Andrew Walker - family links with Earlston

Introduction

Last month's post was about Earlstonian Andrew Walker, his connection with Charles Dickens and the work among London's street children and ex-convicts.

Working in London had taken a heavy toll on Andrew's health. After retiring from the London City Mission, he emigrated with his daughter, Mary, to the USA to a town called Troy.

Obituary

In 1896, Andrew died; his obituary was published in the London City Mission Magazine on May 1, 1896:

We have received intelligence also of the death of another servant of Christ, who at one time did earnest, effective work as a London City Missionary. A gentleman in Edinburgh writes:-

On February 3, there died at City Troy, New York State, at the patriarchal age of eighty-nine, Mr. Andrew Walker, well known fifty years ago as the pioneer of the Ragged Schools in Westminster.

He was born at Craigsford, Earlston, a pretty village in Berwickshire, July 20, 1807, and partly educated in the village at the same school which the famous Dr. Waugh, of Wells Street, London, had attended half a century before.

When the time came for choosing a calling, he became, like Robert Moffat, a gardener. His first engagement was at Newton Don, his last in Scotland at Camperdown . . . From Camperdown he went to Hans Place, London. Wandering one day through the narrow lanes and courts of Westminster that lay to the south of the Abbey, he was so impressed with the signs of vice and misery all around him, than he resolved he would make it his life's work to do what he could to bring light and liberty to the region.

He gave up his occupation at Chelsea, entered the London City Mission, November, 1838, and began his work within the district bounded by Clare Street, Orchard Street, Strutton Ground, and Great Peter Street.

Mr. Walker remained there for fourteen years, and during that time, by the blessing of God on his labours, effected a most remarkable change in the inhabitants. When he went there were six public-houses, one of them having a thieves' training school attached to it, after the manner of that described by Dickens in 'Oliver Twist'.

His first place of meeting was in an old stable . . . By the kindness of Lady Trowbridge, part of it was fitted up for girls. Lady Hope provided sixty of the children with articles of clothing.' ⁽¹⁾

The Walker family grave in Earlston Churchyard

In 2005, the Borders Family History Society published Berwickshire Monumental Inscriptions Volume XI Earlston.

The book catalogues the work of Mary Betts and Marjory Murray, who surveyed the graveyard. (Elspeth Ewan, Jean Fleming and Miriam Fish conducted an additional survey of the graveyard extension).

The Betts & Murray survey recorded the inscriptions on the headstone of the Walker family as follows:

Sacred to the memory of ROBERT WALKER who died 9.5.1854 and ISABELLA KER his wife who died 10.2.1860 JOHN their son who died in Australia 30.11.1850 THOMAS their son who died in Trey U.S.A. 9.2.1861 JESSIE their daughter who died in Joppa 27.7.1889 daughter MARGARET who died at Edinburgh 21.11.1893 HELEN their daughter who died 2.9.1894 JAMES HAY Walker who died at Perth 31.12.1952 aged 75 years JEANNIE SMART Walker his beloved wife who died at Perth 10.3.1948 aged 64 years.

Could this be Andrew's family?

Unfortunately, the inscription raises more questions than it answers.

The headstone lists 5 children, but we know from census documents that Robert and Isabella Walker had at least 10 children. The monument omits Robina (aka Rebecca) (b 1817), James (b 1819), Mary (b 1821), Phebe (b 1826), and Robert (b 1830).

So, could Andrew's name also have been omitted?

Walker Family Headstone⁽²⁾

The inscription for Thomas is intriguing. It states that Thomas died in Trey, USA, in 1861. There is a town called Trey in Texas. However, it is possible that because of the condition of the stone, the 'e' of Trey was misread and was actually an 'o' spelling the city of Troy, USA. The upper part of the headstone is illegible today, with only 'Thomas' legible.

Top of Walker Family Headstone⁽³⁾

Similarly, Thomas's death in 1861 could have been misread. The top loop of the 6 in 1861 could have been mistaken for a closed loop of an 8 or a 9.

The date of Thomas' death seems questionable. His mother died in 1860, and Thomas registered her death. Thomas could have emigrated only to die a year and a day later. However, we also know that a Thomas Walker emigrated to the USA in June 1879 onboard ss State of Indiana with his children Isabella and Agnes. A few months later, in November, Thomas' wife, Isabella, sailed on the ss State of Georgia with children Margaret and Helen to join him. The names of the adults and children match those of Thomas Walker of Earlston.

