Category: Antiquities

Crusoe 350

4/9/2026

As many will know, this year marks the 350th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Selkirk (the Largo-born inspiration for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe). A whole series of events have already taken place over the summer to celebrate this milestone and more are planned for the remainder of the year. Recent events have included a screening of the film Castaway, a storytelling session, a performance of the musical 'Robinson' by the Ukrainian Amateur Theatre, a 'Selkirk Island Discs' evening, a sail-by from historic fishing vessel The Reaper along with a flotilla of accompanying boats and the launch of the new book 'Alexander Selkirk, Fiction's First Celebrity' by Ronnie Graham.

There was also a fantastic nine-day long exhibition, put together by Largo Heritage Group, hosted in the Aurrie Mor (former Largo St David's Church). The exhibition showcased details of the life of Alexander Selkirk, Largo during his lifetime, the Selkirk family artefacts that survive, the fictional character of Robinson Crusoe and an insight into the island of Juan Fernandez (now known as Robinson Crusoe Island) where Selkirk spent a solitary four years and four months between 1704 and 1709. Books, quizzes and challenges, dressing up, signed copies of the new book by Ronnie Graham all added to the event which was richly illustrated with paintings, photos, maps, artefacts and vintage props borrowed from the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther.

The Selkirk Exhibition also explored the past celebrations of Selkirk's life - including the 1976 festivities at the time of the 300th anniversary, the opening of Selkirk's Birthplace Museum in 1985 and the twinning celebrations in 2004 where the Largo villages were officially twinned with Robinson Crusoe Island.

The 350th anniversary celebrations will continue on until the end of the year, culminating in a re-run of the Selkirk Exhibition within the Scottish Fisheries Museum. This second run of the Selkirk Exhibition will see some of the Selkirk family artefacts come out of museum storage and return to the East Neuk of Fife after many years. All going well the items that will be loaned for this exhibition will include the Selkirk's powder horn, clasp knife, sea chest and coconut cup, along with a model dating back to the 1860s of the cottage where Alexander Selkirk was born. That is an event not to be missed! Keep an eye on the Scottish Fisheries Museum website for details of the opening date and full run of this exciting exhibition. Many thanks to the Largo Heritage Group for all their hard work to ensure that the 350th anniversary of Alexander Selkirk has been celebrated in style.

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Massney Braes

21/8/2026

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Massney Braes has long been known as a beauty spot. Its location between the former Lundin Links train station and Largo Harbour saw an influx of beach-going day trippers and summer visitors after the railway opened in 1857. Beach huts sprung up along this stretch of coast and in the 1930s the site was the focus of a series of improvements to enhance the experience of the many visitors that continued to flock there. In more recent decades, Massney Braes has also been known as the site of Pictish burials. In 1965 a Pictish cemetery was uncovered following winter storms. These days Fife Council describes the area as follows:

"A semi-natural stretch of greenspace located along the coast. A woodland strip occupies the elevated north side, while coastal grassland and scrub slope down to the shore. A main pathway leads east and west through the site from the main entrance on Drummochy Road, and more informal paths run through the grassland, forming part of the Fife Coastal Path".

However, there is another important aspect to the history of Massney Braes. During the 18th and 19th centuries this small location was an intensely industrialised site, featuring coal pits, a saltworks and a coastal quarry. A map has recently been made publicly available dated 1853 and labelled Mineral Plan for Lundin and Aithernie, which can be viewed in full here. This plan produced by mining engineer David Landale highlights coal workings labelled Aithernie, Pilmuir, Lundin and Drummochy, as well as locations of additional bores and trial pits.

Note that this plan was produced the year after the Standard Life Assurance Company purchased the Lundin and Aithernie estates). An extract of the map, showing the Massney Braes area, is shown below, next to a present day aerial view. At the top of the map lies Fir Park and the villages of Lundin Mill and Emsdorf. To the far right there is Largo Harbour and Pier along with the buildings of Drummochy. To the left of those buildings, the coastline runs west past the former salt works panhouse (the rectangle located below the letter P.) towards what is now Lundin Golf Links.

The eight black lines running from the coast represent seams of the Drummochy coalfield, while the letters in black (R, P and Q) represent bores and the letters in purple (A, B, C, D and E) represent trial pits. Just above those annotations are a series of small circles marked as 'Old Pits'. The latter likely date back to the days of the saltworks when the coal required to fire the salt pans had to be situated very close by in order to make such a venture viable.

