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Relatives: Husband of Jane Strachan. Stone Condition: Damaged, Tilted Material: Sandstone Height: 2.17 Breadth: 1.1 Depth: 0.38 Inscription Condition: Clear but worn Inscription Technique: Incised Mason: W. Waggett, Glasgow Pre 1855 no. N/A ( What's this? )

Monument Inscription

IN MEMORY
OF
ROBERT OSBORNE,
WHO DIED AT CALDCOATS
19TH APRIL 1870, IN THE
84TH YEAR OF HIS AGE
AND OF
JANE STRACHAN, HIS WIFE
WHO DIED 22D OCTR 1871,
IN THE 82D YEAR OF HER AGE.

ALSO IN MEMORY OF
JOHN WHITEFORD
WHO DIED AT CALDCOATS
14TH JULY 1864,
IN THE 66TH YEAR OF HIS AGE
AND OF
ISABELLA OSBORNE, HIS WIFE
WHO DIED AT DODSIDE,
10TH MAY 1896,
IN THE 81ST YEAR OF HER AGE.

Family History

Caldcoats Farm, situated to the west of Netherplace on the road to Stewarton, was originally a small group of cottages which eventually, with the enclosure of land into larger units, became the recognisable farm of one hundred and twenty-three acres occupied by the family listed on this stone. The farm has acquired various spellings of its name over the years but was known locally as Ca’coats. The families carrying the names of Osborne and Whiteford were to work this soil for over sixty years between them.

By 1850 Robert Osborne, a man of advanced years originally from East Kilbride, was farming this policy along with his wife Jane Strachan, a Mearns woman. With the aid of son Walter, a labourer, and two farm servants Robert managed the running of the farm.

Robert’s daughter Isabella had married a Dunlop man by the name of John Whiteford, their wedding taking place in East Kilbride Parish in 1835. John was some sixteen years senior to his new wife at the time of their marriage. This age difference was not unusual in the times in question as often men would put off marriage until either their dependent parents had died or they had acquired enough capital to set themselves up in business.

Before coming to Caldcoats Farm the couple had worked in farms in both Kilmaurs and Neilston before taking over the running of the farm at Caldcoats from their elderly parent and in-law. They and their son John were to continue working Caldcoats for a period in excess of fifty years.

Robert Osborne and his wife remained at the farm until Robert died in his eighty-fourth year in 1870, to be followed a year later by his widow Jane Strachan.

John Whiteford died in 1884 aged sixty-six years while his wife Isabella survived until her eighty-first year, dying in the hamlet of Dodside in 1896.