Family Group Sheet

Notes: Seaman (merchant service) living at 72 Salamander Street, Leith, 1867; Mariner’s second mate, merchant service, 1874; Grocer living at 38 Victoria Street, Kirkwall, 1881 (son William, 12 yrs, living with his aunt Mary Swanney and her husband John Tait, grocer, at 99 Wellington Street, Kirkwall, 1881); Licensed Grocer and Commission Agent living at Victoria Street, with premises at 55 Victoria Street, Kirkwall (Wine & Spirit Merchant business ‘William Swanney’ established 1875), at death in August 1913; left total Estate in UK worth £2,288: 0: 3 (Orkney Archives SC11/38/21, 24 Nov 1913) (equivalent to £161,351.56 in 2007 prices, www.measuringworth.com); executrix was Miss Jane Ann Wilson, stepdaughter of William Linklater Swanney; whole estate was left to this Jane Ann Wilson in WL Swanney’s will dated 22 Dec 1911 registered Orkney Sheriff Court 18 Sep 1913. Included in Estate was sailing boat ‘”Thomas Henry” in Lerwick (official number 93139, registered in Hull in 1888) and valued at £500 (http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/IBON90,000-94,999.htm).

Notes: Scholar aged 9, living in father John Wards’ household at Castles, Eday in 1851 Census; mother deceased; John Wards may have moved to Eday from Sanday after wife Margaret died; Betsy was youngest child, living with 3 older bros (Robert, 25, fisherman; John, 17, fisherman; James, 12, scholar) and older sister(Janet, 14, farmer’s dau), all born Sanday; also living there was Ann, Robert’s wife, 22 yrs, b. Stromsay. 

Notes: William Swanney b.1868 was brought up by Mary Tait, née Swaney (dau of Peter SWANEY and Margaret SWANAY), b. 23 July 1835, chr. 16 August 1835, parish of Eday & Pharay, Orkney [OPR Parish No. 015- Eday and Pharay, Volume 0020], his aunt, the older sister of William Linklater Swanney, and her husband John Tait. Like William Linklater Swanney, John Tait (b. abt 1835 in Sanday, Orkney) was a grocer in Kirkwall, living in Wellington Street.

References:

1. Material supplied by Maureen Hunter, g grand daughter of William Linklater Swanney, living at 8 Hillpark Crescent, Edinburgh EH4 7BG (tel 0131 336 4835) (contact details current at 5/11/2008) in letter to Eleanor Symon dated 1 December 1996 enclosing drop-line chart of Swanney descendants ; various family photos

2. Material supplied by Karen Wood, g grand daughter of William Linklater Swanney, living at Berriedale Farm, South Ronaldsay, Orkney, KW17 2TQ tel 01856 831207: inventory, confirmation and will of William Swanney; pedigree chart; photos of WLS, father’s house on Eday and of Shop advert;

Last updated by Peter Symon 1 Dec 2016.

William Swanney grew up on his father's croft on Eday.  The reason for the middle name Linklater is not known, although his father's side of the family were originally from North Ronaldsay where the name was prevalent.  He went into the merchant navy, living in Leith, where in 1867 he married Betsy Wards, who was born on Sanday but, when she was still a girl, had moved to Eday in the 1840s or early 1850s with her crofter fatherJohn Wards and her older brothers and sister.  Betsy's mother, Margaret Cursitor, may also have moved to Eday but had died by 1851 when Betsy was ten years old.  Betsy's father had a croft of six acres at Castles.  He seems to have remained a widower until his death of old age in 1883.

When William and Betsy married, in May 1867, he was living at 72 Salamander Street and she seems to have been living at 138 Constitution Street, where they married, both addresses in Leith.  William's brother, Thomas Swanney, died of typhus fever in October 1867, five months after William and Betsy's marriage.  Thomas's death certificate records his place of residence as 29 Coburg Street, overlooking the Water of Leith near the docks in the burgh of Leith.  William and Betsy  were also living on Coburg Street, at number 19, when Betsy died, seven years later, in 1874, of tuberculosis, aged 32.

Leith Local History Society have published a free guidebook to historical Leith here.

The only child of the marriage, William, was born in November 1868 in Leith.  When Betsy Swanney died, William was five years old, and had presumably just started primary school.  After her death William senior moved back to Orkney where his sister Mary and her husband John Tait, a Kirkwall grocer, took young William into their household.  They had no children of their own.  William senior gave up his seafaring life and also became a grocer, also in Kirkwall.  He eventually remarried and had two sons, stepbrothers of William junior.  He established his own wine and spirit merchant business in Kirkwall in 1875, thereby extending the ancient tradition of Leith wine trading with Bordeaux.  He died in 1913 a month before his 72nd birthday. 

Young William named his first son, with wife Catherine MacDougall, John Tait Swanney, after his stepfather, and his third daughter Mary (Maimie) Catherine Swanney, after his stepmother.  His first daughter was named Betsy (Bessie) Swanney, after his mother.