Sutherland of St. Vincent
Posted on May 28, 2007
Posted UnderFamily Pages |
THE RIBBON TRAIL
By:Joan Leggett
This article was first printed as “Georgie, Madge and hair ribbons”, in the March 1998 issue of Family Tree Magazine (UK), and appears here by permission.
Robert SUTHERLAND (1776 - 1828) - first SUTHERLAND in St. Vincent
Detailing extensive research on the SUTHERLAND family of St. Vincent
Some years ago in Trinidad, West Indies, my aunt May SUTHERLAND (1896-1973) told me that in the early 1900’s she and her young sisters, living in West Indies, were sent hair ribbons and presents by their father’s spinster aunts, Georgie SUTHERLAND and Madge SUTHERLAND who were living in Bayswater, London. As far as I knew my Sutherland family had been in St. Vincent before 1796 and had not returned to the UK - I did not give much credibility to the story.
In 1977 when I left the West Indies to live in England I started family research and joined the Clan Sutherland Society in Scotland as one of its early members. I received a copy of an obituary published by the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine for a Brigade Surgeon George Sackville SUTHERLAND who had died at the East India Club, 16 St James’s Square, London on 19 May 1908. He had entered the Bengal Medical Department as Assistant Surgeon in 1857 and had served in 1855-6 with the Turkish contingent in Turkey and in the Crimea after the fall of Sebastopol (Turkish Medal and 5th Class of the Order of the Medjidie). He was also in the Indian Mutiny Campaign in 1858-9 and was present at the final capture of Lucknow and in operations in Oude (Medal and Clasp).
There was family talk about a relation who had been in the Crimean War, and the names George Sackville SUTHERLAND had to mean a family link since this unique combination of names had also been given to one of my father’s brothers in 1903.
Edinburgh Medical Graduates 1705-1866 states that on entry to Edinburgh University George Sackville SUTHERLAND gave his place of residence as Rosebank, Tain and that his Dissertation was on malarial fever for which he was awarded a prize. From his Will I noted that he had left annuities to several cousins including Georgina SUTHERLAND and Margaret SUTHERLAND residing at 180 Queen’s Road, Hastings, Sussex. He also left them burial plot No. 28674 in All Souls Cemetery, Kensal Green, Paddington.
Assuming the two cousins would be alive at the time of the Brigade Surgeon’s death, I used 1908 as the starting point for my search for the ladies. From the Index of Deaths, then held at St Catherine’s House, London I noted all the Georgina SUTHERLAND and Margaret SUTHERLAND’s with deaths between 1908 and 1930. There were only two likely candidates: Georgina SUTHERLAND aged 89 who had died in October 1917 at 14 St Stephen’s Square, Paddington, Spinster of Independent Means, informant Margaret SUTHERLAND her sister; and Margaret SUTHERLAND who had died in December 1925 at 25 Leinster Square, South Paddington, aged 82.
These two dates were then used to find Wills – in Georgina SUTHERLAND’s case she bequeathed the Kensal Green grave plot to Dr J. J. GALBRAITH, a cousin in Edinburgh, adding that she wished to be buried in a grave to be purchased in the nearest Catholic cemetery to the place of her death. In Margaret SUTHERLAND’s Will she gave details of the grave in the Catholic cemetery at Kensal Green (adjoining the Anglican one) she had bought on the death of her sister Georgina SUTHERLAND. But my excitement rose when I read that, apart from small items left to Nazareth House, Hammersmith, Margaret SUTHERLAND left the residue of her estate to her sister-in-law Mrs. Roberta Ann SUTHERLAND in Trinidad, my great grandmother.
In April 1986 Kensal Green Cemetery office confirmed on the telephone that it would be possible for me to see both grave sites and I made an appointment to do so the following week. With great expectations I arrived at Kensal Green clutching a bunch of daffodils to put on the graves, not really sure who had been buried in either. The receptionist at the cemetery office apologized for bringing me on a long journey for nothing, explaining that as I had telephoned, rather than written, about visiting they had been unable to advise me that on checking their records they found that grave 28674 no longer existed – it had been bombed in World War II. Of all the graves…. in all of London!
The cemetery register showed the plot had been sold for £6 3s on 9 March 1883 to Georgina SUTHERLAND of 22 Burlington Road, London and Robert SUTHERLAND who died on 7 March 1883 at that address had been buried in it. Georgina SUTHERLAND who died on 11 December 1903 at 180 Queen’s Road, Hastings was buried next, followed by Brigade Surgeon George Sackville SUTHERLAND on 22 May 1908. Ironically, there was a note that £85 had been paid for the upkeep of the grave in perpetuity!
