Blaikie's Cottage

 

Credit: Author

Introduction

If you travel north into Earlston, about 100 metres before the bridge over the river Leader, there is a modest, weather-beaten sign pointing towards 'Blaikie's Cottage'. The sign may be modest, but the cottage was home to James Blaikie, a deeply pious man, an eccentric, respected businessman, a miser, and a man of great physical strength.

Considering that more than 260 years since the last Blaikie died and that the house is still referred to as Blaikie's Cottage is evidence of his lasting impression on the village.

The Killing Times

James’ religion was central to his life, but there were threats to his faith from the Scottish Episcopalians, the 1689 Jacobite Rising and the 1715 and 1745 rebellions. The danger to his life and religion must have seemed endless.

Born in 1674, James witnessed the end of the Covenanters era which, because of the atrocities was known as the Killing Times. 

In 1684, the Privy Council passed the Oath of Abjuration. This Oath required all Scots to swear that the monarch was above the church, something Presbyterians could not agree to. Those who refused to swear were either executed or banished. 

Even though just a ten-year-old, James most likely heard of local people who were banished. John Young and Andrew Cook from Melrose were banished, as were Robert McGill and Robert Young from Galashiels, together with William Hardie and John Mather of Kelso and Jedburgh, respectively.

Where these men were banished to and if they survived is not known. However, an indication of their fate can be taken from the account of Gilbert Milroy of Penninghame parish in Dumfries.

Milroy was taken prisoner and was ordered to take the Oath. He refused and was taken to Edinburgh. Held at Holyrood, he was again ordered to take the Oath. Again, he refused. He was sentenced to have his ears cut off and be banished.

He was taken to Newhaven, where he and another 130 covenanters were held in the hold of the ship for their voyage to Jamaica. The passage took 3 months and 3 days, and due to the conditions onboard, lack of food and clean water, 33 covenanters died.

In Port Royal in Jamaica, Milroy and his fellow prisoners were sold as slaves. The King had gifted the prisoners to Sir Philip Howard, who consequently pocketed the proceeds of the sale.

In 1710, Milroy returned to Scotland where his and the other covenanters' accounts of their treatment were documented in 'A Cloud of Witnesses', which was published in 1714.

Credit: Internet Archive

James must have been aware of these events and the treatment meted out to the Presbyterians, so it is reasonable to suppose these reports must have strengthened his religious conviction.

Eccentricity

James never missed his daily devotions, and through time, he dug the family grave, which became his preferred place for prayer, which he referred to as the 'narrow house'.

After several years, he built a 'throuch' over the grave. A throuch is a gravestone that is typically laid directly onto the ground. However, in James' case, he mounted it on pedestal legs with ornately carved side panels. Tools of James' trade and leaf motifs were sculpted into the panels. James had the following inscribed on the throuch -

At Craigsford, January 20th 1724

Here is the throuch, and place designed for the body of James Blaikie, wright of Craigsford and Marion Sclater, his spouse; built by himself; wishing that God, in whose hand my life is, may raise me by the greatness of His power to a glorious resurrection; that this stone when I view it, may mind me of death and eternity, and the dreadful torments which the wicked endure. Oh that God may enable me to have some taste of the sweet enjoyment of His presence, that my soul may be filled with love to Him, who is altogether lovely; that I may go through the valley of the shadow of death leaning on Him in whom all my hope is; so strengthen Thou to me, oh Lord, who have done to me great things, more than I can express.⁽¹⁾

The side panels are interesting since they provide a catalogue, carved in stone, of the tools used by joiners and roofers in the early eighteenth century.

Businessman

On New Year's Eve 1702, James Blaikie married Marion Sclater and the ceremony was duly recorded in the Melrose Parish register. They set up home in a cottage on the banks of the river Leader opposite Rhymer's Tower. James built a workshop and saw pit to fashion the timber from logs to finished articles as needed to serve his needs as a joiner. 

He was obviously a well-respected craftsman since he was awarded the contract to renew the roof of Ledgerwood church. A stone is set into the gable end of the church, commemorating the repairs made in 1717 following a fire. James carried out those repairs, and so we can assume that such important work would only have been given to a competent business person. 

During that work, James' reputation as a man of considerable strength was enhanced. A newspaper reported that -

'When at last the building was ready for the roof, he rose early, and after offering up his morning devotions in 'the narrow house', he hurried away to Ledgerwood, where he raised and adjusted the whole of the ponderous kipples*, and had just finished this heavy part of the work, when his men arrived at the proper hour to begin the labours of the day.' ⁽²⁾

It was also reported that he fixed the slates to the church roof single-handed in one morning.

* main rafters supporting the roof.

