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 stroie high and in good repair.
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| 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.
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| 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 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.
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| 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.
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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
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| 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.
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| 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!
