Mair Shavie family

A Kidney Pill Recommendation

jahunteruk 4 Comments

Dear blog reader.

My paternal 3 x great uncle not only left behind my all-time favourite door lintel (see below) but I was also intrigued when I spotted a recommendation by him for a particular kidney pill in the Banffshire Advertiser newspaper (commonly known as the Buckie Squeak) in 1910.

Below, in my usual family history style, I’ll outline William Murray’s life events then I’ll look at his tablet recommendation.

Jacqueline

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William was born on 23 December 1842 in Rathven parish, Banffshire, Scotland to my 3 x great grandparents, James Murray Farmer and Ann Mair Shavie.

I’ll explain the ‘Farmer’ and ‘Shavie’ here as the ‘Farmer’ will get another mention below (in connection with my favourite door lintel). In the fishing communities of Scotland there are few different surnames and so tee-names or by-names are used as suffices to the surname in order to differentiate between families. My Farmer ancestors originate from the Rathven area and spread out from Buckie, Banffshire to Lossiemouth, Moray and my Shavie ancestors originate from the village of Portknockie near Rathven.

In the 1851 census William was aged 8 and living in Buckie in the ‘Lane North West of the Market’ with his mother and his siblings Helen, Margaret and James (his father was a fisherman so was perhaps away at sea on the day of the census). In the 1861 census William was a 17 year old white fisher and living at 42 Top of the Brae, Buckie with his parents (his father was listed as a white fisher) and his siblings Helen, Margaret, James, George, Ann, Jane and Jessie.

On the 17th of January 1868, William married Ann McKenzie at High Street, Buckie.

In the 1871 census William (a 27 year old fisherman) and Ann were living at 10 Brae Top, Buckie with their sons James and John. In the 1881 census William (a 33 year old fisherman therefore claiming to have only aged 6 years in the 10 years since the last census) and Ann were living at Braeheads, Buckie with 5 of their children, James, John, Ann, William and Lydia Ellen.

In the 1891 census William (now a 48 year old fisherman) was living at 9 Seaview Road, Buckpool, Banffshire with Ann and 8 of their children, James, John, Ann, William, Lydia, Jessie, Nellie and George Alexander. The lintel that William had installed at 9 Seaview Road still exists and ensures that the Murray Farmer tee-name will never be forgotten locally:

Lintel at 9 Seaview Road, Buckpool

I suspect the year perhaps indicates what William and Ann thought was the year of their marriage.

In the 1901 census William (a 58 year self-employed fisherman) and Ann were living at 9 Seaview Road with 4 of their children, Lydia, Jessie, Nellie and George Alexander. In the 1911 census William (a 68 year old self employed fisherman) and Ann were still at 9 Seaview Road with only their son George Alexander still living with them.

(There will be a separate blog post about George Alexander in the future as his death was extremely tragic. In 1943 the Red Cross ship, Australian Hospital Ship Centaur, of which George was Captain, was sank off the Queensland coast in Australia by a Japanese torpedo. Of the 332 people onboard 268, including George, died).

In the 1921 census William was living at 9 Seaview Road by himself (Ann had died earlier that year) as a 79 year old retired fisherman.

On the 16th of April 1925 William died at his daughter Ann’s house at Netherfield, St Peter’s Road, Buckpool from bronchitis.

William and Ann and several of their extended family are buried in Buckpool New Cemetery:

William’s family gravestone

We shall now look at William’s kidney tablet recommendation. I shall simply reproduce the newspaper advert word-for-word as it is very detailed.

The Banffshire Advertiser, Thursday, August 18, 1910

Buckie Result.

What is the result here in Buckie? We have heard the good news from neighbouring towns, but somehow nothing has just the same weight with us as the result in our home town. A Buckie result like the following, however, must impress us all.

Mr W Murray, of 9 Seaview Road, Buckie, says:- ‘For no less than twenty years I have been subject to lumbago – a trying pain in the small of the back, just over the kidneys. At times it was very bad, and it was all I could do to get to work. Now and again I was laid up for a week – I often had to walk about bent.’

