The Christian Watt papers

History

Watt, Christian

Europe

Paul Harris Pub

At the age of 47, Christian Watt began to write down recollections of her life, continuing until her death at the age of 90 in 1923. Vividly told, this narrative follows the Scotland native from her birth into a Fraserburgh fishing family through her years working in domestic service—including as a table maid to Winston Churchill’s grandmother—to her life as a mental patient in the Cornhill Infirmary. These writings illustrate how the sea brought her family a precarious living and often violent death as four of her seven brothers, her husband, and her favorite son all died at sea, which led to anxiety and grief that eventually caused a mental breakdown. Offering a fascinating insight into Scottish life during the 19th and 20th centuries, this is the memoir of a woman of beauty, character, and intelligence.

The Christian Watt Papers

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Birlinn Ltd.

<p>Caught between these covers is the authentic, forthright voice of Christian Watt, servant girl, lady's maid and fishwife. Born in 1833, her working life began in domestic service before the age of nine and ended with her selling her husband's catch from door to door. The tragic death of most of her close male family - her husband, four brothers and her favorite child - drowned by a sudden squall that sunk their boat, robbed her of her sanity. But cared for in the remarkable Cornhill Asylum in Aberdeen, a kindly doctor encouraged her to write her memoirs in pencil. In 1983 this bundle of papers, which included other family documents, was turned into a book by the historian David Fraser, and has been saluted as the Montaillou of Scotland.</p>

The Christian Watt Papers: Memoirs of a Fraserburgh Fishwife (Eland Classics)

Eland Publishing

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