| Notes |
- We know what William did for a living from several sources. On the 1841 Census, William and his family were living in the gardener’s cottage at New Saughton House, near Cramond, Edinburgh, about half a mile to the south-west of Cramond Bridge. On the 1851 Census, William was in Kirkliston, Midlothian, aged 64. He, his wife Jane (61), and the youngest of their children, Alexandrina (recorded as Alexania), aged 20, were living at Cliftonhall Lodge and William was working as the land steward on the Cliftonhall House estate. On Alexandrina’s marriage record (1855) William gave his occupation as gardener. Eleven years later in 1866, his son Robert’s death certificate records him as a ‘master gardener’.
New Saughton House was a large mansion owned by Lady Aberdour at that time. It formed part of the local estate landscape which included historic buildings and a designed parkland area close to the river Almond on the Firth of Forth and near the village of Cramond. The shell of the house and the outline of the gardens are still there. Today, it goes by the name of the Cammo Estate. The name was changed from Cammo to New Saughton in 1741 when James Watson, the 8th of Saughton, bought it. It retained the name New Saughton during the Watson family’s ownership. The name was changed back from New Saughton to Cammo in 1873, after the Morton family sold the estate to Alexander Campbell. The Cammo Estate has a website here. It includes the following paragraph about the gardens in which William worked:
‘The Park as we know it today began to take shape in 1710, when the land was bought by John Clerk, one of the most advanced theorists on landscape gardening of the time. Clerk added pathways, field boundaries and formal gardens behind Cammo House (now the distinctive ruin at the centre of the park). From the mid-1700s to the late 1800s, while the land was owned by the Watson family, the estate was completely re-modelled in line with the developing fashion of more rural landscapes. Areas of open parkland were added, a yew grove was planted and shrubberies were established. During this period, the water tower was also built (1823) and the pinetum was planted (1857 – 1875).’
And then this: ‘In the early 1900s, under the ownership of Mrs Margaret Louisa Maitland-Tennent, the estate was neglected, and both Cammo House and the land fell into disrepair.’ See Alexina’s notes for more information about the Maitland name.
William may not be the only one of his family to have been given the name Thorburn as his middle name. There is a record of the death of a John Thorburn Notman aged 83 in Leith in 1861, but we have no information about him.
As for William’s place of birth, ‘Scotston’ (also recorded as ‘Scotstoun’ or ‘Scorstoun’) is located within the parish of Newlands, Peeblesshire, Scotland, 23 miles south of Edinburgh. Newlands parish itself lies in the north of historic Peeblesshire, bordered by West Linton, Kirkurd, Stobo, Lyne, and Eddleston, and encompasses small settlements including Scotston, Scotston Bank, and Scotston Rigg.
William was almost certainly baptised in the Newlands Old Parish Church, which was the Church of Scotland parish church serving the local community along the banks of the Lyne Water. The original church, sometimes referred to as Saxon and Gothic in style, stood until a new church was opened in 1838, but for 1786 and earlier, the baptism would have taken place in the older building. Its ruins remain next to the present church today.
William died from ‘paralysis and long time exhaustion’ at 60 Tobago Street, Calton, Glasgow at 10 am on 11 Dec 1863. His death was registered by Andrew Horsburgh, his son-in-law, with whom he was living at the time, on 14 Dec 1863. Tobago Street in Glasgow is located in the east end of the city, specifically in the Calton district. Its history is intertwined with Glasgow’s rapid growth during the 18th and 19th centuries, reflecting both local industrial development and the city’s connections to the transatlantic slave and tobacco trades. It takes its name from the Caribbean island of Tobago, reflecting Glasgow’s strong mercantile links to West Indian plantations and the slave economy during the 18th century. The naming pattern is similar to other nearby streets such as Jamaica Street and Virginia Street. It was a typical tenement-lined thoroughfare, home to working-class families tied to local industries such as weaving, engineering, and brewing.
William should not be confused with William Notman the photographer, active in the Edinburgh area at about the same time. There was also an architect by that name who doesn’t appear to be related.
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1786 - 1863 (77 years)
Census
