My great grandparents, Frances and Alexander Campbell, were not “typical” immigrants among my ancestors. I really do not think they wanted to leave Scotland. Who could blame them? It is a beautiful country and Edinburgh was a vibrant city. Together they had dozens of siblings. It was a great deal to leave behind.
Also, unlike many immigrants, the Campbells were not facing horrible conditions—extreme poverty, religious persecution, war or an oppressive political regime. My guess is that they, like many immigrants then and now, simply wanted a better life for their children.
Alexander was born in 1860 in Leith and was named after his father.
Leith is a port area which lies on the southern coast of the Firth of Forth. A manufacturing area, Leith was Scotland’s leader in many industries for centuries. It is just outside Edinburgh and merged into that city in 1920.
The Campbell family lived in Lauries’ Close. A “close” is a very old, steep and narrow street. The family lived in the Close for decades. The following photo of Lauries’ Close is dated 1870 when Alexander was 10 years old.
In 1884, 24 year old Alexander married Frances Gilbert Adcock Aitken, who was 22. They were married in a very famous church, St. Giles Cathedral, the High Kirk of Edinburgh. It was the parish church for Frances.
Queen Elizabeth II lay in rest in St. Giles in September, 2022; and a Service of Thanksgiving was held. 20,000 mourners paid their last respects. St. Giles is a very impressive cathedral and has been a working church for almost 900 years.
Alexander was a plasterer like his father. Frances was employed outside the home. Curiously, she made shoes out of gutta- percha, a form of latex derived from the tree of the same name.
Frances was the daughter of a tailor, who lived and worked in Geddes Entry, Edinburgh.
Geddes Entry at 233 High Street is in the heart of Edinburgh, a two minute walk from St. Giles and on what is called the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile runs between Holyrood Palace and Edinburgh Castle. It was the processional route of monarchs hence the name “Royal” Mile. Growing up Frances would have been able to stand in her entryway and watch Queen Victoria process down the Royal Mile!
Today, and I imagine then too, Geddes Entry is a desirable residence. This photo, taken in 2019, suggests the exterior of Geddes Entry is little changed.
Three years after they married, the Campbells had a daughter and named her Frances Aitken. Frances was born at No. 12 Royal Exchange, a minutes walk from Geddes Entry.
Following Alexander and Frances for the next fifteen years is challenging. On both the 1910 and 1920 US Censuses they record 1890 as the year they emigrated from Scotland. I find no record of their departure or arrival that year. But they are not on the 1891 Scotland Census and their second child, George Aitken, was born in Manhattan in 1893 so, in all likelihood, they did arrive in 1890.
Next there is a record of Alexander returning to Scotland in January of 1897. He traveled on the ship, Furnessia.
But there is no record of the family returning to Scotland with him. Yet, in 1900 the Campbells had a second son, Gilbert Alexander, and he was born at No. 3 Ballantyne Road in Leith. The family had definitely returned to Scotland.
The 1901 Scotland Census is revealing. Frances, Alexander, George and Gilbert were living at No. 3 Ballantyne Road. They had two rooms with one or more windows. Imagine two rooms with one or two windows. How many rooms had no windows?
Alexander was still working as a plasterer. Frances was again working outside the home. Her employment is listed as “rubber worker.” Maybe she had returned to her former work with shoes. Quite possibly, she worked for the North British Rubber Company, which was one of Edinburgh’s biggest employers.
Daughter, Frances, was going to school in Edinburgh. Curiously, she was living with her aunt, Agnes Aitken. Her aunt operated a dairy and their household also had two rooms with more than one window.
Then, three years later on the 16th of June 1904, Frances and the two younger children, George and Gilbert, departed Glasgow on the ship Furnessia, the same ship Alexander had traveled on in 1897. They arrived in New York 10 days later. Alexander had preceded them because he is identified as the relative with whom they will be staying at 88 Amsterdam Avenue, Manhattan. The 1905 New York Census records Alexander and daughter, Frances, having been in the United States a year longer than the rest of the family so, presumably, father and daughter emigrated in 1903.
The question is: why did the family leave their homeland in 1890 for the United States, return to Scotland in 1897, and then leave again in 1903/1904? The only explanation which makes any sense is economic.
Is it significant that Frances did not work outside the home in the United States? Does it mean anything that daughter, Frances, lived in the household until she married in 1913, but lived in another household in Scotland? What were the living conditions in Leith?
It is a fact that there were not enough well paying jobs in Scotland in the second half of the 1800s. Even with the Industrial Revolution and the dramatic growth of industry in Scotland, the lack of good jobs resulted in about 2 million Scots emigrating to North America and Australia. Presumably, Alexander, like so many immigrants then and now, was looking for a better life for his family.
But why return to Scotland in 1897? One possible explanation is that there was a serious financial crisis in 1893 in the United States. The Panic of 1893 affected all aspects of the US economy for several years.
We will probably never know why the Campbell family went back and forth. But it does seem clear that Frances and Alexander really did not want to leave Scotland. They never became American citizens.
But once here in the early 1900s, they did stay. 1905 finds them settled in Central Harlem in Manhattan, the area where they spent the rest of their lives.
Very interestingly, daughter, Frances, was a tailoress. I wonder if she knew her grandfather and her great grandfather had been tailors. She was even a tailoress of men’s suits!
Frances married William James Hutchison in 1913. “Hutch”, as he was called, was a successful rug merchant and very well liked. They had a daughter, Muriel, in 1915.
A few years later, George married Nellie Brennan and they had a daughter, Evelyn, in 1917. George followed in his father’s trade and became a plasterer. Evelyn said he did the medallions on ceilings which suggests he was quite accomplished.
Gilbert married Catherine Beirne in 1923 and they had five children. Gilbert, too, followed in his father’s footsteps and entered the building trade.
Frances died in 1923 at the age of 60. The cause of her death is listed as cerebral apoplexy, a similar if not the same condition which claimed her mother’s life at the age of 48. Granddaughter Evelyn said that Frances was really fun loving. She and Evelyn would dance through her apartment with the carpet sweeper.
Alexander lived another three years and then died of pneumonia in 1926 when he was 65.
Both Frances and Alexander were originally buried in Machpelah Cemetery in North Bergen, New Jersey. But their family had them moved in 1927 to Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York, where Frances and William Hutchison had established a family plot. They are buried with their three children.
Had they lived longer, Frances and Alexander would have been very pleased to know that one of their granddaughters, Muriel, maintained strong ties to the United Kingdom. She even married a man born and bred in England, John Percy Nicholson.
After being educated at the Thomas Mann School and Barnard College in Manhattan, Muriel chose to go abroad to study theater at the Central Dramatic School in London. After that, she went to the Edinburgh Repertory Company. But she did return to the United States where she became a stage actress and appeared in films, among them: The Women; Another Thin Man; and The Man Who Came to Dinner.
Would Frances and Alexander today think they made the right decision to leave Scotland? I look forward to readers’ thoughts!
Credits:
Photo of Edinburgh by W. Bulach on Wikimedia Commons. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
St. Giles Cathedral on Wikimedia Commons. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
This is very thought provoking. I wonder what their lives would have been had they not gone back a second time. It is also interesting they never became American citizens.
Love the details. I believe Frances and Alexander hearts remained in Scotland but economics rule and would even today make the same decision.
I’m still waiting for a book!!!
Fascinating story. I think their hearts belonged to Scotland but they were looking for the “better life” for their children. Imagine living in a house with only two rooms that had windows!! Such interesting story about Muriel -I never knew how far she got in the theatre before. MaMa would have loved this story Lynn.
I love these stories.