James Wilkie linen handloom weaver

Parents:

• Birth*: James Wilkie linen handloom weaver was born on 7 March 1818 at St Helena, ; James Wilkie born 7 Mar 1818 St Helena; parents John, St Helena Regt, Isabella.¹
• He was the son of John Wilkie linen handloom weaver and Isobel Wallace yarn winder.
• Baptism: James Wilkie linen handloom weaver was baptised on 10 March 1818 at St Helena, ; James Wilkie bapt 10 Mar 1818 St Helena; parents John, St Helena Regt, Isabella.¹
• (Groom) Marriage*: He married Isabella Guthrie Leighton on 11 January 1840 at Brechin, Forfarshire, Scotland, .²
• (Deceased) Death*: James Wilkie linen handloom weaver died on 6 June 1858 at Bridge of Dun, Forfarshire, Scotland, , at age 40 On 16th June 1858, under the headline “Fatal Accident”, the Dundee Courier reported, “On Tuesday last, a person belonging to Brechin, of the name of Wilkie, who has been for some years employed at the Bridge of Dun Station on the Aberdeen Railway was instantaneously deprived of life. On the approach of the morning train from the north he had turned his back on the train to give some directions to a person forward, when, it is supposed, some projecting part of a carriage or engine, getting hold of his clothes, dragged him from the platform among the wheels of the train, a number of which passed over him almost severing his head from his body. He was a steady servant and a person of excellent character. He has left a widow and seven children to lament and suffer from the painful bereavement.”
  
  According to his death extract, he was a Railway Labourer, and the cause of death is given as "Instantaneous death, the railway train having passed over his body". The death is registered on the information of the Procurator Fiscal of Forfar, as “killed by a goods train drawn by a locomotive engine”.^3,4

Census & Directory Entries

Head of Household

6 June 1841

He was listed in the 1841 census at Cadger Hillock, Brechin, Forfarshire, Scotland, . James Wilkie, 23, linen hlw, not born in census County; Isabella Wilkie, 25, flax yarn winder, Forfarshire.