GATEACRE HALL (continued):

By the 1871 census James Leishman the younger (1844-1937) was head of the household, a Coppersmith; and with him his two aunts Maxwell aged 50 and Joan 45, his father's sisters; with a coachman and 4 female servants of whom the 3 youngest were locally born. By the 1881 census James Leishman was calling himself an Engineer, he was still unmarried. His two aunts were still with him, and there were 4 female servants - none local.

The Rates Book for 1892 shows the house was unoccupied for 22 weeks, it disappears from the Books after that and it was never lived in again. It must have been demolished by 1904 as it is not shown on the 25-inch Ordnance Survey map revised that year. At some time between 1892 and 1899, 2½ acres of the site in Much Woolton and over 3¾ acres in Little Woolton were bought by the owner of Roseleigh (see next house) and added to that estate.

James Leishman's aunts Joan and Maxwell died in 1902 and 1911 respectively, at Hatherleigh in Devon; but it seems that James lived on to the age of 93 dying in Laurieston, Kirkcudbright on 15 September 1937.

continued . . .