Marked on the aerial view above are:

1. Area of Whinstone rock
2. Vicinity of the coal seams
3. Site of old pits
4. Former salt panhouse site

Back in 1898, evidence of these old pits was unearthed following a storm. As the Fife News of 22 October 1898 reported below "along the coast line in many places coal seams cropped out on the shore. Old residenters recall the existence of an "in-going eye" used before the days of pit shafts - still working in suitable circumstances - for winning the coal to the west of Mr Horne's workshop" (the workshop being in the former salt panhouse). The entrance to this old mine had fallen in some years before and now another similar one had opened up.

An "ingoing eye" (often spelled "ingaun ee") is a Scottish mining term for the mouth of a drift mine or an adit. It refers to the horizontal entrance driven directly into a hillside or coal seam outcropping at the surface, which contrasts with a traditional vertical mine shaft. These were typically in places such as valleys or coastlines where erosion had exposed the coal veins. The diagram below from Coal Mining in Scotland by E.D. Hyde illustrates this system. Coal or shale type material can still be picked up along the shore at Massney Braes today (see samples below).

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Alexander Selkirk's Birthplace Visitor Book

17/7/2026

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There have been a few depictions of the original cottage in which Alexander Selkirk (the inspiration behind Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe) was born. The one above is by Largo engraver William Ballingall from his 1872 book Shores of Fife. For decades after the death of Selkirk in 1721, folks would come from far and wide to visit this cottage, meet his relatives and view some of his surviving possessions. For a spell there was even a visitor's book, for those paying a visit to leave their name and details of where they had visited from. This book, which is preserved at the National Library of Scotland, is linked to a well-known Scottish painter.

Like many artists, Kenneth Macleay (1802-1878), pictured above in a calotype by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, visited Largo and the wider Fife coast. When MacLeay and his family visited Selkirk's birthplace in the summer of 1859, his wife Louisa gifted a smartly-bound book to be used to record visitors to the birthplace. At this time, it was 80-year-old Catherine Gillies, the great grand niece of Alexander Selkirk who acted as keeper of his artefacts. John Selkirk (Catherine's father) was the son of Alexander Selkirk, who in turn was the son of David Selkirk (or Selcraig), the eldest brother of the famous Alexander Selkirk.

Kenneth McLeay was born in 1802 in Oban - the son of a doctor. Receiving his early education at Crieff, he came to Edinburgh in 1814 to study at the School of Art at Picardy Place. In 1826 he was one of the artists who founded the Royal Scottish Academy. Securing the patronage of the Queen, he created life miniatures of nearly every member of the Royal family. Chiefly a watercolour portrait painter, he produced both miniature and full size portraits. He later became a professional photographer. The above piece from the 21 December 1863 Daily Review mentions an example of one of MacLeay's Royal commissions.

MacLeay was in his late 50s when the family visited Largo in 1859, just two years after the arrival of railway which made the village more easily accessible. The image above is the first page inside the visitors' book. The inscription reads...

Presented to Mrs Gillies, the great grand niece of Alexander Selkirk - The World famed "Robinson Crusoe" of Defoe, by Louisa MacLeay, wife of Kenneth Macleay R.S.A. 20th July 1859

Louisa MacLeay was the daughter of Sir James Campbell of Ardkinglas and Craigforth. Perhaps a fondness of Defoe's novel motivated her to donate the visitor book. Eight days later on 28th July, Kenneth, Louisa, several of their children and members of their wider family all left their names in the book (see below). This included family members from Louisa's side - the Campbells and Callanders - one of whom, Alexander Callander, served in Her Majesty's Indian Forces.

The visitors' book went on to be signed by a wide range of people between July 1859 and early 1862. Catherine Gillies (nee Selkirk) to whom the book was gifted, died on 1 February 1862 aged 83 years. Within the year the "quaint old house of her fathers, with its moss-covered thatch, its grey walls and small windows" was pulled down and not long after that the artefacts of Selkirk were put up for sale. However, after a hiatus, names continued to be added to the book up until 1868 - although the later visitors would have seen only the new replacement building and none of the major relics.

Local minister Reverend David Malloch, signed the book twice - first in August 1859, the year before he was ordained as minister of Largo United Presbyterian Church (just along the street from the cottage). He signed it again in 1860 after he officially had taken up his post. Other prominent local figures whose names appear in the book include Colin George Macrae of Drum Lodge, George Todd Chiene, the factor at Lundin House, commission agent Benjamin Philp and David Russell of Silverburn.

Other signatories came from other places across Fife (Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, St Andrews, Elie, Leven, Buckhaven and Cupar), elsewhere in Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Falkirk, Alloa, Inverness and John O'Groats), as well as the wider United Kingdom (London, Norwich, Manchester, Newcastle, Belfast, Cheshire, Surrey and Suffolk). A few even came from overseas - with examples including Germany, Hong Kong, Bombay, the USA and Australia. Some visitors had clearly arrived by sea - such as master mariner George Curties from Sunderland.

