Friday 1 November 2013

Andrew Scott and family

 I'm ticking off the gravestones I haven't recorded yet in Sheila A. Scott's book Peeblesshire Monumental Inscriptions pre 1855 and they are becoming increasingly rare to find. Not just because I have done most of them by now but mostly because the stones are so hard to find. However I have no idea why I haven't done this one before as it's quite large and impressive. Here is the text:

Erected
by Andrew Scott, Leith
in memory of
Janet Penman, his wife
who died there 3rd October 1849
aged 58 years
and of Janet Scott, his daughter
wife of David Downie (could be Dowie), West Calder
who died there 4th October 1849
aged 30 years
also of Elizabeth, wife of the
Rev'd John Scott, Montego Bay
Jamaica, who died there 15th Nov. 1848
aged 20 years
and of his son, the Rev'd John Scott
of the Presbyterian Church
Montego Bay, who died there 4th Dec. 1848
in the 28th year of his age
and 2nd of his ministry.

Cease ye from man whose breath is in
his nostrils by wherein is he to be accounted of.. Isaiah II 22

Andrew Scott
who died 7th June 1861 aged 59 years.

Andrew Scott certainly lived with a lot of tragedies in his life! Wife and Daughter dying within a day of each other and losing his son and daughter-in-law within a fortnight of each other in a far flung place, probably as a result of some epidemic or other. 
On the back of the same gravestone there is another inscription:
Marion Scott
born 31st March 1830
died 31st March 1835
Was this yet another tragedy? It seems more than likely that this was Andrew Scott's young daughter, died at the age of exactly 5 years. How does a person live through all that? 


4 comments:

Terri said...

Frieda, I am wondering the same things as you. The Scott family had such tragedy. I am wondering if there was an epidemic that took the first two. The husband and wife may also have died that way. But the Husband/father died 13 years later, at the age of 59. His wife died 13 years earlier at 58. Was he that much younger, or did I read it wrong? The little girls story is so sad too. How unusual to perish on your own birthday!
Hugs,
Terri

Frieda Oxenham said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Frieda Oxenham said...


Yes, you read it right, Terri. His wife was indeed a lot older than him. Perhaps she was an heiress and he married her fir that reason. This stone alone could inspire a whole book.

Frieda Oxenham said...

And looking at it again it would appear Andrew was only 17 when his daughter was born! Naughty, naughty.