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)

Robert and Wilhilmina Bruce/Campbell - Final Resting Places

Photocopies of a Bruce Family Register.
Where is the original?

Maybe the mystery has been solved, and the answer had been right under my nose? (Or maybe this was a mystery to no one other than myself?)

When we visited Shetland in September 2014, I was hoping to visit the graves of Robert Bruce (1827-1865) and his wife Wilhilmina Inkster (1835-1896) - Grandma Ella’s great grandparents - but we weren't sure where they might be. 

Robert passed away in Symbister, on Whalsay (a different island than the one his manor house was on)...we thought he might be buried in a Bruce crypt there? Or perhaps in the little kirkyard in Hamnavoe, not far from his manor house in Burravoe, on the island of Yell.

Ella's Great Grandparents, Robert Bruce 
and Wilhilmina Inkster

Wilhilmina remarried after Robert's death, and she passed away in Lerwick, on the mainland of Shetland. There are two cemeteries there, the "old" one and the "new" one. Based on the year of her death, we thought she might have been buried in the old cemetery, and we spent time walking each row, and reading each headstone, but we didn't find her there. 

But just recently as I was looking through files at home, I came across this photocopy that Grandma Ella sent me in March 2014, a few months prior to our trip. 

I'm not sure what type of document this is (a family register?) or where Grandma got the copy, but in any case, it's a goldmine! 

It states:

Robert Bruce of Burravoe died at Symbister the 16th
of August 1865, and was buried at the Kirk of Hamnavoe.

and 

Mrs. Bruce or Campbell died at Lerwick on the 28th of
December 1896 and was buried at the new cemetery in Lerwick.(1)

Also listed on that photo copy is information about the other children of Robert and Wilhilmina, two of whom are also buried at the Kirk in Hamnavoe: Baby Mary Margaret Robina Bruce, who died at just 11 months old, and Baby William Bruce, who died at 18 months old. 

Mary Margaret Robina Bruce ... Kirk of Hamnavoe in Burravoe, Yell.

William Bruce ... buried at the Kirk of Hamnavoe.

While visiting the St. Magnus' Kirk of Hamnavoe in 2014, we saw the unmarked graves that are partitioned off, directly behind the kirk, that local folklore supposes belong to Bruces, but which were left unmarked (or tombstones removed?) as they weren't well liked in the community. (See the video below.) Perhaps this location is in fact where our Robert is buried, as well as babies Mary Margaret Robina and William. (Perhaps there are other records somewhere that could confirm? From the kirk?)

The Kirk at Hamnavoe. View from the back.
Image Source.

The Kirk at Hamnavoe. View from the front.

Behind the Kirk at Hamnavoe. This partitioned area is where
Bruce family members are believed to be buried.

During that same trip, we also briefly visited the New Cemetery in Lerwick, not realizing that Wilhilmina was buried there, spending more time searching through the Old Cemetery. 

The New Cemetery in Lerwick, where Wilhilmina Inkster
Bruce/Campbell(1) is buried. 

On our next trip, we'll visit these locations again, with a greater surety that we're in the right spot.

Grandpa Ralph at the Kirk of Hamnavoe. Super windy! 
27 Sept 2014

………

Sources:

• Photocopies of a family register, shared by Grandma Ella. Not sure who has the original.
• Photos and video taken by KF, September 2014, unless otherwise noted.

Notes:

1. After Robert’s death in 1865, Wilhilmina remarried, to Duncan Campbell in 1870. 

Meet Wilhilmina Inkster Bruce/Campbell (1835-1896)

Robert Bruce and Wilhilmina Inkster

Wilhilmina Inkster (1835-1896) (pronounced "WILL-yum-EYE-na")(1) - Ella's great grandmother - was the only child of her parents William Inkster (a perfumer and hairdresser in Tain, Scotland) and Margaret Graham. (However, her father later had 3 children with his wife Ann Silcock (1823-1899)).

According to census records, by 1841 at age 5, Wilhilmina was living with her father (who was age 25) at High Street, in Tain. Her mother, Margaret, we assume passed away before this time - she's not listed in the census.(2) By 1851 Wilhilmina was living at 89 Commercial Street Lerwick, when she was 16 years old, supposedly with her aunt Elizabeth Walker (her father's sister?).(3) She must have gone to live with her aunt sometime after her mother passed away.

The Manor House in Burravoe, South Yell, Shetland,
where Robert and Wilhilmina lived

When she was 20 years old, Wilhilmina married Robert Bruce (1827-1865) on 1 May 1855 at the United Free Church of Scotland in Lerwick, on the main island of Shetland. He was 27 years old. Together, they had six children in their ten years of marriage, and for at least part of their marriage they lived in the Manor House in Burravoe on the island of Yell, Shetland, where he was a laird.

However, during their brief marriage, Robert also had 6 children with 5 other women (including one born just 2 months after Wilhilmina and Robert were married).

Of Wilhimina and Robert’s six children, it appears that she outlived 4 of them, and one passed away just a year after she did:

1. Robert Bruce (1857-1892; 35 years old. Passed away en route to Australia.)
2. William Bruce (1859-1860; 1 year old. Passed away from convulsions.)
3. William Alfred Bruce (1860-1897; 37 years old. Died in Australia.)
4. Ursilla Katherine Bruce (1862-1937; 74 years old. Deaf since childhood. This is Ella’s grandmother.)
5. David Bruce (1864-Unknown, but at least 1881 as he’s listed in the Edinburgh census for that year.)
6. Mary Margaret Robina Bruce (1865-1866; born one month before her father passed away; died just about 2 weeks shy of being 1 year old.)

