Ancestors of Robert McCutcheon - Margaret Gunn

Margaret Gunn

#27, (29 Mar 1870 - 12 Aug 1932)
Margaret Gunn|b. 1870\nd. 1932|p27.htm|William Gunn|b. c 1840\nd. 1909|p85.htm|Jessie Campbell|b. c 1844\nd. 1929|p86.htm|John Gunn|b. 1806\nd. 1882|p619.htm|Ann Reid|b. c 1813\nd. 1895|p620.htm|Peter Campbell|b. 1805\nd. 1893|p628.htm|Margaret Young|b. c 1810\nd. 1863|p629.htm|

Relationship   Great-grandmother of Robert Stewart McCutcheon.
Last Edited   25 Nov 2007
Charts   My ancestors

Father   William Gunn (c 1840 - 29 Jun 1909)
Mother   Jessie Campbell (c 1844 - 5 Aug 1929)

Birth* 29 Mar 1870 East Clyth, Caithness, Scotland1 
Marriage* 1 Dec 1893 Alexander Calder; Wick Free Church, Wick, Caithness, Scotland, Alexander Calder was employed as a cooper when he married.
Margaret Gunn was employed as a domestic servant. 
Marr Not* c 1911 After 8 years of widowhood, Margaret bore a son, Frederick MacKay Calder, father unknown 
Death* 12 Aug 1932 Longmore Hospital, Edinburgh, Scotland, Carcinoma 
Address* 5 Admiralty Street, Leith, Midlothian, Scotland 
Note* Not far from Clyth on the coast of Caithness, where my great-grandmother was born, is a curious prehistoric relic , known as the Hill of Many Stanes. It consists of numerous small standing stones laid out in a sort of grid pattern. One theory is that the layout is a sort of a complicated lunar observatory

My great-grandmother was widowed at the age of 32, with a young family of five to look after. But she never remarried. She had her youngest son, Freddy, in her ninth year of widowhood. According to Freddy's death certificate his father is Alexander Calder, his mother's husband, which makes it the longest pregnancy in history ! In fact Freddy's birth certificate doesn't give the name of his father. Whether this event had anything to do with the Calder family moving down to Leith, I don't know. It may have been because her second son William had died of diptheria and peracarditis in 1915 at Edinburgh's Northern General Hospital. There were Calder relations already residing in the port.
The family moved to a ground floor flat in Admiralty Street, not far from Leith Docks. I have vague memories of the house in Admiralty Street, for one thing there was an organ kept there. The tenancy of the house then belonged to my mother's spinster aunt, Jessie Calder. The flat in Admiralty Street remained Margaret's home until 1932 when she died of cancer in the Longmore Hospital, Newington. Before I found my great-grandmother's death certificate and the mention of the Longmore, I had associated her in my mind with Newington even though I knew she had stayed in Leith. Strange ?
My great-grandmother is buried in Seafield Cemetery in Leith. She shares the grave with her eldest son, Alexander Calder, who died three years after his mother. The funeral of her grandaughter, my mother, took place at Seafield - her ashes were scattered in the Garden of Remembrance. And another coda, her great-grandson - me - was born in the Eastern General Hospital just over the wall from Seafield Cemetery. 
Residence* 1881 Keiss, Caithness, Scotland1 
Married Name 1 Dec 1893 Calder 

Family 1

   Alexander Calder (25 Nov 1868 - 12 Jan 1902)
Children  1. Alexander Calder (excluded)
  2. William John Calder (excluded)
  3. Jessie Calder (excluded)
  4. John Gunn Calder+ (1899 - 1951)
  5. Donald Calder (excluded)

Family 2

  
Child  1. Frederick MacKay Calder (excluded)

Citations

  1. GRO Scotland, 1881 census for Caithness.