Part of the Earley family tree
Family background and early life
Isabella Pryde was born on 15 October 1824 in the small village of Kilconquhar in Fife, Scotland. She was the eldest of three daughters born to Alexander Pryde (1792–1854) and his wife Margaret née Mackie (1800–1883).
Alexander Pryde, a mariner, was also born in Kilconquhar and married local girl Margaret Mackie at Kilconquhar parish church on 22 May 1822. He died on 25 September 1854, aged 62, on board the SS Ailsa, from “fever at sea”.
At the first national census in June 1841, 16-year old Isabella was in service (alongside her aunt, Isabella Mackie) in the home of Elisabeth Navin, an annuitant, at South Street in the nearby town of Elie, a small fishing port on the Firth of Forth.
Ten years later, in March 1851, she was now a housemaid, one of four servants in the home of Grace Chalmers and her three sisters (daughters of the late Revd. Thomas Chambers, “Scotland’s greatest nineteenth-century churchman”) at Church Hill, in the St Cuthbert’s area of central Edinburgh.
Marriage and children
On 18 December 1851, at Kilconquhar parish church, 27-year old Isabella married 26-year old Colin Allan, a mariner. The marriage is recorded in the parish register at St Cuthbert’s Church, Edinburgh:
Colin Allan Junior late Seaman on board the Ship “Majestic of Plymouth“, and Isabella Pryde, lately residing at Church Hill Morningside in this Parish Eldest Daughter of Alexander Pryde, Seaman in Kilconquhar, have been three several times duly and regularly proclaimed in the Parish Church of Saint Cuthberts in order to marriage and no objections offered. Married at Kilconquhar on the nineteenth December Eighteen hundred and fifty one by the Revd Walter Wood Minister of the Free Church Elie.
The couple had three sons, all born and baptised in Kilconquhar:
Colin, born 7 November 1852, baptised 24 January 1853
Alexander, born 16 November 1854, baptised 24 December 1854
William, born 24 October 1856. [baptism record not available]
Isabella’s husband, Colin (now First Officer) died, aged 32, from consumption (tuberculosis) on 9 December 1857 on board the New York Packet, sailing out of Irvine, Ayrshire. His death left Isabella a widow, aged 33, with three children, aged 5 or under.
At the 1861 census, Isabella was living with her mother, a grocer, at North Side, Kilconquhar, with her three sons. Also living in the house were two lodgers, including 21-year old Thomas Rutherford, a railway porter, originally from Portmoak, Kinross-shire. He was working at the recently opened Kilconquhar station on The Leven and East of Fife Railway line to Anstruther.
Isabella and Thomas had a brief relationship, resulting in the birth of their son on 18 August 1862. His birth certificate records the son as Thomas Rutherford (illegitimate) with Thomas Rutherford [senior] recorded as the father.
Six years later, on 18 October 1868, Isabella gave birth to a daughter, registered as Margaret Mackie Pryde. No father is recorded on the parish register.
Later life
At the 1871 census, Isabella is recorded as Isabella Allan, a former domestic servant, living near the church in Kilconquhar, with her three youngest children, all of whom now have the surname Allan. Her eldest son, Colin, a 17-year old joiner, was living in Edinburgh with his aunt, Margaret Duff [Isabella’s sister]. 14-year old William was living at home, employed as a cooper. Her other son, Alexander (aged 16) has not been located on the 1871 census.
Alexander died at Kilconquhar on 16 April 1879, aged 24; the cause of death was phthisis (tuberculosis).
In 1881, Isabella was still living in Kilconquhar, with her daughter, 13-year old Margaret. Now aged 53, Isabella was recorded as an “outdoor worker” [i.e. an agricultural labourer]. By now, her son Colin had married and was living in Edinburgh with his wife, Jessie [née Alexander], and their eldest son, also Colin. His half-brother, Thomas, now an 18-year old baker, was living with him. No further record of her son William has been identified.
Her daughter, Margaret died at Kilconquhar on 22 December 1888, aged 20. Like her brother Alexander nine years earlier, the cause of death was tuberculosis.
Her youngest son, Thomas, now married with four children, died, aged 33, on 30 April 1896, again from tuberculosis.
Isabella continued to live in Kilconquhar until shortly before her death. She died on 16 April 1909, aged 84, at the home of her sister Margaret Duff at St John’s Road, Costorphine (west of Edinburgh). The cause of death was recorded as syncope [cardiac arrest].
Colin Allan, her only child known to have survived her, died in Edinburgh on 11 July 1914, aged 61. The causes of death were “Papilloma of the bladder” and heart failure.
Sources
Ancestry.co.uk:
1841 Scotland Census
1851 Scotland Census
1861 Scotland Census
1871 Scotland Census
1881 Scotland Census
1891 Scotland Census
1901 Scotland Census
Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564–1950
Scotland, Select Marriages, 1561–1910
1851 Scotland census (685/2 157/3)
1851 Statutory registers: marriages (685/2) Allan – Pryde
1861 Scotland census (436/4/2)
1862 Statutory registers: births (436/48) Thomas Rutherford
1868 Statutory registers: births (436/58) Margaret Mackie Pryde
1871 Scotland census (436/3/1)
1901 Scotland census (436/1/6)
1909 Statutory registers: deaths (678/15) Isabella Allan