MACDUFF – and the WILD WEST – part 2

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Introduction

This continues from the first part of the story posted a week ago.

WILLIAM DUNCAN, 1846-1921   Part 2 of 2

William Duncan was a very enterprising man. He was on various committees and organised the first Masonic Lodges in the Chickasaw Nation.  Through his connections as a Scottish Rite Shriner, he heard that the Rock Island Railroad was to be extended and built across his land.  He immediately ordered a new store to be built nearer to the railroad site as well as new homes for himself and family members. William had always held the Native Indian people in high regard but ignored their advice not to build his new store in the location he had chosen near the new railway line.  They warned him it would be right in the cyclone path but William had already made promises to rail road officials so he went ahead.

The area was unfortunately struck by cyclones several times over the years with a particularly bad one in 1898 flattening most of the town.  The demolished buildings were rebuilt with stronger materials and life went on.  

Tornado damage at Duncan, 1898

He established ‘city’ limits when other families started to arrive. The town of Duncan was officially named on 27th June 1892 when the first train passed through. By all accounts it was a day of great celebration opening up endless possibilities for the small town, bringing goods and passengers faster than by road and was a mechanical link to the rest of the country.  The Duncan band played and there was a party and barbeque which lasted for three days.  Chief Quanah Parker, the last Comanche Chief, attended with hundreds of his ‘braves’ from their reservation near Fort Sill, making a colourful sight and a great time was had by all.  The anniversary of that day was celebrated for many years after with people coming from miles away in wagons, buggies and on horseback.

Comanche Chief Quanah Parker
1892 Duncan’s first passenger train

1892 was also a sad year for the Duncan family as William’s other two daughters, Ruth and Christina, died of typhoid fever when it swept through the country and they are buried next to their Macduff grandmother, Ann.  All three daughters were gone but William still had his three sons, William junior known as ‘Red Bill’, James known as ‘Big Jim’ and Gregg.  That same year William ordered the building of the first Baptist Church in ‘Duncan’ which also served as a meeting place.  The first school followed soon after.

In 1895, William sold his store, gave up his position as postmaster and concentrated on rearing dairy cattle.  William wanted to share his good fortune and encouraged other family members from Scotland to join him.  His sister, Isabella Duncan had a large family and two of her daughters, Agnes and Barbara Kelman and a son, Alex Kelman travelled over one by one and made their home there. 

Alex Kelman became one of the best known ‘ropers and riders’ at rodeos in the country but tragically died age 40 when he was thrown from his horse.  William’s brother James also had two  sons, William and Jim Duncan who left Scotland and settled in Duncan, Oklahoma.  Out-with his own family, he paid for several other young Scots to travel over, using their skills to help build his town.  In return, they settled there and had good lives.

William was described as being cultured, refined and a fine conversationalist, liberal to a fault and never forgetting a friend or those in distress, indulgent to his family and a moral, upstanding man.  Mrs Geneva Thurlo, wife of US Marshall Ed Thurlo of the town described William Duncan as being “one of the finest, kindest men I have ever known”.

In 1905, William and Sallie, affectionately known in the town as Uncle Bill and Aunt Sallie, decided to retire due to William’s failing health.  They moved, at first, to California to be nearer to son, Jim’s family.  Later, they moved again to Bremerton, Washington to be nearer the sea which served as a reminder of William’s homeland. Sallie died there in 1914.

1907 brought statehood to the Indian and Oklahoma Territories and Duncan was made the county seat of Stephens County.  It became the 46th state to enter the Union.  

William Duncan c1917

In 1919, William and his great niece travelled back to Duncan, Oklahoma for a visit. William did not recognise the place.  It was bustling with faces he did not recognise.  The population was growing especially since the recent discovery of oil in the region.  He suffered a short illness while there and was unable to return home for a few weeks.

William Duncan died in Bremerton in 1921. His legacy is the town, now a city, which was named after him and the many Scots people who followed him to Oklahoma.  There is no statue or memorial for him.  There is one for Earle P. Haliburton who founded the oil company based there.

