James Duncan Robertson was my grandfather – my mother’s father. He died when I was three. I have only one memory of him – sitting on his knee at the side of the fireplace in Blackwood Crescent, Edinburgh where he lived. I am fairly sure that I remember his pipes and a shoehorn hanging on the side of the fireplace next to him, but that is a bit hazy!

My mother tells me that he was a ‘bit difficult’ but mellowed in his old age. The only picture I have of him when he was young is his wedding picture.

He was a handsome man and looks pretty sure of himself in this picture. Here are a couple of other pictures of him when he was older –

James’ parents were Peter Robertson and Mary Eman. I have traced both the Robertson and the Eman families. With a name as uncommon as Eman, it was much easier to trace this side of the family. Robertson must be one of the most common names in Scotland and our Robertsons were not given to unusual first names, so tracing them proved far more difficult.

If anyone reading this account spots any errors or has any other information or family stories they would like to pass on, I would be delighted to hear from them.

Val Wilson
Treetops
570 Lanark Road West
Balerno
EH14 7BN

Eman is a very unusual name and one that makes it fairly easy to research. There is no indication of where it originates, but, at a time when people took their surnames from various sources, it could be as simple as coming from the word ‘name’ backwards.

The first mention of Eman in the Scottish Old Parish Registers is the marriage of a James Eman to Jonet Smith in 1681 in Jedburgh. There are several others, all in the borders area, but not enough information to put together a family tree.

Although there are no records of their births, the first of our Eman family we know about is Adam and his brother William who were born in the 1770’s in Berwickshire, probably Duns, but not certain. We know this from the 1841 census.

At this time, it was common practice to name the first son after his paternal grandfather. Since both Adam and William’s first sons were called Thomas, we can assume that was the name of their father.

Adam Eman was born around 1770 in Berwickshire. He was a joiner and lived in Duns. Adam had a brother, William, who was two years older and also lived in Duns. William and his sons were gardeners at Duns Castle.

At the time of the Statistical Account of Scotland in 1793, Duns was home to 2324 people. For more information on Duns at this time and at the time of the Second Statistical Account in 1842, see Appendix 1.

In 1798 in Duns, Adam married Margaret Murray. Margaret was born in Chirnside, but lived most of her life in Duns. Her father was Robert Murray, a blacksmith and her mother was Isabella Whitlaw.

Adam and Margaret had eight children. There were five daughters; Isabella, Agnes, Isabella, Margaret and Jean, and 3 sons; Thomas, Robert and John (James Duncan Robertson’s grandfather). They lived in Castle Street in Duns. Adam died in Duns in 1842, aged 70, of an ‘affection of the stomach’.

Margaret died in 1855, which was the first year in which births, marriages and deaths were officially recorded. For the first year, they actually recorded far more information than for subsequent years. For example, they recorded how long a person had lived in the place where they died. They also recorded all their children’s names and ages, which can be a great help. From Margaret’s death certificate, we know that their first child, Isabella, died at 9 months in 1799 and also the years in which their son Thomas and daughter Margaret died. It is also clear that they had lost touch with their daughter Agnes, since it says she would have been 54 years old ‘if alive’.

The first child of Adam Eman and Margaret Murray was Isabella and she unfortunately died at only 9 months in 1799.

Margaret Eman was born on 10^th June 1808. In 1841, at the time of the census, she was living with her parents in Duns. It was just her and her parents – no other brothers and sisters were living with them. According to the details on her mother’s death certificate, she died in 1849. There is no record of her marrying.

The second Isabella was born on 10^th October 1803. In 1829, she had an illegitimate son named Thomas. She then went on to marry Robert Hand and move to Melrose, where she died on 6^th July 1878, aged 75. Isabella was the first of several of the Eman women to have illegitimate children. Although it was relatively common at that time, and presumably there was not the social stigma of later years, they still seemed to have more than their fair share!

Agnes (born 30^th August 1800) and Jean (born 14^th January 1821) were both apparently still alive when their mother died in 1855, but there is no sign of either of them marrying or dying in Scotland. Presumably they moved south of the border. Jean seems to have been a bit of an afterthought. She was born 7 years after the second youngest (John) when her mother was already 47 years old.

Thomas was born in 1806 and died in 1831. That he exists at all, is only known from his mother’s death certificate. Unlike his siblings, there is not even a record of Thomas’s birth.

Robert was born on 28^th July 1810. Nothing more is known about him. He was apparently alive in 1855, according to his mother’s death certificate, but, like so many others, he must have moved away from Scotland.

John Eman was born in Duns on 6^th November 1814. He was the youngest son of Adam Eman and Margaret Murray. John became a shoemaker – a popular occupation in Duns at that time. The main industry in the area was farming – both sheep and cattle. The 1793 Statistical Account mentions that a new tannery was about to be built in the parish. Presumably this was to be on the river Whitadder, which runs close to Duns, and this resulted in a small shoemaking industry.

Mary Darling was illegitimate and there is no record of her birth. However, her death certificate states that her mother was Betsy Blair and her ‘reputed’ father was Thomas Darling – post master in Chirnside. Thomas was married, and had 11 children with his real wife!

John Eman and Mary Darling married on May 3^rd 1839 when they would both have been around 25 years old. They lived in Castle Street, close to John’s parents, in Duns.