Could Andrew be Thomas' brother, and Thomas had decided to join him in Troy?

On the balance of probability, the answer is yes.

Another intriguing fact is the reference to Dr. Waugh in the London City Mission obituary for Andrew Walker. It was noted that Dr. Waugh had also attended school in Earlston.

In 1754, Dr. Alexander Waugh(4) was born in East Gordon, about 3 miles from Earlston. He attended Earlston School before attending Edinburgh University. 

He moved to London in 1782, where he was one of the founding committee members of the London City Mission.

Andrew's Grandparents

 The Walker family originated in Sprouston, about 10 miles from Earlston. The Walkers were a well-to-do family and, in the fashion of the day, used to take a summer holiday at Spittal, a seaside town in Northumberland.

Earlston Old Parish Church showing John Burnet's house at rear of the building⁽⁴⁾ 

One year, a wealthy Earlston family, the Burnets, were also holidaying in Spittal. There, Andrew, the grandfather of Andrew Walker, the missionary, met Janet Burnet. He asked for her hand in marriage, to which her parents agreed, provided he moved to Earlston. They married in June of 1769 and moved to Craigsford, where he became a tenant of Craigsford farm just outside Earlston.

Andrew was profoundly religious, which would please his father-in-law since he had built the original Church of the United Secession in the village.

Andrew, although an honourable man, was somewhat naïve, thinking that others were as honourable as himself, which resulted in him being taken advantage of by others in business. He was nonetheless a much-admired man. At his funeral, a mourner was heard to declare that 'one of the pillars of the Church was fallen.'

Andrew's parents

Robert, was of the same character as his father. Although he continued to work on the farm, he established one of the largest general merchant businesses in the district. He was known as 'Honest Robert'.

Pigot`s Business Directory 1837 listing Robert Walker⁽⁵⁾

Robert was an avid book reader and book collector. He was friends with William Oliphant, of Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier publishers, and amassed a considerable sized library.

Robert was given to solitary reflection and could often be seen walking along his favourite stretch of the Leader near Cowdenknowes, which became known as 'Walker's Haugh'.

Robert married Isabella Ker, the daughter of a Redpath farmer. Isabella was known as a lady of great amiability and the same high character as Robert.

Some commentators considered that Isabella's father had some claim concerning the succession to the Dukedom of Roxburgh, which happened between 1805 and 1812. When advised to present his claims, he replied, 'I am very comfortable here; why should I trouble myself. I might gain nothing by the attempt and, after all, lose what I have saved'.

Andrew's siblings

We've already seen that Robert and Isabella had a large family, and all ten children survived. As in all families, some children lived remarkable lives, others less so.

The firstborn was Helen (1805). Helen never married. However, she did witness her sister Margret's marriage to Robert Aitken, a silversmith, in St Andrews Parish, Holborn, City of London, in 1835. She also witnessed Andrew's marriage to Ann Isabel Wilson in St Luke, Chelsea, the following year. 

Walker Wilson marriage registration⁽⁶⁾

In later years, Helen lived with her sister Phebe (aka Phoebe) and her husband William McBean, who owned a bookshop in Melrose. Helen died in 1894, and Phebe in 1906.

 

As discussed above, Andrew was the second of Robert and Isabella's children. After Andrew, Jessie (baptised Janet Burnet in honour of her paternal grandmother) was born in 1809. Jessie worked as a domestic servant and, later, lived with her sister, Margret Aitken, who lived in the Joppa area of Edinburgh, where she died in 1889.

Andrew's younger brother, John, sought fame and fortune abroad, emigrating to Australia. John married Elizabeth Roy from Alloa in 1838. The following year, their daughter, Margaret, was born in Edinburgh. Around 1839, John and his family emigrated to Australia, settling in Richmond, Tasmania.

In 1847, John and his family moved to Fiery Creek, Victoria, where John became the landlord of the Fiery Creek Inn and the town postmaster.

Announcement in the Melbourne Argus 1847⁽⁷⁾

Fiery Creek would become the centre of the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s, but by then, John and his family had moved to Cavendish, where he died in 1850 at age 35.

Of all Andrew's siblings, his sister Robina's work mirrored most closely that of Andrew's work with the needy. Robina was baptised as Rebecca but always referred to as Robina. 

