The Homeplace – Mochrum, Glasserton, Whithorn
The Home Place
This family, James McCubbin and Isabella McLellan, is so closely related through DNA to #44 John McCubbin and Margaret Gibson, that they very likely moved over to the Machars from Stoneykirk as did the descendants of John and Margaret. Another factor to back this up is that the name Susan shows up in James and Isabellas family as it did in John and Margarets. Susan is a very rare name in the McCubbin clan.Mochrum map
Mochrum is a small village and agricultural parish on the west of the Machars peninsula in Dumfries and Galloway. It was in this parish that James McCubbin & Isabella McClellan, started their family. First daughter, Agnes was born here. Their only living son John, was born in Glasserton (where John and Margarets family lived). The next home place for the family was Glasgow where John McCubbin and Jane Niblocks descendants have now lived for nearly 150 years.
Early Families
I. James, born c1780, married Isabella McLellan. He was a Mason. Surname was also listed as McCubbine.
A. Agnes McCubbin, 1807 – 1885, born Mochrum, Wigtown, and listed as McCubbine, on her christening record, married John Thompson in 1830 in Whithorn. Agnes died in Whithorn, age 78; of Acute Bronchitis. She was a Widow.
B. John (i) McCubbin was christened on 20 May 1815 in Glasserton, Wigtown. He died and the next child was named John.
C. John (ii) McCubbin 1817 – 1898 born Glasserton, Wigtown, married Jane Niblock circa 1840.
In 1841 John and Jane were living in Glasgow with their one year old son, James. John was a Joiner. In 1851 he was listed as a Mill Wright. He appeared on the census of 1861 in Anderston, Glasgow; living with his wife & eight children. He was a Joiner (Journeyman) at time of the death of his wife Jane Niblock in 1878. The census of 1881 finds John living in Glasgow, age 63, with five of his adult children, Susan, 38, John, 31, Thomas, 29, Jane, 26, William, 21. All gainfully employed. The census of April, 1891, finds John, a retired Joiner and Widower, age 73, a Lodger at the home of Thomas and Jessie Dalrymple, Falyennan Farm, Mochrum. He married Annie Barr in 1891 in Mochrum Village. Groom was a retired joiner, age 74, a widower. Bride was age 50.
Seven years later, John died in Milton Cottage, Mochrum, Wigtown, at age 80 of Chronic Bronchitis.
1. James, the first son of John McCubbin and Jane Niblock, was born 1841, in Whithorn, Wigtown. His name was listed as Cubbin. By the time he was twenty, he was living in Anderston, Glasgow with his parents and siblings and employed as a Sewing Machine Maker. In 1865, he married Janet Law in Rottenrow, Glasgow. He was an Engine Fitter at the time. He was the informant at sister Mary’s death & resided in 1880 at 5 Alexandra Place, Crosshill, Glasgow. Their daughter, Janet Ferguson McCubbin was born 1866, in Glasgow.
2. Susan, the first daughter of John McCubbin and Jane Niblock was born circa 1843 in Whithorn. She appeared on the census of 1861 in Anderston, Glasgow; living with parents & siblings. She was employed as a Vest Maker. In 1881 she was residing with her father, John, in Barony, Glasgow and continued to be employed in the garment industry as a Mantle Cutter.
3. Mary, the second daughter of John McCubbin and Janet Niblock was born circa 1845 in Whithorn. She was a Loom Weaver on the census of 1861 in Glasgow. According to her death reg. her first husband was (–?–) Gallacher who was an Iron Monger, Journeyman. She then married Andrew Carrigan, 1868. Andrew died 1873. She married John Gemmel, a Colliery Roadsman. Her residence when she died in 1880, of Phthisis Pulmonalis, at Belvedere Hospital, was 61 Adelphi St, Bridgeton, Glasgow. Her brother James was her witness.
4. Andrew, the second son of John McCubbin and Janet Niblock was born circa 1848. He appeared on the census of 1861 in Anderston, Glasgow; a Scholar, living with parents & siblings. He was a Cashier at the time of marriage in 1873 to Maggie Keller, a Dressmaker, at 17 King Street, Stirling. The Groom was living at 37 Dumbarton Road, the Bride at 34 King Street. Their son John was born 1874 in Anderston, Glasgow. The census of 1891 finds Andrew and Maggie with four of their sons, Andrew, 15, James, 13, Thomas, 11, and Robert, 7. The latter three were all Scholars.