John and Mary had 6 children – all girls; Betsy, Margaret, Mary, Agnes, Joanna and Mary (James Duncan Robertson’s mother). As well as having more than their fair share of illegitimate births, the Eman’s had far more female than male births. Since there is no trace of any other male Emans after John, it seems that the name essentially died out as a surname in Scotland with John. There were certainly no Eman male births after 1855 in Scotland.

Mary Darling died young – she was only 44 when she died of heart disease in Duns on 6^th April 1863. John went on to live to the age of 82. He died on 7^th July 1900 in Duns.

John Eman and Mary Darling’s first child was Betsy, born on 9^th July 1839. In 1858 she married Thomas Carss. They had one daughter – Mary. Thomas then disappears from the scene – he may have died but it was not in Scotland. Betsy then had three illegitimate children, Elizabeth, Jane and Isabella. Sadly, Isabella died at only 5 months and Jane at 17 years. Neither of their death certificates says who their father was. Elizabeth, however, married in 1884 and on her marriage certificate it says her father was Robert Hislop, a coachman. Whether Betsy’s other two children were also his or not is a mystery. Betsy died in Duns in 1892 at the age of 52.

Margaret Eman was born on 3^rd December 1842 in Duns. In 1866 she moved to Edinburgh and married John Brown, a wood turner. Margaret died in 1914 at the age of 69. She was living in Bonaly Road, Edinburgh at the time.

Agnes Eman was born on 19^th May 1851. In 1872 she had an illegitimate daughter, Caroline. Then, in 1874 in Edinburgh, she married a soldier, John Roe. They must then have moved away from Scotland, as there is no sign of them in any subsequent records.

Joanna Eman was the youngest child of John and Mary. She was born on 14^th April 1862, when her mother was 43 years old and just one year before she died. In 1881, Joanna married John Smith Dickson, a Police Constable, in Edinburgh. Like her sister Agnes, there is no trace of her after her marriage.

One interesting point about both Agnes and Joanna is the information on their marriage records. Both of them had John Eman as their father, but different names as their mother – neither had Mary Darling! Agnes had Helen Grant and Joanna had Isabella Hirst (or something similar – it is difficult to read). This certainly does not match what is on their birth records and neither of these women have been mentioned on anything else. It is a mystery who they were and whether it was an error or they really existed!

In the 1851 census, John and Mary were living at 59 Castle Street, Duns with some of their family. There was Betsy (aged 11) and Margaret (aged 8) as you would expect, but there was also another child called Mary – aged 4. This Mary must have been born in 1846 or 1847. There is no other record of her, so I can only assume she died before the Mary we know was born in 1859.

Mary Eman was born on 26^th April 1859. She was only 4 years old when her mother died. Since her father was on his own with five daughters, there was probably no option but for them to go into service. So Mary became a domestic servant and moved to Edinburgh where she worked for the Rev. John Glass, minister of Old Greyfriars Church. She lived and worked for him at the manse in 16 Tantallon Place. She married Peter Robertson on 24^th November 1880 at Baxters Buidlings, Dumbiedykes, Edinburgh when she was 21. She continued to work for Rev. Glass after she was married and had her children. He certainly baptised and married James Duncan Robertson.

Mary died on December 12^th 1912, aged 55, from diabetes. She died at 17 Lutton Place, Edinburgh. This was most likely where she worked, as her occupation was given as charwoman on her death certificate. More details on Mary’s family are given later, in the section on her husband, Peter.

The earliest event that I have been able to accurately trace the Robertson family back to is Duncan Robertson’s birth in 1771 in the parish of Kirkmichael, Perthshire. His father was John, a farmer. This information is from Duncan’s death certificate. Duncan was James Duncan Robertson’s great grandfather.

The parish of Kirkmichael lies in the area of Atholl in Perthshire where the Robertson clan or Clan Donnachaidh held their territory. The original Robertsons were the Struan Robertsons – supposedly the oldest family in Scotland. From this family, there were two main branches Lude and Strathloch (or Straloch), and then there were many sub-branches from these. In the parish of Kirkmichael, where our Robertson family originated, the main families were the Robertsons of Downie, of Cray, of Bleaton, of Cultalony and of Strathloch. There were also many smaller Robertson families.

There are several books in the Edinburgh library on the Robertsons. For further information, I would recommend the following two:-

"The Robertsons – Clan Donnachaidh of Atholl" by Sir Iain Moncreiffe of the Ilk and

"Short History of Clan Robertson" by Major J. Robertson Reid

At the time of Duncan’s birth (1771), the parish of Kirkmichael was home to about 2700 people, according to Webster’s 1755 census. Of these, about 415 would have been men of an age to be Duncan’s father (aged 20 to 40). Since about half of all the Roberston clan seem to have been called John, the chances of finding the right John Robertson as Duncan’s father are zero!

Duncan was born in 1771 in Kirkmichael parish to John Robertson, a farmer. His future wife, Marion Fergusson, was born around 1780 in the parish of Newlands Peebleshire. There is no record of their marriage, although it would have been around 1808 when Duncan was 37 and Marion, 28. Their first son, John, was born in 1809 in Nilemileburn. Given that this is just next to the parish of Newlands, I assume that Duncan, for some reason, moved to this area from Kirkmichael and subsequently met and married Marion.

After John’s birth, Duncan and Marion moved to Loanhead and had five more children; William, born in 1811, James in 1813 (James Duncan Robertson’s grandfather), Elizabeth around 1815, Agnes in 1817 and Ann in 1822.

