Clark Kin

I have been researching my father's family, the Clarks, on Scotland's People on the Internet and the Mormons' Familysearch and this is the state of play at 11 January 2007. I have been helped by my cousins Jack Paterson of London and June Dunlop of Greenock, Scotland, along with my own close family.

My father William Clark was born 2 July 1908 at 6 Crownpoint Road, Glasgow, registered in the District of Calton. He married my mother Catherine McDonald Pettigrew in 1938 and her family information may be found in Pettigrew Findings.

My grandfather George Clark, born 3 May 1878 (one of 14 George Clarks born in Scotland that year) to William Clark (journeyman slipper maker at the time of his marriage, later sewing machine mechanic) and Marion Stark, was supposed to have come to Glasgow in Scotland from a small town on the coast of County Antrim in Northern Ireland, probably Portrush. His parents were thought to have emigrated bringing him, his younger brother and his sisters. His sisters were Marion, Jessie (Agnes?), and Williamina (Ina). They were all supposed to have settled in the Dennistoun district of Glasgow, where they later lived.

In fact William Clark and Marion Stark were near-neighbours in Great Dovehill Street in Glasgow, aged 19, when they married on 2 November 1877. The bride was signed her name with an X and was pregnant as was usual then. Marion Boyd Stark was born 10 July 1858 at Kilsyth in the County of Stirling to William Stark, cotton weaver later powerloom tester, and Janet Livingstone Boyd, maidservant, who was deceased at the time of the wedding, when her name was given as Elizabeth Boyd. William Clark was the son of George Clark, slipper maker (shoemaker at the time of his marriage in Glasgow to Frances Johnston on 31 October 1854), deceased at the time of the wedding.

Great Dovehill Street seems to have been an immigrant area with the unrelated dressmaker single mother from Islay, Mary Clark, and Marion Stark from Kilsyth so who knows where William Clark came from. One of 67 born in Scotland in his year.

Jessie and Ina lived at 10 Appin Road in Dennistoun. Their niece, June Baylis, was taken there every Sunday afternoon, dressed in her best clothes, to visit them. It was a room and kitchen with a set-in bed in each room. Jessie had been married but her husband had died. In the room were two pianos and an organ. How Ina got into her bed June didn't know. Ina was a dispenser in a doctor's surgery and made up all the bottles of cough mixture etc. that the doctor prescribed. Marion's married name was Wyllie and for a little time June Baylis was in the same class at school as her grandson, Innes, before she went to 'Hutchie'. June thinks there was also a cousin called Bella. George Clark had a cousin of his own in the city. He took his son, my father William Clark (born 2 July 1908), and his daughter Ann (Nan) (born 7 July 1910) back to Portrush for holidays when they were young. There was a brother who died in infancy. His wife, Ady, kept a little pair of baby boots belonging to him.

George Clark married Elizabeth McKinlay McCreadie on September 5 1907 in Glasgow. They had two children, Ann and William. He was a grocer's assistant when William was born at 6 Crownpoint Road, Glasgow. They lived at 388 Abercromby Street in the Calton district of Glasgow until 1934 when they moved to a newly-built bungalow-type house at 8 Kingsburn Drive in newly-developed Kings Park (or, more correctly, Bankhead, Rutherglen).

George Clark was a very dapper man, about 5'8"/9", smallish build, a snappy dresser (spats, rolled umbrella, bowler hat) with a waxed moustache. He worked for Fishers, part of Household Supplies Ltd, a credit supply company with an office at the top of Saltmarket - you paid, say 1 shilling a week and could get credit for 20 shillings. He had a marvellous fluency and the Irish gift of the gab, could have charmed the birds from the trees - he played the mandolin very nicely - he didn't have anything other than a Glasgow accent (in those days regional accents were very noticeable). He worked with his brother-in-law Alex Tully (husband of Christina McCreadie) in the Glasgow telephone exchanges at nights (certainly evenings) for many years (Bell and Central exchanges). He may also have worked for Ferguson's (A Glasgow up-market grocery and provision store with several branches in better class areas). He could certainly handle the customers. He joined the Army at the outbreak of the Great War and is supposed to have seen it through in the trenches in France. On his retirement he came down to Coatham Hall at Coatham Mundeville, County Durham, in England to live with his son William and family but decided to return to Scotland and retired to Ayr where he died in March 1961 at the age of 82. At Darlington bus station he told me, his grandson Douglas Clark, that Glasgow Rangers were the greatest football team in the world, gave me a light blue pencil, and bought me a tin whistle.

