The letter transcribed below is a fragment of a very long story which figures extensively in the records of Edinburgh’s higher courts of justice and from which Dr Richard Forty transcribed lengthy extracts for me. They are dense with assumptions about class, rather less so about sex roles, and none at all about religion. The case (or, more precisely, cases) is worth a Ph D since it has implications for the evolution of child custody law in Scotland and a mother’s rights in regard to children born out of wedlock to a known father. The story continues late into the 19th century and you could write a novel from it containing no happy endings. Incapable of writing either, I will attempt the spade work of establishing a chronology. It gets more interesting as it goes on, I assure you.
Three
small facts should be noted before I begin: in Scotland at this period the age
at which a female could be married was twelve; at fourteen a child of either
sex could determine their own place of residence – in other words, they could
leave home and not be forcibly returned; parental rights in married couples
belonged to the father but for illegitimate children they belonged to the
mother; in either case courts did have the power to remove those rights, wholly
or partly, in the interests of a child’s welfare though the court papers I have read evidence
judicial wariness in removing a mother’s rights.
For
narrative clarity, I will refer to “Anne Speid” throughout and not use her
later married name (Nicol/Nicoll) or the mutation of spellings into “Speed”.
*
1809
Dr
Hunter executes a Bond securing to Anne Speid a lifetime annuity of £25 per
year.
13
December 1810 birth of Anne Hunter, baptised 8 April
1811 and entered in parish records as “Anne, illegitimate daughter of
Doctor Alexander Hunter and Anne Speid, North Ferry …”
Anne
Speid was the medical Dr Hunter’s live-in housekeeper (later referred to in
court submissions as his mistress) who remained with him after the birth. She
was about 22 and he about 50; neither had ever been married.
1
May 1810 the Reverend Mr Cairns who had baptised the child was
obliged to apologise to the Presbytery of Dundee for doing so when the father
had “shown no inclination to submit to the discipline of the Church” which
required that parents of illegitimate children must first be (publicly?) rebuked
and show contrition before their child could be baptised. Dr Hunter had to find
someone who would bend the rules and baptise the child anyway. Cairns was not
his local minister, Mr Johnstone, who had laid down the law to him and been
ignored.
9
October 1812 and the wealthy Dr Hunter makes a Will
nominating trustees and amends it on 14 March 1814 when he knows both
that he is probably dying and that Anne Speid is pregnant again and that there
will be a second child, sex as yet unknown, to provide for.
13
April 1814 death of Dr Hunter at Broughton Ferry. His
Estate at death has an estimated total value of about £25 000 [close to £2
million in 2026 terms] of which about £10 000 was to be invested for the
current needs and eventual capital benefit of his children.
15
May 1814 birth of Elizabeth Alexis, baptised 31 July 1814 “illegitimate daughter of Doctor Alexander Hunter and Anne Speid,
North Ferry”.
Late
1815 or early 1816 The Trustees of Dr Hunter’s Estate
persuade Anne Speid to send her first child, Anne, then aged five, to a
boarding establishment in Perth operated by Mrs Morrison whose charges for
board and education the Trustees will pay; the Trustees rely on a passage in
his Will where Dr Hunter expresses the wish that his children “be brought up
and clothed in a respectable manner”. The younger daughter Elizabeth remains
with her mother.
26
February 1817 Anne Speid, now spelt Speed, marries
Alexander Nicoll (in free variation with Nicol) in Dundee. It is probable she
had already moved to Dundee before that date
22
November 1817 birth of Anne’s third child, William
Strachan Nicoll, baptised without difficulty 1 December 1817 in Dundee
as the legitimate child of Anne and Alexander Nicoll.
1818
(probably) Anne Speid and Alexander Nicoll move to Edinburgh where Alexander
establishes a shop selling groceries and spirits in the old and
not-so-salubrious Potterrow district outside the city walls. Elizabeth Hunter
lives with them and they make arrangements for her education at modest cost re-imbursed by Dr Hunter’s Trustees against receipts provided.
