SIB FOLK NEWS - Orkney Family History Society

SIB FOLK NEWS 

NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY ISSUE No 47 September 2008 

Kirkwall. The busiest 

cruise liner port in Scotland 

On the 10th May the first of the visiting cruise ships 

returned to Orkney when the Marco Polo tied-up at 

Hatston Pier in Kirkwall Bay. 

Over the year 44 vessels have visited the islands, some 

as many as 5 times. 

The smallest carried just 25 passengers; the largest 

over 2500. 

The total passenger capacity was in the region of 

40,000 and many disembarked to explore Kirkwall 

and visit the 12th century St Magnus Cathedral. 

Others took the tour to the 5000 year old village 

of Skara Brae which also allows time to visit the 

chambered cairn of Maeshowe, the Standing Stones 

of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar. 

Some will return in the future, the first of many visits 

they will make as they fall under the spell of the 

Orkney Islands. 

Perhaps we can welcome you too? 

The Minerva, Silver Cloud and Marco Polo visitrd Kirwall on August 7th 

Photograph. John Sinclair.

2 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No 47 September 2008 

ORKNEY 

FAMILY HISTORY 

NEWSLETTER 

Issue No 46 

June 2008 

CONTENTS 

FRONT COVER 

Echoes of a 

Bygone Age 

PAGE 2 

From the Chair 

PAGE 3 

Tumbledown 

No 4 

Page 4 & 5 

Stromness linked 

to Robert Louis 

Stevenson 

PAGE5 

Robbie the Sholtie 

PAGE 6 

Fiery Bill Inkster 

PAGE 7 

Last Ranch 

PAGES 8 & 9 

The Spences 

of Cumming & 

Spence 

PAGE 10 

I found my 

Tumbledown 

PAGES 12–16 

DNA in Genealogy 

PAGE 17 

In memory of 

Walter Sinclair 

PAGES 18 & 19 

HBC Blankets 

PAGE 19 

News from 

Janette Thomson 

PAGES 20 & 21 

The Abernethys 

of Stromness 

PAGE 21 

James Cambell 

Bruce Inkster 

PAGE 22 

An encounter with 

Moby Dick 

PAGE 23 

Can you identify 

the Photographs 

PAGE 24 

Membership etc 

Alan Clouston 

From 

the chair 

With the summer over, the Society now looks forwards 

to our forthcoming winter programme. How quickly 

this summer appears to have gone! I recall a story 

when I was a small boy about how quickly “time flies” - it was said to have 

originated in a well known house in the parish of Stenness when the “man o’ the 

hoose” retorted, “Heh-heh Time Flies” after his wife had flung the clock at him. I 

hope that summer has been reasonable for you and you now find the time to get 

back into your family history. 

Ancestral tourism is certainly alive in Orkney, as the office has continued to 

welcome visitors from all over the world. On occasions simultaneous enquiries 

result in the instant meeting of family kin. There is no doubt that returning to 

Orkney to find that link to Orcadian ancestry is as popular as it has ever been. If 

you have experienced a worthwhile visit why not send our SFN editor your story. 

The Society will not be promoting any special events during 2009, which is 

Scotland’s Year of Homecoming. With existing demands, we recognise that the 

best service we can provide for visitors is to ensure we can cope with the normal 

users as well as those who will, throughout the homecoming year, wish to access 

the Society’s resources and pick the brains of our stalwart researchers and 

volunteers. 

The Society will celebrate its first event of the programme, being the Annual 

Dinner, in September. The series of monthly events is being planned and the 

programme will appear as soon as possible on the OFHS website. The training 

events programmed for members in Orkney will take place over the autumn. 

May the autumn and the lead up to Christmas be a positive time for you all. 

Sept 2008

Issue No. 47 September 2008 

Overlooking the ‘Gateway to the New World’ and steeped 

in history, the Hall of Clestrain, although not quite tumbledown, 

is and has been uninhabited for 50 years. It is recognised 

by Historic Scotland and the Scottish Civic Trust as 

an ‘A’ listed building, a critical ‘at Risk’ building. 

The land of Clestrain was once part of the vast estates of 

the Honeyman family and the original house was ransacked 

in 1725 by the infamous Orkney pirate John Gow who was 

to end his days hanging from a rope at Execution Dock in 

London. 

The original building was replaced in 1768 by an entirely 

new Georgian building built by Patrick Honeyman, third 

Laird of Graemsay. 

In 1813 John Rae was born at the Hall of Clestrain. Recently 

the BBC TV docurama 

‘Passage’ related 

the stories of the endeavours 

of Rae, considered by 

many to be the greatest 

Arctic explorer of all time. 

The programme highlighted 

his service as a medical 

doctor to the Hudson’s Bay 

Company, his charting of 

northern Canada, his discovery 

of the ‘North West 

Passage’ and his uncovering 

the fate of the Franklyn 

expedition. This later 

discovery was to deny Rae 

Dr John Rae 

By Alan Clouston - Member No 339 

his place in history as Victorian 

Society attempted 

to conceal the horrific truth of what actually happened to 

Sir John Franklyn’s illfated 1845 expedition. 

The Hall was also highlighted in the BBC2 ‘Restoration’ 

series in 2004, with hopes of it being restored into community 

use as a heritage facility to tell the John Rae story and 

within its grounds to erect a new Boat Hall and other facilities 

to house Orkney’s boat collection telling stories of ‘Orkney 

and the Sea’. This project continues to be advanced and 

hopefully the Hall will not be left to ‘tumble down’ and will 

be restored for the use of future generations. 

Are you perhaps related to the Rae family in some way? 

Do you have any stories or inforemation about Rae’s siblings 

and their families? 

If so Alan Clouston would be delighted to hear from you. 

You can contact him at alan.clouston@virgin.net or at the 

Orkney Family History Society office. 

Space does not allow for the inclusion of the census details of the servants 

who worked at the Hall between 1821 and 1901. If these are of interest to you 

Alan will e-mail a copy on request. 

NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 

HALL OF CLESTRAIN 1821 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 

Name age age age age age age age age 

John Rae (head) 40 

Margaret Rae (wife) 30 

James Rae (son) 15 

Jess Rae (daughter) 10 

Marion Rae (daughter) 10 

William Rae (son) 10 

Richard Rae (son) 5 

John Rae (son) 5 

Thomas Rae 1 

William Mackay (head) 30 42 53 62 

Fanney Mackay (nee Sinclair) 35 43 54 67 

Jennet Mackay (daughter) 15 

George Mackay (son) 11 

James Mackay (son) 9 

Isabella Mackay (daughter) 6 15 

William Mackay (son) 4 13 23 

Margaret Mackay (d’ter) 1 11 

John Mackay (son) (head) 9 28 39 

Betsy Mackay (daughter) 6 17 35 

Frances Mackay (daughter) 4 14 33 

Richard Mackay (head) 36 

Christina Mackay (wife) 37 

Richard Mackay (son) 7 

John Mackay (son) 5 

Francis Mackay (son) 2 

Jane Robina Mackay (d’ter) 5 wks 

James Baillie (head) (ret’rd) 77 

Margaret Baillie (wife) 69 

James Baillie (son) (head) 37 

Jemina Baillie (wife) 29 

John W Baillie (son) 6 

Jessie Baillie (daughter) 3 

William B Baillie (son) (head) 43 

Mary Baillie (wife) 33 

James S Baillie (son) 12 

Frances M Baillie (daughter) 10 

William D Baillie (son) 9 

Isabella J Baillie (daughter) 7 

Eleanor M Baillie (daughter) 4 

Alexina J Baillie (daughter) 2 

Thomas L Baillie (son) 1 mth 

3 

Peter Maxwell (head) 30 

Ellen Fotheringham ( hlf sister) 41

4 

NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No. 47 September 2008 

Scottish Association of Family History Societies 

19 th Annual Conference 

Saturday 26 th April 2008 in Motherwell Concert Hall. 

This year’s SAFHS Conference was hosted by Lanarkshire 

Family History Society in association with Glasgow 

and West of Scotland Family History Society. 

On the Friday night, 25 th April, North Lanarkshire 

Council kindly put on a Civic Reception and Dinner which 

was hosted by Provost Tom Curley. It was in the Civic 

Centre, Motherwell. As I was the only OFHS member to 

enrol for the Conference I was invited to represent Orkney 

Family History Society. When Mr Bob Stewart, chairman 

of the Lanarkshire Family History Society, replied to the 

welcome and presentation by Provost Tom Curley I got a 

special welcome as the furthest travelled guest. A lovely 

meal was served by College students after which an enjoyable 

time was spent talking to old friends and meeting new 

ones. The company began to break up at 9.30pm. 

Then at 9.30am, the next morning, we congregated in 

the spacious Concert Hall for the History Fair and in the 

Civic Theatre for the lectures. After registration each 

delegate received a Visit Scotland carrier bag full of genealogical 

goodies. Coffee and biscuits were also readily 

available. On entering the hall we found that many of 

Scotland’s family history societies and some other history 

groups were already fully prepared for visitors to 

their stalls. There were twenty one family history societies 

represented. The most northerly was Highland FHS. 

Because of the size of the hall many other historical and 

heritage groups had been encouraged to attend. Again 

there were about twenty one of them. I bought a couple 

of books and I confess to have spent some time at an “Old 

Nan Scott reports 

Postcard” stall that had a big bundle of Orkney postcards 

for sale. If anyone is interested I can pass on an address. 

The Conference was opened by Gilbert Cox, Lord Lieutenant 

of Lanarkshire. He had been at the Civic Reception 

the night before and had expressed an interest in family 

history researches. The first speaker was Dr Irene O’Brien 

whose subject was “Scottish Poor Law”. She is well known 

all over the Scottish Archive scene and is a Senior Archivist 

in Glasgow City Archives. She told us how the Poor 

Law Act came into being in1845 and continued until 1948. 

She went on to tell us of the records that had to be kept to 

comply with the law such as names, ages, birthplaces, dependants, 

marital histories, other relations and addresses. 

She also told us where they could be found. It was very interesting 

how several of the examples that she chose to use 

came from Orkney. Later I discovered that she knew our 

Alison Fraser and that the Orkney Archive had been very 

helpful with her research. In conclusion she said the Poor 

Law had given us a very important source of information. 

It recorded the lives of a particular level of population and 

drew attention to the huge numbers of applications. 

The second lecturer was Guthrie Hutton who worked 

with BBC Scotland for 32 years. He left in 1994 and has 

since written a number of local history books. Many of 

these have been about mining or canals. The subject of his 

talk was “Forth and Clyde Canals”. I found his talk very 

interesting and before I knew it I had filled four pages in 

my notebook. I had recently read a book on life on a barge 

and have had two holidays on the Caledonian Canal whenA 

The Civic Reception Dinner was hosted by Provost Tom Curley of North Lanarkshire. On his left is Bob Stewart, Chairman of the Lanarkshire Family History Society and on 

his right is the Glasgow & West of Scotland FHS Chairman, Eddie Nairn and the Lord Lieutenant of Lanarkshire Mr Gilbert Cox MBE. JP. who opened the conference..

