SIB FOLK NEWS NEWSLETTER OF THE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No 72 December 2014

GRAPHICS: JOHN SINCLAIR 2 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No 72 December 2014

ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY NEWSLETTER From Issue No 72. December 2014 the Chair COVER I hope you found the last Sib Folk News Merry Christmas fitting tribute to the memory of the young men who fought in WW1. I just have an amendment to the article about the PAGE 2 From the Chair Irvine men from Hinso in Papa , I obviously didn’t make it clear in the article PAGE 3 that Captain John Irvine survived the war Members' Photos and went on to own a chicken farm at Uphall. PAGES 4& 5 Reids & Wisharts As you may know the committee decided that the Society take a table in Australia at the ‘Who do you think you are? Live’ in the SECC, Glasgow, so four of the committee travelled down by car, bus and plane the last weekend PAGE 6 in August. It was initially supposed to be a three day event but was cut update down to two, but we all thought it was still well worth while going down. from Neil Thomas We were very busy on the Friday and I must apologise to the people we PAGES 7 weren’t able to talk to, but it was lovely to meet some of our members A Remarkable Story who came along the table to say hello. Thanks also to the members who from WW1 offered to help out, which allowed us all go have a look around and go to some of the lectures. PAGES 8 & 9 In September, our meeting took a different format and we had a two We got Afternoon Tea and a Family Treasure day WW1 exhibition in the library, and again I must thank the people who took in their ancestors stories, medals etc. it was a very interesting display. I must give a special; thanks to Nicky Manson who came and PAGE 9 spent both days there helping out and also our Secretary who made all Mystery Bus Tour the arrangements and pulled everyone together.

PAGE 10 I would like to take this opportunity to thank the committee and the Where are You office volunteers who keep the society running and also welcome David Yorston home our web-master, Dave Higgins, from his 5630 mile walk round the coast of Britain in aid of Parkinson’s UK and raised the terrific PAGE 11 sum of over £8600! Thanks, also go to our Editor who does a marvellous Alexander 'Sandy' Dunnet, Jnr job of producing four magazines a year, and especially this last issue despite being in hospital for a back operation, I don’t know how he does it! Thank you John. PAGES 12, 13 & 14 I wish you all a happy Christmas and healthy New Year. Robert Taylor DCM, MM. A Soldier Son of Orkney

PAGE 15 The Leonards of Digro PAGES 16 to 20 Anne Rendall Is there a Mowat out there? Subscription renewals by Standing Order We are still receivng some subscription renewals by standing order for the sum PAGES 21,22 & 23 of £7. Please note that this should be increased to £10 in accordance with the Putting the Pieces increase announced in our September 2013 newsletter and highlighted in sub- Together sequent issues. For details of current rate structure see back page. PAGE 24 Membership Details Issue No 72 Decemberr 2014 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 3 4 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No.72 December 2014

By Penny Paton, Member No 23463 Since writing the piece ‘From to Adelaide, South heavy superstructure work and diving were done by white men Australia, 1878’ for Sib Folk News Issue 62 of June 2012, I have who worked 54 hours per week... Just before luncheon my uncle conducted more research into my Reid and Wishart ancestors in regularly served to the men a quantity of Jamaican rum...” Orkney and in Australia. I will recap briefly to set the scene but In either April 1912 or 1913 Frederick, aged about 48, married more information about the families can be found in that article. a middle-aged woman, Annie Jane Prestage in Perth, Western My great grandfather, John Wishart Reid, emigrated from Australia, the marriage being witnessed by Sir Walter James. Orkney, arriving in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, on Sir Walter was the fifth Premier of Western Australia and a the ‘Scottish Lassie’ on the first day of 1878. noted lawyer, advocating for social reform, particularly women’s He was the eldest child of John Reid and Ann (née Wishart), suffrage and free secular education, and a supporter of federalism. born out of wedlock on 26th February 1854 at Ann’s parents’ Curiously the bride was in bed (it was suggested that she was on farm at Congisquoy near Stromness. After their marriage, Ann her death bed) and, even more curiously, in 1916 it came to light and John had six more children, Ann, Thomas Seater, Janet, that Annie was a bigamist - her real name was Annie Preston and William Wishart, Frederick William Stanger and James she was already married to George Preston when she married Stevenson. I have not been able to find a death certificate, but I Frederick. Their marriage was annulled in 1916. believe that William Wishart died in infancy. He is not recorded Late in 1916 Frederick was in Adelaide and, with a business partner in the 1871 census as living with his widowed mother and the F. J. Lewis, took out a lease on a site at Port Adelaide, in the three children still at home, and his younger brother was given name of Lewis & Reid Ltd. Over the next 13 years this company the second name ‘William’, perhaps in his memory. John Reid (variously called timber, iron and joinery merchants) operated died in 1867 at the age of 39, probably of tuberculosis, leaving his from city premises and various Port Adelaide addresses. In 1916 widow with six children under the age of 12. There is no record and 1917 there was also a branch in Perth, Western Australia, no of her marrying again; in the 1881 census Ann is living above the doubt a continuation of Frederick’s business interests in that state. town of Stromness with her unmarried daughter Ann, Frederick Lewis and Reid went into liquidation in 1929 and the liquidators (16, a carpenter’s apprentice) and James (14, a scholar). Both abandoned the lease on the company’s Port Adelaide premises. Anns were stocking knitters. My father had in his possession a letter than he can no longer find In 2012 I had not realised that the three surviving brothers of from Frederick, written to his nieces berating them for not telling John Wishart Reid also came out to Adelaide. A Thomas Reid him of the death of his brother John in 1938. It seems curious 17, single and a labourer, arrived in Adelaide on the ‘Hesperides’ that he did not know of his brother’s death when they were both in June 1876. There is no confirmation that this is John’s brother, living in the same city and presumably John’s death would have but he is about the right age (my Thomas would in fact have been been notified in the newspaper. Frederick was living at 34 Barton 18 in June 1876). If it is him then he arrived two years earlier than Terrace, North Adelaide, by 1925 and was living there when he his elder brother. There is no record of the other two brothers, died in April 1941. He was buried in the West Terrace Cemetery, Frederick and James, arriving in South Australia, so either they while John Wishart, his wife Edith and several of their children, arrived by ship in another colony and transferred to Adelaide or are buried in the Payneham Cemetery. the record of their arrival is lost. Frederick and James were both To return now to the next son by age, Thomas Seater Reid, who living in Stromness with their mother and sister, Ann, in 1881, so was born on 28th March 1858. In the 1871 Orkney census he is a their departure was after this date. 13 year old farm servant at Unigarth, Sandwick Parish. Sometime I have more information about Frederick Reid than the other between 1871 and 1881 he left Orkney and as noted above, he may brothers (apart from John); an article in the Mail (an Adelaide be the Thomas Reid, 17 years old, who arrived in Adelaide on the newspaper) for 6th January 1923 recounts that he is “a sturdy virile ‘Hesperides’ in 1876. He may have worked with his uncles, John Scot who left Stromness in 1885 when there was two feet of snow and William Wishart, both contractors and builders. All we know on the ground. Three months later he was in the sun-baked regions for sure is that he was buried in the West Terrace Cemetery on 26th of the Northern Territory”. The article also mentions that he had July 1898, aged 40. He and Frederick were buried in the same site, lived for 28 years in Western Australia where he was known as and while I can find a gravestone for Thomas, Frederick’s is no the “Sleeper King”. So assuming he arrived in 1885, he spent longer extant. most of the time until 1913 in Western Australia, apart from time The youngest brother, James Stevenson Reid, was born on 1st Oct working for his uncle, William Wishart, who had the contract 1866 and in the 1881 census he is listed as a 14 year old scholar. He to build the Darwin Jetty in the Northern Territory (then part was not listed in the 1891 census, so probably about the same time of South Australia). Frederick said “I worked for my late uncle as Frederick (1885) he came to Australia, possibly working with on the construction of the jetty for two and a half years. All the his uncles or brothers. James died on 28th September 1899, aged A Issue No 72 Decemberr 2014 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 5

F32. He was living at Thebarton, an inner western suburb when he died. His grave in the West Terrace Cemetery is no longer extant. Back in , the women of the Reid family are untraceable after the 1881 census (apart from Ann junior’s reported sin of ‘fornication’ in 1884). There are no records of Ann Reid (the mother) or either of her daughters, Ann and Janet – in fact the only record I can find of Janet is that she was aged 10 in the 1871 census. We last hear of the two Anns in the 1881 census, living above the town of Stromness. Mrs Ann Reid is mentioned in her brother William Wishart’s will – he died in Adelaide in November 1904, but the will appears to date from prior to 1897, as he mentions his wife (who died in 1897). Although William bequeathed £200 to both his sisters in Scotland (Ann and Jessie Hackney Road Bridge, Adelaide. Stonework erected by Davies & Wishart. Lennie), his legacies far exceeded his estate. Mention has been made in passing of two brothers of Ann Reid Other projects that John had a hand in were the approaches to (née Wishart) - William and John, who worked in Australia and the swing bridge over the Port River, Taylors-bridge and the Fiji (John). John Baillie Wishart, born in 1834, was apprenticed Hindmarsh and Gumeracha bridges over the River Torrens, the to a shipbuilder at the age of 16 and in 1855 he left home for Morphett Street bridge over the railway, the Robinson swing- Liverpool, where he shipped as a carpenter. He voyaged to bridge at Port Adelaide, the railway from Woodville to Grange various places, finally arriving in Melbourne in 1857 and finding and the Largs Bay railway and pier. John’s work was not confined employment there. John married Caroline Walter in December to South Australia, but extended to Victoria, New South Wales, 1860; Caroline had arrived in Melbourne in 1853 with her father, Western Australia, Tasmania and Fiji. th a tailor, mother, Elizabeth, and siblings Ann, Elizabeth and Caroline died on 24 July 1901 at ‘Stromness’, Buxton Street, Edward. and five years later, when working in Suva, Fiji, John died from th John and Caroline had two children in Victoria (John and injuries sustained in a buggy accident on 20 July 1906. Two William), before moving to Adelaide in March 1865. John built of their sons, John and James worked extensively in Fiji and the family home at 96 Mills Terrace, North Adelaide and seven John Junior was the largest timber merchant in Fiji at the time more children were born – three girls and four boys. The last of his death from influenza in Suva in December 1918. Two of child, Arthur, died in 1881, aged 21 months at Barton Street, so their daughters (Jessie and Elizabeth) remained unmarried and by this time the family had moved. two sons (William and Henry) lived in Western Australia. Their John’s first contract was the Wallaroo jetty and tramway and second daughter, Caroline, married Alexander Le Rey Boucaut later works included the causeway to Granite Island and wharfs in 1898. A gravestone in the Wesleyan Cemetery in Walkerville at Port Adelaide, Port Germein and Port Pirie. While working commemorates John and marks the burial sites for Caroline (née with his brother William at Port Adelaide, he lost an arm in a Walter), Jessie, Elizabeth, George and (Herbert) Arthur. monkey pile-driving accident. In 1875 John and an Adelaide William Ross Wishart was born, like all his siblings on the family th businessman Maurice Davies both tendered for the erection of farm near Stromness, Orkney, on 4 September 1841. He came to a new bridge over the River Torrens linking the city with North Australia, and was living in Adelaide at least by 1874, when his Adelaide. Davies was successful, but controversy erupted when tender for the construction of the Brinkley wharf was accepted. it was discovered that he was intending to have the ironwork In 1878 he built the Goolwa Wharf Complex, which was 359 feet made in England. The project needed engineering and practical in length. He was a major contractor in South Australia, with one construction experience and a partnership was established be- of his largest contracts being the Palmerston (now Darwin) jetty. tween the rival tenderers, with John Wishart overseeing the His tender of £39,817 was accepted in December 1884 and the building of the bridge, renamed the Adelaide Bridge on its open- construction took over two years. ing in 1877. William lived at Bowden-on-the Hill and married a much younger The firm of Davies & Wishart went on to build the Mount Lofty woman, Margaret (Maggie) McDonald on May Day in 1880. to Nairne section of the Adelaide-Melbourne railway line, where It seems that William may have had a fiery temper as he was Davies’ experience sourcing hardwood was invaluable, and the convicted of assault in 1883 – after paying an invoice to settle an Albert Bridge. The Albert Bridge was also built with ironwork account, he kicked the man “in a sensitive part of his body”. from England and opened in 1879, with the partners’ names Maggie and William had one child, a daughter Florence Jessie, engraved there in stone. In Western Australia, Davies & Wishart born in 1885, before Maggie died aged 37 in 1897. William died th built the piers at Albany and Fremantle as well as the Cape on 16 November 1904, but his Will led to a court case which was Leeuwin Lighthouse. not settled until the following year. As it turned out, he bequeathed Charles Baillie, a carpenter and joiner by trade, came to Adelaide legacies far beyond what his estate was worth, amongst others to in about 1866 and one of his earliest jobs was the erection of the his sisters Ann Reid and Jessie Lennie and his nephew, Frederick ironwork of the Victoria Bridge in 1869-70. He later joined the W. S. Reid. A curious phrase in William’s Will relates to “Jessie firm of Davies & Wishart and their projects included the lattice Evans, adopted daughter of testator”. A Jessie Florence Maud girder bridge across the railyards in line with Morphett Street Wishart aged 21 married Walter Evans in 1903 – in fact William (the new name for the Victoria Bridge), completed in 1884, and and Maggie’s daughter would have been only 18 years old, so there the stonework for the arched truss bridge at Hackney which is some uncertainty over this daughter and whether there was just opened in 1885. This latter bridge still carries the southbound one natural daughter or perhaps a natural and an adopted daughter, traffic over the Torrens today. with very similar names and born a few years apart. L 6 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No.72 December 2014