Daily Oklahoma article remembering the founder of the town of Duncan

Note from the author Sonia Packer:

My information has been gathered over many months from descendants of the Duncan family including direct descendants of William Duncan who hold stories and photographs; from archives and news stories; from the Stephens County Historical Museum in Duncan, who have a portrait and personal possessions that belonged to William and from the Oklahoma History site.  The Chisholm Trail Heritage Centre is also in Duncan, Oklahoma.

I descend from William’s sister, Annie Duncan who married a farmer and lived in Alvah, Banffshire all her life.  William was my 2 x great uncle.  William’s mother, Ann Kinnaird was my maternal 3 x great  grandmother.  Her sister, Helen Kinnaird, who married James Watt, a fisherman from Crovie, Gardenstown was my paternal 2 x great grandmother.  Helen’s 2x great grandsons are the founders of Macduff Shipyards.

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MACDUFF – and the WILD WEST

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Introduction

Everyone has read stories, or seen films, about the Wild West – the American Frontier – as people started moving westwards, populating and developing the land.  The “hey day” of this was from the end of the American Civil War in 1865 for about quarter of a century – and right in the middle of that was a Macduff loon…..

We are very grateful to Sonia Packer – born in Banff – for this Story.   She is the great great niece of William Duncan, the subject of this absolutely fascinating bit of history.

WILLIAM DUNCAN, 1846-1921   Part 1 of 2

William Duncan was the eldest of ten children born to James Duncan, a dock labourer and cooper who lived in Gellymill Street, Macduff with his wife, Ann Kinnaird who came from a farm in Gamrie.

Black and white image showing a large sailing ship, various wooden fishing boats and Macduff church in the background.
Macduff Harbour circa 1870

William initially worked in Macduff as a tailor.  In 1863 he joined the Royal Navy.  Not much is known about his experiences in the Navy but it is thought that it triggered his desire to explore the world.  In 1866, age 20, William travelled from Glasgow to New York on the SS Caledonia and his new life far away from Scotland began.

At first he worked in any job he could find, gradually moving westward until he landed in Sebastian County, Arkansas.  It is believed he used his tailoring skills to make military uniforms at Fort Smith.  The whole area was under reconstruction following the end of the Civil War.  Soon after, he moved to Stonewall, in the wilds of the Indian Territory, working as a clerk at a trading store and in 1868 he married Martha Patsy Hall.  They went on to have three daughters and three sons. Their eldest child, a daughter, died as a baby.  Martha died in 1878 following the birth of their sixth child.  The following year he married his second wife; Sarah Jane Thornhill, known as Sallie, the widow of a Chickasaw Indian.  She was a white girl but had been accepted by the Chickasaw Indians and spoke their language. The family moved to Fort Sill (formerly Camp Wichita) where William again used his tailoring skills.  In 1882 William bought a general store at Cow Creek, close to the Chisholm Trail.  

Black and white photo of men on horseback and lots of cattle
Chisholm Trail cowboys on the Prairie

The trail, named after its developer, Jesse Chisholm, was used to drive longhorn cattle between Texas and the railroad markets at Kansas, so William’s store was ideally positioned to supply trade to  the cattle herders/cowboys, ranchers and American Indian people from nearby reservations.  The customers at his trading post also included some of the outlaws who used the Territory as a hideout – resulting in some tense moments!  Supplies for his store mainly came by freight wagons from Gainesville, Texas.

Black ad white photo of head and shoulders of bearded man
William Duncan in younger years

In 1884, William Duncan was also officially elected as Postmaster, a position he held for 11 years and the Duncan post office was established.  As Sallie was legally classed as an ‘intermarried white’, she and William had a right to Indian Territory land so they claimed hundreds of acres surrounding their store.  He started to build, expand and lease out areas to be brought to a state of cultivation.  Over time, large numbers of people came to settle there and the little town of Duncan became well known.  There was plenty of grass and water and the store supplied everything required for farming.

