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Macadam History
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First, an apology . . .
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The
Macadam name is really only borrowed, although my father, Miles,
was born on 8th March 1909 at Bridge of Weir
in Renfrewshire and the family is entitled to call itself
Scottish. Indeed, the
MacGregor
tartan to which we are entitled makes a very fine kilt,
especially the
Hunting Tartan.
In my
teens, for years the family took long summer holidays in the
same place on the West Coast where we met the same friends year
after year, and the area northwards and westwards from Loch Fyne
to the Butt of Lewis is especially dear to my heart. Pictures of
my favourite haunts are beginning to appear here.
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Secondly, a word of thanks . . .
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It
is surprising just what progress you can make with researching family
history, especially now the Internet is so much more accessible and others
are busy with similar ancestral research.
I made the discovery that I had a second cousin (an "in-law"),
John Macadam,
living in Kirland, Bodmin, Cornwall.
His page on
members and
non-members of the family makes a good starting point, and I refer
to this, and others, to provide information of our 'common' ancestry.
John has kindly updated many of the dates below from his records, and
keeps a watchful eye on progress. |
There is website dedicated to the many branches
of the Macadam family, wherever they may be in the world, at
http://www.mcadamshistory.com/index.html
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| Any of John's points made below and on the
following pages, are marked JM. |
| There are several links to the
Stevenson Family web site. |
| I have raised queries in italics
within [square] brackets - please feel free to write
and make helpful suggestions! At present the
Feedback form does not
work, so please use the E-mail address on the
Links page. |
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The Family
The earliest known ancestors of this
branch of the MacAdam family.
[I have yet to work out when the capital A
got changed to lower case, but according to John Macadam [JM] it
was around 1800.
William MacAdam spelt it both ways, according to contemporaneous
documents, and the children of the family used both forms up
until the latter part of the nineteenth century.]
The direct
lineage so far traced is:
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John McAdam |
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Born: abt. 1760 |
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Died: 1815 or before
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Burgess of the City of Glasgow and a
Guild Brother, admitted 18th October 1786; |
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A
weaver by trade; |
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Married Margaret Finlay on 8th November 1782 in
Glasgow
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Her name is often given as Margrat, |
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Margaret's father was a William ffinlay, also
a Burgess of the City of Glasgow, admitted on 28th August
1754
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William's father was John ffinlay, who apparently
died either during or before 1754.
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Three children born to John and Margaret have
so far been traced:
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William M McAdam b. 3rd
November 1783 in Glasgow;
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Margaret McAdam b. 8th February 1788 in Barony,
Lanark, Scotland,
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Margaret may possibly have married either James Grey on 28th
April 1809 in Glasgow, or John Brock on 5th June 1810 in
Barony, or, indeed another person. [IGI] |
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Margaret is known to have emigrated to America;
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John McAdam b. 29th October 1794, christened 9th
November 1794 in Barony,
Lanark, Scotland.
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Charles T Macadam (William's son, see below)
records in a note to JM that William had a sister, but no
brother. If that was his belief, it suggests that John may
well have died in infancy. |
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Today, what was Barony parish has long been eaten
up by the city of Glasgow. In the past it represented lands
which were to the north of the city and which were, in those
days, more rural - they included Maryhill, Lambhill,
Bishopriggs, Kelvinside, Possil, Balornock, Springburn,
Provanmill, Millerston, Dennistoun, Garthamlock, Carntyne,
Parkhead, Calton, Barlanark, Shettleston, Tollcross and
Barrachnie. (Some of these cross parish boundaries.) The one
reminder of the name Barony is the former Barony Church,
now Strathclyde University's Barony Hall (see photograph
below), which is located directly opposite Glasgow
Cathedral.
It is used as their main hall
for Graduation ceremonies. [Note from
Genuki - Lanarkshire]
Barony Hall, which stands on the site of the old church
To
the University, the Barony equates with graduations,
conferences and functions. To 19th century Glasgow,
however, the Barony was one of the city's foremost
churches, with a congregation of over 2,000.
The Barony Parish was one of Glasgow's oldest,
stretching from the city centre north towards
Bishopbriggs and west to Govan, incorporating
prosperous West End suburbs and city centre slums.
The pre-eminence of the Barony Church in 19th
century makes it an ideal case study into religion and
society, analysing key features of the congregation
such as geographic location, place of birth, gender,
social class, family links and pattern of churchgoing
between servants and their employers. As such, this
research develops what became known as the Hillis
Question, that is, the links between church and people
in 19th century Scotland.
