When doing the Kirkyard Chronicles, where I find stories and explore the lives of the people buried in the old graveyards of Wigtownshire, there was one book that was of immense help to me, not just because of the original text, but because of the additions made by a previous owner back in the 1880s.
The book was written and published by Gordon Fraser of Wigtown in 1877 and has the catchy title of:
“Wigtown and Whithorn, Historical and Descriptive Sketches and Anecdotes, illustrative of the Racy Wit & Pawky Humour of the district”
I first read this book when I was young and loved it as it talked about places and names I knew of, and there were not many books like that when I was growing up.
Gordon Fraser is something of a hero of mine. He had the presence of mind to collect the stories of the older generation of Wigtown and the area, realizing that when these people were gone, their stories died with them.
But Gordon Fraser is a story for another day, this is a tale about the man who once owned my copy of the book and wrote his name on the inside page.
So, who was Robert M. Macmaster?
It’s a common enough surname in Scotland, and there was more than one Robert Macmaster in Edinburgh in 1881, a year before our Robert wrote in the book, so what else could help here?
A look for a Robert Macmaster with a link to Wigtown yielded no results, but a search for any Macmaster living in Edinburgh at that time with a link to Wigtown does give us a result and that is of Helen Macmaster, born in Wigtown c.1824. Amongst the five of her children living with her at this time, we can find her son, Robert Mackie Macmaster. All of Helen’s children were born in Wigtown, except for Robert, which is why he initially evaded me.
But why should I spend my time looking into Robert’s life? Well, the reason Robert interests me is because in the 1880s he did something that’s normally frowned upon, namely writing in the margins of a book, but what Robert chose to do, likely with the help of his mother and father, has proved invaluable to me.
Victorian books of this type followed a rule of anonymity where, if the subject referred to someone either still alive, recently dead, or had surviving family that may object to what was being written, the names appeared as initials only. One example from this book would be “Old Tam C-”. The people of Wigtown would be perfectly aware of who this was, but to avoid any issues we are simply given the first letter of the surname. This can be annoying for those of us reading 150 years later when we are, for the most part, left with nothing but initials to go on.
That is unless you had someone who knew who knew who they were talking about and who, when reading the book, filled in the names for us. Someone like Robert Mackie Macmaster.
A look into Robert’s early life shows us that he was born in Dysart, Fife, on the 17th of June 1859. Why his mother was in Fife at that time is unknown. It’s possible it was to visit friends or family, either way, after Robert’s birth she returned to Wigtown.
His father, William, was born in Wigtown c.1823, and we can find him in 1841 living in the town with his parents where he worked as an apprentice saddler to his father.
William married Helen Mackie in Wigtown around 1850, with their first child being born in August of ’51. That year sees William and Helen living in Back Street and by this time, William is a master saddler and ironmonger, employing 3 men. As well as this, he is also gas manager for the town, with another man in his employ.
It’s worth noting here that the surname Mackie changes often with that of McKie and Macmaster with McMaster. There is no difference in the names, just a variation of spelling.
In 1861, two years after Robert’s birth, the family are living in Bank Street at the home of Helen’s aunt, Elizabeth McKie. This was to be the last census record that William was to appear in Scotland.
At some point between 1862 and 71, Robert’s father moved to Michigan, USA, to set up a saddler and ironmonger’s store in Alpena. On the 6th of June 1870, he can be found working as a harness maker in Alpena. Although this may look like he abandoned his family, it wasn’t by any means unusual for a husband, already in an established trade, to move to the States to establish a business there. Normally, once up and running, the family would normally join them, and William was most likely in constant, or as much as was possible for the time, contact with Helen, and may well have made return visits during this time.
1871 sees Helen and her family living at 1 North Bank Street, Wigtown, with Robert attending the local school. In the late 1870s, the family moved to Edinburgh and, in 1881, Robert worked as a clerk for a school board office in the city and lived with his mother and siblings at 18 Howe Street, Edinburgh.
Meanwhile, in Alpena, Michigan, William Macmaster’s business appeared to be doing well. He appears in trade directories for Alpena throughout the 1880s as a harness maker and saddler with his business located at 119 West River Street in the city. In the late 1880s, William appeared to think his business was successful enough to have his son, Robert, join him there.
The site of William Macmaster's business as it appears today
There are conflicting records regarding Robert’s arrival in the States with one saying that it was 1890, however, Robert appears in a trade directory of 1889, working for his father as a harness maker. It seems more likely that Robert arrived around 1888/9 and started working with his father at his store on River Street in the city.
Interestingly, Robert is never listed anywhere as a saddler or harness maker until 1889. Even when he was younger, he is never listed as an apprentice saddler, indeed, in 1871 he is working as a clerk which is a far cry from the work of his father.
It was a bitterly cold morning in Alpena on Thursday the 13th of February 1890 when two men walking down River Street, heard a single revolver shot from the store of William Macmaster. They immediately rushed inside and were met by a cloud of smoke. One of the men looked over the counter where the smoke originated and saw the body of Robert Mackie McMaster with a single gunshot wound to his right temple. Police were quickly on the scene, as well as the local doctor but there was nothing they could do for him. It was quickly ascertained that nobody else had been present in the store at the time. Robert had only been in the USA a matter of months, and it was only 8 short years since he wrote his name in the book.
It didn’t take long for the coroner and a panel to reach their conclusion.
Robert had shot himself in the head with a 32-caliber revolver. The verdict was “suicide” and the reason, the catch-all term used so often in the past was “insanity”.
Nobody will ever know the real reason why Robert took his own life. He was, according to the coroner, “slightly afflicted [by] insanity”. Mental health was ridiculously misunderstood at this time and for a long time after, and it would not do Robert’s memory justice to spend time wondering what the reasons may have been for him to take his own life.
He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Alpena on the 15th of February 1890, and his father had a stone erected which reads:
In Loving Memory of
Robert Mackie
Son of William & Hellen
McMaster
Died 13 Feb 1890
It is still visible, although now collapsed, and broken. A circular carving of a thistle is depicted at the top of the stone. A reminder of home.
Within a month, his father sold his business and returned home. With the money from the sale, he bought Spurriers Farm, Ingatestone, Essex, England, and later Little Hyde Farm in the same area where he and Helen would live until his death in 1904. Helen returned to Wigtown after William died and lived in Bank Street until her death in 1910.
As I said, Robert’s additions to his copy of Gordon Fraser’s book have proved invaluable to me. When my aim is to look at those buried in the old Kirkyards, and find out as much about them as possible, including any strange and humorous tales, then I couldn’t have asked for more regarding Wigtown than what Robert did in the 1880s.
To go back to the example I gave at the beginning of “Old Tam C.”, thanks to Robert, we now know this was ‘old’ Thomas Crawford, not only that, but his nickname was ‘Powder’. I can’t emphasise enough how good this is for research!
I doubt he thought what he was doing would help someone so far in the future. But it did. I wish he knew how much he helped me in my research, maybe he does, you never know, but the main this is that he’s not forgotten, and now you’ve read this, the name and life of Robert Mackie Macmaster are once again remembered.
Examples of Robert's writing in the book, which has served me well in my research.
