Farmers and Craftspeople:

Jenny Blain.

Copyright © J. Blain 2005-10

New findings:

My mother's family:
1. Cassidy and Lynch (this file, below)
2. Browns in Glasgow (in preparation)
3. Pendleburys from Lancashire (to follow)
4. The Fishers, McCullochs and Stewarts
• The Fishers
• Will of Ann Fisher
• Fishers shown as a tree
5. The Whytes and Boyds
6. McCullochs and Gillies

Return to table of contents for further sections and for my father's family.

My mother's family -
Dundee to Glasgow: The puzzle of Margaret Cassidy, and Thomas Lynch

My perceptions of Margaret Cassidy and Thomas Lynch

When I wrote the initial family history document, and even when editing it and starting to write the much more complicated 'new' parts, I had no material on Margaret Cassidy, my mother's father's mother, beyond her name. I knew that she had a long-standing relationship with Thomas Lynch, and that the 1871 census gave her birthplace as Dundee. Her death record shows her father as Michael Cassidy. This may or may not be correct.

When I wrote this piece, a few years ago now, I thought I had found her. There was a likely birth, a family with father Patrick Cassidy (rather than Michael), but everything else seemed to fit; the birth was indeed in Dundee, her parents were from Ireland, and she was not alone in the world but had siblings, at least one of whom had descendants in Dundee.

Well, alas this was one of these wrong turns that happen in doing family history - and other kinds of history also. This Cassidy family indeed had a daughter Margaret, with a birth at the right time in the right place, and the father at one point was a railway worker, fitting the small amount of information that came from Margaret's death registration. But while the family was not 'mine' it was somebody's, and indeed I've learned rather more about these Cassidys since. I'm retaining much of what I wrote earlier, below in this file, but will put in reminders that the Cassidy family described here are not 'mine'.

However, back now to where I started off.

Margaret Cassidy and Thomas Lynch had their household in Glasgow, for the eleven years from before the birth of their son Thomas in 1868 until Margaret's death after childbirth in 1879. They did not marry, though they were clearly regarded as married by those around them and appear as such on the census in 1771. A relationship such as this could have been listed as an 'irregular marriage' - quite legal through habit and repute, if their community considered them as 'married' - yet the children Thomas and Margaret are listed as 'illegitimate' on their birth records and Margaret Cassidy as 'spinster' at her death, reported by Thomas who is identified as 'occupier' of their shared household; something, therefore, prevented the relationship being a legal marriage, and I will discuss that in the section on Thomas Lynch, below.

I have no knowledge, though, of how Margaret Cassidy and Thomas Lynch met (in Dundee or in Glasgow?) or how their relationship - unmarried, long-term partners over twelve years or more - was regarded by her family.

To recap: in a footnote to the original material on this site, I said:

This is where things get rather complicated. The long-term partner of Thomas Lynch (senior) was Margaret Cassidy (not Lowe). She died on 21 Feb 1879, after a third childbirth. The two children are both in the records as 'illegitimate' and her death record shows her as 'single' - all of these attested by Thomas Lynch, present as signatory. The death record of the younger Thomas Lynch shows Margaret Cassidy as his mother (though his marriage record says 'Lowe'). The 1871 census has Thomas (38), Margaret (30) and the two children in Bridgeton, both Thomas and Margaret born in 'Forfarshire - Dundee' and Thomas as labourer in a chemical works. The 1881 census shows the household of Thomas Lynch, now engineer's labourer, and his two children, giving Thomas's birthplace as Dundee. His death record (16 April 1889) gives his parents as Margaret McTaggart and Michael Lynch, and he is described there as widower of Margaret Cassidy. What particular pattern of social class relationships is inherent in all of this I have no idea, simply that there is one...

So, this page tries to show something more of Margaret Cassidy and Thomas Lynch, with the discoveries of the family of the 'other' Margaret Cassidy in a section at the end.

Possible histories of Thomas Lynch

Thomas Lynch remains an elusive figure. Here I'll put what little I have. It isn't much, although there are some speculations.

