From Cumnock to Cumberland

By Elaine Corbett

Mary Smith, Still an Enigma.

My great grandmother Mary Smith was born from a union of two farming families; the Smiths of Whitehill, Ochiltree, and the Osbornes of Killoch. Her parents were farming at Drongan House when Mary, then her brother Robert were born. When Mary was five, her father died suddenly and the little family moved to Kilmarnock where their mother rented out rooms to her brother, Matthew Mair Osborne - later to become the editor and owner of the Kilmarnock Standard.  

When Mary was eleven years old tragedy struck when her mother died leaving the two orphaned children in the care of their aunt Agnes Osborne, now married to farm overseer Robert Wallace of Piperhill. They brought them to Townhead of Drumley, near Mauchline.

All seemed normal until my story really begins. In 1896 Mary, aged twenty and unmarried, stepped off the train in Keswick, and went to a boarding house to give birth to my grandfather, Robert Smith.

birth  certificate

    She had him adopted by a family in Workington, a thriving port on the west coast rich from mineral mining. The man of the house was a coal miner. A year later, she placed her second child, Victor James, with the same family. 

    With her third child, she found that her lodging house in Keswick had closed, and her landlady/midwife had retired to Toxteth in Lancashire so she was forced to make other arrangements, finding a family in Cockermouth to adopt little Kenneth.

    Child number four was left with the sister of Kenneth’s adoptive mother, Sarah Briscoe. This lady was to be the saviour of all Mary’s children, for she made a home for all eight of them, apart from Kenneth who remained with her sister in Cockermouth. Mary had removed Robert and Victor from the care of the Workington family and placed them all together with Sarah. Far from an absentee parent, Mary visited often, bringing cheeses and money to pay for their upkeep. She would arrive in a buggy laden with goodies, and cash secreted in her petticoats to prevent thieves taking it on her journey. None of the children really knew where she came from, but they knew she was Scottish from her accent, and she spoke a lot about Islay, where her aunt and uncle had taken them to live when Robert Wallace found a new job overseeing farms on the Laggan estate. Islay would have been a rare and exotic place to those children, and it wasn’t until his eighties that my great uncle Fred made the journey to see Laggan Farm - the only one to do so - and greatly thrilled he was!

    Life for the extended family Briscoe had its ups and downs. John Briscoe was a farmer when Sarah and he were married, and two of Mary’s children were born at their farm in Edderside. John then left farming and went to work at the steel works in Workington. That is when the children went to St Michael’s school where we researched their records. The school was overcrowded and conditions were poor, so poor in fact that my grandfather never did learn to read or write until he married at the age of twentyfour.

    They finally settled back into farming in Lorton Vale and raised the children in healthy country air. Workington was heavily industrialised at the time and childhood diseases were commonplace.

But what of Mary?

    Census records show her living with Robert and Agnes Wallace along with her brother. Robert and Agnes had no children of their own. Robert Smith was a bookeeper for the farms under Robert Wallace’s stewardship. Of course, there was no indication of who the father of the children was, or how keeping the secret of her pregnancies had been accomplished.

After the deaths of Robert Wallace, Agnes, and her brother Robert, Mary came back to Drongan as a housekeeper at Lane Farm and at the age of 56, married David Knox, finally moving to live with Smith relations in Twynholm after she was widowed. She died in 1947.

    It wasn’t until I did a DNA test with Ancestry that the potential father - at least in my line of descent - became clear, when lots of DNA links to Wallaces popped up. So the question now arose, did she do this of her own volition?

    What we knew of her personality from what her children and grandchildren saw, she was a very self assured and confident character. It seems likely that she was hiding her relationship with Robert Wallace, but how they did that in a house of servants seems impossible. Whether aunt Agnes was accepting of that situation we can’t know, but when she died in Islay in 1918, the monument on her grave placed by Robert Wallace was flamboyant and expensive.

    This is it, taken from the back. There is inlaid brass lettering ‘Wallace’ on the plinth, and a memorial inscribed in the column to Agnes. It is noteworthy to observe that the houses in the middle distance would not have been built at the time of her death (1918), and there would be a commanding view of the sound.

    Her sons and daughter made their lives in Cumberland, with farming at the core, and Granny Briscoe lived out her life as a treasured matriarch, Mary never playing a role for them apart from an occasional mention of the enigma that was their mother. She never did tell them who their father was.