Issue No. 47 September 2008 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 5 

Fwe had to handle our own boat. I think we got a complete 

history of the building and then the closing of each 

section. The talk was peppered with dates, names of the 

places connected by the canal and names of the engineers 

involved. In 1995 a bid for Lottery Funding was made to 

help re-design the Forth & Clyde Canal as a Millenium 

Project. There was only the one “Orkney” interest in 

this talk when we saw a slide of the trial run of a newly 

launched canal “Princess” boat with Donald Dewer and 

Jim and Rosie aboard. Though the only Orcadian there 

I doubt if I was the only one who knew who Jim and 

Rosie were! 

The Mutchs on the left. The Bishops on the right 

I missed the third scheduled talk as I had an exciting 

time introducing two couples who had the same Orkney 

connection. I had met the first couple, the Mutchs, who 

actually lived in Motherwell, two years ago when they 

were researching Scollays at the Bisgeos in Westray. 

Shortly before that I had got to know the other couple, 

none other than the Bishops, at a SAFHS meeting in 

Edinburgh. Bruce Bishop is now deputy chairman of 

SAFHS and his wife Janet is editor of the SAFHS Bulletin. 

This is the kind of thing that makes genealogy 

worthwhile. 

I later learned that the third speaker, Campbell 

Drysdale, who was going to speak on the “Scottish Mining 

Museum”, had suddenly taken ill and was in hospital for 

a few days. The fourth speaker, David Webster, was able 

to stand in using another talk that he happened to have 

handy. He was an eloquent speaker, had been in business 

in Sweden and was fluent in Swedish too. His scheduled 

talk was entitled “Wine Bags and Mutton Eaters”. This 

turned out to be the results of an amazing study of the 

Scottish Diaspora. He gave the many reasons why Scots 

would leave home and in his studies he has come on Scottish 

names in lights all over the world. He gave us a long 

list of powerful and notable positions that had been held 

by Scots in foreign countries over the years. 

While the last talk was going on stall attendants began 

clearing up and so the 19th SAFHS Conference closed at 

4.30pm. I was pleased to have been able to go. As I have 

been more familiar with the east of Scotland in the past 

going west was a new experience. I met with a lot of kindness 

and friendliness both at the Conference and wherever I 

went over the week-end. 

Jean Shirer in charge of the Aberdfeen & North East of Scotland FHS stall 

The 20th Annual Conference is to be in Aberdeen in 2009. 

Some details appear below. We will try to keep you up-todate 

in the newsletter or our website. I do hope some of 

you will be able to attend. I will certainly try to be there. 

SCOTTISH ASSOCIATION OF FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETIES PROGAMME INCLUDES 

20th ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

Saturday 25th April 2009 9.30am to 4.30pm 

KING’S COLLEGE Conference Centre ABERDEEN 

Enjoy A programme packed with interesting speakers covering a range 

of fascinating family history subjects. 

Conference Tickets £10. Lunch available at £12. Complimentary Civic 

Reception at the Beach Balllroom, Aberdeen. Friday 24th April, 7.30pm 

For Bookings and full Conference details contact 

ABERDEEN & NE SCOTLAND FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 

158 -164 KING STREET, ABERDEEN, AB24 5BD 

•Women in Family 

History 

•Digging deeper: NHS 

services to support 

Family History 

•Hospital Records for 

Genealogist 

•Military History 

Plus stalls, raffles etc

6 


WHAT’S IN 

A PLACE NAME ? 

Concentrated in its small geographical area, Orkney has 

a particularly rich and varied history of place names. Interest 

in the subject increases with time as people try to 

understand something of the meaning that place names 

convey about the lay of the land and who owned it, what 

it was used for, how it was divided up and developed, 

changes that took place over the centuries and all that 

still goes on. 

When family groups stayed a long time in one place, lasting 

centuries in some cases, they became closely linked to 

their environment to the extent that the family took the 

name of the land; thus the old area of Delday in Deerness 

gave the surname Delday; similarily the Skeaton district 

in Deerness has its continuity in the surname Skea. Both 

of these are good old Orcadian surnames to this day. 

It may be that before populations increased and surnames 

became essential, an older form of identification 

was used, and not only in Orkney. The first name of an 

adult man was followed my his place-name, usually the 

portion of land where he lived, and the two names were 

linked by o’ for short. So everyone would know where John 

o’ Grind, Davie o’ Fea, Robbie o’ Holland all belonged to in 

a parish. When there was little movement of people from 

outwith a parish, or indeed within it, there was no need 

for surnames. 

Fast-track now to the late 20th century – the troubles 

in Northern Ireland are in full swing and an Irishman 

brings his family safely to Orkney for security. In time he 

gets to know the County and some of its native people and 

expresses surprise to an Orcadian that so many Irish are 

living in Orkney. The Orcadian is equally surprised and 

asks how he has come to this conclusion. ‘Well’ says the 

Iriishman,’there is John o’ Newark, Billy o’ Donesquoy, 

Tam o’ Vestlebanks’. In the next few minutes of conversation 

all the ‘resident Irish’ were changed irrefutably into 

indigenous Orcadians. 

It is also said that a touch of class distinction was practised. 

If the head man of a family was both the occupier 

and proprietor of his land, the the word ‘of’ was used instead 

of the abbreviation o’, hence Alfred of Braebister. 

While static populations gave rise to certain family, and 

place names, the opposite is true. The largest early influx 

came with the Norse in the Viking Age with long-lasting 

effects, effects that fascinate people to this day. Then 

came the Scots and others, among them the mapmakers 

who Scotticised / Anglicised wonderfully descriptive and 

meaningful Old Norse names, leading us nowadays to 

have to delve into the past to appreciate their true mean- 

By Edna S. Panton. Member No 1094 

ing. We are fortunate to have William Thomson’s recent 

book on the subject to fill the gap. 

Within living memory Orkney has had its fair share 

of population upheaval during the Second World War 

and for the previous generation, the First World War. 

The story which follows is a very small instance of how 

a combination of people, circumstance and environment 

can result in a place-name carrying a depth of history 

behind it. 

Visualise a tiny triangular patch of land, wet and 

marshy, where buttercups grow, which is such poor ground 

that it has never been cultivated. As such it has always 

been known as the ‘Myrrin’ belonging to Grind in the 

south-end of Deerness. Then came the First World War; 

a local man, James Sutherland, fought in the trenches in 

France and suffered the effects of gas. He was sent to a 

hospital in Leeds where he met a local girl, married and 

brought her back to Deerness. In the 1920s he built a 

small home on the ‘Myrrin’, and named it ‘Armlea Cottage’ 

after a district in Leeds, and everyone understood 

the reason for the attractive namer. Several occupancies 

later, Dr William Emslie bought the cottage for his 

family’s use at weekends and in the summertime. Both 

he and his wife belonged to Aberdeen and they renamed 

it ‘Persleyden’ which was and is a lovely area by the city 

and River Don. Once again a name had been taken from 

the original area of the owners and one that they liked. 

In the 1960s Agnes J. Petrie of Stonehall, Deerness, 

retired from the farm after over 40 years of life there. 

She bought Persleyden for her retirement home and had 

21 years in it. During that time she toyed with the idea 

of changing the name on the basis that it had no Orkney 

connections and that she, an Orcadian born and bred, 

wished to have one with more local meaning. She was 

supported in this by my late husband, Norman A Panton, 

himself an Aberdonian, but who felt quite strongly 

about it. The onus fell on me to come up with a suitable 

name, one that would last, with hints of Old Norse 

if possible. The obvious was to call it ‘The Myrrin’, but 

on thinking on its interpretation, wet boggy and marshy 

ground, the answer was ‘No’. A natural spring would 

have given us the name ‘Keldur’, Old Norse for spring 

but that was rejected as a hard-sounding name. We also 

considered Old Norse names surrounding the shoreline 

of ‘Stonehall’; ‘Taracliff’, ‘Myzgar’, ‘Mahon’s’ and Rattans 

Gates’. ‘Dingeshowie’ and the field name ‘Suli’ were also 

possibles but the field of ‘Suli’ is in use to this day and 

we could not have kye being sent to the cottage insteadA


Fof the field. ‘Myzgar’, with a modern spelling, is still 

used in the parish and most of the others with the exception 

of ‘Taracliff’ did not sound right. Well we took the 

prefix ‘Tara’ and my husband suggested adding ‘homn’ 

which he heard meant haven in Old Norse. ‘Tarahomn’, we 

thought, had the right ring about it and for good measure 

we even put up a stone with the name at the front of the 

cottage. In a few years, we thought, probably no more than 

one hundred, people might be calling the cottage by its 

new name. 

But a little bit of the jigsaw remained a mystery. What 

is the Old Norse meaning of ‘Tara’? Several people, including 

our own Rev. Harold Mooney, had tried to solve it but 

it proved elusive. Then out of the blue we heard the word 

‘Tara’ for the first and only time. We were watching a TV 

documentary on ‘The Year of the Bear’ with filming on the 

south shoreline of Shetland. One of those taking part was 

a well-known Shetlander, Mrs Rhoda Boulter. She spoke 

of her sister playing on this shoreline and how they used 

a ‘tara-heuk’. We both sat bolt upright and that evening 

I wrote to Rhoda Butler c/o BBC Lerwick. In two weeks 

came a letter of explanation. Sadly just two weeks later 

Rhoda had died. 

Rhoda, however, told us that ‘tara’ being connected 

to ‘Taracliff’ meant ‘where the waters meet and swirl 

around’. And that is how it is; ‘Taracliff’ faces southeastwards 

and in a southeasterly gale the waters certainly 

meet and swirl with a vengeance. 

So there we had it at last. ‘Tarahomn’; the haven at the 

meeting of the waters. It is a comfortable name, close to 

home, with Old Norse overtones, all rolled into one. 

There can be much to a place name. L 

3 interesting items from Peter Leith 

James Coats 

The Paisley 

philanthropist 

Sir James Coats and 

the Stenness connection 

Eva Donald, member 1209, 

was seeking information in 

Sib News No 45 about the 

Paisley philanthropist 

and especially his 

generous gifts to 

Stenness which 

included ‘a thoroughly 

equipped 

library’ reading 

glasses for the 

p a r i s h i o n e r s who required 

that aid and school-bags for the children. Now, thanks to 

Peter Leith member 65, we have a picture of one of the 

schoolbags and it seems in fairly pristine condition. Also 

in the picture is the register of the Stenness Coats Library. 

From the size of the ledger the library appears to have 

been a well used facility. 

Putting Orkney, South Africa, on the map. 

Peter Leith, member No 65 was interested in the article 

‘Putting Orkney on the World Map’ which appeared in 

Sib News No 46, June 2008. 

