Places to visit in Perthshire and Fife in relation to the Driffill/Thomson family history

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Benjamin Carr
6 years ago
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Places to visit in Perthshire and Fife in relation to the Driffill/Thomson family history Grandma Driffill was a Thomson, she was born Rosalie Alexandrina Thomson on 5 August 1892 on the family farm

1 Places to visit in Perthshire and Fife in relation to the Driffill/Thomson family history Grandma Driffill was a Thomson, she was born Rosalie Alexandrina Thomson on 5 August 1892 on the family farm at Fern Flat near Murchison. Rosalie s father was Robert Will Thomson. Robert emigrated to New Zealand in early 1886 with his first wife Jane Gordon Mitchell. They had married in November 1885 just before the trip to New Zealand. Two of Robert s older brothers had already settled in NZ, Alexander in the 1860s and John in Alexander had a substantial farm near Nelson and John was breaking in land at Maruia, not far from Murchison. Robert and his wife Jane had two children. Lucy was born in June 1886 at Fern Flat and Gordon was born in September 1887 at Fern Flat. Jane died in January 1889 (aged 34) from a degenerative heart condition after an 18 month illness. She and the two children were cared for by Alexander s wife Agnes at their farm at Waimea West (near Nelson) while Robert remained on the new farm at Murchison. Just over a year later, Robert married Alexandrina Sutherland at Murchison. She had just turned 20 and he was a 40 year old widow with two small children. Robert and Alexandrina then had two daughters, Rosalie and Queenie, and the rest is history. This photo of Robert and Alexandrina about the time of their marriage. Robert died in 1919, leaving Alexandrina a widow at the age of 49. During his 30 odd years in NZ, Robert was a farmer, he operated the punt over the Buller River at Fern Flat (so an expert boatman) and he and Alexandrina ran a private hotel and stables at Inangahua Junction. All of these skills were learned in Scotland as his family were involved in exactly the same businesses farming, hotels, ferries, fishing and shipping.

Robert married late in life, he was 35 when he married Jane Gordon and up until that time he had been actively involved in his father s business interests around Errol in Perthshire, Scotland.

2 Robert married late in life, he was 35 when he married Jane Gordon and up until that time he had been actively involved in his father s business interests around Errol in Perthshire, Scotland. Robert was born on the family farm at Port Allen, near Errol on 3 May He was the 7 th child in a family of 10 and he had 4 older brothers. His father George Thomson was born at Glenduckie in Fife (just across the River Tay from Port Allen) and his mother Christina Roger was born in Errol, Perthshire, close to Port Allen. George Thomson had humble origins, his family were weavers and they lived at the small settlement of Glenduckie in Fife. You can visit Glenduckie, there is a circular road off the main road and you can still see the ponds where the flax was softened prior to stripping for the linen fibre that was used in the weaving process. It is quite likely that one of the dwellings that remain there today in this tiny hamlet, was once home to the Thomson family.

their father s footsteps and become weavers.

3 This is a photo of Glenduckie from the A913 on the Fife side of the River Tay. George and his brother Alexander proved to be very enterprising young men and they did not follow in their father s footsteps and become weavers. The brother initially began running a ferry service from Newburgh to Port Allen on the other side of the Tay. Newburgh is close to Glenduckie and you can see the wharf and landing area at Newburgh

