Born on 14 August 1813 to a long-established Kilmun family, Clark studied medicine in Glasgow and Edinburgh. He qualified in 1835, but abruptly changed profession at the age of 26 and went into trade, becoming a partner in the firm of James Finlay & Co at the start of 1847.
He also (in 1849) became a partner in Wilson, Kay & Co, and the two firms amalgamated as James Finlay & Co on 1 January 1858. Expansion followed, with branches opening in London, Liverpool and Bombay. Clark retired early, at the end of 1867, never having recovered from the death of his second wife, Agnes Barclay, in 1863.
Following a tour of Australia, he was briefly able to resume business, forming the firm of Clark, Wilson & Co, with branches in Calcutta and Madras. His health soon broke, however, and he died at Crossbasket on 6 September 1876.
JAMES CLARK, of Crossbasket, was the son of Robert Clark, of Inverchapple, near Kilmun, and Margaret Currie, his wife.
The farm of Inverchapple has been rented by the Clarks, from father to son, for over 350 years. Laird has followed laird; one family has replaced another in the ownership; but there, at Inverchapple, are the Clarks. And until well on in this century this fixity of tenure has rested on nothing more than a verbal understanding. We look down with good-humoured contempt on our forebears, with their oatmeal and their homespun, and are pleased to have replaced the tumble-down old clachans by spick and span colonies of villas; but to get back some of the steadiness and simplicity of old days, we might well give some of the plate-glass and flower borders and velvet lawns. These will not much help us to put out the burning social questions that threaten a general conflagration.
Robert Clark grew to be a big farmer for those days, and, besides Inverchapple, held Coylett and Garrachra adjoining. Inverchapple is now held by his son, Archibald Clark.
James Clark was born at Blairmore on 14th August, 1813. After a sound early education he went to college, first in Glasgow and then in Edinburgh, studied medicine, and in 1835 took his degree as M.D. But he never practised; he could not bear the constant dealing with physical pain; and when twenty-six he took the bold step of throwing up his profession, and seeking an opening in trade.
He was fortunate in the opening he found. Through his uncle, Archibald Clark of Achafoor, he knew Kirkman Finlay of Castle Toward, then head of the famous old firm of James Finlay & Co. Kirkman had been taken with the young man, and now asked him to come and see him with a view to an engagement. Clark somewhat reluctantly agreed to go, and after a brief interview was then and there engaged. He used to say he owed his engagement (like many an applicant) to good handwriting. But he owed it also to a taste of his quality that he gave during the ordeal. Kirkman Finlay, after a question or two, set him to write an imaginary business letter, and handed him a sharp-pointed steel pen, such as he himself used. Now, a big man was bigger in those days than in ours, and Kirkman Finlay was a very big man, towering above his fellows like some tall Ammiral; and most applicants would have quaked before him. But Clark did not like sharp-pointed steel pens; he asked for a quill and leisurely mended this before sitting down to write. Kirkman was taken with the young man's self-possession, and after glancing at his letter, with a curt "You'll do," engaged him.
It was well he did. Kirkman Finlay was verging on old age, and James Finlay & Co., like many another old firm, was languishing for want of young blood. They had been great merchants and great manufacturers, but the merchandizing had almost died out, and the famous works of Deanston and Catrine, if working as briskly as ever, were working to little profit. Clark was able to put both departments right. He had industry and energy, not very rare qualities in Scotland, and he had a much rarer gift in the mercantile faculty, as much a specialty as the poetic.
He was sent to the works, Catrine first, and then Deanston. He found them both full of old machinery, grinding vigorously away at goods for India which had long ceased to pay. He was not long in seeing what changes were needed, and in getting leave from the firm to make them. He was not himself a practical mechanic, but he found at Catrine a skilled engineer, Robert Barclay (afterwards his partner and brother-in-law), and with his help he gradually filled the old works with the best new machinery. This was turned entirely on to goods for the home market. By the excellence and regularity of the make and the finish,(1) Finlay's cottons acquired a name they still retain; they could be sold always and at a good price; and the manufacturing branch of the old firm throve as it had never thriven before.
