The Victorian inhabitants of 6 Golden Square.
Golden Square was laid out in 1824. The houses were originally the homes of well-to-do professionals. No. 6 was used as a private house until 1900, when it became the offices of a firm of Chartered Accountants.
Miss Hannah Carnegie
The earliest occupant who can be traced was Miss Hannah Carnegie (1785-1869), who lived there from 1847-1869, and described herself on the census as a gentlewoman, born in Aberdeen.
She gave her age as 60 on the 1851 census and as 73 in 1861, and was previously living with her brother William (Advocate and Town Clerk) at 257 Union Street from 1824 to 1840. She lived here alone (plus cook and housemaid), but the building was much smaller then.
She was the youngest daughter of Alexander Carnegie (1733-1806, City Clerk) and Helen Davidson, who married on 12 June 1769 in the parish of St Nicholas, Aberdeen and lived at Cornhill.
Their children moved into the fashionable new suburbs then being built.
The Jopp family
The Jopp family lived there from 1870-1881.
Keith Jopp (1818-1898) was the 8th of 10 sons of an advocate, who had obviously encouraged his younger sons to seek other occupations.
Andrew Jopp (1769-1829) had moved to Aberdeen from Muiryheadless in Insch, and lived and worked at 31 Gallowgate, where his large family grew up.
Keith trained as a doctor and went out to India to serve as surgeon to the Madras Fusiliers.
Meanwhile, his brother William (the 6th son) had become a wine merchant.
William later became a Colonel of the 1st Battalion Volunteer Gordon Highlanders, but had entered the wine trade at an early age.
Their great-uncle James Jopp (1721-1794) had been a Wine Merchant and also Lord Provost of Aberdeen for many years. He was mentioned by James Boswell, who visited Aberdeen with Samuel Johnson.
When Keith was invalided home from India, he joined his brother's wine business.
In 1851 Keith married a widow, Rachel Hunter, who had 3 children, and they proceeded to have 5 more.
By the time the family moved to 6 Golden Square, only 1 son and 2 daughters were living at home (+ 3 servants).
The eldest daughter Margaret was married from the house in 1877. She married her distant cousin William Beattie, who had gone to Australia to make his fortune as a sheep farmer. It appears that he had already made the fortune and returned when he was married aged 35.
The move away from Golden Square coincided with Keith's retirement, when the wine business was taken over by his son William.
He wrote minor poetry during his retirement - but not at 6 Golden Square. He died in 1898.
The Wine Shop in Market Street had a telephone number listed from 1895, but there is no record of the house having one.
The Clyne family
The Clyne family lived here from 1881-1900.
Norval Clyne (1817-1890) was an advocate, born at Ballycastle in Ireland. He married a girl from Edinburgh and they settled in Aberdeen after their marriage in 1846.
Norval Clyne was well known as a translator of Old Scottish Ballads, though it seems that this was before he moved to Golden Square.
They were Episcopalians, and had at least 9 children. By the time that the family moved here, most of the children had left home. Those living at home included the 4th son Arthur, who was already an architect in partnership with John Bridgeford Pirie. He became a famous interior designer. One of his best-known works is the interior of the library of the Society of Advocates. There is no trace of his work now at 6 Golden Square.
Arthur Clyne moved to Rubislaw after his mother's death in 1900.
In the 1901 census, 6 Golden Square is not listed, even as unoccupied.
In is also unlisted in that year's street directory.
However, from the next year until at least 1970 it was occupied by Jas. Messon & Co, Chartered Accountants.
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