I am grateful to Fiona Ross of the Carse of Gowrie Sustainability Group for sending me this image of a letter typed by David Nicoll of the Parish Council Office, Errol in the Carse of Gowrie. Matthew is buried in Errol churchyard. The letter was found by Liz Roberston, after finding it in family papers. The letter is dated 1925, to a Mr Lang of St Andrews. This letter is also on the Patrick Matthew Website Here
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Trying to get to bottom of it Hugh. Calman, from his interview with Matthew's daughter has 1857. I've asked Peter Symon @petersymon who discovered Matthew's grave to help. If date was 1859 it suggests Matthew was in greater state of grief when he had to fight for his priority. pic.twitter.com/Au3om24sPa
— Dr Mike Sutton (@Criminotweet) May 10, 2021
So we now know Calman was wrong to write that Matthew's wife died in 1856. In fact she died in 1859, the very year in which Darwin's Origin of Species was published and stole his (1831) prior published theory.
Calman (1912) had it wrong - from his interview with one of Matthew's surviving daughters Euphemia Matthew.
Given that David Nicoll's first account corresponds accurately with the burial records I think we should favour his first hand account that Matthew's wife's name was Agnes over Calman's second-hand interview transcription account that he name was Christian.
Reference
Calman, W. T. (1912a) Patrick Matthew of Gourdiehill,
Naturalist. British Association, Dundee Meeting, 1912. Handbook. David Winter
and Son. Dundee. pp. 451-457.
They tried to bury him in oblivion - like fact denial sucking vampires - Darwin and his mad familiars doing his plagiarizing science fraudster lying bidding from the grave. But facts have a habit of always burrowing to the top: https://t.co/HFOMu4u85Y pic.twitter.com/nQm3AWSKwC
— Dr Mike Sutton (@Criminotweet) May 10, 2021
