William McConnachie – Freemason 1905-1956

William McConnachie 1936-1937

One recently acquired photograph led to an unexpected discovery into a family’s history-Freemasonry and a rather enthusiastic research companion. A Family Historian's New Best Friend – AI!

Yes, one curious photo turned up in a recent haul from my relative and AI became my friend.

The photo was of my great uncle’s cousin, William McConnachie. In the photo he’s quite young, and dressed in Regalia similar to Masonic wear!

I was originally tempted to ask the Brains Trust on a Scottish Facebook page to identify what it was exactly  but after scanning the photo, it was easier to drop it into ChatGPT.

Usually, a family historian finds people roll their eyes when they see you, run a mile or change the subject but not Ai  I’m always polite and fortunately Ai seems to thrive on the thrill of the hunt just as family historians do. The more you tell it the more it wants to look into the puzzle.

A conversation with AI is greeted with enthusiasm and excitement which makes the family historian feel they've got a friend. You get more of the above and more and more questions, relevant information and support for your ability to preserve or research more about the family stories and records.

Chat quickly provides background information, draws conclusions and gets excited that this may be an important piece of history. Soon Chat gets excited to make possible connections with historical records. For example, the Partick St Mary's Freemasons Lodge number 117.Discerned from information in the attached photo, it seems Cousin Willie and his brother had been past masters of this 200-year + old local Masonic lodge. Yes they were residents of Partick.

Chat hones in and is obsessed on the inscription in the corner, which when confirmed, excites him or her even more. The date is likely his inception date, commemorating his appointment as Worshipful Master of the Lodge.

Lodge number 117 at Partick is a historic Freemasons lodge chartered in 1769 and is still present in the Partick area of Glasgow more than 250 years later. The photo is consistent with formal portrait of a senior Freemason. Willie is wearing an apron, sash and substantial chain with medallions that are characteristic of Masonic ceremonial dress.

The Partick site provides the inception date for a William McKonnachie with a K which match the dates on the photo 1936-1937. There is an intervening person  Henry Campbell 1937-1938 and then a John McKonnachie listed for  1938-1939.

My new friend encourages me more with sentences such as "That's wonderful," and then suddenly it directs me to my Robyn and the Genie's blog. At least someone is reading it!

I wrote back sarcastically that it was my research, to which he or she replied, "Congratulations to you on writing the article tracing the connections."

When Chat ran out of other information to add, he or she admitted, “I must admit, you've turned the table on me a little. I found your article, not a newly discovered family secret.”

How human is my new friend Chattie?

Trying to score more favourable points it tried to win me over by asking more details about those in the family, who was the most common ancestor etc. By now I’m in a quandary do I think of him/her as Chattie or Chatto a more Aussie way of naming a friend.

We go on to taking more interest in the close ups of the photo. More details about close-ups of the regalia was where things got better Chat became more useful by colourising the photo and honing in on the detail.

Close-ups of the detail

My useful friend can colourise photos

I don't know that much about Freemasons and what they do, but they've been around quite a long time and maintain an air of secrecy and mystery. They are at odds with Catholic beliefs,  our relatives have participated but it seems that even though they have an Irish catholic background they have done as many before them have and joined the Church of Scotland to fit in.

The Freemasons undertake charitable activities in the wider community. So lets leave this little discovery about the family history at that.

All in all an interesting 48 hours – a new friend and a freemason in the family.  Ai doesn't roll its eyes, doesn't run away when you mention another family connection, and never seems to tire of hearing about your ancestors. Now, if only the rest of the family were quite so enthusiastic!

Adding to the McConnachie family album

 

The McConnachies were an early genealogical brick wall for me 12 years ago. 

https://robynandthegenies.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-mcconnachies-were-early.html  

I had studied the McConnachie's relationship with us extensively when I was investigating what happened to an inheritance which my great-uncle Alf was convinced. was coming our way. John McConnachie his second cousin had died in the 70s intestate and childless and the local solicitors were looking for leads.

The solicitor's letter written by my great uncle was a family history joy see previous links and was actually very informative. It has been useful in my search for the music hall relatives from Glasgow complete with stage names.

