Fifty or sixty years ago there was a Cairncross, tailor and (Written 1920?) clothier, in the neighbouring Fair City of Perth. His son George was for many years a successful jeweller and watchmaker in St. John's Street there; the business is now carried on by his grandson James, who is understood to be the Major J.C. Cairncross of the Territorial Committee or Commission, recently formed, for Perth, This family came from the Lothians, and may be the descendants of James Cairncross, tailor, of Crosscauseway, near Edinburgh, whose last will and testament is dated September 17th, 1794,
Before closing we must not forget to mention John Cairncross, sometime merchant in Brechin, but formerly of the Royal Artillery. He was born on May 15th, 1783, and died in Brechin on 14th June, 1853.
He served in the Peninsular campaign, and was principal clerk in the Artillery office at Headquarters until the Duke of Wellington's army finally quitted France. He was present at the battles of' Corunna, Oporto, Talavera, Fuentos d'Onore, Badajoz, Salamanca, Ciudad Rodrigo, Vittoria, San Sebastian, Pyrenees, Orthez, and Toulouse, for which he received the war medal* with clasps. He was the son of Robert Cairncross, blacksmith, and Jane Gowans, in Mainsbank, Kinnell Parish, and the grandson of Robert Cairncross, blacksmith at Barry Muir, and Margaret Smith there. Robert, in Mainsbank, was born at Barry, the parish adjoining Monifieth, on August 17th, 1746.
John married Agnes Strachan, and they had the following children:
James, who died at Birkhill, unmarried. Thomas, who died at Brechin, unmarried. David Milne, who died unmarried. John, who died in Melbourne. Robert Grieve, who died in New York. William Hovells, a grocer in Brechin, where he died unmarried.
* The medal was added to the Cairncross Group in 1976.
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