Ross 1901
Ross had changed. Even a quick glance at the 1901 census return
confirms this. There were only twelve inhabited houses in the
village and two empty ones. Everyone who was working was
working on their own account. There were no paupers. Only three
of the houses had only one window. The census took place on the
31st of March. The enumerator was Peter Geddes Hendry, the
Minister of Mordington Free Church. The schoolmaster and
registrar was David Sinclair. Elsewhere in Mordington Parish; at
Mordington House Robert Campbell Renton and his wife and
daughter were in residence and consequently there was more staff
in the house. The governess and footman were German although
the rest of the staff was Scottish. A lodger in one of the cottages
was a motor car fitter. At Lamberton some of the cottages housed
railway workers; an engine fireman and a couple of platelayers.
There were a couple of slater/plasterers and a drystane dyker as
well as the usual farm workers. There was a fisherman from
Eyemouth and his two children at Lamberton Pit Houses but they
were only visiting. There was a new mansion house in Mordington
Parish. Cawderstanes House had been built near Edrington Castle
ruin and by 1901 Edward Grey, its owner, was in residence.
Cawderstanes was not as big as Mordington House but, with 15
windows, it was quite substantial. Rumour has it that the builders
plundered the stones of Edrington Castle for the new building.
There was a cook and a housemaid indoors and a coachman in the
stable block. The farmer at Edrington Castle Farm was also an
auctioneer, probably at the cattle mart. There was a shoemaker and
a grocer in the Starch houses and a hedger, a blacksmith, a joiner
and a dressmaker in the Clappers. There were 7 uninhabited houses
in Mordington plus the 2 at Ross. Peter Hendry, the enumerator,
after all the sheets were collected from the households, copied the
information into his enumerator’s book and when this was done
signed the declaration on the 3rd of April that it was an accurate
account. The book and the schedule papers were then passed to
David Sinclair, the Registrar, [and schoolmaster] who checked
everything again and made corrections if necessary. Then he
signed a declaration on the 17th of April to the effect that the
account of the population was as accurate as possible. Then
everything went to the Sheriff Clerk and he signed another
declaration on the 22nd of April to the effect that the Registrar “had
duly performed the duties required of him.” The schedules which
had been filled in by the householders were eventually destroyed
but in 1911 these were kept and in 2011 we shall be able to see
what our ancestors wrote in the schedules in their own
handwriting. There are no house numbers on the 1901 census only
Schedule numbers. Because the enumerator has approached the
task from the opposite direction Ross comes at the end of his
district rather than the beginning. The schedule numbers start at 52.
The people whose names appeared in the schedules have been
highlighted in blue.
52.
Alexander Martin, the innkeeper died 20/5/1898. In his
will he left everything to his sister Alice. At the time of his
death he had £115 in the house. His furniture, stock and other
effects were valued at over £65. He had debenture stock with
William Younger & Co Ltd and the goodwill of his business
was put at £50. The Spirit Shop, as it was called, had 5
windows. Alice, Alexander’s sister, was 56 in 1901 and had
put Spirit Dealer as her occupation on the census schedule.
Alison’s sister, Mary Graham, with her daughter Mary, was
staying with Alice on the night of the census. Mary was
married to William Graham who was a baker. William had
been born in Tweedmouth but had not lived there all his life.
William’s father was a baker/grocer. The family had lived in
North Sunderland when William was young. At the age of 17
he was described as a bread baker. The family moved back to
Tweedmouth where William and his father were both
described as bakers in the 1871 census. When he married
Mary Martin at Burnmouth in 1874 William was 29 and she
was 23. Two of their children, Jane and Mary were born in
Amble near Alnwick where the family was living at the time
of the 1881 census. By the time of the 1891 census the family
was still in Amble and William was a baker/confectioner,
working on his own account.
The head of the household, Alison [Alice] Martin, Licensed
Grocer, daughter of Peter Martin and Mary Wilson, died at
5.45pm on the 17th of November 1906. On her death
certificate spinster has been scored through and replaced by
single. Her brother, William Martin, of 22 Burnmouth
reported her death and it was registered on the 19th of
November by David Sinclair in the Mordington Register of
deaths. Alice was 61 when she died. She was buried in Ayton
churchyard beside her mother and father, her sister Janet and
her brother Alexander. [Ayton MI 196].
53. James Anderson and Jane Spouse, daughter of William
and Bessie Spouse, were living next door to her father
[schedule 54] in 1901. James was now working on his own
account, which could mean that he had his own boat or a
share in a boat. Their daughters Elizabeth and Helen had left
school but although they were 16 and 15 neither seemed to be
working. The youngest daughter, Jane, was 10 and still at
school. Jane Anderson née Spouse died in 1913. She was
only 53. Her sister Janet reported her death. James Anderson
survived until he was 73 although he had asthma for 20
years. He died on the 17th of October 1935.
