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Poe's Scottish Connections
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Searching For Poe In Scotland
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We first read of Eddie Poe's Aunt Elizebeth (John Allan's sister, married to a Galt) in Israfel. She was said to have a beautiful estate on "the Cree Water," and called, "The Flowerbank Estate." In fact, we learned from driving to her house that the identifying features are the Cree River, and the village of Newton Stewart, in Galloway, to the south of the country, not in Ayrshire, with all the other Galts.
We found the above sign of the Flowerbanks B & B in the blackest dark of night after driving West, non-stop from Kilmarnock, then South through Girvin, and after many stops in search between, as we drove in light rain to Newton Stewart in search of accommodations for the night. At the time, the present owners were in process of renovating this house once owned by John Allan's sister, Elizebeth, and the Bed and Breakfast was closed for the season! Rather than any grand property one imagines an "estate" is, "Flowerbanks" is just another nice house on the Cree River.
Much later after our visit to Galloway, and Newton Stewart, and in California, one Sunday morning, Brill received a telephone call from a woman calling from somewhere in England. She stated that she had learned of our research project, that included one of the Galts at Flowerbanks, located just north of the beautiful stone bridge in what we learned is the village of Newton Stewart. Her name was Lou Greaves, now on these pages as well.
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Elizebeth Allan, mother of William Galt Johnson (aka: Johnston). Other Allan and Galt family who have contacted the author will be surprised with this wonderful submission from a visitor to our web site. The contributor, Mick Watt, stated in an e-mail that he has lost the genealogoical data of these subjects, but that Elizabeth Allan's second husband, Mr. Ferguson, Solicitor, was "keeper of the signet," and bequethed it to other family, who did not share the family records.
We have not researched our Allan genealogical data to fit these members into the family trees that we have. The Johnson (Johnston) we have was married to Jean Allan, daughter of William Allan (1749) and Elizbeth Galt, daughter of John Galt of Cracksland Farm. For the present, we leave the issue at that. .
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William Galt Johnson, son of Elizebeth Allan (married first to William Johnston). The resemblance of the John and William Galt family line is startling! Notice the gentleman's apparel of the later 18th Century. This, and the portrait of Elizebeth Allan, were sent to the author by a descendant of the Allan family, Mick Watt, for use as and where necessary. The portraits were possibly painted by Raeburn; the owner is uncertain.
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Direct female descendants of the "Flowerbank Estate," Newton Stewart, Galloway Galts are the three generations of Galt-related females seen here with Brill: mother (and husband, opposite), daughter, and granddaughter, Holly. In the center is Lou Greaves, now our good friend, correspondant, and Scottish "cousin." The portrait of Elizebeth Galt's daughter, that now hangs in Lou's home in Rodmill, Sussex, England,is owned by her mother. An extraneous point of interest is that Mrs. Greaves lives four houses away from that of novelist Virginai Wolf's house. We were not afraid to make our visit. Mrs. Greaves was in Scotland conducting her own research of the genealogical relationship to the Galts of Flowerbanks when she was directed to contact us in Pacifica, about 1999. As we compared our independant genealoical data of the Galt family, we learned that our combined research provided never-before known links that the Allans, Burns, Galts, and Poes connected these ladies with three of the best known liteary figures of Scottish letters. Brill's data had the John Allan-Robert Burns-John Galt-Edgar Poe connections, while Greave's data had the John Allan-John Galt-Edgar Poe connections. I pointed our "cousin" to the Burns' connection to her Galts.
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