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Some press cuttings show that my Grandfather was an expert in the field of Poor Law when it was being reformed in the early days of this century. He was several times called to give evidence in London to various Royal Commissions which were in being at that time. But I know that one of his special interests was the welfare of children from Glasgow slums who were boarded out in various parts of the Highlands and Islands. He frequently visited those locations to which such children were sent and my Mother remembered being with her Father on an occasion when he inspected some of his protégés in Islay [the island to which the family moved in 1953 when Dad became "the Excise Man" at Bonahaven (Bunnahabhain) distillery]. My Grandmother (Kate Kennedy Young Motion) married James Russell Motion in 1875, the daughter of George Young a Sea-Captain who died at Acapulco in 1852 when Kate was just a year old. He is commemorated by a gravestone in Kingsbarns Churchyard in Fife. David Wyatt [the younger son of Dad's sister Catherine and Geoff Wyatt] has obtained a copy of the crew list dated 1851 of the vessel Helena on its voyage from London to Rio de Janeiro. George Young was Captain of the Helena on this voyage which lasted from January to July 1851 when it docked at Liverpool. The list shows that three of the crew, including the Mate, died of fever in Rio and it is possible that George himself on his next voyage in 1852 was laid low by the same fever in Acapulco. I have speculated whether this voyage to Acapulco had any connection with the Californian gold rush of 1849. Before going on to mention the four daughters of my Grandparents, there was an interesting press article a few years ago concerning 142 South Street, St. Andrews which gives a lot of information about the family. The house came into the other side of the Motion family after the death of George Motion in 1801. |
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© 2000 William Motion Goodall & Ian William Goodall |
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