By Alexandra Watson
The latter days of the 18th Century
Great events even far away can often impact our surroundings and lives. How many of us who pass through Ayr and see the ruins from Eglinton Street, know that this was the Citadel Fort, commissioned in 1652 and one of a group of five impressive fortresses established following Scotland’s defeat and the establishment of a Commonwealth between England and Scotland. English occupation forces were housed there, with the intention, to repress a still hostile Scots populace. A later addition to the town was The Barracks, built on the south side of Ayr Harbour as part of the British response to the threat of the French in 1795 and it was to there came an English soldier.
The turmoil of the second half of the 18th century saw events that not only changed the world but the individual lives of ordinary people living in Ayrshire. The last Jacobite rising of 1745; the War of American Independence of 1775 -1783; the French Revolutionary Wars of 1792 -1802 and the Napoleonic Wars of 1799 - 1815 and the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Against this background the British government had a real anxiety that there may be alliances amongst disillusioned Scots and Irish and the French.
In 1794, some one hundred and seventy-five miles away in County Durham, a weaver, John Watson was recruited into the Durham Fencible Cavalry, which changed its name the next year to the Princess of Wales's Fencible Cavalry. It was led by William Vane, who was also Colonel of the Militia. After spending three years in Scotland, they proceeded to Ireland and were disbanded in 1802.
“During the French Revolutionary Wars from end 1792 until May 1802 the regiment was tasked with maintaining order as well as anti-invasion duties and for this purpose they were employed outside of their area of recruitment and kept on the move “so as to avoid fraternisation with the local population”
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militia_and_Volunteers_of_County_Durham
Well, as Robert Burns said just about that time in 1785:
“The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men gang aft agley”
How and where John Watson met the local girl, Catherine Henrie we will never know. She was born on 11 March 1779, in Kirkmichael, Ayrshire, Scotland. They married in St Quivox on 23 August 1797 and it is known that the army moved supplies such as cattle and horses inland to there, away from the Ayr coast, in case of French raids.
The beginning of the 19 Century
When John left the army they settled in her home village of Kirkmichael and John worked as a weaver. They had at least 5 children who in turn had families. Each of the boys had at least 6 children and so this particular branch of the Watsons was established in Ayrshire.
Our interest is with John's son William and then the line from William's daughter Janet. William was born on 21 June 1802. In the church records he and three siblings are belatedly recorded as Irregular Baptisms, maybe harking back to John’s English background and not originally being a member of the Church of Scotland. William married Euphemia Duncan in Sorn, her home village on 6 June 1826. Euphemia was 27 and William was 23. William moved to Sorn and raised his children there but by 1851 he is back in Kirkmichael. William sadly died relatively young at 54 years old in 1856. However, Euphemia moved to Cumnock with her youngest son James, and lived to the age of 77. Sadly Janet Watson, William and Euphemia’s daughter died at the age of 25 in 1857 having given birth to a son out of marriage. He was called George Henrie Watson and it seemed that his paternity would remain a mystery. However, with the advent of DNA testing, we have noticed multiple links to a Howe Family, also resident in Kirkmichael. We also noted the death of a young man John Howe, ages with Janet who also sadly died the same year as the birth of George.
The mid 19th Century
So we follow George’s line, he remained in his brother James’s household in Cumnock till he married his next-door neighbour Jeanie Crichton in 1873. Both Jeanie's parents' families had originated in Lanarkshire making their way to Ayrshire for work in the coal industry after their marriage in 1843. Coincidently George and Jeanie’s next-door neighbour in the Barrhill in Cumnock was none other than a certain journalist James Keir Hardie, a founding member of the Labour Party.
The early 20th Century
George Henrie Watson and Jeanie had 7 children. These were very hard times ...The Depression; World War 1 1914 -1918; the National Strike 1926. The girls all followed their husbands for work and left Cumnock. The Yuills and Ronalds headed for Glasgow. George was the first to emigrate and he went to New Zealand. Mary and her husband Alexander Vallance of Burnside farm, Cumnock, headed for Canada and then James too decided to emigrate. James a recently remarried widower took his new wife and family off to Canada. Only Robert (born 1885) remained in Cumnock but sadly he too died at the young age of 37, leaving behind a young widow and three of a family. Only one son to carry on the Watson name in Cumnock - Hugh Watson.
