Son of David Symon and Elizabeth Kelt, b. 9 Dec 1836, Errol; m. Margaret Watson Bruce, 5 Jun 1862 Errol, 4 daurs, 3 sons.  Brick & tile maker, then flesher, tacksman of salmon fishing beats, contractor. Died Saturday 17 Feb 1912 Errol.  Buried Errol.  May have been named after his mother's brother, Peter Kelt. 

 

A family group sheet and details of the lives of Peter Symon and his wife Margaret Bruce are here.

 

For many years he was sole manager of the Errol brick and tile works, Inchcoonans, after having been appointed by Mr Adams, owner, who had established the works in 1844 (on land rented from Errol Estate, then purchased from them in 1855) and had been impressed by Peter's ability to make bricks by hand quickly.  For a number of years he lived with his wife and children at the brickworks in one of the workmen's cottages.  In the late 1870s the family moved into a house on Errol High Street, named Bower View (or Bowerview). 

 

Peter Symon made the inevitable decision to give up his early trade in the dying handloom weaving industry and entered a career in brick and tile making.  Expanding railways, cities, mines and factories were creating a growing demand for bricks.  There was also an intermittent demand for field drainage tiles.  He seems to have been "in with the bricks" at the Errol brick and tile works, starting work there early in his career.  It's not exactly clear how long he worked there but his obituary said some 40 years.  He eventually became a contractor, also renting salmon fishings on the lower Tay, and renting orchards in the Carse of Gowrie.  The drainage and ditching contracting business he founded, carried on with his son, and his brother, James Symon ("Uncle Jeemie"), was later known as James S. Symon & Son, Errol.  

 

He was a keen bowler and curler.  Bred poultry and won many prizes in shows in Perthshire and Angus.  An authority on bee-keeping. 

 

Obituary: "Death of Well-Known Errol Man", The Courier, Dundee, Monday, 19 February, 1912, 5C:

 

"On Saturday afternoon one of the old inhabitants of Errol passed away in the person of Mr Peter Symon, contractor.  Mr Symon, who was 75 years of age, had been in failing health for more than a year, but was only laid aside about ten days ago.

        Mr Symon served his apprenticeship with the late Mr Adams, of the Errol Brick and Tile Works.  Young Symon was one of the fastest and best brickmakers in the district, bricks being then made by hand.  Mr Adams, struck with the young man's ability, appointed him sole manager.  This position Mr Symon held for the long period of about forty years.

        After leaving the brickworks he took to salmon fishing on the lower reaches of the Tay.

        He undertook considerable contracts for drainage, and indeed there are few districts in the Carse which do not owe their existence to Mr Symon and his son, who joined him some years ago.

        A keen bowler and curler, he became a well-known figure in competitions.  Perhaps, however, he took the greatest interest in bee culture, and he was an authority on the subject.

        Mr Symon was predeceased by his wife some years ago, and he leaves a grown-up family to mourn his loss."

 

Errol United Presbyterian Church, previously the Errol Secession Church (Associate Congregation, "antiburgher"), on Gas Works Lane (later Gas Brae).

 

Built in 1809 (according to Lawrence Melville, Errol, 1935).  A Valentine's postcard probably from around the last decade of the building's use by the congregation, before the union of the United Presbyterian and the Free Church congregations as the United Free Church. 

 

Margaret Symon had been the domestic servant of the UPC minister, Rev. Lamb, before her marriage to Peter, living in the UPC manse (now "The Birks"). It was in this building that Peter and Margaret Symon would have brought their children to be baptised, including James Simpson Scotland "Scot" Symon (ancestor 8), named after the minister that replaced Rev. Lamb, Rev. James Scotland.   After the union of the UPC and Free kirks, and the subsequent retiral of the sitting UPC minister, the church building and the manse were both sold off, separately, in 1922.  The former church building later used as a woollens factory owned by the Pilcher family, then as a joiner's workshop, owned by David Thomson (senior), but the business was then sold to the Co-operative funeral services.   The latter's son, the late Iain Thomson, built a house on the northern part of the the west elevation shown here, still the home of his widow, Mrs Margaret Thomson.  The manse was sold to Mrs and Mrs Clark, bakers, Errol. 

