The furthest back we can trace our Williamson ancestry is to an Alexander Williamson and Agnes Henry (no relation as far as is known)who were married in January 1804 in New Monklands (Airdrie?). They had at least five children, Janet born on 18th November 1804, Agnes born on 25th September 1806, Margaret born on 20th September 1810, James born on 28th August 1812, and Alexander (the next generation in out family history) born on 2nd October 1814. All these events are recorded in the parish register of New Monklands at Kippspark Farm near Airdrie where presumably Alexander, the father, was farming? No more is known of Alexander Williamson and Agnes Henry. (For further details of the known children of Alexander Williamson and Agnes Henry - See Appendix A)

On 25th April 1842 Alexander, their son and the next generation in our family history married a Jane Glen. The marriage was registered in the OPR as "Alexander Williamson, Spirit Dealer in Glasgow, and Jane Glen residing there, married 25th April by Mr Alexander Nisbett Misister of the Albion Church, Glasgow". Jane was the eighth of nine children born to Alexander Glen, a vintner, Margaret Paul. (For further details of Alexander Glen and Margaret Paul - See Appendix B). 10 months prior to their marriage at the time of the census of 1841 there is a record of an “Alex Williamson, waiter, aged 24, born in Lanarkshire” working as a waiter at 116 Trongate. This would be "next door" to the Burns Tavern run by William Elliot and his wife Helen Glen. This Helen Glen was the sister of Jane Glen, "our"Alexander's future spouse. It would therefore seem not unlikely that this "Alex Williamson, waiter", is "our" Alexander, and he met his future wife through being next door to her sister and brother -in -law. Co-incidently William Elliot has an Isobella Williamson working for him. Although I have no evidence that she was connected with either Alexander Williamson .....?

It was around this time that Alexander Williamson took over the King's Arms Inn from a Mr. D. MacGregor, as it is in the Glasgow Street Directory of 1842/3 that Alexander Williamson is first listed at the King's Arms Inn. 

A poster on display in the Peoples Palace Museum in Glasgow, advertising the King's Arms Inn with the information that Alexander Williamson "now occupies the Old Established and Well Frequented House", must also date from this period. Alexander and Jane had their first child, a daughter Margaret, on 15th March 1843 in Glasgow. On 6th October 1844 their second daughter Agnes, next generation in our family history , was was born at the King's Arms Inn at 66 Trongate, Glasgow. (For further details of the known children of Alexander Williamson and Jane Glen - See Appendix H)

For the census of 31st March 1851 Alexander Williamson and Jane Glen were still resident at the King's Arms, with their daughter Agnes and a further three children, Alexander born on 26th August 1846, Jane Elliot born on 18th July 1848, and John Powers born on 9th October 1850. Their first child, Margaret, who is recorded in the Glasgow Parish Register as born on 15th March 1843, does not appear in this census, as she had almost certainly died in infancy.

Along with Alexander Williamson's immediate family, the 1851 census for the King's Arms also lists two guests and a nephew, James McMaster, son of Jane Glen's older sister Margaret, living at the inn. Also recorded are seven servants employed at the inn, suggesting a busy and profitable enterprise.

1851 Census (31st. March) Glasgow (546) Book 6. Page 18

King's Arms Inn, 66 Trongate, Glasgow.

** Appears as a witness at the registration of the birth of Alexander Williamson and Jane Glen's daughter Helen, born on 4th February 1852. Where John Powers Williamson born on 9th October 1850 got his middle name ?

The Williamson family remained at the King's Arms Inn until 1854, during which time a further two children were born to them, Helen on 3rd July 1852, and another John, born on 4th February 1854, as their first son John Powers, born just over three years previously, had died in infancy.

