Showing posts with label Post Office & Posties. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Post Office & Posties. Show all posts

Thursday 12 May 2022

John P. Weatherly (1851- 1907 ) - Earlston Postmaster and Photographer

Part One of the Weatherly Story featured Thomas Weatherly  who came to Earlston from Berwick upon Tweed  in the 1870’s and set up the stationers/newsagent’s High Street business that survived over
one hundred years.

Following Thomas’s death, his eldest son John P. Weatherly took over the business. Born in 1851 in Berwick, John’s middle initial was for Patterson – his mother’s maiden name.

John married Margaret Thomson Winter  and the birth of four children followed in Earlston - sadly eldest son, also named John, born in 1894  died  at the age of only nine months; Ellen Sarah Patterson Weatherly was born in 1889, Margaret Thomson Weatherly in 1891, and Edward William Sprott Weatherly in 1893. 

A Man of Many Parts:
John was soon involved in the family business, described in census returns as Bookseller’s Assistant, and Postmaster/Stationer


Advert in Berwickshire News:  31t December 1889 

But John. along with his postmaster role,   also gained renown as a  local photographer  and proved  to be an owner of four properties in the village.

As Photographer 

The official opening of the rebuilt church in Earlston in 1892  featured in a lengthy article in “The Berwickshire News” of 12th July  and ended with the paragraph:

“Through the great kindness of Mr J. P. Weatherly, photographer, Earlston, we are enabled to give a portrait above of the church, from a photograph specially taken by Mr Weatherly for the purpose.”

 John also  produced a series of local postcards entitled the “Weatherly Leadervale Series”  - with three examples shown below.

The postcards are all labelled on the reverse as “Weatherly’s Leadervale Series”

             

                                       

This charming photograph was gifted to Auld Earlston by a reader who had bought it off Ebay.  The only information was the fact it was produced by John P. Weatherly of Earlston – no name of the little girl, no date, but thought to be printed around 1900. 

The photograph is in the format of a “carte de visite”  - a small photograph mounted on thick  card, which originated in France but some became popular elsewhere, as people exchanged them to foster friendship and family bonds. 

Following his death in 1907, “The Berwickshire News” paid tribute to John P. Weatherly in  this role:

“For some years he gave a good deal of his spare time to photography in which he acquired considerable skill – his views of Earlston and district being well known and appreciated by the public”.

As a Property Owner

John appears to have developed a portfolio of property. The 1905 Valuation Roll for Earlston shows John owning:

As proprietor & occupier:  A house and shop on the High Street, and a washhouse.

As proprietor & landlord:   A smithy with the tenant Robert Waldie, blacksmith, and a house & stable, with the tenant Thomas Wilson,  labourer.

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John P. Weatherly continued to hold the position of Post Master until his death in 1907,  with obituaries appearing in a number of newspapers.

Southern Reporter:  14th November 1907

John was buried in Earlston Churchyard, with “Earlston Monumental Inscriptions”, published by the Border Family History Society, recording the details of his gravestone:

“In loving memory of John Patterson Weatherly, beloved husband of Margaret T. Weatherly who died 11.11.1907 aged 46 years; also the above Margaret Thomas Weatherly 23.10.1914, aged 53; also their son John Patterson who died 24.9.1895 aged 9 months.  also their daughter Ellen Sarah Patterson Weatherly 21.1.1970 and Margaret Thomson Weatherly who died 10.12.1970.” 

Postscript:

Following John P. Weatherly’s death in 1907, his wife Margaret took on the role of Postmistress, until her death in 1914, with an obituary appearing in “The Berwickshire News” of 27th October 1914.

“The death of Mrs Weatherly, Post Mistress, which took place on Friday morning, caused surprise and regret in the town and district, where she was well known and much respected. Mrs Weatherly succeeded her husband, Mr John P. Weatherly, who died in 1907, in the management the Post Office, the duties of which she performed the great satisfaction of the community, who appreciated her business competence, her obliging disposition and courtesy. Mrs. Weatherly for very many years has been Agent for “The Berwickshire News,” a position held for a long time by her late husband; and both Mr and Mrs Weatherly were highly esteemed and valued representatives of  the County Newspaper Earlston. Mrs Weatherly’s illness was not generally regarded as of a serious nature, and her death naturally came as a shock to the general public. Much sympathy is felt under their severe bereavement for her family consisting a son and two daughters, all grown up.”  

Sources of Information:

 
                                      Contributed by Susan Donaldson and Sheila McKay.
 
