13 october 1964
George Clapperton Esq. 824 Cartier Ave. Quebec 6 Canada.
Dear Mr Clapperton,
About three weeks ago, being in Edinburg, I went to St-Margaret's Convent to pay my respects to dear old Mother Cuthbert, and was very interested from her about her correspondence with you. When I told her I would like very much to make your acquaintance, she gave me your letter to take away with me, so that I could write to you myself, and so renew the contact between our families which has been broken for so long. I am very glad indeed to have the opportunity of doing so, and I am grateful to Mother Cuthbert, and to Saint-Margaret's convent for having been the means of bringing us together. All this by way of introducing myself.
I am the youngest of the family of Thomas Clapperton, the brother or half-brother of your great-grand-father, who emigrated to Canada in the early years of the nineteenth century. I am wrong; my father was the brother of your grand-father, but to make things clear I shall send you along with this a copy of a family tree which I came across some years ago among some papers of my father's. I copied it out at the time; I have lost all trace of the original, but the copy is accurate enough, and it is from it that I am making the copy which I shall send to you.
If the Henry marked in the genealogical table as the son of John who died at Baie Chaleur in 1839, is your father,then your father and I would be cousins, and you would be my " first cousin once removed "and the second cousin of my niece Patricia, the daughter of my brother Tom. I remember as a boy letters used to come from a nephew in Canada to my father, and the writer always ended up by sending greetings to his " young cousins ", meaning my brothers and sisters and myself; but to the best of my knowledge he was always called " Henry ". In your letter to Mother Cuthbert, you say that your father William was educated in Fochabers, during which time he stayed at his grand-father's house. Was his name by any chance " William Henry "? That would solve the problem. I came across not long ago some old letters adressed to uncle Charles at Fochabers in the 1850's signed by " Your affectionate nephew, W, H, Clapperton, Dalhousie, Baie Chaleur,Canada,? " Most likely your father.
Your great-grand-father married twice, as you may know; he had three children by his first wife, of which your grand-father was the eldest, Margaret the second, co-founder of Saint-Margaret's Convent, Edinburg, and James, who became a priest, and died eventualy in Fochabers, the third. There were twelve children of the second marriage, of whom two died in infancy, and one, Barbara, when a girl of 15, William and Robert were priests, and died at a ripe old age, in Buckie, and Dundee, respectively. Anne became a nun, and died at Saint-Margaret's Convent, Edinburg. Susan married a Mr. Davidson, but I dont think they had been married long when Mr. Davidson died. At any rate there were no children of the marriage, and when I remember her she was living with her sister Jane, in the house next door to ours in Fochabers. Aunt Jane never married. Uncle Alick married and lived in Fochabers, and died the year I was born. I have no recollection of him or his wife. There were no children of the marriage.
Two of your grand-father's brothers went to Australia, both to Queensland, and both were farmers. George, the elder, had a farm at a place called Tarong; he married and had a son called Thomas. George died soon after the child was born, and his widow married again. Thomas was brought up with his mother's second family, whose name I dont know; their father was a Protestant, and Thomas was brought up a Protestant along with them. He married, and his descendants still live in Brisbane, but I know nothing about them. To the best of my knowledge there was never any correspondence between them and any of our family. Charles had his farm at Gympie; he also married and had two children, James and Charlotte, who were sent to Britain for their education, James to a school at Prior Park, England, and Charlotte to St.Margaret's Convent,Edinburg. They came back in after life to visit the old country on more than one occasion, and I remember both quite well. James died during the last war, about 1943. Charlotte died on 30th December 1953. Neither of them married, so that branch of the Clapperton died with them.
There remains to say a few words about Thomas, my father, who carried on his father's business in Fochabers. Old James Clapperton was usualy described as a " Druggist and Grocer "; my father was called a " Chemist "; or " Druggist " by some of the old folk, but he had retired from business by the time I was taking notice. We still lived in the old house, but the shop was let; it has changed hands several times since we left Fochabers, but the shop is still there and is still a Chemist's shop. Well, my father married Mary Martin, and had five children, all born and brought up in Fochabers, in the same house as that in which your father lived when completing his education, long before my time however! My father died in 1899, when the family left Fochabers, and went to stay at Potterton House, near Aberdeen, the mansion house of an estate which my father had bought some years before. That became our home, until 1921, when my mother died. In the meantime Jane or Jeanie, as she was always called married George Wilson, a lawer in Aberdeen , a widower with four young children. Jeanie brought up the children, but had no children of her own. She died in 1943, and George Wilson in 1950. James became a solicitor in Aberdeen; he fought in the first World War, married and had a house in Aberdeen, but had no children. Mary stayed at Potterton with my mother till her death in 1921, and after that lived in a flat in Aberdeen. She never married, and died in 1947. In the meantime Potterton had been sold. Tom became a doctor, and after the last war he got a job in England, married an English girl, and settled down as a General Practitioner at Oakham, Ruthland, England. His wife died in 1960, as Tom had retired from active work; he still lives with his only daughter Patricia, (Patsy) at Oakham. Patsy is about 40, and unmarried. She looks after her father, who is 82, and very abscent minded; he takes little interest in anything except his garden and his dog and his gun. Patsy is not likely to marry now , so it looks rather as if she is going to be the last of the Clappertons, at least of our branch of our name. There remains to say a word about myself. After we left Fochabers, I was at school for some years at Aberdeen and then in England; I came to Rome to the Scots College, in 1907, to make my studies for priesthood . I finished in 1914, and was looking foward to returning to Scotland to take up pastoral work there, but I was appointed Vice-Rector of the Scots College in Rome and was here all through the War and until 1922, when I became Rector. In 1940 Mussolini brought Italy into the war; the College was closed, and I went to Scotland, thinking that I had seen the last of Rome; but in 1946, the Scottish Bishops send me back to " pick up the threads " I had dropped in 1940. I had been in charge of a parish during the war, but managed to get the College going again , though I found it hard going. In 1960 I thought the College would be better of a new Rector, and asked to be relieved of my charge thinking that I would come home to Scotland, do some pastoral work, and leave my bone in my native country. But Pope John made me a Canon of St John Lateran, and here I am, living in a flat near the Lateran Basilica, and likely to be here for the rest of my life. My duties are not very onerous, but I find plenty to do to take up all my time, and I have no complaints to make.
I hope I have not been too long winded; I did not intend writing so much, but I thought I had better give you a general outline of the Clappertons of Fochabers as far as I knew it, and I could not compress it further. I hope it will be of some interest to you, and needless to say, I shall be very pleased if you should care to write and give me some information about the Clappertons of Canada. I congragulate you on your large family of children and grand-children, and I send all my best wishes and affectionate greetings to yourself and your wife, and all the family.
Yours very sincerely
W. R. Clapperton
Notes by Charles Mill : The links on this page lead to pages copied from different web sites.