Shearer  in Thurso research  

Shearer Research from 1998 to 2007

William Alexander Campbell Shearer   born  14th  July 1832    Professor of Philosophy & Mathamatics– The Saint Andrew’s Society of Bradford The first Chairman of the Society was Professor William Campbell Shearer. He was a scholarly gentleman who took up the position of the Chair of Classical Studies at Airedale College Bradford in 1863. During his career, he also taught philosophy and maths. In 1890, he was elected President of the Society.
Census 1881 Wilbury Drive  Manningham, York, England (west Riding)  He married Jane Martin in Islington in London in 1862- she died age 36 in 1866 at the birth of their 2nd child.

William Alexander Campbell. SHEARER Widowed 48 B 1832 in Thurso Scotland Professor of Philosophy and Mathmatics
William Alex SHEARER Son  17 Born 1863 in Soham, Cambridge, Scholar
Donald Francis. SHEARER Son 16   Born 1866 Bradford, York, Scholar
Ann BROWN Housekeeper W Female 52 Rochdale, Lancashire,  

There was a death in Bradford recorded for a Jane Shearer death at the time son Donlad  was born.1866 &  they were living in Bradford.

1871 Census:   

Bradford  : Yorkshire England  Drewter St 

  RG10/4467 Registration district Bradford  Sub-registration district: Bradford West End  ED,   27  Folio: 109  Page: 46 Household schedule number: 248 

Head of Household on day of census

H Annie Shearer 20 born Scotland; living Bradford, Yorkshire occupation housekeeper.(was she a relative?)

Donald F Shearer 6  born  Yorkshire, England Son  living Bradford  Yorkshire   

Wm A Shearer 7  born Cambridgeshire, England Son  living Bradford 

Emma Crowther 18  born Yorkshire England Servant living  Bradford  Yorkshire   

1881 Census

9 Wilbury Drive  Manningham, York, England (west Riding) 

Family History Library Film  1342068  PRO Ref RG11  Piece / Folio  4463 / 158

William Alexander Campbell. SHEARER 

Head  W  Male  48 Scotland Professor Of  'Phisology'   B 1832 ( Professor of Classics)

William Alexander  SHEARER Son U  Male  17  Soham, Cambridge,  Scholar Born about 1863 became a clergyman

Donald Francis. SHEARER Son  U  Male 16 Bradford, York,  Scholar   Born 13 Aug 1864 became a surgeon FRCS
1893 married Jane Grandage  from a family wealthy Yorkshire merchants .in Bradford .

Ann BROWN  Housekeeper  W  Female  52  Rochdale, Lancashire,   (Domestic Serv)

Wilbury Drive Manningham Bradford – and on the opposite side of the road was Bradford Children's Hospital Saint Mary's Road Bradford-  opened 1883 Closed 1988-

1891 Donald Francis Shearer 26 b Bradford, Surgeon, St Thomas Hospital  Lambeth, London. RG12/392 Folio 155 Page 2

1901 census.

Donald F Shearer FRCS  living at 23 Charlton Road St Vincent Putney. as a Border, occupation surgeon.
Also in the house Sarah White age 60  governess from Colyton Devon.
Alice J Shearer age 5. born Norward in Surrey    became Alix J Shearer Armstrong , one of the founders of the ST Ives School of Artists. Freind of Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson.

Susanna Gould Widow of 60 Boarding house proprietress

Catherine Mcfee 35 servant housemaid

Sarah Ann servant housemaid

1901 Census

Anne M C Shearer his wife was residing at  Sefton Hall  Sefton on Merseyside ( out in the country for her health possibly?) ? with daughters Anne and Helen and a trained nurse.

Also in the house was a James Parsons, his wife and children,occupation recorded as boarding house keeper) 

Donald Francis Shearer Died 1923 at Morden College Blackheath leaving an estate of  £ 273.7s 9d

Morden College is a  charity founded to support ' merchants' who had lost their income by misfortune or accident

Catherine Campbell Shearer

father William Shearer;  mother Barbara Rose Campbell   born 16 Dec 1839  Chr. 17 Jan 1840 Thurso Caithness

Married West Derby  the autum of 1868 in a civil cermony in West Derby Liverpool  died March 1883 age 44
to Joseph Wilson born about 1842 Ardwick  Lancs  Miller and Corn Merchant.  died age 50 in 1895 having remarried

4 children. 

