Introduction / Families / Harcus / James Harcus and Marion Allan / John Harcus and Jane Drummond / John Hercus and Margaret Seatter

Margaret Seatter Hercus and William Kelday Craigie

Margaret Seater Hercus was born 21st January 1856 on Pharay. She was a daughter of John Hercus and Margaret Seatter and lived at Doggerboat. She was married on 1st November 1877 to William Kelday Craigie, born in Kirkwall on 24th October 1858 to Wemyss Craigie and Catherine Kelday. Margaret and William had seven children born Kirkwall:

• William Kelday Craigie, b. 17th Jan 1878, who married in 1904 Ellen (Nellie) Edwards. William was a quarter-master in the British Navy during the Boer War and was missing in Africa for about seven years. In 1909. aboard the ship "The California," he and Nellie immigrated to the States, settling in Maryland outside Washington, DC. The immigration record indicates William had previously been in the US for five years 1899-1904. In 1920, William was a dairyman and in 1930 he was a gardener living in Rockville, Montgomery, County, Maryland. He had two sons.

• John Wemyss Craigie, b. 11th Dec 1880 who went to the US with his aunt Annie Jeffery, at about age 17. He died in 1897, in an accident involving a run away horse.

• James Craigie, b. 9th Oct 1882, was married and had five children. His sister Margaret told Dorothy Drever that he was "captain of munitions carriers of the MacGregor Line S.S. of Aberdeen in World War II, among them S.S.Dunvegan Castle, sunk off the French Coast with the loss of only one man. He survived seven sinkings, but was so severely wounded the last trip that he never recovered. He was the last man to leave his sinking ship and had to jump the rail as she was turning over, and hit as she lunged upward. It was a miracle that he escaped alive. He wrote me that 'our dear Lord was by his side.' He was known as the 'praying skipper'. He died two years afterwards."

• Alexander Craigie, b. 16th Aug 1884 who married Margaret Fraser in 1905. He immigrated to the US about 1908, settling near Washington DC. Margaret and their daughter joined him in Washington in 1910. Alexander was an engineer, killed when a cylinder head blew out of an engine.

• George S. Craigie, b. 21st June 1886 who married twice. He immigrated to the Washington DC area about 1910. In 1920 he and his wife Bessie were living in DC and George had his own contractor business. He had five children and died in March 1944.

• Margaret Ann Craigie, b. 2nd May 1888 and married Dr. Brewington. Margaret immigrated to the US in 1911 to attend the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri. She practiced medicine for forty years in Albuquerque, New Mexico before retiring to Fresno, California. She died in Marion, Oregon on 7th Dec 1976.

• Peter Craigie, b. 7th Dec 1891 and married Catherine Castle in 1912. He lived in Edinburgh, worked for the Edinburgh Cut Glass Factory and was Secretary of Scotland's Junior Football Association. He had four children.

Margaret's husband William Craigie was skipper of several ships of the Cooper Shipping Co. of Kirkwall. They lived in Kirkwall, at Thwart Close in 1881, at Catherine Place in 1891 and at Old Scapa Road in 1901. By about 1910, they were living at or near Leith according to the immigration manifests of several of their children. They later moved to Dunfermline, Fife, where William died 15th October 1929. Margaret evidently outlived him, but her death record has not been located.