In 1888 William sent money home to Macduff so that his parents and some other family members could come and join him.  In March that year their long journey began.  The party consisted of James and Ann Duncan, their daughter Barbara with her husband Arthur Horne (his family owned the Crown Temperance Hotel and Stables in Banff and ran the first ‘penny bus’ service between Banff and Macduff) with their young son Joseph.  Also in the party was another daughter, Agnes – who was married to Macduff man, Charlie Birnie – and her two young children, William and baby Annabella.  The family first travelled by train from Macduff to Glasgow then by ship (the SS Furnessia) to New York, a journey of several weeks.  A train from New York took them to Gainesville, Texas where they rested before being transferred by covered wagon to William’s home at Cow Creek.  Ann Duncan sadly died there just a few months after their arduous journey.

Main Street, Duncan 1894

Agnes Duncan and her husband remained in Oklahoma and raised their large family there.  Barbara  Duncan and her husband, Arthur Horne returned home to Banff as the pioneer life did not suit them.  James Duncan also went home to Scotland shortly after the death of his wife but returned to visit his son, William, in 1895 and they always kept in close contact.  

Watch this space for the second part of William Duncan’s development of “his” town of Duncan.

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A Royal Visit

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The Book of Deer page showing "ap banb" on line 14.
Book of Deer – ‘ap . banb’

King David I of Scotland, who reigned from 1124 to 1153, once held court in Banff. The monks of the Pictish abbey of Deer, over in Buchan, copied a charter from the king into the Book of Deer, and the charter says that the monks had made their case before the king at Banff. The Book of Deer still exists, so here, in 12C hand-writing, is clear evidence of a 12C king holding court in Banff.

David I was the son of King Malcolm Canmore and his wife St Margaret of Scotland. When he was nine he went to England with his sister, who married King Henry I of England. David became Earl of Huntingdon in England. Two of his older brothers were kings of Scotland before him, so we had three “sons of Margaret” on the throne. David brought Norman barons back to Scotland with him, including the families of Balliol, Bruce, and FitzAlan (later Stewart), all of whom became the royal families of Scotland in turn. King David built many monasteries, which led his descendant King James VI to call him “a sair sanct for the croun” (a sore saint for the crown). He was in fact, a good king, remembered as St David of Scotland, and his feast day is May 24. Few kings since have been considered saints.  

The picture shows King David with his grandson and successor, King Malcolm IV, and comes from a 12C charter of Kelso Abbey, which he founded. Early medieval art was not very skilled at catching a likeness. We can tell them apart because the young king Malcolm the Maiden was beardless.

We should show you the evidence that the king was in Banff. It was a royal castle. Kings would go round their castles, and they and their retainers would eat up all the food in store, and then move on to another. Other kings came here later for the same reason.

Look where the handwriting changes in the page, with a big D for David at the start of a line. Four lines down can you see ‘ap. banb’? That is ‘at Banff’.

So there we are.

The Book of Deer will be on display in Aberdeen in the summer of 2022, so you can go and see for yourself.

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Lady Agnes Hay – Countess of Fife

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Agnes was a grand-daughter of King William IV, and married James Duff in 1846 while he was serving there as part of the Diplomatic Service.  She was born in 1829, and most unfortunately died in 1869 as a result of falling out of her carriage while in London.

A quote from one of the poems written after her death, demonstrates how well liked she was:

“Beloved by all, like springtide’s flowers,

Her presence did a joy impart;

In and around her princely bowers,

Her presence was a joy of heart.”

James became the fifth Earl Fife in 1857 on the death of his uncle.  During his marriage to Agnes they had six children, the last who died in infancy.  Their eldest son, Alexander, became the sixth Earl Fife, and on marrying the Princess Royal became the first Duke of Fife.

