The Moosie Tooer, part of the Bishops Palace Kirkwall

Transcription

SIB FOLK NEWS
NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY
The Moosie Tooer, part of the Bishops Palace Kirkwall
ISSUE 37 MARCH 2006
2
Issue No37 March 06
ORKNEY
FAMILY HISTORY
NEWSLETTER
Issue No 37
March 2006
CONTENTS
FRONT PAGE
The Moosie
Tooer
PAGE 2
From the Chair.
PAGE 3
December Minutes
Homecoming 2007
PAGES 4
Queen Victoria
PAGE 5
Vedder.
The Seasons
PAGE 6
The Death of James
Fea VI
PAGES 7 & 8
Final part of the
Groundwater
exodus
PAGE 9
Hints from Robert
Whitton
PAGES 10 & 11
Understanding
Heraldry
PAGES 12 & 13
The Oldest
Tombstone in
Orkney
PAGES 14 & 15
Uncle Billie
PAGES 16 & 17
The Grays of the
North Isles
PAGE 18
A Peek at Post Past
PAGE 19
Can you help Ian
Corsie?
PAGES 20 & 21
Robert Garrioch
PAGE 22
Summersdale. The
Last Battle
PAGE 23
Lorraine Louttit Hilton’s
Internet Journey
PAGE 24
Membership Details
From the chair
a plea for help and some
dates for your diary . . .
I thought I would take this
opportunity to let our members
know of the Orkney Islands
Council’s plans to have an ‘Orkney
Homecoming 2007’ in May 2007. As
we would be very much involved
with the family history enthusiasts
we are already in the early stages of
planning how to cope with the
number of visitors who will arrive
on our shores and the committee
has had two meetings so far to
discuss the arrangements.
We would be very grateful if any of
our members who are ‘coming
home’
would let us know in
advance and we will do what we
can to make their visit a productive
one. We would also be grateful if our
local members would indicate their
willingness to help show people
where their ancestral home is etc.
We are including a flyer in the
magazine for you to fill in showing
your interest. It seems a long way off
but we need to get our plans in
place so we are ready when the time
comes.
As for this year’s meetings we plan
to have speakers Jim Hewitson in
March and Elizabeth Briggs in
April and of course our AGM on 4th
May.
Our ‘Summer Ooting’ will be to
Sanday this year the date is yet to be
confirmed, depending on boat
timetables. As soon as we can finalise the details we will be posting
the information on our website, so
check out <www.orkneyfhs.co.uk>
from time to time for the up-to-date
position.
Anne Rendall
CHAIRMAN
Our cover picture
The Moosie Tooer, as it is known locally, is the magnificent round
tower at the north west corner of the Bishop’s Palace Kirkwall.
Practically nothing remains of the original building in which
King Haakon of Norway died in 1263 after his defeat at the
Battle of Largs.
The Moosie Tooer formed part of the extensive reconstruction of
the building by Bishop Reid in the mid 16th century. The 5 storey
tower, while round externally, had rooms that were
approximately square and included the Bishop’s own personal
apartments. The tower has a cap-house with a small square room
inside.
Issue No37 March 06
C
Minutes of the Orkney
Family History Society Open
Meeting held on Thur 12th
Jan 2006 at 7.30pm in the
Supper Room of the
Kirkwall Town Hall
hairperson, Anne Rendall, welcomed
every-one and wished them a Happy
New Year.
She reported that at the moment we were
having a few problems arranging our Open
meetings but it was hoped over the next few
months that Sheena Whenham would be
available to give us a talk on St Mary’s. The
Westray Young Heritage Group also wished
to come along to a meeting as they needed
an audience to help them with their project
on Westray and Papa Westray place names.
In April the Society is delighted to have
Elizabeth Briggs from Canada and she will
talk to the Society on her work with the
Hudson’s Bay Archives in Winnipeg.
Anne also said that Dr Alison Brown from
Aberdeen University was giving a talk in the
Stromness Museum on 20th January. Her
talk is entitled Treasures: Family Heirlooms
and Fur Trade History.
Anne also announced that there was to be
another Orkney Homecoming in May 2007
and she asked if any members had any ideas
for events for the Society to arrange when
the visitors are here. One of the days when
the visitors are here is to be called “John
Rae Day”. It is also hoped that the Orkney
Family History Society will work with the
Archives Dept and will arrange to have the
MacGillivray Room available to help visitors
with their research. It was agreed that the
OFHS Committee should meet on 26th Jan..
to discuss the Homecoming in more detail.
George Gray read out some queries from
new members asking for help to trace their
ancestors. There were requests from
members searching Robertson/Robsons from
Walls, Irvines from Eday and Stronsay,
Louttits from Rousay and many others.
Anne then introduced Betty Cameron who
had come to talk to us on Queen Victoria’s
travels through Scotland. An account of her
talk appears elsewhere in the magazine.
Anne then thanked Betty for her most
interesting talk and slides. She also said
that it seemed as if Betty was talking about
her own family as she remembered all the
names and places so well.
The meeting finished with a cup of tea and
a blether. Thanks again to Mags and Annie
for helping with the tea.
Second Homecoming being planned now.
In 1999 around 250 Canadians sailed into
Stromness Harbour to a rousing welcome
from the many descendants of their families
who had left Orkney, in some cases
hundreds of years ago.
In January this year Max Johnston,
president of the Great Canadian Travel
Company, who had helped organise the
original event, arrived in Orkney to begin
preparations for Orkney Homecoming 2007.
He linked up again with Cameron Taylor,
who was chief executive of Orkney Tourist
Board when the first Homecoming took
place and is now Chairman of Orkney
Homecoming 2007.
Meetings were held with Orkney Archives;
Orkney Family History Society; Visit
Orkney; John Grieve of Discover Orkney;
Kim Foden, Tour Guide and the OIC.
Cameron Taylor said that the response from
these areas had been “fantastic” and he
added: “As part of the 2007 Homecoming,
Orkney Archives and The Family History
Society will be able to arrange special
events. The Archive, within the new Orkney
Library and Archive building is obviously
more accessible than it was, and the Family
History Society also has its own base there.
Both hope to be open longer and help more
people with their research.”
Following the original Homecoming there
have been a number of cultural exchanges
including
transatlantic
tours
by
Hadhirgaan in 2000 and 2005 and the
hugely successful Saskatchewin First
Nations Coming Home event which saw a
group of Cree visitors in Orkney during
September 2004.
A tentative schedule for the 2007 event will
see visitors departing from North America
on May 14, leaving Orkney on May 22.
You’ll find more information on the website
www.orkneyhomecoming.com where you can
also register for e-mail updates.
3
Did
you know?
While many Orcadians
emigrated to Australia at
least one from Orkney
went as a guest of H.M.
Government.
William Sinclair was
Postmaster in
Stromness until he was
arrested in March 1851.
He was tried in March
1852 in the High Court
in Edinburgh and
convicted on the charge
of embezzling and
secreting letters.
Despite 10 years of loyal
service and a ‘good
character’ plea by the
local minister, William
Sinclair was sentenced
to seven years
transportation to be
served in Tasmania,
Western Australia. The
total amount of Sinclair’s
embezzlement was
between £1 and £2 and
whether he completed
his sentence or died
while serving it is not
known as nothing was
ever heard of him again.
4
Issue No37 March 06
Queen Victoria
and a lifetime love of Scotland
Q
This is a brief
résumé of the most
interesting talk
given by Betty
Cameron at our
meeting on the
26th January, on
the travels of
Queen Victoria in
Scotland.
Betty’s talk was
supported by an
extensive series of
slides of the events
and while the
article lacks that
visual input we
hope that it still
conveys something
of the Royal
couple’s love of
Scotland.
ueen Victoria was crowned in 1838
and married Albert in 1840. Although
they travelled extensively in England
it was not until 1842 that they embarked at
Woolwich on the antiquated royal yacht
Royal George for Scotland. The long journey
was unpleasant. The cumbersome sailing
ship had to be towed by two steamers and
most of the royal party were seasick.
Despite this poor start the visit to
Scotland was a success and the couple
immediately fell in love with the country.
They were favourably impressed with the
architecture of Edinburgh where they
visited the castle to view the Honours of
Scotland. Prince Albert was greatly taken
with Perth which he said reminded him of
Basle in Switzerland. At Scone Palace they
saw the mound where the ancient kings of
Scotland were crowned. The four poster bed
and room where the Queen slept is still on
view to visitors.
Of Taymouth Castle, where they stayed in
the new wing which was specially added for
the visit, the Queen wrote that ‘the welcome
was both princely and romantic’. The rooms
of Drummond Castle she thought ‘small but
nice’ and the visit to Stirling Castle was
marred by the unruly crowd that the Queen
found ‘most alarming’.
The couple refused to tackle the journey
home in the Royal George but settled instead
for the less than royal steamship Trident .
By 1844 they were back in Scotland again,
this time sailing to Dundee. On their way to
Blair Castle they stopped for a meal at an
inn where their small daughter charmed the
onlookers by bowing and waving from the
inn window.
Albert enjoyed the stalking at Blair
where he shot a stag from the dining room
window.
The holiday was pronounced
‘relaxing’ tho’ some of the party thought the
bagpipe music ‘overdone’.
1847 saw them both in Scotland again but
this time in the comfort of the new royal
yacht, the Victoria & Albert and they arrived in Greenock to a rapturous reception
from the passengers on the dozens of vessels
that had gathered to greet the Queen.
This visit took them to Dumbarton Rock
and Castle, up Loch Fyne to Inveraray and
on to Lochgilphead where they sailed up the
Crinan Canal in a small boat. After a night
in Crinan they visited Tobermory and
Fingal’s Cave. Albert and his brother took
this opportunity to visit Glencoe, the site of
the infamous massacre of the Macdonalds
by the Campbells in 1692, but the weather
was dismal and they would see little. The
following day they set out for Ardverikie (the
house in the TV programme Monarch of the
Glen). This was to be their holiday home for
some weeks. The Queen remarked ‘There is
little to say of our stay here, the country is
fine but the weather is terrible’.
In 1849 they were in Glasgow for a much
awaited visit and after their official duties
they headed for Balmoral. Victoria had
rented Balmoral without having seen it
being persuaded by the paintings of the
Aberdeen artist James Giles. The Royal
Physician, Sir James Clark also recommended the area as being beneficial in helping
both Victoria and Albert’s rheumatism.
Victoria purchased the 17000 acre estate in
1852 and had the existing castle demolished.
William Smith was commissioned to
design the new building and it is known that
Albert had a heavy input into the final
design of the castle that opened in 1855.
During the 1895 visit to Balmoral, Crathie
Kirk was dedicated in the presence of Her
Majesty. The money gathered for the building
of the kirk was helped by a bazaar held over
two days in the castle grounds with the stalls
staffed by members of the royal party.
After the death of Albert the Queen visited
the north of Scotland going as far west as
Loch Maree then east to Dunrobin Castle
near Golspie.
It was her beloved Balmoral that became
a place of solace and in the later part of the
19th century she was spending as much as 4
months of every year at the castle - something that did not please her ministers.
The Royal Family through the ages have
been plagued by the ‘papparazzi’ and Queen
Victoria was no exception. When out
sketching on Royal Deeside with one of her
daughters some reporters were seen in
hiding hoping to get a photograph of the
Queen and Brown. He went off to investigate
and see them off, and they left reluctantly. 
Issue No37 March 06
5
the seasons
at Vedder
I
By Isabella Thomlinson Muir
think the spring time was the hardest
season on the farm. True there were
comparisons in the beauty and interest of
young animal life, but they made more work.
Young calves could be very tantalising to
handle. Lambs were delightful - except when
they persistently poached the ‘breer’ or
young oats. Soon, however, it would be
sufficient to whistle on the dog, and back
they would scamper to their mothers.
There were no incubators in Tankerness
when I was young so that chickens were
hatched under a mother hen, and surely
there could be nothing prettier on a farm
than a brood of little chickens with their
fussy old mother, ruffling her feathers and
clucking excitedly over them. Ducklings too,
were hatched under a hen - and what a
surprise was in store for that mother hen
when the ducklings took to the water!
Of all the jobs that I disliked most was
working the peats. We had a peat cutting day
in the early spring, and about a week or two
later the peats had to be ‘laid out’ and then
when they were sufficiently dry they had to
be ‘raised’ and finally, before they were
carted, they were ‘rooed’. The ‘laying out’ and
‘raising’ were back breaking jobs.
The summer season was not a heavy one.
Certainly there were the turnips and the hay,
and the men folk had the carting of the
peats, but there was always a while of
slackness in the farm work, when building
repairs were done and the sheeps’ wool was
washed and laid out to bleach on the heather.
Between the hay and the harvest there was a
‘breather’. Many a time the Oddies and
Donaldsons foregathered at the burn then
and lay in the sun and talked.
The men often went fishing at night sometimes all night. Father went cod fishing
with the Oddie men It was grand to go down
and meet the boat between eleven and
twelve o’clock on a fine summer’s night. The
last rays of the setting sun seemed to merge
into the first streaks of dawn. Not a sound to
be heard except perhaps the startled cry of a
bird aroused from its slumbers. the grass
laden with dew and moths flitting
everywhere: cattle lying in the corner of a
field chewing the cud or stretched out asleep,
and York my faithful dog always ready for a
scamper, nosing for rabbits and mice in the
ditches. Then the sound of oars and the boat
came in sight at the neck of the Ayre, and
soon we were helping to haul it up and see
the fish counted and divided.
