George Masterton (1810-1884)
Weaver and suicide
George Bruce Masterton, born in Newburgh, was a salmon fisher, and variously a linen weaver and jute warper. Sadly, he committed suicide by hanging at the advanced age of 74, reasons for which we can only speculate. His wife Isabella Nairn had died some 20 years earlier.
Genealogy
George Bruce Masterton was the second son of seven children born to John Masterton, linen weaver and Janet Bruce. They belong to the very large family of Mastertons that flourished in Newburgh but can be traced back to John Masterton, shoemaker from Portsburgh, who moved from Leith to Newburgh, probably towards the end of the 18th Century. A fuller genealogy of the extended family of George Bruce Masterton can be found at this link.
NEWBURGH - SUICIDE.
George Masterton, a weaver, about 70 years of age, residing in Craighead's Close, High Street, Newburgh, committed suicide by hanging himself in his weaving shop on Monday morning between 7 and 8 o'clock. Masterton had been in a depressed state of mind for some weeks, and had threatened to take his own life.
The Scotsman
14th October, 1884