Christian Speid
Shopping and lotteries - 1790's style: the letters of Christian Speid
Ardovie Collection
Christian Grierson married married Robert Speid in the 1760’s. These fragments are sufficient to convey something of her personality and concerns. She had been a bride of considerable means when she married Robert Speid of Ardovie. Together they built a new house and furnished it, improved the surrounding park by building a pond, a walled garden and planted trees.
Christian and Robert had no children so his death in 1793 must have come as a very heavy blow. She appears to be of a very sentimental disposition and even a mention of his name could reduce her to the depths of self-pity in her letters. She frequently stayed at her mothers town house in Brechin and trips back to Ardovie were tearful, sad affairs.
Her husband’s heir was another Robert Speid, a lawyer in Edinburgh, the son of a cousin. He was also one of a number of Trustees appointed to look after Christian’s liferent of Ardovie. She lived on until 1823. There were many disputes between the Trustees which eventually resulted in Robert and Christian taking the others to court to win a share of the rents.
Most of what we know about Christian stems from her letters which are neatly written but with somewhat shaky grammar. She has a number of concerns which flow through the letters including an overwhelming obsession with shopping. In one letter alone she asked for Robert’s friend Miss Ramsay to purchase nine separate items. She required Miss Ramsay to acquire silk for a nightgown, two suits of Indian muslin for her cap, frills, handkerchief and apron, black Mankie for a flounced petticoat, two pairs of long silk gloves, eleven yards of a mourning print, an umbrella, samples of the best tea plus a dark printed cotton to line her chaise. On other occasions she begged Robert to have three mourning rings made up with Robert Speid’s hair. Even seed cakes and silver coffee pots were purchased in Edinburgh and sent to Brechin by the public coach to be collected by an Ardovie servant.
Her next favourite topic was the unjust and uncharitable behaviour of her brother-in-law, John Speid, a merchant in Dundee, with whom she had argued over the sale of the family pew. She called him a "poor weak silly creature".
Christian survived many years of widowhood and the problems created by relatives and Trustees. Perhaps her pride pulled her through. She seems to have had a good opinion of herself and her requirements. She wished to keep up appearances. She went to great trouble to have her chaise renovated in the style which she believed Robert Speid would have wanted. She desired to have the coat of arms freshly painted on the sides of the chaise and to have a new lining put into it to replace the old shabby one. Nor did she like the fact that all her married life her silverware bore the initials of her in-laws. After Robert Speid’s death she arranged with Robert junior for it to be sent to Edinburgh to be re-engraved with her own initials. She was also proud when it came to clothes. She was on visiting terms with the Southesk family at Kinnaird. They invited her to spend some time with them at their Montrose house. Immediately Christian was writing to Robert that she wanted new clothes for the visit as "the Montrose people are so vain and dress so well".
Christian may not have been too out of place in the late 20th century. In 1794 there was also a national lottery, with the winning numbers printed in the Edinburgh paper. She was to be continually disappointed in not winning, despite her conviction that she would.
© Angus Council 1998 - 2008