What we know is that Thomas Lynch had a household with Margaret Cassidy in the East End of Glasgow between 1868 and 1879. Three children were born - the last born dying in 1879, when Margaret too died, on 21st February 1879, of 'exhaustion after childbirth'. Thomas was described in the 1871 and 1881 censuses, and on the birth entries for his children, as a labourer of various sorts. For the record of his death on 15 April 1889 at age 56, his son Thomas gave the information that his father was son of Michael Lynch, weaver, and Margaret McTaggart.

'Lynch' is an Irish name, and by the mid 19th century there were many Lynches in Glasgow; but census entries consistently show Thomas Lynch as born in Dundee, and his age would indicate that his parents, or at least his father, must have been an early immigrant. There is no record of a Michael Lynch and Margaret McTaggart, that I can find. The younger Thomas, aged 20 when his father died, may have had little knowledge of the background. From the 1871 and 81 census records and his death record, Thomas Lynch was born around 1832-3. I did find one possible clue, the birth of a Thomas Lynch, 15 July 1830, to Michael Lynch and Margaret Haghey, with baptism in January 1831, in the Catholic records from Dundee. Baptism sponsors were Walter and Mary Burk.

Possibly this is Thomas, but there is no record of him in the 1841 census - no Thomas Lynch, aged around eight or aged around ten, at all in Dundee or Angus (or anywhere else), although there is a boy aged 12 in a household in Kirkton of Auchterhouse that I thought might be a workhouse or orphanage of some sort; it is that of Charlotte Chrichton, grocer, Betsy Chrichton who seems to be her daughter born in 1823 [1], and eight other children aged between four and nine, in addition to the 12-year-old Thomas Lynch. This might possibly be the boy born in 1830, with the age being a year out. Ages are shown in the table below (simplified from the FreeCen transcription), and all were born in Angus.

So, the next stage was to find out what this household was. Auchterhouse history, I thought, might hold some record, but there were other clues in the Dundee Kirk Session records and in the Dundee lists of poor - of which more later.

In the Dundee Catholic records there is another birth, of James Linch, born 16th November, baptised 14th December 1823, son of Michael Linch and Margaret Haray or Harvy. This might be the same family as the 1830 Thomas. In the Howff burial records there is an entry for a Michael Linch, buried on 30 Jun 1834, aged 42, with birthplace Drogheda, Ireland. Unfortunately no occupation is given, nor have I found further material on Margaret Haghey, Haughey or Haray.

Further history, though, looked a little more promising. On 24th November 1850 a Thomas Lynch was married to Euphemia Low, in Kirriemuir; they lived in Westmuir, a weavers' area. The 1851 census shows Thomas to have been born in Dundee. He is an agricultural labourer and Euphemia a handloom weaver, born in Kirriemuir. Both Thomas and Euphemia are aged 19 in this census. A son, James, was born on 15th May 1851 and baptised on 18th May with the name James Low Lynch. Later records show Euphemia giving birth to two more children, with different fathers [2], who are with her at 15 Westmuir in the 1861 census, though James is not; he was in the household of Euphemia's own parents, James Low and Jean McQueen. James seems to have learned to be a farmer [3], retained an association with his grandparents and eventually emigrated with them, to become a farmer in the US. His households can be traced through the US censuses, first with his grandparents, an aunt, and cousins, later in Colorado with his wife and children. He has descendants there today.

Clearly Euphemia Low and Thomas Lynch did not stay together, but the reason is lost in time. Was their separation one of mutual convenience? Did parents - whomsoever these were - have a hand in it? Are there possible other factors? Kirriemuir Kirk Sessions hold no mention of the separation, though they do of the children of Euphemia with other partners, saying that Thomas is elsewhere and at one point describing him as 'a native of Ireland' although the 1851 census gives his birth in Dundee.

A prior marriage would be reason why Thomas Lynch and Margaret Cassidy could not marry either formally or irregularly. The peculiar persistence of the name 'Lowe' in the marriage records of the younger Thomas and Margaret shows that there was at least some connection to someone of that name. For the time being, I will speculate that Thomas Lynch had been married to Euphemia Low in 1850. However, whether he was the child in Auchterhouse or the infant in Dundee is not possible to determine without something further. The ages given, while not far out, do not match up conclusively - three or four years out for an adult is expected, but for a child? Family stories suggested there had been a change of name, and that - much later - relatives were looking for his family, but there are many reasons why searches or advertisements might be made, possibly on the death of Euphemia Low in 1918, long after Thomas himself had died. The confusion over the name 'Low' may be sufficient to have caused speculation.

