George SCOTTER “fell asleep” on this date in 1961, aged 78 years. He was “loved with a love beyond all telling”.
George was survived by his second wife, Edith Annie, daughter of fisherman Edmond SAYERS and Sarah CAMMISH. Edith died in Silver Birches in 1983, aged 87. In a note on Filey Genealogy & Connections, Kath says –
She was a lovely lady. Frustrated because of her lack of mobility as she got older – bones – arthritis etc. Such a lady tho’ and with a sense of humour.
Edith would perhaps be wryly amused to be in the shadows of the family grave, allowing the first Mrs George Scotter her place in the sun.
Jane Elizabeth lives well beyond her allotted span on the FamilySearch Shared Tree.
Here is the GRO Index registration of her death.
She died about the time the third wave of the “Spanish ‘Flu” passed over the United Kingdom.
In her interviews for Exploring Filey’s Past Ann Wilkie née JOHNSON recalled two incendiary raids on Filey during the Second World War. In the first, the bombs rained down on the West Avenue area and brought a dance at the Southdene Pavilion to a premature close: –
…the dancin’ finished straight away and you were scurryin’ on and duckin’ down, y’ know. One thing, we only had to go from Southdene to Rutland Street so there’s just Brooklands in between, y’ know…and me friend lived in Bell Vue Street. So we hadn’t far to go but it was frightening, scurryin’ along, y’ know. And, of course at home, y’ see, we, when the sirens went, we just went down into the basement, y’ know it was, erm, well, safe I suppose down there. But, erm, yes and then at the Laundry End I think it was worse still, y’ know…
Doreen Mason née HOLMES remembered: –
…we were at the Southdene Pavilion dancin’ and …somebody said, I’ll go and get you a glass of cider at that pub at bottom … and these incendiary bombs were comin’ all off the roofs, so I dashed out and, by God, din’t I run home?
For Doreen, this was the night of the Laundry Hill raid and when she heard that her job had gone up in flames: –
Lily Cronk née COLLING was working at the Brigg Cinema when the incendiaries began to rain down. She reckoned that 11,000 were dropped on the town and she had close encounters with a “helluva lot” of them.
I went up on t’ roof at Brigg…with a sweepin’ brush and swept ‘em off (laughter). I don’t know how the hell…I wunt do it now but I did. Hung through thing and took a brush, long brush, y’ know… I ‘ad ‘em off before they went off, must ‘ave ‘ad because [they] din’t do any damage… I just swept ‘em off top… I din’t care where the ‘ell they went as long as they weren’t on top o’ cinema…whether I did right or wrong. But I can’t a done wrong can I? (laughter). It was still there next mornin’.
Keith Lang’s sister worked at the Laundry and he recalled that she lost some of her clothes to the flames.
Nancy Mann nee BROWNING was employed at the Laundry for quite a long time but her health suffered and Dr Dibb wrote a letter enabling her to leave for more amenable work as a shop assistant. During the war, she was a First Aider and was expected to work alternate nights – but to turn up for duty if bombs were falling. On the 26th February –
…it was my night on and I went round as large as life an’ they ses, where were you last night? I ses, I was in bed, why? Well, din’t you ‘ear bombs droppin’?
About 80 metres south of the Laundry an incendiary fell onto Cammish’s Shop, 2c Mitford Street. Robert ‘Bobbin’ CAMMISH raked the tail fin from the gutter – and here it is, with a 20 pence piece to give an idea of scale… Thanks to Joanne for allowing me to photograph it.
The missing “business end” would have been about 12 inches/30 cms long.
Joanne emailed to say that the cast iron guttering still has a crack in it and “every time it rains a poor unsuspecting passer-by gets a reminder of Hitler’s actions to this country”.
Anniversaries
1880 Filey · Birth George was the fourth of ten children born to Mark SCOTTER and Alice COLLING. He married Mary Ann SAYERS when he was 21 and had two children. He died at the age of 36, a few months before his father was shot and killed by a U Boat crewman while fishing from his yawl Susie.
1789 Frodingham (or Beeford) · Baptism George was the non-bio father of Martha ROOM (Anniversary Marriage 27 January). I speculated a month ago that Martha was a nurse child of George’s wife, Rachel MAULSON. This Rachel has since been replaced by another – Rachel ROOM. So Martha was maybe raised by her mother’s sister and George. The church register indicates that George was a widower when he married Rachel Room.
1867 Filey · Marriage In the thirteenth year of his marriage, William was washed overboard from the yawl Elizabeth and Emma off Robin Hood’s Bay during the Great Storm of 1880. He is remembered on the Fishermen’s Window in St Oswald’s church. Johanna (or Joanna Hannah) married again. She is the brother of John (Anniversary Birth 3 February).
