Hello everyone, and thanks Annie for alerting everyone.
Three years too late, but here I am, ggg granddaughter of Charles Macrae Robertson......
Your thread makes fantastic reading for me. I'm gob-smacked at how much you all did, so fast, and it has given me loads of leads (thankyou!). I never heard of Claude until I came across him here, but I do know quite a lot about his wider family they go back to Rothesay on Bute in the C17th. I'm on about p60 of the thread so not sure yet whether you've managed to resolve some of the sticky little problems that I've also come across those three children of Alice Johnson and Charles Macrae Robertson, the multiple people of the same age with the same name (Charles M Robertson jr x 2), etc etc
You solved one thing for me that has nagged at me for ages. I have a basic hand-drawn tree that has come down through the family, which started me off on this whole malarcky, and it refers to a Rev Archibald Robertson, son of John, no dates or anything. One of the last things I read about last night, before I had to peel myself away from the computer, was one Rev Archibald Aeneas R, son of John, along with a potted history. And he was famous (well, a bit!). Thankyou!!!
Please don't groan, but here's where I'm up to:
What I know, because I have the luxury of buying certificates, is that at her marriage to Charles M R, Alice Johnson gave her father's name as Richard Johnson, Ship Master, so I think the illegitimacy of her first three seems quite likely. Although wouldn't a ship master's family be well-to-do........ perhaps less prone to getting into trouble?? Or is that hopelessly naive?? Having said that, I have never found any trace other than that of her father, or of a likely birth for Alice, so I have wondered if she was telling the unadulterated truth because something doesn't feel quite right about it.
Charles Macrae committed suicide in 1877 and Alice died in 1873, so their children were orphaned. He made his will in 1872, leaving everything to oldest brother George, and after his death three of the girls, as you discovered, were sent to Ockham School down south (supported by whom?). I've seen that referred to as an Industrial School, suggesting perhaps they were down on their luck but can't find any records. I was hoping it might give me a guardian. If it wasn't Uncle George, who was so generous to his other widowed sisters-in-laws and nieces, why not? Was it the suicide thing? George didn't leave a will when he died in 1905, or not one that went to probate I was hoping that might shed light but sadly not.
Of Charles' several brothers and sisters that I've found any trace of, all apart from George died in their 30s or 40s. Including Helen who married Mr Ewing. Never found any further trace of the young Archibald, bap. Stepney 1825.
I found a record of the family graves at Toxteth Park Cemetery which has thrown up another conundrum which I'm still working on. Colin Douglas Robertson shares his grave with a married couple, James and Isabella (nee Hamilton) Robertson, that I had never come across, and I cannot place them. They were both born in Scotland (ca 1799 and 1803), poss Greenock, married in Greenock in 1830, he was a merchant and they were living at Toxteth Park in 1851. I have found a James R in Toxteth Park, merchant, with the same address, as early as 1832. Can't find a birth that links him with my lot. Who is he?
There's also an Esther Robertson in one of the family graves, married to an Archibald Douglas Robertson, who's in a separate grave (he died at Rainhill Asylum, aged 45, pawnbroker, so out of the sea 'zone'). They are presumably related but who is he. And he was actually born in Liverpool ca. 1821, according to the 1861 Census.
I've not visited the graves it's possible that the relationships are given wish I lived nearer, but I aim to get there at some point.
I have copies of portraits of quite a few of them. Not the Liverpool generation, apart from my gg grandmother Helen the Greenock/Rothesay lot, Hugh Moodie (father of Janet), a couple of George Robertsons. I'll be glad to show those if anyone's interested....
I've wondered about a slave trade link that was mentioned once or twice in the thread....
Anyway, I've droned on a bit, hope you're still awake, and hope you might be interested!
Bye for now
Nicola
