Family Tree of Jane Ann Clark and Charles Douglas:
Note that Georgina Clark was born to Jane Ann Clark years before her marriage to Charles Douglas and that he was not the father. Technically, this tree is of Jane Ann Clark’s children.
John Douglas
John was born in June 1867 at Milnrodgie. He was named after his mother’s father, John Clark.
He became a carter and married Agnes McCormack (SR 644/07 0053) and had a son and four daughters. Ishbel McEwan was able to tell me that they had no second generation descendants.
John transferred from the school at Comrie on 1st Feb 1878 to that at Fowlis Wester (probably- the book scanned on Ancestry has a blank cover). His parent or guardian was named as Robert Galloway, ie his father’s uncle. Perhaps the intention was for him to assist his great uncle at the smithy at New Fowlis. He did not remain long, however. It is hard to read the month but it certainly says 1878. In 1881 he may have been working as a shepherd at Auchinglen Farm. It was of 116 acres and he would have been employed by Catherine Stewart. There were four other employees.
John was probably a stableman at the Drummond Arms Hotel in Comrie at the time of the 1891 census. John died at hospital in Glasgow in 1930 of a cerebral haemhorrage (SR 644/00). I have found the births of their children but not the deaths of all as yet. John and Agnes lived at Rutherford Lane, St Stephens, Glasgow between 1905 and 1925. By 1925 the rent was £11-15-0 so presumably their tenement at No 5 was better than that at No 1 where they paid £7-10-0 in 1915. No 1 had 2 rooms with windows. According to the 1911 census (Census 644/09 038/00 025) John was a railway company carter. Neither John or his wife said they could speak Gaelic. They occupied one of 10 rooms or suites in the tenement building. Agnes seems to have given birth to her first two children whilst still a teenager. She died in 1929. Given that John’s usual address was 19 Cowcaddens Street when he died he was living with his daughter at the time.
In December 2014 I found that a subscriber to Ancestry had scanned birth, marriage, death and a RCE entry for their children. Although one daughter clearly died very young, three lived to marry. Daughter Catherine, born in 1909 married in 1930 Ebenezer Hardie and died after only a year of marriage (SR 644/17 0357). Eldest daughter Jane (Jean) was born in April 1903 (SR 644/09/0877) and married John Duffy in 1926. This was at a Roman Catholic church. She was a cotton weaver. Jean died in 1933 at Ruchill Hopsital of TB.
Through Ancestry I made contact with this subscriber, Schalene Dagutis, who is related to Agnes McCormick and informed me that the family story was much sadder than I had imagined. In contrast to his parents who had 7 children, all of whom survived to adulthood, of John and Agnes’s 9 children only five lived to be adults- 3 of whom died at a young age. Daughter Agnes McCormick Douglas was born in April 1923. By the time she was 8 both her parents were dead. I believe she was looked after by a sister, possibly Catherine or Jane. Jane died in 1931 and Catherine in 1936. In any event Ishbel McEwan remembers that there was some sort of family conference and at this Auntie Annie McAlister said “I’ll take the girl.” She had the impression that there was a boy too, which raises the question of who was this and who raised him. Auntie Annie then brought up Agnes at Crieff. She was known as Nancy. Douglas and Ishbel visited the McAlisters with their mother Bessie during WW2. Nancy worked at Salmon’s on King Street and then was in the Land Army. They thought she might have sustained a leg injury of some sort. There is a little more information about her elsewhere.
Nancy never married (contrary to what I mistakenly wrote on an earlier version of this page) and died at a care home in Edinburgh in 2003. I have checked this with Alister Cunningham and now have a copy of the death certificate. She died of chronic myocardial degeneration and arteriosclerosis, with recent acute respiratory infection.
Schalene has established that Jean and John Duffy had a daughter named Catherine Douglas Duffy. The McCormack is spelt with an “i” in some places. In August 2016 I established that Catherine married a man himself named McCormack and they had 5 children. I’d love to hear from any of them or their own children.
In August 2016 I found that they had several children- Jean Douglas Duffy (1928-1928), Sarah Dyer Duffy (1929-1929), Edward Duffy (1933-1934), James Duffy (1935-1935), John Duffy (1931-1935), Robert Duffy (1935-1935). However, there was another Sarah who lived to adulthood and had several children. I would be delighted to hear from any of these Pettigrews.