Rebecca Walker registration of birth and baptism 1817⁽⁸⁾

Born in 1817 and described as a tall, fair, auburn-haired girl, quiet of speech and gentle disposition, she made friends quickly. As a teenager, she moved to Edinburgh. She became a teacher at Potterrow School, exposing her to the poor of the city in much the same way as Andrew working in the Devil's Acre. 

Robina Motherwell née Walker⁽⁹⁾

Robina had many anecdotes about her work, and one experience that must have given her some comfort involved a young boy she met on the street. She asked why he wasn't in school, and he explained that the school refused to accept him since his clothes were too shabby (this was before the School Board). However, Robina couldn't afford to buy the lad clothes. Instead, Robina raised the issue with her minister's wife. She not only agreed to buy the clothing but also agreed to purchase clothing for the lad's subsequent years of schooling. The boy turned out to be an exemplary pupil.

The anecdote, quoted in her obituary, said:

Long years after, the same boy, now a fine strapping sunburnt fellow with kid gloves on his hands, came to thank his one-time rescuer from the streets for all the kindness she had shown him in his poverty.⁽¹⁰⁾

Robina married comparatively late at 40 to a coal merchant, John Motherwell, aged 32 years and died in 1906.

James Walker was born in 1819 and, unlike his siblings, remained near his place of birth. His early years were spent helping his father in his general merchant business. James would travel by horse and gig, sometimes staying away for days.

He could be carrying considerable cash, attracting 'predatory nomads of the district'. On one occasion, robbers attempted to stop him by grabbing his horse. However, the horse was too quick, and the attempt was thwarted by the intervention of James' mastiff 'Neptune'.

James tried various jobs after his father's death, including gingham and tweed manufacture. In 1863, he married Mary Hay, and they had four children - Sarah, who would emigrate to Canada, Isabella Ker, Robert and Janet, who died of scarlet fever aged 5. 

James and his family moved to the old School House in Mertoun, a few miles from Earlston. James took the tenancy for the nearby orchard at Dryburgh Abbey, where he established a market garden business like his brother Andrew. 

When planting his crops, he unearthed a burial cist of the early settlers in the Tweed Valley. Being conscientious, James reinterred the remains at a different location, no doubt to the annoyance of local antiquarians!

James' wife Mary died in 1891, and three years later, James married Alice Robertson. 

James died in 1906. He was probably the village's oldest inhabitant and the last of the Earlston Walkers.

Mary, the second youngest of the Walker children, married Neil Cochrane, a mason, and lived in Edinburgh. She died in 1885, aged 64 years.

The youngest child, Robert, was born in 1830 when his eldest sister was 25. Like many men in Earlston, he became a cotton gingham weaver. The demand for Earlston gingham was reckoned to be over 100 weavers producing the material. However, the market collapsed when gingham fell out of fashion, and the gingham weaving industry died. Robert became a clothier, as stated on his registration of death. He married Mary Ann Hunter and died at the early age of 60.

Andrew Walker's legacy

The impact of Andrew's work as a missionary was considerable. 

The concept of the first Ragged School caught the public's imagination. More and more schools were formed, creating the London Ragged School Union in 1844 to share resources to help the poor. In the 1870s, Dr. Barnado opened what was to be the largest Ragged School in London on Copperfield Road. Today, the building is the Ragged School Museum.

Locally, Kelso had a ragged school, details of which can be found at the Borders Family History Society. (http://blog.bordersfhs.org.uk/2011/06/kelso-poor-law-and-ragged-school.html)

The success of Ragged Schools highlighted the need for free primary education, which was finally introduced in the late 1890s thanks to Andrew Walker's pioneering work.

Ragged School Museum⁽¹¹⁾

Credits

1. London City Mission obituary for Andrew Walker - https://raggedtheology.blogspot.com/ 
2. Photos of Walker family headstone - the author
3. Photos of Walker family headstone - the author
4. Postcard from Auld Earlston collection
5. Pigot's Business Directory - https://archive.org
6. www.ancestry.co.uk
7. Announcement in the style of Melbourne Argus 1847
8. https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
9. Judith Anderson, Alexander Family Tree, - https://www.ancestry.co.uk
10. The Border Magazine Vol. XI, No. 127, July 1906
11. https://www.jack-the-ripper-tour.com

Comments

Can you provide any information on the Walker family remembered in the Earlston churchyard? We'd be delighted to hear about your findings, so please share them in the comments section below. 

What the Dickens has that got to do with Earlston?

