Russell family line (Scotland)
Archibald Russell I (1797-1872)
This first of three Archibald Russells in my ancestral line was born at Clackmannan, Scotland on 22 December 1797. He was active in the coal business, starting a business that was passed on down in the family for years afterwards.
He was married twice. First to Jeanine Wright (on 14 December 1823) at St Ninians, Stirling.
They had the following children:
- Janet Russell (1826-1884)
- Archibald Russell (1830-1904) [my direct ancestor – I will refer to him as Archibald Russell II where necessary to avoid confusion]
After her death, he married Isabella Watson on 16 November 1833 at Gorbals, Glasgow. He had three more children from this union:
- Jane “Jeanie” Russell (1837-1854)
- Isabella Watson Russell (1838-1847)
- Frances Russell (1840-1885)
In the 1851 Scotland census, he is described as being a “Ship Owner, Coal Master, Farmer 290 Acres, Employing 10 men”. His residence is indicated as being “Shawfield Park” in Shawfield.
An electoral register from 1857 describes him as a “coalmaster”, residing at Shawfield Park, and his “nature of qualification” is as “tenant of counting house”. The address “52 St Enoch Square” is also noted (this would not be his residence, but rather the property that he owned and thus entitled him to vote).
1861 census: Residence at Shawfield Road, Shawfield Park; occupation: “Coal Master and Employing 17 and 6 Woman Farmer of 630”.
In the 1866 Electoral Register, he is noted as being a “merchant”, residing at Shawfield Park. The business address is shown as 69 Great Clyde Street, Glasgow.
In the 1871 census, he is described simply as a “Coal-master”, residing at “Shawfield Park Ho. (house?)”.
He died on 1 September 1872 at Bridge of Allen, Logie, Perthshire, Scotland.
Transcription of death register:
Archibald Russell, Coal Master, Married to Isabella Watson formerly Jane Wright
Died 1872 September 1872, 3h30 PM, Stanley House, Bridge of Allen, Logie
Cause of death: Haematuria and disease of the neck of bladder, 10 weeks, as cert by P. Campbell M.D., and surgeon, Bridge of Allan
Archibald Russell II (1830-1904)
My 2nd great grandfather was born at Govan, Lanarkshire, on 8 December 1830. He was baptized on 22 December 1830 at the Hutchesontown Relief Church in Glasgow.
He married Mary Jackson (1834-1915), who was apparently born in Canada. As she has a rather common name, I have not yet explored her origins. We do know that they were married on 22 August 1854 at Rutherglen, Lanark, Scotland (Select Counties, Scotland, Church of Scotland, Marriages, 1615-1854).
They had the following children:
In the 1861 Scotland census, Archibald is described as being “Farmer of 370 Acres Employing 12 Men 14 Woman & 2 Boys”, and his address is indicated as being “Flemington Farm House” (located between Hamilton and Glasgow).
In the 1871 census, his address is still shown as “Flemington Farm House”. The remarks under “occupation” seem to suggest a farmer but they are difficult to read.
In the 1881 Scotland census, he is described as being a “Coalmaster & Shipowner” and his residence is indicated as being “Wishaw House“. Quite evidently, there was wealth in the family!
In 1891, he and his wife are included as “visitors” in the house of John and Isabella Smith, 250 St Vincent Street (this was the Windsor Hotel in Glasgow). His occupation is described as “coalmaster”.
By the time of the 1901 census, his residence is shown as being “Auchinraith House” (note that the census names a total of 14 domestic servants!), and his occupation still that of “Coal Master and Ship Owner”.
The Calendar of Confirmations and Inventories (Probate) summarizes his estate as follows at his death in 1904. The estate was valued at £560,170 (this would be over £18 million today!):
His will, as one can imagine, was quite complex and is reproduced here out of interest. He essentially provided for the families of the two sons (Archibald and Patrick) as well as his wife and surviving children and their issue.
Archibald-Russell-Will-1904Archibald Russell was buried at the Bent Cemetery in Hamilton, Scotland, and shares the memorial stone with his wife Mary, his sons Patrick and John, and his daughters Mary and Agnes.
Archibald Russell III (1855-1900)
My great grandfather was born in Caldergrove, Cambuslang, Scotland on 14 August 1855. He was the first child of his parents, Archibald Russell II and Mary Jackson.
In the 1881 census, he is shown as being 25 years of age and residing at Wishaw House in Lanarkshire (along with his siblings Patrick B., James, Mary, and Jackson).
