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Previous Section 28: Title
Previous Chapter 29.B : John Thomas BRUSH

Section 29 : Direct Line 1809-1927

Chapter 29.C

Samuel of Dundee and his descendants
from 1845 - 1962

As described in chapter 29.A, Samuel BRUSH, the postman, and Sarah (nee Carter) had six children.  The eldest, John Thomas BRUSH, my great-great-grandfather, is covered in chapter 29.B. Their four daughters were Emma, Sarah, Harriet and Mary Ann who are covered in Chapter 29.C .  The sixth child was Samuel:

Samuel; 1845 - 1924

There is much more to say about the youngest son, Samuel.  He was born on 25 January 1845 in Chelsea at the Wesleyan Chapel in Sloane Terrace (which is identified in the birth certificate as his father's residence).  At some point he moves to Scotland and gets a job as a clerk in a Linen Manufacturers.  We have no idea what prompted such a dramatic move or when it occurred since I have been unable to locate the family in either the 1851 or 1861 censuses.  There is no other Scottish link that we are aware of.  Why do men move from one area or country to another?  The common answer is "for work or for a woman".

In 1867, on 30 September, he married Isabella Watson ,the daughter of David Watson, a Cloth Manufacturer. (Possibly the Watson family in Kirriemuir in 1851.)  They marry in St Paul's Episcopal church, which was later to become Dundee's cathedral.  Samuel's address is given as St Peter Street in Dundee.  The register is where we get his occupation as a clerk in a Linen Manufacturers.

Samuel and Isabella have four children; Samuel Carter in 1868, Annie Mary & Robina in 1870, and John Wighton in 1872.  They appear in the 1871,81 and 91 censuses.  Details for each child are given below.

In 1871 they are at 75 Annfield Road in the St Peter registration district of Dundee - one of two households at that address.  The number 5 at the right hand edge of the entry signifies that they had five rooms with at least one window.   Isabella's age is given as 34 - 8 years older than her husband.  This gives her birth as 1836/7 which enables us to find her baptism at Lochee United Associate Church on 22 May 1836, birth date 5 April 1836.  Her mother was Janet nee Wighton.

This image of the 1871 census only shows one child, Samuel Carter, but the next page of the census includes Annie M. age 0.

His occupation appears to be 'Clerk Jute Manufacturers':

An 1871 Directory entry gives his occupation as a clerk at Seafield works. This is repeated in the 1874 Dundee Directory which again lists Samuel Brush as a clerk at the Seafield Works but shows a new home address of 11 Waterloo Place. Waterloo place is in turn identified as 73 Annfield Road with Samuel as one of three listed residents.  So the location may not actually have changed.  Seafield Works was the premises of Thomson,Shepherd, & Co.  The Directory remarks, of Seafield Works and others:

To the ordinary Tourist, Dundee is not a very attractive town. " Smoke fills the air and dims the day;" but it must be remembered that that same smoke brings food to many a humble board, and fuel tomany a hearth that otherwise would be cheerless. The manufactories of the town are very numerous, and some of the great mills, being built entirely of freestone, and with some pretension to architectural embellishment, are well worth notice by the visitor.

The Seafield Works

At some point between 1874 and 1881, whether by his own efforts or with a leg-up from his father-in law, Samuel becomes a partner in the firm of Marshall, Andrews, & Brush, carpet manufacturers.  Isabella's father was David Watson.  The 1874 Directory lists two David Watsons - David A.of W. & D. Watson, Westfield Works , home address 17 Perth and David Watson, manager, Craigie Works, Gibson, Robertson & Co.

The roots of this partnership or company seem to lie in the Seafield works.  Walter Marshall of Dalhousie Terrace is listed in the 1874 Directory as mill-manager at the Seafield Works of Thomson, Shepherd, & Co., spinners, manufacturers and dyers of 26 Taylor's lane.  Their office (where Samuel, as a clerk, may have worked?) was at 10 Cowgate.

Who 'Andrews' was is less clear and his name only seems to feture briefly.  The 1874 directory only includes one Andrews :- Joseph, factory-overseer, 31a Croft's lane.  This seems feasible, though it is just a possibility.

By 1881 Samuel and family have moved to East Somerville Place in the St Clements RD of Dundee, in a house listed as having 9 windowed rooms. The houses now in that street look as if they may have been new around that time, and appear solidly middle class. Samuel is now identified as a Carpet Manufacturer. Isabella's birthplace is identified as Lochee in Forfarshire - previously a separate town but absorbed during the 19th century into Dundee.

