Following on from my last blog about the Pollexfen family collection of old photos, this super photo was written on the back ‘Eva/e Hebden’ and was with the Pollexfen family photos, so was she just a friend or was she family?

Fortunately for me Diana, my friend who gifted me the collection of photos, had managed to find a reference to Eva Hebden online on a Blog by Gerolistein dated 16 June 2020, it has lots more fabulous photos of the Hebden family and their history at Carrick House on Eday, Orkney Islands. But no actual identification of exactly who Eva was and who her parents were. Link here: Carrick House Hebden Family

So armed with this information I carried on with more research into this branch of the family, I don’t like copying what others have done, and I was able to add much more to the family tree with my own research now that I knew that the Ranken family who I already had on the Pollexfen tree had married into the Hebden family. I also had to try and find out who Eva was and who her parents were.

This is the photo shared on the Blog by Gerolistein, date I would think about the mid to late 1880s:

Is this child above the same Eva Hebden as the photo that I have? It seems very likely.

The Hebden Family

I’m starting with the first owner of Carrick House on Eday, Orkney, Scotland who was Robert James Hebdon, he was born in 1813 at Ely Grange, Frant, Sussex, England and died on 17 May 1877 at Villacidro, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. He married Caroline Hester Walker who was born on 27 Jun 1817 in Middlesex, England and died on 2 Feb 1906 in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. Their probate records are really helpful giving us lots of extra information.

As far as I can see from the records the couple had ten children:

I shall concentrate on the sons as their descendants would have the surname Hebden.

First, we have Robert Hamilton Craven Hebden, we can discount descendants of him as he remained single and died when he was just 32.

Next, Douglas James Broadly Hebden married an American lady in Pulaski County, Virginia, USA in 1872, she was Mary Elizabeth Hall 1842-1938, and they had one son Arthur before he died in America.

Thirdly we have Harry Cowadine Hebden, he married Louise Ann Ranken (in the second photo with her sister and Eva) 1852-1900, and the couple had five children:

Next comes Frederick William Hebden, he remained single all his life, so no descendants.

Alfred Charles Hebden comes next, he married Clara Isabella Ranken (in the second photo with her sister and Eva) born on 20 Jul 1857, in Kirkwall, Orkney, Scotland and died on 7 Jun 1934 in Edinburgh, Scotland. I have been unable to find a child born to them as yet!Although I suspect from seeing the photo of the two sisters with ‘Eva’ that the couple did have this young daughter, but I need proof!

Arthur Hebden is the youngest son and he married Lilian Chancellar 1862-1937 and the couple had one daughter Enid Noel 1893-1955.

The Daughters.

Caroline Harriett Hebden married Rev Dugald Maccoll, they had two boys and a girl.

Edith Eleanor Hebden married Dr William Stewart and they had two girls and a boy.

Henrietta Fanny Hebden married Thomas William Leisk Spence, who in 1888 was made Secretary to the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland. The couple had four daughters and then four sons, one of whom was born in 1884 and called Eveline Ogilvy Spence, so two Evelines in the family but of course just the one with the surname Hebden.

The youngest daughter Florence Hebden sadly died at just 15 years of age, so never married or had children.

So we come back to the photo of Eva/e Hebden I decided to have a look through the British newspaper archives, so I put in the father’s name Alfred Charles Hebden and understandably I had his wife’s death notices come up:

Clara died on 7 June 1934 in Bath, Somerset.

But carrying on looking through the notices it said ‘only child of Alfred Charles Hebden‘ in the same year! At last, I had proof they had a child! Her name as you can see below was Evelyn Frances Hebden, (Eva/e) Clara had died just 12 days after her only daughter. Of course, once I put her full name and date of death onto the tree I found several more records linked to her. I haven’t found out very much about Evelyn Frances, except that she visited various countries over the years, she also had her mother’s address down as her next residence on a couple of records although she had her main address in Edinburgh. Evelyn never married but she was a Secretary as her occupation on an early voyage abroad. Her last address on the electoral roll is 10a Royal Circus, Edinburgh, Scotland (1933/34).

Eva Hebden and the rest of the Hebden Family I have added to the Pollexfen Family tree on Ancestry, direct link here: Hebden & Pollexfen Family Tree

Carrick House, Isle of Eday, Orkney Islands.

Info from Wikipedia: In 1628, King Charles I created John Stewart the Earl of Carrick. He had already been made Lord Kincleven in 1607, also in the Peerage of Scotland. He was a younger son of Robert, Earl of Orkney, bastard son of King James V thus, he was Charles’s half-great-uncle. This title was deemed not to conflict with the Earldom of Carrick held by the heir to the throne, (Prince William, Duke of Rothesay, is the incumbent Earl of Carrick) as it referred not to the province in Ayrshire, but to the lands of Carrick on Eday in Orkney.

John Stewart sold Carrick House and land in Eday to Sir John Buchanan who died about 1643-5 and left it to his nephew Arthur and his descendants, then through marriage to Feas of Clestrain, 1720. It then passed in 1770 to Robert Laing of Papdale (Kirkwall) and in December 1853 to Robert James Hebden in whose family it remains.

Till next time then………