Angus' mother needed a husband to lift the family out of extreme poverty. She met widower John Currie who needed a wife as a step-mother to his four children. They were married on 31 December 1839 at Rutherglen. Her son Angus Fleming (now aged 8) had become a member of a blended family with three step-brothers (William, John and James Currie) and a step-sister (Marion Currie). A few months later his half-brother (George Currie) was born.
By the time of the 1851 census, young Angus Fleming (now 20 years old but recorded as 18 years old) was lodging at Gartsherrie with James Landles and his wife Janet. James Landles was a wagon driver and Angus was his apprentice. Angus’s mother, Margaret, was living with her husband John Currie and their younger children at 16 Landressey Street in nearby Calton.
Later in the same year, a few months after he turned 20, the banns of marriage were announced for his marriage to Elizabeth Taylor. The banns were read on 7 December 1851 in the nearby parish of Old Monkland. His profession was still a waggoner and they both lived at Clyde Works in that parish. It appears that the marriage itself took place on New Year's Day 1852.
Elizabeth Taylor also came from a poor family. She had been born at Mud Row in the hamlet of Clyde Iron Works where large families were packed into cheap, unhealthy houses of just three rooms. Her father, uncle and grandfather were all coal miners. Elizabeth worked in a cotton bleaching factory up until the birth of their first child.
Angus Fleming and Elizabeth Taylor adhered strictly to the rules of the Scottish naming convention when choosing names for their children. Their first-born was a son (born 17 November 1852) who was named Angus for his father's father (Angus Fleming senior). A second son followed on 17 February 1854, named Charles for his mother's father (Charles Taylor). A third son (born on 2 June 1856) was named William (which implies that Angus Fleming had a brother called William). The first daughter (born 22 June 1859) was named Jane, after her mother's mother (Jane Robertson).
It seems that the family moved house regularly, as all four children were born at different addresses. This pattern of itinerancy is often a result of an inability to pay the rent. It is likely that each subsequent address was less desirable than its predecessors.
The town where the family lived (Coatbridge) was then the most polluted town in the United Kingdom because it was at the very centre of the fast-growing coal, iron and steel industries of Glasgow. For example, in the 20 years before Angus and Elizabeth were married, iron production in the area grew from 37,500 tons per year to 540,000 tons. Living conditions were notoriously bad, with overcrowding and a high incidence of infant mortality. Glasgow’s population had grown rapidly around this time, without adequate provision for housing or public health.
“Though Coatbridge is a most interesting seat of industry, it is anything but beautiful. Dense clouds of smoke roll over it incessantly and impart to all buildings a peculiarly dingy aspect. A coat of black dust overlies everything. … From the steeple of the parish church … the flames of no fewer than fifty blast furnaces may be seen.” [David Bremner, The Industries of Scotland; their rise, progress and present condition, Adam and Charles Black, Edinburgh, 1869.]
Apart from the adverse effect that this must have caused to the residents’ physical health, it may also have had a depressing effect on their mental health, including (as we shall see later) that of Angus Fleming. It may have been an attempt to escape the depressing atmosphere that prompted Angus and Elizabeth to move the family to Edinburgh in 1861. Perhaps Angus had found work in the construction of the railway and railway stations in Edinburgh at that time. This may be what prompted him to take on a new trade: sawyer. This was a notoriously hard and dirty job involving the manufacture of timber by manually sawing logs into beams and planks. Sawyers worked in teams, with one in a pit below the log and the other on the top. As this team pushed and pulled the saw through the log, the bottom man was inevitably showered in sawdust. It must have been very difficult to both saw straight and avoid getting grit in the eye. It says a lot about his strength and perseverance that he seems to have maintained this trade throughout the rest of his working life.
When the 1861 census was taken the family lived at 15 Ashley Court Edinburgh along with their lodger, John France. It appears that their eldest son, Angus, had died because he is not recorded on this census. This was a very sad blow and may be what prompted the couple to move their family back to Glasgow where another son was born on 4 June 1862 at 49 Turrern Street Calton. He was also named Angus in honour of his late brother.
Angus became quite unstable soon after the family returned to Glasgow. He abandoned his family despite the fact that his wife had four young children to raise and was again pregnant.
Elizabeth Fleming (nee Taylor) had always ensured that her children attended school. She was determined that they would not be forced to become coal miners like her father and grandfather. When her husband left, she moved her family back to Mud Row where she had a family support network. When her youngest child was born in 1865, he was named Matthew Taylor Fleming after his uncle (Matthew Taylor) who had done most to help his sister in her hour of need.
Two years later, Angus Fleming was brought before the court in Cambuslang and charged with deserting his wife. His family had "become chargeable to the Parish of Cambuslang" which had provided aid for more than two years.
He returned home briefly during the following year, but his problems had worsened. He bashed Elizabeth badly and was punished with two months gaol.
No further records of Angus' life or his death have yet been found. In particular, he was not recorded in either the 1871 or the 1881 census in Scotland even though, on the basis of other evidence, he lived until at least 1881. His family is recorded on both censuses without Angus. There is no separate record of Angus in these censuses.
All of his children except the youngest (Matthew) emigrated to Australia in the 1880s. His son Angus later died of a cerebral embolism on 15 March 1887, aged 25, and is buried in Rookwood Cemetery (Sydney, NSW). Charles lived in Australia from 1883 until about 1903 when he emigrated again, this time to New Zealand. Jane married Adam Hood Philip in 1887 in NSW and the family later moved to New Zealand.
When Angus' wife, Elizabeth, died on 12 January 1881, her death certificate recorded that she was "married to Angus Fleming". Since she was not recorded as a widow, it is likely that Angus was still alive and this fact was known to his family. Angus definitely died before 1884, however, as he is recorded as 'deceased' on the marriage certificate of his son Angus to Martha Duncan. No death certificate has yet been found.
Angus' son Charles produced the first grandson for Angus on 22 December 1878, thirteen years after he had abandoned his family. Had Charles followed the rules of the Scottish naming convention (as his family traditionally did), the child would have been named Angus after its paternal grandfather. But, given Angus' neglect of his family over such a long period, he was not so honoured. Instead, the child was named for its maternal grandfather, Charles Taylor.