“The East Indiaman Delaford, in two positions” (1787), oil on canvas painting by Robert Dodd. This work is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Born in about 1803, Margaret Smith lived a life which is remarkable in its highlights of boldness and adventure, as well as striking in its sorrows. The daughter of Hugh Smith, Margaret got married at around the age of 18, on 4 March 1821 at Greyfriars Church in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland.
Just a few weeks prior to the wedding, her new husband, the young clerk Peter Kay, a native of Edinburgh and son of shoemaker William Kay and Catherine Mowat, had enlisted as a soldier with the Honourable East India Company. On 5 May 1821, only a day after reaching their two month mark as husband and wife, they boarded the good ship Duke of Wellington, and embarked on the ambitious and lengthy journey half-way across the world, to India.
Eight months after setting sail for foreign shores, Margaret brought forth the couple’s first child, a daughter they named Catherine Mowat Kay, born at St. Thomas Mount, Madras, India in January of 1822. Two more children soon followed: a daughter Margaret in April of 1824, and a son Peter in November of 1826, with both children being christened at Saint Andrews, Madras, India.
Tragically, Margaret and Peter suffered the loss of their little girl Margaret, just days before her fourth birthday, on 4 April 1828 in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, India. Soon afterwards, Peter Kay, who had then attained the rank of sergeant, left off soldiering and the bereaved family returned to their homeland, arriving in Scotland in 1829, after a life-defining absence of eight years.
How odd it may have seemed to Margaret, to once again set her foot upon a landscape so familiar, yet feel her heart beating within an internal landscape so altered and expanded by her eight years of travels, toils, triumphs and tears.
But the river of life ever rushes forward, and whatever Margaret’s reflections or inner feelings may have been upon her return to Edinburgh, it is apparent that her physical energy was fully engaged in building life anew. In November of 1829, she and Peter were blessed with another daughter, their first child born on Scottish soil. They named their little one Margaret, but enjoyed the solace of her presence in their family circle but a brief season: about 13 months later, on 19 December 1830, her young life was exhausted and extinguished by a bout of whooping cough.
And here a hush falls upon the life record of Margaret Smith Kay, with no clear indication of her abode or activities for some time. In 1853, her daughter Catherine M. Kay got married to journeyman shoemaker James Townsend of Dumfries, at Greenside Parish Church in Edinburgh. Was Margaret present at the wedding?
She and her husband Peter Kay parted company; that much is clear. Whether that separation occurred despite their intense years of shared joys and sorrows, or because of it, is a question that can only be answered by those long slumbering in the grave. In the 1861 census, retired soldier Peter Kay is recorded as living in the Cannongate area of Edinburgh with another wife: a woman by the name of Janet Leishman. Janet and Peter died within days of one another in January of 1863, of bronchitis and paralysis, respectively. But where was Margaret Smith?
She was in Dumfries, apparently. For there she lies buried in St. Michael’s churchyard, having parted the veil on 11 September 1871, at the age of 68. Margaret’s daughter, Catherine M. Kay Townsend, and her young family were also resident in Dumfries at the time. It is pleasant to think that perhaps Catherine and Margaret drew strength from one another, and Margaret may have had the joy of grandchildren to brighten her days along the last stretch of her life’s winding path.
Certainly, her granddaughter and namesake, Margaret Townsend, followed in her footsteps. She too, boldly crossed an ocean just weeks after marrying, and gave birth to her first child in the distant land of America. The descendants of Margaret Smith and Peter Kay have now traversed the globe from Abu Dhabi to Aberystwyth, Tokyo to Tampere, and Heaton Norris to Houston. Margaret Smith’s brave step into the unknown back in 1821 has sown a powerful legacy indeed, one that is still bearing fruit and growing.
-Auralie
Margaret Smith Kay died in September of 1871, at the age of 68. She shares a grave with her son-in-law James Townsend, who followed her in death just a few weeks later. 
The grave lies in St. Michael’s Churchyard in Dumfries, Scotland, obscured by the branches of a tree which has grown up beside it.
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