My brick wall

Solomon Sievwright is my great, great, great, grandfather born about 1776 in Angus, probably in Brechin. You'd think with such a distinctive name he would be easy to track!

The first record I can find for him is his marriage in 1816 to Martha Burnett in Brechin.

In 1841 Solomon 65 is a linen handloom weaver in Cadger Hillock in Brechin. Nothing out of the ordinary, so far.

Their son, my ancestor Colin, was born in 1819. He was a weaver but strangely also a published poet so must have had some education.

One of his sons went to New Zealand and a cousin there sent me a copy of a letter dated 1886 which outlines his family line for his grandchildren. His father Solomon was an officer in Nelson's navy on a man o' war. His father was John a lawyer and his grandfather was Rev Norman Sievwright an Episcopalian minister in Brechin. This ties in with what my granny told me. The Scottish Episcopalian Church is part of the Church of England.

The problem is Colin doesn't mention Solomon's mother. He is too old to be the son of John's marriage to Helen Lowe, so either John was married before or Solomon was illegitimate. I think it must be the latter since if he was the oldest son and heir he would have been mentioned in the will of Helen Lowe who survived husband John the lawyer and died in 1838. She was very wealthy while Solomon was working as a weaver just  along the road.

Buying him a commission in the navy would have got him out of the way but I can find no record online for him as an officer in the navy. His return to marry in 1816 fits in with the end of the Napoleonic war.

I found another letter tying him in to the line of Rev Norman Sievwright. His great grandson had his ordination papers. I wonder if Solomon was brought up in his grandfather's household. There he would have got an education. Rev Norman was an esteemed scholar, but was not in the least wealthy. I found some correspondence from 1767 which said he had £40 a year and the Archbishop of Canterbury sent him £10 to help out.

The family wealth came from John the lawyer and his wife Helen Lowe.

I would love to find some earlier reference to Solomon, a birth, a mother, naval record, a burial. He died in 1843 according to Colin's letter to New Zealand. This is before statutory records began in Scotland, so no help there.

Solomon on my tree

Any suggestions as to next steps appreciated!

Update April 2016
Findmypast has released Royal Navy pension and service records and I found Solomon mentioned in 10 records. Most of them are paybook entries.

He served for 15 years and 1 month in the 1st DRM division of Royal Marines and was pensioned out in 14 Sep 1815 when he was 39 years old. The last record has a date of 25th June 1844 and I reckon this was his date of death after which the pension would cease. Son Colin had said in the 1886 letter that he died in 1843 so this seems right.

http://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-Records/british-royal-navy-and-royal-marines-service-and-pension-records-1704-1919?_ga=1.58663018.1364849508.1435153211

Update 2018
A cousin found this blog and had a note of Solomon's birthdate on his old family records. The value of sharing information online!

Sievwrights - the wealthy ones!

Widow Helen Low Sievwright who died in 1838 left her estate to 3 of her children Joseph Alexander, Marjory and Catherine. Marjory was the easiest to find as she never married and died in Brechin, where she was born, in 1874. But in the 1861 census she wasn't in Brechin but in Newington, Edinburgh with a sixteen year old Helen C Sievwright born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Both are listed as boarders so no clue as to their relationship there. In 1871 they are both in Crieff, Perthshire along with girls B H and C C Sievwright aged 23 and 20 respectively both born in New Brunswick. Again they are lodgers.
I have done much googling and found a reference to Joseph Alexander Sievwright *  on a MI (memorial inscription) in New Brunswick. He died in in 1856 and was married to Catherine Hoyt who seems to have been the widow of Samuel Edwin Hoyt, so I don't know her maiden name. She died in 1866. This would fit in with the orphaned sisters moving back to Scotland. But I can't find any births or census records of them so how to find out their names and parentage?
Marjory must have been a wealthy woman so there must be a will! There is, dated 1864! And in it I find unequivocal proof that they are her nieces the daughters of her "dear, deceased brother Joseph Alexander" and their names?
Helen Catherine Sievwright born about 1842,
Henrietta or Betty Horre(?) Sievwright 1847
Colina Charlotte Sievwright 1849
Marjory leaves them everything, with Helen getting all her silver plate (to be retained for her until she reaches majority or is married!) all the bed and table linen, the chair covered in worsted and the 2 ottomans in leopardskin (! maybe similar to the one in the image), sewed (sic) foot stools, her books, wearing apparel and trinkets to be retained for her own use and the old china and ornamental china, all her household furniture and if sold the proceeds of this to be hers in money. To Henrietta, her gold watch and chain. To Colina Charlotte, her best set of china. Perhaps she had not met the 2 younger girls in 1864 when the will was written. Helen certainly comes off best!
With this information I am able to find Helen Catherine Sievwright married to Henry Speid 22 years her senior who was from a local family but had left home in Ardovie near Forfar and travelled via Portugal and South America ending up in Canada. Quite how they got together is a mystery. I can't find a marriage in the UK so think they must have married in Canada in the late 1870s. They had a son Arthur Theodore Speid in 1882. In the 1901 census they are in Lennoxville, Quebec.
Arthur had 3 daughters Catherine Speid, Janet Marion Speid and Lorna Speid. Catherine graduated from Bishop's University in Lennoxville in 1936. Both married academics. Janet had 3 children, Catherine had none and died only last year in her nineties!
I haven't found any trace of Henrietta although there is a death of a Hetty Sievwright in Canada in 1884 which may be her. You'd think Colina Charlotte would be easy to find, but no joy so far. Update: now think she married George Dixon about 1889. Seems she used Charlotte rather than Colina.

