The Scotts of Cairneymount - Four Generations of Shepherds.

The striking family photograph (below)  of the Scott Family of Cairneymount, near  Earlston was gifted to Auld Earlston by Margaret, a Scott descendant.  

Margaret’s grandfather Adam Scott was the man on the back row, far right and although Margaret knew the names of his brothers and sisters, she did not know  the older seated couple.

 A combination of searches on Ancestry and ScotlandsPeople easily identified the family in the 1901 census.   For living at Cairneymount, were John Scott, a shepherd, aged 51 and his wife Jane aged 48, surrounded by their seven children:  Mary aged 21, Adam, 19, William 16, Charles 14, Margaret 13, John 12 and Thomas 7. 

The photograph was taken probably 2-3 years later, with the individuals Identified as: 

• Back Row:  William  Charles,  Margaret,  Mary, Adam  
• Middle  Row - Father John and mother Jane, with youngest son  Thomas  between them.
• Seated on the cushion, young John

Research revealed  that the family followed the Scottish traditional naming pattern for their children,  who were named after grandparents, great grandparents,  and uncles & aunts.

WHO WAS JOHN SCOTT, (SENIOR)?

The 1901 census indicated that John was born  around 1850 in Cranshaws, Berwickshire,

The 1851 census  showed one year old John with his parents Adam, (a shepherd)  and Margaret Scott  and two older sisters Agnes and Margaret, living at  Rawburn Farm, Cranshaws, a hamlet  (population 127)  in the Lammermuir Hills,  nine miles from Duns, Berwickshire.

By 1861, the Scott family was still at Rawburn Farm,  with a growing family of three more children  - eldest daughter Agnes was a domestic servant, unmarried;  16 year old Margaret was an agricultural labourer (Ag. Lab.), and John 11 years old with three more siblings - Charles 8, Mary 6 and Isabella 3. 

THE  MOVE TO CAIRNEYMOUNT

Sometime between 1861 and 1871, the Scott Family moved  from Rawburn Farm, Cranshaws to Cairneymount, above Earlston,  - a journey  of over 27 miles, presumably made by horse and cart.   (The railway between Duns and Earlston had been completed in 1863)

 In the 1871 census, John had followed his father into being a shepherd.  The household of seven comprised his parents, sister Agnes, a dressmaker, brother Charles an Agricultural Labourer (Ag. Lab.) , with 15 year old Mary a domestic servant.  Completing the household was a 5 year old granddaughter Helen Scott.

On the 25^th April 1879,  29 year old John married at Craigsford Mains,   27 year old Jane Scott, daughter of William, a farm steward (deceased) and Mary Fleming, “after banns according to the forms of the United Presbyterian Church”.  Jane was described as a housekeeper, daughter of William Scott, a farm steward and Mary Fleming.  The Scott surname is so popular in the Scottish Borders that it is impossible to state if the couple were already related.  Again the marriage certificate on the ScotlandsPeople website confirmed the name of both sets of parents.

 A year later saw John at the helm of Cairneymount following the death of his father Adam in 1880.

The 1891 census listed a household of ten living at Cairneymount:  John aged 41, with his wife Jane 39, and their  six children under nine years old – Mary,  Adam. William, Charles. Margaret and young John  - soon to be joined by another son Thomas  - plus lodger William Craig, assistant shepherd.

The household in the 1911 census was a depleted one  with John and Jane living with unmarried daughter Mary aged 31, sons young John , a shepherd, and Thomas a bank clerk – plus one year old grandson another John F. Scott .  The  entry noted that John and Jane had been married 31 years and had seven living children;  and that Cairneymount had four rooms with one or more windows.

But who was the grandson, baby John?    A search on scotlandspeople came up with  the answer – he was the illegitimate son named John Fleming Scott of eldest daughter Mary  (right)  – Fleming being his grandmother Jane’s maiden name.   

John Scott, (senior)  died  in 1923, aged 72,  at Redpath with his eldest son Adam Scott of Courthill, Kelso named as the informant on his death certificate. No further details are given on the address in the village of Redpath – perhaps John was visiting a relative there  at the time?]

 

                                         

 John’s wife,  Jane,  died nine  years later aged 81,  with the announcement in “The Southern Reporter”:  25^th August 1932:

“At Rhymer’s Tower Cottage, Earlston on 19^th August 1932.  Jane Scott, widow of John Scott, late Shepherd of Cairneymount.

 

An early 20^th century photograph of Rhymer’s Tower Cottages.

 

John and Jane  were both  buried in Earlston Churchyard, with the monumental inscription:  

“In loving memory of John Scott , late Shepherd of Cairneymount who died at Redpath 25^th of ~April 1923 in his 73^rd year.  Also Jane Scott, his wife who died at Rhymer’s Tower Cottage, Earlston  19^th August 1932 aged 81 years.”

