Introduction / Families / Groat

William Drever Groat and Jessie Ann Hume

William Groat and his wife Jessie Hume were at Cott for about nine years from around 1924. He was from Papa Westray and the son of Stewart Groat and Ann Drever from Quoys, Papa Westray. He was brought up by his aunts, Jemima and Christina Drever at the Ness, Papa Westray and appears there in the 1891 and 1901 census.

William and Jessie married in South Leith in 1910. They had four children:

• Stewart Groat b. 1912, South Leith who married Isabella Rendall (b. about 1923). Isabella was the daughter of George Rendall and Isabella Miller, Papa Westray. Stewart was in the merchant navy and torpedoed during World War II. He and Isabella had four of a family. Stewart died in 1989 and Isabella in 2001.

• Anne Groat b. 1914, South Leith who married and had four of a family

• Christina Drever Groat b. 1916, South Leith who married and died in Papa Westray in 1990. She had three sons.

• William Drever Groat b. 1925, Pharay who died at the Thomas Walker Hospital, Fraserburgh following an accident aboard ship on 16th December 1946. He wasn’t married.

Following the return of John Seatter and his family at Quoy in Pharay to Westray around 1930, William Groat took over the land there and farmed it along with Cott.

Each of William and Jessie’s children attended the Pharay School for a time. Their son William was in his second year of schooling when the family left in November 1933 for Papa Westray.

The family were at Stripes and subsequently at the Ness in Papa Westray following the death of William’s aunts.

William died in Papa Westray on 19th April 1947. Jessie died on 20th June 1961 at the age of seventy eight.