Isabella Duff

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Lelia on 9th November 2021

Isabella Pride married James Duff, a Watchmaker, on 28 June 1803 at South Leith which was a port on the east coast of Scotland standing on the Firth of Forth just north of Edinburgh. Isabella’s baptismal name was used for some early documents often coupled with “Pryde/Pride” but after the birth of her children, the tendency seemed to be to use the name “Bell Duff”” It is known from details of Isabella’s marriage that her father was John Pride, a mason, from Edinburgh who had died before Isabella married. There are 2 marriages of a “John Pride” which could be Isabella’s father coupled with a bride whose surname was “Davidson” SOURCE: IGI - 1st entry SOURCE: IGI – 2nd entry MARRIAGE MARRIAGE Groom: John Pride John Pride Spouse: Janet Davidson Jannet Davidson Marriage Date: 22 Oct. 1781 22 Oct 1781 Kilrenny, Fife Canongate, Edinburgh SOURCE: Scotlands People SOURCE: MARRIAGE Groom John Pryde John Pride, mason Spouse: Jannet Davidson Jannet Davidson Marriage Date: 22 Oct. 1781 22 Oct. 1781 Both residing Canongate ________________________________ SOURCE: IGI SOURCE: Scotlands People BIRTH BIRTH Female Isable Pride Isable Pride Father: John Pride John Pride, mason in Colinsburgh, a mile north of Kilconquhar Mother: Margaret Davidson Margaret Davidson Birth: 2 Jan. 1784 2 Jan. 1784 Baptised:11 Jan 11 Jan Kilconquhar, Fife Kilconquhar, Fife SOURCE: Scotslands people DEATH Female: Isabel Pride West Largo, Fife 6 May 1784 On the Bridewell Register of Prisoners on 21 October 1822, Isabella’s name is recorded as “Bell Duff al Davidson” This was the only time “Davidson” was used by Bell and it suggests that it was perhaps a family name – could it have been the maiden name of her mother? Further research may reveal details of Isabella’s parents as well as those of James Duff. Isabella and James had 6 children - Elisabeth McDuff b. 25 February 1805 John Pride Duff b. 28 June 1809 – died 1809 Peter McDuff b. 4 January 1807 Margaret Duff b. 18 October 1811 James Duff b.14 April 1814 – buried 3.10.1815 Joseph Duff b. 8 July 1819 The following places of birth for the 6 children indicate that James and Isabella moved between Edinburgh and Fife during their marriage Elisabeth - Falkirk, Fife John - Anstruther Easter, Fife Peter - Edinburgh, Margaret - Anstruther Easter, Fife James and Joseph - Penicuik, Edinburgh Not a great deal is known about James and Isabella before 1822. It is about this time that James deserted the family. However, no further trace of James’ movements has been found. Bell was then left to fend for herself and her four children – Elisabeth 17 years, Peter 15 years, Margaret 11 years and Joseph, 3 years There are no criminal records for James, his wife, or their two children, Elisabeth and Peter, before 1822 when James deserted the family. It is indicative that they then became thieves to provide the bare necessities for day-today living. The family would have been living in utter poverty and in miserable conditions. Bell would have been desperate for money to provide the bare essentials – rent, food and clothing. In 1825, they lived in Milne’s Close, Canongate, a large tenement building built in 1680 containing a number of rooms, access to which was gained by a common stairway. They were probably living in one room with no sewer, no tap indoors and no way of disposing of rubbish. Here they cooked, ate their meagre meals and slept. There was a constant smell from unwashed bodies and clothes. In winter it was extremely cold and always dark indoors, both during the day and night, as few people could afford candles. When Bell was convicted in 1829, they were living in the Castlehill. Bell’s convictions resulted in the following total time spent in Prison each year starting in September 1822 1822 1 month 1823 2 months 1824 7 months 1825 7 months 1826 7 months 1827 6 months 20 days 1828 3 months 20 days Records of the 17 convictions and sentences for Bell appear in Appendix….. Bell’s convictions were for being a vagrant, attempting to pass base money and thieving. The sentences were very severe and conditions in the Prison would have been appalling. In 1824 one of Bell’s sentences was for 60 days, the first 30 days on bread and water. In 1825 one of her sentences was for 60 days on bread and water. Whilst in 1826 she was placed in solitary confinement for 60 days on a diet on bread and water. In May 1828, Bell was convicted of the theft of a washing tub and received a sentence of 3 months. In 1826, when Bell was at the Edinburgh Lockup House, her youngest child, Joseph, was with her. At that time, the prison authorities recorded her physical characteristics as - Age: 38 Height: 5 ft. 6 in. Complexion: Fresh Hair: Black Eyes: Grey Visage: Round Trade: Umbrella Maker Marks: Pitted with smallpox On May 6, 1829, the crime for which Isabella was transported took place. On that Sunday afternoon starting about 2 o’clock Bell on four different occasions went to a house or shop in East Adam Street near Edinburgh and purchased bread and milk in small quantities Each time she produced a piece of metal in imitation of a shilling and received copper money in exchange for the shilling. She was apprehended and later found guilty of “using and uttering, as genuine, false and counterfeited coin or pieces of base metal”……..knowing the same to be false and counterfeited” After her first purchase of a pennyworth of sweet milk or a pennyworth of bread - (the young girl serving Bell could not recall which Bell purchased), Bell came back