Newman lived for 86 years, dying in Overstrand, just five miles from his Norfolk birthplace. One of his descendants, David SCOTTER, explains the name change –
The Scotters have lived in Norfolk for nigh on a thousand years. Back then we were Skottowe or a variation of that spelling. As time went on the more general spelling was Scottow and by 1800 there were many changes, one being to Scotter, changes which happened purely by peoples’ different accents.
Fishing was in the family as early as 1603 when a Simon Skottowe left in his will –
Will of Symon Skottowe 13th December 1603
In the name of God Amen I Symon Skotowe of gt Yarmouth in the countye of Norff Sayler doe make and ordayne this my last will and Testament in manner and forme following. First I give and bequeathe my Soule into the hands of almighty God And my body to be commuted to Christian buryall Item I give and bequeathe to Ann my wiffe my house in Fee simple and my netts with all that is myne In witness hereof he setts his hand. Wittnesses Richard Utting Nicholas Goodson and Stephen Hodges
Probate given at Gt Yarmouth 13th day of the month of December 1603
The first proper mention of the Scotters fishing in Norfolk was when Reuben Scottow took to the sea around 1860. Previous to that the family had been Agricultural Labourers. In those days Runton must have been a bleak place to earn a living in. As we all know if you were an agricultural labourer you worked from dawn to dusk for a pittance in pay, so to start with Reuben may well have enhanced his wages by helping out the other fishermen he lived amongst. It does not appear as if he had his own boat, as searches amongst records show nothing. What we do know is that he was suddenly taken by the fishing bug and later so were his whole family.
Spawned in Norfolk, Caught in Filey, posted in Looking at Filey, 19 May 2011
Reuben is the fourth of eight sons Newman had with Gemima SWAN(N), and the man responsible for the couples’ many Filey descendants. They are, for instance, second great grandparents to Arthur FERRAR (see Anniversary 1 January).
George never married. In the 1891 and 1911 censuses he was sharing a house with his sister Louise and her children. Louise had married Alexander Arthur CORSBY, a musician, on the Isle of Man but the couple had separated. I have not found a record of divorce but Alexander married again about 1899 and had two children with Matilda ROBERTS. Louise died in 1918 and George in 1932.
1740 · Nathaniel CAPPLEMAN · MJDY-FVB & Elizabeth RIDLEY
There is a bunch of duplicate IDs for Nathaniel, which may enable the construction of a family with six or more children. Filey Genealogy & Connections points to Nathaniel being a second-generation Cappleman in Filey. Elizabeth’s forebears are not yet known.
Edmond and his wife Sarah are remembered on the grave of their daughters, Jane Elizabeth and Edith Annie, who both married George SCOTTER (who happens to be a great-grandson of Newman SCOTTOW, above).
Some mornings I set out on my sea of data to see where the breezes take me. The storm of March 1883 blew up and I think it will take a few days to figure the human consequences. I have been this way before. Last year I introduced the son of the skipper of the yawl Integrity – Jacky Windy – and suggested readers go to the old Looking at Filey blog for an account of the Storm. When I provided the link to the British Library Web Archive back then it worked. About a month ago I discovered that the functionality had been compromised. Quite why the British Library summarily ended “Open Access” remains a mystery. I was promised a licence to give REDUX readers access to old stuff, but it hasn’t reached me yet. I’ll give it a few more days.
Integrity, a 33-ton yawl with a lute stern, was built by William SMITH in Scarborough in 1857. She went to Hull and was registered as H1207. Henry WYRILL bought her in 1881 and brought her back to Scarborough, registering her as SH159. Nicholas CAMMISH skippered initially but it was the unfortunate Joseph WINSHIP who went down with her and four crew in the ’83 March storm. It could have been a tragedy for two other families. Yawls sometimes took along a cook, and a boy whose main utility, it seems, was to take the blame for anything that went wrong.)
A syndicated news item named the drowned fishermen.
“R. Wilkinson” was Horatio, a native of Sussex. (His first name was mangled into “Corattro” by a transcriber of the 1881 census.) Today, I’ll just give the link to George SCOTTER on the FamilySearch Shared Tree. The newspaper was correct in stating he had six children. There are currently nine on FST. Two died before their father drowned and one, Robert born 1877, is a cuckoo in the nest.
In loving memory of ELIZABETH SCOTTER, who died December 9th, 1899, aged 50 years.
‘God calls on me I must attend
Death takes me from my bosom friends
He hath released me from my pain
In Heaven oh may we meet again’
Also, of GEORGE SCOTTER husband of the above, who was lost at sea March 6th, 1883, aged 37 years.
Looking at Filey REDUX 