of Ross, Cromarty and Sutherland); (Edinburgh: Andrew Elliot, 17 Princes Street; 1902). Inscribed to to Captain James Muirhead, M.C., with best wishes from his affectionate cousins, Lord and Lady Guthrie, 13 Royal Circus, Edinburgh, April 1919. The book also has a loose detailed typed family tree of the Burn family from 1490 , inscribed 13 Nov 1923, James Muirhead, but the tree was not compiled by him, for the last date noted is 1891
Some Account of the History of The Tod Family and Connections. Compiled by John Tod in the year 1917 (Published by the Author, in the USA. No 39 of 50 was a Presentation copy from the Author in 1931, to Mrs John Wallas – (Lillias Desmonde) in recognition of her splendid historical radio program of the City of Youngston, Ohio, 4/10/31. The Tod family had their origins in Gospetry in Strathmiglo parish.
13 LARGO. Memorials of The Family of Wood of Largo. Collected and Arranged by Mrs Montagu. Printed for Private Circulation, 1863. The copy seen has a printed note on Mark Wood, the representative of the ancient family of Wood of Largo, gummed to bottom of page 100, and comes with a loose letter, dated 12 June 1933, from D H Peffers, Book and Print Seller, Coldstream, and addressed to Rev D MacMichael, The Manse, Largo, offering him for sale this copy of the Woods of Largo, price One Guinea, post free.
The Book of Wallace. By Rev Charles Rogers. (Edinburgh: Printed for the Grampian Club; 1889; Two Volumes). According to a note on the forward end paper of Volume 1, the books were given by Hugh R Wallace of Cloncaid in Ayrshire (the male representative of the House of Wallace; see p116 of Volume 1) to J G K Young of Glendoune, Girvan, and there is an envelope addressed to him (though no letter), franked May 8 1899.
Modern Scottish Poets. With Biographical and Critical Notices. First to Sixteenth Series, 1880-1897, published D H Edwards, Brechin. This set rebound in full leather, is perhaps the set which belonged to George Bruce, the St Andrews poet, for there is a loose ALS from Edwards to Bruce, dated Brechin Advertiser Office, 21 Sep 1893, which goes as follows: “To Geo Bruce Esq. Dear friend, - I have your favour, & beg to thank you very gratefully for kind encouraging letter. I send the only copy of the 12th Series now to be had. All copies are very scarce up to 13th. I do not know how the 12th sent to you had gone amissing. Mr Smith [perhaps D C Smith, author of St Andrews Lyrics] was also short of that vol., and they seem to have been marked off as sent. It is now too late to see at Post Office people; & I am glad to have the vol to send to you now, Many thanks for your kindly interest. I am now feeling a little stronger, & if the winter is not too hard on me, I will hope to see your Ancient City (yet) another year. By that time I will have got the last vol of the work out, I hope. It has been heavy, wearing work. I trust this will find all at your fireside hardy and well. Ever yours very truly (signed) D H Edwards.” NOTE: George Bruce (1825-1904) was a native of St Andrews, the son of Dr Henry Bruce, medical practitioner, and Janet Brown (who were married 6 July 1822); his parents both died when he was young: his father on 6 March 1836, and his mother on 18 Dec 1840; by profession he was a master joiner, builder and contractor, and was the contractor for the Leuchars- Bogton Railway Stations in connection with the Tay Bridge line; his best work, from a family history point of view is “Wrecks and Reminiscences of St Andrews Bay: With The History of the Lifeboat, And A Sketch of The Fishing Population in the City, With A Glance at its Early History (Dundee: John Leng & Co, 1884)
KENNOWAY. The Book of Nettercaps, Being Poutery, Poetry, and Prose. By Alexander Burgess (1806-1886), “Poute,” of The Leven Saat Pans (Dundee: Printed at The Advertiser Office, Bank Street; 1875). Alexander Burgess was a native of Kennoway, dancing master; he committed suicide by drowning in 1886. One copy seen is inscribed in pencil opposite the title page, “From P Kennedy to James Kennedy.” On the black forward end paper, there has been written in pencil, and difficult to make out due to the black paper – “Received from Robert W Crombie Auld, New York City, Christmas Day,
14 1922., being a gift from the Library of the late James Kennedy, Auld`s friend & mine (signed) James D Law. I have the second edition of “Poute`s” book [published by Westwood of Cupar in 1890], and this is a great prize”
Another copy has a large number of extras. This was a presentation copy to D H Edwards of the Brechin Advertiser Office, publisher of Modern Scottish Poets (16 vols, 1880-1897). Gummed on the front pastedown is the presentation inscription: “To D H Edwards, With the Author`s sincerest esteem & regards. Lift thy horn on high – May 3 1875.” On the forward end paper opposite is written: “With Poute Esq M.P.`s kind regards, to all the friends of his much respected and esteemed friend, D H Edwards. Coupmyhorn, July 26 1875;” there is also a newspaper clipping of his “determined suicide” in August 1886: “He went amissing from his house at Coup-my-horn, where he resided with his youngest daughter – his wife having predeceased him a few years ago – without his coat, as if he did not intend going far. His continued absence caused alarm; and search was made for him in several quarters. At length his lifeless body was found in an old water-filled quarry on the farm of Newton of Markinch to the west of Star. He had been observed on the road near the quarry prior to his entering the water, which he seem to have done by wading until in about four or five feet of water. His fiddle-bag, with stones in it, was fastened with a rope to his body; thus showing his determination to carry out the act of self-destruction. He was known far over Fifeshire as a teacher of dancing, and had only made arrangements for opening a class at Wemyss on the evening of the day in which he disappeared. He was in his 79th year. On Friday his remains were interred in Kennoway burying ground. The funeral was numerously attended. It is said that the act was the result of a fit of melancholy induced by some one having found fault with his violin playing on the previous Saturday,”
A newspaper clipping, probably from the same newspaper and published the following week, gives some details of his life: “The deceased was born at Lalathan in 1806, and during his earlier years was engaged as an outdoor worker in the summer time, varied by handloom weaving in winter. At an early periond he exhibited a marked taste for music, dancing and poetry. He became so skilful on the violin that his friends induced him to give up manual work altogether, and commence as a dancing master. This was upwards of half-a-century ago, and during that period Mr Burgess had a most successful career, having taught classes in the different villages of the County with much acceptance. He may be said to have been a general favourite with old and young, being of a couthy, amiable disposition, and of exuberant spirits and sprightliness. There is also a newspaper clipping of his life, from the People`s Journal (and probably published at his death), written by the Editor, W D Latto (a native of Ceres), which reveals that Poute`s connection with the Journal dated as far back as 7th September 1861; and a review of his later book, published by Alexander Westwood & Son in 1890; there is also a report on “Poute – A Local Humourist” from the Leven Advertiser and Wemyss Gazette of 18 Nov 1924
Also with the book are 2 original letters written by Alexander Burgess to D H Edwards. The first is dated Coupmyhorn, 15 Jan 1878, and goes as follows:
15 “My dear Mr Edwards, Wishing you all the amenities of the New Year and that Mrs Edwards and family sprouts may be long spaired to see our ball make many revolutions around its orbit. I cannot express how much I think of your mindfulness of me in not forgetting to send me a copy of your neatly got up Almanacs. I am sorrow [sorry] that I have nothing better to send you than a copy of the one I have sent you on former occasions, I mean of course the issue for [18]78. I see that Mr Innes and you has [have] not been at the same shop this year, as your insides are different – I mean of course the Almanacs. Mr Innes takes the way to take the market. He says that upwards of 12,000 have been sold. He gives 500 prizes fo the value of £130, and whoever purchases an Almanac has a chance of one of the prizes, I have always been an unlucky dog, although I have always bought a number of copies. Mrs Poute, however, is a little more fortunate. One year she obtained a prize – a volume called The Christian Year; this year she had the luck to get another volume, “Supper`s Poetical Works.” The highest prize was about £8 value. I think you may do worse than try something of a similar sort yourself. It cannot exactly be called a lottery, as you get the value for your money in the book itself, as either of the Almanacs is well worth their price. Excuse me, it is only a work in passing. You was telling me that you were engaged in compiling a work at the present time. You are truly an enterprising and versatile genius, and ought to be encouraged. As soon as it emanates, send me a copy, and scart me down in the meantime as one of your subscribers as long as ye`ve mind, It is not everyone that like you can say that he is his own printer, binder, and publisher. I think a great deal of your artistic taste, and skill in each of these departments, and I hope your energy will turn yet to good account.
As for me I am getting on the sore and yellow leaf, as people get old their perception loses its clearness, memory becomes unfaithful, clouded, and dull. Although I try to be as (jocular) and humorous as I can, still there is not that boyancy of spirit as in the long ago, I cannot help it, and must submit to give place to younger intellects, to look on, and console myself with the reflection that “I`ve seen the day.” One thing: I shall ever be proud and well pleased to hear or receive any thing from you; I know that it is a bother to write a letter by snatches; when interrupted by playfull Poute pulling at your coat-tail, or attending to customers; but when you have a few moments to spaire at night after auditing the ledger please write a few lines to your old Poute. I have every communication in safe and careful keeping that ever I have had the honour of receiving from you. Indeed, I have a pride – it may be a sort of weakness – in preserving the correspondence of literary friends. I ought to have wrote you long ago, but although I have been apparently procrastinating, be assured that I have not been forgetful. I had nothing of note to communicate, and it would only have been writing for its own sake to have troubled you. I may occasionally send you a Fife paper if you are not an agent. With best respects to Mrs Edwards and your noble self – not forgetting the other members of the family, I remain, Mr Edwards, your most obed, Servant (in which Mrs Poute joins me), Alex Burgess, Poute”
The second letter is dated Coupmyhorn, 30 September 1879. “My very dear Mr Edwards, I am in receipt of your interesting note, and am delighted with the important intelligence which it reveals. Although you may consider me remiss
16 or careless I often think of you. Every scrap from your pen as well as the book which I have from you are in safe keeping and by me highly prized. Seventy Nine is a year which so long as I am spaired to live I will never forget. . As the day of my birthday and the day of my marriage it will ever be memorable. Four months ago it pleased God to take from me my beloved partner in life [Janet Gold], which to me has been a heavy loss indeed. Since the tender bereavement I have been sad and cheerless indeed. But what can I do? It becomes my duty to bow, and with meek submission to hear the rod and him that hath appointed it. I know all this; still it is hard to bear the final parting, when those who for a long period of years have been bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, with all the other ties and endearments of a loving wife are taken from us to that cold and silent house appointed for us all.
“I have five girls and a son [who became a gardener in England]. The son and oldest girl are married; the other girls are all in place in Edinburgh, save the youngest who lives with her old parent to minister to his comfort in his declining years.
“Since the bereavement I have done little – indeed nothing – with the pen save a letter now and then to a friend. And now, as you are over head and ears engaged with your new enterprise, I shall not plague you with many remarks nor worry you with much paper. I am happy – very happy – to hear from yourself that you are prospering in the world; assuredly it gives me much pleasure to hear this. And what is more – I am sure you deserve it. I think a true motto is: “Deserve success and your will command it.” God helps them best, who help themselves. Another thing I can see in this, you do not seem to have been disobedient in the command recorded in Gen.1.22., seeing that you have already the responsibility of bringing up five “ladies!” I hope you will have – to make things square – the happiness of adding a (d) to the middle of the next five to mak` them “laddies.”
“I have been bothered all this year nearly, with a sprain or pain in my heel bone. Had it not been that the seat of the rascal is in a place where I have much exercise, I would have inclined to set him down for the gout! But that is surely too much of an aristocratic complaint to cleave to such a one as I. At all events it has unfitted me from following my profession, as save one fortnight or so I have done nothing at all in my line. Although I can make a shift to walk, I am unable to spring or to lift my corporal corporation of 13½ stone(s) upon it.
“But to business – will you solicit me to write something introductory for your new enterprize. Now really, Mr Edwards, I do not consider myself qualified. In conscience I really do not, for such a thing as that. I merely write light pieces for amusement, and have not the education to write with that polish or refinement which would please your taste. If any thing from me takes. I am sure that it is on account of my oddness of expression and not owing to any thing else. I only wish that I could write to please myself.
“Besides you did not instruct me what my theme should be or how to write. I never have had the comfort of seeing a “Brechin Advertiser,” consequently I do not know what principles it advocates, or its nature – whether an old going
17 Whig – a moderate Liberal – Tory, or what. But please send a copy to me as you say, and after I know its creed, I shall with all the willingness and frankness if my nature, if you desire me, write any small scrap, if it can be of any service to you. I suppose that I have said enough, and with wishing you much success, believe that I am very sincerely, yours (signed) Alex. Burgess”
KETTLE. Rhymes and Lyrics, ….Humorous, Serious, Descriptive, and Satirical (With Explanatory Notes). By William Seath (First Edition: St Helens: Westworth & Sons, Printers and Bookbinders, 1897; Second Edition: Alexander Gardner, Paisley; 1905). Seath (1840-1905), a native of Kettle, lived for some 25 years in St Helens, where he was a chemical worker. He retired to Kettle after 1897, and died at Hazel Cottage, in 1905; the New and Enlarged Edition of this work was published in Jan 1905, just before his death. He was the son of William Seath, Chelsea pensioner, and Margaret McDonald (d 3 Dec 1878), who had married at at Leslie on 30 July 1838. His father, had been born at Abdie, c 1794. By trade a labourer, he enlisted in the 64th Reg of Foot as a drummer at Perth on 31 Dec 1813 aged 16, and alternated between the ranks of drummer, private and Cpl until his discharge (as a drummer) on 13 Dec 1837 aged 39, after 21 years and 341 days of service; he was then aged 39 years and 10 months, and suffering from a hernia, left side, of 3 years standing; he had served 1 year in North America, 7 months in France, and 7 years and 2 months in Gibraltar (WO97/780/55)
TAYPORT. The Satires of Cynicus. 200 Illustrations. (Cynicus Publishing Co, Castle Cynicus, Leuchars, Fifeshire, ND, 1911). Cynicus was the pseudonym of Martin Anderson (1854-1932), who was a genius as an illustrator and cartoonist. From his small offices at 59 Drury Lane, The Strand, he took London by storm in the early 1890s with the publication of his books, The Satires of Cynicus; The Humours of Cynicus; Symbols and Metaphors; and Cartoons, Social and Political. These were hand-coloured, in limited editions of 1000 copies, with Editions de Luxe of 100 copies, retouched and signed by the master himself. Later he reinvented himself as a postcard publisher in 1902-1911 from The Cynicus Publishing Co Ltd in Tayport.