He married Helen Isabella (“Dolly”) Johnson (1855-1938) on 2 June 1881 at The Manse, Cambuslang, Glasgow.
The couple had the following children:
On the 1891 census, he was shown as being a visitor at a “Hydropathic Establishment” in Kilmalcolm. This would indicate that he was undergoing some kind of medical treatment (he was only 35 at the time). Dolly appears on the 1891 census as the head of the family, living on Castlehill Crescent in Hamilton, Lanarkshire. There are also five servants listed in addition to her six children.
It is notable that Archibald Junior died quite young, at the age of only 45, of “cancer of the pharynx”. The family had moved at some point to Moffat, which is located some 45 miles to the south of where my grandmother, Helen Maud Russell was born in Avongrange, Hamilton (now the Avonbridge Hotel in Hamilton). An article in the Glasgow Daily Mail, published the day after his death, notes that “for a few years past [he] resided in Dumfries-shire, having tenanted Mouswald Place, Ruthwell. In May last (i.e. 1900?) he came to reside at Moffat, and during the past few months made many friends“.
He was also a Justice of the Peace for the Middle Ward of Lanarkshire.
Dolly ended up living for another 37 years, passing away in 1938 in Moffat. The 1911 census showing both she and Edith still living at Merkland, along with two servants. Their income was shown to have been from “private means”.
Helen Maud Russell (1887-1946)
My grandmother (father’s mother) was born at Avongrange, Hamilton, Scotland, on June 4, 1887. She would therefore have been 13 years old when her father passed away in December 1900.
The 1891 Scotland census, which was undertaken when she was 4 years old, shows the family living on Castlehill Crescent in Hamilton, Lanarkshire. Oddly, the census shows her mother as being the head of the household – her husband does not appear on the record at the household. There are also five servants listed in addition to her mother and five siblings.
This can be explained by Archibald’s appearance on the same census at a “hydropathic establishment” as a “visitor”. Hydropathy was a medical practice at the time which involved the use of water (used internally or externally) to cure disease. We can gather from this that he was ill well before his death nine years later.
In any event, the family was living in Moffat by the time of Archibald’s death in 1900 (see his obituary). At the time, the family was living at “Brookside”.
At the time of the 1901 census one year later, the family was still living at Brookside in Moffat (though only Helen Isabella Russell and four children appear to have been noted at that address, along with two servants).
Her mother (and she and her siblings) were all well provided for by the terms of her grandfather’s will when Archibald II died in 1904.
First marriage: I was aware that she was married before she met my grandfather – her first marriage was to James Wilson (1877-unkn.)
It appears that the couple were living in London (St. Margaret and St. John) in 1911, when this census record was completed. Their address was Flat 12, 36 Buckingham Gate:
From 1913 onwards, there are a series of legal notices published in the London Gazette and Edinburgh Gazette from creditors – here are a few examples (there are many):
It is not clear when or why the marriage failed, but clearly something was amiss as early as 1913.
Finally, in March 1918, there is an endorsement on the marriage record evidencing a divorce between the couple on 20 March 1918. The insertion reads:
“20th March 1918. Decree of Divorce was pronounced by Lord Anderson, ordinary, in an action at the instance of James Wilson, Private in His Majesty’s Army, against Mrs. Helen Maud Russell or Wilson, his wife, presently on service in France.”
My grandmother, indeed, was on service in France during WW1, driving an ambulance. This was something that I had been told by my father and eventually I wrote to the British Red Cross to see if they had any information. They were able to find this index card:
There is a notation on one of her photos indicating that she was awarded the Royal Red Cross for her service during the war. So, by the time she completed her service in France, the divorce had taken effect. My father was not clear in his understanding of what happened to her first husband; one account that I remember is that she had him declared dead, though the evidence of the divorce (which shows him as the pursuer, or plaintiff) suggests otherwise.
There is also this military record for a James Wilson, where the name of the spouse is shown as being Helen Maud Wilson. However, there are two facts that suggest that they are not one and the same person. First, the date of birth does not match (one year younger, though the date is only one day off). Second, there is a child (William) listed as a dependent, born in 1913.
At some point, in any event, she met my grandfather, Donald Stuart Cochrane (1889-1943) who was in Canada with the Canadian Forestry Corps. According to his military service record, he served in England and in France, but spent quite a long time in the hospital (with ‘Vincent’s Angina’, though he seems to have been diagnosed with TB as well).
For a continuation , there is a separate page devoted to Helen Maud Russell on this site.
There will eventually be a separate page devoted to Donald Stuart Cochrane as well.