CLOCKMAKER AND WATCHMAKER OF KETTLE, FIFESHIRE
A clockmaker and inventor, Andrew Symington was born in Falkirk in about 1803, [1] the youngest son of William Symington and Elisabeth Benson. John Smith, in his Old Scottish Clockmakers, describes him as "a man of considerable ability." [2] He married Isabella Lethangie at Newburgh on 17 November 1829 [3] and settled in Kettle, Fifeshire. He died aged 75 years at Kettle at 5 a.m. on 5 November 1878, the cause of death being chronic gastritis of six months duration. The informant named in his death certificate, his son James Symington, was then living at Kettle.
Like his father, he had a flair for invention. Between 1833 and 1837 he placed a series of submissions before the Royal Scottish Society of Arts in Edinburgh which related to various inventions: steam engines, an improved engine boiler, a ventilating warm air stove, an improved cannon and a method of saving fuel. He submitted a "drawing and description of a pendulum escapement" in 1837 but the Committee regarded the idea to be "of little importance."
In 1840, he built the Markinch Town Hall clock. With Alexander Temple, he devised an "improved clock" with a hydraulic mechanism which they registered in 1845 under the non-ornamental designs act. Such a clock was fitted up in Falkland House for O.T. Bruce, who was reportedly highly pleased with its time-keeping.
With his brother William, he obtained a patent for a paddle wheel and he also patented a plough for tilling steep slopes.
In 1851 he built a model of the Charlotte Dundas which his brother William took to Australia when he emigrated in 1855 and which is now held in the Melbourne Museum.
Like his brother William, Andrew was a staunch supporter of William Symington's reputation as an innovator of steam navigation. After reading that the American government had granted £24,000 to the heirs of Robert Fulton, as the alleged originator of steam navigation, Andrew Symington wrote to the editor of the Fife Herald on 21 May 1838, arguing that this honour in fact belonged to his father. He supported this claim with an excerpt from Dr. Bowie's Brief Narrative and an affidavit from Robert Weir confirming that in July 1801, Fulton had examined Symington's experimental steamboat at Lock 16 of the Forth and Clyde canal and had been favoured with a voyage of four miles along the canal. Weir had played a part in constructing the vessel and he fired up the boiler for Fulton's visit.
Andrew wrote that his father's claim had been lately laid before the chairman of the Select Committee for revising the Pension List. [4]
There is no record that Andrew Symington's model steamboat was displayed at the Great Exhibition of 1851.
In 1854, he placed a notice of his return from a sojourn in London in the Fife Herald. [5]
[1] 1871 Scotland Census (there is no birth record in OPR)
[2] Smith, John, Old Scottish Clockmakers from 1453-1850 1921(pages 377-378)
[3] SRO OPR Marriages 450/20 138 Newburgh Her name is recorded as “Isabel Lathanie” and his occupation as “Weaver”, he being recorded as “in this parish” and she “in the parish of Kettle”
[4] Fife Herald 31 May 1838 page 3
[5] Fife Herald 9 November 1854 page 1
ISABELLA LETHANGIE [1]
The wife of Andrew Symington.
She was born in Kettle c. 1804. [2] Her parents were James Lethangie, carter, and Isabella McDonald.
She died aged 67 at 4.30 a.m. on 28 February 1872 at Kettle. The informant was her son James Symington, then resident at St. Andrews.
[1] This is the spelling in her death certificate, the informant being her son James
[2] 1871 Scotland Census
THE CHILDREN OF ANDREW SYMINGTON AND ISABELLA LETHANGIE
ISABELLA SYMINGTON [1] 1830-1866
Born 19 July 1830; [2] baptised 16 August 1830 at Kings Kettle, Fife; her father's occupation recorded as weaver; died 8 November 1866 from cholera at 3 Lady Wynd, Leven.
Married William Smith, baker, 1 July 1859 at Kettle.
Children Isabella born 28.3.1860 at Scoonie, Fife.
Janet born 3.1.1863 at Scoonie.
David born 20.9.1865 at Scoonie.
ELIZABETH BENSON SYMINGTON (MRS. DICKIE) 1832-1905
Christened 9 October 1832 at King’s Kettle; died 22 July 1905 [3]
1871 Census: living at Kettle with her parents
Married widower Adam Dickie, a rope spinner, in 1881 at Anderston.
She was present at the unveiling of the Symington bust in the Edinburgh Museum 1890. [4]
MARY SYMINGTON 1835
Born 5 January 1835 at King’s Kettle
MARGARET SYMINGTON c.1837-1840
The death is recorded of Margt. Symington, aged three years, in Kettle on 14 July 1840. Her parents are not named, but the Family of Andrew and Isabella are the only Symingtons recorded as living in Kettle at the time of the 1841 Census. [5]
WILLIAM SYMINGTON 1839-1917
Linen Weaver, [6] Rope Works Labourer, [7] Wood grain Painter, Dairy Proprietor
Born 1839 at King’s Kettle; died 1 August 1917 at 85 Aberdeen Street, North Sydney.
