Monthly Archives: September 2012

Watson Family: The Backstory

02 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by in Watson Family

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(see ‘Thomas & Jane (MUIR) WATSON Family’ under heading ‘WATSON’ , for photograph of WATSON family see post 29 April 2012)

[this post last edited, new information and/or images added 12 March 2013. Unless otherwise indicated all photos are from the author’s collection]

[For more Watson family photos also check out Donald Slater’s family history Flickr account www.flickr.com/photos/palaeoecogeek]

The skirl of bagpipes, swish of kilts, tales of Bonnie Prince Charlie, star crossed lovers on the shores of Loch Lomond, princesses who lived in castles, the romantic lairds of Sir Walter Scott; those were the images I had of Scotland when I was a child. I knew that my grandmother (Helen McNab (WATSON) ACTON), known as ‘Nell’ to adults, ‘Granny’ to we children) had been born in Scotland. I suppose she spoke with a slight Scottish burr, the residue of her Ayrshire accent that remained even though she had been in Canada for nearly forty years by the time I first became curious about my background. But I don’t remember her voice or accent.

I do remember that Granny never spoke of Scotland, or of her life there. One day, my curiosity got the better of me. I screwed up my courage since she seemed to never welcome questions about Scotland. I asked her if there wasn’t a laird or two in our background? I’ll never forget her reply. She chuckled and said ”no, there were no lairds, more likely road thieves.” At the time I wasn’t even sure what a ‘road thief’ was.

Later in life, as I learned more about Scotland and its history, I replaced my images of romantic lairds and clan chiefs with the more realistic vision of Highland Clearances, the extreme poverty of the crofters, people being starved out of their homes and forced to emigrate under appalling conditions at sea. I also learned how the industrious and hardworking Scottish people spread out across the world and have been instrumental in world development.

Princesses who lived in castles, evicted crofters, industrial magnates or road thieves; which were our ancestors? I decided it was time to start researching the Watson family.

Lowlands and Highlands of Scotland

My first research revelation occurred when I learnt the differences between the Scottish Highlands and the Lowlands. I had thought that all Scottish people had a relatively uniform background. However, historically Scotland was a land divided. In the Lowlands the people are of Anglo-Saxon stock, more like their English neighbours. To the north there is the Scotland of the Gaelic speaking Highlander. In the Hebrides, Orkneys and Shetlands, there is yet another society more akin to Scandinavia due to centuries of sea invasions from that area. These three distinct peoples were suspicious of each other and many vicious and bloody battles were fought. Even after Scotland was unified people from these areas continued to be wary of each other.

Our Watson family is from Ayrshire in the Scottish Lowlands and has been so since at least the early 1700s. To date the earliest direct link that I have been able to prove is to John WATSON, tenant farmer and labourer (born about 1717, Dundonald Parish, Ayrshire, died 11 January 1782, Dundonald Parish, Ayrshire) and his wife Agnes FREW (born about 1717 – died unknown).

My research also showed that our Watson family did not fit any of my preconceived ideas. We are descended from a long line of hardworking (no princesses), honest (no road thieves), Lowland (no clan chiefs or evicted crofters) labourers and tenant farmers.

Life as a tenant farmer in Scotland in my ancestors’ time was not at all what I had known in my own comfortable Saskatchewan upbringing on my parent’s farm. My parents and all the neighbours, although small landowners by today’s standards and certainly far from wealthy, owned their land and could develop and manage it as they determined. We never wanted for food; huge vegetable gardens, fresh wild berries and our own livestock (chickens, turkeys, cattle, pigs) provided a varied and healthy diet.

Many Scottish land ownership practices are completely different from those of Canada; understanding these gave me a better understanding of the hardships of the Watson family in Scotland, the reasons for the family’s move to Canada; and an appreciation for the determination, courage and initiative this move entailed.

Land Ownership and Farm Life in Scotland

Land ownership in Scotland, to this day, follows patterns established centuries ago. Since earliest times feudal lords, kings, titled nobles, clan chiefs and landed gentry fought frequently and furiously over land. Lands and authority were given as a reward in exchange for loyalty and the promise of enough men to raise an army.