Later in the year there was another kind
of fishing, this too at night, but
surreptitiously as it was illegal. Peter Brass
came out from Kirkwall with one or other of
his cronies for a night’s trout fishing. This
was done by means of a net, but how it was
manipulated I cannot explain. All I know is
that it was illegal and that it seemed to
afford Peter and his friends a great deal of
pleasure, although sometimes they would be
wet to the skin. Father always went with
them and they took James Oddie’s boat.
Sometimes they got a big haul of lovely
trout, and sometimes ‘not a bone’ as Peter
used to say.
My brother Willie and Jimmie Oddie tried
their hand at trout fishing too, but not often. I
remember going one night with Lily Oddie along
with Willie and Jimmie but all we caught was a
‘conger’. Lily and I had to be carried ashore picka-back when we returned from the fishing and
this Willie did, swearing heartily all the time.
But I am wandering from the farm work.
Harvest was always a lightsome time that was as if the weather was good and we
got the crop in early and the potatoes up.
Some harvests were rainy and it was a
dreary job then, working ‘between showers’.
And very often if it was a wet harvest, part
of the potato crop was left in the ground
until the spring. But it was the nice harvests
that I remember, and the lovely harvest
moons and the kye, almost bursting with
fill, puffing and groaning as they lay down in
their stalls in the evenings.
When Willie was at Valdigar we worked
together at harvest time. Vedder’s crop
usually ripened before Valdigar’s so that it
fitted in nicely. Maggie’s brother, Jim Eunson
of Grimster, took September for his holiday
month for several years and he was fond of
working in the harvest field. Sometimes he
came to Valdigar to help when we were there
and I have many happy memories of him. He
used to call me ‘little Belle’ and sometimes
‘little brick’ and I looked on him almost as an
older brother.
After the harvest there were the ‘muckle
suppers’ and then winter. There were the
usual Good Templar meetings, choir
practices and sometimes a singing class and
an occasional magic lantern. and each year
we had a concert in aid of public hall repairs.
Sometime there was a wedding, and always
the visiting between neighbours and some
parties. Exciting? Well, it would not sound
very exciting to the youth of today, but it was
satisfying clean enjoyment to us. And so the
years were spent, with very little variation.
In part 8 of the story
of Isabella’s life in
Vedder she tells of an
age when people took
pleasure from the
simpler things in life
and where hard work
brought a sense of
satisfaction and
achievement.
Even today in the
stressful world in
which we live,
Orcadians celebrate
and give thanks for
the harvest, the
occasion being
marked by the ‘muckle
supper’ or ‘harvest
homes’ that are held
throughout the
islands in the
autumn.
6
Did
you know?
Most Orcadians will be
familiar with John Gow,
the Orkney pirate.
Orkney, however, had
another 18th century
pirate—a bloodthirsty
villain by the name of
John Fullarton whose
exploits made Gow’s look
like amateur night.
Fullarton was a master
mariner supposedly from
Stromness. After a run of
bad luck he turned his
talents to smuggling and
eventually had enough
money to equip a
privateer. This eventually
led to a partnership with
a renegade Royal Navy
captain called Kepple and
the pair fitted out a pirate
ship in which they
attacked peaceful traders.
Kepple was eventually
killed but Fullarton carried
on maiming and killing.
His end came when he
boarded a Scottish vessel,
the Isabella, after
encountering fierce
resistance. This enraged
Fullarton who shot the
captain but as he turned
to haul down the
Isabella’s colours the
Captain’s wife, Mary
Jones placed a pistol
against Fullarton’s temple
and blew his head open.
The Isabella’s crew,
heartened, turned on the
pirates and captured both
them and their ship. Mary
Jones was thereafter
known as the pirate
slayer.
J
Issue No37 March 06
Peter Russell, Member No 161, marks the 250th anniversary
of the death of James Fea V1 with this intriguing tale
ames Fea, VI of Clestrain, was
undoubtedly one of the more colourful
characters in Orkney’s long and
turbulent history. His capture of the
infamous pirate, John Gow, his long running
campaign against the Earl of Morton in the
Pundlar Process and his active participation
in the ill-fated Jacobite Rebellion, are all
well documented. Much less however is
known of the final chapter of his eventful life
and, more particularly, his friendship with
Robert Strange and his death in London on
May 7, 1756.
We know that following the defeat at
Culloden in 1746, Fea spent several years in
Edinburgh and London pursuing various
claims he made to the Government for the
substantial losses suffered at the hands of
the victorious Hanoverians, which included
the destruction of the mansion of Sound, in
Shapinsay. It was during this time that he
met Philip Bruguier, a goldsmith of French
Huguenot
descent, whose
house
in
Macclesfield Street, Soho [present day
Chinatown], may well have been used as a
meeting place for those, including Robert
Strange, who still harboured sympathies
with the Jacobite cause.
Apparently, other than a fainting fit a few
weeks before his death at Bruguier’s home,
Fea appears to have enjoyed excellent health
for a man in his sixties, as is supported by
the findings of an autopsy: “…his trouble
was ane inflammation in the lower part of
his belly. His lungs and heart were as young
and as fresh as a child.”
The following letter, written the day after
Fea’s death, was sent to John Fea, the new
laird of Clestrain, who had been managing
the family’s estates in Orkney, during his
brother’s long periods of absence in the
South.
London May of 1756
Sir
This his to acquainte you of the Death of
your Brother James Fea who departed this
Life yesterday between fore and five jn the
after noon at My House. Mr Strange
Mr Spence Mr Read Mr Wilson and Self have
orderd his funeral on Monday next, Should
Be glad By the return of the Post wat you
would me do with his Effects wether you
Would have me Keep them in my Custody or
Komit them to ane bodey Els, youl advise wth
Mr Feas Widow wat j am to do and youl
Oblige
Sir Yours to Comand
Please to Direct Ph: Bruguier
Goldsmith at the Star jn
Macclesfield Street Near
St Anns Church Soho London
Rather surprisingly James Fea’s mortal
remains were not repatriated to Orkney nor
was he buried in the parish of St Anne’s but
in nearby St Paul’s Covent Garden, known
as the Actors’ Church.
An explanation however can be found in
the words written by William Lumisden,
father-in-law of Robert Strange, dated May
13, 1756, to John Fea, now styled VII of
Clestrain, which read: “Great was the love
and friendship that was betwixt my daughter
[Isabella] and him [James Fea] and as a
mark of it she insists that he may be interred
where she proposes to lie if she dies in
London.”
Isabella’s quite extraordinary depth of
affection for James Fea is further confirmed
in a letter, also written the day after his
death, by Robert Strange to John Fea, that
said: “Mrs Strange, who laments this loss as
of a Father.” According to Isabella’s wishes,
James Fea was buried at St Paul’s Covent
Garden on Monday, May 10, 1756. No
memorial stone has survived, if in fact one
was ever erected. Many years ago the
churchyard was paved over and today it is
used by office workers and tourists alike as a
garden of rest.
Sir Robert Strange [he was knighted in
1787] died at Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s
Inn Fields, on July 5, 1792; his wife, Isabella,
on 28 February 1806, aged 86, at her house
in East Acton, west London: both were
“buried in a family tomb” at St Paul’s Covent
Garden. A fine marble memorial tablet is
affixed to the south wall inside the church
[Sib Folk News, September 2005].
It can be seen that the wish made by
Isabella Lumisden Strange, some fifty years
before, came to be fulfilled as indeed she was
laid to rest close by her beloved husband and
her good friend James Fea, VI of Clestrain. 
Issue No37 March 06
7
Janette concludes
her article on the
Groundwater exodus
A
Janette M Thompson. Member No 121
s mentioned in the last Sibfolk News,
the McLeod family may have been
contemplating migrating to Australia
during the early 1880s, especially after the
accidental death of Barbara’s mother, Anne
Morgan / Groundwater, (Muir) in 1881 in
Kirkwall and the fact that Edward,
Barbara’s brother, was living there.
My grandmother, Beatrice Lindsay McLeod,
was born in Leith on 17th July, 1883.and
some nine months later, on the 25th April
1884, the McLeods embarked on the Loch
Vannachar in Glasgow bound for Melbourne.
Family knowledge has it that they arrived in
Melbourne on 17.7.1884, Beatrice Lindsay’s
1st.birthday. ( Nana of Janette, Gordon,
Robin & Alison Foulis and Helen, Murray &
Airlie Bodie).
From Melbourne they sailed by coastal
steamer to Sydney.
The family were, (ref.: the passenger list):
William Mc.Leod 35, plasterer, contracted to
land in Sydney.
Mrs. Barbara Mc.Leod, 38, Wife, and family :
Henrietta 11, Ann 9, Robert 7, William 5,
Edward 2 and Beatrice 1 .
Another five children were born in Sydney:
twins Barbara & James, 1885, John Muir,
1888, Catherine Eddy 1891 and Colin
Cameron Fraser in 1894.
During these years William worked hard to
establish what was to become a flourishing
business in Bondi. Eventually his sons
William and Edward joined him in the
business, (ref. 1903 Australian Electoral Roll
and later in 1904 & 1913 N.S.W. P.O.
Directory the listing was William McLeod
and
Sons,
Contracting
Plasterers,
Randwick).
One family story relates how he was asked
to design a new ceiling and plaster it for the
chapel in the Bondi Catholic Seminary. He
was moved to state that he was not a
Catholic and the reply to him was but you
are a fine Christian gentleman who will
respect our place of worship.
William was an Elder of St. Stephen’s
Presbyterian Church in Sydney from 1904
for many years and as a child I can
remember seeing his photograph hanging on
the wall of the Elder’s Meeting Room.
About 1915 the family moved to the quickly
expanding suburb of Strathfield but the
business remained in Randwick. They
named their new home “Reay”.
On 28th December, 1918, Barbara died at
‘Reay’ Mosely Street, Strathfield after a long
illness, aged 73 years. She was buried at the
Waverley Cemetery which is high on the
hills overlooking the sea, not far from Bondi.
Some years later, in 1932 William was
buried there with her.
After Barbara’s death William with
daughter Catherine ( Kitty) had a trip back
to England and Scotland but unfortunately I
do not know if he returned to the area of his
birth or to Orkney to visit Alexander.
Some family reasons for the McLeod family
immigrating to Sydney may have been
influenced by the following:
After Ann’s death, Donald Morgan & family
(except for Alexander) went to Sydney.
Extract from “The Orcadian”, Sat.23 June
1883, p.4.
‘Mr. Morgan sailed for Australia, leaving
Orkney on Tuesday, June 19th 1883 on
board ‘St.Magnus’. There
were
ten
Orcadians leaving for Sydney that day. He
was joining his son Robert Morgan who had
been in business in Waverley, a Sydney
suburb and who had followed step-son
Edward Groundwater, who had preceded to
Australia some years ago. Mr. Morgan’s five
daughters accompanied him as well as Mr.
Frew, Mr Thomas Leslie and Mr. David
Guthrie.
He had come to Kirkwall, from Thurso, with
the
late
Mr.
Robert
Groundwater,
watchmaker some 35 years ago and
afterwards succeeded to the business, which
he carried on with success.’
Edward Groundwater, Barbara’s brother,
had been in N.S.W. from about 1874/5
( cannot find them on passenger lists ) as it
was thought that the warmer climate might
be an advantage to Jeannie‘s bronchial
problems. He had married Jane Sutherland
in Kirkwall in 1869. They had a son Edward,
born in Kirkwall in 1870 who lived for eight
weeks and a daughter, Eliza Kellas, born in
Edinburgh in March, 1873.
In 1877, Jane/Jeannie died in the N.S.W.
country town of Orange where Edward was
a watchmaker and jeweller. He was also a
town councillor for many years .
In 1880 Edward married Elizabeth
Richards, they had nine children from 1881
to 1897 and have many descendants.

Did
you know?
On the 9th February 1877
two Birsay men, Peter
Slater and William Moar
discovered a bottle
attached to a lifebuoy near
Skaill.
To their astonishment they
found that it contained a
message written on St
Kilda on the 22nd January.
It had travelled the
equivalent of over 200
land miles in just over two
weeks.
The bottle contained a
message that told of the
wreck and rescue of nine
men from the Austrian
barque the Peti
Dubrovacki and that while
they were all safe,
provisions on St Kilda
were running low and help
was required.
A telegram was
immediately dispatched
from Orkney to the
Austrian consul in
Glasgow and by the 22nd
February a Royal Navy
vessel, HMS Jackal was
on her way to St Kilda.
She arrived during a break
in the fierce storms that
were sweeping the area
and rescued the Austrian
crewmen and a visitor to
the island, a John Sands
of Ormiston, who had sent
the original message.
All ended well, for the
Jackal had also brought
meal, hard tack and a
barrel of rum to replace
the scarce supplies that
had been shared with the
Austrians.
Later in the year further
supplies of foodstuffs
were delivered to the
island by the navy—gifts
from a grateful Austrian
government.
8
Previously, three of Robert’s siblings had
Did
you know?
Most people are familiar
with the ghostly tale of
the Flying Dutchman
that for well over 300
years has sailed round
the Cape of Good Hope
bringing misfortune to
any vessel that
encountered her.
One of the most famous
sightings was made by
Prince George, later to
become George V, when
he was a cadet on HMS
Bacchante in 1881.
The ship’s log, in which
he made the entry, is
preserved in the Royal
Navy archives. In best
Flying Dutchman
tradition, the seaman
who originally made the
sighting later fell to his
death from the foretopmast crosstrees.
There are dozens, maybe
hundreds of other
documented sightings
and among those is that
of the whaler Orkney
Belle while sailing near
Iceland in 1911.
The second mate
described the giant sails
swelling in a non
existent breeze and at
one time the ships were
so close that he thought
they would collide. As
the Flying Dutchman
sailed by several of the
crew of the Orkney Belle
saw her name clearly
visible on the stern.
