Thomas's family and friends

    After nearly 40 years of researching Thomas Dudgeon the Artist I have taken it upon myself to try and shed some light on the people in Thomas’s life that may have had some influence on a personal level not just his professional career.  To do this, my starting point must undoubtedly be the memoirs of Ellen Stella Dudgeon which she kindly put to paper many years ago. 

 While I do not have the gift of the pen and any attempts to do so have been described as rather agricultural, I was happy for my wife Pauline who is the actual descendant of Thomas Dudgeon to put her many skills into writing and producing this blog. Acknowledging her commitment and countless hours of typing and retyping and some of the research cannot be understated.  I would like a dollar for every time I heard her say “How do you know that? Where did you get that from? I need the date and publication.  Of course, none of this would have ever happened if not for Pauline’s Mum, Hope Davison.  As her son in-law, it seems inconceivable that 40 years on, I am still looking, always looking for that break through. I was obviously inspired by Hope’s passion for her family history and with the help of other researchers those break throughs will inevitably come.  After one of our trips to Scotland it gave us a lot of pleasure to give Hope a colour photograph of one of Thomas Dudgeon’s paintings which at the time was held in the Glasgow Gallery. The advent of the internet has made all this freely available now but at the time it was a special occasion.

Investigating all the names and places mentioned in the memoirs and dating chronologically the events has been a painstaking exercise that has led to more questions than answers, discrepancies in recollections of events, and possibly, deliberately hiding the truth to protect the innocence of youth. I must also add that to apply 21st century ethics and morals to 19th century Victorian times is fraught with danger and may in the end distract from the real situation at the time. Thomas Dudgeon’s world would have been somewhat different to the common man and the high society circles he encountered through his art and theatre connections. It must be understood that even with the strict Victorian protocols of the time, Thomas lived in a more bohemian world that the public and high society tried not to acknowledge but gave a level of acceptance to.  

   What you as the reader needs to do is to draw your own conclusions on this last post and hopefully take the bit between the teeth and investigate further. To help in this endeavour I have partially completed many Dudgeon family trees from the Glasgow area, Edinburgh, Fife, Morham and Dumfries. A large contingent of Irish Dudgeons lived in and around Glasgow at the same time as Thomas Dudgeon. These Dudgeons were mainly involved with the coal and cotton industries and have at this stage no connection with our Dudgeons.  The Dudgeons in the north of Scotland appear to be all from the farming sector and once again have no apparent connection with our Glasgow Dudgeons.  However, the large number of Dudgeons on the east coast is the most likely place of origin with the Dudgeons of Abbey St. Bathans having a suitable time span and family naming patterns that dovetail with our Glasgow Dudgeons.  Other researchers have come to this conclusion, so it is not a new development. One can only speculate as to why Andrew Dudgeon would move possibly to Glasgow first and then to Bannachra seeking employment and then move into Glasgow with his expanding family if it were not for other family already being in Glasgow.

   To finally put a full stop on the Adventures of Thomas Dudgeon I am going to give brief accounts of other family members and descendants to try and get a feeling for what life on a personal level must have been like.  In the memoirs Thomas’s siblings refer to Ellen Stella as Tom’s daughter so I am taking a little poetic license and using this endearing term to help personalise this post.  (Time to hypothesize and speculate.) 

ANDREW DUDGEON (Tom’s father)

   As Pauline and I stood on Timtyourie field, the Andrew Dudgeon’s family patch of dirt on Bannachra Estate, the late James Lumsden explained that the heavily timbered hills behind Bannachra were the home of many an illegal whiskey still.  If you had to speculate, and I am, who better to be involved than the gardener along with household kitchen staff to supply the ingredients.  Did the excise people catch up with Andrew hence his departure to Glasgow? By the 1820s, as many as 14,000 illicit stills were being confiscated every year in Scotland and more than half the whisky consumed in Scotland was being enjoyed without the taxman taking his cut. To read more about this story on an earlier blog post of ours, please click on this link.

   What does a man with gardening experience and possibly alcohol production do when they get to Glasgow?  Well they set up an Ale house and become a spirit dealer. Initially operating out of 23 Dale Street, the move to 2-3 Castle street allowed for a shop front and a large garden area at the rear that was once used by the St. Nicholas Hospital to produce herbs etc. for their medicinal lotions and potions. While the garden was substantially smaller due to the construction of St Nicholas Street in 1808 it has remained there since the Dudgeons time to the present day. I have absolutely no proof that Andrew ever tended this area of land, but a sketch done by W. Simpson in 1843 and subsequently painted in water colours some 50 years latter by the same artist shows a sign advertising "Herb Ale House"  it is all just food for thought or maybe alcohol.  Once a gardener always a gardener.

   Andrew Dudgeon (1776-1846) died at the age of seventy from drowning and his death notice appeared in the Glasgow Herald.  After scouring the pages of the Glasgow Herald at the Mitchell Library, for up to a week before his death, there is no mention of how this drowning may have occurred. No police report seems to exist and certainly no inquest was undertaken.  The fact is that drownings were so common that they did not require reporting in the news.  The Clyde river with all its shipping was where most drownings took place. With people unable to swim and most imbibing in a wee dram or two death by falling into the water was almost inevitable. 

