Daoine Pharaig
Peter's People
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Family Group Sheet
Notes: Occupation: Ploughman (1868), Farm servant (cattleman) (1871), Agricultural Labourer (1881), Cattleman (1891), General Labourer (1901).
Residence: Cottage at Old Laighwood farm, Perthshire (census 1871, 1881, 1891), part of Dunkeld Estate, owned by the Duke of Atholl. James Smith listed as tenant occupier of unrated house at Laighwood, up to
and including 1894/95 (Perthshire valuation roll; annual value of house £4 0s. 0d., for purposes of Local Government Scotland Act 1889). House is vacant in 1895/96, along with the
previous listed house of similar value in the valuation roll for Laighwood on the Dunkeld estate. James and Isabella Smith recorded as residing in cottage at Burnside of
Forneth, Clunie parish, Perthshire (census 1901; death of James 1906). The house and land at Burnside was occupied by tenant Mrs Matilda Smith, possibly a relative, up to and
including 1897/98, yearly rent or value £9. 0s. 0d, on Forneth Estate, belonging to Miss Helen Speid of Forneth (Perthshire valuation roll). From 1898/99, the house (£6) and land
(£3) at Burnside are recorded in the valuation roll as occupied by tenant Mrs. Isabella Smith, yearly rent of value £9, belonging to James Speid of Forneth.
1841 Census [unverified]: James Smith, 5; Alexander, 44; Agnes, 34; Ref. 337/10/3, Caputh, Perthshire. 1851 Census [unverified]: Agness Smith, 44; Alexander Smith, 54; no James co-residing; Ref 337/10/2, Caputh, Perthshire. 1861 Census [unverified]: Agnes Smith, 56; no Alexander or James Smith found; Ref 339/1/5, Clunie, Perthshire. 1871 Census [unverified]: Burnside, Clunie, Perthshire. Alexander Smith, head, married, 74, Labourer "(Frencher)", born Caputh; Agnes Smith, wife, married, 65, no cocupation, born Clunie; Alexander Smith, grandson, 12, scholar, born Clunie [findmypast]. James would appear to have left his parents' household by age 15; his father Alexander Smith probably died [unverified] in 1871 (after Census night), age 74 yrs, Clunie parish [D/1871/339/6 Clunie]. Agnes was ten years younger than her husband Alexander. She probably died [unverified] in 1882, age 78 yrs, Clunie parish [D/1882/339/6 Clunie].
Household: 1871 (2 adults and 2 children under 5; living in 3 windowed rooms, at Old Laighwood, Clunie parish, Perthshire): James Smith (head, 32), married, Farm servant (cattleman); Isabella Smith (wife, 22), married, no occupation; Elizabeth Smith (daughter, 2); Agnes (daughter, 2 months). James and Isabella born Caputh parish, children born in Clunie parish. 1881 (2 adults and 5 children under 16 living in 2 windowed rooms, at Old Laighwood, as above): James Smith (head, 41), married, Agricultural Labourer; Isabella Smith (wife, 31), married, no occupation; Elizabeth (daughter, 12), scholar; Agnes (daughter, 10), scholar; John (son, 4); Jane Ann Smith (daughter, 3); Isabella Smith (daughter, 1). All recorded as born in Caputh parish except Elizabeth, born in Clunie parish. 1891 (3 adults and 8 children under 16; living in 2 windowed rooms, at Old Laighwood, as above): James Smith (head, 52), married, Cattleman (employed); Isabella Smith (wife, 42), married, Cattleman's Wife; Elizabeth Smith (daughter, 22), unmarried, Domestic Servant; John Smith (son, 14), Agricultural Labourer (employed); Jane Smith (daughter, 13), Agricultural Labourer (employed); Isabella Smith (daughter, 11), scholar; May Smith (daughter, 8), scholar; Christina Smith (daughter, 6), scholar; Samuel Smith (son, 5); David Smith (son, 1); Grace A Smith (daughter, 1 month). All born in Clunie parish, except parents James (born "Craigie", Perthshire) and Isabella (born Caputh). 1901 (3 adults and 4 children under 16; living in 4 windowed rooms, at Burnside of Forneth, Clunie parish, Perthshire): James Smith (head, 60), married, General Labourer; Isabella B Smith (wife, 51), married; Jane A Smith (daughter, 23), single, General Domestic Work at home; Daniel M Smith (son, 11), at school; Grace A S Smith (daughter, 10), scholar; James B Smith (grandson, 2); Isabella B Smith (granddaughter, 1). James and Isabella Smith both born in Caputh parish; all the others born in Clunie parish, Perthshire. 1911 (2 adults and 2 children under 16; living in 3 windowed rooms, at Burnside of Forneth, Clunie parish, Perthshire): Isabella Smith (head, 61), widowed; Grace Smith (daughter, 20), single, no occupation; James Smith (grandson, 12), school; Isabella Smith (granddaughter, 11), school. Isabella Smith (head) born in Caputh parish; all 3 others were born in Clunie parish, Perthshire.