In the 1885 valuation roll Samuel is listed as 'Tenant/Occupier of a house and garden at 43 Constitution Street North side, Dundee.

The reference to the business being called Marshall, Andrews and Brush seems to come (only?) from the 1886/7 Dundee Directory in which Samuel Brush of 43 Constitution Street is listed as 'of Marshall, Andrews and Brush'.

A transcript listing "Honorary members of the Choral Society" lists Samuel (of Marshall Andrew and Brush) as a member from 1886 to 1894 when he is listed as 'withdrawn'. His original address is 43 Constitution Street and his final address Muircote.

In 1891 the family is living at 'Muircote' Clepington Road. Samuel is again listed as a carpet manufacturer.  Samuel Carter has by this time left home. Muircote is not clear from this census entry but it is clarified by his will some 30 years later which says it was number 51 Clepington Road.  The 1895 and 1905 valuation rolls show him as proprietor and occupier. The 'annual rent or value' in 1895is given as £80 - which is the highest on that page

If the street numbering has remained unchanged then Google street view shows this to be number 51. A rather handsome looking house opposite Stobsmuir park and its ponds.

In the 1892/3 directory Marshall & Brush, manufacturers, aare identifed as being at the Dundee Carpet Works, Clepington Rd.

In the 1896 Dundee Directory Samuel Brush of Muircote, Clepington Rd and Walter Marshall of 15 Erskine Terrace are each listed as 'of Marshall & Brush of the Dundee Carpet Works'.

Isabella died on 18 September 1897 in Edinburgh.

Later that year, on 28 December, Samuel marries again to Martha Brown.  They married at the Manse in Mains.  Mains is a parish on the northern outskirts of Dundee.  A Manse is the home of the minister and according to 'Forfarian' in a discussion in Rootschat:

The normal place for a wedding ceremony was the home of the bride's parents. If, however, the bride had no parents, or was being married a long way from her home, the manse was the next best option. Towards the end of the 19th century weddings began to be held in hotels, restaurants and similar. Weddings in church were the exception rather than the norm until around the beginning of the 20th century, unless the couple were Roman Catholic or the family were gentry.

Much more detail about Scottish wedding, and other, practices can be found in

In a letter to my father many years ago one of Samuel's great grandchildren, Ralph John Howell Brush, wrote "you will see that Samuel married twice, we have very little information about his second marriage.  Apparently there was a family row over the matter and my father [John Howell Brush] only met his grandfather once, when he was at school."  The row may well have been about their ages. At the time of their marriage Martha was just 26 or 27 based on her age (30) at the 1901 census - younger than Samuel Carter who would become her stepson. Samuel was 52 at the time.

There is a reference (where?)at 1897/8 to Samuel being the organist at Victoria Wesleyan church (chapel?).

Samuel went on to have a further six children with Martha.  The first two, twins Mabel Sylvie and Sybil Martha were born in 1898.  Arthur Sidney Walter Marshall was born in October 1899. Edmund Cedrick was born and died in 1902 and Eva Dorothy and Frances Gertrude were born and died in 1903. A second set of twins. According to my father's notes all were born at Mains though the 1901 census says Mabel and Sybil were born at [Crail?] in Fifeshire. The Scottish records index showss them as born/registered at both Crail and Mains!

At the 1901 census Samuel, Martha and the three eldest children are living at 'Muircote'. They have three female servants - two of whom are called Isabella! Samuel is now identified as a jute carpet manufacturer and an employer. Martha is shown as having been born in Perth. A Martha Brown was born in Perth (mother's maiden name Thompson) in 1870. There is said to have been a Brown family at Crail though, as we will see later.

In the 1908-09 Dundee Directory the firm of Marshall & Brush, manufacturers, Dundee Carpet Works, are listed at Clepington Rd and Samuel is still "of" the firm..

At the 1911 census, Samuel, Martha and the three eldest children are still at 'Muircote' but now with only one servant. There is no record of the three born in 1903. Samuel is still identified as a carpet manufacturer and an employer.

The 1915 Valuation roll shows Samuel as proprietor of six properties. Had he cashed in his interests in carpet manufacturing and gone into property? He certainly seems to have done so by 1923 - as discussed in the entry for his son Samuel Carter,below.  As well as Muircote, of which he remains proprietor and occupier, he is also proprietor of dwelling houses at 195,199 and 201 Clepington Road and garden ground at number 210.

