|
Names in blue
lead to a picture!
Anne Davidson was the eleventh child of Duncan and Frances Mary Davidson.
She lived in Aberdeenshire throughout her life apart from one or two short interludes. During the period covered by this Journal, (1844-1853) she spent most of the summer and autumn months at
Inchmarlo, near Banchory, and the rest of the year in the family's house at 237 Union Street, Aberdeen.
Anne's father was a successful lawyer and businessman. His family had farmed in the Tarland and Alford areas. Educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, he founded his own law firm in 1797 (aged 22!!) and eventually became President of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen. At the time of Anne's journal, he was in semi-retirement with his sons
Patrick and
Alex taking on responsibility for legal and business affairs.
Frances, Anne's mother, was the daughter of Patrick and Margaret Pirie, her mother being the heiress of Alexander Smith, proprietor of the Stoneywood Paper Works, Aberdeen.
Pat Pirie's house
has been rebuilt and is now one of the main sightseeing attractions in Aberdeen
under the name "Provost Skene's House".
Anne was born in 1824, when her Father was 51 and her Mother 38. Frances had her last child,
Williamina, Anne's beloved younger sister, at the age of 40.
Anne led a privileged life. Her time was spent in visiting friends, or being visited by them, reading, taking constitutional walks and rides, helping in a school for local village children and going to meals, parties and dances at other people's houses. The family took trips by carriage, steamer and later by rail, through the Highlands and as far south as Gloucestershire.
As a product of the early Victorian age, she did not write in her journal of private feelings, except of her love for her family and grief at loss. No dramatic secrets are revealed.
It is only obliquely, too, that news of the wider world is revealed.
Nevertheless, her diary builds up a fascinating picture of her way of life and her personality. It is possible to become very involved with her interests and concerns --and to become very fond of her -- as I'm sure you will !
Anne was born in Aberdeen in 1824. She was her parents'
second surviving daughter. Two, Margaret (1806-1810) and Ann (1808-1821) had died before her own birth. A third, Frances Mary, named for her mother, died at 18 when Ann was 6. There had also been a boy born in 1805, John, who lived for less than a year.
Anne had considerable trouble with her sight, being taken to London for operations on her eyes when a child. She was also considered to be musical and played piano for the family and sometimes for dancing for friends.
The only representation we have of her is a
photograph
taken in about
1867, when she was in her mid-forties. Photography was not widely available until the 1860s. She speaks of having her likeness taken, but there is no trace of the result, which she says is good.
She was a loving daughter and sister, with a serious
approach to life and a very strong sense of duty, but also with a good sense of humour.
She loved Inchmarlo, the house her parents had bought in 1838, passionately and was interested in the management of the gardens and land. The house is Georgian and now a listed building, used as a long-time care home for the elderly. It had around 30 rooms and extensive grounds-- around 100 acres. She seems to have preferred life at Inchmarlo to the time spent at their home on the main thoroughfare of
Aberdeen, more or less above the office of her Father's and brothers' law practice. This was a fairly new building, put up in the 1830s.
Anne's constant
companions were her mother (Mamma) and
two sisters,
Margaret
(Mag/Margt) and Williamina
(Will, Willy or Willie)
her younger sister, but she was very much concerned with the lives of her
father, Duncan (Papa) and her brothers,
Duncan
(in India), Patrick (Pat) and his wife
Mary Anne
,
James
(in London), Charles (in Edinburgh) and Alec, who lived in the family home in
Aberdeen.
In 1844, Pat and Mary Anne lived nearby in Aberdeen, in
Bon Accord Terrace.
She had a wide circle of friends, a few of them close enough to share secrets and gossipy talk with. Despite her poor sight, she read regularly and did a lot of hand sewing.
She was a devout Christian and the family attended Church very regularly, sometimes three times on a Sunday.
She taught the local village children at a Sunday session and worried that what she taught them was not right-- or not adequate.
Anne loved children and seemed genuinely to enjoy what she termed "romps" with the younger family
members,
Fanny
and Jane Anne.
1844
At the time Anne was writing her journal, Queen Victoria was
a young married woman; railway mania was gripping Great Britain, though
trains only went as far north as Edinburgh, and most people still walked or
travelled by horseback or horsedrawn vehicle.
Charles Darwin had not yet
made his trip to the Galapagos Islands; the American Civil War was still
twenty years away; Australia had not been crossed North to South by
settlers; the first morse code service was established between Washington
and Baltimore.
Dickens published A Christmas Carol that year;
homes
were lit by candlelight or oil lamps,; the Highland
Clearances were still going on and a law was
being passed at Westminster preventing any girl children working in the
mines.......
On the occasion of
her visit to Edinburgh on September 1st , 1842, Queen Victoria had written of
her drive through the countryside: "....every
cottage is built of stone and so are all the walls that are used as fences. The
country and people have quite a different character from England and the
English. The old women wear close caps, and all the children and girls are
barefooted. I saw several handsome girls and children with long hair,
indeed all the poor girls from sixteen and seventeen down to two or three years
old, have loose flowing hair; a great deal of it red."
To view a list of people mentioned
by Anne in her journals so far, click here
Back
to top
|
|
