FIFE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY JOURNAL NEW SERIES No 34 Summer 2015 CONTENTS Contents,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,1 Editorial,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.,,,2 Flesh On The Bones,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,3 Crail Fishing Disaster,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,31 Miss Betty Stott,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,32 The Fife Family History Society,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,33 Waterloo,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,..,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.34 Shorts,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,36 The Fife Gravestones Conference,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,39 The End of An Era,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,; ,,,,,,,,,,,,,40 Buffalo Bill in Kirkcaldy. ByTom Cunningham,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,42 John Goodsir. A Scottish Anatomist and Pioneer. By Michael Tracy,,,,,,,,,,,,,44 Chairman`s Report: AGM, 9 June 2015,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,62 Fife Family History Society: Accounts, 2014-15,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,64 Fife Grave Stones Conference, 2015,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,65 Syllabus, 2015-16,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,66 The next Fife Family History Society Journal will be published in Jan 2016. All articles to the editor by 31 December 2015. ARTICLES WANTED. Once again the Editor appeals for articles. It would help if these were typed and sent by computer disc or e-mail attachments, but they do not have to be. Please send the articles on in normal spacing, not space and a half or double spacing. Notes should be put at the end of the article, and not as footnotes. This will all help in editing. Hand written articles will also be accepted, but there may be a delay in these appearing in the Journal. 1 EDITORIAL SUBSCRIPTION. Please note that renewal date for subscription to The Fife Family History Society has been changed from 30 September to 1 January. This means that for this year only you have a bonus 3 months subscription. This is to let us change over to the new renewal date. Membership can be paid by sterling cheque or online by Paypal via our website – www.fifefhs.org You can download the form from the website if you would prefer to pay by post. ELECTRONIC JOURNAL. We are now offering an Electronic Journal. Electronic membership is £10 for everyone, both at home and abroad. The reduction in price reflects the fact that we don`t have to print or post your Journal. One plus is that photos are in colour! If you would like an emailed PDF version of the Journal, please contact our Membership Secretary, Frances Black, at [email protected]. Please make sure that you have given her your up-to-date email and/or address, so that our records are up-to-date. THE DISCUSSION BOARD on our Website is also open to non-members. Please take time to scroll down the entries, as The Discussion Board is non- searchable. You may find someone you can help, or someone who can you in your research. Email addresses are kept private. 2 FLESH ON THE BONES Sometimes, in collecting books, one is fortunate in finding with them an original letter/letters, or newspaper cuttings These can be valuable in themselves, and all help to extend one`s family history. Here are some of these letters/newspaper cuttings wich the Editor has come across. BALMERINO. In the Second Edition of Balmerino and its Abbey (1899), by the Rev James Campbell (1828-1914), which was a presentation copy from the Author to Sir Arthur Halkett of Pitfirrane, Baronet, there is a letter from Campbell to Sir Arthur, dated 4 July 1900, The letter was written after a meeting of 24 old soldiers of the 42nd Reg of the Crimea the day before, 3 July 1900, and on the next page is written, probably in the hand of Sir Arthur, “Dr Campbell was Chaplain to the Highland Brigade throughout the Crimean campaign, 1854-5,” while Halkett was their Commander-in-Chief. The letter goes as follows: “Dear Sir Arthur, Please to accept the accompanying volume as a memorial of a day of much enjoyment to me. We reached the station in comfort – thanks to your so kindly sending us in a close carriage. It rained a good deal while we waited for the train, which was late, but being under cover we suffered no inconvenience, while I drove home from Wormit station it was all quite fair, so all ended well. Mr Ferguson returned to Edinburgh yesterday, He was much gratified by his visit to you – as I am sure every individual of the company was. It will be a red-letter day to all of us. We parted from Major Wood [factor at Falkland Palace] at Ladybank, from which he was to drive to Falkland. With kindest regards to yourself and the ladies. I am Yours