he variety of events and attractions that can be enjoyed in Orkney had been chosen as a host port for the Tall Ships Race of Orkney seems to get bigger every year. 2011 you might say that we pushed the boat out (ouch) preparing Visitors come in their thousands to enjoy The St Magnus a huge variety of events to mark the occasion. TFestival, Stromness Shopping Week, Wine and Folk Festivals, Golf Stromness and Kirkwall went overboard (groan) with music and Competitions, Marathons for the fit, a Blues Weekend, the Orkney dancing and arranged for over 1500 people to party or sail aboard Vintage Society Rally, the Riding of the Marches and a variety of the vessels. agricultural shows culminating in the ‘big one’—the County Show All in all it has been one of our most eventful years yet both for which attracts half of Orkney to Kirkwall every year. tourists and Orcadians. Wall to wall entertainment all year long—and This year proved to be extra exciting for as soon as we heard that with a bit of luck we’ll do most of it again in 2012. NEWSLETTER OF THESIB ORKNEY FAMILY FOLK HISTORY SOCIETY NEWSISSUE No 59 SEPTEMBER 2011 Photographs and composite by John Sinclair. Tall Ships photographs courtesy of Wikipedia Creative Commons or in Public Domain and the following photographers or companies are credited: Zeglarz, GNU Free Documentation, Samhlili, Remigiusz Jozefowicz and Albert Bridge. 2 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No 59 September 2011 ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY NEWSLETTER Issue No 59 September 2011 CONTENTS FRONT COVER Orkney Summer & Autumn Events From PAGE 2 the Chair From the Chair PAGE 3 Our Rousay Outing As you saw from the last Sib Folk News Alan Clouston has decided to stand down as PAGES 4 & 5 Chairman and concentrate on his other projects More Deldays of Deerness and I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank him for his leadership over the last 4 years which, he tells me, he enjoyed PAGES 6 & 7 Tracing my Orkney enormously. Laing connections He had great satisfaction from the interest and feed back shown in his PAGES 8 & 9 ‘Tumbledown’ articles which concentrated on the Orphir area. Now that he has Two Stone completed the series he hopes that some member will start off another parish Memorials in and keep the feature going. St Magnus Cathedral Our `summer ooting’ this year was to Rousay and even though there were ominous clouds hanging about all day the weather stayed dry for us and we PAGE 10 had a great time. First priority on landing was coffee and home bakes which we The "Herdie" Boys and Girls all enjoyed to the full at the Pier Restaurant.Then it was back on the bus to begin our tour of the island which was made all the more interesting by our guide for PAGE 11 the day—Tommy Gibson. He knows his island inside out and obviously enjoys The short life of my Great pointing out the ancestral homes of well-known Orcadians and regaling visitors Grandfather with stories of local people and places of interest. Thomas Lennie Our visit to Trumland House gardens was very interesting and we could not fail PAGES 12 & 13 to be impressed with all the hard work that had already gone into the ongoing Willie Farquhar project to restore the gardens and grounds to their former glory. They are and the Golden Slipper already beginning to look quite beautiful and when finished will be one of the ‘must see’ attractions when visiting Rousay. PAGES 14 & 15 Chance All this sightseeing and blethering certainly works up an appetite but fortunately Encounters or the Taversoe Hotel came to the rescue with a wonderful selection of hot soups Magnus Miracles and sandwiches which we thoroughly enjoyed before boarding the Ferry back to PAGE 16 TIngwall. The Tale of Two As usual we have had a very busy summer with visitors from far and near Ionas looking for their ancestors and thanks to our hard working volunteers they PAGE 17 have, mostly, gone away knowing a lot more about their family than when Mystery Photographs they came—the majority of them having been helped greatly by the encyclopaedic knowledge of our Treasurer/Researcher George Gray who has PAGE 18 been on our committee from the start of our Society 14 years ago. As George More Orcadian connections to has a `significant’ birthday this year we thought it was an opportune moment St Magnus Church to have a celebration and give him a token of our appreciation of all his hard Duntroon N.Z. work and I'm sure a lot of you who have been helped by him will join me in PAGES 20 & 21 wishing him a very happy birthday. From Manse