 In 1812 Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth to John and Elizabeth Dickens. 

He attended school until aged 12 when he was forced to get a job in a boot-blacking factory after his father was jailed in a debtors prison.

After 3 years, Dickens returned to school before embarking on a career in journalism.

Charles Dickens ⁽¹⁾

Dickens career as an author began in 1836 when he had his first novel, Pickwick Papers, published in serialised form.

Around that time, Dickens visited an area of Westminster known as the Devil's Acre and was deeply affected by the terrible conditions he witnessed. Based on his experience, he wrote a novel revolving around an orphan who had run away from a workhouse to London, where he became involved with a gang of thieves, living and working in a fictional Devil's Acre.

The novel was called 'Oliver Twist' and was first published in serial form, then as a three-volume novel.

In the story, the Devil's Acre becomes Jacob's Island. Dickens describes it as

'the filthiest, the strangest, the most extraordinary of the many localities that are hidden in London'

where the houses were

'so filthy, so confined, that the air would seem to be too tainted even for the dirt and squalor'.

The year was 1838.

What has that got to do with Earlston?

In 1807 Andrew Walker was born in Earlston to Robert Walker and his wife, whose name was not recorded.

Extract from Old Parish records showing Andrew Walker’s registration of birth⁽²⁾

Andrew attended the village school, probably until he was 12, before training as a gardener.

He worked at Newton Don house near Kelso, then Camperdown House near Dundee. Later he took up a new position at a house in Hans Place in London.

One evening while out walking he became lost in Old Pye Street, in 'the Devil's Acre'. 

Victorian London ⁽³⁾

Appalled by the conditions he saw, he decided to give up his work as a gardener. He applied to join the London City Mission (LCM) as a missionary and asked to be assigned to 'the Devil's Acre'.

The Archives of the London City Mission Index of City Missionaries⁽⁴⁾ record that on October 29, Andrew was accepted as a missionary with a salary of £65 per annum. The records also show that he was appointed to the Old Pye Street District in Westminster.

The year was 1838.

The first Ragged School

Andrew was convinced that even a basic education would benefit the street children. 

He found a disused stable, and with financial backing from Anthony Ashely-Cooper (Lord Ashely, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury), Andrew established the first Ragged School. With Lady Trowbridge's support, he could furnish part of the school to accommodate girls. Lady Hope provided sixty of the children with articles of clothing.

The London City Mission Society Committee Minutes show that 

'On the opening day, many titled people were there.' 

Such support would profoundly affect the provision of free education, although it would take many years to happen.

Andrew's work was recognised by the LCM in 1841 when he was awarded a salary increase of £5. Then in 1852, Andrew was promoted to training superintendent with a salary increase of £10.⁽⁴⁾

Street children and ex-convicts

In 1840, Andrew was asked by the Mission to take action to stem the growth of the poor and criminal classes in his area. His work with street children was successful with more and more children benefitting from an elementary education. However, Andrew realised that part of the problem lay in criminals released from prison without any means of support. Therefore, they were compelled to return to crime as their only means of survival.

Andrew was convinced that if he provided ex-convicts with a trade, they would have some chance of gainful employment.

He established a nursery where ex-convicts could learn about the basics of horticulture. Horticulture was very popular during the Victorian era, with businesses ready to meet the demand for flowers, laying out and maintaining gardens.

The plight of the impoverished street children and ragged school was a recurring theme in Dickens' books, such as Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby and A Christmas Carol. There is no doubt that Dickens was impressed with Andrew's work, in particular his nursery. 

Dickens wrote a weekly journal called 'Household Words’. In it, he would write on many topics to bring to the broader public's attention of social injustices. For the mid-1800s, this was very 'woke'!

In 1857, Dickens wrote how Andrew had established a gardening business, and it was advertised as

Wellington and Bedford Nurseries

A. Walker

Nurseryman and Florist

Flower stands furnished, Gardens Laid Out and attended to.

Carriage entrance, Wellington Road

The sign bore the motto 'Work - the Restorer of Virtue'

In an article titled 'Tilling the Devil's Acre' Dickens described Andrew's nursery as follows:

In this nursery garden, the rose opens noiselessly under the hand of the cracksman; the coarse fingers of the garroter clasp the neck of the hyacinth to its stick, and light touches of the pickpocket delicately tend to the lilies of the valley.