Louisa MacLeay died on 1 January 1868 aged 50 years and Kenneth died 1878 aged 76. Their visit to Selkirk's cottage and their generous gesture of gifting the book allows us to have this insight into who was visiting Largo and its Selkirk heritage back in the mid-nineteenth century. In terms of who visited the birthplace in the years before 1859, we can only imagine but with prominent figures such as Sir Walter Scott and his Fife-born publisher Archibald Constable paying a visit, there were no doubt many interesting characters among the earlier visitors.

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Alexander Selkirk's Gun - Part 3

16/6/2026

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On 11 December 1985, precisely a century to the minute after the unveiling of the Robinson Crusoe statue, the Alexander Selkirk Museum was opened in Lower Largo. The image above from the 12 December Scotsman shows TV personality Tom Weir next to a plaque which we had unveiled. The accompanying article noted that a couple of key artefacts were absent from the museum's collection. One was the sea-chest which was (and still is) held at the Scottish Museum of Antiquities (now the National Museum of Scotland). The other was the flintlock gun, which was of unknown whereabouts.

It was this article and the specifically the words "it is the gun which the family would most dearly like to get hold of" that prompted journalist Rick Wilson to set off on a mission to track Selkirk's gun down. In fact, his subsequent investigations identified three different guns with supposed links to 'Crusoe'. One was the gun known to have been in Lower Largo until around 1800 when it was sold to John Lumsdaine of Lathallan (read about that here). Another was a gun with a carved butt that emerged in the 1880s when a gentlemen contacted the Largo Field Naturalists' Society about it (read about that here). Then a third gun emerged from Rick Wilson's efforts.

While following the trail of guns one and two, Rick Wilson received a tip-off about an article in Sporting Gun magazine about a gun with a possible link to Robinson Crusoe. He contacted the magazine editor, who put him in touch with the author of the piece. Eventually the weapon in question was traced a Mrs Florence Osbourn of East Dereham, Norfolk. Her late husband had purchased the gun around 1953 from an antique shop in Newmarket, paying only a couple of pounds for it. After some negotiation, this gun was purchased for the Lower Largo Museum. The photograph below shows Ivy Jardine, the driving force behind the museum, holding the gun. The detail further below shows the name roughly carved in capital letters: ALEXR SELKIRK. Apparently on the reverse it read 1705.

From the start, there was some doubt over the authenticity of this gun. Experts from both the National Museum of Scotland and the Scottish United Services Museum at Edinburgh Castle had reservations about its age. When the small museum at Largo closed, the gun was offered to both the National Museum of Scotland and Christie's saleroom. Both declined to take the gun, as it was concluded that it could not be genuine. In Rick Wilson's 2009 book The Man Who Was Robinson Crusoe, it states that "there is some talk that it now resides in Germany". Indeed the gun was placed in Hamburg, Germany, where it was photographed in 2018 by travel blogger Eugene Kaspersky - see image below from his blog at https://eugene.kaspersky.com/

The third gun - probably still in Germany - is quite clearly different in design to the first gun, pictured below from its time at Lathallan House in the mid-1800s. Described as "a very long-barrelled brute with a wedge chopped off its butt", this musket could well be the one that accompanied Alexander Selkirk the island of Más a Tierra (Robinson Crusoe Island) between 1704 and 1709. Sadly, decades have passed since its whereabouts were known.

So, today, the situation remains much the same as the time when the article below appeared in the 6 January 1983 Hull Daily News. The Hull Docks Museum was searching for gun number one (the one pictured above), while the Clapham Antiquarists' Society were looking to track down gun two. Neither had success and it's ironic that today the only gun with known whereabouts is gun number three - the one with the least credibility. Perhaps revisiting the story of the three Selkirk guns in these days of the internet may yield some new leads. If you know something - please get in touch!

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Alexander Selkirk's Gun - Part 2

12/6/2026

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The previous post traced the history of the gun once possessed by Alexander Selkirk. This gun was potentially with him during his four years and four months on the island of Más a Tierra (Robinson Crusoe Island) between 1704 and 1709. Brought home to Largo, it remained with the Selkirk family until circa 1800 when it became the property of the Lumsdaines of Lathallan, remaining in their family until going up for sale at auction in Edinburgh in 1895. The buyer of the gun (described as very long-barrelled brute with a wedge chopped off its butt) was Mrs Hulda Whyte of Philadelphia, USA.

