Adam and Elspet Tawse and their children

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Adam Tawse, Elspet Tawse née Wisely and their children

Adam Tawse, Master Carpenter or "square wright", was born in very late 1799 or in 1800, and was the son of Alexander Tawse, carpenter, and Janet Tawse née Smith. He died on 20^th December 1861 at Shandscross of something that looks like "gravel" which he had had for a year (kidney stones?). [GROS Statutory Deaths 1861 247/00 0066]

Judging from her reported age at death his wife Elspet Tawse née Wisely was born in very late 1806 or in 1807, was the daughter of James Wisely, crofter, and Isabella Wisely née Wilson, and died of a stroke on 27^th December 1885 at Sauch??? (the latter part of this word is illegible: possibly the farm or croft of Sauchenbush near Echt) in the parish of Kintore. [GROS Statutory Deaths 1885 213/00 0040]

Two brothers, James and Charles, are mentioned respectively as witnesses on the death certificates of their father and mother. [GROS Statutory Deaths 1861 247/00 0066; GROS Statutory Deaths 1885 213/00 0040] We also know they had at least two daughters, because their daughter Jessie had a brother-in-law William Cumming, a cattleman, who was not the brother of her husband. [Census 1901 225/00 005/00 022]

The census of 6^th June 1841 shows Adam Taws, a wright aged forty; his wife Elspet aged thirty; and their children James, nine; Joan, seven; Isabella, five; William, three; and John, four months. [Census 1841 247/00 003/00 005] Twelve-year-old Jessie must have already left home, and Charles was either old enough to have left home, or, like Adam, not yet born.

Jessie Tawse, born 1829

Jessie, who was to become the matriarch of a sprawling clan of Shirrans, is covered in her own section.

James Tawse, born 1831?

James was a witness to the death of his father on 20^th December 1861 at Shandscross near Turriff in 1861. [GROS Statutory Deaths 1861 247/00 0066].

He is probably the James Taws who appears in the census of 7^th April 1861, working as a blacksmith at Burnside in Monquhitter. Since it is next to Haremoss in the census, this must be Burnside of Idoch, where his nephew James Shirran would later be a farmboy. James Taws is described, probably incorrectly, as twenty-eight. With him are his wife Mary, thirty-four and their children Elspet, eight, a scholar; James, four; Adam, one and also William Taws aged twenty-one, described as a servant and journeyman blacksmith. This may be James's brother William, although the ages are slightly out. [Census 1861 223/00 006/00 005]

Isabella Tawse, born 1835

Isabella married William Cumming on 3^rd December 1860 at Manse of Ellon, after banns and according to the forms of the Church of Scotland [GROS Statutory Marriages 1860 192/00 0017]. She was aged twenty-five, illiterate (her bit of the form is signed with a cross and "Isabella Tawse her mark"), a spinster and domestic servant normally resident at Mains of Fedderate about three miles north of New Deer. Her father's occupation is given as "square wright (master)" - i.e. a carpenter and joiner.

Main Street, New Deer © Richard Webb at Geograph

Her husband William Cumming was aged thirty, the son of the late Alexander Cumming, a journeyman stonemason (on William's death certificate his father is named as John Cumming, a mason), and Jane Cumming née Norrie. He was a bachelor and a railway labourer, resident in the village of New Deer. Possibly he was instrumental in the fact that two of his sister-in-law Jessie's sons, Charles Forbes Shirran and James Shirran, ended up working as railway porters.

The census of 1901 shows Isabella's widowed sister Jessie living with William at 82 Main Street, New Deer (although Isabella for some reason was absent, perhaps just away for the night): she had presumably moved there the previous year, on the death of her husband Alex. [Census 1901 225/00 005/00 022]

William Cumming died at 40 Main Street, New Deer at 7:45am on 22^nd September 1904, of general debility which had lasted ten months. Death was registered by his son James. His wife survived him but is named for some reason as Elizabeth Tawse, not Isabella. [GROS Statutory Deaths 1904 225/00 0051]

No death is listed for an Isabella Cumming née Tawse, but she is almost certainly the Elizabeth Cumming née Tawse, widow of William Cumming, general labourer, who died at Turfhill Cottage in New Deer on 7^th December 1930 aged ninety-six (although Isabella would have been a mere ninety-five), of heart-disease (morbus cordis) and exhaustion. Death was registered by her son James. [GROS Statutory Deaths 1930 225/00 0039]

Turfhill Cottage was actually the New Deer poorhouse, which you can read about on this page about workhouses in Buchan. It survives as Can Ranh Croft and is actually a pair of pleasant little alms-houses which between them held up to ten residents and a live-in matron, so it seems to have been more in the nature of an old people's home than a workhouse.

Charles Tawse, born ??

Charles was a witness to the death of his mother on 27^th December 1885 at Sauchenbush (? possibly) in the parish of Kintore. [GROS Statutory Deaths 1885 213/00 0040].

Adam Tawse, born 1847/48

road winding across rolling farmland under a late-afternoon light, with farm buildings by the road in the middle ground

Des ColhounGeograph

Adam Tawse was born probably between 14^th April 1847 and 10^th Janaury 1848. He married Mary Davidson, the daughter of the late John Davidson, farmer, and Barbara Davidson née Mitchell, on 10^th January 1874 at Longmanhill in the Parish of Gamrie in Banff, at which point he and Mary were both twenty-six. Mary was a spinster resident at Longmanhill; Adam is described as a journeyman mason resident at Turriff. [GROS Statutory Marriages 1874 155/0A 0001]. Mary appears to have outlived him.

He died on 13^th April 1923 aged seventy-five, at South Cottown Cottage, about a mile and a half south-west of Kintore. His end must have been highly unpleasant, for he died of "Intestinal obstruction (Bowel Paresis)" which he had suffered from for fifteen days prior to his death. He must have had at least one daughter as his death was reported by William Morrison, his son-in-law. [GROS Statutory Deaths 1923 213/00 0006]