Career
Five years later, in Chelsea, west London, the couple became next-door neighbours of Thomas Carlyle and Jane Welsh Carlyle, both of them notable writers. The Gilchrists" marriage, one of intellectual equals, was cut short when Alexander died of scarlet fever in 1861. She and Alexander had four children: Percy, Beatrice, Herbert, and Grace.
One of the reasons for the family"s move to Philadelphia in 1876 was Beatrice"s desire to attend medical school.
Beatrice eventually became a physician in Edinburgh, but she killed herself shortly thereafter. Percy had a successful career in the mining industry, and Herbert was a minor painter.