About Margaret Burns Scott

My great grandfather Peter was born in September 1866 in Broomrigg in the Parish of Pencaitland. His mother, Margaret Burns, was unmarried and the baby Peter was registered as Peter Scott Burns. As an adult he stated using the surname Scott as his father was called James Scott. Peter was skilled at ploughing and worked with the huge shire horses that were common at the time. But this was not year-round work and he moved often for work throughout his life. In the 1891 he was working as a railway surfaceman and boarding with the Hyde family at 162 High Street, Inveresk near Mussleborough. On the 15th of July 1892 he married Margaret Borthwick Gardiner in Bonnington. At this time he was living in Fountainbridge and was working in a brewery. At that time Fountainbridge was the home of the McEwans brewery. In 1901 he was a 'park and road estate manager' at Drum Lodge in Gilmerton.

 He also signed on several times in the Territorial Army and was a good piper. 

In 1905 he was working as a pit labourer at  the Woolmet Colliery between Danderhall and Newton Villages, on the southeastern outskirts of Edinburgh. This mine was sunk in 1898 by the Niddrie and Benhar Coal Company,

He first engaged in the territorial Army in 1890 under the name Peter Kelly (his step father's surname), joining the Royal Scots. In his Territorial Army papers from 1908 you can see him committing to the Royal Scots, 8th Battalion, while living and working in Dalhousie Chesters. 

Peter Scott died in 1955 at Bonnington Farm Lodge, Ratho.

Their six Children were:

• Peter Burns Scott, born 1892 in Bonnington, near Peebles. 
• Janet Muir Scott, born in February 1894 in Summerside, Liberton.
• William Scott, born in Liberton in 1896.
• Margaret Burns Scott, born in Liberton in 1902.
• Mary Tait Scott, born in  Jan 1905 in Crangour Cottages, Newton (near Danderhall) close to Drum Park, Gilmerton.
• Anne Scott, born in in 1907 in Cockpen, Midlothian.

Peter was born in 1892 in Bonnington, an area just on the south side of the town of Peebles. In 1922 in Peebles he married Isabella Brunton McDougall. In 1911 he was working as a ploughman like his father in the parish of Carrington, South of Bonnyrigg. Peter served in the First World War. Peter was, like his father, a piper. Peter and Helen had one daughter called Helen born in 1923. Isabella died in 1958. Peter passed away in Ratho in 1966. 

Mary Tait Scott (known as Polly) was born in 1905 at Newton. She married Charles Saunders (born 1892) who was a Gunner in the Royal Artillery and, for a time, bat man to a General. They married at the Masonic Hall, Currie in September 1929. They had two sons. In 1939 they were living at 130 Berechurch Road, Colchester and Charles was a stores man in the ordnance department. Charles died in 1971. Mary died in 1987 in Colchester.

Janet was born on Valentine's Day 1894 in Summerside, Liberton. She married John Tully, a baker,  at St. Giles in 1918.  Janet ran a sweet shop in Leith. John and Janet had three children, Margaret, Leonard, and James. 

After 30 years of marriage John Tully died in 1948. 

Later, in 1951 she married John Spence in Leith. John was an artist and sign writer.  In the picture to the left you can see (Left to right) her daughter Margaret Tully, her mother Margaret Scott,  and her husband John Tully. Finally there is Janet herself. Janet passed away aged 68 in 1963. At the time she was living at 7 Calder Walk, Edinburgh..

William Gardiner was born in Stobo near Peebles in 1846. Both 1851 and 1861 census information shows him living at Alterstone Farm near Stobo (near Peebles). In March 1869 he married Janet Muir in Symington. Janet was born and raised in Symington. In 1871 they were living in Carmichael, Lanarkshire with two very small sons named William and John.  William and Janet went on to have eleven children. Their third child, Margaret, was my great grandmother. William died in April 1910 in Crawfordjohn. His wife Janet had died fifteen years previously in in October 1895 in Peebles.