Again the prophecy of
misfortune was fulfilled
as the Orkney Belle was
one of the first ships to
be lost in action with the
German Navy in 1914 at
the start of WW1.
come to Melbourne. None can be found on
the passenger lists of those years. It is
thought that (Rev.) James Groundwater
arrived in Melbourne prior to 1860, as he is
mentioned as a teacher of English from
Edinburgh University in the 1861-1863
prospectus for Scotch College, East
Melbourne. In the 1865 prospectus he was
mentioned as having commenced a high
school in Carlton, (a suburb of Melbourne)
with Rev. Wm. Smith .
At some time, Thomas Groundwater and
sister Isabella also came to Melbourne as
they are all on the Victorian Death Index.
Thomas, cabinet-maker, bachelor died in
1886,
James,
Presbyterian
minister,
bachelor, died in 1901 and Isabella a
spinster died in 1905.
Previously, Margaret Groundwater, daughter
of Robert Groundwater and Isabella Spence
and cousin of Robert Patterson Groundwater, had arrived in Melbourne in 1851 and
married a William Smith in 1852. Is this
Rev. Wm. Smith?
Another puzzle has been in the death notice
for Anne Muir, (1881) to please notify
Australian and American papers. Why the
American papers ?
Eventually I discovered that another two of
Robert’s siblings migrated to America—John
and Samuel Groundwater, John prior to
1842.
On the 1860 American census, John is
married to a Sarah of Scottish birth, with six
children ranging from 3 years to 18 years, all
born in N.Y. state. Sarah died in 1862. John
is on the 1880 American census, living with
a married daughter, Ellen and husband Wm.
Wood, and family as well as brother Samuel,
bachelor and a son Samuel.
According to either the 1821 St.Andrews
census and /or “The Smith Journal” another
two of Robert Groundwater’s siblings,
namely Hannah who married Alexander
Stewart had a son, Dr Wm. Stewart, who
migrated to Australia and Barbara who
married James Elrick also migrated (1821 St
Andrews census) to Australia or by 1892 all
had died, (Smith Journal) .
So it appears for that Groundwater
generation all but Robert, Barbara and
Hannah made the great move to foreign
lands and even then many of their children
migrated .
Barbara’s other brother John Groundwater
moved south as he was in Glasgow in the
1881 census, evidently was back in Kirkwall
when his mother died and from then he is a
mystery, except for the fact that a John Muir
Groundwater died aged 46 years in 1895 in
Leith. This could be the correct person. Was
he married or not, did he have descendants ?
Another mystery ?
Issue No37 March 06
It appears that there are very few
Groundwaters, by name, descendants from
my great great grandfather Robert’s
generation.
Of course Anne Muir’s second marriage still
has some descendants in Kirkwall; Hilary
Harcus and Agnes Scott and their families.
This had ended up to be the story of an
exodus of Groundwaters from Orkney,
maybe a ramble but hopefully our readers
will see how one large family who have been
in Orkney for many generations can by
migration disappear from their country of
origin.
So I conclude my stories of the three
branches of my father’s family .
On this journey there have been many
challenges
and
hazards
encountered,
temporarily wrong conclusions, unanswered
queries, but it has not been as strenuous a
trip for me as Wm and Anne Campbell,
Capt. James Foulis, William and Barbara Mc
Leod and family had endured.
Best of all has been the new contacts , either
by phone, slow mail or email, I’ve made with
relatives.

Research migration
of Scottish Family
names online
Log onto www.spatial-literacy.org and click on
Family Names and you are one step further in
tracing the history and geography of surnames
across the UK.
The new surname profiler has geographical data
on more than 25,000 names. The project based
at University College London (UCL) will increase
this to 280,000 names in the future. The data
comes from the 1881 census and the 1998
electoral register plus the surname records from
one of the major credit reference companies
numbering some 45 million names.
By looking at maps you can immediately
compare the distribution of 25,000 surnames in
Britain between the 1881 census and the 1998
electoral register and reveal which areas have
the densest population of that name.
You can also have a bit of fun by keying in the
Blairs and the Beckhams etc and tracing their
origins.
In addition to mapping surnames across the UK,
the project has also recorded the distribution of
common Scottish and British surnames
throughout Australia, New Zealand, Canada and
the USA clarifying patterns of distribution.
UCL Professor Paul Langley who worked on the
project with his colleague Richard Webber says
it is an academic resource that can also be a big
help to the general public, especially those
researching family trees.
Issue No37 March 06
W
hen
undertaking
research, if you have paid to
look at a page read all the other
entries in case there are other items of
interest. For example there are 3
births/deaths per. GroS page and in a small
village or on a small island most of these
people could be related. I have found
relatives I have been unaware of in this way.
However other sources can be fruitful for a
bit of lateral thinking but beware of rushing
down blind alleys.
While conducting some research, I
obtained from
the National Archives of
Canada, a copy of a page from the ships
manifest of the SS “Dutchess of Richmond”
that sailed from Greenock on 2nd November
1929 arriving at Quebec on the 26th November. In 3rd class appears the follow-ing
person. I hope that someone finds this of
some use. I was researching people called
RITCH but had I not read the entire page I
would have missed the following relevant
information.
McGillivray Annie aged 26 single born
Kirkwall, Orkney, Trade or Occupation in
your own Country – Housewife – changed to
Housework, Trade or Occupation do you
intend to follow – Housewife . Destination
Fiance, David Linklater, 29 Fairford Street,
Moose Jaw, Father Mr John McGillivray, 9
Garden Street, Kirkwall. Had $25 with her
– a landed Immigrant.
Annie was the daughter of John Mainland
McGillivray a Baker Journeyman who
married (b 14-1-1874) Jemima Craigie (b 2311-1874) on 11th February 1898 at
Northfield, Holm. Jemima’s parents were
James Craigie a Farmer and Mary McKinlay.
John’s parents were James McGilvery a
boatman born Egilshay about. 1862
and Helen Marwick born Rousay
about 1840.
Further down the same page was :Ann M Ritch aged 25 born Leith a
domestic both in own country and on arrival
Destination Employer David Linklater
(details as above ) Father Mr William Ritch,
Kitchen of Breeks, Deerness Orkney she had
$50 with her – a landed Immigrant
Ann’s father was born in Deerness married
in Leith in 1901 to Elizabeth Wotherspoon
Pringle. The family moved back to Deerness
possibly around 1910 and her only brother
David Ritch was a Pharmacist and lived at
Lomond Street, Helensburgh.
Having read all this I might have given up,
but I checked to find that another Orkney
family featured Elizabeth Reid aged 26 from
Stronsay with her children James 15, Peter
13, Margaretta 8, Jean 1 all born Stronsay.
They were all travelling to meet with her
husband James W Reid whose address was
given as c/o General Delivery, Abbotsford,
British Columbia. Her father in law was
given as next of Kin with an address at
Whitehall Village,
Stronsay. They were
Landed Immigrants and had $35 between
them. I think that John Reid’s parents were
Peter Reid Born abt. 1842 who married
Barbara Wallace from
Sanday on 2nd
November 1865. I stopped my research at
this point, thinking that apart from coming
from Orkney this family had no relevance to
my research.
I would be interested to learn if anyone
knows what happened to Ann M Ritch, or
her Employer, from these brief clues.
Robert Whitton e-mail: crwhitton@aol.com
Currie, Midlothian.
Sending an article? Read this for best results
If possible send or email article in ‘Word’. It
means that I can transfer the material directly
to the page without retyping. Oh happy me!
Photographs Original is best. Or scan as a
greyscale JPEG at approx size that it will
appear in magazine and at 12 or highest
resolution then send as email attachment. Do
not send photocopies.SAE please if you want
material returned. Do not infringe copyright.
Editor reserves right to amend any copy.
Send to OFHS address on back page or email
to me at sinclairjasz@aol.com or post to
J. Sinclair, ‘Burnbrae’ 21 Burnside, Kirkwall.
Orkney KW15 1TF. United Kingdom. Editor.
9
The St Clair angel
Did
you know?
Rosslyn Chapel which
now features largely in
the book and film ‘The
Da Vinci Code’ was
founded by Sir William
St Clair, the last Prince
of Orkney, in 1446.
Sir William drew the
designs on wooden
panels and they were
then carved in stone by
masons. Many of the
dewsigns have masonic
or religious connections.
The chapel has long
been associated with the
Knights Templar, an
ancient order that goes
back to the 12th century.
A sealed vault in the
chapel is said to contain
everything from the
Holy Grail to the skull of
John the Baptist.
Some of the carvings in
the chapel are of plants
peculiar to America—
produced some 50 years
before Columbas made
his discovery in 1492.
This gives some
credence to the claim
that an earlier visitor to
America was Prince
Henry St Clair who
became an Earl of
Orkney in 1379.
10
Did
you know?
that today you will be
lucky to pick up an
Orkney chair for less
than £600-£700 but at
one time they were
known as the poor
man’s chair.
Over 200 years ago a
North Ronaldsay man
decided to make a chair
with driftwood for a
frame and a curved back
made of straw; a
material that most
crofters were adept at
using for baskets, mats,
ropes, bedding, shoes
and furniture.
Soon the design was
being used throughout
the islands. His and her
versions developed; his
with a drawer to hold
tobacco, fish hooks, a
bible and, if he was
lucky, a bottle of whisky.
As furniture became
more affordable and
available the practice of
making Orkney chairs
gradually died out.
In 1956, however, a
Kirkwall craftsman was
asked to construct an
Orkney chair to mark the
occasion of the Queen
Mother’s visit to the
islands.
This revived interest in
the chair and today a
number of Orkney
craftsmen are again
producing what has
become a most sought
after piece of furniture,
not only here but
throughout the world.
I
Issue No37 March 06
Bruce Gorie. Member No 961
was interested to see in Sib Folk News,
Issue 33, articles illustrated by a shield
of arms (Irvine) and a crest badge
(Leask).
Until recently I had little idea that there
was much heraldry in Orkney. However, I
now find that there is an heraldic history
stretching over more than six centuries. I
have also found that there is confusion about
heraldry and how it is used, and thought it
might be useful to have a little heraldry
‘starter pack’ on the subject.
Since 1672 in Scotland all Arms are
recorded in the Public Register of All Arms
and Bearings in Scotland, and still
maintained by the Court of the Lord Lyon.
The Lord Lyon King of Arms, by authority of
The Sovereign, is responsible for granting
new Armorial Bearings (coats of arms or
Arms) and matriculating existing Arms (rerecording of Arms by descendants of existing
armigers). (The Law of Heraldry in Scotland
details how Arms are granted and may be
used and these laws are strictly enforced. It
is unlawful to usurp someone’s Arms; they
are incorporeal and heritable property and
protected by law. Infringements can and will
be prosecuted by the Procurator Fiscal to the
Lyon Court. Thus, where images of Arms
which are not one’s own are being
reproduced, the name of the person whose
Arms they are should be stated.)
Arms are inseparable from name for they
identify persons of, and within, a family.
They cannot generally descend to persons
who do not bear the same surname though
they may be borne as subsidiary quarterings
by a descendant of an heraldic heiress. Arms
are made up of several elements – shield,
helmet, mantling, wreath, crest and motto.
In a few exceptional cases the Arms will also
have supporters – beasts or figures
supporting the shield – or may show badges
of office (e.g. Lord Lyon King of Arms) or of
honours (e.g. Knights of the Thistle)
suspended beneath the shield.
Arms for people of the same surname will
all be based on the undifferenced Arms of
the head of the family. For instance,
Sinclairs have ‘Argent, a cross engrailed
Sable’ – a white shield with a black cross
having a series of semicircles removed on
each sides (Fig 1); Stewart/Stuart Arms have
on a gold field, or background, a ‘fess chequy
Azure and Argent ’– a broad blue and white
chequerboard band across the middle of the
shield (Fig 2); Balfours, a chevron (an inverted
V said to represent rafters) and one or more
otters’ heads (Fig 3); while Irvines have holly
leaves, singly or in bundles (Fig 4).
Fig 1
Fig 2
Fig 4
Fig 3
Fig 5
Arms descend to the heir in each
generation
unchanged,
while
junior
descendants bearing the same name inherit
a right to record the Arms with a small
cadency difference, or charge, to show their
position within the family. Thus, normally a
coat of arms will pass unchanged from
father to eldest son in each generation.
During the lifetime of the father, the heir
has a courtesy right to bear the arms with
an addition known as a label placed on the
shield (Fig. 5). This is temporary, and is
removed on the father’s death.
While in Scotland it is not possible for two
people to have the same heraldic identity,
wives and daughters have a courtesy right in
their husband/father’s Arms, and can
continue to enjoy the Arms throughout their
life. Arms are inseparable from name
therefore daughters do not usually succeed to
Arms as they generally take a different
name on marriage. If a daughter of an
armiger marries an armiger she may impale
her father’s Arms with her husband’s, that
is, join the two coats of arms side by side in
one shield, the husband’s Arms being placed
on the left as you look at the shield.

Issue No37 March 06
^ T h e Letters Patent, (Patent means 'open'
or 'public') the legal document granting the
Arms, specifies the 'destination' - person or
people who can succeed to the Arms. These
destinations
are
sometimes
relatively
narrow, (e.g. only to the descendants of the
grantee, and sometimes very wide, e.g. to the
heirs of the grandfather). Where a family
line dies out or, in the case of a business or
organisation, ceases to operate, the Arms
revert to The Crown and cannot be used
unless regranted by the Lord Lyon.
Examples of this are the Arms of the Orkney
County Council which were granted to
Orkney Islands Council, while Kirkwall &
St. Ola Community Council received those of
the Royal Burgh of Kirkwall. In both cases
special coronets were added to identify the
new authorities.