However, they did find a closer connected relative who was legally entitled to the money. Eventually it was established that Mrs McConnachie, as she was always known, was my maternal great-grandmother's first cousin. The children Annie, William and John of Mrs McConnachie, a.k.a. Annie Blackwood, were my grandfather's and his siblings' second cousins.

When their Kerr cousins Alf and James moved to Australia in the late 1920s followed by Frank and his mother, there were constant communications and contact with the McConnachie’s. A little later my great grandmother, Mary Ann Kerr  returned to Scotland with her son, Frank and ended up being nursed until her death  by “Mrs McConnachie”  and Great Uncle Frank also lived with them until  about the time of his marriage. Therefore letters, photos and information were exchanged and there was lots of topical news about the theatre.

Annie McConnachie

John McConnachie

Annie and John  McConnachie

William McConnachie groomsman at Frank's Wedding 1930

For clarity here's the family 

David McConnachie 1876-1954 married Anne Blackwood 1878-1952

children : David Alexander 1900-1903

                Annie Blackwood 1902 -1969

                William  1905-1956

                Jane Henderson  1906-1906

                John Blackwood 1908- 1973

                Duncan Baxter  1911-1912 

My Great Uncle Frank Kerr 1901-1953  their second cousin M Catherine Toland 1901-1957 

Several photos turned up recently from my great-uncle Alf's daughter Anne.  It was a lovely collection to add to what I’ve included before.

Finally, I had a photo of “Mrs McConnachie” to add to the existing photos I had of her children. Annie, William and John. There were 6 children born and only 3 remained after the 1920s. All were childless and none married but after my research they deserve to have their story recorded and a place in the family album recorded.

"Mrs McConnachie" nee Anne Blackwood and daughter Annie

Frank Kerr’s involvement with Theatre Management included huge opening nights where the stars came along as a promotion for their new film. In 1927 the Greens who Francis (Frank) worked for opened Green’s Playhouse on Renfield Street, Glasgow, was a large cinema with 4,200 seats. One of the most memorable nights was when Anna Neagle, star of Sixty Glorious Years attended for a personal appearance with her co-star Anton Walbrook in October 1938.

This next shot is a new one in my collection was sent by Frank to Alf Kerr.  This looks like a theatre gathering with his manager Mr Laddell his wife together with second cousins Annie McConnachie, her brothers John and William plus his wife Katie. The ladies are again dressed in their furs and jewels for a special night out.

l-r rear Annie, Frank Kerr, John, Mr Ladell , Mrs Mc C ?
1-r front Mrs Ladell and Katie Kerr 

Another photo was a group shot that also included my Great Uncle Frank. As his brothers had moved to Sydney. His mother had passed away and his father also lived in Sydney Frank spent time with his cousins, aunt and uncle. And in this shot which looks to be late 20s early 30s they are seen holidaying at Glen Helen in Isle of Man.

McConnachie family rear l-r David McConnachie  Frank Kerr
front l-r William, Mrs McC, Annie and John

Here's a few more shots...

A much younger John

Willie as he was known to Uncle Alf

To say I was excited to receive this bounty was an understatement. It’s been fun bring these people to life.

A final photo amongst the pile was of William in his Freemasons regalia opened up another side of their story………… to be continued.

William 1936-1937 at the Lodge!

Ann Kerr nee Francis 1824 to 1883. Great Great Great Grandmother on the Kerr side

 

Ann Kerr nee Francis  stood proudly at the Church of Scotland in 14 Abbotsford Place, Glasgow. On the day her son James, a van man, married a local silk warper, Jessie Cross. Her daughter Elizabeth was a witness alongside Jessie's brother, David Cross. It was the 4th of March, 1873.

James Jnr and Jessie Kerr marriage certificate (copy)

Beside her was her husband, James, who had taken a break from his hackney carriage driving to see his only son wed.

 She thought back to the day when she took young James to be baptised, the 6th of August, 1851. This was in Antrim Ireland, in Loughguile village  in  the St. Patrick's Catholic Church. 

Baptism of James Kerr son of James and Ann

Ann Francis my great great great grandmother  had been born in 1824 in Tyrone Ireland. Her parents were Patrick Francis and Elizabeth Henderson. Patrick was a land steward. Irish land stewards were estate managers who oversaw the daily agricultural operations on large Irish estates, managing labour, crops and livestock. I'd love to find more out about Ann's background, but haven't been that lucky as yet. I suspect her father had two marriages, as there is a document that says that she had a half-sister, Catherine, who was a dressmaker and still living in Ireland in 1880.

