On 24 May 1883 my great grandaunt, Elizabeth Brawley married Charles McCafferty. The strange thing about Elizabeth is that when she died in 1946 she had been on her own for a long time. The family knew her as Lizzie Brawley and certainly my mum’s generation of the family had no idea that she had ever been married.

Elizabeth was the 3rd of 11 children born to James Brawley and Sarah McLauchlan. She was born in Lanarkshire in 1861 and grew up as the only girl in the family. A previous baby girl, Catherine born in November 1859 died just short of her 1st birthday. The cause of death was diphtheria. Her brother Daniel was my great grandfather.

James and Sarah were married in 1856 in Ayrshire. James was born in Glasgow to Irish parents. The Brawleys were from Faughanvale in County Derry. Sarah was born in County Mayo but came to Scotland at a fairly young age. After their marriage the couple moved to Lanarkshire where they went where James’s work opportunities took them for a number of years between Ayrshire, Old Monkland and Newmains (both in Lanarkshire) before settling permanently Newmains.

In 1881 they were living at Clyde Rows and 20 year old Elizabeth was employed as a wool weaver. I would imagine that, as well as her paid work, Elizabeth would’ve been responsible for a lot of the household chores.

By 1883 Elizabeth was back in Newmains living at 20 Brown Street. She is no longer a weaver and is now recorded as a domestic servant. I’d like to know more about that. I’d be interested to know which families in Newmains could afford to pay for a servant. Possibly she travelled to work. Unfortunately I just don’t know. Right next door at 22 Brown Street was the young Charles McCafferty, a furnace filler. As well as being neighbours, Charles would have worked alongside the Brawley men at the Coltness Iron Works. The couple married in the Roman Catholic Church in Wishaw on 24 May 1883. The Parish of St Brigid’s in Newmains had not yet been established.

So in 1883 Charles and Elizabeth started their lives together. They were still together in 1891 according to the census record which shows them to be living with Elizabeth’s parents. We can see from this record that she is known among the family as Lizzie.

And that’s the last we hear of Elizabeth and Charlie as a couple. In the 1901 census of Elizabeth is still with her parents and recorded as Mrs McCafferty but there’s no sign of Charles. For a long time I assumed that he had died and I just left it at that.

It was only after talking about “Lizzie Brawley” with my mum that I decided to a bit more into her life. My mum was 17 when Elizabeth died and saw her fairly regularly and, as I said, she assumed she was a spinster. She lived locally and my mum and her siblings were pushed to visit her. My mum recalled a time when she had to go to Mass with Lizzie and when they came out Lizzie’s knicker elastic failed and she ended up with them round her ankles. My mum thought this was hilarious and couldn’t stop laughing. Auntie Lizzie didn’t quite so funny and my mum got into trouble for laughing. My mum also recalled her keeping a lot of cats and having a younger male lodger to whom she was not always very kind.

In 1901 when Elizabeth was living with her parents, Charles was still alive and well. In fact, he was still alive until 1944.

At the time of his death he was living at the Trades Hotel in Coatbridge which, from what I understand, was a hostel for single men, possibly those down on their luck. The staff were described as “warders” which doesn’t suggest luxury living. He certainly didn’t keep his marriage to Elizabeth a secret as she’s recorded on the death record so the information was known to the person registering the death.

In 1911 Elizabeth McCafferty was employed as a domestic servant at Mossgiel, Campbell Street in Wishaw. This advert from 1922 gives a description of the house.

The advert below gives an idea of the contents of the house that Elizabeth would have been responsible for keeping clean. If the contents were being sold in 1916 that might mean the end for her time there.

By 1921 Elizabeth was back in Newmains, back to Brown Street and back to being “Lizzie Brawley”. She’s recorded as a housekeeper but in a much smaller home. Number 12 Brown Street had been the home of her parents for many years and both died in the house, James in 1905 and Sarah in 1916. Campbell Street in Wishaw to Brown Street, Newmains is a distance of less than 2 miles so I imagine Elizabeth would have seen her family regularly.

The head of the house is a man called Patrick McDonach. In the 1911 census he was living as a lodger at 12 Brown Street with my great, great grandmother Sarah. This could be the lodger my mum mentioned although it turns out he has taken on the tenancy and Elizabeth was an employee there. Perhaps he needed looking after.

Also living at number 12 are Christina Aitken and her son, David. So that’s three unrelated adults and a teenage boy living in a 2 bedroom house. Perhaps Elizabeth and Christina bonded over their circumstances. Both were married women separated from their husbands. I found this wee article from 1922 about Christina and what happened in her marriage. Did Charles let Elizabeth down in a similar way?

Elizabeth continued living with Patrick until her death on 3 May 1946. Like her parents she died at 12 Brown Street. She is buried at this rather unloved plot in Cambusnethan Cemetery along with her parents. There is no headstone but I confirmed the location of the plot through the Lanarkshire Heritage Centre and one of the gravediggers at the cemetery was kind enough to show me the exact spot.

Elizabeth was 84 when she died so it’s unlikely she was still an employee at Brown Street but that her relationship with Patrick had become more about companionship. I don’t know if this is the young man my mother spoke about or if they had taken in another lodger. Patrick died in 1948.

Elizabeth’s death was registered by her nephew Matthew Brawley with whom she was apparently very close. He, I think, was one of the first in the family to attend university and his family believe that Elizabeth may have helped him out financially.

Having researched Elizabeth I find I’m left with more questions than answers. Matthew and his family recall her as kind and generous. My mother recalled her as a bit of a strange character. She was just 20 when she got married and I’m sure she had dreams of a happy life and maybe she hoped to be a mother. Maybe it was the fact that they didn’t have children that drove them apart.

She saw 4 of her siblings head off for new lives in America. She lost 2 little brothers when they were just babies. Her life was not an easy one.

For now that’s about all I know of her life. I hope it all makes sense. Having no direct descendants of her own it would be easy for Elizabeth to be forgotten in time but she is part of the family story.