January 2018:
Descendants of John Douglas and his wife live in Scotland still. These include several well-known sporting people such as Stephanie (below) and Amy Connell and the former footballer and football coach John Duffy McCormack. I would be delighted to hear from any members of these families.
John Duffy McCormack:
Picture below from Anne Richardson shows Agnes Douglas (known as Nancy) at home in Crieff during WW2 in her Land Army uniform. Anne tells me that Nancy used to sing in the church choir in Edinburgh and possibly in the Crieff one before that. Nancy was a keen country dancer and taught a class at church for a while. She tells me that Nancy was 8 when she first came to Crieff, which would place the event around 1931 or 1932.
Nancy did not have much contact with elder sister Margaret, who was known as Peggy. She married a man named Baxter. Ishbel McEwan recalls Peggy’s funeral in the 1970s and that at that time Nancy and Nan came to her mother’s house in Glasgow. Jeanette Seaman tells me Peggy had a son and a daughter.
August 2016 update. John and Agnes had 3 more children apart from the rumoured William. These were Peter, Elizabeth and Jessie. None made it to maturity.
Generation IX: Family of John Douglas and Agnes McCormack
1. John Douglas, 1901-1925
2. Jane Clark Douglas, 1903-1936
3. Agnes Douglas, 1904-1912
4. Ann Douglas, 1906-1907
5. Charles Douglas, 1911-1911
6. Robert Riddell Douglas, 1907-1909
7. Catherine McCormick Douglas, 1909-1931
8. Margaret McCormick Douglas, 1918-1972
9. Agnes McCormick Douglas (Nancy), 1923 – 2003
10. William Douglas, 1921 – 1969
11. Peter Douglas, 1912 – 1924
12. Elizabeth Douglas, 1914 – 1917
13. Jessie, 1919 – 1920
Agnes Douglas
Schalene Dagutis has uncovered some information about John’s daughter Agnes who died in 1912. Poor Agnes was an inmate at an asylum when she died. She was described as “an imbecile from infancy.” I am not sure exactly what this means, perhaps she had been born with Down’s Syndrome.
Another Son to John and Catherine
Anne Richardson has written to tell me that Nancy had a brother named Willie who was in the Merchant Navy. She does not know where he grew up about she recalls him visiting Crieff around 1955 and wearing a white cap and navy suit. Anne thinks he was an officer and thinks this is the last time Nancy saw him.
Although he appears to have died in the 1950s or early 60s this is an exciting development. I look forward to pursuing this man. Perhaps he had children who or grandchildren who will get in touch?
Jan 2016: Jeanette Seaman tells me that Willie was indeed in the Merchant Navy and then worked at the Singers factory in Dumbarton. She remembers her Auntie Jean saying that she met him once at a funeral [possibly William McAlister’s in the late 1950s].
August 2016: William died on 25th August 1969 at the Southern General Hospital, Glasgow. His usual address was 66 Durham St, Glasgow. The death certificate said he was single and an engineer’s machinist.
November 2022: an illegitimate child of John Douglas
My thanks to Charley Carpenter who spotted a link and to the staff of the NAS for a remarkably quick response. I have connections through DNA to a woman named Maud Ethel Purdy or Eaton who was born in 1898. The name meant nothing to me because her parents were listed incorrectly on Ancestry.
Closer investigation shows that her putative father had been dead far too long to be the real father. It turns out that a Register of Corrected Entry exists, based upon a court determination that John Douglas of Milton Street was the father. It seems likely that the girls’ mother took him to court for maintenance. The woman’s name is variously spelt as Janet or Jeanette and Purdy is spelt below as Purdie.
There is no Valuation Record for the year in question to help determine “our” John’s address at the time (1895 and 1905 are the nearest) but there seems little doubt that this is John Douglas, son of Charles the blacksmith and Jane Ann Clark. One wonders if his parents knew or indeed if he told Agnes when they married.
