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 3^rd 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: 27^th 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:

• Birth, marriage and death records, and census records on www.ancestry.co.uk and www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
  

• British Newspaper Archive

• FindMyPast – British Newspapers 1710-1963

• 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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Tributes to two Earlston Worthies - David Lockhead and Andrew Murdison

Newspaper obituaries can give us a unique tribute to men and women who made their mark in the community. Often the articles are long, wordy and eloquently expressed. Two such Earlston profiles are described here.


DAVID LOCHHEAD, JEWELLER
In 1886, David Lochhead, jeweller, took over the premises occupied then by the post office - the old sign is still visible to the right of the door.

Lochhead's watchmaker & jeweller in what is now the Tom Davidson Gallery.
Look at the right hand window for that unusual term "cyclealities".

David Drysdale Lochhead died in 1937, with "The Berwickshire News" paying tribute to the 83 year old businessman for his time in Earlston. He came to the village from Edinburgh in 1877 and soon involved himself in community activities - amongst them the Bowling Club where he was a member from its inception in 1881. On his retirement, in 1924 the Bowling Club presented him with a "handsome silver mounted umbrella, suitably inscribed.

Berwickshire News: 2nd June 1937

ANDREW MURDISON - A MAN OF MANY PARTS

Andrew Murdison was well known in the village, as a plumber and slater, working on such projects as Earlston Reading Room, the new Primary School which opened in 1877, and Gordon Water Works.

He was born in Lauder in 1835, and married Janet Miller, before setting up his business in Earlston.

The family was hit by tragedy with the early loss of six of their children over a period of eighteen years  – all buried in Earlston Churchyard.

William in 1869  aged 8 years 

Helen in 1871 aged 15 years

William in 1874 aged 1 year (it was customary to name a child after an earlier sibling who had died)

Mary in 1881 aged 23 years

James in 1887 aged 33 years

The 1881 census saw Andrew on Earlston High Street, with his wife and children - Mary (who died a few months later),  Maggie, Andrew, Thomas, Robert, and John, aged from 5 years to 22, Seven men and   two boys were employed in the business.

The Southern Reporter: June 9th 1903 posted a fulsome obituary on Andrew Murdison's life.

"Tuesday morning there passed away a man well known in this district - Mr. Andrew Murdison, plumber and slater , who had been resident in Earlston for over 46 years. He set up his business in 1857 and speedily built it up with the late William Rodger, builder and the late John Wallace, joiner. He did a great deal of work on the estates of the Earl of Haddington. The firms above mentioned still continue in the persons of a younger generation- testimony to the energy of their founder..

The late Mr Murdison was a man of powerful physique and few could equal him in his younger days for the amount of work he could undertake . He took a great deal of interest in all kinds of sport, particularly curling and bowling. He was regarded as the founder of the Curling Club and was certainly its moving spirit, as he was mainly instrumental in its establishment. Free Masonry was also a source of attraction. When he was head of the Lodge, his efforts to increase membership was so successful, the roll of Brotherhood had never been so large.

He was highly respected as a straightforward upright, true-hearted man, speaking fearlessly, a determined foe to all double dealing . shuffling or attempting to face both ways a staunch friend.

He was a  stout Conservative* and churchman. He is survived by four sons and two daughters."

 

Andrew was buried in Earlston Churchyard  with  his gravestone erected by his son Andrew Murdison, Jnr of Buffalo, New York State, USA.

 

On 21st July 1903, his son Thomas Boston Murdison posted an advertisement in the local press:

"Begging to intimate to the General Public that he had acquired  the premises in which his late father Andrew Murdison, Plumber and Slater had carried out his Business for the last 47 years. The Business was being carried on by him as his Successor.

By Strict Attention to Business, by keeping a Competent Class of Workmen and the Best Class of Materials, he hoped to merit a share of Public Patronage as previously Bestowed on his Predecessor." 

 

 

Over the following years, Andrew's family  continued to make their mark on the life of the Earlston community. 

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Contributed by Auld Earlston member, Susan Donaldson

An Earlston Suffragette Makes The Headlines

In October 1908 Prime Minister Herbert Asquith came to Earlston to make a political speech.  This was a major event for the Scottish Borders  village,  and newspapers were full of the preparations, with one particular aspect occupying their concerns, not only in local newspapers but in the press further afield – the threat of suffragette demonstrations.      

Preparations for the Visit

"The Jedburgh Advertiser”:  October 3rd described the plans  for the visit.  These included  the erection of a tent, measuring 220 feet by 60 feet  with seating accommodation for about 4000 people - this when the population  of Earlston in the 1911 census was only 1677!   How many political meetings in the Borders attract that kind of number today?