He points out, however that Item 6 referring to Orkney 

South Africa is not strictly accurate and has sent the 

following information extracted from a leaflet that came 

from Orkney, South Africa. 

This indicates that Thomas Smith Leask, an Orcadian 

Putting Orkney, 

South Africa, 

on the map 

FREE 

palaeography 

tutorial 

fortune hunter who came to South Africa in 1862, 

bought the Witkoppen farm situated on the banks of 

the Vaal River and began to mine gold on it. He registered 

the farm as the Orkney Gold Mining Company. 

He and a fellow director A M Campbell kept the mine 

active until 1892 and extracted 1228 ounces of gold 

from it. 

Orkney was to be proclaimed on 20 March 1940 on this 

very farm of Witkoppen where Leask and Campbell 

had dug for gold. 

The leaflet goes on to state that “It can be accepted 

that the name Orkney was derived from the Orkney 

Islands. ‘Orkn’ is the old Icelands for a sea lion and 

‘Ey’ is the old Norse for islands. This is why a sea lion 

was chosen as an emblem for the town. 

Interested in reading old documents? 

Peter tells me that if you are interested in reading 

old handwriting, a FREE interactive website with an 

online palaeopgraphy tutorial is available at:www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography 

The National Archives is the national archive for England, 

Wales and the central UK government and it 

contains 900 years of history, from the Domesday Book 

to the present, with records ranging from parchment 

and scrolls through to recently created digital files and 

archived websites. 

Increasingly these records are being put online making 

them universally accessible. L

8 


I FOUND MY 

ANCESTRAL HOME 

By Peter Thorley. Member No 1124 

Our second visit to Orkney in 2004 was a co-ordinated 

event in which my wife and her two sisters rendezvoused 

with two cousins from Chicago Illinois, all descendants of 

Benjamin Stout, first coxswain of the Longhope Lifeboat. 

During our visit we were royally hosted by fellow cousins/OFHS 

members Fred & Liz Johnston of Stromness 

and Angus & Margaret Heddle of Longhope. 

During our trip we visited the ancestral home, Newhouse 

on Brims. Newhouse is situated on the hill overlooking 

Upper Salwick and the Longhope Lifeboat station 

(now the Lifeboat museum) with spectacular views 

over The Ayre, Aith Hope and the Pentland Firth. 

I believe that Newhouse was built by Benjamin following 

his marriage to Harriet Taylor Robertson of Osmandswall 

in 1859 although the earlier census returns 

don’t name the dwelling, 1891 being the first census in 

which it is named. Having visited the site, considering 

the size of the dwelling and its lack of facilities, I was 

amazed that Benjamin & Harriet were able to successfully 

raise 10 children there (an eleventh child died in 

infancy). 

Census returns of Benjamin and family are as follows:- 

1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 

Name AGE AGE AGE AGE AGE 

Benjamin Stout 30 40 51 60 71 

Harriet Stout 24 33 44 52 63 

Sutherland Stout 1 11 21 - - 

Catherine Ann Stout 9 * - - 

John Stout 8 18 - - 

Isabella Stout 6 16 - - 

Wilhelmina Stout 3 13 - - 

Georgina Stout 1 11 - - 

Harriet Stout 9 19 - 

James Alick Stout 6 16 26 

Mary Alice Stout 4 14 24 

Benjamin Edward Stout 2 12 22 

*Working at Hope Hotel, South Ronaldsay 

Benjamin’s occupation is recorded as Farmer/Fisherman 

as were many of the residents of Brims at that 

time;he also retained a lifelong connection to the Longhope 

Lifeboat. 

He was Coxswain of the Lifeboat for 26 years, retiring 

at the age of 70 in 1900. He was awarded the RNLI 

Silver medal in 1891 for his gallantry in connection with 

the rescue of crew from the S.S. ‘Victoria’ of Sunderland. 

Eleven of the rescued crew were Germans and the Emperor 

of Germany presented a gold watch to Benjamin 

and £24 to the crew of the lifeboat. 

The six oldest of Benjamin & Harriet’s offspring emi- 

‘Newhouse’ on Brimms—My Ancestral Home 

grated to the USA in the 1880’s all settling in Illinois. 

The seventh child Harriet joining them in the 1890`s. 

The American contingent of our visiting group, Bonnie 

Johnson and her sister Lori Milam, are descendants of 

Benjamin’s daughter Isabella. 

The three youngest children stayed in the UK, James 

Alick Stout lived and worked around Edinburgh & Fife 

and is believed to later 

have moved to Dorset 

in England; Mary Alice 

Stout stayed on Walls, 

marrying John Taylor 

Norquay in 1907; Benjamin 

Edward Stout 

(my wife’s Grandfather) 

moved to Methil in Fife 

where he worked as a 

Customs Officer. 

Harriet died in 1904 

and Benjamin passed 

away at the age of 81 

in 1911. Newhouse 

The 3 Benjamins. Benjamin Edward (b.1878), 

his son (standing) Benjamin Stout (B. 1905), 

and grandson Benjamin (B. 1930) 

remained in the Stout 

family and was occupied, 

almost continuously, by 

them except for a short 

time in the 1920s when a Johnston stayed there for a 

few years. The last Stout connection with Newhouse 

was John Norquay, a son of Mary Alice Stout who lived 

there until the 1950s. After he left, the house remained 

unoccupied and eventually became uninhabitable. It is 

evidently up for sale so hopefully may one day be rebuilt 

or restored as a family home. Finally, if anyone can add 

to, improve the accuracy of the above or have any “Stout” 

family history information to share, I would be very 

pleased to hear from them at pthorleysa@hotmail.com 

The ‘Stout’ visitors with whom we made contact on our visit ion 2004. 

Standing L-R Wilma Harford (nee Stout), Bonnie Johnson (nee Milam), Margaret 

Heddle, Lori Milam, Angus Heddle, Doreen Hoyle (nee Stout). 

Sitting is Carrie Thorley (nee Stout).


“November’s sun with slanting ray, 

Beam’d feebly on the wintry morn.” 

By the autumn of 1822 more than a quarter of a century 

had passed since worshippers from Shapinsay 

first made the journey by sea from the village of 

Elwick (present-day Balfour) to Carness, a point on the 

Orkney mainland about three miles or so north of Kirkwall, 

to attend services at the Secession Church in the 

town. 

The Secession Movement enjoyed immense popular appeal 

in Orkney following a long period when evangelical 

teaching had been virtually non-existent. Ministers of 

the Established Church were proverbially indolent and 

inefficient, remiss in their duties, and some of them not 

very exemplary in their lives. Writing in 1795 George 

Barry, the somewhat controversial cleric in Shapinsay, 

said “[that owing] to the extreme ignorance of the people, 

the communion had not been administered for fifty years 

and only once or twice in a hundred years.” There is little 

evidence to show that this deplorable situation noticeably 

improved during Barry’s own incumbency (1793-1805) as 

he seems to have been primarily pre-occupied with gathering 

material for his voluminous work, The History of 

the Orkney Islands, which was published in Edinburgh 

(1805), the year of his demise at age 57. 

It was against this background of spiritual degeneration 

that John Russell (or Rusland), 1 a tailor in Kirkwall 

and eldest son of a Shapinsay farmer, inspired a group of 

fellow tradesmen to form the first Secession Congregation 

there. 

In August 1796, a meeting-house was opened for public 

worship and was filled to overflowing Sunday after Sunday; 

one observer described it as having the appearance 

of “well-packed herring barrel.” At least three of John 

Russell’s brothers were also members of the Secession 

Church, including this writer’s great-great-great-grandfather 

Arthur (born 1780) and Alexander, a tailor and 

general merchant, who was ordained an elder on 16 October 

1804. Another elder ordained that day was William 

Borwick, also a merchant in Kirkwall, who came originally 

from the parish of Harray. Sometime around 1820, 

Borwick had retired from business and taken the tenancy 

of a farm on the island of Shapinsay. 

There is nothing to suggest that the 3rd of November 

1822 was different from any other Communion Sunday and 

we know that several boats filled with devout islanders left 

Shapinsay that morning “to worship at a distant fane.” 

By Peter Groundwater Russell Member No 161 

Who could have foretold what terrible tragedy was to 

befall this happy band of pilgrims? George Bell, farm 

manager of Sound, gave a graphic account of what happened 

later that day, in a letter he wrote to the laird, 

Captain William Balfour, who was staying in Edinburgh. 

Bell did not apportion blame but simply said it was “the 

provealing (sic) hand of Providence.” 

There was no disorder or confusion among the peaceful 

and well-disposed worshippers; no anticipation of danger 

or alarm as they clambered into their small boats for the 

homeward journey. A favourable wind was blowing from 

the southwest, ideal for returning to Shapinsay, and in 

less than half-an-hour they would have expected to land 

safe and sound at the little harbour of Elwick. 

The boat concerned, 

probably a North Isles 

yole, was described as 

being sixteen feet in 

length and carried sixteen 

passengers, namely: 

William Borwick; 

four of his children, 

Helen (only child of his 

first marriage to Helen 

Hourston, from the 

parish of Sandwick), 

Euphemia, Margaret 

and William (children 

by his second wife, 

Euphemia Laughton, 

from the parish of 

Holm); Thomas, son 

of George Bell, above, 

and Janet Currie; Thomas, 

son of Andrew 

Groat and Elizabeth 

Maxwell; Thomas, son 

A North Isles yole, similar to the vessel that 

foundered. Orkney Photographic Archive. 

of James Heddle and 

Helen Nicolson; Magnus 

and William Laisk 

(or Leask); Elizabeth (wife of William Laisk), Peter and 

William, children of Peter Peace and Elizabeth Tullock; 

James, son of Thomas Shearer and Marion Hepburn; 

Thomas, son of William Shearer and Margaret/Marabel 

Shearer; and Mary Smith. 

William Laisk, an experienced seaman, was steering 

and Thomas Heddle was handling the foresail; the aft 

sail was not unfurled. George Bell wrote, “No person inA

10 


Fthe Boat, as far as I have been informed by them that 

has survived, were in the least apprehensive of any danger 

nor were it otherwise with those on land.” On reaching 

the ‘String,’ that potentially treacherous stretch of fastflowing 

water between Carness and Shapinsay, the boat 

capsized. 

William Borwick, 

Jnr, said one of the 

passengers took ill 

and William Laisk 

let go of the rudder 

(tiller) and stepped 

from his place. Perhaps 

he went to the 

aid of his wife, Elizabeth 

Peace, who 

is thought to have 

been carrying their 

unborn child. How- 

Where the tragedy happened 

ever, according to William Peace, “the boat was overtaken 

by a sudden squall.” It has even been suggested that the 

boat was upset by a killer whale, which, though possible, 

as large cetaceans have often been sighted in Orkney waters, 

is highly improbable because if there had been the 

slightest reason to suspect that this was the case then 

contemporary accounts would almost certainly have mentioned 

the fact. 