Duncan was a builder or mason and his three sons all followed him into this trade and joined him in his own business - Duncan Robertson and Sons. I do not know when the business was set up, but it is included in the Post Office Directory from 1842 onwards. This is the earliest Directory available. In 1851 Duncan is noted in the census as employing 50 men – a sizeable business for Loanhead at that time. There are no surviving records of the business, not even an address, but one letter did appear in the records of the Loanhead Water Company. Unfortunately it relates to some problems with work done by the company! It is reproduced here:-

I cannot read all the text, but what I can is as follows-

Mr Porteous

Since there is no signature, this could have been written by Duncan, by any of his sons or even by an employee.

The 1841 census has Duncan, Marion, William, James and Ann all living together in Loanhead, but does not give the full address. In 1851, William and Ann were still living with Duncan and Marion – at Mount Pleasant, Fountain, Loanhead. It is strange for a builder, but there is no record in the Sasines of Duncan owning any land – although his sons all did. The house where they lived in 1851 was probably owned by William and is covered in more detail in the next section.

Duncan died on 27^th June 1857 aged 86 in Loanhead. Marion died just four days later on July 1^st, aged 75. It is intriguing that they died so close together, but infuriating that neither of their death certificates gives a cause of death.

Duncan and Marion Robertson had three daughters; Agnes, Ann and Elizabeth.

Agnes was born on 25^th June 1817 in Loanhead. There is no further trace of her after her birth; she either died young or moved away.

Ann was born on 4^th January 1822 in Loanead. She married David Hogg, a gardener, in 1853 and moved to Hertfordshire.

Finding Elizabeth was very interesting. I cannot be 100% sure of the following facts, but on balance I believe them to be correct. For some background on how I found this information, see Appendix 2.

Elizabeth was born on August 14^th 1815. She married Charles Wilson, from Old Monklands Parish on 16^th July 1838 when she was 23 years old. They had 5 children, Ann and Gideon both born in 1838 (presumably twins), Miriam born in 1841, Eliza in 1844 and Mary in 1847.

Some time in 1847 Charles died. By this time Ann had already died, aged 8. Mary died in 1849, aged 2 and Miriam in 1850, aged 9. Elizabeth, with Gideon and Eliza, then emigrated to America. They left in 1850, probably from Liverpool, arriving in New Orleans. Elizabeth was 35, Gideon 12 and Eliza 5. They either set out with the intention of joining the Mormons or something caused them to do so en route. They made for the new Mormon town of Nephi in Juab County, Utah. They settled there, where Gideon and Eliza married Rebecca and John Sidwell – brother and sister. Elizabeth died in July 1876 aged 61. Eliza died in 1881 in Nephi, aged only 37. Gideon lived to the grand old age of 90 – dying in Nephi in 1929.

William was born on 5^th May 1811 in Loanhead. He was a mason, working with his father and brothers. When his father died, he took over the business, staying in Loanhead. In 1856, at the fairly late age of 45, William married. His wife was Sophia Lindsay who was twenty years his junior. The wedding took place at 1 Rankeillor Street, Edinburgh, presumably Sophia’s address. They had no children. They continued to live in Loanhead where William owned property next to his two brothers. The detail of his and his brothers’ property is covered later.

In 1871, William and Sophia were both still living in The Fountain, Loanhead, but by 1874 they had moved into Edinburgh – to 25 Rankeillor Street – where William died on 26^th June 1874. He was 63 and died of Inflammatory Brights Disease. William had made a joint will with Sophia in 1859 in which they left everything to each other and successors. This is interesting because, when he died, an inventory of his possessions was taken. This covered everything except any land or houses he owned and tells us more about their lifestyle. The inventory was as follows:-

This is equivalent to about £5000 in today’s money.

John was the first born of Duncan and Marion’s children. He was born on 24^th April 1809 at Nilemileburn, just outside Penicuik. John became a mason and joined his father’s builders business in Loanhead. On January 1st 1840 at the age of 35, John married Louisa Elliot in Loanhead. They had seven children; John, Agnes, Robert, Isabella, William, Marion and Ann. Like his brothers, John owned property in Loanhead.

In 1857 or 1858, John and his brother James emigrated to Australia.

James was born on 6^th November 1813 in Loanhead. He was also a mason and worked in the family business. On 3^rd May 1844 at the age of 31 James married Jane Hamilton.

Jane was one of 11 children born to Peter Hamilton and Jean McGregor. She was born around 1820 in Loanhead. Her father, Peter, was from Kirknewton where he married Jean and they moved to Loanhead about 1805. Peter was a road surveyor.

James and Jane had seven children, Jane, Marion, Margaret, Elizabeth, Duncan, John and Peter (James Duncan Robertson’s father). They were born between 1844 and 1854. Like his brothers, James owned property in Loanhead.

In 1858 or 1859 James left for Australia with his brother John, leaving Jane and their family behind in Loanhead. When he left, his oldest child (Jane) was 13 years old and his youngest (John) was only 3.

The three brothers all bought land in Loanhead in 1848 from The Right Honorable Sir George Clerk of Penicuik, Baronet. The Clerk family owned all the land around Loanhead and Penicuik, including the Loanhead mine where most of the local people worked. The three plots of land were next to each other on the west side of Fountain Place in Loanhead. All measured approximately 60ft by 120ft.

