Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

Extended Family in the Leith area, Edinburgh

Looking at a map of this area, 2 Chesser Loan is not too far from where my father was born at 134 Gorgie Road. An interesting point about the photo of 134 Gorgie Road⁴⁶ is that the house seems to be built out of the same kind of natural stone as 2 Chesser Loan.

134 Gorgie Road is about 3/4 of a mile away. In other words, it is a brisk 20 minute walk. It is about 1 1/2 miles from 22 Comely Bank Place. This was where William and Isabella Harkness (my great grandparents) lived together with their sons James (my grandfather’s elder brother ), Alexander (my grandfather), and their daughter Margaret. 

Tightly-knit extended family culture

In other words, my father grew up in a tightly-knit extended family culture – at least geographically – that stretched back over many decades. But when my father moved to England in 1948, he seemed to ‘forget’ his Harkness family. But I will go into more detail about this in another book that focuses more specifically on my father’s family history (in ‘Family trees’, and ‘Volumes III and IV’).

Margaret Picken

Of interest here is that Margaret’s middle name is ‘Picken’. In other words, the mother of her mother Isabella was called Margaret Picken (see family tree here). Another point of interest here is the email I received from my second cousin James Whitecross Harkness in 2007, where he mentions a relation called Margaret living in Australia called Margaret Cowan. I won’t explain this here but just paste an extract from his email (so the reader can carry out their own investigations).

In other words, there is a limit to how much one can ‘investigate’ things. I’ve already written hundreds of thousands of words and several volumes (not yet complete). Of course, one is never ‘finished’; so this is a challenge for the hundreds and thousands of my wider family to make their own contributions. In other words, my account is by no means meant to be ‘definitive’. 

James Whitecross Harkness

My second cousin James Whitecross Harkness, who lives in Edinburgh, snapped pictures of the various family homes while walking around the city. He then graciously sent these photos to me. Amongst them is 2 Chesser Loan. Other photos of the family homes are also shown below.

Extract from James’ email of 2007:

I did discover a family link to a lady who lives in Rutherglen, Victoria, Australia, called Margaret Cowan; I think she was the granddaughter of Willie Harkness, my grandfather’s brother. Margaret I think was the daughter of Flo, who was Willie’s daughter; and I think Flo had a sister called Ella.

I got this information from Aunt Mamie, who was the wife of Charlie Harkness. He was my father’s brother. Mamie died this year at the age of 90.

Skeletons from ScotlandsPeople

In the 1891 Census, the family all lived at 10 North Richmond Street; however, this street no longer exists. A point of interest here is the family ‘skeleton in the cupboard’; Using ScotlandsPeople, I discovered that William and Isabella married on February 27, 1880,⁵⁰ while she was pregnant with their son Willie! William was born on May 3 of 1880. In other words, Isabella was seven months pregnant when she got married! Fortunately, William was a ‘moral’ man (marrying the woman he made pregnant). Otherwise, I would perhaps never have been born nor have been able to tell this story! 

Moral Judgments

Of course, “ScotlandsPeople” does not make judgements; However, I have discovered many ‘family secrets’ using ScotlandsPeople. There were stories of illegitimate children; ‘rape’ of sick wives; ‘murder’ of children (forced child labour, resulting in fatal accidents);⁵² illicit relations with tenants resulting in children, and so on. These ‘secrets’ are sometimes hinted at in the family ‘oral mythology’, but never corroborated. But the ‘unbiased’ official documents provide final evidence.

Of course, one might say – some stories are best forgotten. I don’t agree. This does not only concern the various perfidies within one’s own family, but also the wider society, such as the ‘clearances’ of the Highlands.⁵³

My great grandfather Roderick Campbell was forcibly evicted from his tenant’s cottage on the Isle of Eigg; as it turned out, he was ‘given’ a new up-to-date cottage by the laird.⁵⁴ But this was not typical in the nineteenth century; the isle of the neighbouring Rhum is a good example. The population of Eigg had, on two separate instances, been exterminated by rival clans.⁵⁵ However, the population of Rhum was ‘exterminated’ due to the power of capital and the acquiescence of a Scottish government that favoured capital.⁵⁶ In 1825 the inhabitants of Rùm (450 people) were given a year’s notice to quit.⁵⁷

In other words, people often want to forget ‘unpleasant stories’; I disagree – ‘unpleasant stories’ should be remembered, so they will not perhaps occur again. One might say this is a Quixotic endeavour. However, it is important for people, institutions, and countries to have ‘ideals’ even if these ideals are never fully realised.   

Sources

⁴⁶ The photo was sent to me by James Whitecross Harkness around 2007-9.

⁵² My grandmother’s brother, Hugh Campbell, my great uncle, died falling off a cliff searching for sheerwaters when he was only six years old in 1890. See appendix for certificates. His story is told in more detail in my book, “Eigg and Some of Its People” (2023), which is posted on the following website: https://artstraveling.wordpress.com 

⁵³ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Clearances

⁵⁴ This is described in some detail in my book: “Eigg and Some of Its People” (2023), which is posted on the following website: https://artstraveling.wordpress.com 

⁵⁵ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigg Read: 16 January 2023. I have written a partly fictitious story of this massacre, which will be posted on one of my websites in 2023: https://artstraveling.blog/ 

⁵⁶ https://electricscotland.com/history/clearances/32.htm Read 16 January 2023.

⁵⁷ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B9m