within the hour and bought another pennyworth of bread or milk paying with a shilling. Then about 4 o’clock she came back again and purchased another pennyworth of bread or milk Between 5 and 6 o’clock Bell was again in the shop She had a jug and purchased a quantity of milk, paid by a bad shilling but when challenged Bell said that she did not know the shilling was bad. The police were called and Bell was taken away by two police officers. She never denied nor confessed the charge but her answers to questions from the police were not truthful, such as where she lived and her movements that day. When Bell was searched by the police before leaving the shop, she had tuppence halfpenny in her possession. On being interrogated, Bell declared she got the shilling from a woman on the street on Saturday evening for a pitcher and some other trifling article of hardware and that she sold such articles and had done so for six weeks. She did not know the woman’s name or residence, and she was unable to mention any person who saw her with the woman. When asked why she did not use the copper money instead of the bad shillings, she would not answer any more questions. One of the Criminal Officers of the Edinburgh Police establishment declared that he had known Bell Pryde or Duff for 10 years and that she had often been in the police office on charges and that he considered her to be a person who gains her livelihood by passing coin and by theft After the various declarations were read to Bell she signed each page “Bell Duff” It was stated by a witness that on the last occasion Bell entered the shop she was a little intoxicated but seemed sober on the three previous occasions. Also that on her final visit to the shop she was dressed differently - wearing a bonnet and shawl. When Bell was transported she left behind three of her children – Elisabeth, Margaret and Joseph. In 1829, during her trial when Bell was asked how many children she had, apparently, answered “three” not four. Of her six children, two had died – John and James, - and she knew of the whereabouts of Elisabeth, Margaret and Joseph. Probably she did not include Peter as one of her surviving children as he had been transported to Van Diemen’s Land in 1826 and she had heard nothing of him. After Bell was transported, nothing is known of her daughter ELISABETH MARGARET possibly shared the care with her mother of her young brother, Joseph before and after Bell was transported in 1830 as Bell spent so much time in prison It would appear Margaret and JOSEPH were in close contact throughout their lives. Joseph named one of his sons, James ‘Kennedy’ Duff after his sister, Margaret, who in 1841 married Bernard Kennedy, a farm labourer from Ireland in Ratho which is about 10 miles from the centre of Edinburgh. Prior to her marriage, Margaret was listed on the 1841 Census as a servant on a farm in Ratho whilst Joseph by 1841 had taken up the trade of Nailer and was living in Coal Wynd, Fife. Nailers or blacksmiths made nails by cutting and shaping metal and were very much in demand as tradesmen. On the 1851 Census, Margaret, 36, and Bernard Kennedy, 38, were living at 66 Scotts Lane, The Cowgate, Edinburgh. Margaret and Bernard had no children, and after the death of her husband in 1865 Margaret was living at 1 Saint Bernard’s Place, Edinburgh. She died aged 57 on December 29 1869. Her brother, Joseph, of 6 Heriot Bridge, Edinburgh, was the informant who provided details on her Death Certificate. He stated their father was James Duff, Watchmaker (Journeyman) deceased and that their mother was Isabella Duff, maiden name Pryde, also deceased. Margaret’s Will was drawn up for her by a Writer (Solicitor) on 15 June 1869. When she was to sign her Will, she declared that she “cannot write never having learnt the art” and the Will was read to her and notarised. Amongst the beneficiaries were her brother Joseph, and his sons James Kennedy Duff, painter, and John Muir Duff, plasterer. She left her feather bed, curtains, bolster pillows and two and a half pairs of her bed blankets to James and to her brother, Joseph, all her furniture and furnishings. As was common in the late 17th and 18th century, Margaret left to the person who was her attendant on her death bed, all her body clothes. Clothes were especially valuable before the introduction of sewing machines and mass produced clothing. Her brother Joseph who died in Edinburgh in 1891 married twice. In 1845 he married Isabel Muir at Dysart, Fife. His second wife was Isabella Lyons and they married in Edinburgh in 1853. Among Joseph’s descendants today are Finlay Duff in the U.K. and Deborah Sands in Scotland. Reverting back to Isabella’s conviction and sentence, she was detained at Bridewell Prison from 22 July 1829 until she was sent south on 4 May 1830. Unlike the male convicts who were sent to work on the hulks, the female convicts from Scotland were sent south a short time before the ships sailed for V.D.L. The women were often ironed together on the top of coaches, which could take 8 days or more to reach their destination. The conditions were often wet and extremely uncomfortable and sometimes the women had scarcely enough clothing to cover their nakedness. On 6 June 1830, Isabella sailed from Spithead, a southern port in Hampshire in the “Mellish” (Appendix…) The ship arrived at Hobart on 22 September 1830. The surgeon superintendent on board, John Love, wrote in his journal that - “to preserve the health the people were all sent on deck after breakfast and kept up until four in the afternoon with the exception of an