Mary Waterston & William Gardiner

The devastating effects of Consumption

Tuberculosis also known as consumption or phthisis is an infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis which can occur in any organ of the body but is most well known in the lungs. It has been a scourge throughout known history and may have killed more people than any other microbial pathogen. Spread through inhaling tiny droplets from the coughs or sneezes of an infected person.

In the 18th and 19th century, tuberculosis had became epidemic in Europe, showing a seasonal pattern killing about a quarter of the adult population of Europe – more than one third of those aged 15 to 34 and half of those aged 20 to 24. At the time, tuberculosis was called the robber of youth, because the disease had higher death rate among young people. Other names included the Great White Plague and the White Death, where the “white” was due to the extreme anaemic pallor of those infected.

In large towns, such as Hamilton, the poor had high rates of tuberculosis. Public-health physicians and politicians typically blamed both the poor themselves and their ramshackle tenement houses for the spread of the dreaded disease. People ignored public-health campaigns to limit the spread of contagious diseases, such as the prohibition of spitting on the streets, the strict guidelines to care for infants and young children, and quarantines that separated families from ill loved ones.

Typical symptoms of Tuberculosis included:

a persistent cough usually brings up phlegm, which may be bloody
weight loss
night sweats
high temperature
tiredness and fatigue
loss of appetite
swellings in the neck

Despite romantic notions about Tuberculosis in literature and film, the reality of death was stark. TB eats the lungs from the inside out, slowly diminishing their capacity, causing the chest to fill up with blood and the liquid remains of the lungs. A wet, hacking cough is evocative of TB. The lungs now in liquid form are sloshing around in the chest. Eventually, liquid replaces the lungs, the suffering patients cannot get enough oxygen, and respiratory failure occurs, they can no longer breathe and they drown. It’s painful, it’s drawn out. It’s an awful way to die. But before any of this happens the disease weakens you, diminishes your capacity for work, and puts your family and friends, and anyone else you come into contact with, at risk.

The real reason for the spread of tuberculosis was not realised until 1884, and it took much longer to eradicate. In the period 1861- 1870 TB killed 361 in every 100,000 in Scotland; in 1901-1910 it was still high at 209. It took until the 1940s and the discovery of penicillin for respiratory diseases like TB to be brought under control. Until that time they remained fatal.

Mary Waterston was the first born child of James Waterston and Jane Frame. Born in Hamilton, Lanarkshire in 1821. The family lived on Quarry Street, Hamilton and Mary left home when she married William Gardiner on the 7th of April 1844. They were both 23 years old. William was a fireman at the local gas station and Mary was a housewife.

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They had 6 children:

Henry Ellis Gardiner born 1846 in Hamilton, Lanarkshire. He married Sommerville Buchanan Law at 7 High Patrick Street, Hamilton, Lanarkshire (Sommerville's mother's house) on the 17th August 1875. He was 28 and a stone mason journeyman and she was 20 and a domestic. They became romantically involved as neighbours, living on High Patrick Street, Hamilton

They had 8 children:

Henry Gardiner born Hamilton, Lanarkshire 1876. He was a painter to trade. In 1901 he appears on the census at Wellgate Street, Larkhall, living as a border with Harriet Salsworthy, as a Saw Mill Labourer. He left Scotland on the 26th May 1911 onboard the Parisian and arrived in Halifax, Canada on the 3rd of June 1911. He made a home for himself at 419 McLeod Street, Ottawa and on the 24th April 1918 married Louisa Clark in Ottawa–Carleton .No known children of the marriage. Henry died 15th May 1949 and Louisa died the 3rd of October 1983 at 359 Arlington Avenue, Ontario.

Janet Brownlie Gardiner born Hamilton, Lanarkshire 1879. She died aged 20 at 33 Portland Place, Hamilton, Lanarkshire on the 2nd of June 1899 from Consumption. She had suffered for 4 long months as the disease took its toll.

Mary Waterston Gardiner born Hamilton, Lanarkshire 1881. She died aged 17 at 33 Portland Place, Hamilton, Lanarkshire on the 11th of June 1898 from Consumption. It took five months from diagnosis for her to succumb to her symptoms

John Law Gardiner born Hamilton, Lanarkshire 1881. he never married. Living most of his adult life at 28 Miller Street, Hamilton. Lanarkshire. He died 7th March 1952 from a brain haemorrhage.

Richard Law Gardiner born Hamilton, Lanarkshire 1885. he died at 99 Quarry Street, Hamilton aged only 20 on the 12 of November 1904. Again Consumption took a long period of time to kill him.

Sommerville Law Gardiner born Hamilton, Lanarkshire 1887.

She never married. The deaths of most of her immediate family had a massive effect on her life and she spent most of her years working and caring for victims of Consumption. Sadly this selflessness would cause her own death as she too succumbed to the killer virus. She died aged 64 at Colony II, The Colony, Bridge of Weir - A Tuberculosis Hospital where she worked on the 10th of July 1951

James Waterston Gardiner born Hamilton, Lanarkshire 1889. In 1906, after most of his family had died of Consumption, he himself came down with the symptoms of the killer virus. He was taken to the Consumption Sanatorium, Kilmacolm (Quarriers Orphanage)

where he was quarantined but died aged only 18 on the 27th february 1907.

Alexander Millar Gardiner born at 151 Quarry Street, Hamilton on 1st February 1891.