Using modern data, the Hydrographic Office computes 

high water at Kirkwall on 3 November 1822 as at 1242 

GMT and the age of the moon as 19 days, indicating almost 

neap tides, so the full strength of the ebb running 

west or even west-north-west through the String would 

have been felt around 3.00 p.m., which is around the time 

the worshippers were making their return crossing. These 

tidal conditions when ruffled up by a strong wind from 

the southwest would almost certainly create turbulence, 

making a “sudden squall” the most likely cause of this fatal 

incident. 

Whatever the explanation, all sixteen passengers were 

thrown into the water but Thomas Bell, William Laisk, 

Thomas Heddle, Peter and William Peace, and James 

and Thomas Shearer, managed to scramble onto the hull. 

They remained there for some considerable time and 

called to other boats for assistance. The boat then turned 

completely over and again all seven managed to regain 

the hull. Apparently there was great panic and confusion 

because the other boats were equally heavily laden and, 

understandably, were afraid to venture too close in fear of 

capsizing themselves. 

It was fortunate therefore that Alexander Russell, 

referred to above, an elder for the Shapinsay District,² 

showed more courage and determination, although before 

he could reach the stricken boat it turned over yet again. 

This time only the two Shearer boys reached the safety of 

the hull. Somehow, William Peace managed to get hold of 

an oar, which kept him afloat, and all three were rescued 

by the people in Russell’s boat. 

William Bell, another son of Balfour’s farm manager, 

heard the commotion as the boats passed Cliffdale (incorporated 

into Balfour Castle in 1847). He had been at the 

old pier of Sound to fetch in some horses and witnessed 

that the unfortunate passengers were in the water a long 

time before they received any assistance. Bell ran back 

to the pier, recruiting James Work, an old servant of the 

laird; an un-named “boy of James Work in Widewalls;” 

and William Currie, brother of Mrs Bell, along the way 

to help him launch a boat to rescue young William Borwick, 

who throughout this time had been clinging to the 

stern sheets (wooden boards) of the stricken yole. 

The remaining twelve all drowned in the cold, dark 

waters of the String. 

Peter Peace, Snr, was in another boat and, later, 

when the rescued William was laid at his feet, he fervently 

exclaimed, “I thank God for one.” After all, he had 

been bereaved of a son, a daughter and a son-in-law. Mrs 

Borwick had lost her husband, two daughters, a stepdaughter 

and three servants. 

Mary Smith’s body was found next morning on the 

small island of Helliar Holm, between the Reef and the 

Bought. Euphemia (or Euphan) Borwick was discovered 

at Burness on 28 November. Her half-sister Helen’s body 

was found on the south side of Shapinsay on Christmas 

Eve, “a beautiful morning.” William Borwick, Snr, was 

found on 4 January at Headgoe and was identified by 

his watch, spectacles and penknife. Thomas Bell’s body 

was found the same day between Linton and the North 

Hill, “his Cloath all torn off except his shirt Band of his 

Pantilouns, Galoses, Boots and Stockings.” Both Borwick 

and Bell’s bodies were quite whole with the “exception of 

their heads being away.” Was it these gruesome discoveries 

that gave rise to the ‘killer whale theory’? William 

Borwick was interred on the fourth but Thomas Bell not 

until the next morning, although his body was “lodged 

in the Tomb all that night.” Headstones erected to the 

memory of the Borwicks and Bell can be seen close to the 

northwest corner of the roofless ruins of the Old Kirk. 

On the fifth of January 1823 the remains of Thomas 

Groat and Magnus Laisk were washed ashore on Shapinsay. 

Writing on 16 January, George Bell said, “There 

are none of the rests Bodys has yet been found and any 

hopes of their being found we having had a continued 

gale of Easterly wind for about twelve days the middle of 

which the last Bodys 

were found.” 

The tragic disaster 

of 1822 had a 

most profound effect 

throughout the whole 

of Orkney and did 

more than anything 

else to encourage the 

Shapinsay members 

of the Kirkwall Congregation 

to press for 

Old Church and graveyard 

a church of their own which, for one reason or another, 

would take another nine years before their prayers were 

answered. 

But what became of the four survivors? A


FWilliam Broadfoot Borwick (born 1808), named after 

the first Secession Church Minister in Kirkwall, was just 

14 years of age in November 1822 and this harrowing 

incident turned his mind in the direction of the Christian 

ministry. Having obtained his licence in the United 

Secession Church he was called to the parish of Rousay, 

then to City Road, Brechin, before finally accepting Overgate 

in Dundee. Borwick retired to Newport-on-Tay, Fife, 

where he died on 15 June 1870. He is buried in the Western 

Cemetery, Perth Road, Dundee. His widowed mother returned 

to Kirkwall where she lived in Victoria Street until 

her death, age 75, in 1858. 

From the time of his near miraculous deliverance William 

Balfour Peace (born 1805), named after the laird, began 

to take an even more active interest in the affairs of 

the congregation and was ordained 

an elder for the Shapinsay District 

in 1839. He remained in office until 

he was evicted from Shapinsay 

for the honourable and courageous 

stand he made in the acrimonious 

“New Kirk” Elders Affair (1847).³ 

The family moved to Laing Street, 

Kirkwall, where William set up 

in business as a builder and joiner 

and within five years he was 

ordained an elder of the United 

Presbyterian (formerly Secession) 

Congregation. William Peace died 

in 1878 following a long and painful 

illness and was interred in the 

grounds of St. Magnus Cathedral 

where an impressive monument 

marks the spot. 

James Shearer (born 1799) was appointed one of the first 

four elders of the United Secession Congregation of Shapinsay, 

which was organised in 1831. Although he was still 

in office during the afore-mentioned “New Kirk” Elders Affair 

he escaped eviction from the island and subsequently 

Mr & Mrs James Shearer Photograph provided by OFHS member Gloria Cant 

emigrated to South Australia of his own volition with his 

wife, Frances Liddle, and five children. They travelled on 

board the Caucasian, which sailed from Plymouth, Devon, 

The Barossa Valley as it is today 

on 11 November 1851. James was the first Scots settler 

at Black Springs, present-day Springton, in the fertile 

Barossa Valley. He died 2 September 1883 and is buried 

at South Rhine, Springton. 

Thomas Shearer (born 1801), left Plymouth with wife 

Janet Shearer (sister of James Shearer, above) and 

three children just three days before his brother-in-law, 

on the Adelaide, and settled near Truro, South Australia. 

He died 28 March 

1875 and is buried in 

Truro Cemetery. 

There is no doubt in 

my mind that their 

traumatic experience 

that November afternoon 

gave all four 

survivors a greater 

sense of purpose and 

determination than 

might otherwise 

have been granted 

Photo Credit Carolyn Ruth 

them. L 

Notes: 

1. Rusland, or Russland, an old Orkney surname of local 

origin from the parish of Harray, was anglicised to 

‘Russell’ in Kirkwall and Shapinsay around the turn of 

the 19th century. 

2. Around 1830 Alexander Russell (born 1774) fell foul 

of his fellow elders of the Secession Church in Kirkwall 

and was dismissed from office – but that’s another tale 

waiting to be told! He died 21 May 1854 and was laid 

to rest in the grounds of St. Magnus Cathedral, where 

the headstone erected to his memory and that of his first 

wife, Margaret Work, can be seen today. 

3. A full account of this lamentable incident can be found 

in The Laird The Factor and The Elders: Change and 

Stress in Shapinsay 1847 by Paul J. Sutherland, CSYS 

History Dissertation, Kirkwall Grammar School, 1985.

The Orkney Family History Society Annual Outing was held 

on Sunday, 15 June 2008, when a group of approximately 25 

members boarded a bus at the old bus station in Kirkwall 

and set off for the Stenness Community Centre via the Old 

Finstown Road. 

George Gray was the first of several commentators who 

entertained the group throughout the day, providing information 

about buildings on the route, as well as their occupants, 

past and present, as the bus travelled through St 

Ola and Finstown to the end of the Harray Road. Adrianne 

Leask then took over commentator duties until we reached 

our destination at the 

Stenness Community 

Centre for morning tea 

and coffee with shortbread 

and scones. 

After our morning 

break, we set off for 

Stromness, while Adrianne 

continued her 

commentary through 

Stenness. On reaching 

Old Ferry Terminal Building 

Stromness, we were met 

by Jim Troup, retired 

teacher and commentator on matters of historical interest 

in Stromness. Jim started by introducing us to a building 

which was familiar to many of us as the Ferry Terminal 

Building at Stromness Harbour. This building houses office 

space on the ground floor with flats above and contains the 

garage used by Brass’s Taxis. Jim explained that the building 

had been constructed in the eighteenth century by a local 

businessman for the purpose of checking goods in order 

to collect taxes and dues payable 

on imported goods passing 

through Orkney during 

time of war. However, in peacetime, 

ships reverted to passage 

through the English Channel 

rather than around the north of 

Scotland and the income from 

taxes and dues diminished considerably. 

The cost of the construction 

of the building had 

been considerable for the time 

and the businessman, facing 

bankruptcy, took passage to the 

Carolinas. The building, considerable 

in terms of cost, was also 

considerable in terms of size for 

its time and location, being challenged 

in that regard only by the 

Parish Kirk in Church Road. 

Jim then led us a few short 

Miller’s Close 

Stenness, Stromness and Orphir – a grand day’s outing! 

paces to a lane off John Street. After climbing some steps at 

the top of the lane, we stood before an eighteenth century 

merchant’s house known as Miller’s House, now operated 

as tourist accommodation (13 John Street), where Jim commented 

on the construction of the house and the possible 

use of stones from an earlier construction within the fabric 

of the building. A plaque on the house states “Miller’s 

House. Earliest dateable house in Stromness belonging to 

the merchant family of 

Miller.” Written stonework 

on the façade of the 

house includes a marriage 

entablature and joint coat 

of arms of John Miller and 

M Nisbet dated 1716. A religious 

statement (“God’s 

providence is my inherit- 

ance”) is also written on 

stonework above the door- 

way and it is this which possibly indicates the inclusion of 

stonework from another property dating from an earlier 

period. 

We then proceeded along Victoria Street, with stops outside 

25 Victoria Street (Orcadia Cuts), opposite the site of what 

is now the Pier Arts Centre; the Post Office; and the Royal 

Hotel. Jim weaved a story of the operations of an eighteenth 

century merchant woman called Mrs Christina Robertson 

to reflect the 

connections 

between the 

m e r c h a n t s 

of Stromness 

and the 

Hudson’s Bay 

Company during 

that time. 

For example, 

Mrs Robertson 

operated a 

Mrs Robertson’s pier, now Maritime College building 

By Elaine Sinclair, Secretary, Member No 1211 

Decorated stonework above door 

warehouse on 

a pier next to 

what is now the Maritime College Building (down the lane 

from Argos Bakery), supplying barrels of coal, gallon casks 

of whisky, supplies of sherry and even drams to local customers, 

whilst also supplying provisions to ships. She also 

operated whaling vessels sailing to the Greenland/North 

American coasts. 