The land was sold to them on condition that they "built a house of stone and lime and fence in the ground. None of the houses should be built of thatch and they should front the road and be at least 30 feet from the road with any stables behind the house and no dunghill between the house and the road".

James sold his land with the house he built on it, in 1852 for £130.

I plan to do some more research to confirm exactly where the property was and if it still exists.

At some time in either 1857 or 1858, John and James left Scotland and emigrated to Australia, leaving their families behind. I have not been able to find out exactly what spurred them into doing this, but it was probably a combination of things. Their parents had both died and the business may have been left to William – he certainly remained behind to run it. There were plenty of ships leaving for Australia and there was government aid available to help pay for passage. There was also the Australian goldrush at that time, so maybe they thought they could make their fortune!

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find which ship they travelled on and where they actually landed. And the census records in Australia have not survived, so it is difficult to know what happened to them once they arrived.

The only thing for sure is that James became a miner of some kind and, at some point, arrived, with John, in Albury New South Wales

In the book "Border City – History of Albury, New South Wales" it describes how gold rewards were set up for the discovery of gold in the district. This was because so many people were leaving Albury to prospect for gold in other areas and the town was suffering considerably. In 1860 the Albury Gold Reward Fund was established, which, by 1862 had amounted to £850 – a considerable sum in those days (around £40,000 today). A reef was finally found in 1863. Appendix 4 gives a bit more information on Albury.

So, James and John could well have been gold miners, living in Albury, although it was not really one of the most successful areas they could have chosen!

They may have planned to return to Scotland or to get their families to join them later in Australia, but neither happened and they both died without seeing their families again.

On 19^th June 1876 in Albury, New South Wales, James died of Typhoid. He was 63 and had been in Australia for about 18 years. I have included a copy of his death certificate in Appendix 3, along with a transcription as it is not very easy to read. Unfortunately James does not appear to have been as organised as his brothers and there is no sign of a will or of an inventory when he died.

John certified James’ death, and so must have been living in Albury as well. Interestingly he did not seem to have passed on any information about James’ children as the death certificate says "Unknown" under the heading "Children of Marriage".

John then moved to Melbourne where he died on 15^th April 1877 at the age of 68. Before leaving Scotland, John made a will, leaving all his possessions to his wife and children. As with his brother William, we therefore have an inventory of his possessions at his death, showing:

So he was worth slightly more than his brother William.

James must have kept in touch to some extent with his family back in Scotland, because when their son Duncan got married in 1878, they knew that James was already dead.

In 1881, Jane and her three daughters; Jane, Margaret and Elizabeth were living at 3 Rankeillor Street. By 1894 Jane had moved to 54 Marchmont Road, where on the 14^th May she died, aged 74, of senile debility. She did not leave a will.

James and Jane had four daughters, all born in Loanhead.

Elizabeth was born in 1852. In 1881 she was living with her mother and two sisters, Jane and Margaret, at 3 Rankeillor Street. She was a dressmaker. In 1885, at the age of 32, she married Charles Cockburn Edmund, a glass merchant. At the time, she was living at 7 Rankeillor Street, presumably still with her sisters and mother. Elizabeth died on 24^th February 1927, at 55 Bonnygate, Cupar, at the age of 74. She was a widow when she died.

Marion was born on 8^th November 1846. Unfortunately I have found no further record of her.

Jane was born on 18^th May 1844 and Margaret was born on 7^th July 1847. Margaret was Duncan’s twin. Neither Jane nor Margaret ever married and both were dressmakers. They lived with their mother until her death in 1894. They stayed together, in the Marchmont area of Edinburgh, moving to Spottiswood Street at some point. There is a family story that they sold the property in Spottiswood Street for quite a lot of money and moved up to Fife (probably to be beside their sister Elizabeth). Bit by bit, the money from the sale of their house in Edinburgh disappeared. They got into such a state that someone even said they must have burned the money. Within the family, some thought that relatives had conned them out of it. At any rate, they certainly got into dire financial straits.

They died within two months of each other in 1929. Margaret was 81 and Jane 85. They both died at Station Road, Thornton in the parish of Markinch in Fife.

John was born on 29^th August 1854. He became a mason and married Jane Bryce, who was from Linlithgow. They had one son, James, born in 1879 while they lived in Linlithgow. They moved to Glasgow at some point between 1879 and 1884. They had two more children; Jane born in 1884 and John in 1890. There was also at least one other daughter. Sadly, in 1894, both John and his wife Jane died of phthisis. John was only 39 when he died.

His son James emigrated to Canada. I believe that two of his sisters went with him, possibly also his brother. James became a minister and his two sisters married farmers. James returned to Scotland at least once, as he met up with his cousin James Duncan Robertson. They apparently discussed whether life would be better for James Duncan and his family in Canada, but, on balance, decided it wouldn’t be!

Duncan was born on 7^th July 1847 – he was Margaret’s twin. He was a mason, and in 1878 he married Catherine Thomson. At the time of his marriage he lived at 10 Rankeillor Street – a popular street to live on! They had three children – James (born 4^th August 1879), Helen (known as Nellie and born 17^th March 1882) and Andrew Mitchell (born 24^th December 1884). Sadly, in 1891, at the age of 42, Duncan died of pneumonia.

