Helen Selkirk – coalminer’s daughter or merchant’s daughter?

Hourglass chart showing Helen Selkirk, her husband James Pride and their children and spouses, plus confirmed Y-DNA (green) and potential (yellow) autosomal DNA links.
Hourglass chart showing Helen Selkirk’s presumed parents, Nicol Selkirk and Beatrix Smith, her full brother William Selkirk, her father’s first wife, Bessie Rutherford and her half-siblings James, Isabell, Janet and Robert..

Historical Context

It seems likely that Helen Selkirk was born during the second reign of Charles II (1660 – 1685), when Scotland was still an independent country. She lived in tumultuous times and would have witnessed the succession of Charles’ brother as James VII of Scotland & II of England, only to see him ousted by his son-in-law and daughter, William & Mary, who were succeeded by James’ daughter Queen Anne, the last of the Stuarts. [1]

Helen Selkirk would also have witnessed the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain by the Act of Union of 1707, and she lived into the British reigns of the first two German Electors of Hanover, George I and George II. [2]

This was a time of civil war and during Helen’s lifetime there were a number of uprisings in favour of the Jacobite claimant, King James VIII of Scotland and III of England (1701 – 1766) [3] with the Battle of Prestonpans being fought on 21 September 1745, between Prestonpans and Tranent and close to the colliery where her husband James appears to have worked for much of his adult life. [4]

Biography 

Birth and Baptism

Helen Selkirk may have been born ca. 1683 – assuming that she was aged 21 when her first known child was born. [5]

Her parent’s names do not appear to have been recorded in the Old Parish Registers of Births & Baptisms. As her first male children were named John and William, her father may have been named John or William Selkirk as in Scotland it was traditional to name the eldest son after the paternal grandfather. [6] However, it should be noted that in the Pride and Selkirk families, the eldest son was often named after the maternal grandfather. [7]

Marriage

Helen Selkirk probably married James Pride (born ca 1683) in ca 1703. No record for a marriage has been found, but this is not unusual for the period and many mining families seemed to have favoured irregular marriages to church weddings. Indeed, the Family Search pages for Prestonpans parish in East Lothian state: “Marriages: Records are blank August 1716–February 1788. From the latter date to 1805, most of the marriages recorded were irregular.” [8]

Children

Helen Selkirk had eight children with James Pride, all born in Prestonpans (or Saltpreston) parish in East Lothian:

  1. William Pride, born 24 August 1704, baptised 03 September 1704, with witnesses William Moor (Deacon of Saltpreston Kirk & Mine Man to the Laird of Preston Grange) & William Selkirk (believed to be his maternal uncle). [9] William Pride later married William Moor’s daughter, Helen.
  2. John Pride, born 14 May 1706, baptised 19 May 1706, with witnesses James Canny (Merchant & Elder of Saltpreston Kirk) & John Pride (possibly paternal uncle). [10]
  3. Elisabeth Pride, born 17 August 1707 and baptised the same day, with witnesses James Canny (Merchant & Elder of Saltpreston Kirk) & William Moor (Deacon of Saltpreston Kirk & Mine Man to the Laird of Preston Grange). [11] Elisabeth Pride later married her presumed cousin, William Selkirk, son of William Selkirk and Christian Gray.
  4. Robert Pride, born 23 December 1710, baptised 24 December 1710, with witnesses William Moor (Deacon of Saltpreston Kirk & Mine Man to the Laird of Preston Grange) & Wm Selkirk (believed to be his maternal uncle).  [12]
  5. James Pride, born 05 May 1715, baptised 08 May 1715, with witnesses James Cannie (Merchant & Elder of Saltpreston Kirk) & Wm Selkirk (believed to be his maternal uncle). [13]
  6. George Pride, born 17 April 1716, baptised 22 April 1716, with witnesses James Canny (Merchant & Elder of Saltpreston Kirk) and John Pride (possibly paternal uncle). [14]
  7. James Pride, born 15 February 1719, baptised 25 February 1719, with witnesses James Kirkwood & Will Selkirk (believed to be his maternal uncle). [15] 
  8. Marion Pride, born 16 June 1721, baptised 18 June 1721, witnesses William Selkirk, Collier (believed to be her maternal uncle) & Benjamin McEwan Chirurgeon. [16]

