Daoine Pharaig
Peter's People
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Family Group Sheet
Notes: CHECK: ANOTHER PETER SWANEY, WIFE MARY SWANEY, DIED AGED 71 YEARS IN NORTH RONALDSAY IN 1870. 1841: Agricultural labourer, fisherman, Goakha, Eday. Crofter (acc to son John Swaney on own death cert 1867); Agricultural labourer (acc. to self, 1856, on son Andrew’s death cert). Crofter & Fisherman (acc. to son-in-law John Tait in 1890 on Peter’s widow Margaret Swanney’s death cert). Crofter (acc. to daur Margaret Swanney in 1909 on her sister Mary’s death cert; and to grandson William Swanney on his aunt Margaret’s death cert 1909; also acc to grandson Peter Swanney on his father John’s death cert in 1918). Moved to Sandsend, Eday where died.
Notes:
References: Updated by Peter Symon, 8 December 2013, 07 December 2016, 02 January 2017.
Notes: 15 Leopold Place is in the row of three storey flats at the western end of B1350 London Road, between Windsor Road and Hillside Crescent, facing Greenside Church on Royal Terrace. Medical Notes: Syncope [pron. Sin-ko-pea] is the partial or complete loss of consciousness due to temporary reduction in blood flow and therefore shortage of oxygen to the brain. (In lay terms = “fainting”) |
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The Taits
John Tait presumably went by 'Jack', that being the pet name of John 'Jack' Tait Swanney, named after the present John Tait by Wiliam Swanney, who was brought up by the Taits in Kirkwall after his mother, Betsy Wards or Swanney, died in Leith and his father, William Linklater Swanney, went back to Kirkwall to set up shop as a licensed grocer.
John Tait's occupation was ploughman at the time he married Mary Swanney in 1857; the couple married in Eday United Presbyterian Church; by 1861 they were living in a one-room accommodation in Sanday. Between 1861 and 1871 they moved to Kirkwall where he was a grocer in Wellington Street (1871, 1881, 1891), then finally recorded in 1900 as grocer on the death certificate. A map of Kirkwall in 1900 is here.
John Tait's father was also named John Tait and was described alternatively as a farmer or a "farm manager". John Tait senior was married to Christine Moodie, mother of John Tait junior.
In 1881 the Taits household at 99 Wellington Street (two rooms) also contained their nephew William Swanney (aged 12, Mary's brother's son by his first marriage) and William's grandmother, Marys' mother, Margaret Swanney (aged 73).
The Tait's nephew William Swanney, who was effectively their step-son, named his eldest son John Tait Swanney ("Jack").
As a "merchant" (grocer), it is possible, although by no means probable, that John Tait may have left personal estate on his death, but so far I have not found a will or an inventory for him. His widow Mary Swanney or Tait did not make a will but confirmation of her sister Margaret as her executrix dative has been found (see below). That confirmation also reveals that the Mary Tait did dot have any children of her own. However, her nephew William Swanney, was brought up by Mary and Jack Tait in Kirkwall.
I do not know why John and Mary Tait moved to Edinburgh. They lived at 13 Union Street, Jack dying their aged 65 years in 1900. Mary seems to have stayed on there until about a year before her death in January 1909, aged 73 years, and and may have moved in with her younger sister Margaret at 15 Leopold Place, (London Road), Edinburgh during her last year.
Mary Tait or Swanney
Mary Tait did not make a will. She died on 22 January 1909 and an inventory of her moveable or personal estate was presented on 26 January 1909 by her executrix, her younger sister Margaret
Swanney (SC70/1/487/413). Mary was a widow, had no children and her residence at the time of her death was 15 Leopold Place, Edinburgh, which was also her sister Margaret's address.
Her personal estate amounted to £64 : 18 s: 4d. The total comprised household furniture and other effects in the house, worth £10, a sum of £54 in deposit receipt
dated 30 August 1908 with Commercial Bank of Scotland, Leith in favour of her, interest on the deposit calculated to be 8s 4d, and "Two instalments of Old Age Pension due to the deceased,
10s. The deposit receipt with the Commercial Bank of Scotland described her residence as 13 Union Street, Edinburgh.
The two witnesses of the executory were Charles Swanney, 78 North Junction Street, Leith, and William Swanney, Croy, Inverness-shire, who solemnly deponed that Margaret Swanney "is the only
sister and one of the next of kin of the above defunct". Charles and William were half-brothers. Charlie was Mary's and Margaret's nephew, by William Linklater Swanney's second
marriage with Jane Halcrow and William Swanney was their nephew by William Linklater Swanney's first marriage, with Betsy Wards.
Margaret Swanney
Although some 19 years younger than her sister Mary, Margaret Swanney only survived her by a few weeks, both dying in the first quarter of 1909. Margaret (Maggie) Swanney, the youngest of the seven children of Peter and Mary Swanney, left a total of £40-1s-4d on her death on 12 March 1909, in Edinburgh, according to the inventory of her personal estate dated 7 April 1909 (NRS SC70/1/489 folio 1067; N.B. SC70 is the National Records of Scotland catalogue entry for Edinburgh Sheriff Court). Margaret died of cardiac failure after pneumonia. She died intestate (did not leave a testament). The estate comprised £10 - - household furniture and other effects in the house, and the sum of £30 - - in her pass book for the Edinburgh Savings Bank account in her name numbered 24516, to which interest of 1s 4d was added.
Although it was her nephew, William Swanney [AN12] who informed the Registrar of Margaret's death, the executor of Margaret's personal estate was her brother, William Swanney senior [AN24]. The inventory reads (extract):
"In presence of Thomas W Rankin Sheriff Clerk of Orkney appeared William Swanney, Merchant, Victoria Street, Kirkwall, who being solemnly sworn and examined, Depones: That the said Margaret Swanney died at Edinburgh upon 12th March 1909 and had at the time of her death her ordinary residence or principal domicil in Edinburgh. That the Deponent is the Brother and next-of-kin of the Deceased who died unmarried and without issue. That the Deponent has entered or is desirous to enter upon the possession and management of the Deceased's estate as executor ..."
No testamentary writing was known of, the inventory was declared full and complete, and being a Small Will (less than £100), was signed in Kirkwall on 3rd April 1909 by William Swanney and T.W
Rankin; two witnesses declared William Swanney to be "the Brother and one of the next-of-kin of the said defunct". (Although his two brothers Thomas and Andrew had died many years earlier,
William's brother John, and perhaps his brother Peter, were still alive.)
It is not known how the estate was distributed but presumably it was divided by the rules of Scots law of intestate succession at the time. Maggie did not have any heritable estate as part of her inventory.
Maggie was almost 19 years younger than her sister Mary, who had brought up their brother William's eldest son, also William. Mary died nine weeks before Margaret's own death, at the same residence, 15 Leopold Place, Edinburgh. Mary had been ill for five years, possibly of a diabetic condition with kidney problems, and it is possible that Maggie had been looking after her elder sister during that time.
Nothing is yet known about Margaret's occupation or her earlier places of residence before her final address in Edinburgh.
The Miss May or Mary Swanney who died on 8 March 1909 at Leith, testate, residing 35 Duke Street, Leith, is presumed to be a different person, perhaps related but perhaps not (NRS SC70/4/405 will, 5pp. ; SC70/1/490 inventory, 7pp.)