Sometime in the next year or so the family moved to the Balloch Inn, in Balloch by Loch Lomond, as their next child, James, was born on 21st June 1855 in at the Inn. . James's birth certificate includes the information that incluing himself his mother had had four boys - one of whom had died and four girls - one of whom had died. The son that had died was John Powers born on 9th October 1850 in Glasgow. The daughter that had died was almost certainly Margaret born on 15th March 1843 in Glasgow. The move to Balloch was probably necessitated by the demolition, in that year, of the building that housed the King's Arms at 66 Trongate, as the building that stands there today bears the date 1855. A further addition to the family was born at the Balloch Inn, Janet Ellen born on 21st January 1857.

A further addition to the family, Janet Ellen, was born at the Balloch Inn, on 21st January 1857, but by the birth of their tenth child Catherine, on 20th October 1858, Alexander Williamson and Jane Glen had moved again, this time to the Queens Hotel, East Clyde Street, Helensburgh, where they were to remain for the rest of their lives. (For further details of the Queens Hotel - See Appendix I.). Sadly Catherine died in 1858 shortly after her birth.

It is at the Queens Hotel that we find the family for the census of 8th April 1861, with the inclusion of their eleventh child, William Cunningham Patterson, born on 15th February 1860, and seemingly named after a lodger, William Cunningham Paterson, a "Landed Proprietor". Amongst the nine servants listed in the Hotel are two Glens, possibly relatives of Jane Glen. The omission of Helen, born in 1852, from this census suggests that she also may have died in infancy. As I suspect the daughter who had died according to James's 1885 birth certificate was Margaret, the assumption would be that Helen after 1855 but before 1861.

Over the next six years Alexander and Jean's family was completed with the births of a further three children, Janet Brown on 23rd March 1862, Louisa Graham on 15th February 1864, and finally, their fourteenth child, Margaret Craig born on 20th October 1867, and named after a married sister of Alexander Williamson. Sadly Janet died in 1864 aged 2, and Louisa aged 2 in 1866.

Four years later, for the census of 3rd April 1871, Alexander Williamson and Jane Glen are still at the Queens Hotel.

1871 Census (3rd April) Row (Rhu) (503)Book ? (last one before training ship)

In this census Alexander and Jane have their married daughter, Agnes, with her two year old son, Ebenezer, her baby daughter, Jean, and her husband Ebenezer Hendry, staying with them at the hotel, possibly down for an Easter break from their house at 256 Dumbarton Road, Glasgow. It is interesting to note that both the babies are recorded as born in Row (Rhu), although the family were living in Glasgow at the time. Along with the immediate family, there were ten servants and four guests listed in this census.

Shortly after this census Margaret Craig, Alexander and Jane's youngest daughter died, aged only 4. She was their seventh child to have died in infancy.

Seven years after this census, in 1878, Alexander Williamson, was caught in the City of Glasgow Bank collapse, along with hundreds of other middle class Scots, (including our Ebenezer Hendry - see Hendry Family History). Due to the lack of limited liability Alexander's shareholding holding of £650-00, would have made him liable for £17,875-00, an enormous sum in those days (approx £864,783-00 today). The fact that he survived bankruptcy, as he seems to have done, is remarkable, especially when it is considered that he was one of only 254 out of the 1819 shareholders to do so. One reflection of this financial calamity may be the drop in the number of servants employed in the hotel from ten for the 1871 census, to three for the 1881 census.

On 5th January 1891, Jane Glen, Alexander Williamson's wife, died, aged 70. The death occurred at the Queens Hotel, and it is there, three months later, that we find the recently widowed Alexander for the census of 1891.

Six months after this census Alexander's daughter Agnes, died, aged only 47, on 11th October 1891 in Stirling, and the following month Alexander Williamson himself died, on 17th November 1891, aged 77, still at the Queens Hotel.

Both Alexander Williamson and Jean Glen were buried in Helensburgh Cemetery, close by their son Alexander, and his wife and baby daughter who had all predeceased them. In his will Alexander named his son-in-law, Ebenezer Hendry, as executor, along with Alexander Breingan, a local banker. The estate was valued at £3249 1s. 0p. (approx £201.651-00 today).