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Just visible in the photograph above (to the left of Grace's neck chain)
is the name POE, in the center right section of the Poe-Spiers' headstone. We were shown the location of the stone on the
wall of the Northern Necropolis of the Glasgow Cathedral by Mr. John McInness, a local genealogist. John stated that he made
the discovery while entertaining himself with a search of Poes who might be buried in Scotland.
The Glasgow burial site was followed by Mr. McInness
finding the reference of the Poe-Allan burial site at the Saltcoats Museum, North Ayrshire. On a chance visit to our friend's
office, Kilmarnock Standard
Reporter, Frank Beattie, just to say,
"Hello," he showed me a copy of the Scottish Memories magazine in which John McInness' article was published. From that information we made our way to the old Saltcoats'
cemetery, in North Ayrshire. Mr. Strachan, Senior Museum Director, directed us to the stone, buried very much under years
of debris. The end of these families' lives became still another beginning of a new chapter in our research. As we have
posted under the Saltcoats' pages, he had the stone cleaned up, repaired, and mounted in the museum since. |
Seen to the left is the wall on which the Poe and Spiers family headstone is mounted in the Northern Necropolis of Glasgow
Cathedral. Grace Kenmotsu stands nearby to show the stone's relative location on the wall. To the left of this wall at the
entrance to the Cathedral is the rubble of old headstones and wall torn down to make way for the hospital on the other side.
No regard appears to exist to others of their cultural and historical value.
Traditional in Scotland,
old gravestones are pulled up from their original location above the bodies, and after many generations have passed, they
are relocated to perimeter walls. As they disintegrate and fall from those locations, newer ones are erected in their place.
In the above closeup on the right, POE can
be seen; however, the entire inscription reads: Agnes Frances POE, as seen below.
The details of the headstone were written for Brill by the
Glasgow genealogist, John McInnes, who made its modern discovery. From our manuscript, I quote: "In his own hand, on
the back of one of the pieces of 'scratch paper,' he wrote the following from the inscription on that stone:
"JOHN POE [Born 1781, a year after
John Allan] Died 27 December 1827 Aged 46 His Spouse JANE HAMILTON Died 26 February 1857 Aged 79 Their Children James Galt Poe Died 1819 Aged 10 months James Poe 1838 Aged 28 John Poe 1854 Aged 38 __________________ And the Children of John Spiers and Agnes
Frances Poe Elizabeth Jane Died 1852 [Unlegible name] 1855 Also Alice Jane Poe 1860 Agnes Frances Poe, Wife of John Spiers, Died 1853 [?] Aged
38 [?]"
Agnes Poe and John Spiers were Irvine relatives of Edgar Allan Poe. They were also relatives to the John Spiers and
Ann Poe, of whom the former was the donor of the Robert Burns Statue in Irvine. Poes and Spiers had been intermarrying
for over a hundred years. It is impossible to imagine that all were not keenly aware of the life and writing of their "strange"
cousin, Edgar, who chose not to follow family business successes. Such family attitudes explain why John McInnes said that
Poe became persona
nongrata to his Scottish, Presbyterian
relatives on both sides of the Atlantic.
What would be a more enjoyable entertainment than the MLA Poe Section, at its Annual Conference, would be the PSA and Poe
Family of America to engage Scots in an argument that the Poe's were not originally Scottish! That would be worth
the price of admission!  |
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At the time of our first visit to Scotland,
the University of Glasgow's Professor Andrew Hook, Chairman of Department of English, and Professor of American Literature,
Susan Castillo, agreed to meet with author, Bob Brill, and Ms. Kenmotsu. Dr. Hook is an internationally recognized authority
on the life and literature of F. Scott Fitzgerald, some of his information I used, thereafter, in my own classes
when I taught.
The author began his research here, at the logical, ancient origin of learning in Scotland's public
schools. The University of Glasgow is known to exist in the Fourteenth Century, within walking distance of Paisley
Cathedral, home to the first Christian monks from Ireland, cir. 700. Both Brill and Ms. Kenmotsu were graciously
welcomed in 1997. Photo by Ms. Kenmotsu. We would later read that the
University of Glasgow was, in fact, the seat of what is known as "The Enlightenment," of 18th Century Europe, and
became known, simply, as The Enlightenment. This "enlightenment" can be compared to the Enlightenment
of Sakyamuni Buddha, 2553 years ago. He is also known by his given name, Siddhartha. The Buddha of
the Eastern followers of that philosophy. (From Jodo Shinshu a Guide, Hongwanji, given to the author
by Shirley Hasegawa, 2004). We have since found a statue Sakyamuni Buddha in the Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, as well
as on my recent trip to India, in the entrance garden of the Library of the Kakatiya University, Warangal, Southern India.
Although we visited such locally well known academics
and scholars of American and British literature, including those at the Universities of Stirling and Edinburgh, and many local
secondary academies and colleges, such as Kilmarnock and Irvine, no one had any knowledge of a connection of Poe with Scotland.
Professor Hook has since retired; however, Professor Castillo is presently on the staff.
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