MIDLOTHIAN-L Archives

From: Don MONTAGUE <>
Subject: [MIDLOTHIAN] Dorothy MACCABE,living with her daughters at Prestonholm House, Cockpen, at the 1901 Census
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 12:43:41 +0200 (CEST)

A very kind person has found and transcribed the record of my cousin by marriage Dorothy MacCABE (born DAND) living as head of household at Prestonholm House, Cockpen, at the 1891 Census. Living with her were her daughters Mary E., born in England about 1870, and Dorothy M., born in England about 1887, and a visitor, Robert M. ACTON, aged 25, born England, Occupation = Sailor. But no sign of Dorothy's husband, Charles Felix MacCABE, and the transcription does not state whether Dorothy was married or a widow.

Back at the 1881 Census, Charles, his wife and their daughter Mary were living at E & W Thirston with Shothaugh, Northumberland, where he was alive and kicking and farming, employing 5 men, 1 boy & 9 women.

Fast forward to the 1901, and Dorothy is staying or living as a widow with her widower brother-in-law William R. ACTON, his daughters Margaret and Winefride ACTON, and her unmarried sister Susanna DAND. So Charlie has died somewhere between 1881 and 1901.

FreeBMD has nothing to offer where his death is concerned - did he die in Scotland? And would Dorothy's status (owner, tenant?) at Prestonholm House in 1891 offer any clues top his fate?

The daughter Mary appears in the 1901 Census of England & Wales, at Overbury, Worcs, which is less than a mile from where we have the last sighting of her mother, who died at "The Wings", Kemerton, Worcs, in 1935 - I have sent off my five quid to the York Probate Registry for a copy of her Will, if any. Perhaps indicatively, Margaret ACTON died at "The Wings" in 1941 . . . . .

The only sighting of daughter Dorothy is when a Miss Dorothy Maccabe and a Miss Winefride Acton were among the six bridesmaids at the marriage of Stephen Scrope to Ethelburga Waterton, which took place on 16/7/1912 in Westminster Cathedral, London. Unfortunately the names of the bride & groom and of the other participants & guests ring not a tinkle of a tiny bell.

Dorothy & Charles had several other children in the 1870s who apparently all died in infancy, but I may have missed others who survived. Where the daughters Dorothy and Mary are concerned, FreeBMD offers no comfort, and they are presently lost in the mist.

Can anyone help with the Scottish loose ends of this search?

Don Montague, whose great-grandmother was a MacCABE.

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• [MIDLOTHIAN] Dorothy MACCABE,living with her daughters at Prestonholm House, Cockpen, at the 1901 Census by Don MONTAGUE <>