Archibald Rowley1, was born in 1897 in the very small village of Forgandenny near Perth in Scotland. His father, the local policeman died a mere two and a half years after Archie’s birth2. Sometime after that, his mother moved her family to Perth, where she worked as a laundress3.
The next place we find Archie is in Glasgow in 18914, where he is listed as a 19-year-old coppersmith. It is hard to imagine what that change could have been like for young Archie. The 1881 Scotland Census gives the population of Perth as 95,044, and Glasgow as 487,9855.
The shipyards would have been incredibly noisy, with hot steel, copper, and other metals being poured, moulded, and hammered into shape. Metals would have given off an acrid smell, and close bodies from less than adequately plumbed housing would have been rank. After work, the scene would have changed to a crowded publican’s house where body, urine, smoke and alcohol would combine in that unique way only a pub can smell, and the drunks would variously shout, sing, and fight.
I imagine it would have to be experienced first-hand.
References:
- Scottish Birth Register, 1871, Parish Forganenny, County Perth , 0015, Archibald Rowley (http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 22 March 2005) [↩]
- Scottish Death Register, 1873, Parish Foganenny, County Perth, 05, Thomas Rowley (http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 22 March 2005) [↩]
- Jane Ross Rowley in 1881 Scotland Census GROS Data 387/00 014/00 0161 Archibald Rowley[↩]
- Scottish Census 1891 644/13 027/00 022 Archibald Rowley (http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 22 March 2005) [↩]
- http://www.londonancestor.com/misc/bc-population.htm Retrieved 22 July, 2016.[↩]
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