A year ago, Rachael Lloyd, Registration casework officer, told us about her investigation of the life of former slave Malvina Wells, who lived in Edinburgh, and her connections to the Macrae family.

The blog generated some interest and one of the most thrilling responses we received was from Frances Macdonald, a descendant of the Macraes, who was able to fill us in with some moving and personal information about Malvina’s life.

Frances was born in 1937 in England of Scottish parents and met her husband while they were students at St Andrews University. They eventually settled in Aberdeen for 36 years where they brought up 3 sons. When her husband retired they spent 17 years exploring France and Spain before returning to Edinburgh to the village of Colinton where her great-grandfather Sir Colin Macrae had retired. 

Rachael asked Frances some questions about her experience of researching Malvina and her extraordinary family.

Rachael: What was your experience of researching when you first started out in comparison to more recent times?

Frances: It was 1996 when I first started my research, to try and pin down family rumours which sounded rather exotic. Family history had suddenly become the trend hobby but it was laborious and very time consuming. The A&NE of Scotland Family History Society was crammed with newly retired people encouraged to find a mind stretching occupation. What amazed me was they were all so enthusiastic and helpful and the atmosphere buzzed with the excitement of discovery. They had an extensive library crammed into a basement room with a table and only pencils were allowed for note taking. That was my first port of call.

After 2001 when we went to live in France I had to do everything online, which involved a lot of letter writing to distant cousins, libraries and museums who I thought might have information. Over the years more relevant information became available online.  People posted questions on family named forums and conversations started, links were discovered. The downside was the amount of false information and the desire to correct it.

What was your most exciting discovery, or ‘lightbulb’ moment?

Family History is made up of ‘lightbulb’ moments as well as false trails. My grandmother knew and talked about ‘Mally’ who was Nanny to both her father and grandmother and said they were very fond of her.

Then when I looked at the 1851 census for my great-great-grandmother Joanna Macrae I saw the name Malvina Wells aged 48, born in Grenada, Servant. I knew that Joanna and her elder sister had also been born in Grenada. I had also heard that my uncle had inherited a share of the Dumfries Estate, in Carriacou, Grenada. I thought there must be a link between Malvina and Dumfries.

How did you find researching in archives?

Libraries and Archives were serious places, all hush, hush and frantic note taking. It took a whole day at the National Records Office (Now The National Archive) in Kew to learn the system! The professionals had a job to do and didn’t really want to be interrupted with questions. The City and University Libraries were helpful but had little time. However things changed as the ‘hobby’ grew and there were dedicated employees at the Scottish Records Office (Now National Records of Scotland) and the LDS (Mormon) Centres to help amateurs like me.

What was your experience of researching at the National Records of Scotland and/or on ScotlandsPeople like?

Living in Aberdeen, I could only manage to spend one day at a time at the NRS and It meant booking a seat and computer in advance. There was a fee for an annual Readers Ticket. There was strict security and it was very well organised with staff dedicated to helping beginners. I was taken into the magnificent large circular document library [The Adam Dome] and shown the relevant Sasine volumes from which to make notes by hand of property ownership, and I was able to call up wills and have copies made. After ScotlandsPeople came online in 2002 it was so much easier and I could order copies of necessary documents, BMDs and Census.

 Do you have any tips for people just beginning to research their family history?

There are many reasons why people start investigating their family history, it can be serious or a hobby, but I think it is usually because of something someone said by/about a relative, which is curious and fires the imagination. Some people base a touring holiday on places discovered on a birth or death certificate. Everyone has a story attached to them. Think of it as a jigsaw. You have to start with what you already know. You are the first piece, look around for something that fits, a letter or photograph or a rumour which mentions a place and ask “Why?”. Try and find other people researching the same name. Study the national and international events that might have influenced your family to make particular decisions eg. War, poverty, racial abuse.

I found the programme Family Treemaker helped me to store all the data and images and to make trees I could send to relatives. There are other more advanced programmes available now.

What do you think about the more difficult or challenging aspects of family history that may be uncovered?

Personally I have benefited from a greater understanding of how the past affects the present, by background reading of the slave trade which some of my ancestors were part of. It was a difficult moment at the NRO (The National Archive) at Kew reading the names of slaves – people listed like tools of the trade, defined by scars and disabilities, and owned by other people. We are not responsible for the actions of our ancestors, but we need to reflect on the motives behind their actions and the consequences.

The real challenge is how to apply what we learn and to be aware of the prejudices which are subtly handed down to each generation by parents, teachers and of course the media, tied to particular beliefs which go unscrutinised. We have to keep asking questions about motivation.

