2.2. Matthew Cassels (c1830-1890)

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Matthew Cassels was born about 1830 to George and Martha (Young) Cassels in the village of Maxwelton, East Kilbride, Lanarkshire. His father was a hand loom weaver. By 1841 when the census was enumerated, Matthew and his older brother, David, were also hand loom weavers.

Matthew's father died sometime between the 1841 and 1851 because Matthew and two of his brothers were living with his widowed mother in Maxwelton in 1851. Matthew and his younger brother were cotton weavers. His older brother, George, wove silk.

On 16 December 1851 Matthew married Elizabeth Muir, daughter of Robert and Henrietta (Brown) Muir in East Kilbride. They had four children over the next ten years -- George, Henrietta, Margaret, and Martha. When the 1861 census was enumerated, the family was living in Maxwelton and Matthew was an agricultural laborer. He had listed his occupation as hand loom weaver when he registered the births of this three oldest daughters prior to 1861. Another job change occurred when the family moved north about 5 miles.

Some time between 1861 and the summer of 1863 the family moved to the Village of Dalton, Cambuslang, Lanark. Matthew began working as a road surface man. 1863 was a tragic year for Matthew and his young family. Their second daughter, Margaret Cassels, died on 11 August 1863, in Dalton of gastric fever. She had been sick for about two weeks and was only four years old at the time of her death. Elizabeth delivered her youngest child on 9 June 1863 but became ill herself soon after. She died on 27 October 1863 of consumption at the age of 34. Leaving her husband, Matthew, alone to care for four small children ranging in age from 11 years to 4 months old.

Matthew moved his family to the Village of Stonefield in Blantyre parish, renting a house on Stonefield Road, before the beginning of 1864. Tragedy followed the family. On 15 January of that year 6-month-old Elizabeth Muir Cassels, Matthew and Elizabeth's youngest child died of consumption, which she had suffered from almost her entire life.

On 1 April 1870 Matthew married Margaret McKay at the Manse of the Free Church of Scotland in Blantyre. They were married by Robert MacDonald, who was the minister. Margaret was the 27-year-old daughter of Archibald and Mary (Hunter) McKie.

When the census was enumerated on 2 April 1871 the family was living on Stonefield Road in Blantyre and Matthew was still working as a road surface man. Living with them at the time were Henrietta and Martha Cassels, his daughters by Elizabeth Muir, and Mary Cassels, a 10-month-old infant, by Margaret McKay. Martha Cassels, Matthew's mother, was also living with the family.

Over the next decade, Matthew and Margaret had three more children -- Matthew, Archibald, and Margaret, who was called "Maggie." When the census was enumerated on 3 April 1881, the family was still living in Blantyre and Matthew was working as a railway surface man. Three of the children, Mary, Matthew and Archibald were living with their parents, as was Margaret's mother, Mary McKay.

Stonefield Road in Blantyre Parish. Matthews Cassels family likely lived in
the tenements just to the right of the church; image courtesy of The
Blantyre Project

The next year Margaret had her last child, George Cassels. She died two years later on 27 February 1884 of "progressive pernicious anemia" from which she had suffered for nine months. She was 43 years old and left her husband Matthew a widower for a second time with five children to raise, ranging in age from 14 to 2 years old.

On 18 March 1887, Matthew married for the third time to Margaret Allardice. She was the 22-year-old daughter of William Young and Elizabeth Goldie (Cumming) Allardice. Matthew was 56 years old at the time of his third marriage. It was a short-lived affair, however, as Matthew Cassels died on 22 November 1890 of double pneumonia. He was 60 years old at the time of his death.

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1841 Scotland Census, 06/06/1841 Chassells, George (Census 1841 643/00 004/00 009)
1841 Scotland Census, Parish: East Kilbride; ED: 4; Page: 10; Line: 1149; Year: 1841
1851 Scotland Census, 30/03/1851 Cassels, George (Census 1851 643/00 013/00 008)
1851 Scotland Census, Parish: East Kilbride; ED: 13; Page: 8; Line: 3; Roll: CSSCT1851_152; Year: 1851
1861 Scotland Census, 07/04/1861 Cassels, George (Census 1881 643/00 003/00 0004)
1861 Scotland Census, Parish: East Kilbride; ED: 3; Page: 4; Line: 1; Roll: CSSCT1861_95
1871 Scotland Census, 02/04/1871 Cassels, Henrietta (Census 1871 624/00 005/00 009), Pages 1-2
1871 Scotland Census, Parish: Blantyre; ED: 5; Page: 8; Line: 25; Roll: CSSCT1871_118
1881 Scotland Census, 03/04/1881 Cassells, Archibald (Census 1881 624/00 002/00 035)
1881 Scotland Census, Parish: Blantyre; ED: 2; Page: 35; Line: 14; Roll: CSSCT1881_202
1885 Scotland Valuation Rolls, 1885 Cassells, Matthew (Valuation Rools VR107 / 111 / 96)
Scotland Old Parish Records, 1538-1854,13/12/1851 Muir, Elizabeth (OPR Marriages 643/00 0030 0020 East Kilbride)

Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950, Elizabeth Cassels

Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950, Margaret Cassels
Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950, Martha Cassels
"Stonefield Road, Blantyre," The Blantyre Project, accessed 23 October 2014
Scotland Statutory Registrations, 1855-2013, 1870 Cassells, Matthew - McKay, Margaret (Statutory Marriages 624/00 0011)
Scotland Statutory Registrations, 1855-2013, 1887 Cassels, Matthew - Allardice, Margaret C (Statutory Marriages 624/00 0021)
Scotland Statutory Registrations, 1855-2013, 1890 Cassels, Matthew (Statutory Deaths 624/00 0183)