However, this research is only possible through a
combination of at first unlikely bedfellows, namely
ICT, the Church of Scotland and the Mormon Church. An
analysis of this type depends on tracing church
members in sources such as census returns and Post
Office directories.
Nonetheless, a manual search of census returns for a
congregation of the Barony's size would be an
unrealistic undertaking requiring an entire team of
researchers, but new technology comes to the rescue in
the form of the Mormon Church's electronic database of
the 1881 Great Britain census. The Barony kept an
accurate roll of church members between 1879 and 1883
which matches the 1881 census.
The Mormon database is a unique analytical tool, but
one limited by an inflexible search engine. However,
the UK data archive holds the original database and
makes available electronic versions of relevant
parishes. For this project,
Peter
Hillis (Social Studies Education) and
Drew
Calderhead (Business & Computer Education) have
created an 1881 census database for Glasgow and
surrounding parishes using FileMaker Pro, a fast and
flexible database. This census database is per se
a valuable resource, giving a detailed insight into
Glasgow's population.
Initial findings show that rich and poor, men and
women regularly worshipped where today's graduates now
sit, but the working class, especially working class
women, made up a large part of the congregation. It
could also boast many famous citizens, including the
MacBrayne family, one half of what became known as
Caledonian MacBrayne, and Robert Cochrane, owner of
the Britannia Pottery, the Garrioch Flint Mills and
the Kerreville Pottery. As such, the Barony was a
microcosm of late 19th century Glasgow.
Peter Hillis |
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William M MacAdam |
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Born: 3rd November 1783 |
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Died: 1853
[JM]
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Son of John Macadam and Margaret Finlay; |
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Burgess of the City of Glasgow; |
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Described on his son Charles' wedding certificate in 1865 as
"Merchant"; |
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As
his father, he was also a weaver by trade, and started the Mile End Spinning
Company; |
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He
was a calico printer and had a
factory at Greenholme, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire,
which covered some 10 acres of land -
[but was this the same as the Mile End
Spinning Company?] |
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By 1845, as a widower of both Rachel and
Helen, he was living at 169 George Street, Glasgow.
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On
1st June 1813 William M married Rachel Gentle,
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[This will eventually form the basis of a
further page of the family tree.] |
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Rachel's parents and birth/death dates have not been
traced, but they had one son,
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William b. abt 1814, died sometime after
September 1877, when his letters to his nephew Charlie (C T
Macadam) cease, he having written about his illness at that
time; [JM] |
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He was the first chemist in the family;
[JM] |
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In another letter to Charlie, he writes of
his father's funeral in 1853.
[JM] |
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William first married Elizabeth Reed
(Eliza) of
Kilmarnock, Ayre, on 13 June 1842, and had a family of nine children;
[JM] |
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Their two children traced so far:
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Rachel Gentle MacAdam, chr. 23rd
January 1845 in Kilmarnock, and died in the December quarter
of 1879 in the registration district of West Derby
{8b 189} |
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She married Robert Strang on 6th
October 1869 in St Mary's Church, Edge Hill, Lancashire,
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No children have been traced so far, and I
cannot as yet find them in the 1881 census.
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George Duncan Macadam, b 16th
August 1853 in West Derby, Lancashire, |
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He married Mary Elizabeth Westlake
in Liverpool on 3rd October 1880. |
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Mary was christened 17th June 1858
in St Augustine's Church, Bristol,
her father being Henry Westlake, and
her mother Jane Taylor.
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George and Mary's children
were:
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John Duncan Macadam, b abt 1881,
Liverpool; d 1968, |
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George Macadam, b abt 1883,
Liverpool; d ? |
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Florence Macadam, b abt 1885,
Liverpool; d 1966, and |
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William Henry Macadam, chr. 6 April
1898, Toxteth Park, Liverpool; d 26th August 1966. |
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William was married again, after
Rachel's death, to Mary Brougham,
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There were no children of this marriage. |
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On
1st January 1825 William M married Helen Stevenson, who
was the second child of William Stevenson (b.
?25 August 1765 at Dunlop in Ayrshire; d. 27th July 1839 at
his home, Park Farm, Clackmannan and buried in the
Churchyard at Clackmannan on 2nd August 1839) and Helen Grindlay
(born 27th May 1781 probably at Seabegs; d. 8th November
1844 at Blindwells Cottage, Tranent).