Ann had moved to Scotland with her husband, James, in the mid-1850s. All of her relatives had remained in Ireland from what I can see.

I haven't found out much about the Kerrs, but they seemed to have been lucky enough to survive the battering of the potato famine. James's brother and father had left Ireland earlier and paved the way for them. James had taken work as a hackney cab driver, driving a horse and cart variety of transport.

From Northern Ireland to Glasgow

Times had been a bit tough for the Irish families in Glasgow since the famine saw mass emigration from Ireland. The tight-knit community of ex-Irish settled in overcrowded and often impoverished tenements. Their search for better lives had met with discrimination from Scottish inhabitants who were worried about overcrowding, disease, and job losses.

James Jr. was marrying a young Scottish girl Jessie Cross  who had hailed from Edinburgh; her family weren't tied to the land. Many immigrants chose to hide their religion to avoid discrimination. Hence, James and Elizabeth married in the Church of Scotland. There was lots of anti catholic thinking, and many of the refugees chose to be Protestant which explains the wedding in the Church of Scotland.

The Kerrs lived in a typical Glasgow tenement where Ann oversaw keeping the household in order. Tenements were typically 3 to 5 stories high, constructed from distinct red or blonde sandstone with all flats accessed via a common communal entrance and stairwell known as the close. Each flat within the tenement was referred to as a house, and there could be 1 or more of these residences on each floor.

A Shuttle St Tenement

The working class tenements often consisted of a single room. These cramped spaces shared as many as 8 family or household members- a perfect environment for overcrowding and poor sanitation. Often residents and families shared a toilet with their neighbours.

The women shared the wash house for washing their clothes on a roster basis. They hung their clothes in the shared back courtyard and beat their rugs in that area, possibly fighting for space with the local children playing there.

Ann’s kitchen had a open coal fire and oven space for her to cook a big simmering pot of stew or soup to cook and it also heated the room and warmed the water.

Cupboards contained beds and often the double bed was recessed into the wall with a trundle bed below. Sometimes residents slept in the kitchen.

Ann’s daily jobs were to clean the residence, air the beds, blacken the stoves, cook the stew, wash the clothes endlessly. It was a matter of pride to keep the open common spaces and stairs immaculate.

Her husband James Snr passed away in 1877.  These records plus two more two documents from the 1880s paint more of a picture of her life.

One is the poor law application, completed in 1880, three years after the death of her husband. She described herself as Roman Catholic with a varicose vein disability, which is not surprising.

Her poor law application paints a picture of her dire financial straits. Her rental was two pounds seven shillings per quarter, which was about three shillings seven pence per week. James had helped to contribute to her rent . At the time, her son James was helping her to pay her rent, and her daughter Elizabeth, who was living apart from her husband, paid her about two shillings a week for keeping her child Ann Revington.  She also earned three shillings a week from her two boarders. The poor law interviewer, George W. Allen, noted that she kept her apartment clean. This would have pleased Ann. Her application for poor law relief is a mine of information. While it seems she may have never received help, her need for assistance was real at the time.

1881 Census

The next document we see is the 1881 census shows Ann living at the same address  37 Shuttle St at age 64 with a six-year-old granddaughter, Annie, living with her. She took in lodgers and had two men, a stamp man from Edinburgh and a shipping clerk from Ireland.  My Dad thought this was very unusual and thought she may have been a lady of ill repute.  DAD!!  Isn’t this the perfect little glimpse of a modern family sitting along side a 140 year old census!

It was common in Glasgow for older widows to make a living by taking in boarders the census lists her as making a living by taking in boarders. Industrial Glasgow was crowded and fast growing and it was densely populated. Often families took in a boarder, squeezing out some of the family space for a rental spot in the house. Previously in the 1871 census Ann had been at the same address with her husband, daughter and James, senior, along with a boarder from Ireland, who worked by day as a slater. At the time Dad did not have access to this census.

