Bressay History Group

AITH

ROBERT LEISK, wife Johanna and family – went to Hogan where they appeared on the 1871 census, but not on the valuation roll, suggesting that they were resident in someone else’s household or possibly were paupers. Johanna died at Hogan in 1872, Robert died there in 1875.

LAURENCE SMITH, - his wife Barbara died at Aith in 1865 and his father James Smith died there in 1866. By the 1871 census the surviving family have moved to Globa. Laurence’s mother, Janet died there the following year.

ANDREW HENDERSON, - this holding was occupied (according to the valuation roll) by three different short-term tenants between 1862 and 1868 before being taken into Setter Farm; the last of these short-term tenants was Maxwell Nelson from Brough (who went to Tingwall and had a family, from which Alister Smith of R.W.Bayes is descended). However, according to the census, Barbara Henderson was still living at Aith in 1871, although her husband was away from home. By 1881 their daughter, Gifford Henderson (servant to John Sinclair, Aithsness in ’71) had married Hunter Nelson and was living at 2 Swallow Lane, Lerwick, with her mother Barbara, now widowed. Gifford died young and her widowed husband came back to Bressay and remarried to Margaret Bannantyne Manson from Cullisbrough.

JOHN SINCLAIR, - Aithsness – John died at Aithsness in 1879 when he was described as a “master shoemaker” (this was 5 years after he disappeared from the valuation roll – sub-tenancy ?) His widow Barbara Sinclair or Linklater moved to Hogan by 1881, living alone, then to Gunnista by 1891, where she died a year later.

THOMAS SMITH, - his mother, Janet Smith or Nelson (widow of Laurence Smith) died at Aith in March 1872. Thomas married his servant Williamina Eunson and moved to the Punds Kirkabister (taking his sister Lilias with them) and had a family there. He and Williamina got into trouble in 1891 for not sending their children to school.

BARBARA YORSTON, (widow of John Gifford) and mother of William, Helen and Margaret Gifford. William had left Aith by 1871, having married and moved to Lerwick where he and his family lived at 1 Crooked Lane in 1881. Old Barbara died at Aith in April 1876 aged 90. Of her two unmarried daughters, Helen or Nelly died at Hoversta in 1888 (probably a pauper) and Margaret’s whereabouts is unknown.

THOMAS & CATHERINE SMITH, - their son John got tenancy of a holding at Wadbister in 1873 and the whole family moved there where John’s young wife Grace and his father Thomas both died that same year. His mother, Catherine, died at Wadbister in 1875. John took a second wife, Jane Hall from neighbouring Cuppa and had more children by her. (There is an excellent photograph of this family standing outside their house at Wadbister taken c. 1900 by John’s son, James M. Smith who had a painting & decorating business in Lerwick and was also a photographer).

CATHERINE NELSON, - (widow of James Smith, seaman) – moved to Beosetter in 1873 with her unmarried daughter Mary Smith and sister-in-law, Elizabeth Smith where she lived until her death in 1898 aged 83; her nephew Laurence Nelson with his young family lived with them. Catherine’s other daughter, Elizabeth married Peter Halcrow (see below) the couple had a baby girl who died at Aith in 1872 aged only 6 months, and Elizabeth died a few months later aged 24.

JOHANNA LEISK or SMITH, - daughter of the aforementioned Thomas & Catherine Smith – she married sometime after 1851 to a merchant seaman, and moved to Lerwick, her first child born there about 1859, but was back in Bressay about 1870, her youngest child being born here, this last child bearing her maiden name, Smith. No sign of her in 1881 in Lerwick or Bressay, but by 1891 she was living at Seaside Cottage, Sound, Lerwick, still given as being married to a seaman – Johanna Leisk, Head, Married, aged 60.

BARBARA SMITH, - single, aged 43 – (daughter of William Smith & Ann Williamson) her widowed mother died at Aith in 1861, and her sister Ann died there in 1866 leaving Barbara on her own – she does not appear to have been living or died in Bressay, her whereabouts unknown.

JEAN GIFFORD (70) – pauper – died at Aith in September 1872.

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