Mr. Clark next took the mercantile branch in hand. He had become on 1st January, 1847, a partner in James Finlay & Co., of which the then partners were James Buchanan of Woodlands, John Finlay of Deanston, and Archibald Buchanan now of Curriehill. With their consent he became a partner on 1st January, 1849, in the firm of Wilson, Kay & Co., of which the then partners were John Wilson now of Aucheneck, and Alexander Kay now of Cornhill. Wilson, Kay & Co. (originally Wilson, James, & Kay) had begun as yarn and goods agents, and their office had been in Glassford Street, in the heart of the cotton trade when the cotton trade was our leading industry. To a large business in their original line they had added the agency for Gladstone, Wyllie & Co., of Calcutta, and Frith, Sands & Co., of Bombay, and other foreign connections, and in 1844 they had migrated to Royal Exchange Court. Under Mr. Clark's arrangements they now moved to James Finlay & Co.'s office in Dundas Street. They were to be agents for the sale of the Finlays' goods and the two firms were to work into each other's hands. The relations naturally grew closer, and on 1st January, 1858, the two firms were amalgamated as James Finlay & Co., the name of Wilson, Kay & Co. disappearing. Under the new regime the old firm regained its old vigour, houses were opened in London and Liverpool, and as Finlay, Clark & Co. in Bombay: other foreign connections were formed or renewed: and James Finlay & Co. grew to be greater merchants than they had ever been; greater, and what is more to the purpose, more prosperous. In such matters the public are generally left to guess; even bankers, it is whispered, are sometimes at sea; but in this case the figures came out. A partnership dispute ended a few years ago in a lawsuit, and it was there given in evidence that in twenty years James Finlay & Co. had netted £1,000,000. Of course this was not all Mr. Clark's doing; other able men did their part; he was not even a partner to the end of the twenty years; but he had done more than his share, more than enough to justify old Kirkman's "You'll do."
James Clark retired from business while still in the prime of life. His wife died in 1863, and he never recovered the blow. He had been constantly in and out of business circles, and men had been used to refer business disputes and difficulties to him; for they knew his honesty, his experience, and his broad, fair-minded way of looking at things. He had liked society, and society had liked him; for he was full of life and information, of unfailing courtesy and good humour.(2)
But now his familiar figure, his tall form and massy head disappeared from 'Change, and only a few old or attached friends sometimes saw him. On 31st December, 1867, he retired from James Finlay & Co. A long tour in Australia gave him back something of his old tone, and in 1872 he partially resumed business. With his old partner, John Wilson (who had retired from James Finlay & Co. at the end of 1864), he formed the existing firm of Clark, Wilson & Co., with branches in Calcutta and Madras. But his health and spirits again broke, and he shut himself up at Crossbasket.(3) He died there on 6th September, 1876.
He had been twice married. In 1836 he married Margaret Kerr (daughter of John Kerr, merchant in Greenock), who died in child-bed in 1837, leaving a son, John Kerr Clark, now of Crossbasket, and an extensive sheep-owner in New South Wales. In 1846 he married Agnes Barclay (daughter of John Barclay, of Catrine), who died in 1863, leaving three surviving sons, Robert, James Buchanan (both dead), and Walter (merchant in Glasgow); and four daughters, of whom Agnes married John Henderson, barrister-at-law; Margaret married his brother, Robert Henderson (late of MacLaine, Watson & Co., of Java); Alice married John McKie Lees, advocate, one of the Sheriffs of Lanarkshire; and Mary married M. Pearce Campbell, of J. & W. Campbell & Co.
The firm of James Finlay & Co. deserves a separate notice. Firms that have long passed away may have done more to nurse our infant trade: firms of our own day may have been bigger or richer: but by the length of its services, by the amount and the variety of them, James Finlay & Co. has done as much for Glasgow as any on the long roll.
James Finlay & Co. is one of the very few firms to be found in every Glasgow Directory, from Tait's thin 12mo of 1783 to the bulky 8vo of to-day. But it was a flourishing firm years before 1783, and it probably dates back to George II.(4)
Its founder was James Finlay, born 1727, fourth son of John Finlay of the Moss, Killearn. These Finlays of the Moss came of a Walter Finlay who, in the sixteenth century, found his way from the Ness to the Blane, and became tacksman of Spittal-Killearn. His descendants became tacksmen of the Moss, and finally, in 1751, owners of it by feu from their cousin, George Buchanan of Auchintoshan.