The connection with Auchterhouse, however, was resolved by the Lists of the Poor in the Town and Parish of Dundee - a volume containing several years' records in the Dundee Central Library. This held lists for the years 1833 to 1839, including sections headed 'Board of Children' which named children sent by the parish to various locations including Auchterhouse. The 1834-5 list named Thomas and George Lynch living with an Andrew Scott in Bonnettown of Auchterhouse, and also an Ann Lynch with John Scott there, with sums of money for their care. The lists for 1838 and 39 show Thomas with Mrs Chrichton. George Lynch can be found in censuses from the area around Dundee. In 1834, there is an entry in Dundee Kirk Session minutes where two Elders are instructed to look into the situation of the Lynch family, and there are various references to children being boarded out in Auchterhouse. My speculation is that Thomas was indeed the child in Auchterhouse in 1841, that he was younger than George who left the 'board' in 1837-8, and I've written an article on this situation which details the search for this family. This is available from me on request - please email!

The story went that Thomas was often away on work-related activities, and wrote letters beginning 'Dear little people..' to his children Thomas and Margaret. But as a labourer, surely he would not be expected often to be away from home?... there may, though, be some other reason taking him from home, perhaps even connected with Euphemia Low and that son James - if indeed James survived infancy. Certainly there are puzzles here which could stand investigation.

Thomas Lynch the elder remains, still, a rather hazy figure, almost a missing piece in the puzzle of my ancestry, glimpsed from time to time but with many questions - where, for instance, was he in 1861? From my own perspective, I would like to know whether he was a product of the Irish immigration to Scotland, or whether some of his antecedents go back further into the Angus countryside.

Cassidy and Connolly: Irish immigrants in Dundee.

This family's story, as far as I have been able to piece it together, sheds some light on the 'Dundee Irish', the many people who came to Dundee as immigrants, during the 19th century, and became part of the Dundee population, working in the weaving factories and spinning mills, or in the many trades relating to Dundee's weaving community. This story was made possible by the publishing of Roman Catholic birth records, where they exist in Scotland, on the Scotland's People website. I was so very pleased to have - as I thought - some clue to these families (and as they pointed me to a family interesting in its own right, and also gave a possible clue to the Lynch family, I will express my profound gratitude to all those who have made these records available). For the Cassidys, an initial entry in the Dundee Roman Catholic (St Andrew's Cathedral) records led to a whole slew of census, marriage and other material, indeed up to the 20th century through war records and newspaper entries.

The death record of my great-grandmother Margaret Cassidy, on 21st Feb 1879, shows her to be aged 38, and gives her father's name as Michael Cassidy, occupation 'Railway Lighterman' (implying an unloader or labourer) the mother's name not being recorded there. But no Michael Cassidy seemed to fit the bill; the name 'Patrick Cassidy' emerged, a railway labourer according to the 1851 census, with other reference to him as a mason's labourer. The birth date I found for Margaret daughter of Patrick placed her one year older than the age reported by her partner, Thomas Lynch, 39 not 38 at her death from 'exhaustion after childbirth'.

On 16 Feb 1838 a marriage was recorded between Mary Connoly and Patrick Cassidy, in Dundee. While their marriage is in the Parochial Records, the births of children are in Roman Catholic records: both parents were born in Ireland and this seems to be a Catholic family. Their children were:

These and later descendants are in the image on the right of this screen. (Right-click to open in a new window to read the image.)

Margaret's baptism sponsors were Peter Connoly and Katherine Cant. It is quite possible that Peter was a brother of her mother, Mary Connoly. Siblings James and Mary were, like Margaret, born and baptised in Dundee - all in the RC records of St Andrew's Cathedral. Elizabeth was born in August 1848 and not baptised until October - the birth being (probably) in Balmerino, though Balmullo and Balmeilo are given as transcriptions of later census records, and the baptism recorded at Dunfermline, presumably when the family was on the move to the borders in association with Patrick's work on the railway.