 

 

 Valuation Rolls indicated Cairneymount continued to be the home of the Scott family after John’s death,  with John’s namesake son listed  as occupier/tenant until 1926.  Young John was the fourth generation of the Scott family to become a shepherd  after his great grandfather Charles, grandfather Adam and father John. 

Today’s Scott family recollects that  father John’s other sons, William, Charles and Adam  lived at farms around Earlston - Yarlside, Grizzlefield, Rachelfield and Lauder Barns. 

A general search on the   online newspaper archives discovered  this item relating to youngest son Thomas, the little lad sitting between his grandparents in the group photograph.   “The Southern Reporter":  27^th July 1916, reported on Thomas, fighting in France,   being wounded by shrapnel and bullet, but recovering in hospital back in England.

THE FIRST SCOTT TO LIVE AT CAIRNEYMOUNT  - ADAM SCOTT (1808-1880)

The father of John (1850-1923) was Adam Scott,  with census returns consistently naming his birthplace as Southdean, Roxburghshire.  An entry was found in the Old Parish Records for Adam, born December 1808,  at Southdean  Roxburghshire, son of Charles Scott and Mary Buckham  whose Christian names continued down two generations of the Scott family. 

By 1839, Adam was in Cranshaws, Berwickshire where the banns were read for his marriage to Margaret Moffat.   The brief entry in the Old Parish Records on scotlandspeople gave no mention of parents’ names.

By the  1861 census, the couple were living at Rawburn Farm, Cranshaws  with their growing family of five children – Agnes, John, Charles, Mary and Isabella. 

Yet ten years later saw that 50 year old Adam and family had made the move to Cairneymount, near Earlston, What could have prompted this move of 27 miles west?  Was it the prospect of a substantial house?   Had he attended Hiring Fairs  held regularly in Duns and Earlston?  These were   important events in the farming community,  where men and women  farm  workers  would gather to bargain with prospective farmers for work, and hopefully secure a new position.  The move must have been no light task by horse and cart  with a large family, and furnishings etc. 

The move can be pinpointed to the end of the decade, for valuation rolls showed that that a James Wilson was listed as occupier/tenant of Cairneymount in 1868. 

The 1871 census listed at Cairneymount , 60 year old Adam, born at Southdean, Roxburghshire, his wife Margaret aged 55, born at Spott, East Lothian , four children, including son John, and a granddaughter, 5 year old Helen Scott.

Nine years later Adam died, with his eldest son John taking over the tenancy. 

 Adam’s death was registered at Melrose in 1880 and  confirmed the names of Adam’s parents – Charles Scott, also a shepherd,  and Mary Buckham.

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Cairneymount today - photograph courtesy of the current owners.

The house was at one stage home to two families 

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SOURCES

• Old Parish Records, Census Returns, Statutory Records and Valuation Rolls on ScotlandsPeople,  and Ancestry.

• Newspaper items on British Newspaper Archive
   
• Earlston Monumental Inscriptions, published by Borders Family History Society

• Vintage village photographs from the Auld Earlston Collection. 

Contributed by Susan Donaldson, Auld Earlston Group

with thanks to Margaret, a Scott descendant.  

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Memories of Dr. Robert Riddell, (1791-1871) - An Earlston Worthy

Last year we published on the blog an account of a tragic accident at Earlston Railway Station in 1866, when John Thomson, a coal agent aged 36 was crushed between the buffers and a coal truck. His arm had to be amputated and he died as a result of his injuries. At the scene he was attended to initially by local physician Dr.Robert Riddell.

 

Blog reader Dr. John Burns recently gave   additional background information on Dr. Riddell to add to the account of the accident, together with rather a gory medical incident. Two obituaries were also traced in the British Newspaper Archive, giving us a vivid  picture of Dr. Riddell's life and character - a man who at an early stage aspired to be an army surgeon, but who came to earn great respect as Earlston's physician.

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Census returns of the period showed that Dr. Riddell lived on Earlston High Street, with his near neighbours the Whale sisters, renowned manufacturers of Earlston gingham, and Daniel Aitkenhead, parochial schoolmaster.

We have a fine description of the doctor in the writings of Earlston people and places by Rev. William Crockett.

"Here was a man skilled in diagnosis, a very capable servant, responsive to every phase of human distress. Even if (because of his slightly humped back), they spoke of him as” Humpy" Riddell, it was never with any feeling of disrespect. The doctor was endowed with a big brain; poor people said he had a heart of gold. He showed his queer habits on occasions - a street fight fascinated him for instance. Dr. Riddell believed in prayer and once told the minister "I always pray before I start an operation."

A further description was given in Rev. William Mair's biography "My Life" when he wrote:

"It had taken but a short time in Earlston to know that there was one who seemed to have become a part of it, and whom it had taken to its heart - old Dr. Riddell.