Newhaven – aka Acheson’s Haven – aka Morrison’s Haven

Appointment of William Muir (aka Moor or Moore) as Deacon of Saltpreston Kirk with responsibility for Newhaven on 27 December 1690. Saltpreston Kirk Session Records. Courtesy of National Records of Scotland.
Newhaven, also known as Acheson’s Haven and later Morrison’s Haven on John Adair’s 1682 map of East Lothian. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.
Morrison’s Haven was the port of Prestongrange and Prestonpans. It was abandoned in the early part of the 20th century when silting rendered it useless to the neighbouring colliery and brickworks. Both facilities turned to rail and road transport to export their products.This photograph was taken in 1900 from a spur of rock on the seaward side. The main feature is a protruding pier reinforced with timber baulks. On the right, a circular, concrete plinth carries a central light; parts of vessels are behind. Photo credit: John Gray Centre.

The Journal of the Management of the Coal and Salt Works of Prestongrange

Helen Selkirk lived in the parish of Prestonpans, East Lothian, Scotland from at least 24 August 1704 to 16 June 1721 as all eight of her known children were born in the parish. [17]

Entry for James Pride, Helen Selkirk & their relatives in an April 1748 entry in the Journal of the Management of the Coal and Salt Works of Prestongrange, page 32. Courtesy of National Archives of Scotland.

In April 1748, Helen Selkirk was living at Pinkie, in Inveresk with Musselburgh parish, Midlothian, Scotland according to the Journal of the Management of the Coall and Salt Works at Prestoungrange which stated: “Helen Selkrick being at Pinkey married to James Pride who is aged about 70 with 3 sons all of age and one daughter.” [18][19]

This move seems to have been a recent one caused by flooding at the Prestongrange coal works that had recently been purchased by William Grant, Lord Prestongrange. [20]

Death

Helen Selkirk died at an unknown date after the entry in the Journal of the Management of the Coal and Salt Works of Prestongrange in July 1748 when she would have been about 65 years old.

Her husband James Pride is believed to have died ca 1750. [21]

Coalmining Selkirks & Edinburgh Burgesses 

Our Helen Selkirk seems most likely to have been born in the East Lothian or the Midlothian coal mining community, possibly in Prestonpans. Helen Selkirk’s daughter, Elisabeth Pride married William Selkirk (born 19 October 1705 in Prestonpans) [22] who was the son of William Selkirk (baptised 03 February 1678 in Prestonpans).[23] It seems likely that Helen Selkirk and William Selkirk senior were related, possibly even brother and sister, or cousins.

There was also a Helen Selkirk who was born on 04 May 1682 in South Leith parish to John Selkirk & Elizabeth Thomson. [24] Some researchers believe that she was the Helen Selkirk who married James Pride. The date of birth and the use of traditional naming patterns [25] – John for the second son after the presumed maternal grandfather and Elizabeth for the eldest daughter after the presumed maternal grandmother – would certainly fit very well with the theory that this was “our” Helen Selkirk.

The father of this Helen Selkirk, John Selkirk/Selkrig was, according to his OPR death register entry, a merchant in Leith and a burgess of the city of Edinburgh. [26] Interestingly, a recently published report mentions “hydis, woll and skynnis” that had been shipped from Acheson’s Haven to Leith in 1574. [27] Acheson’s Haven was the port of Prestonpans and was later named Morrison’s Haven. While now largely forgotten, “the customs port of Prestonpans in 1707 (the only harbour of which was Morrison’s Haven) occupied eighth place in the ranking of Scottish ports by tonnage of registered vessels“. [27] So, it would appear that there was undoubtedly significant sea-going commerce between Prestonpans and Leith at this time.

