ORKNEY ‘The Home of Clouston’: PART 3 - FAMILY HERITAGE

The Orkney post quickly became even more of an epic than some of the others; so I decided to break it up into sections (for my own, and my readers’ convenience).  This is a whole chapter on ‘family heritage’ – I suspect that most people won’t need (or wish) to be acquainted with the past five or six generations of my family!

Over the course of my Orkney time I never ceased to be delighted with having the surname Clouston (it’s a really common name here, having originated in Orkney).  I never had to spell it - people just know… it was fabulous!  While I didn’t actually meet any Cloustons, I did meet a lot of people who knew one, and there were a lot of gravestones bearing the Clouston name!

On my very first day I became the ‘proud owner’ of the book ‘The family of Clouston’; which I felt compelled to buy as there were two copies, just sitting there on the shelf in the bookstore (I have read it, and it is HARD going!)

Locations: Orphir

Our family originated in Orphir, and resided in several locations around the West-Mainland.  There isn’t terribly much to see around there, although the agricultural land is quite picturesque (our family were famers in the region).  The graveyard next to the ruins of the old round kirk did contain several Clouston headstones (although I don’t know if any were my ancestors). Hidden underneath some shrubbery I did discover a stone bearing the name J. Storer Clouston – the author of the book ‘The family of Clouston’ (I’m not clear on whether he was actually buried there, or whether this was just a memorial stone).

Locations: Stromness

In Stromness I was able to locate several of the old family residences:

My great-great-great-grandfather, (William Clouston) was a shoemaker.  My aunt Janet directed me to the his old house - ‘Portsmouth Point’; which is now a rental holiday home (located at #82 Victoria St, next to Clouston’s pier).  My great-great grandfather (John) was born there.  As an ‘interesting factoid’: he is in some illustrious company: George MacKay Brown (author) and Sylvia Wishart (artist) were both born at Clouston’s pier (albeit, a few generations after my ancestors!)  I’d never heard of Sylvia Wishart previously, but there was a big exhibition of her works at the Stromness Pier Arts Centre, including a painting of Clouston's Pier.

George MacKay Brown wrote a short story about a girl named Ceila who had a stepfather who was a shoemaker (it was actually kind of awful – Ceila was an alcoholic who cultivated the affections of a number of men to feed her addiction).  This was filmed as a short film sometime in the 70's, and was shot around Stromness - possibly at Clouston's Close (although I can't be sure about that). No-one seems sure if it is possible to get a copy of the films (I did ask at the Kirkwall library archives).  After reading the story I got talking to the young librarian, and she told me she was previously engaged to a Clouston (from the J Storer Clouston line of descent)... I never actually met any Cloustons - but clearly they are around!

My great-great-grandmother (Mary Ann Porteous) was the daughter of one of the bakers.  The Porteous bakery (#30 Dundas St) was quite famous, and continued in operation for several generations.  Even after the bakery changed hands the new owners continued to make some of the Porteous recipes, and the ‘soda scones’ appear to have been quite famous.  The section of the main street leading up from Graham Place to the bakery is still known as Porteous Brae (‘brae’ meaning a hill).

I spoke to the woman at the Stromness museum, and she directed me to the site of the bakery (as distinct from the shopfront on Dundas St).  It was located up the close next to the bookshop on the corner of Graham Place - there were a few old stone walls which may have been the bakery?

I stayed at the Brown’s hostel in Stromness.  Sylvia Brown has been running the hostel for 33 years, and (quite literally) generations of our family have stayed with her – Alison (my aunt) was there way back in 1984, Janet (aforementioned aunt) and Joan (my grandma) stayed with her last year and now me!  (I don’t know where Mum, Dad, Ranald and Francesca stayed when they visited Orkney?) 

Sylvia remembers working at the bakery.  It had changed hands, and was no longer owned by the Porteous family, but they still used some of the Porteous special recipes (still makes her mouth water!) Sylvia says that the Porteous family were quite a prominent family in Stromness (and even more so due to some -marriage- links with the Bevans? who were another family of 'standing' in the community).

Locations: Dounby

Next, I visited Dounby: where my great-great grandfather (John) was the doctor in residence around 1880.  The family only lived there for around four years, before moving to the Scottish mainland, and then ultimately emigrating to New Zealand.  My great-grandfather (John Peter Porteous Clouston – also known as JPPC) was born in Dounby. 

I did a Google search for Dr John Clouston on the internet, and found a reference to his movements over the years:  Clouston, John, M.B., C.M., Waiuku. Dr. Clouston was born in Sheerness, Orkney Islands, Scotland, in 1854; was educated at Edinburgh University, and graduated in 1879 with honours. He practised in his native islands for four years, then in Fifeshire, Scotland, where he held several public appointments. In 1893 he came to New Zealand, and began his practice in Waiuku.  (Source: http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc02Cycl-t1-body1-d3-d2-d10.html).   Interestingly, cousin Vaila tells me there is no such place as ‘Fifeshire’ – it is just referred to as ‘Fife’ (I suppose the former is an older version).

