The Children of Alexander Farquharson and Mary Anne Creighton

The Children of Alexander Farquharson and Mary Anne Hurst Creighton:

Mary Anne Creighton was born circa 1822 in Portarlington to Eliza Willis and Rev. David Hill Creighton who were our maternal great-great-great grandparents.  We descend directly from Mary Anne's sister, Geraldine O'Moore Creighton, who married Richard Williams of 17 Eden Quay.

http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2012/01/children-of-thomas-willis-schoolmaster.html

It is unclear to me whether Mary Anne Creighton had previously been married to a man by the name of Hurst, since the newspaper announcement of her 1843 marriage to Alexander Farquharson named her as Mary Anne Hurst, daughter of Rev. D.H. Creighton, or whether she had been christened by her parents in 1822 as Mary Anne Hurst Creighton.

Her husband, Alexander Farquharson, a merchant of Scotland, had been born on 2nd November 1818 in Little Dundeld, Perth, Scotland, to Donald Farquharson (1785 - 1862) and Helen Seaton (1799 - 1862).  Donald Farquharson was the son of James Farquharson and Margaret McLaren, while wife Helen Seaton was the daughter of John Seaton and Margaret Cameron. Donald Farquharson and Helen Seaton had married in Little Dunkeld on 2nd October 1818 only a month before Alexander's birth.   They also had Margaret Farquharson on 27th June 1823.

In 1851 and 1861, Donald and Helen Farquharson were living still in Little Dunkeld, Perthshire, with their unmarried daughter, Margaret Farquharson.  A woodcutter/labourer, Donald Farquharson had been born in 1785 in Grandtully, Little Dunkeld, while his wife, Helen Seaton, had been born in 1799 at Tonyarrow, Little Dunkeld.  Daughter Margaret had been born  in a place called Meikle Irochrie (?).   In 1851, their home address was Inchmagrannachan; in 1861 they were living at Clayhots Cottage.
A Margaret Farquharson, who had been born in 1822 at Little Dunkeld and who might be Alexander's sister, was resident in 1881 as a pauper patient in Perth District Lunatic Asylum.

Alexander Farquharson and Mary Anne Hurst/Creighton married in the Clontarf Presbyterian Church on 21st June 1843 - from the 'Belfast Newsletter' of 27th June 1843: 'On the 21st inst. at Clontarf by the Rev. Charles Nairne according to the rites of the Presbyterian Church, Mr. Alexander Farquharson of Edinburgh, to Mary Anne Hurst, daughter of Rev. D.H. Creighton, senior minister of Bray.'

Alexander Farquharson and Mary Anne Hurst Creighton subsequently had the following children in Edinburgh:

• Eliza Creighton Farquharson, who was born  in Edinburgh on 1st April 1844.   Her birth was announced in the Freeman's Journal - 'Thursday April 4, 1844:  April 1st, at Edinburgh, the lady of Mr. Alexander Farquharson, and daughter of Rev. D.H. Creighton, of a daughter.'
• David Hill Creighton Farquharson was born to the couple in Edinburgh  on 18th December 1846.  This child died young in January 1856, and was buried next to his maternal grandfather, the Rev. David Hill Creighton, in Portrush Churchyard, Co. Derry.
• Donald Cameron Farquharson who was born in St.Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh on 3rd November 1847 and who died at some unknown stage before 1891.  From the Freeman's Journal of Monday, November 8th 1847: 'On the 3rd instant, at 1 John's-place, Edinburgh, the lady of Alexander Farquharson, and daughter of the Rev. D.H. Creighton, of a son.'
•  Helen Seaton Farquharson was born Scotland on October 31st 1849.  The Freeman's Journal of Wednesday, November 7th 1849 announced her birth:  'October 31 at his residence, 1, John's-place, Edinburgh, the lady of Alexander Farquharson, Esq., of a daughter.'

On the occasion of Helen Seaton Farquharson's baptism in 1849, the child's preacher grandfather, Rev. David Hill Creighton of Dublin, wrote an affectionate letter to his oldest grandson who would die, aged 9, and who would be buried next to his grandfather:

"December 18th 1849.

