More details of the life of Henry Francis can be found in the short biography at the bottom of this page.

JOHN GIBSON SMITH

John Gibson Smith was born in Innerleithen and came as a teacher to Kelso Friendly School. When a vacancy occurred in Ednam School he transferred there in 1834. He was a good teacher and as his predecessor had been a failure he was very much appreciated by all.He was a tall man with a repuation for strictness but the children liked him and this is evident by the fact that between 20 and 30 children chose to come to Ednam School daily - a distance of at least two miles - rather than attend any school in Kelso. His two great hobbies were gardening and poetry and he was very knowledgeable about both. In 1862 he had a 240 page volume of his poems published under the title of "The Old Graveyard". He is portrayed as a cheery, happy man yet his poems are rather sombre. His spare time was spent in his garden. John Smith was a widower but the census of 1851 shows that his household consisted of him as the head with his sister. a nephew, a niece and a servant. He died in Kelso in 1891.

Old School is the building on the left

ANDREW BROTHERTON

Andrew Brotherton was born in 1834 in Eccles Shiel and moved to Ednam very shortly after his birth. He always considered himself an Ednam man. He started school in the village while John Gibson Smith was the schoolmaster. Andrew Brotherton was highly intelligent with great potential but was not ambitious. His father was not a skilled man and did not recognise the opportunities which lay ahead for his son. Andrew was a gifted pupil and loved nature. Although he did not write verse his love of nature was in a way a form of poetry. He worked in the village as a gardener so that he would have time for his hobbies of nature study and bird stuffing. He was an expert botanist and his extensive knowledge was recognised by other experts in science. Friends also recognised his talents and helped him to obtain a shop in Kelso where he could carry on his bird stuffing. Professor Williams offered him a post lecturing to students on botany as related to Veteninary Science. Professor Dickson offered him a post as Keeper of the Herbarium in Edinburgh. Both posts he declined. He did, howevr, became Curator of Museums at Berwick. Kelso and Floors and corresponded with many leading scientists. He wrote many articles with one of particular significance in overcoming the disease destroying salmon in the area at that time. Another of his publications is "Notes on Rare and Uncommon Wild plants found near Kelso"

CAPTAIN JAMES COOK

Another famous person with paternal links to Ednam is Captain James Cook the famous explorer.Ednam records show that a John Cooke paid a Hearth Tax in Ednam in 1691 and that 2 years later a John Cook married a Jean Duncan in Ednam Church. 70 years later their grandson James Cook, who was born in 1728 in Cleveland, Yorkshire, landed in what was to become New South Wales, Australia.

SIR RICHARD WALDIE- GRIFFITH

The Waldie family was an eminent Borders family from Hendersyde Park, Kelso.

Richard Waldie-Griffith was born in 1850, the only son of Sir George Griffith – born 1820 - (whose father Sir Richard John Griffith married Maria Jane Waldie, an heiress of Mr. George Waldie of Hendersyde. The family in 1865 added the surname Waldie to their name of Griffith.)

In 1849 Sir George married Eliza, daughter of Mr Nicholas Philpot Leader MP in County Cork. They had 2 daugters and one son- Richard _ who on his father’s death became Sir Richard. Sir Richard was born in 1850 and in 1877 married Mary Nena, ( she died in December 1916) daughter of General William Irwin of Leixlip, County Kildare. In 1904 Sir Richard bought the Estate of Ednam from William Humble, Earl of Dudley for the sum of £52000 thus becoming the Laird of Ednam.

It was largely due to his generosity that Ednam had a spacious site on which to build its new school. With the donation of the land and a sizable financial input to the cost of the building, the school, which houses today’s pupils, was built and opened in 1911.  

SIR WILLIAM PURVES

Sir William Purves was born in 1931, educated in Ednam where his mother Mrs Ida Purves was schoolmistress of Ednam Primary School form 1040 - 1963. Sir William Purves has retired and now lives in London.  
 

Biography of H .F. Lyte

Henry Francis Lyte was a man of great intellectual ability and much is known about his life so a tribute to this remarkable man who started life in our small Borders village seems necessary.