James Finlay was an able and energetic man of business, ahead of his day in his ideas, a public-spirited citizen, and an enthusiastic Celt. Glasgow went wild over the American War (which struck at its great Virginian trade), and James Finlay, though not directly interested, caught the fever. A Glasgow regiment was to be raised to fight the rebels, money was quickly subscribed, and men were wanted.
At noon on Monday, 26th January, 1778, amid the ringing of the Tolbooth chimes and the church bells, a procession formed at the Town Hall, and marched through the town to beat up for recruits. The Town's Halberts led the way, Provost Donald followed, and the Town Council, and the Deacon-Convener, and the fourteen Deacons, and other dignitaries, and the colours of the regiment, and "a great number of gentlemen with cocades in their hats." The musical stimulus was supplied by "two young gentlemen playing on fifes, two young gentlemen beating drums, and a gentleman playing on the bagpipes." The piper was James Finlay. Orpheus could not have piped better: the recruits poured in, and the regiment was made up: but somehow the rebels were not put down.(5)
James Finlay died about 1792, leaving to his son Kirkman (6) a share of his modest fortune and a double share of his perfervidum ingenium. Kirkman Finlay's pranks at the Grammar School were the torment of his unhappy master, old John Dow: James Buchanan, with whom he served his time in the Stockwell, pronounced him a "laddie who wad mak' a spoon or spoil a horn:" and those who knew him before the fire in him had begun to flicker have declared with one voice that he stood head and shoulders above the crowd; not in wealth - Kirkman cared more for the game than for the stakes, and he was freehanded in his giving and in his living - but in mercantile genius, and in force and grace of character.
Quick-sighted and prompt, bold and ingenious in his plans, full of resource in difficulties,(7) not carried by success, not cast down by failure, a generous master, a fair opponent, and his word as good as his bond: this, as his portrait has come down to us, he was as a man of business. But business did not bound his interests. By a mysterious process (of which some of our busiest men happily still have the secret) he found time for much public and charitable work: he was well read, especially in history: he was an authority even in the House of Commons, on trade and finance: he was fond of the town with its lively interests, and of the country with its quieter pleasures: a delightful companion with his friends: frank and kindly with every one: in spite of honours many, a simple, straightforward gentleman. The list of these honours best shows what they thought of him in his own day: there is nothing like it in our annals. They made him Commandant of a crack corps of Sharp-Shooters, Governor of the Forth and Clyde Navigation, President of the Chamber of Commerce, Lord Provost, Member of Parliament.(8) When the town was played out, the University took up the game, and made him Dean of Faculties and Lord Rector.(9) And when he was dead, they hung his portrait in the best place in the Merchants' Hall, and they set up his statue to flee us as we enter the Merchants' House.(10)
It stands in the Comitium, Plain for all folks to see.
But the fashion of these things passeth away, and, as we troop past, few of us care even to know that this is Kirkman Finlay, one on the short leet of the makers of Glasgow.
James Finlay & Co. have been throughout both manufacturers and merchants; we are debtors to Kirkman Finlay in each capacity.
The cotton trade used to be our leading industry. He was among those that made it so, and his works are among those that still flourish. James Finlay had been one of those who welcomed Arkwright on that visit to Glasgow in 1783, out of which and David Dale grew the Lanark Mills; but he left it to his son to turn the new inventions to account. Kirkman, when quite a young man, threw himself into the cotton trade in connection with the Buchanans of Carston, who were among the few people here who then knew anything about it.(11)
There were seven brothers of these Buchanans, of whom at least five left their mark on the trade. These were John Buchanan of Carston, who appears by himself in Jones' Directory for 1789 as "merchant, counting-room, Oswald's Closs, Stockwell"; J(ohn), W(alter), & J(ames) Buchanan, co-partners, who appear as "English merchants and dealers in cotton twist, wareroom, Oswald's Closs, east side, Stockwell"; George Buchanan, afterwards of Woodlands, who appears as "merchant and dealer in cotton twist, wareroom, Stockwell, Oswald's Closs"; and Archibald Buchanan, afterwards of Catrine. John Buchanan, the eldest brother, was a friend of Arkwright's, and was his first agent in Scotland. Archibald, his youngest brother, he sent as an apprentice to Arkwright's famous works at Cromford. Arkwright favoured the lad, taught him his trade, and even had him to live with him. Thus brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, Archibald Buchanan took home an exceptional knowledge of the trade, which his brothers and he soon turned to account.