My Dear David, 

The God of Providence in whom we live and move amd have our being has kindly preserved your life to another anniversary of your birth and sustaining your health thro' the past year he has given you many comforts and I pray that as the God of Grace he may early mark you as the child of Adoption and keep you as the apple of his eye from all spiritual and moral evil.

When in coming years, should you be spared, your mind is led back to the year that has just closed upon you - many things will combine to show you that great kindness has been displayed by God towards you in preserving your life, sustaining your health and bestowing food and raiment upon you - it has been a year of fever, famine and Pestilence in many parts of the British Empire - And even in the City of your birth  and residence, much and grievous devastation has been made by them - Many children have been taken from the bosoms of their Parents - And many Parents have been taken away from their children, leaving them Orphans to bear the pitiless peltings of the storms of an agitating world without a Parent's care or a Parent's sympathy.

And now my dear lad tho' I pray that you may long have the comfort of a Father and a Mother's presence and care - you will, I doubt not, if spared, learn from observation that cold and bleak is the Orphan's journey thro' life.....so that in the kindness of God that has spared you to your parents - And your parents to you, there will be much to impress your mind with grateful recollecting....

Yesterday I and your Grandmother united with your parents in devoting your sister Helen Seaton Farquharson to God in baptism - you and Eliza with Mr. George Proctor,  your mother's cousin, were present....

.....And now my dear David I commend you to God...and hope that this the coming year you and your sisters and brother may be preserved in health of body, vigour of mind and purity of heart....

Your affectionate tho' fast declining grandfather. 

David Hill Creighton.

1, St. John's Place, 

Edinburgh.

December 18th 1849."

Rev. Creighton also published a book of sermons in Edinburgh in 1850, and dedicated this specifically to the same grandson, David Hill Creighton Farquharson who must have been a favourite.

The childrens' father, the Scottish merchant, Alexander Farquharson,  died young in Dublin on 26th September 1851.

Eliza Creighton Farquharson, daughter of Alexander Farquharson and Mary Anne Creighton:
Eliza Creighton Farquharson married a bookseller, Robert Stewart.  The Dublin Evening Mail of 16th March 1865 recorded the wedding:
  "Stewart and Farquharson - March 14, in Ormond Quay Presbyterian Church by Rev. John J. Black, Mr. Robert Stewart of this city, to Eliza Creighton, daughter of the late Alexander Farquharson of Edinburgh and the Inch, Perthshire, and granddaughter of the late Rev. David Hill Creighton, Presbyterian Minister." 

The marriage certificate provides further detail - Robert Stewart was living, in 1865, at 8 Warrington Place, and his father, Charles Stewart, was noted as a tailor.  Aged 18 at the time of the wedding, Eliza Farquharson was living at 14 Richmond Place.  The witnesses were Charles Stewart, either the father or the brother of Robert Stewart, and the bride's younger unmarried sister Helen Seaton/Seyton Farquharson.

Robert Stewart had been born in St. Faith, London, in about 1840, to a printer, Charles Stewart and his wife Ellen O' Brien, who had married on St. Botolph's on 7th August 1836. Ellen was the daughter of a John O' Brien..

In 1851, the Stewart family were living in Holborn;  a son, Charles Stewart, aged 13, was a publisher's assistant, as was the 11-yr-old Robert.  Other children were John aged 10, Ellen and Anne.
Robert Stewart moved at some unknown stage to Dublin where he lived for a time at 2 Nassau Street before buying the premises of the Dublin Bible Tract Repository at 10 d'Olier Street, which is where he and his wife were living in 1901. The Bible Tract Repository had previously been owned by Henry Bewley, a prominent member of the Bewley Quaker family who had helped to build Merrion Hall, the meeting place of the Plymouth Brethren Baptists in Dublin.  Both  Robert Stewart and his wife were noted as Plymouth Brethren, the same religion as Mary Anne's sister, Geraldine O'Moore Williams.  By 1911 the elderly couple had moved from the city centre out to the southern Dublin suburbs and were living at 105 Strand Road, Sandymount.

Robert Stewart, printer and bookseller, died in late July 1919 at 105 Strand Road - the informant was his grandson, Donald F. Stewart of Oaklands Park.  Eliza Creighton Stewart, née Farquharson, died of pleurisy on 1st September 1927 at her son's house in Oaklands Park.

