THE MACKIES OF DUNFERMLINE

In the Journal of the Tay Valley Family History Society, No 29, of May 1991, Mrs Margaret McDonald (FFHS No 145), wrote an article on her "Dunfermline Ancestors," who included John Beveridge Mackie (1848-1919), editor and proprietor of the 'Dunfermline Journal" (1903-1919). In it she wrote: "It cannot be said that the Journal thrived financially under his aegis. Various legends in the family account for this. One is that it was damaged by the decline of the linen trade. My mother thought it was because her father would not allow racing results to be published. Drink and Gambling were the two scourges of weavers in his youth." I think Mrs McDonald has been rather unkind to J B Mackie. At the time of his death in May 1919 he left the Journal in quite a healthy position, which enabled it to continue for a further 13 years, until Sep 1932, when publication was suspended at the height of the Depression.

JOHN BEVERIDGE MACKIE had been born in Gibb Street, Dunfermline, on May 2 1848, the 3rd son of JOHN MACKIE (1805-1891), and JANET SYME (1809-1882). His parents had married on Dec 4 1841. Through her mother, he was related to two famous local poets, Robert Gilfillan (1798-1850), and Henry Syme (1804-1884), who were respectively her 2nd cousin and brother.

Through this marriage, John Mackie, who had been born in 1805, "within the sound of the Abbey bells," the son of JAMES MACKIE, weaver, and JEAN BEVERIDGE (m 16th May 1794), inherited the two hand-weaving shops in Gibb Street, each containing four looms, which had formerly belonged to his father-in-law, WILLIAM SYME, who had died in Gibb St on 15th April 1841, aged 80 yrs. The Dunfermline Journal of April 1841 paid him the following tribute: "He was one of the oldest Reformers in Dunfermline, and, up to the last, remained by the principles which in early life he had adopted. During the agitation of 1793 he stood firm by the flag of liberty, and.... was exposed to considerable danger from the stringent and tyrannical measures of the Government. He lived to see better days; and he rejoiced to see those political views, which had in 1793 been reckoned odious, and worthy of the severest punishment, almost universally received."

Married to MARGARET ANDERSON, his daughter, JANET SYME, had been born in August 1809. In a privately printed booklet ("Janet Syme Mackie. Reminiscences for the Grand-Children"), published in 1888, J B Mackie wrote of how her 94 year-old grandmother, CHRISTIAN FOTHERINGHAM, who lived in " a picturesquely situated village a few miles to the north-west of Dunfermline," decided that she "would like to see my youngest grandchild before I go." Hitching a lift with a farmer neighbour in "a primitive machine," she was taken into Dunfermline, dropped off in the High Street, and "made her way by Kirkgate, the old Churchyard, and the Palace ruins, past the old smithy and the old mill, till the sound of weavers' shuttles began to fall on,her ears, and she took the household in Gibb Street completely by surprise. Great was the rejoicing over the old grandmother's unexpected visit. Husband and sons were instantly summoned from the loom, and while the active housewife busily prepared a special meal, the lads and lasses of the family were despatched hither and thither throughout the town to proclaim to cousins and friends the joyful tidings that Grandmother Kirsten had come."

Mrs McDonald is of the opinion that J B Mackie must have been wearing his novelist's hat of Nigel Lyneburn when he wrote of this episode, for she has been trying for the past 10 years to discover who Christian Fotheringham was and where she came from. "My present thinking is that Fotheringhame was her maiden name, that she came from Salen and married Robert Anderson of Kincardine ... There are other possibilities however.' If anyone can shed further light on this mysterious Christian Fotheringham, Mrs McDonald will be interested to hear from you.

Janet Syme died at the end of 1882. Mackie wrote poignantly of her last hours. "Ere we had all gathered round the chair, the breathing had resumed, but faintly and irregularly. Slowly and softly it stilled into silence. Then the spirit took its flight, and the shadow of death crossed the sweet and placid face. Grandfather, kneeling by the chair and holding grandmother's hand, did not observe the change. Suddenly looking up, he anxiously asked if we could hear any breathing. 'No, father, the breathing has stopped; mother is in heaven,' was the answer; and we kissed in turn the still warm lips."