His father Thomas Mohun Lyte was desended from a wealthy family whose ancestral home from 13th until the 18th century was Lytes Carey Manor in Somerset. Peter Le-Lyt, who died in 1348, was probably the first member of that family to live in Lytes Carey Manor ibut it is known that his grandfather lived in that area much earlieer than that. Among Peter Le Lyt's descendants are Henry Lyte the famous botanist (some plants grown by him still grow in the manor grounds which is now a museum) and the famous genealogist, Thomas Lyte,who so impressed the king at that time (King James 1) by tracing the king's ancestry back to Brutus that he was presented with a miniature of the king studded with diamonds (the well-known Lyte Jewel). Henry Francis is 9th in direct line from Henry, the botanist. Extravagance and mismanagement in the 18th century neccessitated the sale of the ancestral honme by John Lyte around 1850 and the latter moved to Bath. Thomas Lyte, Henry Francis' father was the youngest of a large family of which only five children survived. He bought a commission in the army but because he was not receiving promotion quickly he sold his commission and, at this point 1790, decided to go to Scotland. Before sailing he met, at a party in London, a young woman, Anna Maria Oliver, whom he had met once before. He persuaded her to sail with him and a servant for Scotland They made their home in Berwick-upon Tweed and it was there that their first son, Thomas, was born in 1792. They then lived in Tilmouth until the owner of that property required it and it was then that they rented "The Cottage" belonging to Mr Robertson, the Ednam brewer, Henry Francis was born there on 1st June 1793. His Baptism took place in Ednam Church on June 13th of the same year and is recorded in the Parish records. The third child, George, was also born in Edman in March 1795 and baptised in the village church. In the late 1790s Captain Lyte was working again - when the money from his inheritance had been spent- and he was posted to Enniskillen in Ireland. His family ended the lease of the house in Ednam around 1800 and joined him in Ireland. By that time Captain Lyte had tired of Anna Maria and realising this Anna Maria was persuaded to return to England taking the youngest child with her. It has been reported that she and the child died shortly after this but facts disprove that. George lived until 1820 and it is recorded that Anna Maria died in Yorkshire in the late 1830s. Meantime Captain Lyte in 1802 married an Irish girl, Eliza Naghten and before moving to Jersey with his wife placed the two older boys in Portora School as boarders Thomas, the oldest boy was not academically talented and was returned to his father in Jersey Henry Francis was educated in Enniskillen where he was left in the care of Dr. Burrows who virtually adopted him, taking full responsibility fro his keep and education. At this point Henry believed that he was an orphan and it must have been a very sad time for a child who had been devoted to his mother. The following poem bears witness to this

Dreaming of my Mother

Stay, gentle shadow of my mother, stay:
Thy form but seldom comes to bless my sleep.
Ye faithless slumbers flit not thus away,
And leave my wistful eyes to wake and weep.
Oh! I wa sdreaming of those golden days
When, will my guide and pleasure all my aim,
I rambled wild through childhood's flowery maze,
>And knew of sorrow scarcely by her name.
Those scenes are fled! and thou, alas, are fled,
Light of my heart and guardian of my youth!
Then come no more to slumbering fancy's bed,
To aggravate the pangs of waking truth:
Or, if kind sleep, these visions will restore,
Oh, let me sleep again and never waken more!

At the age of ten the young Henry thought his mother was dead as she had never contacted him. Over the years he tried to find his mother and we know that she had not died soon after returning to London and had tried to find her sons. As late as the 1830s she wrote to Captain Lyte pleading for information about them but although he knew where they were or what had become of them he refused to give her those facts so sadly Henry Francis never met his mother again after she left Ireland.

After his schooling Henry Francis studied divinity at Trinity College and following Ordination worked for some time in Ireland before moving to England where the climate was warmer for by then he had contracted tuberculosis which was to trouble him for the rest of his life.

Another indication that his early years were the happiest of his childhood and that he cherished them is in the poem :

"ON MY NATIVE LAND"

Beloved Scotland, how shall I forbear
to cast a fond but heavy look to thee
When shall be mine the soldier's lot to share
my native hills and home again to see
O loveliest land of all the world to me
theme of my sleeping and my waking dreams
Dim not my eyes, ye tears of ecstasy
how bright thy distant scene to memory seems.  
 

Ye hills of Cheviot where my infant feet
have rambled wild through many a summer's day
Ye banks of Tweed where once I thought it sweet
to lie and listen to the Skylark's lay
A sad farewell I still had hoped to stray
and find within your bowers a refuge yet
The dream is fled, but this form of clay
till every spark of feeling shall be set
Land of my birth, this heart shall never forget thee.  
 

LIFE IN ENGLAND

In 1818 Henry Francis married Anne Maxwell, the daughter of a wealthy family. It was a happy marriage and lasted until his death in 1847. They had five children - three boys and two girls. Sadly their second child and first daughter, named Anna Maria, died after only one month. This, obviously, had a profound effect on her parents. Their second daughter and one of their granddaughters were also named Anna Maria.

In 1823 Henry Francis became the vicar of All Saints Parish in Brixham where he remained for the rest of his life. During that time his health gave cause for concern and frequently he had to go to Italy and France to warmer climates. His stipend from the church was very small but the money from the Maxwell wealth made it possible for the family to enjoy a high standard of living

Henry Francis Lyte was a popular and respected vicar and left a deep personal impression on the town. He lived at Berry Head House, now a hotel, and it was there, from his house overlooking Torbay, when he was very ill that he wrote that very beautiful hymn "Abide with me...." The church is now a memorial to him.

Among the many works he had published are;

1826 Tales in Verse

1833 Poems Chiefly Religious 1834 The Spirit of the Psalms

1847 "Abide with me...."

The last of these was published in September 1847 and because of failing health Henry went abroad to Nice in France where he died on 20th November that same year. He was buried in Nice.

GRAVE IN NICE

After his death his daughter Anna Maria Maxwell Lyte (then Mrs Hogg) had some works published which she called "The Remains of the Reverend H. F. Lyte".

Ednam honoured him with a plaque on the parapet of the bridge from Kelso into the village. However folllowing a road accident on the bridge in 2005 the old plaque which was very worn was removed. A new plaque, as part of the celebrations for 900th anniversary (October 2005) of the parish has been erected inside the Church grounds, just opposite the Garden of Remembrance

Plaque on parapet of Ednam Bridge

The new plaque inside the Ednam Church grounds

His poems can be read on the website below:

http://www.poemhunter.com/henry-francis-lyte

Read more about the life of Henry Francis Lyte on the site below