ST MARK'S PORTOBELLO - Key Persons

John Wright, born 30 June, 1788, place unknown, died 28 June, 1842 London (or possibly at sea). He was the son of the Rev. John Wright, minister of Scone. Siblings included Rev. George Wright; James Wright, Esq.; Charles, who died c. 1794 and was buried at Scone with his father; and sisters, Jessy and Amelia. John Wright's will was probated 1843, Prerogative Court of Canterbury, London, confirming John Wright as Lieutenant Colonel in the Madras Army, India, at the time the will was written. His brother, James Wright, Esq., Writer to Her Majesty's Signet in Edinburgh, is listed as Executor, along with Messrs. Griffiths and Company, Madras. The beneficiaries are his two surviving children, Elizabeth Wright Barber and John Innes Wright. There is further litigation related to the original will in1859 (Barber v. Barber) noted by several legal journals, including "The Law Times". The name "Barber" refers to Colonel Wright's daughter, Elizabeth Wright Barber, and this event occurred after the death of her brother, John Innes Wright.

Constance Elizabeth Louise Macadam was born on the 6th September 1867 at Brighton House, 25 Brighton Place, Portobello. She died just before her 4th birthday on the 28th August 1871. Her short life was ended by diphtheria. Yet this life quick as it was, also reflects a remarkable family with a long association with Portobello, and also shows us why the child mortality rate was still so high. Constance was born into a family noted for their contribution to science. Her father was Stevenson Macadam who was not only an analytical chemist but also a lecturer and author. He was a founder of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain as well as of the Society of Chemical Industry. He lectured at various Edinburgh institutions including Edinburgh University and the Royal College of Surgeons. He also had a large analytical chemical consulting practice and was renowned for his expertise in this field. He was born in 1829 in Glasgow. His father was in the textile printing industry and had developed knowledge and expertise in processes that enabled industrial fabric printing. Stevenson and his brothers grew up sharing this interest in chemical science and the family are noted for their enduring contribution to this field across generations. After extensive study in both Scotland and Germany, Stevenson began lecturing at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1855. That same year he married Jessie Andrew Ivison and they moved to Edinburgh. They had 5 children, Constance being the last. Her eldest brother was William Ivison Macadam who went on to become as eminent in the field of analytical chemistry as his father. He lived with his family for many years at 6 Brighton Crescent before moving to Lady Road in the Craigmillar Park area. William also became a noted and popular public figure in Edinburgh for his role as a volunteer Colonel with the Royal Scots Forth Volunteer Infantry Brigade. He is also known for the tragedy of his death, being dramatically shot by a mentally ill porter at Surgeons Hall. Thousands attended his funeral. Constance's family lived initially in Leith, moving to Brighton House in Portobello in 1860. One of their daughters, Jessie was married at St. Marks. The other daughter, Helen had her wedding at Duddingston Parish Church. The younger son, also called Stevenson followed a similar career to his father, uncles and brother. William Macadam's daughter Elison became the first woman ever to graduate in chemistry at Kings College London. Constance therefore grew up within an academic and gifted family. She died of diphtheria, an illness for which at that time there was no vaccination. It was particularly lethal for young children and highly contagious, leading to quick spreading outbreaks that were impossible to contain. It used to be one of the leading causes of deaths in children. Looking at the pages before and after, it is striking how many are young deaths both from diphtheria and scarlatina which were often found together during epidemics. Treatment at that time was largely ineffectual, the option of tracheotomies helped a few but with very young children this carried its own risks. The science that would have saved Constance was still decades away. It would be 1883 before the bacterium causing diphtheria was identified and 1913 before a vaccine was first successfully developed. Mass vaccination was not started before the 1920s and it would be the 1940s before this grim disease became rare in the UK. It is always terrible for parents to watch a child die, but it must have been particularly hard for Stevenson Macadam, a man with a wealth of scientific knowledge and ability at his fingertips to understand that there was nothing he could do to save his daughter. Another interesting feature about this grave is that Constance is buried at an Episcopalian church. Stevenson Macadam was a member of the Church of Scotland and helped found and build St. James Church in Rosefield Place. He is buried in Portobello Cemetery along with his wife and second son. His eldest son, and his grandson are also in Portobello Cemetery. We cannot know for certain why the family chose St Marks for Constance but perhaps its location, not far from their home in Brighton Place may have been a factor.

George Robertson Jack was born in 1887 in Tower Hamlets, London but relocated to Canongate in Edinburgh with his parents at the turn of the nineteenth century. By 1901 at the age of 13, he had three siblings: Atholl (11), Alice (5) and Henry (3). He was working as a plumber in 1917 when he married dressmaker Euphemia Ballingall Kirk. The couple settled in Burntisland where their son George Jnr was born in 1918 followed by a daughter Jane in 1921. Both children emigrated to Australia and died in 1978 and 2002 respectively. Sadly, Euphemia died of cancer in January 1935, but George married again in 1938. By that time he was a Plumber's Manager living in Grierson Gardens Edinburgh, and married Mary Johnston Bisset, housekeeper. George died at the age of 75 in 1963 and was survived by his widow who passed away 18 years later. Although not born here, George's roots were in Scotland. Both his father and grandfather were named George and were working class. Grandfather George was born in 1803 and married Margaret Drummond in 1833. He was a tailor and she was daughter of a tailor, both living in Leith. There is no record of grandfather George's death, but he and Margaret had three children in Leith: Anne (1836), George (1844) and Mary (1846). By 1852 however, Margaret (as a widow) married a blacksmith, George Robertson from North Leith and he became stepfather to her three children. George Robertson seems to have been something of an entrepreneur as he evolved from blacksmith to warehouseman clerk, to grocer, to spirit merchant to carting contractor! He must have gained the respect of his step children as George Jack took Robertson as his middle name and his own children followed in the trading footsteps of their stepgrandfather. Margaret and George Robertson lived out their lives in Hawthornbank Terrace, Leith. Margaret's elder daughter Annie was their housekeeper to the end. Margaret died aged 88 in 1898 and George Roberston died five years later. At 17, Margaret's son (father George) is recorded as being a clerk in a commission agent's office in Leith, but by his thirties he has moved to London as a trader. He marries Alice Mary Clark in Bethnal Green in 1886. They have three children in England: George (1887), Atholl (1889) and Alice (1895) before he returns to Canongate, Edinburgh where he works as a coke checker for a gas company. Henry arrives in 1898. Tragedy hits the family in 1901 when 35 year old Alice dies in childbirth. Less than two months later in 1902, father George dies of asthenia. Who will look after the family? We find the youngsters registered as boarders with Shipmaster William Torbert and his trader wife Euphemia in Ladybank, East Fife. At the time of the 1911 census the girls (employed as linen weavers) were visited by brother Atholl who is now a shop assistant. Their elder brother is lodging at Valleyfield Street, Edinburgh and making his living as a plumber. Strangely, none of the family marriages take place in the Episcopal Church in Portobello, so it is uncertain how plumber George Robertson Jack is buried within its grounds. The only (possibly tenuous) link is that his mother Alice may have attended the ‘English Church' upon her arrival in Edinburgh.

