Catherine Mathison (née Farquhar)

Claimed apparently unsuccessfully for the compensation for the enslaved on the Castle Wemyss estate in St James as annuitant: the compensation was paid to the Rev. Walter Stevenson Halliday (q.v.).

1. Daughter of Sir Walter Farquhar and mother of Gilbert Farquhar Mathison (q.v.). Catherine Farquhar and Gilbert Matthison [sic] married at St Georges Hanover Square 08/05/1802.

2. Four children are shown as baptised to Gilbert and Catharine Mathison at St Georges Hanover Square between 1805 and 1812: Ann; Charles Mitchell; Elizabeth Harvie and Archibald Stirling. Gilbert Farquhar Mathison, '1st son of Gilbert of Middlesex' was born c. 1803.

3. Death of Catherine Mathison registered Q4 1849 at St George Hanover Square. Her husband had died in 1828.

4. Catherine was granted an annuity of £600 in her marriage settlement of 1802, to come into force on the death of her husband (which occurred in 1828). However, the estate had already been mortgaged to Simon Halliday, who had taken possession in 1823. Halliday's son Walter reportedly continued to pay a contribution towards the annuity but was not obliged to meet it.

T71/873 St James no. 394.

1. John Burke, Peerage and Baronetage (1832) Vol. I 'Farquhar, Sir Thomas Harvie', p. 462; Ancestry.com, London England Marriages and Banns 1754-1921 [database online].

2. Ancestry.com, London England Births Marriages and Burials 1538-1812 [database online]; Ancestry.com, Oxford University Alumni 1715-1886 [database online].

3. Ancestry.com, England and Wales FreeBMD Death index 1837-1915 [database online].

4. Castle Wemyss Estate Papers, at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cats/16/4592.htm [accessed 26/05/2015].

We are grateful to Marion Diamond for her assistance with compiling this entry.