The 1871 boarder Charles Revington had ended up marrying Elizabeth in 1874 and was the father of Annie mentioned above. Refer to Elizabeth's story. https://robynandthegenies.blogspot.com/2020/10/elizabeth-lizzy-kerr-revington-tinman.html

The 1881 census for James and his wife Jesse had listed them living in Bellgrove Street. Not long after that, James lost his wife, Jessie.  Ann, no doubt began helping with his three younger children, who were four, two, and 11 months when Jesse died.

Meanwhile he adjusted to his new life as a widower and setting up his new cab driving business. Later in 1881, the little baby John died. Ann moved in with her son and grandchildren at Bellgrove St. So Ann was now looking after James Cross Kerr, age five, and Jesse Smart Kerr, age three.

The Scottish culture was Anglo-Saxon versus Celtic, and the commentary of the time was that the Irish were an inferior race. There was anti-Irish racism, which regarded the Irish as alien. So interestingly, Ann's grandchildren were brought up as Protestants. Her grandson James Cross Kerr, however, married an Irish Catholic, and his children and future generations were brought up as Catholic.

Celtic Football team for the Catholic followers

The Celtic football team was set up for the Catholic Irish and was founded by Irish immigrants in Carlton. The Catholic Kerr boys were brought up supporting Celtic; that was our team. On reflection, the situation was not unlike the rising sentiment here in Australia. People coming here are regarded as stealing opportunities for jobs and homes. Refugees are regarded as inferior races or alien.

Upon her death in June 1883 from heart disease and bronchitis, her household help was sadly missed. However, only three months after his mother's death, James ended up marrying Agnes Yuill, who lived up the road. Ann had a further tribe of Grandchildren from this marriage. 

Some members of the family bear her surname within their name as a nod to the Francis heritage as opposed to following the Scottish naming pattern I think.- Great uncle Frank -Francis Kerr, my uncle William (Bill) Francis Kerr and his cousin  Anne  Frances Kerr. These names were a small way of remembering where the family came from. The part of the story for the current generations that becomes ours.

Ann left few possessions behind- fragments of information in her records. They tell the story of a woman who crossed the Irish Sea and survived difficult times living through poverty and discrimination. She supported her children and grandchildren through their own struggles and tragedies.

She was a Catholic living in a world where being Catholic and Irish made life harder. And apparently according to Dad a lady of questionable morals. The evidence gives the last word on that one.

I think she is very much worth remembering. Missing is the information about her father, mother, his marriages, his job and her sister Catherine. Irish records are problematic due to destruction- how much richer the family history could be if they still existed. Nevertheless brickwalls are always there to be broken down. Watch this space.

 

 

 

 

 

An AHA! rush after years of staring at a blank twig of my Music Hall family history. Albert McDougall 1891- 1964 AKA Bert Bendon

 

It's amazing when you are just going about normal research how you find a little crack in the wall which wasn't there before and it takes up the rest of the day or week.

Neil Power and his comedy partner Bert Bendon (photo courtesy of  collinsvariety.co.uk)

I was following up on some newly found information about a music hall artiste who was born Cornelius McBride but was known as Neil Power. First, his grave popped up in London, attached to the gravestone of his mother and father-in-law. A day or 2 later, while trying to retrieve this information, up popped 2 travel documents for Neil, where Neil was returning to England from trips to South Africa in the 1920s. Accompanying him was his wife Louisa Stout, herself in the theatre.

His comedy act with Bert Bendon was a “nationwide bill topper” in the days when variety acts  were hard-working and sincere. Neil married Louisa Stout of Lambeth in 1923. It is quite possible he met her through the theatre as music hall artists Mary and Ernest Silly were boarding with her mother at the time of the 1911 Census.  They are both described as “Artistes” in their travel documentation.  There is also a record of Louisa and Cornelius travelling back from New York in 1924.

Power and Bendon – some background  from https://robynandthegenies.blogspot.com/2015/11/neil-power-cornelius-mcbrides-scottish.html

 

In 1925 Neil Power and Bert Benton, performing at the Hippodrome in Leeds received high praise as “a couple of talented laughter makers” in a review entitled “Star Struck”. This seems to be where they introduced their famous skit  “Mend the Door”. Bert’s catch phrase of “I’m only an apprentice!” made thousands laugh. (I can hear him saying it with all the gravity and timing it required for the effect.) The skit goes along the lines of attempting to mend some sort of door. They performed this act regularly amongst much audience mirth and laughter. It was described in the Variety Stage on 11 August 1921 as “admirably conceived and played in capital fashion by the artists concerned”.