 Other newspapers gave additional details, amongst them “The Berwickshire News” with a lengthy article, published on 29^th September 1908:

• "There is no building in Earlston big enough for a mass meeting of any sort, and as the sudden return of summer could not be foreseen or depended upon, provision has been made in a marquee to afford sitting accommodation for some four thousand people." 
  

•  “Arrangement for the great Liberal demonstration to be addressed by the Prime 'Minister at Earlston on  the afternoon of Saturday, 3rd October, are now well advanced, and everything points  to the gathering being a record one………..Houses and shops are being painted  and decorated and made to look their best." 
  
  
  
  
  
   
• "For the benefit those desirous taking advantage of the special trains are asked to state that   it has now been arranged that there shall be five special trains to Earlston the afternoon bringing passengers from Edinburgh, Berwick, Dunbar, 'Hawick, Jedburgh, Kelso, and other stations en route………"
  

• "Every available room in Earlston is spoken for……tickets are being given: away freely, upon application, to Unionists well as to' Liberal, —in fact to any respectable person who is not likely cause any disturbance at the meeting."

• The report concluded with an exhortation that local residents respected the honour that was due on the occasion:
  

 “It is to be hoped Success will attend Asquith’s meeting in Earlston.  It is an event of no ordinary importance,. It will be the first time in the political history Berwickshire that a Prime Minister of Great Britain has delivered a speech at public meeting the county, and there is a desire on the part of the inhabitants to show their appreciation, of the honour which is about to be conferred upon them.” 

“The Sheffield Daily Telegraph” presented to its readers a picture of Earlston, waxing lyrically that “the remote village was more a land of poetry and romance than politics and politicians” . The paper also questioned  “Why Earlston?”  The answer was the Prime Minster had never spoken in Berwickshire and his son in law Mr. Harold John Tennant was the local MP.  

Threats Of Suffragette Intervention

This was a serious preoccupation for the organisers as evidenced by the press coverage,  which used such terms as "the dreaded suffragettes,   “pernicious feminine politicians”, “militant political women”   “displaying their usual offensive manners”, and "mischievously disposed females." 

Rumours abounded that suffragettes would  follow in motor cars the Prime Minister’s party to Earlston, with the  waving of flags and banners and shouts of their motto” Votes or Women”  and the approach of the picturesque procession to the various villages and hamlets the way being heralded by the ringing of bells to herald their presence.   In the event, the Prime Minister arrived by train, 

 Prime Minister Asquith arriving at Earlston Station

The strategy  of the organisers was to  sit all ladies attending the event in a specially designated part of the marquee;  or as “The Sheffield Daily Telegraph” said  “Put the Ladies in a  Compound” – a policy well covered by the local press and further afield by such titles as “The Huntly Express”, “The Aberdeen Press and Journal” and “The Daily Record”. 

Ladies would not be admitted to any other part of the building even if they possessed tickets for other parts.  “The purpose of this arrangement is evident”.  Names and addresses were also required ,  This precaution is specially intended to keep out any suffragettes who may attempt  to be present and carry out their policy in their  usual offensive manner.”

“The Daily Record” of 26^th Sept 1908 noted:

“The decision that they  must ail sit together has been arrived at, is  scarcely necessary to say, because of the probability of a suffragette disturbance. With the women in a bunch, it is believed  that any need for ejectment will be the more easier accomplished than if the ladies were dotted all over the marquee”.

The Berwickshire News reported on 29^th September that

"A few days ago, two ladies who had been inquiring where the meeting was held and when tickets were to be had. were directed to the Secretary of the local Liberal Association. In the course of a talk with him they said that they were Unionists, and admitted they were  suffragettes, but not of the wild  description, and they offered to pay for tickets. They were told, however, that the tickets were not for sale, and that they must  apply to the local secretary of the district from which they came – A safeguard against actions  contemplated these pertinacious feminine politicians.

"The Southern Reporter  noted that the local motto of suffragettes was “Ask Asquith with All Your Might"

The Prime Minister’s Visit: Saturday

 “The Aberdeen Press and Journal” of 10^th October 1908 presented a colourful report as the village awaited the arrival  of PM Asquith.

"In  all its history the little Berwickshire town of Earlston  has not witnessed such scenes on Saturday. Its High Street under normal conditions can boast of about a dozen people on it at one time, except on Saturday evening, when country people lend a brief spell of life to the town, it might thought that it was only peopled by the ghostly contemporaries of  Thomas  the Rhymer, whose ruined tower still stands at the southern end of the village.

On Friday night Earlstonians went to bed unknown; Saturday they awoke to find the eyes of the British-speaking world focussed upon their quaint little town, and in the afternoon the erstwhile solitary street was crowded with motor cars, traps, cycles, and close on 8000 people. Earlston had, however, risen to the occasion. Within its bounds was to speak Britain’s greatest political figure and statesman, the Prime Minister, and the town did not hesitate to do him honour. From east to west of the long High Street flags and streamers waved profusion; Union Jacks and other patriotic emblems”.

