Monument Details C03

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Forename
Surname
Date of Death
Age
Place Name
Agnes
Pollok
27 July 1834
n/a
Jean
Pollok
07 October 1834
n/a
William
Pollok
06 September 1834
n/a
William
Pollok
n/a
n/a

Relatives: Daughter of William & Jean Pollock Stone Condition: Sound, Sunk Material: Sandstone Height: 0.3 Length: 2.7 Breadth: 0.22 Inscription Condition: Mostly decipherable Inscription Technique: Incised Mason: Not known Pre 1855 no. 73 ( What's this? )

Monument Inscription

TOP :- All in one line

THIS IS THE BURYING PLACE FOR (WILLIAM ) POLLOK ( ) POLLOK ( )

East Face :- All in one line

(Agnes) POLLOK Died 27th July. WILLIAM died 6th September and JEAN died 7th October 1834

Family History

This monument commemorates William Pollok, his widow Jean Giffen, and their first three children who died between July and October 1834: their daughter Agnes (26.8.1827 - 27.7.1834), their son William (7.6.1829 - 6.9.1834) and their daughter Jean (15.1.1832 -7.10.1834).

William Pollok married Jane (Jean) Giffen on 28th October 1826 in the Parish of Mearns.
Jane who was the daughter of Cornelius Giffen and Agnes Russell was born in 1806. After suffering the loss of these three children the couple had a further seven children between 1835 and 1848. These were James (b.20.10.1835), Agnes (b.10.3.1837), Elizabeth (b.4.5.1839), William (b.25.5.1841), Jean (b.2.2.1843), Andrew (b.17.7.1845) and Cornelius (b.6.10.1848).

William, a shoemaker who lived in Main Street, Newton Mearns, died in 1869; his widow, Jane, died in 1882.

It is highly likely that the deaths of the three children in the Pollok family which occurred between late July and early October 1834 were caused by infection, possibly scarlet fever which caused the deaths of many children in the parish, occurring in epidemics at various times in the 19th and 20th centuries.

At this time the mechanism of many diseases such as scarlet fever was not understood and it was to be another thirty years before Louis Pasteur confirmed the germ theory of disease and more than one hundred years until penicillin became available.