   So where did Andrew drown?  The Molendinar Burn was less than 100 metres from the front door of the Dudgeon Ale house. In 1833 Glasgow’s Bridge of Sighs was built across the ravine joining the Glasgow Cathedral to the burial ground (The Necropolis where Thomas is buried) and unfortunately by 1846 the year of Andrew’s death it was a highly polluted open sewer. One can only surmise that a 70-year-old in the 1840’s would not be moving too far from home and a fall into the fast-flowing Molendinar Burn would have a tragic end. Today, the Molendinar is covered over and flows under the road through a series of handmade stone tunnels and more modern galvanized pipes.

Molendinar Burn early days with Glasgow Cathedral in the background (Pinterest)

Molendinar Burn 1890 (Scottish Archive Network) Scan Education

                    JANET DUDGEON nee Adams (Tom’s Mum)

   A little royal blood goes a long way!  For the genealogist, finding a royal connection is a bit like finding a convict in your family in Australia, everyone gets excited.  It is safe to say that royal blood means most of the research has already been documented and you can just about trace the lineage  to Adam and Eve if you want to believe the Kings and Queens of Europe were put there because of a divine right.

   This blog is not the venue to outline in detail the Adams family tree, but a quick explanation is required.  We need to follow Janet Dudgeon’s mother’s ancestry to find the royal connection. Five generations back from Helen Hardie (Janet’s mum) we have a John Hardie who married Margaret Bellenden, daughter of Lewis Bellenden (1555-1591) and Margaret Livingston (1565-1619). The Bellenden lineage is the start of the royal connection and can be easily traced on the internet and Burke's Peerage.

   Hope Davison has always maintained that Ellen Stella (Granny) said that the family belonged to the Royal Stewart clan and this can only have come from family while she lived in Scotland.   If you follow the Livingston line you do indeed land on James IV, King of Scotland, a Stewart.

    SUSAN DUDGEON (Tom's sister)

   How we remember things in adulthood about our youth are influenced by so many factors.  We are told things that are not exactly true just to protect us from the world around us and in some cases just to avoid awkward moments.  Ellen Stella had her fair share of these moments. Quoting from her memoirs is the best way of highlighting this.

The first thing I remember is asking my father where I came from and he told me that a man with a basket came with fish and there was a little baby girl too. Needless to say I believed all that until I was a mother myself.

What I liked best to do (although forbidden) was to slide down the bannisters from top to bottom and another pastime was to walk on the iron rail outside the house. I did those things at home in our house at Rutherglen in Scotland. ………. It seemed we had a little brother who broke his neck that way.

   The only male child of Thomas’s that died at a young age and with his first wife Agnes Wales was Thomas Andrew Dudgeon aged 7. The death notice appeared in the Glasgow Herald with no cause of death but one could assume that the death of a child by falling while sliding on a bannister would make the papers especially the son of a prominent Glaswegian. Thomas Andrew died 6/11/1850. Why is it that this death does not appear in the Statutory Death Register for 1850?  Was Ellen told about this death just to get her to stop sliding down the bannister? 

 It was told to me after my fathers death which took place just 1 year and one day after my mothers that he had been in love with my mothers mother and his people would not let him marry her, but when his first wife died he went to look for his old sweetheart and found she had died and left a family of boys and one girl who had married Capt. James Plunkett of an old Irish family and he had been in the 29th Regiment of Foot and he had been killed in India.   

Ellen Stella clearly believes that her fathers first wife was dead, but the reality was that his first wife Agnes Wales didn't die until 6/11/1878 and Thomas Dudgeon was the informant on the certificate with his relationship recorded as widower (a little unusual) . The whole family from both sides managed to keep this fact from Ellen Stella for who knows how long, maybe for her whole life. Click here for a link to the The James Plunkett story.

   So why have I highlighted these inconsistencies in the memoirs?  The following while not critical to the story, is just not how someone like Ellen Stella, with such a vivid recollection of events, could put on paper and possible get it wrong.

His daughter, Mrs McCallum, took him (Thomas Dudgeon) in her carriage to her home and he died there. I was with my father’s sister Aunt Susan Russell.   

I cannot explain how Ellen Stella could have been with Aunt Susan as Susan Russell died 9/1/1879 at Dunipace, Stirlingshire. Ellen Stella also recollects how her Aunt Susan found out about her leaving for Australia and made a commotion on the docks, but it was all too late and the rest is history. We can surmise many scenarios for this detail but the events surrounding Thomas’s death and Ellen Stella’s departure are correct in every detail except for the person she remembers being there. Maybe the statutory death records have the wrong year written at the top. I have not been able to find any references to a Susan Russell after 1879 in any newspapers or official records.

   Susan Dudgeon married Peter Henderson Wardrop on the 1/2/1839 and he died in Cathcart Renfrewshire on the 15 /1/1852. Susan appears to have left that marriage sometime earlier and married again before his death to Robert Russell. This marriage took place on the 18/6/1849 in Glasgow.

I did not have a very happy time at Denny. That is where my Aunt Susan lived. Such a nice house with a dyke around it and lovely fruit trees apples, pears, red current and black currents, raspberries and gooseberries and strawberries, it was lovely. I know now just how lovely it was then.

