Introduction / Families / Drever / David Drever and Ann Reid / John Drever and Barbara Groat

Midwife Taken North for Birth

When a birth was imminent at the north end of the island and it wasn’t possible to get a boat launched to get the doctor in Eday, Babie Drever (Barbara Groat, the wife of John Drever) who was then around eighty but had been a good midwife in her day agreed to be taken north from Windywa.

She had bad legs and went with a couple of sticks. There was no road as such, just a farm track. There were also no horses on the island at that time, only oxen. An ox cart was got as near to the door as possible and with two men along side of her to stop her being blown away, she was lifting into the cart and an oilskin put over her. It was sleeting when they set off.

Later in the darkening, word went from house to house that a bairn had been born safely. Babie stayed the night and the next day they got her back in the ox cart to Windywa.

While it is not certain, it is thought likely that the bairn was Mary Couper, who was born at Doggerboat on 13th December 1893.