Hi karenlee, mab, and others following this tortuous trail! It is morning here in Canada and my head is perhaps a little clearer. I feel badly for, even in speculation, suggesting that our Mary may have been lying a great deal and had a bad family background despite the circumstance that she found herself in when she voluntarily gave Henry to Inspector Berry. I hope history is kinder to me when reflecting on my sins!
She was doing the best for her son.
I think that "Bothwell Mary" whose family Karenlee so kindly reviewed through the censuses is our Mary and there was a miscommunication between her and the Inspector. Of her, he reports to Quarriers: "who although only 27 has been going awrong for over five years"....In the confusion and stress of the moment and remembering she is a battered woman at this point he/ they meant that after 27 years of age has been going awrong for five years. That would make her about 32 which is fully compatible with "Bothwell Mary's" genealogy.
No other Mary's in the censuses or birth records fit by age or geography despite an extensive combing of these. And Mary herself identifies her birthplaces as Bothwell and Holyton which match later census records
There is however a clue in the "Bothwell Mary" genealogy:
"Janet Wife Marr 38 Inn Keeper and Flesher's Wife was born Old Monkland Lanarkshire"
In her interview with the Inspector, Mary said that she had been living with her mother in Rankine's Land, Baillieston but father died many years ago.
Karenlee has identified that on the 1881 Census Rankine's Land and Rankine's Land Attic are enumeration districts for Old Monkland Lanarkshire.
So was Mary really referring to her maternal grandmother and grandfather in this statement. She may have been estranged from her mother and father, but more likely she did not want to burden them with Henry and was very anxious to present a situation where Henry would be accepted into the care of Quarriers. William Quarrier’s Narrative of Facts for January 30 1882 states at page 8:
“January 30 – A great many cases were dealt with at the City Home today. We took in a little boy of four, sent from a neighbouring town by a police officer. The poor miserable mother begged that the little fellow might be taken from such surroundings as she had brought herself into. She is anxious to lead a different life, and, as she stood before us, with her eye swollen by a blow from the woman who she says first led her to do wrong, we could but pray that she might be plucked as a brand from the burning. We trust that the little fellow may soon forget his past experience, and never know the depth of misery he has been taken from.”
I hope I have in the clearer light of day presented a more balanced picture. It would add additional weight to this theory if we could find a widow Howison (Janet's mother) in Rankins Land, Old Monkland, Baillieston in the 1871 and 1881 censuses. A death record for "Bothwell Mary" and the internal transcript for the Royal Asylum:
1901 Census Scotland Lanarkshire Govan
Reg # 646/3 Roll CSSCT1901/332 Royal Asylum Gartnavel Glasgow
GILCHRIST Mary 48 Patient born Lanark
may also help.
Many thanks as always.....Lumber-Jack