What has your research revealed about Malvina’s life?

Research on Malvina has been a cooperative effort. After discovering her full name on the 1851 census for Macrae, I posted a message on a family history forum asking if anyone had any information on Malvina Wells or Dumfries or Carriacou and was amazed when I got a reply from one of a group of people researching the Wells family.

They were interested in knowing more about Malvina’s life in Scotland and I wanted to know more about her life before. They directed me to a detailed journal written by Malvina’s father, John Wells, entitled “Journal of a Voyage to the Coast of Guinea” now accessible and kept in Cambridge University Archives.

(Photo: watercolour sketch of Grand Bay estate, where Malvina was probably born, painted by her father John Wells from the boat as he approached Carriacou in 1802. Reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library, Add.3871).

Research could find “no official record or mention of Malvina’s mother but island history and a tape recording, made many years ago by a group of elders of Grenada, suggest that she was called Ann”. Malvina and her sister Frances (Fanny) may have lived in the same household, been close as sisters and probably kept in touch, as suggested by Malvina’s will.

Apart from these two daughters John Wells had seven more children, six recorded born to Eleanor Turnbull. He later married the wealthy widow of planter Charles Hooke and became the Hon. John Wells, a planter in Grenada, Speaker of the House of Assembly, and Assistant Judge of the Colony of Grenada. He died in Grenada in 1847 aged 72 with a fulsome obituary in the St George’s Chronicle.

One son became a journalist and newspaper editor, another studied engraving in London, but returned to Grenada to become an estate manager, Justice of the Peace and held other public service positions. Another son studied at Aberdeen University. He went on to study medicine and practiced back in Grenada. His portrait is held in the Museum of St George’s, Grenada. Four of her siblings were born before Malvina left for Scotland, and she and Fanny would probably have helped care for them.

Some years later John Wells moved to Grenada to become manager of Bacolet Estate and his letters 1838-1841 are collected in the Wilberforce Papers, now kept in Hull. It is fascinating just reading the title line of the letters which record in detail the running of the estate, buying and selling, the weather, labourers, sickness problems etc.

How were Mally’s formative years spent? We can only surmise. Perhaps she was cared for by Ann when she was small, even if Ann was working in the field. Field work was regarded as more skilled than child care, a cook or a seamstress. But most women preferred the household jobs if they had the option and perhaps John Wells had employed Ann in his house.

It is possible that Eleanor Turnbull took her into her household to help with the younger children until 1817. By the age of 13 Malvina would have absorbed the strong local culture, language, ritual, music, and the famous Big Drum Dance.

Malvina’s first employer was Janet (Jessie) Urquhart, whose husband, John McLean died in 1816. Jessie appointed John’s brother George to be guardian of her two small daughters. George was Attorney for Grand Bay Estate and knew John Wells who had been employed there, and he spotted Malvina as a suitable nurse for his charges. A Land Register entry for May 1817 indicates that Jessie and daughters and presumably their nurse Malvina left Grenada for Scotland in that year.

We wonder how Malvina felt about leaving her family and experiencing such a drastic change of climate and culture.

Janet (Jessie) Urquhart/McLean/Field - Malvina’s 1st employer

Then came the discovery of the existence of a portrait, in private hands, of the two McLean teenage girls with Malvina! I received a photograph of it. The artist is unknown and it is undated, but probably about 1830. Written on the back is “Dorothea and Joanna with their nurse Malvina”. Malvina would have been 25 years old, and it would seem the occasion was a musical award.

Dorothea and Joanna and their Nurse Malvina

It was the most exciting and moving moment of my entire research to see this named image of Malvina.

My grandmother told how Dorothea (Joanna’s older sister) and Mally would go out painting together in the country, both being competent artists. Below is a watercolour said to be by Mally.

Jessie Urquhart’s sister Isabella had also married a planter John McInnes and the two families were very close. From researchers of the McInnes family I learned that John McInnes died in 1834 leaving his widow Isabella and his little daughter Agnes very wealthy. Thereafter Isabella and Agnes appeared to live with Jessie and family

and Mally, either in Edinburgh or Auchenfroe, and as Agnes was only about 8 years old, a special relationship was forged between Agnes and Mally.

Agnes and her mother Isabella McInnes

(Courtesy of the Gordon Family Archive)

After her marriage to John Anthony Macrae, Joanna became Mally’s second employer and the extended McInnes/Macrae family households got together regularly, and made trips to each others country houses. Mally accompanied Joanna and children wherever they went and must have been for ever packing and unpacking cases. In one letter from Joanna to Dorothea in 1846 Joanna writes:

“Only think we lost one of our packages and Mally is in distress about it. She thinks it was left in the steamer which took us to Fort William. Aggie’s boxes etc made such a load with ours that I suffered from the confusion

John Anthony and Joanna Macrae in 1849Watercolour by Kenneth McLeay

Another exciting moment came with the revelation of old family letters – as usual found in an attic. I was given access to these to transcribe.