However it would be extremely unusual for the daughter of a Leith merchant and Burgess of Edinburgh to marry into a coal-mining family. According to James Barrowman, writing in 1897, colliers at the time of James Pride and Helen Selkirk were virtual slaves who were bound to whoever owned the pit where they worked. “Not a hundred years ago, a system of servitude still existed in Scotland, sanctioned by the practice of two centuries, by virtue of which colliers and their families were fixed to the soil almost as effectually as if they had been bought in the slave-market of New Orleans or born in the hut of a negro on some Virginian plantation. … The collier and his dependents were subjected to a measure of social ostracism, partly on account of the spirit of the times, which in a much greater degree than now regarded all labour as menial, but chiefly because of the solitary nature of the occupation. Engaged in dirty and unattractive work, in darkness and alone, and dissociated from the activities of the outer world, the collier settled into that condition of separateness which is characteristic of the class to the present day.” [28]

It should also be noted that there is a gap in the Prestonpans parish Register of Births & Baptisms from 1680 to 1687. [29] Therefore, if our Helen Selkirk was indeed born in Prestonpans around 1683 as seems possible, then her baptism would not have been registered, or the register has not survived.

Also, as mentioned above, several couples in the Selkirk and Pride familes named the eldest son after the maternal grandfather, rather than after the paternal grandfather, as was traditional. So it is not impossible that Helen’s father may have been named William Selkirk, and her husband James Pride’s father may actually have been John Pride.

Dr Iain G. Old of Vecchio DNA and Eve Pryde-Roberts, author of A Pride of Prydes, spent several years analysing all the available data, including DNA matches as they have become more available. In addition to other areas of research they have also conducted an in-depth analysis of the witnesses to the baptisms of the children of James Pride and Helen Selkirk, of William Selkirk and Christian Gray and of a number of other connected families. They concluded that William and Helen Selkirk were likely full siblings and that both were the children of Nicol Selkirk and his second wife, Beatrix Smith, with Helen’s baptism not being recorded due to a gap of several years in the Old Parish Register of Births & Baptisms for Prestonpans parish.

James Pride & Helen Selkirk’s Family in Fiction 

James Pride and Helen Selkirk’s son Robert Pride features in the novel, Prestoungrange A Baron’s Tale. [30]

Prestoungrange A Baron’s Tale A novel from Cuthill Press by Gordon Prestoungrange, Baron of Prestoungrange, that explores the life of William Grant in 1745/ 1764 and all that has since transpired at Prestoungrange – September 2009 is freely available for download (as a 5 M pdf) from the Prestongrange site. [31]

Gordon, Baron Prestongrange reading A Baron’s Tale. Photo Credit: Prestoungrange online.

Introduction by Gordon Prestoungrange:

“This novel is William’s wish come true and he made sure he played a key part in writing it. The ‘Tale’ William and his wife Griseldine tell together in these pages until 1987 frequently and quite deliberately makes fiction out of fact and greatly embroiders that too. William probably had a mistress or two, but the Jacobite lady Anne he adores in these pages is our own confection. And we certainly have no evidence there was a son called James. Robert Pryde, who really did petition William as a collier in 1746 might well have subsequently worked for the Cadells after Prestongrange Pit closed – but we have no proof of that. Nevertheless, a direct descendant of Robert Pryde today, Sandra, greatly assisted me with information on his Petition in 1746 and her line of descent, although all her contemporary sequences relating to Robert described in these pages are entirely fictitious.“

Prestoungrange A Baron’s Tale by Dr Gordon Prestoungrange. Photo Credit: Prestoungrange online.

Review from Prestongrange Heritage Trust [32]

“The front cover perhaps gives a clue. It was painted by Andrew Crummy depicting William Grant, Baron of Prestoungrange from 1745-1764, and Lady Susan Grant-Suttie, the last Grant-Suttie to live at Prestoungrange before the Royal Musselburgh Golf Club took its lease in the 1920s. Andrew’s work is derived from their contemporary portraits.

“In fact the novel is written by today’s 14th Baron but his hand is guided throughout by William Grant – who was reincarnated with his wife, his Jacobite mistress Anne and former miner Robert Pryde in 1997, and yet again in 2009.

“In 1997 William Grant was intent on understanding just what had gone on in Prestonpans since his death in 1764. In 2009, he wanted to see what the present day Baron has been up to over the past decade. And in between these two visitations he and his wife Griseldine put pen to paper to write their autobiography from 1745 when the battle raged hereabouts and William subsequently became Lord Advocate until his death in 1764.

