Introduction / Families / Drever / Thomas Drever and Christian Drever

Mary Drever and James Laughton

Mary Drever was born in Pharay on 1st March 1829), the eighth of the nine children of Thomas Drever and Christian Drever. She was with the family at Holland at the time of the 1841 census.

She moved to Kirkwall. In 1861 she is recorded as a servant living at the house of Margaret Pollexsen in Broad St.

Mary married James Laughton (b. 12th December 1837) from Holm on 21st May 1863 in Shore St., Kirkwall. He was the son of farmer James Laughton and Mary Langskaill.

Mary and James had six children born in Kirkwall:

• William Alexander Logie Laughton b. 22nd April 1864 (twin)

• Mary Laughton b. 22nd April 1864 (twin). She died at Newington, Edinburgh on 11th January 1912 at the age of forty seven.

• Isabella Margaret Laughton b. 20th December 1865 and died in Kirkwall in 1872

• James Laughton b. 4th November 1867

• Thomas Drever Laughton b. 26th May 1869 and died in Kirkwall in 1870

• Christina Drever Laughton b. 7th December 1870 and married seaman Ernest Charles Barrie in Newington, Edinburgh on 16th October 1892.

Mary’s mother, Christina Drever, was staying with the family in Albert St in 1871. The occupation of James Laughton in both that census and 1881 is given as “butcher and flesher”.

The family subsequently moved to the Newington District of Edinburgh. In the 1901 census, the household also included a grandson, David Raeburn Laughton, who was born in North Leith on 29th March 1886. David was a daughter of Mary Laughton.

James Laughton died in Oxford St, Newington, Edinburgh on 23rd February 1902. Mary Drever died on 7th November 1915, again in Newington. She was eighty six.