The motivation behind her purchase is unclear but the gun duly made its way across the Atlantic. Research into what happened next was carried out in 1976 (at the time of the Crusoe 300 celebrations) by Douglas Wright - a director of Keep Scotland Tidy, former soldier and history buff. He found that Mrs Whyte had sold the musket on to Mr Louis Schmidt, manager of Cafe Ostendorff German Kitchen on Market Street in Philadelphia.

This eatery was famous for its display of guns and taxidermy. The postcard image above shows the restaurant's Old Gun Exhibit. One of the guns in this image may well have been the musket of Alexander Selkirk. Ostendorff's (seen below just left of centre) closed around 1920 when the prohibition laws were enacted in Pennsylvania. However, Mr Wright's investigations suggested that the gun collection was still on display in Philadelphia at the time of the 150th anniversary of the USA, a century ago, in 1926.

Wright's research found that the gun was next given to the Mayor of Philadelphia, who in turn presented it to the British Ambassador to the United States of America Esme Howard. Howard was Ambassador from 1924 to 1930 and visited Philadelphia on 1 June 1929 to unveil a granite memorial cross dedicated to the memory of British veterans buried in the area. With the death of Esme Howard in 1939, the trail of this (likely genuine) gun goes cold. A plea in the 19 August 1976 Dundee Courier below, instigated by Douglas Wright, suggests that it may have moved to London Museum for a Daniel Defoe exhibition prior to being list.

A second gun with claims to belong to Alexander Selkirk emerged in the 1880s. While the first gun (with traceable links to the Selkirk family) was at still at Lathallan House, the Largo Field Naturalists' Society received an interesting letter dated 20 February 1882. The 6 April 1882 Fifeshire Journal below explains. The letter was from a gentleman in Sidcup, Kent who had bought a gun with the following carved into the stock:

A. Selkirk Largo NB 1701

..along with other words and imagery such a thistles and a seal. The letter writer recognises that there was a gun at Lathallan and suggests that Alexander Selkirk may have owned more than one gun - making it still possible that his (second) gun had a genuine connection. Note however that the man he had bought it from had no backstory to the gun, having bought it "merely as an old gun".

This carved gun was assessed as potentially genuine. It was surmised that Selkirk could perhaps have left it at his London lodgings. It was given to the Antiquarian Society of Scotland. The Field Naturalists visited there to make sketches of its carvings. Those sketches were then displayed at their museum in Upper Largo (the former school on North Feus). The piece below from 1 January 1886 East of Fife Record tells us that the gun subsequently moved to the British Museum.

However, the gun did not remain at the British Museum for long, if it was there at all. As it was later claimed that the porter at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford sold it to collector of antiquities Randolph Berens of South Kensington later in 1882. This was the story that appeared in The Golden Penny (a prominent illustrated weekly magazine published in London), in the 5 September 1903 issue. Berens, pictured below (at a later date in the 19 November 1919 Daily Express), explained that he had been touring museums in search of objects to acquire, when the porter alerted him to a gun which was he had in his lodge and was available for sale.

Upon the death of Berens, the carved gun was put up for sale at Sotheby's and sold in May 1924 for £250. The buyer was antiquarian bookseller Charles J Sawyer of Grafton Street London. As the 24 May 1924 Fife Free Press below shows, the gun was now asserted to be "the authentic weapon carried by Alexander Selkirk during his four years' exile". The earlier information from the gentleman in Sidcup seemingly lost and forgotten (i.e. that this was a different gun to the Lathallan one and that he had been sold it by a person to whom the gun had no meaning nor provenance).

Sawyer subsequently put the carved gun up for sale in December 1925 asking for £500. It too reportedly was sold to the USA, where its subsequent journey is unknown. If anyone reading this has information about either the first (likely genuine) gun or the second carved gun illustrated above - please do leave a comment or get in touch.

With two guns of interest lost in the mists of time, what of the third gun unearthed in the mid-1980s by the investigations of journalist Rick Wilson?

More on that to follow, linked to the opening in 1985 of Alexander Selkirk Museum in Lower Largo.

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Alexander Selkirk's Gun

5/6/2026

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When Largo-born Alexander Selkirk, the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, was marooned between 1704 and 1709 on Más a Tierra (Robinson Crusoe Island) one of the important items he had in his possession was a gun. This musket (a muzzle-loaded long gun) would have been a key tool for survival - providing a means of both a means of defence and tool for hunting food. Also referred to as a firelock or a flintlock, this gun would have had a firing mechanism, whereby a piece of flint held in a clamp would strike a steel plate to create sparks. The sparks would ignite a small amount of gunpowder to fire the gun.