Agnes and James were quite often at Duff House.  Agnes masterminded a major decorative overhaul of Duff House, and today a room is entitled her boudoir, just off the first floor Vestibule.  Her body was brought back to Duff House where it lay in state.  The Banffshire Journal of the time says “the ceiling and wall of the room were entirely draped in black, the only relief being a wreath of white roses in the centre of the ceiling.”  Apparently “as usual”, there were three coffins; the inner being mahogany richly lined in white satin, then a lead coffin, and outside it was encased again in mahogany.  During the funeral Agnes was taken to the Mausoleum and lowered into the crypt, the “whole of the top of the coffin was covered in white camelias”. There are a number of art works of Agnes.  The newspaper reports that a beautiful bust of her was in it’s usual place in the Vestibule.  From an old low resolution photo it seems this sat alongside one of her husband, now in the Aberdeen Art Gallery; both believed to have been done by the renowned sculptor Alexander Brodie.

One of the best known paintings of Agnes was initially believed to have been done by Sir Francis Grant, but is now attributed “after” him, ie in his style.  A small photo of it hangs in the Lady Agnes Boudoir today.  One interesting aspect of this picture is the dog at her feet, believed to be Barkis.  The painting was presented to Agnes by a grateful tenant in 1863, and Barkis was born that year.  The dog is commemorated on the gravestone in Wrack Woods.

James and Agnes youngest daughter, also called Agnes, did gain some notoriety in her time.  She eloped in 1861 aged just 19, married and had a child, but was soon divorced.  Her second marriage, also by elopement, lasted four years.  Shunned by much of polite society, the younger Agnes then went to work in a London hospital, and met the eminent surgeon Sir Alfred Cooper.  One of his medical interests was venereal diseases, and a scurrilous remark that arose is reported as “Together they knew more about the private parts of the British aristocracy than any other couple in the country”!   They had four children, and they and other descendants became quite prominent in society.  The best known most recently being David Cameron, Prime Minister 2010 to 2016.

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Banff’s 1826 Map

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1826 map of BanffBanff Preservation and Heritage Society and Museum of Banff
Gravestone of Alexander Irvine Ross in Portsoy
Gravestone of Alexander Irvine Ross in Portsoy

In the Museum of Banff there is a new exhibit, a map of Banff in 1826. This is a coloured map with great details of the town shown, including who owned parts of the town, at the time. Large areas of Banff were owned by the Earl of Seafield but areas were owned by organisations such as the “Gardeners Society” and “St John’s Lodge” At this time Banff is almost two separate towns – the Sea town, the area from St. Catherine Street North and the rest of the town, covering Low Street, High Street and the surrounding area. It stops short of Duff House and its grounds. This can be compared in the museum with a 1756 plan of the town and an 1823 map, by John Wood. These maps were produced by independent map makers or land surveyors, before the days of the Ordnance Survey.

The 1826 map was created by Alexander Irvine Ross, a land surveyor from Mains of Tyrie. He was involved in the production of a series of maps created by James Robertson (1783 – 1879) of the shires of Aberdeenshire, Banff and Kincardine in 1822. James Robertson was referred to as “the Shetlander who mapped Jamaica and Aberdeenshire”. Alexander Irvine Ross also produced a four sheet map covering Aberdeenshire and Banff in 1826, mentioned in the New Statistical Account, written by the Reverend Francis William Grant in 1845. This possibly refers to the maps which were published in John Thomson’s Atlas of Scotland, 1832.