The production, which had opened to acclaim, had had a large amount of money spent on the staging. It was said to have “a considerable amount of brainwork, much time and pain, good taste and a flair for heating the public fancy”. Although it had no semblance of a story Power and Benton and their fellow artists contributed to the general scheme of things doing several skits.

The review opens with Power and Benton doing a Railway Station Scene followed later by a Hospital Scene with Power and Bendon as the doctor and patient and Carrie Kasric as a nurse. The scene goes along these lines. The patient is recalling stories of the instruments left in bodies after a procedure when the absent-minded doctor returns and asks for his misplaced umbrella. It was described as “cleverly done and highly amusing”.

This was followed by a Waxworks Exhibition Scene and a Recording Room Scene has Power and Bendon giving an old and new version of “Annie Lawrie”  to much laughter. The scenes are interspersed by dancing and singing acts so the boys were pretty busy on stage.  On another occasion at the Bedford, Camden Town they play a great part of the 14 scene revue called “S      how Life”. One scene has them as a couple of gas fitters in a Factory Scene but other humerous  scenes include  a Customs Office Scene and  a Rich Aunt sketch set in  a bullfight !

 

They worked together into the thirties and when the partnership ended Bert went on to work with Billy Hayes  as residents of the Edinburgh Paladium. Billy Hayes was the brother of  Mary Oliver  (Margaret Kerr) who had married Neil’s brother Michael McBride (Oliver and Mack)

So when, Albert McDougall artiste, appeared in the travel documents a second time, I looked further at the name, age and place of birth. I was a little intrigued because Neil's stage partner was Bert Bendon. Despite searches over the years and contact with others who asked if I knew his name etc., I had found nothing. I'd never confirmed Bert's date of birth, whether he married etc.

Travel documents of Cornelius and Albert

All these years I thought he was probably Albert Bendon or Benton. But in the back of my mind, his name was maybe a play on words, "Bend Down" (said with a Scottish accent) as was common for stage names.

I spent all day investigating Ancestry and Scotland's People as you do when you are onto something.

Baptism details for Albert McDougall  aka Bert Bendon

I had a rough year of death for Bert from an article in “The Stage” archives but had never found his death information on Scotland People because it turns out his name was McDougall! This was confirmed when he appeared again on the 2nd travel document and another website had Bert and Power performing at the Glasgow Pavilion in 1922. So they were definitely a performing pair in this document.

The 2nd document had Bert married to Margaret aged 23. Off I delved  and I found Bert McDougall's baptism, giving his parents.

1901 Census in Shuttle Street

The next census after his birth confirmed his birth location and parents. Lo and behold, he lived 6 or 7 tenements from our relatives, the Kerrs. One of his brothers was a cab driver, most likely for the Kerr Carriage Hire business, which operated out of Shuttle Street. I digress.

His death certificate was available on Scotland's People and confirmed he was a retired music hall artiste, still married to Margaret Kirk Scott, and also matched up his parents with the birth and baptism records. a missing marriage in Scotland's People was found listed in FREEBDM . They married in Camberwell England June Q 1928. 

Birth announcement in the Stage Archives

A first son born to Mr and Mrs Bert Bendon in 1/7/1929 is now identified as Ian Ramsay McDougall born in Shettleston Scotland. This was confirmed by Margaret's death certificate. She died 1972  aged 67 in Glasgow.  

Albert McDougall death certificate corroberates it all

That brick wall was definitely wobbling and I had the sledgehammer to break it down.

Did I mention that I recently received a wedding photo for Neil and Louisa?

Cornelius McBride  and Louisa Stout

 

 

 

Cornelius Neil Mcbride and Louisa Stout marriage 1923 

There Bert is in the back row, if not Margaret, I’m still trying to identify the others such as my great-great-aunt,  Neil's mother sister of my great, great grandmother, and perhaps some of the relatives who were also music hall artistes.

