The Kirk Session record at Kemnay for 18th December 1859 states that Charles Leys was paid 15/6 (77p) for partitioning (moveably) the square apportioned for sittings to the Schoolmaster and Choir respectively.
He also received 7/6 (37p) for a collection stand and 5/6 (27p) for window rollers and repairs on the couples of the church. At the same time Messrs Allan & Sons received 12/2 (61p) for cloth for window blinds, cord, pulleys &c. It was recorded on 17th June of the following year that
'the church window blinds having been miscut and misfitted by a local carpenter so as to be quite unserviceable were now repaired and fitted properly with new rollers etc by Allan and Sons Aberdeen at an expense in all of £1 and a penny."
It was also recorded on 10th September 1871 that one Rodger, was appointed precentor in room of Charles Leys – retired.
From some of his work left behind, Charles Leys was not in the top stream of craftsmen, but, I suppose, like many others, he got by. He was a bachelor and during the 1880s his sister Ann returned home to keep house for him. A room was built on to the back of the house for her accommodation and, granted, it was to a far higher specification than the rest of the dwelling. But, there's aye a something. Whoever laid out the building originally did not take a wider view of the area. It was not laid out parallel to any of the boundaries, nor yet was it even squared within itself. So much so that when the back room was added, the rear wall was built parallel with the kirkyard dyke resulting in a difference of three inches or so in width from one end of the room to the other.
Brother and sister grew old together and Ann died on 5th March 1898 at the age of 81. Charles' health was so poor that he was unable to make his sister's coffin, he himself dying on 17th March aged 70 years. Thus came to an end a family connection lasting for almost a hundred years.
The business was taken on by James Downie who, for the previous seven years or so had been managing the business of Shepherd's at Millbank Cluny. A single man, his sister kept house for him until he married the forester's daughter from Cluny in 1901.
Bob Melvin says of him:
Ye wad see Jimmy awa on his bike wi' the stretchin boord strappit on his back and we'd be winnerin' tae oorsels, 'Fa's deed noo?' Ye wad hear Jimmy sawin an hammerin awa at aa oor, day an nicht. He was a great worker an he took on ower mony jobs and wis a grand hand, bit ye aye hid as hard a job getting' an accoont oot o him. Ye wad hae tae corner him in his shop, syne he wad rake oot this bittie o paper, and bittie o boord wi writin on them, and mak oot a figure for ye. I'm sure he let a lot o siller slip thru his fingers wi that wey o bookkeeping.