The map came in to the possession of the late Bob Carter who donated it to Banff Preservation and Heritage Society. It was in poor condition and in need of conservation work. The map was cleaned and relined by the High Life Highland Conservation Service, with a grant from the Area Initiatives Fund. This meant that a unique and valuable part of Banff’s history has been preserved for future generations. The map is best viewed in person at the museum but if that’s not possible it can be seen on our website – https://www.bphsmob.org.uk/collection/various_items/1724_1826_Map.html

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Lord Byron’s Mary Duff

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Mary Duff of Hatton

Mary Duff’s House, High Street, Banff

The great poet Lord Byron spent part of his childhood in Banff. His mother’s family lived here. His great-grandmother, Lady Gight, lived in rather an ugly house where the Sheriff Court now stands on Low Street. His first sweet-heart was Mary Duff, who lived on the High Street. There was a public outcry in the 1960s when that house, a really historic 17C tower house, was demolished and replaced by what is now McColl’s. It was because of that philistine decision by our local councillors that the Banff Preservation Society was founded.

Mary was a Duff of Hatton, a very prolific Duff family, cousins of the Earl Fife, and a distant cousin of Byron. She was a few months older than he was, both born in 1788, and they met at a dancing class in Aberdeen. The little boy was lame from birth, so dancing was probably purgatory. But he loved sitting billing and cooing with his pretty cousin.

We know about this because some years later, after inheriting a peerage and going to Harrow, the great English public school, Byron heard that Mary was married. He was a teenager, with his first proper girlfriend (though he said he’d had fifty) and his first proper falling-out with his girl-friend, and he felt totally betrayed. There was his childhood sweetheart, his first love, abandoning him too! It is all in his journal.  It did not help matters that his mother then told everyone she met about George’s star-crossed love with Mary Duff.  

Here is the story from Byron’s own journal. “I have been thinking lately a good deal of Mary Duff. How very odd that I should have been so utterly, devotedly fond of that girl, at an age when I could neither feel passion, nor know the meaning of the word. And the effect! My mother used always to rally me about this childish amour; and, at last, many years after, when I was sixteen, she told me one day, “Oh, Byron, I have had a letter from Edinburgh, from Miss Abercromby, and your old sweetheart Mary Duff is married to a Mr Co’e.” And what was my answer? I really cannot explain or account for my feelings at that moment; but they nearly threw me into convulsions, and alarmed my mother so much, that after I grew better, she generally avoided the subject—to me—and contented herself with telling it to all her acquaintance. Now, what could this be? I had never seen her since her mother’s faux pas at Aberdeen had been the cause of her removal to her grandmother’s at Banff; we were both the merest children. I had and have been attached fifty times since that period; yet I recollect all we said to each other, all our caresses, her features, my restlessness, sleeplessness, my tormenting my mother’s maid to write for me to her, which she at last did, to quiet me. Poor Nancy thought I was wild, and, as I could not write for myself, became my secretary. I remember, too, our walks, and the happiness of sitting by Mary, in the children’s apartment, at their house not far from the Plain-stanes at Aberdeen, while her lesser sister Helen played with the doll, and we sat gravely making love, in our way.  How the deuce did all this occur so early? where could it originate? I certainly had no sexual ideas for years afterwards; and yet my misery, my love for that girl were so violent, that I sometimes doubt if I have ever been really attached since.”

The Mr Co’e was a Robert Cockburn, from a rich family of wine-merchants in Edinburgh – yes, it’s Cockburn’s port. Mary had a happy life, and she outlived Byron by 30-odd years, to die in 1858. She comes into one of Byron’s poems too.


Byron as a boy, engraving from a painting by Kay
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The Commonwealth Graves in Banff Cemetery

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A wreath being laid on the grave of the unknown airman in Banff CemeteryAndrew Taylor

There are eighteen Commonwealth War Graves from the Second World War in Banff.  These are only a few of the airmen killed serving at the Boyndie base. Only those whose planes crashed in Scotland are buried in Banff. If you were shot down over the sea or over Norway there will be no grave. One of the Canadians and one of the Australians had brothers who were shot down over Europe.

One is of an unknown airman, so that is where, if we have a wreath, we lay it. Four were from England, seven from Canada, four from Australia, and two from New Zealand. One, called William Reid, was from Britain, but we don’t know where.

Of the British airmen, one was a doctor’s son from Surrey, one the son of a warden at Parkhurst prison on the Isle of Wight, and another came from Bethnal Green in London.

