Death of Mr Thomas Usher

THE death took place at his residence, 17 Oxford Street, Edinburgh, on Sunday, 27th April, of Mr Thomas Usher, secretary of the Edinburgh Border Counties Association. The deceased had been in failing health for a good many years, but so recently as last Thursday he was able to attend to his duties in Edinburgh Sheriff Court, where he had been employed as a clerk for about thirty years. The Usher family has been connected with the Borders for between four and five hundred years, and with the parish of Melrose since 1547. In 1572 a John Usher purchased the estate of Totfield, and from him the present Usher family are descended. The property was in 1816 sold by the deceased’s grandfather to Sir Walter Scott, and now forms part of the estate of Abbotsford. The last laird’s eldest son was James Usher, S.S.C., and at 11 Brown Square, Edinburgh, then a fashionable locality, where Mr and Mrs Usher lived, the deceased was born in February, 1826, so that he was over seventy-six years of age. Mr Usher's mother was a daughter of the Rev. Thomas Gray, minister of Broughton, so that he was a Borderer on both sides of the house. He received an, appointment first in the Edinburgh County Buildings, and a few years afterwards in Edinburgh Sheriff Court House, which he has held ever since, residing until about two months ago in Duddingston. His wife died about ten years ago. For a good many years Mr Usher was secretary of the Edinburgh Conservative Working Men’s Association, and took an active part in the unsuccessful Edinburgh plebiscite in favour of the public library system some years ago. He was the originator of the Edinburgh Border Counties Association, which was formed in 1865, with Mr Usher as its secretary, a post he held down to his death. The Association, with its membership of over 500 and accumulated funds, amounting to well on for £3000, has done much during its existence for the preservation of Border memorials; among its services being the purchase of the Rhymer Thower at Earlston, and Leyden’s Cottage at Denholm, and the erection of a memorial to Hogg on the site of the cottage in which he was born. In these and other works undertaken by the Association, such as the organising of the Scott Centenary Celebration in 1871, and the Leyden, Brewster, Carlyle, and Thomson Centenaries, Mr Usher took a leading part. He had no desire for worldly wealth or position, but laboured ungrudgingly in causes in which he had an interest.