George Clark had a cousin David Auchinvole who was a chemist with a shop on the Isle of Arran. The name still existed on a shop in Brodick some years ago and until recently there were still Auchinvole chemist's shops in Arran, but in Lamlash and Whiting Bay. There are now no Auchinvole chemist's shops in Arran. William Auchinvole, a cotton weaver from Kilsyth aged 30, married Janet Livingston Stark, a domestic servant living in Glasgow aged 27 who signed her name with an X, on 23 June 1865 in the District of Tradeston, Glasgow. Janet Stark was the sister of Marion Stark and the aunt of George Clark. There would have been twenty years between the sisters, who came from Kilsyth.

Archibald McCreadie was the son of Daniel McCreadie and Elizabeth McKinlay. Daniel McCreadie, not his son Archibald as rumoured, may have been a Freeman of the City of Glasgow. Daniel McCreadie was the son of David (or Daniel on his death entry) McCreadie, a farmer, and Elizabeth McKechnie. He married firstly Elizabeth Clark then after her death his housekeeper the widow Elizabeth McKinlay, then aged 41, on 5 September 1859. Both signing their names with an X. He was then aged 47 ( from death register) or 58 (from marriage register) and working as a weaver. Her father John McKinlay had been a labourer. John McKinlay and Elizabeth McConachy of Rothesay had a daughter Elizabeth in 1818, but this is not her mother's surname on the McCreadie marriage entry. I cant read it but it may be Edmonton.

[There are very few McCreadies in the early Scottish records, being an Irish name, but a Daniel was born in 1777 in Kilmarnock to John McCreadie and Elizabeth Borland and an Archibald in 1825 in Irvine to Robert Macredie and Elizabeth Cunningham. An Archibald McCreadie was christened 8 May 1761 at Penninghame, Wigtown to John McCreadie and Mary McKie and a Daniel McCreadie married Elizabeth Barr on 31 July 1825 in Glasgow. Archibald McCreadie married Catherine Nichol on 7 April 1854 in Glasgow.]

Elizabeth (Ady) McKinlay McCreadie was the daughter of Archibald McCreadie (tenter in thread factory who became drapery warehouseman then set up his own business as a credit draper becoming a commercial traveller) and Ann Duncan who married on 11 July 1878 in the Calton district, Archibald McCreadie being aged 25 and Ann Duncan 22. They lived at 31 Kirk Street, Calton, leaving before the 1881 Census. She was the third child (born 3 April 1882 at 51 London Road, Camlachie, Glasgow) and had a brother and four sisters: Daniel (born 27 September 1878 at 42 James Street, Calton and died 13 February 1949, aged 70, a retired labourer. He married Sarah Dunn who was present at his death), Ann Drummond (born 5 January 1880 at 31 Kirk Street-1959), Christina (born 1885), Williamina McConnell (born 26 May 1892 at 57 Main Street, Bridgeton-1947), Margaret Archibald (born 8 October 1895 at 82 Clyde Street, Calton-1989). There was an Archibald McCreadie born 27 January 1890 to Archibald McCreadie and Ann Duncan at 51 London Road, Camlachie, Glasgow, who died on 28 December 1890 at 11 months. The survivors all married and, except for Christina, had children. They lived in a very large flat on the top (3rd) floor at 388 Abercromby Street. George and Elizabeth Clark moved into the other flat at the top of the stair. The McCreadie's flat was at the far end of a longish balustraded gallery. Ann Duncan died there on 4 April 1920, aged 64, and Archibald McCreadie died there on 7 November 1920, aged 68. Liz, better known as Ady, was the arid matriarchal type (early 20s) like her mother. She was called Ady by her niece Chris Houston as a little girl and the name just stuck. Elizabeth McKinlay McCreadie died 21 October 1945, aged 63, at 8 Kingsburn Drive, Rutherglen, of a cerebral haemorrage.