The Doak family of Doaktown, New Brunswick, Canada

 By Elaine Corbett

The Doaktown museum of the Doak family

Doaktown Heritage site with photographs

Marion Wallace Cumnock Connections family tree link.

My 4 times great grandmother Marion Wallace was married twice.

Her first husband was Thomas Symington, and together they had nine children before his untimely death in 1802. They farmed at Whitehill, Ochiltree, and when Thomas Symington died, Marion carried on the farm alone until she remarried.

Her second husband, who is my 4 times great grandfather was James Smith, from Clowhernon (I think), with whom, fortunately for me, she had two more children.

The story of her daughter Mary Symington is one of travel, adventure, and some sadness with the family of her husband James Doak out in Canada.

James Doak and Mary were married at Stair in 1809. At this time Mary could have been living at Whitehill farm, and James at Roadinghead farm in Ochiltree. This clip from the OS maps shows the locations, later split by the construction of the railway line

James Doak, Mary, and three of their children embarked on the crossing to New Brunswick in 1820. Their youngest daughter Miriam (could that have been Marion after Mary’s mother?) was five years old and tragically, she died on the ship and was buried at sea. What a distressing beginning to their new life in Canada. Mary may well have been pregnant at the time with her third son, who was born in August of that year in Doaktown.

James, Mary and their family settled in Blissfield, a neighbouring parish to Doaktown where the rest of the family, who had travelled a couple of years earlier, had begun to establish their businesses.

Footballers

By Kay McMeekin

Footballers move around a lot.

A lot of local players went to Preston North End in Lancashire, England which was founded in 1880.

John Graham  payed for Preston North End in about 1890 and his brother William Graham played for Preston North End and Newcastle United

 Thomas McCall Smith  Thomas Hamilton also went to Preston North End in the 1920s and 1930s.  They all returned to their roots in Ayrshire.

David Reid McCulley 1895-1962 a grocer in Cumnock played for Ayr United but his professional career was cut short by an ankle injury.

Davy Wells from New Cumnock played for Auchinleck Talbot then Ayr United in 1970 aged 17.

a young Bill Shankly

Bill Shankly born in Glenbuck in 1913 is still a household name!  A memorial in the old Glenbuck on the site of the Shankly house attracts Liverpool fans on pilgrimages from all over.

As a player: Cronberry Eglinton 1931-32,Carlisle United 1932-33,Preston North End 1933-49, Liverpool 1942 as guest and Scotland 1938-39 (5 caps)

As a manager: Carlisle United 1949-51, Grimsby Town 1951-54, Workington 1954-55, Huddersfield Town 1956-59, Liverpool 1 Dec 1959 - 12 Jul 1974

Bill died in Liverpool in 1981.

His brother James B Shankly played for Portsmouth,Sheffield United and Carlisle

John Shankly played for Glenbuck Cherrypickers, Greenock Morton, Carlisle United, Luton Town, Portsmouth, Alloa, Kings Park, Larne

David Thompson McCartney (26 December 1875 – 8 December 1949) was a Scottish professional footballer, best remembered for his time as a centre half in the Southern League with Northampton Town and Watford. He also played in the Football League for Glossop and Chelsea. When he retired, the family emigrated to Australia on the Samaris arriving November 1910. He went back to mining at Aberdare South Colliery.

Andrew Johnstone McCall born Cumnock 1908 played for Cumnock Townhead Thistle, Ayr United, St johnstone in 1935 and Huddersfield in 1939 and after. a few months to Nottingham Forrest. He rejoined Ayr United in 1940. He played for Clyde then Dundee He was manager of Dundee 1958-9.

Ayr United, Andy is front 2nd from right

Eric Caldow - professional footballer and Scotland internationalist, was born 14 May 1934 and raised in Skerrington, Cumnock and attended Cumnock Academy. Eric first played for the Cumnock Academy Football Team at right-back. His first Junior Football Team was Muirkirk but he was soon signed by Glasgow Rangers and played for them until 1964.

Eric was capped for Scotland 40 times from 1957 to 1963. His first cap was on 6th April 1957 against England at Wembley in front of a crowd of 97,520 where Scotland lost 2-1. He played for Scotland on the 6th April 1963 against England at Wembley - where he broke his leg. 

Eric received a civic reception in 1961 because of his fame as a Scottish internationalist. He managed Cumnock Juniors for a short time in 1978.