1881 census Household: PRO

10 Pelham Grove, Census Place Toxteth Park, Lancashire, England  

Joseph. WILSON Head  39 Ardwick, Lancashire, England Miller & Corn Merchant 

Cathe.Campbell. WILSON Wife   39 Thurso, Caithness, Scotland. nee Shearer birn Thurso Actually born 16 Dec 1839 so she was 42 .

Frank Camp bell. WILSON Son  12 Stockport, Lancashire, England Scholar b 1869 Lord Mayor of Liverpool 1922-23

Barbara Josephine. WILSON Daur  11 Stockport, Lancashire, England b 1868

Margaret Florence. W  Daur   9 L'Pool, Lancashire, England b1872 died about 1968-9 will proved 1970

Amy Barbara. WILSON Daur  5 L'Pool, Lancashire, England b 1876

With servants

Margaret Campbell Shearer, daughter of William Shearer and Barbara Campbell,

born about 1842 in Janet Street, Thurso.

She married Donald Sutherland, born 24 Jan 1839 Chr 4 Feb 1839 veterinary surgeon, of Thurso, Caithness on 17 January 1875.

SUTHERLAND connection

I found a tree for Donald Sutherland (the Vet). His marriage certificate shows that his parents were William Sutherland and Elizabeth Mackay. There is an existing tree for them in Roots.com under Charleston, connecting the family to Thunder Bay Ontario)

IGI has Donald Sutherland and Margaret Campbell Shearer married 17th January 1875.

Husband�s age recorded as 31, wife 26.

Their children were:

Donald Shearer Sutherland, b 17 Dec 1875, their eldest child. D 1934. Having started out to study Law, circumstances forced him to abandon his studies. He left Thurso at the age of 17 and went to Edinburgh where in 1898 he married Elizabeth Mary Robertson a dressmaker. We have not established when she died but Donald moved to London where he spent some years in the army (King�s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery), serving both in the Boer War and the First World War. He married Isabel Gray Baillie in London in 1904, and they had nine children. (See below for further details.)

Barbara Sutherland b about 1878, D 1960. Married George Waters. Her daughter, Margaret Winnifred, married Pipe Major MacEachern and had a son, Iain, and two daughters, Barbara and Catherine.

Elizabeth Jane Sutherland b about 1880, D 1958. Elizabeth (a midwife) was married to David Gardner (a Customs and Excise Officer?). She was widowed in 1909 and went to Canada with her brother William, leaving her two sons with  the their Sutherland grandparents. She married a second time, to a Mr Sinclair. Apart from occasional visits, Elizabeth never returned to Scotland to live. 

From the two marriages, Elizabeth had four children, three with her first husband, David Gardner �

David Gardner 1899-1900, William Gardner1903-1968, John Stanley Gardner 1905-1923, and a daughter named Fairlie from the marriage to her second husband, Mr Sinclair � who may also have been a Customs and Excise Officer.

James Renwick Sutherland b about 1884, died in infancy.

Margaret Campbell Shearer Sutherland b about 1885, D 1960 aged 75, unmarried. Lived all her life in the same house in Janet Street Thurso.

William Honeyman Henderson Sutherland born about 1887. D 1941, aged 54. He went to Montreal, Canada, as a young man, with his sister Elizabeth, who we believe  became Managing Director of Debenhams, Montreal. He returned to Thurso by 1925. He never married. He is buried in the family grave in Thurso. On the gravestone, he is recorded as William Honeyman Henderson Sutherland of Montreal.

Janet Winnifred Sutherland b ?, D 30 November 1966, aged 72. She married William MacKay. Their children are Margaret Campbell Shearer MacKay, who married Alfred Cameron; Sheila, who married Keith Sutherland (no relation) and went to live in Australia in the early 1960s; George, who lives in Scotland with his wife Clare and their family; Iain (nicknamed Pad), who lives in Scotland with his wife Isabel and their family, and Donald, who lived in the north of England with his wife and family until his death in 1995.

Catherine Wilson Sutherland b ?, D 1975. She married David Stanley Brotchie. Sons William, David, Donald and Stanley.

The following is information supplied by cousin Margaret Winnifred Gilbey, about  her immediate Shearer Sutherland family:

Donald Shearer Sutherland (son of Donald Sutherland, veterinary surgeon, and Margaret Campbell Shearer), born at 7 Janet Street, Thurso, 17 December 1875. Married in London in 1904 to Isabel Gray Baillie.

