Catherine McCarron & The McCarron's of Ireland & Muse Lane, Glasgow
My great grandmother Mary Heaney was the second wife of my great grandfather John Strachan.
His first wife was Catherine McCarron also known as Catherine McCann. John and Catherine's short lived marriage was tainted with tragedy and misery. This page focuses on her and her extended family. Though not a blood relation of ours, the part she played in John Strachan's life influenced him hugely and in many ways turned him into the man he later became.
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Catherine's parents were Bernard McCarron (1844 - 1899) and Catherine Gillespie (1845 - 1895) - They were both of Mount Charles, a small village of 650 acres in the civil parish of Inver, Donegal, Ireland. Bernard was named after his father, his mother was Helen Harkins.
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Bernard married Catherine's mother in Inver, Donegal on November 2nd 1858.
Mount Charles, Inver, Donegal
Early life in Ireland was tough but things became even bleaker with the second of Ireland's Great Famines. Between 1845 and 1852 the potato famine was a period of mass starvation, disease, and emigration. During the famine, approximately 1 million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the island's population to fall dramatically. The cause of the famine was a potato disease commonly known as potato blight, which ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s. However, the impact in Ireland was disproportionate, as one third of the population was dependent on the potato for a range of ethnic, religious, political, social, and economic reasons.
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After marrying Bernard and Catherine went on to have 5 children
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Hugh McCarron born 5th September 1866 in Derry
Isabella McCarron born 14th December 1867 in Derry
Mary Anne McCarron born 25th March 1871 in Derry
Bernard McCarron born 15th May 1872 in Derry
Catherine McCarron born 9th January 1876 in Glasgow
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It's uncertain exactly when the family made the move from Ireland to Scotland but what is certain is that Bernard and Isabella died in infancy and it was only Mary Anne and Hugh who made the journey with their parents.
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The family arrived in Glasgow and settled in the area called Milton, about 2 and a half miles from the city centre. Catherine was born in 39 Muse Lane, Glasgow in 1876.
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Muse Lane, Glasgow
The 1881 Census shows the family living at 62 Water Street, Milton (Shiskine Street in modern times) however they also had strong connections with city centre specifically the area around High Street.
High Street, Glasgow City Centre 1900
Marriages of the McCarron Children
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Mary Anne McCarron married Hugh Butler Glasgow Aug 10th 1888 then later Henry Carr in Glasgow on 18th September 1923
Hugh McCarron married Mary Crudden at Garnet Hill Chapel, Glasgow on Dec 30 1889.
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Catherine McCarron married John Strachan at The Church of Scotland, Mansewood, Union Street, Hamilton, on the 25th
March 1904
Mary Anne McCarron and Hugh Butler
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Hugh Butler was born in Glasgow in 1864 to Hugh Butler and Margaret Rankin, they lived at 88 Garscube Road, Milton, Glasgow. Little is known about his childhood except that his father died when he was 18, in an accident, when he fell 30 feet from the mast of a ship and split his skull wide open. In May 1887, at the age of 24 Hugh enlisted for the Army. His year in service wasn't particularly successful and he was eventually discharged in June 1888, described by his superiors as 'Drunken, Incorrigible and Worthless'. He lost all pension rights. The following month he married Mary Anne and quickly afterwards two children were born. Catherine Butler born 2nd September 1890 on Stirling Street, Milton, Glasgow and her brother Hugh Butler followed on 16th November 1892.
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Sources suggest the marriage wasn't a particularly happy one.
In 1894 Hugh was sentenced to fifty days in prison for assaulting a police man - It would be the first in a string of offences. In 1900 he was once again in trouble. This time however he had the help of Mary Anne and Catherine and they were all arrested and appeared in court. The charge was theft, specifically breaking into a neighbour's house. It wasn't the first time the ladies had been arrested for theft and in fact records confirm that for all three of them, theft was a part of daily life.
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In 1901 Mary Anne was once again in trouble with the law this time however she was found to be guilty and imprisoned. She was held in Duke Street Prison, Glasgow, her children were taken from her and adopted by the Woods family in Alloa.
