This weeks post is the outline of an article that I have prepared for the Dumfries and Galloway Family History Society Newsletter this Autumn. The DGFHS is an organisation that has its own premises in the town of Dumfries. It was established in 1987 and is dedicated to supporting members with their family history research. I have been a member for nearly ten years and find it one of the best resources for my research into the McKie family that I could possibly want. The overseas membership is as wide as the UK membership and the newsletter, published three times each year, always has a list of new members and their research interests. The centre of my Galloway research, Kirkinner and the McKie family, does not often appear in that listing, but I have been contributing my research, either through a previous article or by transcription of Agnes McKie’s memorial stone in Kirkinner parish graveyard.
Dumfries and Galloway is that region of Scotland at the south west corner. It borders the Solway Firth and the Irish sea. The coast of Northern Ireland is just 17 miles from Port Patrick. My interest lies in the corner that is known as Wigtownshire, which leads down to the Isle of Whithorn.
The peninsular that juts out into the entrance of the Solway Firth is also known as the Machars, famous for being rich in history, harbours and countryside. This would have been the familiar working place for John McKie who was a master stonemason. In my first article for the DGFHS newsletter, I described John’s background and history and the tragedy of his death in 1879 at the age of 31. In part 2 of this story I focus on what happened to Agnes, his widow, and their six children. Agnes had to apply to the parish Poor Law board for assistance and so it describes my research into those records.
For those who do not recognise the title, it is the heading for the section of research that I have been doing on the McKie/Nicol families, the origins of my wife and our children. It refers to the industries that they worked in during the 19th and 20th Centuries.
Stone, Steam and Dynamite (Part 2)
In a previous article for the DGFHS Newsletter (November 2020) I described the origins of the McKie family in Kirkinner, Wigtownshire. I say the origins but really it is the origins of my wife’s family going back three generations to the middle of the 19th Century. Also, the McKie family was one of many McKie families. It was a popular name in Galloway, most probably with Irish connections.
John McKie, a master stonemason, born and brought up in Kirkinner, died at the early age of 31. He had drowned in the harbour at Port William, across the Machars from where he lived. He left a widow, Agnes and six children, one of whom John knew only for a year.
After John’s death, Agnes had to approach the parish for help. She and her family were members of the parish church where all the McKie children had been baptised. They would all have been known in the village. Without an income and with six mouths to feed, Agnes had no other choice. Approaching the parish clerk, for assistance under the Poor Law was the only option. Her circumstances would have to be investigated, and an assessment made as to what amount of finance she would merit. The one certain thing about Poor Law assistance was that it would maintain her, but at the very minimum level.
The Poor Laws of all the UK countries were similar, the provision of workhouses for paupers and financial assistance for a young family that could continue to work and maintain themselves. In Scotland the Poor Law (Scotland) Act 1845 established parochial boards in parishes and towns, and a central Board of Supervision in Edinburgh. A system of poor rates was not universal but developed during the latter part of the 19th Century. There were frequent disputes amongst the parishes when they requested that the parish of origin of a claimant living in a different town, pay the money. In a big city such as Glasgow, the only assistance was the fare back to their own parish, particularly in the case of Irish immigrants who were just given their boat fare.
The money raised for poor relief came from the wealthy patrons and landowners of the parish. This was not always through a sense of charity but of concern that that they would not have a healthy stock of labourers’ resident in their area to work for them when they grew up. There was also the concept of ‘the deserving poor’, godly and hardworking. The Minister of Kirkinner Parish Church had some interesting observations.
The Revd James Reid, author of the Kirkinner entry to the Statistical Accounts of Scotland 1791 – 1845, described the number of people on the poor’s roll being 22 with the annual amount of relief costing about £3 each. He was very critical of the parish ‘heritors’ who were the landowners contributing to the poor relief fund.
“I fear the disposition among the poor to refrain from seeking parochial aid is daily becoming less, and I consider the voluntary contribution made by the heritors as a very great evil in that respect. Many, I am persuaded, now apply for relief, believing that, whatever they get, comes from the heritors, and not from the poor’s box; but it is much easier to prevent an evil than to remedy it.”
The Minister wrote that in 1838. I am sure some of that attitude remained in the 1880’s.
Agnes McKie was left with six children to feed and cloth and support at school. Her poor relief assessment from the parish would have considered any disability, the age of the children and their ability to eventually bring an income into the house. Agnes would be expected to employ herself in some activity to bring in an income and as each child left school the amount of parish assistance would be reduced.
The Census returns for the next two decades show how Agnes described herself as a dressmaker at home. Her children went into agricultural labour, gardening, or left to join the army or went into service, after they left school.
I wanted to see or myself what the Poor Law Register entry for Agnes might have told me about her circumstances. Most parish registers are maintained at county archives, other than three. Those for Wigtownshire are held at the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh. I applied for a reader’s card which cost me the price of a photo and made an appointment to see the records. The NRS research room was busy on the day of my visit, but my booked desk gave me plenty of space. I made certain that I had only pencils to make my notes, ink is not allowed. I was told that photographs were permissible. I waited a short while for a porter to bring my records to my desk, they arrived in thick archive brown paper tied neatly with red legal tape. There was excitement as I carefully unwrapped the parcel and found the register. I had been expecting something like a ledger but instead I found a red covered notebook style book of printed pages. It was a register that was designed by the Board of Supervision in Edinburgh which enable all parishes in Scotland to record in a similar fashion. There was no index. Each page was devoted to a claimant.
I turned slowly and reading the headings to find the name of Agnes McKie. When I did find her, it was a surprise.
No name. Just the description. Widow of John McKie. I snapped away to get as much information on my camera and made notes. Here is the essence of her entry.
Agnes was aged 29. Her husband, John, had died two months before her claim which she made in February 1880. She had ‘partial disablement’ in that she had a large family to support. She was partially destitute. She was born in Anworth, a hamlet near Gatehouse of Fleet. I wondered why there was no claim on that parish for assistance by Kirkinner. I have concluded that was the reason for calling her Widow of John McKie, because John had been born in the village, all six children were born in the village and then there was the permanence of Agnes’s residence. Or, perhaps, it described the nature of her claim. She was a widow.
The six children were then listed by name and age. Louisa Wood McKie, aged 9; Andrew McKie, aged 7; Alexander aged 6; John McKean McKie, aged 4; William Cumming McKie, aged 2; Robert aged 1.
Agnes was awarded 7 shillings per week. As each child left school and either left home or brought a wage into the house, the assistance level reduced. In 1889 it started reducing from 7 shillings to two shillings and sixpence, finally to one shilling. In 1891 Agnes was struck off the register.
Agnes and her family lived in the part of Kirkinner known as Braehead. She and her family lived in a small cottage, the first one on the left as you enter Braehead, called Newton Cottage. In some birth registrations I have researched, the address is either Newton Cottage or Newton O’ Baldoon. On a recent trip to Galloway, when I discovered Newton Cottage, I spoke to the new owner who had only recently moved in. He said the selling point for him was the view over the bay beyond. Newton over the Baldoon Bay. All I could see was a narrow cottage that housed Agnes and her six small children. One of those children was my wife’s grandfather, Andrew.
In my next article I shall describe the coming of the railways and the impact on Andrew’s life.