 

It proved to be a notable  occasion,  disrupted by the late arrival of reporters and M.Ps on a delayed Edinburgh train which took three hours to reach Earlston; crowds spilling out of from the crowded hot  marquee, and noise from the "shunt, snort and whistles" of a railway engine threatening  to drown out the speakers.

When Mr Asquith stood to speak "He got  a warm greeting.  Many of the people rose to their feet and waved hats and handkerchiefs and cheered with great cordiality".

 

A Suffragette Interruption

However Mr Asquith had only said a few words when,  at his  remark  "My primary purpose in coming here this afternoon is........., a woman startled her neighbours by exclaiming " “Give votes to women!". 

“The interrupter was a young woman of graceful figure and pleasant features, and, having borne her testimony, she smiled and waited. She had not to wait long before she was attended to. One of the stewards quickly realised the situation. Ah., ha, here you are, are you", he seemed to say, and he made his way to the fair suffragette. She was  calm and unresisting, but with her sailor hat somewhat awry , and they a little excited and very energetic, but not severe. As far as one could judge the suffragette had no confederates beside her, for the ladies in whose all she stood appeared most surprised of all when the  demand for their civil emancipation came from their midst, and there not a flutter among them  while the furbelows that had been ruffled were re-arranged. Of course they were cruel men who shouted  "Put her out". She didn't care - she had done what she could.

“The Huntly Express” referred to “the stylishly-dressed young suffragette, who  within a few seconds was in the arms of a stalwart Gala steward, and was borne out amid the laughter of the audience. She appeared to be the only one of her kind who had succeeded in effecting an entrance, and the Prime Minister proceeded without further interruption”.

The “Votes for Women”, publication in London not surprisingly gave a different slant on the incident:

“In  spite of the most elaborate precautions to exclude any but ardent supporters, a woman found her way into Mr. Asquith's meeting at Earlston, and at an early stage in the proceedings protested that he ought to give votes to qualified women. She was, of course, ejected after considerable uproar, being followed by a large crowd, who were evidently more interested in the Suffragettes than in the Prime Minister. Meanwhile, a man who interrupted the speaker several times was left in undisturbed possession of his seat.”

"The Jedburgh Gazette"  reporter clearly found this incident far more  interesting than Mr Asquith's speech which he described as "Unimpassioned with no striking phrases." 

But on a brief Saturday afternoon in October 1908

Earlston was on the national stage politically.

Official photograph taken by Walter Swanston, an Earlston-born photographer
 who set up a studio on Leith Walk, Edinburgh. 

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But the Asquith incident was not the end of suffragette activity in the village. 

"The Berwickshire News": 10th August 1909 printed the following report:

Suffragettes.—On Friday week three ladies of the Suffragette “persuasion” visited Earlston, and at the dinner hour of the factory workers addressed an open air meeting in the open space at Rhymer’s Mill. There was large attendance of the factory' workers and others who listened to the speeches of the ladies with attention. Two of them spoke of the advantages that would accrue to the country if the franchise were extended to women, who at present laboured under wrong and injustice in being denied it, Mrs Hope of Sunwick and other ladies who hold the views of the speakers were present. The Suffragettes left Earlston on the four o’clock train to Duns.  

 

Women workers at Simpson & Fairbairn Mill, Earlston - early 1900's

1913 saw more militant activity - this time in Kelso, when: 

"A couple of women, presumably suffragettes, had been caught red handed in an attempt to destroy by fire the new stand which had been erected in the paddock at the Racecourse.......The fire was subdued before any damage could be done and the suffragettes arrested......In the walk down to Kelso Police Station, the Ladies beguiled the time by giving lusty voice  to the suffragette song " March On."

The women  were conveyed to Jedburgh and apprehended before the  Sheriff.   A big crowd collected in the vicinity of  the court room to catch a glimpse of the daring but mischievously disposed females." 

 

The protesters  were committed to prison and taken by train to Edinburgh,  They  were found guilty as charged and sentenced to nine months imprisonment in Calton Jail, Edinburgh.  However they were liberated within a week having gone on hunger strike.  The terms of their temporary release  stated that they must return after a stipulated number of days - an instance of the infamous "cat and mouse"  policy.

 

Postscript

But it was the role of women in the First World War, undertaking men's work  that did as much as anything to show their ability and commitment.  

 

So in November 1918 the Representation of the People Act  gave the vote to some women i.e. those over the age of 30,  who were householders, the wives of householders, occupiers of property with an annual rent of £5, and graduates of British universities.   It was to be a further ten years in 1928, before women gained the vote on the same basis as men.

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Source of Information:  www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

 

 Contributed by Susan Donaldson of the Auld Earlston Group