You will recall from the previous chapter that Samuel was the first of the Wellwood siblings to marry in Scotland, was probably the first to arrive in Scotland, was married three times, each wife was named Elizabeth, that he was first a weaver, and then changed careers to become a wine and spirit dealer and local pub owner.  His first wife, Elizabeth Gibson, died between 1841 and 1851 and he remarried to Elizabeth Crum in 1857.  He also changed careers between 1851 and 1857.  So between 1851 and 1857 a lot was going on in his life, but he was also a widower raising his two surviving daughters Sarah and Elizabeth.

Another local young man was also getting into the wine and spirit distribution business, and no doubt Samuel ran into him in the course of his own career change.  This young man was named John Walker – I have no idea if he is related to the Johnny Walker of Ayrshire, also of that time, and whose name is synonymous with Scotch whiskey.  If anyone cares to research this John’s ancestry, his father’s name was David, his mother was Agnes Bryce, and he was born in Glasgow on March 29, 1819.

In 1841, John was working as a journeyman machinist, possibly in the textile industry, but by 1851 he was already a spirit dealer while Samuel Wellwood was still a weaver at this time.  When John was about 19 years of age, he had an illegitimate son, also named John, with a young woman named Martha Crawford.  Martha was the daughter of Henry Crawford, a tailor, and his wife Agnes Fergus.  Martha had two siblings, a sister Agnes and a brother John.  In 1841, Martha is living with her sister Agnes, her parents Henry and Agnes, and her son John Walker, Jr – whose age is incorrectly stated as 12 years instead of 12 months.  By the 1851 census, 10-yr-old John, Jr. is living not with his mother Martha but with his father John, now age 31 (remember, in the 1841 census ages over 15 years were rounded down to the last 5-year increment, so in the 1841 census when John’s age was stated as 20 he could have been anywhere from 20 to 24 years old).  I found it interesting that while illegitimate, John gave his child his last name even though he did not marry Martha, and went on to accept the responsibility to raise him alone.  Martha’s sister Agnes also had a child out of wedlock who she named Agnes in turn, who appeared to be the daughter of a Charles or Hugh Carwell or Caldwell.  Little Agnes was born about 1849.  In the 1851 census, Martha, her sister Agnes, and little Agnes Crawford are living with the third sibling John Crawford.  It is not clear in the census whose daughter little Agnes is, but in her marriage document on Dec. 29, 1871 her mother is listed as Agnes Carwell nee Crawford, although her father is given as Hugh Carwell, not Charles.  Martha’s sister Agnes’ death record on Sept. 1, 1878 states she was the widow of Hugh Caldwell, not Carwell – John McAskie (little Agnes’ first husband) signed the death record.  In any case, Martha’s sister Agnes Crawford was never actually married.

Little Agnes and John McAskie went on to have seven children in the twelve years of their marriage before John died on March 24, 1884 in Govan.  Their children were: Isabella McFarlane McAskie, who later married and had at least one child; Agnes Crawford McAskie, who also married and had at least one child; Janet, who appears to have died before 1881; John W. McAskie, who later married (his middle name may have been Walker); Martha, who died at 9 months old; Joseph McAskie, who also married and had at least one child; and Charles George Thomas Cunningham McAskie, who died just before his first birthday.

Now why, you are probably wondering, have I gone into such detail about John Walker and his sense of duty and the Crawford sisters and their illegitimate children?  Well, it seems that Martha, the mother of John’s son, had a second illegitimate child.  Having given up her son John to his father who was at that point a spirit dealer, she met another spirit dealer and had a relationship with him which resulted in another son.  In the 1861 census, Martha is living with her sister Agnes, Agnes’ daughter little Agnes, and Martha’s second son named Samuel Wellwood who at this point is 6 years old – so was born about 1854 or ‘55.  Samuel, Jr. and little Agnes were first cousins and grew up in the same household as if they were siblings.  Samuel Wellwood, Sr. never married Martha, and in the 1861 census Martha is listed under the name Crawford even though her son is listed as having his father’s last name of Wellwood, just as her first son had been given the last name of his father.  At this point, Samuel Sr. had married his second wife Elizabeth Donaldson Crum.

