James Bews and Mary Yorston

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Family History

December 31st, 1916

Dear Cousin,

I received your letter on December 27th, 1916, and was very pleased to hear from you. I wrote to the boys, or rather your sons, the following day telling them we would make them very welcom should they come our way, but I am afraid for sight-seeing their chances are but small. the days are very short, and the weather rather disagreeable this time of year and the town is in darkness all the evening for fear of Zepp. Raids, we had one of them, and I don't wish to have another. We have to grope our way about in the dark, feeling our way with a walking stick, as best we can, and with the darkness, and the number of restrictions that are constantly put upon us, a fellow scarcely knows whether he is a law-abiding citizen or not. Another thing, some of the places of interest to visitors are closed to the public during the war. Truly it is troublous times we are living in here at present, but I suppose we must just grin and bear it.

Well, James, now for a bit of family history, and I will begin with the eldest. Some of what I am going to write you perhaps already know, but that can't be helped. James Bews, your mother's elder brother, died in Westray, I cannot give you the dates, and shortly after his widow and family went out to Hamilton to William and James, who had been some time there. Mary came back and married a Captain Burgess, who was blown up in the Bay of Biscay, they were load with gunpowder. She resided in Shields and died there. Helen is still in Scotland, and she married an Englishman, William Bainbridge, she resides at present in Dunfermline. Isabella, married George Stout, she is now a widow, and resides in Grangemouth. Catherine and her husband went out to Hamilton some years later. there are some of them dead in Hamilton but I can't say who.

Now for Uncle Willi's family in Newcastle, both him and his wife are dead, and some of the members of his family. there's a William and a David, dead; James is a carter in Newcastle; Jack is a waggon-bulder; George, I think is a wood-merchant clerk; Jane is married, I don't know her married name; and Charles is a Vicar in Wales. that is all I know of that family.

Uncle Charles, your mother's youngest brother, and his wife Margaret Sabiston both died in Kirkwall and, as you will probably know, without issue.

Well, James, I must go back to Harray now to finish my epistle, I think it is as full of family history as yours. I was not quite so young as you thought, I was 5 1/2 years when you left, and fine do I remember you all, and the Schoolhouse, (I think I have been once since you left) and Uncle and Aunt, James, George, William, Helen, and Tommy. I came to school there, can't you remember and I can remember well the big board with the 4 wood wheels, one on each corner that you and your brothers used to run down the hill with, and I was two (sic) little to keep my seat on, and I also mind that night that Willie, your brother, fell in the Loch and came home all wet, and his mother said to him Boy, Willie, why did too no lie still. there was three of us when you left home, myself, John and George. Six months after we all came to Kirkwall to live, and father started the carting. After leaving school, at the age of 13, I started my apprenticeship in the Orkney Herald, and was there 8 years. then I went to Edinburgh and got on the Scotsman where I was 18 years, then the lynotype came and threw a great many of us out. I am now in a book and jobbing place, Morrison and Gibb's, Tanfield, Edinburgh. I have been 33 years married. My daughter Jane is married, her husband John Paterson, is a master plumber. Charley, my son, is an engineer with the P. & O. Steam Shipping Company, London, and my second son, William, died in infancy.

Johnny also married, shortly after me, and lost some of his children in infancy. He died himself two years ago come February and left a widow, 2 sons, and 1 daughter grown up.

George died in Kirkwall, aged 3 years.

William, Helen, and another George were born in Kirkwall after you left. the Old Folks removed to Leith, and then to London, where Father, Mother, and William died, the second George having died in Kirkwall before they left. Helen, after the death of her Father, went to be a nurse in Guyes Hospital, London, and she is still working in that capacity but she has given up her connection with Guyes. She goes knocking about, and may be said to have no fixed residence. I forwarded your letter on to the last address we had from her, along with the boy's addresses. So you may have a letter from her some time, I could not say when. I hope you will not get tired of perusing this bit of family history but I can remember many of the things that happened in my childhood better than what I was doing yesterday. I am now in my 59th year, and I am beginning to feel that I am growing old. I will draw to a close now, and hope you will not weary over reading this, and remain your loving Cousin,

Charles Drever

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From Hamilton Spectator July 14, 1903

"Was Well Known"

'Late Charles Bews Was a Prominent Man in Stratford Masonic Circles' Charles Bews, whose death was reported in yesterday's Spectator, was well known in this city. For the past eight years he had been cutter and designer for the Thornton Douglas Co., of Stratford. He was very prominent in Masonic circles, being senior warden of the Stratford lodge, A.F. and A.M. at the time of his decease. He was also a member of the Royal Arch and Knights Templar. Previous to going to Stratford he worked with his brothers W.D. and J.Y., tailors of this city. He leaves to mourn his loss four brothers and three sisters in this city, one in Edinburgh, and one in Grangeworth, Scotland. the funeral will take place from the residence of his brother J.Y. Bews, 94 Emerald Street South, on Thursday afternoon at 3:30 p.m.

Referring to the death of MR. Bews, a Stratford dispatch says:

"the news of the death at Hamilton of Charles Bews, manager of the ordered clothing department of the Thornton & Douglas company, of this city, was learned with sincere regret. Mr. Bews was a prominent Mason and an enthusiastic bowler and curier. He had been ailing for some time but it was not expected that the death was so near."

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Orkney - either Westray or Kirkwall graveyard

"Erected by Mary Yorston in memory of her beloved husband James Bews who died 31 January 1875 aged 50."