Although his cartoons and cards were humorous, he was not trying merely to amuse, but also to put across some message that would correct some social evil or injustice. His weapons were sharp wit, cynicism, and his love of the visual and verbal pun. Indeed, his own, motto, “Truth the Lyre,” was yet another pun. He returned again and again to his favourite themes – the law, social injustice, the Church, the evils of drink, and of inherited wealth and position, financial exploitation, and the position of women in society – and he evolved a host of stock characters to illustrate these themes. The fat monk reflected Anderson`s hatred of Church wealth, and also his hatred of gluttony. The Scottish drunk reflected his concerns at the evils of excessive drinking. The idle rich man was his way of expressing his disgust at the rich exploiting the ordinary working man. One of his most famous postcards was “Bonnie Dundee,” in which the city could hardly be seen due to the thick black smoke belching forth from the factory and house chimneys, reflected Andersons`s
18 concern for the environment – in fact it can be argued that he was one of the first “greens” in Scotland.
But he was a flawed genius. He really had no business sense. His last major work published from London, his Cartoons, Social and Political, - 36 pages of illustrated denunciation – upset those who could best afford to buy his illustrated works, which really were quite expensive. His Castle Cynicus, which he had built at Balmullo, near Leuchars, drained away the profits of The Cynicus Publishing Company at Tayport. And when he was later in business at 45 York Place, Edinburgh, during the 1st World War, his anti-war posters and cards proved not at all popular and caused much offence. Nor was he able to get any financial support from the banks after his publication of “The Great Bank Fraud,” which denounced these institutions.
He had been born at Leuchars in 1854 son of William Anderson (d 1875), stationmaster, in charge of Leuchars Junction Railway Station, and Margaret Martin (1817-1886).
A copy of The Satires in Cynicus comes with a loose ALS from Cynicus: “Castle Cynicus, Leuchars, Fifeshire [No Date, perhaps c 1926]: My dear Mr & Mrs Kilpatrick, You have always been so good and kind to me. I cannot let Xmas go by without acknowledging with gratitude all the kindnesses you have ever shown to me. Some of my happiest recollections are of Heriot Mill when we sat round the fire and chatted together with Mrs K`s kind old father. How quickly everything changes in this swiftly passing world. Do you remember our happy day at Athelstaneford?, and our walks over the hills at Heriot? These I can never forget. It was a great disappointment to me that you gave up the Country for a Town Life. I`ve only once been in Edinburgh since I met Mr Meiklejohn and only for a few hours, but I hope to be oftener in the future. I would like so much to see you again, and have a long crack again. I have not yet been able to get my New Book published, but it is almost finished now, and I think you will appreciate some of the things I have got to say. I send you herewith a cheap reprint of my ‘Satires,’ & one of the essays from my new book on the Land question. They are being taken up by various Labour Organisations throughout the Country. If you think any of your Societies wd care to have a few they can have the Satires at 8/- a doz & the Land for the People at 2/- per doz. Hoping you both had a fine holiday during the Summer and that I may soon have the pleasure of seeing you again. Wishing you all Happiness for Xmas and the New Year. Please remember me to Mr Mickeljohn. Believe me, Very Sincerely Yours [signed] Cynicus.’ Also with the book is a press clipping, a brief obituary notice of Cynicus` sister, Miss Anna Anderson, as follows: “Fife Lady`s Death. The death occurred on Monday, February 13 [1933] at Cynicus Castle, of Miss Anna Anderson, the only remaining representative of a famous family, and a greatly respected figure in the Tayport district, where she has lately led a very secluded life. Miss Anderson, who was an octogenarian, was a sister of the famouis Scottish writer, Cynicus, who carried on the business of the Cynicus Publishing Co in Tayport, Up to the time of her retirement the late Miss Anderson was manageress of the women employees of the firm”
19 Bound up in another copy of The Satrires of Cynicus is a loose ALS from Cynicus` sister, to a Mr W J Blease, Esq, and written from 9 Dalgleish Street, Tayport, 12/1/1914; the letter goes as follows: “Dear Sir, I have much pleasure in forwarding 1 copy of Satires of Cynicus, for which please remit to me. The Cynicus Publishing Co,, Tayport, is now wound up, but the stock of books is still here & I shall be pleased to fulfull any orders received. Inquiries about any other publications of Cynicus, cards, cartoons, etc, should be addressed to: The Cynicus Art Publishing Co, Basinghall Buildings, Basinghall Street, Leeds. The book department will be transferred to Leeds in a short time. Yours truly (signed) (Miss) Anna S Anderson”
Joseph Spindle: His Life and Adventures. A Tale of The Lomond Gold Fields. By the Rev Peter Landreth. Third Edition. (Cupar-Fife: A Westwood & Son; Edinburgh and Glasgow: John Menzies & Co; 1911), with frontpiece portrait of Landreth. There is an ink inscription of W L Lorimer, 1/55 on the forward end paper. Perhaps it was he who wrote the pencil notes in first few pages of the book: on title page is a pencil annotation that Landreth lived from 1820-1901; additional pencil annotations to the frontpiece prefatory note on his father by the Rev James Landreth of Logie-Pert; and some notes on the first edition of Joseph Spindle. Peter Landreth trained for the UP Church, and was minister at Aberchirder in Banffshire (August 1844 – June 1847) before taking up literature. He was twice Editor of The Fife Herald.
HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES OF FIFE. By Rev J W Taylor of Flisk. To fully understand Taylor`s “Historical Antiquities,” which were first published as individual booklets and then as bound up volumes, one should consult Taylor`s obituary in the St Andrews Citizen of 20 Oct 1894. The first volumes were individual booklets – North of Fife (1851 and 1864) Cupar and Neighbourhood (1857); St Andrews (1859), and Falkland, Kettle and Leslie (1861); in 1866 John C Orr bound up the spare copies of these booklets as one volume, with new title page, bearing the title of “Some Historical Antiquities, Chiefly Ecclesiastical, connected with Fife.” This became the Cupar (combined) First Edition, although it was never advertised or imprinted as such. These individual booklets must have been quickly sold out, for in 1868 a Cupar Second Edition was published, bearing the imprint of William Robertson and the title of Some Historical Antiquities, Chiefly Ecclesiastical, Connected with The North, The East, and The Centre of Fife. William Robertson was Orr`s former shopman, and had acquired his bookshop in 1866, Orr being then (as always) in financial difficulties. As Robertson had no press, the book was printed by Orr. “Except for the first few sixpenny parts [of the Antiquities], which were published [in 1851] by Whitehead & Burns of the Fife Herald, he never got any money for his labours. Two subsequent local publishers [no doubt J C Orr and William Robertson], to whom he entrusted the work, became bankrupt, and he got nothing. Tired of Cupar booksellers, and having subsequently resolved to bring out a new edition of his History [on the West of Fife, which had hitherto been published in parts], he got Messrs Johnstone and Hunter of Edinburgh, to print and publish it. The printing cost him upwards of £100, and a goodly number of copies were sold [The first Edinburgh Edition by Johnstone & Hunter, is undated, and bears the title of Historical Antiquities, Chiefly Ecclesiastical, Connected with Some of its
20 Districts; William Robertson became bankrupt in 1874, and what was left of the Cupar Second Edition was passed back to Taylor, who passed the stock on to Johnstone & Hunter, and in 1875 they brought out a 2-volume Edinburgh Second Edition, with folios of the William Robertson Edition as Volume 1 – colophon of John Cunningham Orr, Printer, Cupar, on Page 336 – and the Edinburgh First Edition as Volume 2]. A year or two elapsed without any squaring up with the author, and then, as ill luck would have it, Messrs Johnstone & Hunteer failed likewise. All that was left of the stock was sent to Dr Taylor, and he asked Messrs J & G Innes to receive it and push the sale of the sixpenny numbers.” This was done in a 2-volume set, and also in the form of 6d separatas, with new title page, all bearing the title of [Cupar] Third Edition, Fife Herald Stationery Warehouse. “In a short time the whole of the parts belonging to the first Volume dealing with the Antiquities of the Eastern Division of Fife were sold out, and we had the pleasure of making a satisfactory settlement with him.” In short, as well as the individual Antiquities dealing with its districts, volume-wise there are Three Cupar Editions, and Two Edinburgh Editions
“Doll”: A Dream of Haddon Hall. Being The Story of Dorothy Vernon`s Wooing and Flight.” By J E Preston Murdock. 10th Edition, Seventy-First Thousand (Cupar-Fife: J & G Innes, 1922). The author, Joyce Evelyn Preston Murdock (1843-1934 – a man – was a prolific author of mystery and horror fiction, mostly featuring his character, Dick Donovan, the Glasgow detective. His detective fiction became so popular that his later stories were published under his character`s name, and for a time he rivalled Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes.
“Doll”: A Dream of Haddon Hall, was first serialsed in the Fife News in about 1880 and the first four Editions at least were published by John Heywood, London and Manchester in the 1880s. Later Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co of London became the publishers. Innes of Cupar retained the copyright (Muddock also had a small interest in the book), and all the editions were printed at Cupar in the “Fife Herald” Office.
The 10th (and last) Edition of 1922, was the only one to be printed and published by Innes. The copy seen is inscribed in pencil on the forward end paper: “Nora Longbottom, from W S Longbottom, Apr 28 1924.” The latter is William Smith Longbottom (1856-1931), a Derbyshire author, who wrote under the pseudonym of Horace Weir, and the book comes with 2 original letters from Muddock to Weir, both sent in April 1924. The first is dated 270 Trinity Road, Wandsworth Common, London SW18, 13 April 1924, and goes as follows: “My dear Weir, I was exceedingly gratified by receipt of your letter of 7th inst. It was a treat to see your handwriting again; and it interested me much to learn that you had retired after fifty years service with the Midland Railway Co. It represents a long period of toil, and that it was inadequately remunerated does not reflect creditably on the Company. They should at least [have] given you a liberal pension, But companies, as you know, have no bodies to be kicked or souls to be saved. It is some small consolation that you are able to find outlet for your pen work
21 “My life during the last ten years was poignant with tragedy and misfortune. The War practically ruined me financially as two companies, in which I was largely interested, smashed up. Royalties on my books stopped, and an American firm heavily in my debt also came to grief. All this, however, was as nothing as compared with the loss of my three dear sons who have up their lives for their country. The first died in hospital after an operation in Nov 1914. The eldest was killed in action during the battle of the Somme in Sep 1916, after five months in the trenches. He was literally blown to pieces by a bursting shell. My third and last was with Allenby`s troopers, attached to the Shropshire Yeomanry, and after two years of tremendous campaigns in Mesopotamia as transport officer and desert scout was killed in action with the Turks near a little village which his battalion was ordered to take by storm seven miles from Jerusalem. That was in November 1917. He was a splendid specimen of a man mentally and physically. He had been in Rangoon for six and a half years in the service of a wealthy East India firm, after three years` training in the firm`s London branch. When the war broke out he was earning £700 a year, and in another 2 years would have been raised to £1000. He was an officer in the Rangoon Rifles, but applied for leave to come to England and joined up here
“For myself I had a strenuous time during the war. In August 1914 I joined the Special Constabulary, and remained in the Force till 31st Decr 1920. There were forty seven air raids in London during hostilities. I was on duty on every occasion with two exceptions. One night I was very seedy, and on another I was out of town. In Autumn of 1915 I joined the headquarter staff of my friend, Lord Moulton, at the Ministry of Munitions, Storey Gate, St James Park, London, and was the head of the Stationery Department, and had the handling of many of the secret Government documents to revise and correct. This was in addition to the Constabulary work. For the latter I was liable to be called out at all hours of the night, and if an alarm was given when I was at the Ministry I had to report at Scotland Yard and do duty there. As you may imagine I had not time for literary work. In June of 1914 I signed a contract with my publishers for two books, but the outbreak of hostilities necessitated cancellation of the contract, and that of course involved me in a literary loss. Immediately after the Armistice I joined the War Office staff of lecturers, and in Decr was sent out to France and went all over the devastated areas, delivered 37 lectures. The weather was terrible and I had a very strenuous time. Our headquarters were at Lille, which had been terribly knocked about, and half of it in ruins. During my stay I aggregated about 1500 miles, often travelling mostly at night, forty and fifty miles by ramshackle motor car, along pitch dark roads, and had numerous narrow escapes. On my return to England I lectured to most of the Home Forces, going as far south as Cornwall and north to Newcastle. Now I am a back number. I cannot get a book published, but do a little fugitive journalism. And now I will let let you into a little secret, but for God`s sake don`t make it known. I am within 5 weeks of completing my 81st year. But I do not look it, and am neither decrepit nor senile. I do to down daily and seldom return to my home before nine or ten at night. I hope you will not be bored with the above details.
22 “Now I want you to kindly inform me, if you can, if Haddon Hall is still open to the public as in the old days? Is there still a custodian at the cottage? What is the name of the principal bookseller in Bakewell? A new edition of my little book, “Doll: A Dream of Haddon Hall,” has recently been reissued, with a new cover on it, and I want to push it. I will ask the publishers [J & G Innes of Cupar] to send you one. I am also sending you a copy of my little booklet on the work of the Special Constabulary during the war, and a programme of the film version of my novel, “Young Lochinvar,” which was released by Stoll Production Company in February. Possibly it will be shown in Derby.
“I should like to keep in touch with you for the sale of Auld Lang Syne. I feel very lonely sometimes. All my old friends are dead. Many were victims of the war. When one grows old one does not make new friends; they are mere acquaintances and belong to the new generation which beds no use for old fossils.
“With sincere good wishes for your welfare and continued good health. Yours faithfully (signed) J E Preston Muddock”
The second letter from Muddock to Weir is dated 10 days later (23 April 1924), and again is written from 270 Trinity Troad, Wandsworth Common, London. It principally concerns his book, “Doll: A Dream of Haddon Hall,” and goes as follows: “My dear Weir, I am very greatly obliged by the trouble you have taken re “Doll,” and note all your suggestions and instructions which will be duly dealt with. A copy of the book has or will be sent to you, and a copy also to your friend, Mr J B Wallis of Ambergate. The printers and owners of the book (though I still have a small financial interest in it) are Innes Bros, Fife Herald Office, Cupar, Fife. It has earned over a good deal of money since I brought it into existence upwards of 30 years ago. And my long novel, “Sweet Doll of Haddon Hall,” published by John Long, to who, I sold the copyright, like a blasted idiot, has reaped a rich harvest, and recently he has reissued it. Soon after its first production an American writer named [Charles] Major published a work called, I think, “Doll of Haddon.” It has recently been filmed by Mary Pickford at Los Angeles [Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall, 1924]. Mine was to have been filmed by Stewart Blackton, the well known producer of London, and he was making arrangements when Major got in first and mine was [page torn here]. Mary Pickford told me that if she had known of mine before she had contracted with Major`s version, she would have done mine in preference. A pirated version of my “Stormlight” was produced in America and I have no redress. Several of my plots have been stolen by the Americans and unhappily English authors have no redress for this wrong. It is a scandal and a disgrace, but our timber-heads who are responsible for our copyright laws allow political considerations to outweigh their sense of justice.