It is presumed that the gun which Alexander Selkirk had with him on the island, returned home with him post-rescue. The question of where it is today, is an intriguing and complex one to attempt to unravel. In the 1980s, journalist Rick Wilson set off in pursuit of an answer to that question. In the resulting article, published in the Scotsman on 2 May 1986, not one, not two but three separate guns, each with a claim to have once belonged to Alexander Selkirk, were traced. The full article can be viewed here. Wilson went on to write the book The Man Who Was Robinson Crusoe (2009) in which there is a more detailed account of his gun investigations.

Eighteenth century sources suggest that Selkirk's gun was, after his death, in the possession of family in Largo. The extract above from a piece in the 1 December 1797 Scots Magazine clearly states that the musket was still in the possession of Alexander's grand nephew John Selkirk, a weaver. John was the grandson of Alexander's eldest brother David. Five years earlier, the Old Statistical Account of Scotland of 1792 for had similarly noted that "the chest and musket which Selkirk had with him on the island are now in possession of his grand nephew, John Selkirk, weaver in Largo".

However, around 1800 the gun left the Selkirk family. The 1803 reprint of Sir Robert Sibbald's A History Ancient and Modern of the Sheriffdoms of Fife and Kinross discusses Alexander Selkirk and the footnote below appears with reference to the whereabouts of his possessions. While John Selkirk was still reported to have the chest, the musket was now noted as "in the possession of a gentleman in the neighbourhood".

The gentleman in question was John Lumsdaine, who had purchased nearby Lathallan Estate to the south of Largoward in 1788. Lathallan is approximately five miles away from Lower Largo and can be seen in the top right of the Roy Military Survey of Scotland map (1747-55). Lumsdaine appears to have been a collector of historical curios. Like many others, he probably visited the Selkirk family cottage in Largo to view the relics of Alexander Selkirk. Perhaps he took a particular interest in the gun and made an offer for it that could not be refused.

When John Lumsdaine died in 1823, the estate of Lathallan passed to his son James. Within months of his father's death, James retired from active service as a Surgeon with the East India Company, and returned to Lathallan. He married Sophia Lindsay on 27 October 1824 and they had four sons: James (1827-1849), William Lindsay (1828-1859), John Small (1830-1860) and Stamford Robert (1831-1878). James died in 1853 and the estate passed initially to William, then John and finally to Stamford Robert. Stamford married Anna Maria Briggs of Strathairly in 1864 and they went on to have a son who died in infancy and then three daughters. The gun likely remained at Lathallan throughout this period.

When Stamford Robert Lumsdaine died in 1878, there was no male heir and his daughters were all young children. For over two decades, the Lathallan Estate was in the ownership of Trustees of the Late Stamford Robert Lumsdaine and was let to a series of tenants including Lieutenant Colonel Francis John Outhwaite, Colonel William Babington and Thomas Jeffrey Esquire. In 1895, the Trustees decided to sell the "fine collection of historical relics and curios" held within Lathallan House. Among them was "the fowling-piece" (an archaic term for a hunting gun) or musket of Alexander Selkirk (see 14 December 1895 Fife News above).

So, in 1895, a century and three quarters after the death of Alexander Selkirk, and around a century after the gun was procured by John Lumsdaine, the weapon left Fife. More to follow on what happened next, including the surfacing of a second gun with claims of association with 'Robinson Crusoe'.

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Largo House Engraving 1812

21/11/2025

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The three images above illustrate the changing face of Largo House over the years. First built around 1750 for James Durham (1732-1808), it was his eldest son James Durham (1754-1840) that extended the original mansion to the layout shown at the top in the 1812 engraving. Soon afterwards, in 1815, he had the stable block built to designs by Alexander and James Leslie.

The engraving appeared in the Scots Magazine and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany of 1 April 1812 alongside a brief description of the property. In the engraving, Largo House appears quite stark, without the mature planting around it nor railings around the steps. In fact there are no signs of life in and around the building, aside from the trees in the background. Notice the gate and stone wall to the rear of the house, however, providing easy access to the orchard and walled garden.

The 1812 depiction was drawn by John Burnet and sculpted (engraved) by Robert Scott (13 November 1777–1841) the renowned Scottish engraver. Burnet was one of Scott's pupils. John Burnet was born and raised in Fisherrow in Musselburgh, a village just outside Edinburgh. His father George Burnet was the surveyor-general of excise for Scotland. John received some initial artistic training before taking a seven years apprenticeship with Scott.

Robert Scott first became known for a set of Views of Seats and Scenery chiefly in the Environs of Edinburgh, published in 1795 and 1796. He contributed plates for many years to the Scots Magazine, including this one of Largo House (and another featuring Lundin House). Eventually, he obtained a studio at 65 Princes Street in Edinburgh. One of his depictions of Robert Burns is shown below and a link to more examples of his work can be found here.