Railway wagon shunter (about 1867-1869), policeman (1872), superintendent Dunfermline Public Slaughter House (1876), gardener Seaside estate Errol (1901), agricultural labourer; b. about 1840, Caputh, Perthshire, m. Elizabeth Taylor, 16 Apr 1867, Scoonieburn (United Presbyterian Church), Perth, 4 daurs.  Died 23 Jun 1912, Cowgate, Errol.  Buried Errol.

 

John's father, also called John Bruce, was a crofter on the southern edge of the Perthshire highlands, at a place called Forebrae, near Butterstone, a few miles east of Dunkeld.  His mother, Elizabeth Robertson, was from Strathtay and was a Gaelic speaker.  

 

An interesting feature of the lives of John and Elizabeth is that they moved around quite a lot.  Starting out in the town of Perth, in the centre of town and in the Pomerian area near the railway station, they moved briefly to Dunfermline (where their youngest daughter Isabella [9] was born), back to Perth, in the Shore Road harbour area, then to Errol where they lived in the gardener's cottage on Seaside estate before retiring to the Cowgate in Errol village where finally they lived in a house rented from their son-in-law Scot Symon [8].   A family group sheet and more information about the lives of John Bruce and his wife Elizabeth Taylor are here.

John's sister, Isabella Bruce, married a local man in her home area between Blairgowrie and Dunkeld.  One of Isabella's daughters, Agnes, lived in a cottage at Burnside, Forneth.  This became a favourite place for summer holidays of Peter [4] and Mary [5] Symon, in the 1930s and 1940s.  

Daur of Alexander Campbell, ploughman, and Amelia or Emily Ferguson, b. about 1824, Errol, Perthshire, m. James Wanless, 11 daurs & 3 sons.  Died 21 Sep 1920, New Mains farm cottages, Inchture, Perthshire.  Buried Jeanfield cemetery, Perth in same lair as husband.  No interments other than of James and Mary Wanless are recorded for that lair, according to information supplied by Perth & Kinross Council Bereavement Services staff at Perth Crematorium, where records are kept. 

Merchant seaman, then licensed grocer & wine & spirit merchant, son of Peter Swanney & Margaret Swanney, b. 24 Sep 1841, Eday, Orkney, m. (1) Betsy Wards, 16 May 1867 Leith, one son (2) Jane Halcrow Wilson, 1877, Kirkwall, Orkney, 2 sons. Died  25 Aug 1913, aged 71 years, Victoria Street, Kirkwall, Orkney (cerebral haemorhage). 

 

After leaving his father's croft on Eday, William Linklater Swanney (the reason for the middle name is not known) may first have worked as a ploughman on Eday, as an 18 year old man of his name was recorded as such in the 1861 Census.  Perhaps this was one of his cousins, son of one of his father's two brothers on Eday.  Whatever his early working life, my great-great grandfather Swanney soon went into a career as a seaman in the merchant service and left Orkney to live, when on shore, in Leith, near the docks.  In 1867, aged 25, he married Betsy Wards, who was also from Orkney, a farmer's daughter from Sanday, and also aged 25.  Both gave their usual address as 72 Salamander Street in Leith.  Their only child, William Swanney, was born 17 months later at 2 West Cromwell Street in Leith.  Early in 1874, Betsy went down with pulmonary tuberculosis and four months later died, on 24 April 1874, at 19 Coburg Street, Leith.  She was 32 and their son was 5 years and 5 months old. 

 

After Betsy died William went back to Orkney and, in 1875, set up in business as a licensed grocer at 55 Victoria Street in Kirkwall.  The shop premises were owned by a William Halcrow, possibly a relative of William I's second wife.  His brother-in-law, John Tait, husband of Mary Swanney, already had a grocer's shop in Kirkwall.  Mary and John Tait took in William II, who stayed with them throughout his childhood. 

 

During his fourth year as widower, on 1 February 1877, William I married Kirkwall native Jane Halcrow, herself a widow, of deceased merchant seaman George Wilson.  William I was 35 and Jane was 37.  Sixteen months after the marriage their first son, Robert, was born (on 16 June 1878), at Main Street, Kirkwall.  At some point William I bought a house at 59 Victoria Street, close to the shop.  That was where he would stay for the rest of his days.   The house at 59 Victoria Street was a typical town house, with 6 rooms, rateable value £14, and had a garden.  William and Jane's second son, and last child, Charles Edward, was born on 11 March 1882, at Victoria Street.  Both sons would become seamen and each married one of two Shearer sisters, Margaret and Agnes Miller Shearer respectively. 

