|
Poe's Scottish Connections
|
|
Searching For Poe In Scotland
|
|
|
|
Just visible in the photograph above is the name POE, in the center right section of the Poe-Spiers' headstone. We were shown the location of the stone on the wall of the Northern Necropolis of the Glasgow Cathedral by Mr. John McInness, a local genealogist. John stated that he made the discovery while entertaining himself with a search of Poes who might be buried in Scotland.
The Glasgow burial site was followed by Mr. McInness finding the reference of the Poe-Allan burial site at the Saltcoats Museum, North Ayrshire. On a chance visit to our friend's office, Kilmarnock Standard Reporter, Frank Beattie, just to say, "Hello," he showed me a copy of the Scottish Memories magazine in wich John McInness' article was published. From that information we made our way to the old Saltcoats' cemetary, in North Ayrshire. Mr. Strachan directed us to the stone, buried very much under years of debris. The end of these families' lives became still another beginning of a new chapter in our research.
|
Seen to the left is the wall on which the Poe and Spiers family headstone is mounted in the Northern Necroplis of Glasgow Cathedral. Grace Kenmotsu stands nearby to show the stone's relative location on the wall. To the left of this wall at the entrance to the Cathedral is the rubble of old headstones and wall torn down to make way for the hospitol on the other side. No regard appears to exist to others of their cultural and historical value.
Traditional in Scotland, old gravestones are pulled up from their original location above the bodies, and after many generations have passed, they are relocated to perimeter walls. As they disintegrate and fall from those locations, newer ones are erected in their place.
In the above closeup on the right, POE can be seen; however, the entire inscription reads: Agnes Frances POE, as seen below.
The details of the headstone were written for Brill by the Glasgow genealogist, John McInnes, who made its modern discovery. From our manuscript, I quote: "In his own hand, on the back of one of the pieces of 'scratch paper,' he wrote the following from the inscription on that stone:
"JOHN POE
[Born 1781, a year after John Allan]
Died 27 December 1827 Aged 46
His Spouse
JANE HAMILTON
Died 26 February 1857 Aged 79
Their Children
James Galt Poe Died 1819 Aged 10 months
James Poe 1838 Aged 28
John Poe 1854 Aged 38
__________________
And the Children of
John Spiers and Agnes Frances Poe
Elizabeth Jane Died 1852
[Unlegible name] 1855
Also
Alice Jane Poe 1860
Agnes Frances Poe, Wife of John Spiers, Died 1853 [?] Aged 38 [?]"
Agnes Poe and John Spiers were Irvine relatives of Edgar Allan Poe. They were also relatives to the John Spiers and Ann Poe, of whom the former was the donor of the Robert Burns Statue in Irvine.
Poes and Spiers had been intermarrying for over a hundred years. It is impossible to imagine that all were not keenly aware of the life and writing of their "strange" cousin, Edgar, who chose not to follow family business successes. Such family attitudes explain why John McInnes said that Poe became persona nongrata to his Scottish Presbyterian relatives on both sides of the Atlantic.
 |
|
At the time of our first visit to Scotland, the University of Glasgow's Professor Andrew Hook, Chairman of Department of English, and Professor of American Literature Susan Castillo, agreed to meet with author, Bob Brill, and Ms. Kenmotsu. Dr. Hook is an internationally recognized authority on the life and literature of F. Scott Fitzgerald, some of which I used thereafter in my own classes when I taught.
The author began his research here, at the logical, ancient origin of learning in Scotland's public schools. Both Brill and Ms. Kenmotsu were graciously welcomed in 1997. Photo by Ms. Kenmotsu.
Although we visited such locally well known acedemians and scholars of American and British literature, including those at the Universities of Stirling and Edenburgh, and many local secondary academies and colleges, such as Kilmarnock and Irvine, no one had any knowledge of a connection of Poe with Scotland.
Professor Hook has since retired; however, Professor Castillo is presently on the staff.
|
This space is blank.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