In the 1841 census a Peter and Mary Cassiday are living at 69 Princes Street in Dundee. The records appear confused. The following is taken from the FreeCen transcription:

If this is the family of Patrick, Mary and their child Margaret, the names are confused and Margaret's birthplace wrongly attributed. It may be another family and the names be coincidence.

In 1851 the family are in the borders, at St Boswell's in Roxburgh. Patrick (Peter in this census) is a railway labourer, and the birthplaces of children clearly indicated. The address is Mainhill Hutts, St Boswell's.

There is an obvious discrepancy of ages for Patrick, between the two censuses. Which is incorrect can't be known. Patrick is in no further census records, and it is likely he died before 1855, as I have found no death record.

The households of Mary Connoly and her daughter Elizabeth

Mary and her three younger children are in the 1861 census, having returned to Dundee, at 183 Seagait. James, 19, has become a mason, Mary and Elizabeth are mill workers. Margaret is not in the household, but there is a possible census entry for her in Lochee, where a Margaret Cassidy aged 21, mill worker reeler, birthplace Dundee, is a boarder in the household of James and Mary Docharty. (The Docharty's birthplaces are all given as County Leitrim, Ireland. Unfortunately the census record for Mary Connoly or Cassidy gives only 'Ireland'.)

In 1871 Mary's address is transcribed (by Ancestry) as 48 & 50 King Street, and her daughter Elizabeth is still in the household, aged 22 and now a factory operative. There are two boarders, transcribed as Betsy Berry and Mary McGourty, women in their 40s, both millworkers, both born in Ireland. There is no further census record for Mary Connoly or Cassidy.

Mary died in Dundee, in 1879, January 12th, from bronchitis. Her age was given as 56, which is clearly far wrong, but the death was reported by her daughter-in-law Ann McIntosh or Cassidy, who either did not know her mother- in- law's age or birthdate or possibly she (or the clerk) was not good at arithmetic. Mary must have been around 67. Her approximate year of birth is recorded via several censuses where she, as head of household, had not obscured it. She died at 13 Crescent Lane, a narrow street connecting Princes Street to Victoria Street, and may have been in the household of one of her sons on her death, or possibly of another relative.

The death record gives her father as John Connoly, mason's labourer, her mother as Margaret Connoly m.s. 'Cranley' - the image and writing are diifficult to read and it may instead be 'Cronley'. There are many Connollys in the 1841 census in Dundee: some, including Patrick (Peter) and a John aged 30, are possibly brothers of Mary. Her birth in Ireland makes it hard to find antecedents, as records are sparse. Mary is described in this record as widow of Patrick Cassidy, his occupation given not as railway labourer, but as mason's labourer - possibly the last labouring job that he held, and possibly a connection that enabled his son to become an apprentice and then a mason.

Cronley or Cranley, though, is a less common name. There are no Cronleys in the 1841 census in Angus. However the records of the Howff graveyard in Dundee include an entry for Margaret Cronley, wife of John Conolly labourer, in 1836, dying of a 'decline' at age 50, thus putting her birth around 1785 or so. And it gives a location for her birth - 'King's County' in Ireland, which is County Offaly. This possible derivation for Margaret and her husband John Conolly is discussed further below.

Mary's daughter Margaret left at some point for Glasgow, but her other children, Elizabeth and James, remained in Dundee. Their stories, so far as I have been able to piece them together, are interesting.

In 1881 Elizabeth Cassidy is at 54 King Street, a tenement building which also houses the family of her brother James. Elizabeth, millworker aged 32, is head of a household of three boarders, Mary Corcoran born in Ireland, Alice Conlin from Inverkeithing and Jane McDonald from Montrose, all millworkers, ages given as 50, 23 and 16.

The records of these women, and of the preceding generation show the growth of Dundee as a mill town, attracting the poor of Scotland and Ireland into the mills and factories. By the 1891 census, though, Elizabeth's life has taken another turn, as she appears aged 42 as a domestic servant in the household of Mathew McKenna, a grocer and spirit dealer in the Forfar Road, aged 39, a widower with three young children, initially from Arbroath. There is another, young, servant in the household, and, interestingly, also a visitor at the time of the census, a Thomas Ogilvy, newspaper reporter aged 37.