   Aunt Susan was a grocer in 1874 in Dunipace near Denny and after the death of her husband Robert Russell in 1875 this was probably her only source of income.  It is interesting to note that in 1874 the British Government announced a Royal Commission into Grocers Licenses. By 1876 there was a large increase in grocers licenses being approved. The Glasgow Herald reported that after a deputation from the Tea Dealers and Grocers Association to the Home Office, they argued that, “If grocers licenses were increasing, it was proof that a public want was being met and that there was a demand for the supply of wine and spirits from other sources than the drinking bar.”

   What in fact was happening was that women being unable to obtain liquor from a bar, were now able to buy liquor at the grocers and take it home to drink. This trend was a disturbing issue for the government of the day, so much so that a Royal Commission was implemented.  Grocers evidence reported in the Glasgow Herald on the 10/10/1877 stated “It was not true that licensed grocers were in the habit of supplying working men’s wives with spirits and marking them down under fictitious names.”  This argument was dismissed in general and many licenses were revoked under the guise of unfit premises, being too close to a public house etc.  The Falkirk Herald and Linlithgow Journal in 1874 listed Susan Russell as one who was refused a license for a new premises at Milton Glasgow. We will never know why her application was refused but she eventually operated as a grocer in Glasgow at 93 Garscube Street. The 1881 census shows 93 Garscube Street as a “grocer uninhabited.”  The residence of her daughter Janet Adam Russell as shown on her marriage certificate to James Davidson in 1876, is the same address.

   Was Susan Dudgeon involved in the spirit trade? Well, most likely given the family connection to this endeavour.

                WILLIAM DUDGEON (Tom’s Brother)

   Williams story is a sad one with him ending up in the City Poorhouse. The Glasgow City Poorhouse was one of the largest pauper institutions in Britain.  Although it offered food and shelter for those with nowhere else to go, living conditions were maintained at a level that discouraged all but the most desperate.  At 6.45pm on the 21/2/1865 an application was made (most likely from a cousin who kept house for him) to admit him to the Glasgow City Poorhouse. A visit from the inspector at 12.30pm on the 22/2/1865 found that he was wholly or partially disabled from Chronic Bronchitis. He has been unable to work for the last month but when working earned 12 shillings a week. Rent was 5 shillings a month and he formally had a business of his own at Bell Street, but it failed.

SPRIT DEALERS SHOP FITTINGS, BY AUCTION

HUTCHISON AND DIXON will sell, as above, at 11 o’clock a.m. Stocks Casks and cranes, 3-Pull Beer Engine, Pewter and Crystal Measures, Cask Ale, Porter, Tables, Chairs, Engravings Grates Clock, Block and Tackle and a variety of other effects.

   Questions with no answers must be asked about William. Did the family know of his demise?  After his mother died was he shunned by the family? Susan and Thomas certainly had the means to keep him out of the poorhouse. Was his liver disease the result of alcoholism?  Who was the cousin that kept house for him in his final days before he was consigned to the poorhouse?

                                JAMES DUDGEON (Tom’s brother)

   After a short stint in Paisley (you guessed it) as a Grocer and Spirit Dealer in the 1860’s, James moves back to Glasgow and occupies the home of Thomas Lipton Snr. and his wife Frances in 1871 and sets up an Eating House and spirit dealer outlet. Number 13 Crown Street being his home and No. 10 Crown Street was the Eating House business. Thomas Lipton Jnr. was the youngest of 5 children and was born at No. 10 Crown Street and lived there until going to America where he learned how to run a business, American style.    

   In the spring of 1869, Lipton  made the surprising decision to return to Scotland. This was at a time when most of the ships crossing the Atlantic carried immigrants to America. Arriving back in Glasgow he hired a cab and on top of it placed a rocking chair and barrel of flour for his mother. Lipton had the driver proceed slowly along Crown Street while he waved and shouted greetings to his old friends and neighbours - a spectacle long remembered in the area.

   The association between the Dudgeon and Lipton families may have stemmed from the change in residences for both families but it is safe to say that Thomas Dudgeon the artist and Thomas Lipton the emerging entrepreneur were well known identities in  Glasgow at the time. It was not until 1878 that Thomas Lipton became involved in the tea trade and not until the late 1880’s that he was a household name worldwide for his Lipton’s Teas.  

Ellen recalls:  

I remember my father was in Austria at the time. When he came home again, he took me in hand to teach me my lessons and for about a year, I did very well but I was only seven then and father got another fit to go so he, mother and I and mother’s maid Maggie Magee, all went to France, but I did not get out of my lessons, even on the trains or boats, I still had to do them so after 6 months of travel, we came home to Glasgow, as he was to paint Sir Thomas Lipton’s portrait.

   This recollection makes it the year 1876 that Thomas paints the portrait of Thomas Lipton well before he became a household name and knighted.  Nevertheless, both parties had the notoriety required to be engaged in enhancing their reputations by these means.

   James Dudgeon also had the painting gene and like so many artists of the day started off in the house painting business.  He stayed in the house painting business until his death in 1886, seemingly not prepared to make that leap of faith into portrait and scene painting like his older brother Thomas. 