Going back to the Arms of Irvine shown in
SFN 33, these appear to be the Arms of Lt.
Col. Gerard Irvine of Castillfartagh, County
Fermanagh, recorded in the Public Register
on 1st September 1673. It is believed that
his branch was extinct in 1690. (However, as
mentioned above, that does not mean that
the Arms can now be used by anyone.) David
Irvine of Drum, Chief of the Name of Irvine
of Drum, has similar Arms but with three
bundles of holly, each of three leaves, and
without the broad horizontal band (a fess)
across the middle of the shield (see Fig 4).
The crest badge for Leask shown in the
same edition is the crest of Madam Leask of
Leask, Chief of the Name of Leask, placed
within a strap and buckle and with her
motto on the strap. This is the style of badge
or brooch worn by members of a clan or
family to show their allegiance to the Chief.
Chiefly Arms should not to be used by clan
members in any other way.
A Collection of Armorials of the County of
Orkney by H. L. Norton Smith, published in
1902, lists 80 families whose Arms have been
found in Orkney, mainly on gravestones. Few
of those listed below might be classed as
native Orkney families (shown in italics).
Many came to Orkney through links with
either the Earldom or Bishopric estates or
the Church. In the 1920s and 30s J. Storer
Clouston wrote several articles on Orcadian
heraldry in the Proceedings of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland and of the Orkney
Antiquarian Society. From these and other
sources I believe many other examples can
be added to the list.
Alison
Alexander
Baikie
Balfour
Balfour-Kinnear
Bellenden
Blair
Bothwell
Broun
Bruce
Buchanan
Burroughs
Clouston
Cok
Covingtrie
Craigie
Cruickshank Douglas
Drever
Drummond
Elphinstone
Dundas
Fitzmaurice (Earl of Orkney)
Irvine-Fortescue Foulzie
Gibsone
Grahame
Grant
Groat
Hay
Halcro
Hebden
Henryson
Henderson
Hepburn
Honyman
Irving
Hutton
Kinnear
Iverach
Johnston
Kynnaird
Laing-Weir
Law
Leigh
Leask
Liddell
MacKenzie
Maine
MacLelland
Maxwell
Marwick
Meason
Middlemore Millar
Moncrieff
Monteith
Moodie
Mowat
Munro
Murray
Nisbet
Pottinger
Omond
Reid
Richan
Scollay
Shaw
Sinclair
Smyth
Stewart
Strange
Sutherland
Taylor
Thomson
Traill
Tod
Traill-Burroughs
Tulloch
Young
Watt
Winchester
The early 20th Century saw a revival in
interest with a number of Orcadians
recording Arms - Col. Robert Scarth of
Binscarth, his cousin, Col H. W. Scarth of
Skaill and Breckness, and James HalcroJohnstone of Coubister. In more recent years
Eoin Scott of Redland and George Marwick,
Lord Lieutenant of Orkney, among others,
recorded Arms.
For further information on heraldry in
Scotland I would warmly recommend that you
seek out the following books: Scots Heraldry by
Sir Thomas Innes of Learney; Scottish Heraldry
by Mark Dennis, or The Lion Rejoicing by
Charles Burnett and Mark Dennis. I do not
know how readily available these may be but
check your local reference library.
Bruce Gorie works at the Court of the Lord
Lyon in Edinburgh.
M
Don't forget—we need your help with the
1
•
J
next'Homecoming'
We are looking for members with local knowledge, who would be prepared to
spend a little time with our overseas visitors in May 2007, to help them find
their ancestral homes, perhaps discover distant relations or simply learn
something about the area that their forebears left all these years ago.
This could well be the highlight of their visit. Even a day or two of your time
could mean a lifetime of memories for our overseas cousins.
Please read the leaflet enclosed with this magazine; fill out the coupon and
return it to us. We will contact you as soon as the plans for Homecoming 2007
are a bit more advanced .
Did
you know?
'Violin. James Omond,
Stromness, (Scotland)
1898. Robust workmanship and a rich Scottish
varnish characterises this
particular instrument.
There is little evidence of
repair, and the instrument has been 'set up'
properly, giving it a
velvet-like tone quality.
Price.$9500'.
So reads the online
advertisement from G.B &
J Ray, Fine Violins, USA.
Who was James Omond
of Stromness? Well he
was born in Orkney in
1833 and he became a
school teacher in
Stromness. Ill health forced him to give this up
and in order to maintain
his family he turned his
hand to a variety of crafts,
without success.
Eventually he discovered
that he had an aptitude
for fiddle making and
before long he was producing instruments for
sale. Such was his enthusism that he studied
the work of the the masters; Paolo, Stradivari,
Stainer etc and by the
end of the 19th century
his instruments were
gaining awards of medals
and diplomas throughout
Europe. In his lifetime he
made some 200 fiddles
yet never charged more
than £10 for an instrument and in most cases
much less.
It is known that many of
these were sold in
Orkney. . . . now what
about that old fiddle in
your attic? You might be
in for a pleasant surprise.
12
W
here is this stone to be found? What is its age?
For whom was it erected? What does it contain?
These are questions which very few can answer,
but which many might be glad to have answered. The
purpose of this article, then, is to answer these questions.
Doubtless many will expect to find this stone among
the many grand old tombstones preserved in St Magnus
Cathedral, and will be sadly disappointed to learn that it
is neither there,nor on the mainland, nor yet in the North
Isles. As the South Isles are not supposed to have many
places or buildings or articles of Man’s antiquarian
interest to the tourist, very few of them visit these isles.
This, however, is to a large extent a great mistake. True
you will not find in the South Isles a cathedral, as in
Kirkwall; a circle of stones, as in Stenness; a palace, as in
Birsay; a circular church, as in Orphir; a St Magnus
Church, as in Egilshay; or a castle as in Westray; but you
will find other objects no less interesting. At present only
one of these need be mentioned. The oldest tombstone in
Orkney is to be found in South Ronaldshay, in the South
Parish, in the vestry of St
Mary’s Church. Its date is
1554, which is six years
before the Reformation in
Scotland. Thus it belongs to
the Roman Catholic period
and is a memory of a
dignitary of the Roman Catholic Church.
Now, the oldest tombstone in St Magnus Cathedral and, so far as is known, throughout Orkney - is said to be
1595. The South Ronaldshay tombstone then is about 40
years older than the oldest in Kirkwall; and we are safe
in saying there is no other stone in a better state of
preservation than this one; it is almost perfect and
intact,not a letter, not a symbol, not a corner having been
destroyed. Some years ago - before St Mary’s Church was
repaired and before the graveyard was walled in - this
stone had a narrow escape from being broken into pieces.
A workman who had undertaken to repair the church
seemed to think he had some special authority to pull
down and break anything and everything that stood in
his way, no matter how ancient, and was ready and
anxious to use his hammer against this stone, as he had
done to other stones. This would be iconoclast was
restrained, however, from wreaking his vengeance on this
and other stones, principally through the interference of
Mr James Thomson, Quoys, and the late Mr John Allan,
Burwick. They received permission to remove the stone
and affix it to the inside wall of the vestry, where it now
stands in its antiquity and beauty.
The two things of special note about this stone are the
inscription and representation. Strange to say, it is
believed that no one, either in South Ronaldshay or
Orkney, knew the meaning of the inscription or could
decipher the letters and words, unless Mr James
Issue No37 March 06
Issue No37 March 06
Thomson,
Quoys.
Mr
one thing, namely that
Thomson is an antithe inscriptions on the
I am indebted to Ingrid Mackenzie, Member No 752, for this article. It
quarian of no mean order;
stones are of ‘Old Danish
was taken from a faded newspaper cutting that her father had kept from
in fact there are very few
a long forgotten article in the Orcadian or perhaps the Orkney Herald
Characters,’ and in that
and appeared under the pseudonym ‘Agathon’.
in Orkney to equal or
he is wrong. He is quite
I would assume that ‘Agathon’ specialised in historical subjects and was
surpass him in both
at sea about the number
having a little joke in choosing that name. He would have been aware of
general and particular
of stones, about their
the quote attributed to this famous Greek dramatist—’Even God cannot
information about the
dates, about the meaning
change the past’.
county - especially about
of the inscriptions, and
Can any reader reveal the true identity of ‘Agathon’? Ed.
old families
and antialso whether the inquarian lore. He has
scription is in Danish,
visited all the places of interest in these islands. It was in
Latin or English. Certainly his impression of this stone
July 1841, that Mr Thomson met a learned gentleman
has been something of the nature of a ramble or jumble.
passing through the island on his way south, and after
One would have thought from his words that he had not
spending a good time over it, the stranger was enabled to
been at the place or seen the stone, and that his
decipher the description so far, but not wholly. Until last
information has been picked up from some second hand
summer we believe, the inscription has never been fully
source; but in describing another stone, called the St
made out. The reason of the difficulty in making out the
Magnus, he tells us that he ‘saw a peculiar stone with
inscription must be attributed, first, to the kind of letters,
peculiar history.’ So much for the first attempt to describe
which are a peculiar old english character, but very neatly
the oldest tombstone in Orkney.
cut out; the second, it is in
Here, however, is first the latin inscription, and then the
latin, many of the words being
translation. Let the reader remember that the letters in
contracted; and third, the
the stone are Old English, and that the inscription is
stone itself is so situated that
around the stone - not across it, as here:one cannot get round it and
HIC JACET
the light shining on it is
VENERABILIS VIR DNS HOGO HALCRO
rather meagre - in fact there
RECTOR DE RONALDSA
is little to encourage one to prosecute the study of it
PREBENDARI SCTI MAGI
unless out of curiosity. The inscription is not right across
AC VICART DE WALIS.
the stone, but around the border of it - as is the case in
QUI OBIT TTO AUGTH, A D M V LIV
almost all the stones of that period. Further, the letters
Here lies
are not cut into the stone but cut out, or
A
venerable
man, Sir Hugh Halcro,
raised. This also corresponds with the stones
Rector of Ronaldshay,
of that period. Very few of those who have
Prebendary of St Magnus,
written histories of Orkney, or who have
And Vicar of Walls,
professed to tell us all the interesting and
Who
died
on
the
third day of August, in the year of
antiquarian objects to be found in these
our Lord, one thousand five hundred and
islands, have referred to this stone, which
fifty four
shows that very few know anything about it.
However, one modern writer has ventured to
The representations on the stone, to which we
mention it; and here is the astonishing
have referred, are three. At the top there is a large
information he has supplied us with. In
cup, most likely representing the communion cup,
‘Rambles in the Far North,’ the Rev. Menzies
which in the Romish Church, was never given to
Ferguson, M.A., says - ‘In the Church of St
the laity, but only to the priests; in the middle there
Mary, in the South Parish (South
is a large cross, which is the well known symbol of
Ronaldshay) there are several very ancient
that church, as it is of the Christian faith; and at
tombstones with very curious inscriptions.
the foot, there is a beautiful shield with the
One or two of these bear old Danish
armorial bearings of different families. There may
characters, and point to a period some
be some difficulty in giving the relative bearings of
centuries ago, when Christianity and
the shield - that is, to tell exactly what part of the
Christian art had cast aglow of cultured
family each part of the shield represents; but three
feeling over the rude dwellers in that barren
families are supposed to be represented. On the
isle. The italics are ours to let the reader see
dexter or right side of the shield there stands the
the number of generalities the author has
lion rampant, which is believed to be that of the
indulged in. He seems to be certain of only
Sparr family (Earls of Strathearn and Orkney); on
13
the sinister side or left side are two bars and two crescents,
which are believed to be those of the Craigie family; while at
the base there is a mountain with the letters H. H. on each
side of it, which is believed to be that of the Halcro family.
The lion does not stand upon mountain, but is free from it.
There is no motto on the stone.
The Halcros are an old and honourable family in Orkney;
and their headquarters seems to have been in the South
Parish of South Ronaldshay. There are some Halcros living
there who claim to be descendants of Sir Hugo. In the days of
Sir Hugo they seem to have reached their zenith, for they
had large estates and a chapel, and while Sir Hugo held
three important offices in the Romish church, his brother
Macolm Halcro held the office of provost. In fact, although
there had not been any other trace of the Halcro family, the
existence of such a stone, as above described, and the title
which is given to the person, as well as the offices he held,
clearly proves the high and honourable position of that
family. The ruins of the Halcro chapel are still to be seen, and
the estate, or rather part of it, now goes under the name of
Halcro farm. It is said that one of the Halcros went with a
number of men to the field of Bannockburn to assist Bruce in
his desperate fight with the English and that when Bruce
had his doubts about the probable result of the battle, Halcro
said - ‘We’ll put it to a venture.’ This saying is believed to
have been used by this Halcro as his motto ever afterwards;
but the whole story of Halcro being at Bannockburn is more
than doubtful. There is another story but of a later date,
supposed to be about 1655; it has appeared in different
forms, and is believed to possess a foundation of truth. It is
called ‘The Heiress of Halcro.’ It is a romantic love story, and
the lady’s name is said to have been Esther Halcro.
Sir Hugo’s brother, Malcolm, held the office of provost in
the Romish Church, and at the same time possessed lands
both in the South Parish, South Ronaldshay, and in
Caithness. From an old charter, dated 1553, we learn that he
bought land from Patrick Mowat, laird of Buchollis and
Freswick, Caithness. According to the terms of the charter,
the land was to be held by Malcolm Halcro, but failing him,
to be held by his two natural sons, Hugh Ninian and
Edward, and failing them, to be held by the nearest heir of
the house of Halcro. Although Malcolm Halcro had taken
holy orders in the Romish Church, and was under the vow of
celibacy, yet marriage among even respectable priests was
not an uncommon event in those dark times. The marriage
could never be legal, and the children were, in the eyes of the
law and the Church, natural or illegitimate; still the state of
society did not regard such marriages as a sin or shame.