“So the plot’s not too complicated and the Tale is tellable in no more than 450 pages.“

James Pride & Helen Selkirk’s Family in Fact 

James Pride and his wife Helen Selkirk are the founder members of the East Lothian Prides. Their family history is traced in A Pride of Prydes by Eve Pryde-Roberts, who is believed to have the largest data base of Prydes in the world, including descendants of James Pride & Helen Selkirk. The original print run of A Pride of Prydes is currently sold out but the book is now available in Kindle and paperback format. [33]

A Pride of Prydes by Eve Pryde-Roberts. Photo credit: Eve Pryde-Roberts.

Notable descendants 

Sir Chris Hoy MBE. As the first Briton to win 3 Olympic golds at the same Games since 1908, Scotland’s Chris Hoy has become a beacon for British sporting achievement.

Helen Selkirk was the great (x7) and also great (x8) grandmother of Sir Chris Hoy MBE, Great Britain’s most successful Olympic athlete of all time with six gold medals and one silver. [34]

Conclusion (page 6) of the 1883 trial notes of Robert Flockhart Vickers and William Innes.

Helen Selkirk was also the great (x4) grandmother of Robert Flockhart Vickers, who was executed by hanging in Calton Prison, Edinburgh on the 16th of December, 1883, for his part in the deaths of two gamekeepers, John Fortune, and John MacDiarmid. [35]

Sources 

  1. Wikipedia List of Scottish monarchs
  2. Wikipedia List of British monarchs
  3. Wikipedia James III of England and Ireland and James VIII of Scotland (Jacobite claimant)
  4. Wikipedia Battle of Prestonpans
  5. Old Parish Register of Births & Baptisms
  6. Chapter on Scottish Naming Traditions in In Search of Scottish Ancestry by Gerald Hamilton-Edwards (1980) ISBN 0806305061
  7. Personal observations regarding naming traditions in the descendants of James Pride & Helen Selkirk
  8. Information on Prestonpans parish records
  9. Old Parish Register of Births & Baptisms entry for William Pride
  10. Old Parish Register of Births & Baptisms entry for John Pride
  11. Old Parish Register of Births & Baptisms entry for Elisabeth Pride
  12. Old Parish Register of Births & Baptisms entry for Robert Pride
  13. Old Parish Register of Births & Baptisms entry for James Pride
  14. Old Parish Register of Births & Baptisms entry for George Pride
  15. Old Parish Register of Births & Baptism entry for James Pride
  16. Old Parish Register of Births & Baptisms entry for Marion Pryde
  17. Old Parish Register of Births & Baptisms entries for Prestonpans parish
  18. ‘Inventory of Prestongrange saltworks and colliery, 27 July 1745’ Held at the National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh
  19. ‘Journal of the Management of the Coal and Salt Works of Prestongrange beginning the 2nd of April 1748’ Held at the National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh.
  20. Wikipedia article on William Grant, Lord Prestongrange
  21. Eve Pryde-Roberts, personal communication.
  22. Old Parish Register of Births & Baptisms entry for William Selkirk, younger
  23. Old Parish Register of Births & Baptisms entry for William Selkirk, elder
  24. Old Parish Register of Births & Baptisms entry for Helen Selkirk of Leith
  25. Chapter on Scottish Naming Traditions in In Search of Scottish Ancestry by Gerald Hamilton-Edwards (1980) ISBN 0806305061
  26. Old Parish Register of Deaths & Burials entry for John Selkrig of Leith
  27. Prestongrange Community Archaeology Project: Desk-based Assessment Report No. 937 (Year 1) Authors: Michael Cressey HND BA MSc PhD FSA (Scot) MIFA & Richard Oram PhD
  28. Slavery In The Coal-Mines Of Scotland By James Barrowman, Mining Engineer
  29. Family Search – Information on Prestonpans Register of Births & Baptisms
  30. Prestoungrange A Baron’s Tale
  31. Download A Baron’s Tale
  32. A Baron’s Tale – Review
  33. A Pride of Prides by Eye Pryde Roberts is now available in Kindle and paperback format.
  34. Sir Chris Hoy MBE, personal site
  35. Robert Flockhart Vickers