2025 Week 42: Fire #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

Some families seem to be disproportionately affected by tragedy. One such family in a corner of my tree is that of Margaret Johnstone (1812-1894) and her husband John Craig (1811-1872). This couple were a merging of both sides of my family, Margaret from my paternal side and John from my maternal side ( though not from the same generation which makes things complicated!)

They married in January 1834 in Shotts, Lanarkshire and had their first child, John, that same year. Unfortunately John did not make it past his third birthday and the couple's next two children, another John and a girl, Elizabeth, both died in 1839 and like families did in those days, they went on to have more children - a total of 12 more over the next 19 years, in fact. At the start of 1854, they had eight children, but that was all about to change in the most terrible of circumstances. This newspaper article from the Glasgow Herald on the 11th of January gives the dreadful details:

Article from the Glasgow Herald, 20 Jan. 1854. Source: newspapers.com

How could a family ever get over that? Young Thomas did live, but two of his brothers and the young friend all died. The father, especially, had to live with the guilt of his bringing home the blasting powder, which killed his children and destroyed their home.

Gravestone of the children in Kirk O Shotts Graveyard. (Own photograph)

Family and friends will have rallied round. The community would have helped out where they could. That is mentioned in a poem that was written about the incident. The poem itself has sixteen verses and makes for emotional and somewhat graphic reading. Here are a few of them:

At that point, the couple had six remaining children between the ages of 4 and 13 and no home. Six years later they are all still living together in the town and the father is still working at the coal pit, though he is now the pit manager. For the rest of their lives, the family stay close to home. John, the father dies of pneumonia in 1872. With her husband gone by the time the next census (1881) comes around, Margaret is living together with her daughter Agnes and her youngest son John. They have moved out by 1874, however, and Margaret is forced to apply for parochial relief. She is given one shilling a week and taken into the Parish Poorhouse. However, she does not seem to have spent too long there. We find her again in the 1891 census, back home being taken care of by a granddaughter and a great granddaughter. It seemed the family rallied round her, which is good to know after all she;d been through.

Margaret died in her own home on the 29th April 1894 of bronchitis.

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