Coming back to Largo House owner, James Durham - after the death of his wife Elizabeth (daughter of Colonel Sheldon of Flitwick House) in 1826, James married for a second time in 1827 to Margaret, eldest daughter of Colonel John Anstruther Thomson of Charlton. The pair made further additions to Largo House around 1830 by extending further to the rear of the building. Another significant, if smaller scale, change made during General Durham's era was the addition of a coat of arms to the tympanum on the frontage of Largo House.

The full heraldic achievement of General James Durham bears two mottoes: Victoria non praeda (Victory not booty (or loot)) above the crest; and below the arms: Per mare per terras (Through the sea, through the lands). Note that in the view of the coat of arms below you can just make out the carved wording underneath which states Genl. James Durham 1830.

It seems likely that the 1750 date was added at the same time, as the lettering styles appear very similar (see comparison below). The construction of Largo House probably spanned over more than one year, around two and three quarter centuries ago.

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Servants at Largo House

17/10/2025

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The previous post considered the interior of Largo House as a newly constructed Georgian mansion house, focussing on the "upstairs" richly-furnished public rooms. However, the "below stairs", more functional parts of the house are also interesting to consider. Servants in various roles would have worked over the decades in spaces such as the kitchen, scullery, cellar, pantry, washing house, laundry and stables. Historical tax records, recently published online, list the names of thousands of domestic servants across 18th century Scotland, including those that worked at Largo House for James Durham Esquire.

In Scotland, taxes on male servants were assessed between 1777 and 1798, and taxes on female servants between 1785 and 1792. Throughout all of that time period James Durham (1754-1840) was the owner of Largo House. Shown above is the earliest example of one of his servant tax returns - detailing the male servants at Largo House in 1777. The list comprised three individuals: James Brouster (house servant), Thomas Taitt (coachman) and Thomas Anderson (gardener). Taxes were levied on wealthy households that employed "non-essential servants", such domestic help. Roles considered "essential", such as farm labourers and factory workers, were exempt from this tax.

Over the whole period that these taxes applied (1777 to 1798), James Durham had servants in the following roles at Largo House:

Housekeeper
Cook
Cook's Maid
Laundry Maid
Chambermaid
House Servant
Butler
Coachman
Footman
Chaise Driver
Gamekeeper
Gardener

The total number of servants, and the roles listed, varied a little from year to year. There was of course a clear male/female division of roles, with the females covering the roles of housekeeper, cook, cook's maid, laundry maid and chambermaid, while male servants carried out the roles of butler, coachman, footman, gamekeeper and gardener.

Thomas Bardwell, butler at Woodton Hall, Norfolk in 1774

The butler was the head of the male domestic staff, whose responsibilities included overseeing the wine cellar, managing the silver and other tableware, and supervising the footmen and other male servants. The butler would also be in charge of setting the table and serving meals. He would tend to welcome guests and be the point of communication between the master of the house and the staff. Supporting the butler would be the footman - performing a wide range of duties from attending doors to serving meals, and from shifting heavy items to running all manner of errands.

The housekeeper was in charge of the house as a whole, ensuring its appearance was always as expected. Other female servants and kitchen staff would report to her. This included the laundry maid who was responsible for washing, drying and ironing fine linen for family and guests, as well as the servants’ linen. Laundry would have been a long and laborious process, involving boiling water over a coal or wood fired stove, using wash boards and dolly tubs. Cast iron irons would also have been heated on a stove.

The Scullery Maid; Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin; Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow

A few examples of long-serving staff at Largo House during this period included:

Alexander Norval (or Norvil) - Footman from 1791 until his death in 1797. The record of his burial at Largo is shown above.

George Stein - Gardener between 1786 and 1798

Margaret (Peggy) Lawson - who progressed from Cook's Maid to Cook between 1785 and 1791

James Millar - initially described as a "chaise-driver" but later "coachman" between 1787 and 1795

Thomas Keay - Butler between 1795 and 1797

If you had an ancestor that worked among the domestic staff at Largo House, please leave a comment.

Gamekeeper and Cook by David Wilkie; Bradford Museums and Galleries

Read more about the life of a Georgian servant here: www.nts.org.uk/stories/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-servant

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Largo House Interior

10/10/2025

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The grand exterior of Largo House, now sadly obscured by vegetation, is familiar to many, from both images and from memory. The interior of this now ruinous mansion house however remains more mysterious. Photographs taken inside the house while still occupied appear to be non-existent. It's intriguing to imagine how the inside might have appeared when the house was first completed back in the 18th century. So, what can be pieced together from looking at similar grand homes of that era and from the few fragments of Largo House-specific information that survive?

