Baptismal Font found & relocated in St Margaret's after 28 years!
© Nutsend Productions
A recent photograph of the font taken by Jim Adam
The baptismal font, which used to take pride of place in St Margaret's Church in Juniper Green, was found in the garage of a deceased gentleman of the village a few years ago. After consultation between Mr Ian Gilmour (elder, Juniper Green Parish Church), Mrs Laura McVay (manager of the Sheltered Housing complex, which now stands where St Margaret's Church stood) and the residents, it was thought it would be appropriate to have it reinstated within the complex. Whether it will be used once again for baptisms remains to be seen !!
A brass plaque on the font states that it was gifted by a Mrs Borthwick of Elmgrove in 1897. After much searching in New Register House it was found that Mrs Helen Borthwick (nee Glasgow) a widow, was in the habit of dealing with a different kind of water! She was the local Innkeeper at the Railway Inn!
The 1871 Census shows her husband as the Spirit Merchant in a Public House in Juniper Green, and after his death in 1873 Helen took over the reins and can be seen as Innkeeper of the Railway Inn, Juniper Green in the 1881 and 1891 Census reports.
She died at her home Elmgrove, Lanark Road, Juniper Green on 22nd April 1899, two years after her gift of the font to the church.
It appears that Helen retired from the Railway Inn sometime between 1891 and 1897 and moved to Elmgrove with her family. Her two sons, James and John were both Insurance Clerks and both married after their mother's death. James, the eldest, was a Chief Insurance Clerk and was living at Elmgrove on his marriage in 1903 and was married by Rev Norman C. MacFarlane to Agnes Jane Paton (40yrs) of The Loan, Colinton. James was one of the first elders at St Margaret's Church and died at Elmgrove in 1935. There was no trace of James and Agnes having any children.
John's address on his marriage in 1904 in Edinburgh to Jane Ritchie Kerr (42yrs) was given as 106, University Street, Montreal, Canada. No further record of him could be found in the Scottish Records and so it would appear that he returned to Canada with his bride.
Isabella (62) was still a spinster on her brother James's death in 1935. It is therefore doubtful if there are any decendants from this family as both sons married later in life (38 and 42) and Isabella was still a spinster (62) in 1935 when she registered her brother, James's death.