After leaving Rangers Caldow then played for one season with Stirling Albion before moving south to become player-manager of Corby Town in 1967. He returned to his native Ayrshire to become manager of Junior side Hurlford United in 1970 and three years later was appointed manager of Scottish League side Stranraer. Caldow left Stair Park in 1975 and his last involvement with football was as a scout for Queens Park Rangers.

Caldow was inducted to the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2007. He died in 2019.

George Burley, born in Cumnock in 1956, had a distinguished career as a player and manager. He joined Ipswich Town in 1972. He made 18 appearances playing for Scotland and was the Scotland manager 2008-9. 

A relation of his Craig Burley born 1971 was also a successful footballer  playing for Chelsea, Celtic and Preston North End amongst others. He is now a sports pundit for an American TV channel EPSN.

The McCartney brothers David and John went to Australia.

Robert Smith, Ochiltree to Eastern Cape Province

By Elaine Corbett

Robert Smith  was a farmer’s son from Whitehill Farm, Ochiltree.

Follow this link to the farm post for Whitehill on our blog Ploughing Up Our Past.

Robert was my 2nd great grand-uncle, brother of my great, great grandfather, David Smith.

He was the third son of Robert Smith and Jane Guthrie born in 1835, and must have been recognised as being a bright lad and encouraged to pursue his studies. The remaining sons all stayed farming. 

The 1851 census finds him in Ochiltree village with, (we think) his great-aunt, Elizabeth Wallace so it is evident he was sent away from the distraction of his siblings to get on with his book learning.

In 1861 he was living in Aberdeenshire as a teacher, and in 1862 he married Margaret Anderson, in Binns Farm, Urquhart. Margaret’s family were interesting, as her father was a farmer and ship owner. Her uncle was a sea captain before he too bought into a shipping company and settled in Glasgow with his Danish wife.

The 1871 census sadly, shows that Robert had gained two sons, William and Robert, but Margaret had died from complications of childbirth. His occupation was now Bank Agent. 

In 1872 he married Mary Mather and they set up home together in Union Street, Aberdeen. They had four children before Mary died in 1888 from Tuberculosis. 

Despite his personal tragedies, Robert’s career seems to have been doing well, and by the 1891 census, he had decided to emigrate to King William’s Town, East Cape Province, South Africa and had become the manager of the Bank of South Africa there. The children were staying with family getting ready to join their father and begin their new life.

The younger boys David Guthrie Smith, and John Ogilvie Smith, and daughter Jessie MacLean Smith were staying with Mary’s sister in Glasgow, while Mather, the oldest of Mary’s children was with Uncle Hugh at Whitehill Farm. The sons from his first marriage seem to have left home and were building their own lives. Their names were Robert Smith, and William Anderson Smith.

Robert stayed in Scotland and qualified as a doctor, and found a medical practice in Assam, India, but unfortunately died there aged just 30.

William Anderson Smith was studying Arts in Aberdeen University, but no trace after that in UK records, until the very last clipping posted here.

There was also an adopted daughter called Elizabeth Anderson, but I can’t find any trace of her, or even who her mother and father might have been.

Of the remaining family, it seems they had an exciting life in South Africa.

The Smith family had not long been in South Africa before the Second Boer War began. Although a relatively short war, from 1899 to 1903  it was quite brutal. Much of it was conducted under guerilla tactics, sieges, and was the first war we saw mention of concentration camps. It was fought using cavalry swords, rifles and bayonets, and cannon. All three of Robert’s sons who were with him immediately signed up to fight.

Mather joined the 1st Battalion, Imperial Light Horse and his record shows he earned four clasps to his medal for seeing action at the relief of  Mafeking, the Transvaal clasp, the Relief of Ladysmith, and Tugela Heights.

He was wounded at Acton Homes 19th January 1900, where 40 Boers were captured, recovered from his wounds then returned to service. He was finally discharged from service 12th October 1900.

When he was staying with his Uncle, before going out to Eastern Cape, he had been studying engineering. When he married Nellie Sweeten, a Cumbrian girl from Penrith in 1911, he was described as being from the Worcester Gold Mining Company, Barberton, so it seems his engineering studies had come to fruition.

Cumberland and North Westmorland Herald 17th June 1911

Arthur Sweeten was publisher of a newspaper in Penrith, and one of his sons was out in South Africa, so perhaps Nellie met Mather in South Africa.