            ANNIE PLUNKETT (Ellen Stella’s stepsister)

   The 1871 census is a remarkably interesting document.  Keeping in mind that Thomas Dudgeon is in Bishop Auckland on the other side of the country and does not appear on this census. Agnes (his reputed wife) supplies the information on the household to the enumerator. Firstly, she records her name as Agnes McIndoe Plunkett which suggests that she and Thomas were not married and that she was not averse to using the surname Plunkett. This also suggests that even though she became pregnant to James Plunkett during his brief stay with the army in Glasgow, she used the same surname, for the sake of her daughter, who had been told the same story as Ellen Stella about Capt. James Plunkett that he was from an old Irish Family who had been killed in India. 

   Annie is recorded as Annie McIndoe Plunkett, daughter, aged 7, Scholar, born Glasgow Lanarkshire.

   Ellen Stella is recorded as Eleanor Dudgeon daughter, age 3, born Glasgow in Lanarkshire.

   Thomas Dudgeon is recorded as boarder, aged 9, panoramic assistant, unemployed, born Glasgow, Lanarkshire. (More on this Thomas to come)

   Their address for this 1871 census is 332 St Georges Sq. Glasgow.  This must have been close to the first address they lived in after Thomas and family returned from Ireland as in 1870 his residence in Ireland was 18 Copeland Street, Belfast.

   Annie McIndoe Pollock’s birth certificate states she was born on the 31/12/1864 to Agnes Pollock mill worker (illegitimate). This fact did not deter Thomas, as he clearly adopts Annie as part of his extended family. Annie is briefly mentioned in the transcripts of the court case against Mrs Bingham who was being charged with attempted arson.  Agnes’s testimony in part while being examined by Mr. McLean:-

I said, “you must not burn Mr. Dudgeon’s box.” She said, “If I do, I will pay for it.” I said, I would never be able to get out with the children. Later in the testimony Agnes states to Mr. McLean “When I left the house, I left my eldest daughter behind me. The morning after that conversation Mr. Moore brought the child to my new lodgings, at my request.”

   It can confidently be reasoned that the eldest daughter was Annie and references during the testimony to the baby would have been Ellen Stella.

   The bond between Thomas, Ellen Stella and Annie must have been a strong one as it is unlikely that Annie would have made the trip to London to sing at Thomas’s benefit (refer previous post) if there had been any issues.

   At age 23, Annie marries William Barnett, a Beltmaker, on the 13/12/1887 at 145 James Street, Bridgton, Glasgow and in the subsequent 4 years they are living in Glasgow and have adopted a little boy named Robert Ferguson, who was born in Eastdale, Argyllshire.   The 1891 census has him aged 3.   By 1901 the family has moved to London where William is still working as a belt maker and in 1911 William is a machine beltmaker and Robert is single and a Woollen trade apprentice.

   I often wonder if Annie and Ellen Stella ever corresponded to keep up with how their lives turned out. It appears not. 

                        THOMAS DUDGEON Jnr. (Tom’s son)

   Thomas was born 1852 according to the 1871 census and was working in some capacity in the theatre environment and in the care of Thomas and Agnes Plunkett.  This does seem a little unusual but can be explained if you follow the life of Thomas Jnr. to his death certificate where his then wife reveals that Thomas Dudgeon, Scenic Artist, is the reputed father and his mother was an unknown Wilkinson. Taking this a step further the possible illegitimate birth of Thomas Jnr. may explain the separation of Thomas Snr. from his wife Agnes Wales and the taking up of his life with Agnes Plunkett Pollock.  Also, worth noting is Thomas’s last child with Agnes Wales, Thomas Andrew, was born in 1844 and I believe this is the son whom Ellen Stella was led to believe was killed sliding down the bannister.  What ever happened will always remain a mystery but Thomas Jnr. learns the painting and stage lighting theatre trade, thanks to his father, and forges a life of his own.

   By 1874 Thomas has married Elizabeth Crockwell (no record of this marriage has been found) and their first child Thomas William is born in Coventry, Warwickshire. His occupation is given as the Gasman for the Scottish Diorama.  As we know from Post 13, The RoyalDiorama of Scotland had by December 1874 made its way to the Corn Exchange Coventry and this is where Thomas Jnr. was working with lighting effects for Thomas Birrell and the diorama.  It is worth noting it is about this time that special effects with magnesium lights and other medium were becoming a feature of dioramas, so Thomas was probably at the forefront of these developments in theatre lighting and effects.  Thomas William was baptised in Rotherham, York on the 22/12/1880 and this seems to have been just a whistle stop as Thomas and Elizabeth’s second child, James Edwin, is born in Llanelly, Wales on 22/2/1881 and Thomas has progressed to the occupation of Scene Painter at a theatre. It appears he has left the employ of Thomas Birrell.

   From this point on we now have two theatre scene painters by the name of Thomas Dudgeon, and it is sometimes hard to discern which Thomas newspaper articles were referring to.  It does appear that Thomas Jnr. may have ridden on the coattails of his more illustrious father at times, but it could be more that the promoters where happy for the public to think that the scenery was painted by none other than Thomas Snr. even after he was dead.  Thomas probably met Elizabeth Crockwell in Brighton Sussex as the Crockwell’s come from a long line of painters and decorators.  The dioramas would have most certainly been in Brighton around this time.  Elizabeth’s father and at least 5 of her brothers appear in censuses as painters.  Thomas and Elizabeth’s first son Thomas William in the 1911 census for Steyning, Hove, Sussex is recorded as a painter for a chemical works, at Kingston. James Edwin in the 1911 census is also in Sussex and labouring as a Bricklayer.

