Change of Speaker for tomorrow, Sunday, 30 November at Melrose

Unfortunately, Mary Craig, who was to have spoken about Beggars, Thieves and Whores - the ultimate medieval outsiders, has suddenly fallen ill.
Instead, we will have two speakers:

    Enid Cruickshank: Walter and Andrew Haddon, solicitors, of Hawick
    She also has some interesting items about the Boer War.

    Gregory Lauder–Frost: Earlier records including privy council records, exchequer rolls and regality records
    He will bring some examples along for you to look at.

It's at the same venue, the Corn Exchange & Ormiston Institute, Market Square, Melrose, TD6 9PN.  See this map for directions.
I warmly invite you to attend the talk whether you are a member or not. Doors open at 2pm; the talk begins at 2.30pm.

We'll have a range of family history publications available to buy including our new publication, Innerleithen Shops, and there’ll be light refreshments (donation expected) available after the talk.

If you have a problem with your family history, please discuss it (no charge) with one of our volunteers.


We wish Mary a speedy recovery.

John Haddon's Trip Around the World in 1882

I found yesterday's talk after the AGM very interesting.

The speaker, Andrew Haddon, told us a bit about the family tree. John was descended from Andrew Haddon (born 1690) a flesher or butcher in Selkirk.

John's father was another Andrew Haddon (1818-1894), his mother was Anne White (1821-1878) and John had 10 siblings.

Andrew showed us two books written by John, 'A Doctor's Discovery and the Elixir of Life' and 'Diary of a Trip Around the World in 1882'. The latter book was reprinted from the Hawick News.

John became a well-to-do doctor with a thriving practice in Manchester, but after an illness, he decided to go around the world to recover.

Initially, he crossed the Atlantic in the SS Parisian (it didn't look like a luxury ship). He visited various places in Canada and in the USA including Chicago, Salt Lake City, San Francisco; he was very impressed by the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and said it would one day be the best hospital in the world. He also visited the Sandwich Islands (now called Hawaii), Samoa, New Zealand and Australia. He met fellow Scots, including Kentucky senator James Burnie Beck.

There was a lot more but unfortunately my pen dried up about halfway through the talk,

Dr John Haddon of Hawick's World Trip in 1882 and Annual General Meeting

Our next talk is on Sunday, 27th May at 2.30pm, in the Corn Exchange, Market Square, Melrose, TD6 9PN, when Andrew Haddon will be talking to us about his ancestor, Dr John Haddon of Hawick, Roxburghshire, who took a break from his career at the age of 37, after a bout of illness, and embarked on a 'round the world trip' in 1882 that saw him travel across the Atlantic through America and Canada and across the Pacific. This journey was serialised at the time in the Hawick Express.

His descendant, Andrew Haddon will give a talk, with pictures, retracing his steps and touching upon the social insight it provided into the world of that time and recounting tales of the Borderers he met on his journey.

The talk is preceded by our annual general meeting. In addition to the usual reports we'll be discussing the proposed change to our constitution.

I warmly invite you to attend the talk whether you are a member or not.
The doors will be open at 2pm; the talk begins at after the annual general meeting.
It’s free, so we hope to see lots of you there.
We'll have a range of family history and other publications to buy.

As usual there’ll be tea, coffee, and biscuits available after the talk.
We’ll also be making the monthly 50-50 draw at the meeting.
If you have a problem with your family history, please discuss it (no charge) with one of our volunteers.

If you're not familiar with Melrose, here's a map.


Our latest volume, Coldingham Monumental Inscriptions is available.

Read our Kith & Kin column every week in the Border Telegraph and Peeblesshire News newspapers.