When Sir HugoHalcro died in 1554, he is said to have been
succeeded by his cousin, Hugh Halcro, in 1555. then by a
Henry Halcro, and afterwards by a succession of Hughs,
until the last Hugh married Barbara Graham of Grahamshall in 1666, but left no children, and the estates were
divided between two married sisters by whom they were
soon after sold.

14
Issue No37 March 06
By Peter Groundwater Russell, Member No 161
Did
you know
that a football match
held at Bignold Park,
Kirkwall once attracted a
crowd of 6,500
spectators?
The occasion was in
1942 when a Scottish
Command XI played a
team of locally based
Service players.
The Scottish Command
squad fielded some of
the giants of football in a
squad captained by Matt
Busby who was a
Physical Training
Instructor at Flotta.
The regular Scottish
Command line-up was:In goal John Moodie
(Raith Rovers); backs
Jimmie Carabine (Third
Lanark), Jack Howe
(Derby County), Alec
Millar (East Fife); half
backs Bobby Hardisty
(Wolves), Alec Sharp
and George Sutherland
(both Partick Thistle),
Jock Thomson
(Everton), captain Matt
Busby; forwards Bobby
Campbell (Falkirk),
Tommy Walker (Hearts),
Peter Simpson (East
Fife), Archie Gourlay
(Partick Thistle), Albert
Juliussen (Huddersfield)
and Alec Herd
(Manchester City).
The Scottish Command
squad went on to beat
their opponents 10-1.
I
t
is
not
everyone who
survives being
twice blown up at
sea during wartime, and yet this
is precisely what
happened to my
great-uncle
William “Billie”
Shearer from the
parish of Orphir.
He was born on
March 18, 1879
William Shearer RN
at the Cot of
Roadside, a seven-acre holding in the district
of Smoogro, which his grandfather, Andrew
Groundwater, leased from Dr Charles Still of
Burgar, a retired army surgeon. Later the
same year the family moved to a small house
near Loch Kirbister, called Aikislay, where
William’s parents, William Muir Shearer and
Mary Groundwater, were to have eleven
more children, the second of which was
Margaret, my paternal grandmother.
While still only 15 years of age young
William decided to enlist in the Royal Navy
and joined HMS Caledonia (built 1802), the
boy cadet training ship, that was anchored
off Queensferry on the Firth of Forth, near
Edinburgh. He served 11 years with the
Fleet, three of these being spent patrolling
the temperate waters of the Mediterranean.
In 1901 he was stationed at HMS Wildfire,
the RN Gunnery School at Sheerness in
Kent. Towards the end of his time in the
navy he was stationed at Chatham when he
met his future wife Winifred Ann Brooks, a
cotton spinner from Preston in Lancashire.
They were married at Bromley, Kent, in 1905
and set up home in Leith. For a time he
worked in the docks but then obtained more
secure employment with the Post Office in
Edinburgh. Some eighteen months later he
was transferred to Blackburn, also in
Lancashire, where they raised two sons and
three daughters.
At the outbreak of the First World War
Shearer was called up along with thousands
of other reservists, and from the very
beginning Fortune smiled on him. He joined
the 12,000 ton cruiser HMS Cressy as a
leading seaman but was almost immediately
recalled to the depot. A few weeks later the
Cressy and two other cruisers were sunk off
the Belgian coast with heavy loss of life. His
next ship was the Duchess of Devonshire,
an armed boarding steamer, working in the
English Channel.
Towards the end of 1916 great-uncle Billie
was posted to Scapa Flow where he joined
HMS Negro, a 1,025 ton ‘M’ class destroyer,
the vessel on which he was to have his most
nerve-racking experience. In December that
year Sir David Beatty, Commander-in-Chief
Grand Fleet, decided to take the fleet out
into the North Sea and the events that
followed are best told in Shearer’s own words
as reported by the Orkney Herald, April 4,
1934: “We left the Fleet somewhere north of
the Fair Isle to escort another vessel (the
Hoste, a 1,666 ton flotilla leader) back to the
Flow. It was a dark night, freezing cold and
stormy. We were just off Fair Isle when it
happened. The fellow we were escorting
dropped a depth charge, whether through
carelessness or otherwise nobody ever quite
found out, but anyway we planted our bow on
to it and it blew us up as completely as if we
had been torpedoed. In fact we supposed it
was a torpedo at the time.
“An attempt was made to launch the boats,
but it was no use. It was evident that the
Negro was done for, and we saw that the
ship we were escorting had also received the
benefit of the explosion and was sinking fast.
She had her searchlight on and I saw her
going down from the fo’c’sle of the
Negro…………Our masts were broken and
trailing overboard, and we were settling in
the water. It was apparent we might go at
any moment. I jumped just a few minutes
before the Negro went down, and it looked as
if I was out of the frying pan into the fire. The
water was icy, and it was all I could do to
hang on to the bits of wreckage that was
floating about.
“It was half-an-hour before I was picked up
by the Marmion (also an ‘M’ class destroyer),
which came to our rescue. She was just in
time. Another ten seconds would have finished me. Only thirty-four of us were saved
Issue No37 March 06
he returned to work for the Post Office in
rending sounds of drowning shipmates Blackburn and remained in its employ
crying out for their mothers will haunt me until reaching the age of fifty-five, when
he elected to take early retirement. “It
for the rest of my days.”
After this traumatic experience Shearer has always been my intention to
was given ten days survivor’s leave. His permanently reside in my native islands
next posting was on the P.20, a 613 ton when I retired,” he told a reporter on the
armed patrol boat, which was engaged on Orkney Herald, March 31, 1934. “I am
escort duty with the Dover Patrol. Early returning to Orkney because I am, and
in 1918 he joined the crew of HMS Scott, have always been, an Orkney lover. I have
a 1,801 ton Scott class flotilla leader, one frequently visited the county during
of the most modern and largest vessels of holidays from my work, and have many
her class that saw service in the First friends in my native parish and
World War. She was commanded by the throughout the isles.”
They rented a wooden dwelling that
Hon. William Spencer Leveson-Gower
(pronounce ‘Loosen-Gore’), who curiously had originally served as officers’ quarters
enough, had been captain of the at Houton during WW1 from William
Marmion. It was while he was on the Liddle, called Cornersquoy, in the remote
Scott, as a gunlayer, that great-uncle district of Clestrain in Orphir, which is
over six miles from Stromness and twice
Billie was ‘blown up’ for the second time.
On August 15, 1918, while on patrol off as far from Kirkwall. It is not entirely
the Hook of Holland, the Scott and the surprising to learn that city-born
Ulleswater (a 921 ton ‘R’ class destroyer) Winifred was unable to adapt to living in
were both torpedoed by a German such an isolated place. Apparently she
submarine. The Scott was in the act of would spend many a lonely hour looking
rescuing survivors from the Ulleswater out of the window, not at the majestic
when she herself was hit and actually grandeur of the hills of Hoy but in the oftforlorn hope of seeing the postman
sank before the ship she was attending.
“This was a picnic compared with the making his way from the distant
Negro affair,” said Shearer. “Only twenty- Stromness-Kirkwall road to deliver a
nine of the Scott’s 164-strong crew were much awaited letter from her family and
lost. The rest of us were picked up quite friends in faraway Blackburn. Almost
easily, as it was a fine day and the sea was inevitably, William Shearer’s lifelong
calm. The tragedy of the Scott, as far as I dream of being back in Orkney was soon
was concerned, was that I lost my shattered and in less than eighteen months of their arrival in the islands, the disbagpipes, but the captain heard of
enchanted couple retmy loss, and presented me with a
urned to Lancashire.
William in the full
new set, which I still possess.”
Grand-uncle Billie
highland dress of
Captain Leveson-Gower was
devoted the rest of his
Clan Gunn
married to Lady Rose Boweslife to his grandLyon, daughter of the 14th Earl
children,
the
local
of Strathmore, which made
Presbyterian
Church
him an uncle of the
and in passing on his
Queen. He died in 1953,
piping skills to a
the
year
of
her
younger generation. He
coronation.
died at Blackburn in
Shearer had learn1956. Although his
ed to play the
mortal remains were
bagpipes during his
laid to rest among the
first spell in the Navy
“dark, satanic mills” of
and his skill as a piper
industrial Lancashire,
was a byword in the
his soul will dwell for
Blackburn area, where over a
ever in his beloved Orkney.
period spanning more than
He was a talented artist
forty years he performed the
and his fine watercolour
time-honoured ceremony of
of the ill-fated Scott is
“Piping in the Haggis” at Burns
given pride of place in the
Suppers. He always took great
home of one his grand-daughters, who
pride in his appearance and
still lives in Blackburn. It is a
looked resplendent in the full
poignant reminder of a brave, unassuming
highland dress of Clan Gunn, whose
man who served his God and his country
motto, “Either peace or war,” seemed
and his local community with such
especially appropriate.
distinction.

After the cessation of hostilities
15
 out of a crew of eighty-five. The heart-
Did
you know
that the first Women’s’
Ba’ was played in
Kirkwall on Christmas
Day 1945?
About thirty women
took part, divided more
or less equally between
the Uppies and Doonies.
Orkney’s males,
however, registered their
disapproval by stealing
the Ba’.
Eventually it was
recovered and the
Uppies went on to claim
the victory with the Ba’
being presented to Mrs
Margaret Yule.
That same year a new
record was set for the
Boys’ Ba’, the whole
thing being over in four
minutes.
16
Issue No37 March 06
GRAYS
in the
Rousay
North Isles
Papa
W estray
Sanday
W estray
Eday
By Mike Rendal. Member No 325
John
Allan
Born: 1760
in Westray
Barbara
Allan
Born: 1784
in Westray
Did
you know?
One of the most
imposing buildings on
the now abandoned
island of Stroma in the
Pentland Firth was the
Kennedy Mausoleum
referred to by Bishop
Forbes writing in his
Journal of 1762 as the
place where the ‘dead
bodies of men, women
and children, above
ground, entire, and to be
seen for 70 or 80 years
free from all corruption,
without embalming or
other art, but owing it to
the plenty of nitre that is
there’. It has also been
suggested that the
amount of salt in the
atmosphere helped to
preserve the bodies.
The Bishop also tells of
having spoken to
William Sutherland of
Caithness, who had
visited the mausoleum
with Murdoch Kennedy,
a grandson of John
Kennedy who had built
the tomb. Murdoch
played a trick on
Sutherland by setting his
foot on the partly
mummified body of his
father, causing it to
‘spring up speedily’
before letting it repose
as before.
Sutherland’s reaction to
this does not appear to
have been recorded.
Margaret
Bews
Born: 1758
in Westray
William
Gray
Born: 1806
in Westray
Died: 1891
in Papa
Westray
Mary
Robertson
Born: 1798
in Westray
William
Gray
John
Gray
Born: 1807
Died: 1864
in Eday
There is a story that the first Grays in
Westray came from Caithness and built a
house at Gretna Green in Westray. That is
now so far back that it is probably
impossible to verify. The problem that many
genealogists face! The story does not seem
implausible, as there is a congregation of
Grays in South Ronaldsay and Burray.
It has not proved possible to establish any
connection between the Grays in the South
and those in the North but are all the Grays
in the North Isles of common stock? Looking
back through the censuses, we find Grays
predominantly in Westray although also in
Papa Westray and Eday.
A connection has been established between
the last two through the children of William
Gray and Barbara Allan (Fig. I). Their son
William Gray married Mary Robertson and
the Grays in Papa Westray are descended
from them. Similarly, William’s brother
John Gray also married and the Eday Grays
are descended from him.
John Gray married more than once although
he had a preference for wives named Janet.
He had three children to his first marriage
to Janet Scott. A fourth child, Peter Gray,
appears in the 1851 census at Cocklehouse,
Eday but in no subsequent census there.
Peter left Orkney and when he married in
Stonehaven in 1871, his parents were given
as John Gray and Janet Reid. This might
explain some of the age discrepancies
between the different censuses for Janet
Gray. When John Gray died the problem
became worse as his spouse is stated to be
Jane Miller or Eunson.
John Gray’s sister, Margaret Gray married
Margaret
Gray
Born: 1809
in Westray
Died: 1885
in Eday
Thomas
Reid
Born: Abt.
1804
in Eday
Thomas Reid in Eday. This connection of
Margaret as John Gray’s sister is difficult to
make as the printed IGI shows William
Gray’s daughter as Mary rather than
Margaret, presumably
due
to
poor
microfilming of the original OPR.
Now what about the connection between the
Grays in Papa Westray and Eday and those
in Westray? Unfortunately, William Gray
who married Barbara Allan, died before the
introduction of statutory registration of
births, marriages and deaths in 1855 and
consequently his parents are unknown.
We do know that Barbara Allan was
born in Westray as were the children.
The parents of William Gray may be
James Gray and Jane Hercus although
this cannot be proved.
However, there is a Gray connection between
Papa Westray and Westray through Mary
Robertson, the wife of William Gray and Barbara
Allan’s son, also William Gray. (Fig II)

William
Robertson
Mary
Robertson
Born: 1798
in Westray
Isabella
Gray
William
Gray
Born: 1806
in Westray
Died: 1891
in Papa Westray
Issue No37 March 06
George
Gray
Henry
Gray
Born: 1743
Margaret
Gray
Born: 1744
George
Gray
Born: 1747
Isabella Gray from Westray. Unfortunately,
Isabella, who was at Nether Ouseness in
Westray at the time of the 1851 census
appears to have died prior to 1855. Her age
was given in 1851 as 84, indicating that she
might have been born around 1767. While
conjecture, the only likely candidates
according to the IGI for her parents are
John Gray and Barbara Gray, whose
daughter Isabella was baptised on 17th
June 1770.