54. William [Willie] Spouse, born 1824, the son of Robert
Spouse and Mary Robertson, was still alive in 1901 despite
all the odds. He had survived the ’81 disaster, the ailments
brought on by living in damp conditions and the dangers of
working in a hazardous industry. He is listed on the census
form as a retired fisherman. His unmarried daughter Alice
was living with him in the little house which only had one
window. His wife Elizabeth [Bessie] Martin had died at noon
on the 8th of April 1897. William and Bessie had been
married for 48 years and had 8 children. Robert Spouse, their
oldest son reported Bessie’s death and she was buried in
Mordington churchyard. William died on the 11th of January
1906. He was 82 and at the time of his death he was a pauper.
Dr Jeffrey from Ayton diagnosed general debility from old
age as the cause of death. Robert, William’s son, who was
living in Cowdrait, reported his death. William was buried
beside his wife in Mordington cemetery. Alice, their
daughter, stayed at Ross until she died in May 1919.
William Alexander Spouse, their younger son, moved to
Duns. He had a haulage contractors business, Spouse of Duns
[see photograph below].
William and Bessie’s daughter Elizabeth married William
McKay from Reston on the 12th of September 1890. William
was born in Hawick. He was a railway clerk. He and
Elizabeth lived at Houndwood near Reston when they were
first married. Ultimately William was a railway inspector and
they lived in the Station House Springfield, Cupar.
Ellen Spouse, William and Bessie’s oldest daughter never
married although she had a son, William. There is no trace of
her in the 1901 census. She lived until she was 78. She died
in July 1928. All her working life she had been described as
‘working in the fishing industry’ or ‘fish worker’. On her
death certificate are the words, Fisherwoman [Retired].
The photograph below on the right is Mary the daughter of
Abraham and Nellie Spouse. She died aged 4 years 10
months in 1925. She was buried in Ayton churchyard, [Ayton
Memorial Inscriptions no. 250 applies] not beside her parents
but with her grandparents and two of their children, one of
whom had died in infancy.
William Alexander Spouse
William’s son 1864-1931
Mary Paulin Spouse
William’s great granddaughter
There is an uninhabited house between schedules 54 and 55.
55 Susan Martin née Kerr died on 23 June 1900. Her sons,
William and George were both in the Ross house in 1901.
Susan’s nephew Thomas Martin who was 29 was still living
with his uncles. Elizabeth Lindores, Susan’s widowed daughter,
had come to live with her brothers in Ross too.
Finally the riddle of Thomas Martin above was solved. It was
not known who his parents were when he first appeared in this
household in the 1891 census. He was the son of Susan’s sister
Catherine Kerr and her husband James Martin. Thomas married
Margaret Anderson on 26/4/1901 at Burnmouth. The couple had
two children Maggie and Kate. Kate married John Johnston and
they became part of the Burnmouth community in Mallaig.
George died in 1914 and William in 1920. Neither had married.
Their sister Elizabeth moved back to Cowdrait where she died
in her son Thomas’s house at 2 Cowdrait in 1936.
56 There were 5 children in William Aitchison and Helen
Aitchison née Johnston’s house on the night of the census. The
oldest girl was Alice Johnston, who was Helen’s illegitimate
daughter. William and Helen’s daughters Elizabeth 11 and Jane
6 were at school. Their son Andrew was 4 and Catherine was a
baby. The couple had two more children; Janet born in 1902 and
James in 1905.
It is known what became of some of William and Helen’s
children.
Jane died in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in 1914.
Andrew married Margaret Spouse Johnston and moved to
Partanhall.
Catherine and Janet remained unmarried. Janet [Jenny] died in
Eyemouth in 2000.
James joined the police force and was Chief Inspector at
Haddington.
William Aitchison and Helen Johnston moved to 18 Cowdrait
where they died within a fortnight of each other in April 1952.
57 George Spouse did not marry and after his mother’s death he
would have been on his own if two of his nieces had not come
to live with him. Isabella and Alison Anderson were the
daughters of George’s sister Alice. Isabella was 23 and single.
She worked as a general servant outwith the home. Alison was
18. She probably acted as housekeeper to George. Like all the
Ross fishermen George was working on his own account. He
lived in Ross until he died in 1932 at the age of 83. When John
Spouse, his nephew, reported his death he didn’t know the
Christian name of George’s father and thought his mother,
Isabella Richardson’s, first name was Alison.