It would be unrealistic to expect all ex-convicts to go through some miraculous change simply by working for Andrew, but there were some successes. As Dickens put it -

As the youths were watering the masses of young plants that drooped their leaves under the heat of the spring sun, they were but doing as they were done by. Even to the eye of the flesh, there is a peculiar droop of a young thief's head, that may be taken as an emblem of the moral drought by which, if not a man will help him, he must die. It was still to be in some of these young gardeners; but there was evident in all the sense of a reviving influence. Labour in the open air had taken haggardness out of their cheeks, and honest living had quickly put healthy looks into their eyes.⁽⁵⁾

Making men of good character

Andrew's experiment with his work with ex-convicts was working. However, to take it to the next level, he selected a youth, provided him with food and accommodation and trained him as a gardener.

Bear in mind that the lad had been a thief and vagrant for several years, driven from his family home by his abusive step-grandfather. When he entered the Ragged School, his possessions were 'an old tattered coat and part of a pair of trousers and these a mass of filth'.

After five months of training, the youth was deemed ready for employment in the wider world. Through the kindness of Lord Ashley he was accepted as a migrant to Australia.

On learning that he had been successful, the youth was overjoyed. Shortly before embarking on his voyage, he said:

'If ever I should be possessed of a farm, I will call it Ashely's Farm. I shall never forget the Ragged School, for if it had not been for it, instead of going to Australia with a good character, I should have been sent to some other colony loaded with chains.

We don't know if he ever possessed that farm, but he was reportedly successful in his new life.

Andrew's next task was to scale up the training of more young gardeners. Over the coming years, countless young men would emigrate to Australia and the United States of America as gardeners 'of good character'.

Retirement

The nature of the work put a heavy toll on Andrew's health. In 1853 he retired from the Mission on medical advice. He established a nursery business on Wellington Road on the Surrey side of the Thames, continuing to help youths recently released from prison.

Emigration

For a short time, he continued his nursery business. Still, by 1857 and now a widower, he and his daughter, Mary, emigrated to Troy in New York State, where he became an active worker and elder in the United Presbyterian Church and started a gardening business.

In 1860 the US government conducted a census of the population. Two inhabitants of Troy, county of Rensselaer, state of New York, were Andrew Walker, aged 51, born in Scotland with the occupation of a gardener, and his daughter, Mary, 24 years old, born in England.

Extract from 1860 US Census for Troy⁽⁶⁾

Charles Dickens' lasting impression of Andrew

'Mr Walker is a Scotchman, who was born in the village of Earlstown, on Leaderwater, and was brought up to the trade of gardening. He first came to London about 20 years ago as a gardener to some gentleman of lady; and before he had been long in town, happened to lose his way one day in a labyrinth of filthy lanes and alley ways west of Westminster Abbey. … Shocked deeply by what he saw when lost for an hour among these lanes - in which so many are lost from the hour of their birth to the hour of their burial - Mr Walker dwelt for days upon new thoughts forced into his mind. What were the most glorious flowers in the universe to the divine blossom destroyed when children become, soul and body, loathsome, and when sins and sorrows settle like a cloud of locusts on a thicket of doomed women and men? By Heaven's help, he said, I will give you my life up to the hope that I may prosper in a better gardening than this with tulips and mignonette. He had heard of London city missionaries, and applied to be enrolled among their number. He was so enrolled and for sixteen years worked as a city missionary, having that dread acre at Westminster assigned to him as his ground. During the sixteen years he witnessed gradual improvement, and was, of course, active in laying the foundations of local ragged schools and reformatories.’ ⁽⁷⁾

Coming up in next month's post 

We’ve seen how Andrew was equally at home with the impoverished and aristocrats alike and how his work gave an education and hope to London’s poor and ex-convicts. He also gave inspiration to Charles Dickens, considered by many as the greatest Victorian novelist and social critic, who created some of the world’s best known fictional characters. 

In our next post we’ll look at Andrew’s family in Earlston.

Credits

1. Portrait of Charles Dickens www.classicalartuniverse.com

2. Andrew Walker birth Old Parish Records www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

3. Victorian London www.bbc.co.uk

4. Extracts from London City Mission meeting minutes www.raggedtheology.blogpost.com

5. Household Words https://archive.org

6. Extract from 1860 US Census for Troy www.ancestry.co.uk

7. Household Words https://archive.org

Comments

Any comments? We'd be delighted to hear from you in the comments section below.