One of the great sources of family confusion has been the location of the house in which they lived.  On the 1881 Dounby census, the family is recorded as living at ‘Junction house’.  When my aunt and grandmother visited Orkney last year they were told that the ‘big white house’ was the previous doctor’s residence (and when I enquired, this was confirmed to be the case).  However, the big white house is called Dounby house, and isn’t located at the Junction on the road – so this didn’t seem to make much sense!

In Alison's letters (1984), she writes that Junction house was a shop (and in actual fact, part of the building was listed as a Grocer in the census of 1881): so I wondered if it was actually one of the other properties on the crossroads?

I went to the Kirkwall archives, and we tried to locate the property on one of the old town maps, but as nothing was labelled Junction house we couldn't be sure.    About a week later, I went into the family history centre in Kirkwall.  Chatting to the volunteer there it turned out that he knew EXACTLY which Junction house was: his friend now lives there… It is another building entirely, closer to the Junction in the road, next to the car park (previously the market square).  We are not sure how old the current building is – although it does appear in photographs from the early 20^th century – so it is not clear whether our family lived in this building, or whether there was a previous structure on this site (something for the next family member investigate?)

(You can view the ‘current day appearance’ on Google street view – but I couldn’t find a way to save this as an image onto my computer).

Meeting the relatives:

I went to 'Wurback' to meet Raema Porteous.  Raema's husband (Duncan Porteous) works in the oil industry, and spends time between Orkney and Azerbaijan (where the whole family lived for a while) - so I didn't meet Duncan (I believe the same was true when Janet and Joan visited).  Raema invited her mother-in-law (Margaret, who was married to Arthur Porteous, the son of Captain George Porteous).  So I also met Margaret and Sheina MacColl - Margaret's cousin-by-marriage (the relationships started to get confusing here!)  They were all really lovely and friendly - although not one of them was actually a blood-relative... having all married into the family! They didn't know much more about the family history than the information I already have (from Alison's research - via Janet). But regardless of that, it was nice to meet some real Orcadians (as I mentioned in my other post, it seems that everyone I meet here is English... having moved here for the quieter lifestyle).

The following day I went around to Margaret's house for lunch (it was actually her 78th birthday, so I felt especially priviledged).  Again, she was a wonderful hostess, and both she and Sheina are friendly, welcoming people.  Margaret took me to meet Leebie Robertson: Leebie is the granddaughter of James Duncan Porteous 'Poppa' - Mary Ann Porteous's older brother. Leebie is 95 years old - and doing fairly well, but a little bit deaf, and her recent-memory isn't so good. However, she does remember stories from way-back, including one involving a Clouston:

The pilot:

Leebie’s uncle, (Captain George Arthur Porteous) once visited Auckland, where their ship was boarded by a pilot, who, determining that George was an Orcadian asked 'Do the Porteous family still make soda scones?' George asked 'how do you know about soda scones?  (Leebie was confused about the specifics here-  she thought that the man was married to Mary Ann Porteous - but that doesn't fit with John being a doctor... but it was amazing that she still remembers this; and what a coincidence that the pilot had Orcadian links!)

(Aunt) Janet has since confirmed that, yes; the pilot that Leebie spoke of was indeed a relation: “Dad (David) used to tell us a story about the day he (the pilot) retired - Dad lived in Devonport then and the pub was on the water front where the Pilot used to drink so he and Grandad (JPPC) must have been near neighbours. Anyway, he organised to retire on a day when the tides were particularly high then took his last ship up the harbour at a full rate of knots causing a large wake to surge over the sea wall and swamp his friends in the pub.”

Dad (as in – my Dad, Peter) says that he doesn’t remember that story about the pilot. “I do remember Aunt Laura talking about him (the pilot) but the only story that I can recall was his tale of a colleague who, when asked why he hadn't been seen that day replied, "Hive bin hon the Heagle-Awk, hall day". (The Eagle-Hawk was an old hulk the harbour board used for storage.) Silly story but it sticks like glue.”

Previous research

Before heading to Orkney, my aunt Janet sent me a series of letters written by my aunt Alison – who had spent (3 months?) in Orkney in 1984.  I am full of admiration for the work she did, digging through the archives - the census records are ridiculous: upwards of 15 different households containing Cloustons in Orphir / Stromness around the times our ancestors were there - and all of them with the same names... they weren't very adventurous; sticking with the trusted William / John etc!!   Filtering through, and finding our line of descent would have taken some patience!