57 Elizabeth Kellie née Spouse died at the beginning of May
1896. Her son Robert and his wife Catherine Johnston took over
the running of the grocer’s shop. In 1901 they had four children,
Edward 8 and James 6 who were at school. Elizabeth was 3 and
Robert was 5 months. In subsequent years Robert and Catherine
had another four children. The first of these, Alice, was born in
1903. There follows a brief account of what became of Robert
and Catherine and their children after 1901.
Robert [see above] born 1901 died on the 12th of August 1905.
He fell over the brae on to the beach at the Big Bastle at Ross.
He suffered a fractured skull and other injuries. Although the
doctor was called and arrived before the child died there was
nothing he could do. Catherine must have been pregnant when
Robert was killed and she called the baby she had on October
the 20th 1905 Robert too. She had another two sons, Alexander
in 1908 and John in 1914.
Edward, the oldest son, went to Edinburgh University when he
left school. He worked as a teacher in Duns and eventually
became the headmaster of Eyemouth High School. He married
Margaret Turnbull who was also a teacher. He died in hospital
in Duns in 1936. Both he and his wife were buried in
Mordington cemetery.
James [Jimmy] Kellie was a fish merchant and married Agnes
Mary [Nan] Rae. They too are buried in Mordington cemetery.
Elizabeth married Robert Martin Fairbairn, the son of William
Fairbairn and Isabel Martin. Robert was a railway guard.
Alice remained unmarried and lived until she was 82.
Little is known about Robert Kellie except that he reported his
brother Edward’s death and at that time he was living in
Kirkliston.
Alexander [Sandy] married Isabella Fairbairn, Robert
Fairbairn’s sister. He became Manager of the Royal Bank in
Duns and died in 1996.
John who was a cooper died in 1975.
Robert Kellie senior died 10/10/1921 in Ross. During his life he
had been a fisherman and a grocer but at the time of his death he
was described as a fish merchant. The family had a fish curing
business while John, the youngest son, made the barrels. The
skill with which he performed this task was fascinating to
watch. Catherine Kellie née Johnston lived until she was 91. She
was buried in Mordington cemetery beside her sister in law,
Margaret Kellie. Her unmarried children John and Alice are
buried in the same plot [see Foulden and Mordington MIs].
58 James Anderson and Alison Anderson née Spouse still had
four of their family living at home in 1901. Their son Mark was
25 and a fisherman working on his own account. William was
15 and he did not appear to have a job nor was he listed as a
scholar. At the time of the 1901 census James and Alison had
two children of school age; Margaret who was 13 and James
who was 7.
Mark did not marry and died in Peel hospital in Galashiels in
1955 when he was 79.
Isabella, the oldest daughter, married William Martin, the son of
James Martin and Mary Harrington, on 27/9/1907.
Agnes Anderson, the second oldest daughter was married
twice. She married John Paterson, a fisherman from Eyemouth
in 1901. John was aboard the “Breadwinner” on the 9th of July
1908. At the entrance to Eyemouth harbour the sail swung
round and knocked him overboard. Both John’s death certificate
and the procurator fiscal’s report put his time of death at 10am.
His death was also recorded in the Return of Deaths at Sea,
reported to the Registrar-general of Shipping and Seamen under
the provision of the “Merchant Shipping Act, 1894”. The report
says John was “knocked overboard by the sail and drowned”.
His widow Agnes remarried on the 19th of November 1919 in
Edinburgh. Her new husband was John Spouse, son of John
Spouse and Isabella Anderson, grandson of William Spouse and
Isabella Richardson. Agnes died at number 1 Ross in 1954. Dr
Edgecombe certified her death which had been reported by John
Paterson, her son by her first marriage. John Spouse, her second
husband died in Reston in 1956.
James and Alice’s daughter Alice Anderson married Robert
Jeffrey in 1905. Robert was a mason from Bamburgh.
William did not get married until he was 31. He married Janet
Murray but died a couple of years later of meningitis.
It is not known what happened to Margaret or James.
James Anderson, senior, died in 1921. His wife Alison Spouse,
although she had asthma for 50 years, lived in Ross until she
was 87.
59 Elizabeth Aitchison maiden name Struthers, widow of Andrew
Spiers Aitchison, was a grocer by 1901. She was 60 and only one
of her children remained in the family home: Ellen who was 19
and still single. William was living a few doors away [see schedule
56].
Elizabeth’s son Andrew died when he was 18.
Alexander joined the navy in May 1896. His naval record can be
found in the National Archives. This record is of interest to the
family historian for reasons other than that of his naval career. It
gives a physical description so we can picture what he looked like.
