8th Generation

Born - Between 1833 and 1836 in Aberdeenshire

Died - 22 May 1897, Nazareth house, Aberdeen, Scotland

I believe, Mary, like her husband, was also a traveler. I have no record of her birth or her marriage. I’m not entirely sure she even married Peter Murray as on the children’s birth records they gave different years they were married! The records I do have indicate she was born between 1833 and 1836, somewhere in Aberdeen.

The history of Aberdeen in the early/mid 1800’s tell a tale of a town full of poverty with a huge divide been rich and poor. Migrants came from everywhere – including the highland clearances and the Irish Famine. Aberdeen’s sewerage system begun in 1865 to replace the open sewers which previously ran along the streets, streets that Mary lived it! There could be many reasons for the poverty Mary was born into. Mary was living in Shuttle Lane when her second child was born. This was a city street full of poverty, violence and prostitution.

The name Shuttle Lane has original associations with the Weaving Trade – The Act of ‘kissing the shuttle‘, in which Weavers used their Mouths to pull Thread through the eye of a Shuttle when the ‘Pirn’ of Thread was replaced, thus contributing to the spread of disease.  

By the time Mary had her third born she was no longer living in the city. Mary Ann was born in a barn in Alford and then baptised in Fetternear, Our Lady of the Garioch and St. John the Evangelist RC Church. The certificate details Mary’s husband was a hawker of stoneware (someone who travelled around villages selling glass, pots, crockery. This was an important source when people were in general less mobile)

Their daughter Helen is the only female that I have any records past childhood. She married a Thomas Fraser and lived her life in Peterhead. She lived a long life with both her and her husband living into their 70’s. That’s the best happy ending I have for anyone in this family.

James also married however he died in the Poorhouse aged only 46.

Their son Anthony was born in Clackmannan some 120 miles south of Aberdeen. however he was baptised on return to Aberdeen in St Mary’s with St Peter’s RC Church. This shows just how far they travelled selling their wares, however Aberdeen was their home. Does this make Peter and Helen traveling people in the sense that gypsies if they have a home they always return to?

Betty is the last child born to Peter and Mary. Although baptised Betty she was called Elizabeth on other records You can see on all of the children’s birth certificates that both Mary and her husband were illiterate.

We know that Mary’s son, William, committed murder in 1886 and we also know that Peter, Mary’s husband, died in a tragic accident in 1887. The newspaper clipping below gave us more information on the family. They not only tells us that she had 2 children James and Elizabeth (Betty) still in her care when her husband died but that Mary was Blind, something census records and statutory records do not detail.

Mary was awarded £70 for the death of her husband. £15 for Elizabeth, £5 for James and £50 for herself. £50 in 1890 is just under £8,000 in today’s money. For James to be seeking compensation it is likely that he was the one looking after his mother.

Mary died in Nazareth House in Aberdeen, 10 years later. Her death certificate shows James Flood and Mary Haggerty as her parents. However I have no evidence to confirm this and due to it being an inmate that signed her death certificate more information is required to take the line any further back.

There is a lot of information available on Nazareth House as it came to light, many years later, that thousands of children were made to live in fear by violent nuns who physically and sexually abused them at this Aberdeen care home.

The home was set up by six members of the Sisters of Nazareth charity in 1862, and operated as an orphanage, school and care home for the elderly. It shut down in 1983, with more than 6,000 youngsters having passed through its doors, and was dogged by allegations of historical abuse in the years that followed. The report that was released detailing the utmost depravity the youngsters had to endure at Nazareth House should not be read lightly. It’s frankly horrific.

Husband – Peter Murray

Son – William Murray.