Monument Details F02

Details of the monument you have selected are shown below. Click on the image(s) of the monument (at the bottom of the page) to view a larger version (opens in new window). Please allow a few moments for the larger version to load; although every effort has been made to ensure the large images download quickly, internet speeds may vary depending on connection speeds. Click here to go back to your search results.

Forename
Surname
Date of Death
Age
Place Name
David
Johnstone
22 September 1909
70
Isabella
Johnstone
13 May 1925
51
Marjory Farquharson
Young
19 March 1903
67

Relatives: Husband of Marjory Farquharson Young. Stone Condition: Sound Material: Granite Height: 1.98 Breadth: 0.83 Depth: 0.4 Inscription Condition: Clear but worn Inscription Technique: Incised Mason: C. Mellon, Hawkhead Pre 1855 no. N/A ( What's this? )

Monument Inscription

JOHNSTONE


IN LOVING MEMORY OF
MARJORY FARQUHARSON YOUNG DIED 19th MARCH 1903
WIFE OF DAVID JOHNSTONE
WHO DIED AT GAS WORKS NEWTON MEARNS
19TH MARCH 1903
THE ABOVE DAVID JOHNSTONE
WHO DIED 22ND SEPT.1909

ISABELLA
DAUGHTER OF THE ABOVE
DIED 13TH MAY 1925


Peace perfect peace

Family History

This monument serves to remind us that Newton Mearns once had its own gasworks which was situated at Tofts. It was privately owned by a group of local men, including Arthur Gilmour of Townhead House, Robert Osborne a local grocer and John Mather of Kirkhill who also owned the Busby Steam Laundry.

Marjory Farquharson Young, the daughter of joiner and organ builder Alexander Young and his wife Margaret Farquharson, was born in Dunfermline in 1835. She appears to have lived from the age of six years at Glamis, living there in the household of her uncles David and William Young, who were joiners and wrights. On 20th December, 1867 Marjory married David Johnstone, then a foreman ploughman, in Glamis.

It is not certain when the family arrived in Mearns where David found employment as manager of the local gasworks, but it seems likely they were resident in the district by 1877. By 1891 the couple had five children, only one of whom was born in the Mearns, fourteen old daughter Wilhelmina known as MInnie. The others were born in the Glamis area, apart from Betsy who was born in Tongue, Sutherland, c.1870.

The gasworks manager’s job was no sinecure. According to the late T.M. Craig, the manager’s job was twenty-four hours, seven days a week. There were always carts with pairs of horses and men unloading coal or taking away char and sometimes ashes for farm roads. It was a real hive of industry and all hinged on one man.

Marjory Johnstone died at Gasworks House in 1903 at the age of sixty-seven from cancer of the liver. Her husband died six years later in the Western Infirmary, Glasgow having developed tuberculosis of the hip.

The name of only one of their children, that of Isabella, is inscribed on this headstone.

The hamlet of Tofts was situated to the north-west of the village of Newton Mearns. It had grown around the calico printing works which combined with the bleach works at Netherplace in the 1830’s. All that remains of the original Tofts is the mill manager’s house in Barr Place, Newton Mearns.