Jim diverged, interestingly, into local sewage issues during 

the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, explaining 

that Stromness became a burgh in 1817, but it wasn’t until 

the Police Acts of the mid-nineteenth century that the 

burgh was able to raise or attract budgets to deal with is- 

sues such as sewage disposal. 

Containers (we would know them as skips nowadays) 

were placed at six sites around the town, including one near 

the water supply at Pumpwell Park and one opposite the 

modern Royal Hotel. Residents were encouraged to place all 

their wastewaste into these containers rather than throwing 

waste onto the shore or in other dump sites and there 

was a plan to sell the waste to local farmers. Mr Fortescue of 

Swanbister, Orphir, arranged to take these containers, but 

he only collected them, by cart, every six months, with resulting 

poor health conditions, as we would perceive them 

today. Eventually, he arranged to send a schooner to collect 

the waste at one time. 

We then proceeded down a lane 

off Victoria Street to a building 

(now a house) where the remains 

of an archway could be seen in 

the modern arrangement of the 

stone façade – Jim explained that 

this building had been the stables 

and coach house associated with 

the merchant’s trading operation 

which had existed at the site, 

using the pier associated with 

that particular lane. Number 94 

Victoria Street, when viewed from the street, appeared to 

have only two levels – street level and attic level. However, 

when viewed from the pier down the lane at the back of the 

property, it contained another storey at a lower level. The 

merchant, Robert Graham of Breckness, had used the lower 

level at the rear of the property as a warehouse facility for 

his operations. His initials 

“RG” were clear in the 

stone façade at the front 

of the property on Victoria 

Street. 

We paused at the bottom 

of Church Road while Jim 

explained that the Parish 

Kirk, situated to the 

left of the road, had been 

constructed in 1717 and a 

Old Parish Kirk, now StromnessTown Hall 

Robert Graham’s initials 

monthly market had been 

held in Church Road, not- 

withstanding the slope or “cant” of the road, which must 

have made display of goods particularly difficult. 

Our group proceeded to Graham Place, where we stopped 

outside the house of Alexander Graham, while Jim explained 

that the space which we see today was, in Alexander Graham’s 

time, occupied by another two houses jutting out into 

what we perceive today as the open street. Housing was an 

issue in the eighteenth century as it is today and the Gra- 

ham family, while 

occupying rooms in 

one of the houses, 

owned and rented 

rooms in around four 

houses to tenants. 

The plaque on the 

front of the house 

today reads “Alexander 

Graham’s house 

who led merchants 

to oppose tax liability to the Royal 

Burgh of Kirkwall” which, ultimately, 

led to the creation of the 

Burgh of Stromness. 

The discussion of housing continued, 

as Jim explained the necessity 

for households to have small 

enclosures to grow vegetables or 

dispose of waste – dunghills. As 

we reached Dundas Street, Jim discussed one James Tait 

of Orphir, who was a contemporary of William Tomison of 

South Ronaldsay (Hudson’s Bay Company and Tomison’s 

Academy) and was in charge of 

posts over the winter seasons 

for the Hudsons Bay Company. 

James constructed housing at 

what is now numbers 57 to 61 

Dundas Street with a view to assisting 

his pension in old age by 

renting out rooms. On his death, 

his will provided for the support 

of financially poor scholars from 

Stromness and Orphir. 

We proceeded to a house called 

The Haven in Alfred Street and 

Jim explained that this had been 

constructed by David Geddes, who 

became the first agent in Strom- 

ness for the Hudson’s Bay Comp 

a n y 

Stromness graphic by John Sinclair 

Alexander Graham’s house at Graham Square 

The Haven, Alfred Street 

around 1791. Discussion then ensued 

as to why the lands where 

the Company operated were 

known as the North West or Nor’ 

Wast. Churchill, the most northerly 

of the Company’s posts, was 

on the same latitude as Melsetter 

House in Walls and was marginally 

south of Stromness. However, 

the weather conditionsA

14 


Fin North America at those latitudes are much colder 

than those experienced in Britain, which enjoys the 

warming balm of the Gulf Stream. Ships would arrive 

at the posts once a year and men would receive 

items from home and send items to their families or 

friends, including letters and requests for clothes or 

items which they knew could not be filled for a year. 

It was essential to have an agent in their home location 

to handle their wages and mail. 

Jim then touched 

again on the operations 

of Mrs Christina 

Robertson, who 

required men to op- 

Greenland Right Whale 

erate her whaling boats in 

the North Atlantic. The boats 

used by the men to pursue 

the whales tended to be twenty 

four foot long and required 

to be rowed in icy conditions. 

They pursued the Greenland 

Right Whale, which tended 

to be slow moving and had 

an extremely thick, blubbery 

skin. 

As we reached Southend, 

we arrived at a house with a 

plaque which read as follows 

– “Mrs Humphreys House. 

Temporary Hospital 1835 – 

36. For scurvy ridden whale 

men who had been trapped in 

the ice for months.” Jim explained 

that, as weather patterns 

in the early nineteenth 

century altered, areas of sea 

which had previously been 

relatively free from ice froze 

over and some ships became Mrs Humphrey’s House 

trapped for months. When the men arrived home, 

they required medical attention and several houses 

around the town were pressed into service for 

the nursing of the men, including Mrs Humphrey’s 

house. 

Our excursion through Stromness ended at the 

Museum, where we were collected by our bus and 

returned to Stenness Community Centre for lunch. 

Thereafter, we proceeded through Stenness, enjoying 

further commentary from Adrianne, to Orphir 

where Alan Clouston took over commentary duties. 

We enjoyed a bus tour through Orphir, past Houton, 

to the Orkneyinga Saga Centre and cemetery near 

the shore. Continuing to the village of Orphir, we doubled 

back and travelled over Scorrabrae, down onto 

the Stenness/Orphir road again and back through 

the village 

to the Germiston 

Road 

to the site of 

the Battle 

of Summerdale, 

the 

last battle 

on Orkney 

soil. 

Our trip 

c o n c l u d e d 

with our 

return to 

Kirkwall and everyone agreed that it had been a 

very enjoyable day. Thanks must go to Hazel Goar, 

Davina Brown, Alan Clouston, George Gray and 

Adrianne Leask for the organisation of the event 

and the research put into the commentaries which 

were provided. 

Elaine Sinclair 

Secretary 

Member No. 1211 

Round Church – Orphir 

Jim Troup weaves his tale of Stromnesss and the Hudson’s Bay Company


Some helpful websites from Ray Millar No 1277 

I have felt for some time that there are a number of 

websites that have been created by members of the 

OFHS that may not be generally known about. 

This is a great pity because the research that has gone 

into producing these sites is enormous and I’m sure 

that their authors would only be too pleased to make 

them known to fellow researchers and hopefully help 

folk find their roots. 

If Dave Higgins, the webmaster would be prepared 

to add these websites onto the OFHS website’s 

“members’ useful links” page this would be one 

suggestion and I’m sure the sites mentioned below 

will help members both old and new. There are 

sites that I have not mentioned which are equally 

as informative and these could be added 

periodically if their owners 

expressed a wish to have 

them known. 

Robert Marwick’s 

excellent site www. 

rousayroots.com contains, 

as the name suggests, 

information from the parish of Rousay and of many 

that emigrated abroad including census returns and 

photos. 

Robert Whitton’s site 

www.robertwhitton. 

eu will be of interest 

to anyone researching 

a family that has 

any connections 

with Graemsay. His 

records have extensive 

coverage of all families from that island, many Hoy 

families and everyone called Ritch or Rich who 

originated from Scotland. 

Dave Annal’s site 

http://homepage. 

ntlworld.com/dave. 

annal researches the 

Annal 

name world wide 

but with a focus on 

South Ronaldsay. It 

also contains a photo gallery of family gravestones 

from various churchyards and cemeteries on South 

Ronaldsay and other parishes on Orkney. Also, 

another South Ronaldsay and Burray website of great 

interest is http://www. 

southronaldsay.net by 

Lisa Conrad. 

Marion Mcleod’s site 

http://uk.geocities. 

com/marionmcleoduk 

focuses on well known 

Orkney names such 

as Harcus, Paterson, 

Smith, Redland and 

Wishart and also 

contains some lovely 

Orkney scenes. 

Mike Rendall and other 

researchers have created 

a website ( http:// 

genealogy.northernskies.net/ 

) covering 

the Feas in both 

Orkney and Shetland 

and their descendents 

from further afield. A 

related website on the 

Grays ( http://genealogy.northern-skies.net/gray. 

php?number=1 ) covers those in the North Isles, 

looking at connections between Westray, Papa 

Westray and Eday as well as the Allan family from 

Westray. 

Finally my own 

website http://www. 

C 

raymillar.co.uk/ began 

with research of my 

Eday ancestors but has 

evolved to over 7000 

individual names from 

Orkney and beyond. 

It contains images and 

inscriptions of all the 

gravestones from both Kirkyards on Eday. It also lists 

all the Eday Old Parish Records of Births, Baptisms 

and Marriages. There are lists of Baptism Ministers, 

Population Stats. and Land Rentals. 

The amount of detail and presentation on the above 

“amateur” websites is a credit to all fellow members 

who have spent hundreds of hours producing them. 

Hopefully the above sites will give people a taste of 

what is out there in the world of Cyberspace!

16 

NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 

A hero to his men 

A tyrant to his tenants 

A ‘potted history’ of Lt. Gen. Frederick Traill Burroughs by John Sinclair No 588 

Frederick Traill Burroughs came into the world in 1831 at Fatehgarh 

military post on the banks of the Ganges in India. He was 

the eldest of the five children born to General Frederick William 

Burroughs and Caroline de Peyron. 

In 1840 young Burroughs, aged 9, was to accompany his uncle 

George William Traill back to England. Traill had just retired from 

the Bengal Civil Service and it was he who arranged for his nephew’s 

education at Blackheath and in Switzerland. 

While in Switzerland, Burroughs learned of Traill’s 

death and of his inheritance of the uncle’s estate on the 

island of Rousay in Orkney. 

The following year, when he was 17, he joined the 93rd 

Sutherland Highlanders. 

He was short for his age; about 5ft and he never grew 

much beyond that. Like many short men he may have suffered 

from the Napoleon syndrome. Conventional wisdom 

is that Napoleon overcompensated for his short height by 

seeking power, war and conquest and Burroughs was to 

show similar tendencies. What he lacked in height he certainly 

made up for in courage in his distinguished military 

career. 

Thin Red Line, painted by Robert Gibb 1881 showing the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders 

with the Russian Cavalry at Balaclava. Picture source Wikimedia Commons. 