“I deeply appreciate your tender sympathy with my domestic tragedies. Your own dear sons were fortunate in coming through the inferno with their lives. A friend of mine who died quite recently had four sons who served throughout the whole of the war and not one of them received a scratch. As Shakespeare says: “There is a Divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will,” and the longer one lives the more forcibly it comes home to one; but one is
23 tempted to ask why this and that should be? Apropos years ago I was very intimate with a man, an Army Officer, who saw much service in India. He was a man(ner) of a distinguished family himself (a University man, clever and brilliant, but a wild [2 words unreadable] devil, who in the course of a few years and within my knowledge came into sums of money at different periods as follows: £60,000 - £100,000 - £40,000. He squandered the money as fast as he got it. On one occasion I accompanied him to a jeweller`s shop in Bond Street, London, and he paid £1000 for a handful of loose precious stones, including diamonds, pearls, rubies, etc, and a few hours later, in my presence, gave them to a notorious woman of the demi-mond. She tied them up in a corner of her handkerchief, and that night got drunk and lost them. Of late years, old and worn out, he has lived in poverty. He never married. A few months ago, I heard that this battered (none) who has never done the slightest good in life, and so shamelessly missed the gifts the Gods had given him, had come into another fortune if £30,000. He is nearly 80 years of age. This is a true story and sets one pondering on the wisdom of the Shakespearean divinity. Why should merit and genius be allowed to starve, while wealth is showered upon a man who (page torn here) it away in debauchery and riotous living?
“Have you any idea of coming to London during the Wembley Exhibition? If so, I should be delighted to renew our personal acquaintance.
“With every good wish and warm regards. Yours faithfully, (signed) J E Preston Muddock”
Tobacco Growing in The British Isles. A Simple Instructive Treatise on The Subject. Revised and Reprinted 1970. By Thomas Shearer and David Chalmers. (Printed by J & G Innes Ltd, Cupar, for The Publishers, Scottish Amateur Tobacco Growing and Curing Association, 39 Milton Road, Kirkcaldy). This comes with 2 stencilled sheets on The Tobacco Growers Association, 39 Milton Road: one on “Synopsis of our Association;” the other on Growing Own Tobacco, and Beating the Taxman; in these, David Chalmers, the Secretary of the Association, wrote: “I learned about tobacco growing when I was serving my apprenticeship as a gardener away back in 1917-18, during the First World War. The gardener had spent 7 years of his life growing tobacco in Canada. When he returned home to Scotland, he dared me to tell anyone in the village he was growing tobacco. I never did, but I watched, learned, and remembered, so when we got the concession from the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1948 to grow tax-free up to 25 lbs of tobacco, I was off to a flying start, and was co-author of three booklets on the subject….We founded our Association in 1951, and built our insulated high temperature fermenting chamber from instructions given to me by J M Szymanski, who worked with the inventor of the forced fermenting process in Poland from 1933 until he came to this country in 1939.”
Printed Sheet, dated Dunfermline, 26th September 1821 – “William Peebles, Manufacturer, Dunfermline, intends to give up the Table Linen Business and sell off his stock (J Miller, printer, Dunfermline);” this comes with another Printed Sheet on the Peebles business, but with no printer`s name
24 (but probably printed by Miller), dated Dunfermline, 12th July 1813, and signed Wm Peebles: “My son, Andrew and me, who have been in Company for these twelve years past, have lately agreed to dissolve the Co-partnery; and each to carry on, for themselves, the TABLE LINEN Business of this Place, in all its Branches as formerly.
“As I have Sons coming forward of a second Family, I propose continuing the old Firm of WILLIAM PEEBLES & SON; and as I have a good and fresh Stock of the same sort of Goods, laid in the best terms, I hope for the continuance of a part of your custom, which I shall make it my business to deserve.
“My Son is young and active, I am now getting old and not so fit for travelling; but I trust our good Friends will not cast off the Old Man, while he can serve them well; the Goods they may be pleased to order will be put in, all the travelling charges cheaper.”
The History of Dunfermline, From The Earliest Records, Down to The Present Time. Including Historical Notices and Present State of The Parishes of Inverkeithing, Dalgety, Aberdour, Beath, Torryburn, Carnock & Saline. With A Descriptive Sketch of the Scenery on the Devon. By Andrew Mercer (Dunfermline: Printed and Published by John Miller). I have seen Dr Henderson`s (author of Annals of Dunfermline, 1879), copy, inscribed E Henderson, 25 Oct 1850. On the front pastedown, the following letter from Mercer to Henderson, dated Monday evening, 28 August 1839, has been gummed (perhaps by Henderson): “ A Mercer has waited in Mr Fothringham`s for Dr Henderson more than an hour, he now goes away, but excuses him on account of his multiplied engagements. He is sorry at the same time that any circumstances should have intervened to prevent the Dr from keeping his appointment;” Henderson has written later at the foot of the letter: “Mr Mercer died near the Mill-port, Dunfermline, on Tuesday, 11th July 1842.” On the page opposite the plate of Dunfermline Abbey Church, Henderson has added the following note: “Mr Mercer compiled this History of Dunfermline, while lodging with William Leslie, customer weaver, Rotten Row (half-way up, north side) – Mercer died 11th July 1842”
Songs and Ballads of Fife. A Lecture delivered to the Kirkcaldy Naturalists` Society on Monday, 18th February 1946, By William Saunders. (Kirkcaldy: Fifeshire Advertiser Ltd, 130 High Street; 1946). In one of the copies seen there is the following ALS from Saunders: “15 Morningside Grove, Edinburgh, 3rd July 1946. Dear Mr Langwill, The enclosed was published about two months ago, and I hope it is not too late for me to offer you a copy. I have been very busy abd a good deal out of town. I have read and greatly enjoyed your article on “`London Wind Instrument Makers` in the current issue of The Music Review. With kindest regards, I remain, Yours sincerely, (signed) William Saunders”
A Royal Feud; or, The Gowrie Conspiracy. By the Rev John Fraser. (Published by James Burt, Bookseller, Kirkcaldy; Printed by The Fifeshire Advertiser Ltd, Kirkcaldy; 1930); I have seen 2 presentation copies, with letters from Fraser. One is to the Rev William Dunlop, St David`s Manse,
25 Buckhaven, Nov 1931, with accompanying letter, dated Manse of Kinglassie, Cardenden, Fife, 20th Nov 1931: “Dear Mr Dunlop, Please accept the enclosed book in remembrance of our visit to Buckhaven. the kindness of Mrs Dunlop & yourself in shielding us from the cold at your hospitable Manse. Dramatic Literature may not be a side line of yours, perhaps you will find `A Royal Feud` interesting for a` that. Yours Very Truly (signed) J Fraser.” The other presentation copy is to [Sir] Compton Mackenzie, then Lord Rector of Glasgow University, with accompanying letter: “Manse of Kinglassie, Cardenden, Fife. 31st January, 1932. Mr Dear Lord Rector, May I ask your acceptance of the enclosed copy of `A Royal Feud,` one of the dark tragedies of Scottish History. It is a product of Glasgow University, & was read in MS by Principal Rait & Prof Dixon, & was privately welcomed by John Buchan, M.P. Perhaps it may help to awaken the native vigour & spirit of our race & keep us from being submerged by the sewage poured in from foreign parts. Trusting you may find time to read this old story. Yours Very Truly (signed) John Fraser”
The Songs of Raith (1905). By Jessie Patrick Findlay. The copy seen is a presentation copy from Findlay to Dr John Walter Oliver, “with the compliments of the Author,” with an accompanying letter from her to Oliver, written from The Loaning, Kennoway, Jan 11 1932: “Dear Dr Oliver, Your very kind letter regarding `Songs of Raith` gave me genuine pleasure, and I thank you most sincerely for it. Not many, in this age of hurly-burly, take the trouble to send a welcoming word of encouragement and appreciation to writers, and when it does come it is `like a pleasant thought, when that is wanted.” I am interested in what you say about your happy associations with Raith. It is a beautiful and peaceful spot, and sometimes when I can`t sleep at night, I go, in imagination, round the Lake and linger at every spot and tree! It will interest you to hear that (I am told) “the Laird” gave instructions to keep the encroaching (way) off the Symbol Stone at the garden gate, after reading my poem of above title. I also have heard that it is (seated) on the spot by a (perfervid) member of Kirkcaldy Naturalists` Society when the Club passes that way. But neither the Laird nor Lady Helen expressed personal appreciation! Many thanks too, for telling me what poem you prefer - `Coming Rain.` It was a favourite, also, of my husband. It was written under the chestnut tree at the head of the Lake. Like yourself, I have happy associations with that haloed place, and it is a very great service that the (proprietors) confers on the public by permitting them to walk in the grounds. My father loved the place, and painted many landscapes there. If you would care to see an unpublished – and never likely to be published – longish poem of the Lake, what I called `The Ministry of Nature,` I would have pleasure in sending it to you when you have leisure to read it. I send you a copy of the little book, as I find, through my not making my letter to your uncle plain, he is under the impression it was meant for you. I think I wrote his name on it but am not sure. I value your uncle`s letters very highly indeed, and intend writing in answer to his letter at end of Dec. Thanking you very much for the pleasure you have given me. I am, Yours truly, (signed) Jessie Patrick Findlay. Note: Jessie Patrick Findlay (1857-1933) was the daughter of John Patrick (1830-1923), pioneer photographer in Leven and Kirkcaldy (established 1853), and
26 afterwards in Edinburgh; in his later years he retired to live with her in Kennoway, where he died.
A Vertebrate Fauna of the Forth. By Leonora Jeffrey Rintoul and Evelyn V Baxter (Oliver & Boyd, Tweeddale Court, Edinburgh; 1935). Tipped in on reverse of the forward end paper, is a letter from one of the authors to Major Anstruther Gray of Kilmany, and therefore the book would appear to have been part of his Library. The letter is as follows: “Lahill, Largo-Fife. 17th June. Dear Major Anstruther Gray, Miss Baxter tells me you want some more schedules, so I send you two herewith – I`m feeling very guilty about the eggs I promised Billy & I`m sure he thinks I`ve forgotten, but the truth is, I found we had no blue guillemot eggs, so I waited till we had been back to the Isle of May – We now have a very pretty one for him, also a Razorbill`s egg, & if he will send me a P.C. where he would like them sent, I`ll despatch them at once – With kindest regards, Yours sincerely (signed) Leonora Jeffrey Rintoul;”
200th Anniversary, 1756-1956, of Saint Andrew`s Society of The State of New York . Edited and Compiled by David Baillie Morrison, Historian of the Society (Published by the Society, 1956). This is a presentation copy, apparently from the compiler, to some friends in Scotland, with accompanying typed letter as follows: “III Iona Street, White Plains, NY. August 21 1957. The Big House, Linlithgow, Scotland. Dear Bessie, Kate, and Nellie, In keeping with protocol, I address you in alphabetical order.
“You good friends o’ days lang syne will be interested to know that the HISTORY OF SAINT ANDREW`S SOCIETY of the STATE OF NEW YORK, 1756-1956, has been completed and will be published on September 16th. It has been a gigantic undertaking, and I am happy to see it finished.
“It is with a feeling of native pride that I tell you that I have mailed a copy to you with my compliments. While it is a book compiled for the membership, yet I feel it may be of some interest to you. Not only for the fact that it was compiled and edited by a Lithgi lad and old friend, but that you may get a glimpse into the lives of some of the Scots who played a great part in the making of this new country and of the activities of the Saint Andrew`s Society over the past two centuries.
“It would have been nice if I could have sent each of you a copy, but the price is prohibitive. The enclosed will give you an idea of what I mean by ‘prohibitive!’ Ask Nellie, with her Nobel`s mathematical background, to figure out what $20.00 in sterling amounts to. I think it is around Seven pounds Three shillings!!!
“It may be of interest to you to know that the lines quoted on p118 in my historical sketch [‘I have a tryst to keep; It was plighted long ago With some who lie asleep’] are from the pen of a former Bo`ness minister. Can you guess? Ratcliffe Barnett. Remember him? I wrote to the publishers of his book for permission to use them, and after contacting his daughter, who is in Edinburgh, gave consent. Of further interest to you, I might tell you
27 confidentially that the book from which I copied the lines was presented to me as a parting gift in ’54 from Ex-Provost John Mackay of the West Port Hotel!!!
“You may notice that I have had to use the American style of spelling – traveling (one l and such like). When in quotes you will observe the old and eighteenth century style is used.
“You will also note that Linlithgow has not been forgotten. Three times, I think, she is mentioned.
“I trust the book reaches you safely and that you will get some joy in perusing its pages.
“With Flo`s love and my own. Aye your old friend (signed) Davie
DUNFERMLINE. The Dunfermline Hammermen. A History of the Incorporation of Hammermen in Dunfermline. By Daniel Thomson (Paisley: Alexander Gardner, 1909). Two copies seen are presentation copies from the author`s son, William Thomson, and sent from his residence at Rosyth, Margaret Drive, South Govan, on 14 July 1909. The first is to Dr John Ross [of the Carnegie Trust in Dunfermline] and the accompanying letter is as follows: Dear Sir, Herewith please find one copy of “The Dunfermline Hammermen,” which I hope you will accept as a token of esteem and regard for one who has done much to advance Dunfermline, and for whom the author of the book entertained the deepest respect. Your kindly note of the 22nd June gave me much pleasure and encouragement, and I trust you may find “The Hammermen” is a fit companion for the same author`s earlier work, “The Weaver`s Craft.” (signed) William Thomson
The second letter is to William Gow, who was a solicitor in Dunfermline. “Dear Friend, Herewith find one copy of “The Dunfermline Hammermen,” which you will kindly accept with my best wishes for your welfare. Drop me a post card acknowledging receipt and I will be obliged (signed) William Thomson.” The letter is gummed to the front pastedown, and underneath is written: “13 August 1921. A Souvenir from William Gow`s Library, to Colonel Shearer, from his brother, John.” At the top of the front pastedown is the address label of Andw R Shearer, Albany House, Dunfermline
Memoirs of My Ancestors (1884). By Hardy Bertram McCall (1884) was published in Birmingham, with a print run of 150 copies for private circulation. No 50 of 150 contains the following letter, written by W (Bill) Swinley of Broughton, nr Newham, Gloucestershire, on 19 Aug 1996, and addressed to “My Dear Barbara” – “Herewith my small present to you. It is really a book about The McCalls as opposed to The McCauls, but I`m sure all come from the same root stock – see Chapter 1. Anyway, it`s quite a nice book, and only one of a total of 150 ever made. Even these few were for private circulation, so it must be quite a rare book (signed) Bill.” The author was related to the following Fife families:
28 [a] Allan family of Kirkcaldy. According to family tradition these Allans were descended from the McDonalds, one of whose clansmen is said to have assumed his christian name of Allan as a surname. During the 17th century there were several Allan families settled in Kirkcaldy, apparently all related to each other as they acted as mutual witnesses to their children. The branch to which the author was connected was the family of Andrew Allan and Janet Allan, who were married at Kirkcaldy on 30th November 1648. Their youngest son, Robert Allan, born 15 Nov 1659, became a Captain in the Royal Navy, and was apparently at one time in the Dutch Navy. He died at Burntisland about the year 1732 and was buried "beneath the blue marble stone next the church," a stone which cannot now be traced. He married Eupham Dempster, daughter of William Dempster, portioner of Kinross, sometime of Brackley, and his wife, Agnes Ranken, sister of John Ranken of Colden. They had two sons, Andrew (who died unmarried at Edinburgh, 25 Jan 1740, and was buried in his father's tomb at Burntisland) and James (who became a cloth merchant in Edinburgh, where he died 9th December 1758 and was buried Greyfriars Churchyard). All succeeding Allans belonged Edinburgh.