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Tuesday 15 March 2022

The Weatherly Family of Earlston 1: Thomas. Weatherly (1833-1891)

THOMAS WEATHERLY (1833- 1891)

PRINTER, STATIONER, BOOKSELLER & POSTMASTER        

For over 100 years the Weatherly Family was well known in Earlston as postmasters and postmistresses.  This new blog series follows their lives from Thomas Weatherly born in 1833 in Berwick upon Tweed to his great grandson John P. Weatherly, remembered today my many local residents.  

Thomas Weatherly was born in 1833 in Berwick upon Tweed, son of William Weatherly, a mariner and his wife Eleanor.  Thomas married in 1855 in Berwick Sarah Patterson, whose surname was adopted by many of her descendants as a middle name.

The 1861 census saw the young family still in Berwick with Thomas 28, a printer, Sarah 36, and children Margaret 4 and baby John P.  Ten years on in 1871 the family had grown with Margaret 14, John 10, Sarah 7 and Thomas 4 years old. 

The family moved to Earlston, in the 1870s, with an advertisement in “The Southern Reporter” of 3rd September 1874 announcing that Thomas was opening a printing business in the village.


Slater’s Business Directory of 1878 listed Thomas Weatherly as one of five Booksellers & Stationers in the village, with Thomas described as a letter press printer and book binder. He was also listed under Fire & Office Agents as an insurance agent. 

In 1881 the family was living on the High Street with Thomas at 48 years old described as a printer, his wife 58, daughters Maggie, aged 24  and 17 year old Sarah were both housekeepers; John at 20 was a bookseller’s assistant and 14 year old Thomas  a printer’s apprentice – so very much a family business. 

Thomas (senior) appeared also to act as agent for the local newspapers, with many adverts naming him as contact for information on property to let, events tickets and lost & found items, such as a lady’s fur muff lost at Earlston Fair, a lady’s riding crop, and a lady’s gold bracelet. 

Southern Reporter: 27th November 1879


A black edged letter printed by Thomas Weatherly as an invitation to a funeral. 

We have a first-hand account of Thomas in Earlston,   written by the Rev. William Crockett (1866-1945)

 “A printer from Berwick, he migrated to the west of the shire (about 70 years ago) and had his  stationer's and bookseller's shop on the High Street. 

Weatherly's enterprise took him into the publishing and  newspaper field, with an eight page weekly "The Border Beacon",  followed by a second, having the rather high sounding title "The South of Scotland Live Stock Journal".  I fancy that very few, if any copies, have survived, apart from those I have myself kept in file those many years.  

As Weatherly discovered, Earlston was scarcely the place for a successful venture into the journalistic sphere”.

In 1883, Thomas Weatherly became Earlston Post Master, and the post office moved further along the High Street to what is now the Lucky Finds shop.


High Street , looking west, with the Weatherly shop & post office on the right.

Slater’s Business Directory of 1886 noted the services offered by the Post Office under Thomas Weatherly. 


Thomas  served  in the postmaster role until 1886, (the year his wife died),   when his son John P. Weatherly succeeded him – to be followed by his granddaughters Margaret T. Weatherly  and Ellen S. P. Weatherly and finally his great grandson John P. Weatherly, well known to many today for his involvement in village activities. .  

Thomas died of bronchitis on 13th February 1891, aged 58.  buried in Earlston Churchyard.  The gravestone also marks the death of his wife Sarah in 1886 and his youngest, unmarried  daughter Sarah in 1920. 

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Daughter Margaret  married in 1883 local man Adam Mauchlan, variously described as "fishmonger, poulterer, rabbit catcher, general dealer".    Adam had his business on the High Street.  The couple went on to have three sons and one daughter.  interestingly in the 1901 Census their home was next door to the Weatherly family!      Margaret died age 47 in 1904 and her husband described his 'beloved' wife as " a model wife and mother ever remembered by Adam Mauchlan".    After Adam's death in 1910 the family moved away from the village, apart,  from second son, Thomas, who worked as a power loom tuner and lived in Roosevelt Place, married twice but had no family of his own.   He died at Rhymer's Cottages.                                                                                                   

Earlston at the Turn of the Century

 

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Contributors:  Susan Donaldson, Sheila McKay and Jeff Price of the Auld Earlston Group.

Sources:

  • Slater's Business Directories, 1878 and 1886. 
  • Earlston Monumental Inscriptions, published by the Borders Family History Society.

  • The Rhymer's Town:  Further Notes on Earlston's Past, by Rev. Dr. W. S. Crockett. In "The Southern Annual”:1942.

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Thursday 18 April 2019

200 Years of Earlston's Post Office

A look at the changing face of Earlston Post Office across two centuries

THE EARLY YEARS 
In the 1820s George Lindsay was  the Earlston Post Master, listed in the 1825 edition of Pigot & Co Commercial Directory of Scotland as a grocer, spirit dealer and hardware man, in addition to being Post Master. The address of his grocery shop isn’t given, but it is possible that it was the building currently (2019) occupied by “One Stop” on the High Street. That being the case, Lindsay’s next door neighbour would have been John Spense.