He was only a young boy living at 33 Portland Place, Hamilton when Consumption started robbing him of his brothers and sisters. He was lucky enough to escape the virus and emigrated to Canada in 1910, becoming a fireman. Once in Canada he met and married Hilda Charlotte Holliday. Hilda was English by birth, the daughter of Charles Holliday and Martha Sanderson who were landlords of a public house called the Black Horse Inn, Atwick, Atwick, Yorkshire (East Riding), England.

Alexander & Hilda were married at Ottawa, Carleton, Ontario, Canada on the 30th September 1914. They had 4 children:

- Charles Alexander Gardiner born 1915 in Ottawa, Canada and died 1917.

- Hilda Millar Gardiner born 8th December 1918 in Ottawa, Canada. She married Albert Joseph Davy in 1950. Hilda died 1994 and Albert died 1990.

- Martha Jean Gardiner born the 6th of December 1920, Ottawa, Canada. She married Sydney Hugh Devine on 12th June 1943. Martha died 1988. Sydney died 26th December 1958

-Alexander (Alec) Richard Gardiner born 16th June 1927 he died 13th October 2007 in Ottawa, Canada.

Jane Waterston Gardiner born 1847 in Hamilton, Lanarkshire. Jane died of the same Consumption that killed her mother. She suffered for two years with the disease before dying aged 11 at 31 High Patrick Street, Hamilton on 7th June 1858. She was buried with her mother at the new Cemetery (Bent) in Hamilton.

Mary Gardiner born 10th October 1850 in Hamilton , Lanarkshire (Twin to James). She died as an infant on the 10th December 1850 in Hamilton, Lanarkshire.

James Gardiner born 10th October 1850 in Hamilton , Lanarkshire (Twin to Mary) He married Sarah McNish Milligan on 2nd December 1879 at Crossmichael, Dumfries and Galloway. He was 29 and she was 25. They rented a house at 24 High Patrick Street, Hamilton, two doors down from James parents house. Tragedy struck in 1885 when the couples then only child Janet died aged 4 years from diphtheria. James left his job as a stone mason and opened and ran his own grocers store in Hamilton and many of the family worked in it. By 1891 the business was doing well, they had 4 living children and had moved to John Street in Hamilton.

The children of the marriage were:

- Janet Galbraith Gardiner born 1881 in Hamilton, Lanarkshire and died 25th February 1885 at 5 St John's Lane, Hamilton, Lanarkshire from diphtheria.

- William Gardiner born 1884 in Hamilton, Lanarkshire.

- Agnes Milligan Gardiner born 1886 in Hamilton, Lanarkshire. She worked in her father's shop but died aged 25 from Pleuro-pneumonia on the 26th February 1911 at 48 Homelee Road, Glasgow. She never married.

- Sarah McNish Milligan Gardiner was born 1888 in Hamilton, Lanarkshire.

- Elizabeth Gardiner born 1890 in Hamilton, Lanarkshire.

The family eventually moved to Glasgow. In 1901 they were living at 63 Prince Edward Street, Govan, Tradeston, Glasgow and by 1920 they were at 1399 Argyle Street, Finniston, Glasgow. James' death remains a mystery. His wife Sarah died in Glassford, Lanarkshire on the 16th of July 1920 from heart disease. Her husband was still living and their usual residence was 1399 Argyle Street, Glasgow. It's unclear what happened to Willian, Sarah Junior or Elizabeth, however the family rumor is that they went to live in the USA.

Mary Gardiner born 1851 in Hamilton , Lanarkshire. Mary married Robert Hamilton on the 29th of November 1875 at her parents house, 20 High Patrick Street, Hamilton. Her sister Janet was a witness. Robert was a flesher (butcher) and a widower he was 15 years older than Mary and lived with his parents at 6 Holms Street in Hamilton. The couple moved to

Livingstone, Linlithgowshire and had 4 children:

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- Mary Magdalene Waterston Hamilton born 1881 in Livingston. She married James Murray in 1912 at Kirknewton and East Calder. No known children. She died at St Michael's Hospital, Linlithgow on the 16th January 1932 with a brain hemorrhage.

- John Hamilton born 1882 in Livingston.

- Janet Gardiner Hamilton born Livingston on the 3rd of September 1884. She died at the Hamlet of East Whitburn, West Lothian on the 17th March 1895 from diphtheria. She was aged 10.

- Agnes Hamilton born 15th August 1891 at Whitburn, Linlithgowshire. She firstly married Andrew Meikle on the 31st of December 1915 at Whitburn, Linlithgowshire. They had one daughter Mary Hamilton Gardiner Meikle born 25th November 1916. She married John Bennett on the 19th of May 1936 at St Johns Church Hall, Ormiston. They had 2 children. Agnes Hamilton Bennett who was born in 1937 and Frederick Bennett who was born in 1942. When Andrew Meikle died Agnes had another partner - Thomas Carter.

Janet (Jessie) Gardiner born at 27 High Patrick Street, Hamilton on the 4th July 1855. She died aged 23 on at 20 High Patrick Street from consumption. She had suffered for six months with the illness.

So what became of Mary Waterston and William Gardiner ? Mary was yet another family member who fell victim to consumption. She died at 31 High Patrick Street, Hamilton on the 31st of January 1858 and was buried at the New Cemetery (Bent) in Hamilton. She was only 37 years old. William remarried. His new wife was Agnes McDuffie. They married the 1st of June 1859 and had one daughter Wilhelmina Gardiner born 27th October 1863 at 20 James Street, Hamilton. Despite extensive research I've never been able to learn what happened to William or Wilhelmina.