Robert Crawford
Very little is known about
Robert Crawford at the present date.
He married Helen Yuille at
Glasgow in
1837 and it from here that the story begins…………..
The marriage records for Robert Crawford and Helen
Yuille
The marriage record states that Robert
was a Clothier in Glasgow and they were both residing there at the time. However, on
subsequent documents, Robert is a Collier. It may be that the marriage entry was a mistake
or perhaps he began as a Clothier and for some reason became a collier. From further
information it is known that he was a Pit Sinker.
Robert and Helen registered their
names for marriage on the 17th September
1837 at Glasgow. They then had a son John born 24th April 1838
and he was baptised on the 3rd June 1838 at Glasgow. The witnesses at the baptism were James Wilson and James Latta.
This information also states that this is a second child, this must be an error.
The baptism record shows that Robert was a Collier at Napier
Hall.
There soon followed a daughter,
Helen, born 30th July 1840. Robert was listed as a Miner at Springbank so when his children
were born he was most definitely a miner of some sort. Robert died before official records
began in 1855 and was, indeed, deceased before the census was taken in 1851. It is
possible that he died as a result of his occupation and other information may never be
found regarding his death.
Click here for a map of
Springbank.
The following baptism entry for
Helen shows that she was a second child and the witnesses are James and William Crawford,
presumably these would be Robert’s brothers.
At the present time,
this is all the information available for Robert Crawford.
Napier Hall was a large house and land,
just off The Great Western Road. Eventually this was swallowed up by the city but before
that it was a coal or iron stone pit.
To see an old map with Napier Hall click
on the link. select the bottom map to your left. Napier Hall is the lighter one
and you can zoom in for a better look.
Map of Napier Hall
dated 1807. This shows that the Hall and grounds
belonged to a Miss Napier. It is at the end of
St Vincent Street which can be seen on the right, laid out
ready for building.
This
old map from 1842 shows two areas
which could be pits or quarries. This map will have the
building where the Crawford family lived in 1841.
Napier Hall must have been demolished
after 1807 and before 1842 ready for the expansion of
Glasgow. Before building began, coal was
obviously found, probably near to the surface, and mined out quite quickly.
The Springbank Pit was difficult to
find. I looked at the Springburn area of
Glasgow as I knew the family had been in that
area but found nothing. I then discovered a Springbank Mining Co. based at Airdrie. They
owned many coal and iron stone mines around the area. One mine was at Clarkston and there
was, at one point, a small village at Airdrie called Clarkston but it has long since
disappeared. I tried the 1841 census and found nothing there to match with Robert and his
family.
I then came across this old map which
confirmed my original suspicions that there was indeed an area called Springbank near the
Springburn part of
Glasgow. After discovering that the Crawford
family were around the
Garscube
Road area, it looks as if
there must have been a pit called Springbank there at one time. It would not be far from
Napier’s Hall either. It was probably called Springbank due to its position along the
bank of the Canal.
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