Born - 29 March 1801 - Halbeath, Fife, Scotland
Died - 25 October 1839 - Halbeath, Fife, Scotland

David was born to Alexander Campbell and Alison Skinner in Halbeath, Fife in 1801. He grew up with an older brother Andrew and a younger brother Alexander as well as 2 sisters, Margaret and Sarah.

Halbeath is a village northeast of Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. It derives its name from the Gaelic choil beath, which means “wood of birches”, and began as a colliery village. In the summer of 1789 (This is only 12 years before David was born) a coal pit was sunk at Halbeath and by 1821, 841 people were reported to be living in the village. This is the village that David grew up in, almost everyone would have been coalminers, everyone would have known each other.

The picture below was taken in 1925, 100 years after David lived there. It is the road to Crossgates (which is now a busy motorway). If you know the area at all you will know the road is unrecognisable. The Halbeath colliery comprised of the Albert Pit, Queen Pit, Back Row and Long Row, as well as large bings, engine houses, boilers house, a smithy and a chimney. Long Row survives today but it is no longer 2 miles from Dunfermline, the towns have now joined.

David married Annie Smith in 1826, they had three children together.

I found this little story online, the author unknown. What it makes me realise is that life in the pits went on for generations. David is part of those far off days.

“Collieries, like men, have their allotted span. Men appear upon the world’s stage and then vanish away like the grass that withereth. Collieries may be full of life and activity, with whistling steam puffing about them in all directions, one year – pulse beating high – and the following year all may be a silent as the grave, some rusty pulley-wheels and big gapping, yawning holes being the only reminders of the days that were. For centuries coals was worked at the mining village of Halbeath. Some of the little red roofed houses which are built on the “Cline Brae” ridge with a southern exposure, and which to this day stands at the old “Chant” and “Waterhead”, date back nearly a couple of centuries, and memories of the days when the old mines were drained by the Buckieburn, and when the “Fletcher” and the “Success”, and the “Willie” pits were in operation, seem to linger around them. Other houses are reminiscent of the “Queen” pit and the “Albert” rather than the “in-gaun-ees” of far off days.”

David died aged only 38 of Fever, before any census record was even made. I have no further records of him.

What I have found out is that Andrew, David’s older brother was living in Crossgates, the next village to Halbeath 2 years after David died. He was also a miner. He had his mother, Alison (Eleanor) living with him – she was 70 years old, and as David’s children we orphans, he was taking care of them also. David’s children Margaret & Alexander, his niece and nephew, may have lost their parents but they had their family all around

Daughter – Margaret Campbell

Wife – Annie Smith