Jane Anne Grant was born in Duffus, Morayshire, Scotland, on the 22nd December 1862, the daughter of George and Elspeth Grant (née Russell). Her father was a carpenter, and the family resided at 38. Grant Street, Duffus.
On the 26th June 1890, she arrived in New York City on board the Furnessia, having sailed from Glasgow. She then travelled to Bridgeport, Connecticut, where she married John MacFarquhar on the 10th July 1890. Her husband, like her father, was a carpenter, and their first child, a son named Colin George, was born in September 1890, followed by Elsie A., born in December 1891, and Grace Marie, born in July 1898. The family resided at Bufford Street, Bridgeport, before moving to 203g, and then 199, Hollister Street, Stratford, Connecticut.
In the spring of 1915, she decided to go on a holiday to Morayshire, in Scotland, and take her youngest child, Grace, with her, and the two of them took the train from Bridgeport to New York, where they boarded the Lusitania as second cabin passengers, at Pier 54, before the liner sailed, just after mid-day, on 1st May 1915.
They both survived the sinking, six days later and having been rescued from the sea, were landed at Queenstown from where they later made it to Burghead, Morayshire, via Glasgow, Lanarkshire, in Scotland. Whilst there, Jane MacFarquhar gave an interview to the press, which appeared in The Dundee Advertiser of 10th May 1915: -
Mrs. Macfarquhar (sic) stated that she and her daughter were in the second cabin saloon when the liner was struck.
Everybody, of course, rushed to the decks. Some very foolishly rushed to the staterooms to get their valuables. There was no time for that. They had three (sets of) stairs to climb to get to the deck from the second cabin saloon. There was not much crushing, certainly not so much as one might expect in the circumstances, but the steps were difficult to ascend as the ship had taken a big list.
When she reached the deck she found the passengers crowding to the high part of the deck. She thought they would have a better chance at the other side, and risked crossing the wet and slanting deck, a rather dangerous procedure.
In fact, at this point, Grace MacFarquhar actually lost her footing and slithered down to the edge of the deck where she was only prevented from going overboard by the deck rail. A steward then led the couple through a first class saloon, threading them
from chair to chair until they came to a lifeboat about to be launched. The story continued: -
She found a boat ready to be launched and she and her daughter were practically the last to enter it. The boat was fully loaded. There were not many persons around these boats and it was a case of loading them up as quickly as possible with any persons who were near, irrespective of sex.
“All the same, on our boat there were no more men than was required to row and handle her. The ship was going rapidly down when our boat rowed away. One of the men who took the time from when the torpedo struck till the ship disappeared stated that it was only 12½ minutes.
I did not actually see the liner sink,” Mrs. MacFarquhar concluded, “It was too sad a sight to see her go down with all those people on the deck and I turned my head away. My daughter did the same.
We picked up a number of survivors from the water, and we saw many bodies floating past. The boat, after three hours rowing, was taken in tow by a small vessel from Kinsale and shortly after, a Government vessel arrived and took the survivors on board, landing them at Queenstown.”
Jane and her daughter remained in Scotland until the war had almost reached a conclusion, when they boarded the Aquitania at Southampton on the 20th September 1918, and arrived in New York City seven days later, from where they travelled by rail to their home in Stratford.
Jane was left a widow on the death of her husband on Christmas Day 1926. Jane died in Stratford on the 21st April 1942, aged 79 years. She was buried beside her husband in Union Cemetery, Stratford.
Scotland Select Births and Baptisms 1562 – 1950, Connecticut Death Records 1897 – 1968, 1871 Census of Scotland, 1900 U.S. Federal Census, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, 1920 U.S. Federal Census, 1930 U.S. Federal Census, 1940 U.S. Federal Census, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Dundee Advertiser, Seven Days To Disaster, PRO BT 100/345, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.