Looking now at the Grays in Westray, the
indications are that they are likely to be all
related although again this is going so far
back that there cannot be certainty of this.
The principle group of Grays are
descendants of George Gray and Margaret
Seatter. The IGI indicates some seven
children between Henry who was born in
1743 and Robert in 1754. (Fig III)
The main descendants are from George Gray
(b. 1747) who married Jean Reid, Isobel
Gray (b. 1751) who married William Rendall
and Robert Gray (b. 1754) who married
Marion Meil. The IGI does also record children to Jean Liddell who may be the wife of
Henry Gray (b. 1743) and John Hercus, who
may be the husband of Mary Gray (b. 1750).
The other groupings of Grays in Westray
around this time were:
● John Gray and Barbara Gray and
their family whom we have mentioned
previously
● Archibald Gray who married Hannah
Meil and subsequently Marjory
Petersen. There are quite a number of
descendants of Archibald although not
necessarily with the Gray surname.
● James Gray and Jane Harcus who
may be the parents of William Gray
who married Barbara Allan
By the time of the first census in 1841,
almost all of the Westray Grays are thought
to be descendants of George Gray and
Margaret Seatter.
Readers interested in further information on
the Grays in the North Isles and having
access to the Internet may want to have a
look at a website (http://genealogy.northernskies.net/gray.php?number=1) covering the
family grouping and their descendants who
are spread throughout the world. This also
includes a genealogy of the Allan family
originating in Westray.

Margaret
Seatter
Mary
Gray
Born: 1750
Mary Robertson’s mother was in fact
J
17
Catherine
Gray
Born: 1750
Isobel
Gray
Born: 1751
Robert
Gray
Born: 1754
Mavis Gray, Member No
792 from Winnipeg sent
this article about some
Orkney people who were
neighbours of her mother’s
family in Saskatchewan
some years ago.
ames Alexander Mainland was born in Rousay or
Egilsay on 27th February 1863, the son of William
Mainland and Barbara Stevenson. Rebecca Walls was
the daughter of Thomas Walls and Mary Irvine, and was
born in Eday on 13th November 1866.James and Rebecca
were married in Westray in 1890, and in the 1891 census
were recorded at School House, Westray, where they had a
store. James’s parents were nearby at Clifton. James and
Rebecca stayed in Westray for several years, then moved to
Wyne (Wyre?) for a few years. In 1904 they emigrated to
Canada with their children, and homesteaded near Leross,
Saskatchewan, about 100 miles northeast of Regina.
James and Rebecca had 10 children, all except the youngest
born in Scotland:
Mary Irvine Mainland, born about 1892. She married a
neighbour, Jim Lochtie, in Dec. 1910, and had three
children. She died of flu on 9th Nov. 1918 in Port
Coquitlam, British Columbia.
Barbara Mainland, born about 1893, married J. P. Suttill in
July 1910, still living in 1975.
Rebecca Mainland, born about 1894. She became a nurse,
and married a neighbour, William Brennan, in 1923. They
moved to Windsor, Ontario.
James Mainland, born Westray, 2 June 1895, a private in
the Saskatchewan Regiment, Canadian Infantry, died in
France 27th Sept.1918
William Walls Mainland, born about 1898, a private in the
Saskatchewan Regiment, Canadian Infantry, died in
England 11th Jan. 1919
Thomas Mainland, born about 1899, still living on the farm
in 1975
John Mainland, born about 1901, died of flu, 1918/1919
Lily Mainland, born about 1903 (twin of Rose), still living on
farm in 1975
Rose Mainland. born about 1903 (twin of Lily), died of flu,
1918/1919
Irvine S., born in Sask. in 1905, still living on farm in 1975
Rebecca Walls also died in the flu epidemic of 1918/1919.
She went to British Columbia to help her daughter Mary,
but caught the flu herself and died a week after Mary, on
16th November 1918. Mother and daughter are buried side
by side in St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, New
Westminster, B.C.
James Alexander Mainland died in 1939.

18
Our thanks to Marion
McLeod, member no.
58, for sharing these
letters from Barbara
Drummond (nee
Harcus).
Barbara lived next
door to Marion’s
great-aunt Jessie
Wishart in Victoria St,
Kirkwall and they
were close friends.
Marion would be
interested in finding
out who Barbara
Harcus was.
Jack & Barbara
Drummond
(nee Harcus)
Jessie Ann Wishart
1873 to 1953
Issue No37 March 06
lif.
1860 Turk St.1Apt 11San Francisco15Ca
n
11Sa
Apt
St.
Turk
50
860
Nov 20th
Dear Jessie Nov 20th 50
of personal sentences follow]
[lot
by
go
does
time
How
er.
corn
the
h. w]I
muc
it very
withieXmas just around
enjoy
andpers
follo
more
Here we are again
nces
d three
onaledsente
Dear Jess
staye
and Itime
[lot of
week
go by
three
does
had
Jack
er.s How
Junes. just
last Xma
She
the corn
nd
mbia
girl.
a
arou
Colu
h
was
Britis
she
since
with
her
again
We were up in
seen
are
not
we
Here
visiting her sister Mimie. I had
out
was
She
s to
r.
hope
ouve
and
Vanc
in
Oct.
ie
in
e
Lenn
e
hom
met Nelli
She left her
she used to be and not dull like Mimie.
says
She
.
urgh
Edinb
of
End
West
looked very well, bright and cheery as
the
in
e
left by her two husbands, has a big hom
come back again. I believe she is well
an. She was out on a holiday from
buy a smaller one. Also met Bessie Morg
and
it
sell
to
has grown stouter. We had lunch
it is too large and is going
she
now
the image what her mother was
is
She
.
lives
she
e
wher
rta
Albe
n,
Edmonto
day. She has cousins on her mother’s
times. She was leaving for Seattle next
together and a nice little chat about old
daughter and is as jolly as ever. She
ied
marr
r. She is a widow and has a
ouve
Vanc
of
out
ways
little
a
k
awac
Chill
side at
St Vitus same as her brother Alex for
was sad about her sister Chris. She had
and I were in school class together. It
she had to be sent to an institution
away
ed
and after her husband pass
mind
her
ted
affec
it
tually
even
and
many years
Vitus like what her brother Alex was
She was a very poor thing with the St
but was not there very long till she died.
come again as it could do no good
to
not
see her once and the Dr told her
to
e
cam
ie
up
Bess
.
1936
in
e
hom
was
when I
in the home before she died. She lived
I guess she may have been two years
met them
have
I
ied.
marr
both
and was only a trial for her to see her.
hter,
daug
and
had an orchard. She had a son
house. Then there is Aggie too in
country in B.C. in the Apple Country. They
and skin. I met them at Andrew Ledahs’
hair
fair
with
ly
fami
an
mber, a great big stout fellow.
both, very like the Morg
reme
n,
priso
r, father used to be keeper at the
rego
MacG
Jim
to
ied
marr
is
She
n.
Edmonto
his aunt. I met them all two years ago
g the last war and visited Ruby Morgan
Their son Hamish was in Kirkwall durin
ed off at the different places. Saw
stopp
and
I came home through Canada
York.
n
New
from
back
ing
com
was
I
when
Dolly Muir and a few people in Edmonto
Winnipeg also Dod Seatter and his wife
from
boys
Gunn
the
of
one
met
I
Annie Knight in Ontario, the Mowats in
r.
rego
McG
his time with Charlie McGregor, Jim
I
that I knew. Dod Windwick who served
wick had a party while I was there and
who used to deliver the milk. Dod Wind
boys
gest
youn
reminded
He
elor.
bach
a
is
and
Glaitness, Pete one of the
ays
Railw
ic
Pete is an engineer on Canadian Pacif
met them all and we had a grand eve.
d and his wife [Mrs Skeene] in New
fellow but very nice. Met Bill Sutherlan
big
t
grea
a
ie,
me of his brother Robb
them. They live with one of their
on
hard
ipeg as the winters were too
Winn
from
B.C.
to
e
cam
They
ter.
Westmins
and sitting room to themselves and are
y large house and they have a bedroom
Love Barbara
married daughters. They have a lovel
n
strokes. I would not have know him.
two
had
has
frail,
very
is
Bill
ble.
forta
very com
1860 Turk St. Apt 11San Francisco 15 Calif
.
Jessie Marwick
and husband
Dave and Anna
Marwick,
(nee Wishart)
Aug 26th
52
1860
Turk St. Apt 11San Francisco 15 Calif.
Dear
Anna
Dear Jessie
Nov 26th 51
Aug 26th 52
Dear just
Annacome
Dear
Jessie
Nov
26th
51
I
have
back from British Columbia after six
[personal sentences]
I have
e back
[personal
sentences]
week
s injust
thatcom
lovel
y counfrom
sixAllan
try. Britis
week
I hadhaColu
I always
hear
from Jean Lutek, she sends me regular budget
lettembia
r fromafter
Anna
in
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that
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had
you
a lette
I
always
hear
from
Jean
Lutek,
she
sends
me
regular
budget
know
r from
her.
Anna
She
Allan
lived
,
you
Preto
ria
St,
of news, also Mrs Kemp, Nellie MacKay and Lillah. It makes
they
had
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shop
know
her. Swa
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liveds.in She
Pretoisriain St,
acro
ss from
they
of very
news,happy
also Mrs
Kemp,
MacKay
andhome
Lillah.news.
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a
me
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happy
to
hear
from
you
and
all
your
home
news.
I
ers
visit
who
to
are
marr
ied
and
live
get the Orcadian and Peoples Journal from Meg Scott. Her
her .three
who
areacro
all marr
there
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liveLiver
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y trip
. SheI
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Orcadian
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Peoples Journal
Scott.
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y trip
acro
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had a letter too
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ay Liver
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ie was
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of BillJess
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who
mine
, siste
rmiles
of Bill
Post
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lives
Maggie
Jean
with
all
the
rest
of
her
work.
Jack
and
I
had
a
18
who
was
in
Post
Offic
nice trip to British Columbia in summer, saw many old
e.eShe
out of Boston.the
18 miles
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outeofand
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nice tripWe
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friends.
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and
Nelliate and
whohom
lives
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Glas
gow
met
her
the her
siste
r
Teen
friends.
We
visited
Bob
Wilson
in
Naniamo
[Isa
Wilson’s
a who
lives
in Glasg
Prestwick Airpo
ow hom
met eher
brother] who used to be purser on the St Ola. He is a fine
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e to Orkn
ey by plane. She was
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andwho
his wife
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22 years
ago.
last
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e
22
yearsing
ago.
fellow
his wife is very
jollyaway.
and kind.
His brother
Jimin
I had intended stopp
off at Portland to see Tom Hourston
who
wasand
in Vancouver
passed
He served
his time
I had
inten
ded
stopp
ing
off attoo
but
Portl
I
who
was
in
Vancouver
passed
away.
He
served
his
time
in
chan
and
ged
to and
see Tom
my
mind
Hour
it was
ston
hot,
103
George Rendalls. They were delighted to see us. I guess
that is
plent
but
y
I
chan
ged
my mind
it
was too
hot. They have had
hot, a103
George
Rendalls.
They
were
delighted
to
see
us.
I
guess
and
that
a
heat
is
plent
spell
y
of
over
100
for
you may know that Maggie Milne passed away in Santa
25
days
hot.noThey
have
had
a
heat
spell
and
over
let up in the state of Texas,ofman
a 100died
for 25
you mayHer
know
that Maggie
Milne
Santa
days
y
have
and
Barbara.
husband
had gone
to passed
work asaway
usualinand
a
and
no
let
up
in the
stateand
of Texa
cattle are suffering
man
y have
badly
crops,
Barbara. came
Her husband
had and
gonefound
to work
usual
a
s all
burn
t up,died
whicand
h is a
cattle
are They
neighbour
in at 11.30
her as
dead
on and
the floor.
suffering
badly
and
grea
crop
t
loss.
s
all
burn
t up,
had
whic
a
very
h is a
bad
quak
e
in
neighbour
came
in
at
11.30
and
found
her
dead
on
the
floor.
Bake
rsfie
ld just
grea
t
loss.
They
She had a heart condition for many years. I will miss her on this side of Los
had
a
very
bad
quak
e
in
Bake
Ange
rsfie
les.
ld
The
just
build
ings
were
alrea
She
had
a
heart
condition
for
many
years.
I
will
miss
her
on
dy
this ened
side of
les. whic
my visits down south. I always stopped to see her on my
The hbuild
weak
ings
byLos
were
the Ange
alrea
last one
dy
happ
ened
only
a
few
my
visits
down
south.
I
always
stopped
to
see
her
on
my
weak
ened
by
lastnear
one whic
weeks back in athe
h happ
way from Los Angeles. She was always so jolly and kind
eneddam
only
place
a few
by, were
badly
aged
. 12weeks
backs in
wayBill
from
Angeles.
always
so jollyson
andand
kind
and block
placetonear
by, were
badly
willa have
dam
aged
and
herLos
husband
is a She
fine was
fellow.
His eldest
wife
. 12
be rebu
block
ilt
all
publi
c
build
ings,
hosp
italss
will
have
to
bebut
rebu
Bill her
husband
is him.
a fineHe
fellow.
eldest
sonand
andlikes
wifehis are a total loss,
ilt allgepubli
c build
ings,
hosp
itals
stran
have
moved
in with
has aHis
large
house
are
a
to
say
little
loss
of
life,
only
two
totaland
loss,abou
but tstran
to say
have moved
in with
He has on
a large
house and
little hloss
of life,
thirtygeinjur
only
two killed
ed, whic
daughter
in law.
