Meet Ursilla Katherine Bruce Beattie (1862-1937)

Ursilla Katherine Bruce and
John McDonald Beattie

Ursilla Katherine Bruce (pronounced Yer-SILL-a, sometimes spelled as Ursula), daughter of Robert Bruce and Wilhilmina Inkster, was born in Burravoe on the Island of Yell, Shetland, on 19 Feb 1862. She was the 4th of their 6 children,(1) and was born at the Manor House, her family’s residence in Burravoe. She is Ella’s maternal grandmother.

Ursilla was deaf since childhood. Whether at birth or because of an accident or illness, we're unsure. The details from family oral history are not certain, but the family story goes that Ursilla was born healthy, but Robert came home drunk one night and kicked Ursilla’s cradle, permanently damaging the infant baby’s hearing. However, according to school admittance records when she was 8, she was born deaf, though wasn't completely so - she "evince[d] sensations from loud noises." We may never know what really happened!

The Manor House in Burravoe,
where Ursilla was born

Ursilla’s father Robert passed away when she was 3 years old (in 1865), and her mother remarried when Ursilla was 7 years old, to Duncan Campbell (1847 - bef 1896) in 1870.

From a Bruce Family Register: Ursilla Katherine Bruce was
born at Burravoe on 19 February 1862, and was baptized at 
Burravoe [date?] October 1862 by [?] James Barclay
(Click to Enlarge)

Sometime in 1870 (at age 8 1/2), Ursilla was admitted to the Donaldson’s School in West Coates, Edinburgh, a residential and day school for children who were deaf or had communication difficulties.(2) She lived here and attended school until 1876, about age 14, where students studied such subjects as English, writing, and arithmetic; assisted with sweeping schoolrooms and passageways; and started and ended each day in the chapel singing a psalm, listening to a passage from the Old and New Testaments, and ending in prayer. (3) Meanwhile, her mother Wilhilmina and stepfather Duncan were living in Lerwick on the main island of Shetland with her 3 living brothers (according to the 1871 census and the Donaldson's School admission registry.)

The former Donaldson's School, in West Coates, Edinburgh

Admission Register to Donaldson's School
for Ursula Katherine Bruce
(Click to Enlarge)

As of the 1881 census (at about age 18 or 19), Ursilla was back in Shetland, living with her mother at 1 Crooked Lane, Lerwick.(4) At the 1891 census, she and her mother were then next door at 3 Crooked Lane, Lerwick. She was aged 28 or 29 at that time.

Ursilla was trained as a dressmaker, and she also worked as domestic servant.(5)

On 15 June 1900, she married John McDonald Beattie in Edinburgh, at Hope Park Hall.(6) She was 37; he was 39. At some point after they were married, they settled in Aberdeen, John’s hometown. John was an ironworker by profession.(7)

John was deaf as well, and according to family oral history he become so when he was playing as a child, maybe about 9 years old Ella speculates, when he was accidentally knocked down or kicked. Ella remembers being told that her grandmother Ursilla never really learned how to speak, though her grandfather John could understand and talk somewhat, and could communicate better verbally. Both Ursilla and John would communicate with each other using sign language.

Ursilla with her only child, daughter
"Kate." Image Source: Life History of
George and Katherine Findlay

When Ursilla was 42 and John 43, they had their only child, Ursula Katherine Bruce Beattie (pronounced ER-sill-a, but she went by Kate), born at 35 Broomhill Road, Aberdeen, on 31 October 1904. This is Ella’s mother.(8)

Ursilla and John's home later in their lives:
Off of Bank Street, down this alley/close, on the
right, is this little cottage. Number 26 1/2 is on the
 top floor, the far right window.
- Sept 2006, Sept 2014.

Being an older couple, and having only one child, Ella imagines they were very protective of their daughter. In fact, Ella recounts a family story that sometime when Kate was about 4 years old, a doctor who made a housecall noticed that young Kate wasn’t talking yet, though she would communicate using sign language. “You’ve got to let this child out,” said the doctor, so that the child could be exposed to more language and learn to talk. Ella says that they reluctantly let her go and “she never had any trouble [after that.] She always had plenty to say!” She never forgot the sign language - Ella remembers seeing her mother use it to communicate with other deaf people in the community.

John and Ursilla Beattie

Ursilla and John apparently lived in several homes throughout their lives. Did they ever live in Edinburgh, which is why they were married there? Their daughter Kate was born at 35 Broomhill Road - can we assume she was born at home? According to the 1911 census, they were living at 274 Hardgate. And Ella remembers them living at 26 1/2 Bank Street, with her mother and father (George and Kate Findlay) living with them and her sister Ina being born there.