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Helen Stevenson was born 24th August 1803, and
baptised 31st August 1803, in the Parish Church at
Cumbernauld. |
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The wedding took place on 1st January 1825 at Clackmannan.
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She died on the 20th January 1857 at 6 Kelvinhaugh Street,
Glasgow, and is buried in the Sighthill Cemetery in
Glasgow.
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Sighthill Cemetery is in the Springburn
area of Glasgow. It is situated rather prominently on a
hillside, and on the west side of Springburn Road, which
is the road that runs up from High Street past Glasgow
Cathedral. It is in Barony district (St Rollox). The
cemetery was opened in 1841 & the original lair registers
for 1841 to 1845 are in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow.
The later ones are, I believe, in Glasgow City Council
archives in the Cemeteries & Crematoria department. |
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For the Stevenson family tree and
more of the family history, please go to their excellent,
and
growing, web site at:
http://www.csls.co.uk/genealogy/StevPark/index.htm
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William and Helen's children (4 sons and 3
daughters) were:
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Helen Grindlay Macadam, b. 29th
Aug 1825, Glasgow |
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John Macadam, MD, b. May 1827,
b. 29th May 1827, North Bank, Glasgow |
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Stevenson Macadam, b. 27th
April 1829, Gadshill, Glasgow |
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Margaret Macadam, b. 11th
January 1831, Glasgow |
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Charles Thomas Macadam, b. 5th
November 1832, North Bank, Glasgow |
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Mary Elison Macadam, b. 9th
September 1835, Glasgow |
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George Robert MacAdam, b.
22nd July 1837, Glasgow |
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More particularly these children were: |
| Helen Grindlay Macadam |
| Born: 29th August 1825 in Glasgow,
Lanarkshire, Scotland. |
| Died: She is thought to have died at the
age of 14.
[1839? and where?] |
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Hon.
John Macadam, MD
Image source: University of Melbourne Medical School
Jubilee 1914, plate 4.
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Medical teacher |
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Born: 29th May 1827
at North Bank, Glasgow, Scotland. |
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Died: 2nd September 1865. |
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Married
Elizabeth Clark (an English girl) in Victoria, Australia in 1856 |
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Career Highlights
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John Macadam was the first lecturer appointed to
teach in the University of Melbourne School of Medicine, commencing
classes in Chemistry and Practical Chemistry on 3rd March, 1862.
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He first studied chemistry at the Andersonian University and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland
from 1842-1847. He later studied medicine at the University of
Glasgow, graduating M.D. and then went on to be assistant to
Professor Gregory at the University of Edinburgh. He became a
Fellow of the Faculties of Physicians and Surgeons in 1854.
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He emigrated to Australia in 1855 and went to
Melbourne to fill the post of lecturer in Chemistry and Natural
Science in the Scotch College in that city. In 1857 obtained
his M.D. ad eundem gradum. The following year he was
appointed government analytical chemist and, in 1862, he gained
appointment as Lecturer in Medicine (Chemistry, and Practical
Chemistry) at the University of Melbourne Medical School. For
the next few years he held classes for a small number of medical
students in the Analytical Laboratory behind the Public Library.
In 1865 he became Professor in Theoretical and Practical Chemistry at
the University of Melbourne.
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He was also the City of Melbourne health officer
and he was one of the first members of the Philosophical Institution
of Victoria. He represented the District of Castlemaine in the
Legislative Assembly of Victoria from 1859 to 1864 and was
Postmaster General in 1861.
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From 3rd March 1862 he began teaching classes in
the government analytical laboratory behind the Public Library. In
May 1865 he met with an accident which greatly enfeebled him and he
was advised not to travel. In
the autumn of that year, however, whilst sailing for New Zealand to give evidence in a
murder case, he died on board the
SS Alhambra. He left a widow and one son, the first son having died in
infancy.
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The "Macadamia" nut was discovered in Brisbane in
1857, and named after him two years later. The tree was named for
chemist John Macadam by his friend and colleague, Baron Ferdinand von
Mueller, Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Australia.
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John
Macadam and
Elizabeth Clark had two sons:
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John
Melnotte Macadam, born 29th August 1858 at Fitzroy, Melbourne,
Australia and who died on 30th January 1859, aged 5 months, and
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William
Castlemaine Macadam, born on ?2nd July 1860, also at Melbourne,
Australia. JM's comment here is that he also died before his
father, and his body was exhumed and re-interred in his father's coffin,
this being noted on John's gravestone. This differs from another account
I have seen, which says that at John's death, he left behind a widow and
one son.
