the mourning brooch
TRANSCRIPT
The Mourning BroochAuthor(s): Joy CrawfordSource: North Irish Roots, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1994), pp. 22-23Published by: North of Ireland Family History Society (NIFHS)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27696970 .
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THE MOURNING BROOCH
Joy Crawford, Member number B 539
I have a brooch. It was given to me many years ago by my late mother-in-law. It is a mourning brooch and
the inscription on it is:
"In affectionate remembrance of William Blair
who died February the 8th 1848".
About 20 years ago a letter came to the family from Anna Blair of Giffnock, Glasgow. She had been a P.E.
teacher but a spinal injury had confined her to bed for 5 months, and as she was unable to pursue her former
career she had taken up a new one - writing; and she decided to start by writing the family history of her
husband's family, the Blairs. She had traced them back to the 16th century and was now trying to trace
descendants of a family member who had emigrated to Ireland.
Unfortunately, just at that time my mother-in-law, Mary Louisa Crawford, was very ill. So I replied to Anna
Blair on her behalf, but as we were pre-occupied with illness in the house, the correspondence lapsed - until
20 years later, when I joined the Bangor Branch of the North of Ireland Family History Society, and
remembered about Anna's letter. After reading it again I went to the local library and looked up the telephone
directory to see if the address was still listed. It was not. But in the same area in Giffnock there were two
people called Blair with the correct first initial. And I was delighted to find that the first number I tried was the
right one.
Anna was very pleased to hear from me again after such a long time, so last summer I spent a few days in
Troon and called to see Anna and Matthew at their home in Giffnock on the outskirts of Glasgow.
Anna gave me a copy of the family tree she had compiled, beginning with John Blair who was born circa
1580. The Blairs had been farmers in Ayrshire for many generations. Anna's husband was descended from
Matthew Blair who had been born in 1835 and my husband was a descendant of his sister Mary Ann Blair.
Anna was able to tell me that Mary Ann Blair married Thomas Gray and had two daughters. The younger girl Jane Eliza (known as Jean) had gone to live with her maternal grandmother when she was 3 years of age and had stayed there until her marriage to Charles Muir.
It was then my turn to tell Anna that the older girl was called Mary Louisa and when she grew up she was
betrothed to John Latta. He was a wealthy man - a jeweller - but also a hunchback, and she hated him, so
she ran away to Dublin and took a job as a lady's maid. There she fell in love with George Irvine Leslie and
they were married in Christ Church, Rathgar. George Leslie was a Master Cooper, originally from Kirkwall in
Orkney, and came to Dundalk when Guinness opened a factory there and needed someone to make the
barrels - so he opened a Cooper's Yard in Brunswick Row.
And then I produced the mourning brooch. Anna was delighted to see this and proceeded to take a
photograph of it. She was very interested to see that the hair inside the brooch was of a reddish hue and said
that her own little grand-daughter had the Blair red hair.
And I in turn was very interested to hear of William Blair's watch, which had been handed down to Anna's son
David. Instead of having numbers on its dial, the 12 letters of his name were placed around its face.
Anna Blair has written A Tree in the West and The Rowan on the Ridge - both about the history of the Blair
family, although now out of print. She has also written several other books, mostly short stories and tales of life long ago and stories of life in Glasgow at the turn of the century, such as Tea at Miss Cranston's. But if it
hadn't been for my curiosity about the history behind the mourning brooch I would never have discovered this
fascinating story.
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THE BLAIR FAMILY OF AYRSHIRE, SCOTLAND
John BLAIR = Christian AULD b.c. 1580
James BLAIR
I James BLAIR =
(1) Mareon MILLER in 1676
(2) Mary HUNTER in 1691
I Bryce BLAIR = Susannah HAY b. 1700
I James BLAIR =
Agnes DUNLOP 1748-1824
I William BLAIR =
Mary YOUNG 1788-1848
I
I Matthew BLAIR =
(1) Mary GRAY 1835-1912 (2) Jane McKEICH
I William BLAIR =Janet BLAIR
1868-1955
Mary Ann BLAIR = Thomas GRAY b.1839
I Mary Louisa GRAY =
George Irvine LESLIE 1868-1942
Matthew BLAIR = Anna LAW b. 1914
I David BLAIR = Valerie STILL
Lindsey BLAIR b. 1987
Duncan BLAIR b. 1991
FROM THE RECORDS OF 1ST PRESBYTERIAN (UNITARIAN) CHURCH, GREYABBEY
Born: 12 July 1869
Baptised: 17 July 1869
Edward, son of William Lynch (occu
pation -
Showman; Residence - Trav
elling) and Alice Lynch (nee Clydes
dale).
A daughter, Alice, was baptised in
December 1867, and it is also re
corded that another daughter, Mary, was born on 9 March 1874.
Mary Louisa LESLIE = Thomas CRAWFORD 1903-1975
I Thomas Leslie CRAWFORD = Marina Joy SCOTT
_I_ I I
Thomas Stephen Christopher Scott CRAWFORD CRAWFORD
El ma Wickens (left), Joy Crawford,
Myrtle Keenan and Anna Blair
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