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Letters written by Agnes
Macfie (née Fairrie) 1813-1900 to her nephew James
Fairrie (1832-1918)
Steam Yacht
MONA
9th Octr
1888.
Dear James,
When Mrs. Ewing of Canada was here she and the London
Fairries were speaking a great deal about our ancestors in Irvine. I
showed her your letter to me about the James C. Fairrie in Liverpool.
She said she had heard of an Alexander Farrie, merchant in Kilbride,
subscribing to a book in Glasgow in 1739. This may be the family
referred to in Sheriff Blair's record where there were eight children.
J. C. Farrie's father or grandfather may have been one of the eight.
Mrs. Ewing wonders if the Register books in Irvine coud give some
particuars of the Farrie family - I have so many present
things to engage my attention that I cannot feel any or much interest
in the past.
Eliza Fairrie said her father
told her that it was my father who changed the spelling of the name
while at school - his Master said that if the word was to be pronounced
long there shoud be an 'i' in the first syllable, so it was your
grandfather who began to spell the name as we
now do, and your Liverpool friend's spelling is the original.
Andrew has gone to Beach and may have little time here
on his return, so I thought it better to write this than to explain it
to him.
I am your affectionate Aunt
Agnes Macfie
Miss Dumas gave me a note about a Spanish Galleon
'Florencia' which was wrecked off the coast of Scotland after the
invasion of the Spanish Armada. The Galleon was commanded by one
Fereira, a Spanish Grandee of the first class who is supposed to be an
ancestor of the Fairrie family. Edward Fairrie has in his possession an
old Armada Medal.
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