[I wonder if this was in fact the body of the
first son?] |
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Stevenson Macadam |
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Lecturer in Chemistry at the University
of Edinburgh |
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Born: 27th April 1829
at North Bank,
Glasgow, Scotland. |
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Died: 24th January 1901. |
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He married
Jessie Andrew J Ivison on 23rd April 1855 in Neilston, Renfrew, Scotland.
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Jessie's parents were Michael Wheelwright
Ivison, chr. 21st December 1801 at Stanwix, Cumberland, and Ann
Cochran. They were married on 1st August 1825 at either Neilston, in
Renfrewshire, or in the High Church in Paisley.
[possibly the latter, the bride living in
Neilston at the time]. |
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Career Highlights:
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Studied at the Glasgow Mechanics' Institution, |
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Ph D (University of Giessen), |
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1853 - Chemical
Society of London |
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from 1855 -
Lecturer, Edinburgh School of Medicine,
for over 50 years, also becoming a
Professor there, |
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1877 - Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry, |
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1881 - Member of the
Society of Chemical Industry, |
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1900 - 1901 GBI Council Member, |
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Up until 1901 he was also an Analytical & Consulting
Chemist in Edinburgh, |
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From 1855, Lecturer at the University of
Edinburgh, |
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By 1902 his full name and title was:
Professor Stevenson Macadam PhD., F.R.S.E., F.I.C., F.C.S. |
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Consultant, and author of many papers,
etc., |
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Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, |
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Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry, |
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Fellow (and probably a founder
member) of the Chemical Society of London, |
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President of the Royal Society of Arts,
Scotland. |
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Stevenson had a country cottage at
Innerleithen. (see below)
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For details of his family, link
here
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Margaret Macadam |
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Born: 11th
January 1831 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire. |
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Died: 1st
August 1865 at Innerleithen, Peebles-shire, having been ill with
cancer for the last 16 months. See
link. |
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She married
James Lockhart on 27th June 1861 at Duddingston, Edinburgh.
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James
Lockhart was born on 21st March 1826 and died aboard the SS Meeking
on 21 Oct 1874, during a voyage to China, and whilst it was crossing
the Red Sea. He was an Marine Engineer, and was resident for some time in
Shanghai, China. |
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Decessit sine prole. (She
died sine prole - without issue.) |
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She was known to the family as Maggie. |
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Charles Thomas Macadam
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Purveyor of Chemical fertilisers to Queen
Victoria. |
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Born: 5th November 1832, at 169 East
George Street, Glasgow. |
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Died: 22nd April 1906.
[Christchurch, 2b p.407] |
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Career Highlights:
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George Robert
Macadam |
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Born:
22nd July 1837 at 169 East George Street, Glasgow, Scotland. |
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Died: 16th September 1918, and
buried at Malvern, Melbourne, Australia. |
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Career Highlights:
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Emigrated to Australia
[when?] |
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On 16th October 1873, Charles Bailey,
as manager of the
Monte Christo Quartz Gold Mining and Crushing
Company (Limited), registered it as a limited company under the
provisions of the Mining Companies Act 1871. Of the 6000 shares
issued, George Robert MacAdam, a teacher in Avoca, is registered as
having taken 25. [NB: A copy of that page
is reproduced here]. |
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His address on 30th December 1875 was
'Clyde', 9 Irving Street, Malvern, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; |
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At the time of the 1881 Census, he was
resident at 28 Belmont Place, Kelso, Roxburgh, Scotland; |
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In July 1911 he was again to be found
at the same address in Malvern, Australia.
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George Robert married
Elizabeth Standen in 1866 in Victoria, Australia.
They have two recorded children
[so far; there may be others?]:
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daughter, details not known |
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George Stevenson Macadam,
b. 1867 in Avoca, Victoria, Australia,
who died as a baby. |
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Mary Elison Macadam
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Born: 9th September 1835 at 169 East George Street, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland.
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Died: 21st July 1889, and buried at Farnham, Surrey.
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At the time of the 1881 Census, she was
resident at 28 Belmont Place, Kelso, Roxburgh,
Scotland, aged 45;
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She was known to the family as
Polly;
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She died a Spinster.
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