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Duke Street Prison, Glasgow circa 1900
Hugh and Catherine were safe in Alloa, living with their new adopted family. They were cared for by Catherine Woods and her children Dinah , Isabella, William, and Catherine. However life in Glasgow was about to become even harder.
1901 Census Shows Hugh and Catherine in Catherine Wood's care
Life for the poor in overcrowded Glasgow was influenced by sickness and early death. Indeed, between the 1820's and 1830's the average age of death in Glasgow, already low at about 42 years for men and 45 for women, fell by about five years. It only recovered to early 19th century levels in the 1880s, when killer diseases such as typhus were finally brought under control. Simply living in the city was damaging to health. The 1830's witnessed major cholera outbreaks in Glasgow, affecting rich and poor alike. Air quality was bad due to industrial pollution and coal fires, which is why the middle classes migrated up-wind to the West End. The young and the old, the vulnerable in society, suffered most from the effects of poor living conditions. Even in the 1890s one in seven babies died in Glasgow, mainly from the common diseases of childhood such as measles and diarrhoea. Most families, be they rich or poor, experienced tragedy and grief arising from the death of children or the loss of a parent while children were still young. In an age that recognised death through elaborate funerals and complex mourning rituals, the death of a loved one could impose a major financial burden on a family and the shame of a pauper burial was keenly felt.
Various streets in and around Glasgow City Centre 1890's
Timeline
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1838 - Catherine Gillespie is born Mount Charles, Donegal, Ireland. Her parents were James Gillespie and Catherine Cairns.
1839 - Bernard McCarron is born in Mount Charles, Donegal, Ireland. His parents Bernard McCarron and Helen Harkin.
1858 - Catherine Gillespie and Bernard McCarron marry in Inver, Donegal, Ireland 2 Nov 1858.
1863 - Hugh Butler born, Milton, Glasgow, to parents Hugh Butler and Margaret Rankin
1866 - Catherine gives birth to her first child Hugh McCarron, Derry, Ireland 5th September 1866.
1867 - Catherine gives birth to her second child Isabella McCarron, St Columbs, Derry, Ireland, 14 Dec 1867.
1867 - Mary Crudden born, County Tyrone, 1867 Her parents were Francis Crudden and Catherine Mooney
1870 - Catherine gives birth to her third child Mary Anne McCarron, Derry, Ireland, 25 March 1870.
1871 - Hugh Butler living at 88 Garscube Road with his parents Hugh Butler and Margaret Rankin.
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1873 - Catherine gives birth to her fourth child Bernard McCarron Jnr, Derry, Ireland, 15 May 1873.
1867 - 1873 Bernard Junior and Isabella die in infancy, Derry, Ireland
1875 - Bernard Snr, Catherine (heavily pregnant) Hugh and Mary Anne leave Derry to travel to Scotland
1875 - The family settle in Glasgow at 39 Muse Lane.
1876 - Catherine gives birth to her fifth child Catherine McCarron, 39 Muse Lane, Glasgow, 9 January 1876
1881 - The family move to 62 Water Street, Milton, Glasgow
1887 - Hugh Butler joins the Army aged 16, May 1887
1888 - Hugh Butler discharged from Army, 'Drunkeness, Incorrigible and Worthless' June 1888
1888 - Mary Anne McCarron marries Hugh Butler, Glasgow, 10th August 1888
1889 - Hugh McCarron marries Mary Crudden, Garnett Hill Chapel, Glasgow, 30 December 1889
1890 - Mary Anne McCarron Butler gives birth to her first child Catherine Butler, 57 Stirling Street, Glasgow
1891 - The family move to 2 Stirling Street, Glasgow
1891 - Hugh McCarron and Mary Crudden move to 65 Maitland Street, Glasgow
1891 - Mary Crudden gives birth to her first child Kate McCarron, Glasgow
1892 - Mary Anne McCarron Butler gives birth to her second child Hugh Butler, 46 Ann Street, Milton, Glasgow, 16 Nov 1892
1893 - The rest of the family move to 48 Maitland Street, Glasgow
1894 - Hugh Butler imprisoned for 50 days, for police assault
1894 - Bernard McCarron now calling himself Bernard McCann applies for Poor Relief, 10 October 1894
1895 - Catherine Gillespie McCarron applies for Poor Relief, 23 October 1895
1895 - Mary Crudden gives birth to her second child James McCarron, 160 Cowcadden Street, Glasgow, 11 Feb 1895
1895 - Bernard McCarron is admitted to Glasgow Royal Infirmary suffering from Chronic Bronchitis.
