James Hay

James Hay, who worked for the North British Railway, lived at No. 4 from about 1892 to 1895.¹ He was born in Edinburgh on 08 July 1842, son of Alexander Hay, artist and portrait painter, and his wife Jean Mitchell.² He spent most of his working life with the North British Railway Company, progressing from railway clerk in 1871 to District Goods Manager in 1901.³ He died on 04 January 1918 at 07 Montagu Terrace, Edinburgh.⁴

On 10 June 1869, at 15 Melville Terrace, Edinburgh, James Hay married Margaret Macdonald, daughter of John Barkly Macdonald, planter in Grenada, West Indies, and his second wife Mary McConachie.^5,6 She was born 20 March 1848, at Rothesay, Bute⁷ and died 04 October 1913, in Leith.⁸

James Hay and Margaret Macdonald had six children, all born before they took up residence in Malta Terrace. Their eldest daughter Jane Aitken Hay (1870-1951) married Thomas Fraser Gibb, at No. 4 Malta Terrace, on 21 June 1892.^9,10

1. PO Directories 1892-93, 1893-04 and 1894-95.
2. Baptisms index (NCR) Scotland. Edinburgh. 31 July 1842. HAY, James. Nicholson Street Associate. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 08 August 2021.
3. Census records. Scotland. Edinburgh. 02 April 1871. HAY, James (Head). 685/4 83/ 15. https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 08 August 2021; Census records. Scotland. Edinburgh. HAY, James (Head). 685/6 12/ 07. https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 08 August 2021.
4. Testamentary records. Scotland. 06 February 1918. HAY, James. Confirmation. National Probate Index. https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 08 August 2021.
5. Marriages (SR) Scotland. Newington, Edinburgh. 11 June 1869. HAY, James and McDONALD, Margaret. 685/5 160. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 08 August 2021.
6. Legacies of British Slavery. John Barkly Macdonald (biography). 2021. University College London. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/41969: accessed 08 August 2021.
7. Baptisms (OPR) Scotland. Rothesay, Bute. 09 April 1848. MACDONALD, Margaret. 558/ 40 227. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 08 August 2021.
8. Testamentary records. Scotland. 27 November 1913. HAY, Margaret MacDonald. Confirmation. National Probate Index. https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 08 August 2021.
9. Marriages index (SR) Scotland. Edinburgh. 1892. HAY, Jeanie A. and GIBB, Thomas F. 685/1 260. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 08 August 2021.
10. MacDONALD, John B. (family tree). Ancestry. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/164128981/person/432133580583/facts: accessed 08 August 2021.