His son, James married Mary Ross – known as Poll – in 1906. He joined the 12^th Battalion Royal Scots and was killed on 24^th April 1918. Neither Andrew nor Helen married. They lived together, with their mother, in Drumdryan Street, Edinburgh. Andrew died in 1928 and Helen died in 1968.

Peter was James Duncan Robertson’s father and was born in Loanhead on 30^th September 1850. He was only seven when his father left for Australia. He became a mason like his brothers, father, uncles and grandfather. In 1880 at the age of 30, he married Mary Eman. At the time, he lived at 10 St Leonards Lane. They had 7 children James, Jane, John, Thomas, Peter, Mary and Norman. They may also have had either one other child or twins who died at birth, but I have been unable to find any record of this.

Between 1880 and 1901, they lived at 5 different addresses. These were: 4 St Leonards Lane, 11 Stanley Place, 40 North Richmond Street, 4 Middle Arthur Place and finally, 9 Arthur Street.

Peter apparently had a reputation as a bit of a gambler – something that affected his son James who never gambled. There is a story that Peter or one of his two brothers had a dream about a specific horse winning the Derby. The all put money on this horse and, surprisingly it won! Unfortunately this turned all three brothers into gamblers and they seemed to have all lost a lot of money.

Sadly, like his two brothers, Peter died young. He died on 12^th March 1901 of phthisis, aged 49. His wife Mary also died relatively young – aged 55 - in 1912.

Peter and Mary had two daughters, Mary and Jane.

Mary was born on 26^th September 1890 at 4 Middle Arthur Place, Edinburgh. She became a domestic servant and, at the age of 21, married Thomas McLaren a coal miner. She had a bit of a reputation for borrowing money. Sadly, Mary committed suicide at the age of 43 by Lysol poisoning. She died on 6^th January 1934.

Jane, known as Jean, was the youngest in the family and was born on 17^th March 1897 at 9 Arthur Street, Edinburgh. In 1925 she married William Nicolson Wilson who was, at the time, a police constable. They married at Grafton Café in Home Street, Edinburgh. They moved with their family to the borders and ran a farm at Huttlerburn, near Ettrick. Jean died on 4^th July 1963 at the age of 66.

Other than James Duncan, Peter and Mary had four other sons.

John Eman Robertson was born on 8^th June 1883 in 11 Stanley Place, Edinburgh. He became a coal miner and moved to Kinross. He married Barbara Bogie Nisbet in 1908 when he was 24. He died of TB on 8^th November 1938 at the age of 55.

Thomas Carss Robertson was born in 1885 at 40 North Richmond Street. He married Helen Stewart in 1911 at the Tron Kirk in Edinburgh. He was 25, a brewery labourer and living at 13 Arthur Street. Thomas fought in the First World War, but what exactly happened to him is not clear. He certainly died before 1919, because Helen married again in September 1919 and she was a widow by this time. There are several deaths recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for "T Robertson" that could be the correct one, but with not enough detail to be sure. He may also have returned to England for treatment and died there.

Peter was born in 1888, also at 40 North Richmond Street. He joined the marines in the First World War. He married Isabella Thain Sutherland in December 1914. They moved away after the war, but returned to Edinburgh at some point before 1940 as that was when Isabella died. They were living in Whitson Way, Edinburgh at the time. Peter was still living there when he died in on 23^rd October 1975 of cancer.

Norman Francis was born in 1894 at 4 Middle Arthur Place. He was in the 11^th Hussars or ‘Cherrypickers’ in the First World War. He had the reputation as a bit of a wanderer. After the war, he went to work for Super Marine in Southampton, later famous for building the Spitfire. At this time, they mainly made sea planes. Norman was a union executive and apparently encouraged the workforce to go on strike. This resulted in him being fired from his job! He later became a sport instructor on a cruise ship. He remained based in Southampton and died some time in the 1960s.

James Duncan Robertson was my grandfather and was born on 25^th April 1881 at 4 St Leonards Street, Edinburgh. He initially worked in an Oil Works and then Bruntons Wire Works. By the age of 26, when he got married, he worked at Middlemasses biscuit factory as a baker. He married my grandmother, Marion Hogarth McNeill on 1^st November 1907 at the Old Greyfriars Manse, 16 Tantallon Place. They were married by the Rev. John Glass, for whom James’s mother, Mary, was the housekeeper. At the time of their marriage, James lived at 8 St Johns Hill, Edinburgh.

He lost two fingers at work and this prevented him from joining up during the First World War, as his brothers all did.

He became manager of the bake house at Middlemasses, but left when they started a union. He was very stubborn and would rather lose his job than join the union! They moved to Dundee, where he worked in another biscuit factory.

By this time they had two children, Mary Eman (Molly) and James (Rab). (My mother, Marion June came along later). There is one story my mother remembers hearing about Rab as a child in Dundee. Apparently they lived in a stair and the flat had a balcony outside it. Rab, for some reason, took all the cutlery out of the kitchen drawer and proceeded to throw it all over the balcony! My grandmother liked Dundee, but James did not and when he was offered a non-union job back at Middlemasses as the foreman, he took it and they moved back to Edinburgh. James worked at Middlemasses until he retired. I have included some background information on Middlemass’ in Appendix 5.

They lived in East Adam Street, beside their great friends Kate and Jimmy May, and then at 22 Blackwood Crescent. They never owned their own house, they always rented.