In 1854 he was in the Crimea and fought with the 93rd 

at the Battle of Alma where an Anglo-French force defeated 

General Menshikov’s Russian army which lost 

around 6000 men. On the 24th October he formed part 

of ‘The Thin Red Line’ who routed the Russian Cavalry 

charge at Balaclava. The regiment was also in the front 

line at Sebastopol and they were preparing to assault the 

town with, it is said, Burroughs leading the first wave of 

the Highland Brigade. They were to find, however, that 

the Russians had abandoned the town on the 11th September, 

blowing up the defences and all shipping in the 

harbour. 

Captain Burroughs was also one of the first through 

the breached walls of the Residency garden at the besieged 

town of Lucknow in the 1857 Indian Mutiny. 

Issue No. 47 September 2008 

He was recommended 

for the VC by his men but due to internal military 

politics the medal was awarded to another officer. 

In 1864 he was promoted 

to Lieutenent Colonel and 

commanded the 93rd during 

the bitter fighting in 

the North West Frontier. 

He returned with the 

regiment to Britain in 

1870 and after a spell in 

command at Edinburgh 

Castle he retired from the 

army in 1873. 

Burroughs visited 

Rousay in 1870 along with 

his new wife Eliza (Lizzie) 

Doyly Geddes and they 

were well received by the 

islanders. 

For some time he was to 

enjoy an amiable relation- 

Gen. Burroughs. Orkney Library Photo Archive 

Lady Burroughs. Orkney Library Archive 

ship with the people of Rousay but it was not to last. Burroughs 

decided to increase his land holding by buying up 

other parcels of land. He also commissioned the architect 

David Bryce to design and build a Scottish baronial style 

Trumland House. Photographed 1972. Orkney Library Photo Archive 

mansion which, by the time it was finished and furnished 

in 1876, cost £12,000. A


FThe problem was that Burroughs was not a wealthy man 

and to increase his income he simply raised the crofters’ 

rents and if they could not pay he evicted them. 

This was carrying on the tradition started by uncle 

George William Traill who had evicted about one quarter 

of the island’s population from his Westness estates 

to make way for sheep rearing. While his was a policy 

being actively pursued in the Scottish Highands, the 

clearances in Rousay were the only ones ever to take 

place in Orkney. 

Frederick Traill Burroughs was determined to clear 

all crofters off his land and speaking before the 1884 

Napier Commission which was founded to investigate 

the excesses of the Clearances he said 

‘I think they (the people) have as much right to my 

commons as I have to their clothes; the land is mine, and 

the coats and 

hats theirs, and 

I cannot see how 

they can claim 

the pasture. It 

did never belong 

to them.’ 

Any tenant 

who gave evidence 

before the 

visiting Royal 

The life of the Orkney crofter. Crushing clods; the 

oxen, one probably borrowed from a neighbour, pull a 

flagstone flagstone on which the ‘operator’ stands. 

A Tom Kent photograph. Orkney Library Photo Archive. 

Commission was 

evicted. There is 

little doubt that 

he was determined 

to clear 

every tenant from his estate and but for the passing of 

the Crofters’ Act of 1886 he would have succeeded. 

Burroughs is remembered in the islands as the worst 

of the Orkney lairds; some achievement when most of 

the lairds are remembered as notorious exploiters of the 

people. 

Perhaps Burroughs simply couldn’t handle the civilian 

situation. He had spent a lifetime in the army where his 

commands would have been instantly obeyed and then 

he came up against the stubbornness of the Orcadians. 

Despite this he is credited with a number of firsts on 

Rousay; the building of Trumland Pier; first ploughing 

match; first school picnic; opening of island schools; a 

steamship service; a Post Office; a resident doctor, etc. 

Outwith Orkney there were still honours to be had. 

He was appointed honorary colonel both of the Warwickshire 

Regiment and his own regiment which had 

now amalgamated to form the Argyll and Sutherland 

Highlanders. In 1904 he was knighted by King Edward VII. 

Despite the years of acrimony on Rousay, the local paper, The 

Orcadian, reported that after his Royal investiture he was 

welcomed back on Rousay by his tenants singing ‘He’s a jolly 

good fellow.’ 

Just before chairing a regimental dinner to mark the fiftieth 

anniversary of Balaclava he took ill but soon recovered 

and by the end of the year he moved to London. He was soon 

to suffer a relapse, however, and died on the 9th April 1905 at 

the age of 75. 

Lieutenant General Frederick Traill Burroughs was buried 

at Brompton Cemetery, London. One of the pall bearers was 

the Lord Lieutenant of Orkney and Shetland. The mourners 

included at least one Admiral and three Generals. 

A memorial service was held in Rousay and there is a 

plaque to his memory in St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall, 

Orkney. L 

If you have a tale to tell, why not tell it in our December issue. 

Send it to me (a Word doc would be appreciated to save me retyping) 

at— johnsin@gotadsl.co.uk—by November 11th and I’ll do 

the rest. Photos welcome too. Good quality JPEGS are perfect.

18 


The Strange End of John Fubbister 

By John Gottfred 

The true story of a most remarkable incident at Pembina River Post in !807 

It was four days after Christmas 

in the year eighteen- hundred and 

seven at the little fur post huddled 

next to the Pembina River in 

southern Manitoba. 

Hanging low in the winter’s sky, 

the watery sun shone bleakly 

through the ice crystal fog, and the 

snow lay deep around the aspens 

standing lonely sentinel along the 

frozen river. Only the occasional 

crack of a tree bursting with the 

cold penetrated the silence. 

These were the darkest days of 

winter, when the men were confined 

by darkness and cold to 

their cramped shelters for more than sixteen hours a day. 

Many a strange tale is told of the queer happenings upon 

such lonely days. Why did not David Thompson give up 

the game of checkers after losing a game to the Devil incarnate 

on such a long winter’s night? Yes, strange things 

indeed happened to the 

minds of men in such 

isolated and lonely 

haunts. 

Alexandre Henry [the 

younger], the chief 

of the post, was worried. 

Early that afternoon 

a breathless messenger 

had straggled 

into the little outpost 

with the news that the 

Sioux had attacked 

the Saulteurs at Grand Fourches, and had 

killed the company’s friend, the great chief 

Tabashaw. Such news boded ill for business, and might 

also jeopardize the lives of his men. 

Henry’s thoughts were interrupted by a tapping at the 

door. Fearing more bad news, he motioned to one of his 

clerks to admit the messenger. The door opened, and an 

icy blast of air rushed into the little room. On the threshold 

stood John Fubbister, one of the men working for 

Henry’s HBC rival, who had been visiting for the new 

Year festivities. Still barely a boy, the little Orkneyman’s 

eyebrows were covered with frost, his eyes were moist, 

and he suppressed a shiver as his nose dripped. ‘Damn 

your eyes man, shut the door!’ Henry bawled at the clerk. 

Grabbing Fubbister by the shoulder and hauling him in- 

side, the clerk put his shoulder to the 

rough panelled door and slammed it 

against the freezing wind. 

‘Well man, speak up, what is it?’ 

Queried Henry to the trembling 

Orkneyman. 

A knot of pain flashed across Fubbister’s 

forehead, and he blurted out 

‘Please sir, I... I’m not well sir. Might 

I warm meself by your fire sir?’ Under 

Henry’s basilisk gaze, John’s 

eyes fell to the floor. 

One of the clerks by the fire spoke up 

indignantly. ‘Mind your place Fubbister. 

You and your mates should 

be cozy enough in your quarters!’ 

Henry motioned for the man to be silent. He could read 

what was in the minds of his clerks. After all, who 

would want to abandon their place at the hearth to a 

man who might bring God-alone knew-what contagion 

into their midst? Henry recollected all he had feared 

about John Fubbister. 

He had joined the 

HBC two years previous, 

hailing from the 

Orkney Isles. Fubbister’s 

boss Hugh 

Heney, had said that 

he had done good service 

although he was 

still a lad. Still it was 

an unusual request. 

Perhaps it was the 

Christmas spirit still 

coursing through Henry’s veins, or perhaps it was a 

sudden pity as another bout of pain wracked John’s 

body, but regardless, he motioned John towards the 

fire. ‘It’s all right. Sit down and warm yourself, man.’ 

Avoiding the eyes of his clerks, Henry climbed up the 

steep stairs to his warm room above, his thoughts once 

again returning to the responsibilities at the post. 

Sir! Mister Henry sir!’ Henry awoke with a start. He 

had dozed off, slumped over his tiny desk, pencil in 

hand. He leaned over to peer down the stair ladder 

at his clerk below. ‘What the Devil is it now?’ He queried. 

‘Fubbister would speak with you if you would so favour 

him.’ 

Fearing that the worst might befall the man, Henry A 

‘The Strange End of John Fubbister’ is just one of a series 

of stories on people, places and events that has appeared in 

the Northwest Journal. The stories are presented in fictionalised 

form, and often contain commonly held beliefs about the events 

described, regardless of their accuracy. A short explanatory note 

at the end of the article gives the known facts of the story. 

This article is protected by Canadian copyright and is the 

property of the Northwest Journal ISSN 1206 - 4203. 

It is included in our newsletter with all reproduction requirements 

observed.


Fstepped down into the common room, his mind already 

forming some words of comfort for his stricken charge. 

Fubbister was sprawled on the hearth. A keening sound 

escaped his lips. He cursed, and grimaced with pain, and 

tears coursed down his cheeks. Upon the sight of Henry 

he reached out his hands, and begged for mercy. 

Henry stopped in his tracks, exchanging glances with his 

stern-faced clerks, standing over the stricken man. What 

was to be made of this? ‘He’s done for, I reckon’ said one. 

‘Never seen such a display’, exclaimed the second. 

Fubbister clutched at Henry’s trouser leg, his grip like 

steel. ‘Hear me sir,’ he begged through tears and clenched 

teeth. ‘Take pity upon a poor, helpless, abandoned wretch! 

Treated cruel have I been sir! Oh God!’ He shuddered as 

his body was wracked with another seizure. ‘I’m having a 

baby sir!’ 

The men stood thunderstruck, staring at the figure on the 

floor. Impossible! An Orkney girl? Here? 

‘He’s mad,’ said one of the clerks, slowly shaking his head. 

‘The fever’s gone to his head, sir.’ 

‘‘I’m not mad, damn you!’ screamed the figure on the 

hearth. I’m a girl!’ And so saying, he reached up, and 

tearing open his jacket, revealed a pair of round white 

breasts. 

One can imagine the confusion of the next moments as 

these rough and bush-hardy veterans faced a situation 

that none of them had ever prepared for. Bears, hostile natives, 

drownings and freezings were all a matter of course, 

but Orkney girls whelping on one’s hearth were quite beyond 

the pale. 

Damning his eyes for him, Henry sent one of his men to 

fetch a midwife, while the other rushed to fetch a blanket 

and boil water, or whatever it is that one does in such moments 

of crisis. Meanwhile, Henry knelt next to a person 

he had just recently known as John Fubbister, and heard 

the amazing tale of Isabel Gunn. 