Notes:
References:
Created 30 December 2016; updated 31 December 2016 & 01 January 2017 & 1, 10, 13, 14 & 16 July 2017
Jean Taylor Smith, Actress, born 8 February 1901 Scotland, d. September 1990, Ayr, Scotland (D/680/1990/629 Ayr, South Ayrshire) is thought to have visited Burnside of Forneth and may have been a relative or a friend of Agnes Smith. Jean Taylor Smith appeared in Doctor in the House (1954), Ring of Bright Water (1964), The Cedar Tree (1976) and as the grandmother in Bill Douglas's autobiographical films My Childhood (1972) and My Ain Folk (1973).
Isla Bruce Robertson (b.1933), residing in Brighton, Sussex in 2014, formerly Labour councillor for Little Venice ward, London Borough of Westminster 1986-90, is a descendant of James Smith and Isabella Bruce. Her mother, Isabella Bruce Robertson, née Smith, daughter of one of James and Isabella's children, Jane Ann Smith, was brought up at Burnside cottage as one of James and Isabella's daughters rather than as their granddaughter. Her sister, Betty, was living in Blairgowrie in 2014, but had died by 2017. Isla and Betty are second cousins of my grandfather, Peter Symon (1900-1952) [AN004]. Their grandchildren are my fourth cousins, descended from third great grandparents John Bruce and Elizabeth Robertson [AN036 and AN037]. |
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Burnside cottage, Forneth, Perthshire, 1930.
Postcard from the collection of Ella Howe, supplied by Angela Jeffs, owner of Burnside cottage in 2019. (Received by email from Angela Jeffs to Peter Symon, 7 June 2019)
Note tiled roof, replacing older thatch. Sash and case windows retained.
Burnside
Agnes Smith was a laundrymaid in Snaigow House and never married. She eventually moved back into Burnside cottage at Forneth,
her parents' home, which she shared with her brother Sam, who died in 1946. She stayed there until her death in 1950. At some point Agnes is thought to have had a boarder, called John Stewart or
Paterson.
Agnes's mother's cousin's son, Peter Symon, and his wife Mary Symon, often visited with their children - Scot, born in 1936, and Mary, born in 1941. Burnside was the destination for the Symon family's summer holiday every year as well as for shorter visits at other times of the year. For the summer holiday, taken during the annual Dundee Fair, Peter borrowed a bell tent from the Errol Scouts Troop which he erected in the garden of the croft at Burnside.
Sometimes the family went by bus, from Errol to Dunkeld via Perth, then on the Blairgowrie bus from Dunkeld as far as Forneth. But most of the time the family did the trip in Peter's Ford Prefect car.
"Auntie" Agnes had a range in the croft house at Burnside on which she made pancakes and big scones, which Scot Symon particularly remembered enjoying as a boy. He remembers her keeping one or two cows that she milked every day. The byre was next to the house. Scot remembered that a well at the bottom of the garden was the only source of water for all purposes, although there is no well shown on the Ordnance Survey map as within the grounds of the croft.
Burnside cottage was on a local estate, possibly Forneth estate but more recently Snaigow estate. The house the family called "Burnside" lies to the south of the main road from Blairgowrie to Dunkeld, with its back to the farm of Burnside, which is situated
across the main road and slightly further west.