[b] Halkerston, also spelt Halkertoun, Hackstoun, or Haxtoun, derived its name from the lands of Halkertoun in Fife. In the 16th and 17th centuries the principal family was that of Rathillet, in Kilmany parish, the most famous, or rather infamous representative, being David Hackstoun (executed Edinburgh, July 30 1680), who took part in the assassination of Archbishop James Sharp at Magus Muir on May 3 1679. There is a pedigree of the Halketstons of Rathillet compiled by the last of the family, Helenus Halkerston, who died before 1st March 1782, when his daughter, Miss Charles Halkerston, was served heir-general. A cadet of the Halkerstons of Rathillet settled in the Over Grange of Kinghorm Wester as early as 1560. This was John Halkerstoun, married to Mariota Johnston, whose son, Henry Halkerstoun (married to Margaret Anderson and Helen Cunningham) had a charter of Trumbullis Baith, afterwards known as Halkerston's Beath (in Beath parish), 20th December 1621. The book then runs through the various Halkerstons of this line. Included in it is John Halkerston (d 1767), and his son, Robert Halkerston of Carskerdo (d 1799), who were successively Town Clerks of Culross from c1715; daughters of the above John Halkerston married into the Geddes and Hardy families, both prominent in Culross. Several members of the Halkerstons also married into the Rankens of Colden
[c] Hardy family of Culross. The first Henry Hardy was tenant of Gogarmains, in the parish of Corstorphine, near Edinburgh. His grandson, Henry Hardy (1716-1752), became the minister of Culross, September 1741, and in 1750 acquired the small estate of Navity in Ballingry parish. He married Dec 1743 Anne Halkerston (1719-1805), daughter of the above John Halkerston, Town Clerk of Culross, and Janet Ranken of Colden. His son, Rev Thomas Hardy (1748-1798) was minister at Ballingry (1772-1783), before moving onward to Edinburgh as minister and Professor of Divinity and Ecclesiastical History in the University of Edinburgh. His sister, Janet Hardy (1744-1814) married the Rev Robert Liston of Aberdour.
29 [d] Liston family of Aberdour. Descended from the Listons who were tenant ]farmers at Over Newliston, in the parish of Kirkliston, near Edinburgh, the Rev John Lister (1687-1764), who became minister at Aberdour (1723-1764), was the third son of Patrick Liston and Janet Wilkie in Cliftonhall (of the Rathobyres family). His son, Rev Robert Liston (1730-1796), was his assistant and successor (from 1754), and elected Moderator of the General Assembly, 17 May 1787; he married 11 Nov 1766 Janet Hardie (1744-1814), daughter of Rev Henry Hardie of Culross
[e] McCall. We will deal quickly with this branch as it does not belong to Fife. John McCall, merchant in London, m April 1847 Agnes Allan (d 1890), daughter of Robert Allan, surgeon in Edinburgh, descended from the Kirkcaldy Allans above.
[f] Ranken of Colden. Although belonging to Kinross, we will deal quickly with this family, connected as it was by marriage to Fife. James Ranken and his wife, Anna Bogie (who both died 24 April 1732), had two daughters, Janet and Eupham, who both married brothers, the former in 1711 to John Halkerston, clerk of Culross, and the latter in 1708 to William Halkerston, of Halkerston's Beath. Their brother, James Ranken yr (d 1732), married Katherine Thomson of Nether Magask (Ceres parish), daughter of James Thomson, jnr, of Nether Magask, and Helen Black. Their son, Robert Ranken (1724-1789) was served Heir General to his mother, Katherine Thomson, and grandfather, James Thomson jnr of Nether Magask, 18 June 1745. By his wife, Janet Chalmers, who survived him and died 16 Apri1 1812 aged 71, he had among others, Katherine Ranken (d 1844), who married her cousin, Captain Christian Geddes of the Park, Culross, and Janet Ranken (1770-1796), who married Dr James Davidson of Dunfermline, by whom she had an only daughter, Janet Davidson (d 28 August 1865), of the Park Culross, who succeeded her uncle, John Ranken of Colden, the last of race, a West India merchant in London, who died unamrried at Derby in 1845, but is buried in Culross.
[g] Wilkie of Rathobyres. We have seen how Janet Wilkie in Cliftonhall, married to Patrick Liston, was the mother of Rev John Liston (1687-1764), minister at Aberdour. We have dealt with the Wilkies of Rathobyres in an earlier Journal, and perhaps we need only repeat her that Rev David Wilkie (1738-1812), the son of John Wilkie (1695-1785) of Rathobyres, was the minister at Cults (1773-1812), and the father of Sir David Wilkie (1785-1841), the celebrated painter.
Hardy Bertram McCall was also the author of Some Old Families. A Contribution to the Genealogical History of Scotland (privately printed in Birmingham in 1890 in an impression limited to only 100 copies) The book was reprinted in 2000 by Heritage Books Inc of Maryland.
30 CRAIL FISHING DISASTER
The Crail Fishing Disaster happened on 21 January 1765, at the mouth of the Harbour, when 8 fishermen drowned. The fishermen who lost their lives (from OPR417/5 and the pre-1855 Fife Death Index) were: John Brown; Henry Burns; Thomas Cunningham; James Dewar; James Kay; John Ramsay (bachelor); William Runciman; and Andrew Taylor. The fishermen left 6 widows and 30 children.
On Saturday, 16 May 2015, 250 years after the disaster, a special commemoration was held to honour those who perished, with a ceremony at the Harbour and at the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther. For the commemoration an engraved public bench was sited at the Harbour, in the shelter of the seawall and in a beatiful setting, from funds collected and monies donated (The Fife Family Family History Society gave a donation of #500).The bench has been inscribed, and the men`s names put on the plaque, so that there will always be a reminder of the sacrifice made by those eight Crail fishermen 250 years ago. Wreaths and flowers were also thrown into the sea at the same time off the Harbour, after which a small memorial ceremony was held at the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther, when a caligraphed entry was put in the Museum`s Memorial Book.
Despite extensive searching by descendants there is no record of what exactly happened at the mouth of the Harbour on that fateful day. It is not known if all the bodies were recovered, with 4 funerals and graves unaccounted for.
There is more information available on the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, with local pulling together to raise funds for the families. The main event was a fundraising ball in Crail, with tickets costing half a crown each (2/6d = 12.5 new pence). The resulting “kitty” maintained the widows and children for 3 years afterwards, at a time when there was no such thing as state support or beneifts.
Descendants of two of the men who drowned (William Runciman and Henry Burns) were behind the plans to hold the public commemoration in May. For months they had been pouring over old records, and speaking to local people and organisations. Gradually, some of the gaps in the knowledge have been filled.
But what they would dearly love to find is living descendants of the other victims. Alan Runciman (a descendant of William Runciman) explained: “With 30 children left behind and about 6 generations further on, there is likely to be thousands of descendants, now in all corners of the world...but they are proving to be quite elusive. There is a record of those who bought tickets in advance for the ball, so many people will find evidence of an ancestor who attended the event.” If you think you are connected to those men, you can find out more at: www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Crail_Fishing_Disaster
31 MISS BETTY STOTT.
One of the earliest members of The Fife Family History, and certainly the oldest, Miss Betty Stott, died on 3 July 2015, after a short illness, four months after celebrating her 100th birthday. It was in 1989 that a group of Levenmouth individuals approached the Kennoway historian, Dave Reid, about tracing their family trees. The result was the formation of The Fife Family History Society in May 1989. Betty Stott, from Lundin Links, was among these Levenmouth individuals, and her Membership Number was 007.
She was born in March 1915 in Coaltown of Wemyss, where she spent her early years. After leaving Buckhaven High School, she trained as a teacher and took up her first post at Ringford in Kirkcudbright, She returned to Fife in 1939-40, and taught in many of the rural schools in Fife before taking up the post of headteacher at Flisk Primary School in North East Fife at the early age of 29. From there she moved on to Gateside Primary in Strathmiglo, and then became headteacher of Lundin Mill Primary School in Lundin Links in 1958. Here she remained until she retired in 1975.
Her latter years were spent in the Peacehaven Residential Care Home in Lundin Lunks, where she celebrated her 100th birthday in March 2015. On that day she was surrounded by family from far flung places like New Zealand, the Bahamas, and London, as well as many friends from the many organisations she had been involved with over the years. She was an honorary member of both the Fife Ladies Golfing Association and the Lundin Ladies Golf Club. After she stopped playing, she and her sister, Rita, took responsibility for funding the the regular replacement of the club flag. She was also an Honorary Member of the Largo WRI and The Fife Family History Society. In total she received an amazing 107 birthday cards, including one from the Queen, Fife Council, and Westminster.
32 THE FIFE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY
In our last there was an article on the 25th Anniversary of The Fife Family History Society, founded in 1989. The Fife Herald News of 15 May 2015 carried a feature on the Society, and it is reproduced below
33 WATERLOO
June 18 2015 marked the 200th Anniversary of The Battle of Waterloo, and among the festivities was one in Crail to celebrate the life of John Dickson (1789-1880), Cpl in the Scots Greys, who saw action on that day and took part in a vital heroic charge. Dickson later had a 22-year connection with Crail as landlord of the Golf Inn (1836-1858). The anniversary ceremony was hosted by Graham Guthrie, the present-day boss of the Golf Hotel, and was attended by a Captain, two Sergeants and two Corporals of the Royal Scot Dragoon Guards – formed in 1971 by the merger of the Scots Greys with the 3rd Carabiniers - based at Leuchars, along with Sir Peter Erskine of Cambo, historian Jean Durie, members of the Crail Golfing Society, Crail Museum curators, and others. The Regiment brought its Waterloo Flag, which was raised in place of the Union Flag next door at the Town Hall.
At the Battle of Waterloo Dickson was a Cpl in Captain R Verner`s Co of the Scots Greys, and rode in the 2nd rank behind Sgt Charles Ewart (d 1846), and witnessed the latter single-handed capture the French Imperial Eagle standard of the 45th Invincibles, which had led them to victory at the Battles of Austerlitz and Jena. He had his favourite horse, Rattler, shot from under him. He remounted and again fell to the ground when his second horse was also shot from under him, at which point he thought that he was “done for;” but he survived to mount a third horse, which was later severely wounded.
After Waterloo he continued to serve in the Scots Greys until October 1834, when he was discharged with the rank of Troop Sgt-Major, aged 45. After Waterloo he was invited up to Fife to drill the Yeoman Cavalry (Fife Light Horse) on the Cambo estate, and subsequently became landlord of the Golf Inn in 1836. He carried on there until September 1858, when he and some of his family moved to Liverpool and subsequently was in Dublin for a short time before settling in Peckham Rye in London. He died at Nunhead Lane, Surrey, on 16 July 1880 in his 91st year. He is believed to have been the last survivor of the Scots Greys at Waterloo, and in June 1875, on the 60th Anniversary of the Battle, was entertained by Officers of that Regiment in London. He is also believed to have been the last survivor of the famous charge at Waterloo. Each anniversary of Waterloo, Dickson would hoist his flag, while the schoolchildren of the village were marched to his house to remember the famous victory and salute the local hero.
Jean Durie`s (who lives at Lower Kenly, by Crail) interest in John Dickson is a family one, as her grandparents were the executors of the estate of Dickson`s last surviving grandchild. She believes that this grand-daughter, whom her grandparents knew, was the last of the Dickson line, but would love to know if there are any descendants surviving today. Four of Dickson`s six children were born in Crail, but she is having difficulty finding records for them. She has compiled a dossier on Dickson, the Scots Greys, and Waterloo, which went on display at Crail Museum this summer.
In another connection with Fife Trooper Logan Ritchie (19) of Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, from East Wemyss, was given the task of handing over the
34 French Imperial Eagle captured by Charles Ewart at Waterloo. This Eagle is usually kept at the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Museum at Edinburgh Castle, but was loaned to the National Museum of Scotland, where it was displayed alongside another Eagle from the standard of the 10th French Infantry, also captured at Waterloo, in a summer exhibition entitled “Waterloo: After the Battle”
Our pictures show Jean Durie with a portrait of John Dickson wearing his Waterloo and Military General Service medals; Logan Ritchie with the French Imperial Eagle, and The Waterloo Anniversary Gathering at the Golf Hotel in Crail
35 SHORTS
ROBERT ADAMSON. The Fifeshire Journal of 10 March 1881 carred the death of Robert Adamson, formerly head gardener at Balcarres, who died at Balleny Cottage in Elie on 25 February 1881. He was born in 1881, and was consequently in his 70th year. He began his career as a gardener at Springfield House near Cupar in 1828, and subsequently went to England, where he had several years experience in the gardens at Claremont in Surrey and in other gardens throughout England. In 1843 he returned to Scotland, and was appointed head gardener to General Lindsay at Balcarres, which position he held until 1874, when he retired, and in recognition of his services received a pension from Sir Coutts Lindsay, Bart. During his residence at Balcarres, which extended to upwards of 31 years, he had the entire management of the laying out of the Terrace Gardens, which are considered in point of artistic design second only to those of Drummond Castle in Perthshire. After his retirement he took up residence in Largo, but latterly resided at Balleny Cottage, Elie, where he died. Inflammation of the lungs was the immediate cause of death. In 1851 he published a little book entitled “The Cottage Garden,” which was dedicated to Colonel Lindsay of Balcarres, and bears the imprint of Robert Reid of Leven, but was not printed by him. A second enlarged edition appeared in 1856.
