John William Starkey married Elizabeth Morrison, daughter of my GG Grandfather, John Morrison (1821-?
), on 13 February, 1860, here in Cambusbarron. They had 3 children: Elizabeth, born in Kinross in 1860;William, born probably in Cambusbarron in 1862; and Barbara, born, and died, in 1864. Sadly, Elizabeth herself died that same year.
John then married a 'Johann Gancy' on 1st June, 1865, but she seems also to have passed away fairly soon, for John married for the third time on 26 November, 1866, to Christian Marshall: I know of two births here: John Marshall Starkey, b 12 September, 1867, and Janet, b 20 Dec 1868 - both in Kinross.
Of the Morrison - Starkey children, I know nothing more of William. Elizabeth married an Alexander Crawford (b 1857) but when and where, I don't know. They had 3 children that I know of: William, Christina and John William. About the two males, again, I have nothing, but know that Christina married a James Thomas Angus in Stirling in 1918. They then emigrated to the USA, the husband going in 1923, the wife in 1925. A son, William A Angus, was born there in 1927.
The name Starkey was a prominent one in our village of Cambusbarron (in St Ninians Parish) for a long time, though not so today. A George Starkey ran a grocer's shop here in the early sixties, and a late Starkey lady, who ran a fashionable ladies' clothes shop in nearby Stirling throughout the eighties, was a good friend of my mother-in-law. But the most prominent locally - and further afield - was Bob Starkey, a legendary Highland sportsman: I have many scanned cuttings of his career: here's the entry in a local history book 'A Cambusbarron Tapestry' about Bob:
Starkey, Robert (1890-1956): when he died, this Cambusbarron man was described in the Observer as
the most outstanding heavy events athlete to come out of the Stirling area, and during the period between the end of the First World War and 1926, he was supreme in most events in the Scottish Highland Games circuit.
He held and broke many records for throwing at Highland Games all over Scotland, and in Army or Services competition. He was also a champion Cumberland Wrestler. His reign might have been longer but for WW1. He became a policeman, then a soldier both during the War and after it, but began his working life in his native village, as a lime miner. In 1924, he was one of the coaches appointed to the British team at the Paris Olympics. And if not in Chariots of Fire, he does feature to this day as the highlander on the front of Scott’s Porage Oats packets – or, at least, his body does: over the years, his ageing face was constantly updated into more modern versions; but the frame remains that of Robert. One former Graham & Morton employee remembers him in his fifties, arriving at the dispatch area at the back of their King Street premises (entered through the Town Wall) and lugging quite comfortably, one in each outstretched hand, two large milk canisters, full of paraffin, to his car, parked several streets away. These, when full, took two G & M men to lift each one – onto a trolley before emerging into the street.
Happy to send you any of the cuttings, etc I have. hope this helps.
PTP
