The Bargain Store, Mission, BC

Store entrance with pet crates featured in the window

There are very few real second-hand stores left. I mean the old-style owner-run second-hand stores that used to be in nearly every community.  Stores run by the original recyclers, long before second-hand shopping became trendy & chic. And long before the large corporate “thrift” stores came into play, trying to gentrify the business and dominate the market.

Luckily though, one such store still remains. By far the best one I have found in many years is the Bargain Store, located in Mission, BC. It is owned and operated by Heather McCormick who has run the shop for 31 years and unfailingly manages to have the most incredible selection of goods on offer at any given time.

Heather buys and sells. Pretty much everything in the store is something she has bought for re-sale. Yet her prices continue to remain more reasonable than many stores that actually get their goods by donation. The Bargain Store is not in a shopping mall! It’s in the same place it’s always been, down on Railway Avenue - a location that has worked well for Heather and her customers for 31 years.

To me, it’s what second-hand shopping is supposed to be.  Thanks to Heather’s great eye, there is always a good collection of antiques and vintage as well as an unending selection of furniture and overall useful items. The Bargain Store is also well known for having the best selection of pet crates in the Lower Mainland.

So kudos to Heather (who just turned 80 in 2018) for all her hard work in keeping this truly authentic and wonderful second-hand store running for all these years! Your customers appreciate you more than you know!

(Update: In the spring of 2019, Heather retired from the store, passing on the name and location to new owners. As one of my friends said, "Eighty-one is probably not too soon to retire". Nevertheless, we miss you Heather!)

Heather (center) with two of her customers

Heather's famous old van

More Roberton Family History (9)

While looking for the author of The Robertons – A Noted Lanarkshire Family which appears in three previous posts (originally printed in the Hamilton Advertiser on August 7^th, 1943), a librarian at the South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture Center also found another piece on Roberton history, again from the Hamilton Advertiser, but published in July 1874. Entitled Earnock and its Early Proprietors, it is another lengthy writing that I will present in a number of postings.

Earnock and its Early Proprietors (continued)

(from the Hamilton Advertiser, July 1874)

The Robertouns (cont.)

According to Lodge, “This lady is the youngest daughter of the late Sir Francis Burdett, Baronet of Foremark, Co. Derby, and Ramsbury, Wilts (many years M.P. for Westminster), who was born 25^th January, 1770, and died 23 January, 1884, having married 5^th August, 1799, Sophia, youngest daughter of the late Thomas Coutts, Esq., banker, of London. She was born 25^th April, 1814; assumed by royal license the additional surname and arms of Coutts, under the will of her grandfather’s widow, Harriet, in 1837; and was created Baroness Burdett-Coutts of Highgate and Brookfield, Middlesex, in 1871.”

But to return from this digression.  John Gray of Auchingraymount married Jean Robertoun, second daughter of Lord Bedlay.  This John was probably a son of Professor Rae, who married on of the daughters of Archibald of Stonehall.  Their daughter, Mary Rae, was married to Robert Hamilton of Fairholm, “wrytar and Town-Clerk of Hamilton, and wrytar to His Grace the Duke of Hamilton.

Another cadet of the family was John Robertoun, Sheriff-Clerk of Lanarkshire, and brother of Bartholomew, laird of Earnock.  He married Elizabeth, daughter of John Hamilton of Fairholm, and their eldest daughter, Margaret, married 5^th September, 1706, her cousin, John Hamilton of Fairholm, writer in Hamilton, and bailie of the regality and dukedom of Hamilton.  Another daughter, Elizabeth, was married to William Cullen of Sauchs, and was mother of the celebrated physician Dr. William Cullen, as is shown by the following extract from “The Register of Births and Baptisms of the Parish of Hamilton”: - “William Cullen of Sauchs, writer and Town-Clerk of Hamilton, and Elizabeth Robertoun, his lawful married wife, had their second son brought forth on Saturday morning, about 6 of the clock, 5^th of April, 1710, and baptised William on Tuesday forenoon, the 2^nd of May, 1710, in the Kirk of Hamilton, by Mr. Alexander Findlator, collegiate minister of Hamilton.  The witness, John Robertoun, Sheriff-Clerk, and John Hamilton of Fairhom.”

Another branch of the family, engaged in mercantile pursuits in Glasgow, retained that part of the estate called Kennedies up to a recent period, when it was sold to the present proprietor, Mr. John Dunn.

This ancient and honourable family is now extinct in the district. “Their memory and their name is gone.” Still, for the antiquary and the genealogist there is a melancholy pleasure in tracing their pedigree, and musing over the changes which the vicissitudes of time and the reverses of fortune have brought about in connection with their history.

This concludes the 1874 writing.  Although lengthy and written in an old and somewhat cumbersome style that can be difficult to follow, I feel it is well worth posting to for the benefit of other Robertons who are interested in their family history.