Wednesday 10 June 2020

Hadden family update

Since writing the original post,  Mary, the granddaughter of the lad James Hadden Welsh, left behind in Cumnock has made contact with some 2nd and 3rd cousins in the United States who have suppled information and photographs and I've been continuing to research. Thanks to Joanne Ferguson and Jeanne Campbell Suehr.

Mary Bruce Hadden


? sister of Mary Hadden 

New information
Alexander Bruce and Mary Doherty also had a son Alexander Bruce born in 1849 in Kilwinning. His birth record does not exist since statutory registration in Scotland only began in 1855. His mother Mary Doherty died sometime between his birth and the 1851 census as she is not with her husband but 2 year Alexander Bruce is an "orphan" living with Irish born shoemaker David Mills and his wife Margaret Miller in Green, Kilwinning near his father.  He wasn't technically an orphan until his father died in 1860 in Dovecot Lane in Kilwinning. But his widowed father needed someone to look after him especially if his mother died in childbirth or soon after.

David Mills seems to have been the first to go to Scranton Pennsylvania as he is there by 1870 census with wife and 2 sons Alexander Mills 20 and Hugh Mills 7 all born Scotland.  The only child I can find born to this couple is David Mills born 1852 and presumably died before 1855 as no further record of him. There is no Hugh Mills born in Scotland in the 1860s.

Two months after  Alexander Bruce died in 1860 in Dovecot Lane in Kilwinning, a child Hugh Bruce was born to Mary Bruce at the same address.  Mary and baby Hugh Bruce are together in the 1861 census in Neilston, Renfrewshire, 15 miles away. By 1863 Mary Bruce is in Cumnock, Ayrshire (25 miles from Kilwinning) marrying John Hadden. No death recorded for Hugh Bruce in Scotland. I am wondering if Hugh Mills could be Hugh Bruce although the age is 3 years out.  I can find no further trace of the Mills family but Alexander reverted to his surname of Bruce and lived until 1925.


Mary Bruce on left, Jane Hadden top, Mary Hadden bottom, Martha Hadden right
After John Hadden died in 1873 Mary Bruce was left with 6 children and pregnant with Martha. She married William Coulter  on 31 st December 1875 in Cumnock according to the birth certificates of their children. This appears to be a fiction as there is no such marriage. A marriage certificate would have given his parents' names. The early birth certificates have him as William or William John Cousar and the 1881 census gives his age and birth place so born 1852 Ireland. I'm guessing by the names of his children (Scottish naming patterns) that is the son of William Cousar/ Coulter and Esther Black.  All the men in the family I should say are miners.

James Hadden (1864) oldest son of Mary Bruce and John Hadden went to Pennsylvania in about 1883.

William Coulter left for the USA on the Devonia in late 1885. It is hard to be certain that this is him, hard to identify a man travelling alone.  Mary and the younger children follow in 1887.  Only the oldest four are  missing: James, Jane, Mary and Alexander Hadden

According to the American cousins, Alexander Hadden (1870) went back to collect Mary and her sons and he is on the Anchoria with them in 1894, I can't find any previous sailing for him but equally I can't find him in 1891 census in Scotland.

Once Mary Hadden (1866) was in the USA she married fellow Scot  James Bell Campbell in 1895 and had 4 more children Robert, Martha, Henry and Lewis as recorded in the Campbell family bible. It also gives James Bell Campbell's birthplace as Edinburgh and I am able to find his birth certificate. A  DNA match to his sister confirms the parents, Robert Campbell and Helen Laird.


Here are the Hadden / Campbells. Back row John Hadden, William Hadden, Robert Campbell, Lewis Campbell with parents seated James Bell Campbell and Mary Bruce Hadden



Unanswered questions
What happened to Hugh Bruce b 1860 Kilwinning?
Who is William Coulter /Cousar and why did they claim to be married on 31 Dec 1875 in Cumnock?




Saturday 23 May 2020

Hadden family from Cumnock

James Welsh was left in Scotland as a baby when  his mother and the rest of her family went to the USA! 

