An Edinburgh detective
John Drake moved from one side of Scotland to the other when he changed career
A short piece today about a Scottish private detective who I am unable to find much information about. If anyone can add more light as to his detective cases, do get in touch!
19th century view of Edinburgh from Corstorphine (public domain)
The man in question is John Drake. Originally from Corstorphine, Edinburgh, he was born in 1858 to Francis and Ann Drake. Francis was a butler from Stirlingshire; Ann was from Haddingtonshire. They had several children, born between 1850 and 1868. In 1871, the family was living in Corstorphine, where the eldest two children - Henry and Francis - were working. By 1881, Francis Drake seems to have died, and Ann was living with her younger children; daughters Mary and Bella were running a shop, while 15-year-old Robert Drake was working as a message boy.
By this point, John was an adult - and, in fact, he had got married. He had joined the police, and had moved to Govan, now part of Glasgow. He and his wife Catherine were living at 291 South Wellington Street with their two daughters - Ann and Agnes - and a colleague of John’s named Walter Thomson.
It seems that John Drake had a steady life at this point, in 1881, with a stable job and family life. However, by 1891, he had moved again and changed job. He and Catherine, together with daughter Agnes (Ann may have died young), were living back on the east coast, in Edinburgh, and John had left the police and started work as a private detective.
His life was not that long. In 1901, John Drake died in Edinburgh. His parents also seem to have died, leaving his siblings to band together. The census records his sister Mary living at Leith Street with sister Bella and brother Robert. Also living at the house was John’s daughter Agnes, now 20 years old and working as a labeller at a coffee works. I believe that Agnes’s mother - John’s widow - was in hospital at this point.
These are the bare bones of John’s life. His was a fairly common career trajectory, working for the police and then moving into private detective work, although he was still quite young when he changed job - it was more common for individuals to wait until they received their police pension before setting up as private eyes. However, it may be that John had to leave the Glasgow City Police because he wanted to return to Edinburgh and his siblings - and chose that opportunity to change careers.