Renwick

Updated May 2024

John Renwick was born in 1857 in Douglas, South Lanarkshire.  He was the son of shepherd Adam Renwick and his wife Jane Muir.

Helen Bryce was born on 16th May 1857. Her mother was an unmarried domestic servant and, as a baby, Helen went to live with the Rodger family in Nemphlar.  Helen subsequently named William Rodgers as her biological father and took his surname.

 

In the 1871 census, Helen Bryce is working as a general servant at Normangill, Crawford on a farm run by Richard Vassie, a sheepbreeder noted Cheviot and Blackface sheep.  Six shepherds were employed at Normangill – it may be this is where Helen met John Renwick.

 

John Renwick and Helen Bryce Rodgers married in February 1879 at Nemphlar and soon after they left Normangill for Exmoor.  It seems the couple were expecting a baby; it could be John’s job was not suitable for a married man and he needed to find alternative employment.

 

John Renwick was a distant cousin of William Davidson of Hoar Oak Cottage and it could be that when the Davidsons moved to Winstitchen a word was put in with Head Shepherd Robert Tait Little to hire John to take over the Hoar Oak Herding.  Ongoing research into which sheep farmers in and around Lanarkshire were supplying Exmoor with Cheviot and Blackface sheep includes the possible link with Normangill Farm.

The couple arrived to take on the herding at Hoar Oak Cottage in 1879, sometime between their marriage in February 1879 in Scotland and the birth of their first daughter Marion in the 2nd quarter of 1879 at Hoar Oak Cottage.  The family were still there in the 1881 census along with a second daughter, Mary, born in the 2nd quarter of 1881.  A third daughter, Annie, was born in the autumn of 1883, but she died aged 4 months in December 1883 and is buried, unmarked, in Lynton St Mary’s churchyard.

John is mentioned several times in Head Shepherd Robert Tait Little’s diaries in 1885 and 1886 and the final entry records the sad news that John Renwick left Hoar Oak in August 1886 and was taken to Exeter Asylum.  See below:

Archive Ref:  HOC.People.Renwick.Doc.6

Diary Entry August 1886 reads “John Renwick, Shepherd, Oareoak (sic) Left Oareoak. taken to Exeter Asylum.”

 

The record of John’s stay in the asylum can still be read in the Devon Record Office in Exeter and they hint at what life must have been like for Helen out on the moor at Hoar Oak running up to his admittance in August 1886.

Exeter Asylum Medical Case Book for Male Paupers

Archive Ref:  HOC.People.RENWICK.DOC.1.1 No.26 Pauper Male Medical Case Book

His records, held in separate Asylum ledgers kept for Pauper Patients, tell us that John was very agitated, was fearful of ‘black shapes’ following him on the moor and was lashing out in terror, so much so that he had to be handcuffed and escorted away from Hoar Oak by the Doctor and a Constable.  One wonders how long Helen must have been trying to keep the Renwick family ‘show on the road’ in order to preserve their home and security as John’s mental health suffered.  John was discharged from Exeter Asylum and the family returned to Scotland to live with John’s parents in Maidengill, Douglas.     Another cousin of both John Renwick and William Davidson – James Johnstone – came down from Scotland to take over the Hoar Oak herding.  See web page Johnstone – hoaroak (hoaroakcottage.org)

 

Back in Scotland the Renwicks were, by September 1888, in need of ‘parochial relief’ which could be applied for by those unable to support themselves through “age, incapacity, being sick, disabled or insane”.  The paperwork to do with the application for parochial relief show that it was, at the same time, decided to commit John to Kirkland Asylum in Bothwell, Lanarkshire.   Helen found work and a home with her two remaining children just 10 miles from Kirkland Asylum where John lived for nearly 10 years. John died at 9:45 on 6th November 1899 in Kirkland Asylum, Bothwell.  He had had pleurisy and pneumonia for ten days.  His death was registered by Helen and the entry makes a sad summary of John’s life.  He is listed as: Death No. 247 A Pauper Lunatic formerly Shepherd married to Helen Rodger

Helen carried on working and caring for her children and then for her grandchildren – including those of her daughter Marion who had died in a nearby Asylum of delirious mania.  Helen died on 21st May 1937 at 31 Belmont Street, Overtown, Cambusnethan.  She was aged 80.  Although she had worked most of her life, no occupation was given on her death certificate, only that she was the ‘widow of John Renwick, Shepherd.’

 

Following a shout out to the Borders Family History Society we were contacted by a descendant of John and Helen – John Harwood – who helped fill in some of the gaps of their life and story.  Combined with further research by Nicky Rowberry these data have been combined to give as full a picture as is possible.  It is contained in the chapter on Helen Renwick in the Women of Hoar Oak Cottage – An Untold Story.  To obtain a copy go to