Country code |
GB |
Repository code |
234 |
Organisation |
NAS |
Repository |
National Records of Scotland |
Reference |
GD1/1441 |
Title |
Papers relating to the Moffat and Gorrie families |
Dates |
[1790s]-2010 |
Access status |
Open |
Description |
GD1/1441/1: Correspondence of the Gorrie and Moffat families, [1790s]-1927, 1983 GD1/1441/2: Photographs of the Gorrie Family, [1860s-1980s] GD1/1441/3: Literary papers of the Gorrie family, 1876-1888 GD1/1441/4: Miscellaneous items relating to the Gorrie Family, [1790s], 1882-1888 GD1/1441/5: Research notes, transcripts and copies of original papers concerning the Gorrie and Moffat families, 1980s-2010 |
Level |
Fonds |
Admin
history |
The Gorrie family originated in Logiealmond, Perthshire. In 1822, the Rev Daniel Gorrie (1797-1852) married Jane Moffat of Edinburgh (c 1793-1865) in Kingskettle, Fife. They had six children. The majority of this collection relates to their second son, Sir John Gorrie (1829-1892) and his descendants.
Sir John Gorrie was called to the Bar of Scotland in 1856; Capt QERV 1859; Hon Advocate Depute for Scotland 1860; writer for the 'Morning Star' newspaper in London, 1862-1869, where he also studied for the English Bar, but for which he was never called. His role as Counsel for Jamaica Committee before the Jamaican Royal Commission in 1866 led to the beginning of his colonial career and his subsequent appointment as Substitute-Procureur and Advocate General, Mauritius, 1869; 3rd Puisne Judge, Supreme Court, 1870; member of the Police and Old Immigrants' Inquiry Commission, 1872; President of the Council of Education, 1874-1876; Chief Justice of Fiji, 1876, Leeward Islands, 1882, Trinidad, 1885; Chief Judicial Commissioner, Western Pacific, 1878; acting High Commissioner, Western Pacific, 1878-1879. He was knighted in 1882.
Having gained a reputation as a staunch liberal, his actions in his final post as the Chief Justice of Trinidad (and Tobago from 1889) triggered complaints to the Colonial administration regarding his apparent prefferment of metayers and labourers over planters and other vested Colonial interests. A series of increasingly inflammatory decisions from the bench led to Sir John Gorrie's interdiction from the post of Chief Justice early in 1892. He returned to England with the intention of clearing his name, but died suddenly in Exeter in Aug 1892.
Sir John Gorrie married Marion Graham in 1855, in Edinburgh. She was the daughter of an Edinburgh jeweller, and accompanied her husband abroad in his various conlonial posts, and who died whilst on board the RMS Nile en route from Antigua to the UK in 1884. The later correspondence in the collection is between their children, Marion Helen Gorrie, Isabella Jane Gorrie and Malcolm Graham Gorrie. Their second child, a daughter, was stillborn, and their youngest daughter Jane 'Jeanie' Moffat Gorrie died at the age of 22 at Port-of-Spain, Trinidad in 1888. Isabella, known as 'Charlie', married Hamilton Hunter (later Samoan Consul, 1899-1909) in Fiji in 1882 and brought up her family subsequently in England. Malcolm trained as a lawyer and moved to British Columbia, Canada, where he was for many years Secretary to the Kelowna Land and Orchard Company. |
Related material |
The National Records, London: original correspondence regarding Sir John Gorrie whilst in his post of Chief Justice of Trinidad, within CO295 (Colonial Office and Predecessors: Trinidad Original Correspondence) Oxford University: Bodleian Library, Special Collections and Western Manuscripts: correspondence between Sir John Gorrie and Lord Kimberley, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1880 British Library: correspondence between Sir John Gorrie and Lord Stanmore, 1875-1881 Rhodes House Library, Oxford: correspondence between Sir John Gorrie and Mr Frederick William Chesson, anti-slavery campaigner Kelowna Public Archive, Canada: papers and photographs concerning Malcolm Gorrie and his life in Canada in the early 20th century. |
Archival history |
The papers in the collection are derived from three main sources, donated to the National Archives of Scotland in 2009:
Jean Ayler (1929- ) is a descendant of Daniel Gorrie (1831-1893), journalist and younger brother of Sir John Gorrie (1829-1892). The majority of the modern research material in this collection (GD1/1441/5) was collated by Ayler in the 1980s-1990s, partly to assist Bridget Brereton, Professor of History at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad, in her work on Sir John Gorrie's colonial career (see GD1/1441/5/18 and GD/1441/5/19).
Ayler's family research started in 1981 when she was contacted by Ranald Graham Gorrie (1904-1987), the son of Malcolm Gorrie (1864-1921), in turn the only son of Sir John Gorrie. Ranald 'Graham' Gorrie was brought up in Canada where Malcolm Gorrie was, for a number of years, secretary to the Kelowna Land and Orchard Co. In 1944 Ranald Graham Gorrie settled in Australia after working in many parts of the world in the 1930s. He was a keen researcher of all Gorrie family history until his death in 1987. The two Moffat-related letters from Krondstadt, St Petersburg were given by him to Ayler, as was the majority of correspondence with Sir John Gorrie, and some family photographs relating to Malcolm Gorrie.
A third source for the collection was Judy Allen (1941- ), descendant of Sir John Gorrie through his second daughter, Isabella Jane Gorrie (1861-1932). Allan inherited many Gorrie papers from her maternal great-aunt Alice Noel Hunter. Included in Allen's gift were Marion Helen ('Minnie') Gorrie's diary, Sir John Gorrie's unpublished novel, his Grant of Knighthood, family photographs, and further family correspondence between Sir John Gorrie's children and their families. Graham Gorrie had not been aware of the continued descent of this part of the family.
The transcripts in the collection come from all three sources.
A small cache of additional papers were donated to the National Archives by Jean Ayler in Apr 2010. |
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