18 March 1904 diary of Dr John Stewart Muir (1845-1938) of Selkirk

Got home from Robin’s Nest¹ at 1 + found that Jean² had to get Wilson³ for Mrs Jo. Laidlaw, Haining Henhouse.⁴ Slight sprinkling of snow on ground which soon melted under a strong S.S.W. wind. Lay in bed to breakfast. Although roads were heavy I managed to cycle to Sinton, Henhouse, Sunderland + Fairnilee [sic]. Nancy⁵ + Jean drove to Whitehope to call. Lot of people in at night + I had to go to Middlestead to see Ritchie the dairyman.⁶ Called for Mrs Lawson⁷ + gave her 35/- I charged her instead of Rev. Lawson.⁸

¹ Dr Muir had been attending a birth the previous night in the Fairnilee and Nest area.

² Jane Henderson Logan ‘Jean’ Pike née Muir (1877-1941), Dr Muir’s eldest daughter.

³ Assume Dr John Wilson (about 1873-1916), medical practitioner.

⁴ John Laidlaw junior was born 18 March 1904 at Haining Henhouse, Selkirk, the son of John Laidlaw, sawmiller, and Agnes Laidlaw née Taylor. The parents had married 10 July 1901 at St Andrews. The Laidlaws were at Haining Henhouse long-term and the entire family was recorded there in the 1921 Census.

⁵ Agnes Amelia ‘Nancy’ Roberts née Muir (1878-1948), Dr Muir’s second daughter.

⁶ William Ritchie was Inhabitant Occupier of a Farm House Middlestead, Selkirk in the 1903 and 1904 Valuation Rolls but was not there in 1901 or 1911 and is otherwise unidentified.

⁷ Unless the Reverend and Mrs Lawson kept the finances rigorously separate this could be any married woman named Lawson within the area of Dr Muir’s practice except Mrs Annie Strahan Lawson née Black (1867-1950), the wife of the Reverend George Lawson (1859-1937), see below.

⁸ The Reverend George Lawson (1859-1937), M.A., Church of Scotland minister at Selkirk from about 1902 to about 1930.

[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/7, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1904]