   Thomas and Elizabeth have gone their separate ways by 1886 with Thomas now married to Elizabeth Ann Dennis. The date of their marriage, in Middlesbrough 22/1/1886, was recorded on the birth certificate of their daughter Charlotte and the father’s occupation given as a Scenic Artist. Having been to the Middlesbrough records office and other institutions during one of our trips to England, we found that no record of this marriage seems to exist. Charlotte was born on the 9/11/1887, Pollokshaws, Scotland, so any suitable date may have been given to legitimise the birth, knowing no one is going to check the validity of the marriage.  Charlotte did not get to know her father as he died just 3 months later on the 3/2/1888 at 14 Coulstonhill Street, Pollokshaws, Scotland. Elizabeth Ann and Charlotte move back to England to be closer to family where Charlotte appears on the School Admissions register in1899 for South Shields. The details which read, Charlotte Dudgeon, Admission 23/1/1899, Mother Eliza A. Date of birth 9/11/1888, (not correct) Address 45 Empress Street and her last school Ocean Rd. Empress Street was off Mile End Road not far from the school but appears to be no more. The Dudgeon line once again comes to a dead end here, but more investigation needs to be done on the whereabouts of Elizabeth Ann and Charlotte Dudgeon after 1899.

                        THOMINA BUCHANAN DUDGEON (Tom’s daughter)

   Thomina was the youngest of two daughters born to Thomas Dudgeon and Agnes Wales on the 8/9/1840 in Glasgow.  Ellen Stella confirms this in her memoirs:-

I had two stepsisters (the eldest being Agnes) the other one married Mr. Bone Fletcher. He had something to do with a shipping firm, but he caught yellow fever when in Bombay, and died. The news came through when his wife had just had a little son and the shock unhinged her mind – she never recovered her reason, poor soul.

   Thomina’s husband's name was Duncan Fletcher and according to the 1861 census he was a clerk to an engineer and born in Paisley, Renfrewshire.  It appears from shipping records (although not certain as there are a lot of Duncan Fletchers) he was sent to India on the 26/2/1862, leaving from Southampton on the P&O Salsette, destination Bombay.  Both being Glaswegians it is possible they knew each other but in any event they marry two years later at Christ Church, Byculla  in the Archdeaconry and Diocese of Bombay on the 18/3/1864.  The Glasgow herald publishes this marriage on the 23/4/1864.

At Christ’s Church, Byculla, Bombay, on the 18th ultimo, by Rev. J. D. Gibson, Duncan Fletcher Esq. of Bombay to Thomina Buchanan, youngest daughter of Thomas Dudgeon, Esq., artist, Glasgow.

By SMU Central University Libraries - Byculla Church, Bombay, Eastern Side, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37135881

   Thomina and Duncan are now living at Moore Cottage, Parell Road, Bombay where Thomina gives birth to her first child a daughter, sadly she was still born, and the notice is once again published in the Glasgow Herald on Christmas Day 1865.  On the 7/12/1869 the Glasgow Herald reports the birth of a son and the address given as Nepean Sea Road, Cumballa Hill, Bombay.  The 1871 Scottish census tells us that Thomina has two children, Duncan born East Indies and Edith Born Glasgow, aged 3 but this age could well have been 3 months and the child that Ellen Stella refers to that unhinged Thomina’s mind.  Shipping records have Mrs Fletcher returning to Southampton from Bombay on the 15/1/1870 on the ship Sumatra with two children. As indicated by Ellen Stella worst was to come as on the 9/1/1870, her husband dies from disease of the kidneys, (Liver and kidneys are both affected by Yellow Fever which is a mosquito born virus) and is buried at Colaba, Bombay on the 10/1/1770.  Duncan is missing from the 1871 census and Thomina is now a single mum with two small children and her occupation is described as Income from Interest of Money. Duncan has provided well for his family in his Will.  A copy of Duncan’s Will 1872 (SC70/4/137Edinburgh Sheriff Court Wills) reveals.

This is the last will and testament of me Duncan Fletcher of Bombay in the East Indies a partner in the firm of Messieurs’ Fletcher and Mitchell merchants. I give and devise and bequeath all my real personal moveable and immoveable estate to which I shall be entitled at the time of my decease including a policy of insurance on my life for Rupees ten thousand in the Albert Life Insurance Coy. My share and interest in my said partnership business Messieurs’ Fletcher and Mitchell, all my furniture, Jewelry Books and wearing apparel and all other my real and personal estate and effects what so-ever and wherever unto and to the use of my dearly beloved wife Thomina Buchanan Fletcher her heirs.

Executors, Administrators and Assigns according to the nature and tenure thereof …….

   The 1880’s see Thomina move between Dollar in Clackmannanshire, Elgin in Morayshire and Glasgow. Edith has disappeared from the records and the 1881 census has Thomina and Duncan living at Toll Road, Eglington Place Dollar, Clackmannanshire.