She was born in the Orkneys, and as a young woman, she 

had been debauched by one John Scarth, who had subsequently 

decamped for Hudson’s Bay. This resourceful and 

amazing woman, learning that her lover was bound for 

the wilds of Canada, had signed on with the HBC as a 

man, and obtained passage to the Northwest. She had 

successfully maintained her cover for nearly two years 

before her condition revealed her true nature. 

Within the hour, Isabel was delivered of a fine, healthy 

baby boy, whom she named James. Both mother and son 

were in excellent health and soon recovered enough to 

travel, so they were packed off in Henry’s cariole that 

very afternoon to Grandes Fourches, where she was reunited 

with her lover. 

And so ended the career of John Fubbister, and likewise, 

the amazing true story of Isabel Gunn, the first European 

woman to give birth in the Northwest. 

Isabel Gunn was born in Tankerness, Orkney in 1781. 

Her lover was John Scarth from the parish of Firth. To 

avoid being separated, Isabel disguised herself as one John 

Fubbister, and signed on with the HBC in June, 1806 at 

Stromness, Orkney. The pair sailed to Albany on Hudson’s 

Bay aboard The Prince of Wales that summer. In 1807 she 

was assigned to a brigade under the command of Hugh 

Heney and traveled to the Red River area, where she gave 

birth to her son, James. After the birth, she returned to 

Albany, took the name of Mary, and worked as a nurse and 

washerwoman until being sent home in 1809. She died a 

pauper at Stromness, on November 7, 1861. 

Bibliography 

Henry, Alexander (the Younger). The Journal of Alexander 

Henry The Younger 1799-1814. The Champlain Society, 

University of Toronto Press, 1988. ISBN 0-9693425- 

0-0. Volume 1, pp. 299-300. 

Henry, Alexander (the Younger). New Light on the Early 

History of the Northwest : The Manuscript Journals 

of Alexander Henry... Elliot Coues (ed.) Reprint-Ross & 

Haines : Minneapolis, 1965. Originally published 1897. p. 

426. 

Van Kirk, Sylvia. Many Tender Ties : Women in Fur- 

Trade Society, 1670-1870. Watson & Dwyer : Winnipeg, 

1980. ISBN 0-920486-06-1, pp. 175-177. 

Copyright 1994-2002 Northwest Journal 

ISSN 1206-4203 L 

Robert trawled up this gem from WWII 

The “Isles” class trawlers were a class of trawler used by 

the Royal Navy and Canadian Navy during the Second World 

War. Length 164 feet , Beam 27.7 feet and Draught 8.6 feet 

with a speed of 12 Knots and a complement of 40. 

A total of 168 ships of this class were built and were mainly used 

on harbour defence duties and minesweeping. Twelve Isles 

class trawlers were lost during the war. As one might expect 

many of these ships had Orcadian names including:- HMS 

Eday, Egilsay, Fara, Flotta, Hoy and my main interest HMS 

Graemsay (T291) built at Ardrossan Dockyard, launched 3 rd 

August 1942. 

Robert Whitton, Member No 218 Edinburgh, 

Scotland

20 

Did 

you know 

Interest in genealogy is 

certainly growing but 

despite this you will find 

that most people can go 

no further back than their 

grandparents and very few 

beyond their great-grandparents 

about whom they 

know very little. 

In contrast many can give 

the detailed pedigree of 

their dogs for generations 

back. 


The General Register Office for Scotland 

made available the Modern Day Indexes up 

to 2006 for births and deaths both in their 

office and on the Scotlands People website on 

23 January 2008. This now means that even 

though recent actual records are not available 

on line the indexes are and you can therfore 

identify potential records to examine if 

you should wish to visit, or have a researcher 

visit on your behalf. 

The National Archives of Scotland are undergoing 

a renovation of their premises and 

are working with the General Register Office 

of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon 

to create a new family history centre. Full 

information of this exciting development can 

be found at http://www.scotlandspeoplehub. 

gov.uk/ As access to the building is likely to 

alter you should check in advance to ensure 

that the records you need are available. 

If you are new to researching material at 

these locations you may find the following 

information helpful. 

Don’t Go Un-Prepared 

(Fail to prepare – Prepare to Fail) 

Accessing the records at National Archives of 

Scotland can be a bit daunting and it is suggested 

that if you intend to visit you obtain 

one of the comprehensive guides available 

on their web page http://www.nas.gov.uk/default.asp 

and also check out the indexes to 

save time when you arrive. Note that different 

records can be held at 2 different locations 

so it is important that you identify what you 

wish to search and find out what is available 

together with the relative references before 

you travel. Note that the General Register 

House is at present separate from the General 

Registrar of Scotland Office where the 

Births deaths and marriage are located. 

General Register House 

General Register House can be found at the 

east end of Princes Street in Edinburgh’s city 

centre. Two search rooms are housed there: 

the Historical Search Room and the Legal 

Search Room. The Historical Search Room 

is used for researching family, local, national 

and international history. The Legal Search 

Room is used for certain types of legal and 

Know your way around 

West Register House 

and Register House 

Edinburgh 

By Robert Whitton. Member 218 

commercial research, primarily using the 

public registers and adoption records. 

West Register House 

West Register House is situated in Charlotte 

Square, off the west end of Princes Street. 

The search room here is known as the West 

Search Room, where you can consult court 

and government records and maps and 

plans. The main classes of records available 

at West Register House are, Modern government 

files: records of the Scottish Office and 

Scottish Government; Court records: Court 

of Session; High Court of Justiciary (after 

1800); sheriff court records (excluding wills); 

divorces (to 1983), Records of the former nationalised 

industries and transport: rail and 

canal systems, coal, gas, electricity and steel 

industries; Business records and Maps and 

plans. 

Case Study 

I wished to research a Light House Keeper 

called James Ritch who was born on Graemsay. 

Orkney on the 5th October 1854 (Articles 

about his wife Mary Mowat have previously 

appeared in previous editions of SIB News). 

I had located James, a brother of my Great 

Grandfather, in the various census records 

and had already located his birth, christening, 

marriage and death records. These gave 

a hint as to where he lived but I wished to 

know which Light Houses he had worked on. 

The web page for the Bell Rock Lighthouse 

confirmed that he had been there, but I wanted 

exact dates. I went to the Northern Lighthouse 

Board Offices at 84 George Street, Edinburgh 

and was given an information sheet 

that told me that their archives had been 

placed with the National Archive of Scotland. 

Much information about the NLB can be accessed 

at www.nld.org.uk 

The main Northern Lighthouse Board records 

are held at West Register House where access 

can be given to the actual records but these 

are held in a depositary on the west side of 

Edinburgh so 2 days’ notice is required. The 

staff records are available on microfilm at 

the General Register House, Edinburgh. The 

building is being renovated but having A

Issue No.47 September 2008 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 21 

Ffollowed the clear diversion signs I arrived 

at the reception. As this was a first visit I had 

to sign in and receive a visitor’s pass. I was 

then directed to the cloakroom (I didn’t have 

a cloak!) where coats etc have to be deposited 

along with mobile phones, bags etc. You will 

need a £1 coin (refundable) for the locker. 

Your notebook and pencils then need to be put 

in a clear plastic bag, which is supplied. NB 

although the GRoS allows pens, as the access 

to microfiche there has stopped and it’s onscreen 

access only, the NAS has very valuable 

documents and only allows pencils. You need 

to walk up a stair though the Legal Search 

Room to the Historical Search Room where at 

the Enquiry Desk you can obtain a Reader’s 

Ticket. (I then had to go back to the cloakroom 

to collect my Photographic Identity e.g. Bus 

pass, Passport or Photo Drivers Licence and 

my proof of address e.g. Gas/Electricity Bill 

or Bank Statement). I was then allowed to go 

into the Historical Research Room and at their 

Enquiry Desk I checked in and had a seat allocated. 

I then used a computer terminal to 

order the document required. Luckily I had 

researched this before (see notes below) and 

had the reference number. My seat number 

ensured that the document was delivered to 

the correct place. When the box of microfilm 

arrived I exchanged it for my readers ticket 

and was shown where the microfilm readers 

were located in the Legal search room I had 

originally walked through. Luckily I knew 

how to work the machine but the one beside it 

had a printing facility (need cash for that and 

mine was locked away in – yes you guessed it, 

the Cloakroom!). I found my James Ritch in 

the index at the beginning and fast-forwarded 

to his page where I obtained the facts that: - 

The NLB records show an Assistant Keeper 

who entered service 11th July 1860 at the 

Bell Rock for 3 1/2 years then on 2-12-1863 

transferred to Girdleness, Aberdeen for 3 

years until his death. I also checked the pages 

for Hoy High and Hoy Low and examined who 

else were Keepers there. When I returned the 

Microfilm I was returned my reader’s ticket 

and then retrieved my Jacket etc before signing 

out. Next visit should be easier as all I 

need to do is to bring my ticket! A good days 

work. 

The items I searched were: - 

Records of Principal Keepers. Section 1, 

Assistant Keepers. Section 2, 

List of Keepers in each Lighthouse Section 3. 

Ref No Year Joined 

NLC4/1/1 1837-1852 

NLC4/1/2 1822-1869 on same film 

NLC4/1/3 1869-1912 

NLC4/1/4 1912-1921 

NLC4/1/5 1922-1958 

Have you got 

Isle of Man 

connections in your 

family tree? 

Has any member come across the tale of a 

Manxwoman in their family? Mary Ann 

Wareing, later Sutherland arrived in Orkney 

in 1840 or 41 and I am hoping that someone 

from the OFHS can tell me more about her 

family. 

She was my grandmother’s grandmother 

and when I was a wee girl I was told that 

she was an Englishwoman from Liverpool 

who eloped with a seaman to the Orkney 

Islands. Alas for romance, I found Mary Ann 

Wareing in the 1841 census, aged 12 and 

already living in Kirkwall. She did not marry 

John Sutherland, also of Kirkwall, until 

June 1851. I then lose track of the family 

until the marriage of their daughter Minnie 

Alice Sutherland to William Gillespie in 

1877 in Edinburgh, when John Sutherland 

is described as an artist (deceased). He may 

of course have been a weekend painter and 

Minnie Alice was indulging in a spot of social 

climbing. I have no idea when they moved 

to Edinburgh despite checking the English 

censuses. 

Mary Ann Wareing was born in the Isle of 

Man, the daughter of James Wareing and 

Mary Ann Lawton. In 1841 she lived at 

Bridge Wynd, Kirkwall together with a 25 

year old woman called Mary Ann Houston, 

described as a merchant seaman’s wife, and a 

10 month old baby Sarah Houston, both born 

in England. I suspected that the older Mary 

Ann might have been the eloper, but not so. 

