Elizabeth Clark: Illegitimate
Elizabeth Wilson Clark 1863, born on a chilly March day in the crossing guard’s hut at Ardler station. Her mother Catherine, 22, a seamstress and elder daughter of pendicler William Clark is afraid to name the father. Three weeks later she registers the birth and says that the baby is illegitimate.
Her father William forces her to tell him who the father is. He is Robert Neil Wedderburn, the son of Robert Wedderburn, son of John Wedderburn who leased the farm at Camno in 1767. Their family has lived there for almost a hundred years. The farmhouse is a stately stone building halfway between Ardler and Meigle with a perfectly round horse barn where they keep 6 horses.
William is not a happy man.
“What were you thinking, lassie?” he says.
He’s a gentle man and not given to shouting, especially at his eldest daughter, but he is determined to fight for Catherine’s good name when she tells him that she thought Robert would marry her.
“You thought you’d make a match like his mother, did ye?”
Everyone in the village knew the story of Robert’s mother Barbara Hay, who had born Robert Sr a daughter several years before their marriage. Barbara Hay was the stepchild of Thomas Ewart of Alyth. Her real father Robert Hay had been sent to Tasmania for stealing sheep. Her mother Katherine Ogilvy married Thomas soon after and had a new family. Barbara and her sister Ann were outsiders, fending for themselves, not even recognized on their mothers’ death certificate, which (very unusual) named all 10 Ewart children.
Robert eventually married Barbara and they went on to have five more children.
Jane Clark nee Gow, Catherine’s mother is deeply troubled for Catherine and for their family. The stress will cause high blood pressure and she will succumb to “general dropsy” within two years. Before then she will witness her husband taking on his wealthy neighbor in court in Perth and fighting two appeals until the judge determines that, yes, Robert Neil Wedderburn is indeed the father of Elizabeth. He must pay Catherine’s lying-in expenses and give a monthly “aliment” for the child’s welfare until she is 10 or able to support herself.
Robert Neil Wedderburn has no parents alive to share his misfortune. He lives in the big house with his sister Margaret and niece Sara Ann Brodie who is the same age as Catherine and knows their secrets. He has gone from being the eligible bachelor of the county to being the subject of gossip. Margaret will marry a farmer and move to Ireland. Sara Ann Brodie will move to London where she will become a lady’s maid. The house will be empty and after some time he will marry a butcher’s daughter from Dundee. They won’t have children and he will have a stroke at the young age of 37. He will sell the farm equipment and give up the lease of Camno before he dies, leaving everything to his widow.
Catherine disappears, never to be found. She is gone by the spring of 1871 when Elizabeth turns 8. The census shows the child living with her grandfather and aunts and uncle in Ardler. The census taker can’t spell and lists her as “Elizabeth Weatherburn”.
Robert has one younger brother John who was not interested in farming and became a law clerk. He dies of pneumonia the year after Robert marries at the age of 33 in Tillicoultry, Clackmannonshire where he is traveling.
The author of The Wedderburn Book, the definitive history of the family, assumes that the Meigle Wedderburn family line ends with the death of Robert Neil as he leaves no heirs.
The judges who decide the case now look down from the walls of the Perth Museum and Art Gallery. Sheriff Gordon looks kindly and wise. His substitute Barclay who hears the final appeal is a no-nonsense man.
Edward Strathearn Gordon b 1814 Sheriff of Perthshire
(image from Perth and Kinross Council)
Catherine Clark and Robert Wedderburn Aliment June 1864
At Perth 3 November 1863 and 27 April 1864 sitting in judgment Edward Strathearn Gordon Esquire (Sheriff) and Hugh Barclay Esquire (Sheriff Substitute) of the County of Perth on an action before the Sheriff Court of the said County at the instance of Catherine Clark residing in Washington in the Parish of Coupar Angus, County of Perth, “Pursuer” against Robert Wedderburn, Farmer, Camno in the Parish of Meigle and County of Perth “Defender” to which action William Clark, pendicler, residing at Washington in the Parish of Coupar Angus and County of Perth, the Pursuer’s father, was … as her Administrator in Law by interlocutor of date 3 November 1863.
The said Sheriff Substitute on the first of the dates (November 1863) hereof discerned and ordained the said Defender to pay to the said Pursuers the sum of 2 pounds sterling being the inlying expense incurred to the Pursuer in giving birth to a female child in Washington in the Parish of Coupar Angus.
In advance aye and until the said child attain the age of ten years complete and aye and until it be able to support itself with interest at the rate of five pounds per centum per annum on the said inlying charges and on each of the said quarterly payments from the time they respectively become due till payments each term of payments of said aliments being always first come and byegone…
and on the second of the dates hereof (April 1864) the Sheriff dismissed the Defender’s appeal, affirmed the Interlocutor appealed from and discerned …
and on the third and last of the dates (June 1864) hereof the said Sheriff substitute discerned and ordained the said Defender to pay to the said Pursuer the sum of nineteen pounds, three shillings, and seven pence sterling of expenses held as taxed by parties’ procurators in the sum of four shillings and six pence sterling farther.
Hugh Barclay 1799, Sheriff Substitute of Perthshire
(Image from Perth and Kinross Council)
Cartoon of Edward Gordon
Edward Gordon was Sheriff of Perthshire from 1858-1866. He then became Solicitor General for Scotland so he was no pushover.
Catherine may have travelled to Perth for the hearings - perhaps on the railway? It would been a 5 1/2 hour walk or maybe they went by train. Perhaps the judges were on a “circuit” and her case was read in Alyth which was a lot closer.
In many cases the notes from the hearings were preserved but unfortunately that’s not what happened here. Emma Maxwell, researcher and owner of the site Scottish Indexes, said that the Perth records were destroyed (deliberately) and so are not available. I can only imagine what took place and what evidence both sides presented.
Presumable Catherine and Robert did have sexual relations as her family would not have dared to make up a false claim against such a prominent local farmer. Perhaps he accused her of having other partners? Perhaps he argued that she didn’t name him when the child was registered so that suggests she wasn’t sure who the father was.
There are several possibilities for what happened to Catherine after she won the case:
She skipped town with/without the money as she didn’t want to be tied down with a child
She skipped town as she couldn’t bear to see Robert married
She stayed in Scotland and changed her name
She emigrated and is hard to trace as there are so many Catherine Clarks