Jamesina Watt Beaton (1904 - 1992)

Born 12 Dec 1904 in 25 Bridge Street, Inverness, Inverness-shire, Scotland, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Wife of John Grant — married 9 Oct 1957 (to 21 Sep 1965) in Palace Hotel, Inverness, Inverness-shire, Scotland

Wife of Andrew Mackay — married 29 Sep 1971 in Craigmonie Hotel, Inverness-shire, Scotland, United Kingdom

Died 5 Nov 1992 at age 87 in Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, Inverness-shire, Scotland, United Kingdom

Problems/Questions Profile manager: John Watt [send private message]

Biography

Jamesina was born in 1904. She was the daughter of [[Beaton-1570|Malcolm Beaton#1 and Mary Watt. She passed away in 1992.

'Zena‘ was brought up by her grandmother and had a lot of ill-health when young, but was keen on school and went to university’, but after two years it was too much for her and she ‘came back a wreck’. Malcolm Alexander Beaton#2, her brother, has described how ‘Zena' and her cousin, John (Johnnie) Grant lived at Brae of Balnabeen, close to the town of Conan Bridge, in Ross and Cromarty, for a number of years where Zena not only looked after her husband, but also the brother of her husband, Duncan Grant’. Mary Watt nee Grant, Zena’s grandmother, suffered a stroke and Zena looked after her for seven years. Zena’s father and mother had moved to Strathpeffer, in Ross and Cromarty, about 1925 and when Malcolm#1, her father, died in 1945 she undertook the duty of looking after her mother from 1947 until May 1957, when she died in Watt’s Hotel in Inverness. Zena was at last free to marry her long-time fiancé and she married:

I. Her cousin, John (‘Johnnie’) Grant, at the Palace Hotel in Inverness on Wednesday the 9th of October 1957. Both aged 53, she was described on their marriage certificate as a ‘hotel proprietress’ of 25 Bridge Street, Inverness, and John as a ‘water bailiff’ . His parents, both deceased, were John Grant, crofter, and Mary A. Michael. The ceremony was conducted by the Rev. Stephen Frew, minister of St Columba’s High Church in Inverness. After only eight years together John Grant died at ten past nine at night on Tuesday the 2lst of September 1965 at Brae of BaInabeen, Conan Bridge, in the county of Ross and Cromarty, The cause of his departure from this world was given as ‘I. Cerebral Thrombosis; II. Myocardial Ischaemia; III. Emphysemia; and IV. Arteriosclerosis’.

Six years after the death of ‘Johnnie’, Zena married:

II. Andrew MacKay, aged 62 and a widower (who is known to have been a soldier with the famous Lovat Scouts in his younger years), in the Craigmonie Hotel, in Inverness, on Wednesday the 29th of September 1971. His parents were William McKay, a plumber, and Jane Mowat Murray, both deceased.

Andrew was a ‘forester, retired’ and the ceremony was conducted by her brother, Malcolm Alexander Beaton#2. who was at that time the minister of the Castlegate Baptist Church in Berwick on Tweed. The couple went to live in a house built to Andrew’s design: ‘Craigrannoch’ at 17 Muirfield Gardens in Inverness.

Malcolm Alexander Beaton#2 has reported that ‘Andrew and Zena were happily dedicated to each other’. Zena died in Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, when their second home was ‘Studleigh’, 9 Auldcastle Road, Inverness, without having had any children, on Thursday the 5th of November 1992, her brothers Charlie and Malcolm#2 both attending her funeral. She had suffered a stroke some two or three months earlier.

Zena was interred in the grave of ‘Johnnie’ Grant, her first husband, at her own request. Andrew survived her by only three months, dying in Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, on Sunday the 18th of February 1993. He had retired as an executive of the Scottish Forestry Commission. Andrew’s sister had lived with them at Studleigh until she, too, was hospitalised and, at the time of receiving this information (1998), would have been into her ninetieth year.

MACKAY — Peacefully, at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness on 5th November 1992, Jamesina (Zena) Beaton, aged 87 years, 9 Auldcastle Road, Inverness, beloved wife of Andrew MacKay, a dear stepmother and sister. Funeral arrangements in today, (Friday’s) Press & Journal. Enquiries to Funeral Directors, John Fraser & Son, 17/29 Chapel Street, Inverness.

Sources

• From Family Records.