ROBERT REID. The Fifeshire Express (a Cupar newspaper published by Alexander Westwood, which had a brief life, 1855-56) of 29 September 1855 carried the death Robert Reid (1808-1855), a native of South Leith, who was a bookseller, bookbinder, and printer in Leven for 20 years until he became bankrupt in September 1854. In November 1854 he and his wife, Catherine Lambert (died Melbourne, 12 Dec 1893 aged 87), whom he had married at Kirkcaldy, 18 Nov 1830 – dau of Andrew Lambert, weaver in Linktown – and children, emigrated to Australia per the “Ralph Weller,” ex Liverpool, which arrived Melbourne, 7 April 1855. The voyage, however, was a terrible one. About 1000 miles from Melbourne, the ship struck an ice-berg, sprung a leak, and for the remainder of the voyage it was all hands, passengers and crew, to the pumps to keep the vessel afloat. Mr Reid, being a strong sturdy man, took his share at the pumps, and more. The result was, that when the ship arrived at Melbourne in April 1855, he was unfit for active employment, and daily grew steadily worse and worse. He survived the voyage barely 2 months, dying at Melbourne on 3 June 1855 aged 47. His son, Robert Reid jnr (1842- 1904), was a distinguished Melbourne merchant and politician, founder of Robert Reid & Co (1887-1966)
EMMANUEL SOUIS. The Fife News of 3 May 1873 carried the death of this individual, who died at Rose Cottage, Lindores, on 22 April 1873 in his 84th year. He was a native of Funchal, Madeira, and when a young boy entered into the service of a merchant vessel, but subsequently passed into the British Navy. He was at the capture of the Cape of Good Hope. A few years after this he became butler and steward to Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland, and was on board the “Belerophon” when Napoleon surrendered to Maitland in 1814. “Mr Souis, who remained in the service of the late Sir Frederick Maitland`s widow, was held in much esteem by a large circle of friends”
36 YOUNGEST NEWSPAPER EDITOR. In the Scottish Notes and Queries Vol 111 No 5 (p79) of October 1889, Lachlan Macbean (1853-1931) of the Fifeshire Advertiser (Kirkcaldy) wrote: “From the files of the Fifeshire Advertiser (a country paper of good standing, established in 1838), I see that Mr J C Watt was appointed editor and sole manager of that newspaper in July 1871, and I happen to know that he had then just completed his 17th year…It may be intereting to know that Mr Watt began life on the Stonehaven Journal at the age of 11;” James Crabb Watt (1853-1917) was the eldest son of David Watt in Stonehaven, and late became an advocate in 1890; he was appointed Hon Sheriff-Substitute of Lanark and Kincardineshire in 1915, before becoming Sheriff-Substitute of Elgin in 1917, shortly before his death; he died 15 July 1917; he was twice a candidate as a Tory M.P in 1906 and again in 1910
DAVID DRUMMOND and The Bonnie Lass o` Levenside. In the Scottish Notes and Queries Vol IV No 5 (page 98) of October 1890 and Vol IV No 6 (page 122) of November 1890, there are question and answer on The Bonnie Lass o’ Levenside, written by David Drummond (d 1845), and according to Charles Rogers` Modern Scottish Minstrel was first published, with the author`s consent but without acknowledgement, in a little volume of verse, “Poems on Different Subjects” by William Ranken of Leven, published at Leith in 1812. There is a copy in the Mitchell Library, Glasgow. According to a biographical note which accompanied his entry in the Modern Scottish Minstrel, and copied by M F Conolly in his Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Men of Fife (1866), the poem was composed by David Drummond while he was a clerk in the Kirkland Works near Leven, and the heroine of the poem was a Miss Wilson, daughter of the proprietor of Pirnie, near Leven. Drummond sailed for India in 1812, and afterwards obtained considerable wealth as the conductor of an academy and boarding school at Calcutta. Four years later he asked Miss Wilson to become his wife, and she sailed for Calcutta in 1816. After her arrival she broke off her engagement, and Drummond, observing her coldness, offered to pay the expense of her passage back to Scotland. But before she could embark, she was seized with fever, and died at Calcutta. Reports at the time wrongly suggested that she died of a broken heart on account of her lover being unfaithful, but this is incorrect. Drummond died at Calcutta in 1845, aged about 70.
LUNDIE OF THAT ILK. In The Scottish Notes and Queries Vol VII No 10 (Page 159) of March 1894, it was reported that Sopia Lundie, Lady Innergellie, was the daughter of Robert Lundie of that ilk, by his wife, Ann, daughter of Sir James Cramond, and that a pedigree of the family could be found in Rev Walter Wood`s “East Neuk of Fife,” 2nd Edition (1887), Pp 45 –56 and 239-42. A pedigree of the Lumsdaine family, into which Sophia Lundie was married could be found in Pp 383-85, same volume.
ROBERT DUNSIRE VC: In June 2015 the Friends of Methil Heritage Centre were awarded a Heritage Lottery Grant of £8700 through its “First World War: Now and Then” programme, which they will use to stage an exhibition on Robert Dunsire, the area`s only Victoria Cross recipient. The Exhibition will cover his life in two parts: the war story, and his incredible actions; and his
37 home life, what made him do what he did, and will run for 6 months, from the end of August 2015 to February 2016. Robert Dunsire was born at Muiredge in Buckhaven in November 1891, and was living at Denbeath when the 1st World War broke out in August 1914. He was then a miner at the Rosie Pit, but enlisted, along with many of his fellow miners, in January 1915, joining the 13th Battalion Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment). It was at the Battle of Loos in 1915 that Private Dunsire won his Victoria Cross, for acts of supreme bravery and gallantry, going out into “No Man`s Land,” not once but twice, under heavy fire, to rescue wounded comrades. Sadly, just 2 months after receiving his Victoria Cross, Private Dunsire was mortally wounded by a trench mortar. For more information on Robert Dunsire, the Friends, and the Methil Heritage Centre, go to www.methilheritage.org.uk
ALEXANDER SELKIRK. For centuries it has been believed that the prototype of Daniel Defoe`s Robinson Crusoe was Alexander Selkirk (1676-1721) of Largo, a rowdy child and youth, several times before the Kirk Session of Largo for his behaviour, who took to the sea at an early age, became mate of the “Cinque Ports,” and was put on the deserted island of Juan Fernandez, 400 miles off the coast of Chile, in September 1704 for arguing – rightly – with his Captain over the sea worthiness of the vessel. Here he remained for 4 years and 4 months until 1709, when he was rescued by Captain Woodes Rogers.
Now a new biographer, John Martin, in his book, “The Man That Never Was,” asserts that it was Defoe`s own incarceration in Brazil from 1663-68 during the Portugese War of Restoration and his future life in Brazil until 1680-82, which formed the basis of the Robinson Crusoe tale. “What Defoe was actually doing was writing a particular experience of his life, but it was very dangerous for him to do so [openly] because he led a very disreputable life, involving the slave trade and piracy, and he didn`t want anybody to know about it,” explained Martin. Martin also believes that Defoe worked as a double agent for the Government of the day, and wrote the book as a metaphorical tale. Martin does admit that Defoe met Selkirk in Bristol in 1710- 11, and bought the latter`s notes at a later meeting in London, but this was where the association ended, claimed Martin.
Defoe, who was a superb journalist, wanted Selkirk`s notes to explain not just the facts of his existence on a deserted island, but also the emotions he felt on the island. But Defoe paid a heavy price for it. Immediately after publication he was attacked by people who said that he had used Selkirk`s story (which had become well-known, Selkirk becoming something of a cause celebre in fashionable London), and that he should be ashamed of himself
Martin has documented proof of Defoe`s imprisonment in Brazil in 1663-68, and his continued life there until 1680-82; and also has proof that his sequel, “The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe,” was an actual trip which he made to Brazil and Madagascar in 1705-06. This is described as a return to his island, and so, asserts Martin, he was admitting that he was Robinson Crusoe.
38 FIFE GRAVESTONES CONFERENCE.
The 6th Fife Gravestones Conference will take place in Kirkcaldy on 14th November 2015 from 10am to 4pm. Gravestones and graveyards offer fascinating insights into past lives and the ways in which different societies have dealt with death and burial over the years. Former Conferences have brought together experts, whose talks were informative, thought provoking and entertaining. This year is no exception. This year`s guest speakers and topics are:
Frank Hay and Len Saunders: The Briggers, Fife Railway Bridge Casualties Richard Fawcett: Scottish Medieval Canopied Tombs Martyn Gorman: For the Security of the Dead Margaret Bennett: Scottish Burial Customs Thomas Elliott: Scotland`s Epidemics John Beck: The Memorial in Kirkcaldy High School
The Conference will take place in Kirkcaldy Auld Kirk, which is situated at the top of Kirk Wynd, Kirkcaldy, KY1 1EH, on Saturday, 14 November, from 10am to 4pm. The cost for the day, which includes lunch and coffee as well as attendance at the talks, is only #15. To book a place, please contanct Anne McIntyre, 73 Harcourt Road, Kirkcaldy KY2 5HF. Please make cheques payable to Kirkcaldy Civic Society. For further information, contact [email protected], or phone him on 01337-831403, or go to www.kirkcaldycivicsociety.co.uk
The Fife Gravestones Conference has taken place every 2-3 years since 2004, and is organised by Kirkcaldy Civic Society and The Fife Family History Society, with support from Fife Council and Crosbie Matthew Funeral Directors
THE END OF AN ERA
2015 has seen the demise of 2 old companies in Fife, within a few weeks of each other.
Tullis Russell, papermakers in Markinch, which dates from 1809, went into administration at the end of April 2015, with debts of over £50m. High costs, falling demand, adverse exchange rates, and intense pressure on profit margins, brought to a head by the loss of the company`s most important customer, itself a victim of insolvency, forced the company into administration. It is estimated that after recovering debts due and the sale of assets such as land and equipment, there will still be an estimated shortfall of £37.5m owing to creditors. The firm made loses totalling £18.5m over the last 5 years and in the year to 31 March 2014 made a loss of £3.4m. The firm followed in the footsteps of other Fife papermakers – Caldwells in Inverkeithing, Guardbridge, by Leuchars, and Smith Anderson in Leslie, and shows the difficulties of
39 making money out of manufacturing paper. Smith Anderson has since resumed operations in Leslie, but on a much smaller scale.
The other victim is Cummings of Leven, female and gents clothing retailers, which dates from 1879. It went into administration in May 2015, along with its sister company, Sphere & Turret, which operated 16 stores across Central Scotland, including Kirkcaldy, Dunfermline, Glenrothes, Broughty Ferry, Forfar, and Arbroath, with Head Office in Sea Road, Methil.. Joint Administrators were appointed on 13 May 2015. Cummings in Leven is still open, as it holds Closing Down Sales to sell off all the stock.
Tullis Russell, papermakers in Auchmuty, Marckinch, was founded in 1809 by Robert Tullis (1774-1831), the second son of William Tullis (1729-1791), smith in St Andrews, and his father was Robert Tullis, or Tillas, or Tholas, who was described as a smith in Newbigging, Lawhill, and then tenant and feuar of Blinkbonny in the parish of Newburn. In 1724 he married Margaret Millar of Kemback, by whom he had 4 sons and 3 daughters.
The founder, ROBERT TULLIS (1774-1831), was apprenticed as a bookbinder (1786-1790) in St Andrews under Patrick Bower, set up his own printing and bookselling business in Cupar before 1797, for which he founded the paper-mills at Auchmuty in 1809, and a newspaper, The Fife Herald, in March 1822, following the set-up which the Morison family had in Perth. It is believed that he learned printing under James Morison, who was Printer to the University of St Andrews in 1795-1800. He was succeeded in business by his eldest and 2nd sons, respectively George Smith Tullis (d 1848), who was in charge of the printing and publishing operations in Cupar, and William Tullis (1807-1883), who looked after the paper mill at Auchmuty. The latter married Agnes Russell (1817-1898), daughter of George Russell of Hatton, a Fife farmer, and Christian Walker, and her brothers, Arthur (d 1891) and David Russell (1830-1906), bankers in Cupar, later became partners in the firm, thus forming the designation of Tullis Russell. The next generations in the firm included Robert Tullis (1842-1936), the son of George Smith Tullis – he later acquired the estate of Strathendry, near Leslie, and married Ann Cunnison Drysdale, daughter of John Drysdale of Kilrie – and Sir David Russell (1872- 1856) – son of David – and his son, Major D F O Russell.
CUMMINGS, the drapers, was founded in Leven in 1879 by Alexander Cumming (d 1954), the son of Captain Alexander Cumming of Leven and Agnes Gilmour from Kennoway. His father was master of the “St Hope,” which regularly plied between the Oregon coast of the USA and the Clyde. On these dangerous voyages around Cape Horn, he was sometimes accompanied by his wife, and it was alleged that the crew were more afraid of her than the Captain. She died aged 100 at 33 High Street, Leven, in the upper floor of the building now occupied by Cumming of Leven.
In 1879 Alexander Cumming, the son, became redundant from a failing Glasgow wholesale house, at the age of 19, and with the help of a £100 loan from his sister, he was able to open a small shop in Leven High Street, soon afterwards to be occupied by John Cormie (whose family traded in Leven for
40 90 years until c 1960), when he moved to the shop at 31 High Street, with the house above, at the corner of High Street and Bank Street. In 1907 he was able to buy the whole property, and later, by a series of alterations and extensions as the building was made free from occupations by various tenants, the building, both upstairs and downstairs, became one shop.
Alexander Cumming, who was a noted lay preacher, died in 1954 at the age of 95. A son, Patrick, was training at Copeland and Lye in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, with a view of entering the business, but he was killed at the Battle of Loos in 1915. Another son, William Campbell Cumming, was persuaded “to stop wasting his time at Edinburgh University,” and come into the family business, which he did in 1922. It was he who, after the death of his father, purchased Leven`s oldest shop in October 1959, formerly the bookselling, stationery and printing shop of Robert Reid and his successor, Thomas Porter, which was demolished to make way for a new shop to house Cumming`s Men`s Department. About this time, he took into partnership Mr Andrew Duncan and Miss Barbara Whitelaw, who had been engaged as juniors by Mrs Cumming during the War years, and in March 1971 the partnership became a limited company [Cummings (Leven) Ltd]. Mr Allan Bullions was engaged as accountant and secretary, and he became a director in 1973.
In recent years Cummings down-sized dramatically. The large shop on the corner of High Street and Bank Street was sold to William Hill, the bookmakers, and they transferred the whole of their business to their men`s department opposite. This was sadly followed in May 2015 with news of their administration.
Buffalo Bill in Kirkcaldy
Colonel William F. Cody, known the world over as “Buffalo Bill”, first made a name for himself as an authentic frontiersman and army scout in the wars with the Lakota (Sioux) and Cheyenne in the 1860s and 70s. As opportunities for a man of his calling began to wane he pursued a career as a stage actor, depicting his own exploits for the amusement of eastern theatre-goers. 1883 brought the debut of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, a touring combination which, in various shapes an forms, would be a fixture for the next thirty years.
1893 brought an expanded form of the entertainment spectacular, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West & Congress of Rough Riders of the World. Buffalo Bill later brought this version of his show to Fife, for Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy were two of the twenty-nine towns and cities included on the Scottish leg of the 1904 tour of Great Britain.
Buffalo Bill’s venue in Dunfermline, on Tuesday, 16th August, was widely advertised as “The Race Field”. By the time I visited it, a number of years ago,
41 it was an ordinary field, lying to the south and west of the corner formed by the junction of Lovers’ Loan and Coal Road.
The Dunfermline stand is celebrated in two songs, Wild West Show and The Day that Billy Cody played the Auld Grey Toon, both featured on local singer- songwriter John Watt’s CD, Heroes.