Miserliness
It would be charitable to describe James as being cautious with money. He was known to tie a large stone to the bottom of his saw used in the saw pit to avoid paying a man to pull on the saw from below. And indeed, he preferred coins to notes. He hoarded his golden guineas, which he kept under lock and key. As he lay on his deathbed, it was reported that he asked his attendant to bring his hoard to him in a 'wecht' (weigh scales). He continued to count his money repeatedly 'while his life was ebbing away to another world.' ⁽¹⁾

Death and legacy

Part of James' trade was making coffins for the recently deceased in the area. He became increasingly concerned that no one would make his coffin when he died. James realised that a coffin of such proportions to accommodate him would be expensive. So he built his own in readiness. As an indication of James' size, the throuch measures 2.3 metres x 1.2 meters x 0.2 meters (7.5 feet x 4 feet x 8 inches). So he decided to build his own. However, if a customer required an oversized coffin, James would not be averse to selling his.

And so it was that James had taken up an offer to sell his coffin, and he subsequently died before he could make a replacement, leaving his family with the expense of having one specially made.

After his death, the following was added to the inscription on his throuch -

Here lies James Blaikie, portioner of Earlston, who died the 23rd day of June 1749, aged 73 years; as also Marion Sclater, his spouse, who died 1747, and his daughter who died 1st November 1755.

James' workshop has long since been demolished. The saw-pit has been filled in. There are some apple trees that may be distant descendants of those planted by James.
A relatively new extension, a scullery, has been reportedly, built over the graves. 

The scullery with the throuch on the right by the red pole
© JJ Price

The throuch was moved, and it remains intact however the inscription has succumbed to 'The influence of time and the thoughtless conduct of youths and visitors have long ago sufficed to efface the inscription, but a friend, the late Joseph Watson, Earlston, supplied us some years ago with a copy.' ⁽¹⁾

The throuch is now mounted on modern breeze blocks and serves as a makeshift bird table. The pillars remain intact, and some carved stonework lies at the site.
The legend of James Blaikie has been told and retold over the hundreds of years since his death. A newspaper article which described the damage done to the inscription made its way to George Mercer, mayor of Lodi, a town in New Jersey, USA.
George was one of three brothers from Earlston who had emigrated to the USA and, where George found fame and fortune. A fourth brother, John, had remained in Earlston and built Roosevelt Place on the Kidgate.
When George read the story about the vandalism, he felt compelled to write the Earlston minister Rev. W S Crockett. The letter read:

'The article remarked that it was a pity that some of the Border societies, or some individual, should not have taken up the matter of preserving the grave and the stone. It has been much abused by visitors and children, and I suspect that I am one of the 'children' who helped to efface the markings on the stone. We were pretty much alike, all of us, when we were playing around there, and were just as likely to chip a piece off for fun as not. I am a great believer in preserving the old historical land-marks, and always feel badly to see any of them wiped off the face of the earth. It has occurred to me that possibly I could do something to redeem my wrong-doing, if you can call it such; that is, by helping to restore as nearly as possible to its original condition the stone and the grave. And I would be willing to contribute all, or part of, the cost of this; if you will take the matter up with the proper authorities or some society, and give me an idea as to the cost of putting it in fairly good shape, I will consider the matter favourably and advise you very promptly what to do. I know no one better than your own good self to take this matter up. You are so familiar with everything in that line, and the history of our dear old town, that you can probably reach without much trouble just the one to do the necessary work.' ⁽³⁾ 

Obviously nothing was done to reinstate the throuch but James’ legacy remains, albeit in a sorry state.

The throuch now serving as a bird table
© JJ Price

Detail from the side panel
© JJ Price

Detail from the side panel showing one of James' tools of the trade
© JJ Price

Credits

1. Berwickshire News, 16 March 1875

2. The Border Magazine, June 1908

3. The Border Magazine, August 1908

What's in a name?

Suppose road signs had been compulsory over the centuries. In that case, these names would have appeared instead of Earlston - Earlstoun, Earlstown, Earls Town, Ercildoune, Ersilton and Ercheldun. And just to be inclusive, the perhaps the sign should incorporate the Gaelic for Earlston - Dùn Airchill. 

So what’s in a name?

If you grew up in Earlston in the 1950s and 1960s, chances are you called 'the burn' the Trufford burn. 

Now it's called the Turfford. 

Has the name been changed, or was the wrong name used before?

This newspaper clipping dated 1896 shows that the burn was known as the Trufford. Yet forty years before the newspaper notice, a map of the area shows the name 'Turfford'.

Credit: Southern Reporter 1896

Some old documents claim that Turfford's name came from an area of ground close to the burn that the owner of Cowdenknowes allowed villagers to cut turfs to use as fuel for their fires. This was before the Midlothian coal fields and transport links provided a coal supply. The peat bog was subsequently drained during the construction of the railway.