The only child of Robert Stewart and Eliza Creighton Farquahrson was Charles Edward Stewart who had been born on 22nd December 1865 at 14 Chelmsford Road, Ranelagh.   He married Mary Florence Douglas, who had been born on 26th July 1864 to the draper, Jacob Douglas, and to Harriet Eliza Trotter, both of whom were Antrim-born Quakers who had settled in Dublin.  (Other children of this couple were Eva Douglas, born 1852, and Francis Ernest Douglas, born 1866.)    The marriage took place in the Dublin Methodist Church in St. Thomas's Parish on 1st July 1891.  Charles Edward Stewart was living in the family home at 10 D'Olier Street, while Mary Florence's home address was 56 South Richmond Street.  The witnesses were Mary's brother, Francis Ernest Douglas, and Charles' father, Robert Stewart.

In 1901, Charles Edward Stewart and Mary Florence Douglas were living at 129 Haddington Road with their Dublin-born children:

• Douglas Creighton Stewart, born 20th April 1892.
• Eva Stewart Stewart, born 1893. (This isn't a typo - her middle name was, indeed, Stewart.)
• Robert Crawford Stewart, born 1895.

Charles Edward Stewart was a bookseller like his father, Robert, but the younger family were Methodist rather than Plymouth Brethren or Quaker.   By 1911, they had moved to 3 Oaklands Park, Sandymount.  Two of their children had died young, including the above-mentioned Robert Crawford Stewart, but there were now two 6-yr-olds, the twins:

• Donald Farquharson Stewart, born 1904.
• Florence Marguerite Stewart, born 1904.

Mary Florence Stewart, née Douglas, died at 3 Oaklands Park on 5th June 1931 - her husband, Charles E. Stewart, was noted now as a missionary.  He married a second time on 15th August 1934, this time to Edith Maud Phillips of 32 Leeson Park Avenue, the Appian Way, Dublin, the daughter of the late merchant tailor, George Phillips.  Charles gave his profession as missionary to seamen.  The witnesses were Robert Nolan and Kathleen Phillips.
Charles Edward Stewart died, aged 84, in a Dublin nursing home in 1950.  His son, Douglas Creighton Stewart, born 1892, emigrated to San Francisco, California, having spent a number of years working aboard transatlantic ships as a steward or waiter.  In 1927, when he arrived at New York, he was temporarily held by immigration because of some sort of physical deformity.  In 1933, he was working in San Francisco as a janitor, with an address at 286 Second Street;  by 1940, he was living at Mission Street.   He died in San Francisco on 12th May 1964.

Eva Stewart Stewart married Herbert Greenwood Bagster in North Dublin in 1934.  He was the son of a solicitor, Basil Birch Bagster, whose father was the publisher Jonathan Bagster of London.  The Bagsters decended from Samuel Bagster who had published Bagster's Polyglot Bible. Herbert's father,  the solicitor, Basil Birch Bagster, had died young in 1885 in Kidderminster, where he had had his practice, and his widow, Mary Bagster, née Mower, had moved her family to Dublin where she taught music.  When Herbert Greenwood Bagster died on 4th April 1960, he and Eva Stewart Bagster were living at 85 Upper Rathmines Road.

Helen Seaton Farquharson, daughter of Alexander Farquharson and Mary Anne Creighton:
Helen Seaton Farquharson/Farquarson, the daughter of Mary Anne Creighton and Alexander Farquharson,  married Edward Parker Bolton, the son of Edward Bolton, in what seems to be the 'Senior' Chapel in the parish of St.Thomas’s, North Dublin on 11th August 1868.
At the time of the wedding, Edward Parker Bolton was living at 14 Chelmsford Road, Dublin, while Helen Seaton Farquharson was at 4 Richmond Place.
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2013/06/the-bolton-glorney-families-of-dublin.html

The witnesses were William Bolton and Jessie Creighton Williams, who was the daughter of Richard Williams and Geraldine O'Moore Creighton.