Mary Ann Slater, (daughter of Moses Slater 

and Sarah Wareing) married David Houston 

in Liverpool in 1838. Their daughter Sarah 

Wareing Houston was born there in 1840. 

Through genesreunited I have been in touch 

with a Houston descendant, and found that 

David and Mary Ann had other children, 

then emigrated to Australia in 1849. 

The tale was obviously much exaggerated 

in the telling, but I now know that I have 

a smidgen of Manx blood instead of real 

English blood. It’s still fascinating to think 

of little Mary Ann leaving home at 12 to look 

after a relative’s baby. 

I’m still hopeful of filling in the gaps so if 

anyone can remember any family tales of a 

Manx great, great grandmother or auntie I 

would be glad to hear from them. 

With many thanks. Madeleine Ulyett, 21 

Esplanade, Hornsea, East Yorks. HU18 1NQ 

or e-mail me at uly_mac@hotmail.com 

Did 

you know 

On midsummer day in the 

Orkney Islands, the sun is 

above the horizon for 18 

1/4 hours.

22 


S E R G E A N T 

JAMES 

SUTHERLAND 

By Stan Sutherland – Member No 225 

James was born on 31st January 1890 at Whanclett 

Farm on the island of Flotta in Orkney. He was the 

eldest son of James Sutherland, a farmer’s son and 

Margaret Sutherland (née Simpson). James junior grew 

up on Flotta but at the age of twenty he left Flotta for 

Glasgow where, on the 1st April 1910, he boarded the 

9.599 ton steamship Hesperian, bound for Boston, USA. 

Whanclett Farm, Flotta 

James Sutherland enlisted 

in the American army in Illinois 

and was drafted into 

the 305th Infantry Regiment, 

part of the United States 77th 

Division. It was New York’s 

National Army division (the 

American equivalent of a British 

New Army division), and 

was organised at Camp Upton, 

New York starting 25th August 

1917. The 77th Dision was the 

first National Army division to 

arrive in France, between 13th 

April and 13th May 1918 

D F C 

Upon arrival in France 

most of the 77th Division 

trained with British units 

in Picardy and Artois, but 

the artillery was sent to 

Bordeaux to train with the 

French. On the 19th June 

the 77th Division moved 

to the Baccarat sector in 

Lorraine, where it relieved 

the 42nd American Division 

and sent units into 

the line to serve with the 

61st French Division. The French began to withdraw a 

month later and the 77th held a ‘quiet’ sector until 4th 

August. 

77th Division relieved 

the 4th American Division 

on the 11th/12th 

August, in the Vesle 

Sector. This was a more 

active sector and, before 

it was relieved by the 

8th Italian Division 

on 15th/16th September, 

77th Division had 

advanced to cross the 

River Vesle and had 

reached the River Aisne. 

77th Division was 

allocated an important 

opening role in America’s 

greatest battle of 

World War 1, the Meuse- 

Argonne offensive, 

which started on 26th 

September and continued 

until the end of the 

war. 77th Division attacked 

on the left of the 

American First Army, 

with the 1st Cavalry 

Division of the French 

Fourth Army on its left. 

Sadly, James Sutherland 

was killed during 

the fierce fighting in the 

Argonne Forest which 

made 77th Division 

famous, when a group of 

men from several of its 

units was cut off for five 

days behind German 

lines near Binarville 

and became known as 

the ‘Lost Battalion’. 

‘Liberty’ Patch of the 77th 

American Infantry Division 

SUTHERLAND, JAMES 

Sergeant, U.S. Army 

Company E,305th 

Infantry Regiment 

77th Division A.E.F. 

Date of Action 

October 3rd 1918 

Citation 

The Distinguished Service Cross 

is presented to 

James Sutherland, Sergeant, 

U.S. Army, for extraordinary 

heroism in action in the Forest 

of Argonne, France, 

October 3rd, 1918. 

Displaying exceptional devotion 

to duty and conspicuous courage, 

Sergeant Sutherland led 

his platoon up the steep slope 

of a ravine, under murderous 

machine-gun fire in an attack 

on a series of strong enemy 

machine-gun nests; and in so 

doing was seriously wounded


The 77th Division’s 

Great War casualties 

totalled 1,992 dead and 

8,505 wounded. It advanced 

71½ kilometres 

against resistance, 

more than any other 

American division 

and served 66days in 

active sectors, equal 

to the Regular Army 

2nd Division and 

exceeded only by the 

1st and 3rd Divi- 

The Orkney Herald 

sions. Before James Sutherland 

died in the Argonne fighting on 3rd October1918, aged 

28, he had been promoted to Sergeant and awarded the 

distinguished cross. 

James Sutherand is buried in Grave 19, Row 5, Plot 

F in the Meuse-Argonne Cemetery, which is the largest 

American military cemetery in Europe with 14,246 

graves 

Meusse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial 

193206 

Gunner 

James Taylor 

suTherland 

rFa 

Sadly another young 

Sutherland was also to lose 

his life in the killing fields of 

France. 

Gunner James Sutherland, 

a cousin and boyhood friend of Sergeant Sutherland, was 

born in St Mary’s, Holm, on 13th October 1890, the second 

son of John Sutherland, a tailor and journeyman, and 

Maggie Sutherland (née) Taylor, who were both born and 

married on Flotta. Another son Daniel, and a daughter 

Maria, were born while the family was living in the old St 

Andrew’s schoolhouse. The family moved to Flotta before 

the 1901 census, when they were living at Whanclett. 

James completed his schooling on the island and then 

found employment there as a postman. An elder brother, 

John, had left the island and emigrated out to Australia. 

Gunner James Sutherland was a driver in 84th Battery 

Royal Field Artillery and was the second Flotta 

soldier to die in the German Lys Offensive in April 1918. 

His battery, part of the independent 11th Army Brigade, 

was supporting the 154th French Division, which had 

just taken over part of the Lys front between Bailleul and 

Wytschaete from British troops before it was heavilly attacked 

there on the 25th April. 

James Sutherland was killed in action that day, aged 

27. He is buried in Grave III.G.159 in Bailleul Communal 

Cemetery Extension, Nord, France 

DNA and the Westray Dons 

Margaret Polack (nee Hewison), writes to say how interested she was 

in James Irvine’s artcle on DNA in Genealogy which appeared in the 

June issue of our newsletter. 

It brought to mind the research done some years ago into Orkney DNA 

and the Viking migration and she thought that similar investigations 

had also been undertaken on the Westray /Spanish connection. 

With a name like Hewison this is of especial interest to her 

and she wondered if it had been confirmed whether there 

was any truth in Dennison’s theory that Westray families, 

known as Dons, were descended from mixed marriages with 

sailors of the Spanish Armada whose ships had foundered 

as the made their way back to Spain round the North of 

Scotland. 

Does any reader recall the research and its outcome? 

If so Margaret would like to hear from you. You can contact 

her at maggiehewison@btinternet.com

MEMBERSHIP 

subscriptions etc 

THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 

Orkney Family History Society was formed 

in 1997 and is run by a committee of 

volunteers. 

It is similar to societies operating worldwide 

where members share a mutual interest in 

family history and help each other with research 

and, from time to time assist in special projects 

con-cerning the countless records and subjects 

available to us all in finding our roots. 

The main objectives are: 

1 To establish a local organisation for the study, 

collection, analysis and sharing of information 

about individuals and families in Orkney. 

2 To establish and maintain links with other 

family history groups and genealogical societies 

throughout the UK and overseas 

3. To establish and maintain a library and other 

reference facilities as an information resource for 

members and approved subscribers. 

4.To promote study projects and special interest 

groups to pursue approved assignments. 

We are located on the upper floor of the 

Kirkwall Library next to the archives department 

and are open Mon–Fri 2pm–4.30pm and Sat 

11am–4.30pm. 

Our own library, though small at the moment, 

holds a variety of information including: 

The IGI for Orkney on microfiche. 

The Old Parish Records on microfilm. 

The Census Returns on microfilm transcribed 

on to a computer database. 

Family Trees. 

Emigration and Debtors lists. 

Letters, Articles and stories concerning Orkney 

and its people. 

Hudson’s Bay Company information. 

Graveyard Surveys (long term project). 

This material is available to members for ‘in 

house’ research by arrangement. 

Locally we have monthly Members’ Evenings 

with a guest speaker. 

We produce a booklet of members and interests 

to allow members with similar interests to 

correspond with each other if they wish. 

We also produce a newsletter 4 times a year and 

are always looking for articles and photographs of 

interest. A stamped addressed envelope should be 

included if these are to be returned. Back copies of 

the magazine can be purchased at £1 per copy. 

We can usually undertake research for members 

who live outwith Orkney but this is dependent on 

the willingness of our island members giving up 

their spare time to help. 

Membership of the Society runs from 

1st March to 28th/29th February and 

subscriptions should be renewed during 

the month of March. All subscriptions should be 

sent to the Treasurer at the OFHS address below. 

New members joining before the 1st December 

will receive back copies of the three magazines for 

the current year. From 1st December new members 

will receive membership for the remainder of the 

current year, plus the following year, but will not 

receive the back copies of the magazine. 

The present subscription rates are as follows: 

ORDINARY 

Family membership (UK only) £10.00 

FAMILY MEMBERSHIP 

Spouse, Partner and Children under 18 £15.00 

SENIOR CITIZENS 

Single or couple (UK only) £7.00 

OVERSEAS 

Surface Mail £12.50 

OVERSEAS 

Air Mail £15.00 

Overseas members should pay their fees in 

sterling or its equivalent. If it is not possible to send 

pounds sterling please check the exchange rate. 

Our bank will accept overseas cheques without 

charging commission. Receipts will be issued with 

the next magazine. Members residing in the United 

Kingdom may pay their subscriptions by Bankers 

Order and if they wish can have their subscriptions 

treated as gift donations. Forms will be sent on 

request. 

Cheques should be made payable to: 

ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 

and forwarded to 

ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 

Orkney Library & Archive 

44 Junction Rd, Kirkwall, Orkney KW15 1AG 

Telephone 01856 873166 extension 3029 

General enquires should be addressed to the office in writing or to 

Treasurer George Gray (e-mail: george.gray24@tiscali.co.uk) 

General Secretary. Elaine Sinclair (sincs01963@yahoo.co.uk) 

Research Secy. Adrianne Leask (e-mail: amerswyck@talktalk.net) 

Editor. John Sinclair (e-mail: johnsin@gotadsl.co.uk) 

Orkney Family History Society website— www.orkneyfhs.co.uk 

The Orkney Family History Society 

is a Registered Charity in Scotland SCO26205 

Articles in the newsletter are copyright to the Society and 

its authors and may not be reproduced without permiss- 

ion of the editor. The Society is a registered charity in 

Scotland and a member of the Scottish Association of 

Family History Societies. The Society’s newsletter, Sib 

Folk News is registered with the British Library under 

the serial number ISSN 1368-3950.

SIB FOLK NEWS - Orkney Family History Society

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