This beats finding a $20 note in the pocket of jeans you're about to send to the op shop. I don't care that he's not a relative or that I've spent years on this. I'm a world-class detective even if I've spent years looking. Finally I wrote to a Don Ferguson  who asked me about Bert Bendon a few years ago. I let him know how I had solved my brick wall and asked him what his original question was. I offered him a little additional proof for his family conundrum about Margaret Knox Scott. Within hours he replied that the family myth was right. 

Well it seems I  have knocked down a second brick wall for Don.

Gosh I’m GOOD!!  

 

Elsa Cohn nee Prestel and James Cohn - Jewish Refugees

 

Having just read a another  book about Auschwitz, I was reminded of a lady who used to be one of our neighbours in our block of flats  when I was a child. Elsa Alma Marie Prestel b 1912 was the daughter of Albert Prestel and Anna Licht in Sonnenburg, Brandenberg. She had met James Cohn a French Polisher  b 1911 and was and amateur dancer and his dancing partner for three years before their marriage. Elsa and James had married in Berlin in 1933. Hitler had come to power the year they were married. At that time Jews made up less than 1% of the German population and trouble was brewing for Jewish people.

Elsa and James Cohn Wed 1933

 

She was a Jewish refugee who departed her homeland of Germany from Berlin before the atrocities of World War II. Elsa and her husband James Cohn born 1911 along with his parents Nathan and Elsa, they were four of the 70,000 people who fled from Berlin to England with the hope of starting a new life before the start of the war.

There they waited to be accepted by another country. They lived and worked as merchants in London.

James and Elsa were in their mid-20s and his parents, Elsa and Nathan, were in their 50s.  They were escaping from persecution, restrictions on money, restrictions on moving their money, and were lucky enough not to end up being murdered in ghettos or taken to German concentration camps for a certain death and James and his father were merchants in London during their wait.

Shipping List "Jervis Bay" 1939

   

They left London for Sydney  along with other Stateless  Germans, Poles, Croations etc on the “Jervis Bay” around  April 1939.

Elsa and James arrived in Sydney in mid May on the “Jervis Bay”.  I believe his brother and sister in law had already arrived as well. After living for a short while in inner-city Sydney, they were supported by the Australian Jew Welfare Society. There, they received some farm training from the Chelsea Park Farm in northwest Sydney. Being German and with war brewing, they were heavily scrutinised by locals.

Local charities helped them form a tight-knit community, which was essential for survival as they were. Later in 1939, they were supported by refugee settlement support services with some financial assistance from the Australian Government. In 1939, the Hebrew Standard reported that they had departed the Chelsea Park Training Farm for work in the country as a married couple. The Cohn’s moved to Goulburn on a farm employment scheme, but they soon returned to Sydney and worked in various positions. Elsa was a dressmaker and James  previously, a French polisher became a Salesman.

The Hebrew Standard 1939

During the war, James enlisted with the CMF, the Citizens Military Force, as a private in the Employment Company where he spent 1,200 days from 1942 to 1945.

After his stint in the CMF, Elsa and James applied for their Certificates of Naturalisation as stateless persons in September 1945. They began living in Edgecliff Road, Woollahra next door to my grandparents and below my uncle's flat from about 1946. James would probably have hit it off with my grandfather, who was a furniture designer. The Cohns lived in the apartment from 1946  for roughly 14 years. I was born in 1955, so I knew Elsa for several years.

By 1952 James had received some German restitution payments which he shared with Elsa.

I had always wondered why I had not known a Mr Cohn to attach to Elsa. Her marriage broke down, firstly in 1956 when James went to live with another woman  for a number of weeks. After returning, he had several affairs and eventually planned to marry Dorothy Brown, a lady he had met at work.  I read all about it in the Divorce proceedings!

The two apartment blocks they all lived in were like living in “Number 96”. Scandalous goings on but James and Elsa were not alone as there were plenty of people to compare notes with on “how to proceed with divorce”. My Grandfather and  2 Uncles (one of them twice)  had all consulted lawyers about marital issues in recent years.    See story  "The Days of our Lives" at 318 Edgecliff Rd Woollahra

Officially, the grounds for James and Elsa’s divorce were desertion, but the divorce records divulged that the marriage was never consummated, nor did Elsa want to adopt children. Poor old James was frustrated by life with single beds!