Family Tree of John Douglas:
Jane Ann Douglas and her McAlister Descendants
Jean Ann Douglas (Annie), daughter of Charles the blacksmith, married William McAlister in 1910 at Tullibardine in Blackford parish (SR 333/00 0007). Annie was a domestic servant with an address at Woodside in Tullibardine. As that is where her mother and father were both living the next year on census day it may be that she worked for them, just as she had for her father at the smithy in 1901. William was a brewery worker. Since he became a horse van driver later he may have been a carter in the brewery at this time. Her uncle Peter Douglas and his (later) wife Christina McKeith were the witnesses. Annie and William lived in Crieff, where they had one child. Dad’s cousins, Ishbel and Douglas McEwan, recalled going to visit them during holidays and being evacuated to Methven early in the war. Ishbel recalled Auntie Annie as being a postmistress who walked a lot. I have a photo of her parents’ grave, presented below. Annie died in 1958 in Edinburgh. She had left her 65 King Street, Crieff home a couple of months prior to her death as she had become frail and was cared for by her daughter and their family. After her death the family association with King Street ended. Grandson Alister recalls her as a slim woman with white hair. Grandfather William was blinded in both eyes in an accident at a farm. He recalls him sitting by the fire at home when he visited as a child.
The photo below shows William McAlister, presumably when he was working as a horse van driver. It comes courtesy of Anne Richardson.
The picture below shows Annie McAlister (Jane Ann Douglas) and her daughter Nan (Jane Ann Clark McAlister). Thanks to Anne Richardson for this image.
Their daughter, Jane Ann Clark McAlister, married George Cunningham at the Drummond Arms Hotel in Crieff in 1947. George was a neighbour. Douglas and Ishbel recall her being known as Nan and living in Crieff in 1940. Son Alistair tells me his mother was of average build with brown hair. She was around 5ft 2 ins tall. Daughter Anne tells me that George was born in Blackford but moved to Edinburgh around 5 years of age. She thinks George and Nan were neighbours in Blackford where her grandfather Cunningham worked in the brewery. Although Nan and George married in Crieff in 1942 Nan did not move to Edinburgh until the war ended. George’s parents lived at 27 St Leonard’s Street in Edinburgh whilst George and Nan lived across the road at number 32.
They had two children, Alister and Ann. Both children were born in the Haymarket area of Edinburgh. Alister married at Gladsmuir, site of the 1745 Battle of Prestonpans (near Edinburgh).
His sister Anne married at Kirk o’ Field near Edinburgh. It has a historic Douglas connection. Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, consort of Mary Queen of Scots, was convalescing in a house there in 1567 when there was an explosion which caused considerable damage to the house and injury to Darnley (among others). Darnley’s mother was the daughter of Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus. He did not die in the explosion, however, for when his body was found and examined next day it was established that he had managed to leave the house and was strangled against the wall of a garden rather than his body having been blown there. Mary was implicated in the murder, being estranged from him at the time.
Generation IX: Family of Jean Ann Douglas and William McAlister
1. Jane Ann Clark McAlister, died 1986
Generation X: Family of Jane Ann Clark McAlister and George Cunningham
1. Alistair Cunningham
2. Anne Cunningham
Jean Clark Douglas and John Nicoll’s children, Jane Ann Clark Nicoll, Joseph Douglas Nicoll, Annie Nicoll, Charles John NIcoll and Barbara Nicoll. Picture taken around 1925. My thanks to Jeanette Seaman (Calderwood) for this, which was taken at either Boreland Cottage or the Hosh, Ochteryre.
Family Tree of Elizabeth Douglas and Alexander Fergusson:
William Galloway Douglas was the third son of Charles Douglas and Jane Ann Clark. He was born at Milnrodgie in February 1870. By now Milnrodgie was in the parish of Crieff. He married Isabella Ogg in 1907 (SR 685/01). At this time William was a gardener with an address at Eredine, Port Sonachan in Argyllshire. He was 37 when he married, she was 36. Her address was in Edinburgh. They married at her house (presumably her parent’s) in Dewar Place Lane. I wonder how they had met. Had William been working in Edinburgh for a time?
Thanks to Ancestry I have now found out that William was a journeyman gardener living at the Gardener’s Bothy, Eddleston, Peebleshire at the time of the 1891 census. In 1901 he was living at Mauchline, Ayrshire, at Factor’s House Road. I will need to look at the originals on Scotlands People but am in no doubt given his age and stated place of birth that this is the right man.
I’ve had a look for Eredine, Portsonachan on the internet. Eredine is a small village near Loch Awe; there is a large early 19th century house called Eredine House, recently renovated. Perhaps he was the gardener at the house itself, then?
William died in Edinburgh in 1941, two years after his wife. He was living at 2 Crewe Crescent at the time. Confirmation was given at Edinburgh in September to their only son, a boy named Charles McIntyre Douglas, who had been born 10 months after the wedding. The estate was valued at £241-4-4. Charles married Grace Russell or Colville in 1930 at Haymarket, Edinburgh and they had a son named William in 1934. This William married a Jean Addison in 1963 in Port Glasgow.
