The Two Families of John Cunningham Bellshaw (1)

John Cunningham Bellshaw, second son of John Bellshaw and Elizabeth Cunningham, married Jane Moodie on 31st December 1879 when he was twenty three and she was seventeen. They were neighbours, living at 10 and 12 Norfolk Lane, Glasgow and went on to have five children.

John Bellshaw junior was born in November 1880, Andrew Moodie Bellshaw (named for his maternal grandfather) three years later. Annie Hislop Bellshaw (named for her maternal grandmother) was born in December 1885, Jane Hislop Bellshaw in February 1888 and Agnes Moodie Bellshaw in June 1891.

Although all the children were born in Glasgow their births were registered at different addresses. Their father is listed as a journeyman baker on his marriage certificates, and on the birth certificates of all his children There is no evidence of unemployment, but other records give the impression of an impoverished family, often on the move.

John Bellshaw junior died of bronchitis in 1885. He was just under five years old. In the 1891 census his siblings Andrew, Annie and Jane were boarding with Margaret Simpson, a laundress, and her two teenage children. Their father, John Bellshaw, was boarding with the family of Alexander Workman, also a baker. Their mother Jane, then pregnant with Agnes, was an inmate at the City Poorhouse on Parliamentary Road.

Glasgow had three poorhouses; Barnhill Poorhouse in Barony, The City Poorhouse, and Govan Poorhouse on Dale Street. All must have been deeply unpleasant but the City Poorhouse seems to have been the most terrible. According to The Workhouse;

The Glasgow City Poorhouse stood on the north side of Parliamentary Road, to the west of its junction with St James Road. The building was originally erected in 1809 as a lunatic asylum. With 1,500 beds, the poorhouse was one of the largest institutions in Britain.

The poor conditions in the City Poorhouse were a recurring subject of concern with both the City Council and the Parochial Board. In 1882, separate reports by the Board's Secretary and Medical Officer condemned the building. In 1887, after press reports of overcrowding, Dr Littlejohn and the Council's Medical Officer Dr Russell were appointed to conduct an enquiry. Their report highlighted a long list of deficiencies including:

Inadequate separation of sick and able-bodied.

Very poor sanitary arrangements such as badly sited and separated water closets.

The use of water closets as sculleries and pantries.

Poor bathing facilities — in one instance, 290 male inmates took their weekly bath in two baths, a process which took from 7am to 7pm.

Inadequate open-air exercise facilities.

Badly lit and ventilated day rooms.

Many of the buildings problems were aggravated by its location on a very busy main road near to the North British Goods Station.

It was in these conditions that Agnes was born on the 23rd of June.

Annie Hislop Bellshaw, then aged seven, died in September 1893, after suffering pulmonary congestion for a week. John Bellshaw had been present at his daughter’s death as he had his son John’s. She died at 10 Norfolk Road, the address of her aunts Jane and Helen.

On the 5th June 1900 Jane Moodie Bellshaw, John Cunningham Bellshaw’s first wife, died. Her cause of death was Phthisis Pulmonalis and Abdominalis, which is an archaic medical term for tuberculosis, a condition characterized by emaciation, debility, cough, hectic fever, and purulent expectoration. Her death certificate indicates that she had been suffering from TB for at least two years. She died at Gartloch Asylum, having been moved there from the City Poorhouse. Gartloch was built as a lunatic asylum in 1896, but operated as a 50 bed Tuberculosis sanatorium from 1902. Jane Moodie Bellshaw’s death certificate specifically gives Gartloch ‘Asylum’ as her place of death in 1900, so it is probable that TB patients were treated there informally before this date.
There would be sense to this. TB is highly infectious and lunatic asylums were traditionally located in isolated locations.

John married Mary Jane Handley, a confectionary worker, at 36 Kelvingrove Street 'under the form' of the United Free Church on December 11th 1900. This was only six months after his first wife, had died and she was over twenty years younger than he was. They appear together on the 1901 census with Jane and Agnes, John’s daughters from his marriage with Jane Moodie.

Next: The Second Family of John Cunningham Bellshaw.

10 Norfolk Court

John and Elizabeth Cunningham moved into 10 Norfolk Court sometime during the short life of their son Johnstone. The family was to live at that address for the next sixty years until the death of Johnstone’s elder sister Jane, aged 77 in 1927. Because the family lived there so long the address turns up on birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates and census returns. So what do we know about it?

Well we know it must have been a fairly grim place, even by the low standards of the time. All three children born to John and Christine born after the move died within the first year of life, without medical attendance of respiratory infection. we also know that four of John’s surviving children married spouses who lived within Norfolk Court. In 1879 Mary Ann Bellshaw married Thomas Reid of 8 Norfolk Court and John Cunningham Bellshaw married Jane Moodie of 12 Norfolk Court. William Bellshaw, their elder brother, married Catherine Osborn, of 2 Norfolk Court in 1885 and Elizabeth Bellshaw married James Crandles, also of 8 Norfolk Court, in 1890.

Some of the most interesting information on Norfolk Court comes from census returns, which were collected every ten years. These reveal that in 1881 John and Elizabeth, aged 61 and 50 respectively, were living with three adult daughters and two adult sons in the dwelling, which only only two rooms with windows. By 1891 the parents had passed away, and three of their children had married and moved away. However three of the children were still living there; Jane and Helen who were both to remain unmarried and would live there for many years, and also their sister Mary Ann, now widowed and her son Archie, aged 10. By the time of the next census in 1901 Jane and Helen were living there alone. Jane was still living at 10 Norfolk Court when she died in 1927, sixty years after her parents moved there. Her death certificate was witnessed by her nephew Archie who had lived there as a child.