Lizzie’s Story 5: Paisley

The Paisley pattern is named after the town south of Glasgow where the textile industry took off. The famous Paisley teardrop shape is an ancient Indian design from Kashmir. Cashmere from India was shipped to Glasgow and made into the famous Paisley shawls made popular by Josephine Bonaparte.

John McInnes Moffat’s grandfather James Moffat, a tailor, moved here from Airdrie in 1855. He married a seamstress, Eliza Ann Moore, from Co Antrim in Ireland.

9 Lady Lane, home of the Moffats in 1922

After returning from the war John McInnes Moffat moved back in with his family to their flat at 9 Lady Lane, Paisley. When the 1921 census is out I’ll be able to see just how many Moffats were living there. John’s parents were for sure, as his father died there in 1923. His sister was as she gave that address at her wedding in October that same year.

1922 - A Crazy Year

1922 was the year when Ireland gained independence from Britain.

For Lizzie it was a tumultuous year:

Spring: she becomes pregnant

September: she gets married

October: her beloved great Uncle William dies.

November: her child is born - Margaret Joan Moffat

All we know about Lizzie at the time of her marriage is that she was living in Edinburgh at her uncle’s home in Morningside. Morningside is a very nice address; William is a retired single lawyer and has no heirs.

He is very ill with cancer and at some point before or after Lizzie’s wedding he is admitted to hospital - but chooses to go to the Alexandra Infirmary in Paisley to be near Lizzie not to a hospital in Edinburgh, his home for many years.

He dies on October 26th, a month after the wedding, and leaves his entire estate to Lizzie (and her heirs and successors). He gives 100 pounds to his friend and executor Donald John Ross and 100 pounds to John Moffat. His will, written in hospital seven days before he died, stipulates that Lizzie will be responsible for his sister Aunt Jessie.

Lizzie inherited 2576 pounds sterling which is the equivalent of 1.5 million pounds today, or 2 million dollars.

Aunt Jessie died two years later in 1924.

By 1925 Lizzie and John had moved to a new development on the east side of Paisley. They rented 18 Sherwood Avenue for 34 pounds per year and lived there until Lizzie died in 1962.

Margaret Joan was named for Lizzie’s sister Maggie, and Joan (Maggie’s daughter).

In 1925 they had a son, James Fairlie Moffat (my dad). Jim was named after his dad’s dad, James Fairlie Moffat 1862 according to the Scottish naming pattern. Fairlie was the surname of that James’ Irish grandmother Jane or Ann Ferlie.

Lizzie with Margaret and James in spring of 1928

Margaret Joan died tragically of meningitis when she was five years old. John signed her death certificate, noting that she died at home at 6. 15 am on June 8 1928. There was no treatment available for her at the time.

1928 Penicillin was discovered in London by Alexander Fleming.

Dad became an only child and was doted on by Lizzie. She took him to England to visit Maggie in Lincolnshire and on vacations to Largs in Ayrshire, a favorite seaside haunt of the Moffats. He attended Paisley Grammar School, a prestigious private school.

Maggie’s family (from left clockwise): William Mason, Joan, Bill, Mildred “Girlie”, George, Dick, Maggie (seated) and Norman (youngest).

The Moffats lived a quiet and comfortable life, close to John’s sisters and brothers and their families who all lived nearby and attended the same church. On Sunday afternoons the families gathered for tea, sandwiches and cakes.

A sample of Lizzie’s needlework: a tatted coaster

This pattern is NOT Lizzie’s but is similar to hers. Mum didn’t value old things and resisted Dad’s efforts to save his mother’s memorabilia each time they moved.

Dad prevailed and kept his mother’s vanity set (similar to this one) on the dressing table that he brought from the Moffat’s house after Lizzie’s death. As a child I played with it and wondered how anyone could get tangles out with such a soft brush.

Her dressing table was a similar shape to this one but in dark mahogany with silver handles. It was really out of place in our 1950’s home and eventually had to go.

On Sunday morning of September 3 1939 Lizzie was listening to the radio and heard that Britain had declared war on Germany. She ran out to the field behind their garden where Jim (14) was playing cricket to tell him the news.

In 1941 Maggie lost her son Norman Stuart Mason, an indirect casualty of war. Just three years older than Dad, Norman was eligible to join the war effort. He signed up but his parents forbade him from serving. William Mason’s son from his first marriage had been killed in WWI and William couldn’t bear to lose another son. Norman was so upset he tried to kill himself, shooting himself in the head. He died a few days later. Dad never mentioned this but must have known it happened as he and Norman spent summers together.

I learned this from Lin Sherwin, Maggie’s granddaughter. She and I found each other through Ancestry.com and realized we had met each other as children. We’ve shared photographs and when Covid is over I hope to meet her again in person. We’ve been in touch via email and are both passionate about family history.

Lizzie and John in the garden at Sherwood Avenue

This is how I remember Lizzie. She was 69 when I was born and I was 5 when she died. We lived in England so I didn’t see her much. She seemed like a very old lady compared to my other grandmother who was only 46 when I was born.

In 1984 I visited the Mormon Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. At that time records were on microfiche and I was able to find and print out Lizzie’s parents’ birth records. Up to that time Dad didn’t know who they were. He did know a bit about the Millar relatives in Fife as he visited them as a child.

The next step in researching Lizzie is to order her will from the National Archives, to see when it was written.

The 2021 Scotland Census will come out in late 2022 and that will show where she was living in the spring of 1921, a year before she got pregnant.

Leith: Whaling 1616-1963

Lizzie’s Story 4: The Missing Years