Margaret Gammell

1738 - unknown

Margaret was born on 3 August 1738.  On 10 September 1756, she married James Donald, merchant.  He was the eldest son (of 15 children) of Robert Donald, a prominent Greenock merchant, and Christian Lees.  Margaret and James appear to have had at least two children, Robert Donald born on 3 August 1757, and Margaret Donald, born on 1 September 1759. They appear to have also had another son, Andrew, who is mentioned in the deposition made by George Charles Jones on behalf of Margaret Jones (Donald) in 1806. We know nothing about Andrew, but that it is clear from the deposition that he had died before 1806.

No record of the date of death of Margaret has been found.

Robert Donald

1756 - about 1806

Robert was a merchant in Greenock (James and Robert Donald and Company); the James presumably being his father.  At some stage he moved to Petersburg, Virginia where he continued as a merchant, but died in about 1806. The fact that Margaret was his sole heir implies that he either never married, or if he did his wife and any children all predeceased him.

Margaret Donald

1759 – 1829

Margaret was born in Greenock on 1 September 1759 and married George Charles Jones, a Captain in the 43^rd (Argyllshire) Regiment, in Edinburgh on 7 June 1805. 

In 1806 she was the sole executrix of her brother, Robert. George Charles and Margaret lived at Brooklands, Kirkpatrick Durham in Kirkcudbrightshire.  Margaret died on 13 August 1829. 

After her death, George Charles married Helen Couper.  George died on 7 November 1835.

In his will he established a bequest to provide education to poor children of Kirkpatrick Durham and the surrounding area. This was established as the “Brooklands Bequest”.  This bequest received his entire house, estate and property, save that an annual allowance was to be paid to his second wife, Helen Couper for her life, and to an unmarried niece, Elsitha Jones, for her life. Helen died on 16 May 1850, and Elsitha in 1846. This bequest ran independently until 1933 when it was incorporated into the Stewartry Educational Trust. 

From this we can conclude that George Charles and Margaret had no children.

Text from monument in Kirkpatrick Durham Churchyard, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland

George Charles Jones of Brooklands in memory of whom this stone was erected  (see other side) was the founder of the educational endowment now known as the Brooklands Bequest.  The income of the endowment has for many years been applied in giving bursaries to deserving pupils in this and adjoining parishes and many such pupils have obtained higher education than the might otherwise have had.

May 1910.

Erected in memory of George Charles Jones of Broadlands who died on the 7 November 1835 in the 60th year of his age.

And of

Margaret Donald his first wife who died on 13 August 1829 in the 58th year of her age.

Mr Jones left his estate of Brooklands in this parish for the purpose of establishing and supporting a religious and charitable institution the sole object of which is expressed in his will, the temporal and eternal welfare of poor fatherless and motherless children by giving them a useful and above all a religious education.

Blessed is he who considereth the poor psalm 41 v1.

And also Helen Coupar his second wife died on the in the 61 year of her age.

Discussion

All the above appears to fit with the evidence, but for the following anomalies. 

In the deposition made on Margaret’s behalf in 1806, Margaret’s mother is referred to as Elizabeth, which it of course wasn’t, it was Margaret (Gammell) who was married to James.  There are three possible explanations.   First Margaret and James disappeared and there was another Donald family with everything else the same, but with a mother called Elizabeth – this is just possibly but doesn’t seem likely; Second, Margaret had changed her name so that she was commonly known as Elizabeth.  Finally, that this was simply a mistake made by George Charles or by the writer of the document.  One of these latter two seems more likely.

On the Gravestone in Kirkpatrick Douglas, it says that Margaret was in her 58^th year when she died in 1829, which would give her a birth year of about 1770, but we know she was born in 1759. 

Finally, in the will of James Gammell, the banker in 1826, a certain James Gammell Donald was left 100 guineas, and this man might have been grandson, but if such a grandson existed, we don’t know of him.  It could equally likely have been James Donald (born in 1769), the eldest son of his wife’s (Janet Gammell nee Geils) sister (Grizel Donald nee Geils).  This is given some weight since he left a bequest of £50 to Benjamin Andrew Donald who was the grandson of Grizel, who was left orphaned in 1806 when his father, Andrew, (James Donald’s brother) had died.

Both anomalies and who James Gammell Donald was, are mysteries to be solved.