another David Sievwright

I was contacted yesterday by a Sievwright researcher from Australia asking about David Sievwright who he thought was his ancestor. I could see immediately he wasn't since it was the David Sievwright who went to New Zealand.
The only info he had was the notion that David Sievwright was Scottish, he had a wife Lilly Auld and their children Lilly, Jane and Charles born 1865, 1867 and 1868 respectively.
I found the birth of Jane with mother's name Lillias.
Then I found the marriage in 1863 which also gave a date of birth for Lillias of 18 AUG 1834. Wondering if she too was from Scotland I had a look on the IGI and yes indeed she was born in New Monkland to Lillias Russell and William Auld.
I did parent searches on the IGI for more children of David Sievwright and Lillias Auld and found younger children William, David, Margaret and Elizabeth.
Following Scottish naming patterns, the first child, a daughter, was named Lillias after Lillias Auld's mother Lilias Russell, the next daughter Jane should be mother of David and the first son Charles should be David's father,second son William after Lillias's father.
So we are looking for a David Sievwright son of Charles and Jean. Yes there is one born 1829 in Marykirk, Kincardineshire to Charles Sivewright and Jean Duthie.
Meanwhile in Australia the researcher has come up with a David Sievwright transported to Western Australia (where he is) in 1856 on the William Hammond. Lots of information on the convicts on this site
The ship sailed from Plymouth in January 1856 with 250 prisoners. They landed at Fremantle, Western Australia 86 days later.
David Sievwright was tried and sentenced to 10 years for robbery at Aberdeen on 14 April 1853. he was 23 at the time of the trial which fits perfectly with the birth I found. He was unmarried with no children. His occupation was gardener. There is also a physical description, round face, light brown hair, hazel eyes, pock marked face, deep scar near left eye and anchors and blue marks on both arms. Fantastic!
Meanwhile back to his family in Scotland. I couldn't find them in the census but tried again using a wildcard S*vright and they turned up on ancestry site in 1841 under Suvewright and in Aberdeen which ties in with the trial: Charles and Jean, William, David age 10 a combmaker, Jean, Margaret, Andrew & Elizabeth. In 1851 it's just David 21 still a comb maker and sister Margaret. Combmaker doesn't tie in with gardener but, apart from this, I think it fits.
Unfortunately I can't tie them in with my Sievwrights but they were from Aberdeenshire too so there is probably an older connection.

Jas B Rolinson Ltd

ca. 1975 by Andrew Gaylor

Grandfather founded the garage business at 400 Gallowgate in the east end of Glasgow in 1935. He was joined by his three sons. They were Rootes dealers (latterly Chrysler) and sold new and used cars, petrol, had a spares department and a workshop. They also had a filling station at Muiryfaulds in Shettleston, at the junction of Westmuir Street and Shettleston Road.  For a while in the sixties they hired cars and dormobiles (motor homes, see photos below). My cousins and I used to clean them out on Saturdays. From the age of 13, I worked in the office on Saturdays and in the holidays. I did filing, answering the phone and calling for my father or uncles over the tannoy system. I balanced the ledgers using an enormous adding machine. When they didn't balance I did them mentally and we're talking big columns of pounds, shillings and pence. I was allowed to take money to the bank along the Gallowgate in leather pouches. I can remember the occasional £100 note. I wouldn't dream of doing this now.
In 1960 to celebrate 25 years in business they had a big event in the McLellan Galleries in Sauchiehall street. They invited customers and prospective customers to a Silver Jubilee on the 5th and 6th of April. I have the guest list, the invitations, the thank you letters and publicity photos and I recently came across the following slides.

Add caption

think this is Margaret Baird later Mrs James Colquhoun who worked in the office

hire a dormobile for £25 a week
Miss Baird and Mrs McIntosh

Humber Super Snipe Touring Limousine

 L-R Fay & George, Lena & Cliff, Margaret & Jim, Helen & Ted

They opened Muiryfaulds filling station in 1962 at the junction of Westmuir St and Shettleston Road in Parkhead with Uncle George in charge. I don't recognise anyone in the photo from the Evening Times of 22 Nov 1962.

The premises at 400-420 Gallowgate in 1975 and after regeneration in the eighties. The only part to be retained (and restored) was an 18th century building seen on the right of the top photo. 

1944

Link to document about the restoration of the old building

Happy Anniversary!

My grandparents James Ball Rolinson and Margaret Mayes Haig were married on this day, 2nd January, in 1913 at Dollarbeg, Clackmannanshire where they were in service.
I don't have a photo of the wedding but found this photo of their Golden Wedding party in 1963.
The family gave them a gold (coloured) tray. Granny looks suitably unimpressed!

Merry Christmas in days gone by.

As an only child I was undoubtedly very privileged at Christmas.

Christmas Day would start with the discovery of Santa's goodies laid out in front of the fire. The postman would bring cards and parcels even on Christmas morning.

We would go to the Christmas Day Service and we would have the grandparents for Christmas dinner.

My mother would make a capon for most of us and a steak for dad who wouldn't eat poultry after he saw an aunt kill a chicken when he was small. This aunt may have been Jessie Rolinson as I remember seeing baby chicks when we visited Uncle Andrew Duncan.

We would all listen reverentially to the Queen's speech on telly at 3pm and watch telly in the evening.

The only difference nowadays is the church visit and the queen's speech are neglected. I cook beef as the head of the family doesn't like turkey and chicken nowadays isn't a special treat.

Here are some photos from past Christmasses.



Christmas Day 1956 at our house in Thornliebank



Left to right, mum, granny Shearer, grandad Shearer, me, Papa Rolinson, Dad (and a bit of granny R)

New Year's Day 1957 with the Rolinsons, possibly at the grandparents' flat in Dennistoun.

mum, Fay, George, back of Papa's head, granny, Ted


Uncle George and Auntie Fay whooping it up watched by Jim and me.


