Mrs Jane Bookless

Mrs Jane Bookless lived at No. 1 between 1874 and 1876,¹ before moving to No. 5 Reid Terrace.² She was the widow of James Bookless, an East Lothian plumber who died in 1867 at the age of 39, in North Berwick.³ She was born Jane Peffers at Haddington on 01 March 1825, daughter of currier Alexander Peffers and Euphemia Pringle.⁴ She married James Bookless on 20 June 1847, at Haddington.⁵ She died at Torphichen Place, Edinburgh on 29 July 1893.⁶

James Bookless and Jane Peffers had five children but two died in childhood, before the move to Edinburgh. William Bookless was born at Haddington on 25 May 1854⁷ and died at North Berwick in 1864.⁸ Jessie Bookless was born on 19 December 1864 at North Berwick⁹ and died before her first birthday.¹⁰ Their eldest daughter, Christina Bookless, married before the family lived at Malta Terrace.¹¹

A son, Alexander Bookless, and a daughter Jean (or Jane) Bookless, were living with their widowed mother at 41 Grindlay Street in 1871¹² and may have lived with her at No. 1 Malta Terrace.

Alexander Bookless was born at Haddington on 20 February 1851. He was a plumber, like his father, but died at the age of 25, after falling from a path near Cockburnspath on 01 April 1877.^{13, 14}

Jeanie (or Jane) Bookless was born at Haddington on 21 November 1860.¹⁵ She was a shop keeper in 1881, living at 16 Buchanan Street with the family of her sister, Christina Bookless or Wight.¹⁶ On 27 February 1901, she married by declaration Alexander S. Rose, a chemist.¹⁷ The marriage registration recorded both their ages as 33 years, though Jeanie was over 40 and her husband 36 years.

Jeanie Bookless or Rose was recorded at her sister’s address, 4 Hampton Place, in the census taken a month after her marriage. She was recorded there again ten years later, along with 10 year old Herbert Rose. Herbert’s birth may have been the spur for her marriage to a husband she did not appear to live with. However, there is no birth registration for a Herbert Rose or Bookless in 1900 or 1901. He may have been the Herbert Bell Wight born to Margaret Wight, Christina’s daughter, on 08 November 1900,¹⁸ and subsequently adopted by Jeanie Bookless or Rose.

Alexander Rose departed for South Africa shortly after his marriage to Jeanie Bookless and established himself as a cheesemaker at Marseilles, Orange Free State. Jeanie and Herbert joined him there. She died at Marseilles, Orange Free State, South Africa on 06 June 1918.¹⁹

Herbert Rose enlisted in the First South African Infantry Brigade at the age of 15, was severely wounded in March 1918, invalided back to Britain and died on 29 May 1919.²⁰

1. PO Directories 1874/75, 1875/76 and 1876/77.
2. PO Directory 1877/78. She was at this address before 04 April 1877, when her son Alexander was buried. (Burials. Scotland. Warriston Cemetery. 04 April 1877. BOOKLESS, Alexander. Edinburgh Burial Registers. BR0008. City of Edinburgh Archives. https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 04 October 2022.)
3. Deaths index (SR) Scotland. North Berwick, East Lothian. 1867. BOOKLESS, James. 713/2. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 04 October 2022.
4. Baptisms (OPR) Scotland. Haddington, East Lothian. 02 April 1825. PEFFERS, Jean. 709/ 70 280. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 05 October 2022.
5. Marriages (OPR) Scotland. Haddington, East Lothian. 20 June 1847. BOOKLESS, James and PEFFERS, Jane. 709/ 80 216. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 04 October 2022.
6. Deaths (SR) Scotland. Edinburgh. 03 August 1893. BOOKLESS, Jean. 685/1 702. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 04 October 2022.
7. Baptisms (OPR) Scotland. Haddington, East Lothian. 25 May 1854. BOOKLESS, William. 709/ 70/ 380. Ancestry collection ‘Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950.’ https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 16 September 2024.
8. Deaths index (SR) Scotland. North Berwick, East Lothian. 1864. BOOKLESS, William. 713/ 21. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 16 September 2024.
9. Births (SR) Scotland. North Berwick, East Lothian. 19 December 1864. BOOKLESS, Jessie. 713/ 02 (1865). Ancestry collection ‘Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950.’ https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 16 September 2024.
10. Deaths (SR) Scotland. North Berwick, East Lothian. 1865. BOOKLESS, Jessie. 713/ 38. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 16 September 2024.
11. Marriages (SR) Scotland. Edinburgh. 07 June 1872. BOOKLESS, Christina and WIGHT, Andrew. 685/2 124. Ancestry collection ‘Scotland, Select Marriages, 1561-1910’. https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 05 October 2022.
12. Census records. Scotland. St George, Edinburgh. 02 April 1871. BOOKLESS, Jane. 685/1 35/ 14. Ancestry collection ‘1871 Scotland Census.’ https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 16 September 2024.
13. Burials. Scotland. Warriston Cemetery. 04 April 1877. BOOKLESS, Alexander. Edinburgh Burial Registers. BR0008. City of Edinburgh Archives. https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 04 October 2022
14. ‘Man’s Fall Over a Cliff.’ Edinburgh Evening News. 03 April 1877. p. 03, col. 01. https://britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk: accessed 05 October 2022.
15. Births (SR) Scotland. Haddington, East Lothian. 20 November 1860. BOOKLESS, Jane. 709/ 178. Ancestry collection ‘Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950.’ https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 14 September 2024.
16. Census records. Scotland. Leith South, Midlothian. 03 April 1881. BOOKLESS, Jane. 692/2 11/ 35. Ancestry collection ‘1881 Scotland Census.’ https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 13 September 2024.
17. Marriages (SR) Scotland. St Giles, Edinburgh. 04 March 1901. BOOKLESS, Jeanie and ROSE, Alexander S. 685/4 124. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 13 September 2024.
18. Births (SR) Scotland. St George, Edinburgh. 27 November 1900. WIGHT, Herbert Bell. 685/1 2373. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 15 September 2024.
19. Frood, Margaret. 2021. ‘Herbert Rose.’ South Africa Remembers.  https://southafricaremembers.wordpress.com/2022/01/07/herbert-rose/: accessed 14 September 2024.
20. Op. cit.