A previous blog post covered the Rodgers of Lundin - a long-standing family of old Lundin Mill. One of the Rodgers, Margaret born 1863, married John Caseby in 1886, in Burnside House, where her family had lived for generations. John Caseby was a boot maker, who would later have a shop in Bridge House (the building to the left in the photograph below - behind the bridge) above which the family lived. The painting above depicts John Caseby at work and is entitled "The Cobbler". It was painted by David Simpson Foggie R.S.A. (1878-1948), after the Caseby family had moved from Lundin Links to Balmullo.
Dundee-born, Foggie trained at Dundee College of Art, before continuing his studies in Antwerp, Paris and Florence. He returned to Scotland in 1904 and had a cottage built on Lucklaw Hill overlooking Leuchars and Balmullo, which is where he got to know the Casebys. Foggie enjoyed painting people who worked with their hands. Farmers, fishwives, miners, shipwrights and umbrella menders were among his subjects. John Caseby, who in the 1911 census was described as Bootmaker (Handsewn) was a natural subject for David Foggie. The artist died on 2 June 1948, aged 69, after a severe attack of asthma. The Scotsman described him as “a figure painter who found beauty in ordinary life and expressed it with honesty.”
One of John and Maggie Caseby's sons was Reverend Alexander Caseby. Alexander was born in Bridge House in Lundin Links in 1898. Inspired to become a missionary at the age of eleven, Alexander went on to do just that in Livingstonia in Malawi. Returning to Scotland after a time of ill health, he and his wife Williamina lived at Ernest Cottage in Lundin Links for a spell. Their son Cyril was born in the cottage in October 1930 and was baptised by Reverend J. Stewart Rough, in Largo St David's Church on 19 December. The children are shown in the photograph above. They are, from left to right, Sandy, Cyril, Margaret and Grant. The two older boys were twins. The Caseby family are shown again below (from left to right, Sandy, Williamina, Cyril ,Margaret, Alexander and Grant). They moved to Newmills in 1933 but continued to have a great affection for the Largo area, visiting often.
Living in Ernest Cottage, the family were very close to Daniel Ramage's garage. Ramage operated a bus service and later ran the Upper Largo garage for a spell. In the image above, Sandy, Cyril and Grant Caseby can be seen in front of one of Ramage's buses inside the garage. Note the D. Ramage, Lundin Links written along the bus in small lettering below the larger ‘Ramages’ logo. Cyril kindly shared these family photographs, including the one below of his wife Gladys, daughter Alison and son Derek, standing in front of Ernest Cottage in 1971.
Cyril's father, Alexander died in 1991, aged 93. He had written the piece below in 1970 for Largo St David's Parish Church Quarterly Magazine. In the article, he notes that his mother Maggie Rodger was from a line of Rodgers going back 200 years in Lundin Mill. Reverend Caseby also participated in the bicentenary of Largo St David's Church in 1971 (see extract below from the programme of events). The Caseby family are proud of their Rodger heritage and this name continues to run through the family to the present day. Cyril's younger brother is Ronald Rodger Caseby (and Ronald's son is named Rodger).
With many thanks to Cyril Caseby for the wonderful photographs and the information about the Rodgers and the Casebys.
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