Their children were:

(1)William Sutherland born 9.11.1904, Kensal Rise, London, D 1966

(2) Margaret Isabel Sarah Sutherland born 17.10.1906, Bromley, Kent, D 1986 (Margaret Gilbey�s mother)

Twins, born 12.5.1910, in London: 

(3) Isabel Winnifred Sutherland (D 1996) and (4) George who died in infancy of pneumonia  

(5) Catherine Wilson Sutherland, born 27.4.1912, in London, died aged two years of whooping cough

Triplets, born mid-June 1914, in London: 

(6) Albert Baillie Sutherland (D 1991), 

(7) Donald Sutherland (D 1977) and

(8) Winnifred Sarah Sutherland (D 1984)

(9) Stanley Henry Sutherland, born 8.11.1916, in London. D 2001.

Sutherland Tree

The marriage found in IGI, listed under Sutherland and Campbell but shows Margaret Campbell Shearer age 26 and Donald Sutherland age 32, married 17 Jan 1875. 

Their first son was Donald Shearer Sutherland born within the first year of their marriage on 17th Dec 1875.

The marriage of Donald and Margaret in Church of Scotland; certificate witnessed by both male parents. William Shearer Leather merchant; mother Barbara Campbell Shearer; Donald�s father William Sutherland, blacksmith and his mother (entry illegible) ?Fiona ? Elizabeth Mackay 

And also witnessed by Professor William Campbell Shearer M.A. of Bradford, Margaret�s brother. Her other brother Dr George may not have returned to England by this time.

Donald Sutherlands parents were William Sutherland and Elizabeth Mackay married 17 Dec 1835 in Thurso. IGI

                  Children of this couple found IGI

                   Isabella Sutherland Ch 23 Oct 1836. Married age 21 on 28 Jan 1858 Thurso Jto ohn Henry age 28. 

                   They had 8 children between 1858 (1st born being John born 2nd Sept 1858) and 1873 in Glengolly, just outside Thurso.                               Their 3rd son 5th child is recorded as James Renurck Sutherland Henry. 

                        Renurck mabe wrongly transcribed and should read Renwick, a family name..?)

                Donald Sutherland born 24 Jan 1839 Chr 4 Feb 1839 who married Margaret Campbell Shearer Dec 1875

Census 1881 Janet Street, Thurso.   

  SHEARER William  widowed  73  head   Leather Merchant

SHEARER James  unmarried 34  son   Draper 

  MILLER Mary Ann  unmarried  35   servant

Census 1891

James Shearer Draper age 46 living in Janet Street with wife 

Margaret S Shearer age 38 and daughter

Stephanie Shearer age 1

the most northerly county in mainland Britain, covers an area of about 700 square miles stretching from Dunnet Head in the north to the Ord of Caithness in the South.

Today( 2005)  it thas a population of around 27,500 and its only land boundary is to the south and west, with the county of Sutherland.  Both are part of the Highland Region, administered from Inverness.

Famous for the great natural beauty of its rugged coast line and its large tracts of open peat lands Caithness is commonly know as the Flow Country. 

For many centuries it  was the land of Norsemen and Vikings

The two main towns in Caithness are Wick, with a population of around 7000, once famous as the "herring capital of the world"

Thurso, with its population of  around 8000, has  close ties with  the U K Atomic Energy site at Dounreay

The Banns 795 William of Forsse  & Janet Milne  & the marriage                                                                 1831 Marriage of William Shearer & Barbara Campell

 The Wilsons

Catherine Campbell Shearer daughter of William Shearer, leather merchant and shoemaker of Thirso & his wife Barabara Campbell married Grain Merchant Joseph Wilsonborn Ardwick in Lancs in 1837 
They lead a very affluent life in the Wirrel. Their house in Bistone no longer exists but is reported to have been large and opulent

Census 1881 Household:   10, Pelham Grove, Toxteth Park, Lancashire,  

Joseph. WILSON   Head   age  39  born 1841 Ardwick, Lancashire, England Miller & Corn Merchant

Cathe.Campbell WILSON     Wife  nee Shearer born 16 Dec 1839 age 39 Thurso, Caithness, Scotland. Actually  she was 42 . 

1. Frank Campbell  WILSON Son 12  b 1869 .Stockport, Lancashire, England Scholar - Lord Mayor of Liverpool 1922-23

2. Barbara Josephine . WILSON Dau b 1868   died 1948 age 77 at Strand Hotel Londonderry UnM  probate to Arthur Harold Shone Corn miller  £ 225,222/10/5d

3. Margaret Florence WILSON Dau   B  1872 died  UnM  age almost 100 - 8 Feb 1962 General Hospital Birkenhead,leaving  £276,288 19.s 8d to Dorice Shone 

4. Amy Barbara. WILSON Dau b 1876 

With servants

She died age 44 in 1883  He died age 50 in 1895

The Wilsons lived in a big country house called Stokesay Hall at Birkenhead near Thermopylae Pass, demolished some time in the late sixties/seventies.