James Wright, Esq., brother of Colonel John Wright and Executor to his will, was born c. 1783 and died 21 March 1864 Edinburgh; Writer to Her Majesty's Signet, Edinburgh. (Not buried with Colonel Wright.) Note: In 1824, James Wright, Esq. is found to be the Respondent in a case brought to court with the Earl of Mansfield as Appellant, regarding the "Churchyard Sepulchre" in Scone where James' and John Wright's father was buried c. 1795. The church at Scone had been moved, and the graves of Rev. John Wright and his son, Charles, were afterward found to be in the "pleasure grounds" of the Earl of Mansfield after the removal of the church. James Wright requested a "wall or fence" be built around the graves for protection and family visitation rights upheld. The Earl of Mansfield appealed the case to the House of Lords, but the case was dismissed. It appears the Wright family would have been pleased with the rebuilding of the churchyard wall at St. Marks.

Joseph Huey's gravestone indicates that he died on the 28th April 1838 and that he was the Assistant Surgeon for the 14th Kings Light Dragoons. This short inscription leaves much unanswered. Why was he buried in St. Mark's graveyard? What happened to him, and what brought him here to Edinburgh? In finding the answers to these questions, we perhaps learn less about the person Joseph Huey and more about army life in the early 19th century, and how this related to the broader social situation at the time of his death in a period marked by turbulent politics, dissent and civil unrest. It has proved difficult to find any official record of his birth or his death. The only record showing in searches is from the Perthshire Courier which includes an obituary notice for Joseph Huey in its 17th May 1838 edition, including the information that he died at Piershill Barracks. Indeed searching for any personal information about him has proved frustrating, apart from his military record and it is in these details that we can trace some of his life. The other source that shed some light on what happened to him is a book by Henry Blackburn Hamilton called the "Historical record of the 14th (King's) Hussars from A. D. 1715 to A. D. 1900." Published in 1901, this hefty volume charts the story of the 14th Hussars up to the start of the 20th Century. Whilst it is true to say that it reflects the era it was written in, it also provides a level of informative detail laid out in chronological detail, year by year. It is from this attention to detail that we learn Joseph Huey died of laryngitis in Edinburgh in 1838. This may have been the cause of his death but he may have been suffering from throat cancer or a similar condition that would still have been perceived to be laryngitis. The book also provides officer lists, with details of changes for each year. From this we can see that Joseph Huey is first recorded as Assistant Surgeon in 1829, and appears annually from that date. In 1838, the year of his death, this record changes to Joseph Huey MD, indicating that he has now qualified as a doctor. This is confirmed by an article in the Belfast Commercial Chronicle dated 8th May 1837 which gives a list of all the "gentlemen of Ireland who obtained degrees during the session" at the University of Glasgow. The list for medicine includes a Joseph Huey. From the Historical Record we know that the 14th Light Dragoons were stationed at Glasgow during 1836-1837 so it seems likely that this is the same Joseph Huey. However, sadly he never got the chance to move further up the ranks to surgeon. The war office produced regular reports detailing transfers, promotions etc. of officer posts and these then appeared in a variety of newspapers, often the London Gazette; it is from this practice that Joseph Huey's career prior to joining the Kings Hussars can be traced. He is listed in the London Gazette in May 1815 as joining the 58th Foot Infantry as a Hospital Assistant. In February 1822, the same paper lists him as being promoted to Assistant Surgeon with the 58th. The reference to him being an Irish gentleman attending Glasgow University is supported by an entry in the Londonderry Sentinel in 1835 which reports that a Miss Huey married the Rev J Armstrong. It notes her father is Mr R Huey and her uncle is Surgeon Huey of the 14th Light Dragoons. I have not been able to find any other family records for him, but Huey seems to be a common surname in County Tyrone so perhaps this was where he spent his early years. The 58th Foot Infantry had just returned from the Napoleonic Wars when Joseph joined them. They were stationed in Ireland in 1815 which could explain the connection and why he signed up with this regiment in particular. He then moved to the 14th Kings Light Dragoons or the Hussars as they were also known in 1829, perhaps for an increase in salary or because of their reputation. Henry Blackburn calls them "one of the most illustrious regiments in the British cavalry", saying they were noted for their "esprit de corps" and for their record during the Napoleonic Wars. Joseph joined them whilst they were stationed in Britain, and during his time with them, they did not leave the country.