4 where they operated from. The brother s expanded their business interests and were also involved in salmon fishing purchasing the leases for salmon fishing rights from the local landowner at Errol. In the course of his work as a ferry operator, George met the widowed Christina Roger whose father leased the farm at Port Allen and who was also the shoremaster. Christina s father James had also begun life as a weaver but by 1816 (Christina was born in 1812) he had acquired the job as shoremaster at Port Allen. He was also a coal merchant and after the bankruptcy of the tenant farmer at Port Allen in 1824, James Roger acquired the lease of the Port Allen farm. The 1832 register of electors for the County of Perth describes James as farmer, tenant, salmon fishing and mill lands, though it does not mention that James was also running a successful inn at Port Allen and was a licenced vintner basically a publican. So after marrying Christina Roger in 1835, George Thomson set up his household in the village of Errol and over the new few years was variously described as a boatman, fisherman, coal merchant and seaman. I have now included the notes from my blog which will add a little more context. This was from my first visit to Perthshire and Fife in For the last couple of days I have been exploring the family of my grandmother, Rosalie Thomson and more specifically her father Robert Will Thomson. My father never knew his grandfather Robert but over the last few years Dad has come to know a little more about his grandfather as a result of my exploration of his family history. While Dad is not a fan of Scotland and this is not surprising given that a New Zealander in Edinburgh told me that summer lasts for two weeks in a bad year and four weeks in a good year Dad would have been in his element over the last week. The weather has continued to be absolutely fabulous and even though I am told almost every day that it is going to rain tomorrow tomorrow doesn t seem to come. It is the boats and the river that Dad would have loved! Today I circumnavigated the River Tay. How do you circumnavigate a river you ask? Simple, you drive up the northern side to the mouth, cross the huge bridge near the sea and then drive down the southern side and cross again downstream. I crossed the Tay three times because the first crossing was accidental. I failed to take the correct turn to get me to the dock area of Dundee city and I had to cross the bridge, turn around and come back. So the third crossing was the meant to cross the River Tay crossing. This is not a river as we know it and the Tay River bridge makes the Auckland harbour bridge look tiny. This river is like a harbour and as today was a windy day, this was a rough piece of water. There are little ports dotted all the way down the river and these small ports were vital to move goods and people around the area.

5 This river was an important part of the Thomson family s lives. George (my father s great grandfather) and his brother Alexander were salmon fishermen on the Tay in the early 1830 s. Alexander purchased his own boat in RUBY was a sloop weighing 62 tons and she was built in the Tay area in She had a breadth of 17 feet that s a wide boat and she drew 9 feet. This boat enabled the Thomson brothers to diversify from fishing into coal and Alexander moved to the port at the mouth of the river (Ferry Port on Craig now known as Tayport), probably to expand their business and contacts, while George remained at Port Allen. Their shared father-in-law James Roger was the harbourmaster at Port Allen and this would have likely been as asset. In 1840 the RUBY was lost on the Tay. Nothing is known of the circumstances of the loss but both Thomson brothers survived to tell the tale but this highlights that the river could be a dangerous place in the wrong circumstances. The Thomson brothers were not out of business for long. In the same year they jointly purchased a schooner which they named THOMSONS. Their new vessel weighed 71 tons and if Dad were here, he would be able to tell me all sorts of things about both of these boats. They would likely have had problems bringing their new boat into Port Allen as their home port was on the tidal side of the river. The north side was extremely tidal and the ports could only be accessed on the high tide while the southern side of the river was navigable on any tide. Dad, are you impressed that I have found out all of this boat and navigation stuff? I read a thesis that had been written about the history of the river, its boats and its ports at the Perth library and I would have had to drag Dad away from it (the thesis), had he been my research assistant. Alexander bought George s (our ancestor) half share of THOMSONS in 1847 and George took over his father-in-law s farm at Port Allen which included the local inn, an orchard and a mill. A good choice, because his brother Alexander was lost at sea in Exploring Port Allen was a lonely business. The port no longer exists but the channel can still be seen winding around the rushes and the retaining wall that had been constructed up to the landing point is also still in existence. The large pier remains clearly visible but I must say that I felt pretty miserable that I had no one to share my little discoveries with anyone. It is just no fun exploring on your own! Dad, I wish you were here exploring all of your family places with me. So as you can see both Errol and Port Allen are a must visit. The Thomson family continued to operate the farm, orchard, port and inn at Port Allen until 1871 when George took over the lease of a bigger farm at East Leys. In 1871 the family occupied both farms and Robert Will Thomson (Grandma s father) was running the inn at Port Allen aged 20. By 1881 he was at East Leys, probably running the farm, as George (his father) was now aged 75 and Robert was 31. His younger brother David was also working on the East Leys farm along with two employed men. East Leys was an arable farm only. In 1886 Robert emigrated to New Zealand to join his older brothers, while younger brother David stayed on the farm at East Leys. George died in 1890 aged 84 years and his wife Christina died in 1891 aged 78 years. David was left alone coping with the agricultural depression. He defaulted on his lease payments and in late 1892 all of the farm equipment was auctioned, the East Leys farmhouse was burned to the ground and David arrived in New Zealand in May 1893, joining Robert on his farm in Murchison. Another copy and paste from my 2010 blog Allow me to introduce George Thomson. His father was a weaver a humble but highly skilled trade. When George married in 1836 he was a fisherman at Port Allen, just across the river from where he was born. By 1838 he had diversified and was a fisherman and a boatman this meant that he manned the small ferry boat that crossed from Port Allen on one side of the river to near where he was born, on the other. During the 1840 s George became a coal merchant in addition to being a fisherman, and by 1851 he had acquired the lease on a farm at Port Allen Junction 46 acres. One can only imagine what a huge change this would have been for a man who did not have a farming background. The fertile land around the River Tay was arable land and did not run stock, so managing crops would have been an enormous undertaking. However things must have gone reasonably well, because in 1861 George had increased his holding to 65 acres and he employed 4 men and a boy. At the same time, he had acquired the inn at Port Allen and was officially the publican. George expanded his landholding further and by 1871 he had 130 acres called East Leys Farm as well as the public house at Port Allen. He was now 65. This is certainly the story of a man with a lot of drive and ambition to better himself. I am very proud that George is my great great grandfather. George s brother led a very different life. Alexander Thomson started out as a fisherman at Port Allen with his brother. He was seven years older than George and quickly became the shipmaster at Port Allen. However by 1841 he had moved his family to Ferry-Port-on-Craig, which is at the mouth of the River Tay close to the port of Dundee. On the 1851 census his wife Ann (coincidentally brothers married sisters and George s wife was Ann s sister) was home alone as Alexander was at

