Robert Leslie Smith (1813-1902) & Mary Sinclair (1818-1892)

Robert Leslie Smith, described in his father's will in 1862 as a merchant in Dunoon, lived in Edinburgh for some time as an apprentice tailor. A printed page of testimonials, dated 1846, and relating to his application to be appointed an "Inspector of the Poor", refers to him having previously been living at 21 George Street, Edinburgh.

Testimonials for Robert Leslie Smith, 1846

When he left Edinburgh, he apparently spent some time in London, learning more of the details of his chosen trade. He then moved to Dunoon, where he took up the position of manager in a drapery and tailoring business run by a Mr Keith. A few years later, around 1850-1855, Mr Keith emigrated to Australia, and Robert purchased the business. One of his sons later joined him in the business, as indicated in a description written around 1890.

A description of Robert Leslie Smith's business in Dunoon

In November 1853, Robert married Mary Sinclair, pictured on the right. Mary was christened on 1 November 1818 in Kirkwall & St Ola in the Orkneys, the seventh of nine children born to Walter Sinclair and Margaret Sutherland. We discovered (when we viewed an image of the record of her death) that Robert was her second husband. She was first married to William Thom, who lived in Greenock. They married in 1838 (the banns were called in Kirkwall and Greenock), and had four daughters, all born in Greenock:

• Margaret Thom, born in 1839. Margaret died in May 1846, when she was 6 years old.
• Mary Dunlop Thom, born in 1841. Mary married James Mowat in 1866, in the parish of Dunoon & Kilmun. They had at least one son, Eric Sinclair Mowat.
• Elizabeth Thom, born in 1844. Elizabeth also got married in 1866 in the parish of Dunoon & Kilmun, to Alexander Paterson.
• Wilhelmina Thom, born in 1845. Wilhelmina died in August 1846, just a few months after her eldest sister, and when she was just 11 months old.

William Thom died in September 1845, and two of the daughters, Margaret and Wilhelmina, died just months later in 1846. One after another, they were all buried in the same plot at Duncan Street Burial Grounds in Greenock. It must have been a harrowing experience for Mary, to lose her husband and two of her daughters in the space of just one year.

We know that other members of Robert Leslie Smith's family had moved to Greenock (e.g. his sister, Marion Smith, and her son John Ogilvie Anderson and his family), and it may be that it was through them that Robert met Mary. Interestingly, 6 years after Mary married Robert, one of Mary's sisters, Esther, married a Robert Mitchell, who may have been living in Dunoon at the time (in the 1881 census he is shown as living in Dunoon and by then was the Postmaster). Perhaps Esther met her husband as a result of visiting her sister in Dunoon?

When Robert married Mary in Glasgow in 1853, he not only took her as his wife, he clearly also took on responsibility for her two remaining children, Mary and Elizabeth, who were then 12 and 9 years old. Robert and Mary also subsequently took in and raised at least two of her nephews and neices when her widower brother, Sutherland Sinclair, died in Greenock in 1874.

Robert and Mary had three children of their own, all born in Dunoon & Kilmun:

• James Robert Leslie Smith was born on 28 March 1855. He went on to join his father in the drapery and tailoring business, and married Martha Hannah Potts on 27 June 1890. Some time between 1908 and 1914 they moved to Glasgow. He died circa 1931.

• Agnes Leslie Smith was born on 19 August 1856. She married William Christie, son of Thomas Christie, a surgeon, and Margaret Hetherington. They lived in a house called "Hetherington" in Auchamore Road, Dunoon (possibly moving, between 1901 and 1919, to a previously unoccupied house next door called "Parklea"). In 1908, William Christie is listed in a Directory of Dunoon as being:

  • Superintendent of Dunoon & Kilmun Cemetery
  • Treasurer of Dunoon & Kilmun School Board
  • Clerk to the Income Tax Commissioners for Cowal
  • Inspector and Clerk (listed second after Chairman) in the Parish Council and Rate Office

  On various other records he is also listed as "Inspector of the Poor". Clearly an influential local dignitary!

  Agnes and William had at least three children, all born in Dunoon:

  • Thomas Christie, born in 1888.
  • Robert Christie, born in 1892.
  • William Christie, born in 1895.

  Agnes died at Parklea on 1 November 1919.

• Walter Sinclair Smith was born on 15 July 1858. He never married, and lived in his parents' house at least until 1901 (and possibly until 1908). He was a commercial traveller, specialising at some point in confectionery. At some point between 1901 (or possibly 1908) and 1914, he emigrated to Australia. We have a letter from Walter Smith to his brother James in February 1915 from Tallong, New South Wales (described, in his letter, as being on the edge of the Shoalhaven River Valley), and he is recorded as having died in 1926 in the District Hospital at Gunnedah, New South Wales, where he was working as an overseer (though we don't yet know what he was overseeing!).

In addition to running a successful business, Robert was very active in local politics. He was the third Provost of Dunoon (a position similar to that of Mayor), and also served as a Magistrate and Justice of the Peace. The photograph on the right shows him in 1872. His political interests and activities were not confined to local issues, as illustrated by several letters - replies, from two members of parliament, to letters sent to them by Robert.

Transcripts of letters to Robert Leslie Smith, 1874 to 1880

The 1891 census shows Robert's household in Hafton Place (the location of the drapery business, on Argyll Street in Dunoon) as follows:

We now know that Margaret and Russell Sinclair, shown above, were two of the children of Sutherland Sinclair, one of Mary's brothers. Sutherland was an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church, and lived in Greenock. He died when his youngest children were still quite young, and it appears that Mary and her husband, Robert, took them in and raised them (Sutherland was a widower when he died).

Mary died at Petersburg (the name of their house) in Dunoon on the 19th of February, 1892.

The note shown on the right reads:

Died

At Petersburg, Dunoon, on the 19th
Inst., Mary C. Sinclair, Wife of
Robert L. Smith, Merchant.

Petersburg,
Dunoon, 20th February, 1892.

The reference to Mary "C" Sinclair is mildly puzzling, since it appears that Mary was actually born "Mary Bruce Sinclair". We haven't worked out yet where the "C" might have come from.

Robert died 10 years later in 1902, within days of his brother John Johnstone Smith, and of one of his sisters, Agnes Leslie Smith, as related in the following newspaper extract:

Pulpit reference for Robert Leslie Smith.

Obituary for Robert Leslie Smith, Dunoon Herald & Cowal Advertiser, 18 April 1902.

Next: James Robert Leslie Smith & Martha Hannah Potts

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© 1998-2005 Donna Smillie <dms@zetnet.co.uk>