MacDonald’s of Gowanfield
Attribution: unknown or not recorded
MacDonald's of Gowanfield
The family were living in Muir of Ord as far back as 1888 on the birth of their fourth child. They are found on the 1891 census as living at Campbell House with James being recorded as a storekeeper. Campbell House may have been a room/rooms they rented from a Mrs Campbell, aged 71, who also lived at the same address with her son and granddaughter. The 1895 Valuation Roll also has the coal merchant and store being rented by James MacDonald from the owner, Donald Campbell of Beech House, Skelmorlie, Wemyss Bay. I have yet to find this location but Donald owned two adjacent properties and his mother lived in the second. The family were still there on the 1901 census but by the 1905 Valuation Roll, Gowanfield was a named property owned and occupied by James MacDonald, a coal agent.
Attribution: not recorded or unknown
The couple had eight children and the property remained in James’s name until the valuation roll of 1925. Following his death in 1926 the property was now recorded as being in joint ownership of three of his daughters; Margaret Ann, Henrietta and Jessie.
James was born in 1886 and joined the Commercial Bank at Inverness in 1902. After serving in various branches, he became head of the accounts department in the bank’s London office at Lombard Street. He married Alice Margaret MacLean of the Kilmorack parish in 1926 at Lyncroft Gardens, Campden, before returning to the Church Street Branch at Inverness as manager. He retired in 1951 and remained living in Inverness. On the 17th of May 1970, Alice, aged 77, died suddenly and twenty-four hours later, James, aged 84, who had been in poor health for some time, also died.
Jessie was also born in 1886. She was known with the byname of ‘Jess the Coals’. She died at Inverness in 1963 aged 77.
Margaret Ann was born at Dingwall in 1888.n She married Hugh Alex Munro in 1930 and died in Inverness in 1976.
Henrietta was born in Muir of Ord in 1890 and was recorded as a dressmaker on the 1911 census. She died in 1968 in the village.
Duncan was born in 1893. He was recorded as a bank clerk apprentice on the 1911 census. He served during WW1 and was killed in 1917. He is remembered on the Arras Memorial. Click on the link below for more information on Duncan.
William Paterson was born in 1895 and died in 1924 aged 28.
John Alick was born in 1899. It is suspected that he became a police officer and emigrated to Australia where he died in 1955 at Melbourne.
Donald was born in 1901 and died aged 7 in 1909.
