AL(H)W's paternal grandparents, William Hutcheon and Catherine Heckton, had four children including Alexander Hutcheon who became AL(H)W's father. In this biography, I have relied heavily on letters from Amy Louisa (Hutcheon) Wighton and her niece Margaret Herrald. Also, Margaret Serzans provided a wealth of research including a valuable document - William Hutcheon's will.

William Hutcheon, AL(H)W's grandfather was born about 1802 in Montrose. He was a ship builder in the days of the sailing ships before steam came in use. I think it is quite possible that all his family were engaged in the ship building industry. Some years ago, I went to Montrose with my sister and brother-in-law. We saw the ship yard, which is still working, the family house (on High Street), and the family grave in the church yard. (Source: Amy C. Hutcheon, William's granddaughter who was living in Douglas, the Isle of Man at the time she wrote to Margaret Serzans in 1969.)

At the age of 59, William died on June 2, 1861 in Montrose leaving behind a thick legal document from which we can glean some interesting data.

• His total personal estate was worth 2,734 pounds which was a lot of money at that time.
• The largest part of his estate (over 1,200 pounds) was held through a 10/45 share in the Montrose Commercial Company.
• He also held over 1,000 pounds with the British Linen Company which was a Scottish bank, notwithstanding its name. (The company began in 1746 and due to suspicion of all things Scottish after the Jacobite rebellion, there was no mention of Scotland when the originators petitioned for a bank charter.)
• William held 8 parts of 64 parts of the ownership of the schooner Thornaby worth about 260 pounds. The ship was registered to Alexander Watt.

Using the Montrose Commercial Company as a starting point, I found a digital copy of Christie's Shipping Register for the Port of Montrose in 1858. The Montrose Commercial Company owned four sailing vessels registered in the Port of Montrose - Earn, Eliza, Glenskenno and Inverness. William Hutcheon, himself, owned the sailing vessels Hope and Robin Hood. There is no reference to these ships in his will, so I assume that he sold them sometime between 1858 and 1861. There is a mention in his will of how he had resolved to settle my worldly affairs in my life time so as to prevent all disputes that could arise after my death. It's possible that his investment in the British Linen Company came from the proceeds of the sale of those two ships.

Also from Christie's port register, I discovered that the Amy Louisa was not owned by the Hutcheon family in 1858. (We had believed that William Hutcheon had passed the ship on to his son Alexander.) It's possible that the Hutcheon's owned it after it was built, but according to the Christie's register, in 1858, the Amy Louisa was owned by a David Walker, who also owned the sailing ships Charlotte and Finella. However, the Master of the Amy Louisa was a Hutcheon and we might safely assume that this was Alexander Hutcheon, AL(H)W's father.

Catherine Heckton, AL(H)W's grandmother, was born in 1797 in Montrose - making her five years senior to her husband. We have no anecdotal information on Catherine. However, she is mentioned in her husband's will that was first written in 1857. At that time, she was still alive. To his wife, William bequeathed the whole household furniture, bed and table linens, and other household furnishings belonging to me at the time of my death for her own use and enjoyment during hew own lifetime. In case any part thereof shall become worn out, or deteriorated during such use, she shall not be accountable and upon her death, the said furniture and other household effects shall fall into the residue of my Estate. (The inventory gave the value of the furniture at 50 pounds.)

There was an additional bequest, as follows: In case Mrs. Catherine Heckton or Hutcheon, my spouse shall survive me, I direct my said trustees to pay to her the free yearly interest of income arising from my whole Estate and Effects. In effect, the trustees were to maintain the capital from the estate in the form of a Trust until such time as both he and his wife had died. Only at that point, was the estate to be distributed to his children, or as necessary, to his children's children.

William Hutcheon married Catherine Heckton on February 7, 1819 in Montrose and the couple lived there all their lives. As far as we know, the couple had four children, although AL(H)W intimated in her correspondence that there may have been more children but these four were the only ones who married and had children. For three of the four, we have no birthdates and I have had to give an estimation. It's possible that the order of the children shown below is inaccurate. We can assume that all the children were born in Montrose.

1. Daughter: Mary Ann. Estimated birth date 1820.
2. Son: Alexander, estimated birth date 1826.
3. Son: George. Estimated birth date 1830.
4. Daughter: Margaret. We have her official birth date - January 1, 1835.