All that was left was a sign just at the side of the road, with the word Stokesay on it.

An auction was held at Stokesay of the family's possessions in the late sixties/early seventies, after the death Margaret Florence Wilson. She had frail and put the family affairs into the hands of someone else who controlled everything.

A scandal surrounded the Will of the last surviving Wilson Margaret Florence Wilson who died in 1962. Her will had been changed and the interest from the £270,000 she left went to Dorice Shone sister of Selwyn Lloyd and several other Shone family members. Margaret’s family received a few pounds each from the winding up of the trust fund. One of the Sutherland members, Winifred Sutherland a formidable lady according to Margaret who is her niece, took Mrs Shone to court and lost. Her parting shot was 'Yours morally, Mine legally'

The trust fund was wound up and £1,007 was shared between Margaret's family including about £10 each to the Shearers

There was a properly printed catalogue of the items that were being auctioned, and a drawing of the house on the front. Listed in the catalogue,were 27 fur coats, several large luxury cars and a great many pieces of expensive jewellery. A copy of this catalogue is with Margeret Gilbey, a Sutherland member of the family
From that lady's memory  regarding the funeral of Marageret florence Wilson there were two lines of servants lining the entrance hall as the coffin was taken from the house.

 Catherine Campbell Wilson died at toweleigh, Livingston Drive North, Toxteth Park, evidently the town house of the Wilson family 

Census 1891

A SECOND MARRIAGE.

1891 census transcription details for: Stoweleigh, Livingston Drive North, Toxteth Park, Liverpool National Archive Reference: RG number: RG12 Piece: 2940 Folio: 47 Page: 27

Stoweleigh, Livingston Drive North, Toxteth Park, Liverpool County: Lancashire

WILSON, Joseph Head Married   49 1842 Miller & Corn Merchant Ardwick Lancashire

WILSON, Anna W Wife Married   36 1855 Haughton Vale Lancashire Nr Manchester

WILSON, Frank C Son Single   22 1869 Assistant Merchant Stockport Cheshire

WILSON, Margaret Florence Dau Single   19 1872 Liverpool Lancashire

WILSON, Josephine Dau  9 1882 child of 2nd wife Liverpool Lancashire

HILDITCH, Amelia   Single 26 1865 Domestic  servant  Haslington Cheshire

KING, Sarah W Single 27 1864 Cook Domestic Scotland

CUSHION, Anne  Single 26 1865 Housemaid Domestic Hingham Norfolk

 DEATH Mar 1895 Wilson Joseph age 50 Liverpool 8b72

Residence Stokesay Hall Bidston Wirral.  AJP contacted someone in the vicinity and recieved this information. Bidstone Here

The house was sold to developers after the last of the Wilsons died in 1962 and a grand aution of its content held. Catalogue found.

The house no longer stands. "It had 12 chimneys" and had its own road leading to the door, now Stokesay Road. Apparently there may be images of the house held in what was the Birkenhead Town Hall, Hamilton Square, now a museum. Someone who lives in the Road called their home Stokesay after the main house. They said that the family was "huge" in the area.

Frank Campbell Wilson

Household:1881 census

Joseph. WILSON Head M Male 39 Ardwick, Lancashire, England Miller & Corn Merchant

Cathe.C. WILSON Wife M Female 39 Thurso, Caithness, Scotland

Dwelling 10 Pelham Grove Census PlaceToxteth Park, Lancashire, England

Frank C. WILSON Son Male 12 Stockport, Lancashire, England Scholar

Barbara J. WILSON Daur Female 11 Stockport, Lancashire, England

Margaret F. WILSON > Daur Female 9 L'Pool, Lancashire, England

Amy B. WILSON > Daur Female 5 L'Pool, Lancashire, England

Emily TWIST Serv U Female 21 B'Ham, Warwick, England Domestic Serv

Anne GRIFFITHS Serv U Female 16 L'Pool, Lancashire, England Nurse Domestic Serv

Source Information:

Public Records Office Reference RG11Piece / Folio 3652 / 18Page Number 30

Frank Campbell Wilson became Lord Mayor of Liverpool in 1922-23

There was a large and handsome portrait of Frank Wilson hanging in the Town Hall in Liverpool.