The “Lang Toun” venue, on the following day, Wednesday, 17th, has proved rather more difficult to pin-point. It appeared in the standard advertisements as “Ritchie’s Field (near Fife Pottery)”, a rather vague designation which can now fortunately be expanded upon. The Dundee Evening Post (17th August 1904) places it at “the northern extremity of the town”. The Fife Free Press, & Kirkcaldy Guardian (24th September 1904) is even more specific and locates Ritchie’s Field on “the west side of Park Road”, in the Gallatown district. A special tramcar service was laid on from Oswald’s Wynd and the park gates along the upper route to the Gallatown terminus.
Advertisements and advance features appeared locally as was normal in the other towns and cities visited but, disappointingly, almost nothing was reported in the local papers in the immediate aftermath. Whether this is to be attributed to the lack of incidents of note or the indifference of the four local papers is a matter on which one might freely speculate.
For most of what little has survived by way of a historical record, we have to thank Dundee’s Evening Telegraph. The Telegraph sent a man to interview Buffalo Bill and look over the establishment on the day of the show and the resulting feature appeared on the following day, Thursday, 18th August. The reporter confessed that he did not know Kirkcaldy but found his way from Kirkcaldy railway station to the showground some two miles distant unaided, since all he had to do was follow the crowds of people, all of whom were moving in the same direction. The unloading operations were divided between Kirkcaldy and Sinclairtown Stations and following the same pattern which was witnessed elsewhere, large numbers turned out to witness the arrival and unloading. The streets took on an animated appearance and interested spectators also watched the erection of the canvas city.
The evening performance was given in torrential rain, which reduced the temporary enclosure to a muddy quagmire. The same difficult conditions were endured by those who undertook the dismantling operations but, notwithstanding, by quarter past eleven, not a trace of the encampment remained.
Buffalo Bill extended a kind invitation to the reporter from the Evening Telegraph, to travel back to Dundee with him in his elegant railway car. This man is not named but professed himself an admirer of the former scout and was delighted to accept. He describes the car as divided into a number of compartments and lacking nothing by way of comforts.
42 It was stated that the attendance at the evening performance was 12,000, but since this total was given in the context of a commercial advertisement (Evening Telegraph, 18th August 1904), it is perhaps best approached with a degree of caution.
The Advance Agent’s log for the 1904 tour has been preserved by the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, and the entry for Kirkcaldy discloses some interesting details. “Ritchie’s Field, near Fife Pottery” was rented for the day from the eponymous John Ritchie, of 15, Roslyn Street, for the sum of eight pounds.
The advance men stayed at the Station Hotel, which was run by Mrs M. Burnett. Lodgings were available for two shillings a night, with meals charged at the same rate. A total bill of eight pounds and fourteen shillings was incurred. An arrangement was entered into with the Fife Billposting Co, of 18, Cowan Street. Goodall and Co., of the George Hotel, supplied the advance men with three country teams at fourteen shillings and one or more town wagons at twelve shillings. A water supply, charged at fifteen shillings, was obtained from John Rutty, Superintendant of the Kirkcaldy and Dysart Waterworks.
Tom F. Cunningham Scottish National Buffalo Bill Archive – www.snbba.co.uk
John Goodsir (1814-1867) A Scottish Anatomist and Pioneer
By His Distant Third Cousin, Michael T. Tracy
“On Monday, the 11th inst., were deposited in the Dean Cemetery, of Edinburgh, the mortal remains of perhaps the most accomplished anatomist and the most successful teacher of his time. This language cannot be deemed too strong for John Goodsir. By the distinguished colleagues who were the pall-bearers at the mournful ceremony, by the numerous private friends, and by the 200 pupils of the present and past years; who followed their associate and master to his final resting place, it will be reckoned as but inadequately descriptive. The profession and the scientific world at large can appreciate the loss which his premature decease has inflicted on academic training and on anatomical research. But only his fellow workers of the University and of the class-room can feel the tender and solemn emotion with which the untimely extinction of a kindred life inspired…John Goodsir was the worthiest successor whom Scotland has yet produced to John Hunter. He had the combined solidity and force of intellect, the observing and the generalizing power of his illustrious countryman.”1 Thus ran the East Fife
43 Record Newspaper for 22 March 1867 giving a small glimpse of the accomplished life of Professor John Goodsir.
Early years
John Goodsir was born on Sunday, 20 March 1814 at Anstruther Easter Parish, Fife, Scotland. He was the first son of Dr. John Goodsir, medical practitioner, and his wife, Elizabeth Dunbar Taylor. The Goodsir family was well known in Anstruther as his father and grandfather were surgeons in the town. John Goodsir was baptized on Sunday, 17 April 1814 at Anstruther Easter Parish, Fife.2
Fig.2. Baptismal Record of John Goodsir, 17 April 1814, Anstruther Easter Parish Records, National Records of Scotland, Crown Copyright
Goodsir’s early education took place at the Anstruther School and was enhanced by his exploration of the Fife shores studying natural history and by
2Baptismal Record of John Goodsir, 17 April 1814, Anstruther Easter Parish Records, Old Parish Records 402/0030 0043
44 the interest of his parents, who encouraged his studies at home.3 Young John Goodsir matriculated at St. Andrews University, Scotland’s first university and third oldest in the United Kingdom, where he studied the arts curriculum at the age of 12 in December of 1826.4By 1830 he had completed the course which included classics and mathematics. Goodsir continued his educationat the University of Edinburgh where he matriculated on Wednesday, 17 November 1830.5 During the same year he was apprenticed to John Nasmyth, a well-known Edinburgh dental surgeon. During the course of his indenture, he acquired a medical education partly by attending University classes and partly from extra-mural teachers of whom the two most notable were the anatomist Robert Knox and the surgeon James Syme. Yet from his early youth Goodsir exhibited a peculiar aptitude for anatomical research. The position of his native town on the sea coast had early given him ample opportunities of collecting and examining the various animal forms with which the Firth of Forth is so richly supplied.6 He was a gifted dental student but wanted to continue his learning and education.
Goodsir took up studies at The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. During his tenure at The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh he began a life-long friendship with the future natural historian Edward Forbes. He earned his surgical license, qualifying LRCSEd in 1835 and returned to his native Anstruther to assist his father in general medical practice. According to the Fifeshire Journal Newspaper dated Friday, 22 March 1867: “While in this position as assistant to his father, he was the first to direct attention to the gastric form of typhus fever which prevailed in the district of Fife.”7Commonly known as typhoid fever. He was also elected to the St. Andrews Literary and Philosophical Society on Friday, 30 November 1838.8
With the heavy demands of a country medical practitioner, Goodsir collected and prepared a personal pathological museum of specimens of great extent and value to the field of anatomy, which it could be said was his real passion. His passion for observing every detail of natural history was evidenced in “Anstruther, or Illustrations of Scottish burgh life”: “Goodsir obtained a golden eagle from the Orkneys. It was a sight to watch this noble bird kill its prey. As dead meat or carrion failed to preserve the beauty and grandeur of its plumage, the townsfolk were pleased to bring live animals for the purpose of seeing the eagle fed. Goodsir used to describe what took place when a cat was thrown into the eagle’s cage. The fiercest feline was at once cowed; the eagle, perched in regal dignity, first cast a glance at its prey, then suddenly pounced upon the cat, striking the back with the talons of one foot, and paralyzing the body below the stroke, and as the head of the feline
3Dictionary of National Biography online 4The Matriculation roll of the University of St. Andrews 1747-1897. Anderson JM, Edinburgh: W. Blackwood & Sons; 1905. p.74 5The Matriculation roll of the University of Edinburgh, Centre for Research Collections, Edinburgh University Library (Signature Number 1178) Matriculation 1829-1846 6British Medical Journal, 16 March 1867. p. 307-08 7Fifeshire Journal Newspaper, 22 March 1867, p.1 8St. Andrews Literary and Philosophical Society.Records of the St. Andrews Literary and Philosophical Society. St. Andrews University Special Collections (UY8525/1)
45 was raised it was at once enclosed within the talons of the other foot, and crushed in a similar fashion, causing immediate death.”9 Being a collector of many types of specimens, this narrative of the golden eagle and the cat gives an example of how Goodsir observed nature.
A Celebrated Essay on Human Teeth
In January of 1839, Goodsir published his first essay “On the origin and development of the Pulps and Sacs of the Human Teeth” in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal.10 This work received great acclaim and also received international recognition thus establishing his reputation. The British & Foreign Medical Review stated: “This is an elaborate and valuable paper, containing the result of much original observation, and establishing several facts in the physiology of dentition, previously but very imperfectly known…In its present complete state we recommend it to the notice of physiologists.”11 He was able to present a paper on this work at a meeting of the prestigious British Association for the Advancement of Science.
His father John Goodsir, Sr., was equally proud of his son. According to Anstruther, or Illustrations of Scottish burgh life: “Ay, it was a stirring forenoon in the bookseller’s shop in 1839, when his father stepped in to tell how his son John had read his celebrated essay on the teeth before the British Association, to the wonder and delight of the first savants of Europe.”12
Conservator of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
In 1840 Goodsir returned to Edinburgh and resided with his brothers Joseph, Henry (known as Harry) and Robert. Harry and Robert Goodsir were now medical students and they resided also with Edward Forbes and George E. Day at 21 Lothian Street. Although Dr. John Goodsir is not listed in the 1841 Scotland Census for Edinburgh Canongate his brothers Joseph and Robert Goodsir are listed as residing at 21 Lothian Street. According to the census Joseph Goodsir is listed as being 25 years of age and is a clergyman and his brother Robert is listed as being 15 years of age and is a general merchant.13
9Anstruther, or Illustrations of Scottish burgh life. Gourley G, Anstruther: A. Westwood & Son; 1888. p. 158 10Edinburgh Medical and Surgical JournalVol.Ii, p.1 11The British & Foreign Medical Review or Quarterly Journal of Practical Medicine and Surgery.Forbes J, Connolly J,London: John Churchill; 1839. p.571 12Anstruther, or Illustrations of Scottish burgh life. Gourley G, Anstruther: A. Westwood & Son; 1888. p. 158 131841 Scotland Census for Edinburgh Cannongate, Midlothian, Scotland; Enumeration District Number 3, P. 27
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Fig.3. 1841 Scotland Census for Edinburgh Canongate, Midlothian, Scotland listing theGoodsir family (Lines 2 and 3) National Records of Scotland, Crown Copyright
The flat at the top of the house became known as a meeting place for residents and their friends in Forbes’s circle, which became known as the Universal Brotherhood of the Friends of Truth, whose members included artists, physicians, naturalists, poets, priests and mathematicians.14Goodsir in the meantime continued his freelance work on Pelonaia and further researches on the British Ciliograda. He also became a resident fellow of the Edinburgh Botanical Society on Thursday, 25 March 1841 where he eventually became its chosen vice president.15Goodsir was also elected senior president of the Royal Medical Society in May 1842, became a member of the Royal Physical Society and was appointed conservator of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in August of 1841. He donated a number of his own personal specimens to the museum thus enlarging the College’s collection.
According to the History of Museums of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh: “In his first Report to the Curators in February 1842, he drew
14K.GrudzienBaston, ‘Goodsir, John (1814-1867)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 (http://www.oxforddnb.com/view article/10983, accessed 15 October 2014) 15Edinburgh Botanical Society. List of Members 1836-1948. Library and Archives. Edinburgh
47 attention to the fact that many of the preparations were in poor condition and a large number required remounting. He also referred to the difficulty of identification of specimens due to the loss of labels and he introduced a system whereby the catalogue number was painted on the jars, those recorded in the General Catalogue in black and those in the First Printed Catalogue in white.”16
Additionally Goodsir made popular the museum and its collections by giving lectures featuring its specimens unique to the museum and lectures on Anatomy and Physiology based on preparations in the museum. Goodsir was quite popular as Conservator and added further to the collection by making plaster casts of some of his dissections and painting others. While in this post Goodsir developed a series of remarkable lectures which he entitled: “Anatomical and Physiological observations,” which he gave in the theater of the college in 1842-43.
According to the Transactions of the Botanical Society, Volume IX: “He also made some excellent casts and models, which displayed great artistic powers as well as anatomical knowledge. In the outer hall of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh there is a remarkable model made by Goodsir.”17 This remarkable cast of which he named “From Nature.” The cast has been in the Jules Thorn Museum at Surgeons Hall Museum since the late 1980s. A gold plaque on the cast states: “Cast From Nature, 1845. By John Goodsir, F.R.C.S. Edinburgh.Conservator of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh 1841. Professor of Anatomy in the University of Edinburgh 1848-1867.”
16History of the Museums of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.Archives. p.21 17History of the Museums of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.Archives. p.21
48
Fig.4. “From Nature” by Professor John Goodsir, © The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Surgeons’ Hall Museums John Goodsir accepted the post of Curator of the collection of the University of Edinburgh and resigned as Conservator on Friday, 3 February 1843 but he continued his duties until Wednesday, 2 August 1843 when his younger brother Harry D.S. Goodsir was appointed.18 The “Anatomical and Physiological observations” lectures contained many original observations on the structure and function of a variety of cells. He demonstrated his breadth of knowledge about the cell, much of it based on his own observations under the microscope. He advanced new concepts about the cell exploring. Rudolf Virchow recognized his indebtedness to these discoveries by dedicating his Cellular Pathologic to Goodsir, as “one of the earliest and most acute observers of cell life.”19 These lectures were eventually published in 1845.20
In addition to these remarkable lectures, Goodsir also in 1842 published the first description of the stomach parasite sarcinaventriculi in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, which confirmed him as an innovative scientific observer.21
Professor of Anatomy of the University of Edinburgh
18History of the Museums of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.Archives. p.21 19Transactions of the Botanical Society.Volume IX. Balfour JH, Edinburgh: Printed for the Botanical Society; 1867. p.119 20Goodsir, John. Goodsir HDS Anatomical and Physiological observations. Edinburgh: Myles McPhail; 1845 219th Edition of Encyclopedia Britannica. Volume 10 (G-GOT) online edition
49 In 1844 John Goodsir took the position of demonstrator of anatomy at the University of Edinburgh as assistant to the ailing Alexander Monrotertius and two years later when Monro retired (1846) Goodsir was appointed professor of anatomy. According to the Fifeshire Journal Newspaper dated Friday, 22 March 1867: “There was never a happier appointment. No professor was ever more eagerly listened to by his pupils than he was when in the zenith of his powers, for, though not eloquent, hisprelections were full of information and thought, and were such as to fascinate the minds of his students. His devotion to his duties were extraordinary.”22 Professor Goodsir was a great favorite of the students who were in awe of his many talents and great knowledge of the time. As a result of Goodsir’s boundless energy and zeal, Edinburgh’s reputation as a center of anatomical teaching and research was once again restored under the Professor’s tenure.