Maybe of more interest is a property at Nethergate South Side in Crail. It is recorded for each year 1911-1917. After which it is not mentioned. Crail is a small and historic fishing village at the far eastern end of the 'East Neuk' of Fife where the Firth of Forth finally becomes truly the North Sea, about 10 miles south of St Andrews and 25 South of Dundee. Which it seems was the birthplace of his twin daughters Mabel and Sybil.

This building was apparently known as 'The Priory'. It was built in or around 1910. Since 1972 it has been a Category B listed Building. The brief listing description is "Thoms and Wilkie c 1910. Scots baronial, picturesque composition. 2-storey, front to sea 3-window 3-storey NE tower with circular turret at N angle."  The building is apparently mentioned in a book by John Gifford called "The Buildings of Scotland Fife".  A brief quote was included in a now defunct webpage "THE PRIORY, a light-hearted baronial villa by Thoms & Wilkie for Samuel Brush of Dundee, 1915.  An odd but effective composition, white-harled and red-tiled, complete with gabled tower and circular turret."

The house's name is clearly taken from the adjoining, and much older, Priory doocot - which appears in the foreground of the picture above. According to the Crail Museum, the doocot was donated to the Crail Preservation Society in 1961 (1960 according to the CPS website), by the Brown Family who lived in Crail, and who owned the doocot at that time. You will recall that Martha's maiden name was Brown. Detailed information about the doocot can be found in a report on the Crail Preservation Society site. Whether there was actually a priory there is unclear but the doocot has long carried that name.

On 5 January 1920 Samuel makes his will stating his address as Muircote, 51 Clepington Road, Dundee. He had been there since at least 1891. It seems he left there shortly afterwards. The 1920 valuation roll does not list him as having any interest in Muircote. In 1919 and 1920 he is shown as proprietor and occupier of property in Forres, a small town about 25 miles west of Inverness, some way north of Dundee.

Surprisingly the Scotland census index does not show any of the family in 1921.

Samuel died on 20 November 1924 at Forres. In his will, from 1920, he appoints his two sons by his first wife and the husband of Annie Mary as executors.  Annie Mary gets a legacy and the residue is left to his second wife Martha. No mention is made of his business interests. The probate identifies him as 'of Torwood, Forres'( A house name at 6 Pilmuir road, Forres?). Both his sons are identifed as 'manufacturers' (even though Samuel Carter was a surgeon) and Walter Sandeman PHILIP as 'merchant'.

The 1930 to 1941 Valuation rolls show his widow Martha at North Berwick - poignantly the new house has also been named Muircote. She is named as the 'PROPRIETOR/ TENANT' of 23 Dirleton Avenue, a solid semi-detached still named Muircote according to the latest Google streetview image.

Martha died aged 81 in North Berwick RD in 1952.

The business which at some point had become incorporated as 'Marshall & Brush Ltd' continued until at least the 1960s. Marshall & Brush Ltd, Dundee Carpet Works, Balgray Place, Dundee is listed in the Edinburgh Gazette of 11 August 1964 as one of many firms under the following heading:

FACTORIES ACT, 1961 EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN AND YOUNG PERSONS IN accordance with section 117 of the Factories Act 1961 the Minister of Labour hereby gives notice that, during the month ending 31st July 1964, he has made special exemption orders relating to the employment of women and/or young persons at the following factories:

Samuel Carter Brush; 1868 - 1935

Samuel Carter was born on 23 August 1868 in Dundee. At the 1871 and 1881 censuses he is living with his parents, Samuel and Isabella.

By the 1891 census Samuel Carter Brush has left home.  He is a medical student living as a lodger in the house of Elizabeth Booth at 19 St Giles Street in the heart of Edinburgh, just off the Royal Mile.

He graduated as M.B Mast. Surg. in 1891 from the University of Edinburgh and was registered at Edinburgh on 10 August 1892. (source: The Medical Register for 1907)

In 1898 he married Elizabeth Kitchener in Hampstead, Middlesex in England.

They had two sons, Samuel Watson (born 1899) and Cecil Forbes (born 1898)

At the 1901 census they were living in the Mains RD, Forfar. In 1921 Samuel Carter and Samuel Watson are in the Mains and Strathmartine RD, Angus.

The 1905 Valuation roll shows Samuel C. as Tenant/Occupier of a dwelling house at Helenbank, Fairmuir Villas, Downfield Road, Dundee.  The 1907 and 1909 Medical registers (and several others) give his address as Helenbank, Strathmartine, Dundee. The 1905 Valuation roll shows him as Tenant/Occupier of a dwelling house at 292 Hilmbank, Strathmartine Road, Dundee.  The 1909/10 Dundee Downfield directory confirms Brush, Samuel C, M.B., CM. as living at Helenbank, 292 Strathmartine Road.

