Elizabeth Smith

Elizabeth was probably known as Eliza as that is how she appeared in one of the censuses.  She was born in Killearn, near the eastern point of Loch Lomond but had moved to Mid Calder by the time of her marriage to miller William Gray.  From there she followed her husband round the mills of the county until they settled down in Philpstoun Mill.  Elizabeth had eleven children and it seems likely from the census information that they all survived into adulthood. 

Her parents were shoemaker William Smith and Isabella Baxter.  Isabella moved into Philpstoun Mill after she was widowed.  The census which tells us that also informs us that Isabella was born in Kirknewton, Edinburgh.  This seems strange, given that William and Isabella were married in Killearn where Elizabeth was born around 1816.  They had all then moved down to Colinton by 1819 then Ratho by 1824 and eventually Philpstoun after 1836.  Ratho parish is fairly close to Mid Calder parish and the latter is where Elizabeth married William Gray.  This parish map shows the positions of the parishes involved (click to enlarge).

Elizabeth's father William was actually born in Mid Calder though so it was a case of coming home.  It seems strange that he should marry in Killearn then return to the Calders area but there seems little doubt that this is the case, given the evidence in the records.  There is in my mind a suggestion that William and Isabella were both, in fact, from the area, especially given that census information about Isabella being born in Kirknewton, but run away to get married, stayed long enough for a child to be born then returned.  It is also possible that the child might have been the reason for the move away!  I have no proof of any of this conjecture though.

Going back to Elizabeth, after her husband's death she appears in the next census as a grocer, aged 75.  This hadn't been mentioned in any other censuses but I consider it unlikely that she would have started this so late in life.  It didn't look as though the family was badly off, considering the size of the house and the survival of the children, so presumably she didn't have to do this to make a living.  Her death certificate five years later notes senility for several years so shopping in the grocery could have been fun.

When Elizabeth's mother Isabella died, aged 84, her father was given as James Baxter, a ploughman, but her mother was unknown.  I have managed to find her mother, Elizabeth Gibson, and the marriage to James in Livingston parish but the information given is so scant as to be pretty useless.  Elizabeth's father William was the son of George Smith and Elizabeth Gilles from Mid Calder but I haven't found much of any interest there either.

What is of interest though is that Elizabeth's parents seem to have split up some time after 1841 as father William is found in 1851, without wife Isabella, in Ratho with their three youngest children and again in 1861 still in Ratho but with only a five year old grandson for company.  Isabella is nowhere to be found until 1871 when she reappears in Elizabeth's house.  I have no explanation for this although in another tree I subsequently found a missing husband had been in a lunatic asylum and another missing person was found in a penitentiary.  Who knows?