   By 1901 Thomina is living at 105 Garbeth Street, Fairfield House, Glasgow and is a lodger at this residence, her occupation is Artist Landscapes.  Thomina lives to the ripe old age of 91 and dies of cardiac failure on the 23/2/1932 at 8.50am at Ruchill Hospital in Glasgow. By the time Ellen Stella left for Australia Thomina had probably not recovered from the tragic early years of her marriage to Duncan but to live another 50 years suggests that she found a way to move on.

                        JANET ADAM RUSSELL (Tom’s sister, Susan Russell’s daughter)

   Janet is the daughter of Aunt Susan (Thomas Dudgeon’s sister) and was well known to Ellen Stella, certainly in the latter years shortly before and after Thomas’s death.  Ellen Stella lived at some time with Aunt Susan and Janet Davidson although that is presumably before Thomas had died as we know Aunt Susan had already died by the time of Thomas’s death. Nonetheless, I will quote from the memoirs:-

    She (Agnes McCallum) offered to let me live with her, but my Uncle David and Aunt Susan both said I would not be happy with her, nor would I, so I went to Aunt Susan’s and lived with her and her daughter, Janet, who was married to a Jim Davidson, who was Chief Engineer on the Wentworth Steamboat. It was the ship that found Cleopatra’s Needle in the Bay of Biscay-floating about. They towed it to Liverpool, and all the crew got some ransom money from the government. It is still on the Thames Embankment in London. Go and see it.

   In 1876 on their marriage certificate, Janet is living in Glasgow at 93 Garscube Street (the vacant Grocers shop previously mentioned) and James Davidson’s residence was on the ship Fitzmaurice at North Shields England.  James Davidson was the ships engineer on the Fitzmaurice which was in fact the ship that found the floating Cleopatra’s Needle in the Bay of Biscay.

    An extract from an article “Finding of Cleopatra’s Needle by the Fitzmaurice” in the Belfast Newsletter, dated Saturday the 27^th of October 1877.

   Statement of Captain Evans:

 About 5 p.m. on Monday, away at the lee beam I saw what I took to be the bottom of a ship. I put the helm of the Fitzmaurice hard up and bore down on it. Just at dusk I found that it was Cleopatra’s Needle.

   Captain Evans goes on to say what a difficult job it was to secure the floating obelisk ship and due to the heavy weather and the obelisk breaking free a couple of times they managed to get into port at Ferrol at 9.30 p.m.  A brief outline of the departure, voyage and final resting place of Cleopatra’s Needle is needed here.  Newspapers all around the word could not get enough of this epic undertaking and the British were only to happy to have their correspondents supply script in minute detail. The Daily News, London, Saturday, Sept. 29, 1877 reports from their correspondent in Alexandria Sept 27.

The monolith which is at the moment attracting more attention than any other monument of the world has now left its native shores to seek a resting place in London. The obelisk, enclosed in a massive iron cylinder, known as the “Needle Ship” left our harbour at 10a.m. to-day, in tow of the steamer Olga.

   Consequent reports are a little conflicting as to the progress of the Olga. Initial estimations were that the Needle would reach its destination by the end of October but a letter published in the Daily News, Wed. October, 10 1877 from a John Dixon travelling on the S.S.Olga and dated the 2/10/1877 nearing Algiers states:

She offers much more resistance to the sea than I anticipated, and I think would have been better with a sharper bow and stern…… with favourable wind she carries sail, but it does not appear to help much.

Eventually, heavy seas got the better of the operation and disaster struck off Cape Finisterre at 5 o’clock on Saturday evening. A special telegram appeared in the Freemans Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, Dublin, Ireland. Friday, October 19th, 1877. 

 Next morning a violent squall arose, increasing to a furious gale, with great rapidity, but the Cleopatra which contained the obelisk, behaved admirably, shipping no seas. Heavy water on Sunday evening with falling barometer: the wind veered round to westward, the sea becoming so turbulent and dangerous that the Cleopatra was hove to. At six in the morning a tremendous sea threw the Cleopatra on her beam ends. The mast was then cut away, and every effort made to right her but without success. Signals of distress were made by the Cleopatra and at ten in the evening, the wind having abated, six brave men from the Olga pluckily went to the rescue. And succeeded in reaching the Cleopatra; but before they could render assistance their boat was swept away and seen no more. The Olga went on an unsuccessful search for the men, and then returned to where the Cleopatra was cut adrift ,the Maltese crew on the Cleopatra having been previously saved by a boat being hauled to her from the Olga by means of a rope. They searched for their valuable treasure, but after several hours of profitless drifting further hope was abandoned. The Olga then proceeded to Falmouth, thence to Newcastle.

    The arrival of Cleopatra’s Needle was reported in Lloyds Weekly Newspaper London on Sunday, January 27, 1878.  While the Obelisk was intended to go to Liverpool first as indicated by Ellen Stella in her memoirs it was reported in this article that the ship Anglia was used to bring the obelisk from Ferrol to East India dock, London.

In this harbour of refuge the Needle will probably remain for some time; for, up to the present, no decision has been come to as to the spot to be definitely selected for its erection, and the question of salvage raised by the owners of the Fitzmaurice, the ship that picked up the Cleopatra in the Bay of Biscay, has not been settled.