James was a bit of a drinker (but never a gambler like his father). He died on 27^th July 1960 at the age of 79, at the Longmore Hospital, Edinburgh. He is buried in Mortonhall Cemetery.

Duns was home to the Eman family from at least as early as 1790 to the start of this century. Duns (or Dunse as it was also known) is both the name of the local parish and the name of the town in which the Emans lived. The following map shows the location of Duns:-

In 1790, the population of the town was 2324, with 1000 others outside of town, but within the parish. 60 years before, in 1730, the population was only half that – about 1200 in the town of Duns.

The main activity in the area was agriculture. Wheat, barley and oats were the main cereal crops, with turnips and cabbages also grown to feed the cattle and sheep. There was no real manufacturing industry. A tannery was about to be built and there was a small amount of woollen manufacture and spinning. Since the population was also growing, there were jobs in the building trade – and presumably in joinery which was Adam Eman’s occupation.

In 1790, the land was worth £20-£80 per acre. Houses were rented from 10s to £20 per year.

The Hay family owned about half of the land in the parish and lived in Duns Castle where William Eman and his sons were gardeners.

Duns Castle

The school in Duns was apparently of great repute. The following extract from the Statistical Account of Scotland (1793) shows the difference between male and female education at the time and how much you had to pay for education.

The number of around 100 scholars represents about one third of the number of boys between the ages of 7 and 14 who lived in the parish at the time.

From the same source, there is also information on wages as follows:-

Interestingly, this shows that if a carpenter were to work 300 days per year at an average of 1s 4d per day, then he would earn £20 per year. For the same period the teacher earned a salary of only £12 per year.

By the time of the Second Statistical Account 50 years later, in 1842, the population of the town had risen from 2324 to 2656 and the rest of the parish had decreased from 1000 to 813. The main family was still the Hay family of Duns Castle.

The number of pupils at the main school had increased to around 120, and the schoolmaster’s salary had risen considerably to £34 4s 4d. There was also a Church of Scotland school and six other schools by this time.

There was no record of Elizabeth’s birth and I did not know she existed until I found her on the new Church of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) web site. The LDS have spent many years gathering genealogy information from many sources. They microfilmed all the Scottish Old Parish Registers as part of this – these are the microfilms held in New Register House in Edinburgh. They also have information from many other sources, including submissions from people in their church. Since they do not check the validity of everything, it is always best to double-check with an official source. Some information is obviously wrong, and some is just wishful thinking. However, it is such a great source of information that it is an invaluable resource. They have just recently put all their information up on their web site.

I found someone in Utah had submitted information about his family, which linked back to Elizabeth Robertson. She married Charles Wilson on 16^th July 1838 - this much I could check in the records in Edinburgh and is fact. Her father is given as Duncan, a builder in Loanhead, so I am sure she was our Duncan’s daughter, even though her birth was not recorded. At the time of her marriage, she was living at 12 Earl Grey Street in Edinburgh and Charles was a blacksmith residing in, what looked like "Howistown", although it is very difficult to read, in the parish of Old Monklands, Lanarkshire.

The information submitted was the folllowing:-

1. Elizabeth and Charles had five children, three of whom died young
2. Charles died in 1847
3. The two remaining children, Gideon and Eliza, along with Elizabeth, emigrated Nephi, Juab County, Utah
4. Elizabeth died in Utah in 1876
5. Eliza married in 1860 and died in Utah in 1881
6. Gideon married in 1859 and died in Utah in 1929

There are no records of any of the children’s births or deaths, or of Charles’ death. This does not mean they did not happen, just that I cannot verify them.

Given that Nephi, Juab County, Utah was a Mormon town, I checked the Mormon resources and found a database of Mormon Pioneers – the early Mormon travellers who set up the towns in Utah. Here I found information that Elizabeth R. Wilson, born August 4^th 1815, aged 35, Gideon Wilson, born June 10^th 1838, aged 12 and Eliza Wilson, born 1845, aged 5 arrived in America from Scotland in 1850. There were six ships that brought pioneers in 1850 from Liverpool to New Orleans, but I have not found out any more details about which they were on.

Unfortunately death records in Juab county, Utah did not start until after Elizabeth died, so I cannot check on her. Although, I do know that she did not die in Scotland after 1855.

I did manage to get a copy of Gideon’s death certificate that confirms he was born on June 10^th 1838 in Edinburgh and that his parents were Elizabeth Robertson and Charles Wilson. The strange thing about the certificate is that it says he had only been in the US for 52 years before he died in 1929. This does not match – it should be 79 years.

It is possible that there were two Elizabeth Robertsons who married a Charles Wilson in Edinburgh around this time. And that it was the other couple who had Gideon and Eliza. . However, this seems very unlikely. Without Elizabeth’s death certificate, I cannot be 100% sure but, on balance, I believe this link to our family is correct. I will do some more research to see if I can find anything more.

The history of the Albury-Wodonga region, pre and post European settlement, has been intrinsically linked to the mighty Murray river running through it's heart.

Little remaining evidence has been found of ancient use or habitation of the land, although the richness of the riverplains in terms of wildlife and the hunter/gatherer nature of the early aboriginal tribes would lend itself to suggest that the region was indeed used as a plentiful hunting ground. The river abounded with fish, the plentiful warm lagoons dotting the flood plain supported large colonies of ducks, geese, pelicans and swans, with kangaroos and emus feeding off the rich grasslands.