By Neil Thomas, Member No. 3089 My article about my wife Sue’s Orkney Rendall ances- Alexander’s surname Rendall had been copied as Russell. try was published in the March 2014 issue. The editor Just before leaving for our holiday in the UK and Ireland John Sinclair added some further details in the June I had discovered on ScotlandsPeople the census entry for issue. By then we had met OFHS member Edwin Ren- them, living in Albert Street, . I had booked our dall and wife Kate in Grainbank Terrace, Kirkwall. Ed- Kirkwall accommodation for five nights with Dorothy win, it turned out, is a third cousin of Sue’s grandfather Bain of Haughead, , and the address of our bedsit Kenneth William Rendall Quin in South Australia, turned out to be No 4 Wellington Street. It was in this and to make the family connection even more special, street that Hugh and Alison Rendall were living in 1841. he is one day older than Sue’s aunt Marjorie Alison Since our return I have started family history research Rendall Quin. We had a most interesting and pleasant into the female siblings of Alexander Groat Rendall day with them. We were driven around the west side junior in Australia. The connection with Orkney families of Mainland, finding the New Rendall and Old Rendall was maintained by two of his sisters’ marriages with parish burial grounds, plus the Evie burial ground. We men from there. Mary Ritchie Rendall (died Adelaide found many Rendall and Miller (the distaff side of the 1906 aged 66) married in 1858 John Sinclair Miller family) gravestones in all these places, but none which from (1829-1889), his parents, John Miller seemed to fit Sue and Edwin’s ancestry. We know their (born 1795) and Helen Fea, married Stronsay 1824. ancestors Hugh Rendall (died 1845) and wife Alison Margaret Miller Rendall (died Adelaide 1936 aged 91) Kerr (died 1856) are buried in the burial ground of married in 1878 Thomas Clouston Flett (died 1926 St Magnus aged 78). The youngest sister Jemima Miller Rendall cathedral, but married twice: firstly in 1867 to Eli William Rich who without grave- died in 1868; stones. then to Thom- Edwin has as Lock in completed 1874. Jemima extensive Miller Lock research on died in Adelaide all his family in 1942 aged 94. lines, and has Good Orkney given me a longevity genes! family tree of Sue and his Rendall I loved our branch. His Orkney visit, great-grand- which was far mother, sister too short. An to Alexander evening concert Groat Ren- in St Magnus Victoria Street, Kirkwall dall senior, was cathedral by a Janet Rendall, born 1822 in Kirkwall, married to an visiting Nor- islander John Rendall. Their son John Spark wegian male Rendall (1848-1927) was well known in Kirkwall, living voice choir was at 34 Victoria Street. memorable. We St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall We made the Orkney Library & Archive in Kirkwall drove around our base for email contact with our family back home in Mainland and as far down as , and saw Adelaide, and visited the Family History Society rooms as many pre-history sites on the islands as we could. one afternoon. We were pleased to meet Tommy Tull- It was lovely, while visiting the Queen Mother’s Castle och, George Gray and another man at the desk. I was of Mey later, to see the south end of South Ronaldsay, able to inform Tommy that the apparent disappearance across the Pentland Firth, knowing we had just been on of Sue’s Rendalls Alexander and wife Mary Ann (Mill- part of Orkney and enjoyed every moment there. Hope- er), in the 1841 census transcription was because fully we will return. NEIL THOMAS [email protected] Issue No 72 December 2014 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 7

By Stella MacDougall, Member No 2650 Peter Tulloch was born in in 1890, Dunfermline! This facilitated the visit and proved to be the youngest of nine children brought up at Upper the start of a life-long friendship between the girls. Breck, home of the last handloom weaver on the island, One of the happy outcomes of the visits to Scotland was William Tulloch. As that Win was sometimes told of local young men who were happened in most large injured and in hospital in London far from home. She families the children left would then go to visit them or invite them to her family home as soon as they home for a meal once they were strong enough. Such was a were able to earn their generosity that is hard to imagine these days. On one visit own living and eventu- north she heard about a young policeman from Cowden- ally Peter left the island beath called Peter Tulloch who came from Orkney and to become a ploughman was very homesick, with no possibility of a family visitor.... at Hellihowe on San- and the rest, as they say, is history! Despite Peter being day, close to the home of transferred to Erskine House in Glasgow for rehabilita- one of his sisters. Idyllic tion not long afterwards, a correspondence began, and though the scene may eventually Peter was able to travel to London where they look on a sunny day, it met again and were married in 1920. Constable Peter Tulloch was a hard life with lit- tle future, and in 1913 he became a police constable in Fife, influenced by the fact that his old- est sister Sarah had married and set- tled there. By all accounts he enjoyed his work and made some good friends, but War broke out and in 1915 he and four colleagues enlisted. Peter joined the 1st Highland Regiment, the Black Watch, and served in France for three years as a stretcher bearer. We know nothing of his war ex- periences as he never ever talked of them, except that at the end of May 1918, so close to the end of the War, he was wounded in the Peter and Winifred on their Wedding Day feet and had to have both legs amputated. A transfer from the Peter was unable to rejoin the Police due to his disa- battlefield to hospital in London bility, but together they took the decision to move to Fife followed. where they obtained a house in the new town of Rosyth. At that time, a feisty young Peter took up a job as a telephonist in Rosyth Dockyard woman named Winifred Flor- for a few years until the Dockyard was largely decommis- ence Attwood was at work in the sioned, and then became a boot repairer for the rest of Army Pay Corps offices in London. his working life. Despite his limitations he was a patient Born and bred in London, she had and contented man who lived to the age of 90 in a happy no connection with Scotland until a marriage lasting almost sixty years. close school friend who had joined A twist in the tail of this story is that one month af- the Navy found himself stationed on ter their marriage Peter’s sister Jessie in Sanday, by now the Firth of Forth. When Win men- Jessie King, had a new baby. She was named Winifred tioned she would be keen to come Florence Attwood King; a tribute to a young English- and visit him there, out of the blue woman willing to change her life for the love of a disabled came an invitation from a girl of a ex-serviceman in a “foreign” country. Young Win is still similar age he had got to know lo- alive, aged 94, living in Prince Rupert, Canada where the cally- to go to stay with her family in Prvate Peter Tulloch family emigrated in 1926. L 8 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No.72 December 2014

By Graham Mack, Member No 364. Since I started to research the family of my grandfa- father, Charles Dunnet had been born on , ther, Charles Dunnet (1872-1960), my wife and I have the illegitimate son of Charles Dunnet (1851- 1930) and visited Orkney many times. We love Orkney as a holiday Eliza Reid (1845-1933), who was originally from Westray. destination, but on each visit we are able to add a bit more Charles Snr and Eliza didn’t marry each other, but both to our knowledge of my family history. later married others. Charles Snr subsequently married We have also made friends, and this has been the most twice. satisfying aspect of researching the family tree, and goes On a previous visit to Orkney, we had discovered that back to our second visit in 2000. my grandfather, Charles Jnr (1872-1960) had a number of We saw advertised an ‘Orkney Hour’, to be held in the half-brothers and sisters. Eliza had married John Ren- Kirkwall Hotel Reading Room. The programme included dall, and they had two children- Mary Elizabeth Ren- a ‘Talk on Old Kirkwall’ with Sandy Firth, a ‘Recitation’ dall, known as Lizzie, born in 1887, and Joanna Car- by June Johnson, ‘Songs’ with Billy Jolly, and a talk on oline Spence Rendall known as Carrie, born in 1890. ‘Stromness Museum’ with Peter Leith. Eliza and John lived most of their married life at 6 Wel- As my Dunnet lington Street, Kirkwall. When Carrie died in 1941, she ancestors had was living at 2 Olaf Place, Kirkwall, and when Lizzie died lived in Kirkwall in 1971, she was living at 1 Olaf Place. for some years, When we recounted this brief history to Thora, her eyes we decided that a lit up, and arrangements were quickly made for the next talk on ‘Old Kirk- day. We were given quite specific instructions on how to wall’ might be in- find her home. “Come to the brown door in the wall of the teresting. If noth- dyke, in the forenoon.” We had only just met her, and it ing else, after the was our first, but not last, experience of Thora’s spontane- hour, we could en- ous kindness. We duly arrived as expected the following joy a drink or two day, and were given a warm welcome, and lovely tea and in the hotel bar! cakes. Thora explained that we were going to visit a good The evening was friend of hers, Lizzie Scollie, who lived in Olaf Place, actually very in- and would have known my great aunt, Lizzie Rendall. teresting, and the We all walked round to Olaf Place, and were welcomed talk on ‘Old Kirk- by Lizzie Scollie with more tea and cakes! Lizzie Scollie wall’ was illustrat- was able to explain that she had met Lizzie Rendall in ed and included in the 1940’s. They had both moved to houses in slides on parts of Olaf Place, and spent many evening walks together, be- Shore Street that coming great friends. Unfortunately, she had no photos of have disappeared, my great aunt, but she was able to describe her in some including the detail. My mother, Mary Dunnet, with her father, Captain houses where my After a long chat, and more tea and homemade cakes, Charles Dunnet, aboard the SS Horsa at the end of great great grand- Lizzie said, “Just wait a minute,” and she disappeared for the 1930s father lived. After some minutes, before returning with a blue, decorated the hour, we were bowl. She explained that when my great aunt Lizzie died, approached, as obvious visitors to the Islands, by a very Lizzie Scollie was invited to choose something as a keep- friendly lady who enquired if we had enjoyed the evening. sake from her possessions, as a reminder of their friend- I explained my interest in ‘Old Kirkwall’, and my fam- ship. She chose the bowl. Lizzie then said that it would ily’s connection to Orkney (Reference my previous arti- mean more to my family, and that I should have it, and cle ‘Skeletons and Mysteries’) “You must meet my sister.” she passed me the bowl. That bowl now has pride of place said the lady. And so Margaret Flett introduced us to in our home in Suffolk. Thora Bain. Each time we visited Orkney over the next few years, Thora wanted to know all about my Orkney family, and we visited Thora and Lizzie, and they always made us their time on Shapinsay, and then in Kirkwall. My grand- very welcome. We exchanged small gifts and cards withA Issue No 72 Decemberr 2014 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 9