1820
and around the time of the sixth birthday of Elizabeth Hunter the Trustees
propose to remove her from her mother’s home and install her in Perth with the
Mrs Morrison who still has care of Anne who will be ten in December. Her mother
and stepfather refuse to accept the proposal and the Trustees go to Court
arguing that “she was not likely to be properly educated in a spirit shop, and
that it would be advantageous to her and her sister that they should be brought
up together”. Their arguments were rejected as not providing sufficient reason
to deprive the mother of custody of a child who had always been under her care.
This appears to have been reckoned a significant judicial decision.
The
July 1820 letter written by Anne Speid and transcribed below belongs to this
part of the story.
14
February 1821 inspired by and emboldened by a court
decision which did not hold her past against her or the present modest
circumstances in which she lived, Anne Speid took the law into her own hands.
She decided to remove her daughter Anne from Mrs Morrison’s and on the morning
of the 14th February arrived unannounced with her husband, bundled
her daughter into a gig, and headed back to Edinburgh. In court submissions,
the Trustees give their version: the two of them went to Mrs Morrison’s house
and “laid hold of Miss Hunter when half dressed, and in that state dragged her
to a gig….and notwithstanding her tears & struggles and the remonstrances
of Mrs Morrison they set off with their prize” and made it back to Edinburgh.
The
Trustees acted promptly and the Perthshire Sherriff ordered the return of the
girl to Mrs Morrison’s; Anne Speid complied but then went to court petitioning
for recognition that she “has the only legal right to the custody of her
said child Ann Hunter and to ordain Mrs Morrison to deliver her up to the
Petitioner”. The court declined to intervene and as a result
16
October 1821 and according to the Trustees again – but
her mother acting alone this time – “while Miss Hunter was on her way to one of
the schools which she attended, waylaid her, dragged her from the school door
and carried her off”; back in Edinburgh the courts found against the
mother.
A
feature of the court records is that it appears that attempts were made to
ascertain Anne Hunter’s own views and those attempts included an interview with
no third-party present, an interesting detail which suggests a perhaps
surprising recognition of a child’s right to be heard. The interview was
conducted by a court official.
1822?
1823? The Trustees, now wholly in control of Anne’s life, move
her out of her mother’s reach and send her to a boarding school in Hendon/Mill
Hill then on the outskirts of London and reckoned to enjoy unpolluted air. They
claim that they do this at the girl’s request. I have no information about
which establishment was chosen or whether she lived in a private house but in
1825 the Trustees will claim that “she now possesses qualifications,
accomplishments, ideas, and manners far superior to those she could by
possibility ever have acquired” under her mother’s roof. Her mother was not informed of Anne’s London address
and the Trustees allege that this was at the girl's own request; but they claim to be providing
Anne Speid with updates on her daughter’s educational progress. They also claim
that she knew her mother’s Edinburgh address should she wish to write.
1825
The
Trustees now take the bolder step of seeking full custody of Elizabeth Hunter approaching
her eleventh birthday, with a plan to send her either to Mrs Morrison's or down to London to join her
sister. They argue that what may have been appropriate when she was six or
seven was not appropriate for someone whose future inheritance would enable her
to mix at a higher social level if she were properly educated in the widest
sense. With this argument they were successful and the delighted lawyers for the Trustees,
Thomson and Fergusson, Writers to the Signet, published a self-congratulatory
article in The Scotsman under the title “Parent and Child – Nobile officium”. This is the same firm as addressed by Anne Speid in the letter below.
30
November 1826 Anne Hunter of Shire Hall Lane, Hendon,
dies a fortnight before her sixteenth birthday and 4 December 1826 she is
buried in the graveyard of the Church of St Mary, Hendon. The Reverend Charles
Landson officiates and records her death in the church register. No cause of
death appears in the scanty records found nor any indication whether there were
any mourners who might, most obviously, have included her younger sister.