truly, [signed] Jas Campbell. P.S. I shall carefully preserve the tobacco pouch. It must have cost the ladies much work to prepare so many and so nice bags.” The Rev James Campbell was minister of Balmerino from December 1857 until his death (unmarried) on 27 June 1914. COLLESSIE. The Editor has, in his collection, a Scrap Album, kept by Miss P C Duncan, Cargill House, Letham, Collessie from 1894 to c 1920. The Album reveals that it was given to Miss Duncan by “a friend” in 1894. It consists, among other items, of family groupings, all of which unfortunately are unnamed. There are coloured photographs cut out from magazines, and pressed flowers. At the rear are newspaper cuttings, mostly of Royal Family during 1st World War, and all undated, apart from one of King George V visting Royal Scots at Redford, from The Evening Dispatch of 10 July 1920. CRAIL. The Churchyard Memorials of Crail (1893) by Erskine Beveridge. Privately printed by Beveridge, a Dunfermline linen manufacturer (Erskine 3 Beveridge & Co Ltd, St Leonards Works), and noted antiquarian, 113 copies only were published. No 75 of 113 was a Presentation Copy from the Author to Sir James D Marwick, with accompanying letter (with envelope), dated 13 Dec 1893, from Beveridge to Marwick. The letter reads: “Dear Sir, I was exceedingly gratified to have your kind letter as to my book on Crail. You have shown so deep an interest in the Royal Burghs, in the matter of the Convention Records, that I hope you will like to have a copy of my volume for your private library. This I am sending by rail tomorrow, with the greatest pleasure on my part, & trust that you will accept it. I only wonder that I had not thought of it sooner. There is another point – photography – upon which our interests meet. If I remember correctly, you were one of the leading lights of the Edin Photo Soc in the year 1867, when my younger brother and myself became members – at the early ages of 14 and 15 respectively. I think we must have been the youngest members. The Saturday excurstions to Slateford, Gorebridge, etc, were great pleasures to us. “You mention Camprere or Viera. That town and Middleburgh have had a great interest for me ever since I went through Halyburton`s ledger. I am glad to see that the New Spalding Club is likely to produce a volume upon their archives relating to the Scotch traders. The Camprere Churchyard is just such an one as I would like to explore. “I am beginning to work at the Old Churchyards of West Fife, including Culross, but the subject is a large one, so that it is with no light heart that I attempt it [Beveridge`s Monumental Inscriptions of the Churchyards of West Fife, and also Elie in East Fife – all manuscript and kept by Dunfermline Central Library - , have been published by The Fife Family History Society]. Believe me, Yours sincerely, [signed] Erskine Beveridge. CUPAR. Cupar: The Years of Controversy; Its Newspaper Press, 1822-1972, by A J Campbell (Fife Family History Society, 2009), has a letter from former BBC Foreign Correspondent and Independent MP, Martin Bell, dated 7 Dec 2009, thanking Mr Campbell for sending him a presentation copy (Note: his grandfather, Robert Bell, and the latter`s brother, A B Bell, were proprietors of the Fifeshire Journal in Cupar from 1886-87; their father, a merchant in Edinburgh, bought the newspaper for them). The letter reads: “Dear Mr Campbell, Thank you so much for your kindness in sending me a copy of your book on the Cupar (Fife) Newspaper Press from 1822 to 1872. It filled in a lot of gaps for me. Only last month I was speaking in St Andrews to promote a book of my own on the MP`s expenses scandal. I mentioned in passing that my grandfather, Robert Bell, had started his journalistic career in Fife, but I had not known which newspaper. Now I know…I shall pass the book to my sister, Anthea Bell (translator of the Asterix cartoon among her many other accomplishments), since she is the keeper of the family archive. I know the information will also be of great interest to her son, Oliver Kamm, who is now leader writer on The Times. If I am ever asked onto the BBC series “Who Do You Think You Are” I shall certainly know where to start, and give credit where it is due. Yours sincerely (signed) Martin Bell” 4 INVERKEITHING. The Farm at Backyards. The Story of an Urban Farm (1990) by the Rev George Hastie of Cairns Church, Cowdenbeath, has a newspaper clipping on “Farmyard memories recalled,” from a local unnamed newspaper, perhaps the Courier, when he launched the book telling the story of the farm, and presented all the farm bills and receipts and documents, along with a collection of over 120 photographs to Inverkeithing Museum. Mr Hastie`s grandparents took over the 40-acre Backyards Farm in 1916 and in 1974 the steading was demolished to make way for the Deas Road housing development. When his grandparents arrived from East Lothian in the middle of the Great War, Backyards was a dairy farm.