Her majesty Esther Faa Blythe, last queen of the gypsies and my 4x great grandmother. Last of the royal Faas, Esther had a pleasing aspect and an olive complexion. She was an intelligent woman with a very shrewd nature, but a fiery temper which could almost be an identical description of my grandmother Rebecca also known by her nickname Daisy. Like many gypsy women, Esther was addicted to tobacco and smoked a clay pipe.
She was daughter of the King Charles Blythe, she was raised to study the bible but wasn’t a very strong reader like her Dad. She married John Rutherford in Coldstream, Berwickshire, he was known as Jethard Jock and was a local mason and plasterer. They had 12 children.
She was keen horse rider and lived a typical traveller lifetsyle selling crockery to locals until her coronation. She lived at Gypsy palace with her cat, the palace was a whitewash thatched cottage with her cat.
Line of descent from King Charles
- King Charles Blythe (1774-1861) married Esther Faa of Roxburgh.
- Esther Faa Blythe (1797-1883) married John Rutherford of Roxburgh.
- John Rutherford (1842-1904) married Mabel Renwick. of Berwickshire.
- Jane Rutherford (1867-1940) had illegitemate child with James Rutherford of Berwickshire.
- Dora Rutherford (1897-1972) married James Howden of Haddington.
- Rebecca Charlotte Thorburn Marr Howden (1923-2014) married my maternal grandfather Jack G. Hannah. (1923-1979).