Ursilla passed away on 11 Feb 1937 at the home of her daughter Kate at 10A Prospect Terrace, Aberdeen, just 2 weeks shy of her 75th birthday. The cause of her death was "carcinoma of uterus," a type of uterine cancer.(9) She was survived by her daughter Kate and son-in-law George Findlay, and granddaughters Ina and Ella; her husband John had passed away the year before in 1936. She’s buried in Allenvale Cemetery in Aberdeen.(10)

Ella was only 3 years old when her grandmother Ursilla passed away, so she doesn’t have many memories of her, but remembers some details that her older sister Ina (who was 5 ½ years older) would share.

……….

If I could ask Ursilla any questions, what would they be? Oh, I’d start with asking about Shetland. She’s the last in a long line of ancestors that herald from there. Where did she live after her mother Wilhilmina died (in 1896; Ursilla was 34)? Did she ever go back after she was married (after 1900, at age 37)? Her mother and all of her siblings (five blood siblings and two half siblings) seem to have passed away by 1897. What was the relationship between her mother and the rest of her father Robert Bruce’s family, especially after Robert had died? Where did she receive her dressmaker training? Did she make her wedding dress? Where did she meet her husband John? Did she feel isolated not being able to communicate with most around her, or did she have the support of close friends (all of her immediate family had passed away; her husband John was an only child from an illegitimate father and an orphan from age 9 when his mother passed away, so no in-laws either)? What did she draw strength from? What made her smile?

26 1/2 Bank Street, Aberdeen - Filmed September 2014

(Note that in the video I kept saying 28 1/2 Bank Street. Doh!)

………. Notes and Questions:

1. Ursilla’s mother, Wilhilmina Inkster, had 2 additional children with 2 different fathers; Ursilla's father, Robert Bruce, had 13 children with 7 different women.
2. More information about Donaldson’s School can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donaldson's_School
3. Donaldson's School records are archived at the National Library of Scotland. I was able to able to request scans of relevant records. 
4. Was her stepfather, Duncan Campbell living with them as well? He’s not listed on the census info on here after 1871? (Source: http://www.bayanne.info/Shetland/getperson.php?personID=I10400&tree=ID1) His death date is also unknown? Her younger half brother Alexander Campbell was listed as living with Ursilla and her mother in 1881. (Source: http://www.bayanne.info/Shetland/getperson.php?personID=I10401&tree=ID1)
5. Source (under Notes): http://www.bayanne.info/Shetland/getperson.php?personID=I9215&tree=ID1. Where might she have received her dressmaker training?
6. Source: http://www.bayanne.info/Shetland/getperson.php?personID=I9215&tree=ID1. Is this the same as what was renamed Queen's Hall in Edinburgh? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen's_Hall,_Edinburgh) Also mentions that they were “Married by W. J. Harwell, witnesses; Jane E. Bolt, William Low.” I wonder why they were married in Edinburgh? But first, how did they meet? Ella thought they might have met at Donaldson’s School, however, according to Donaldson’s records, there’s no record of him being a student there, nor at the other only deaf school in Edinburgh. In fact, according to this source http://www.bayanne.info/Shetland/getperson.php?personID=I145512&tree=ID1, he was placed in an orphanage at age 9, which would have been in 1869 or 1870, around the same time that Ursilla was at Donaldson’s. Additionally, they married while in their late 30s; does it make sense that they would have met as children and then married later? Which orphanage was he at? Are there records for this?
7. John McDonald Beattie's profession as an ironworker is listed on several documents, including the 1911 census, the birth register for their daughter Ursula Katherine Bruce Beattie ("Kate"), and the marriage certificate for their daughter Ursula Katherine Bruce Beattie to their son-in-law George Findlay.
8. Were Ursilla and John living at 35 Broomhill Road, and daughter Kate was born at home?
9. See a scan of the death register, below.
10. Burial place confirmed via email on 5 Oct 2016 by a Bereavement Services Registrar in the Bereavement Services Office, Marischal College, Aberdeen: Allenvale Cemetery, Section 2, Lair 278 (same as husband John).

Would love to find:

• Orphanage records for John Beattie (in Aberdeen?)
• Census records for Ursilla and John - for John before they got married then for both of them after they married (Found: 1911 Census, when Ursilla was 49, John 50, and daughter Ursula ("Kate") was 6.)
• Marriage record for Ursilla and John
• Trade guild/craft registry for ironworkers that would include John Beattie

……….

Ursilla is Ella's maternal grandmother

1911 Census - John MD. Beattie and Ursilla K. Beattie
(Click to Enlarge)

Death Register for Ursilla Katherine Beattie
(Click to Enlarge)