Sarah Clyde McErlane

My grandmother, Sarah Clyde Cameron (1890-1971). Sarah’s maiden name was McErlane; she looks very young in this photograph, maybe 17/18.

Balshagray Farm, Jordanhill, Glasgow

The three eldest children of Lachlan Cameron and Sarah McErlane – Jimmie Cameron (1919-1988), Henry Cameron (b. 1920) and Annie Cameron (1922-2013) were all born in Balshagray Farm in Jordanhill, Glasgow. 

According to Stuart MacLean’s website ‘Jordanhill Local History’ the farm was ‘on the north side of Mitre Road, west of Orleans Avenue.   A section of the original steading wall can still be seen at 38 Mitre Road. A date stone for 1829, saved from the old building when it was demolished, is incorporated into the boundary wall between two houses directly opposite the site, at numbers 39 and 41.’ http://www.wsmclean.com/bygones.htm

The farm’s full name was High Balshagray Farm – here it is in a map from 1860 https://maps.nls.uk/view/index.cfm?id=74953120#zoom=4&lat=9781&lon=3869&layers=BT

Lachlan and Sarah lived there with their growing family until at least 1922, when my mother, Annie, was born. They must have moved there not long after they got married in 1918.

For a brief time, Lachlan’s sister Ann (1862-1919) and her husband Myles Ward (1862-?) lived at the farm with them. By 1919 the Wards had moved to Gibson Street, in the West End – Ann died there, a victim of the flu pandemic. Interesting to note the Highlands (Cameron) / Irish connection – Sarah not so long away from Co. Derry; Myles came from Co. Fermanagh.

I wonder if this could be Lachlan or Myles in this postcard – the farm was demolished in 1928, not so long after the Camerons had departed to go back to Balloch.

https://glasgowpunter.blogspot.com/2014/11/walking-through-partick-past-and-present.html

Henry McErlane - Rochester 1937

Henry McErlane (1889-1956) was my grandmother’s elder brother – my great-uncle. When his mother died the children were split up – my granny to be brought up by her paternal grandparents in Ireland, her two sisters to an orphanage in Rothesay. Henry stayed with his father and spent all of his working life in the Merchant Navy.

By the late ‘30s Henry was living in Rochester, close to Chatham Docks. He married Elizabeth Lacey in Medway Registry Office on 25^th September 1937, at the grand old age of 48. According to his marriage certificate his father, John, was still alive at that time – aged 75.

The couple’s home address was 8 Davis Square, Corporation Street, Rochester.

Like most locations associated with the McErlane family (!) Davis Square is no longer there. The flats of St Clement’s House (the ‘L’ shaped building in the picture above, enclosed by Corporation Street, Blue Boar Lane & the railway line) stand where Davis Square used to be.

Henry & Elizabeth lived five minutes’ walk from Rochester Station (both the new & old ones) and the Registry Office that they got married in. I pass by most days, unaware until recently of my only family English connection

Lyon's Lane, Port Glasgow

Henry and Sarah Clyde McErlane were both born in 18 Lyon’s Lane, Port Glasgow in 1889 and 1890 respectively. Their father John worked as a Shipyard Labourer; the family – mother Elizabeth & older sisters Jane and Margaret moved to the Port in 1888/89 and were still there by the time of the 1891 census.

Lyon’s Lane was described in the 1856 Ordinance Survey Name Book as ‘a narrow lane or alley leading from King Street and terminating at Fore Street. It is wholly paved and lighted up with gas’.

In the 1896 Ordinance Survey Map the street is unnamed – it’s the lane running parallel to and directly to the right of Church Street, just above King Street in the extract above.

MacDonald’s Scottish Directory & Gazetteer 1893-4

Only two businesses listed in the lane in this gazetteer…

Blacksmiths – Lambie, W., & Sons, Lyon’s Lane

Coal Merchants – Kelly, Neil, sen., & Co., Lyon’s Lane; best qualities of household, steam and smithy coals always in stock; also metal ballast for ships

Dockhead Close

A couple of streets away…

All but the main streets in central Port Glasgow have been knocked down. Next time I’m up there I’ll have a look to see if there’s any trace of Lyon’s Lane!

Grace Street?

