Gordon Blair - Mystery? or Not!

[loobylooayr]

*** search google for J.C.H. Gill M.B.E., B.A., LLB., F.R. HIST. S.Q. and "A Brief Account of the Life and Times of The Honourable Sir James William Blair, K.C.M.G. Chief Justice of Queensland." The 25 page pdf is fully referenced, which to me suggests it has been peer reviewed.   

JM

Couldn't find that at all JM. My search engine would not spit out that pdf file 
Venality is certainly a strong term to use in a bio.

[isobelw]

Improved scan of 1855 birth for Jane Blair -
NB all the informants signatures on the page are witnessed either by the Registrar or by his clerk on his behalf.

[loobylooayr]

Improved scan of 1855 birth for Jane Blair -
NB all the informants signatures on the page are witnessed either by the Registrar or by his clerk on his behalf.

Was that the document we thought there was another address listed for Gordon, Isobel?

[isobelw]

Yes - but sadly it was just a witness signature. Now clear, however,  that Jane was indeed her 4th child.
Isobel

[loobylooayr]

Yes - but sadly it was just a witness signature. Now clear, however,  that Jane was indeed her 4th child.
Isobel

Which is not true 
If the rest of the information provided is to be believed, Jane would have been her 5th child.
1. Jane Schwabe /Norval Drummond.
2. Georgina Lorimer Blair
3 . + 4. 2  Deceased (and probably unnamed boys).
5. Jane born 1855
Looks like Jane wiped first baby daughter Jane from her calculations.

Looby

Added. SP made a great job of enhancing that image Isobel !

[isobelw]

One of the deceased boys was a James Gordon Blair born 1853. The other appears to be unnamed.
Yes - very impressed with the re- scan.
Isobel

[Forfarian]

Looks like I'm wrong - not like me ! Although perhaps affluent was the wrong word to use. Maybe I should have said slightly better off than many other Glaswegians ?

Don't forget that in some places where there were tenements, the poorest tenants would be on the top floor, where the rent would be cheapest, and the more affluent ones on the first floor. Just because these Wotherspoons weren't an affluent family doesn't mean that all the occupants of the tenement were in similar circumstances.

[Forfarian]

The FreeCEN transcription of Jane's surname in 1851 is HHONILIE !

Jane D Norval or Schawbe, 61, died in Hutchesontown in 1911. (Apologies if someone has already posted this!)

So (a) it looks as if Jane Schawbe never married, yet we know that she did marry Charles Taylor in 1874 and (b) the fact that her death is registered under her mother's surname as well as her father's might imply that she was illegitimate.

In passing, I have wondered about that surname. 'Schawbe' looks wrong, somehow. 'Schwabe' would make more sense, being the German for 'Swabian' and there are several Schwabes in both the 1841 and 1851 censuses.

[loobylooayr]

In passing, I have wondered about that surname. 'Schawbe' looks wrong, somehow. 'Schwabe' would make more sense, being the German for 'Swabian' and there are several Schwabes in both the 1841 and 1851 censuses.

Yes I think that is a misspelling. Henry Schwabe was as reputed father but as you say Forfarian there are several Schwabes of German ancestry on the 1841 and 1851 Census.
I have already speculated about Herman Schwabe recorded as a Merchant shipper in Ayr on the 1851  and as Hermaan Schwaber , Merchant on the 1841. 

Looby