The Cunard Line's Mauretania, the fastest ship in the world in the early 1900s

Let's take a close look now at William Hutcheon and Catherine Heckton's four children:

Mary Ann Hutcheon, possibly William and Catherine's first child, married Captain Alexander Watt on February 9th, 1840 in Montrose. (I used a prediction of marriage at the age of 20, to suggest that she might have been born in 1820.) According to the Christie's document, Alexander Watt owned two ships - the Commodore and the Thornaby - in 1858. (As noted above, William owned 8/64 of the Thornaby but it was owned by an Alexander Watt. It's now clear from Mary Ann's marriage information that the owner was William Hutcheon's son-in-law.) Like others in the Hutcheon line, Captain Watt traded in the Baltic. Mary Ann had six sons, the last born in 1851. At some point soon after this birth, Mary Ann must have died because her father's will, written in 1857, reports her as deceased. She likely would have been in her late 30s when she died. William Hutcheon left a one-quarter share of his estate to Mary Ann's children.

Margaret Herrald's letter gives us a little insight into the lives of Mary Ann's children and I have amplified from the Internet where possible.

1. William Hutcheon Watt, born March 8, 1841, married a Somerville woman and had two daughters, Margaret and Gladys. In their adult lives, the two daughters lived across from Dundee at Newport, Fife. William became a Cunard Captain, but died in the middle of his career.
2. James Birnie Watt, born February 12, 1843, had 2 sons and 2 daughters. He entered into the Cunard service at the age of 14 and when he retired he was Commodore of the Fleet. At the height of his career, Cunard gave him command of each new ship that they built. For example, Commodore Watt was in charge of the maiden voyages of both the Lusitania (1906) and the Mauretania (1907). The Lusitania would later be sunk by a German torpedo in WWI. The Mauretania was the fastest vessel of its day, smashing all the previous speed records in the shipping industry and maintaining the "fastest ship" record until 1929. James Watt retired from the Cunard service in 1908.
3. Alexander Watt was born on March 6, 1845. Margaret Herrald didn't know of his existence and so I have no information for you on his life.
4. Robert Watt, born October 18, 1847 must also remain a mystery.
5. George Watt, born November 10, 1849, was also intimately involved in shipping but from a different position - that of a lawyer. He become one of the foremost lawyers in shipping law in Scotland, and near the end of his career, gained the position of Sheriff-Deputy for Forfarshire. George had 3 sons and 1 daughter. One son, Alexander, was a lieutenant in the Black Watch and was killed in France in WWI. A second son became a Cunard Captain and worked out of the New York office for a time. He died in the Cunard Offices in Buenos Aires after a short illness. A third son, Norman, studied agricultural training at university and was said to have emigrated to Canada.
6. John Watt was born September 26, 1851. Margaret Herrald had no information on this son.

Alexander Hutcheon was William and Catherine's second (?) child. You'll learn more about him in the biography on AL(H)W's parents.

George Hutcheon is a bit of a mystery to us. Margaret Herrald didn't mention him at all. AL(H)W knew of his existence, but could provide only the following tidbit. My father's younger brother married and had a daughter, Catherine, left an orphan early and died when just a child. I couldn't find any reference to this missing son in the birth records, but did find him in the marriage records - George Hutcheon married Jessie Reid, March 24, 1850 in Montrose. Using my "married at 20" guideline (which may or may not be reasonable), I've estimated that he was born in 1830. George's daughter, Catherine, is in the birth records - she was born on May 14, 1853 in Barony, Lanark. (This area has now become part of Glasgow.) Since the Hutcheon family appears to have stuck pretty close to home in Montrose, it's a bit of a mystery what George and Jessie were doing up there in 1853. It's also a mystery as to why the marriage records showed Jessie as Jessie Reid while their daughter's birth records showed her name as Jessie Reid Bridge. We also don't know how both George and Jessie came to die soon after Catherine's birth, but we do know from AL(H)W that Catherine was suddenly left an orphan at an early age. George's name does appear in his father's will (written in 1857), so we can assume that he was alive at that time; otherwise, William would have recognized the early death of his son in his will just like he recognized the early death of his daughter, Mary Ann.

George's treatment in his father's will raises some questions. George is the first of the four children to be mentioned even thought he was not the oldest. This may have been because the wording of his bequest was slightly different than the bequests of his siblings. It appears that he wasn't actually going to get a quarter share, but rather his quarter share was to be held in trust until he died. Then, on his death, that quarter share was to go to his daughter, Catherine. Also, there's a fairly lengthy set of clauses that stipulates how and when Catherine is to get that share when none of William's other grandchildren is even mentioned in the will by name. The will indicates that Catherine was living with her grandparents at the time the will was written. She would have been 4 years old at the time. Sadly, all of William's efforts to take care of his granddaughter were in vain - she died as a child.

