The Borthwicks - Chapter 2
Chapter Two
John married Mary Crooks Kennedy of 21 High Street Paisley, a mill-girl in one of the Paisley Threadmills, in June 1893 in the George A. Clark Town Halls in Paisley. The rental for the night for the North Minor Hall and the Gents Chorus Room came to £1-19-6 (£l.97½) including 3/6 (17½p) for gas lighting from 11 pm till 3am. The bill for the Food and Lemonade came to £10-8-3 (£10.41) including the Cake at 4/-, and three broken tumblers and one glass. I can't imagine that the Wedding was completely dry; presumably the men all brought their hip-flasks and Hauf-mutchkins (a flat half-bottle suitable for slipping into the pocket) of whisky to flavour the Lemonade!
Mary and John set up home in 6 Howe Street. Barskiven a district on the road between Paisley and Elderslie where their first child, Thomas, was born. A bill from McGregor & Brodie, Wholesale Cabinetmakers and upholsterers dated 3rd June 1893 shows the cost of setting up home in late Victorian times. (No Washing machines, Fridges, Toasters or Electric Kettles in those days!
| £ - s - d | ||||
| 5 | Kilmarnock Chairs | @ | 6/9 | 1-13-9 |
| 1 | No 64 Easy Chair in SC | @ | 24/- | 1-4-0 |
| 4 | No 6 Chairs | @ | 9/6 | 1-18-0 |
| 1 | No96 Couch | @ | 60/- | 3-0-0 |
| 1 | Oval Loo Table | @ | 48/- | 2-8-0 |
| Total | 10-3-9 | |||
| Discount. | - 3-9 | |||
| Paid by cash | £ | 10- 0- 0 |
It was said that Grandma Borthwick always insisted on discount, she never paid for anything gross. It appears she started her married life the way she meant to go on! It used amaze me that if I were sent to David Dand the Haberdashers in Wellmeadow Street in Paisley for needles or sewing cotton or whatever, I was told always to utter the magic word "Trade" and the person behind the counter would reduce the marked price! It was a long time before I understood that the word "trade" signified those working for others, who were thus asked by David Dand to pay only the wholesale price, though the price to the eventual customer was raised to the retail price. Why we were allowed "trade" I never did fathom because I don't recall anyone in our family sewing for others.
David Dand's shop in Wellmeadow street in Paisley is long gone now along with Moffat's the Philatelist's, where I spent my pocket money on exotic stamps for my collection, (how many people nowadays remember Tanna-Touva and its massive triangular and diamond-shaped stamps!) Anyway all those buildings were torn down long since to make way for the Paisley University.
Shortly after young Tom was born Mary and Jake moved to 2 Woodend Place, a grey sandstone tenement on the South side of the Main road in Elderslie where my mother Mary Crooks was born. A few years after that they moved across the road to a better class of tenement (red sandstone rather than grey), "Park View" where George Kennedy and John Burnett were born.
Wee Mary Crooks, from the age of about four till she started work thought of "Park View" as home, Up until the First War it was the habit of working-class children to divest themselves of their boots (buttoned boots for the girls) as soon as Summer started to make itself felt. Mary or rather May was always happy to put off her boots as soon as possible and let the air in between her toes. From then till the first frost bare feet was the uniform of all the kids at the Elderslie Wallace Public School. In her bare feet May would run messages for all the neighbours, for which service she would receive a penny, halfpenny or better yet a Farthing (1/960 of a Pound sterling). Anything more than a farthing she was made to put in her piggy bank, a farthing she was allowed to spend on sweeties. There weren't that many shops in Elderslie in those days and there was probably only one sweetie shop which would almost certainly been owned by Freddie & Jean Reynolds (a g-g-uncle of Joyce Stevenson). So the mental picture springs of my mother buying a farthings-worth of broken candy from my wife's great-great-uncle.
Mary was still not content with her home, which was a Room and Kitchen and Scullery in a tenement block, with a WC shared with two other families on the common half-landing between floors. With four children she appeared to feel that a Foreman in Stoddard's Carpet Field should have a better class of house. Mary was obviously the boss in the house at least as far as the purse was concerned. In 1910 she contacted Thomas Towers, Writer* of Paisley who also lived in Glenpatrick Road and who put her on to Peter Roy the Builder. A piece of land in Glenpatrick Road was feud from A.A. Hagart Spiers Esq of Elderslie (The Laird). Peter Roy produced plans for a pair of semi-detached red sandstone-fronted houses Nos57 and 59. The plans were accepted by John and Mary and building commenced.
John had to pass the building site twice a day on his walk to and from the Carpet Field. My mother used to say that her father appeared to feel that he was attempting to rise above his station in life because he was said to always look the other way as he passed the site of No 57 as it was being built, so that his mates with whom he was walking wouldn't think that he was in some way boasting that he and his family were rising to be among the "cottage yins".
On the 6th of September 1911 the Borthwicks paid over the balance of £350 (including a mortgage of £205) to Peter Roy and took proud possession of No 57 Glenpatrick Road. Elderslie.
In fact the layout of the ground floor of the house called "Bothkenny" (Borthwick ~ Kennedy) was not dissimilar to the room and kitchen they moved from in "Park View", though the floor area was perhaps a bit greater. The main back room, still called the Kitchen had a large black-leaded range and two box beds. The scullery however was a bit bigger than that they had moved from, though a brick-built copper coal-fired boiler took up space in one corner. On the half-landing of the stairs up to the three coom-ceilinged bedrooms there was a bathroom with bath, wash-hand-basin, and water closet. The Front downstairs Room or Parlour was almost identical to the Front Room in "Park View", though in No 57 there was no box-bed in the front room; the Parlour was purely for show, and of course for family gatherings.
Thus the principal differences of the new house from the old house were the garden, the three bedrooms, the bathroom which did not have to be shared with two other families (in fact Park View did not have a plumbed-in bath, just a tin bath pulled out from under the box bed, placed in front of the fire and filled from the kettle always simmering on the top of the range), and the wash boiler which did not have to be shared with eight other families. A further indication of better class housing was the electric push buttons in the front room and the two principal bedrooms operating a battery-powered (Le-Clanché cells) electric bell along side a bell indicator high on the kitchen wall; (presumably to summon the 'maid' to attend to the Owners’ needs). So I reckon that Grandma Borthwick felt that she had finally arrived, and I reckon if Mary (or 'Ginger' as Grandda called her) was happy then so was Jake (as she called him).
* Scots term for Solicitor
