From Glengyron Row, Cumnock to the Lady of the Manor - Mary Rogan (1857-1950)

By Alexandra Watson

William Armstrong was born in Portpatrick, SW Scotland in 1802. His parents were from Drumbeg and Drummore in County Down, Ireland.  He was one of 8 children and married a local girl Mary Bryden, whose parents were also Irish. William was an Ironstone Miner. Mary and William moved to Ayrshire living first in Troon, then Irvine and by 1851 settling in the Beith area. Their daughter Mary Armstrong married Thomas Knox in Dalry on 29 April 1864 and then the Knox family moved to Lethanhill, Dalmellington. It would appear in due course Mary and William Armstrong followed the Knoxes to Dalmellington.

By 1881 William is retired and he and Mary are living in Glengyron Row, Cumnock, a miners' row of 44 2-roomed houses. Both live to a good age, William dying in 1882 at Glengyron Row and Mary passed away in 1900 at the age of 84.

Another of their daughters, Agnes married Bernard Rogan from Ireland but sadly Bernard died at the young age of 35.   Bernard and Agnes had 5 children and this story focuses on Mary Rogan – one of Agnes Armstrong’s daughters with Bernard Rogan. The family also used the name Logan, less Irish sounding?

Link to Mary on Cumnock Connections tree

Mary Rogan appears next appears in the 1861 Census with her mother and father Bernard living in Dalry, Ayrshire. Following Bernard’s death Agnes re-married a John McCulloch also Irish. Then Agnes and John and all the children also moved to Dalmellington and then Cumnock to join her sister and her parents the Armstrongs.  By the 1871 Census Mary Rogan aged 14 is a servant for a cattle dealer and his family in Kirkmichael, Ayrshire but by now she is registered as Mary Logan. Is this a transcription error or a fashion of the time/ economic imperative revising her surname to make it sounds more Scots?

Apparently not an error, as Mary Rogan in all official documents from now becomes Mary Logan, as again in the 1881 census Mary by this time 23 year old is still registered under the name of Logan. In 1879 Mary Rogan/ Logan has had a daughter Mary to a miner who was killed in a pit accident. That daughter is living with her grandparents William and Mary Armstrong (mentioned above) at 43 Glengyron Row in the 1881 Census.  

Meanwhile Mary Logan/ Rogan now 23 has found employment as a servant far away in the north east of Scotland and her employer is Mr William Aiton, a Land Owner aged 57 resident at Sandford House, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. 

1881 Scottish Census
Sandford House, Peterhead

William Aiton 57 landowner

Mary Logan 23 servant b Dalry

Mr William Aiton her employer is a very interesting character. Looking back over previous census while Mary Rogan was a 4 year old living in Dalry with her parents in 1861 William Aiton in his census return is a Railway Contractor age 37 with 5 children and a wife 16 years older than himself living in Crow Road Glasgow, a leafy west end suburb. 

The career of William Aiton was quite astonishing - among his many exploits

• Built railways in Ayrshire

• Surveyed the Pyramids of Giza

• Went to Paris & negotiated a large contract with Ferdinand De Lessops and the Suez Canal company.

• Was contracted to build 46 miles of the Suez Canal. This contract was so lucrative        for Aiton the Suez company had to terminate it and compensate him to the tune of £20,000

• Travelled widely in the Middle East with many adventures (some drunken)

• Returned to Scotland and bought an estate in Aberdeenshire from the Earl of Aberdeen

• Became a Justice of the Peace for the County

• Funded numerous improvements to the local economy including the building of the Harbour at Boddum, Aberdeenshire. 

The Boddam Estate comprised not only Sandford House but many acres, a ruined castle, lighthouse, and other properties.

Image of Sandford Lodge built about 1800

Sadly the roof of the fine Georgian house is now off. And it is situated right beside Peterhead Power Station

In the 1891 census Mary is still registered as Housekeeper at Sandford House but they had a daughter Barbara in 1888, registered as Logan. On 15 December 1891, in Edinburgh, she officially becomes Mrs Aiton.
In innumerable articles William Aiton is referred to as the Laird, so Mary the servant from Glengyron Row married her “prince” (after the death of his estranged wife Marion) and became the Lady of the Manor. Although from the many newspaper cuttings over the years “Mrs Aiton” had been a regular attendee at functions and regularly “handed out the prizes” at the picnics and events held in the grounds of the house.  When her husband William died in 1893 he left Mary his entire estate.
Mary gave birth to their son William in May 1893 - 3 months after the death of her husband in February. After her husband William died Mary bought and became a lodging house keeper in Aberdeen.
Note that her oldest daughter Mary (junior) who had been left with her grandparents the Armstrongs also moved to Aberdeen and on her marriage, in March 1901, is actually using the name Aiton.
THOMPSON-AITON By special licence, at Aberdeen, on 4th Inst., George Thompson, clerk, to Mary Logan. daughter of the late William Aiton, Sandford, Peterhead. 

Barbara Aiton married schoolteacher William Brebner in 1919 in Aberdeen. Her address was 74 Ferryhill Road, Aberdeen. At the time of their silver wedding anniversary their address was 33 Marchmont  Crescent, Edinburgh.
Son William born 1893 moved to Canada, married and had a large family. He died at Owen Sound, Ontario in 1970.
Mary Aiton nee Logan/ Rogan moved from Aberdeen to Edinburgh dying at 33 Marchmont Crescent, (the  home of daughter Barbara) Edinburgh, in 1950 aged 93...53 years after the death of William.