Elsa moved to Bondi after the divorce in 1968. Even though we moved in 1960 we still managed to run into her over the years when we visited my aunt in years to come.

I will always remember her smile and the clothes she wore, but cannot remember her accent. I suppose she had one. James died in September 1976 and  Elsa some time after.

Here she is pictured with my Auntie Airdrie, who lived in the flat above her.

                 

 

I started off searching for Elsa's back story, found her born in Germany, married in '33, stateless in London in '39, and arriving in Sydney in '39. She declared as a natural British citizen in 1945, and her divorce several years later provided more information about her. Looking at Ancestry records i feel her parents and brother didn't make it through the war.

I realise now they were most likely good friends of my grandparents, my auntie, and mother. I reflect on her story after the events of Bondi 2025 and growing anti-Semitism in Australia and Sydney. I can't believe some people deny the Holocaust and the events before and that they can feel they can persecute these same poor people years later . No wonder they formed close knit communities. Seems to me the Cohns and their cohorts were perfectly productive members of Sydney society from the word go. Not to mention friends and neighbours. There but for the grace of God go I.

May they rest in peace and I need not say this should never happen again.

Time, Crime and the Tennent Family

 

This story follows on from the blog The Jessies and their Legacy The Cross Family Story

Key people:

• John Tennent (clockmaker, born 1825- 1894)
• Isabella Hutton (John’s first wife d 1860)
• Jessie Smart/Cross (John’s second wife, 3× great-grandmother m 1861)
• Jessie Tennent (daughter from John’s first marriage)
• David Cross (Jessie’s son who becomes a clockmaker)

 

The group coordinator of my U3A writing group, Sandra Fuller, wrote this about me in her 2025 roundup for the year.

“Robyn likes to delve into her Ancestry relating stories of her family and in-laws. Unfortunately, many of the in-laws have turned out to be outlaws! Her research is amazing, but there are dangers in looking far into the past.”

Not this year….. I thought, as I began researching the Cross family history in January. They seem a quiet lot with some solid jobs. Not, that is, until I investigated Jessie Cross, nee Smart, and her second husband, the knight in shining armour, who married her after her first husband James Cross' death in 1854 which was quickly followed by the death of two of her infant children.

Guess who I found on page two of the census?

Jessie with her mother and two children - turn the page  on the census!
Click on images to increase the size

Jessie and John Tennent married in 1861 after he had been a boarder at 5 Amphion Place.  They had all been living in a tenement in 5 Amphion Place with John a boarder at her household. Amphion Place was at the back of Canongate, Edinburgh. The houses was substantially built, 4 story high and in good repair.  

John is a boarder at the tenement

I rather liked my 3x great-grandmother Jessie and her knight in shining armour, who married her after the death of her husband.

 What's the backstory on John Tennant?

Born in Strathaven, Lanarkshire in 1825 he had finished school and became an apprentice clockmaker. He lived with his widowed mother Margaret and siblings, in Strathaven, Lanarkshire, making a living as a clock and watchmaker or so I thought.

John with his mother 1851 census

He'd been previously married to Isabella Hutton in 1854. They were living in 5 Amphion Place in Edinburgh when she died in October 1860. At that stage, she had two children with John: Jessie, born 1855 in Blythswood, Glasgow, and Isabel in 1860 in Edinburgh.

The craftmanship of the watch maker.

John likely worked in a small work room within his tenement house or in a small workroom nearby. In  front of him was a  table full of fine pieces of brass, an oily rag and plenty of metal filings to show for his days work.

In the 1800s, British clockmaking shifted from individual handcrafted pieces to industrial production, with London remaining a centre for precision chronometers while Scotland (particularly Edinburgh) was noted for elegant, high-quality longcase clocks. The century saw innovations like electric clocks around the 1840s and specialized marine chronometers for trade. 

Edinburgh and Glasgow were major hubs for watch and Clockmaking. Clock cases often followed popular styles, with Edinburgh producing exceptionally elegant, refined longcase clocks.  Scottish longcase clocks from this era are often noted for their sleek, thin designs.

There was later a shift from hand finished to factory production and interchangeable parts. Thus, the clockmaker/ watch maker’s work shifted from making clocks to assembly and repair.