1895 - Catherine Gillespie McCarron dies in an accident at 52 Ann Street, Port Dundas - Severe burns to face and body.
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1895 - Catherine Gillespie McCarron is buried in a paupers grave at St Peters Cemetery, 1900 London Road, Glasgow.
1896 - Mary Anne McCarron Butler appears in court charged with theft, 24 August 1896
1897 - Mary Crudden gived birth to her third child Susan McCarron, 73 Maitland Street, Glasgow
1897 - Mary Anne McCarron Butler gives birth to her third child James Butler, 42 Lyon Street, Glasgow, 12 February 1897
1898 - Death of James Butler, Aged 1 year, 21 Milton Lane, Glasgow, 8 March 1898
1898 - Bernard McCarron applies for entry to the Poor House. Order is granted and his admitted 22 July 1898.
1898 - Bernard McCarron is transferred from the Poor House to Glasgow Royal Infirmary
1899 - Mary Crudden gives birth to her fourth child Hugh McCarron Jnr, Glasgow
1899 - Bernard McCarron applies for entry to the Poor House this time it is denied due to his failing health.
1899 - Bernard McCarron dies, 47 Stirling Street, Bronchitis, 12 June 1899
1899 - Bernard McCarron is buried in a paupers grave at St Peters Cemetery, 1900 London Road, Glasgow
1900 - Mary Anne McCarron Butler and Hugh Butler appear in court charged with housebreaking at 48 Stirling Street, Glasgow (neighbours house) - Verdict : not proven, 27 Feb 1900
1901 - Hugh McCarron Jnr dies, Bronchitis for 1 month, 22 November 1901, Glasgow
1901 - Mary Anne McCarron Butler imprisoned, Duke Street Prison
1901 - Catherine Butler and Hugh Butler adopted following mothers imprisonment. Went to live with Catherine Woods and her family at 4 The Walk, Alloa, Stirlingshire
1903 - Mary Crudden gives birth to her fifth and final child, Helen McCarron
1909 - Kate McCarron marries Charles James Anderson, St Francis Church, Glasgow, 2 July 1909
1914 - Catherine Butler marries Patrick Keenan, St Lukes RC Church, Hutchinsontown, Glasgow, 8 July 1914
1916 - Hugh McCarron Snr dies at Barnhill Poorhouse, 20 January 1916
1916 - Catherine Butler Keenan gives birth to her only child Hugh Keenan, White Street, Govan, 6 October 1916
1918 - Hugh Butler dies at Barnhill Poor House Inflammation of the Kidneys, usual residence Lodging Houses, Burn Street, Glasgow, 30 Oct 1918
1919 - Susan McCarron works as a chambermaid at the Central Station Hotel, Glasgow
1919 - Hugh Butler Jnr marries Isabella Cunningham, Alloa, Stirringshire, 20 August 1919
1920 - Isabella Butler gives birth to her first child Annie Cunningham Butler, 70 Dysdale Street,Alloa, 28 March 1920
1920 - James McCarron marries Mary Mackie, Calton Registery Office, Great Hamilton Road, Glasgow, 28 June 1920
1921 - Susan McCarron works as a waitress at the Regent Tea Rooms, Glasgow
1922 - Isabella Butler gives birth to her second child Hugh Butler, Alloa, 2 February 1922
1923 - Mary Anne McCarron Butler marries her 2nd husband Henry Carr, 37 Dean Street, Glasgow, 18 Sept 1923
1925 - Susan McCarron works as a chamber maid at the Great Eastern Hotel, Duke Street, Glasgow
1926 - Isabella Butler gives birth to her third child Catherine Keenan Butler Jnr, Alloa, 1926
1929 - Henry Carr dies of heart failure, Burns Street, Glasgow, 18 April 1929
1929 - Isabella Butler gives birth to her forth child Marion Butler, Alloa
1932 - Susan McCarron marries Peter Stafford, 45 Brown Street, Glasgow, 30 Dec 1932
1934 - Death Isabella Butler, Pheonal disinfectant poisoning (Suicide) Alloa, 23 September 1934
1934 - Mary Anne McCarron Butler Carr dies from alcohol poisoning, 5 Civic Street, Milton, Glasgow,8 July 1934
1937 - Charles James Anderson dies, crushed to death on railway line, Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, 7 Dec 1937