Some remaining scar trees have been attributed to traditional aboriginal uses and artefact construction - for example bark bowls, ritual uses including burial rites, and construction of canoes. A few rock shelters in the surrounding hill areas and some scattered, faded rock art sites also support a history of tribal habitation. The nature of the flood plain and regular inundation could have tended to deter long term settlement close to the river, or may have been responsible for regularly removing any trace.

Of the tribes inhabiting the general area, the Wiradjuri people were believed to have moved into the Albury-Wodonga region shortly before the early explorers arrived.

The aboriginal name for the river (recorded in 1836) was Millewa.

White explorers Hume and Hovell discovered the river on the 16th of November, 1824, naming it the Hume River, and inscribing a tree near the riverbank the next day before moving on in their quest to find Western Port to the south.

In 1829, the explorer Captain Charles Sturt discovered the Hume River downstream at it's junction with the Murrumbidgee River. Not realising it was indeed the Hume, he named it the Murray River. Both names persisted for some time, Hume falling into disuse eventually in favour of Murray.

The explorers route was shortly followed by white squatters with large numbers of stock, mainly sheep and cattle. Many families taking up parcels of grazing land on the rich river flatlands. Among the first were William Wyse and Charles Ebden.

The drovers track that developed led naturally to the same point Hume and Hovell first sighted the river. Although an easier crossing point could be found 10 miles upstream (where the Hume Dam now stands) the original site by Hume and Hovell's inscribed tree became the popular crossing place for people and stock on their way to new settlements in the south.

Crossing the river during the drier summer months could normally be achieved on foot. When the river was high after heavy rains or snow melting in the mountains crossing became difficult until a log punt was built in 1844. Stock, however, had to swim.

The first permanent white dwellings were built in the area in the mid 1830's. Mainly small huts, and provisions stores.

In 1838 the New South Wales government commissioned a survey for a township at the crossing place. Assistant Surveyor Thomas Townsend's completed survey for the new settlement showed it bounded by Woodonga Place to the west, Hume Street to the north, Kiewa Street to the east and Nurigong Street to the south. Within this, Townsend Street ran between and parallel to Woodonga (later to become Wodonga) Place and Kiewa Street, and Ebden and Hovell Streets running east-west.

The name originally proposed by Townsend for the township was Bungambrewatha - the Aboriginal name for the area. That name was subsequently struck out and Albury substituted - the reason for the change and origin of the name remaining largely a mystery to this day. When the plan was finally approved and published in the Government Gazette on April 13th, 1839, it was for a place to be called Albury, County unnamed on the east bank of the Murray at a place called by the natives Bungambrewatha.

The local Aborigines, at first quite numerous, came into conflict with the early squatters over hunting the squatters stock. Skirmishes with the squatters and introduced white man's diseases, including alcohol and tobacco, took a serious toll on the tribes people. The survivors moved on to quieter, more peaceful hunting grounds.

Albury's first recorded flood since white settlement occurred in 1844.

By 1847, Albury boasted a handful of huts, two public houses (inns), a blacksmiths shop, police barracks and a post office.

In 1851 separation was achieved between northern and southern New South Wales. The border was proposed as the Murrumbidgee River, well north of Albury. Due to a clerical error, the boundary was fixed at the Murray River, the new state was named Victoria, and Albury became a frontier border town. The settlement on the Victorian side of the river was originally named Wodonga. It was changed to Belvoir although both names were used for 20 years. This time the original name stuck, and Belvoir was dropped in 1874.

By separation, German settlers escaping the rising nationalism in their homeland started arriving. They found the region suitable for planting of vineyards and started producing wine.

Increased commerce between Sydney and the new townships of Melbourne and Adelaide to the south, necessitated the development of faster means of transport. First came the flourishing river trade opened up by the steamers. Regional produce - primarily wool, wheat and wine - were shipped down the river in large quantities to Adelaide. Low river levels for 5 months of the year made the river impassable and river transport unreliable.

The first bridge over the Murray was built in 1860.

The need for the growing population to be independent of supplies from the larger settlements led to the establishment of various industries including a flour mill, brewery and butter factory.

The arrival of the first railroad from Melbourne in 1873 largely spelt the end of the paddlesteamer era. The rail line from Sydney reached Albury in 1881. The first railway bridge over the Murray was opened in 1883. Due to differences in the gauge of the railway lines between the two states, Albury and Wodonga became changing stations for passengers and freight. Standard gauge on the Sydney-Albury-Melbourne line was not available until 1962

The towns of Albury and Wodonga continued to grow in spite of, sometimes because of, the bush-fires, droughts, floods and gold-rushes of the era.

The concept of daming Australian rivers for irrigation and flood mitigation has been first investigated back in the days of the steamers. By the early 1900's progress was well underway. The Hume Dam was proposed and started in 1919. It took 17 years to build, opening in 1936. The Hume Weir holds more water than Sydney Harbour, and has become a popular recreational and water sports attraction. The Dam also supports a small hydro electric power plant feeding back into the state grid.

The military presence that was established in Wodonga with a camp at Bonegilla in 1940 has since grown to include the Australian Army Training Centre at Latchford Barracks (Bonegilla), units at Bandianna, and full Army support services.

Bonegilla also saw the establishment of a Migrant Camp in 1947 as part of the Governments Post War Migration Scheme. The Bonegilla Migrant Reception Center temporarily housed over 320,000 people from 31 different ethnic backgrounds during it's 24 years of operation.