Two of the Australians came from neighbouring suburbs of Sydney, and one from just outside Perth in Western Australia. The other came from the outback in Queensland, a small place called Winton, where they have an annual festival because ‘Waltzing Matilda’ was first performed there.

The New Zealanders came from in or near Auckland, in the North Island, but the Canadians came from all over, from Edmonton, and Ottawa, and Saskatoon, and two from small places in the prairies. The one from Ottawa had three Christian names, Louis Eber Eldred, but apparently answered to ‘Tony’. The man from Saskatoon was not only married but had two small children, and this may explain why this is the only grave that has recent mementos from the family on it.

And then there was Ernest Raymond Davey, who came from London, Ontario, in Canada. (I think people called him ‘Bus’.) He wrote a poem, found after his death, called Extinction: the Airman’s Prayer which was put into a book. It is a serious Christian poem; at home, he was a loyal member of the Anglican Church of Canada. It is easy for us to imagine how we would like to face our death when it comes. It is different for someone who is actually facing it.

Here it is, from Soldier Poetry of the Second World War: An Anthology, ed. Jane and Walter Morgan, Presented with the permission of the Department of National Defence, Government of Canada. Oakville: Mosaic Press, 1990: 45. RPO

Almighty and all present power

Short is the prayer I make to thee;

I do not ask in battle hour

For any shield to cover me.

The vast unalterable way,

From which the stars do not depart,

May not be turned aside to stay

The bullet flying through my heart.

I ask no help to strike my foe;

I seek no petty victory here;

The enemy I hate, I know

To thee is dear.

But this I pray, be at my side,

When death is drawing through the sky;

Almighty Lord, who also died

Teach me the way that I should die.

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The journey of King Cetewayo’s stick and the Museum of Banff

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A photo of King Cetewayo's walking stick which is wooden with a carved snake around it.© The Trustees of the British Museum
A portrait of Cetshwayo ka Mpande by Alexander Bassano in 1882.
Cetshwayo ka Mpande by Alexander Bassano

King Cetshwayo was the last Zulu King. At the time British people spelt the name Cetewayo, but nowadays it is more likely to be Cetshwayo, closer to the actual pronunciation. After a long and brave fight by the Zulu army, the King was captured after the battle of Ulundi in 1879 by Major Richard J.C. Marter of the Kings Dragoon Guards. Colonel Harford described the moment King Cetewayo gave himself up – “the King …strode in with the aid of his long stick, with a proud and dignified air and grace, looking a magnificent specimen of his race and every inch a warrior in his grand umutcha of leopard skin and tails, with lion’s teeth and claw charms round his neck”.

Was this the same stick which was taken from him? In 1882, Mr F.C. Lucy took a collection of these valuable items back to Britain after a trip to South Africa. The list was long and included Cetewayo’s stick, 13 throwing and stabbing assagais (light spears), 3 knobkerries (clubs), clothing with bead work, 2 Kaffir pipes and 2 Zulu pipes, as well as a number of natural history objects.

These were donated to the Banff Museum by Mr Lucy of London, via his mother-in-law Mrs Ewing, who lived in St Catherine Street. The walking stick is listed as being in the museum in 1919 (Banff and District by A. Edward Mahood). After this it is difficult to track what happened to Cetewayo’s stick until it turns up in the British Museum in 1963. It is there listed as being previously owned by Cetshwayo kaMpande, Banff Museum, and from the collection of Captain A.W.F. Fuller.

Captain Fuller was referred to as “an armchair anthropologist”. He was born in Sussex and trained as a solicitor but at the outbreak of the First World War he signed up with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and became a captain. He built up a vast collection and he refused to sell anything until shortly before his death when 6,800 items from the Pacific were sold to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. The rest of his collection was dispersed by his widow. The clue as to how Cetewayo’s stick went from the Banff Museum to Captain Fuller comes from newspaper articles which state that in 1938, the then town council, brought in Mr Kerr of the Royal Scottish Museum to assess their collection and he recommended that a large number of items from the museum should be disposed of as they were not local to Banff. Could it be that Cetewayo’s stick was sold then?

