Early Life
William Burn-Murdoch was born on the 9
th of November 1822 at his parents' home,
48 Frederick Street in Edinburgh, the second child of
John Burn and
Anne Maule Murdoch.
A painting by William Smellie Watson of the Burn-Murdoch children shows William and many of his brothers and sisters.
Career
William became a doctor, practicing in Edinburgh.
Family Life
William married
Jessie Cecelia Mack on the 25
th of July 1850 in Edinburgh. They had nine children:
- John, the heir, born 1852 and who married Maud Forster but had no issue
- Christina Mary, born 1854 and who married firstly Courtney Harrison with no issue, and secondly Lt. Col. Charles Mackay O'Brien and from whom descend the modern-day O'Brien, Foster and Berry families
- Annie Jessie, who married Arthur Bryans and from whom descend the modern-day Talbots, Lodges, Johnsons, Ferreros, Grants, Bryans and Lampitts
- Elizabeth Emma, born 1858; did not marry
- Sarah Jessie (aka Morag), born 1860; did not marry
- William Gordon, born 1862, a famous explorer, he married Jean Usher but had no issue
- Elizabeth Gertrude, born 1862, died as a child
- Margaret Helen Kelly, born 1862, died as a child
- James Archibald, born 1867 and married Henrica Gertrude Sarah Foster and from whom descend the modern-day Burn-Murdochs of Cambridgeshire
- Archibald Arthur, born 1875 and who married Ella Duffus Hunt and subsequently emigrated to New Zealand; from this couple descend the modern-day Lewis, Williams and Bosomworth families of New Zealand
Annie Jessie wrote the following of her father
1:
He was absolutely the pivot of our house. My mother being so delicate made him the mainstay & organiser of everything, even the preparation for our holiday visits to Gartincaber were arranged by him even to the packings but by this don’t picture to yourself a fussy unmanly man! He was essentially an out of door being & loved horses & riding & showing & rowing. He was over six ft high & held himself magnificently as he had been well drilled in the militia at the right age from 18 to 20. I remember him often advocating military training for young men if only on the grounds of their physical wellbeing.
He was as you know the second son – Uncle John [
John Burn-Murdoch] being heir presumptive to Preston Hall till he was of age. My father was to have had Gartincaber & therefore my grandfather [
John Burn] sold Coldoch his property which was I believe rather heavily mortgaged. My younger brother
Alexander was named Higgins so as to inherit Neuck & James was to inherit G[reen]yards. When Mrs Burn Callander [Jacquetta Hull] had a son [John Alexander Burn-Murdoch, b. 1839] after being married for 18 years [they married in 1822] these arrangements were altered. I only mention them as showing that my father had not been seriously taking up any profession. His first wish was to go into the Navy as he had always had such a keen desire for travel. This desire having been thwarted by his parents he then thought of being a doctor in the Navy with still the desire for sea & travel but when he was studying to be a doctor he met my mother Jessie Mack and all thought of travelling was given up. They married & settled first in 23 Stafford St with old Mrs Mack my mother’s widowed mother. (It is the house where my sister Emma is living now).
Children came fast & alas money not quite so fast. In those days Edinburgh physicians did not send in account to their patients but patients sent fees according to their own ideas! Some of these ideas were rather wide of the mark in my father’s case, as they used to see him riding my grandfather’s horse and living in rather a large house – first in Stafford St & then No. 5 Melville St – and thought him a man of private means so that a piece of bric-a-brac china or a picture were sometimes deemed more suitable fees than gold. My father told me this in later years with a dry smile. It always seemed to me rather pathetic and a mistake his having been a doctor at all. He loved all that was studious & noble in medical life but much of it irked him and he hated anything like the humbug of ordering medicine where he thought nature was doing better work by herself. And “you’ll be better tomorrow” was so often his cheering word so that those who believed in him believed intensely. Unfortunately he had not gone in for surgery & was just before Lister’s great discoveries.
He loved the care of two or three hospitals such as the Deaf & Dumb Asylum & Donaldson Hospital for Boys & poor patients came to him as their sympathetic friend and giver of food as much as of medicine. I remember one of his sayings “why buy nasty cod liver oil when you can give your children good cream & butter.”
He had a wonderful memory & was a very careful reader, keeping a most exact index [?]. His friends often called him a Walking Encyclopaedia - that sounds a dry name but in his case was redeemed by lots of humour and amusing stories which his apt memory brought to enliven conversation without any sense of effort. As I said before he always seemed the very pivot of our household & such a loving wise one. I don’t think we ever thought of disobeying him & he used to take us such delightful walks, country rambles & picnics when at Gartincaber & when in Edinburgh he would take us to Granton & Leith to see ships coming in from all countries. Of these countries he would tell us much & explain the various cargoes. Many of the sailors had become his friends & used to bring us treasures from various countries in recognition of care he had given them. I remember one sailor bringing a black dried up frog which was supposed to come alive again & to spit poison. Little did my father dream how that frog made some of my school room lessons a misery to me. It lived in a glass cupboard our, our school room museum, & if my back was towards the cupboard I always imaged the door might be open & the frog suddenly alive would spit death! What cowards children sometimes are & they never dream of confessing the specially haunting fear!