A typical Scottish Georgian mansion featured distinct "upstairs" and "below stairs" areas. The upstairs public rooms were richly decorated and furnished - suitable for aristocratic living and for elegant social functions. Conversely, the areas inhabited by hard-working domestic staff were simple and practical. Rooms such as the drawing room, dining room and bedrooms were designed with a focus on symmetry, light, space and comfort. A sense of the floor plan of the original core of Largo House is provided by the drone photograph below. Note the central stair hall surrounded by many chimney flues.

Surviving records suggest a colourful and luxurious interior existed when Largo House was new. One room, described as the "low red room" was "partly hung with arras". Arras is a tapestry hung as a wall decoration, usually with a rich and complex stitched design. The term is derived from the French city of Arras, which was a major centre of tapestry production in the 14th and 15th centuries. There was a "blue room" where the bed was hung with "blue turk hangings" (turk being a type of fabric used in upholstery at the time), as well as a "green room". There was a "mid room" and a "high mid room" (which, unusually for the time, was hung with tartan at the foot of the bed).

Accounts dating to 1766, from Young and Trotter, the Edinburgh upholsterer and carpeting merchant, detail that Largo House was supplied with "blue and orange carpeting", as well as "window curtains of cherry" with "yellow tassels". The Drawing Room was furnished with "blue silk damask chairs". Damask is a reversible, woven fabric that features a distinct pattern created by a special weave. Named after the city of Damascus, where it was produced in the Middle Ages, damask was originally made from silk. Used for upholstery, curtains, and table linens, its pattern features a contrast between matte and shiny yarns.

There were also references to a "bed hung with red cambrot" and an "easie chair covered with yellow silk". A "large fine staircase lantern" was also ordered for the house from Young and Trotter. The image collages above and below are designed to evoke a sense of what the interior of Largo House might have looked like during the late 18th century - incorporating some of the known objects, colours and textures.

The advert below for Largo House furnisher Young and Trotter appeared in the 22 November 1750 Caledonian Mercury. Based at the Luckenbooths on the High Street Edinburgh, the firm was established in the 1740s by Thomas Trotter and Robert Young. The sign above their shop, and the eye catcher in the advert below, featured a pelican bleeding from the breast to feed her young.

Another supplier of interiors to Largo House was William Hamilton, the Edinburgh upholsterer and cabinet maker. James Durham commissioned furniture from him in 1769/70 - including a large mahogany bedstead. Hamilton was a competitor to Young and Trotter, although eventually the two firms combined. While still operating under his own name, William Hamilton is known to have executed commissions for the Duke of Argyll (1758-61), Lord Milton (1764-5), Sir James Clerk (1770-2) and Balfour Ramsay (1768-9), as well as James Durham of Largo (1769-70).

It is also well-documented that architect John Adam (brother of Robert Adam) supplied a chimney piece for Largo House. The specification on the account (which was dated May 1759), was "statuary marble" (that is marble of exceptional quality - literally meaning suitable for statues). Further details of the piece specified "ogee moulding" (a decorative trim with an S-shaped profile which features a concave curve that flows into a convex curve) and "dentils" (small, tooth-like rectangular blocks arranged in a repeating pattern).

No doubt there would have been many paintings on the walls, including family portraits and pieces by favourite Scottish artists. These would have been added to over the years that the Durham family inhabited Largo House, which was up until 1868, when the Largo estate was sold to William Johnson of Lathrisk. If you have further information on the interior of Largo House in its heyday please do get in touch or leave a comment.

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Catherine Gillies (nee Selkirk) - 1779-1862

25/4/2025

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Catherine Selkirk was born in Largo on 29 January 1779 and was baptised two days later in the presence of the congregation of Largo Kirk, as the record below tells us. Her parents were "John Selkirk weaver in Nether Largo and Margaret Martin his spouse". Nether Largo was the name used then for Lower Largo. The above photograph appeared in the book 'Seatoun of Largo' by Ivy Jardine (1982). John Selkirk (Catherine's father) was the son of Alexander Selkirk, who in turn was the son of David Selkirk (or Selcraig), the eldest brother of the famous Alexander Selkirk. This made Catherine 'Robinson Crusoe's' great-grand-niece.

When Catherine was eight years old her mother Margaret died. The record below shows that she died on 14 December 1787 and was buried on 17 December. Just over a year later, her father John remarried, to Isabel Peattie or Pattie.

So what was life like in Largo around that time?