John Spense took over the role of Postmaster on LIndsay's death in 1836. Spense was a writer, (an old Scottish term for a solicitor),  justice of the peace,  clerk and agent to the Norfolk Fire Office. We know that Spense lived in a house on the High Street now known as Market House. 

The railway did  not reach Earlston until 1863, so post in earlier times was carried by three coach services: 

  • The Commercial Traveller ran between Coldstream and Edinburgh. It left Earlston every Monday, Wednesday and Friday leaving at twelve thirty Coldstream and returned on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at ten in the morning.
     
  • The Tweedside Coach ran between Kelso and Earlston, leaving Earlston at one o’clock in the afternoon and returning in the morning at ten for Edinburgh.

     
  • The Royal Eagle served as the link between the Borders and Edinburgh
A foot post arrived from Melrose at ten in the morning and returned at two in the afternoon.

By 1837, the coach service was limited to the Tweedside. The coach left Earlston (from Kelso) to Edinburgh at nine-thirty every morning except Sundays. The return service to Kelso (from Edinburgh) left each afternoon, except Sundays, at half-past one. For the villagers, this meant that letters arrived at half-past two each afternoon and were dispatched at seven each morning.

The Ordnance Survey published “Name Books” which provide information on the names found in various parishes covered by Ordnance Survey maps. Berwickshire OS Name Books, 1856-1858, Volume 16 contains information on place names found in the parish of Earlston.

The description of the Earlston Post Office for 1856-1858 read:

"An apartment of a dwelling house is occupied as an office where letters are received and dispatched to and from Melrose daily also to Legerwood, Gordon, Fans and Redpath etc. Mrs. Spense Post Mistress."

By the late 1850s, the railway on the Waverley Line, had reached Melrose.   As a consequence, a coach from Earlston provided a twice-daily service (Sundays excepted) in connection with the railway. Nonetheless, the service offered by the Post Office had increased. Letters “from all parts” arrived from Melrose every morning at half-past eleven and each evening at eight. Mail was dispatched every morning at seven-twenty and again in the afternoon three-fifty. A Sunday service had now been established with letters arriving at eleven and dispatched at seven-thirty in the morning. Money Orders were also granted and paid. 

UNCERTAIN TIMES - WHO WAS TO BE THE NEXT POSTMASTER?

 A significant impact on the postal services in Earlston occurred in In late December of 1859, when Margaret Spense died of acute bronchitis at the age of 63. As a  consequence, the Post Master position was vacant.
 

The Berwickshire MP, David Robertson, 1st Baron Marjoribanks, called for a meeting to be convened on January 19, 1860, in the West UP Church and chaired by Charles Wilson of Wilson and Sons.

The purpose of the meeting was to choose the new Post Master. Four candidates were in the running and, after a secret ballot, Mr. Ralph Dodds, an Earlston merchant, was elected with a majority of 97 votes.

"The Kelso Chronicle" at the time reported:

We cannot doubt, but the decision of this meeting will give general satisfaction. Mr. Dodds is a highly respectable, deserving, and trustworthy person, one who will do his utmost to please and accommodate the public.”
Such praise and optimism were to prove misplaced.

Just two years and two months after accepting the post, Ralph Dodds resigned stating that the salary of £8 per annum was insufficient. To give this salary some context, in 1897 a three bedroom house at 4 Rodger’s Place in Earlston was available for an annual rent of £11.

A meeting was convened on March 27, 1862, in the Reading Room under the chairmanship of Charles Wilson and it was concluded that the government undervalued the Post Master’s position and Mr. Robertson was asked to use his influence in obtaining an increase for Mr. Dodds.
A follow-up meeting was held at the end of April. A salary increase was not forthcoming and, Mr. Thomas Clendinnen, a draper in the village, who had offered his services as postmaster, withdrew his offer. The Post Master role was offered to the Legerwood and Melrose “districts runners”, but both declined. Obviously, Post Master was not seen as a desirable position. The meeting concluded with the action to canvas the villagers for a volunteer. 

THE CROCKETT-MCWILLIAM YEARS

In the mid-1850s, William Crockett arrived in Earlston and in 1857 married Margaret Wood. In the 1861 census William  was working as a Power Loom Tuner, but five years later was listed in Rutherfurd's Southern Counties Directory of 1866 as postmaster.