Three of six Symon siblings from Errol and their cousins from Forneth. A picture presumably taken at Burnside, Forneth, a cottage with some ground around it, rented from one of the local estates; undated, early to mid 1930s. Rear, left to right: Agnes Smith (1871-1950); Peter Symon [AN0004] (1900-1952; married Mary Ann Campbell Smart, 19 July 1935); Elsie Symon (1902-1971). Seated in front, left to right: Ella Symon (Bella Bruce Symon, 1905-1981; married David Scott Christie, December 1932); unknown man and baby; Grace Smith (Grace-Ann Stuart Robertson Smith, 1891-1965; youngest sibling of Agnes, married Thomas Brown, August 1929). Marriage or engagement rings are visible on Ella (engagement or wedding?) and Grace (wedding?) but not by Peter, Agnes or the man holding the baby. If the picture is from after Ella's marriage and before Peter's the photo is probably taken between spring 1933 and early summer 1935. One hypothesis is that: the picture dates from the spring or summer of 1934; the baby is Isobel Christie (Isobel Bruce Christie or Isobel Bruce Symon Christie, born 18 January 1934), daughter of Ella; and the man holding her is Agnes's and Grace's brother, Sam (Samuel McCall McMillan Smith, 1886-1946), gardener, who never married, and was living at Burnside until his death in 1946. I'm not good at judging how old babies are so it could be from spring-summer 1935. From the collection of John McIntosh, Broughty Ferry.
Seefar
Every summer, until he was widowed in 1950, the same year as Agnes Smith also died, Peter Symon would take between 12 and 14 beehives to Seefar, situated at an altitude 750 feet (250 metres) higher than Burnside, in the foothills of the Grampians, with the deer moor of the Forest of Clunie several miles across the valley of Baden Burn to the north. On the appointed night in late July or early August, the sliding doors on the hives would be closed in the evening, after the bees were in their hives for the night, in the gardens opposite Bower View and to the rear of Crosslea.
The next day, the hives were placed on the back of the firm's lorry and transported from Errol to Burnside,
a journey of some 25 miles, crossing the Sidlaw Hills by Abernyte, then crossing the Perth to Coupar Angus road at Woodside and turning right onto the Perth to Blairgowrie road north of Cargill,
turning left to go through Meikleour and then right to go through Kirkton of Lethendy, Craigie and Clunie.
Opposite Burnside, a steep and winding road climbed a couple of miles up the hill past hill farms - Croft of Forneth, Roughstones, Over Forneth, Wyndend - and continued on up a track to Seefar, where the road ended. Beyond Seefar the grouse moors stretched for miles in three directions. There the bees spent the summer gathering nectar from the heathery open moorland and making honey in the hives.
On bringing the hives back to Errol after the heather had finishing blossoming towards the end of September or early October, the honeycombs the bees had made were extracted from the hives. The honey was placed in beekeeping honey extractors (centrifuge machines) kept in the firm's shed. A handle on the centrifuge machine was then cranked manually in order to separate the honeycomb into a smooth and consistently textured honey. The honey obtained was sold, some of it in Elsie Symon's grocers shop on Errol High Street. (After the death of Peter Symon in 1952, followed soon after by that of his father, in 1955, the beehives were sold. Thereafter, the honey centrifuge machines languished, unused, in the rafters of the firm's shed, for a half century, until the lease of the shed was given up around around 2007 and the shed was emptied of its contents.)
Below are three photographs taken when the Errol shed was cleared out in
2007. Top left is Scot Symon, great grand-nephew of Isabella Bruce or Smith (1849-1919), in the process of sorting the items. He is the grandson of Isabella's niece, Isabella Bruce (1876-1940)
and her husband James Simpson Scotland ("Scot") Symon (1872-1955), and a great-grandson of Isabella senior's brother,
John Bruce (about 1843-1912) and his wife Elizabeth Taylor (about 1835-1918). Scot junior's grandmother, Isabella Bruce junior, was a first cousin of Agnes Smith (1871-1950) and of
Agnes's brothers and sisters. Scot junior's father, Peter Symon (1900-1952) was a second cousin of Agnes's nieces and nephews. Agnes was "Auntie Agnes" to Peter, his wife Mary, son Scot and
daughter Mary Agnes Symon. You can just make out the honey extractors in the rafters above, to the right. There were two honey extractors (top right and bottom left), both of which were disposed
of in a public sale. (Photographic credits: Peter Symon, 2007).
Bottom right is the front cover of "Beekeeping Up to Date", by A.B. Flower (Cassell: London, 8th edition, 1942), formerly in the possession of my grandfather, Peter Symon (1900-1952).