The Edinburgh Evening News of 3rd July 1939 carries an account of how Isabella’s body was found. Apparently she had been missing since June 15th.
Charles McIntyre Douglas (from Jean Davis). He was a customs officer.
Generation IX: Family of William Galloway Douglas and Isobella Ogg
1. Charles McIntyre Douglas, born 1908 (photo above)
Generation X: Family of Charles McIntyre Douglas and Grace Colville
1. William Russell Douglas
Jane Clark Douglas (Jean) and the Nicoll Descendants
Jane Clark Douglas (otherwise known as Jean) was born at Tullybannochar in July 1874. She married John Nicoll in July 1900. His parents were Jean Anderson and Joseph Nicoll. Between 1901 and 1906 she was living at Kinkell between 1901 and 1906 when several of her children were born. Quite which property they were at is uncertain currently. It is also unclear where her husband was at the time. From 1907 to 1925, however, they were living at Boreland Cottage in the Muthill area. As noted earlier they were at East Cultmalundie following that and were there until 1930 at least. Jane died at Quoigs in Monzievaird and Strowan in 1946 (SR 383/00). John was still alive at this time. Jeanette Seaman tells me that Jane “had strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. Most of the family had red tinges in their hair.”
Picture below of Jane Clark Douglas and John Nicoll, labelled around 1900. My thanks to Jeanette Seaman for this.
Their eldest son Joseph Douglas Nicoll was a ploughman when he married but was later farm manager, presumably at Tarrylaw Farm, Balbeggie, where he died in 1958. In 1925 he inhabited the farm and house at Borland on the estate of Drummond Castle, Muthill (VR 113/71/534). Joseph died intestate. Confirmation was given at Perth in March 1958 on his estate of £2614-13-10 with the executor his son John Henderson Nicoll. Another John Henderson Nicoll married an Annie Wright in Dundee in 1923 (SR 282/03 0181) but his father was a Robert Nicoll. A John Henderson Nicoll died at Pitlochry in 2006 but we do not know if this is a relative or not.
I have no biographical information on the other children, other than that Jean Ann Clark Nicoll was known as Jean. Second son Charles was a mill manager. His daughter Andrina was a nursing sister and had two daughters. In 1966 she lived in Lenzie, near Glasgow.
Generation X: Family of Jane Clark Douglas and John Nicoll
1. Joseph Douglas Nicoll, 1901-1958
2. Charles John Douglas Nicoll, 1902-1991
3. Jane Ann Clark, 1906 -1996
4. Barbara Nicoll, 1907-1987
5. Anne Douglas Nicoll, born 1911
Death notice and death certificate of Jane Ann Douglas, nee Clark, crown copyright. Every document suggests Jane was born around 1841/42 but no baptism can be found for that period- though there is such a record for 1836. The death notice was carried in the Strathearn Herald.
A new discovery April 2015
An illegitimate boy named Charles Douglas was born at 452 Springburn Road, Glasgow in 1898 to an Annie Douglas, normal address the smithy at Kinkell. There is no father named. I found this just by chance as I searched for a decent copy of a similar name birth certificate. Charles was born on 10th February 1898. His birth was registered in Glasgow on 18th Feb but then transcribed at Blackford on 26th Feb. What became of this Charles?
Certainly the only Charles Douglas aged 2-3 on the 1901 and 1911 censuses in Scotland is my grandfather.
452 Springburn Road was a tenement block with many families and I looked to see if I recognised any from the Valuation Rolls of 1895.
This Charles Douglas died at Dumfries and his death certificate tells us that he was a retired nightwatchman and that he had at least one son.
In August 2016 I found out more about him and identified 18 descendants in total. Janice Aitken has very kindly provided information on Charlie and his family. It seems that he was indeed raised by the McAlisters and worked in a bottle factory in Edinburgh for a time. In January 1921 he joined the King’s Own Scottish Borderers. He was probably living in barracks when he married at Berwick upon Tweed in August 1922 to Elizabeth Atkinson. Certainly he was in the 2nd battalion the Kings’ Own Scottish Border Regt in December 1923 when Elizabeth had a son named Charles. This son Charles married at Annan in 1947 and died in 2004 but has descendants still in that area.
