Tranent Churchyard

[tidybooks]

Hi Poppy10,

I have searched on the John Gray Centre's archives online,

http://www.johngraycentre.org/collections/getrecord/ELLOH_Courier_26051865

and found a few entries, related to the death of Isabella Smith nee Gavine. You can contact the centre and ask if you can get a copy of article, or ask if it states where she died, the staff may give this detail without purchasing, but it is only 15p a copy plus postage.


SMITH, ISABELLA: or GAVINE: TRANENT: DIED  Page 2, Column 4 Issue date 26 05 1865


SMITH, WILLIAM: BOOT AND SHOEMAKER: TRANENT  Page 2, Column 4 Issue date 26 05 1865


GAVINE, ISABELLA: or SMITH: TRANENT: DIED  Page 2, Column 4 Issue date 26 05 1865

Tom

[Templar75]

Hi Poppy 10,

                   I am almost sure it is what the person has done is abbreviated the Schaws to " Sh " and Hospital to "Pitle " a stupid way of doing it, I will double check but I am sure it is where we first thought off.

Cheers.

Archie.

[Templar75]

Hi Poppy10,

                  back again, I am unable to find any other place than the one we have found below is something for you on the Hospital.

From my point of view it could be that after the school closed the building was rented out to families and this where I think she actually lived, possibly renting a room or two fromwhoever owned the building

Tranent must have been the registration place for births, marriages and deaths but Schaws Hospital was actually in Prestonpans.

Schaw’s Hospital 1789–1881
This school for boys ‘whose parents are in poor circumstances’
opened in Preston House in 1789; it was funded by the
considerable income from a trust fund set up by Doctor James
Schaw, owner of most of the old Preston estate from 1780
until his death four years later. Boys aged between four and
seven could be admitted, educated until aged 14; those with
the names of Schaw, MacNeill, Cunningham and Stewart,
were preferred. For many years the 19 trustees outnumbered
the students (15). The trustees were to ‘bind the boys as
apprentices, or otherwise let them out to businesses as they
shall judge best’. The number of students later increased to 24.
In 1832 the school left Preston House, moving to a new
building nearby, designed by William Burn. The school closed
in 1881, a few years after the 1872 Education Act made parish
schools a legal necessity.

Cheers.

Archie.

[tidybooks]

Hi Archie,

Tranent and Prestonpans both had registrars, therefore Schaws Hospital deaths would have been registered in Prestonpans. There was a Steills Hospital on the site of the St Joseph's home, which would come under Tranent registration.

I had a look earlier but "sh pe'll" only looks like "sh" for Stiells Hospital and "pe'll" short for Portobello Mains, which is in the same area.

Tom

[Poppy10]

Yes, I can see what you are thinking now, and you must be right.

I wonder if husband William caught the tb from her, though he was on the 1871 census.
Isabella's daughter, another Isabella (my gt grandmother down in Lee, Kent) she also died of tb and her husband caught it and died shortly afterwards.  Then their second daughter also died with it, it's quite prevalent this maternal side of the family.

Thanks once again Archie
Poppy10

[Poppy10]

Hello Tidybooks (Tom)

Thank you for your look-up on the John Gray Centre site regarding my Isabella SMITH nee GAVINE's death.  I want to purchase a photocopy of the page you found so I think I will have to ring the Local History department to see how to go about the remit.  I still haven't found the date of death of her husband William between 1881 and 1891 censuses, but when I do I will hopefully also get his announcement.  What a great source the Centre must be.
Thank you once again.

Poppy10

[Poppy10]

After climbing up the wrong tree for the parents of my gt gt grandfather William SMITH, I have now got his parents as Adam SMITH and Margaret SMITH thanks to the help of Archie (Templar75).  I think they had ten children christened in Tranent namely:
John  abt 1814; my William 1816; Mary 1818; Anstruther 1820; Janet Sharpe 1821; Margaret 1823; Ann Dewar 1825; Adam 1828; Walter Campbell and Charles both 1831.

On the 1841 census for Tranent wife Margaret was down as a widow so Adam must have died between 1831 the date of the last born and 1841 but I can't find the date of death or birth of either him or wife Margaret, and I have searched several record sites.  I must say that I can't get on with the new Familysearch site.

I should think that they both died in Tranent so are they in the Tranent churchyard or can anyone look at the parish register please.     

[David J Edge]

Hallo Poppy10
Like you I live in the Midlands, but I have friends in East Lothian so might be able to pick this up if you're still pursuing it.

My interest in the Smiths and the Gavines is that my house was built by a young widow called Violet Evaline Smith-Gavine (née Moody) who changed her name from Smith to Smith-Gavine shortly after marriage. She was the mother of Professor Sydney Smith-Gavine of Leicester.

So I don't know if you are related to them...