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Monument Inscription
ERECTED By
ARCHIBALD MACDONALD
IN LOVING MEMORY OF HIS DAUGHTER
JESSIE
WHO DIED 29TH MARCH 1898
AGED 22 YEARS
ALSO HIS BELOVED SON
ARCHIE
WHO DIED [ 8 DEC 1900 ] AGED 20 YEARS
“UNTIL THE DAY BREAKS AND THE SHADOWS
FLEE AWAY”
Family History
Tragedy struck the family of Archibald Macdonald when he and his spouse Janet Campbell were to lose two of their children within less than two years.
Archibald Macdonald was a simple ploughman living and working at Kirkhill near Busby, and with his wife was to raise their children in that locality. Archibald and his wife had been part of the vast movement of persons from the Highlands and Islands into the cities of Scotland in search of work and better opportunities for their offspring. Both came from the parish of Kilbrandon and Kilchattan in Argyllshire and were married there in 1865. It is likely their mother tongue was Gaelic, this being the language of those living on most of the western seaboard north of Kintyre.
When viewing the deaths of this couple’s son and daughter at similar ages and within a short time of each other one is tempted to assume that some disease struck the family that caused these premature deaths. This was not the case as Jessie the daughter was to die of an epileptic convulsion at her home at one o’clock in the afternoon of the 29th March, 1898. Jessie had worked as a domestic servant before her unexpected death.
Brother Archie, who worked as a tenter in a printfield ( this was the job description for a mechanic who repaired power looms), was for four months prior to his death suffering from tuberculosis and succumbed to this disease within two years of having attended his sister’s funeral.
This was undoubtedly a very sad period for the Macdonald family and it fell to Duncan Macdonald, a brother of the two deceased to register their deaths.
It will be observed that the spelling of the surname Macdonald on the gravestone is shown as Macdonald. The habit in the Highlands and Islands was to use the full Mac and only when transcribed by their southern brethren was the prefix Mc utilised. All official documents relating to this family use the shorter version.
Perhaps after these traumatic times the family decided to leave the district as no other members of the family were to be buried in the grave occupied by these young siblings.