Theyhim.
are getting
well together
solikes
he ishis killed
is
rema
rkab
le
and
abou
t
thirty
injur
ed, which is remarkable considering the
daughter
in law.
They are getting on well together
so he is considering the seve
rity
lucky
not being
alone.
Barbara
seve
rity of the shock. of the shock.
Barb
ara
lucky not being alone.
Barbara
Barbara
Issue No37 March 06
19
Can
Can you
you help
help
Ian
Ian Corsie
Corsie fill
fill
in
in the
the gaps?
gaps?
Ian Corsie. Member No 1367
I
t was my Uncle Leonard who first stirred
my interest in the Orkney background of
our family. To a boy growing up in
Northumberland in the 1930s he represented
adventure, and was thought about with a touch
of awe, for he had emigrated to Canada several
years before I was born, and I was 16 when I
first met him in 1947 on his first return visit to
his homeland in twenty years.
Leonard was the youngest of the three last copy in his possession.
children of Malcolm Corsie and Agnes Kidd. I realised that although I could add nothing
Isabella (Aunt Ella) lived all her life in the in the way of ancestors, I did have a bit more
about
Hugh
Corsie’s
area of Edinburgh, and my father Malcolm information
was a Civil Servant whose main moves had descendants. This is included in a Corsie file
taken him and his family to Durham, which is with the Society.
The first things that struck me about my
Morpeth and Ripon.
For reasons that I have never discovered, my line of descendants were the sheer number
father showed no interest in his ancestors, of them, and the longevity of many. (Good
nor in the multitude of Corsie aunts, uncles news for present generations). The reason
and cousins, whose existence must have been for the number was obvious: my great-great
known to him. Leonard, however, was in grandparents (William Corsie and Ann
touch, in Canada, with his cousin Tom Leonard) had a large family, nearly all of
Corsie, who seems to have befriended him on whom followed suit! What also struck me
many occasions, and was aware of other was the absence of information about a
second line which also began with Hugh
relations in North America.
In the 1970s Leonard commissioned a Corsie.
genealogist to go through the data then I have used William Corsie as my anchor
available. He put this information together point because sufficient is known about him
with what he knew already, and produced a to put his photograph on the Rousay Roots
family tree consistent with what one might web site, and I have the original account
now extract from “Rousay Roots”. This puts from The Orcadian of his and Ann’s Diathe earliest reliable dated Corsie ancestors mond Wedding party in 1913. He was born
as Hugh Corsie and Christian Sinclair in on August 24 1830 to Malcolm Corsie and
1798. Before that we seem to have the well Isabella Louttit, the second of five children.
known black hole of the missing records, and This Malcolm Corsie was born on 17
November 1798 to Hugh Corsie and
no way of bridging it.
Leonard and his wife Luella visited us many Christian Sinclair, and died on January 18
times. He set down what he knew about 1878. He had a brother, John, born
every relation he could think of, and left it November 21 1800 – and that is all that is
with me. He also had an amazing recall of recorded.
people, places and circumstances from My specific request to anyone who may be
childhood onwards, but particularly of his able to help is that if anything is known of
life in Canada. I urged him to write it all John, and of his descendants, if any, I shall
down and eventually I received in be very pleased to learn about it.
instalments a unique and irreplaceable I am well aware that not everyone wishes to
account of a pretty tough struggle to reach be included in a Family Tree as extensive as
one covering the descendants of William and
relative prosperity.
Some time after I became the custodian of Ann, but I would very much like to hear
all his material I learnt of the existence of from anyone who might be able to
Rousay Roots, and I am indebted to Robert contribute.

Marwick for letting me have just about the iancorsie@btopenworld.com
Did
you know?
On the afternoon of
April 29th 1770 Lt
James Cook of the
‘Endeavour’ dropped
anchor in Botany Bay.
During his brief visit, an
Orcadian seaman Forbus
(Forby) Sutherland died
from tuberculosis and
was buried on the 1st
May just above the highwater mark on the beach
of the bay.
The approximate site
was located in 1923 and
recorded by the Royal
Australian Historical
Society.
The death was recorded
in the ship’s log and
Cook noted that he had
named the northwest
point ‘Point Sutherland
in the sailor’s memory.
Forby Sutherland,
originally from Flotta in
Orkney, has the
distinction of being the
first European known to
have been buried in
Australia.
20
Issue No37 March 06
THE TRIALS and TRIBULATIONS OF
ROBERT GARRIOCH
I
Did
you know
that bere bannocks have
been eaten in Orkney
since neolithic times?
Bere is an ancient type
of barley once known as
bygg a name still used
for barley in Norway.
Bere bannocks are
traditionally eaten with
lots of butter, Orkney
cheese and ideally
washed down with a few
glasses of one of the
Orkney beers available
now throughout the UK.
While bere bannocks are
available from most
good bakers in Orkney,
many Orcadians prefer to
make their own.
If you feel like getting the
girdle out ( If our
American readers find
this confusing substitute
a frying pan, or is it
skillet, for a girdle) and
try making your own.
First you will need a supply of beremeal so contact the Birsay Trust at
www.birsay.org.uk/baron
ymill.htm They operate
the last working water
mill in Orkney where
beremeal is still
produced and where you
can purchase small
quantities online. This is
supplied together with
some old Orkney
beremeal recipies and it
can be sent to Canada
and America and most
European countries but
it appears that
restrictions in Australia
do not permit the import
of even small quantities
of any type of cereal.
By Elizabeth Copp. Member No 1350
am a novice when it comes to researching
family trees, but my appetite was well
and truly whetted when I found my
great-grandfather’s birth certificate among
some papers belonging to my mother. This
simple piece of grey paper with copperplate
writing in faded brown ink stated that
William Tait Garrioch, son of John Garrioch,
Carter, and Catherine Tait was born at
Victoria Street, Kirkwall on the 15th day of
December 1862. It made me curious. I had
seen photos of my grandmother with her
parents and knew she had been born on
Stronsay where her father William worked
as a farm labourer, but I did not know
anything about her grandparents. So I
logged on to the Scotland’s People website,
determined to find out a bit more about
them. However, it is all too easy to get sidetracked when looking at census records and
I started to get more interested in William’s
elder brother Robert instead. It is very
interesting comparing the lives of the 2
brothers and seeing how life dealt them very
different hands.
My great-grandfather William had a long
and happy marriage. He had 6 children, all
of whom married apart from one. Tragically,
this son was killed while falling asleep
driving a road roller, and was crushed under
the wheel. My grandmother adored her
brother Davie and was greatly saddened by
his death. That apart, William’s family has
prospered. The descendants of this farm
labourer on Stronsay have spread out over
the world, settling in Germany, Mexico,
Canada and New Zealand as well as the
mainland of Scotland and Orkney.
His elder brother, Robert, however, didn’t
have the stability in his life that William
had, and through no fault of his own, as far
as I can tell.
Robert was born on 6 May 1849. He
married Mary Holland on March 21 1871.
He was a farm servant aged 21. She was a
spinster aged 25, whose father was a farmer.
Their daughter Emma was born 11 days
later on April 1. The 1871 census, which
took place on April 3rd, shows that they
were living with Robert’s parents, John and
Catherine, at 88 Victoria Street Kirkwall.
Also there on that day were Robert’s sister
Mary aged 10 and his brother William aged
8 (my great-grandfather.) His mother-inlaw, Eliza Holland, was a visitor. No doubt
she had come to see the new baby. What
puzzled me on the 1871 census was the fact
that their daughter was called Mary and I
could find no trace of this Mary later on. By
luck, I discovered an Emma Garrioch living
on the same farm as Robert’s mother-in-law
in the 1881 census and worked back from
there to trace her birth. She was indeed
Robert’s first daughter. As the census that
year took place on April 3 and Emma’s birth
was not registered until April 20, it is
probable that they hadn’t yet decided on a
name, so they gave the baby the provisional
name of Mary, after the mother.
Robert and Mary went on to have 2 more
children. A son, Robert, was born on 10
August 1872 in Bridge Street, Kirkwall and
a daughter Mary was born on 10 November
1877 in Scapa Road, Kirkwall. By the time
of Mary’s birth, Robert was no longer a farm
servant but a general labourer, possibly
because the harvest would have been
finished by that time and there was less
work to do on the farm. (If there were any
other children in between, I haven’t found
them.) Sadly, Robert’s wife died just 8 days
after the birth of her third child due to
“debility after parturition” - there must have
been
complications
after
childbirth.
Presumably the services of a wet nurse
would have been required and had to be paid
for, reducing the meagre wage he would have
been getting and thus adding to the family’s
problems. So at the age of 28 Robert was
already a widower with 3 children to support
and in the space of 6 years had moved
lodgings at least 3 times.
In the 1881 census Robert was back living
with his parents in Young Street, Kirkwall.
His father’s occupation was given as
“formerly Carter”, so the implication is that
he was not working. Also in the household
were my great-grandfather William, by this
time aged 17 and an agricultural labourer
(unemployed.) Robert seemed to be the only
man in employment. His occupation was
given as general labourer.
He would
probably have had to support his parents
and brother, as well as son Robert and
daughter Mary. Daughter Emma was by
this time with her grandmother Eliza
Holland and her uncle James Holland on
their farm, presumably having gone there
after her mother died.
In 1882 Robert married Catherine Rosie
on 17 October. His age on the marriage
record is 31, instead of 33. Perhaps he
thought he was a better catch if he deducted
a couple of years! Catherine was 27.
Issue No37 March 06
 Her occupation is difficult to make out,
but her father was a widower so I presume
she was looking after him. She obviously
found Robert attractive and was happy to
look after his young family as well. 7
months later, their daughter, Margaret
Anne, was born on 10 May in Victoria Road,
Kirkwall.
Margaret Anne got a sister,
Isabella Craigie Garrioch, 2 years later on
22 July 1885. Sadly, just 7 months later,
Catherine died of consumption in the
Balfour Hospital. Once again, Robert was
widowed and this time he had 4 children to
support. I presume that his son Robert, who
would have been 14 in August of that year,
would have left school to find employment to
help the situation.
Because the marriage and death of
Catherine come between censuses, it is not
easy to find out where Robert then went and
what his employment was. However, just 4
years after the death of his second wife, he
married for the third time on 13th
November1890 at Lighthouse, Holm, to
Robina Lanskill. (That is the spelling of her
name on the certificate, although her
father’s name is spelt Lanskail.) Robert’s
occupation was given as farm servant, so
perhaps he travelled to Holm to work on a
farm and met her there. His age on the
marriage certificate was 42 even although
he was really 41. Robina was also 42.
Perhaps he didn’t want her to know he was
younger! Robina was a domestic servant
and a spinster, but the 1881 census of Holm
and Paplay showed Robina living at
Lighthouse as the head of the family with 4
children, ranging in age from 13 to 2. It was
brave of Robert to take on another 4
children, but at least he made an honest
woman of her!
This period of his life was the most stable.
He did not move house again, for on the
1901 census, he was still at Lighthouse with
Robina. It may well have been the most
spacious accommodation he had lived in,for
in the 1901 census the number of rooms
with windows is given as three. (Another
family living nearby had only 2 windows.) I
would imagine his previous lodgings were in
a house, whereas Lighthouse was a but and
ben with land. Robert died there from heart
disease on 18 March 1912 at the age of 62.
His occupation on the death certificate is
given as farm servant, so perhaps he was
still working when he died. I like to think
some peace had come into his life, for he had
a lot of heartache.
Thanks to Hazel Goar I have been able to
fill in some gaps about Robert and his
descendants. By sheer coincidence, Hazel
was in the Family History Room when I
went there last summer to make enquiries
about the Garriochs.* When I mentioned my
great grand uncle living at the Lighthouse,
21
Hazel told me that she had been in the
house as a child and had been given
chocolate wafer biscuits by Bertie Garrioch,
who I later discovered was Robert’s
grandson by his daughter Isabella. Isabella
did not marry. I was very touched when
Hazel sent me a photo of Bertie as a young
man, leaning on his scythe in a field of
lupins. This photo appeared on an Orkney
calendar some years ago. I was looking at
my second cousin once removed, whose
existence I had been unaware of until
recently.
Did
you know
Bertie Garrioch
So Robert’s family had very different
fortunes from those of William’s family. Life
is a funny old business and there is a lot of
luck in life. Some people just happen to get
dealt a difficult hand and I do think that
Robert got more than his fair share of
sadness in his younger life. I’m not saying
that Robert was an angel, but it seems to me
that he always did the right thing by
marrying his women, even if he did leave it
rather late in the case of his first wife! When
I told my son about Robert’s rather late
marriage to his first wife and the birth of his
daughter 11 days later, he just laughed and
wondered if there was a connection with the
harvest! This certainly ties in with the date
of the birth in April. Mary was a farmer’s
daughter and Robert was a farm servant.
Perhaps Robert had been working on her
father’s farm at the harvest and their eyes
met as she was bringing the men their piece!
Who knows! That would involve some
research into where Robert was working and
I don’t know if that is possible but it is fun to
suppose!
I still hope to find out a bit more about
Robert’s father John Garrioch and his wife
Catherine Tait, so if there is anyone out
there who knows anything, please get in
touch with me. My e-mail address is
copps@freeuk.com

*There are variations on the spelling of this name in my
family. On the Stronsay census the hand written entry
spells William’s name as Garrick, unlike the spelling on
his birth certificate of Garrioch.
that provided you cook
them properly spoots
make a tasty bite?