James ca 1925

Mary Hadden had two illegitimate children with James Welsh, a shepherd. First James in 1890 in New Cumnock then William born in 1892 in Kilmarnock.  She later sued the father for breach of promise seeking £200 damages and was eventually awarded £40 in 1893. She may have used this money to sail to the United States in 1894 on the Anchoria. Her mother and siblings were already there.
But first let's go back to 1890. She gave birth to James and the midwife Grace Connell took in the child, certainly by the 1891 census when he was a boarder and probably soon after his birth.  When his mother Mary went to collect him from the Connell home at Refuge Cottage at Roadside, near Cumnock in order to go to America, he was hidden and not handed over. He was left to live happily the rest of his life at Refuge Cottage. His father James Welsh's father had allegedly blocked the marriage. This information from  James's granddaughter.  The newspaper reports  from the Dundee Courier give some information on where Mary, a dairy maid, had worked; Craigdarroch in New Cumnock, Benston between Cumnock and New Cumnock and Stoopshill in Dalry. 





So, Mary Hadden age 30, William age 2 and another son John age 6 sailed on the Anchoria to New York in 1894.  In fact Mary had had 2 other illegitimate children before the 2 with James Welsh.  John and Mary Jane who died a few weeks old.

Once in America Mary married a fellow Scot James B Campbell in Scranton Pennsylvania in 1895 and had another 4 children. This photo dates from about 1909.   William and John will be in the back row.


Earlier generation
Mary Hadden was the son of John Hadden an Irish miner and his wife Mary Jane Bruce. Mary was born in 1866 at Barlonachan in Cumnock. Her father died in 1873. Her mother married a younger Irishman William  Coulter (sometimes Cousar) and emigrated with most of her children to Pennsylvania in 1887 on the Spain.
Mary J Coulter 50
John  Haddon 20
Samuel Haddon 11
Martha Haddon 10
Wm Coulter 10
Andrew Coulter 9
Alice Coulter 7 (=Esther)
Bruce Coulter 4

The only children missing from the manifest were the oldest son James and oldest daughter, the above Mary. We know she was still in Ayrshire but had James gone on ahead and where is Mary Jane's second husband William Coulter?

According to the 1910 US census, James emigrated in 1883 so yes, he had gone first.

William Coulter is alive and well in the 1900 US census in Dunmore with wife Mary, son Bruce daughter Acey Seigel aka Esther and her husband and son.

This is thought to be a photo of James outside Refuge Cottage. His granddaughter in Cumnock had a copy as did the cousins in America.

Mary didn't forget her son James in Cumnock. She sent him a half hunter watch for his 21st birthday. it is now treasured by his great grandson.

Meanwhile James Welsh stayed on in Cumnock, married and had one daughter Isabel. He was a joiner to trade but was an engineer/ car mechanic for most of his working life.

Click here for further information added 10 June 2020



21st birthday present

Thursday 30 January 2020

Hutcheson Dalgleish family


I do like an unusual name and they don’t come much more fanciful than Honolulu and Fairy Kyleakin Hutcheson.  Their grandfather George Dalgliesh was from Auchinleck, Ayrshire. 
I decided to have a closer look. 

Blanche Ethel Ruth Dalgliesh was born on 19 April 1874 in Wales where her father was a mine engineer. By 1891 census age 16 she was working as a governess to the daughters of the wealthy Hutcheson family in Rothesay. By 1901 she was the wife of William Hutcheson so I went looking for a death for the first wife, Janet (Jenny) McFie Orkney. What I found instead was a divorce citing Blanche. The wife had found her husband in the girl’s bedroom both in their nightwear. Ruth had had a baby who had later died. There was mention of a yacht and a house in Strone (near Dunoon). 
I found the baby Dousie Pearl Hutcheson was born on 27th February 1892 in Dun-Edin, Strone. Blanche was calling herself Banche Pearl Dalgliesh. Dousie died later that year in Cathcart where the Hutchesons had a home.
The divorce was granted in 24 Jun 1893 with the wife getting £100 a year for each of the two children. William married Blanche Pearl Dalgliesh by declaration in December 1893 by which time she was pregnant with Honolulu who was born in June 1894. 
In 1901 William Blanche, his first two daughters Deta Tahiti and Juanita, Blanche and their two daughters Honolulu and Fairy are living in Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute.  It seems it was William who liked fanciful names for his daughters. They had one more daughter Alexandra Gweneth and 2 sons with more mundane names  William David and George Moir.
William died in 1909 in Rothesay aged 52 and Blanche  remarried in 1915 in London to Frank Conway Reet, a Lieutenant on HMS Centurion. Blanche died in 1957 in Chichester.
I wondered where William’s wealth came from as he didn’t work.
William Hutcheson’s father Alexander and uncle David  were steamship owners in partnership with David MacBrayne, the precursor of Calmac.