Cowdenknowes was known as Coldaned Knolls. In a charter to Mungo Home, King James IV refers to 'the mains of Ersilton called Coldaned Knolls with fortalice and manor thereon.' As recently as 1889, Cowdenknowes was referred to as Cowden Knowles.

The Earl of Dunbar, who owned much of the land around the village, got into a dispute with the monks from Melrose who worked their farm at the Grange. The Earl tried to move them off the land. But the church was too powerful, so he gifted the monks with 'the whole arable land called Sorouelesfeld on the west side of the Leader, towards the Grange of the aforesaid monks as fully as William Soroueles held it.' Sorouelesfeld is now known as ‘Sorrowlessfield Farm’.

Farms feature in street names in Earlston - Huntshaw, Summerfield, and Georgefield are all local farms.

 

Farm fields are given to street names. The 'Gun' is an oddly shaped field that looks like a rifle with its butt towards Huntshaw and its barrel extending towards the village. The Gun has lent its name to several streets. To the west of the 'Gun', an adjacent field lay in the crook formed by the High Street and Thorn Street, giving its name, Westfield, to several streets built there.

Credit: Ordnance Survey 1857

Streets prefixed 'Thorn' refer to the ancient thorn that grew close to where the Black Bull stands.

'As long as the Thorn Tree stands, Ercildourne shall keep its lands'.This was the first of several prophecies attributed to Thomas the Rhymer collected by Robert Chambers, who identified the tree in question as one that fell in a storm in either 1814 or 1821, presumably on the about the last remaining acre belonging to Earlston. The prophecy was lent additional weight at the time because, as it so happened, the town merchants had fallen under bankruptcy due to a series of "unfortunate circumstances". According to one account, "Rhymer's thorn" was a huge tree growing in the garden of the Black Bull Inn, whose proprietor, named Thin, had its roots cut all around, leaving it vulnerable to the storm that same year.

Some streets have been named after their destination - Church Street, Station Road, Mill Road and Haugh Head Road.

Three streets are named after historical events. Queensway and Crown Crescent mark the succession of Queen Elizabeth II to the throne. And Everest Road commemorates conquering Mount Everest.

A few streets are named after people. Hope Knowe nods to the Hope family that once lived at Cowdenknowes. Roger's Place, William Bank and Jane Field are named after family members of the builders, Rogers. Roosevelt Place refers to Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th president of the USA. The houses were built by stonemason John Mercer and were completed in 1910, the year after Roosevelt left office. The connection to Roosevelt could be more apparent. However, John Mercer's brothers, George, Andrew and James, had emigrated to America. The brothers settled in Hackensack, where George became a successful businessman in Lodi, the postmaster for several years and the mayor. The block of houses may have been named after the former president to acknowledge the Mercer family's fortunes in America.

George Mercer
Credit: Auld Earlston Collection

The derivation of Halcombe Crescent is controversial. One school of thought is that the name is derived from 'Hawk Kaim', a low hill on the south side of the Turfford where it is thought that the Earl of Dunbar had his hawking house. But it also appears in an earlier  document from 1484. 
This was an agreement between Earl of Angus and Alexander Home to purchase twenty pounds worth of land of Ersilton, namely 'the mains of Ersilton with its pertinent, the 'lang akers' for £2, Carelside for £1, the 'Thowlescrouk' for £1 the 'hal orchard' which is called the manor of the same, the mains with Cowdenknowes for £6, the five husbandlands next to and on the east side of the manor for £5 (a husbandland is about 26 acres or 10.5 hectares) Philipston, Fawlo, and Willestroder meadow for £5, all in the lord ship of Earlston and Sheriffdom of Berwick' dated Edinburgh 11 October 1484.
Since a 'combe' is the name given to a wooded valley, Halcombe may be the 'hal orchard' mentioned above. Indeed, a recent visit to the Redpath road showed an excellent crop of apples in the woods just next to Halcombe Crescent!  

Credit: Author

Like the Turfford burn, the name of the Kidgate has changed over the years. Readers may remember the lane was called 'Kirkgate', but according to the Berwickshire OS Name Book of 1856-1858, Kidgate is the correct name.  The book describes the street as 'A narrow lane leading Southward from the South end of New Street consisting of a few thatched Cottages with two or three slated houses and tenanted by Mechanics and labourers.'

New Street is now Thorn Street, and the 'Mechanics' would be tuners from the tweed mill. 

And to confuse things, here's an old postcard of 'Kirkgate' showing what appears to be a church (but is, in fact, the 'Manse Hall'). 

Kidgate showing Manse hall

Credit: Auld Earlston Collection

Can you help? 

We have yet to find out where the names come from for three streets: Arnot Place, Kilknowe and Bellevue Terrace. Please let us know where the names are from in the comments below.

Picture of the Month - November 2023

 

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.   

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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. 

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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. 

 

 

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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.

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 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. 

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