5. John, the third son of John McCubbin and Janet Niblock was born circa 1850 in Glasgow. He appeared on the census of 1861 in Anderston, Glasgow; a Scholar, living with parents and siblings. In 1881, he was a Shipping Agent and was still employed as same when he married Jessie Robb in1896 at Crown Street, Glasgow. He died 1923 at 137 Barrack St, Glasgow.
6. Thomas, the fourth son of John McCubbin and Janet Niblock was born circa 1852 in Glasgow. He appeared on the census of 1861 in Anderston, Glasgow; a Scholar, living with parents and siblings. The census of 1881 finds him employed as a Clerk – House Factor. He married Margaret Aitkenhead, 1881.
7. Jane the third daughter of John McCubbin and Janet Niblock was born on 1854 in Cambridge Glasgow, Lanark. She appeared on the census of 1861 in Anderston, Glasgow; a Scholar, living with parents and siblings. In 1881 she was a Housekeeper.
8. Isabella McLellan, the fourth daughter of John McCubbin and Janet Niblock was born 1856 in Anderston, Glasgow. She died in 1858 at 46 Catherine St, Anderston, Glasgow, age 18 months, of a remittent fever for 12 days. She is buried at Southern Necropolis, Glasgow.
9. William Bell, the fifth son of John McCubbin and Janet Niblock was born 1860 in Anderston, Glasgow, Lanark, He appeared on the census of 1861, Anderston, Glasgow; living with parents & siblings. He was an Accounts Clerk at the time of his marriage in 1881 to Christina Barrie Wilson in 1881 at 77 Dumbarton Road, Glasgow. The Groom was residing at 1 Brougham Terrace, Crosshill. The Bride at 77 Dumbarton Road. He was a Bookkeeper when he died in 1916 at 133 Holm St, Glasgow, Dennistoun, at age 56; of Arteriosclerosis Bronchitis. (end of James & Isabellas family)
D. Mary, daughter of James and Isabella McClellan was born circa 1820. She married David Kennedy 1845 in Whithorn, Wigtown. She died 1897 at 26 High Street, Wigtown, Wigtown of Valvular Disease of Heart 7 months. Daughter Jane of Liverpool present.
Occupations & Accomplishments
Hand skills continued on down this family tree, starting with James, the Mason, his son John the Joiner, who packed up his family and left for Glasgow. His son James became a Sewing Machine Maker and Engine Fitter. His sisters, Susan, became a Vestmaker, and Mary, a Loom Weaver. The other three brothers leaned toward clerical work Andrew – a Cashier, John, a Shipping Agent, and William, an Accounts Clerk and Bookkeeper. It would appear the McCubbins, by dint of hard work and persistence, did well in Glasgow.
Leaving Home
To Glasgow
Glasgow is located on the banks of the River Clyde, in West Central Scotland. It was an exceptional city in the 19th century. It was a place of contrasts, with the spectacularly rich living side-by-side with some of the poorest in Britain. Life in the city could be dangerous and uncertain: conflicts existed, often between the most disadvantaged of inner-city migrants. But it was also exciting, full of opportunity and optimism, youthful and characterized by a rich and vibrant popular culture. http://www.theglasgowstory.com/
In 1845 the first horse drawn buses began running in Glasgow. From 1872 they were replaced by horse drawn trams. After 1898 the trams changed to electricity. (The first electricity generating station in Glasgow was built in 1893).
Major industries in the 19th century included shipbuilding, cotton, engineering, carpet making, pottery and glass. By 1835 half the tonnage of steam ships produced in Britain were built on the River Clyde.
Attracting migrants from the farms and villages of Scotland, Glasgow grew rapidly going from a population of 77,000 in 1801 to 420,000 in 1861. Men and women were flocking in from the country looking for work, and living in dreadfully overcrowded conditions in one or two room tenements. And
many of them would weep bitter nostalgic tears for a beauty that had gone – for a fringe of tree-tops against a wide sweeping skyline; for the flutter of a hawk and the song of a lark; for the scent of honeysuckle, for the sensation of bare feet in the grass dew of a summers night, and cattle grazing in the hush.
John, the Joiner, who had left the home place for Glasgow, had toiled for over fifty years, raised a family and lost his wife, and then went back home.
Back to the heughs* and the fields and the sea-shore, back to the farms whose names were music……
Falyennan, Killantrae, Auchengally, Airylan, Graighalloch. (Quotes from Land of the Leal, James Burke, by Collins, 1939)
Facts of Interest
*Joiner – a woodworker, a carpenter
*Journeyman – a qualified tradesman, apprenticeship served
*Heughs – Crags; Cliffs
Contributors: Anne Bryans, Ronald McCubbin, Karen Downie. Thank you to photographers & John Arthington’s pictures.