The children of Edward Parker Bolton and Helen Seaton Farquharson were:

• Albert Edward Bolton, born 10th May 1869 - the family were living at 12 Bloomfield Avenue, Portobello, and Edward Parker Bolton was working as a commercial traveller.
• Alexandrina Mary Elizabeth Bolton, born 10th April 1871 in South Dublin, at 12 Bloomfield Avenue, died 1st January 1952. Was buried in Mount Jerome with her aunts, Jessie Creighton, Eliza Creighton and Louisa Adelaide Creighton.
• Reginald Arthur Bolton, born 25th November 1872.

Edward Parker Bolton disappeared without a trace - there is no registration record for his death, and I wonder did the couple simply separate at some stage, or perhaps he died abroad?

On the 1901 Census, the widowed Helen Seaton Bolton and two of her unmarried, adult children were living with Helen’s aunt, Louisa Creighton, at Louisa’s school at 41 North Great George’s Street.   Helen Seaton Bolton, née Farquharson,  was Plymouth Brethren, while her children, Alexandrina and Reginald were Presbyterian, as was Louisa Creighton.   Helen's sister, Eliza Creighton Stewart, née Farquharson, was also Plymouth Brethren, so I wonder was their Scottish-born father, Alexander Farquharson, a member of the Dublin Plymouth Brethren community, and did he influence our great-great grandparents, Richard Williams and Geraldine O'Moore Creighton, to join the congregation?    The daughters of Rev. David Hill Creighton would have been reared as Presbyterian by their father.
On 21st March 1902, Reginald Arthur Bolton was present at the death of his 81-yr-old aunt, Louisa Adelaide Creighton, when she died of senile decay at 41 George's Street.

Helen Seaton/Seyton Bolton, of 41 North Great Georges Street, sailed aboard the 'Macedonia' from London to Marseilles on 6th July 1928, along with her son, the secretary, Reginald Arthur Bolton, and her daughter, Alexandrina Mary Bolton, a school principle.  Alexandrina Mary was the principle of the school at 41 North Great Georges Street, and must have taken over from her great-aunt, Louisa Creighton, following the elderly woman's death.  Reginald Arthur Bolton was a clerk in a shipping office.  

Helen Seaton Bolton died 14th October 1932 in Greystones, Co. Wicklow.  Her son, Reginald Arthur Bolton of Glenhesk, Greystones, died 21st August 1932 in Merrion Nursing Home and was buried in Mount Jerome.

Albert Edward Bolton, the son of Edward Parker Bolton and Helen Seaton Farquharson, married Winifred Mary/Margaret Rainsbury in the Presbyterian Church, St. Thomas's, Dublin on 25th July 1894.   Albert was an assistant merchant, living at 41 North Great Georges Street. His father, Edward Bolton, was noted as what seems to be (this certificate has woefully faded) an accountant, but no mention is made of whether he is still alive or deceased.  Winifred was living at what seems to be Kilbarron, Charleville Road.  The witnesses were Albert's siblings, Reginald and Alexandrina Mary Elizabeth Bolton.

Winifred M. Rainsbury had been born in Cork to Joseph Rainsbury, a government official in 1894, who had been born in Cork in about 1849, and to Elizabeth Jane Sporle who had been born in England in about 1852.  Joseph Rainsbury, son of William Rainsbury, was a grocer and wine and spirit dealer - he married Elizabeth Jane Sporle on 27th April 1864.  Elizabeth Jane Sporle was the daughter of Cornelius Sporle, 1810 - 1879, and Mary Anne Rose, 1809 - 1885.  The Rose family were prominent in Ballincollig, Cork.  Joseph's father, William Rainsbury (1812 - 1871) had married Bridget Molloy in Cork in 1840.
Cornelius Sporle was the son of Catherine Sporle, 1771 - 1832, who also had John Sporle and Jane Sporle.  Cornelius was jailed in 1828, and was noted as a member of the Royal Artillery in 1834. In 1841 he was living a New Road, Woolwich, England, with his wife, Mary, and two children, Catherine and George, and his Irish-born father-in-law, the tailor William Rose. In 1851 he was working as the chief warder of Portland Prison. In 1850 he was a sergeant.  In 1854, he was the Master of Farringdon Union Workhouse;  his wife, Mary Ann Sporle was the Mistress.   In 1871, he was living at Poplar Villa, Ipswich, Suffolk. He died in White Point, Queenstown, Cork, in June 1879.