Robert passed away in 1865, when Wilhilmina was 30 years old.(4) Five of their six children were alive at the time (with the youngest, Mary Margaret Robina being born a month before Robert’s death.

After Robert's death, Wilhilmina had another daughter (her seventh child) - Wilhelmina Johann Inkster. The father is unknown,(5) and it’s unknown how long she lived.

When Wilhilmina was aged 34, she married for a second time to 22-year old Duncan Campbell (1847-bef 1896; a slater/roof tiler by profession) on 24 February 1870 in Lerwick. Can we assume that her four or five living children joined the household with Duncan (Robert, William Alfred, Ursilla Katherine, David...and perhaps Wilhelmina Johann, if she were still living)?

Together, Wilhilmina and Duncan had one son, Alexander Campbell, born 25 November 1870 (her eighth child). According to the 1871 Census, they were living on Commercial Street in Lerwick. In 1881, they were at 1 Crooked Lane, Lerwick, and in 1891, at 3 Crooked Lane. (6) (See below for videos of Commercial St and Crooked Lane.)

It's unclear when Duncan passed away, but apparently sometime before 1896, before Wilhilmina. She passed away on 28 December 1896 on Crooked Lane when she was 61 years old. (7)

On our trip to Shetland in September 2014, we strolled along Commercial Street, and happened upon Crooked Lane as well, which is just off of Commercial Street, not far from Market Cross. Many of the buildings along Commercial Street seem to be original. Along Crooked Lane, however, it looked as though many had crumbled or been demolished, and there were either empty lots or newer homes that had been built. It was still intriguing, however, to walk through the quite narrow alley from Commercial Street, up Crooked Lane, imagining what life might have been like 150 years ago for these ancestors.

Market Cross, Commercial St, Lerwick - Sept 2014

Ella and cousin R cruising
Commercial St, Lerwick.
The narrow passage to Crooked Lane
is up on the right, just out of view in this
photo - Sept 2014

Crooked Lane, Lerwick. A quite narrow
passageway up steep steps  - Sept 2014

Crooked Lane, looking down toward
Commercial St and the harbor. (Date unknown - Image Source)

..........

Above are the facts that we can glean from available records. But as I’ve been compiling this biographical info, I yearn to know more! It seems as though life was filled with a lot of heartache for Wilhilmina - death, uncertainty, infidelity…all of which seemed a lot more common in that time period compared with today. That being said, I wonder what her outlook on life was like. Perhaps orphaned after her mother’s death, living with her aunt (a grocer), marries a laird (was such a leap in social class common?), lives in a very small community with her husband having children with five other women concurrently with her (not to mention women he might have had relations with that didn’t get pregnant), the deaths of several of her children, a child of her own out of wedlock, then marries a slater who is 12 years younger than herself after her first husband’s death (a step down in social class - did the Bruce family disown her?), and eventually buried in an unmarked grave. 

What brought her joy in life? What sustained her through the hard times? 

As far as I can tell, the only one of her 8 children whose lineage has continued is her oldest daughter’s, Ursilla Katherine Bruce (1862-1937), Ella’s grandmother, and the child who was deaf.(8)

When Ursilla was young, I imagine that Wilhilmina might have worried about and wondered what type of future her daughter would have with such a handicap and whether she would lead a meaningful life. But she did! Ursilla went on to marry (her husband also being deaf - John MacDonald Beattie, 1860-1936), have one child of her own (Ella’s mother, Ursula Katherine, who went by "Kate"), who had 2 children (Ella and her sister), and between those sisters, their posterity is over 100 strong (between Ella and her sister’s children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren)! 

I hope that Wilhilmina smiles down from heaven on us, seeing that conditions and relationships improve with each generation. Believing that family relationships endure beyond death, I look forward to meeting Wilhilmina some day and I can’t wait to ask her to fill in the blanks!

..........

Does Anyone Know...

• How might Robert and Wilhilmina have met?
• Who is the father of Wilhilmina's 7th child?
• I initially thought that Wilhilmina's parents weren't married as I haven't found any record of that yet, except I discovered that on the marriage registry entry for her and Duncan, it lists her parents as William Inkster and Margaret Inkster (M.S. Graham), confirming they were married. Anyone have any more info on this?
• Any additional sources we can reference here?

Notes:

1. There are many spelling variations in different records: Wilhelmina, Williamina, Inster, and more!
2. Source: http://www.bayanne.info/Shetland/getperson.php?personID=I9210&tree=ID1. Also see census scan for 1841, included below.
3. Shetland Family History lists the aunt's name as Elizabeth Walker, while familysearch.org lists it as Elizabeth Inkster (no record of a marriage in the latter source). (Source: http://www.bayanne.info/Shetland/getperson.php?personID=I9210&tree=ID1)
4. Robert apparently was “found dead in his bedroom.” (Source: http://www.bayanne.info/Shetland/getperson.php?personID=I9209&tree=ID1)
5. In fact, it looks like Wilhelmina Johann Inkster’s birth certificate was registered by a neighbor. Why? Interestingly, this daughter was born at 89 Commercial St, Lerwick, the same address at which Wilhilmina lived with her aunt before she married Robert. Did she move back with her aunt after Robert’s death?
6. Source: http://www.bayanne.info/Shetland/getperson.php?personID=I10400&tree=ID1
7. Source: http://www.jghalcrow.co.uk/bdm/deaths/pdf/Deaths_1897_ST.pdf
8. It’s unknown whether Ursilla was born with that condition or there was some sort of illness or accident that brought it on during her childhood.

1841 Census for Tain that Lists Williamina Inkster with Her father
William Inkster (Click to Enlarge)

Marriage Register Listing Wilhilmina Bruce Marrying Duncan Campbell
(Click to Enlarge)