A year later he had been posted to Egypt as second son, Edward, was born there. Edward married in 1947 and had two sons. I have found three grandchildren for him. My record trail goes cold until 1928 when they were living in Hong Kong as that is where William was born. William married in 1953 but I don’t think he had any children. The final son (there seem to have been no daughters) was born at Fort George near Inverness in 1931. Charles was a lance corporal by this time. He left the army and became a postman. George had three children and I know of two grandchildren.
However, Janice Aitken has provided documentation to show both what CHarlie looked like and on his army career. He was well travelled, moving from home service to Egypt in November 1923 for 3 years, then moving directly to Hong Kong. The family were in Hong Kong until April 1930 when they were posted home. In September 1935 Charlie moved to Malta for 11 months before returning home.
During the war Charlie must have spent some time in Palestine as he was awarded the Palestine clasp to the General Service Medal, along with the Defence Medal and War Medal. Alongside these he could wear the Long Service Good Conduct Medal. Upon discharge from the Reserves in July 1953 he held the rank of Warrant Officer Class One. My father tells me this is the highest NCO rank in the army.
Upon discharge he was described glowingly as “exemplary.” The testimonial said he was “sober, honest, reliable and hardworking, steady and conscientios, has had experience in the handling of men.”
I don’t think you could improve upon that and his family must be rightly proud of him.
Below is a picture of Charlie Douglas with eldest son, also Charlie, in Egypt (my thanks to Janice Aitken)
Picture below from Anne Richardson shows a group at Tarrylaw Farm, Balbeggie. This was the home of Joseph Douglas Nicoll (known as Dougal). He is at front right, Annie Douglas is sitting beside him. Behind Joseph is his wife Meg. Back left stands Annie’s daughter Ann McAlister who married George Cunningham.
Jeanette Seaman has told me that the Calderwoods and Nicolls were very musical. She and her husband taught Scottish Country Dance classes for many years. She has been a singer in choirs and operatic society musicals and was a solo dancer for Jimmy Shand, the well known Scottish folk musician.
Charles Douglas the tailor’s 3 eldest children (Charlie, Alec, Bessie Douglas) with his wife Mary nee Dow
Peter Douglas
The fourth son was named Peter, born in January 1876 at Tullybanochar (SR 341/00). In 1901 Peter was at the tenement of his brother Charles in Glasgow on census night but whether he was merely travelling is uncertain. Peter was witness at brother William’s wedding in 1907. He was an unmarried potato salesman in 1911, living with his parents. He married a feather curler named Christina McKeith in September 1914 (SR 387/00). They had met at least 4 years earlier as both had acted as witnesses at a family wedding. As her father was a potato traveller it is likely that Peter met her through his former work. At the time they married Peter was living in Muirward, Scone, and was working as a forester. This is how he was described on his death certificate (SR 333/00 0016). According to the valuation roll for 1915 the house was the property of the Earl of Mansfield and rent was £4 per year. Peter seems to have been tenant of a house and office in the High Street, Dunblane in 1920. Rent was £13 a year. Peter died at Gleneagles, Auchterarder in 1929 in a cottage on the Gleneagles estate. He had been there at least since 1925, when rent was £5. The Dunblane house was still rented out to a Peter Douglas. His widow died at Logierait in 1954.
Death notice for Peter Douglas:
Peter Douglas featured in the Perthshire Advertiser on 5th January 1924. I daresay that as a forester the rain was a matter of professional interest to him. He sent the newspaper a note of rainfall in the Gleneagles area in 1923. He also was referred to on 7th January 1928, February 4th and 19th September 1928. He also wrote again in January 1929.
On September 19th 1928 Peter proposed a toast to Alexander Napier Chinnery Haldane, the heir to Gleneagles. His wife Christina was present.
Elizabeth Douglas and her Fergusson Descendants
Elizabeth was born at Buchanty in 1871. She married Alexander Fergusson in December 1892 at the Old Toll House at Blackford.
Alexander Fergusson had been a “servant” of Charles Douglas the blacksmith in 1891 on the census, but obviously he was more than that to the family. The 1891 census also tells us he was born in the parish of Moulin and that he spoke Gaelic and English, making him the only relative Jane Ann could speak to in that language, then. That may have created a special bond between them, perhaps helping explain why mother in law lived with Elizabeth and Alexander for many years. Alexander was a blacksmith, journeyman, but he did not remain in this occupation.
