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The Beginning

Elspeth Simpson’s mother died when she was about three years old, and Elspeth was sent to live with a strange family “whose circumstances were in such a hampered state, that her bedding consisted of a bag stuffed with straw laid on the ground beside the fire at night, with an empty sack for a coverlet, which were removed in the morning, and stowed away till required again in the evening” During the day she herded cows and  according to her own words she was not very happy with the work. “I had no pleasure in working, and ever forgot the directions given me; so that I learned more by the eye than the ear”

She was allowed to run wild and was given to strange speculations and often spoke of having visions. According to reports of neighbours “she became careless of her opinions as to what was proper conduct for a young woman” A cousin of her mother heard of her careless ways and took her in hand, teaching her to sew and read. This young woman who was also named Elspeth had recently married a West Indian planter, a native of Banffshire and she was intending to accompany her new husband to his plantation in Jamaica, taking young Elspeth with them. They arrived in Greenock and had to wait several weeks for a ship which would take them to their destination.

While waiting there young Elspeth found life around the docks and surrounding area much more interesting and fun, particularly after the strict supervision she had been under living with her relative; according to Joseph Train “she left her friends to associate with idle company, and appears to have contracted those depraved habits which she afterwards inculcated respecting matrimony”.

She eventually found herself in Ayr when, probably in her early twenties she met, fell in love with and “married” Robert Buchan, a potter, although there is no record of their marriage. They had several children of whom only three survived,  two girls and a boy. They eventually moved to Glasgow where Robert found employment at the historic Delftfield Potteries and Elspeth gained employment as a servant  in the household of Mrs Martin, the wife of a partner in the Delftfield Potteries. Being married did not stop Elspeth from carrying on her loose ways. Robert Buchan became heartily ashamed of his wife’s behaviour at Ayr and thinking she might settle down in her native area moved to Banff where he set up his own pottery business.

The pottery business did not do well and after what appears to have been quite a short time he returned to Glasgow leaving Elspeth and the children to provide for themselves as best they could. Elspeth now fell back on the education she had received from her kind relative and opened up a Dame’s School. Very few qualifications were necessary for this in the middle of the eighteenth century: the ability to read the Bible and Catechism, teach the girls to sew and the boys to make “pot hooks” and combine them into a clumsy scrawl were enough and these skills Elspeth possessed if only in a moderate way.