My tree here

* Update on Joseph Alexander Sievwright here 

Catherine Sievwright's story here

Solomon, John and Norman Sievwright (updated)

I have been sent a copy of a letter from cousin Lyndsay written in 1886 by Colin Sievwright to his grandson in New Zealand which details his family history. Gold dust - a primary source!
His father was Solomon born about 1776 which we knew. Solomon apparently was an officer in Nelson's navy and didn't return to Scotland until after Napoleon's exile in 1815. This fits with his marriage to Martha Burnett in November 1816.
I can't find any reference to Solomon to support this but no reason to think it is not the case. According to the letter, Solomon was the oldest son of John, the only son of the Rev Norman Sievwright. Since John was married to Helen Low in 1788, either John was married before or Solomon was illegitimate. There is no baptism for Solomon which is strange for the grandson of a clergyman. Mind you only 2 of Norman's 7 children have baptism records.
His grandfather Norman Sievwright was educated at Aberdeen University and was first a schoolmaster in Monymusk and then presbyter in the Scottish Episcopal church in Brechin from 1749 until his death 1790. My granny maintained she had an ancestor who was a Bishop! He was a learned scholar of Hebrew.
His son, Solomon's putative father, John was a writer in Brechin and appears to have been quite wealthy. I have seen (the transcript of ) his widow Helen's will dated 1828. They clearly had property, land and stock in the London Docks Company. Solomon does not get a mention in the will although he was still alive and living nearby until 1843.
Of John and Helen's children only 3 are mentioned in the will. Presumably the others were already deceased. Joseph Alexander who is living on a frustratingly illegible island*, Catherine who is married to a Frenchman Louis Apollinaire Pellerin and living in Paris and Marjory who remains unmarried until her death in 1874. I can't find any more about the Pellerins. But I have found Joseph Alexander in Canada - for another post.
John and Helen also had a son Colin b 1792 after whom Solomon may have named his son Colin, the poet. There is a reference to a Colin Sievwright, a fellow of the royal college of surgeons. I need to go through to Angus Archives for a look at that! Perhaps he too was in the navy and perished!
Now at least we can see that Colin, the poet, had brains in his genes!

My tree

* Since writing this I have purchased the original will and can see that it is the Island of Demerary. The mystery deepens and no such island exists in the present day. I think it is part of Guyana in central America.

Colin Sievwright, weaver and poet, 1819 -95; part 2

This week I went through to Forfar in Angus where my GG grandfather lived most of his life. The object of the exercise was to get my hands on copies of his published poems which are in the reference section of Forfar library.

I found in two of the 4 books dedications in his own hand, so my gg grandfather must have handled these very books.

It seems that his poems about the people, the folklore and the places he knew were published weekly in various local papers and were so popular that many locals funded the publishing of at least one of the books. Benefactors included the Countess of Strathmore - the grandmother of the future Queen Mother.

He acknowledges that he takes his ideas from other works and offers his works in a spirit of "take it as you find it". When writing in prose he demonstrates a fine style and eloquence, quite remarkable for his circumstances.

A touching poem "Robin's awa" laments the early death of a brother. He certainly had a brother Robert but he didn't die until 1901 aged 76, so this is a mystery. He mentions a sister and her Johnnie. I think this refers to Isabella who married John Smart.


This page is from "The Bards of Angus and Mearns" and, what a thrill! has a photograph of him. He seems to have been highly thought of at the time.


First post about Colin here

Tree here

Colin Sievwright, weaver and poet

I was surprised to find out that my great great grandfather Colin Sievwright was a published poet, mentioned in a database of labouring class poets at Nottingham Trent University. Granny failed to mention this. Or I failed to remember it!

He was born about 1819 in Brechin, Angus (to Solomon Sievwright and Martha Burnett.

He married Annie McKenzie in 1842 and they had 4 sons and a daughter, Jessie Sievwright, my granny's mother.

Granny's given names were Charline Amelia Annie McKenzie. Don't know about the Amelia or Charline but now I know where Annie McKenzie came from!

It seems that Colin was the oldest of a large family and went to work in the linen mills from the age of eight.

In 1841 census he was in Kirriemuir working as a Linen Handloom Weaver. He married Annie there the following year. He wrote about her in a poem Annie was my dearie, O quoted in an out of print book: One Hundred Modern Scottish Poets. I have yet to find the full text.

His first work was published in 1866

The sough o' the shuttle : or poems and songs
by Sievwright, Colin.
Dundee: Printed By Robert Park, 1866.

In the 1871 census he is in Forfar listed as a Starchmaker in factory and poet

Other works are

Love lilts o' the braes o' Angus / Colin Sievwright.
by Sievwright, Colin.
Dundee: Weekly News Office, 1878.

Rhymes for the children of the church : with an introductory note by the lord bishops of St. Andrews
by Sievwright, Colin.
Brechin: D. H. Edwards, 1879.

A garland for the ancient city : or, love songs of Brechin and its neighbourhood, with historical notes. 2nd ed
by Sievwright, Colin. Brechin: D. H. Edwards, 1899.

He lost his Annie in 1874. By 1891 he was living with one of his sons James D Sievwright a customs officer in Wales where he died in 1895. Son Thomas Wildman Sievwright was a market gardener in Arbroath and another son David Burnett Sievwright a shoemaker went to New Zealand and my great granny went to Aberdeen.

One of his poems appears online on another blog

I think I am going to have to go through to Angus as they have copies of his works in their reference library! (I did! see this post  and more about Colin here)

This is the link to Colin on my tree