SOMERS, Alice ¹

   Cause of her death was accidental running over by train from which death was instantaneous.

   Other names for Alice were DOWDS, Alice, LYNCH, Alice,^{2 4 5} SUMMERS, Alice ^{5 6 7} and SUMMERS, Allice.⁸

  General Notes:

The 1861 census for Main Street in the village of Barrhead in the parish of Neilston recorded Alice, unmarried, living with her mother, her sister, and two female lodgers. Like her mother and sister, Alice had been born in Ireland, and was recorded as 18 years of age when the census was taken. She worked in the mill.

In Alice's marriage certificate of 1866, she was noted to be aged 24 years. This would make her birth year 1841-42, making her about 50 years of age when she died. However other ages given later do not fully coincide with this.

At her daughter Agnes' birth in 1863, Alice was described as a 'mill worker' and when registering her daughter's birth, made her X mark.

At the registration of her son James' birth in 1870, she made her X mark.

Alice Lynch was recorded by the 1871 census living at Allanton Colliery, Hamilton, where her husband worked as a miner. They had three children. Alice was recorded as 30 years old and had been born in County Sligo, Ireland.

The 1881 census recorded her living at 2 Eddlewood Road, Hamilton. She lived there with her husband, James, aged 40 years, and their five children aged from 15 to 2 years. Alice was born in Ireland. Her age was recorded as 38 years.

In the 1891 census Alice Lynch lived at 45 Dixon Street, Blantyre, in the village known as "Dixon's Rows", with her sons Daniel and Andrew. Her house had one room with a window. She was 42 years old, and her birthplace was Ireland.

On her death certificate in 1891, Alice's usual residence was noted as 45 Dixon Street (Dixon's Rows), Stonefield, Blantyre. Her age was 45 years. She was a widow of a coal miner. Her father was deceased but her mother still alive.

Both the Hamilton Advertiser and the Hamilton Herald weeklies include the story of Alice's death in their editions for the second weekend of July 1891. The accounts are almost identical. This is the paragraph from the Hamilton Herald's section for Blantyre for Saturday 11 July 1891:

"WOMAN KILLED ON THE RAILWAY
On Monday morning, while a field worker named Mrs Lynch, a widow, aged 40, residing in Dixon's Rows, was proceeding to her work by way of the Caledonia railway, about 800 yards westward of the station, she was overtaken by a passenger train and instantaneously killed."

The Burial register of St Peter's Cemetery, Dalbeth, records Alice Lynch was buried in common ground on 8 July 1891, aged 45 years, after an accidental death, for the fee of ten shillings and sixpence. The undertaker was Thomas Young of New Cross Hamilton.

Alice was recorded as deceased when her son James married on 17 July 1891, and similarly when Daniel and Andrew each married in 1898.

In her son, Daniel's death certificate of 1931, the informant was Daniel's wife, Annie. Daniel's mother, Alice, was inscribed as 'Alice Lynch MS Dowds'. This was in fact not Alice's maiden surname but the maiden surname of her mother, Daniel's grandmother. ^{2 3 9 10}

  Research Notes:

BLANTYRE MINING

Dixon's Rows, Blantyre, were described as
'comprising the Row fronting Stonefield Road including Burnside Street, Dixon's Store, Park St, both sides of Hall St, Dixon St, Calder St, Carfin St, Govan St and Miller St.'

The Blantyre miners lived in Dixon's Rows, three hundred and forty houses in short blocks in one of the four streets that made up the company village.

Being 'tied' houses, they were linked to the holding of a company job. If the houses were needed by the company, their inhabitants were evicted if they no longer worked for the coal owner.

Even in the terrible Blantyre pit disaster of October 1877, the wives and children of men killed in the disaster were evicted after about six months. It was harsh, they faced destitution, but that was the tied house system, and some women even remarried just to keep a roof over their heads. ^{11 12}

  Medical Notes:

Alice Lynch's death was registered by her son, Daniel, of 45 Dixon St Blantyre on 7 July 1891. He signed the register.

Alice's death certificate includes a report of Precognition, and is taken from the register of Corrected Entries for the Parish of Blantyre, and signed by the Procurator Fiscal Robert Wilson on 15 July 1891.

On the main line of the Glasgow and Hamilton Section of the Caledonian Railway at a point about six hundred yards to the west from Blantyre Railway Station, Alice was accidentally killed by being knocked down by the Engine of a passenger railway train.

Alice married James LYNCH, son of James LYNCH and Mary DENNY, on 11 July 1866 in St John's RC Church, Barrhead, Renfrewshire, Scotland.¹ (James LYNCH was born in 1839 in County Donegal, Ireland ^{2 13} and died 1 September 1885 at 11.00 pm in 46 Queen Street, Blantyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland ¹⁴.). The cause of his death was broncho-pneumonia.

  Marriage Notes:

The marriage was celebrated after banns according to the rites and forms of the Roman Catholic Church. The celebrant was Father Thomas Keane of St John's RC Parish Barrhead. The witnesses were John Mulrooney and Sara Boyd and both made their X mark.

James Lynch was aged 26 years and he was a coal miner. He was usually resident in Nitshill, a village in the Abbey Landward Parish of Paisley. He signed his name. His father was a 'pit head man'.

Alice was aged 24 years and worked as a millworker. She was usually resident in Nitshill, Abbey Parish. She made her X mark. Her father was deceased at the time of the marriage and recorded as a 'labourer'.

The marriage was registered on 14 July 1866 in the District of Abbey Landward in the County of Renfrew.

In the birth certificate of their daughter Alice in 1879 this couple's marriage date was recorded as 2 July 1866 at Barrhead. ¹