 

After he died his grocer's business was taken over by an unrelated trader and was believed to have been eventually, in the 1940s or 1950s, taken over by William Linklater Swanney's grandson, Charlie Swanney, commission agent and grocer. 

 

William Swanney left a large moveable estate as well as his house and shop.  His total (movable) estate in the UK was £2,288-0s-3, according to the inventory presented at Kirkwall on 3 December 1913 by Drever & Cormack Sols Kirkwall and recorded at Orkney Sheriff Court (NRS SC11/38/21).   Included in the estate was the whole shares in a sailing boat Thomas Henry, registered in Hull in 1888 with official number 93139 and kept at Lerwick in Shetland.  The ship was valued at £500 in 1913. 

 

By a holograph testament William left it all to his unmarried step-daughter, Jane Ann Wilson, who was his housekeeper.  It seems that Jane produced the following will when William died:

 

"55 Victoria Street,

Kirkwall

Decr. 22, 1911

I, William Swanney after my decease appoint my step daughter Jane Ann Wilson to be my executor and I leave and bequeath to the said Jane Ann Wilson all my estate of kind and description

(signed) William Swanney"

 

Peter Shearer, Tailor and Clothier, Kirkwall and John Inkster, Sub Agent of the National Bank of Scotland Limited, Kirkall, compeared before a J.P. and signed the following Deposition:

 

"being solemnly sworn and examined, Depone, That they are well aquainted with the handwriting of the deceased William Swanney, Licensed Grocer and Commission Agent, Kirkwall, and have seen and examined the foregoing Will and that to the best of their knowledge and belief the same except the words "55 Victoria Street, Kirkwall --- 191" [sic] (which are lithographed) is entirely in the proper handwriting of the said William Swanney all which is truth as the Deponents shall answer to God".

 

Peter Shearer, Tailor and Clothier, was (almost certainly) the late William Swanney's brother-in-law, being the father of Maggie Shearer, who had married Robert Swanney, William's son by his second wife, Jane Halcrow, in 1906 at Kirkwall. 

 

It is not known why William II, or his two half-brothers, did not claim their so-called "bairn's part" (i.e. "legal rights", or "legitim") under Scots succession law.  Under present succession law, where there is no relict, the issue are entitled to a half of the moveable estate, even if a will stated otherwise.  If that applied in 1913 then William and his two half-brothers, Robert and Charles, could have claimed half of their father's moveable estate, which consisted of:

 

Stock in the National Savings Bank of Scotland Limited                                                   £724.00.00

Cash in house                                                                                                                                   £    1. 00.00 

Cash at bank                                                                                                                                     £452.19.02

Security in heritage: bond and disposition by Obadiah Sutherland, Retired

Ship's Master, 85 Cornhill Terrace, Leith, in favour of William Swanney,

dated 11 Nov 1903 recorded in Register of Sasines 26 Dec 1903; and

Bond of Corroboration by John Morrison Scott, Wine Merchant,

5-6 Quality Street, Leith, sole partner of John M. Scott & Co., Wine

Merchants there, and Laurence James Nicolson, Wine and Spirit Merchant,

36 Rodney Street, Edinburgh, in favour of William Swanney, dated 18 & 24

June and registered in Books of Council and Session 18 Sept 1907                    £200.00.00

Security in heritage: bond and disposition by William Halcrow, Baker in Kirkwall,

Margaret Halcrow, residing in Edinburgh, Robert Halcrow, Draper in

Kirkwall and William Swanney; and Disposition in security by William

Halcrow, Margaret Halcrow, Robert Halcrow and by Jane Halcrow or

Swanney, then wife of and residing with the said William Swanney,

in favour of William Swanney, dated 9 & 12 and recorded in Register of

Sasines for Kirkwall on 21 Feb 1889                                                                               £300.00.00

Household furniture and effects                                                                                               £    5.18.00

Stock-in-trade at 55 Victoria St, Kirkwall                                                                                 £ 23.13.02

Value of goodwill of business of Licensed Grocer at 55 Victoria Street, Kirkwall     £ 50.00.00

Whole share of sailing ship "Thomas Henry", Lerwick (no. 93139)                               £500.00.00

Income due on the two bonds for £200 and £300 above                                                  £   5.11.08

Proportion of rents due on 2 houses from Whitsunday 1913 to date of death         £   3.04.09