F Lizzie at Christmas. How- were there we asked him about Tho- ever although we wrote to ra Bain, on the grounds that every- Thora, we never expected a reply. She one in Orkney seems to know every- explained that she was a Pict, and one else! We had heard that Thora Picts don’t write! had been unwell. “You must ask her Then sadly, a time came when we sister Margaret, she is my neighbour,” didn’t receive news from Lizzie, but was the reply. then heard from her niece, Netta, And so it was, that after 11 years, that she had died. We wrote back, and when we first met at the Kirkwall have been in contact with her ever Hotel, we met Margaret Flett again. since, and have enjoyed meeting her She was able to tell us about Thora, on our visits. We always rang Thora and my wife and I visited her in the and made arrangements to meet, but home in which she was staying, in we were finding it difficult to make Stromness. We had a grand time with contact, which concerned us. her, ignoring her plans of escape! It I have a small Orkney chair, which was with real sadness that we later belonged to my mother. On a visit in learned of her death. She was a very 2011, I had arranged to have a little special lady. repair work done on it. I have a pho- We came to Orkney searching for tograph of my mother sitting on the my past history, but have made friend- chair, so it must be at least 90 years ships along the way, which reflect the old. As soon as we arrived in Kirkwall My mother, Mary Dunnet, pictured in her Orkney warmth and welcome that have been we took the chair to Jackie Miller Chair in the early 1920s given by Orkney folk. at Scapa Crafts for repair. While we Graham Mack

A grand day out but does anyone know anything about it?

Here’s a happy photograph from Norman Windwick, Member No 393, but does any member remember the occasion and the names of anyone in the group? It has been suggested that it was a football trip (Thorfinn perhaps) and that the photograph was taken in Shetland 10 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No 72 Decemberr 2014

By Gregor Lamb, Member No. 1620 The television programme of that name emphasises the dificulties farm in Quesnel, BC. He thought these Yorstons had come from that some have in tracing lost family members. In any case a first Australia. I checked for a David Yorston in BC and sure enough cousin, David Yorston, (alias ‘Peedie Dave’) vanished without there was a David Yorston in Fruitvale but he turned out to be a trace in the I950s. He was called ‘Peedie Dave’ to distinguish him nephew of the David Yorston on Sacramento! from his father who had the same name. His father, my uncle, was My brother reminded me that David, being an actor, would have tragically killed at sea during the war when a shell exploded in the been a member of the Actors’ Guild so I phoned the Guild secretary breech of a gun he was firing. Young David reacted badly to his only to be told that there weren’t any Yorston members. I returned father’s death and became something of a rebel in Aberdeen where to Google and came across a reference to David Yorston who was he lived with his widowed mother. She decided that a change of undertaking a walk across Wales. environment might help her sort him out and so it was that a passage I suggested to Gregor that his cousin might have returned to the UK was booked on a boat to Australia. Our family had had excellent but when Gregor followed this up, this was not the David Yorston. relations with David’s mother who had visited us in Orkney and In despair I looked in the Australian 411 directories but there were many of our family had paid frequent visits to the small boarding so many David Yorstons listed there that I couldn’t possibly phone house which she kept in Aberdeen. lt came as a great shock to us them all from Canada at enormous expense so I gave up the search and indeed to other Orkney relatives when, after she and her son but not before I posted a note on the Internet billboard asking emigrated to Australia, nothing was heard from them. There was anyone with information to contact me. a rumour that the family had subsequently moved to Alberta in Eight years passed then I found a message in my mailbox. ‘Are you Canada but the source of this rumour was a mystery. still interested in information about David Yorston? I am his son. One day in the 1980s my sister, Ina, in told me that she Best regards, Samuel Scott’ (name changed to protect his identity). had been watching an Australian film on television and to her This was both surprising and confusing. Why wasn’t he a Yorston? surprise, when the credits came on screen, one of the actors was I Googled Samuel Scott and up came a number of candidates, the David Yorston. Could this be our long lost cousin? lt seemed most likely being a professional gardener who lived in England extremely unlikely. less that 100miles from Gregor. I e-mailed him and he affirmed ln the 1990s the internet was well established and so, assuming that he was indeed David Yorston’s son but he had been adopted that David Yorston had become an actor. l explored every avenue when his mother gave birth to him in England. He had two half- trying to find him. I had no success. sisters living in Canada and he had recently met his birth mother Ten years ago l had a letter from Canada. It was from Mike Yorston who told him that David Yorston, the actor, had died on Christmas in Quebec who told me to my great surprise that he was my 3’d Day 1944 in Calgary, Alberta. This was bamboozling. I passed this cousin. Mike was interested in genealogy and so l posed him the information on to Gregor who made contact by e-mail with Samuel question, ‘Can you find David Yorston, my first cousin, for me?’ who, gave Gregor the address of one of the sisters in Canada. She He kindly offered to help and recently he wrote an article for the was thrilled, not only to find that she had a brother but that there Quebec Family History Society in which he described the great was a close relative of her father alive who could clear up many of difficulties he had had in trying to track down ‘Peedie Dave’. the mysteries for her. Here is a paraphrased account what he wrote: What a story she had to tell Gregor. Her father, as an actor, had a I felt certain that, using the tools on the internet I could track brief relationship with one of the film crew who, when she returned down the missing cousin. I searched for David Yorston’s telephone to England, found that she was pregnant. number in Alberta using Canada 411. I called the D.Yorston Baby Samuel was registered for adoption in England. David listed in Calgary but she had never heard of any David Yorston, subsequently married in Australia and the family moved later to nor did she want to talk to any Yorston, myself included. A Google Calgary, Alberta. search turned up David Yorston in the cemetery at Qu’Appelle, After a time his wife, who was very much into occult sciences, Saskatoon but a look at the details showed that the lad had died thought that their first names and surnames were bringing them at the age of 16 years and 10 months. Obviously not the David bad luck so out of the window went the name Yorston to be replaced Yorston. Google did however give me a list of David Yorston by Daniel. movie credits, including a role as a Petty Officer pilot in the 1978 David Yorston became Zale Daniel and his daughter Freya blockbuster, ‘Superman’ with Christopher Reeve and Marlon Yorston, took a new identity as Ashala Daniel. Brando. ‘Aha!’ I thought, ‘perhaps he now lives in California.’ I No wonder we couldn’t trace your cousin! It is my deepest regret accessed the US 411 search and sure enough, there was a David that I wasn’t able to solve the mystery of his disappearance. I was Yorston living in Sacramento. I phoned him. He quickly advised delighted to find my new second cousins who spent a wonderful me that he wasn’t the David Yorston but continued to talk for 18 day with us in February of this year. Many thanks to Mike Yorston long-distance minutes, telling me that he had visited the Yorston for his persistence—and his friendship. L Issue No 72 Decemberr 2014 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 11

At Craigiefield in the early 1900s Sandy in RGA uniform At Quoybanks Farm. Sandy far left with John Ritchie and Jock Stevenson Constable Windwick

Alexander “Sandy” Dunnet Windwick Jnr. Was born on the could be hard in North America and Canada. Unemployment was 18th August 1890 at Craigiefield Farm, St Ola, where his father at record levels and crime was endemic in most big cities. Toronto was farm manager. Sandy was brought up within the farming was no exception and little quarter was given or expected by those traditions of the day and like his father moved around Orkney on either side of the law. The following article from a Toronto from farm to farm wherever there was a need for his skills and newspaper goes some way to demonstrate the situation. experience. An acquaintance whose father once owned the farm of Quoybanks told me that Sandy was always in demand because FOUR BEATEN BY ONE he was a big lad and had the strength of two men. This is just one example of what a policeman faces every hour of Sandy was still in his early twenties when WW1 changed the day and night when he is on duty protecting life and property. everything for him. It is not clear whether he volunteered or was P.C. Windwick went up a lane to arrest Tom Addams for disorderly conscripted but Sandy ended up in the Royal Garrison Artillery conduct. After a battle he accomplished his purpose. Along came (RGA). He eventually went to France where Jack and Agnew Burlie and Jack Whalen, he was promoted in the field to corporal. Some By Norman Windwick who hated the very sight of a bluecoat, and time later he was wounded and here the story Member No. 393 attempted to release the prisoner. Adams broke gets somewhat speculative. According to away. He ran through a big building. The accounts by elder family members, no longer constable followed. Adams threw bricks and with us, corporal Sandy Windwick was reassigned and sent back one struck the officer squarely across the nose – almost a knockout to Orkney to become “Minder” to an Admiral in . blow. But the policeman was game enough to arrest the other three I doubt if Admiral Jellicoe or any of the other flotilla Admirals men. Adams was rounded up shortly afterwards on a charge of left the security of their flagships for very long but there was a wounding. His rescuers were charged with obstructing the police. shore based Admiral. Admiral Sir Stanley Colville was virtually Adam’s face is still bandaged. The bandages cover four stitches. governor of Orkney and Shetland with authority over naval, army “One thing I like about him,” said Mr. Brown, the magistrate “he and civil issues. We shall never know if there was any substance didn’t squeal about the beating he got, and he got a good one. He in this saga as all the RGA records were destroyed in a bombing deserved it. I am taking that into consideration.” He was fined $50 and raid on London during the Second World War. One thing is costs or 30 days. Agnew Burlie and Jack Whalen were fined $50 with certain, at the end of WW1, Sandy Windwick was in courting costs or 60 days. All three have records. Jack Burlie without a record, a young girl called Jessie Johnston. Jessie had a brother who had was remanded for sentence. Both Burlies were former boxers. emigrated to Canada some years earlier but because of ill health C o n s t a b l e W i n d w i c k w a s c o m m e n d e d f o r h i s c o u r a g e . was struggling to bring up his two children. Jessie was determined In the early 1950’s when I lived in the old Community Centre to go to help her brother and Sandy arranged to follow. on Great Western Road (where the fire station is now) great uncle On March 13th 1926 former corporal Sandy Windwick sailed Sandy came home for a visit and as a small boy I remember from Greenock as passenger 17 (3rd class) on the SS Montnairn thinking that this man in a raincoat and trilby hat was like a giant. and arrived at Saint John, New Brunswick on March 21st. From After reaching the rank of patrol sergeant Sandy retired from the Saint John he travelled to Toronto, Canada where he and Jessie police in 1957 at the age of 58. He made his made their home at 99 Constance Street. They eventually adopted last journey home in the early 1960’s when I Jessie’s two nephews, Stuart and Fred, and brought them up as had the pleasure of driving him around all his their own. On October 18th 1926 Sandy joined the Toronto Police. favourite sights. I remember he was always It is interesting to note that his date of birth on his application happy to go to the Italian form is given as 1899 which makes him nine years younger than Chapel. Sandy never made it he actually was. Was this a mistake or a fly move by Sandy back to his native Orkney and to achieve enrolment? We shall never know. On being issued the family were sad to hear with his uniform he was instructed to attend the cobbler. The of his death in 1975. He cobbler wasn’t interested in Sandy’s boots but instead asked for was truly a larger than his gauntlets. While he waited the stitching on the leather strap life character who lived across the knuckles of each glove was carefully unpicked, coins a remarkable life. or washers inserted and then restitched. Badge No. 363 patrol officer Windwick was now ready for the street. We may be a bit shocked at the customary inclusion of foreign Sandy and Jessie objects in the gauntlets but in the late 1920’s and early 30’s life at the Bignold Park 12 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No72 December 2014 Issue No 72 December 2014 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 13

