The Dysholm Sequence

Dysholm

Dysholm (Benjamin Press, 1993), 32 pages,
Malcolmwood painted on a tile by Phemie Kelly.

Genealogy

Out of the ruin of my life I see my great-great-great-grandfather William Pettigrew, aged 33, emerge from the door of his cottage Dysholm on a morning in January 1800 after his marriage to Jane Pollock, aged 17. Jane’s uncle William Pollock, the blacksmith, emigrated to Virginia; his grandson James Knox Polk* was President. (*This has now been proven as false. See Presidential Claims False)

He came from Mecklenberg, North Carolina, and died in Nashville,Tennessee. William Pollock was born in Blantyre. Alex was William Pettigrew’s eldest son but
Robert Pettigrew, who died a pauper in Calton, produced William, the heir, born in Yoker. Robert married Susanna McDougall of Renfrew.

William Pettigrew and his family moved up the hill from Dysholm to the family farm at Malcolmwood around 1860. Dysholm is a corruption of Davisholm. Malcolmwood is a corruption of Milcolmwood. He married Betsie Imrie on the day before Christmas, 1858 at Auchterarder, Perthshire, where she was born out of wedlock to her father James Connell, the shoemaker. Her mother Phemie came with her to Blantyre.

Then we have the start of the Malcolmwood Pettigrews.There were seven sons and five daughters.

Only my grandfather John was a stay-at-home. The sons were wanderers. Son William was off to America. Robert and Andrew headed for Australia. The eldest son Alex, Jimmy and Dick were for New Zealand. The daughters married: Jessie, Jean, Liza,
Susan, Kate.

Malcolmwood is at High Blantyre, Lanarkshire, above the River Calder. It is there that you find the bluebell wood.

Ah’m a Pettigrew from Malcolmwood. Ma mither was one of nineteen. Of whom fifteen lived. I have thirty five first cousins. My grandmother was the Irish woman from Greenhall Farm with the laugh in her eyes, Margaret McWilliam. She was of Irish weaver stock. The Pettigrews came from France. They were master carters before they were farmers. My grandfather Clark was from Antrim. He was related to President McKinley. His wife was a Perthshire Duncan. He was Glasgow Irish. My grandmother was related to the old Admiral.

Mary Queen of Scots drank from the well at Dysholm on the eve of the battle of Langside. It is still called Queen Mary’s Well.

My mother was Kate and my father William. I have two brothers Mick and Ron. Our sister Dorothy never lived.
We are a great family

Douglas Clark

See Pettigrew Findings

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