In the last post, we met Anne Findlay, who married William Greenlees. On December 10, 1822, they tied the knot (possibly literally, by the Celtic handfasting ceremony). Their love story is fun to contemplate. Until they met each other, they might have thought love had passed them by. At forty-one, he was a confirmed bachelor. At thirty, she had been considered a spinster for a few years. Now that they are married, we will explore their family life in the Parish of Kilmacolm.
When Anne and William married, he purchased a leather-bound half-Bible for the family. Their grandson, William F. Darroch, would inherit it. In 1918, he wrote on the flyleaf: "This half Bible and the other half were purchased by Wm Greenlees at the time of his wedding." We are left to wonder if William Greenlees gave the Bible to Anne as part of the Scottish wedding tradition (described here), or if it was simply a purchase to have in the family.
The provenance of this family Bible continues from William Darroch to his daughter, Lois, who in turn passed it to her daughter, Cristine. Cristine has it in her possession to this day. I have searched for the meaning of the phrase "half Bible" and cannot find any reference to it. Looking through the Bible, Cristine said it is an abridged version, containing select books, chapters, and verses.
Regardless, the Bible was obviously meaningful to William, Anne, and their descendants. It has been carefully kept in the family for six generations over two hundred years. It may have helped them through some heart-wrenching events as we shall discover in upcoming posts.
We are unsure where William and Anne lived immediately following their wedding. Kilmacolm is a reasonable guess, for that was where Anne was supposedly living, where William was born and raised, and where they had their first child. After that, it appears they moved around for a few years. Parish and census records show their five children were born in various places. Each of the children carried the name of a grandparent, uncle, or aunt.
In 1826, Jean was born in Gourock, close to the Findlay family farm near Inverkip. We do not know why the family moved from Kilmacolm to Gourock, but her Uncle Robert worked there as a coachman for the Laird of Gourock. It could be that William had moved up there to work.
In 1827, their first son, William, was born back in Kilmacolm. [2] Coincidentally, William was born on his parent's fifth anniversary.
In 1829, William and Anne's fourth child, Agnes, was born. As an adult, she would marry John Darroch, emigrate to British North America, and become the matriarch of their large family. Many of you reading this will be one of their descendants. Frank Darroch wrote that Agnes "was born at Port of Glasgow." [3] If that is correct, it implies another move for the Greenlees family. I will expand on this below.
In 1831, their fifth child, Robert was born and christened at Kilmacolm. The family would stay there for the rest of William and Anne's married life, which unfortunately lasted only one more year.
As mentioned above, we are unsure where Agnes was actually born. Frank states Port Glasgow but her headstone says it was Kilmacolm.
I cannot find documentation to corroborate either claim. Frank cites no source, but he was meticulous with his research and personally knew his Grandmother Agnes. The headstone could reveal a mistaken assumption of well-meaning family members who possibly assumed growing up at Kilmacolm meant she was also born there. If she was born at Port Glasgow, that signals another change of occupation for William, for that was predominantly an industrial parish. He might have laboured in the shipyards, at the ropeworks, or in other industries.
Seeing this many moves makes me wonder if William had sustained an injury as a sargeant with the Scots Greys. Non-commissioned officers were known for their discipline, hard work, and leadership skills, so William would have been a sought-after worker. On the other hand, the principal reason for early discharge was wounds and injuries, so I wonder if the Greenlees family's multiple moves were due to seeking work to accommodate a physical limitation he had acquired during his military career.
The Scottish censuses of 1841 and 1851 record William as an agricultural labourer. It is reasonable to infer he was in the same occupation before those first censuses. The exception would be in Port Glasgow and possibly in Gourock. As an agricultural labourer, William would have experienced an industry in transition, but it was still less turbulent than the urban centers with large factories and child labour. Yes, the Greenlees children would have helped in the farming, but it was alongside loving parents and siblings rather than coarse taskmasters.
The industrial revolution seemed to bypass the rural Parish of Kilmacolm. Some deemed it backward compared to the fast-changing urban areas. The upside was they avoided the tumultuous traits of city life, including overcrowding, riots, and unhealthy water and sewers. In contrast, Agnes and her siblings would have experienced a quiet country life, helping on the farm, travelling to nearby Kilmacolm on market days, and attending church on the Sabbath. Subsequent posts will show the love within the Greenlees family.
Unfortunately, love did not make them immune to hard times. Kilmacolm was only sixteen kilometers from Paisley, a hotspot in the 1832 cholera epidemic. About 450 people died of the disease in Paisley alone. One can imagine the horror people felt as it took the lives of loved ones and neighbours. Like any mother, Anne would have felt anxious as this silent, unseen killer stalked her family. She would have done anything she could to protect them.
Our next post will examine how Anne succeeded in saving her children, but not without succumbing to the disease herself.
References:
[1] The Holy Bible, King James Version, published by Sir D. Hunter Blair and J. Bruce (Edinburgh), 1816. Photo courtesy of Cristine Bayly, 2016.
[2] We have no birth or christening records for Jean or William, but on the Scotland 1851 Census, they declared their respective birthplaces as Gourock and Kilmacolm.
[3] Frank Darroch, A Darroch Family in Scotland and in Canada (Harriston, Ontario, 1974), 62.
[4] Photo of headstone: https://billiongraves.com/grave/Agnes-Greenlees-Darroch/2540935, retrieved July 7, 2022.