The river and associated dams still play major roles in the border region.

Repair work on the Hume Weir wall in 1996 found problems with the wall necessitating major structural works on the earth wall forming part of the retaining structure. An unseasonably dry summer and autumn in 1997 has allowed the level of the weir to be reduced dramatically, easing threats of potential wall breach and allowing remedial works to proceed without hindrance.

Border anomalies still plague the border cities with different state regulations in force within stones-throw of each other. Currently the two separate local administrations of Albury and Wodonga are only divided geographically by the River, but politically by two separate governments 900kms apart! Rationalisation and amalgamation proposals have been put forward as diverse as Albury becoming part of Victoria, to amalgamating many administrative functions with other regional New South Wales cities hundreds of kilometers away.

The border cities of Albury-Wodonga have continued to prosper, attracting new industries and offering a relaxed lifestyle unmatched by the hectic metropolitan capital cities. The City of Albury now has an estimated* population of over 42,000, with Wodonga at 30,730, giving urban Albury-Wodonga a population in excess of 72,000. All within easy reach of the snowfields, highcountry, history, waterways and wineries, and less than 3 hours by excellent highway from Melbourne.

* Population estimates based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics preliminary estimates released for 1996. Source: Development Albury Wodonga 2000 Economic Indicators, April 1997.

Further reading: Border City, History of Albury. William A. Bayley. ISBN O 959927603

The following is an extract from the Edinburgh Evening News of 1983.

When the demolition begins of a major part of the former Middlemass’ biscuit factory on Causewayside, it will signal the disappearance of the last vestiges of one of the city’s thriving and enterprising industries.

On the site will arise in stages a towering multi-storey building designed to house the Scottish Science Reference Library, part of the National Library of Scotland.

After final demolition, the library’s map room, at present temporarily in part of the old Middlemass building and other facilities will be accommodated.

The National Library’s George IV Bridge premises will continue to house its extensive reference collection, reading and exhibition rooms.

To many "Southsiders," Causewayside will just not be the same without the familiar and distinctive Middlemass building begun here over a century ago and extending to Upper Gray Street and fronting on Salisbury Place.

While Middlemass were not Edinburgh’s first biscuitmakers, nevertheless the closure of the factory in 1974 was an important event in the city’s changing

industrial history and something of a sad day for the firm’s 1000 workforce.

Mr Robert Middlemass, the founder, was born in Peebleshire in 1819 and began work in a bakery when only 12 years old. Trained in Edinburgh and London, he set up business initially with Mr Robert

McKenzie and their Albert biscuit soon captured a wide market. Middlemass then opened his own premises on the north-east corner of West Preston Street in 1835.

ENLARGED

Biscuits continued to be made and packaged by hand, but after removal to the Causwayside site machinery was introduced in 1896.

At the firm’s jubilee in 1919, some of the first ovens were still in good order, indicating their original sound construction.

In 1892, after negotiations with the city authorities for the widening of the increasingly busy Salisbury Place, the factory was enlarged to its present size in 1897. The First World War, while depleting the staff, brought large supply contracts from the War Office for service canteens.

Prior to Middlemass’ establishment, biscuitmaking in Edinburgh had originated with the supply of the large substantial "ship’s biscuits" by a firm in Leith.

Sophistication followed. Middlemass produced their famous Albert Biscuit during Queen Victoria’s reign, but the Causewayside firm’s proud boast was the "invention" of the famous "Digestive" biscuit destined to become almost a worldwide household name.

Robert Middlemass, the founder, died in 1904. He and his family did much for the social welfare of the factory’s neighbourhood.

Mr. George Cramb, a resident in the Grange district, was Middlemass’ production manager for 20 years until his retirement at the closedown.

In a valuable jubilee brochure in his possession, the firm’s story is fascinatingly told and illustrated. Mr. Cramb himself can add from experiences of more recent days, some simple, and now obvious, steps in increasing production.

For long all the shop-floor workers went off for lunch at once. Ovens were switched off, production interrupted with a time-lag for reheating. Staggered lunchbreaks, of course, solved this problem.

DIFFICULT

Or again, the introduction of "travelling ovens," with their continuous, moving belts of firing trays, replaced the much slower, single-tray baking. While in early times, one ton of biscuits involved 14 persons, now one person can produce the same amount.

The hand-packaging of early days is now difficult to imagine. Long before the advent of "travellers" or "reps", Middlemass had a flourishing market here and abroad.

When the new Narional Library premises are eventually completed in 1987, it will become increasingly difficult to recall that this ancient "cauey-stone" covered an important highway to the South which was once straddled by fine mansion houses such as the impressive Broadstairs House or Wormwood Hall of the early sixteenth century, and later the quaint two-storey cottage-type houses of the thriving and skilled weavers and bleachers community of Sciennes, and the old toll house at the junction with Grange Loan.

Fortunately, there still remain the picturesque and imaginatively restored Grange Court and, just off Causewayside in Sciennes House Place, the old cemetery of the small Jewish community once residing here, while almost opposite something still stands of Sciennes Hill House itself.

There in the winter of 1786-87, in the home of Professor Adam Ferguson, was the only recorded meeting between Robert Burns and the young Walter Scott.

The Middlemass factory will be recalled as long as the Digestive biscuit continues to grace innumerable "elevenses" coffee tables!

CHARLES J. SMITH