More Earlston Far Flung Connections

Jeff Price's  recent blog post  took us on a lighthearted tour of Earlston's contribution to world history.  It prompted me to consider more Earlston folk who made their mark beyond the village.

What connects  Earlston Sunday School trip to Iowa farmland?   This blog post takes  us from Earlston Sunday School trip to a Scottish offshore prison to the Australian Gold Rush and whaling,  before arriving in Iowa.  All, of course linked to Earlston.   

 **********

Earlston Sunday School trips were by tradition to Spittal, in Northumberland.  However after a young girl (not from Earlston) was drowned there, the venue was changed to North Berwick. 

North Berwick is notable for many things and one is that you can take the boat trip out to the  Bass Rock, famous for its bird colony, described by David Attenborough as "one of hte wildlife wonders of the world".  

 But the Bass Rock has a dark secret - it was one of Scotland's offshore prisons and one man who was held here was Earlston born Alexander Shields.

ALEXANDER SHIELDS  (1661-1700) life spanned Earlston, the Bass Rock off the East Lothian coast  and Scotland's failed Darien Scheme for an overseas settlement, 

He was born  in Earlston at Hauighhead Mill in 1661 - the home for generations of the Shields Family. 

 

 

 The site of Haughhead Mill, 2018 

 

Alexander became a Presbyterian Minister, a Covenanter  and an author.  

 

Covenanters were those who signed the National Covenant in 1638 to confirm their opposition to the interference by the Stuart kings in the affairs of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Alexander Shields  was brought before the Judiciary Council  for holding private worship services and was imprisoned on the Bass Rock before being returned to the Tolbooth Prison in Edinburgh from  where he escaped.  

 

 

The Bass Rock off the cost at North Berwick.

 

He went onto write his most famous work "The Hind Let Loose"   asserting the rights of the individual . 

 

With his brother Michael, he  joined the ill fated Second Darien Expedition  in 1699. 

The Darien Scheme  was Scotland's ambitious attempt to become a world trading nation by establishing a colony called "Caledonia" on the isthmus of Panama on the Gulf of Darien  in the late 1690s. Thousands of ordinary Scots  invested money in the expedition, to the tune of approximately £500,000. Five  ships sailed from Leith in July 1698 with 1,200 people on board. 

 

But  the project was beset by poor planning and provisioning, divided leadership and finally disease.  Seven months after arriving, 400 Scots were dead.   More ships set sail from Leith in November 1699 loaded with a further 1,300  pioneers,unaware of the fate of the earlier settlers. The colony  was finally abandoned in 1700 after a siege by Spanish forces,  

 

Only one ship returned out of the total of sixteen that had originally sailed.  With the  loss of the £500,000 investment,  the Scottish economy was almost bankrupted. 

 Alexander  set sail to return to Scotland, but died of fever in Jamaica in 1700, never returning to his homeland at Earlston. 

A full account of Alexander Shields life can be found HERE. 

 *******************

 

The purpose  of the  Darien Expedition was to establish a Scottish colony in South America  which was thought to be "the land of mail and honey". 

Another Earlston man had plans to put the village on the map, not in the land of milk and honey,  but in the land of gold and butter - Australia. 

ISAAC WALLACE (1841-1921),

Scottish history is full of men and women who  stepped into the unknown by leaving their homeland behind and emigrating to far flung places.  Many of them might not be familiar names, yet they made their mark abroad, but never forgot where they had come from. They also demonstrated a sense of entrepreneurship, community involvement,  and a strong belief in their Presbyterian faith.

One such man was Isaac Wallace of Earlston  who emigrated to Victoria, Australia,   where  he named his new home "Earlston", set up a butter factory, and involved himself in community affairs, both in Australia, but also on a return visit to Earlston towards the end of his life.

His Early Life - Isaac was the eldest of eight children,  born to master joiner, John Wallace and Martha, nee Brown.  His sister was Isabella Wallace. who later became known as "Earlston's friend and benefactor", with two memorial plaques around the village.

In 1859 the 19 year old Isaac, a farm servant who could read and write,  set sail for Australia.  In 1862 he married Mary Hogarth who had emigrated with her parents from Lauder - a further  link with the Borders.  Seven children were born to the marriage until Mary's early death in 1876.

 Isaac Wallace's Family c.1875

Isaac married again - his wife, Nicholes Brown nee Rogerson, a widow with four sons. A daughter Elizabeth was born to the marriage.  Together with the twelve children, they moved to  Isaac's land allocation of 320 acres, naming it Earlston.  It was situated in Violet Town, 108 miles north of Melbourne. Maintaining the floral theme, Violet Town's  streets were named Cowslip,Tulip, Orchard, Rose, Lily and Hyacinth. 

It was the discovery of gold in the north east of Victoria which led to large numbers of itinerant  prospectors passing through the area  and the village grew with the  railway arriving in 1873. 