Christmas 1958. Dad would have liked a son!


Christmas 1959 in our new house in Giffnock




Going to my first dinner dance in 1969. I still have the red glass vase that's on the mantelpiece and the pearl bracelet from Majorca. The dress cost 21 guineas from a shop in Renfield Street and ended up in my daughter's dressing up box.

James Clifford Rolinson 1913-1994

Thinking of my father Cliff today on his 97th birthday, were he alive.

He was the first of three sons of James Ball Rolinson and Margaret Mayes Haig. They were in service at Dollarbeg in Clackmannanshire in 1913. By 1917 they were living in Glasgow.

My grandfather bought a car - a 12 HP Austin - in 1927 which must have been quite unusual. That first year they had it dad aged 13 wrote a diary of the weekly trips they made in it going to Loch Lomond or Gleneagles, sometimes taking neighbours along for the run. Its registration was V-9508, its year 1922, it had 5 seats. Its colour was Royal Blue and its fittings an Auster rear screen, side curtains, auto wiper and electric horn. He noted the route, the mileage and petrol consumption. I wonder if that is it in the photo above. The day they bought it 26 August they went to Dunoon and the following day to Calderbank, presumably to show the grandparents.
As a child in the 50s, I still remember going for weekend runs in my grandfather's big Humber Super Snipe.

My parents met at a dancing class I think just before the war. They married in 1942. Dad was in the Gordon Highlanders and served in Greece and Italy. He did winter training in Banff National Park in Canada which he often talked about, though I couldn't imagine him skiing. I never saw him do any sport unless minigolf.

Before the war he was an Insurance clerk for Legal and General but after the war he joined his father and brothers in the family garage business started in 1935. They were Rootes dealers - Hillman, Humber, Sunbeam in the Gallowgate in Glasgow. I remember when the Hillman Imp came out at first. My dad hit the accelerator instead of the brake when driving a brand new one.

He didn't have many hobbies but he liked photography. He was an elder in the Church of Scotland and did slide shows for the Men's Association. We would holiday in Scotland right up until 1968 when something persuaded him to go to Majorca. Thereafter my parents went abroad regularly. He had a heart attack in 1976 and we realised that he had never walked the length of our street, always taking the car! He recovered well from the heart attack but he was principal carer to my mother who had suffered a stroke. After she died in 1985 he had a good spell of retirement and enjoyed his grandchildren but gradually his sight deteriorated which was very frustrating for him.

He was an easy going man. I can't recall him ever losing his temper. I remember being shocked when he used bad language in the garage. To go to work or church he wore an overcoat and trilby. He would go out to lunch every day in Goldberg's in Glassford Street where he met some pals. Social life centred around the church. At Christmas time there was the motor traders' ball in Glasgow City Chambers and in the sixties the 5 past 8 Show at the long gone Alhambra Theatre in Glasgow's Wellington Street.

He was good with his hands and made furniture, a doll's house and a record player cabinet. He could type amazingly fast with just two fingers. He wrote a church newsletter which was cranked off on a hand turned Gestetner. He would have loved computers!

Dad and I on a picnic in 1957

Lest we forget

In this armistice week it is appropriate to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Agnes Wilkie Clark my great aunt and a grandaughter of Colin Sievwright lost her husband Alfred Allan Walker aged 33 on 14 November 1914 in France. He had served only 45 days. I found his service record online. It was, not surprisingly, rather short. He was a corporal in the Gordon Highlanders, had grey eyes and black hair. He was a marine engineer.

Their only son William Sievwright Walker who was 11 when his father died, also died as a result of "enemy action" on 9 November 1940. He was second engineer on the MV Shelbrit 2 when it was bombed. The ship survived. I think it must have happened in harbour at Portslade, Sussex. He was 37.

My great uncle Richard Ewart Shearer died of pneumonia in Ayr Military Hospital in 1917 while serving as an apprentice engine fitter with the Royal Flying Corps. He was only 19. He is remembered on war memorials in Ayr, Hightae and Lockerbie. I do wonder though, why they were working on planes in Ayr. It's not exactly convenient for crossing the Channel.

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

Charline Clark Shearer, born 100 years ago today!

My mother would be 100 today, if she were still alive. Thought it would be nice to remember her today with a piece about her.
She was the first child of Willie Shearer and Charline Amelia Annie McKenzie Clark. She was born in the Lodge House of Kincaid House in Milton of Campsie where Willie was the chauffeur. After the war Willie was chauffeur at Millburn House near Dalserf. I have piano music with her name Lena Shearer, Millburn Lodge. She was a good pianist, had passed exams and gave lessons. She played country dance music for the women's guild. I still have her piano which is sadly seldom played.
She worked as a typist in the Labour Exchange. She was an ARP warden during the war.
She met my dad at dancing lessons. He was not a great dancer. Her petname for him was QQS - quick, quick, slow.
They married in 1942. After the war they lived with her parents and her brother Colin and his family all in a council house in Knightswood. They got their own house in 1949. She had many miscarriages before I finally came along in 1950.
She was an intelligent woman but wasn't allowed to go out to work after marriage. The husband would provide. She knitted and made my clothes. She flung herself into church work, making crafts to sell and organising events like fashion shows. She liked crosswords. She passed her driving test but was too nervous to drive.
She was funny, had a wicked sense of humour and a fine turn of phrase including Scots words and phrases.
In the late sixties my parents discovered foreign holidays and went to Majorca, Tenerife, Sorrento, Lake Garda and went on a Rhine Cruise.
She had a stroke in 1973 and life changed dramatically. My father looked after her well, having to learn to cook and work a washing machine.
She died in 1985 sadly never knowing her son-in-law or her grandchildren.