Jemima Paton – Forgotten member of an artistic family

[Content warning: suicide]

A few years ago, my mother-in-law gave me a beautiful book of poems by Alfred Tennyson. I’d forgotten I even had it until I started rearranging my bookshelves recently, so I was surprised to see the inscription inside.

 

It says:

“To Miss Jemima M. Paton

From an admirer of Tennyson

5th June 1844”

I thought I’d see if I could find out anything about Jemima. The book has a label from a Paisley bookbinder in the back and a penciled list of previous sales in the front, including ones from Perth and Edinburgh – so it’s likely the recipient lived in Scotland too.

A search of the old parish records on ScotlandsPeople only shows three Jemimas – two were born in the early 1840s, so unless the book was an ambitious baby present, the third is our girl. When I began researching Miss Paton, I found that she was married in December 1844, so I like to think the book was given to her by her future husband, Andrew.

Researching Jemima’s family revealed that she was part of an important artistic family in the nineteenth century, but a lot of the articles about them entirely skip over her, so I’m going to put that right.

Jemima McDiarmid Paton was born on 11 November 1823 in Dunfermline to Joseph Neil Paton (1797-1874) and Catherine McDiarmid (1799-1853).

Joseph began his training as a weaver, then moved on to bookbinding, before becoming a master of damask pattern painting. He was also a noted antiquitarian and his home was considered one of the best private museums in Scotland. 

He married Catherine in 1819 and they had seven children – Jemima, three that went on to become notable artists, plus three siblings that died in childhood (Archibald, Catherine and Alexa). Normally (and sadly), children who die early are often missed in genealogical research, especially if they don’t appear in census records. However, in this family, their names are inscribed on the family monument at Dunfermline Abbey. Jemima’s is not, so ironically, she is the one that has been somewhat forgotten.

The family home was Wooer’s Alley, which has been recreated digitally (both inside and out) by animation students from Fife College. 

The family’s eldest child is the sculptor Amelia Robertson Hill (she married the photographer, David Octavius Hill, in 1862). Her work includes the statue of David Livingstone in Princes Street Gardens, a statue of Robert Burns in Dumfries, and three figures on the Scott Monument.

The oldest son is Sir Joseph Noel Paton, famous for his paintings of fairies, fantasy and religious scenes, as well as being appointed Queen’s Limner for Scotland. 

The youngest son is Waller Hugh Paton – landscape painter who (unusually for the time) painted outside, rather than in the studio. His work includes a commission by the Queen for a watercolour of ‘Holyrood Palace and Edinburgh from the Queen’s Park’.

Joseph Senior managed to marry two women both called Catherine who were born around 1799 in Dunfermline – which is great for researchers! Once Joseph Junior was married, his two remaining unmarried siblings moved in with him, his wife and their two young children. 

Jemima was already out of the house by then. She married Andrew Roxburgh on 7 December 1844 in Paisley. She was 20 and he was a thirty-two year old shawl manufacturer, who had been married before. 

Andrew was part of a group of shawl manufacturers and designers from Paisley, who tried to market the industry by sharing their products with high society. In 1842, Andrew presented Queen Victoria with a shawl while she was staying with the Marquess of Breadalbane. In 1847, he gave the Duchess of Sutherland a selection of tartan plaids to present to Her Majesty. 

While Paisley became known for its shawls, Andrew was not as successful. In 1859, he was declared bankrupt. Shortly after the 1861 census, he took a job as a pattern designer at Saltaire Mills in Yorkshire. Andrew worked there for almost seven years, but in 1868, was given his notice, “because the firm were dissatisfied with the styles he brought out, and thought a change would be beneficial”. He visited his family in Scotland, including seeing his brother-in-law, Waller, who said Andrew was initially depressed, but “afterwards rallied, and he left Scotland in quite a different frame of mind”. Andrew’s friend from Shipley, Samuel Rhind, said a similar thing – “felt the loss of his situation very severely, but after his return from Scotland, he was in better spirits”. 

Sadly, it soon became clear what Andrew had decided to do. As the express train from Leeds to Bradford was approaching Shipley Station, “he stepped down from the platform, took off his hat as he stood on the line, and stretched out his arms”. The train killed him instantly, with graphic descriptions set out in the newspapers.

Jemima and her daughter, Josephine, moved back to Wooer’s Alley, then following Joseph’s death, moved in with Amelia (who had herself been widowed in 1870).

Josephine, who also went by her middle name, Maud, followed in the family tradition and became an artist, specializing in delicate flower paintings, “remarkable for graceful form and for charming management of colour”. Her illustrations in the book ‘Children’s Wild Flowers: Their Legends and Stories’ were widely praised.

 

Credit: https://www.printspast.com/wildflower-prints-childrens-roxburgh.htm

Jemima outlived her more famous siblings and died in 1909, aged 85.

Now, a disclaimer: All of this research came from one inscription in a book and the assumption that the Jemima was Scottish. I could be totally wrong and the book didn’t belong to her at all.

But… even if the book wasn’t hers, I’m very glad that it led me to this Jemima anyway. She’s been massively overlooked by everyone and I’m really pleased that I was able to discover a bit about her life.

And even found a photo of her. Technically, a stereoview. Jemima is on the right of the group.

Credit: https://stereoscopy.blog/2023/02/10/the-patons-of-wooers-alley-cottage-dunfermline/

And if we edit them together, we get a wee "video"...

If you’re walking the Amelia Trail in Edinburgh, have a look for Jemima and Andrew’s final resting place at Dean Cemetery. 

Credit: https://www.theameliatrail.com/