‘But I am pleased to say that I have found a genuine remedy in Doan’s Backache Kidney Tablets. They have never failed to give me the ease I needed, and to free me from the pain. They surely go to the source of the trouble, and I can heartily recommend them. (Signed) William Murray.’

Do you have rheumatic pains? Backache? Pains in the loins and sides? Dizzy spells? Is the urine high-coloured, painful in passing, scanty or gravelly? Are your eyes puffy? Your ankles swollen? Are you irritable and depressed? Do you soon get tired? If you have to answer ‘Yes’ to any of these questions, you have kidney trouble, and should begin at once with Doan’s Backache Kidney Pills,of which your neighbour speaks so highly. But if you neglect kidney trouble it may end fatally.

Doan’s Backache Kidney Pills are two shillings and ninepence per box, or six boxes for for thirteen shillings and ninepence. Of all chemists and stores, or post free direct from the Foster-McClellan Co., 8 Wells Street, Oxford Street, London, W. Be sure you get the same tablets Mr Murray had.

Sources: birth, marriage and death details and census entries from the Scotland’s People website, newspaper article from the British Newspaper Archive website and photographs taken by Jacqueline Hunter.

My Connection to the Evangeline Tragedy

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The sinking of the Evangeline fishing boat in 1905 is quite well known in the Banffshire area of Scotland due to the number of families that it affected and this blog post is the story of my connection to the Evangeline tragedy.

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My paternal 4 x great uncle, John Mair, had a son Alexander Mair who tragically had two members of his family drown when the Evangeline sank, his son Alexander (married to Barbara Ann Mason) and his son-in-law John Wood (who was married to Alexander senior’s daughter Helen).

I shall explore below the lives of Alexander and Barbara and Helen and John and I shall then look at the sinking of the Evangeline.

Alexander was born on 25 September 1866 in the fishing village of Portknockie to Alexander Mair, a fisherman, and Georgina Mair, Alexander and Georgina having married in Portknockie in 1853. You will notice that Georgina’s maiden surname was the same as her husband’s. This is not at all unusual in the Scottish fishing communities where there are often limited surnames and tee or by names are attached as a suffix to the surname to aid in differentiating families. Alexander was a member of the Mair Shavie family.

In the 1871 census Alexander was living at house number 134 in Portknockie with both of his parents and his siblings John, Jean, Elspet, Ann and James. Thanks to the excellent map produced by the Cullen, Deskford and Portknockie Heritage Group I know that 1 Pulteney Street is the modern address equivalent for the family’s home in 1871. I’ve been unable to find Alexander in the 1881 or 1891 censuses, he was probably away fishing.

On 14 September 1894 at the Seafield Church of Scotland Church in Portknockie Alexander, a fisherman, married Barbara Ann Mason, a 20 year old domestic servant also living in Portknockie, the witnesses being William Mair and James Mair. In the 1901 census Alexander and Barbara were living at house number 261 (now known as 22 Church Street) in Portknockie with Alexander’s father Alexander and Alexander and Barbara’s 3 children Georgina, Barbara and Helen.

I shall now turn to Alexander’s sister Helen. Helen was born on 17 September 1873 in Portknockie. I’ve been unable to fond Helen in the 1881 or 1891 censuses as yet – I suspect the family was fragmenting as Alexander senior’s wife Georgina died in 1875, 2 years after Helen’s birth.

On 28 November 1895 at the Seafield Church of Scotland Church in Portknockie Helen, a fisher girl, that is someone who traveled up and down Scotland and England gutting fish, married John Wood King (King being John’s tee/by name), a 23 year-old fisherman who also lived in Portknockie. The witnesses were William Mair and James Mair (possibly the exact same two men who had stood witness at Alexander’s wedding the year before but the surname Mair is so common in Portknockie who really knows). I’ve been unable to find a suitable entry for Helen and John in the 1901 census.