 

"Mail arrives 10.40am & 7pm and is collected 6.30am, and 6pm with the promise  that letters are delivered immediately after arrival.  Postmaster is  William Crockett  with David Trotter and David Swanston post-runners.
 Ten years on in the 1871 census, William’s occupation was Post Master, and his wife was listed as Post Mistress.

In the same census, was listed on the High Street Ann McWilliam,  a grocer and  the widow of Alexander McWilliam   Around 1858, Alexander McWilliam, his wife Ann and daughter Annie arrived in Earlston from Midlothian and set up a grocery business in what is now Tom Davidson Art Gallery. A second daughter, Mary was born in 1859.

On November 27, 1860, Alexander was making his rounds, selling to customers and picking up produce from farmers when he slipped and fell from his cart. He had sustained a head injury and died at home the following day. He was just thirty-six years old and left two young children and a heavily pregnant wife. His son, Alexander, was born in 1861. 

In 1872, William Crockett died aged 54, and eight years later we know that Margaret Crockett was working as a grocer while Annie McWilliam (Alexander and Ann McWilliam’s eldest daughter) was Post Mistress.

It seems reasonable to assume that following the death of Alexander, Ann McWilliam would have welcomed the opportunity to grow the business by incorporating the post office into her shop. However, she was a single mother with a young family, and the Post Mistress position with the increased services offered by the Post Office may have been too daunting to take on.

We know that the Post Master position was not desirable, but with the right premises, it could offer better employment for William Crockett than that of Power Loom Tuner.
It is possible, therefore, that the two families came together, McWilliams with the shop on the High Street and Crockett with the Post Master position.

It would certainly explain the “Post Office” sign on the stonework still visible today.

Below a photograph of what is now Tom Davidson Gallery.  Note -  just visible  “Post Office” etched into the stone of the right side of the doorway. 





In 1886, David Lochhead, jeweller, took over the premises occupied by the post office.



THE WEATHERLY YEARS
In 1886, Thomas Weatherly became Post Master, and the post office moved to his stationers, bookshop and bookbinding shop further along the High Street.  (Currently Lucky Finds). 

In 1889, Thomas’ son, John P Weatherly became Post Master. The middle initial “P” was in honour of Thomas’ wife’s maiden name of Patterson.

In addition to the family business of stationer, printer and bookbinder, John appears to have developed a portfolio of property. The 1891-1892 Valuation Roll shows John owning - a House and Back Premises (later described as a Shop); 2 other Houses; a House with Stable; a Weaving Shop and a Smithy.

The “Postie Close”, out of shot but to the right in the photograph below, served as a convenient link connecting the village to the church via the road. 




But take a closer look at that newspaper placard outside the shop, which announces that "Crippen Removed to Hospital" - the date Septembers 2nd 1910. 

Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, was an American doctor  He was hanged  23rd November 1910 in Pentonville Prison, London  for the murder of his wife Cora Henrietta Crippen, and was the first criminal to be captured with the aid of wireless telegraphy. 

John P. Weatherly continued to hold the position of Post Master until his death in 1907 when Margaret Weatherly, his wife took over the role.  Following her death in 1914 at the age of 53, her elder daughter Ellen Sarah Patterson Weatherly (her middle names from her grandmother) became Post Mistress, with younger daughter  Margaret assisting in the shop - her occupation was listed in the Tradeand Commercial Directories as “Book Seller”. Margaret died in 1970 at the age of 79, the same year as her sister Ellen. 

Taking over the business was John P. Weatherly, (1924-2006), known to some of today's Earlstonians.   Born in 1923, he followed the family tradition of having Patterson as his middle name. His parents, Edward and Mary Weatherly, lived in Lauder where Edward worked as a baker. 
  
John was a popular man, and he involved himself with many of the community’s groups. In 1963, he married Mary Rodger, a teacher  who taught many of today's villagers at Earlston Primary School.John  also earned a reputation as a local historian,   gathering a wealth of material, which forms  the basis of the archive collection of the Auld Earlston Group. 

FULL CIRCLE 
When John retired, the Post Office was relocated to the Spar Convenience Store now   “One Stop” grocer,  thus going full circle from the 1820s.  The service was later incorporated into the main grocery business  until its sudden closure in March 2017. 

It took nearly a year of campaigning, before the village  benefited again from a post office service, with the introduction of  a “mobile post office,” i.e. a van Wednesday and Friday afternoons only.


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With grateful thanks to blog reader Jeff Price for contributing this article. 

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SEE ALSO:  "Earlston's Posties of the Past"   HERE 

NOTE: "The  Changing Face of Earlston" is the theme of the next 
Auld Earlston Exhibition & Slide Show,  
when the focus will be on over 200 years of local  shops and businesses.

The Dates:  June 22nd and 23rd 2019 in the Church Hall.  Details to follow.