Bobby must have been present on some of those occasions. In September 1918 Margaret adopted a last child to rear, named It seems that Robert was influenced in his next life-choice by the James Gardner when he was just 6 weeks old. Margaret took him proximity of Naval Headquarters at Scapa Flow. It is easy to imagine with her, as an infant, when she went to view the spectacle of the that a young man might be enticed by the lure of the sea, its mighty scuttled German ships at Scapa Flow at the end of the war. docked vessels and its potential for adventures abroad. On 4 June She would lose two of her sons in both World Wars; George, her 1909 he joined the Royal Navy as a stoker at Devonport, England. fourth-born when he died of the 1918 influenza epidemic aboard a He stood a slight 5ft 6inches tall, was of fair complexion, hazel- ship in Wellington, New Zealand. (He is buried on Soames Island eyed and brown-haired. in the Wellington Harbour), and some years later, second-born son, His life was to change forever. It would begin with training at the Ralph, would be lost, presumed drowned, during service at sea in Royal Navy barracks on the shore establishment of H.M.S. Vivid W.W.II. (see photo), from 21 September 1909 until 7 December before he Margaret TAYLOR resided at another Stromness address, in took to sea aboard the cruiser H.M.S. Devonshire. Khyber Pass until about 1927 and finally at 21 South End, close to Article By Sue Malone, Member No 1952 Records state that he spent another three and a half months back Logan’s Well, from 1928 until her death in 1941. She is buried in at the H.M.S. Vivid before returning to sea on the gunboat H.M.S. Stromness Cemetery. Almost 100 years ago my grandfather Robert TAYLOR joined the photo. She had delivered Algerine. From 1916 until 1918 Robert fought in the mire, serving time in army to fight in the First World War. As a native of Orkney and an her first daughter From 1909 Robert worked as a stoker in the Royal Navy. Stoking Mons, the Somme, Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele. He would tell intrepid world traveller here is my account of his story. Margaret (Robert’s was a tough, dirty and hot job requiring strength and speed to shovel his son Rodway (many years later), about the mud and the rats and Robert (Bobby, mother) out of wedlock coal into the fiery furnaces deep in the ship. what a terrible killer the disease tetanus was, and that he had been Bob) was born 23 while living with her For the rest of his life his body carried reminders of his time at sea. instructed never to walk past a wounded enemy soldier (he referred February 1890 parents James and On his left forearm was a tattoo of a lady and snake. He also bore a to them as ‘the Bosche’) without putting his heel into the enemy’s at Eastbister, Isabella at (probably scrunched up fingernail that had been caught in a pulley rope from face and giving it a turn! Like many of his contemporary WW1 near Longhope No 4) The Wyng, near his time on a windjammer. soldiers, he was reticent relating his fighting experiences. He did, on the island of Longhope, Hoy. This quiet adventurer was described as of “very good character however, make disparaging comments about the monotonous army Hoy, fourth in a Later Margaret McKay throughout” in his naval records. He decided that the Royal Navy or diet of tinned food such as bully beef and pineapple that left him with family of eleven MOWAT married maybe stoking, was not for him and left his ship when it was docked a lasting dislike of both. children born to Eastbister near Longhope David SINCLAIR of at Esquimalt on Vancouver Island (probably in 1914). We are not His upbringing in Orkney may well have strengthened and Margaret (nee Cudbreak, (2 miles north sure as to whether he jumped ship, as in family lore, or that the ship grounded him in the stoicism that held him in such good stead for the MOWAT) and James TAYLOR. of St Mary’s Holm) signed them off. war effort. Little did he know when he enlisted that the future would Robert’s early years were spent at and raised a family of In any event he found his way down the West Coast of America bring about acts of bravery and leadership for which he would earn Eastbister, living at the residence of seven Sinclair children and was employed at the Du Pont (munitions) factory in California distinguished recognition. his paternal grandfather, shoemaker there. After David died as a powdermaker. In our family, one story did endure. and fisherman Ralph Nicholson in 1884, when she was We think it was from here that he heard about an amnesty offered We were told that Robert had single-handedly captured a group of TAYLOR. 39, she managed to to Commonwealth citizens by the Canadian army in Brandon, German soldiers, with his only protection a pick handle, for which Into this house were squashed produce yet another Manitoba, Canada, and consequently he decided to take advantage he was later awarded the DCM. Robert’s older siblings James, Ralph child named Charlie of this, enlisting as a private in the 1ST Canadian Mounted Rifles; The official version in which he was awarded the Distinguished and Mary, along with the family of SINCLAIR (father’s Robert (Bobby) about 20 years old, wearing his H.M.S. 45TH (BTN) 99TH Manitoba Rangers on 28 June 1915 when he was Conduct Medal in the London Gazette Number 30450 dated his aunt Eliza(beth) and uncle James details unknown) and Vivid hatband. Photo courtesy of Elnore Hutchinson 25 years old. 1 January, 1918 states: Johnston and three cousins, as well lived until 24 October (nee Taylor). Even though his feet were fairly flat, he was declared fit for battle, as two other young unmarried aunts 1934, when she died at and signed himself to serve in the war effort. By this time he would DISTINGUISHED CONDUCT MEDAL Margaret and Jemima. Imagine the Halls Cottage at St Mary’s Holm aged 89. be aware that the war was not “over by Christmas” and we wonder DEED OF ACTION bustle at mealtimes and the noise on She is buried in Holm Cemetery. what he thought was in store. 425711 CORPORAL ROBERT TAYLOR a wet day! Robert’s paternal grandfather aged Sadly, and before his time James died from kidney disease on 30 He sailed from Halifax on the S.S. Baltic in early April 1916, CANADIAN MACHINE GUN CORPS When Robert was about 3 years 96 in 1931. Photo courtesy of Olive May 1904 leaving Margaret at 41 years of age responsible for their headed for French soil, ready to fight for King and country. For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in action. At the old, and after the births of his Groat, Melsetter, Hoy. large brood. During the war years Robert’s mother Margaret worked at final objective he entered enemy dugouts with the greatest courage, Robert had been attending school, with a part time job looking Windywells on the island of , as a housekeeper, and and was personally instrumental in capturing a large number of younger brother George and sister after a local farmer’s bull, but at the tender age of 14, around the time returned to her household in Stromness on the weekends. Robert had prisoners. Barbara, James and Margaret of his father’s death, he was apprenticed to a joiner/cabinet maker. his army pay sent directly to her. Later in the London Gazette Number 30573, dated 13 March, shifted their growing family from It may be that he learned his craft as a French polisher while in this Once Robert (Bob) came home on leave. His pay book states 1918 were the details of his Military Medal. For conspicuous across the water to the employment. the date as 29 bravery and devotion gasworks at ‘North End’ Stromness The family may have moved to Dundas Street at his time, because October 1918. It to duty November where James (snr) took up new th residing in the gas works owned cottage was no longer an option. We was possibly the 12/15 1917 on the employment. know that Margaret was renting there in 1914 -1915 where she paid last time he saw PASSCHENDAELE It was here that brothers and a rent of 5 pounds. his mother. He front, in that he, when sisters Louis, Albert, Eva, Janet and Undaunted by her widowhood, she took on any work she could; and other family the section officer was Millie were born. making hay for local farmers, taking in boarders, nursing others members, who incapacitated and the As the children grew old enough and delivering babies. She was an industrious worker, like her own had left Orkney other N.C.O.s wounded they attended school and flourished mother, always busy with tasks, including knitting and needlework. shores, kept in took virtual charge of in their new surroundings. Her hands were never still. She was often heard remark “the devil touch through the section, and had Not too far away, at St Mary’s Robert’s maternal grandmother, finds work for idle hands”. regular letters all his Machine Guns Holm, lived Robert’s maternal Granny Margaret Sinclair (nee Mowat). She would take the children to visit Granny Margaret McKay (although we firing on the S.O.S. call grandmother Margaret McKay Photo courtesy of Stella Spence, a SINCLAIR on all-day excursions from Stromness to Holm with a have no records without delay. In that SINCLAIR (nee MOWAT) see Distinguished Conduct Medal Military Medal Victory Medal British War Medal great grandmother on the Sinclair side. basket full of baking and other goodies, so we presume that young of these) he assisted A 14 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No.72 December 2014

Fburied men while under gas shell and shell bombardment. other side of the world in search of new prosperity. They departed In that he was of great assistance, in moving the guns to forward Vancouver 30 August 1939 aboard the RMS Aorangi. position under very trying conditions. In that he showed at all times Just as the First World War had defined Robert’s early adult life, even under the heaviest fire a cool courage and steadfast devotion to the Second World War was to define the timing of his next chapter. duty that was an example and inspiration to all around him. W.W.II was declared on 3 September 1939 during a storm at sea. Towards the war’s end Robert trained as a machine gunner and Upon arriving in New Zealand in October 1939 Robert found work was transferred to the 3RD Canadian Machine Gun Corps in March as a house painter and paperhanger. A new house in the Auckland 1918 where he was promoted to sergeant. suburb of Mt Roskill became At some time, possibly in 1919, Robert met his sister Barbara available and the children in London and between them they “painted the town red”. He continued their education in spoke of this sister, nicknamed Baba, with special affection and new schools. Life quickly remembered that night in the big city as a particular highlight. resumed normality again. Robert returned to Canada in March 1919. He found work, The children (except up the west coast from Vancouver, as a painter, at a paper mill for Evelyn) married in Powell River, and romance, at the hotel across the road. He New Zealanders and literally bumped into his future wife, my grandmother, in the between them produced foyer of the Rodmay Hotel. She was Gladys RODWAY and had eight grandchildren. The gone to work at the paper mill as a secretary. They married in grandchildren have produced Vancouver on 14 December 1921, honeymooned in Seattle, and 16 great grandchildren and after Christmas returned to Powell River. they, to date, have produced Because of his war service Robert was granted land on a Returned 8 great, great, grandchildren Services Association ballot. The large plot was adjacent to the with another boy due on 28 sea where the local native North American Indians paddled their September. canoes. Tirelessly he set about clearing the section with his own Bob, somnetime in his 30s. Robert had some health hands built a two storeyed wooden house (that still stands today). difficulties due to what Four children were born: would become serious heart problems. He had always been a Margaret Gladys TAYLOR born 5 March 1923 smoker of ‘roll-your-owns’ and continued to smoke with little Rodway Robert TAYLOR born 21 September 1926 understanding of its effect on his well-being. Evelyn Jean TAYLOR born 12 May 1928 He died at home on the 28 November 1955. Elnore Irene TAYLOR born 28 January 1932 Robert is buried far from his native Orkney in the well-kept Life was good. The family flourished. There was steady work cemetery for soldiers at Waikumete in (West) Auckland, New and bounty from the sea, a big, productive vegetable garden Zealand. and fruit trees. (Robert) Bob corresponded with his mother Thanks to Robert’s and Gladys’ decision to come to New regularly. In return parcels from Orkney arrived containing fair Zealand, family life improved and their legacy to their progeny isle jumpers hand-knitted by Mammy Margaret for her Canadian is immeasurable. grandchildren. Bob’s handy skills of painting and paperhanging were passed On Christmas mornings Robert would get up first, stoke the fire down to his children who would all expertly paint and wallpaper and then rouse the household by ringing a cowbell. Cooking their own homes in the future. He personally helped to decorate pancakes was his specialty when it was his turn to cook and he my parents’ first home. In my house a treasured French polished continued to consume percolated coffee, a habit that we presume bookcase remains, stacked with books for his great, great, was developed in his North American travels. grandchildren to read. He loved to read and had wide ranging interests, including poetry. There was never a time when Robert was able to return to Orkney. He recited his favourite poems especially those of the Canadian poet, He spoke with great affection of his homeland and planted seeds Robert Service, Tennyson and Coleridge. We could all quote the of curiosity in the following generations. His eldest daughter opening lines of ‘Kubla Khan’ and the “Water, water every where, Margaret travelled there in 1988, unsuccessfully attempting to Nor any drop to drink” lines from the ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. find family. Sometime later when Robert’s sister Barbara died in In the early 1930s Robert arranged a visit for his sister Janet Scotland she left money in her will to his children and from there (now Mrs Jack MEIL) with her small children from Scotland. we eventually made connections. This would be the last time he had any physical contact with his In 1995 I visited both Scotland and Orkney with my father Orcadian family. Rodway TAYLOR (Robert’s son) and my brother Gordon. We Difficult times were to follow when in 1933 Robert and a number were lucky enough to connect with distant relatives; the late James of other men found themselves dismissed from the paper mill. It GARDNER and his family in Edinburgh, second cousin Nancy was probably due to their vocal, socialistic political interests and Stewart (nee TAYLOR) in Perth, Lorna HEDDLE and her father opinions that had considerably sharpened after war experiences. Angus HEDDLE, FHS member no 644, with Olive GROAT and For Robert and Gladys and their young family it was a disastrous other members of her family at Melsetter, and latterly on a 2008 and despairing situation. Powell River was a mill-company town visit with Sheila SPENCE, FHS member no. 39. and not friendly towards dismissed employees. Some of their land Happily, distant relatives Lorna HEDDLE and Sigurd THOMSON, was sold and the proceeds of these five lots helped them survive both from Hoy, have travelled to New Zealand, and maintained for a while. Robert was able to earn a little here and there, but the link with Orkney. when, after 6 years of depressing hardship, the family heard Long may it continue. L positive recommendations from friends who had immigrated to Compiled and researched by Sue Malone, (nee TAYLOR), New Zealand, it was decided to sell the house and move to the OFHS member no 1952. Auckland, New Zealand. Issue No 72 Decemberr 2014 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 15