Paid-up shares                                                                                                                                     £7.00.00

Sum-at-credit in Employees Savings Bank of Lever Brothers Limited                            £14.13.06

 

TOTAL                                                                                                                                            £2,288.00.03

 

The dwelling house in Broad Street, Kirkwall, occupied by Mrs Jane Scott, widow, for a rent of £8: - :- , and by David Scott, Clerk, for a rent of £5: - : - (each termly), would have been heritage, as was the house he owned at 59 Victoria Street.  The Broad Street property seems to have been pretty much the same sort and size as the one he owned at Victoria Street: the Broad Street house also had a garden and its rateavle value in 1905-1906 was £13, almost identical to the Victoria Street property (£14). 

 

The heritage was probably conveyed to the sons, which may have explained why they would have renounced their legitim, if such was the case.   Otherwise Jane would only have taken half the personal estate, after the deduction of inheritance tax (estate duty) on the estate (because this was an estate of more than £100 it is not exempted from inheritance tax).  In those days, the rate payable as estate duty on principal exceeding £1,000 but not £5,000 was 3 per cent. 

 

If it is true that William Swanney, son of William Swanney by his first wife Betsy Wards, did not receive anything, neither the reason why nor how William II and his family reacted to that is apparently documented.   For what it is worth, family tradition has it that, the fact that nothing was left to the eldest son, William II, by William I, irked his daughter-in-law, Katie Swanney, wife of William II.  Perhaps William I had paid for William II to go through University in Edinburgh.  Perhaps William had been left money by his aunt, Mary Tait, in whose home he had been brought up.  Maybe William II had not taken legal advice at the time, or maybe the law was different in those days. But the answers are unknown.

 

Crofter in Hianish and Cornaigbeg, Tiree, son of John McDougall [52], farmer, Hianish, Tiree, and Isabella McKinnon [53], b. Hianish, Tiree, Argyll,  18 Feb 1834, bap. 19 March 1834, Tiree, m. Isabella McLean [27], 5 Jun 1867, Tobermory, Mull, Argyll, with whom 10 children born (5 daurs, 5 sons), of whom 2 died in infancy (John, d. 4 March 1870, aged 11 months; and Donald, d. 26 Jan 1874, aged 1 month), 1 aged 26 (also named John, d. 1 Feb 1896, accidental drowning, bur. Hawera, New Zealand); 3 daurs with issue.  Died 3 Jul 1899, aged 65 years, Cornaigbeg, Tiree, Argyll (cancer of the tongue). Buried in Kirkapoll churchyard, Tiree.  Gaelic mother tongue speaker.  Went by "Calum". 

 

I was told by Angus Munn, of Baugh, Tiree, that Calum's Gaelic patronymic was "Calum Doulich" (brown-eyed Calum or Malcolm).  (I may have misunderstood the patronymic. His son, John, was "Iain Chaluim Dhùglaich", i.e. John MacDougall, or John, son of Calum MacDougall, if I have understood correctly, according to notes by the late Hector McPhail of Tiree, reproduced with permission of his sister Catriona in the family group sheet here.)  I have come across the surname "Doulich" in the old parish registers of the Pitlochry area of Perthshire in the 1600s or 1700s, an area in which Gaelic was then the language of the people, where presumably it was adopted as an English family name at some point.  I don't know if Calum actually had brown eyes, and the only photograph I possess of Calum is a grainy black and white portrait copied from the original which is in possession of Catriona Watt, great granddaughter of Calum McDougall and Isabella Maclean by their daughter Elizabeth McDougall, who married Hugh McPhaill, a Tiree native who established and ran the grocery store at Cornaig.

Daur of John Maclean, cottar, boatman, fisherman, and Marion Maclean, b. 23 Feb 1845, Baugh, Tiree, m. Malcolm McDougall, 5 Jun 1867, Tobermory, Mull, Argyll. Died 24 Mar 1939, aged 93 years, Cornaigbeg, Tiree, Argyll (natural causes).

Ishbel was a folk healer who knew how to administer the correct dose of foxglove, which is fatal when overdosed.

She had a sister, who married someone called Gallagher and had a son. 

A Gaelic speaker, of course. 

Photograph from personal archive of Catriona Watt, great-granddaughter of Isabella Maclean or McDougall.  By a professional photographic studio in Dumbarton Road, Glasgow.