Having already becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1842, Professor Goodsir published many of his papers in the Transactions of the Society including: ‘On the Electrical Organs of the Ray,’ (6 January 1845); ‘Verbal notice respecting the Thyroid, Thymus, and Supra-renal Bodies,’ (16 February 1846); ‘On the Structure and Economy of Tethea, and on an undescribed species from the Spitzbergen Seas,’ (7 March 1853); ‘On recent Discoveries on the Adjustment of the Eye to Distinct Vision,’ (7 January 1856); ‘On the Reproductive Economy of Moths and Bees, being an Account of the Results of Von Siebold’s Recent Researches in Parthenogenesis,’ (2 February 1857); ‘On the mode in which Light acts on the Ultimate Nervous Structures of the Eye, and on the Relations between Simple and Compound Eyes,’ (6 April 1857); ‘On the Mechanism of the Knee Joint,’ (18 January 1858).
According to the Transactions of the Botanical Society: “To his pupils, however, his chief attention was directed, and by his ardent, unwearied devotion to them during a period of twenty years, he maintained the high reputation of the men well versed in anatomical science, who are now scattered over various quarters of the globe, and who look back with no ordinary feelings of pride and affection to their late much respected teacher. Goodsir worked for his students. To them he communicated all his important discoveries in anatomy and his physiological views; and many of them have in after life, given forth, in their printed writings, the lessons of their master…”23
Besides his regular lectures, Goodsir gave courses of comparative Anatomy in summers for many years. This resulted in increased attendance in his class of Anatomy during the regular academic year. Thus all his efforts and energies were devoted to anatomy and his system of teaching was regarded as the best ever regulated the anatomical department of any British university or medical school.24
22Fifeshire Journal Newspaper, 22 March 1867 p.1 23Transactions of the Botanical Society.Volume IX.Balfour JH, Printed for the Botanical Society; 1867. p.123 249th Edition of Encyclopedia Britannica. Volume 10 (G-GOT) online edition
50
Fig.5. Professor John Goodsir, Painting by George Aikman c.1854
Goodsir was also a dissector of exceptional skill and produced many teaching specimens for his courses and departmental museum. Dissection it would seem was his favorite activity. He was consulted frequently on zoological questions and took part in the examination of veterinary students. Such was his reputation that in 1849 Goodsir was called upon to examine a mysterious carcass which had been found off the island of Stronsay some years before and which became known as the ‘Stronsay Beast’. The Natural History Society of Edinburgh was unable to identify what it was. Goodsir on the other hand concluded that the carcass cannot be called a Basking Shark carcass as a Basking Shark is the largest capable of round 40 feet and the mysterious carcass of Stronsay measured 55 feet. The precise identity of the creature still remains a mystery.
With his reputation as a successful teacher of anatomy so well established, many students were attracted to the University of Edinburgh and enrollment increased with his class numbering 354 in 1860-61.
Dr. Goodsir by the year 1851 was residing at 55 George Square near the University of Edinburgh. According to the 1851 Scotland Census for Edinburgh St. Cuthberts, Midlothian, Scotland he was listed as being 37 years of age and a Professor of Anatomy at the University. He was living with his brother, the Reverend Joseph Goodsir.25 Goodsir continued to pursue researches which extended into physiology and pathology. He commenced a periodical entitled, “The Annuals of Anatomy and Physiology” of which only three parts were published in 1851. During this same period he became a candidate for the office of surgeon in the Royal Infirmary but this was rejected and he soon after relinquished surgical practice entirely thus ending a part of his distinguished career.
His friend of his early days, now Professor Edward Forbes, had become a famous naturalist, who held the presidency of the Geological Society of London and in 1854 was appointed to the professorship of natural
251851 Scotland Census for Edinburgh St. Cuthberts, Midlothian, Scotland; Enumeration District Number 49, p. 27
51 history at the University of Edinburgh. He was taken ill after he had commenced his winter lectures and died soon afterwards at Wardie, near Edinburgh on Saturday, 18 November 1854 at the age of 39. His death had a profound effect on his good friend, Professor John Goodsir. He would eventually purchase the home of Edward Forbes at Wardie.
Health Deterioration
After the death of Professor Edward Forbes in 1854, Goodsir became increasingly reclusive, and his own health began to deteriorate. According to the Transactions of the Botanical Society: “His naturally robust frame suffered much from his continued and pressing anatomical labours, carried on often to the neglect of the requirements of the body. His health was so impaired in 1853 that he was compelled to give up lecturing for a session.”26
With the failing health of Professor Jameson, the Professor of Natural History at the University, Goodsir took on additional responsibilities which included delivering the course of lectures on natural history during the summer of 1853. These lectures were zoological and included the psychological conditions of man as compared with ‘the brute’. The infinite amount of thought and exertion which he had to devote to these took a further toll on his heath. Professor Goodsir’s first symptoms of his failing health proved to be a wasting condition of the spine (progressive ataxia) which was ultimately to prove fatal. With the need for complete rest now apparent, Goodsir traveled to the continent of Europe specifically to Vienna, Berlin, and Paris to increase his anatomical collections, acquire scientific instruments, visit museums, and meet international colleagues. He returned to Edinburgh much invigorated, and able to resume his duties.27
26Transactions of the Botanical Society.Volume IX.Balfour JH, Printed for the Botanical Society; 1867. p.124 27Transactions of the Botanical Society.Volume IX.Balfour JH, Printed for the Botanical Society; 1867. p.124
52
Fig. 6. Photograph of Professor John Goodsir, date and photographer unknown
Upon his return from Europe, though still in an enfeebled state of health, Professor Goodsir resumed his Professorial duties and his passion for original research remained; and in 1856 he published a series of memoirs on the constitution of the skeleton, which form an important contribution to anatomical science. This work was entitled: “On the Morphological Constitution of the Skeleton of the Vertebrate Head.”
The disease under which he suffered now manifested itself in a paralytic condition of the lower extremities. According to the Fifeshire Journal Newspaper dated Friday, 22 March 1867: “For years Professor Goodsir had to reside in Mr. Eckford’s establishment at Trinity for the sake of the baths there, he dragged himself to his daily task in the lecture room when scarcely able to work, and generally occupied the remainder of the day in the College museum making preparations, a work in which he took great delight, and for which his scientific knowledge and skillful manipulation gave him great facility.”28
Professor John Goodsir is listed in the 1861 Scotland Census for Edinburgh St. George, Midlothian, Scotland. His age is given as 47 and he is listed as a Professor at the University of Edinburgh.29
Triangle Theory of Formation
Goodsir at this time was working on the structure of organized forms. His speculations gave birth to his theory of a triangle as the mathematical
28Fifeshire Journal Newspaper, 22 March 1867 p.1 291861 Scotland Census for Edinburgh St. George, Midlothian, Scotland; Enumeration District Number 5, p. 2, Line Number 17
53 figure upon which nature had built up both the organic and inorganic worlds, and he hoped to complete this triangle theory of formation and law as the greatest of his works. The fundamental principle of form he conceived to exist within the province of crystallography, and to be discernible by a close study of the laws of that science. He argued that there was a center in everything and regarded man as simply a conglomerate of cells, rising up, maturing, and decaying.30 He saw in the growth and form and finished structure of man a tetrahedron, a man, a physical being and a form devine.31
The Death of Professor John Goodsir
In spite of his weakness, Goodsir still carried on his researches, lectured to his class and conducted various examinations for degrees. According to the Transactions of the Botanical Society: “He commenced his lectures in November of 1866 with a remarkable lecture on the different kingdoms of nature. The exertion of lecturing, however, was too great. On one occasion he fainted towards the conclusion of his lecture, and remained in a state of insensibility for some time. On that occasion some of us tried to dissuade him from carrying on the course, but he determined to persevere, until at length he yielded to the earnest solicitations of some of his colleagues, and gave up lecturing, and allowed the course to be carried on by his able and talented assistant, Mr. Turner. His feebleness increased, and he was finally confined entirely to bed.”32Goodsir delegated his lecturing to his assistants and continued to devote much of his time to the preparation of museum specimens.
On Friday, 22 February 1867 Professor Goodsir made out his Last Will and Testament.33 He made his brother, the Reverend Joseph Goodsir his executor of his estate. His will did not specifically state what should be done with his many specimens and volumes of lecture notes, research papers and books.
The Professor’s mind, however, continued active and he conversed with intelligence on scientific matters and of his past days. John Goodsir died on Wednesday, 6 March 1867 at South Cottage, Wardie at the age of 52. The cause of his death was listed as “Atrophy of the Spinal Cord, 14 years and Chronic affections of the bladder.”34 He died in the same cottage in which Edward Forbes his early friend, died in November of 1854.
309th Edition of Encyclopedia Britannica. Volume 10 (G-GOT) online edition 319th Edition of Encyclopedia Britannica. Volume 10 (G-GOT) online edition 32Transactions of the Botanical Society.Volume IX.Balfour JH, Printed for the Botanical Society; 1867. p.125 33Last Will & Testament of John Goodsir, 22 February 1867, Edinburgh Sheriff Court Wills (SC70/4/109) National Records of Scotland 34Death Record of John Goodsir, 6 March 1867, Leith North Parish Records, Statutory Deaths 692/01 0080, National Records of Scotland
54
Fig.7. Death Record of John Goodsir, 6 March 1867, National Records of Scotland, Crown Copyright
Tributes would follow from all over Scotland and indeed the world on the news of the passing of Professor Goodsir. The SenatusAcademicus of the University of Edinburgh, a few days later adopted the following minute: “The Senatus deeply regret the loss which they have sustained by the death of Professor Goodsir, who for twenty years had ably discharged the duties of Professor of Anatomy. They feel that the University has been deprived of a most distinguished man of science, who, by his knowledge of Human and Comparative Anatomy, had acquired for himself a European reputation, and who, by his prelections and writings, had done much to maintain the reputation of the University.”35
The British Medical Journal in its 16 March 1867 edition stated: “The following memoir is from the pen of an accomplished anatomist, and friend of the late Professor Goodsir, Mr. Turner, the late Demonstrator of Anatomy in the University of Edinburgh. About five-and-thirty years ago, the classrooms of our University were attended by a group of young students who have since that time carved for themselves enduring niches in the Temple of Fame, one of the most distinguished of whom was John Goodsir, who died on Wednesday last, at the early age of fifty-two…His perseverance for so many years in the performance of the duties of his Chair, even while contending daily against bodily infirmity, read to all his students a great lesson; and in
35Transactions of the Botanical Society.Volume IX.Balfour J, Printed for the Botanical Society; 1867. p.126-27
55 spite of the pain and suffering incident to his malady, he struggled on bravely to the end.”36
An autopsy and microscopic examination of the spinal cord of Professor Goodsir were made by his assistants Dr. Chiene and Mr. Stirling. According to The Anatomical Memoirs of John Goodsir, Volume 1: “The brain weighed 57 ½ ounces avoirdupois, and was rich in convolutions; it was anaemic, but otherwise apparently healthy. The cord was removed below the third cervical vertebra, and weighed, together with the membranes and nerve roots, 3 ounces…The posterior roots and their ganglia were congested. The cord was greatly atrophied, and the cervical and lumbar enlargements were no longer recognizable…Both in the lumbar and cervical regions the columns were greatly atrophied, and with an almost complete disappearance of the axial cylinders of the nerve-fibres; sections through the columns exhibited an irregularly reticulated appearance, with intermixed granular matter: corpora amylacea were scattered in considerable numbers throughout the substances of the cord.”37 Based on these autopsy findings, Professor Goodsir died of atrophy of the spinal cord. Some however have suggested tabesdorsailis (the result of earlier infection with syphilis) which would fit with his clinical features. Another possibility is subacute combined degeneration of the cord which results from nutritional, particularly vitamin B12 deficiency.
On Monday, 11 March 1867 Professor Goodsir’s funeral was attended by many professors and teachers, the fellows of the Royal Colleges, members of the many scientific associations that he belonged to and many friends. Two hundred of his pupils joined the procession, and manifested their deeply felt sorrow at the graveside of one of whom they loved so much.38Goodsir was buried next to his early and much valued friend the naturalist, Edward Forbes in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh. A large granite obelisk marks the grave of Professor Goodsir with the following inscription: “John Goodsir, Anatomist. Born 20 March 1814.Died 6 March 1867.” His brother, the Reverend Joseph T. Goodsir has had the spiral curved line engraved on one side of the obelisk, to exemplify the feeling pervading the professor’s mind on the subject of organic growth, the spiral being symbolic of the law of the vital force, set forth in page 180 of his memoir, and more developed in Goodsir’s lectures.39
36British Medical Journal, 16 March 1867, p.308 37The Atamonical Memoirs of John Goodsir, Volume 1.Turner W, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black; 1868. p.195-96 38The Atamonical Memoirs of John Goodsir, Volume 1. Turner W, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black; 1868. p.194 39The Atamonical Memoirs of John Goodsir, Volume 1. Turner W, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black; 1868. p.1954-95
56
Fig. 8. Grave of Professor John Goodsir, Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh, Photograph Courtesy of Dr. Iain Macintyre, 19 November 2013 Goodsir published a huge number of papers in his lifetime. A year after his death in 1868 “The Anatomical Memoirs of John Goodsir, Volume 1” was published in memory of the late Professor, a fitting tribute to his scientific genius for generations to come.
57
John Goodsir, Scottish Anatomist of His Era
On a fall day in October 2003, I visited the birthplace of the famous Scottish Anatomist and pioneer in the study of the cell, my distant third cousin, John Goodsir. The coastline of Anstruther is not far from the old Goodsir residence on High Street where John Goodsir was born. While along this coastline, I imagined seeing the young boy examining marine life along its shores of so long ago.
