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Pencil sketch.

Pencil sketch.

In Cruden churchyard there is a memorial stone with the inscription -

Sacred to the memory of
George Sangster,
Who died at Greenhill Cruden
Sept 3rd 1897 aged 61 years.

And of his wife
Catherine Daniel
Who died there March 27th 1900
 aged 57 years.

And their children
James aged 10 years
Patrick John Murdoch
Aged 2 1/2 years
David born 31st Oct 1877
who died somewhere
in France Sept 1917
Greater love hath no man than this.

Alexander
Who died Aug 23rd 1947
aged 79 years.
    
Patrick John Murdoch was named after the U.F. minister of that name, who subsequently (1877) emigrated to Australia to become Rupert Murdoch's grandfather. David was also a name given to the sibling who was born at Midtown.

TMH May 2004.


The Aberdeen Press & Journal of 10th November 2009 contains an article by Donna Ross about Longhaven House, which was then for sale at offers over £625,000.
In addition to particulars of the house, the article offers the following -

"The property was built in about 1860 by the Rev George Brown on his retirement from the church.
He was the Free Church minister at Cruden Bay from 1846 until 1857 and thereafter minister of St Paul's Free Church in Edinburgh.
The estate of Longhaven had previously been in the possession of The Earls of Erroll and was originally known as Tillymaud. The property was left to Rev Brown's wife, Anne, by her father, James Shepherd of Aldie. The Browns' daughter, Annie, married another Free Church minister, Patrick Murdoch, who was instrumental in building a new Free Church in Cruden. In 1884, he accepted a call to Melbourne, Australia.
His son, the journalist Sir Keith Murdoch, was the father of Rupert Murdoch, the newspaper tycoon, who visited Longhaven House as a child.
The home near Melbourne of Rupert Murdoch's mother, Dame Elizabeth, is called Cruden Farm in tribute to the Murdochs' Aberdeenshire ancestry."

To
The memory
of
George Sangster
Who died at Greenhill, Cruden
Sept 3rd 1897 aged 61
And of his wife
Catherine Daniel
Who died there March 27th 1900
Aged 57 years
And their children
James aged 10 years
Patrick John Murdoch
Aged 2 1/2 years
David, born 31st October 1877
Who died somewhere
in France 1917
Greater love hath no man than this
Alexander
Who died August 23rd 1947
Aged 70 years.

Photographer: C Auld.  Ellon.