Now I shall turn to the Evangeline:

The Evangeline

The Evangeline was built in 1896 by George Innes & Co of Portknockie to the Zulu design named after the Zulu wars in southern Africa. The Zulu design was repeated many times and had a reputation as excellent fishing boats. The Evangeline had been built for David Wood King who had sailed from Wick, Caithness on Friday 13 January 1905 heading for the Orkney fishing grounds. The wind reached hurricane strength before dawn on Saturday and other boats which had sailed from Wick at the same time headed for the safety of the Fair Isle. Not the Evangeline unfortunately, it sank off Stronsay, Orkney, with the loss of 8 lives. This photo shows the crew of the Evangeline in 1904, the year before the Evangeline floundered:

The crew of the Evangeline in 1904.

7 of the crew were from Portknockie with one man from the nearby town of Cullen. The Portknockie men who drowned were David Wood King (the owner of the boat), John Wood King (David’s nephew and married to Helen Mair Shavie as discussed above), Alexander Mair Shavie (as discussed above), James Mair Shanker, William Mair Shanker, Joseph Mair Bobbin and Alexander Mair Bobbin. The Cullen man was George Findlay Hooker – George was only on the Evangeline because David Wood had had an argument with his step-son Alexander Mair Saucy who would normally have been a member of the crew on the Evangeline.

(It is not always known why families have the tee-names they do but I have recently discovered that Alexander Mair Saucy’s family had a different tee-name from their relations due to historic cheekiness).

In the photo above, the only men who have been named are the owner David Wood, back row second from right, and Alexander Mair Saucy, front row middle. Alexander Mair Saucy not being on the Evangeline when she sank, all the other men in the photo drowned when the Evangeline sank.

I shall now turn to a local newspaper, the Banffshire Reporter, for the details of the sad recovery to Portknockie of the bodies of 5 of the crew once they had washed ashore in Orkney on Tuesday 17 January.

The bodies of 5 of the crew of the Evangeline arrived back at Portknockie very early on Friday 20 January.

Around 10pm on the Thursday evening around 60 Portknockie fisherman, who been based at Stornoway, returned home to Portknockie by train to pay their respects to their colleagues. The steam drifter Blue Bell had gone from Stornoway to Stronsay with a large number of fishermen on board to assist another Portknockie steam drifter, the Trident, to bring home the bodies.

At half past eleven at night hundreds of local people were lining the cliffs waiting for the Blue Bell and the Trident to come in with the Trident arriving first at five past midnight on a moonlit night. The Trident was burning flares as she went so she could be seen without having to sound her horn on such a solemn occasion. There was a great crowd at the jetty to meet the Trident and nobody spoke above a whisper as the bodies of Alexander Mair Bobbin and William Mair Shanker were lifted out of the hold in temporary coffins shrouded in black. (There had been a number of boats in difficulty at the same time with some issues in identifying exactly which boats needed help but some could be identified easily unfortunately – William Mair had his initials WM tattooed on his hands and could thus be recognised when his body was recovered).

Fifteen minutes later the Blue Bell arrived and berthed alongside the Trident so that the coffins containing the bodies of David Wood King, John Wood King and George Findlay Hooker were lifted up onto the quay.

Four fishermen shouldered each coffin and the five bodies were walked up the steep path 200 feet from the harbour to the village with large amounts of mourners behind each coffin and the top of the hill being lined by two lines of weeping women.

Each coffin was carried to the family home of each fisherman with a special party carrying George Findlay home to his family in Cullen.

The body of Alexander Mair was recovered from the sea by a Hull trawler, the Mercury, and Alexander was buried in Orkney rather than being brought home. James Mair was also buried in Orkney.

The body of Joseph Mair was never recovered from the sea.

The widows of the ancestors of mine on board the Evangeline made different choices. Barbara Ann Masson, Alexander’s widow, stayed in Portknockie and died there in 1945. Helen Mair, John’s widow, emigrated to Canada in 1920 and died in Toronto in 1941.

Sources: birth, marriage and death certificates and census entries from the Scotland’s People website, ‘A Portknockie Tragedy’ written by John Crawford and the Banffshire Reporter dated Wednesday 25 January 1905 from the British Newspaper Archive website.