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Macduff’s nautical artist and historian

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Peter Anson sculpture, Macduff (Photo/image with kind permission of Duncan Harley)

Peter Anson came to this area in 1936, staying at 2 Braeheads Banff.  Two years later he bought and moved into 2 Low Street Macduff, known locally as ‘Harbour Head’.  Over the course of his lifetime (1889-1975) he published over thirty books, many dealing with the sea and its ships, and others focusing on his other love, the Catholic religion.  Of all his books only one could be described as a best seller, How to Draw Ships (1940).  He also produced many drawings related to the sea, some of which are on display in Banff’s Museum.

Peter Anson was born Frederick Charles Anson in Southsea on 22 August 1889, to prosperous parents. He converted to Roman Catholicism in 1913 and was received into the Third Order of the Franciscans in 1922, adopting the name Peter.  While living in Macduff he turned the loft of Harbour Head into a small sacristy, where visiting monks would say mass for visiting mariners: Peter was no longer a member of the Order. The area of the sacristy was minute and containing as it did an altar table and other religious equipment had little space for church goers, not that there were ever many. Despite the lack of church goers, Peter took satisfaction from having it known that Macduff was the only port in Scotland with a Catholic chapel set apart for mariners.

During his time in Macduff (1937-1952) Peter was acquainted with notables, such as Neil M. Gunn and Compton Mackenzie, and became involved in the early activities of Scottish nationalism.  Indeed, the Scottish Nationalist Party invited him to write a pamphlet which appeared with the title, The Scottish Fisheries: Are they Doomed? (1939). 

Peter had a great personality and had empathy for fisher folk and they for him.  There are not many public memorials in Macduff, but it comes as no surprise to find there is a sculpture in memory of Peter Anson. 

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C W Cosser, Banff, Architect

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C W Cosser plans for Library and Museum Banff

While completing the paperwork to enable the Museum of Banff to be involved in this year’s Doors Open Day, the name of the architect of the Banff Library and Museum emerged, one C. W. Cosser, and, as it is an unusual name for Banff, I sensed a story.

Charles Walter Cossar, or more often Cosser, was indeed the architect based in Banff who designed the Banff Library building.

Charles Cosser was born in Southampton and is listed as a Bugler with the Royal Engineers in 1861. He first arrived in Banff as an engineer with the Royal Engineers in 1866, when they carried out a survey of the district. Later he retired from the army and married a local butcher’s daughter, Mary Ann Bartlett Scott, in 1870. They had four children. Unfortunately his wife died in 1874.

He was responsible for a number of projects in the local area such as adding the tower to Portsoy Parish Church in Seafield Street in 1876.

C.W. Cosser also designed alterations for Craigston Castle in 1876, alterations to the Royal Oak hotel in the 1890s, and planned the extension to Marnoch Churchyard in 1902. He also built Doctor Barclay’s house in Castle Street. He was praised for his work as an engineer in 1888 as he was responsible for planning a clean water supply for Ladysbridge, bringing it from springs on the farms of Wardend and Inchdrewer.

As well as being an architect and surveyor Charles had other roles: he was Inspector of the Poor, and people could book passages on board ships to worldwide destinations from his offices at 1 Carmelite Street.

Charles also held the role of Clerk to the Parish Council and he rented out several properties around Banff.

In his spare time, we know that he kept a garden because he was a Banff Flower Show winner in the amateur section for dessert apples – truly a man o’ pairts.

Charles Walter Cosser died in Banff in 1915, aged 70.

  • Portsoy Church, Seafield Street.
  • Signatures-of-Tradesmen-working-on-Banff-Library-and-Museum
    Signatures-of-Tradesmen-working-on-Banff-Library-and-Museum
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