Max Fletcher has started adding photos to a group on Facebook called Orkney Past & Present’. These feature ruinous cottages on his island of together with stories of the folk who used to live in them. In this issue of Sib Folk News Max generous- ly shares his research with our readers on the family in Rousay known as the LEONARDS of DIGRO

igro was a small croft on the east slope of Kierfea Hill, from Digro. Unable to find other accommodation in Rousay they Rousay. Peter Leonard, a 40-year-old wool weaver, left the island and eventually settled in Oban. There James became Dlived there in 1841. He was the son of Thomas Leonard involved in the coal trade in which he seemed to have prospered and Isabella Inkster and was born in 1798. He married Isabella to the extent of being the owner of the first motor car in the town. McKinlay, daughter of William McKinlay and Isabella Lero of Tommy Gibson of Brinola is in possession of a letter written Essaquoy, Sourin, and between 1820 and 1837 they had ten children, by James Leonard in September 1912, which he sent to his sister seven girls and three boys. They were; Ann, born on December 3rd Isabella who was married to Robert Grieve of Outerdykes. James 1820, Peter, on August 4th 1822, Cicilia on September 7th 1824, was 77 years of age when he posted the letter and his sister was Mary, on October 7th 1826, Isabel, on August 3rd 1828, Margaret in her 84th year when she received it. It shows that he had fond Smeaton, on November 9th 1830, Ann, on September 23rd 1833, memories of his earlier life in Rousay. He died at Oban in 1913. James, on July 6th 1835, William Smeaton, on August 23rd 1837, My Dear Sister, and Helen, in March 1841. Cicilia died in January 1825 aged 3 It is a long time since I wrote you now but today it just came months. Ann died in 1832 at the age of twelve, Margaret Smeaton in my mind to write you a few lines by way of remembrance of died in 1845 at the age of fifteen, and William Smeaton died in long ago. Well, Bello, I have not been well this long time I am 1847, when he was ten years of age. bad with Rheumatism in my legs and feet I am lame in one foot Their mother Isabella died on January 3rd 1873 aged 77 years but still able to move about. I have had a lot of worry this year and husband Peter died on December 18th 1882 at the age of 83. between one thing and another. You would have seen in the They were buried in the same grave as their four young children papers that our motor had an accident whereby a young man was in Scockness kirkyard. killed. George was driving it but I am glad to say no blame was By now son James was head of the household at Digro. He found against George. Again Alf was driving another day and he was a stone-mason and was married to Hannah Reid, youngest stupidly ran the motor in a ditch with three people. He broke my daughter of George Reid and Janet Harcus, who was born on car but wonderful none of the people got hurt. So you see what December 2nd 1840 at Pow, Westside. They had a family of risks I have had. Mother is like myself bad with Rheumatism but fourteen children, nine sons and five daughters, though three still able to move about. She would venture to Rousay yet if she of the boys, Arthur, William, and the first George, died within a was well but business is bad with us at present and she cannot fortnight at Digro during a diphtheria epidemic in 1879. go. We are both thinking of seeing you once more but who knows As an accomplished singer James was in demand at concerts and whither that will be so or not. There is One who knows and in His soirees and served as precentor at the Free Kirk in Sourin. After hands we leave the matter. the deaths of his children he ceased to take any pleasure in secular I sometimes wonder that you are keeping so well considering music and he became increasingly serious, even melancholy. your age. I should like very much to have a cup of tea with you Digro lay on the very margin of cultivation, high up on Kierfea now and some chickens as I used to get. I may get that at least I Hill, commanding a view over the whole wide sweep of Sourin. am hoping so. George Reid is still with us. He went to Orkney on Four hundred feet above sea level in Orkney’s cool and windy Saturday. Hannah does nearly all the housework now, but Ma is climate is a considerable altitude. The land was poor and the soil always about. She (Hannah) gets letters from James regularly. shallow and stony, but the houses at Digro were good and are still He was saying that he might come and see us this winter if all standing today. The well-built walls and neat flagstone roofs are a went well. Now Bello write me and tell me exactly how you are testimony to James Leonard’s skills as a mason, as is a miniature keeping. Can you go to Digro or Faldown yet? Is Willie still water-mill standing behind the original house and supplied from Precenting? Do you go to church and can you sing as well as a small dam farther up the hillside. ever? I can sing still if I was in Rousay I would step into my old In 1883 a Royal Commission, with Lord Napier as chairman, place and lead you all as I used to do. Is not that wonderful. Give was set up to look at the condition of crofting in the Highlands our love to all our friends, Digro, Faldown, Broland and any one and Islands. When the commission sat at Kirkwall, James you meet with who still remembers us. Ma and all the boys bids Leonard led the Rousay crofters in their evidence regarding me to send their love to Bello o’ Whitehall. Boys and girls and all the harsh regime imposed on them by their laird, General like you. God bless us all. That is my prayer Bello and He will Burroughs. Napier sought an assurance from Burroughs that he bless us. Goodnight just now. would not take retaliatory action against those who had spoken Your loving brother James Leonard. out against him. Burroughs refused to give such an undertaking, On 18 August 2001 an ornate stone was erected in memory of being the only one of the Orkney lairds to act in that way. Shortly James Leonard, ‘champion of the Rousay crofters’, and unveiled afterwards, James Leonard and his large family were evicted by two of his great grand-daughters. Christine and Rosemary. L 16 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No.72 December 2014

By Edna S. Panton, Member No 1094 based on prolonged research by Ethel (Petrie) Mitchell and Anne Mitchell As a family we have been reasonably confident of our the succession hanging by a thread; however it was he family history, since the male line has followed in direct who made the biggest improvement to the land. He succession for seven generations. Another circumstance extended by buying some acres of Sandi Aiken, located which made genealogy easy is that the Petrie family has down at the shoreline. It came under the Old Norse Udal occupied one farm, Stonehall, since the mid law; not so Stonehall itself. 1700s to the present day. Improvements were consistent with the mid 1800s. As The generations read as follows: a small landowner, David received small portions of com- 1. JAMES PETRIE m.1765 JEAN LOUTTIT monty (common land) here and there e.g. a bit at Mirkady 8 children. and elsewhere; the squaring of fields which remain large- It is fairly certain that the first James Petrie came the ly to this day and subsidised loans from the government short distance, across the sand‚ (St. Peter’s Pool, which is for drainage. The most radical change was the introduc- tidal) from St. Andrews to Deerness. tion of artificial fertilizers, while another was the intro- In c.1764 he bought the 12 acres known as Stonehall duction of a steamship on the Aberdeen route enabling from David Coventrie who owned the Newark Estate. animals to be sold in Aberdeen for further afield. All of A recurring question arises, ‘how could he afford to buy these changes for the better were embraced by David. land outright in those times?’ Certainly not as a tenant A great sadness in their lives was the loss of their eld- farmer. The answer is that some evidence points to him est son, David at sea somewhere in the Vancouver area, having resources from merchandising. aged 16 years. It is said that his mother, Catherine, never Estates which had supported an upper-class way of life did accept the fact and would wander to a vantage point were becoming less profitable due to poor agricultural at the top of Suli (south slope) field, looking out to sea in practices, several years of bad weather in rapid succes- the vain hope that a ship would bring him back. sion and sometimes no rents from tenants as they were simply unable to pay the rent. Estates such as Newark 4. EDWARD STOVE PETRIE b.1841 d.1920 started to sell off pockets of land bit by bit, so that places m.1881 JANE MOWAT, Stonepark, South like Stonehall became small farms in their own right, in- Ronaldsay d. 1937. 7 children. dependent from landlords. Edward, fourth son took over the farm. He built the As the new owner of land, James Petrie was ‘allowed’ to present dwelling house at Stonehall and settled in it buy a pew in the lower Kirk, now St. Ninian’s, Deerness, with his bride, Jane Mowat and an unmarried sister Jane which would have been regarded as a status symbol at Petrie. the time. So began the family history in Stonehall. a) David was the oldest, lost at sea. b) James, the second son, farmed at Mirkady, Deer- 2. DAVID PETRIE b. 1765 m. ELSPETH BEWS ness; his wife was Jessie Linklater. Shortly after losing b. 1767. 2 children. their only son, David, to measles when he was 17 years, David was the oldest son of this generation and farmed the rest of the family went to near Coventry. Over the in the accepted way of the times along with his wife who years many cousins visited Orkney, staying always at the also came from ‘across the sand’. She is noted in family family farm. history for being an industrious wife because she carried c) Peter, the third son, married Margaret Bichan, ‘ware’ (seaweed) from the shoreline of Taracliff Bay on to Mirkady, Deerness and emigrated immediately to New the farmland, thereby improving it; normal at the time Zealand from where descendants have ‘come home’ and but it would be called organic farming now. If she carried remain in touch with Orcadian cousins. it up the considerable brae of Stonehall, it would have d) John, the fifth son, went to Birmingham. Before been no mean effort. this, his sweetheart was one Margaret Pottinger, but she was also his first cousin and the relationship was disal- 3. DAVID PETRIE b.1800 d.1883 m. lowed for genetic reasons. CATHRINE HOURIE b. 1804 d. 1882 from In due course he married Sarah Corbett, an English Grind, Deerness. 7 children. woman and together they raised 8 children. Interesting- The second David to inherit the farm was an only son, ly their 6th child was named Margaret Pottinger Petrie.A Issue No 72 December 2014 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 17

F John returned to Orkney as a widower and re- nection was passed on by our paternal Grandmother Jane sumed the relationship with his former love who was Mowat Petrie to her daughter-in-law and our mother, Ag- a widow by this time. They married and continued to nes Matches Petrie. They lived together at Stonehall for farm Holland, which she had inherited 12 years until Jane died in 1937. Agnes remembered all from her late husband. Margaret and John retired to that Jane told her about the Mowat background, to which Fribo, Westray. more has since been added.