Her
death was announced in London newspapers on the 1st December and the
rapidity of the publication and the wording suggests to me that the Trustees
had been advised that she was seriously ill and that one – possibly the James
Hunter mentioned in the press release and who could have been a brother of Dr
Hunter - had come to London to be on hand.
“On
the 30th ult. in the 16th
year of her age, Ann, eldest daughter of Dr Alexander Hunter, of Kirkton, N.B.
[North Britain] and relative of James Hunter, Esq, of Temple Hall,
Perthshire”.
Under
the terms of Dr Hunter’s will, Elizabeth Hunter inherited her deceased
sister’s equal share.
27
August 1833 death of Ann Speid, aged 45; her husband
Alexander Nicholl died in 1864 aged 83.
18
March 1834 Elizabeth Hunter, now called Eliza and
aged 19 (though stated as 20), marries by licence the Reverend Morgan Watkins at St
George’s Hanover Square, London. Morgan Watkins was Vicar of Southwell
Nottinghamshire and very well connected. His first wife who died 18 months
after her marriage to him was a grand-daughter of an Archbishop of York, Robert
Hay Drummond.
Eliza
gives birth to five children between 1835 and 1840, all of whom appear to have
survived infancy.
16
November 1840 The Reverend Watkins dies aged 39 leaving
a widow who never re-marries.
1841
Census shows Eliza Watkns aged 27 and her children living in Perth;
that suggests to me that she needed to meet with the Trustees of her estate and
agree her entitlements while living and those of her children after her death. It
seems most likely that she received the full capital sum previously invested
exclusively on her behalf after the death of her sister, but there is a
possibility that by analogy with a separate part of the trust deeds, she would
remain a recipient of interest payments only and the capital sum would not be
distributed until her death when her direct descendants would share it.
In
the 1851 Census Eliza Watkins appears back in Southwell, Nottinghamshire as an
“Annuitant” and minus one child, Hunter Watkins, who must have died. All
subsequent censuses show her living in Southwell though local newspapers appear
to provide no information about anything she may have done there.
17
August 1893 Eliza Watkins of Vicar’s Court, Southwell
dies, aged 79.
Her
eldest son Morgan George Watkins became a clergyman and prolific popular
writer; he died in 1911 apparently having never married. I have no details of
the three remaining children who appear to have survived into adulthood and who
could have had children; there is a slim chance that there are living
descendants of Dr Hunter and Anne Speid.
Click to enlarge
Transcription
Addressed
to:
Thomson & Fergusson Esqrs.
W.S. [ Writers
to the Signet, roughly equivalent to solicitors]
12 Hill
Street
Edinburgh
despatch postmark JUL 14 1820
Datelined: Edinb.
12th July 1820
Gentlemen
Mr Graham
having sent me your Letter to him of the 5th inst. I have
deliberately considered it contents, and beg leave to observe in answer, that
deference I am taught to entertain for the Judges of the Supreme Court is such
as to carry conviction to my mind that they will never give effect to the
ungracious & unnatural demand made by your Constituents, nor sanction the
gross & unfounded calumnies, by which it is attempted to be supported.
The
circumstance of my attaching myself to Dr Hunter without the formality of
marriage is the only incident in my life which I have occasion to reflect of
and I defy the world to implicate me in one other instance of irregularity
during my existence.
It is
well known to his Trustees that I enjoyed all the privileges and performed to
him faithfully all the duties of a lawful wife, and had it not been for the
officious & overbearing influence of his relations and advisers, he would
infallibly have fulfilled, his repeated and solemn promises to make me so and
thereby legitimate his own & only offspring – my children -
It was
upwards of 3 year after the Doctors Death before I admitted the addresses of my
present husband; a man of unimpeachable morals; of strict integrity; religious,
sober, industrious and affectionate and who has manifested as much attention
and zeal for the welfare of Dr Hunter’s children as he could have done himself
if in life.