I always feel that the education we received by being so much with such a parent was more valuable to us than the governess & schools of those days. I can remember when I was four years old we were travelling with him and at Carstairs Junction we saw
[David] Livingston on the platform. Just then another train bumped into ours which made my head have a nasty bang which made me cry. My father at once said that knock will help you to remember that you have seen Livingston & sure enough I can now see his tall figure on the station platform just as I saw him then. I can so well remember in later years the very large black atlas on which my father traced Livingston’s journeys in red ink. I can see that map of Africa now with the great blank of Central Africa marked 'DESERT' & the tracings my father made from time to time going across that blank. Many tales of Livingston he told us too as he did these tracings.
My father taught us to swim & to skate which in those days was quite unusual for many girls to be taught. I can remember the astonishment of the common boys “caddies” we called them, who on seeing us skating cried out “eh look at they lassies skating”. My father & one or two others helped to get the Edinburgh swimming baths opened on certain mornings of the week for ladies swimming – till then an unheard of privilege.
My father really loved horses & was an excellent judge of them & so was often begged to buy horses for his friends. I so often remember his Sloppy[?] & says “now girls, what are the good points of that hoses and what are the bad ones of that one”.
I think one of the most marked characteristics of our Burn Murdoch family was the wonderful love & consideration shown to children which had begun in my grandparents time & was carried on through all the large families of grandchildren. Such love and consideration were rare in those early days when “spare the rod & spoil the children” was the favourite quotation. I fancy the idea underlying training of children in old times was a Calvinistic serving of Moloch – an idea that unhappiness was really best for children. I am thankful and grateful to my grandparents & parents for the great asset in life of a happy childhood. “A memory of joy so exquisite that it tunes all life unto the end”.
William Burn-Murdoch died on the 12
th of April 1878, aged 55, in Edinburgh. The memorial inscription at Dean Cemetery reads:
WILLIAM BURN-MURDOCH, M.D. born 9.11.1822 died 12.4.1878 2nd son (father JOHN, mother ANNE MAULE of Gartincaber and Neuck), wife JESSIE CECILIA MACK born 23.4.1828 died 9.5.1891, 2 infant daughters ELIZABETH GERTRUDE and MARGARET HELEN KELLY.
His will reads as follows:
At Edinburgh the 18th Day of April 1878 William Burn Murdoch Esquire Doctor of Medicine Edinburgh…do hereby dispose and assign to my eldest son John Burn Murdoch, Lieutenant in the Royal engineers, to my four brothers John Burn Murdoch, Alexander Higgins Burn Murdoch, James McGibbon Burn Murdoch and Archibald Burn Murdoch and to my son-in-law <>Arthur Bryans, Tea Planter Eastern Bengal, presently residing in London…
[My Trustees shall] as soon as possible after my decease hand over to my wife Mrs Jessie Cecilia Burn Murdoch the sum of £100 for current family expenses and £40 for mournings.
I give and bequeath and I direct my trustees to make over to my said wife for her own absolute use and disposal the whole of the household furniture, bed and table linen, china, silver plate, books, pictures and generally everything useful or ornamental in and about my dwelling house at the time of my decease.
I give and bequeath to my eldest son John the sum of £200 which I direct my trustees to pay to him at the term of Whitsunday or Martinmas which shall first happen after my death.
I direct my trustees to hold the whole residue and remainder of my means and estate [and after deducting estate costs] pay the annually accruing free income or revenue thereof to my said wife.
I direct my trustees to divide the whole residue of my means and estate among my children who may survive me and what equally share and share alike and after the death of my said wife and until each of my children shall respectively attain the age of 21 years the free income or revenue of their shares shall be paid to them respectively or applied for their behoof according as my trustees may judge to be best and after the death of my said wife and upon each child attaining the age of 21 and until they attain the age of 24 the free income or revenue of the share of each such child shall be paid to himself or herself respectively and after the death of my said wife and upon my sons attaining the age of 24 the principal or capital of their shares of the said residue of my said means and estate shall be paid to them by my trustees. [similar provision for daughters]
Considering that I hold in trust for my said wife the sum of £1350 to which she was entitled under the Settlements of her father and also the further sum of £100 bequeathed to her by her Aunt Mrs Hill and which sums amounting together to £1450 are presently partly invested in certain of the stocks of the Caledonian Railway Company which stand in the joint names of me and my said wife and the survivor of us.
Considering that I hold a further sum of $2800 Canadian currency which is at present invested on a Mortgage Bond for that amount granted in my favour by Monsieur Etienne Dubois and that I hold the said sum in trust for payment to my wife’s brother Mr James Mack of the free annual income thereof during his life and upon his decease for payment of the principal sum thereof to my said wife I direct my Trustees to keep the said sum distinct from my other general means and estate.
Witnesses
William Rutter (clerk, Hagart & Burn Murdoch)
John Henderson Walker (clerk, Hagart & Burn Murdoch)
Probate signed by A Burn Murdoch and Alexander M Fraser? MP
Footnotes
[1] L_1918_03_Bryans_Burn-Murdoch_1
1822 - 1878 (55 years)
[1, 2, 3] 
