Uncle William?
Benedict Cumberbatch aka Sherlock Holmes
On the Moffat side there are no direct ancestors named William BUT there are many brothers of that name, some more important than others.
My dad would mention an Uncle William and it wasn’t until I started researching his mother Lizzie Clark Millar that I knew I had to pursue him. These were the contenders:
William Moffat 1892 - dad’s uncle (baker who retired to Scarborough)
William Mason 1870 - Lizzie’s brother-in-law (lived in England)
William Robert Bruce Mason 1908 - dad’s cousin (my “uncle Bill”)
William Clark Millar 1888 - Lizzie’s brother (emigrated to India)
William Clark 1852 - Lizzie’s great uncle (lawyer in Edinburgh)
The great mystery of my dad’s family was why his mother was wealthy. My grandfather was a baker and wasn’t the owner of the bakery but a regular worker, getting up at 4 am every day. She never talked about her parents or told her age. There was an older man in many of her holiday photos - who was he? Was he Uncle William? Was he Lizzie’s benefactor?
Mystery man with Maggie Ritchie Clark 1882 (Lizzie’s sister)
5 Suspects:
Forget Uncle “Bill” Moffat as he was John’s brother and not related to Lizzie.
4 Suspects:
Forget William Bruce Mason as he was too young.
3 Suspects:
Forget Lizzie’s brother William Clark Millar as he was married and didn’t die until 1947.
2 Suspects:
Forget William Mason as he had five children with Lizzie’s sister Maggie and died in 1953. He turned out to be the man in the photo - he wasn’t Scottish but he loved the clothing!
Lizzie’s great uncle William Clark 1852 , a single lawyer from Edinburgh, left his entire estate to Lizzie (2,576 pounds) when he died in 1922, one month after she got married. Lizzie gave his address as her residence on the marriage certificate.
2,576 GBP in 1922 is equivalent to 123,958 GBP in 2012
This inheritance played a huge role in the family’s fortune, allowing Lizzie and John to live a very comfortable life and for dad to have a great education at Paisley Grammar School.
His will stipulated that the money go to Lizzie and her heirs, with the understanding that she take care of his unmarried sister Jessie.
He probably went into law after a childhood experience of seeing his dad (also William) file a paternity suit on behalf of his older sister Catherine against a wealthy farmer (see Lizzie’s Story 1) He was the first person in our extended family on either side to enter a profession. He probably didn’t go to university but apprenticed with a lawyer for three years and then took the exams to be a law clerk or “writer”.
The missing piece of the puzzle fell into place when I noticed that Lizzie gave Uncle William’s address as her residence on her marriage certificate: 29 Bruntsfield Avenue in Edinburgh (a very nice address by the way).
Great Uncle William Clark would have been 49 when his niece Elizabeth died young and left three teenagers to fend for themselves. He was the patriarch of the Clark family and likely kept in touch with Lizzie and her siblings. They were not in a position to help Jessie (who had dementia). Maggie lived in England and had her own family to look after; William lived in India.
We have no knowledge of what he was like as a person other than his last will and testament written on the 22nd October 1922, a week before he died of cancer. He was in the Royal Alexandria Hospital in Paisley, where Lizzie had just married my grandfather.
The Will of William Clark 1852
The 1921 Census shows William as still working as a law clerk for Tods, Murray, and Jameson, a leading Scottish law firm based in Edinburgh at 66 Queens Street. William gave that address on his father’s death certificate so he was associated with the firm from 1889 - 1922. Donald John Ross, his executor, was a law clerk at the same firm.