Dr. Riddell was a man skilled in diagnosis, a very capable surgeon, responsive to every face of human distress. He was endowed with a big brain, and poor folk said he had a heart of gold…..

For fifty years he had practised there, and when I first met him in 1870 he still attended friends of old standing by special request. In his day he had been called in by "gentle and simple " all around.

He was a man who is not commonly supposed to have existed in the medical profession in rural parts. It is not a small thing to say that he was well versed in the literature of his profession, had a knowledge of the newest things in medicine, and delighted in speaking of them.

He knew his Horace and Caesar well, and although there was nothing martial in his bearing, and he lived peacefully, the operations of war had a wonderful fascination for him - war of every degree from a street brawl to the clash of nations. He had read Napier's "History of the Peninsular War" again and again, and could discourse for hours on the details of the Waterloo campaign."

In his biography, the Rev. Mair included a rather gory story told to him by Dr.  Riddell :

 "He was taking off a man's hand by the light of a candle when the man who held the candle fell in a faint and all was darkness. The arteries were not tied, and the spurting blood, unknown to him, touched his spectacles, so that when light was got again he could neither see properly nor, for a while, tell the reason why. The poor sufferer, however, survived it all, and was a neighbour of mine when I moved to Earlston."

 

“The Southern Reporter" : 19th January 1871 wrote a glowing tribute to Dr. Riddell.

"The Late Dr. Riddell - We have this week to notice the death of Robert Riddell, Esq., surgeon, in the 80th year of his age, and who for the long period of fifty-five years had been a successful practitioner in Earlston and district. The memory of Dr. Riddell will long be fondly cherished by those among whom he practised, as he was a gentleman whose honest and genial nature, with the quaint traits of character for which he was so well known, secured for him a ready welcome alike in the mansions of the wealthy and the cottages of the peasantry.

Dr. Riddell was born at Stow in the year 1791, and no doubt received his early education at the parish school there. He afterwards studied at the Edinburgh University; and received his diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons in the year 1814, about the time of Napoleon’s escape from Elba. He at once offered to join the army in Flanders as a medical volunteer, but before he received his papers peace was proclaimed.

He then turned his attention to the country, and commenced practice in Greenlaw where, he remained nearly two years. His success there not being equal to his expectations, he removed to Earlston in the autumn of the year 1816.

Here his practice at first was small, but an indomitable perseverance, which was one of his leading characteristics, enabled him to surmount all difficulties; and in the year 1823 he was so well established that it was only at the urgent solicitations of the proprietors of Cowdenknowes and Carolside, that he entered into partnership with the then long-established medical man of the district Dr. Hume.

The co-partnery was not of long duration, but by the time of its dissolution, Dr. Riddell’s abilities were so well known that he soon became the medical attendant of all the resident noblemen and landed proprietors for many miles around Earlston; and many a friendship between him and them was formed which ended only in death.

He was also for many years medical attendant on the poor of the parish, an office he was lately compelled to resign through failing health.

The Doctor was at all times an earnest thinker, and keen observer; and even up to near the close of his long life he kept himself well-informed on the many changed and improvements taking place in his profession. Nor was general literature neglected; he was a good classical and French scholar, and had a remarkable acquaintance with the military history of Great Britain.

Dr. Riddell’s memory will be fondly cherished by a wide circle of friends in the town and district”. 

 

A lengthy and wordy obituary in "The Berwickshire News" of 18th January 1871 paid another fulsome tribute, with extracts below:

“The late Dr. Riddell.—The death of a man who for so long a time featured so largely in the public eye, the late Dr.  Riddell, is deserving of a more extended notice than that of a mere insertion in an ordinary newspaper obituary.

In the year 1813, he obtained his diploma as a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. Soon thereafter he settled in Greenlaw medical practice — the peace of 1815 disappointing the hopes he had of seeing active military service as an army surgeon……..

When in the prime of life, when fullness of knowledge and considerable experience had matured his judgment, Dr. Riddell's eminence as a surgeon was such that his advice was eagerly sought by his professional brethren in cases of difficulty and the utmost reliance placed in his medical skill by all ranks of the community from the

His knowledge of Latin was accurate, and extensive… The Doctor's fondness for things military did not show itself in only his reading - when a young man he rode as trooper in yeomanry cavalry corps connected with the Borders. During the course of his practice he met with many old soldiers of all grades whose stories of the [Napoleonic] War his unfailing memory could reproduce with the utmost exactness.

