Category: Bookkeeper

Bookkeeper, Private Means

Mrs John Arnott nee Eliza Stiven Cuthbert (1879 – 1942)

Two paintings were received by Glasgow Corporation on 20 April 1943. They were bequeathed by Mrs Arnott. 1

Fig. 1 Mr John Arnott                                 Fig. 2 Mrs John Arnott
Robert Cree Crawford                                 James McBey
1920 *                                                             1927 2
 © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums/ArtUK.

Accession Number 2321                                Acc. No. 2322

  • A plaque attached to the painting has the following inscription: –

‘Presented to Mr. John Arnott of Messrs. J. & B. Stevenson by the employees at Cranston Hill Bakeries in appreciation of the happy relations which have always existed between him and them and to celebrate the occasion of his completing a connection of forty-five years with the firm. Glasgow, May 1920’.

(The firm of J. and B. Stevenson was established in Glasgow in 1865 and grew to become one of the largest bakers of bread and cakes in the world. By 1891 they had established bakeries in Cranstonhill and Plantation each of which was seven stories high and capable of producing 100,000 loaves daily. Each bake house was “under the careful supervision of an efficient foreman personally responsible for the conduct of a large staff of bakers”. The firm later opened bakeries in Battersea in London). 3

            John Cuthbert (Eliza’s father) was born about 1825 in Kirriemuir, Forfarshire. His occupation initially was as a ‘seedsman’ 4 but by 1871 he was the manager of the Wick and Pulteney Gas Works in Pulteneytown, Wick. 5 He married Margaret Stiven, who was born in Arbroath, in Inverness on 15 February 1866 and thirteen years later, on 26February 1879, Eliza Stiven Cuthbert was born in Burn Street, Pulteneytown. 6 Eliza was the youngest of seven children. In 1882, John Cuthbert died in Wick, aged 58 7 and the family moved to 14 Kersland Street, Partick, Glasgow with Eliza`s older sisters variously employed as dressmaker, milliner and pupil teacher. 8 Eliza`s mother died in Partick in 1900 aged 62.9 The family remained in Kersland Street and in the 1901 census, Eliza`s oldest sister Margaret aged 32 was head of the family. Also living there were Isabel Jane Cuthbert, 25, William Stiven Cuthbert, 23 and Eliza, 22. 10 However, by 1908 Eliza had moved to 14  Glasgow Street, Hillhead and was employed as a bookkeeper. 11 This seems to have remained her address until 1929.

            On 15 November 1923 at 22 Woodlands Terrace, Glasgow, Eliza Stiven Cuthbert married John Arnott. She was 44 and he was 72. Eliza`s sister Isabel was one of the witnesses.12

            John Arnott was born in Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire in 1851, but his family moved to Glasgow and by 1861 were living at 2 Orchard Street in Govan. John’s father, also John, was born in Fordyce, Banff in 1826 and was a wool sorter. 13 He married Janet Drummond on 5 September 1847. In 1871 the family was living at 53 McNeil Street, Hutchesontown. John, aged 19, was a ‘dyer’. Jane Arnott, 44, was head of the family. 14 In 1875, John Arnott joined the firm of J. and B. Stevenson (see above). By the time of the 1881 census, the family had moved to 120 South Wellington Street, Hutchesontown and John was now a ‘baker’s shopman’. His father was fifty-six and his mother Janet fifty-four. 15 On 4 July 1882 at 110 Thistle Street, Glasgow, John aged thirty-one, married Mary- Jane Middlemass who was twenty-six and a milliner. Their respective addresses were 120 South Wellington Street and 211 Hospital Street, both Glasgow. John was now a ‘baker’s foreman’. 16 John progressed through the firm becoming a master baker and eventually bakery manager. In the 1891 census he was at 31 Dover Street, Glasgow, aged thirty-eight, with his wife Mary Ann Arnott (sic) who was thirty-five and born in Ireland. 17 Ten year later, the couple had moved again, this time to 53 Bentinck Street, Sandyford, Glasgow and they now employed a servant. 18 From 1906 they lived at 6 Royal Terrace, Glasgow. 19 and that was their address in the 1911 census having been married for twenty-eight years but had no children. Mary Arnott died on 14 August 1918 at 3 Claremont Terrace, Glasgow. On her death certificate her name is given as Mary-Jane Arnott nee Middlemass, aged sixty-two. 20

After his marriage to Eliza, the couple probably moved to 6, Royal Terrace but it seems that Eliza retained her property at 14 Glasgow Street. 21 Eliza`s portrait was painted in 1927 when she was 48. John Arnott continued to work at J. and B. Stevenson until his death in 1928. He died at The Deans, 28 Drummond Terrace, Crieff from a cardiac syncope leaving an estate valued at £11,489. 22,23 

            After his death Eliza remained at 6 Royal Terrace with her sister Isabel at least until 1931 when she made her will. 24 Later she gave up her flat in Glasgow Street and the house in Royal Terrace (she is not listed in the Glasgow Post Office Directory at either address). She moved to Kilmacolm with her sister. 25

            Eliza Stiven Arnott died aged 63 at Oakfield, Kilmacolm on 28June 1942. Her death was caused by a thrombosis following an operation to remove a gall bladder. 26 She was buried in Cathcart cemetery on 1 July. 27 Eliza`s name was added to the family memorial stone in the Old Municipal Cemetery in Wick. 28 Her estate was valued at £3,183:10:0. Her sister Isabel who was her executor and the sole beneficiary, died aged 90 in Glasgow in 1960.29

References

  1. ArtUk
  2. Ibid
  3. Index of Firms in Glasgow,1891 
  4. glasgowwestaddress.co.uk/1891_Book/Stevenson_J_&_B.htm‎
  5. ancestry.co.uk, 1851 Scottish Census
  6. ancestry.co.uk, 1871 Scottish Census
  7. Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate
  8. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  9. ancestry.co.uk, 1891 Scottish Census
  10. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  11. ancestry.co.uk, 1901 Scottish Census
  12. Glasgow Post Office Directory, 1908-09
  13. Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
  14. ancestry.co.uk, 1861 Scottish Census
  15. ancestry.co.uk, 1871 Scottish Census
  16. ancestry.co.uk, 1881 Scottish Census
  17. Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
  18. ancestry.co.uk, 1891 Scottish Census
  19. ancestry.co.uk, 1901 Scottish Census
  20. Glasgow Post Office Directory, 1906 – 7, and subsequent years
  21. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  22. Glasgow Post Office Directory, 1906 – 7, and subsequent years
  23. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  24. Index of Confirmations and Inventories, Mitchell Library, Glasgow
  25. Index of Confirmations and Inventories, National Records of Scotland
  26. Glasgow Post Office Directory, 1931 – 32
  27. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  28. Glasgow Herald, deaths, 1 July 1942
  29. gravestonephotos.com
  30. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate