James Pettigrew

James Pettigrew was born on 2nd April 1876. On 6th June 1899 a Certificate of Proclamation of Banns was issued, and on 8th June James Pettigrew of Craigmark and Agnes McQuat of Auchinleck were married, at Auchinleck. In 1900 they had a daughter Jeannie, then sadly in 1902 Agnes died during the birth of their second daughter Elizabeth. The children were subsequently raised by James and his mother Elizabeth Wilson Pettigrew.

In 1902, James' daughter Elizabeth's birth certificate described him as a coal miner. The coal mines and iron works around Dalmellington were closed down in the early 1900s, and by the time Elizabeth was married in 1924 he was a railway porter. There is a book written by an old time resident A. Bole of Dalmellington in which he remembers John Pettigrew as a Station Porter at Dalmellington.[v]

On 9th April 1948 James Pettigrew died. His daughter Jean Hill remembers coming in from school one afternoon and hearing the news that her grandfather Pettigrew in Scotland had died. Jean’s paternal cousin Betty (Wright) Anderson remembers that the day she and Arthur announced their engagement was the day that her Aunt Lizzie received the telegram. They had gone around to show off the ring and arrived to find Lizzie crying as she had just heard that her father had died.

Sources: Baker genealogy

Page last updated 08 June 2002