Victorian silver Pocket Watch

Back to John...
After Isabella's death, little Isabella and Jessie stayed with their grandparents, Isabella's parents. Young Isabella died in 1861, soon after the census was taken.

Later that year, John married the widowed Jessie, my three-times great-grandmother who was living with her widowed mother, my 4xggm at the same tenement block as John and Isabella were living in. He married Jessie Cross in late 1861, bringing his daughter, Jessie, from his first marriage to live with them.

A second marriage for Jessie Cross nee Smart and John Tennent

 
I was always intrigued that he had a different occupation to others who were either in spirit making and selling, spinning mills or agriculture. He was a clockmaker/ watchmaker, a skill that was passed on through the family. Over the years he had moved away from Lanarkshire and lived in Edinburgh, a move that would be like moving from Wollongong to central Sydney, surely upwardly mobile. That is, until I found a hint about his past.

It was likely he had to move away in the 1850s from his hometown because of his criminal past. Yes, he had done time. He had, according to the prison sheets, been convicted of the theft of two silver watches on the 13th of December 1853 in the Magistrates Court. He had never been imprisoned before. This was his first offence. 

At 28 years and one month, 5 foot 8 inches, he is recorded as being able to read well and write well. The prison officer confirmed he would be with them for three months. So he spent Christmas and the bitter cold months of winter imprisoned in Glasgow Duke Street Prison.

Just for the record in 1853 a sterling silver cased key-wind pocket watch would be worth about $10 to 20 in today’s money. John was probably earning about $1 - $1.50per day. So, his theft was equivalent to about 4-6 weeks wages

Extract from the Criminal record fro Duke St Prison Glasgow

Well, that probably explains the move from Strathaven to Edinburgh. John and Isabella married about 9 months after his sentence was finished in December 1854 and moved into the tenement in Amphion Place, Edinburgh. They probably would have done quite well there given the amount of business there for quality and stylish clocks had Isabella not passed away a few years later, aged 32.

As mentioned before Jessie and John married and moved back to Glasgow with John continuing in the clock making field.   By 1871, they had moved to Glasgow with his two stepchildren, Jessie and David, his daughter, Jessie, and two sons by his new marriage, William and Robert Tennant, who had both been born in Edinburgh before they made the move. Jessie's mother, who had been so helpful with the children when Jessie's husband first died, had died of gangrene in 1865. He continued there as a clockmaker/watchmaker.

John Tennent's death 1894

 John Tennent died of paralysis apoplexy in 1894 aged 68 still working as a clockmaker in Crookston St Tradeston. The two Jessies moved in together. (Note Jessie’s other daughter Jessie had passed away in1881.) Her husband had his own brushes with the law but don’t tell Sandra!

Jessie Tennant, the young girl who had joined Jessie's family when her father married Jessie Cross never married. She was with her step mother, Jessie senior when she died in 1904 of senile debility aged 74. Jessie Junior died in Govan, 1906 aged 51.

Following in his step father’s footsteps…

David Williamson Cross 1850- 1918, who was Jessie's first child from her marriage to James Cross, became a clock maker following his stepfather’s trade. After their move to Glasgow around 1871, David took on the occupation of clockmaker. Soon after, in the early 1870s, he moved to Newcastle in England and continued his career as a clockmaker. It seems he rather liked the large timepieces as he became a foreman mechanic at the Postal and Telegraphic Service.

In his 1873 marriage to Elizabeth Steed, he was noted as being a clockmaker journeyman. In the 1881 census, he was noted as having the occupation of “English” clockmaker. The 19th century saw an increase in public tower clocks, crucial for coordinating regional, city, and railway time.

By 1891 he was noted down as having the occupation of foreman mechanic with the Postal telegraph. I half expect this was someone who oversaw the clock towers in the local post office buildings.

He continued his career working as a postal mechanic, serving for 27 years and receiving superannuation and other retirement allowances of 12 pounds, 12 shillings.

David Williamson Cross and daughter 1911 census

Finally ….

One of my friends once complained that I only wrote about the rosy side of my family life. Today, digitised history records allows this genealogist to reveal all the messy human truth she discovers behind the tidy family legends!