5. JOHN GEORGE CORBETT PETRIE Early 1800’s b.1894 d.1956 m.1925. EDWARD CHALMERS lived in South Ronaldsay in AGNES MATCHES, Breckan, Deerness the late 1700s. He was the father of ANNE CHALM- b.1900 d.1993. 5 Children. ERS who was married to JAMES LOUTTIT in the early John, known as Jock was the third son of Edward and 1800s. James and Anne farmed at Farvel, close to St. was the one to follow in Stonehall. He and Agnes farmed Margaret’s Hope on the road to Hoxa. The name of the through the aftermath of World War I and throughout farm has long since been anglicised from the Old Norse WWII with all the unusual demands that entailed. Jock to Farewell. and Agnes were our parents. 1831-1852 6. JAMES HOURIE PETRIE b.1932 d.2011 m. A daughter was born to James and Anne in 1831, 1966. CATHERINE BUDGE LOUTTIT. EUNICE CALDER SINCLAIR b.1937 d. 2011 Catherine married JOHN MOWAT, 3 years older than 2 children. her in 1852. He was a blacksmith: they were our great James, the only son, inherited the farm at an early age. great grandparents. Almost immediately after their mar- The period after WWII saw sweeping changes in farm- riage they emigrated to Australia. ing practices, moving rapidly from manual to mechanical methods, with a consequent reduction in the number of 1852-1862 people employed on the land, men especially. With the Two years after arriving in Melbourne, Colony of Vic- advent of ’running water’ (County Council Schemes) and toria, a daughter JANE MOWAT was born in 1854. Two also electricity throughout the countryside in the early years later in 1856 a son, JAMES LOUTTIT MOWAT was 1950s the work and help needed by farmers’ wives was born. Sadly he died before reaching his fourth birthday. also significantly reduced. These technological advance- This fact existed for c.110 years only as an entry in John ments led to a social revolution in farming circles, one Mowat’s family bible which was found at Stonehall. No which has been continued for over 60 years and is now one seemed to know of this son; Jane hadn’t spoken of him taken for granted, except during a power outage! The big to our mother, who, when told, refused to believe it! Jane sadness for this family was the loss of their only daugh- may not have remembered having a little brother and ter, Sarah, as the result of a car accident, aged 25 years perhaps she had not been made aware of it in adulthood. in 1996. Such events were often not spoken of in those days. Shortly after our mother died in 1993, a friend living 7. JOHN SINCLAIR PETRIE b.1967 m.1997 in Australia initiated a search for a headstone for little ALISON JENNINGS, Park House, Deerness. James. She found it in the Presbyterian part of St. Kilda 2 children. cemetery, Melbourne, confirming what was written in the Once again an only son is farming Stonehall. Their Mowat Bible. After the death of their son, John and Cath- family is 2 young sons, being brought up in an era of ad- erine came home to Orkney with Jane. vanced technology, and heavy land work is done by ev- It is common family knowledge that John had made a er-bigger machinery. fair amount of money as a blacksmith in his 10 years in This then, paints a picture of a relatively stable life- Australia, possibly because it was an essential trade in a style for one branch of a family over a period of 250 years. developing colony; however within a year or two he had It could be said to portray a relatively unexciting, unad- lost it all. venturous way of life rooted in one place; it could also be Piecing together the sequence of events, it appears he said that it is a loyal determination to keep the farm go- left Orkney again, to recoup his losses, this time for Inver- ing as it always has, in the family. The family has always cargill, New Zealand again to work as a blacksmith. had a strong connection with the Auxiliary Coastguard His wife Catherine was left at home because she was ex- Service, 3 generations having served with them. pecting their third child. She was staying with her Louttit However, as young people we could claim to have a parents at Stonepark, St. Margaret‚‘s Hope, their home at grandmother born in Australia and we enjoyed being this time. Stonepark was a strong stone built dwelling questioned as to how this was the case. Answers were close to the farm of Farvel. It has since been surrounded necessarily limited and unsupported, but into adulthood by new homes on the fringe of the village. JOHN WIL- then retirement the same focus has developed into more LIAM was born 19/07/1863. depth of family history research, with unexpected and 1863-1878 intriguing results. John Mowat, still in New Zealand in 1869 made a will ‘in favour of my dear wife, Catherine Mowat, leaving her ARE THERE ANY MOWATS OUT THERE? all of my estate’. Over the next few years he was also in Much of the initial knowledge of the Petrie/Mowat con- contact with his Orcadian lawyer asking him to be on the A 18 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No.72 December 2014

F lookout for any small farms coming up from estates family, Jane and John. After lengthy correspondence that were on the decline. By 1872 he had invested in two involving family members, including a Louttit in Cali- farms in Deerness, one called North Sands (Gutterhall), fornia, their share was settled at £27-10s each. John’s the other Easter Sands, both close to each other and in share was not forwarded to him at the time as it was the centre of the parish. Both were leased to tenants; at agreed he would collect it ‘when he came home’. He nev- the same time North Sands was willed to daughter Jane, er did come home and he and his sister did not see each Easter Sands to son, John. As John’s time in New Zea- other again. land went on, he was planning ahead for when he would The female line continues in America and a second return home permanently. He wrote of ‘buying a site at cousin of ours, Elizabeth, and her Petrie cousins have had Warrenfield, Kirkwall, for a habitation for my dear wife some wonderful times together both in Florida and Ork- and family’. It did not materialise for the saddest of rea- ney, where she is proud to have found her Mowat roots. sons. We do not have a date for his return; however he With all this background to our Petrie/Mowat con- did come back to Orkney. The next recorded dates are nections, we may be excused for feeling we knew our in 1878. Catherine died on 5th July, aged 47 years; John ancestry to a large extent. We were shaken out of our died on 13 December, age 50, both in 1878. They both died complacency. of ‚‘pulmonary tuberculosis-phrithisis-consumption/TB’. ARE THERE ANY MOWATS OUT THERE? John had also had liver disease for several years. In each By chance, a great granddaughter of Edward and Jane case their son John was a signatory on their death certif- Petrie saw a message on the internet asking ‘Are there icates. He was 15 years old at the time and had barely any Mowats out there?’ She pursued it and established known his father. The headstone for Catherine and John quickly that this was indeed more of our Mowat rela- is in St. Magnus Cathedral cemetery, Kirkwall. tives not surprisingly living in Australia, the surname no longer Mowat, but nevertheless relatives of direct de- 1878-1882 scent. The family had moved from South Ronaldsay into Kirk- An intriguing story unfolded as we learned about the wall to a home in Nicholson St., when the Mowat parents Mowats in general and their adventure into the unknown. died. Jane was 24 years old and her brother 15/16. John . became an apprentice blacksmith. Generation 1 For the next 3 years Jane was a ‘Pupil Teacher’ (un- The first known JOHN MOWAT m.1790 ISABELA certificated teacher) common at that time. She taught SUTHERLAND in Cannisby, Caithness, where a son in Deerness, staying with their tenants at Easter Sands GEORGE was born in 1792. They appear to have crossed close to the school. the Pentland Firth to Holm, Orkney as another four chil- In 1881, Jane and Edward Stove Petrie, farmer in dren were christened in Holm & Papley between 1794 & 1803. John lived until 1847. He was a teacher in Holm but reports from parish records suggest he may not al- ways have been worthy of his profession.

Generation 2 Their 4th son was John, born in 1801 & was our pater- nal great great grandfather. He became a blacksmith, working from Grindalay, Flaws, South Ronaldsay. First wife: BARBARA MUNRO born 1802, Sand- wick, South Ronaldsay. They married in 1825 and had 7 children in 16 years. She died in 1841. It is from her we are descended. Her headstone is in St. Mary’s Kirk cem- etery, Burwick, the inscription barely decipherable now. Edward Petrie and family - Stonehall Second wife: BARBARA MATCHES of Thurrigar, South Ronaldsay. They married in 1847. They had one Stonehall, Deerness became married; he was a 40 year son George, but Barbara died soon after his birth, he too old bachelor; she was 13 years younger than him. died at just 13 months. Her brother John William Mowat, aged 18/19 years Third wife: MARGARET CROMARTY/SINCLAIR went to America the following year, having raised a bond was a widow, with one son James Sinclair when John to finance himself to go to New York. Like his father, he married her in 1850. They had a daughter Robina in worked as a blacksmith, though it was several years be- 1851. fore his established address appears as Elgin, Illinois, In 1852, the entire Mowat family must have been USA. turned upside down, when John decided to emigrate to Four years after John William went to America, Ed- Australia. Reasons for such a life-changing decision are ward and Jane Petrie bought over John’s inherited farm not recorded, so we can only deduce that it was taken for of Easter Sands and sent him £300 for it in 1886. economic reasons. Meantime, Jane and John‚s maternal grandparents By then he had 10 of a family, including a step-son at Stonepark had died. Solicitor’s letters show that Ed- and daughter-in-law. Visiting the remains of Grindalay, ward ensured that the share of their estate which would it is difficult to picture so many living there. It had been have gone to their mother Catherine was directed to her a good stone, elongated dwelling in its day, but part A Issue No 72 Decemberr 2014 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 19

F was used as a blacksmith workshop, reducing the On arrival, it is most likely the Mowat family made their habitable space. way to the canvas town in south Melbourne, a ‘tent city’ for thousands of immigrants until they established them- selves in permanent accommodation. This the Mowats did very quickly in the Williamston area of Melbourne. We now return to what we already know about our great grandfather JOHN MOWAT JNR. & his wife Catherine. He may have gone at some point to the goldfields at Bal- larat, for a letter addressed to him there in 1854 was un- claimed. By March 1862, ten years after leaving Orkney, he and his wife and 8 year old Jane returned to London on the ‘Dover Castle’, thence home to South Ronaldsay. This would explain our total lack of knowledge about the rest of Grindalay, Flaws, South Ronaldsay the Mowat family who stayed on in Australia. In Australia, it was a time of gold-rush and colonisa- What then became of the lost‚‘ Australian family’? tion. In the 1850s emigration to certain states including JOHN MOWAT SNR. And his wife Margaret bought a the colony of Victoria was encouraged through govern- 4 bedroom cottage in Cox‚‘s Place, Newtown, Williamston, ment-assisted fares: Melbourne. Tradesmen & single men under 40 - paid £1 During this time they had: (encouraged) 1. Isabella b.1852 d. Aged 24 Single women under 35 paid 10s 2. Catherine b.1854 d. Aged 28 (much encouraged) 3. Barbara b.1855 d. Aged 24 Those between 50-60 - paid 11s (less encouraged) Some 20 years later, the cottage was in the hands of Women & children off eligible emigrants free a son, for John had gone north to the goldfields around (essential) Dunolly. Although a blacksmith, he was employed as a The Mowat family complied in all respects though it is carpenter. They settled at nearby Moliagul. not known whether they were assisted or not. John died there age 76. Margaret died in the same year Either way, all 12 got themselves from Grindalay, South age 66. Both are buried in the cemetery at Moliagul. Ronaldsay to Liverpool by early July 1852 in time to sail John lived to a respectable age & presumably had a good on the new ‘Marco Polo’, clipper en route for Melbourne. working life in Australia, giving his considerable family a Captain Forbes reported ‘emigrants were selected with better one than he thought Orkney could give them. We care & nearly all young active Britishers’. 661 were hope so anyway. Scots, most of them travelling as families. What was not reported was that the ship was legally permitted to carry 1. His eldest daughter Jane was employed as a do- 701 status emigrants. She departed with 750, so from mestic servant for 3 years until she married THOMAS the start there was some overcrowding. In the dining GUTCHER. Interestingly, he was a seaman who also em- salon, the new ship reflected its vastly new status, ‘fitted igrated from South Ronaldsay. They had 4 children. out in the taste of the era...ceilinged with maple...richly 2. John was the oldest son, who returned home and ornamented glass panels’. Prior to sailing the bulk of the was our ancestor. passengers were held at an emigration depot at Birken- 3. Alexander was 21 on arrival in Australia. Ten head, through which there had been a constant stream of years later, age 31 he died of TB, unmarried. families bound for the colonies and America. Attention 4. James, aged 19 on arrival, worked as a miner near to hygiene had been badly neglected & nine days into the Melbourne, then became the licensee of a hotel; married voyage, measles broke out, mainly among the children. with no children, he died of TB aged 60. ‘Marco Polo’ sailed out of Liverpool on 4 July 1852. The 5. Thomas, aged 16 on arrival, also worked as a min- Captain wanted to make this trip the fastest ever, so he er up near Moliagul, as did his brother Alexander. Thom- sailed by way of‚ ‘the great circle route’, down the east as died aged 25 from TB; Alexander died 3 months later. coast of South America, south-east to Cape Town towards Both are buried in Moliagul cemetery. Antarctica without getting too close to ice, then north- 6. Margaret, aged 14 on arrival was married two wards into the Bass Strait. This became the preferred years later (1854) to JAMES RIVETT. He was a light- route for years to come. house keeper and they lived in several remote postings. After most passengers were sick for the first week, They had 11 children. the chosen route meant them having to endure incredi- 7. Charles, aged 11 on arrival and youngest son of ble heat through the Equator, then freezing cold as they his first wife BARBARA MUNRO, married and had a son. moved into the ‘Roaring 40s’ and ‘Howling 50s’. The Charles died aged 25 years. The little boy died soon after crowded conditions gave rise to the rapid spread of mea- his father. sles: 51 children died, one of them was little Robina Mo- Jane and Margaret, the two daughters of JOHN MOWAT wat, one year old. and BARBARA MUNRO, were the only two to live to nor- On September 25th 1852, the ‘Marco Polo’ sailed trium- mal ages. All four daughters to MARGARET CROMARTY phantly in to Port Philip Bay, Melbourne having complet- died young, then to compound the tragedy a granddaugh- ed the trip in an astonishing 68 days. ter aged 4 years died also. A 20 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No.72 December 2014