sea. Two of Alexander s daughters tragically died in the same week in 1845, one aged two and the other eight and we know from the burial details that Alexander was a ships master.

Alexander was lost at sea in November 1856 on a journey between Elsinore and Carlsberg (both ports in Denmark).

6 sea. Two of Alexander s daughters tragically died in the same week in 1845, one aged two and the other eight and we know from the burial details that Alexander was a ships master. In merchant shipping the master was the captain. But there was more tragedy for the family. Alexander was lost at sea in November 1856 on a journey between Elsinore and Carlsberg (both ports in Denmark). He was obviously an astute and reasonably wellpaid ships master because he left his widow an estate worth 665 pounds a very considerable sum in She was equally enterprising because she set herself up in a grocery business. There was clearly no widows benefit to be had in the 19th century! But Ann married again and yes, you guess right to another ships master! So a very fast history of the Thomsons! A map of Port Allen in 1861 is shown below. This map shows the farmhouse and steading on the left the corn and barley mill, the pier and the crane. Today it looks like this

When you drive down to Port Allen, you are able to freely explore around the water front

left as you look back up from the old pier.

7 When you drive down to Port Allen, you are able to freely explore around the water front area. You can easily identify the old pier, metal rings in the grass for tying up boats and Thomson farmhouse. It is on the right as you drive down (I parked up by the steading and walked) or on the left as you look back up from the old pier. You can also see the old toll gates which were chained and the scale in the ground for weighing cargo etc. Thomson farmhouse on the left in this photo. The inn may have been the building on the right.

Most of the family were baptised at the churches in Errol and George and Christina are buried in the Errol churchyard. Head down to Port Allen for the best evidence of the Thomson s life in the 1800s.

8 So it takes only 2 hours to circumnavigate the whole area. You can begin at Dundee, travelling down the A90 to the Errol turn off a very small sign. So Errol is where George Thomson lived with his young family before taking over Port Allen from his father-in-law. Most of the family were baptised at the churches in Errol and George and Christina are buried in the Errol churchyard. Head down to Port Allen for the best evidence of the Thomson s life in the 1800s. You can then follow the road back to the A90 and do the circuit back to Newburgh in Fife. It is here that George and his brother ran the ferry service from Newburgh to Port Allen. Following the A92, you will pass Glenduckie where George s parents were weavers. It is likely that the Thomson family lived in this area of Fife for many generations before the 1800s. Continue onto Tayport. James Roger retired to Tayport and George owned several houses in the town. Back over the river on the famous Tay Bridge to Dundee.

the little boy 1 a good boy 1 then you give 1 is about me 1 was to come 1 old and new 1 that old man 1 what we know 1 not up here 1 in and out 1

the little boy 1 a good boy 1 is about me 1 then you give 1 was to come 1 old and new 1 what we know 1 that old man 1 in and out 1 not up here 1 good for you 1 down at work 1 with his cat 1 it was new