Alexander was 5ft 9½ins tall. He had light auburn hair, blue eyes
and a fair complexion. He also had a Friendship tattoo on his right
forearm and a scar over his right eyebrow. He signed up for 12
years at the end of which time his hair is described as dark brown.
It is not known what happened to him when he left the Navy or
when he died.
Elizabeth’s daughter, Elizabeth Ann, married Alexander White in
1897. Alexander was a blacksmith from Ayton. He had been a
blacksmith’s apprentice at the age of 14. During the first world war
he was a Farrier Sergeant with the Army Service Corps. He was
based at Belton Park Grantham. Elizabeth Ann Anderson, his wife,
died of TB on the 9th November 1915 and was buried in Ayton
Churchyard beside her daughter Elizabeth who had died in infancy.
They had a son, Alexander born 1901 who survived. When
Alexander White senior died in Coldingham in 1938 he was a
master blacksmith. His son was living in Eyemouth at that time.
Elizabeth Aitchison [Struthers] had been born in England but lived
most of her life in Ross. She died there 12/5/1901.
60 Joseph Collin and his son were both working on their own
account according to the 1901 census although Joseph senior was
70. When he died in 1905 he was described as a pauper and the
cause of his death was senile decay. His son Joseph never married
and died in 1909 at the age of 56. His brother George reported his
death.
Alison Collin, Joseph and Isabella Paterson’s only surviving
daughter, married William Johnston Martin, son of Joseph Martin
and Margaret Johnston on the 2nd of October 1885. William was a
fisherman in Burnmouth. They had two children by 1901.
Margaret Collin Martin, born 11/8/1886 and Thomas Martin born
20/8/1888. Both children were born at Burnmouth. The family was
in Dennistoun in 1901 where William was a railway porter.
William died in Hartlepool in 1912. Alison died in 1949.
61 John MacKay, the tailor, was working on his own account from
home in 1901. His brother James was 36 and working on his own
account as a fisherman. Their nephew William, Isabella’s son, was
still living with his uncles. He was 22 and at the fishing too. There
is no further trace of James or William after 1901 but John died in
Ross in 1923.
62 Elizabeth Struthers [maiden name Chrystal] was 60 at the time
of the 1901 census. She lived until she was 83 then died of old age.
She and William Struthers had 8 children. John, Isabella [Bella]
and Margaret [Maggie] were in the house on the night of the
census.
Their son William was lost on Black Friday.
John remained single and lived in Ross until his death in 1941.
Elizabeth married John Aitchison, son of John Aitchison and Helen
Spouse. Their son John Aitchison was in his grandmother’s house
at Ross on the night of the census.
Margaret born 1870 died when she was 3.
Helen married Alexander Anderson, son of James Anderson and
Margaret Lindores.
Isabella married Alexander Wilson, son of James Wilson and
Catherine Anderson.
Thomas married Lily Martin daughter of William Martin and
Margaret Aitchison.
It is not known what became of Maggie, born 1880.
There was another uninhabited house at the end of the village in
1901.
Opposite is a photo of the uninhabited
houses in Ross. By the 1960s most of the
cottages had been demolished and the ones
that remained were use by fishermen to store
and mend gear.
The young people of Ross found husbands
and wives in the hamlets of Cowdrait,
Burnmouth and Partanhall and sometimes
further afield. Their ancestors can be traced
back to Ross and in some cases even further back to Coldingham,
Eyemouth and other Berwickshire towns and villages.
This picture of Ross appears
elsewhere on this web site.
Some of the houses of Ross
can be seen in the
background with smoke
billowing
from
the
chimneys. The fisherman in
the foreground is James
Johnston, who lived in
Cowdrait. Helen, one of his
daughters, married William
Aitchison and was living in
Ross at the time of the 1901
census. Another of his daughters, Catherine, ran the grocer’s shop
and was married to Robert Kelly. There is another photograph of
Ross on the home page.
An attempt has been made to trace some of the descendants of the
original inhabitants of Ross. Although most of the information in
this account has been gleaned from census records there are also
details from birth, marriage and death certificates. Burial records
have also been used. A few wills have been found, one naval
record but very few photographs. If anyone has photos of Ross or
any members of the families who lived there these would be
greatly appreciated. It may have been noticed that there is more
likely to be a record of female pet names. Males, whether as grown
ups or children, have their Christian names written out in full.
Women and girls are recorded as Maggie and Bessie, the names
given to them by their families to differentiate them from Meg and
Betty next door. To compensate there are more photographs of the
men and there is more information about their occupations.
However nothing can replace the memories their descendants have
of them so if you are fall into that category let’s hear from you.