Kirkland, Margaret b1874
Margaret grew up in Cruddas Terrace (5 Cruddas Terrace). She was a daughter of John Kirkland and Margaret Kirkland, and her birth was registered in Bellingham in the second quarter of 1874. Her home in 1881 was with her widowed mother and six siblings in Cruddas Terrace (5 Cruddas Terrace). Aged sixteen in 1891 she was employed as a telephonist and living in a household headed by her older brother George Kirkland, in Cruddas Terrace (5 Cruddas Terrace). In 1901 she was employed as a waitress and on census night was visiting her married sister Bella in Gateshead. The Northern Guardian of 22 February 1896 reports “The Newcastle Breach of Promise Case – At Newcastle Assizes yesterday, before Mr Justice Lawrence, the action was resumed in which Miss Margaret Kirkland, of Bellingham, Northumberland, sought to recover damages for breach of promise of marriage from Septimus Park, painter, paperhanger and art master, of North Shields. The jury, after an absence from the room of about half an hour, returned a verdict for the plaintiff, with damages at £175, and his Lordship gave judgement accordingly.” At the time of the action Margaret was a telegraph clerk. The case received extensive covering in the national press. Margaret didn’t marry and her death, aged sixty-six was registered in Northumberland in 1939.