In those days it was Scotland, with its wealth of water-power, that bade fair to be the home of the cotton trade. It would be well if it had so turned out. The factory folk would have been healthier, happier, better, for being scattered along our rushing streams instead of being huddled by the fatal genius of Watt on the top of the coal measures; fortunes would have been smaller and wages lower, but money would have gone farther; master and man would have known each other better and been the better friends for it, and we should have had less of that severance of classes which threatens our industry and our whole social fabric. Among the earliest of our streams that were turned to account for cotton mills were the Teith, the Endrick, and the Ayr. The Buchanans had to do with all three. In 1785 they set down on the Teith a little factory which has grown into the famous Deanston Works. In 1789 they sold this factory to a good Yorkshire Quaker, Benjamin Flounders, and moved to a mill on the water of Endrick, the nucleus of the Ballindalloch Cotton Works. In 1786 Claud Alexander and the ubiquitous David Dale set down on the Ayr a small spinning mill, out of which have grown the great spinning, weaving, and bleaching works of Catrine. These three works Kirkman Finlay bought, one after another: Ballindalloch in 1798 (he was twenty-six then), from the Buchanans; Catrine in 1801, from Ballochmyle and David Dale; and Deanston in 1808, from Friend Flounders. In conjunction with the Buchanans, and with Glasgow as the headquarters of the whole, he carried them all on to the day of his death with varying success, but with unvarying spirit, and with such care for good, honest work as gave a good name to Glasgow cottons.(12)
But it is, after all, as a merchant that we owe him most. He was a born merchant, with the eye to see the profit and the nerve to face the risk; and if sometimes he was too careless of the risk for his own profit, others reaped where he had sown. He opened up new markets for us, he showed us novel combinations and ventures on a scale we had not been used to, and he spread the infection of his own eager spirit. His favourite field was India, and if Glasgow has more than her share of the great trade to the East, she may thank Kirkman Finlay for it. He had been one of the keenest and ablest opponents of "John Company's" monopoly, and as soon as the door was thrown open, he pushed in and led the way for others.(13)
His mercantile duel with Buonaparte gave him even a rarer chance to show the stuff he was made of. The great Condottiere had found our fortress impregnable - the moat baffled him - but the garrison might surely be starved out; and he issued his Berlin Decrees. Kirkman Finlay rejoined by organizing a complete system of running the Continental blockade, with depots at Heligoland and elsewhere outside the lines, and underground agencies inside. It was a risky game, the stakes were high, and he had a strong and unscrupulous player against him; but he played for both patriotism and profit, and he scored both honours and tricks.(14)
Latterly we lost him. With the common yird hunger of the prosperous Scot, he had, by successive purchases, built up the fine estate of Castle Toward, on the sunny slopes where Cowal rounds into the Kyles. There he had set himself with his usual energy to building, draining, fencing, road-making, planting - planting acres by the thousand and trees by the million. Latterly he lived entirely there; he had given up his Glasgow house, and his old place knew him no more. It was an early example of a custom now too common. We can well understand the temptation to escape from the smoke and the din, and the weary, weary grind,
And crown, amid one's rocks and trees, A life of labour with an age of case.
But the citizen who, just because he has made the means, leaves the place he owes his means to, surely wrongs us. He withdraws his help and counsel just when, by his experience and his rare command of leisure, he could best serve us, and he helps forward that severance of classes which is the great danger of the time. Our old merchants, when grown rich enough to have their country house, still held on by their town house - when they dropped the labouring oar, still kept touch of the old place.
