Category: Milliner

Milliner

Jessie Whyte Craig (1856 – 1950)

On 18 November 1950, fifteen oil paintings, three watercolours and one pastel were received by Glasgow corporation having been bequeathed by Miss Jessie Whyte Craig through Messrs. Frame and Macdonald, 5 Fitzroy Pl., Glasgow, C.3. 1 Fourteen of the oil paintings are shown below, the fifteenth has been presumed stolen.

Figure 1. Campbell, Colin Cairns Clinton; Sweet William in a White Vase. © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection.(http://www.artuk.org)
Figure 2. Campbell, Colin Cairns Clinton; Sweet William in a Lustre Jug. © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection.(http://www.artuk.org)
Figure 3. Algie, Jessie; Rambler Roses; © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection.(http://www.artuk.org)
Figure 4. Muir, Anne Davidson; Primulas in a Blue and White Vase. © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection.(http://www.artuk.org)
Figure 5. Muir, Anne Davidson; Spring Bouquet. © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection.(http://www.artuk.org)
Figure 6. Dobson, Cowan; Old Lady Reading. © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection.(http://www.artuk.org)
Figure 7. Morris, May; Rocky Cove. © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection.(http://www.artuk.org)
Figure 8. Perman, Louisa Ellen; Red and White Roses. © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection.(http://www.artuk.org)
Figure 9. Hornel, Edward Atkinson; Children on the Sands. © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection.(http://www.artuk.org)
Figure 10. Hornel, Edward Atkinson; Two Girls and Swans at a Pool. © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection.(http://www.artuk.org)
Figure 11. McGhie, John; Rocky Seascape; Glasgow Museums. © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection.(http://www.artuk.org)
Figure 12. Wylie, Kate; Wallflower. © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection.(http://www.artuk.org)
Figure 13. McKinna, Mary E. Tait; Nasturtiums in a Lustre Jug. © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection.(http://www.artuk.org)
Figure 14. Carrick, William Arthur Laurie; Iona. © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection.(http://www.artuk.org)

The watercolours were ‘By the Sea‘ by Robert Eadie R’S’W., ‘Pink Roses‘ by James G. Lang and ‘Kintello Village‘ by Charles A. Sellar. The pastel is ‘Delphiniums‘ by M. Hamilton.                                                     

Jessie Whyte Craig was born in ‘the village of Bothwell’, on 8 October 1856, the second child of Robert Craig, an accountant, and Agnes Brown.  Robert, Jessie’s older brother was born in Tradeston on 3 February 1855. 2 Jessie’s birth was registered in Bothwell and Glasgow where the family home was at 163 Eglinton Street, Tradeston.3 Her younger brother George was born on 2 February 1861 and her sister Jane on 2 September 1863. 4 In 1861, the family was living at Shields Road Junction Cottage with the four-year-old Jessie ‘an accountant’s daughter’. 5 In the following two years the children became orphaned when first their father died followed by their mother Agnes on 9 April 1865 at 42 Grant Street. She was thirty-three. 6 The children appear to have been taken into the care of their maternal grandparents, George and Janet Brown (both born in 1800) living at 79 Eglinton Street. By 1871, Robert was an apprentice clerk with Jessie, George and Jane, scholars. Also living with them and their grandparents, was their unmarried aunt, Jessie Brown who was twenty-six. 7 By 1881, the family had moved to 109 Eglinton Street with Jessie Brown now the head and housekeeper. Jessie Craig had her occupation listed as ‘milliner’ with her sister Jane aged seventeen, still a scholar. George Craig was an ‘analytical chemist’ living as a lodger at 387 Craigston Square, Auchinleck, Ayrshire.8

  George Craig became a tenant at 9 Hampden Terrace, Cathcart 9 *and by 1901, his two sisters, Jessie, and Jane as well as his aunt Jessie Brown had moved in with him. 10 There is no occupation given for Jessie in the census. Jessie Craig remained domiciled at 9 Hampden Terrace for the rest of her life, living on ‘her own account’. 11 When her brother George died in the early 1930s, Jessie took over the tenancy. 12

            Jessie Whyte Craig died aged 94 at 9 Hampden Terrace on 10 October 1950. Her death was reported by her cousin Jean Craig Renton whose address was in Canford Cliffs in Devon. 13 She was buried in Cathcart Cemetery on 12 October 1950. 14 The following month, Glasgow received the bequest of nineteen pictures.

  • 9 Hampden Terrace was probably built about 1880 and consists of three storeys and a basement and large external staircase. It is now category C listed.
Figure 15. 9 Hampden Terrace. https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/200377826-9-hampden-terrace-glasgow

References

  1. Glasgow Corporation, list of donors held at Glasgow Museums Resource Centre
  2. Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate
  3. Ibid
  4. Ibid
  5. Scotland’s People, Census 1861
  6. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  7. Scotland’s People, Census 1871
  8. Scotland’s People, Census 1881
  9. Scotland’s People, Valuation Roll, Cathcart, 1895
  10. Scotland’s People, Census 1901
  11. Scotland’s People, Census 1911
  12. Scotland’s People, Valuation Roll, Cathcart, 1935
  13. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  14. Glasgow Herald, 11 October 1950, p1