The DUNDEE DIRECTORY of 1923-1924 shows that by the time of its preparation - presumably 1922/3 - Samuel had handed over his carpet manufacturing interests to his sons. As discussed above his property dealings suggest he may have made the change sometime around 1910-15.  Both Samuel C. 'M.B., CM' of 292 Strathmartine Road, Dovinfield and John W of 2 Adelaide Terrace are described as "of Marshall & Brush, Dundee Carpet Works, 229 Clepington Rd, manufactrs " John is even identifed in his domestic entry as being a 'carpet manfr'.

Samuel Carter died on 27 November 1935, age 67, just six weeks after his son with whom he was buried in Dundee Western Cemetery 2.

Samuel Watson Brush joined the airforce on 20 April 1917 (service number 76557) [There is more on this to be searched] in married Eva Mary Mitchell CLARK in 1931 in Auchterhouse RD. They moved to Portsmouth and had two daughters, who may still be alive. Samuel died on 19 October 1935 aged just 36, Eva on 6 September 1973, age 73.

Cecil Forbes Brush, born 7 April 1898 joined the Royal Navy on 3 October 1917 (conscripted? volunteered?).  He is described in his service record (illustrated below) as a farmer. He died on active service in 1918 in H.M. Drifter Calceolaria. CALCEOLARIA was a "hired drifter, Adty No 562. Built 1908, 92grt, Kirkcaldy-reg KY.267. Armament: 1?3pdr AA. In service 2.15?10.18 as net vessel. Mined 27.10.18 off Elbow Light Buoy, Downs."  A drifter was a fishing boat which towed drift nets and taken into military service - for minesweeping

An example of a naval drifter From the Commonwealth war Graves Memorial Register From the Royal Navy Register of Seaman's services.
Vivid I was not an actual ship but was the Seamanship, Signalling and Telegraphy School in Devonport.  Similarly, Attentive III was not itself a ship but was the overall name or 'accounting base' for (part of?) the Dover Patrol. It seems to be particularly associated with Trawlers and Drifters.

Annie Mary Brush; 1870 - 1934

Annie Mary was born on 2 June 1870 in Dundee. At the 1871,1881 and 1891 censuses she is living with her parents, Samuel and Isabella.

In 1897 she married Walter Sandeman PHILIP at Dundee.

At 1901 they are living in the Forgan RD, Fife. The census index does not indicate any children with them. They are also at Forgan in 1911 with Walter W B PHILIP, age 9. From the Probate record we get his full nmes, Walter Watson Baxter PHILIP. I have not been able to locate them in 1921.

She died on 2 July 1934, age 64 in Forgan RD.

From the 1934 Probate list

John Wighton Brush; 1872 - 1962

John Wighton was born on 17 March 1872 in Dundee. At the 1881 and 1891 censuses he is living with his parents, Samuel and Isabella.

In 1897 he married Marion Ellis RIPPON at Sleaford, Lincolnshire in England.

At the 1901 census they were living in the St Mary RD in Angus - part of Dundee.

John Wighton and Marion had one son John Howell, born 1902 in Dundee.

The 1905 and 1915 Valuation rolls show John W. as Tenant/Occupier of a dwelling house at 2 Adelaide Terrace, Thistlemount, Dundee.

In 1911 all three are in the St Clement RD, Angus and in 1921 in the St Mary RD, Angus.

He married a second time in 1936 to Margaret Macrae in Perth RD.

He died on 5 November 1962, age 90 in Dundee West RD.

John Howell BRUSH born 1902 married Jean Elizabeth RECORDEN in 1930 in Forgan RD. Forgan is in Central Scotland, north of Perth. They had four children - which brings us to those who are still living. John Howell died 1980 in Jersey, Elizabeth on 6 October 1993, also in Jersey.

BRUSH SYBIL MARTHA GILL ALBERT E WALES 1923 685 / 4 / 1007 ST GILES

The 1901 census for Scotland included two other Brush households, both in Midlothian.  John age 68 and Jane age 26 in St Andrew RD and Margaret age 28 in Colinton RD. They do not appear to be connected to the Samuel tree.

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Next Sections
Chapter 29C: The younger children of Samuel and Sarah and
Chapter 29D: The children of John and Mary and