As indication of the esteem in which Dr. Riddell was held, was some ten or eleven years ago, he was invited to a public dinner and presented with a gold watch and a purse of sovereigns. Having been such, we have above made a hasty and imperfect attempt to describe, will be seen that Dr. Riddell was a man who by natural gifts, assiduously cultivated and improved, was enabled in his day and generation to perform great and valuable services……

For the last year or two he felt the infirmities of age, but it was only in October last that resigned the office of medical attendant to the people of the parish. He died peacefully on the evening of Friday in the presence of those dearest to him, to whom as well as to others the cautious and sagacious old man is now no more than recollection.”

Dr. Riddell was buried in Earlston Churchyard with the family gravestone reading:

"Dr. Robert Riddell, surgeon, Earlston, born 11.12.1791, died 25.1.1871; also his wife Agnes, born 12.9.1797, died 9.4.1879; and their son, John Dalziel Riddell died 7.3.1904 ; Robert Riddell, surgeon died 7.5.1901 aged 84 years; Marion Riddell, his wife,died 8.5.1888 aged 51 years."

[Source: Berwickshire Monumental Inscriptions - Earlston, published by Borders Family History Society, 2005].

 

 

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NOTES:

• Regarding the Earlston train accident in 1866,  this was a time of early days in the use of anesthesia, with infection control weak, and the incidence of mortality following amputation high. It was only in 1867 that Joseph Lister published his work in using carbolic acid as an antiseptic.
   
• The Rev. William Shillinglaw Crockett (1866-1945) was born in Earlston and was buried in Earlston churchyard, though most of his ministry was spent at Tweedsmuir. He was a prolific writer of many publications on Borders life and literature, including a series of articles on Earlston people and places.
   
• The Very Rev. William Mair DD (1830–1920) spent most of his ministrant  at Earlston. and served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1897/98

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Contributed by Susan Donaldson, Auld Earlston Group
with thanks to Dr. John Burns.

Earlston Residents Having Fun in Times Past

As we move into a relaxation of Lockdown, take a look back at how people in Earlston enjoyed themselves in times past.

 

1907 and Earlston Church Choir relaxing on their annual outing, after what must have been a precarious journey  by horse drawn charabanc to Yarrow  - below leaving Earlston from the Red Lion Hotel.

  

Thirty years on and  more happy choir members from Earlston Church on their trip to the Trossachs in 1936.

 

Holiday time meant an opportunity to take a trip by train - as reported in  "The
Berwickshire News and General Advertiser:  9th July 1889

 

Earlston Rugby Football  Club is thought to have been formed in the 1870s by two Yorkshiremen who were installing machinery in the local woollen mill.  During the Second World War,  The rugby pitch and club house were requisitioned by the military.  One third of the pitch was dug out and concrete laid to make a "hull down" park for the tanks of the Polish Division stationed in the area,  preparing for D. Day.  Earlston Rugby Club is still active today, though its activities, like so many others, has been curtailed by the Covid pandemic. 

 

An early photograph of Earlston Bowling Club members in relaxing mode.  In a newspaper report of 1881,   it was noted that:

"The club now numbers over 50 members and they have resolved to the formation of a bowling green on the site of the old curling pond. This work is to be done by Mr. Smith, Hawick whose estimate for the work we understand to be £150.  Some farmers interested in the formation of the bowling green will do the  necessary driving of materials gratuitously.  If this bowling club proves a success, Earlston will be amply provided with means of recreation".  

 The Club still plays an important part of the village recreational opportunities. 

 

Earlston Orchestra 1898 - one of the earliest photographs in the Auld Earlston collection. The earliest reference found in the local press to the Orchestral Party (sometimes called Orchestral Society) was in “The Southern Reporter“: 28th October 1886. The occasion was a concert and dance, organised by Earlston Street Lighting Committee to raise funds to provide winter street lighting in the village. After the concert part of the evening, dancing 

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, local newspapers regularly reported on the activities of the orchestra under its conductor Samuel Fisher, playing at many village events. 

 During the First World War, the Orchestral Party was a frequent participant in fund raising concerts, held to provide Christmas gifts to serving soldiers; to assist the War Relief Fund; and for the War Comforts Fund under the banner “Under the Flag of Britain” in a programme of patriotic music.  

But with the death of Samuel Fisher,  in 1938  and the outbreak of war a year later, this once showcase of Earlston musical talent appeared to come to an end.

 

 

Earlston Amateur Dramatic Club regularly presented plays, 

 before bowing out in 1991. 

 

 

May 1937 saw the  Earlston celebrations to mark the coronation of George VI    with the  fancy dress pageant.

 

 

 Gathering for a Bus Trip to Carlisle in 1947

Finally two more happy pictures - here Earlston's Girls' Club in their production of  "Simple Simon" , staged with orchestra in February 1939 in the Corn Exchange, Earlston,   The large chorus took the part of villagers, sailors and native girls.    A  local newspaper noted that "all the players acquitted themselves in a very creditable manner, fully deserving the warm appreciation of the audience."

 

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Contributed by Susan Donaldson, Auld Earlston