At the time of the 1911 census, Isabella was 18 years of age and designated as a housemaid. Her son Robert Cunningham recalls that she worked for a family by the name of Robertson, who were noted local manufacturers and lived at Ellangowan, Bentinck Street, Galston.

'Isabella S. Paton' was the informant on the death certificate of her father Matthew Haddow Paton on the 28th of April 1917, on the day following his death.

Isabella was married to Thomas Cunningham on the 21st of January 1920, at Erskine United Free Church, Galston. The witnesses were Hugh Brown and Grace Howie Yeudall, a cousin of the bride.

Isabella Paton was a domestic servant, of 24 Polwarth Street. It would seem therefore that in the years immediately following the marriage, Thomas and Isabella lived with her widowed mother, Isabella Yeudall. Isabella appears on her marriage certificate as 'Isabella Stirling Paton'.

This middle name was regarded for a number of years as both mysterious and questionable. However, she is known to have used it on several other occasions, such as on the birth and death certificates of her daughter Isabella in 1925, and the birth certificate of her son Matthew in 1926. On her birth certificate, she was designated simply as Isabella Paton. Nor was any middle name entered for her on the birth certificate of her son Robert Cunningham. Isabella's daughter, Mary Reid Cunningham Wilson recalled an occasion on which she asserted that her middle name was Yeudall. Yeudall was given as her middle name on the occasion of the marriage of her son Matthew. However, it should be recalled in this connection that an aunt by marriage, the first wife of her uncle Alexander Haddow Paton, was Isabella Stirling (c. 1850 - 1905) and this almost certainly provides the true explanation for the middle name which she is known to have used at least on occasion.

The Stirlings were a famous Galston family. The Rev. Robert Stirling was the parish minister from 1824 until 1878. His sons James and Patrick were both chief locomotive engineers of the Great Northern Railway, and designed steam railway engines. Two other sons, Robert and William, were engineers in Peru. Since Isabella Stirling was born in Bonnybridge, Stirlingshire, it is far from established that she had any connection to this family.

The present Robert Cunningham recalls that his mother was always referred to by her sister Jean as Bella, but that to his father's sisters she was Belle.

A few months prior to the Cunningham family's departure for Girvan from Troon, Isabella Cunningham, then resident at 6, Donald Crescent, took out juvenile policies dated the 5th of February 1934 with the Scottish Legal Life Assurance Society in favour of her two youngest children, twins Thomas and Mary. Each was entered as being five years of age. The weekly premium in each case was one penny, and it was further provided that:

'On attaining age 10, the Assured is transferred to Table 2 with Sum Assured £15.'

Isabella Paton Cunningham with granddaughter Isabel Wilson, c. 1955

Isabella Paton died at her daughter Mary's home in Ardrossan on the 1st of August 1964. The family had removed there in June and she went to stay with the family of her son Robert Cunningham for a brief period while the removals were in progress. She then went to Ardrossan, where she passed the final few weeks of her life. Although only 71, she was afflicted with a number of serious health problems, including arthritis. She was on a wide variety of medications. The effective cause of death therefore was old age.

Brothers and Sisters

Isabella Paton was the youngest of the seven children of the family to whom a year of birth can be ascribed. The others were Thomas, born 1877; Abram, born 1879; Matthew, born c. 1881; William, born 1884; Jean, born 1888; and Lilias, born 1890.

It is understood that two further children, Alexander and Mary, died in infancy. A statement to this effect appears on the family gravestone in Galston Cemetery. The relevant dates have not yet been established. There is no mention of either of them lving with the family in any of the census records. The 1911 census recorded that there had been a total of nine children in the family, of whom six were still living. The tree who had died were Alexander, Mary and Matthew, who died in 1896.

It may be noted Thomas, Abram and Matthew all died under particularly circumstances.