Married (1) Helen Anne Adamson 13 December 1861, at King’s Kettle. Helen died from peritonitis on 9 April 1880, only eleven days after her son Robert was born. Robert was raised by her brother George Adamson.
Married (2) Isabella Thomson, spinster, flax mill worker, aged 37 years, 9 November 1881, at Abbotshall 9 December 1881. Her parents were Peter Thomson, engine fireman, and Euphemia Dunsire.
ANDREW SYMINGTON 1842
Recidivist and House Painter [8]
Born 25 January 1842 at King’s Kettle. [9]
Unmarried
BREACHES OF THE PEACE
In 1871 Andrew Symington, a painter, pleaded guilty in the Kirkcaldy Police Court to having committed a breach of the peace and was fined 10s 6d, or fourteen days imprisonment. [10]
In 1874 he was found guilty of the theft of a gill of whisky from the house in Markinch occupied by Archibald Findlay, publican, and imprisoned for eight days. [11]
In 1875 he appeared before the Police Court at Newburgh. Described as a "tramp painter" he was charged with taking payment with the promise of commencing work the next day and then decamping and also of assaulting the police officer in the cells after he was arrested. He was found guilty of fraud and imposition and sentenced to two months' jail. [12]
Again, in March 1876, he was found guilty of a breach of the peace on the public road at Kettle, and also of tearing the coat of a policeman while being taken into custody. [13]
JAMES SYMINGTON 1844-1919
Watchmaker and Artist
Christened 15 July 1844 at King’s Kettle; died at Oban in 1919.
Unmarried
His address in 1877 was 58 High Street, Kirkcaldy [14]
He settled in Oban; in 1891 he was lodging at Burnbank Terrace.[15]
In 1905 his address was George Street, Oban. (See death certificate of his sister, Mrs. Dickie).
James Symington followed in the footsteps of his father and was a watchmaker by trade. He was described as “a man of superior intelligence, excellent character and artistic tastes who, although untrained, paints landscapes and portraits in a way that shows real ability.” [16] He died aged 73 in Oban in 1919. In a brief obituary, he is described as "a man of very retiring disposition" who spent much of his leisure in reading. Two of his nephews attended the funeral: George Symington, A.I.F. who was stationed in England as an army chaplain, and Robert Symington Adamson, watchmaker of Kirkcaldy. [17]
The Inverness Courier 29 September 1903 page 3:
When in Oban we saw for a minute or two, in the shop of Mr John Macgillivray, jeweller, Mr James Symington, grandson of that William Symington whom Mr Andrew Carnegie in his St Andrew's address mentioned as a pioneer and a benefactor to Scotland the world. Few realise that Symington, as is stated on his monument at Leadhills, was the "inventor of the steamboat." His grandson has artistic tastes, and is fond of painting. His father was a watch and clock-maker at King's Kettle, Fife, where he was born. A grandson of Symington who died in distress in London deserves well of his country. There was an article on William Symington and the Centenary of the Steamboat in "Chambers's Journal" for 1902.
[1] 1851 England Census living with her uncle William Symington at 75 Sea Bridge Road “Patent Dessicating (sic) Company” St John’s Hackney
[2] SRO OPR 436/60 57 Kettle; father's name recorded as "Syminton" mother's surname as "Isabell Lethangie"
[3] Address in death certificate 17 Shaftsbury Street, Glasgow
[4] Bell, David, Notes in Symington file, Glasgow Museum of Transport
[5] 1871 Census Kettle
[6] S.R.O. O.P.R. Deaths, 435 (Kettle) 60 page 242
[7] SRO Statutory Register of Marriages 442/82
[8] 1881 Scotland Census
[9] SRO OPR 435/60 89 Kettle Surname registered as Syminton; mother's name Isabella Lathange
[10] Fifeshire Journal 11 May 1871 Page 5
[11] Fife Kalendar of Convicts
[12] Dundee Courier 16 April 1875 page 5
[13] Fifeshire Journal 16 March 1876 page 4 and St. Andrews Gazette and Fifeshire News 18 March 1876 page 3
[14] White, D., Clock and Watchmakers of Central Scotland 1537-1900, Central Scotland FHS 2002
[15] 1891 Scotland Census
[16] Cochrane, Robert, William Symington and the Beginnings of Steam Navigation, Cassier’s Magazine Volume 32, number 6, pages 525-538, October 1907
[17] St. Andrew's Citizen 14 June 1919 page 2