Immense fortunes were made, and lost, as ownership changed hands as a result of the numerous wars that have marked the history of Scotland and England. Once land ownership was in a family, it was handed down through the generations to the eldest son. This inheritance was often interrupted if the property title was lost through battle, war or allegiance to the losing side in a political skirmish. “To the victor go the spoils” was accepted practice and often ownership of thousands and thousands of acres and miles of countryside would change hands as the result of a battle.

A mile of countryside by itself of course had no value, but rather it was the resources found in, or on, the land within that area that were worth a fight. Natural resources, such as lead and gold, made some land valuable. For a large portion of the land the value lay in what was on it, i.e. people who worked the land and paid rent. As an example, if a person (almost without exception a man) owned land where 10,000 families lived and worked then all those people paid rent and owed allegiance to the landowner. Often several small villages were (and still are) part of the property; shop keepers and village people also paid rent to the owner. The rental payments invariably made the landowner an extremely wealthy man, and while the owner had a few obligations to the tenants, the onus was on the tenants or renters to find the money to pay the rent.

This relentless search for rent money was constant and frequently debilitating. In the case of a farm, if a tenant farmer improved the property in an attempt to increase production, and therefore earn more to support his family, the owner often increased the rent based on the rationale that the land was worth more. This was a catch-22 situation that sapped initiative and ensured that most tenant farmers were trapped in a never ending cycle of near-poverty. For tenant farmers ownership of land was not even a dream. Not only was the money to purchase the land impossible to save, but the land simply was not available for purchase. Persons born to this station in life were destined to spend their lives working for a ‘laird’ or the owner’s representative (‘factor’) who lived in ‘the big house’.

Tenant farmers usually worked under a contract or lease arrangement. Often this contract was for a year; the tenant farmer and all his family were expected to work on the farm and were part of the contract. Each summer in every county or ‘shire’ at the annual fair, tenant farmers and owners / factors could meet and discuss arrangements for contracts and positions. If a tenant farmer decided to take a different position and move his family to another farm, it was often at this fair that arrangements were made. A handshake usually sealed the contract.

Farms were often large and required several families of tenants to work them. In this case there was a division of labour. ‘Ploughman’, ‘cattleman’, ‘dairyman’ were just a few of the occupations required. Farming practices were basic and extremely labour intensive. Work was hard, dirty, thankless, unprofitable and never-ending.

Tenant families usually lived on the farm, often in one of several cottages provided on the property. These cottages were primitive, certainly with none of the conveniences now considered essential for living and raising a family. Conditions were normally damp, dark and cold in Scotland’s continual rainy climate. Food was extremely basic; it was a treat to be given a small piece of an egg yolk my Granny told me.

Watson family life in Scotland was that of a typical tenant. For several generations Watsons lived and worked as tenant farmers with no hope or opportunity of owning land or directing their own destiny. Granny did later say that they “always felt like peasants in Scotland”. The Watson family moved often as Thomas, the father and bread-winner, attempted to provide for his family by taking different positions in different areas of the country. This is the story of their life in Scotland and the move to Canada which changed their lives and those of their descendants irretrievably.

(for the stories of the Watson family members see posts 14 May – 22 May 2012)

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MUIR, John (1872-1921)

01 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by in Muir Family

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(see page ‘James and Helen (MCNAB) MUIR Family’ under heading ‘MUIR’ top of screen)

(post edited 14 September 2012, 14 December 2012, 06 April 2018)

Help needed – is John MUIR one of the unknown people in the photo used in the banner of this blog?

Since my last post I have been to Ayr Scotland, home of many of my ancestors. A trip to the Ayr Cemetery on Holmston Road brought to light this little gem about my great-uncle John, the brother of my great grandmother Jane MUIR:

“In Loving Memory of my dear husband John MUIR, [died] Dean Cottage, 9 December 1921 aged 49 years. Also his wife Agnes W. R. MUIR 30 December 1945, aged 70 years”

I was surprised to see this Memorial Inscription as my deceased father had left a note saying that John had ‘gone to Kenya’. I had been able to locate the dates of John’s birth and marriage, and some census records, but then had lost him, I presumed to ‘Kenya’.

Clearly John had not died in Kenya. What was the story here?

