Theme: Birthdays

Almost ten years ago I received an email from an unknown person:
“As a collector of Scottish Mauchline ware*, I have today been given a present of a lovely little ‘Birthday book’. This book originally belonged to Mary Learmonth Johnston and it says it was a present from Maggie and Mary, August 23rd 1889. I have just done a bit of research on the internet and found Mary and her family members all mentioned in this book on your site. Mary’s birthday was the 2nd of March and her date of death is in the book as 8/10/1932.

 Her parents Peter and Agnes and her siblings and various other people’s birthdays and deaths feature in this book; she has brothers who went to live in Canada and America and an Aunt who died in Portugal! …. It is a lovely little book and I love that it meant so much to Mary. “

What a wonderful surprise, and such a thoughtful person! After some correspondence I was sent photos of all relevant pages in the book. It contains not only birthdates but death dates too and also, sometimes, places.

Mary Learmonth Johnston 1853-1932 was the eldest of seven children of Peter Johnston 1824-1919 and Agnes Todd 1829-1902 of Glasgow. She never married. She made a name for herself as a China merchant, starting as a saleswoman of fancy goods (1891) then as a glazier and china merchant (1901). She lived with her widowed father, who was 91 when he died, and her sister Maggie who had ‘no occupation’ according to the Scottish Censuses – she may have been disabled. From the number of entries in the birthday book Mary Learmonth Johnston must have been the family historian. She may have been surprised to learn just how many Mary Learmonth Johnstons there are in the family history, plus a couple with a different surname, but all related – seven at last count.

Mauchlin ware: A line of Scottish white-wood keepsakes and decorative items produced from about 1820 – 1939 by W&A Smith and small shops in and around Mauchline, Scotland. Not, as I had first surmised, china ware.