hour to dinner provided always that the weather was mild and dry. the lower deck kept as dry as possible and cleaned by scraping or dry holy-stoning and occasionally aired by stoves, the bottom boards lifted every day and put into the upper berths during the day, bedding shook out and spread out to air, once a week. When lime juice or wine was served, every person was mustered and drank their allowance at the tub on the quarter deck in my presence.” On board were 118 female convicts with 61 children and 14 free wives with 45 children. On arrival the female convicts were taken ashore to the Female House of Correction where they would await assignment. From Isabella’s Conduct Record (Appendix ….) it would appear her first assignment was to the dwelling house of a Mr. Maycock. On January 4, 1831, she was accused of stealing a One Pound Promissory Note from him and she was committed for trial at the Quarter Sessions. No settler could punish his assigned convicts. They had to be tried by a magistrate. In Isabella’s case it would appear she was innocent of the charge brought by Mr. Maycock as reported in Hobart’s “ Town Courier” of 29 January “At the Court of Quarters Sessions, Isabella Duff, was tried on a charge of stealing a One Pound Note, the property of Mr. Maycock, and acquitted” Until she received her Ticket of Leave in 1835, Isabella was assigned to six different masters. From her Conduct Record it can be seen that she was often sentenced to be detained in a cell, on bread and water, for periods of 7 days, 10 days or 3 months. Mostly her crime was being drunk and a suspicion of being a thief. The harsh conditions of colonial life made for heavy drinking as had the living conditions in Scotland. Isabella Duff’s name appears in Hobart’s “Town Courier” amongst those convicts granted a Ticket of Leave on May 21, 1835. In November 1836, Bell’s son, Peter married Margaret Coffey in Campbell Town. No evidence survives to suggest that Bell ever met her son in V.D.L. Bell married James Love, a widower, at St. David’s Church, Hobart, on October 31, 1836, a few days before Peter married. She signed the Marriage Certificate “Bell Duff” and is described as a “Widow”. Archival material regarding ages is most often difficult to reconcile. If Bell was born in 1784 and James in 1793, at the time of their marriage Bell would have been 52 and James would have been 43. There is a rather amusing article in the “Colonial Times” Hobart on 8 November 1836 (Appendix…) of a Complaint brought by Mrs. Mary Archer. Bell Duff was on her way to her wedding with her bridegroom, James Love, and Mary Archer was a member of the bridal party. An altercation arose between Mary Archer and another woman who appeared to be envious of Mrs. Archers’ fine clothes called her “very bad names” and even threatened to do her husband (Mr. Archer) some injury” Bell Duff stated that whether it was envy of her happiness by this woman or the superior manner of the dresses of the wedding party, they were abused without any provocation on their part. After hearing the complaint, the Magistrates dismissed the case. There is no record of James Love having been a convict and his family history suggests he arrived in Hobart about 1822 from Scotland where he had been a whaler. Sometime after 1829 he married Agnes Love, a former convict, also from Scotland. They had 3 sons, all born in Hobart. In April 1835, Agnes died as a result of a boating accident. James and Bell lived in the area around Brighton and on the Census of January 1843, James Love was the householder and the gender and ages of other household members matched those of Bell and the three boys. In the Tasmanian Census of of 1851 at Brandy Bottom after James’ death, Isabella is shown as the head of the household living in a wooden dwelling-house. At that time, four other persons usually resided there, all of them being free. James died at Richmond in November 1849 aged 56. An “Isabella Love” married Daniel Weir, labourer, on 25 May 1853, at St. Andrew’s Manse, Hobart, according to the rites of the Church of Scotland There is no signature by Isabella on the Marriage Certificate only a cross. Daniel Weir also marked the Certificate with a cross. Daniel was a convict and shoemaker from Glasgow and was convicted in 1829. His sentence was for 14 years . His mother was a widow, Elizabeth Weir or Ker. Daniel sailed from London on 14 September 1829 on the “Prince Regent” He arrived in Hobart on 10 January 1830. Daniel’s age at his trial for the crime of theft with 4 other young men is given as 19 which leads to his birth in 1809. His age when marrying Isabella Duff would have been about 42 and Isabella’s age, if born in 1784, would have been 69 which raises a query. A “Daniel Were” labourer about 60 years drown in 1878 in Monument Creek, Rockford, Victoria. He was buried in the nearby Lancefield Cemetery. His Death Certificate indicates that little was known of Daniel except that he had spent some time in Tasmania and about 10 years in Victoria. His birthplace is given as “Glasgow, Scotland” It may be that Isabella and Daniel Weir moved to Victoria after their marriage. No record of their sailing has been found. There is a record of the death of a Isabella Weir, domestic, who died at the Hospital Melbourne on February 26, 1858, aged 68 (Bell Duff would have been about 74) It is recorded that she was born in Scotland and was married (name of husband not given). Also it was stated that she had been 24 years in Victoria, that is 1834, which would not have been possible as Bell Love was on the 1851 Tasmanian Census.