William and James Baird were the eldest and fourth of the eight sons (and two daughters) of Alexander Baird and Jean Moffat, from the Monklands area of Lanarkshire. The family moved from farming to coal mining and iron smelting, with the first Gartsherrie furnace opening on 4 May 1830.
William Baird took over the business after his father's death in 1833, and served as MP (Conservative) for the Falkirk Burghs 1841-46. He was a director of the Caledonian Railway Company and the Forth and Clyde Canal. He married Janet Johnston in 1840, and bought the Elie estate in 1853.
James Baird was MP (Conservative) for the Falkirk Burghs 1850-57. He was a Deputy-Lieutenant of Ayr and Inverness, and bought the Knoydart estate in 1857. He was twice married: in 1852 to Charlotte Lockhart and in 1859 to Isabella Agnew. There were no children. James Baird died at Cambusdoon.
WILLIAM and JAMES BAIRD were perhaps the most remarkable members of a remarkable family - the Bairds of Gartsherrie. They were not proprietors of the estate of that name, which belongs to Mr. Hamilton Colt. All the property which they possess there is the ground on which their great ironworks are erected.
Their father was also a remarkable man, and their mother - nee Jean Moffat - was a fine specimen of that higher type of the old Scotch matron which is so seldom met with now. Mr. James Baird used to say that the success which her sons achieved was in a great measure, owing to her precepts and good example. He thus wrote of her in 1874:- "She was married in comparative poverty while her husband was sub-tenant of the small, and not very productive, farm of Woodhead. By her sagacity and indomitable energy she contributed largely to her husband's prosperity, and to form in her children those habits of diligence and integrity by which they became distinguished. When they were old enough to go to school, she always found time, among the many and onerous duties of the farm, to assist them at their lessons, and she was careful in imparting to them the best religious instruction. The children were all early instructed in farm labour, and all of them, as they grew up, had a task assigned to them commensurate with their strength; but nothing, however pressing, was allowed to interrupt their lessons or interfere with their school hours. Thus was her family imbued with the best principles, and trained to the practice of industry and economy; and the lessons then acquired they never forgot. She survived her husband eighteen years, and lived to see the prosperity of all her sons. She died at the age of 83. Pride was unknown to her, and she never was heard to allude to the riches or success of her family."
For the rest of the story of James Baird, see that of his brother William Baird.
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