Isaac's New Business Venture - Isaac,  noticing the swing to dairy-farming,  purchased Brown's unused flour mill and  and converted the building  into a butter factory  -  the first such creamery  in the region.  Isaac's venture flourished at first and he was greeted as a benefactor of both the town and countryside. But success was short lived as competitors sprang  up and circumstance were against him.  The company was wound up in  1906. 

 

A Community-Minded Man  - Isaac involved himself  in his  community , becoming a Justice of the Peace and  was appointed a Magistrate in 1886, sitting on the bench at Violet Town.   An active member of the Presbyterian Church, services were held in his home from 1887.  Isaac was president of the Mechanics Institute in the 1890’s and a member of the Progress Association.

 

A Return to his Homeland - Shortly after the death of his second wife, Isaac left  Melbourne aboard "The Runlc" in late March 1907 on a trip to the old country. 

A  news snippet was traced in "The Southern Reporter" of 20th August 1908 which reported under the Earlston District News:

"Golf:   The final tie for the Silver Challenge Cup, presented by Mr Isaac Wallace, Australia, an old Earlstonian,  was played on Wednesday afternoon."

"The Berwickshire News" of 4th May 1909 reported on a Parish Council meeting at which the provision of seats in the village was discussed. 

"It was agreed that nine of these seats should be provided at a cost of 9 shillings and 3 pence each.  The Rev. W. S. Crockett, Minister of Tweedsmuir [also an Earlstonian], and Mr Isaac Wallace, Australia  agreed to defray the expenses of one each and these to be placed in the West Green." 
 

 

A group photograph taken on Isaac's return to Earlston

He is thought to be the tall figure on the left of the back row,

with his brothers, John,  Robert & George and sister Isabella.

Isaac died on the 22nd February 1921, aged 80, and was buried with his second wife, Nicholes  in Violet Town cemetery.  His estate, real and personal, was valued at 7,291 pounds, 13 shillings and 5 pence (equivalent to £211, 880 in British money today)  - enough then to buy 265 horses. 

With grateful thanks to Garth Grogan, a  descendant of Isaac Wallace, through his daughter Mary, for this detailed account of Isaac's life. 

 

 

**************** 

When Isaac  returned to the UK,   he sailed on board the SS Runic which was built  at Harland & Wolff in Belfast for the White Star line, entering the service  to Australia in 1901.  In 1930  SS Runic was sold and converted to a whaling factory ship  and renamed SS New Sevilla. 

In Earlston  whales are more likely to be associated with two business women, Christian and Marion Whale who, ahead of their time,   developed the Earlston Gingham  in the first half of 19th century.  

 

Entrepreneurship seemed to run in the family, since a descendant Lancelot Watson established a successful business in the USA in Iowa.

 

 

 LANCELOT WATSON  (1824-1913)

This press cutting caught my eye:    

1th April 1913 - Hawick Advertiser.

 But who was Lancelot Watson  who had Earlston connections, who sailed the Atlantic 40 times  including on the paddle steamer  Britannia, the first boat of the Cunard Line, whilst  his last trip, was on  the  Lusitania, then regarded as the biggest and most modern boat of the Cunard Line.

 Research revealed that  Lancelot was born, not in Earlston,  but in Hawick in 1824, son of George Watson and Ann Whale.  His mother was descended from a long line of well-known Earlston names - Whale and Clendinnen,  most notably with links with Thomas Whale and his daughters Christian and Marion Whale, 

Lancelot married in 1856 his wife Mary A Spalding Watson.  Two years later the young family were in Canada where,  where over the next five years,  their children were born.

By the time of the 1880 census the family had moved to Mason City, Iowa, where Lancelot , aged 55 was a Land and Loan Agent.   

His work involved frequent  trips to Britain where he lectured and advised people on emigrating to  Iowa, promoting the benefits of farming in the state.  Newspapers of the  period feature many such advertisements in both England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

 North British Agriculturist:  10th November 1880

 

 Advertisement in "The American Settler":  19th March 1881

Online Passenger lists between Britain  and New York confirm a Lancelot Watson, born Scotland,  making many transatlantic trips  including one on the Britannia, named in the first article above.  He would have  been 56 years old in his  most busiest period 1880-81. 

 

Paddle Steam Britannia 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannia-class_steamship

.

 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lusitania-British-ship

The Steamship Lusitania, built by John Brown & Sons, Clydebank made its maiden voiyagle in 1907 and won the prized Blue Ribbon for the fastest transatlantic crossing.   Lancelot Watson's last journey was on this ship.  But it was destroyed by a German U-boat - an event which contributed to the USA entering the First World War to support the allies.

 Lancelot Watson died in 1913  aged 90, with  "The Berwickshire News" of April 8th printing a fulsome  obituary, commenting he  was "known as one of the most prominent and enterprising of American Borderers" - not born in Earlston but proud of his Earlston heritage.

*************

 Sources:   

• www.ancestry.co.uk 
• www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
  
• www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
• https://en.wikipedia.org
  
• Descendant Chart of the Whale Family, provided by an Auld Earlston reader. 

**************