Alexander Marshall Brodie

I love finding odd characters - here’s a guy who was born in Coupar Angus in 1811 and ended up becoming a Confederate soldier in the American Civil War.

Robert Neil Wedderburn 1831 had an older sister, Ann Neil Wedderburn 1820

When Ann was 21 she married Captain Alexander Marshall Brodie. Brodie was born in Coupar Angus, Perthshire, near Meigle where the Wedderburns lived and was nine years older than Ann. After their marriage she sailed with him from Dundee to Savannah, Georgia, USA where they had two children.

"Entrance to the Port of Dundee" engraved by E.Benjamin 1842

Dundee had a huge textile trade with the southern U.S. states - the city produced most of the slave clothing worn by African slaves (more on that in a later post).

Ann died of puerperal fever after the birth of their second child (he died too). Brodie took his young daughter Sara Ann Brodie 1842 back to Scotland and she grew up with her grandparents at the farm at Camno.

Brodie remarried in Georgia and had 10 children with his second wife, Ann Elizabeth Part from Manchester, England.

Brodie was in the news in 1852. This is from the Macon Georgia newspaper:

Wreck of the Ship Georgia

New York December 7th: The ship Georgia of Savannah, Alexander Brodie, master, from Liverpool, with 350 passengers, got on shore on Long Beach, near Bond’s Hotel. The passengers were all saved and were treated kindly by the proprietor of the hotel. She was bound for New York.

Brodie joined the Confederate Army in 1863 and died in 1883 in Richmond County, Georgia.

Alexander Marshall Brodie 1811 (copied from Ancestry.com)

Sara Ann Brodie left Meigle when she was 18 and became a housemaid in London. She was the same age as my great great grandmother Catherine Clark and I wonder if they knew each other? Catherine disappeared after the birth of her illegitimate child by Robert Neil Wedderburn and perhaps she followed Sara to London and changed her name? I can’t find her anywhere…