In the 1901 census there is no entry directly named for Elizabeth Cassidy. However, Mathew McKenna has remarried - his wife is named Elizabeth, age 52 born in 'Balmullo', the most common of all the spellings of the birthplace of the youngest daughter of Patrick Cassidy and Mary Connoly. Mathew McKenna has married his housekeeper Elizabeth, and the Scotland's People website holds the record for the marriage in 1891.

For Elizabeth Cassidy, therefore, there was an eventual way out of the mill, to become mistress of a small household with at least one servant.

I have not found pointers to the story of Mary, the second daughter of the Cassidy family. She may have married, died or gone elsewhere, but the 1861 entry is the last I have.

The households of James Cassidy, brother of Margaret, and his children

James was married to Ann McIntosh on 20 April 1863, daughter of James McIntosh, a seaman, and his wife Elizabeth. In the 1871 census they are in the household of Ann's parents, in St Clement's parish at 9 St Margaret's Close, with three children, James (6), Peter (4) and Elizabeth (2). By 1881 James (described as a mason) and Ann are at 54 King Street with the two boys, James and Peter, and Ann's nephew James Tosh (or McIntosh), who at 17 is an apprentice bricklayer, young James and Peter Cassidy at 16 and 14 being described still as 'scholar'.

In 1891 James (now 49, bricklayer) and Ann are still at 54 King Street, with Peter, now aged 24, who is also a bricklayer. In this year it's shown that the younger James has married, and is at 184 Hilltown, following his father's trade as a bricklayer, with his wife Margaret and young children, Patrick aged only a year and the new baby James who is a month old. His brother-in-law John McConnell, a joiner aged 24, is in the household. His wife Margaret's birth name is likely, therefore, to have been McConnell.

The 1901 census shows Peter, bricklayer, now 35, with his wife Elizabeth and two children, James aged 5 and Mary Ann aged 3, at 7 Clark Street in Dundee. Young James, bricklayer, aged 37, is at 27 Ogilvie Road, with his wife Margaret, and four children, Patrick aged 11, Ann, 8, Susan, 6 and Margaret, 5; there is no sign of the James who was an infant in 1891.

James and his children, though, have moved on from the status of Patrick Cassidy, sometime railway labourer or mason's labourer. The early Irish immigrants to Dundee, whatever their backgrounds in Ireland may have been, were the poorest of poor in the Dundee of the early 19th century, living often in what we would now consider ghettos, enclaves of poverty in a town struggling out of poverty, providing the armies of labourers and unskilled mill workers to fuel the growing industrialisation of the town. But by the end of that century, they have trades and crafts, connections and demonstrated abilities. They have become part of Dundee.

I found it strange to reflect that when my mother came to Dundee, in the late 1920s, there might have been Cassidy relatives in the city of whom she had no knowledge; descendants of the Irish immigrants of the early and mid 19th century, now become part of the people of Dundee and indeed, as masons and bricklayers, literally part of the shaping of its fabric. The changes in Dundee from the 1830s to the mid 20th century were vast; the construction of commerce paralleled by that of the commercial buildings of the city streets, the demonstration of Dundee's 19th century boom-time, and extending to the building of streets and housing estates sprawling outwards into the Angus countryside. Further changes in the latter 20th century would render much of the City unrecognisable to James Cassidy and his sisters Elizabeth and Margaret. Indeed, the changes to Princes Street, King Street and the Seagate, even since I left the city, have resulted in a very different landscape.

I have tracked the descendants of James further, through finding a newspaper account of a young James dying in the First World War, and written a short article which is available by request - email me if this interests you please.

Margaret Cronley and John Conolly - immigrants from County Offaly

Evidence for Margaret Cronley and John Conolly comes from the burial records of The Howff in Dundee, transcribed by Friends of Dundee City archives and the Tay Valley Family History Society, and made available online at http://www.fdca.org.uk/FDCAHowffInfo.html. Having found Margaret Cronley - the only Cronley present - I was then able to find John Conolly and possibly some others of his family.

Margaret Cronley, wife of John Conolly, labourer, dying of a 'decline' at age 50, was buried on 7th March 1836 in 1836, thus putting her birth around 1785 or so. Her birthplace is given as 'King's County' in Ireland, which is County Offaly.