The Old Statistical Account of 1792, written by the Reverend Mr Spence Oliphant of Largo Kirk, provides some insight to daily life. In terms of health and wellbeing, the account tells of how "coughs are very general, rheumatism and other inflammatory complaints are not infrequent. Epidemic disorders sometimes appear..." often affecting those on "a low and spare diet". The typical diet of the population was described as "meagre broth, potatoes, cheese, butter in small quantities, and a preparation of meal in different forms, make up their constant fare". Meat was generally reserved for "a birth or marriage, or some other festival".

At the time fish were "scarce" and "at present there is not a fisherman in Largo, and only 1 in Drummochy, who fishes in the summer and catches rabbits in the winter". The pier at Largo was in existence at the time "where vessels of 200 ton may receive or discharge their cargoes". In the Parish there were 3 corn mills, 2 barley mills, 3 lint mills and 2 salt pans. The main industry of the Parish was weaving, of mostly "linens and checks", with every weaver having access to a bleaching ground. The flax was mostly imported but was dressed and spun in the village. The image below provides some impression of how the buildings along the shore at Lower Largo looked at this time, although this particular artwork dates to a several decades later.

The Old Statistical Account also refers specifically to Alexander Selkirk and noted that "the chest and musket which Selkirk had with him on the island, are now in the possession of his grand-nephew, John Selkirk, weaver in Largo", referring to the father of Catherine. Upon the death of John Selkirk, Catherine became the keeper of the relics. These well-travelled artefacts had been left behind by Alexander around 1717 when he departed the village suddenly with Sophia Bruce.

Catherine Selkirk married fisherman/ linen weaver David Gillies in 1799. Some sources state that the couple had thirteen children but it is difficult to be certain as records are incomplete. In the census of 1841 (see extract above) David, Catherine, David junior (a fisherman) and Janet are listed in the household, as well as Catherine's sister Margaret Selkrig, aged 50. David Gillies died in 1846, leaving Catherine a widow. In the 1851 census (below) Catherine was recorded, aged 72, along with the only other member of the household - a 10-year-old grandchild, Christian Gillies.

In September 1856, a London-based publication named Willis' Current Notes, included an article containing "New facts respecting Robinson Crusoe". The piece began as shown below and went on to quote extensively from the Largo Kirk Session records, listing various examples of the "naturally turbulent" lives of the family and their "quarrelsome habits". The piece ends by referring to "Widow Gillies" (Catherine) as the last of her generation of Selkirks, who reports suggest at this time had been predeceased by nine of her children.

A picture is painted of a poor widow who relies on "the benevolence of those who visit her interesting cottage, and the relics of her far-famed predecessor". Among the visitors that viewed the cottage, the sea-chest and the cocoa nut cup, had been Sir Walter Scott and his Fife-born publisher Archibald Constable. The pair arranged for a new rosewood stem and foot to be added to Selkirk's cocoa nut cup, along with an inscribed silver band to encircle the rim. Constable also paid for the Largo Kirk Session records to be rebound.

Catherine lived to see the arrival of the railway in Largo in 1857, which must have been momentous for the community. At the time of the 1861 census she was living alone, and she died the following year, on 1 February 1862, just days after her 83rd birthday. Her obituary in the local press spoke of a "pleasant spoken" woman, who had experienced a life of labour and of "toiling, rejoicing, sorrowing". Having lost her mother as a child and predeceased by several children - sorrow was a theme throughout her life, yet this was coupled with a lifelong association with her famous relative and the home in which she lived was surrounded by public interest.

Among the children who outlived her were:

Margaret Allan nee Gillies (married shoemaker David Allan); born c 1801, died 1876 aged 75
Samuel Gillies (fisherman); born c 1808, died in 1892 aged 84 at Bower House, Lower Largo
Christina Deas nee Gillies (married fisherman John Deas); born c1813, died 1894 aged 81
James Gillies (fisherman/whaler); born 1816, died 1902 aged 87
Alexander Gillies (fisherman); born c1823, died 1898 aged 76

On her death record below her mother was incorrectly noted as Isabella Peattie, who was actually her step-mother. Her son Samuel registered her death and must have been illiterate as he signed with a cross as 'his mark'. Catherine was buried at the new cemetery very recently opened in the Parish. Soon after her death, the old cottage and birthplace of Alexander Selkirk (1676-1721) was demolished and the current Crusoe Buildings built upon the site. The relics so long cared for by Catherine were sold - finally separated from the birthplace of their former owner.

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Crusoe 350

Massney Braes

Alexander Selkirk's Birthplace Visitor Book

Alexander Selkirk's Gun - Part 3

Alexander Selkirk's Gun - Part 2

Alexander Selkirk's Gun

Largo House Engraving 1812

Servants at Largo House

Largo House Interior

Catherine Gillies (nee Selkirk) - 1779-1862

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