1 The Recollections of James Graham Adam (who married Beatrice Eleanor Man) I was born at No. ? Woodside Terrace, Glasgow, on 22nd February 1862 and christened at St. Jude's Episcopal Church by the Rev. Flint. My father was John Lindsay Adam, an East Indian merchant, head of the firm of Adam & Co., Glasgow, Batavia & Surabaya. He was the youngest of a family of I believe 13, and his father was also a merchant in Glasgow. He and his wife are buried in the Churchyard of St. Mungo's Cathedral in Glasgow. Of my father's family, the only ones I knew or have any recollection of were the eldest, James Graham Adam, after whom I was named, but don't remember ever seeing. He married a Miss Macindoe, whom we used to call Aunt James, to distinguish her from my father's sister, Aunt Jane. There were eleven children of this marriage: 1. Frank Forbes, who became Sir Frank Forbes Adam1 Bart. My father gave him his first start in life by taking him into his firm. 2. Charles, who became manager of the firm of Graham & Co. Oporto. 3. Arthur, who went out to Australia and was never heard of again. 4. Archie, who after a long career as a merchant in Glasgow died leaving a large fortune. 5. Jane, who married John Graham, head of the firm of Graham & Co. Glasgow & Calcutta, and later became a baronet2. 6. Mary, who married Robert Orr (a large and wealthy cotton and thread manufacturer) 7. Fanny, who married John Orr manufacturers. 8. Jessie, who married a man by the name of Forster in London. 9. Agnes, who died unmarried. 10. Helen, who married a Mr. Cousin. 11. Edith, who died unmarried I think. Uncle Frank lived in Glasgow and had a large family. He and my father must have had a very serious quarrel as they were not on speaking terms and we rarely saw any of the family. All we knew was that they were very hard up and I believe he died in an Old Man's home in Glasgow. Uncle Archie was a merchant in Glasgow. His wife (Aunt Sophy) was a Miss Gillespie of Inverness and was a very tall and handsome woman. She used to visit us sometimes when Uncle Archie died. The family consisted of: 1. Tom, who was a bit weak-minded and had a job in the Government Telegraph Department at Valencia, Ireland. 2. Fred, who went into the Army and died a Major-General. His widow, Florence, is still alive and lives somewhere in Hampshire. 3. Sophy, who never married and died a few years ago. 2 Aunt Mary, unmarried. Died I think a few years after I was born. Aunt Jane, married to uncle David Stevenson. He was unfortunate in business, consequently his daughters, who constituted his family, all had to earn their living as governesses or housekeepers. Their names were; Mary; Annie; Jane & Ida. They are all dead except Mary the eldest, who I think is 91. When we saw her in Edinburgh in 1937 she was very bright and in possession of all her faculties. Aunt Galloway (Agnes) married a man called Galloway, who died before I was born. She had two daughters: 1. Mary, who married Robert MacFarlane and had two sons, Robbie and Alexander, who were great chums of ours when children and later when grown up. 2. Anna (Cousin Anna) who, with Aunt Galloway, took charge of us children while our parents were in Java and later married her Tom Haddaway a Glasgow merchant. These are all of my father's family whom I can remember. Now for my mother's fami1y. My mother was one of the eleven children of Dr. Wm. Denison of the Royal Navy who married a daughter of the Count and Countess Moyaart. Dr. Denison was the doctor of the ship which conveyed the British plenipotentiary to Java to arrange for the exchange of that island from the British to the Dutch for the island of Ceylon which at that time belonged to the Dutch. He fell in love with the daughter of the Dutch governor, married her and resigned from the Navy, bought land in Java and made a fortune I believe from sugar planting. He and his large family resided in Java but returned for a time to England where they resided in a large house at Shooter's Hill, Blackheath, but ultimately returned to Java where he and his wife died. His family consisted of: 1. William, who married Miss Simmonds (Aunt Annette) sister of General Sir Linthorn Simmonds. It was an unhappy marriage and he sent her back to England after a few years. They had one son, Alfred who became a coffee planter in Ceylon. 2. George - I don't know what became of him, but I believe he died early. 