In 1901 Alexander, Elizabeth, her mother Jane Ann Clark and their children Jane Ann Clark Fergusson, Peter Fergusson and Ann Stewart Fergusson were living at the Old Toll House at Kinkell. Elizabeth’s father Charles was paying the £4-0-0 tenancy. Alexander had been living there since 1894 with his father in law paying the rent. In 1904 they must have been living at the Crosshill smithy as that is where Alexander Ferguson was born.
On the 1911 census (Census 333/00 008/00 004) Alexander, his wife and 7 children were living at the Crosshill Smithy (which had 4 rooms with windows). He described himself as a domestic garden labourer). Charles Douglas leased property that Alexander, his young family and his mother in law lived in. In the 1920s or 30s the family had shifted to Ormiston in Lothian and several members were employed in the coal industry.
Peter Fergusson joined the Royal Field Artillery in WW1. He was a gunner in B Battery, 78th Brigade, killed on 16th January 1917. At the time his parents were living at Tyne Bank, Ormiston, Edinburgh. He is buried at ii L28, Grove Town Cemetery, Meaulte. His service number was 84167. There are many photos of the fallen soldiers on the Scottish War Memorials website but sadly Peter is not one. There is a notice about him in The Strathearn Herald. Peter is commemorated on the war memorial at Trinity and Gask, I believe. Peter must have been brave: he had been in France since 13th July 1915 according to Ancestry’s photocopy of his medal roll and according to the site above held the Military Medal.
Ancestry’s medal roll card tells us he was entitled to the Victory Medal and British Service Medal. On the line for Mons Star is a number suggesting he held it, too, but perhaps this is the MM note as he could not have held the Mons Star if he had only been in France since July 1915.
I have found Peter on Ancestry’s Register of Soldier’s Effects. It shows that such money as he had or was owed was divided among his family. It says that on 12th May 1917 father Alexander received £12-2-6, with the word distribution next to it. Underneath it lists sister Jean A Clark, Ann S, Elizabeth Ferguson as receiving £1-3 each. The last line says Father Alexander and £10-10. This may have been a gratuity.
(Information from wwarmemscot.s4.bizhat.com/warmemscot-ftopic4405.html).
Although there is a reasonably complete tree for this branch of the family, with 27 descendants of Elizabeth and Alexander this only takes us into the 1950s and 60s and lacks detail beyond BMD.
I don’t intend to write an account of the family as I lack information to make it worthwhile. Jeanette Seaman has written to tell me that James was known as Jim and holidayed with the Calderwoods nearly every year in the 1950s.
I do know that their grandson, Jane Anne Clark Douglas’s son George John Bell Hall, was a career soldier. He married Mary Baird Burt, a 17 year old agricultural worker in Feb 1943. He was 20 and a gunner in the Royal Artillery. He transferred to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers by the time their first son was born in April 1944. Their address was said to be Polwarth Terrace, Prestonpans. George stayed on in the services after the war, as in Feb 1947 he was a corporal in the Royal Scots Fusiliers when another was born. They had a daughter in Edinburgh next year. The family were posted to Singapore in the 1950s, with a son born at RAF Changi Hospital in 1953. George was a sergeant at this time. By 1955 they were in Hamburg, Germany. He was now a corporal in the Cameronians, (service number 3058152). After leaving the services George became a gardener. He died at Briery Place, Duns in July 1998 of congestive cardiac failure.
Generation IX: Family of Elizabeth Douglas and Alexander Fergusson
1. Jane Ann Clark Ferguson, 1894-1975
2. Peter Ferguson, 1895-1917
3. Ann Stewart Ferguson, b 1897
4. Elizabeth Ferguson, born 1899
5. Charles Douglas Ferguson, 1901-1990
6. Margaret Ferguson, b 1903
7. Alexander Ferguson, b 1904
8. James Stewart Ferguson, 1907-1960
Photo of the grave of William McAlister and Annie Douglas at Crieff’s Ford Road Cemetery (from gravestonephotos.com; my thanks to Michelle Roberts who took and recorded the photo).
Below: Jane Clark Douglas around the year 1945 (thanks to Jeanette Seaman). I understand this to have been taken at the Hosh, Ochteryre, Crieff.
