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Relatives: Daughter of James Hunter and Margaret McLetchie Stone Condition: Sound Material: Granite Height: 1.61 Breadth: 0.86 Depth: 0.3 Inscription Condition: Clear but worn Inscription Technique: Incised Mason: A and M Smith, Cathcart Pre 1855 no. N/A ( What's this? )

Monument Inscription

In
Memory of
JAMES HUNTER
SCHOOLMASTER OF MEARNS
DIED 27TH JANUARY 1890 AGED 79 YEARS
MARGARET MCLETCHIE, HIS WIFE
DIED 25TH JULY 1897 AGED 85 YEARS
AND OF THEIR FAMILY
CHARLOTTE GRACE
DIED 26TH APRIL 1869 AGED 17 YEARS
MARY
DIED 4TH JUNE 1917 AGED 79 YEARS
ELIZA
DIED 9TH MARCH 1921 AGED 79 YEARS
MARION WILSON
DIED 12TH DECR 1934 AGED 91 YEARS

Family History

James Hunter, the schoolmaster in Mearns from 1847 until 1884, was born in Kilmarnock about 1811. He married Margaret McLetchie from Straiton on 31st December 1834 in Kilmarnock, and by 1841 the couple had settled in Irvine where he had found employment as a teacher. It is believed that he held the post of writing master in Dumfries Academy at some time prior to his appointment in the parish school at Mearnskirk.

Mearns Parish School was situated on the site occupied by the present Mearns Kirk manse and was described in 1842 in the Second Statistical Account of the Parish as ‘one of the largest and airiest in the West of Scotland’. The subjects taught at that time were Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, in addition to Latin, Geography and English Grammar. 103 pupils were enrolled in the school in 1842. Having seen a photograph of the school, the writer finds it difficult to imagine how that number could have been accommodated at any one time in the building.

James Hunter’s predecessor, Mr Jackson, was considered to be ‘an excellent and very able teacher’. It is clear that James Hunter was also an able teacher, for following an inspection of the school in 1858, he was commended for his knowledge of Latin, Greek, Mechanics, Algebra and Geometry. It is evident that he maintained his high standards, for before he retired (at the age of seventy-two) an Inspector’s report remarked on his careful and intelligent teaching and on the very satisfactory state of order and discipline in the school.

Following the requirements of the 1872 Education Act (Scotland) when elementary education for children aged 5-13 years became compulsory, a new school, *Mearns Public School, was opened in September 1876 on the Kilmarnock Road (now Ayr Road) . Mr Hunter remained as master there until his retirement. From 1855 when statutory registration became mandatory he held the additional post of Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths in Mearns Parish.

The names of four of the Hunter children are inscribed on this monument, Charlotte Grace, Mary, Eliza and Marion Wilson who also was a teacher. There were at least another six children born to James and Margaret. Their daughter Helen is commemorated on monument R02 and her sister Jane on monument U07.

* The school building was demolished in 2005 in order to provide extended parking at The Avenue Shopping Centre. In acknowledgment of the fact that Mr Hunter was the first master of Mearns (Public) School from 1876 the access road to the present Mearns Primary School which was opened in 2003 was named Hunter Drive.