The children of Joseph Rainsbury and Elizabeth Jane Sproule were:

• Elizabeth Mary Josephine Rainsbury, born 1865.
• William Cornelius Rainsbury, 1867 - 1951.  A doctor, who carried out his studies in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and who married, as his second wife,  Hannah Elizabeth Leverton in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, in 1905 - they settled in Skegby, where she came from. William's children were Finn Barr Prendergast Rainsbury, Kathleen Josephine Rainsbury, Brian Victor Rainsbury, Norah Marjorie Rainsbury, Mary Eleanor Imogen Rainsbury and John Joseph Cedric Rainsbury.  His first wife had been Catherine Prendergast (1872 - 1903) who he'd married in Cork in 1892.
• Winifred Margaret/Mary Rainsbury, born 1871;  she married Albert Edward Bolton.
• Lilian Catherine Rainsbury, 1873 - 1922.
• Elizabeth Rainsbury, born 1875.
• Maud Josephine Rainsbury, 1878 - 1880.
• Albert Patrick Rainsbury,  1880 - 1962.
• Margaret Florence Sporle Rainsbury, born 1881.
• George Victor Rainsbury, 1885 - 1958.
• Joseph Cyril Sporle Rainsbury, born 1890.
• Frederick Rainsbury, born 1892.

Some of the above were born at Haulbowline, Cork Harbour.

Albert Edward Bolton and Winifred Mary Rainsbury were living at 26 North Leinter Street, Dublin, in 1901.  He was a tea merchant.  They had moved to 101 Marlborough Road by 1911 and had three children - Helen M. Bolton, born 1896 in Cork,  Reginald R. Bolton, born 1897 in Dublin, and Cecil C. Bolton, born 1902 in Dublin.

Albert Edward Bolton, a widowed company director, with an address at 5 Killiney Road, Dalkey, died in the Adelaide Hospital on 3rd December 1951.  The family are commemorated on a Mount Jerome headstone:
"Redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, in loving memory of Reginald Arthur Bolton, called to higher service 25th August 1932.  Also Helen Seyton Bolton who fell asleep 18th October 1932.  Winifred Mary Bolton entered into rest 10th March 1940...also her husband Albert Edward who died 30th November 1951.'

This branch of the Bolton family were buried together in grave C20/19663 in Mount Jerome. A note in the Mount Jerome graves register records that the plot had been granted to Miss Alexandrina M.E. Bolton of 'Glenhurst' (or 'Glenhest'), Greystones, Co. Wicklow for the sum of £12 11s. on 15th September 1932.  A Miss Bolton of 'Carrig-na-Mara', Killiney, later paid £5 5s. for a limestone headstone, a granite base and kerbing, and for garden care in perpetuity for the plot, presumably in 1951.

The daughter of Albert Edward Bolton and Winifred Mary Rainsbury,  Helen Maud/Mary Elizabeth Bolton, married Allen Taylor Jameson, the son of a journalist/printer, James Taylor Jameson, in Rathmines in August 1919.

Donald Cameron Farquharson, son of Alexander Farquharson and Mary Anne Creighton:

I had originally believed this son to have died young; however, another researcher, Colin Burnie, has recently shared what he knows of Donald Cameron Farquharson who had been born in Edinburgh on 3rd November 1847.

Donald Cameron Farquharson, a mercantile clerk, married Emily Creighton, the widow of a man named Pethers, in London in 1875.  She had been born in 1852 in Camberwell to a printer's reader, John Creighton and his first wife Sophie.

I believe, due to circumstantial evidence, that Donald Cameron Farquharson Emily Creighton were second cousins, Donald being the grandson of Rev. David Hill Creighton and Emily Creighton being the granddaughter of Rev. David Hill Creighton's brother John Creighton.

At the time of the 1875 wedding, Donald Cameron Farquharson's address was Arnott Street in the Liberties area of Dublin, but he and his wife, Emily, settled in London.

The couple had four children - Henry Farquharson born about 1877, Wilfred John Farquharson (1883 - 1916), a stage property manager, who married Wilhelmina/Minnie Christie (1878 - 1944) of Newcastle, and who would die in Northern France in 1916 at the height of the great war.     Edith Farquharson was born to Donald Cameron Farquharson and Emily Creighton in 1889,  and Winifred in 1892.