Her mother Ann Duncan must have been the source of the legend that the family is related to Admiral Lord Adam Duncan of Camperdown who, when still a bachelor (he married, at the age of 45, Henrietta Dundas in 1777) took a Duncan cousin (and relative of ours) to a ball through the snow of a Perthshire night. Despite research this connection has not been verified.

Ann Duncan must also be the source of the legend that the family is related to the U.S. President McKinley through her. I am told that relatives of McKinley are ten-a-penny in Ohio in the USA.

Ann Duncan was the daughter of James Duncan and Ann Drummond. At the time of her marriage Ann Duncan was a thread factory worker. She was born 25 September 1855 to the iron moulder James Duncan, born at Dundee, and his wife Ann Drummond, born at Glasgow, at 20 Main Street, Gorbals, Glasgow, being their fifth child one boy and two girls pre-deceased and one girl living. Her parents had married on 10 October 1847 when they both lived in Anderston. Ann Drummond died on 3 October 1892 at 69 Fordneuk Street, Glasgow. James Duncan died of asthma on 15 December 1872 at 101 Broad Street, Glasgow, which had one windowed room, where he lived with his wife and two daughters, Christina (wool power loom weaver) and Ann (thread winder). He was the son of Alexander Duncan, iron founder, and Ann Davidson, who married 10 August 1818 in Dundee. Ann Davidson's father Thomas was a porter. James Duncan was born in Dundee 20 July 1822 and named after his uncle. Other children were Alexander Gordon Duncan (born 7 October 1826), Janet (born 15 October 1820) and Jean Moor (born 24 August 1824).

William and Ann Clark went to Hutchesons' Grammar School, the Boys school being in the Gorbals and the Girls school in Kingarth Street, as did many other members of the family. William was encouraged to pursue an academic career by his mother, his father expected him to work in a shop. William graduated from Glasgow University in 1930 with an Honours M.A. in Classics then took an M.B. Ch.B. in Medicine completed by the Diploma in Public Health. He tried general practice in Glasgow then, after he married, went to Forfar as Assistant Medical Officer of Health for the County of Angus. Then he went to a hospital job in Darlington, County Durham, England, then to a clinic in Stockton-in-Tees, County Durham, before becoming a Chest Consultant at Bishop Auckland in County Durham. While working at Hairmyres Hospital in Lanarkshire he met and married Catherine McDonald Pettigrew (who was nursing there after training at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow after leaving Hamilton Academy. She had previously been engaged to Alan Cameron, a gamekeeper, who died at Oban nursed by her) in 1938. He financed his University career by competing for and winning bursaries. During vacations he worked as a purser on the MacBrayne's Waverley and Talisman Clyde steamers. He also learnt how to wrap up parcels in the warehouse. He was a good enough pianist to have considered going professional in a dance band. He won his cap for rugby at Hutchesons' Grammar School. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps but suffered a severe mental breakdown which damaged him for the rest of his life. His cousin John (Jack) Paterson (1913-2005), elder brother of Archibald McCreadie Drummond Paterson (1916-1980), (sons of Ann Drummond McCreadie (1880-1959) and Robert Crighton Paterson (1880-1935)) also graduated M.A. from Glasgow University after schooling at Hutchesons' Grammar School.

The family history of the Pettigrews is documented in Pettigrew Findings and has been tracked back to 1700 in Lanarkshire. There is an Irish connection with the McWilliams of Green Hall Farm at High Blantyre, Lanarkshire, one of whom was my grandmother Pettigrew, so there is Irish blood on both side of William Clark's descendants. This family may have been originally Catholic unlike the rest of our Protestant family. George Clark was a strict Presbyterian.



Douglas Clark/ Clark Kin/ Benjamin Press, 69 Hillcrest Drive, Bath BA2 1HD, UK/ d.g.d.clark@dgdclynx.plus.com