Dougal Rollo and Janet Dow Bradley

Dougall Rollo (b 1847) and Janet Dow Bradley (b 1847) were married on the 12th of July 1867 at 73 Watergate, Perth, Scotland. Dougall was the fourth son of James Rollo and Betsy Christie, and Janet was the second daughter of John Bradley and Elizabeth Robb.
Dougall and Janet had 9 children, of whom only four survived to adulthood.

16 glover st - birth of Elizabeth

71 princes st - mary anne in 1891

Early in their marriage (between the birth of Elizabeth and John), they moved to Inverness, presumably for Dougalls work as a journeyman iron turner. During their 9 or 10 years in Inverness, they lived at 29 Tomnahurich Street.


In Febrary 1872, their eldest son James died of Typhoid fever, and in 1876 their fourth daughter Maggie was born prematurely, and lived for only 18 hours.

Sometime between the birth of Margaret in 1878, and the 1881 census they had moved back to Perth again. By the time of the 1881 census, Dougall was "third engineer" on the ship "the marathon", and tragically on about the 17th of march the ship was lost at sea as well as (presumably) all on board. At the time of the 1881 census (3 April 1881), the news of the ships sinking cannot have yet reached home, since Dougall was reported as the head of the household. On the 12th of May, their last child Jane Bradley Rollo was born prematurely, but survived for only 10 days.

It is differcult to ascertain precisely what happened after the tragic death of Dougall, however we do know for sure that Janet ultimately did not cope well.
Sometime between 1881 and 1891 the family was split up: - the three youngest daughters Mary Anne, Jessie, and Margaret (known as "Maggie") were raised by their maternal grandmother Elizabeth Bradley; Dougall was placed in an orphanage run by an (unidentified) uncle.
Sometime between 1881 and 1885, Janet moved to Dundee with at least two of her children. Elizabeth died in December 1885, and John died in May 1890. Both died of Tuberculosis, and were living with their mother at the time (Janet was the informant on both death certificates). We cannot tell for sure whether this was before or after the family was split up.

What we do know for sure is that the family had been split up by the time of the 1891 census. At the time of the 1891 census, Janet was a prison inmate, Mary Anne was a domestic servant in Perth, and Jessie and Margaret were at the Girls Industrial school, in Ward Rd in Dundee. We still cannot acertain where Dougal jnr. was

The descendants of their 6th child Jessie Bradley Rollo, were told that Janet "died of a broken heart". They assumed that she died soon after Dougal in 1881. They also were only aware of three siblings; Dougal, Mary Anne, and Maggie (Margaret). They were aware of the possibility of one earlier sibling that died as a baby, - some thought the name was John, others thought it was James. They knew nothing of Elizabeth, the first Maggie or Jane.