1942 - Annie Cunningham Butler marries Thomas McNeill, Alloa, 29 May 1942
1942 - Death of Hugh Butler Jnr, Service returns Royal Navy, Battle of Dieppe, France, 19 August 1942
1944 - Death Hugh Butler Snr, Springburn, Glasgow
1947 - Hugh Keenan marries Matilda Hogg, Newton Mearns
1948 - Marion Butler marries William Syme, Alloa
1953 - Susan McCarron Stafford dies, 20 Shuna Street, Glasgow
1954 - Catherine Keenan Butler marries John Paterson, Lerwick, Shetlands, 24 December 1954
1965 - Patrick Keenan dies, Mansel Street, Glasgow, 3 February 1965
1969 - Catherine Butler Keenan dies of Bronchitis, Glasgow, 26 November 1969
1982 - Death of Kate McCarron, Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland
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Barnhill Poorhouse
The Poorhouse of the Barony Parish, known as Barnhill, opened in 1850. 'Paupers' who could not support themselves were sent here and were obliged to work at jobs such as bundling firewood,separating rope fibres and breaking rocks.
The hours were long and the inmates worked unpaid under extremely poor conditions, with harsh discipline and dreadful food. In 1905 the City Parish Poorhouse in Parliamentary Road closed and its inmates went to Barnhill, making it the largest poorhouse in Scotland. In 1945 it was renamed Forest Hall House and Hospital and was thereafter used as an old people's hospital and residential home. It was demolished in the late 1980's and a private housing development now stands on the site.
Catherine McCarron
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Catherine McCarron came into the world at 39 Muse Lane, Glasgow on 9th January 1876. Although no photographs of her exist, to this day it's widely accepted that she was a beautiful, if somewhat damaged girl. Catherine's early life was unimaginably hard. She lived with her family in the Cowcaddens area of old Glasgow and her family were extremely poor. It's difficult to imagine what conditions were like in those terrible days, however photos indicate how squalid and dirty the streets and dwelling houses were.
Catherine McCarron's birth certificate, 1876
Cowcaddens had been a village just beyond the West Port of the city on the edge of the common where cows were pastured. What changed it was the coming of the Forth and Clyde Canal during the 1790s. Its convenient situation close to Port Dundas on the canal encouraged industrial development with foundries, cotton and silk mills, flour mills, granaries, warehouses and timber yards all appearing over the next few decades. Housing followed industry from the early 1800's
Port Dundas, Glasgow, 1829
In 1846 the area was incorporated within the city boundaries and growth continued, filling the undeveloped land on both sides of Cowcaddens Road, north to Dobbie's Loan and south to Sauchiehall Street. It was after 1866 that living conditions began to deteriorate rapidly. The work of the City Improvement Trust in demolishing some of the worst housing off the High Street, as part of a first concerted attempt at slum clearance, forced the poorest to look for accommodation elsewhere and many moved to Cowcaddens. By the 1880's the area along the Garscube road from Cowcaddens to Maryhill had developed into a new slum district. While most other areas of the city experienced some improvement in life expectancy during the last quarter of the 19th century, there was little sign of this in Cowcaddens and it remained the area with the highest levels of infant mortality (190 per thousand births) well into the 20th century. This was almost three times the level in Glasgow's west-end.