For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure this is where Grace Street once stood…

Grace Street, Partick, Glasgow

The McErlane family

John McErlane (1862-??) was born in Ballynease, County Derry but spent most of his adult life in Scotland. John married Elizabeth Clyde (1864-1895) in Dumbarton in 1885; Elizabeth was born in Scotland (Old Monklands) to Irish parents, William & Sarah from Aghaderg, County Down.

The couple had five children and their birthplaces bear testament to the itinerant life of the Irish navvy in the late nineteenth century. Jane, born 1886 Queensferry (Forth Rail Bridge); Margaret, born 1888 Clydebank; Henry born 1889 Port Glasgow: Sarah born 1890 Port Glasgow; John born 1895, Partick.

Partick, Glasgow

In the late 18^th century into early 20^th century Partick was transformed from a village to a busy, industrial part of the city, with an influx of ‘migrant’ workers – mainly Irish emigrants and Scots who had made their way south from the Highlands. In 1851 the population of Partick was 17,000; by 1901 it had reached 54,000.

Tenement housing was built to cope with the population growth but the tenements became (famously) overcrowded themselves. Partick / the West End was (and is) an area where some of the richest Glaswegians lived but Dumbarton Road marked the class divide – the poorest classes lived to the south, closest to the River Clyde.

Grace Street

At some point between 1891 (when the census recorded the family as living in Port Glasgow) and 1895 John, Elizabeth and family moved to Grace Street in Partick, where John worked as a Shipyard Labourer.

Grace Street is no longer there but was just south of Partick Cross. You can clearly see the street pattern from the ordinance survey map of 1894 preserved in the modern street layout (Google Maps).

1894 Douglas Street = Purdon Street; 1894 Kelvin Street = Keith Street.

Grace Street has gone but it’s easy to figure out where it was…the tree just at the end of Walker Court marks the line where Grace Street ran along.

Grace Street houses

I can’t find a photo of Grace Street (yet) but this is an old postcard (1901) of Kelvin (or Keith) Street, just a few steps away. These particular houses were demolished in the 1930s – no doubt Grace Street met the same fate at the same time.

Elizabeth Clyde McErlane

Elizabeth died at 9 Grace Street, Partick on 4^th October 1895, just a month after her child John was born. She died of gastro-enteritis and cardiac failure, aged 31.

Ballagan Farm, 1920

Ballagan Farm plays a big part in the history of my mother’s side of the family, the Camerons, throughout the last century. The farm is just outside Balloch, off the Stirling Road, on the way to Gartocharn.

Based on the age of my uncle Jimmie (the baby in the pram) I’m guessing this picture is from 1919/20. The Cameron Clan (and friends) assemble pre-ceilidh in the yard at Ballagan Farm. Somewhere, I have a bit of paper with everyone’s names on it and I’ll turn the unknowns into knowns but, for the moment, I’ll concentrate on the Camerons…

Back row (left to right) – unknown, unknown, John ‘Jock’ Cameron (1880- ), Lachlan Cameron (1877-1959), unknown, Donald Cameron (1883-)

Front row – unknown, Janet ‘Jessie’ Cameron, Jimmie Cameron (1916-1956), Janet Cameron (1876-1946), Jimmie Cameron (1919-1988), Sarah Cameron (1890-1971)

Lachlan is my grandfather, Sarah Clyde McErlane (married name Cameron) my granny. They married in 1918. Sarah had been a domestic servant working at Ashfield House just across the road from the farm.

The pictured siblings (Jock, Lachlan, Donald and Janet) were all born in Kilmallie, Argyll just north of Fort William. These four were from a family of ten, the elder brothers and sisters born in nearby Ardnamurchan. Their parents were James Cameron (1837-1907) and Catherine Campbell (1840-1922). Gaelic was their first language, Presbyterian Highlanders.

The bulk of family migrated south in the late nineteenth century. By 1883 the eldest daughter, Ann Cameron, married name Ward (1862-1919) was living in Glasgow. In the 1891 Census Lachlan was in Lochgoilhead, Argyll; 1901 in Row (Rhu) Garelochhead, working as a Railway Surfaceman (another one in the family!). 

By 1907 we know they were in Ballagan Farm – the year that James died.