Cleopatra’s Needle 3/8/2004 on the Victoria Embankment near the Golden Jubilee Bridges

    Five years after their marriage James and Janet have two children, Isabella aged 3 and Susanna Dudgeon Russell  Davidson aged 2. They have moved to Bromley, Middlesex, England and according to the 1881 census are visiting the Jamieson family on the day of the census.  As a ships engineer James would have been away from his family for extended periods and the 1891 census shows Janet as the head of the family and 3 more sons James Robert, George, and David D. all living at Milton Row, Davidson’s Land, Dunipace, Stirlingshire. Janet is widowed in 1897 as James dies in the Bremerhaven Hospital, Germany, presumably while working on a ship, as Bremerhaven is a major trading port.  Janet outlives her husband by another 39 years and dies on the 13 /3/1936 at Gilmerton, Fowlis Wester, County of Perthshire. As a side note, James and Janet’s daughter Susan Dudgeon Russell Campbell nee Davidson and my mother in-law Hope Davison kept in touch up until Susan’s death in 1961. Some of the letters still survive.  Susan managed the Post office in Gilmerton, Crieff for many years and was remembered and well respected by folk we spoke to during our visit there in 2005.

Gilmerton, Crieff, 2009

                            ELLEN STELLA FAWCETT DUDGEON (Tom’s daughter) (Granny)

To set the scene, Ellen Stella’s Mother has died 2/11/1879 and her Father has recently passed away on the 14/10/1880. (I have just realised that I am writing this post on the day that Thomas Dudgeon died 140 years ago.) Ellen Stella has been shuffled between friends of her father’s such as the Wilsons, her father’s sister Aunt Susan?? and most importantly after her last New Year in Scotland she got to visit her mother’s people who lived in Glasgow. 

I did not know my Mother’s people very well, as all father’s people looked down on them as they were not in their class. This was told to me when I came back from my visit to Aunt Mary. She was Andrew Pollocks wife, but he was dead, and she had a big family of boys and girls. They made me very glad to be with them.

    Aunt Mary was Margaret Pollock nee Rodger married to Andrew Pollock who had also recently died.  The names of Margaret and Mary were very inter-changeable in those days.  The 1881 census shows us that Aunt Mary was a Lappit weaver living at 35 James Street Barony, Glasgow so this is presumably where Ellen Stella spent a month with her mother’s people before departing for Australia.  A defining and life changing moment now occurs on Ellen Stella’s return from her visit to Aunt Mary’s.  Knowing that Aunt Susan is dead is it possible that this altercation occurred between Janet, (Aunt Susan’s daughter) and Ellen Stella. We will never know, so I will quote directly from the memoirs.

I was there a month, when Uncle David turned up again and took me to Aunt Susan. My word she was cross for days, and one afternoon she had a lot of ladies there, and she was telling them of my mother’s common people, and I jumped up, and said she told lies, they were nicer than any of her friends…….. I was ashamed then, and left the room and going through the hall, I picked up a paper and when I got upstairs, I was in a very desperate frame of mind. If I had any where to go, I would have run away at once. I picked up the paper I had brought up and the first thing I saw was immigration to Queensland, and where to go for all the information. I said to myself, I will go and they will never find me.

    After a months sojourn back at the Wilson’s at Ardrossan Ellen Stella returns to Glasgow and puts her plan to emigrate to Australia into place. 

 I sailed on the 29th June 1882 on the good ship “Selkirkshire”. We sailed on the 21st as the 20th was a Friday, and no sailor will leave port on a Friday.

   Questions, that once again I have no answers for, need to be posed to try and get a feel for such a monumental decision.  Did Ellen Stella get help from someone sympathetic to her plight?  How did she put the funds together when she was totally dependent on family on a day to day basis?  Did her father provide for her directly by putting money into a bank account for her before his death?

 I asked how much, and he said assisted it is 7 pound and 10 shillings. I said I would go.

   That assisted fare is equivalent to approximately 900 pounds in today’s money a sizable amount combined with the living expenses needed to make the trip.   We can assume from this that Ellen Stella did not have the funds to be a full paying passenger but still possessed the means to be an independent young girl.

The worst was the doctor, I was afraid of him, but I needn’t have been, for he was away and there was a young fellow in his place. He just looked at me and said, “You are not bandy-legged, have you ever been sick?” I said “no”. He said, “How old are you?” and I said “17” so he signed the paper, and I drew all my money out of the bank and paid my money. That was all done in a week.

   The answer to the last question may be in the 1881 census where a Stella Dudgeon aged 16 is enumerated and recorded as working for a printer. This is the only Dudgeon with the forename Stella in all the Statutory records and 1881 census of Scotland.  Given the short time frame for Ellen Stella to put enough money together for her passage and living expenses it is hard to imagine that a job in a printing office would have been the answer to her financial requirements.  My research shows that the Wilson family were indeed very wealthy and a good friend of Ellen Stella’s father.  It is more than possible given the two visits to the Wilsons that they had something to do with Ellen Stella’s departure from her life in Scotland.

Well my Aunt heard that I was trying to get away. I don’t know yet who told her, but just as the boat was pulling out, she came to the quay – she made a terrible noise and shook her stick at everybody. I said I didn’t know her, when I was older, many a time I was sorry, but too late.

An Aunt with a walking stick, it must have been Aunt Susan???