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Catherine spent her early years in the slums of Cowcaddens, living first in Muse Lane and then later moving to Stirling Street. While the full details of her years there are sketchy, it's known that the area was notorious for homelessness, disease and high mortality rates. It was not uncommon to find people sleeping on the streets or crammed eight people to a room in filthy doss houses. Women could rent a bed in the 'Rat Pit' for three pence a night. In his book of the same name Patrick MacGill describes the conditions in the Rat Pit :
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"The place was crowded with women of all ages, some young, children almost, their hair hanging down their backs and the blouses that their pinched breasts could not fill, sagging loose at the bosom. There were six or seven of these women that smoked cigarettes and used foul words whenever they spoke. The face of one was pitted with small pox; another had both eyes blackened, the result of a fight: a third, clean of face and limb, was telling how she had just served two months in prison for importuning men on the streets. Several of the elder females were drunk: two fought in the kitchen, pulling handfuls of hair from one another's heads. Nobody interfered. The beds in the Rat pit , forth in all, were in a large chamber upstairs, each woman had a bed to herself. The lodgers undressed openly. One sat down to unlace her boots and fell asleep where she sat; another young girl of sixteen or seventeen fell against the leg of the bed and sank into slumber.The girl who had been in prison suddenly burst into tears; nobody knew what she was weeping about and nobody enquired. "
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Patrick also described the conditions of the streets of Cowcaddens back in 1900:
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"Here in the poorer parts of the city, in the crooked lanes and straggling alleys, were dirt, darkness and drunkenness. A thousand smells greeted the nostrils, a thousand noises grated on the ears; lights flared brightly in the beershops; fights started at the corners;intoxicated men fell in the gutters"
Catherine next makes her way into the records in 1895 when her sister Mary Anne applies for poor relief. In those days, in order for someone to claim relief, they had to first prove they had no means of income via other family members. In these records Catherine is registered as living with her sister at 53 Cowcaddens Road. There is a footnote about Catherine which reads 'Unemployed - No work done for 6 months past - a lazy girl' In 1896 Catherine herself applies for relief and in the same year she is admitted to Lock Hospital (2nd Dec 1896) aged only eighteen it's clear that Catherine has epilepsy and has already contracted sexually transmitted diseases.
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Lock Hospital
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If you search the web for Lock Hospital you will at first struggle to find any evidence of its existence. It was in fact one of Glasgow's best kept secrets, the Lock Hospital for ''dangerous females'' with sexually transmitted diseases. Polite society did not want to know when the proposal to open a VD clinic for females was considered in 1805, a feeling reflected in the lack of documentation about the building.It was called Lock. The name was thought to either derive from the old English word loke, associated with a leper house, or the French loque which was a bandage used for leprosy. Like lepers, those with VD were shunned. Initially, arguments on whether it should be built at all raged between the Glaswegian medical profession, the clergy, and traders of the time.Just as HIV has spread fear and prejudice through society of the late twentieth century, syphilis was seen as a punishment from God. Women were called the carriers and spreaders of disease, but there were no health provisions made for them.Indeed, throughout the 1700's, it was thought finding a cure would only encourage them to go out and sin again. In 1598, the Glasgow kirk session and town councils of the time had ordered drastic quarantine measures.Men and women who were sick were rounded up in Glasgow Green. They were sent outside the city walls and ordered never to return. As females were considered the carriers, their shame was burned on to their faces with branding irons.
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After much debate, the Lock Hospital for women was established in 1805. The dwelling house opened at 151 Rottenrow Lane with 11 beds, but did not exist in the medical establishment records of the time. It used mercury as a treatment - popular at the time but ultimately toxic to the patient. Many women entering the Lock were never seen again and those entering were not allowed to leave until their treatment, often lasting for months, was over. Many tried to break out. Some were moved eventually to the nearby insane asylum as syphilitic madness and mercury poisoning ravaged their bodies.It was 1807 before the city officially recognised the Lock. By 1846, the hospital was moved to new premises at 41 Rottenrow. Child victims of abuse and incest were being discovered in larger and larger numbers but Victorian society found the fact impossible to admit. One Lock doctor is on record as saying a seven-year-old girl had ''given the illness to herself''.