to the Yardarm Anne Rendall PAGE 22 Chairman Robertson's Fudge PAGE 23 Membership Issue No.59 September 2011 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 3 4 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No.59 September 2011 By Mabel Eunson Member No 123 In Issue No 50 I wrote an article about Deldays of John, the eldest. never married and died in 1989. James Deerness when I followed my connection to that family William (Billy) went to farm in Aberdeenshire where through George (Muckle Geordie) of Greentoft to my he married and his two sons, Patrick and David, carry grandmother Mary Dunnet Delday (later Work) who on the Delday surname. Arthur, unmarried, still lives was the last in our line to be born with that surname. in Deerness. The daughter, Ann, became Mrs Thomson. Now to return to another son of John Delday and Louisa Descendants of William Eunson Delday became Bruce, Spence. King, Sinclair, Eunson, Thomson and more, and can be John the eldest,(1835) went to Midhouse to work for his found in New Zealand, Australia. Aberdeenshire, Inver- uncle William Eunson and ness, Stromness and Holm. aunt Rebecca (nee Spence). Second of the six sons was Alexander (1864), remem- As they had no family John bered as Sandy o’ Quoykea in Toab, where he lived with Delday followed them in his wife Mary Anderson who came from Burray. They the tenancy of Midhouse. married quite late in life and had no family. Sandy was a He married Mary Dunnet good farmer and a who came from Holm and champion plough- the couple had six strap- man, winning ping sons. Mary boasted medals and cups that she had 36 feet of at both locaI and men. (Before his marriage, county matches. John had fathered an ille- Next came gitimate daughter Becky James (1866). He Delday Skea.) spent his young John and Mary’s eldest life working at son William Eunson Del- various farms in day (1862) was known lo- Deerness before cally as Billet o’ Midhouse. setting off to Texas Billet o’ Midhouse He married his neighbour to visit his cousin Robina Ritch from Kitchen of Brecks and there are still Elizabeth Ved- some of their descend- der (nee Delday ants bearing the Del- of Greentoft). He day surname. Billet intended to stay and Robina had four but didn”t enjoy children – John (Jock the Texan lifestyle o’ Newark), Bella Jane and after maybe Jeemie Delday & Jeannie (nee Spence) of Smiddybank who married Charles ten years came home. After his return he married Jean- Bruce from Burray, nie Spence who had a teenage daughter. The couple lived James who died in at Smiddybank and had a daughter Ethel but the little infancy and Alexina girl, who was never very strong, died aged 3 1/2 years in who married her cous- 19l1. in, my uncle, John James and his younger brother David spent many Work of Greentoft. seasons travelling stallions round the East Mainland The couple stayed at and maybe further afield. These splendid leather-belted Midhouse but had no Clydesdales were managed by the East Mainland Horse family. Jock o’ Newark Breeding Society and were stabled in a shed at Smiddy- continued the Del- bank. There’s a story that one day James’ stallion got out day line. He married of control and made its escape from him. David, also on Barbara Pottinger the rounds with his stallion, noticed the run-away and, and they had three realising what might be the outcome, took his now ex- sons and a daughter. Sandy and Mary Delday of Quoykea, St Andrews cited beast into a nearby shed and shut the door. It wasA Issue No.59 September 2011 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 5 Fnone too soon as the run-away soon arrived. Presum- panies Numbers 1 and 8 were present. The Volunteers ably the escapee was caught and brought under control accompanied the body as far as Warren field but David had been in no enviable position in that shed with the Band playing the Dead March in with the agitated beast that could easily have trampled Saul. Mr Delday was an adherent in the him. Much of his clothes bad been torn. King Street United Free Church and the I can remember Jeemie Delday of Smiddybank walk- minister touchingly referred to the sad ing past the Deerness school when I was a senior pupil. event the following Sunday. There is a Each summer we were allowed to play in a small field fine grey cylindrical stone in the Deer- belonging to him that we called Delday’s park. We were ness Churchyard remembering John warned by our headmaster Mr Taylor that we must be- and Mary Delday and their two sons have and not be seen walking on dykes or spoiling fences John (25) and George (29).