George Watson (born 1892) had a successful life in New Zealand. He was widowed after 40 years of marriage and then decided to visit Cumnock again. He stayed with his nephew Hugh (mentioned above) and coming home by sea he succumbed “to a shipboard romance” marrying again on his return to New Zealand. The Cumnock Chronicle ran quite a story on George and his visit.
Happily, James (born 1890) who was also widowed young had married his employer’s (The Craigs from the Guelt Farm, Glenmuir) daughter and set off with his family and new bride to Canada and received a land grant. James fathered five children and his two boys' children established quite "a Watson Clan", in Fredericton, New Brunswick. These Watsons are regular visitors to Scotland as are their children and the connection is as strong as ever. We also hear from the Vallances in Ontario who recently made "an eighteen-strong party expedition" to Scotland.
The 20th Century
Young Hugh, the son of Robert, was born in 1917 and only 5 when his father died. He was brought up by his mother Elizabeth Crawford Blackwood (1885 - 1963), a well-known and respected figure. Hugh had a very happy life with his mother two older sisters Martha and Jean and his young cousin Jean that is until war intervened.
Hugh was a grocer and at the outbreak of the war, he went with two friends to enlist. The three of them were attracted to the glamour of the Air Force, the queue was long and being processed alphabetically so the W’s were last to be signed. His two friends successfully were enrolled into the Air Force before him but Hugh had to take the army. Sadly as the attrition rate was high in the Air Force it might come as no surprise that Hugh’s friends never made it home.
Hugh was in the Black Watch and was taken prisoner on 11 June 1940.
source: https://51hd.co.uk/history/valery_1940
This is not the place to record the horrors of the situation, the enforced marches, the near starvation, the deaths and the misery of war. Hugh was the most optimistic and positive man you could meet. At home, his widowed mother and sisters feared for his life.
Calum MacIver bottom right and Hugh Watson top left in Stalag XX1D (Poland)
Hugh did make it home but fate brought that twist of love and war exactly like in the John Watson & Catherine Henrie marriage, meeting his wife only because of the war.
The first John Watson’s home in Durham had been one hundred and seventy-five miles away from Cumnock. At an even longer distance of three hundred and twenty-eight miles in a tiny village on the Hebridean island of Lewis, a baby was born to Murdo MacIver and Isabel MacLean. She was Eiric Mhuruchaidh Iain Aonghais and spoke no English till the age of six. Effie, as she was known, was a really clever girl and wanted to be a nurse. In those days you had to pay for your training, so she went to the capital city of Edinburgh and worked as a servant till she raised sufficient money. She had two brothers and a sister named Barbara. The latter came to Edinburgh with her and their brothers enlisted; John into the navy and Calum into the army. In 1940 the family was advised that Calum too had been taken prisoner by the Germans. Effie worked hard and eventually became a Ward Sister in the prestigious Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. In those days women who held those positions did not marry and had rooms on site. The war was hard for her too as not only did they treat civilian patients from the city but British soldiers and German soldiers too – an irony when her brother was imprisoned there.
Calum and Hugh were in the same prisoner-of-war camp and became very close friends. The end of the war came and Calum came home and married his sweetheart Cathy and in those days a Lewis wedding lasted for days. Effie, Barbara, and one of Barbara's friends, Mary Dougan, went up north for the wedding. Not long after the wedding Effie decided to visit Barbara's friend who was now married and living back in her native Ayrshire. The friend knew Hugh Watson and the connection between Calum and Hugh and arranged for Effie to meet Hugh...and the rest is history.
There are no Watsons from Jeanie Crichton and George Henrie Watson's line living in Cumnock but all have a piece of Cumnock in their hearts.
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