Mrs J F Carmichael

Mrs J. F. Carmichael was listed at No. 3 from 1864 to 1868.¹ This was Christina or Christian Brown Graham, widow of James Ferrier Carmichael. She was born about 1815,² daughter of John Graham, a grocer in the Grassmarket, and Charlotte Brown.³ She married James Ferrier Carmichael at St Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh on 6 July 1837.⁴

James Ferrier Carmichael (1812-1854) was described at different times as a portrait painter, landscape artist and teacher of drawing and painting. After her husband’s death of tuberculosis in 1854,⁵ Christina Brown Graham opened a school for young ladies at No. 17 Clarence Street.⁶ In the census of 1861, before living at No. 3, she was described as a teacher of English.⁷ and In the 1871 census as a teacher and boarding house keeper.⁸ She died in Edinburgh on 22 August 1892.⁹

Christina Brown Graham and James Ferrier Carmichael had six children. Their second daughter, Anne Durward Carmichael (1842-1846), died before the family lived at No. 3 Malta Terrace. Four of their children were recorded living with their mother in the 1871 census and may well have been with her at No. 3 Malta Terrace. The eldest was feminist and literary scholar Charlotte Brown Carmichael (1840-1929) who married Henry Stopes and was the mother of Marie Stopes (1880-1958).¹⁰ William Carmichael (1844-1931) was described as a commercial clerk in 1871, while Christina Carmichael (1846-1931), and Ellen Sophia Carmichael (1853-1929) were governesses.¹¹

1. PO Directories 1864-65, 1865-66, 1866-67, 1867-68.
2. Year of birth estimated from census records and death registration.
3. Marriages (OPR) Scotland. St Cuthbert’s Edinburgh. 03 July 1837. CARMICHAEL, James Ferrier and GRAHAM, Christian. 685/2 430 535. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 30 June 2021.
4. Marriages (OPR) Scotland. St Cuthbert’s Edinburgh. 03 July 1837. CARMICHAEL, James Ferrier and GRAHAM, Christian. 685/2 430 535. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 30 June 2021.
5. Burials (OPR) Scotland. St Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh. 04 February 1854. CARMICHAEL, James F. 685/2 540 40. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 30 June 2021.
6. Advertisement. The Scotsman. 13 September 1854. p. 01, col. 03. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk: accessed 30 June 2021.
7. Census records. Scotland. Edinburgh. 07 April 1861. CARMICHAEL, Christina B (Head). 685/1 74, p. 08. https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 30 June 2021.
8. Census records. Scotland. St Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh. 02 April 1871. CARMICHAEL, Christina (Head). 685/1 87, p. 24. https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 30 June 2021.
9. Death announcements. 1892. Dundee Courier. 25 August 1892. CARMICHAEL, Christina Brown Graham. p. 04, col. 07. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk: accessed 30 June 2021.
10. Hall, Lesley A. (2005) Stopes, Charlotte Brown Carmichael. In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/53016: accessed 30 June 2021.
11. Census records. Scotland. St Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh. 02 April 1871. CARMICHAEL, Christina (Head). 685/1 87, p. 24. https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 30 June 2021.