The receptionist kindly drove me through the vast cemetery to the bombed grave in the middle of a grassy area flattened by the bomb. All the graves within 100 yards had been lost, some granite headstones outside this area showed signs that they too had suffered. I placed some flowers on the leveled corner plot and, not yet comprehending the significance of the grave, went over to the Catholic side in search of Georgina and Margaret. The Catholic register showed that Georgina SUTHERLAND was buried in Plot 2982C on 18 October 1917 the ceremony being performed by A. W. BENNETT, £15 being paid. Margaret SUTHERLAND was buried on 4 January 1926 and her ceremony was performed by James PERIN. Although I was given the number of the row where I would find Plot 2982C as there was no headstone or grave enclosure marked with this number I paced out the distance between Plots 2976 and 2990, which were marked, and guessed where the sisters lay. Certain that I had found the correct ladies, the remainder of the daffodils went on this spot with a silent word of thanks for all those hair ribbons.
Needing to know more about the occupants of the Anglican grave I wrote to the East India Office who advised that Brigade Surgeon G. S. SUTHERLAND was born in St Vincent on 1 December 1833, the son of James SUTHERLAND. From the research I was doing on the family in St. Vincent I knew that James SUTHERLAND (1794-1841, son of Jean MacKAY of Bighouse and George Sackville SUTHERLAND) went to St Vincent in 1810 and that in 1831 his baby son had been killed during a devastating hurricane when the roof of the plantation house collapsed while the family were attempting to get to a place of safety; 16 Slaves on the estate were killed.
I also knew that Robert SUTHERLAND, my great great grandfather, was a Stipendiary Magistrate in St. Vincent in 1840, but I knew none of his family history, other than my father saying “he was born near Inverness”- it turned out to be Rhives near Kilmuir Easter, Ross-shire, near enough! Next, I obtained a Death Certificate for Robert SUTHERLAND who was buried in Kensal Green in 1883 and this showed that he was aged 77, occupation “Gentleman”. The death of his wife Georgina SUTHERLAND on 8 December 1903 in Hastings, aged 95, was registered by Georgina SUTHERLAND, her daughter who gave her mother’s occupation as “Widow of Robert SUTHERLAND, Stipendiary Magistrate”. I had found my great great grandparents Robert and Georgina SUTHERLAND (née CUMMING, born in St. Vincent) and their daughters Georgina and Margaret a.k.a. Georgie.
In 2003 I found in the National Archives of Scotland a small 2 page unsigned black-rimmed letter, obviously written by Georgie or Madge about their father’s gravestone: “The Inscription is – In Loving Memory of Robert SUTHERLAND late of St. Vincent, West Indies born 24 March 1805 died 7 March 1883 ‘In Thee O Lord have I hoped’. We do not like to put too much on a tombstone but put that because, in all trials and at all times, Dear Papa hoped and trusted in his Maker. Robin2 and Lottie (?) know the cemetery and where the grave is but probably will never see it, so we have had it photographed that they may have some idea what it is like. I would send you one but some people do not care for such a thing.”
After further research I found that James SUTHERLAND (1794-1841) and Robert SUTHERLAND (1805-83) were brothers. In 1820, on leaving Tain Academy, Robert SUTHERLAND had gone to St. Vincent to join James SUTHERLAND and other members of the family already on the island – uncle Robert SUTHERLAND (1776-1828 youngest son of Lieut. Col. James SUTHERLAND of Uppat and Elizabeth BAILLIE); a married sister Roberta MacLEOD (1795-1858) and brother Duncan Forbes SUTHERLAND (1801-1844).
In 1863 notices were served by the West Indian Encumbered Estates Commission that some estates in St. Vincent, including 3 Sutherland estates, would be sold on 8 March 1864. It was probably at this point that Robert SUTHERLAND decided to leave the island with his wife and two unmarried daughters. His son Robert SUTHERLAND (1840-87) my great grandfather, stayed in St. Vincent – his granddaughters were the recipients of the pretty hair ribbons from London.
Joan Leggett
© 2006
Hi!
MY name is Lennox Sutherland from St.Vincent. I was born in George Town (By Accident, I was told). I am not sure what my Mother was doing in George Town, heavily Pregnant, with me. I grew up in Richland Park. My Mother is a Morgan and she was married to my Dad Norris Sutherland, from Fountain. I am married to a Norwegian and I have two boys.(A very mixed family - any wonder I am confused) Unfortunately, I do not know much about my Father’s side of the Family. I came across this site purely by accident. I would really be happy to trace my Father side of the Family first, the I will do my Mum. Any assistance will be appreciated.