John Beveridge Mackie, and his brothers. WILIAM SYME MACKIE (1840-1896) and ROBERT MACKIE (1850-1926), all became journalists. J B Mackie began his career on the "Dunfermline Press," went to Cupar as a member of staff of the 'People's Journal" and "Dundee Advertiser," under Alexander Westwood, snr and then became sub-editor of the "Glasgow Herald" (1870-77). Wiliam Syme Mackie began his career on the "Scotsman" under Alexander Russel. Robert Mackie received his journalistic training in Dunfermline, and then held appointments on the 'Edinburgh Daily Review" and "Glasgow Herald," before becoming sub-editor of the "Glasgow Evening Times" in 1876-77. In 1877 the three brothers joined to conduct the "Edinburgh Daily Review," which they continued until 1886, when financial troubles caused them reluctantly to give it up.

Thereafter the three brothers continued their careers in England. W S Mackie became chief reporter of the 'Manchester Examiner," and then editor of the "Staffordshire Sentinel" and the "Leeds Mercury." Robert Mackie was appointed editor of the "Middlesborough Gazette" (1886-88), and later of the "Blackburn Daily Telegraph" (1888-1920). J B Mackie was leader-writer of the "Newcastle Daily Leader" (1886-1889), and then editor of "North Eastern Daily Gazette" of Middlesborough (1890-1903).

In 1903 J B Mackie returned to Dunfermline as editor and proprietor of the "Dunfermline Journal." Andrew S Cunningham (1855-1935), who had become part-proprietor of the Journal in 1896, and sole proprietor in March 1903, suffered a complete break-down in health later that year, and after at first friendly, then business letters, between himself and Mackle, the latter purchased the "Journal" in October 1903. Between 1903 and his death in May 1919 Mackie wrote a number of local histories and biographies, including 'The Queen's Prime Minister" (1905), "Dunfermline-Born Princes and Princesses" (1910), "Dunfermline Historical Idylls" (1913), "Sir Henry Campbell-Bannermann" (1914), "Pitcairnie" (1916), and "Rosyth" (1917). His biography of 'Andrew Carnegie: His Dunfermline Ties and Benefactions" (1916), was not bettered until the appearance of Joseph Wall's work in 1970. He also began the "Journal Guide to Dunfermline" (1905), and later published similar guide-books to Aberdour and Burntisland (1908). His brother, Robert Mackie, anonymously contributed to the "Journal" in 1911-13 a wonderful series of articles of his childhood in Dunfermline, which were later bound up and published in three volumes under the title of 'When We Were Boys. By An Old West Fifer Abroad."

In December 1913, Mackie moved his business to the house in Gibb Street where he was born. The property was turned into a three-storey building: on the ground floor, fronting the street, were the counting house and sale shop, behind which were the printing presses; on the second storey were the editorial, reporting and composing rooms; while the third storey was devoted to the bookbinding department and to storage

Following his death in May 1919, the business was conducted under the style of J B Mackie & Co. and a private limited company was founded in December 1933. The original directors were: (1) James Irvine, (1865-1946); (2) Robert Murray Clarkson (b 1896); (3) John Duncan Mackie (1887-1976); (4) Janet Syme Mackie (d 1938). John Duncan Mackie, the elder son of J B Mackie, was an eminent Scottish Historian, Professor of Scottish History and Literature in the University of Glasgow (1930-1957), and later H.M. Historiographer Royal in Scotland.

Janet Syme Mackie was the daughter of J B Mackie; she was Company Secretary, and died rather young in 1938, at the age of 41. Clarkson was a cousin of the wife of J D Mackie, whose younger brother, James Campbell Mackie, later a Lieut-Colonel in the R.A.S.C. was also a major shareholder in the Company. Other Mackie shareholders included: (1) Lilias Agnes Mackie; (2)Agnes McMorran McDonald (3) Mrs Gertrude Mackie; (4) Janet Syme Allester Mackie (d 1976, aged 98). J B Mackie & Co Ltd was reconstructed in 1937, and was taken over by the West Fife Publishing Co Ltd in March 1947. (A J Campbell, Editor)