John Walker, Sr. had also married.  On April 5, 1852 he married Clementina Arbuckle in Glasgow.  Clementina was a widow with two daughters, one of whom was also named Clementina, hereafter called little Clementina.  John and Clementina had a child together who was named Agnes Walker, for John’s mother, and who was born Apr. 13, 1856 in Milton, Glasgow.  Clementina died on Oct. 7, 1864 in Milton and on Dec. 6, 1866 John, Sr. remarried to Joan Graham Mitchell in Milton.  Little Clementina grew up in the same household as her step-brother John Walker, Jr.  On July 17, 1866 John, Jr. married his step-sister little Clementina in Calton, Glasgow.  They had a daughter named Martha six months later.  Evidently, John Walker, Jr. remained close to his mother Martha Crawford, as in the 1881 census little Martha is living with Samuel Wellwood, Jr. (her uncle) and Martha (her grandmother).  It is worth noting that Samuel Wellwood, Sr. died in 1879 – prior to his death Martha used only her maiden name of Crawford, even though both her sons were given their fathers’ names.  Clearly Martha was never married to either child’s father.  After Samuel, Sr.’s death however, Martha is listed in the census as Martha Wellwood.  Martha Crawford died on Feb. 27, 1885 in Camlachie, and her son Samuel signed the death record.  Little Martha later married and had at least seven children.

Samuel, Jr. never lived with his father, as his half-brother John Walker had.  Samuel, Sr.’s second wife was raising the two daughters of Samuel’s first marriage and had three of her own in the first five years of their marriage together.  It would have been a bit much to expect her to also raise an illegitimate child whose mother was still living.  In any case, Samuel, Jr. married his first cousin little Agnes, who was raised in the same home with him, on May 5, 1887 in Glasgow, three years after John McAskie’s death.  It is this marriage record that gives little Agnes’ father’s name as Charles Carwell, a shoemaker.  Samuel Jr.’s parents are listed as Martha Crawford (deceased) and Samuel Wellwood, hand loom weaver, also deceased.  Either Samuel Jr. did not know his father had gone into the liquor business around the time of his birth or he deliberately obfuscated his ancestry so as not to draw attention to his illegitimacy.    Although Samuel, Sr. left a will when he died, there was nothing left in it for his illegitimate son Samuel, Jr., listing instead only his 4 surviving legitimate children by name and allowing for other children yet to be born, effectively cutting out Martha’s son Samuel.  When Samuel Sr.’s surviving widow died, she left everything to her own son Samuel Wellwood, Jr. who had been born in 1874 and, as you will recall from the last chapter, died in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada.

Martha’s son Samuel, Jr. and little Agnes had three children together: Martha Crawford Wellwood, born a month and a half after the marriage on June 25, 1887 in Camlachie; Samuel Wellwood III (little Samuel), born in Glasgow on March 29, 1889; and Jessie Robina Wellwood, born in Glasgow on Nov. 27, 1891.  Samuel, Jr. died on July 27, 1897 in Camlachie.  Little Agnes (Crawford) (Carwell/ Caldwell/ McAskie) Wellwood died in Springburn, Glasgow on Apr. 23, 1929.  Jessie married James Adams in Calton on June 25, 1915 and they had at least one child.  Martha Crawford Wellwood had an illegitimate son John Wellwood, born on Feb. 16, 1908 in Springburn who died in Bridgeton, Glasgow at the age of 9 months.  She married William Kidd on Oct. 9, 1908 – just 3 weeks before little John Wellwood’s death – in Bridgeton.  They had at least 3 children after their marriage: a daughter Agnes Caldwell Kidd, born Apr. 8, 1910 in Hutchesontown, Glasgow; a son Samuel Wellwood Kidd, born in 1913 and who died in 1916; and another daughter who went on to marry.  I have no record of any children for the one who married.  Samuel Wellwood III (little Samuel) died in the Spanish flu epidemic on Oct. 23, 1918 having never married.

This, then, completes my mother’s mother’s line, including all the siblings of each generation and all their descendants of which I am aware (or at least all that privacy regulations will allow me to print!), with the exception of the one Wellwood sibling I set out originally to find – Moses Wellwood, Jr., the missionary who went to Africa.  I find it interesting that there are several references in South Africa to Wellwood – including Wellwood Lodge, Wellwood Chapel, and a town called Wellwood but can find no written history that ties these specific locations to my Moses the missionary.  Moses the missionary could have been anywhere in Africa – I have no family lore that places him in South Africa.  Maybe one day someone will discover that missing link, but it still won’t reveal what happened to him after his return from Africa.  Perhaps after his marriage (to his childhood sweetheart, remember?) he remained a missionary and travelled to China or some other country.  All I know is that I can find no record of him in Scotland where his siblings settled, and where I would have expected to find him if he had given up missionary work.  I also have not located him in England, Canada, or the U.S., where some members of his family emigrated to from Scotland.  It’s possible he went to Australia or New Zealand, especially if he enjoyed the plants and climate of Africa where it was not so cold and damp as Ireland and Scotland, but I haven’t found him there, either.  My search for Moses has brought me back to where I started, richer for what I did discover and the family I’ve gathered along the way but without the answer I sought.  I wonder if any of his descendants are searching for the rest of us…

© Deborah Ray and archivecookie.com, 2011.