3. Noel, who became Assistant-resident in the Malay States. 4. Henry, who was drowned at sea. 5. Annette, who married Jonkheer Quarles van Ufford and had five children, Willie, Henry, Dora, Cornelia, and, Harriet. They all returned to reside in England, The sons married money, but none of the daughters married. The only survivors of the family are Harriet, who lives at the Hague and Cornelia who lives with my sister Aggie. 3 6. Cornelia (Aunt Taylor) who married Matthew Stewart Taylor, a partner in the firm of Martin Turner & Co. who retired in middle age. The family then resided in Glasgow, consisting of: Willie, who became a successful coffee and tea planter in Ceylon and died there a few years ago. Edward, who went to Australia to learn sheep farming but became a cab driver. He also died a few years ago. Stewart who went out to Java to the firm of Martin Turner & Co. and was killed by falling down the hatch of a steamer when embarking for a holiday to England. Anna who married Andrew Arthur. She is now a widow, over 80 and resides in Manchester. Maria married a stock-broker, David Watson of Glasgow. She also is a widow and lives at Troon, Ayrshire, with her widowed daughter Mabel Spens. Lizzie, unmarried. She kept house for Wilfred for some years. Dora, married a man called Elderton, who was in the Insurance business, but is now retired. They live in Devonshire. 7. Dora (Aunt Dora) married a man called Colenbrander, a Dutchman. They had a family of sons and daughters all residing in Java. 8. Maria (my Mother) 9. Mary, who married Wm. Burney, paymaster in the Navy. They had two children, Evelyn and Claud. Evelyn died in Toronto about ten years ago and Claud, who was compulsorily retired from the Navy, came out to Canada (Saskatchewan) and was killed by the overturning of a sleigh in which he was driving the mail. 10. Grace, who married the Rev. Isaac Hill. They had one daughter, Maud, who married late in life Hamley Bent, and lives at Eastbourne. 11. Elizabeth, unmarried. She used to live sometimes with us and sometimes with the Burneys (Aunt Mary). At the time of my birth our family consisted of four children. Frank, aged six; Mary, aged five; Aggie, aged two, and myself. We were all born in Glasgow, so I fancy my parents must have been at home for four or five years before returning again to Java. They had a country house called Kincaid, near Campsie, but this I never saw. When they returned to Java when I was only six months old, I believe they intended to be away for only two or three years, but circumstances altered their plans and they did not return for six years, so I was six years old when they returned. We were left in charge of our Aunt Galloway and her daughter Anna (cousin Anna) who lived at Burnbank Terrace (corner house on the Great Western Road). They were both very kind, though very strict and we loved them dearly. We had a nurse called Janet. She was a big dark Highland woman from the island of Islay, whose native language was Gaelic and she spoke English very imperfectly. She was devoted to us and we also loved her dearly though she was very strict. She kept a pair of taws (a leather 4 strap divided into thongs) with which she chastised the three elder children. I was a delicate child and don't remember having been "tawsed" though I think I was sometimes threatened. We had also an under-nurse called Telfer. She was a niece of Janet's and I remember seeing Janet "tawsing" her also. I have also a recollection of Telfer eating my crusts when I left them on my plate. We had a day nursery and a night nursery. The day nursery looked out on the Great Western Road and fields beyond where there are now buildings, while the night nursery, where we children slept in our separate cribs, looked out on to a very dismal back yard where numerous cats disported themselves at night and if the windows were open the smell of cats was very apparent. Altogether it was a very depressing house. The dining- sitting room was furnished with black horsehair furniture. There was a large old fashioned sideboard with two enormous ebony figures at each end. In the drawing-room, which was seldom used, I distinctly remember a bunch of wax flowers under a glass cover, as was the fashion in those days. In the bed-room which Aunt Galloway and Cousin Anna shared was a huge four-poster bed with heavy red curtains which were drawn at night.