Harrower Family Tree » Jean Ann Penman (± 1857-????)

Personal data Jean Ann Penman 

• She was born about 1857 in Beath, Fife, Scotland.Sources 1, 2
• Profession: in the year 1877 Domestic Servant.Source 3
• Resident in the year 1881: High Street, Cowdenbeath, Fife, Scotland.Sources 1, 2

Household of Jean Ann Penman

She is married to James Stein.

They got married on December 7, 1877.Source 3

Child(ren):

1. Jane A Stein  ± 1881-????
2. Robert Stein  ± 1883-1955 

Event (Witness at Marriage) on December 7, 1877: John Penman, Annie Higgins, Witness's/Gardeners Land, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland.Source 3

Notes about Jean Ann Penman

1. In the 1881 Census, James Stein, Jean Ann Penman, and their daughter Jean Ann Stein, are living nextdoor to James's parents, Robert Stein, & Euphemia Wilson, in High Street, Cowdenbeath.

2. Gardener's Land
One of the most obscure and forgotten areas of Dunfermline, Gardeners' Land is a Victorian suburb which lies north-east of the town centre. It is modelled after the Meadows in Edinburgh, and was built on the fringes of the Town Green.

The area takes its name from the 'Ancient Society of Gardeners in and about Dunfermline', an incorporation and fraternity founded sometime prior to 1716 (it may have grown out of an earlier body and is believed to have been one of the oldest in Scotland).

The Society was founded for the improvement of gardening, for the relief of poor members, and the education of their children. Its operations were at first confined to Dunfermline, but soon spread to neighbouring towns and villages, then Perthshire and Edinburgh.

The Gardeners were not numbered among Dunfermline's incorporations and trades guilds, hence their status was slightly lesser, although their rules were more flexible. The senior officers were a Deacon and a number of masters, just like the incorporations, while later, the most senior position was titled 'Chancellor', which ireflected the growing influence of non-operative members.

The Society was popular from the outset, attracting members from the local 'gentry' (who paid different rates than practising gardeners) to craftsmen. Other professionals - lawyers, military men, ministers and doctors - also joined.

The Society was able to invest surplus cash in land, purchasing a substantial plot from the estate of Pittencrieff, just outside the then boundaries of Dunfermline, in the first half of the 18th century (some 20 acres between 1734 and 1766). Some of the land was let in the short term, providing rental income, while the Society's sustained wealth was secured by selling feus. Each feu provided both a once and only lump sum in cash and a continuing feu duty, which was still being collected into the 1990s.

At the end of the 18th century, the rules of the Society were amended to provide sickness, funeral and widows' benefits; the original gardening objectives were neglected. However, for many years a horticultural fund was maintained with a programme of exhibitions and prizes.

By 1828 the Society had feued fifty individual plots on its land, including the 'Happy Land Houses', started in March 1818. These houses at the junction of Thistle Street were later condemned and demolished in 1934, and bungalows were erected on site.

The first to be erected was Albany House, built by Robert Morris, manufacturer, on what was then Mid Street, now Albany Street. Tradition has it that the house was named 'Albany' as it was laid out from the proceeds of a legacy left by a wealthy relative who had lived and prospered in Albany, New York State.

Albany House had its front door transferred to the back in order to front a new-formed street. In 1959 it was renamed 'Woodfield' by its new owner, Mr. Paterson, after the suburb of Ayr where his wife was born. Further building was completed up the hill in the 1890s.

Albany also lent its name to Walker, Reid & Co.'s Steam Power weaving factory - Albany Works - erected in 1874 and extended in 1882. The scale of operations there around 1913 included 640 looms and an estimated 700 employees. The works closed in 1936 and reopened in March 1937 for the manufacture of silk and artificial silk. It closed again in 1957 with the loss of 200 jobs, then was bought two years later by The British Wool Marketing Board as a store. A large section of the Albany Works was destroyed by fire in January 1974, with damage estimated at over £1 million. After closing its doors, the factory was converted into Albany Business Centre.

In Albany Street, houses were built by the Weardale Company to house workers who came from England. The houses had two-floor accommodation for the occupants, with artistically carved arched doorways.

In 1832 the reforming zeal of a new secretary transformed the Society once more. Sickness benefit and charitable donations were abolished, as was the quarterly subscription that had sustained these payments. Instead, it concentrated on providing annuities or pensions to members over the age of 65.

The Society revived the custom of marching the boundaries of their lands in 1908. After the First World War and during the rest of the century, inflation began to outstrip the growth in the sum that it could distribute, and by the 1980s it was costing more to administer business than was paid out in annuities. The remaining members chose to close the Society at their A.G.M. in 1983, and it was wound down over a few years.

Local street names still reflect the origins of the area, such as Gardeners Street, Rose Street, Shamrock Street, Thistle Street etc. Rose Street had an Air Raid Wardens' Post in the garage of Mrs. Stevenson, while there was a little shop on the corner of Rose Street and Hill Street.

📷: Professor John R. Hume; TheSean809

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