John Smith & Janet Reid
| Surname:
SMITH Birth Details Death Details Immigration Details |
Surname:
REID
Death Details Immigration Details |
| Family Stories Life in Australia: John and Janet emigrated to South Australia on the "Epimomdas" with children, Flora, William, Hugh, George, James, John and Elizabeth and grand-daughter, Barbara. They arrived on 25th December, 1853. James, their eldest, had settled in the colony in 1848. The family settled near James at Bungala Flat, Yankalilla. John's nephew, Alexander (Sandy) also emigrated to Yankalilla but kept up a lively correspondence with his family in Glasgow, Kilmarnock, Edinburgh and Newmilns. In a letter to Sandy dated 31st January 1855 from his brother, George, it states "Newmilnes news of this month - dull trade, Ian Hood bankrupt £2400, A Parker to £400. If corresponding with John Parker, remember me to him as an old shopmate". Perhaps these Parkers were related to John's grand-daughter, Barbara Parker Smith, born 1850. John died in 1871 and Janet in 1873. They are buried at Yankalilla but no trace of the wooden headstone remains. In 1993 many of the descendants (including ourselves) donated funds to build a cairn to commemorate these early South Australian pioneers and their children. Some 250 descendants attended the unveiling, arriving from all states of Australia.The Rev Pumphrey conducted the service, after which descendants, George and author, Max Smith addressed the gathering. Two pipers piped "Flowers o' the Forest" and "Amazing Grace" at the cairn. The memorial plaque was unveiled and the preface of "Smith Family History" was read, a portion of which follows: "You will find no descendants of royalty here, nor are there any titled gentry, no millionaires and no cuff and collar captains. It is a story of good red-blooded Scots who left the "land of the Leal" as so many of their countrymen did in the eighteenth century. Leaving Kilmarnock, Loudoun-kirk and other parts of Ayrshire, some of the "highlands" and the Isle o' Barra, they sailed forth as migrants to South Australia and settled firstly at Yankalilla. John Smith was a butcher or flesher, and his sons were ploughman and shepherds in the old country. Their desire to make good in this new land never left them, and so they succeeded. Their stubborn pride and their ability to never recognise defeat was probably attributable to the splash of Viking blood from the Hebrides. The motto of my late grandfather, "united we stand, divided we fall", said much for their character, and while they sometimes agreed to disagree amongst themselves, woe betide any stranger who took to their clansmen.Their honesty, loyalty and integrity made them men and women who feared nobody and they respected those qualities in others. They lived courageously and loved tenderly. The quick Highland temper flared easily and subsided just as quickly. The great desire to roam stays with many of us today. The ability to laugh in the face of adversity. The love of beautiful things that are from nature. The whiplash tongue when annoyed. The passionate desire to forge ahead. The love of companionship over a "wee drap", and the skirt o' the pipes to send hearts beating high.These are mine "ain folk" and I offer a silent prayer in gratitude for my heritage, and I thank God that he made these people exactly as he did". Life Before Australia: Janet Reid and John Smith in New Milns gave in their Names and were regularly proclaimed and ... (entry unfinished) [OPR for their marriage on 27 Nov 1824]. The Old Parochial Records of his nine children's baptisms record John as a weaver in Newmilns until 1829. At the birth of his son, Hugh in 1833 he was a flesher, then when David was born in 1843 he was again described as a weaver. The 1841 and 1851 censuses for Greenhead, Newmilns show John as "flesher", aged 40 and 50 respectively. The 1851 census shows occupations for his wife, Janet, aged 45 and daughter, Flora aged 24 as a "cloth clappers", sons, John aged 22, Hugh, aged 17 and George aged 14 as handloom weavers; and the "littlies", Elisabeth aged 8, a scholar and William W. aged 5. Grand-daughter Barbara Parker was in the household, aged 2. John was the son of James and Barbara Smith (nee Paterson), who married in 1785 at Loudoun, Ayrshire. James was described as a weaver at the baptism of his son, John in 1800 and the death of his grandson, George in 1831. When his grandson, David died in 1844, he was described as "late manufacturer" there (Newmilns). Born about 1765, James may have been aware that weaving was taught to native craftsmen by the protestant refugees from France toward the end of the 16th century. Dutch and Huguenot immigrants settled in the Irvine Valley. James' father was also named James perhaps descended from James Smith, whose memory is honoured on a slab in Galston churchyard: "In memory of James Smith, East Threepwood who was shot near Bank of Burn Ann by Captain Inglis and his dragoons and buried there". Another memorial was found in a sheep paddock nearby reads: "Erected to the memory of martyr James Smith, Wee Threepwood, who in 1684 gave his all for civil and religious liberty. Let not the virtue of courage be forgotten". In 1660 the Scots brought the son of Charles I back from Holland, where he had fled and made him sign a National Covenant, and they crowned him Charles II. This Charles soon renounced the Covenant, and declared that Presbyterianism was no religion for a gentleman. These Scottish Presbyterians bound themselves again by a National Covenant: thus they became known as Covenators. At the time the church was the only way most people had of getting information about national events and control of the church increased the king's power. But in Scotland there was fierce opposition. The view was that congregations should appoint their own ministers and the dispute was seen as being between the king's law or God's law. Ministers walked out of their churches and services - conventicles - were held on remote moorland. The penalty for holding such unauthorised worship was death. Under the reign of Charles II these people suffered misery, hardship and murder. |
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Contacts .Gail Dodd. |
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Grandchildren NB: Superscript behind each descendant
name represents the lineage number of that descendant. |
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Date : March 1999
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