What is a spoot? The
spoot is the razor clam,
so called I suppose because it looks like an old
fashioned closed
cutthroat razor.
How does one catch
them? The short answer
is with difficulty. They lie
just below the tide line so
the very low ebbs that
occur in the spring are
ideal. One walks
backwards clutch-ing a
long knife of bread knife
length but sturdier. The
vibrations from your feet
causes the spoot to
burrow downwards remarkably quickly. Its
departure is indicated by
a little depression in the
surface of the sand. One
immediately plunges the
knife into the sand at an
angle endeavouring to
make contact with the
shell and stop the spoot
escaping. The sand is
quickly scooped away
and the prize seized.
As in the catching, the
cooking must be done
rapidly. Pour boiling
water over the spoots
and remove them only
from the shells that open
(most will). Most people
eat only the fruit i.e. the
white smooth part and
discard the rest. Pour
about two tablespoons of
olive oil into a pan and
heat, then with the heat
high drop the spoot into
the oil and fry for about
30 seconds rolling it
about so that it cooks
evenly. Enjoy them with
bere bannocks—but
that’s another story.
22
Issue No37 March 06
the last battle
fought in Orkney
Did
you know?
The Raadzaal, one of
Pretoria’s most graceful
public buildings, was
designed
by
Sytze
Wierda and constructed
by an Orcadian settler
J.L.Kirkness.
The doors and windows
were made by Samuel
Baikie
of
Kirkwall,
Orkney and shipped to
Durban, South Africa.
From there they were
transported by rail to
Charlestown on the
Natal border and the
rest of the journey was
completed
by
oxwagon.
During the 1890s the
building was the venue
for meetings of the
Transvaal
Volksraad.
After the Boer war it
was the legislative seat
of the Transvaal Crown
Colony. From 19101986 it housed the
Transvaal
Provincial
Council.
The building which was
completed by Kirkness
in 1891 was declared a
historical monument 77
years later in 1968.
The illustration above
appears on the back of
the President Kruger
and Raadzaal medal
struck in 1904
W
By John Sinclair. Member No 588
hen it was arranged that the
daughter of King Christian I of
Denmark and James III of Scotland
should wed, Christian agreed to pay 60,000
florins in respect of her dowry; 10,000 in
cash with the Orkney Islands pledged until
the balance was forthcoming.
It was essentially a ‘pawn’ arrangement
and the understanding was the islands could
be redeemed at any time. The Scottish Parliament chose to ignore this and in 1471
Orkney was annexed to Scotland.
As a result of this, property belonging to
the earldom was now rented to tacksmen
who collected the various skats, rents and
other dues formerly paid to the earls. The
first was
Bishop William Tulloch then
Bishop Andrew and in 1489
Lord Henry
Sinclair who also held the Crown appointment of Justice or Governor of the Islands.
In 1513 Henry was slain at the Battle of
Flodden. The tack continued under his widow but his brother William of Walsetter took
over Henry’s legal duties. He was also entrusted with the upbringing of Henry’s son
William, a minor at that time.
When Walsetter died, William’s mother
manoeuvred to have her son appointed
Justice Depute of Orkney.
William soon showed himself to be such an
arrogant and unpleasant young man, that
the Orcadians rose against him, seized the
Sinclair castle of Kirkwall and bundled
young William off to Caithness.
The uprising was led by James Sinclair of
Breck and his brother Edward. James in
particular objected to the Scottish infiltration of Orkney and had refused to pay his
dues for more than three years. They were
the illegitimate sons of William of Walsetter
and kinsman of the deposed William.
The exiled William appealed to the King.
The Crown demanded the return of Kirkwall
castle. This was refused.
William, aided by the Earl of Caithness
and with Crown approval raised an army in
Caithness and invaded Orkney landing on
the north side of Scapa Flow. James Sinclair,
however, had prior knowledge of these
events and had assembled an army of
Orcadians ready to tackle the invaders.
As the Earl’s army stepped ashore at
Orphir they encountered an old Orkney
speywife. The Earl asked her how he would
fare in the battle. In reply she handed him
two balls of wool, one red, the other blue.
She told him to choose one sayng that the
longer of the two balls would show the victor.
She then took the end of each ball and
wound them together to make a new ball.
To the Earl’s horror his colour was first to
come to an end. However another omen is
mentioned—the first blood spilled will
determine the loser of the battle.
To ensure that this prophecy would come
true, the Earls men ruthlessly slaughtered a
young herd boy who was standing close by.
The witch attempted to stop them but it was
too late. To their dismay she revealed that
the boy had belonged to Caithness.
The battle took place at Summerdale,
where the parishes of Stenness and Orphir
meet. It was a complete victory for the
Orcadians who were no doubt assisted by
their patron saint, Magnus, who fortuitously
appeared and aided them on the day. The
Earl, together with hundreds of his men, was
slain. William was captured and was once
more sent across the Pentland Firth.
Now the wrath of the Scottish Crown
would descend on Orkney. But no; it appears
that the politicians descended instead.
It was known that King Christians successor to the throne, King John of Denmark
and Norway had pledged himself by oath to
regain the isles pawned to Scotland. The
outcome of the recent battle showed clearly
where the Orcadian sympathies lay. What
would be the result if James Sinclair sought
help from King John? Appeasement rather
than revenge was the answer.
James Sinclair was bought off with a
knighthood and a feu charter on the islands
of Sanday and Stronsay. No action was taken
against Edward or the other leaders of the
insurrection. The burgh charter granted to
Kirkwall by James III was confirmed by
James V in 1536. And they all lived happily
ever after. Well not really; for some strange
reason that has never been explained Sir
James Sinclair committed suicide . . . .or did
he?
Issue No37 March 06
I
love the internet! Without it I am not sure whether I
would have persevered in my search for an elusive
3rd cousin, another Orkney descendant.
My husband and I became simultaneously hooked on
genealogy in 1987, purchasing our first, very basic,
computer at that time. I began with my mother’s side of
the family which eventually led me back to Richard
Warren who had emigrated in 1620 on the Mayflower
from England to what would become Plymouth,
Massachusetts. I knew that my parents had visited
Orkney more than once when I was a child, but I had
never talked with my father about his side of the family
or the Orkney connection. By the time I started my
research he was no longer alive. I did find some notes of
his, though, which aimed me in the right direction. A
few years ago a cousin and I visited Orkney – a trip of a
lifetime for me! With Helen Manson as a guide we
visited cemeteries and locations where our ancestors
had lived.
I had been in touch regularly with a 2nd cousin in
New Zealand, the granddaughter of James Wallace
Louttit, my grandfather’s brother. I suspected that
there were cousins in South Africa, the children and
grandchildren of William Louttit, the great grandson of
George Louttit (1794-1851) and Isabella (Louttit)
Louttit (1805-1891) of South Ronaldsay. I wrote to the
Human Sciences Research Council in Pretoria in 1995
seeking information and received a death notice for
John Louttit (d. 1908), brother of William. His
occupation was listed as Tailor and Outfitter,
interesting in that this profession follows through in
the family from Orkney on down. The researcher also
included some notes with bits of genealogical
information including the names of William’s two
children Robert and Margaret. I was unable to trace
Margaret but had high hopes of reaching Robert – I
now had a phone number. Thinking back over the years,
I cannot recall why I was unable to contact him then,
but I did not.
About four or five years ago I went online; this time
the Research Council in Pretoria had a web site and
email. I was able to get an address for Robert Irvine
Louttit. I wrote him and then waited and waited and
waited. I had given up on ever finding the South
African connection when I received mail from Australia.
Robert Irvine (known as Irvine) Louttit had recently
died, and his daughter Margaret, who now lived in
Australia, had been sent his mail, including my letter.
She had had no idea that she had relatives in the USA;
I am her 3rd cousin. I also told her of her cousin
Margaret in New Zealand, and I understand that they
keep in touch via email.
This bit of genealogical sleuthing was great fun.
There are a few other family tree “brick walls” that I
23
would like to break down but, with time, I hope that
they too will crumble.
Here is the line that led to Margaret:
George Louttit of South Ronaldsay (1794-1851) and
Isabella (Louttit) Louttit (1805-1891) who had 9
children including John Louttit (1827 -?) who married
Jessie Budge; they had 7 children including William
who married Margaret R. Chambers (b. England –
d. circa 1950). They had 3 children including Robert
Irvine Louttit (1909-2000) who had Margaret b. 1942.
Margaret married Richard Patrick Maynard and they
have a son Nicholas b. 1974.
My line:
The above George and Isabella Louttit whose son
William (1833-1910) had William Easton Louttit (18661930). His son William Easton Louttit Jr. (1904-1973)
was my father. George lived in South Ronaldsay, his son
William moved to Edinburgh and then Wooler, England,
his son William Easton emigrated to the U.S.
WEL Jr. lived his life in Rhode Island, USA and was
my father. I would be thrilled to hear from any people
researching Louttit of South Ronaldsay.
Lorraine Louttit Hilton Coventry, RI. USA
Member No 364. Email <ford8@cox.net>
Sorry if your article did not appear in this
edition of SIB Folk News but some material has
had to be held over until June.
If you have not yet contributed to the newsletter can I persuade you to send me something
for our June issue. I would require it by 17th
April and it can be as short or long as you like.
Remember the success of our newsletter
depends on the support of members like YOU.
Finally a pat on the head and a
suggestion from Member No 8.
Dear John, I think you are to be congratulated on the way that
the magazine is progressing at the moment. Well done! Praise is
also due to the members from near and far who are sending in
int-eresting articles. I for one feel these stories should be
preserved for future generations and researchers. I also feel it
would be a good idea to have binders for our magazines. A
binder, suitably named, the size of the one which held twelve
“Orkney Views” (thanks to Alastair and Anne Cormack no 73)
could hold four or five years magazines. Not too expensive an
outlay. It would be good to hear what other members think. It
should be possible to get back numbers to complete a set. So as
not to put extra work on to the office-bearers I would be willing to
distribute binders and perhaps some of the other volunteers
would too. Thanks again, John, and keep up the good work.
yours, Nan. e-mail nan.scott@virgin.net
subscriptions etc
MEMBERSHIP
The Orkney Family History Society
O
rkney Family History Society was formed
in 1997 and is run by a committee of
volunteers.
It is similar to societies operating worldwide
where members share a mutual interest in family
history and help each other with research and,
from time to time assist in special projects concerning the countless records and subjects
available to us all in finding our roots.
The main objectives are:
1 To establish a local organisation for the study,
collection, analysis and sharing of information
about individuals and families in Orkney.
2 To establish and maintain links with other
family history groups and genealogical societies
throughout the UK and overseas
3. To establish and maintain a library and other
reference facilities as an information resource for
members and approved subscribers.
4.To promote study projects and special interest
groups to pursue approved assignments.
We are located on the upper floor of the
Kirkwall Library next to the archives department
and are open Mon–Fri 2pm–4.30pm and Sat
11am–4.30pm.
Our own library, though small at the moment,
holds a variety of information including:
The IGI for Orkney on microfiche.
The Old Parish Records on microfilm.
The Census Returns on microfilm transcribed
on to a computer database.
Family Trees.
Emigration and Debtors lists.
Letters, Articles and stories concerning Orkney
and its people.
Hudson’s Bay Company information.
Graveyard Surveys (long term project).
This material is available to members for ‘in
house’ research by arrangement.
Locally we have monthly Members’ Evenings
with a guest speaker.
We produce a booklet of members and interests
to allow members with similar interests to
correspond with each other if they wish.
We also produce a newsletter 4 times a year
and are always looking for articles and
photographs of interest. A stamped addressed
envelope should be included if these are to be
returned. Back copies of the magazine can be
purchased at £1 per copy.
We can usually undertake research for
members who live outwith Orkney but this is
dependent on the willingness of our island members giving up their spare time to help.
M
embership of the Society runs from 1st
March to 28th/29th February and
subscriptions should be renewed during
the month of March. All subscriptions should be
sent to the Treasurer at the OFHS address below.
New members joining before the 1st December
will receive back copies of the three magazines for
the current year. From 1st December new members
will receive membership for the remainder of the
current year, plus the following year, but will not
receive the back copies of the magazine.
The present subscription rates are as follows:
ORDINARY
Family membership
£10.00
FAMILY MEMBERSHIP
Spouse, Partner and Children under 18
£15.00
SENIOR CITIZENS
Single or couple
£7.00
OVERSEAS
Surface Mail
£12.50
OVERSEAS
Air Mail
£15.00
Overseas members should pay their fees in
sterling or its equivalent. If it is not possible to
send pounds sterling please check the exchange
rate. Our bank will accept overseas cheques
without charging commission. Receipts will be
issued with the next magazine. Members residing
in the United Kingdom may pay their
subscriptions by Bankers Order and if they wish
can have their subscriptions treated as gift
donations. Forms will be sent on request.
Cheques should be made payable to:
ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY
and forwarded to
ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY
Orkney Library & Archive
44 Junction Rd, Kirkwall, Orkney KW15 1AG
Telephone 01856 873166 extension 3029
General enquires should be addressed to the office in writing or to
General Secretary and Treasurer
Mr George Gray (e-mail george.gray@unisonfree.net)
Research Secy. Adrianne Leask (e-mail amerswyck@freeuk.com)
Editor. John Sinclair (e-mail sinclairjasz@aol.com)
Orkney Family History Society website— www.orkneyfhs.co.uk
Articles in the newsletter are copyright to the Society and
its authors and may not be reproduced without permission of the editor. The Society is a registered charity in
Scotland and a member of the Scottish Association of
Family History Societies. The Society’s newsletter, Sib
Folk News is registered with the British Library under
the serial number ISSN 1368-3950.

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