Margaret Hutcheon was almost certainly the youngest of William and Catherine's children. We know that she was born January 1, 1835 and that she married at the age of 20 on December 17, 1855 in Montrose. (Hence my use of the married at 20 convention for her siblings.) Margaret's husband was Captain David Taylor - yet another marriage into the shipping industry. I have previously told you that William Hutcheon owned two ships in his own name, the Hope and the Robin Hood. Also, as you've learned, another member of the expanded Hutcheon household, Alexander Watt (Mary Ann's husband) owned the Commodore. Guess who were recorded as the Masters of these three ships in Christie's 1858 records. Yup. You're right. All three had Taylor men as their master. Looks like the Taylor and Hutcheon families had close working relationships, either before and/or after the marriage.

AL(H)W and Margaret Herrald had slightly different recollections of the members of the Taylor-Hutcheon family. With the help of the parish records, we can conclude that there were four children to this marriage: William Hutcheon Taylor (born April 8, 1858 and destined to be a Captain in the shipping industry); Helen Mackie Taylor (born May 12, 1860; married a wealthy; man, William Bennet, in London; lived in retirement in Edinburgh); James Whannel Taylor (born October 12, 1863); and, Ann Taylor (birth date unknown; a teacher in Glasgow who retired to Edinburgh).

Margaret Herrald provides us with an interesting story on what happened next to Margaret Hutcheon. Margaret married a second time after her first husband was lost with his ship at sea, and this time, it was one, Fotheringham, a business man if I remember the story. Margaret Hutcheon had got a good deal of her parents’ money and it was said in the family that her second husband married her for her money. Be that as it may, they went out to Virginia after the Civil War, and went into some kind of business, thinking to make a good deal of money, selling to impoverished Americans whom Britain aided financially to a GREAT EXTENT! While they lived there (8 years), a daughter (Margaret) was born but died about 2 years of age. They also had a son, Gordon, who was learning the sea and died at 17 of dysentery on board and was buried at sea. (AL(H)W confirmed the second marriage and the death of the two children prior to maturity but made no mention of the wealth.) Why is that so interesting, you ask? Read on.

The Hutcheon wealth: Margaret Herrald mentioned that Britain had helped the US financially after the civil war (181-1865). Later in the same letter, she wrote with some emotion about the manner in which the United States (where she was now living) had treated Great Britain. Here's an excerpt - capitalizations are Margaret's. Between the wars of WarI and WarII, when the question of the war debts to America arose, I found out a great deal about the reason why this country was termed Uncle Shylock in its dealing with Britain... The matter of war bonds was brought up two months ago by the Wall Street Journal and it was bitter about the fact that the USA OWES Britain something like 6.5 Billions, interest and compound interest and the capital -- and that money OUGHT to be paid over to Britain NOW. That is all true to FACT. No American that I have spoken to on that subject ever heard of that money. They do not write about such matter - to tell the truth about their shortcomings. The British people who "invested" at that time, LOST their money. America was the country who reneged on their bonds, never Britain. It is the same with their Boston Tea Party, a tale they tell in their school books is an absolute untruth. That was exposed a few years ago, and yet comments on it in the press show their reluctance to accept the "Right way of it" - they WISH to believe a lie if it is against Britain.

So, what's all that about, you ask? In another part of Margaret Herrald's letter, we learn: It was said that our family of those days invested a good deal of their money in the bonds which were floated in London to put this country on its feet again after the disastrous Civil War. Grandma Burns used to tell me that – that they had a good deal of money invested in America – and that the bonds were repudiated. At any rate, I think that is where some of our family money went – for it seemed to have petered out although the relatives were well-to-do people, in the days of 70 years ago and back of that period. Add this to the earlier comment that "Margaret Hutcheon had got a good deal of her parents' money," and we can put some pieces together.

William Hutcheon died in 1861 with over 2,000 pounds in his estate - a goodly sum of money. He structured the will so that no money could be distributed to the children until his wife, Catherine Heckton, had died. Until then, the capital was frozen and it was up to the trustees to invest it so as to preserve the capital. In the meantime, Catherine was to receive all of the interest. But, the distribution of the estate must have been complicated by the fact that three of William's children pre-deceased him. So, when Catherine died, Margaret was entitled to receive her 1/4 share and apparently she did. However, the other three families could not receive their money until their children reached their majority. However, that meant quite a delay, and in the interim, we can assume that the trustees invested a large part of the estate in bonds issued by the United States to rebuild the country after 1865. Apparently, at some point in time, the U.S. repudiated the bonds and the certificates became worthless.

Sources

Margaret Serzans

Letter from Margaret Herald to Harry Latta Wighton in 1953

Letters from Amy Louisa Hutcheon Wighton to John Latta Wighton and Ella Peterson around 1939

Letter from Amy C. Hutcheon, AL(H)W's niece, to Margaret Serzans, 1969.

Various web sites, including:

ScotlandsPeople Database (http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/)

The Latter-Day Saints website: http://www.familysearch.org/

Christie's Shipping Register for Montrose, as found through a Google search for "Montrose Commercial Company" - the URL is too long to be shown here.