F One Gutcher descendant, however, CHERILYN MC- illness of 4 daughters, 5 sons, 2 grandsons, a granddaugh- MEEKIN, remains in touch and no doubt research will ter and a daughter-in-law, many of them from TB, as well continue. as his first 2 wives. The wife of Paul Rivett, a direct descendant of MAR- John and Margaret, who both lived to a normal age, GARET MOWAT/RIVETT, is the person instrumental in were bound to have agonised as to how and where the posting the all-important question on the internet. family caught TB – at Grindalay when they lived in such ‘Are there any Mowats out there?’ thus making this in- cramped conditions or on board the ‘Marco Polo’ for 2 triguing and fascinating story possible. PAUL and KA- months? REN RIVETT visited their distant cousins in Orkney in We will never know, though what is known is that TB recent years and continue to correspond. can lie dormant for many years before it surfaces. The unfolding of this family history shows how diverse The consequence is that, from such a potential source, the fortunes of families can become, one rooted solidly in there are no descendants with the Mowat surname in a tiny island in the North Atlantic, the other uprooting Australia, which has saddened us greatly, while in Ork- itself to a big continent in the Southern Hemisphere. ney the family moves on quietly with loyal determination On the Orcadian side there were three untimely deaths and a strong sense of identity and belonging. of young people, enough, though not excessive for the time period involved. By Edna S. Panton (formerly Petrie, Stonehall, Deer- On the Australian side the hopes of JOHN MOWAT ness)/Based on prolonged research by:Ethel (Petrie) Snr., must have been devastated by the deaths through Mitchell and daughter, Anne Mitchell. April 2014. L

is this inscription: ‘Remus Rudd horse thief, sent to Melbourne Gaol 1885, escaped 1887, robbed the Melbourne-Geelong Political spin train six times. Caught by Victoria Police Force, convicted and hanged in 1889.’ So Judy recently e-mailed Prime Minister in Australia Rudd for information about their great-great uncle. Remus Rudd: Believe it or not, Kevin Rudd’s staff sent back the following biographical sketch for her genealogy research: “Remus Rudd was famous in Victoria during the mid to late 1800s . His business empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and intimate dealings with the Melbourne-Geelong Railroad. Beginning in 1883, he devoted several years of his life to government service, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a key player in a vital investigation run by the Victoria Police Force. In 1889, Remus passed away during an important civic function held in his honour when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed.” It is certainly an entertaining tale, and, among a long suffer- ing public resigned to enduring sometimes quite outrageous spin from politicians and their advisers, the supposed response might not be considered particularly surprising or improbable. Judy Rudd, an amateur genealogy researcher in southern Once I started researching it on the internet, however, somewhat Queensland, was doing some personal work on her own family disappointingly I found there is not even the tiniest shred of truth tree. She discovered that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd great-great in this oft-told tale. The photograph is evidently the hanging uncle, Remus Rudd, was hanged for horse stealing and train of a train robbing outlaw by the name of Tom ‘Black Jack’ robbery in Melbourne in 1889. Both Judy and Kevin Rudd share Ketchum (of whom there is quite a lot on the internet) and the this common ancestor. story is nothing more than an old joke that has been bandied The only known photograph of Remus shows him standing on around for decades. A number of versions have circulated, many the gallows at the Melbourne Gaol: of which target other prominent political figures that live in the On the back of the picture Judy obtained during her research United States and Canada. Ed. and I am sure that you are no exception Why not make a start with an article for Sib folk News. You could write about your familly, your acestors who emigrated from Orkney, an Orcadian you would have liked to have met or relations you discovered when you visited Orkney or whatever takes your fancy. Don’t get hung up on grammar or style. You are not trying to win an award. Just tell it as it is and your fellow members will be delighted to hear from you. You could well find a distant relation to add to your family tree – it happens all the time. Email as a Word doc and attach any photos as jpgs to [email protected] by Jan 21st 2015 and ‘read all about it’ in the March editioin of Sib Folk News. Ed. Issue No.72 December 2014 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 21

By Lin Ward Mitchell, Member No 2627 My maternal Orkney ancestors farmed a croft called Crowtaing her unmarried daughter Jessie aged 33. Alexander died in 1949 on Hoxa Head, South Ronaldsay, from 1821, and had connections at Crowtaing. The informant is D. Spence, son, who is probably with the area into the 21st Century. the 3 year old recorded on the 1911 census. I am curious to know Margaret (Peggie) Wildrage and Thomas Loutit were if anyone remembers any of the family or the croft’s recent married on 3rd January 1810 and they and their descendants appear history. Recorded on the OFHS site Memorials for St. Peter, on census records from 1821 to 1911 with further birth and death North Parish, South Ronaldsay are the following inscriptions: records up to 2004. B/20/26: In loving memory of Alexander Spence beloved The children are: David b.1811, Jessie b. 1816, John b. 1815 husband of Isabella Walls Wooldrage who died 9th November d.1869, Barbara b.1818 d. 1897, George Meudal, b. 1824, 1949 aged 78 years also their son Alexander who died 26th 1909 Peter b. 1836, Jane Borwick b. 1827, Stuart or Stewart b. 1821 aged 8 years. Isabella Walls Wooldrage died in Holm 19th April (female) and Jenet b. 1812. 1963 aged 95 years. The tenancy of the croft passed to a granddaughter, Margaret, D/8/11 In loving memory of David Spence died 8th December who is recorded on the 1841 census living at Crowtaing with her 2004 aged 97years. Crowtaing mother Jessie who married David Firth in 1839. She is recorded I suspect the first memorial was raised after the death of with her Grandparents on the 1851 census although her parents Isabella. The date of Alexander’s death is incorrect by a year, and siblings, William b. 1839, twin brother David and sister which is understandable if added by David who was a baby, or Jessie are all living in Leith. born after Alexander died. James (William) Spence born in By 1861 son John is head of household with both parents and 1902 may have died in 1981. two nieces, Margaret, 20 and Jessie 18. Margaret’s marriage My 3xG Grandparents, Barbara Louttit (1818-1897) and certificate in 1869 records both her parents as deceased. George Randal (Rendall) married in Leith in 1839. George is John and his parents all died before the 1871 census. Margaret possibly the natural son of George Randal and Isobel Rendall Louttit died in 1865 aged 76. Thomas died in 1867 aged 91 which recorded in the 1816 East Parish records of Westray. if correct make his date of birth 1776. His parents are Magnus In1841 George and Barbara and daughter Elizabeth 4months, and Barbara Louttit (nee Louttit) John died in October 1868 are living in Portland Place, with two lodgers, James or John aged 53, after an illness lasting 10 weeks. Rendall aged 13 and Thomas Rendall aged 15, who may be Margaret married James Spence in 1869 and he is recorded as nephews or cousins. George is described as a carpenter and both the head of household on the 1871 census with Margaret Spence boys are carpenter’s apprentices. Barbara’s sister Jessie was and daughter Jessie aged 1, living on the croft of twelve acres. living at 18 Couper St. where she is recorded with husband and James died in 1879 and his death certificate records his parents three children, Margaret being with her grandparents in Orkney. as David Spence, a master Tailor (reputed father) and Elizabeth The eldest son, William died in 1901 aged 63 in Glasgow. He Park. The informant is John Wooldrage (half - brother). There is described as an army pensioner and his three marriages took is one record for South Ronaldsay in 1829 of a marriage between place in Glasgow suggesting he moved and was based there from Robert Wooldrage and Betsy Park but I can find no record of round 1866. I can find no convincing trace ofDavid , Margaret’s any births. Betsy Park or Wooldrage died in South Ronaldsay in twin. 1887 aged 80. Barbara is described as a widow on the 1851 census so George The 1881 census records Margaret at Crowting as a farmer’s probably died between 1845, when their son George was born, widow with 15 acres employing a man and a girl. The children are and then. It has not been possible to find out much about him. Jessie aged 11, Alexander aged 9, Mary Anne aged 7, Margaret He is described on various documents as a carpenter, a seaman aged 5 and Jemima aged 3. or a master seaman. I have been unable to find Barbara or the In 1891 Margaret is recorded with Alexander, Maggie children on the 1861 census but it was apparent from the 1871 and Jemima. Mary Anne may have been working as a nurse census that life had changed as she has another child, Michael in a private home in Govan. A new generation appears on the Connelly aged 13. Her Lodger is called John Connelly and he next census in 1901. Margaret is still head of household and is 14 years younger than her. Putting two and two together and Alexander, now 28 has a wife, Isabella Walls Wooldrage, making a nice round four, I researched and found another child, married in 1898. Their son, also Alexander is aged 11 months. Mary born 1859 who probably died in infancy. John signed the Sadly he died on 26th December 1908 of Tubercular meningitis. certificates of both children, thereby acknowledging paternity. In 1911 Alexander and Isabella with James (William) 8, Often illegitimate children were not acknowledged and father Mary 6, Jessie 4 and David 3, are living with Margaret, 70 and stated as unknown. A 22 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No 72 Decemberr 2014

