Cairneyhill deaths

Dear blog reader

I really am quite shocked by the background of the second person whose death I’ve reported on below. I will include a link which gives some background on how Robert Kirk ‘made his money’. Please do proceed with caution if you open that link as it is quite upsetting.

Jacqueline

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GLASGOW HERALD, THURSDAY 28TH NOVEMBER 1872.

DUNFERMLINE – FATAL ACCIDENT

On Tuesday night, an old woman named May Erskine was found dead in a burn a little to the north of the village of Cairneyhill. Deceased had for a series of years been employed on the farm of Pitdinnie, near Cairneyhill.

After finishing her work on Tuesday afternoon, she proceeded homewards, taking a short cut through the fields. This road ran alongside a burn, into which it is supposed she had fallen. The water in the burn is only about a foot deep, but obviously the woman, who was 71 years of age, had been rendered insensible by the fall. The body must have lain for upwards of two hours in the water before being discovered by the villagers.

ABERDEEN PRESS AND JOURNAL. FRIDAY 5TH JANUARY 1894.

THE LATE MR KIRKE OF GREENMOUNT, FIFE.

Mr Robert Kirke of Greenmount has died at his residence, near Burntisland. Mr Kirke, who was in his 79th year, was a native of the Fife village of Cairneyhill.

In his prime he was engaged sugar-planting at Surinam, Dutch Guiana, on his own holdings which continued his property till his death. He however, returned to his native country fully 30 years ago, built a mansion house, and eventually purchased the lands of Greenmount, which embrace a large portion of the east half of Burntisland parish. 

Mr Kirke became a Justice of Peace, and took a share in public business. Recurring attacks of malarial fever, originally contracted in the West Indies, prostrated him about five months before his death.

The deceased gentleman lives a widow and grown-up family, one of his daughters being married to Mr Wallace, town clerk, Burntisland, and another to the Rev. Andrew Miller, minister of Bluevale Parish, Glasgow.

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Dear readers, this is how Robert Kirk ‘made his money’, please do read with caution:

https://www.spanglefish.com/slavesandhighlanders/index.asp?pageid=607903