Family and Crisis

Family & Crisis: Mauricewood and Ministry

Between 1887 and 1891, Sam's ministry at Penicuik was shaped by pastoral responsibility, family life, and the Mauricewood mining disaster.

A New Minister in Penicuik

Despite their new life at Penicuik, the couple maintained connections to family at Castle Douglas. When their first child Maisie Rutherford Crockett, was born on 10 August 1888, they visited CD.  On 23 August, Crockett wrote to Furniss, the illustrator for Punch magazine, from Castle Douglas, mentioning his 'three month old' daughter. She was actually three weeks old—another typical Crockett date error.

 Mauricewood: A Community in Grief

Sam's early ministry brought him into close contact with working-class life. His sermons and visits revealed the realities of industrial labour.

The 1889 Mauricewood pit disaster claimed sixty-three lives. An explosion and underground fire killed sixty-three of the seventy men working below ground. The fire took four days to extinguish. Bodies of the victims were not fully recovered until March 1890.

Sam supported families through funerals and vigils. The Annals of Penicuik by John James Wilson (1891) recorded his role: 'Temporary relief and tender help had been rendered to the distressed widows and children in Shottstown by the Fieldsend Mission workers, organised by the Rev. S. R. Crockett, of the Free Church.'

Crockett worked alongside county gentlemen and fellow clergy to coordinate relief efforts. The public subscription raised approximately £20,000 for the widows and orphans. In March 1890, he wrote to Robert Louis Stevenson about the disaster, revealing its emotional impact.

The tragedy left a deep impression and shaped his understanding of suffering. He drew on these memories in 'In the Matter of Incubus' (1894), 'The Respect of Drowdle' (1901), and the novel Vida (1907). All attest to the significance this event had in Crockett's life.

Family Life & Personal Strain

In 1891, the Crocketts' second child Philip Hugh Barbour Milner was born. Maisie by this time was known as 'Sweetheart'. Sam and Ruth's family grew, even as both struggled with recurring illness. The demands of ministry and the emotional weight of Mauricewood probably created a period of strain.