I was once sent a remarkable little booklet telling the lifestory of Blantyre man, Malcolm Dow, who was born in 1915. Written in his own words, I have transcribed some of it into a few articles here. Courtesy of Hamish (James) Dow his son. What follows is an excellent piece of social history.
Malcolm wrote, “My paternal great grandfather was born at the time that the “Little Corporal” from Corsica was ravaging Europe and eventually conquered all until he met with his “Waterloo”.
So far as I know, my great grandfather was a crofter or dairyman until he died at the age of fifty five somewhere in Lanarkshire. I have no knowledge of his wife, but know that he had at least one of a family, my grandfather, Malcolm who was born in Lanarkshire in 1856 and died at Blantyre in 1936. He married my grandmother, Maggie Brown, in the Parish of Glassford in 1884 and my father, Daniel, was born at the Burn Farm, Chapleton on November, 1886.
While my grandfather was dairyman at that farm, two years later my grandmother died giving birth to my aunt Jessie. Thereafter my grandfather moved to High Blantyre with his son and daughter and started business in the Causeystanes dairy. He took on several workers to help run the dairying and married one Mary McLaughlan from the Carluke area. They had eight sons and one daughter thus having a total of eleven children in the family. Only one son now remains alive.
My maternal great grandfather, Robert McCormick, was born in Kirkcudbrightshire around the start of the nineteenth century. He married my great grandmother was born in 1855. Great grandfather died in 1860 and his wife several years later.
William McCormick married my grandmother, Jane Kirk at Tongueland, Kirkcudbright in 1888 and they had five sons and five daughters including my mother Mary born on 9th June 1893.
Jane Kirk’s father was John of Tongueland, a farrier and blacksmith. His wife, Mary, survived him and died at Dumfries in (1936) at the age of 101.”
Continued on part 2 soon.
Attached is a suitable illustration of Kirkcudbrightshire at Tongueland with cottages, farmland, and a blacksmith’s forge.
Will greatly look forward to further ‘episodes’ as I am sure Malcolm Dow was well known in Blantyre when I was a boy; my father could well have known him personally.
Thanks for this.
John McArthur