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But from 1925, new treatment centres were opening up for venereal disease patients. Medicines were improving and in 1940 the Lock Hospitals annual reports showed the number of patients on the decline.Seven years later the building's funds were transferred to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. It was 1955 when the Lock was finally demolished and the walls which held the secrets and pain of thousands of Scots women were gone forever.
Lock Hospital, Glasgow circa 1920
Extracts from Catherine McCarron/McCann's Poor Relief Records
It's clear that the shocking death of Catherine McCarron (Gillespie) in 1885 had a profound effect on all three of her surviving children and sent each of their lives into a spiral of despair which they would never recover from. Below a newspaper article of the time describing Catherine McCarron/McCann's accident and death
The Beginning Of The End...
There is one year in Catherine McCarron's life that remains a mystery and it's also one of the most crucial.
On the 27th of October 1903 she leaves the Glasgow Poor House for the last time and some 4 days later she has made her way to Hamilton, Lanarkshire, where she lives at 12 Guthrie Street. Her landlord was Thomas Morgan who owned several housed on Guthrie Street (A street branching in a South westerly direction off Muir Street) Number 12 was split into 9 living areas.
Only four months later, in March 1904, she marries John Strachan.
Where did these two people first encounter each other ?
What drew Catherine from the bright lights of the city centre to the historic mining town of Hamilton ?
Why did they rush so quickly to be married ?
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After marrying the couple quickly set up house at 22 Victoria Place, Blantyre, Hamilton and this is where they would live out their married life until Catherine's untimely end.
Victoria Place, Blantyre 1907
When John Strachan married Catherine he had no idea of the dark destructive force within her. In truth, she probably had no idea either. After all she had long believed herself cured of the effects of Syphilis and was finally happy for the first time in her life. Leaving behind the darkness of her early years and now able to find peace & contentment in the arms of her new husband. However, it wasn't to be. Catherine had paralysis of the insane. A devastating neuropsychiatric disorder affecting the brain and central nervous system caused by syphilis infection.It was inevitably fatal.
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Symptoms of the disease first appear from 10 to 30 years after infection. GPI is usually manifested by neurasthenic difficulties, such as fatigue, headaches, insomnia and dizziness. As the disease progresses, mental deterioration and personality changes occur. Typical symptoms include loss of social inhibitions, asocial behavior, gradual impairment of judgment, concentration and short-term memory, euphoria, mania, depression, or apathy.
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At times Catherine would appear perfectly normal to such an extent that John brushed aside his concerns. However she soon began to talk of the two babies she had birthed that had been taken by the police for safe keeping. At times she would forget about the children but then suddenly remember and become hysterical. She would have violent fits where her whole body would shake. John considered that she might be epileptic.
By the beginning of 1909 the GPI had taken total hold over her. She suffered delusions. Again spoke of giving birth to twins whom the police were holding until they were christened. She lost track of time believing every day to be Christmas. On several occasions she had left the house completely naked. She was restless and her speech became incoherent. She would leave home and wander for hours with no sense of purpose.
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John had little choice but to contact the family doctor, who came to visit her. She was examined by two professionals, Dr William Grant and Dr James H Skeen and the decision was made to remove her from her home. She was admitted to Kirklands Asylum, Bothwell on the 22nd of June 1909. She is listed as a pauper lunatic and placed in the care of Mrs Elizabeth Keith. The Certificate of Intimation is signed by A Maxwell, Inspector of the Board of Lunacy.
Catherine would remain in the asylum for nine months, her condition quickly worsening. When she finally died on the 27th of March 1910 it was a blessing. Her tortured mind could finally rest.
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For John the pressure of the last few years and watching Catherine deteriorate had been too much.
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He could no longer live at the house in Victoria Place and moved back to Hamilton. Making a fresh start at 88 Beckford Street, Hamilton. The following year he would meet and marry Mary Heaney but now he was a changed man. His heart hardened by grief.
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