Fig.9. Coastline of Anstruther, Fife, Scotland, Photograph Courtesy of Michael T. Tracy © 2010 Michael T. Tracy
In one of his final letters to his brother Henry (Harry) D.S. Goodsir before he left on the ill-fated Franklin voyage, John wrote the following: “Edinburgh, Wednesday, 15 February 1843. My dear Harry….Now in the midst of all this pushing forward in science I trust you will not take it amiss when I ask you whether you are doing everything in your power to keep up the practice. I know the difficulty of combining science and practice. One man only, as far as I know, ever did it perfectly, John Hunter, and any man may do it if he has sufficient self-command. Time you must be economical of , get time by rising early; at present I get, and you may too, a whole hour of good daylight for observations before breakfast, and as the season advances you get more of it. No truly great man, certainly no eminent scientific medical man, ever lay in bed in the morning; get off to your patients before nine; call on them all. I used to be very careless in this respect. I called only when I thought it necessary. Now, if the patient wishes, you are to call as often as possible. You are, or ought to be, paid for it. I have been careless in this respect since I came to Edinburgh, but I am now a most diligent, regular, and punctual caller, and I am already feeling the benefit. Want of punctuality and consideration for the wishes of patients is unprofessional…If you and I be fortunate enough to get the respective museums in Edinburgh then we shall do all we can to get practice, for whether we ultimately teach anatomy or not, practice I am determined we shall attend to, for pathology and physiology or anatomy can never be advanced in a proper way by a man who is not in the habit of daily considering and treating cases of diseases and injury. You, Archie, and I will, if we play our cards well, make a very formidable trio in
58 Edinburgh. It is time our family as doctors should be transplanted. We have been too long (eighty years at least) in the East of Fife. Think of this, and I am sure you will make every effort by cooperating with your father and paying every attention to the public to secure its confidence and affection. Send your paper on Friday, but don’t neglect the practice, and believe me, Yours affectionately, John Goodsir.”40
No pen of mine can adequately capture the distinguished life of the famous Scottish Anatomist, nor his scientific genius. Professor Goodsir was acknowledged by many to be one of the most original and distinguished anatomists of the nineteenth century. The remarkable point in history of the life of Professor John Goodsir is that a country doctor, should have left the long rides of rural practice to become one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, professors of anatomy in one of the greatest medical schools in the world. This was due to his earnestness of purpose and pure devotion to his profession. As a scientific observer and inquirer he had few equals. In one of his final addresses as Promoter to the graduates of the University of Edinburgh in 1859, Professor Goodsir stressed the importance of the medical profession and its duties to the public it serves. He stated: “This character, this demeanor will best be secured by looking on your profession not as a mere science with its formal application, but as an extended series of duties, the nature and scope of which are indicated in the very nature of the profession itself.”41
Truly a scientific genius and a pioneer of his time, Fife can be very proud of one of its own, Professor John Goodsir of Anstruther Easter, a man with a passion for anatomy who made a significant contribution to the advancement of medical science acclaimed the world over. We the surviving members of the Goodsir family can look back on our very distinguished ancestor with great esteem and pride, as he is commemorated here in recognition by his distant cousin, Michael T. Tracy.
Viva enimmortuorum in memoriavivorumestposita (The life of the dead is retained in the memory of the living)
Acknowledgements
With special thanks and appreciation to Dr. Eddie Graeme, Assistant Librarian Archives and Manuscripts, Centre for Research Collections (Special Collections) Edinburgh University Library who kindly helped me with the University of Edinburgh’s Matriculation Rolls; Mr. Graham Hardy, Serials Librarian of the Royal Botanic Garden Library who kindly researched the obituary of Professor John Goodsir; Ms. Marianne Smith College Librarian, The College Library and Archive, The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh for her help in providing me with the resources of The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and Conservator Dr. John Goodsir; and Dr.
40Promoters Address Delivered on Graduation Day (1 August 1896) at Edinburgh University. ChieneJ,Reprinted from The Lancet, 8 August 1896. p. 13-14 41Promoters Address Delivered on Graduation Day (1 August 1896) at Edinburgh University. Chiene J,Reprinted from The Lancet, 8 August 1896. p. 11
59 Iain Macintyre who graciously went to Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh and photographed the grave of Professor John Goodsir and whose help with this publication is gratefully acknowledged. It is to these people that this work is acknowledged and dedicated to.
Copyright 2014 Michael T. Tracy ([email protected])
Bibliography
A.Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh during its first three hundred years, 2 (1884).p.391-2
A.L. Turner, History of the University of Edinburgh. 1883-1933 (1933)
Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783-2002. Royal Society of Edinburgh, Edinburgh 2006
Goodsir, John. Stephen, Leslie, ed Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 137-39
J.Goodsir. ‘History of a case in which fluid periodically ejected from the stomach contained vegetable organisms of an undescribed form,’ Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, 57 (1842). p. 430-43
K.GrudzienBaston, ‘Goodsir, John (1814-1867)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 (http://www.oxforddnb.com/view article/10983, accessed 15 October 2014)
H.W.Y. Taylor. ‘John Goodsir,’ 25th Proceedings of the Scottish Society of the History of Medicine (1956) p. 13-19
L.S. Lacyna. ‘John Goodsir and the Making of Cellular reality,’ Journal of the History of Biology, 16/1 (1983) p. 75-99
‘Review of the anatomical memoirs of John Goodsir,’ Edinburgh Medical Journal, 14/11 (1869) p. 1037-48
St. Andrews Literary and Philosphical Society.Records of the St. Andrews Lierary and Philosophical Society. St. Andrews University Special Collection (UY8525/1)
The East Neuk of Fife. Wood, Walter. Edinburgh: Thomas and Archibald Constable, 1887. p. 363
The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Review.Vol III., 1-6/1867. Urban, Sylvanus. London: Bradley, Evans & Co., 1867 p. 673-74
‘The Researches of John Goodsir.’ Nature 26 (669): p. 409-10. 24 August 1882
60 Additional Notes on the Goodsir family by the Editor, mainly from the Anatomical Remains of Dr John Goodsir (1867)
The Goodsirs of Fife have a family history going back to the 18th century, if not earlier. Their progenitors are said to have come from Germany, and the old Scotch mode of pronouncing Goodsir as “Gutcher” would seem to favour the nation. The first Goodsir of note we come across is Dr John Goodsir (1746- 1816). Born in the parish of Wemyss in 1746, he became a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, and settled in Largo in 1770, where he practised for 46 years. He became “a fine specimen of the 18th century country medical practitioner – hatted, coated, booted, and spurred, a la mode. Wirey in build, thoughtful and successful in practice. Aye ready with his “mull” (snuff-box), and aye ready to help a neighbour as well as to uphold the interests and character of “canny Fife,” he was among the most popular of men. The customs of the period were primitive and curious, and the practice of the healing art in rural districts was carried on in pack-saddle fashion and regularity. Dr Goodsir would start from Largo on Monday, caparisoned with drugs and surgical appliances, and not return home till Friday…To obviate the dangers of travelling by night, he carried a lantern, fastened by a strap above his knee…His regularity in his rounds vied with the carrier of His Majesty`s mails, and the saddle bags of the one, and the surgical accoutrements of the other, were similarly horsed, so that the Laird of Largo, scanning the roads, used to say: “It`s either the doctor or the post that`s coming.” After leaving “the Established Church,” and having had experience of the “Independents,” he joined the “Baptists,” being baptised in Edinburgh in 1789 by Mr McLean. The Church in Largo was formed the following year, in 1790, with 20 members. Dr Goodsir served the Church at Largo as Pastor for 25 years, until his death in November 1816 (History of the Baptists in Scotland; 1926; p151). A portrait and biographical sketch of him appeared in The Evangelical Magazier and Theological Review for June 1821. He married Miss Agnes Johnstone (d 1816) of Moffat, Dumfriess-shire, by whom he had 11 children. His three sons took to surgery.
The third son, Dr John Goodsir (named after the father), settled down as a medical practioner in Anstruther. He married Elizabeth Dunbar, daughter of the Rev Joseph Taylor of Carnbee, whose wife was Jeanie Ross, daughter of Duncan Forbes Ross of Kindeace, and grand-daughter of Grizzel Forbes, the sister of Lord President Duncan Forbes. The 2nd Dr John Goodsir had 5 sons and a daughter (Jane). The oldest son was Professor John Goodsir, the subject of this memoir, born 20th March 1814. The second son, Rev Joseph Taylor Goodsir (1815-1893) became the minister of the Established Church in Largo in 1843, but resigned on 27 November 1850, on the ground that “the standards of the Church were not consistent with the teaching of Scripture” (Fasti; Rev Hew Scott); he died unmarried on 27th April 1893. Henry Duncan (Harry) Goodsir, the third son, was an anatomist and naturalist, and joined Sir John Franklin`s fateful expedition to the Polar Seas of the Arctic in 1845 in search of the North-West Passage, and perished with the rest of the expedition. His brother, Robert Goodsir, the 4th son, graduated in medecine, and sailed twice to the Arctic regions with Captain Penny (in Lady Franklin`s ship) without success in search of his brother.
61 FIFE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT, AGM 9 JUNE 2015
BY HUGH HOFFMAN
This has been a busy year for the society as usual. We have held seven evening talks in Cupar on a wide range of interesting subjects with a varied selection of speakers. All the talks have been well attended with audiences of 25-30 each time. 2014 was the society’s 25th anniversary and we particularly appreciated a talk from the first chairman of the society, Dave Reid, who told us about the society’s foundation and early days and something of its development over the years. We also had a visit to the Peoples Palace in Glasgow with eleven members and friends enjoying an illuminating and sociable day out.
We have attended several family history fairs over the past year, including the bi-annual Fife Family History Fair in Rothes Halls. We had a stall at the ‘Who Do You Think You Are Live’ event in Glasgow in August. This event - and indeed all family history fairs – allows us to meet members and others with an interest in family history in Fife as well as providing an opportunity to sell books and CDs and sign up new members. We will continue to attend such fairs in the coming year.
Our editor Andrew Campbell has produced three issues of our journal and once again we must thank him for his efforts and continuing enthusiasm. Andrew is also our representative on the Scottish Association of Family History Societies (SAFHS), whose work we continue to support. Another outside involvement is with Kirkcaldy Civic Society together with whom we are planning the sixth Grave Stones Conference which is due to take place in Kirkcaldy on 14 November this year.
Looking at our financial situation, preliminary figures show we have made a small surplus of around £150 over the year. Our income and our costs have both fallen compared to 2013-14. One significant factor in the reduced income this year is that we encouraged the sale of three year memberships in 2013-14 which boosted the membership income last year and has consequently restricted membership income this year.
Sales of books and CDs have continued steadily during the year with total sales amounting to just over £2000. We plan to publish some new CDs in the coming year.
We have made a donation towards the costs of the Grave Stones Conference; and have also made donations to the Friends of the Laing Museum in Newburgh who are planning to extend their public opening facilities, and also to the Crail Fishing Boat Disaster 250th anniversary commemoration which took place last month.
62 Full financial details will be presented and discussed in the Treasurer’s report which follows later.
We are still exploring the possibility of finding premises where we can welcome visitors, offer records and facilities for research, have publications available for purchase, etc. Any actions will need to await the availability of suitable premises in the right place and at a price we can afford.
On behalf both of the society and of myself personally, I would like to offer my thanks to all the members of our committee who have worked tirelessly to ensure the smooth running of the society’s affairs. They will be giving their individual reports later but I would like to acknowledge the input from Frances Black (Secretary and Membership Secretary), Andrew Campbell (Editor), Roddy Greig (Research and Members Interests), Alison Murray (Social Media) and Christine Roberts (committee member).
We would like to increase the number of committee members to share the load a little - and also to avoid the need for some of us to double up on jobs (for example Frances is both Secretary and Membership Secretary, while as well as looking after sales of Publications I have taken temporary charge of financial matters following the resignation of our Treasurer earlier this year). We hope that some members will step forward tonight and express an interest in joining the committee.
And one final piece of news. In my role as Chairman of Fife Family History Society I was invited on 2 June to attend a 21 gun salute at Edinburgh Castle to mark the anniversary of the queen’s coronation. An interesting experience. I have posted a couple of photos on Facebook.
63 FIFE FHS
INCOME AND EXPENDITURE 2014-15
2014/20152013/2014
Income:
Memberships 7400 8970 Publications 2156 1929 Transcriptions 0 240 Entrance fees 192 244
Other 0 840
TOTAL INCOME 9748 12223
Expenditure:
Journal printing 1484 1419
Journal distribution 3091 2164 Meetings 587 703 Travel 183 236 Stationery 148 205 Paypal fees (estimate) 280 266 CC charges 0 151 Transcriptions 0 122 Books/publications 798 505 Conferences 2029 1104 Website 215 1636 Postage 504 430 Miscellaneous 276 979
TOTAL EXPENDITURE 9595 9920
BALANCE 153 2303
64 Kirkcaldy Civic Society, Fife Family History Society Fife Grave Stones Conference 2015 Saturday 14th November 10am to 4pm Kirkcaldy Old Kirk, Kirk Wynd, Kirkcaldy KY1 1EH Talks Frank Hay & Len Saunders: “The Briggers: Forth Bridge Casualties” Richard Fawcett: “Scottish Medieval Canopied Tombs” Martyn Gorman: “For the Security of the Dead” Margaret Bennett: “Scottish Burial Customs” Thomas Elliott: “Scotland’s Epidemics” £15.00 (lunch and coffee included) Exhibitions, Displays, Books Bookings only to: Anne McIntyre, 73 Harcourt Road, Kirkcaldy, Fife, KY2 5HF Please make cheques payable to Kirkcaldy Civic Society or visit www.kirkcaldycivicsociety.co.uk/gconf.html or www.fifefhs.org For more information contact: Hugh Hoffman: E mail: [email protected] or Tel: 01337 831403
65 FIFE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY
SYLLABUS, 2015-2016
Sep 08 2015 - Edward Small: History of the Scottish Funeral
Oct 13 2015 - Samantha Bannerman: St Andrews Preservation Trust
Nov 10 2015 - Ron Morris: Wildlife of the Forth Islands
Dec 08 2015 - Archiie Lumsden: Heraldry
Jan 2016 - No Meeting
Feb 09 2016 - Ian Murray: Genealogy and Fishing
Mar 08 2016 - TBA
Apr 12 2016 - Roddy Greig: Suffragettes
The May Outing has still to be announced, with the AGM in June
The talk in February 2016 by Ian Murray on Genealogy and Fishing has still to be finalised, and may be an afternoon talk at the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther. More information in later Journals
Our venue for talks is the same as last year in Volunteer House (Vonef Centre) in 69 Crossgate Cupar KY15 5AS, which is a 5 minute walk from the train station and less for the main bus stops. Crossgate is one of the main streets of Cupar. At night there is parking outside the building and there are also two public car parks. The Vonef centre is above the main Post Office, with the entrance to the right hand side when facing. Disabled chair. Talks start promptly at 7.30 - tea/coffee and biscuits included. Members entry free - Non members very welcome, entry £2 for refreshments.
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FIFE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY
Honorary President: Earl of Elgin & Kincardine, K.T. Honorary Vice-President: Archie Lumsden
OFFICE BEARERS, 2015 – 2016
CHAIRMAN: Hugh Hoffman, 6 Church Lane, Ladybank, Fife KY15 7LY
(E-mail: [email protected]) VICE-CHAIRMAN: Andrew Campbell, 30 Brown Street, Buckhaven, Fife KY8 1JW . E-mail: [email protected]
SECRETARY: Arlene Little, Woodside House, Donibristle Village, Cowdenbeath, KY4 8EU E-mail: [email protected]
PUBLICATIONS CO-ORDINATOR: Hugh Hoffman, Dunira, 6 Church Lane, Ladybank, Fife. KY15 7LY (Tel. 01337 – 831403) E-mail: [email protected]
SOCIAL MEDIA Alison Murray (E-mail: [email protected])
Committee Members Christine Roberts and Dave Reid:
WEB PAGE: http://www.fifefhs.org
Membership Subscription: UK - £15 (£45 for 3 years) Overseas - £20 (£60 for 3 years) Electronic Membership - £10 for all yearly
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