John Conly, labourer, died aged 72m from cholera; his residence was in Croll's Pend, in the Cowgate. His birth county is likewise King's County.

Various other Conly or Connoly (etc.) individuals also come from King's County and may be related. There is a Terence Conally, buried in 1853 aged 66, hence born around 1787, his wife Rose Whielon who died in 1835 aged 45, and several children also born in King's County. These families can be mapped, with the help of Dundee census records and, for some children who are later-born, birth records.

Both John and Terence may have married twice. After the death of Rose, there is a marriage in Dundee of Terence Connoly and Catherine Winter, on 6th February 1837. Their household in the 1841 census gives the age for 'Terrance Cannally' as only 40 (ie. 40-45, when he should have been described as 50[4]), but the household includes a child William, aged 9, born in Ireland and hence from an earlier marriage. The death of this child is given in the Howff records, from an accident when he fell into a well, aged 13. His family's address was both then and in the census Peddie's Close, in the Overgate.

John appears in the 1841 census described as age 50 (which should have been 60). He is in a household in Crescent Street with Ann Park Conley, and a child, Kathren, aged 1, baptised in Dundee as Catherine Connolly on 29th March 1840 (from the Catholic records); other children were David, born in 1843 and dying in 1846 aged two (the Howff record gave the information that his father was John Conolly, labourer) and James, born in 1847. I have not found a marriage record of John Conolly and Ann Park, but the birth record of David lists him only as 'son' rather than 'lawful son', possibly showing that the parents had not registered a formal marriage.

Finally, there are other households with 'John Connoly's in the 1841 census, and one of these, a household in Crescent Lane, is that of John Connoly, labourer born in Ireland, and Maria likewise born there. There is a marriage in 1837 of a John Connoly and Mary Shaughnessy, with children William and James suiting the two children appearing in this census record. While it is hard to define relationships between the Connoly families, it is quite possible that this John, aged 27 in the census (the age therefore not rounded) may be the sibling of Mary and the son of John and of Margaret Cronley. This household also includes a Margaret Connoly aged 18 - possibly a younger sibling. The 1851 census again shows the family this John and Mary, and gives birth information of 'King's County' for both; children include William, 13, James, 10, Margaret, 7, John, 5, and Helen, 21 months. A son, John, was born in 1855, and the birth record, repeating the 'King's County' information, shows that this family had five boys and two girls, one child having died (who must be the earlier John). I have not found a death record for John Connoly, although the birth of John in 1855 shows him as living then; and I have not found a census record for any of the family for 1861.

It may be possible, as with the Cassidys, to trace these Connolys through Dundee records, up to the 20th century at least, but I have not as yet attempted this. Such information as I have found seems to indicate a scattering of Connoly children in the 1861 and later censuses. While the Cassidys moved out of the poorest classes, there is as yet no evidence that the Connolys did so. But Connoly became a frequent name in Dundee - through continued immigration fueled by the later potato crisis and collapse of Irish farming - and there would remain much work to do, to find the particular ones who were descendants of John Connoly and Margaret Cronley of County Offaly.

Afterword

If anyone related to these Cassidys or Connolys would like to get in touch, I'd be very glad to share with them what I have, which includes rather more on the family of James Cassidy. I've a short article, written just before I found that Margaret, daughter of Patrick Cassily and Mary Connoly, had died as a young woman in 1860, the death being reported by her brother James. These Cassidys and Connolys therefore have no connection with me, and my own Margaret Cassidy remains to be discovered - or not, as the records may not exist.

So I am back to Margaret Cassidy, my great-grandmother, with once again very little to go on. She was born in Dundee, so says the one census I have for a certainty for her (1871), her birth was around 1840, and she took up with Thomas Lynch and they had three children in Glasgow, the last dying as his mother did, at his birth in 1879. There is a wee lass Margaret Cassidy in the 1851 census, a servant in Barry, Angus, said to be born in Dundee around 1838, and there is Margaret Cassidy in 1861, in Dundee, a boarder in the household of James Docherty and his family, whose description then as born around 1840 and being a Mill Reeler fits with the death record of my Margaret, as formerly a cotton factory reeler. But even if these are she, how did she come to meet Thomas Lynch? Did he return to Dundee? So many questions remain.

Footnotes:

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