Wilfred John Farquharson and Minnie Christie had Rita Farquharson (1910 - 1993) who married Robert Hepburn McGann (1901 - 1993) of Newcastle, and Edith Nita Farquharson (1912 - 1914).

A Donald Farquharson, born 1847, was buried in Morden, Surrey, on 5th July 1897.   Earlier in 1891, his wife, Emily, was living at the home of her father, John Creighton, and his second wife, Jessie Creighton.  Emily's daughter, Edith Farquharson, aged 20, was also there, as was Emily's brother and sister, Edmund Creighton and Jessie Creighton.  There was no sign of Donald Cameron Farquharson.

(Many thanks to Colin Burnie of www.cmbfamilytrees.com who generously provided what he knows of Donald Cameron Farquharson.)

So were Donald Cameron Farquharson and Emily Creighton second cousins as I believe?  Rev. David Hill Creighton (Donald Cameron Farquharson's grandfather) was born to Andrew Creighton, shopkeeper, and Mary (possibly Hill) on 16th June 1784 in Blandford Forum, Dorset.  They were Dissenters/Presbyterian.   His siblings were Jennet or Joanel born in 1782,  Mary Ann born 1777, and John born 1779. 

John Creighton, the son of Andrew and Mary Hill of Blandford Forum, Dorset, left Dorset for Middlesex in unsavoury circumstances.  In July and August 1805, Sarah Ann Rogers was seeking maintenance from bookbinder, John Creighton of Blandford Forum, for her child.  A second record, dated 20th July 1805, concerns a letter from John Creighton authorising his father, Andrew Creighton, to appear before the court on his behalf in respect of any action concerning the support of the child.  These records are held in the Dorset History Centre.

We jump forward to 1877 when the will of a second (but younger) David Hill Creighton was administered.  A printer of 10 Whitefriars Street, London, he died on 22nd March 1877 and his will was granted to John Andrew Creighton of 20 New Cross Road, Surrey. 
Both David Hill Creighton and John Andrew Creighton seem to be the sons of the bookbinder John Creighton of Blandford Forum - all three men were involved in the printing trade, and the two younger men bear names that mirror other family members, ie, Andrew Creighton of Blandford Forum and Rev.David Hill Creighton of Dublin.

John Andrew Creighton, a printer's reader or proofreader of 20 New Cross Road,was the father of Emily Creighton who married Donald Cameron Farquharson in 1875.    On 12th March 1853 he married as his second wife Jessie Symonds the daughter of head gardener Henry Symonds. The marriage took place in St. Luke's in Chelsea and the register noted John Andrew Creighton as the son of the reader (ie: proofreader) John Creighton.

The 1861 census captured the family - John Andrew Creighton was a printer who had been born in 1811 in Middlesex, while his wife was named as Sophia (not Jessie - was this an error on the part of the census-taker?) who was from Battersea.  The children were Jane, Mary Ann, Emily (who would marry  Donald Cameron Farquharson in 1875), John, Henry, Frederick, David and Jessie.

In 1881 and still at 20 New Cross Road,  the only children present were 17-year-old Jessie, 15-year-old Edward, 4-year old grandson Henry Farquharson who had been born in Camberwell in about 1877 and grandson Victor Pethers who had been born in Hatcham in about 1870 and must be a son of the first marriage of Emily Creighton to an unknown man by the name of Pethers.

In 1891 John A. Creighton was a retired printers' reader and was still at 20 New Cross Road along with wife Jessie, daughters Emily Farquharson and Jessie Creighton, son Edmund Creighton and granddaughter Edith Creighton.   Emily Creighton and Donald Creighton Farquharson had had four children - Henry Farquharson who had been born about 1877, Wilfred John Farquharson (1883 - 1916), a stage property manager, who married Wilhelmina/Minnie Christie (1878 - 1944) of Newcastle, and who would die in Northern France in 1916 at the height of the great war.     Edith Farquharson was born to Donald Cameron Farquharson and Emily Creighton in 1889,  and Winifred in 1892.