On 26 April: a murder by stabbing

Only one person to report today but he’s interesting: a sailor who was murdered in South America, and whose father had been a butler to Sir Alexander Wallace.

26 April 1833

Birth of John Skeoch Goble at Glasgow. In 1855 he married Janet Spiers Strachan, daughter of my ggg grandfather John Strachan and his second wife. An 1855 Scottish certificate is always a lucky find, as it was the first year of official registration and they went overboard on the information they collected. Officialdom quickly had second thoughts so after 1855 certificates are less detailed. But marriage certificates in 1855 give the birth date and place of the people being married, which is how I found out John Skeoch Goble’s birth details. He was a sailor living in Irvine, and Jane Spiers Strachan was living on the same street (and possibly at the same address).

John Goble turns up on a Certificate of Competency for Second Mate in 1860, giving an address of Halfway, Irvine. In 1861 his wife Janet Goble is at Halfway, Dundonald (which borders Irvine so will be the same address as on John’s certificate) living with her mother Jane Strachan widow age 67, a pauper. No John Goble but he was probably at sea. There’s another Certificate of Competency for John Goble for First Mate in 1865 with an address of 14 East Houston Street, Glasgow.

Next event is the birth of Janet Strachan Goble in 1868 at Cathcart, Renfrewshire to John Skeoch Goble and Janet Spiers Strachan. In 1871 Janet Goble, seaman’s wife, and her daughter Janet Goble are at Waterside, Dundonald along with Matilda Gilkison, who is John Goble’s married sister, and John Goble age 78 formerly a butler, who is John Goble’s father. So that sent me on a detour to find out more about John Goble, butler.

In 1851 John Goble senior was butler to Sir Alexander and Lady Wallace at Lochryan House, which is just north of Stranraer so not all that far from Irvine. John Goble senior had been in the army and is in the roll for the Battle of Waterloo – as is Sir Alexander Wallace, who is on the same Waterloo medals page as the Duke of Wellington, and later reached the rank of General. Sir Alexander Wallace was from Ayrshire and as John Goble was born in London, it could well be Sir Alexander who took him to Scotland. Sir Alexander died in 1857, and in 1861 John Goble is at North Frederick Street, Glasgow, age 67 and a gentleman’s servant – I’ve no idea to whom as he is head of his own household, with no-one living with him.

Back to John Skeoch Goble, son of John the butler, although there is little more to say. He died on 20 August 1871 when he was stabbed at Demerara, British Guiana, South America. A sad ending. His widow Janet remarried in 1877 to pastry chef George Robertson. She was born in May so there’ll be more about her in a month’s time.