Help deciphering COMPLETED, thanks

[Currie]

Hello Christine,

A search for Alexander Robertson and Powerscourt on Google brings up quite a few hits including gravestone photos and death info for husband and wife etc. There’s a death notice for Ann Scott died 1863 age 41. One site mentions an Alexander Robertson’s death in 1860. http://www.google.com.au/search?um=1&q= ... =en&tab=pw

Look at the comments below the grave photo. Apparently it reads 1872. Looks like the gravestone fellow died 28th October 1872 and there’s no mention of family on the stone. I’ll let you sort that lot out as I’m shutting down for the night.

I had been trying to access the jstor item 'Modelled Muscularity' but I can’t find it in their database. Wherever it is the segment reads in part as under.

'Modelled Muscularity': Daniel Robertson's Tudor Manors
"Confusingly, the person responsible for the later landscaping at Powerscourt was the land steward, Alexander Robertson, a Scotsman who joined the staff in 1849 and died on the estate in 1872. Robertson's only known Dublin building, St Matthias's ...."

Something’s confusing, maybe there were two Alexander Robertson’s at Powerscourt, or one followed the other?

There’s a scattering of articles in Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser (Dublin), in the late 1850s in which an Alexander Robertson of Powerscourt is briefly mentioned as a prize winner or exhibitor at various shows held by the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland.

The Preston Guardian etc (Preston, England), Saturday, October 8, 1859 has this potato article.
AGRICULTURE & GARDENING.
MELLEY’S MANIFOLD POTATO.—J. Buckham, of Thornhill Bray, Dublin, writing to the Gardeners’ Chronicle, thus speaks of a new variety of potato: —“This is confidently expected by Mr Robertson, of Powerscourt, to prove one potato yet capable of resisting disease. It certainly presents a striking contrast in the fields and gardens around here. While the stalks of all others are quite dead weeks ago, this variety stands up in full luxuriance, blooming and seeding, and to all appearances equal to what the potato was in its most vigorous and healthful days. Its keeping and cooking properties have yet to be tested. It is evidently a new and distinct variety, with every appearance of proving valuable, and I think this may be a favourable time for calling attention to it.”

Goodnight,
Alan

[ChristineW]

Alan - that is absolutely brilliant! I am amazed and extremely grateful for the information you have found and I am still kicking myself for spending so much time and credits looking for the family in Scotland when all this has just been waiting to be found! (Will I ever learn about 'assumptions'.......)

I am still reading through Wilma's excellent links and your findings are the icing on the cake. Yes, according to their daughter Elizabeth's marriage certificates, both her parents were indeed deceased by 1881 - and now at least I have a mass of information to go on to try and piece together their lives.

You should sleep like a wee angel knowing full well there is one very happy lassie in Scotland who is still doing cartwheels from last night's breakthroughs............!

All the best
Christine

[WilmaM]

I must admit I'm fairly chuffed myself, I've never been to Powerscourt, but I've heard a lot about Lady Powerscourt.
I'll be very interested if you do manage to tie these loose ends up.