NOTE: This is still a Works-in-Progress - I keep adding to it, as time permits (15/11/19)

Jessie Scotland Giles Hope, was born 1 July 1841 at Kailzie, Peebles-shire, Scotland.

The 1841 Census Return does not note Jessie's birth or rather her impending birth. The census was conducted on the night of 6th June 1841 and Jessie's birth was just a few week's later on 1st July. The family, at the time, was living at East Lodge, Traquair, Peeblesshire, Scotland - which is the Gamekeepers Lodge, at Kailzie House, Peeblesshire.

According to Scottish Naming Tradition, the third-born daughter was named after her mother. However, this was not the case for Jessie. My brother Keith has been doing some digging around and has discovered a possible answer as to why she was named as she was. Here is what Keith has uncovered:

• A newspaper notice - GILES: James Giles, born at Leith in 1816, was the son of a wealthy brewer of the same name, upon whose death he succeeded to a considerable fortune. About the year 1841 Mr Giles purchased the estate of Kailzie, in Peeblesshire, for the sum of £43,000. Soon after this purchase he married Jessie, the eldest daughter of John Scotland, writer to the signet, for many years factor on the Earl of Home's estates in Roxbughshire, and who pre-deceased her husband, with-out issue, in 1881. Mr Giles thereafter married Mrs Ainslie.
• Keith went even deeper in his research and has come up with the following as a possible reason why Thomas and Alice named their third daughter Jessie Scotland Giles Hope. On further examination I find, says Keith, that John Scotland (Jessie’s father) was ensconced in the Southdean region for quite some time (before 1841). Their family estate was called Glendouglas which happened to be close to where the Southdean school was; and is also in close proximity to Gillestounge (where Thomas & Alice lived at the time of their marriage)
• It is highly probable that Jessie was a close school friend of Alice & Jane Armstrong with the 3 girls (all about the same age) attending the Southdean school under the tutelage of Thomas Armstrong. They maintained that friendship after leaving school and it may have been Thomas & Alice who alerted James Giles to the possibility of Kailzie being “up for sale” as Thomas & Alice were at Kailzie before James purchased it.
• That friendship must have had some substance for Thomas & Alice to name their subsequent child: Jessie Scotland Giles Hope!

The 1851 Census Return, recorded Jessie as a "scholar", at age 9 and living with her family at 83 Castle Street (AKA Castlegate), Jedburgh.

Jessie married her cousin, Robert Smith at Hynam, South Australia, thus joining the Hope and Smith families together in that union.

Of Jessie Smith, her grandson-in-law, Lewis Barker wrote; Jessie Scotland Giles Hope was a very remarkable person. After her marriage their first property was Kadnook near Harrow, western Victoria. Then on to Eremeran in western New South Wales miles from anyone. Later her husband, Robert, joined a partnership in the ownership of Isis Downs, central Queensland. Robert was manager on the property. Jessie was present at our wedding.

Jessie died at Boggabri, New South Wales on 25 March 1926, at the home of her daughter, Jessie May Smith.

Robert, the first child of Adam Smith and Jane (Jeannie) Armstrong was born 9 December 1838 at Southdean, Roxburgh-shire, Scotland and arrived in Australia with his parents the following year. (See elsewhere for more information on Adam Smith and his family.)

He gained pastoral experience with his father on Hynam and was also interested in the Kadnook and Tallageira properties in Victoria, Eremeran, Dine Dine, Booberoi and Wirlong properties in New South Wales and in Isis Downs and Avington properties in Queensland. He also owned a farming property at Narre Warren, Gippsland, Victoria and leased Stamford Park, Scoresby, Victoria.[1]

[1] Pioneer Families of Victoria and Riverina by Alexander Henderson

Robert and Jessie Smith had 9 issue. They being (with LINKS):

• Jeannie Armstrong Smith
• Adam Gordon Smith
• Robert Thomas Smith
• Thomas Hope Smith
• William Richmond Smith
• Alice Margaret Smith
• Jessie May Smith
• Edith Euphemia Smith
• Percy Harold Smith

LINK to Home Page

LINK to Thomas Hope - father

LINK to Adam Smith, JSG Hope's father-in-law