A consent
was impetrate [obsolete, meaning fervently requested] from me, to my
Daughter Ann going to Perth when I had no person to advise with – the
representations then made have proved to be unjust and the professions
insincere – I was assured she was to be restored to me within three years at
all events and sooner, in the event of my going to reside in Edinb. – I prevailed upon my husband in consequence to
abandon an established & lucrative business in Dundee & to remove to
Edinb. - when I first visited the child
at Perth I found her over-run with vermin & clothed with the off castings
of Mrs Morrison at both of which I certainly testified my reprobation, and
although she may have been since a little better treated, yet she is not so
comfortable nor does she meet with that regard and respect which she would
experience were she under my immediate charge – The Trustees I am well informed
pay no personal attention to her [Anne] and none of them ever visited
Elizabeth [who has remained with her mother] since her birth, to
ascertain her situation & progress in education – How then can they pretend
to say that putting her under the charge of a mercenary boarding Mistress who
has no other means of supporting herself & family than what she absorbs from
the board of 5 or 6 Girls would ameliorate her condition. Elizabeth too is of a
delicate constitution and altogether unfit from her age, for a common boarding
school. [The Trustees propose that the younger daughter Elizabeth should
join her elder sister in the Perth school].
My
parental regards – my feelings as a mother and the happy prospective consideration
of seeing my daughters when of age mistress of their own fortunes, without
being estranged from me, which would be the inevitable consequence of the
measure meditated by your clients, forbid my yielding even to the modified
proposition contained in your Letter and I have perfect confidence in the
justice of the Court that my purpose & resolution will be supported &
applauded by the intelligent Judges.
On the
other hand, I know well that the proud disposition of Dr Hunter’s relations
will not admit of their forming any friendly or cordial association with my
children even although they had enjoyed the whole of his large fortune – they
will only be looked upon by these relatives, as isolated beings & outcasts
– Hence the expediency of their being educated at a distance and under my
immediate superintendence is too apparent – Far be it from me to impute any
sinister motives to the Trustees; but I cannot help remarking in like manner,
that in the event of the death of my daughters without issue, the large tho
relatively trifling proportion of their
fathers fortune provided to them descends to his nearest kin with whom the
Trustees are intimately connected, and of which one of them would acquire a
considerable share.
Permit me
then just to add that I am above all things solicitous to have the custody of
both my daughters; For as stated in my answers we have apartments appropriated
to Elizabeth quite distinct & separate from my husband’s place of business
with a servant to attend her. However, I am perfectly willing that their course
of education shall be prescribed & the schools they are to attend selected
by any respectable Clergyman in Edinbr. Which I conceive should prove
satisfactory to the Trustees.
Such
gentlemen are the genuine sentiments of my heart unprompted & uninfluenced
by anyone but I cannot forbear expressing my own & my husband’s
astonishment & indignation at the unmerited defamation introduced into the
Petition and for which we are surely entitled to satisfaction & redress –
At the same time I conceive that I have a title to require information as to
the state & application of the fortune destined to my children.
I remain
very respectfully gentm.
Your most
truly
Ann Speed
To
Thomson & Ferguson Esqrs W.S.
On a
separate sheet: After what has been explained in the Answers for me, it is
quite superfluous to say one word more upon the subject of the imaginary
agreement you attempted to involve me in, as you know well I uniformly resisted
your repeated applications on the head, and peremptorily refused to sign the
writing made out by you – on the other hand the receipt bears the terms &
conditions upon which the money was paid & I am confident there is not an
allusion in it to my parting with my child.
A.S.
Docketing
note: 12 July 1820
Ann Speed
will not agree to her child being sent to a Boarding School in Edinr. [? The
school in Perth is the one under discussion]
Acknowledgements
Dr
Richard Forty AGRA provided me with over 60 pages of closely typed extracts
from official records held in Scotland; Deborah Brambill AGRA retrieved information
about the Reverend Morgan Watkins and Eliza Watkins; Hester Coley AGRA sought traces
of the Hunter sisters’ presence in Hendon/Mill Hill.
.
.
.
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