Below: Charles Douglas, son of Anne McAlister, with fellow soldiers from the KOSB. He is the second on the left (thanks to Janice Aitken):
The discharge papers of Charles Douglas (again, my thanks to Janice Aitken), giving details of his service:
The glowing description of Charles Douglas as a soldier and a man on his certificate of service:
The second child was Charles Douglas. Charles was my great grandfather and he was a tailor. He and brother John were the first Douglases to move into Glasgow, the move from rural to urban living came rather late to the Douglas family. Younger brother Peter was to follow for a time at least. More on him will follow later.
He was a tailor in 1891, employed by someone else. As his sister Elizabeth was a dressmaker I wonder did they work in Perth and did they work in the same place?
The Valuation Rolls have been very useful in identifying more information about Charles. Unless he was working as a storeman at the time, living in McFarlane Street then Charles was not in Glasgow in 1895. He must have moved there by the next June as he married Mary Dow in Cambridge St, Glasgow. His address was 24 Cleveland Street at the time, the tenancy for which cost £17-0-0 per year but he also (or possibly his father) paid for a house and garden at 3 Polnoon St in Eaglesham and 6 Montgomery Square there, too. The fact that he held at least two tenancies suggested that he was doing moderately well when he died tragically young. (A word of caution is needed- there was a Douglas family established in Eaglesham as far back as the early 1800s. It is possible that one of the tenancies relates to them). That said my father has spoken of two houses in Eaglesham, one above a shop.
At the time of his wedding Charles was described as a tailor journeyman. In other words, he had the top qualification possible. His brother William was a witness at the wedding. On the 1901 census Charles, wife Mary Dow (her birth SR 644/01) and children Charles and Elizabeth (as well as brother Peter) are shown at 53 Dumbarton Road, Glasgow. Other children Alexander known as Alec (SR 644/10 0767), Mary (SR 644/09/0389), Jean and John were to follow. Alex was born at the Dumbarton Road home in June 1901. Douglas and Ishbel McEwan think Charles worked at RW Forsyth’s store in Glasgow. Forsyth owned two men’s and boy’s outfitter shops and clothes there were very expensive. Presumably they were of a quality to match.
In 1905 Charles (and presumably family) was a tenant at 17 Cleveland Street, paying £17 pa in rent. Although described as a house on the roll it will have been a set of rooms in a tenement as there were several other families living there. Later they moved to a tenement at 930 Argyll Street. At the same time he was continuing to rent 3 Polnoon Street, Eaglesham, paying £4-0-0. Also at 3 Polnoon Street was Robert Dow, though Robert must have had a bigger or better portion of the house as his rent was much greater.
The story I inherited growing up was that Charles and my grandfather were out walking at Eaglesham on a hot holiday, possibly a fair day. Both drank water from a burn. Charles the father became ill and died as a result of this polluted water. However, if both drank how did the child survive? His death certificate states that he died from gastro-enteritis after 8 days illness. That would place the drinking water incident around July 26th. He did die at the house at Eaglesham; Elizabeth McDonald (who was a relative of his wife) was present and registered his death. Ishbel and Douglas McEwan’s account was proven accurate, as they told me he died of enteric fever 7 days after drinking from a burn walking on a May or July holiday.
He was not yet 40 and his wife was left with 6 children, the youngest only one year of age.
Photo above shows RJ Forsyth’s gentleman’s outfitters in Glasgow. Clothing was very expensive here. I wonder if tailor’s pay reflected thus cost? (from glasgowhistory.com)
Below: Nancy Douglas in later life, thanks to Anne Richardson:
Below: Grace Colville or Douglas (from jeand80 at Ancestry)
Perthshire Report on Working School Children
A report in 1912 named all the children who were meant to be at school but actually spent some or all of their time working to support their family or to supplement the family. The report includes Matthew Calderwood, aged 13, working 31 and a half hours delivering newspapers for Mrs Law of Atholl Street in Perth. He worked from 6-8:30 in the morning and 4-7pm after school. Also listed is his future wife Barbara Nicoll who worked 10 and a half hours for Harriers in New Row, Perth. She delivered milk.
Below: Certificate of proclamation of marriage of Annie Douglas and William McAlister, (with thanks to Alistair Cunningham)
Below: advert for Salmond’s shop in Crieff, where Nancy Douglas worked. The image comes from www.morrisonsacademyarchive.org
Anne Stewart Ferguson married Daniel Kirkwood Sinclair and died in Edinburgh in 1969. She had been widowed 22 years. I understand that they had no children.
Below: Fort George Barracks, Ardersier, Inverness. Taken from www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk. Charles Douglas was stationed here in 1931.