The Edinburgh Evening News, Friday, September 27, 1878.

   Ellen Stella was one of the 90 females recruited for assisted passage to Queensland for domestic duties on the ship Selkirkshire. Much has been written regarding the voyage in 1882 of the Selkirkshire and is available on the Trove web site but I have chosen to relate the Ellen Stella’s experience and add snippets of information that has not appeared in other publications.

   The Selkirkshire left Glasgow on the 19/7/1882 after arriving from London on the 1/7/1882. Proceeding to the Tail of Bank, which is a deep anchorage point near Greenock, she set sail on Thursday the 20/7/1882.  It is worth noting that in the early days of shipping it was maritime practice to report the sightings of other ships during a voyage and notifying authorities when arriving at their destination.  These sightings and the position of the ship were published in newspapers in the Shipping Intelligence Vessels Spoken section of the paper. The Glasgow Herald reported on the 28/11/1882 the following.  Selkirkshire, from Glasgow for Keppel Bay, Aug. 11, in lat. 8N, long.30W.  This puts Ellen Stella halfway between the African and South American coast adjacent to Sierra Leone and just North of the Equator. 

 Mrs Poland thought it was a great joke. We had a great day when we crossed the line and captain rich called me look through his glass to see the line. The line was there, but he had taken his telescope to pieces and put a hair between the two glasses.

After a very rough rounding of Cape Horn when all passengers were battened down and all accounted for after, Ellen Stella and the Selkirkshire are sited at Lat. 40° 34 S. Long. 97° E. This puts the ship still 45 days out from its destination and on the edge of the Indian and Great Southern Oceans south west of Fremantle. 

 The arrival date of the good ship Selkirkshire at Keppel Bay is reported differently in various Australian newspapers, but the Capricornian, a Rockhampton newspaper, reports that the Selkirkshire arrived on Wednesday the 1/11/1882. With no quarantine station at the time for Rockhampton, the chief health officer would have made inspections of the ship and its passengers. This being done, the Capricornian reported that

The following night, the 2/11/1882, the immigrants were brought ashore at 6p.m. somewhat earlier than expected and taken to the Depot.

   The Depot being at Depot Hill, a suburb of Rockhampton, where the newly arrived were given food and accommodation. Within a day or two they were taken to Rockhampton where their employment was arranged

The Capricornian (Rockhampton Qld.) Saturday, November 4^th,  1882 page 12.

Well, I took a job of general servant out at Capella, and I had no idea what a general servant meant, but I soon found out. A woman on the train told me if they asked me to pick up stones, I would have to do it. I was terrible afraid.

       So begins the next chapter in the life of Ellen Stella Fawcett Dudgeon, daughter of renowned Scottish landscape and theatre artist Thomas Dudgeon Esq.  known as Granny to subsequent generations  including my mother in-law Hope Davison, her Granddaughter who was raised by Ellen Stella (Granny) from the age of 3 years old. 

Lionel DeLandelles, Ellen Stella Fawcett DeLandelles nee Dudgeon, Hope Dorathea Davison nee Thompson daughter of Dorathea Theo Elizabeth St. Clair DeLandelles

Bibliography 

Arrival of Cleopatra’s Needle in Lloyds Weekly Newspaper (London, Eng.) Sunday, January 27th, 1878. 

The Belfast Newsletter, May 19th, 1875, issue 18661. “Cleopatra’s Needle”. 

 The Belfast Newsletter, Monday, September 10th, 1877, issue 19383. General Telegrams. “Cleopatra’s Needle”.

The Belfast Newsletter, Saturday, October 27th, 1877, issue 19424. Finding of Cleopatra’s Needle by the Fitzmaurice .

 Daily News (London, England), Wednesday, October 10, 1871, issue 9819. The voyage of the Cleopatra.

Daily News (London, England), Saturday, September 29th, 1877. Issue 9810. The departure of Cleopatra’s Needle.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court Inventories, 1872, Fletcher, Duncan. (Reference SC70/1/156) Edinburgh Sheriff Court Wills, 1872, Fletcher, Duncan. (Reference SC70/4/137).

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Glasgow Herald (Glasgow, Scotland), July 3rd, 1882, issue 157, SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE. Arrived at Glasgow, July 1. “Selkirkshire”, 1192, Reid, from London – light.

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Glasgow Herald (Glasgow, Scotland), July 22nd, 1882, issue 174, Sailed from the tail of the bank, July 20, “Selkirkshire”.

The Graphic (London, England), Saturday, March 3,1871, issue 379. “Cleopatra’s Needle, proposed scheme for transporting the monument to England.”

The Graphic (London, England), Saturday, May 19th, 1871, issue 390. Scraps. “The Removal of Cleopatra’s Needle”

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Loss of “Cleopatra’s Needle” in Freemans Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser (Dublin, Ireland), Friday, October 19, 1877.

National School Admission Registers & Log-books 1870-1914 Transcription [for] Charlotte Dudgeon, 1899, St Stephen’s National School, South Shields, Durham, England – Infants (Girls). https://search.findmypast.co.uk

Olding, Simon. Sir Thomas Lipton 1850-1931. Glasgow, Museums & Art Galleries, c1981. [catalogue no. f797.140924 LIP]