In a letter from Jessie to Agnes written about 1861 she says:

“I think Malvina looks better of her visit home…and my ? seems fond of having her about her”.

We may conclude that Malvina now aged 54 made the long trip back to Grenada around 1860/61. There would have been many changes to the places and people she had known. Her people were free. We wonder which of her family she was able to see. Perhaps her brother Charles was editor of the St George’s Chronicle at that time and arranged for her to receive a monthly copy. Surely she would have seen Fanny and her children.

In June 1861, the young twelve year old Jessidora writes from 14 Gloucester Place to her mother, Joanna, who is staying in Drum Lodge, Lower Largo with Mally. (We note that John Anthony’s mother Charlotte (called Gaga) had been unwell and was staying at 14 Gloucester Place.

“Gaga is a great deal better and is downstairs! Today she is going to try to write you and if she does her letter will arrive I daresay as soon as mine… I hope you are quite well and strong now and Mally’s rheumatism better also, please remember us all to her.”

At Christmas 1886 Mally, aged 81, takes the trouble to send gifts to Joanna’s grandchildren.

“Good kind Mally, her gifts will be kept till Saturday and then given to the children,” writes Jessidora to her mother.

Mally lived on till 1887 and died at the age of 82. She died of heart disease among those she had served, who also loved her, at 14 Gloucester Place. Her employers grieved. They had lost a remarkable servant and friend. Agnes had a particular attachment to her and writes to Joanna’s son Horatio as soon as she hears the news on 22 April,

“I hope you will put our precious Mally’s death in the papers, in the way she truly deserves. Well may it be said of her, as one says it of others, ‘servant and friend’. Excuse my impudence, but Mally was much to me….It seems as if the grandmother of us all, was gone, but Mally is ‘safe’.

She adds with reference to Jessidora

“I am sure a sweet creature at Cardoness will feel this grief keenly.”

Agnes writes again to Joanna the following day 23 April,

“I send a few flowers which please have arranged round our beloved Mally. I would like the rose laid on her breast near her faithful heart! She was one of those

who holds up my {sic} head amidst lifes bitterest sorrows. I could wish our Grans’ had been near.”….”Please say when Mally’s funeral is to be. I wish to send a wreath.”

Jessidora writes to her mother Joanna:

“I am so very thankful that you and dear Dotie are pretty well, you must try and keep up your hearts my darlings tho’ I know how you feel our dear Mally’s death…”

“I would like to have some little remembrance of my dear Mally, something of hers that she wore or had about her – Tell Hoddy to be sure to get the photo he did of her printed nicely…”

Sadly the photo was never found.

In a letter written weeks after Mally died, Jessidora tells her mother

“I dream constantly of my dear Mally and I think of her oh so much…”

Malvina’s death is recorded in The Scotsman 25th April 1887

“Died at No 14 Gloucester Place, Edinburgh on the 22 inst Malvina Wells, aged 82, for many years a faithful and valued servant in the family of Mr Macrae”

It is recorded in the St George’s Chronicle 1st June 1887 Current Vol. 25

“Died at 57 Castle Street,[sic] Edinburgh Scotland on 21 April last, Miss Malvina Wells, eldest daughter of late Hon. John Wells and sister of Dr William Wells, aged 72 [sic] years”

(57 Castle Street was the Macrae Partners’ office, where the death would be recorded by Horatio. The age should have read 82 years.)

We still wonder if Malvina ever considered herself to be a free Scottish woman and member of a family, whose occupation happened to be Nurse, Nannie, Companion, or if the concept of being someone else’s property was instilled so strongly when she was a child, that allegiance to her employer dominated to the end. Did she ever have a choice?

If you could go back and say one thing to your ancestors, what would it be?

Thank you for the letters, and documents you wrote, the photos and paintings. Though so few have been kept, those that remain have helped us to understand you better and to learn from your mistakes.

If you had to start your research again, would you approach it differently, knowing what you know now?

Yes, I would be more rigorous about referencing the sources and take advantage of all the new technology and programmes available. We are now spoilt for choice. The

updated ScotlandsPeople website is full of interesting features as well as help and advice.

Have you ever thought of publishing your research in any form?

No, because it was just a hobby, of interest, I believe, only to family members.

Thank you Frances. I beg to differ!