F Barbara and John never married but records suggest they livedA together until they died at 17 Wilkie Terrace where Valuation Rolls for 1895 show Barbara as the tenant. All census records describe John as a lodger. He died in 1896 and Barbara in 1897. On both death certificates the informant is Michael who describes himself as an illegitimate son. The death certificates show John as single and Barbara as the widow of George Rendall, Ship Master. Barbara may have been receiving a pension if George died while in the Merchant Marine. Perhaps it would have been discontinued if she remarried. She is described as annuitant (pensioner) on the 1891 census. I only recently noticed when looking at the 1891 census that Barbara is described as married and a wife, while John is single and a lodger. Surmising people’s lives from the bare evidence of official certificates is impossible but it does seem thatBarbara and John ensured that both sons had trades. George was a boilermaker and Michael a master butcher. Both would have had apprenticeships Back Centre: Mary Mitchell Rendall (Dryburgh and latterly Morrison), my mother’s involving outlay and support from parents to enable them to work mother. Left, looking at photo, Lizzie Rendall (Rennie). Front Jimmy Rendall. to support families in turn. Sitting: Maggie Rendall (Wright) with Jeannie on her lap. George Rendall and Isabella Campbell (2 x Great Grandparents) Charles Edward Stuart Kay Rendall, youngest son of George When George (1845-1927) married Isabella (1850-1920) in and Isabella, did not marry Jemima Bains Hogg Henderson, 1869, John Connelly witnessed her mark as she could not write until 1926, and possibly had two daughters, one of whom, Kate her name. The couple had their first child, also George (what Adelaide, died in infancy. else?) in 1867 when his father is described as an apprentice Isabella died in 1920 in Leith hospital and had been living at boilermaker. My Great Grandfather William was the next child, 17, Citadel since at least 1915 when Valuation Rolls record her born in 1870, who also became a boilermaker. There were 6 boys husband, George, as the tenant. This area was a slum at this who all died young between 1875 and 1887. Two girls, Betsy time. He died in 1927 in Salamander Street. It is salutary to stop and Isabella, followed both surviving to have families. Their last and remember that when Isabella died she had outlived 7 of her child is Charles Edward Stuart Kay Rendall born in 1890. children and her adopted daughter who died of influenza in 1919. George and Isabella adopted his sister Barbara’s illegitimate She and George also outlived many of their grandchildren. Their daughter, Williamina, although this would have been an informal lives would have been hard, even with working children in the arrangement. I first noticed her on the 1881 census with George house, although George at least may have qualified for an old age and Isabella, where she is described as Willy Meeny, son aged pension. 5. This made me curious because the couple already had a son Williamina’s story seems sad and although I only have the barest called William and further investigation proved she was the of evidence from statutory records it suggests that she did not illegitimate daughter of Barbara, George’s sister. She was born entirely fit in. She is variously described as a daughter or adopted in their house in 1875; a fortnight after Isabella had given birth to daughter, occupation domestic servant or “helps in the house”. one of the boys, Robert, who died aged 4.Sadly her father did not When she died in 1919 of influenza her occupation is given as salt acknowledge her or worse her mother did not know who he was. fish curer. That is the only evidence there is that she worked outside In 1891 the family are living in Bangor Road. On the 1901 census the home. George is recorded as blind and Isabella is taking in boarders at One of the problems or joys of family history is that there are so 66 Kirkgate, Leith. Marriage, birth and death certificates show many bye ways to wander down and being curious about my 3 x the family living at 38 Bridge Street before 1911 when the G Aunt Barbara,(1843-1894) I decided to do some research. She census records George, described as totally blind and Isabella married William Ford Kay in 1867 and had a daughter in 1871 living in Sandport Street with Williamina and Charles. Her called Helen Butters named after her maternal Grandmother Helen other surviving children were married with children by this time. Butters Kay (or Fraser). Helen Fraser and Barbara Kay are George married Elizabeth Taylor in 1889. They subsequently both listed as witnesses in the trial of Eugene Marie Chantrelle in moved to Holytown where George worked as a boilermaker. 1878 where they describe themselves as brothel keepers. William I think they had 11 children the last being stillborn in 1910. Ford Kay died in 1873 at the young age of 26 of a chronic heart Elizabeth died 2 hours later. George is recorded on the 1911 condition. census with 7 sons ranging from 2 to 19. His mother Isabella is in Helen Butters Kay or Fraser (b c1826-1906) appears on the the household, presumably helping with the children. She is also 1851 census with her husband Robert Kay and two sons, William recorded in her usual residence in Leith. George and Elizabeth and Robert R living at no. 11 Leithwynd. On the 1861 census have living descendants. Helen (Ellen) and Walter Fraser are recorded with three sons, My Great Grandfather, William married Mary Mitchell surname Kay, William 13yrs, Walter 11yrs and Charles 7yrs. in 1891 and they had nine children, seven surviving. William Husband Walter is 24 about 6 years younger than Helen, who is died in 1912 leaving Mary with several dependent children. head of household. There are six young female boarders and two She supported them by working in her brother George’s shop, German male visitors whose names and marital state are given as in Laurie Street. My Grandmother Mary Mitchell Rendall was NK (unknown.) The address is 20 Clyde Street born in 1899 one of four surviving daughters. Of the four sons On the 1871 census record for 20, Clyde Street Edinburgh, three survived and had families. Barbara Kay (nee Loutit) her daughter in law is described A Issue No.72 December 2014 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 23

F as a dressmaker. There are twelve young women in the were survivors who looked out for their families in what must household between the ages of 17 and 23. Barbara is described have been dire circumstances at times. There is evidence of as single although she was married and pregnant at the time ensuring livelihoods through apprenticeships, helping the family with Helen. I am unable to find any of the Kay/Fraser family in crisis, making ends meet by taking in lodgers and working including William on this census. On the 1881 census Barbara on the edge of society to provide security in old age and leave is living at 26 Clyde Street with her 3 year old son, Robert, and a legacy. I would love to know more about them and hope that a servant. Again the child is described as illegitimate on his birth someone will recognise my ancestors as part of their own story. certificate. His surname is given asKay or Rendall and Barbara My Grandmother never spoke about her family and yet she is described as the widow of William Kay pianoforte maker. must have known some of them. There was some awareness Barbara died at this address in 1893. Her daughter Helen, the of a connection with Orkney and she knew some of her siblings informant, was present. had died in infancy. If only I had asked about her Grandparents The naming tradition in Scotland although not always strictly George and Isabella as they both lived until she was a young applied can be useful. Even into the mid. 20th century, the names woman. She herself was widowed very young but with the same Helen Ford, Barbara Kay, Williamina, Isabella Campbell and determination, survived to build a new life, moving away from Barbara Louttit amongst others, occur in all branches. Leith. On a recent visit to Leith I found many of the street names I recently found the will of Helen Butters Kay or Fraser and have survived, although no doubt buildings have come and gone she appears to have been quite a business woman. Although she in the various slum clearances. However much of the property is not my ancestor I was interested to see that her Granddaughter of Helen Kay is now in a conservation area near the heart of Helen Butters Kay my 1st cousin 3 x removed, was a residual Edinburgh City. Such are the fortunes and vagaries of time. L beneficiary and executor, although she had moved to Cape Town, South Africa some years prior to the will being made in 1906. Magnus Loutit Barbara Loutit It is over twenty pages long and states that there had been no communication since Helen left but she must have been traced as Thomas Loutit valuation rolls for 1915 and 1920 show her as the owner of some 1776-1867 m. 1815 Margaret (Peggie) Wooldrage 1789-1865 of her Grandmother’s property, although living in Cape Town. I would love to know what happened to her and whether she ever George Rendall came back to Scotland. She was using her maiden name in 1920 1815-c1845 m. 1839 Barbara Loutit 1818-1897 so I assume she was unmarried. George Rendall 1845-1927 m.1869 Isabella Campbell 1859-1920

William Rendall 1870-1912 m.1890 Mary Mitchell 1870-1932

John Wilson Dryburgh 1899-1925 m.1923 Mary Mitchell (My mother Mary Mitchell Dryburgh). Kay Connection George Rendall 1815-c.1845 m.1839 Barbara Loutit 1818-1897

William Ford Kay 1847-1873 m.1867 Barbara Loutit 1843-1893

Left looking at photo: Mary Mitchell Rendall 1899-1984, George Rendall 1894- Helen Ford Kay b. 1871: Inherited from Grandmother Helen Butters Kay d. 1906: 1920. William Rendall, Maggie Rendall 1898-1984, Lived in Cape Town S.A. Front row Jeannie 1908- C.1998, Mary Mitchell Rendall 1870-1932, Jimmy Rendall 1904-c.1980 Lizzie Rendall 1901-c1978 Illegitimate children. Williamina Kay or Rendall 1874-1919: Adopted by George and Isabella. There is a great deal of information available regarding both Unmarried. Robert Kay or Rendall 1877-1951 (served in the Royal Naval Reserve Leith and Orkney and it is helpful to know some of the history and under the name Rendall). development but one can really only surmise what people were actually like. It seems to me that my female ancestors especially Have you sent an article and it has not appeared? Unfortunately I had a computer crash and lost everything. I use a Mac and it is the first time in 20 years that I have had a problem. That makes you kind of complacent and a tad careless about backing-up to an external drive. Well you learn the hard way. I hope that I caught up with everyone who had sent material for the December issue- but if not please send your article again. Archie I know that you sent an article about David Geddes and I have tried to reach you without success. Please send it again, togeth- er with the photographs, and I will include it in the March 2015 issue. Ed. THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY

rkney Family History Society was formed in 1997 NEW MEMBERS and is run by a committee of volunteers. Membership of the Society is through subscription and O It is similar to societies operating worldwide runs for a period of 12 months from date of application. where members share a mutual interest in family history Our magazine, ‘Sib Folk News’ is available to members and help each other with research and, from time to every 3 months unless they have agreed to ‘opt out’ (see time, assist in special projects concerning the countless new rate structure) as all issues are now available online. records and subjects available to us all in finding our Our ‘Members’ Directory’ can also be found online at roots. www.orkneyfhs.co.uk following links members page/ The main objectives are: Members’ Directory. This lists members’ contact details 1 To establish a local organisation for the study, and their research interests. collection, analysis and sharing of information about Members will receive a password to access the individuals and families in Orkney. members’ pages on the website, details of which are 2 To establish and maintain links with other family shown on the Home Page. history groups and genealogical societies throughout the A great deal of research can be achieved through UK and overseas. these resources at www.orkneyfhs.co.uk. 3. To establish and maintain a library and other reference facilities as an information resource for RATES FROM 1st SEPTEMBER 2013 members and approved subscribers. 1. All UK Membership and overseas members 4. To promote study projects and special interest opting out of receiving a printed copy of Sib Folk groups to pursue approved assignments. News (available on our website) £10.00 We are located on the upper floor of the Kirkwall Library next to the archives department and are open 2. OVERSEAS - Surface Mail £15.00 Mon–Fri 2pm–4.30pm and Sat 11am–4.30pm. 3. OVERSEAS - Air Mail £18.00 Our own library, though small at the moment, holds a variety of information including: NEW MEMBERS – DOWNLOAD THESE The IGI for Orkney on microfiche. and SEND WITH YOUR SUBSCRIPTION The Old Parish Records on microfilm. Visit www.orkneyfhs.co.uk/docs/mempack.pdf where The Census Returns on microfilm transcribed you will find a New Membership Application form and on to a computer database. a blank Family Tree. Please complete these, print and Family Trees. send with the appropriate subscription to The Treasurer Emigration and Debtors lists. at the address below. Letters, Articles and stories concerning Orkney EXISTING MEMBERS CAN RENEW ONLINE and its people. Existing members wanting to renew their subscription Hudson’s Bay Company information. can now do so online. Just Log In and use the link from Graveyard Surveys (long term project). My Details on the Member’s Page. You can, of course, This material is available to members for ‘in house’ still send your subscription to the Treasurer at OFHS. research by arrangement. Locally we have a Members’ Evening, most months, with CURRENCY EXCHANGE RATE a guest speaker. Overseas members, paying in their own currency, should We produce a booklet of members and interests to check the exchange rate to ensure the correct amount allow members with similar interests to correspond with is forwarded. Our bank will accept overseas cheques each other if they wish. without charging commission. We regret that foreign We also produce a newsletter 4 times a year and are Postal Orders are not acceptable in the UK. always looking for articles and photographs of interest. Members residing in the UK may pay their subscriptions A stamped addressed envelope should be included if by Bankers Order and if they wish can have their

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