BROWN / WATSON of Crail

[hdw]

Thanks, you inspired me to try again, and this time I had no problems. Must have been a temporary blip.

I discovered that the Alexander Watson who married Mgt. Patrick was born in 1805 at Anstruther to Alexander Watson, weaver, and Janet Parky, which is the local spelling and pronunciation of Parker. I found this latter couple in the 1851 census of Anstruther, and discovered that Alexander senior was from the parish of Cameron, so I've lost interest in him. His wife was from Anstruther. There are still Parkers around, and the locals still say "Parky". Watson was the commonest local surname for centuries, and we don't need more Watsons coming in from outside to complicate matters!

I was really more interested in discovering why John Watson Brown and Johanna Watson called their daughter Joan Birrell Brown, as I know quite a lot about the local Birrells, but I haven't managed to solve that one.

Harry (Watson)

[mussenden18]

Hi,

Thanks for the marriage date. Did not know that.  I like you am at a loss as to why  the names Watson and Birrel were introduced.  Someone did suggest that at the time of marriage the partners family name was adopted as a middle name. I haven't seen anything to support this but it sounds plausible.

The name birrell was carried on as my great aunt born 1899 was called Beryl which i believe was a derivative of Birrel.

I will keep researching the middle name issue and advise if I find anything.

David Irwin

[winnie7]

(extract) ... Joan married James Thompson Stephen in 1888 and their daughter Mary Jane Thompson Stephen (B 1898 D 1984) was my Grandmother. 

Hi David,
Mary Jane Thomson Stephen was one of my grandfather’s sisters.
Sending you a private message.
Thanks rootschat!

[winnie7]

....Watson was the commonest local surname for centuries, and we don't need more Watsons coming in from outside to complicate matters!Harry (Watson)

Well sorry but here's another one, intriguing....
Who was "Granny Watson" who washed football shirts for the local Crail football team for years?
There's a photo on the SCRAN website. Apparently she lived to age 102.
I have a short subscription. Reference http://www.scran.ac.uk/
search "Mrs Watson pegging out a football shirt, Fife, 1970s"

[hdw]

Ah, I'm glad you asked me that (no, really!). My mother was a Crail woman, and often spoke about "Granny Watson". I've seen the photo you mention. When she was 100, they offered to buy her a washing-machine to make it easier for her to wash the football shirts, and she was incensed, thinking they were hinting that she was past it. Every time she sneezed the word went round Crail that this time Granny Watson was on the way out, but she hung on in there. One day she passed out in a shop in Crail, but when they revived her and wanted to take her to the doctor she pooh-poohed their efforts, saying she had come out without her cup of tea that morning and that was all that was wrong.

I have details of her family-tree which I worked out earlier this year with the help of Scotlandspeople. She started life as Jessie Terras Scobie, born in Crail in 1875 to Andrew Stobie and Helen Watson (daughter of Thomas Watson and Helen Balsillie). These are Crail Watsons - but in 1894 Jessie married fisherman Henry Watson, son of James Watson and Janet Cowe, who came from Northumberland, from where they moved to Cellardyke - my home town - from where they moved the 4 miles to Crail.

As an amateur historian of Cellardyke (my book about the place was published in 1986 by John Donald Ltd.), where Watson was the commonest surname for hundreds of years, it has always intrigued me that this English couple called Watson moved there in Victorian times. They must have felt at home among all the other Watsons!

James Watson and Janet Cowe also had a son called John who was known in Crail as "English Jock". He was quite a character, and you can see his photo and read about him in one of those books of old photos of Fife. I've forgotten the author and title, but it's on my bookshelves somewhere.

Harry

[winnie7]

Extract.... Ah, I'm glad you asked me that (no, really!). My mother was a Crail woman, and often spoke about "Granny Watson". Harry

Thanks for that Harry, a great story!

[hdw]

One correction to what I said above - "Granny Watson" was Jessie Terras Stobie, not  Scobie.

I can claim a distant connection by marriage. Her uncle Thomas Stobie married a Jane Smith who was a half-sister of my great-grandmother Margaret Spink (Mrs. James Peebles). Thomas Stobie and Jane Smith had a daughter called Magdalene Dewar Stobie who was thus a 1st cousin both of Jessie Stobie/"Granny Watson" and of my maternal grandfather James Peebles junior.

Harry

[winnie7]

Extract.. I can claim a distant connection by marriage....Harry

May you enjoy those inherited genes of longevity!
Enjoyed reading publisher's review and your biog;
thanks for sharing your research and amusing stories
here at rootschat.

[hdw]

Thanks. The problem with me is getting me to stop once I've started. I promise this is my last posting on the subject of Watsons in Cellardyke and Crail.

The situation I've outlined in the above posts, re Watsons, is only half the story. James Watson and Jane Cowe - the Northumbrian couple who settled in Cellardyke - must have had regular visits from Jane's sister Elizabeth "Betsy" Cowe - because she ended up marrying a Cellardyke fisherman called ... James Watson. He was a genuine Cellardyke Watson, better known as "Hanksey", and was a 1st cousin of my grandfather Watson.

James Watson and Betsy Cowe had a son called Thomas Watson who moved to Aberdeen and became skipper of a trawler called "Lord Talbot". Thomas's claim to fame is that in 1932 he rescued the famous "Flying Family", an American family of aviators who were trying to become the first family to fly across the Atlantic together when they pranged their plane on the  Greenland ice-sheet. Luckily none of them were hurt. Thomas Watson abandoned his fishing trip and took the American family back to Aberdeen. His reward was to be sacked by the boat's owners, as they were not amused by his returning to port without any fish. The crew were paid no wages, really savage treatment during the Depression when times were hard enough already.

However, President Herbert Hoover presented skipper Watson with a pair of binoculars which his family later gave to the Aberdeen Maritime Museum, where you can still see them.

Harry