Odds & Ends 4

 

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Bits that Don't fit anywhere else!

Every researcher and family historian has them. You know, all the odd bits and pieces that don't fit your work and have no specific category! Well I too have the same problem, so rather than hide them away I thought I would share some of them with you. So here goes...

Death

Sept 16th 1810

On his passage from Guadaloupe to England, at sea, on board the Watt of Liverpool, Lieutenant John Low, of the 63d regiment of foot, eldest son of John Low of Hilton, Stonehaven, in the 21st year of his age; a young man of amiable manners.

Scots Magazine, Dec 1810

  An event occurred in this year (1854) which attracted a good deal of attention - the murder of Ann Harvey of Cults. Poor Annie Harvey, who had only reached her twenty-second year, was a worker at Peterculter paper mills. She was found cruelly murdered - there could be no doubt of the manner of death - on the roadside of Cults, on Sunday morning, 7th May. She was known to be keeping company with a field labourer, Francie Forbes, and, there being much local feeling about the case, he was tried at Edinburgh - charged with the crime. The verdict - "Not Proven" - created much indignation.

Reporting Reminiscences by Wm Carnie, 1902

 

Notable Men and Women of Aberdeenshire

Milne, Colin, LLD (Rev): Botanist. Born at Aberdeen, 1744, son of Alexander Milne, merchant, he was educated there, under the care of his uncle Dr Campbell, of Marischal College. Becoming tutor to Lord Algernon Percy, son of the Duke of Northumberland, he took orders in the Church of England, and became Rector of North Chapel, Essex. He also obtained the lectureship of Deptford. He was an LLD of Marischal College, in 1771, and was also DD and FLS. His Botanical Dictionary appeared in 1770; his Institutes of Botany in 1770-2. He also published several sermons. He died in 1815.

Milne, John, MD: Philanthropist. Born in Gilcomston, Aberdeen, 1775, he was educated at King's College (MD, 1803), and in 1793 became surgeon's mate of the East Indiaman, Carnatic, of which he was afterwards surgeon. He quitted naval service in 1798, and became surgeon to the East India Company, Bombay, where he rose to be President of the Medical Board, and took an active part in all fitted to develop the prosperity of our Indian Empire. He founded a medical bursary at Aberdeen. He bequeathed a sum of £47,500, known as the Milne Bequest, for the purpose of improving the salaries of the most deserving parish schoolmasters in Aberdeenshire, and remunerating them for teaching children whose parents were too poor to pay fees. Died 1841, Bombay.

Milne, John: Minor Poet. Born at Aberdeen, 25th December 1791, he enlisted in early life, and served as a soldier. On retiring from the army, he was for a time a shoemaker, and thereafter a postman. He published, in 1831, "The Widow and her Son," and in 1845 "Twelve Essays, with Occasional Illustrations in Verse." He died, 1865.

Scottish Notes & Queries, January 1898

 

I picked up this rent book some years ago from a second-hand shop. It features a Mr Alex Duncan, living with Mrs Wilson, 44 Gilcomston Park, Aberdeen in 1894. Perhaps you know one of these people. In any case it's a fascinating glimpse at the diet and costs of those days so long ago!

 

Stonehaven Lads

Third from the left is Alexander Leiper of Stonehaven. Looks like they're off to the swimming!  Can you put a name to any of the other rather dashing young lads?  If you can then get in touch!

Many thanks to Jos Leiper for permission to use the above photo

 

Miscellaneous Occurrences in Aberdeen

1749  In the Raik fishing of Dee, 1500 salmon caught in one tide.

1752  William Wast, sailor, in Seaton of Auchmedden, executed and hung in chains, at the Gallowhills, for murdering his wife. At the same time and place, Christian Frane was executed, for murdering her bastard child, and burning the body.

1756  A house in the Huxter-row burnt to the ground, by an accidental fire.

1757  A Spermacete whale cast on shore on the sands of Belhelvie, and claimed by the magistrates, who brought the blubber to town, and exported it to London.

1776  Alexander Morison, wright, executed and hung in chains, at the Gallowhills, on the 6th of November, for the murder of his wife. He was the last malefactor executed at that place.

1785  In the course of the winter, there was much rioting in the town, occasioned by attempts to prevent the servants and apprentices of the artificers from making their processions through the town on the anniversary of their elections, according to ancient custom. Several of them were committed to jail, for disobeying the orders of the chief magistrate; but they were liberated on bail, after the mob demolished the town-house windows.

1789  The genuine dysenteria broke out among the fishers of Futtie, and raged with considerable virulence. The persons infected were removed to the battery which was fitted up as a temporary hospital for their reception; money being raised by subscription for supporting them.

Annals of Aberdeen by William Kennedy, 1818

 

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