John was born at 6:30 AM, on 30 April 1872 in Beoch, Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland. His father, James MUIR, was a farm overseer at the time of John’s birth. John was the 4th child and 3rd son of James and his wife Helen MCNAB. Eight year old John was with his family at Slaphouse Farm, Ayr in the 1881 census. He attended a local school, likely Alloway, with the rest of his siblings. His father James occupied the position of ‘bower’ (probably a farmer who tended cattle) at Slaphouse Farm. (photo below).

Slaphouse Farm, Ayr, Scotland.

Photo taken by the author November 2010

By the time of the 1891 census John lived with his family at Mainholme Farm, just outside Ayr. James, John’s father was the tenant Farmer of Mainholme. Unmarried, John was 18 years old, had completed school and worked as a ‘farmer’s son’ full time at Mainholme. Ten years later, in the 1901 census John, 28 years old, still lived with his family at Mainholme Farm and worked full time on the farm. By this time several of his nine siblings had left home, married and started their own families.

The 1901 census also lists Agnes Wilson RUSSELL, whom John married  on 12 December 1902. The marriage took place at the Athole Arms [Hotel] in Ayr. John was 30 yrs old and Agnes 27.

It is possible that John and Agnes appear in the family photograph used in the banner of this blog, which was taken about 1900 outside Mainholme Farm where John’s parents still lived. No photograph of John or Agnes has yet been found or identified for comparison.

Agnes, was born 8 November 1875 at New Barns, St. Quivox, Ayrshire to James RUSSELL, labourer, and Isabella WILSON. In the 1901 census Agnes is living with her 65 year old father James (woodman (estate)), mother, brother David RUSSELL, 27, woodman (estate), and 25 year old sister Anna Bella RUSSELL. Place of residence is New Barns, St. Quivox where they had lived at least since the time of the 1881 census.

For 20 years after the marriage of John and Agnes, they disappear from normal documentary evidence. They do not appear in the 1911 census in Scotland – at least I haven’t found them yet.

The next thing known for certain about John is that he died at Dean Cottage in Ayr on 9 December 1921. He was only 49 years old. Cause of death was ‘tuberculosis of bladder and prostate’ which had been diagnosed for at least 12 months. His occupation was listed as ‘farmer’. Dean Cottage, where John died, was the home of his parents, James and Helen (MCNAB) MUIR, retired famers, both of whom were still living.

John’s wife Agnes was the informant of his death so we know that she was also in Ayr at that time.

Agnes, who lived for another 24 years, died on 30 December 1945 at 82 Brownside Drive, Glasgow. Her usual residence was 45 Loudon Road, Newmilns.

Did John and Agnes go to Kenya? John had worked all his life on farms; did he use this experience to branch out in a new country? This is possible as others from Ayr, including possibly at least one of John’s brothers, had gone to ‘Africa’ to work as farm managers or labourers. With John’s agricultural experience was he a farm manager on one of the big Kenyan estates? Did John and Agnes go to Kenya shortly after their marriage and come back to Scotland when they learned that John was seriously ill? If so, is that why John died at the home of his parents? This might be the case if they returned to Scotland without the resources, or time, to acquire their own living arrangements before John’s death.

A thread of a clue about John and Agnes’ location between their marriage in 1902 and John’s death in 1921 is offered in Agnes’ 1945 death registration and ship passenger records. At time of Agnes’ death she was identified as the widow of John MUIR, Farm Manager. A search to date of passenger records both leaving and returning between the UK and ‘Africa’ in the 1902-1921 period has produced only one clue, but it may be significant: On 1 March 1913 the ship ‘Goorkha’, arrived in London, England from Mombasa, East Africa. Two of the passengers are “Mr. J. MUIR, 40, Farm Manager’ and Mrs. A. MUIR, 35”. The names, ages, date, occupation, and place of departure fit. Is this John and Agnes?

The informant of Agnes’ death in 1945 was a niece with the surname GRAY.  Hopefully more research will turn up information about the missing years in John and Agnes life, and whether or not they were in Kenya. And whether John is one of the people in the photo used in the banner of this blog. With this information we could help John and Agnes tell TheirOwnStories.