Kirkman Finlay was born in 1772, in his father's house in the Gallowgate, "consisting of seven rooms, kitchen, and two cellars; stable, hayloft, byre, with a large lead cistern"; he died on 4th March, 1842, at Castle Toward; and he lies in Blackadder's Aisle.(15)
In their long life James Finlay & Co. have had many changes of domicile. In the first Directory of 1783 we find the founder in Bell's Wynd. In the second of 1787 he appears as "James Finlay, merchant and manufacturer, first closs upon the south side, Argyle Street" (i.e., just west of Stockwell-head; the building is still standing). But he would seem to have lived on in his old quarters, for in 1789 he is "James Finlay, merchant and manufacturer, lodgings, Crawford's land, Bell's wynd."
In 1801 James Finlay & Co. are down as in Brunswick Street, but their place (a tall building still standing, and in its day quite an orra warehouse)(16) was not in Brunswick Street proper, but on the south side of Smith's Court, which runs from Brunswick Street to Candleriggs. Then Kirkman Finlay bought the house of James Ritchie of Busby, the Virginia. "Don." This old mansion (depicted in Stuart's views) was on the west side of Queen Street, standing in the old style well back from the building line inside a wide gravelled court. The National Bank and the square round it occupy the site. Kirkman Finlay lived in the mansion as long as he had a house in Glasgow. He had his counting-house in a two-storey block he built forward to the line of the street on the south side of the gravelled court. He had his warehouse and cotton store in a three-storey L-shaped block which stretched back from the counting-house block and overlapped the stables behind the mansion. Afterwards, when he had given up living in Glasgow, he had the mansion for his counting-house, and let the two-storeyed block; Merry & Cuninghame (originally Alison, Merry & Cuninghame) had their office there. In 1841 James Finlay & Co. moved to the block running from 172 Buchanan Street to 31 Dundas Street; one or other part of this block they occupied for the next eleven years. In 1849 (when Wilson, Kay & Co. arrived from Royal Exchange Court), they had their counting-house in Dundas Street, facing the North British Station, in a one-storey building which they had built for themselves, and which has just (1884) been taken down for the Underground Railway. From Dundas Street the two firms migrated together in 1852 to premises they had again built for themselves at 22 West Nile Street. There they were settled side by side until the amalgamation in 1858, and there James Finlay & Co. still are.
The old business still goes on with all the old vigour, but it has passed into new hands. There are now neither Finlays nor Buchanans in it, and the Wilson, Kay & Co. connection came to an end with Mr. Kay's retiral in 1881. John Finlay of Deanston, son to Kirkman, was the last of the Finlays. The Buchanans outlived the Finlays; but they, too, are now gone. Archibald Buchanan of Catrine; his son, Archibald Buchanan now of Curriehill; his nephew, James Buchanan, son to George Buchanan of Woodlands; and his nephew, James Smith of Deanston, have all been partners. When Kirkman Finlay successively annexed Deanston Catrine and Ballindalloch, Archibald Buchanan, who had been manager at Catrine and then at Ballindalloch, returned to his old quarters at Deanston. Eventually he handed over Deanston to his nephew, James Smith, and once more took the helm at Catrine. He bought the adjoining lands of Daldorch and others, and made of them the beautiful residential estate of Catrine Bank. Here he settled for life, with the sweet, fresh country to live in and his own fields to walk on; with work to do, yet with leisure; dwelling among his own people, caring for them, beloved by them - an ideal life! He died in 1841. His son, Archibald Buchanan, retired on 31st December, 1883, and with him the last of the old connections came to an end.
(1) They span and wove at both Deanston and Catrine, but the cloth was all finished (as it still is) at Catrine.
(2) He had read more than most busy men find time or taste for. His specialty was mercantile science, on which he was justly reckoned an authority. He was a leading member of the Chamber of Commerce; and in 1853 the Royal Commission on the Law of Partnership called on him for his views, which, as may be supposed, were against Limited Liability.
(3) This fine property, with its picturesque old house and beautiful grounds, he bought in 1851, before which he had lived in West Regent Street. Crossbasket has belonged to several well-known "Glasgow Men." In the beginning of last century it belonged to Dean of Guild Thomas Peter, founder of Peter's mortification "for the sustentation of ane honest, decayed and poor man of the merchant's rank, being a burgess, guild-brother, and inhabitant of the burgh." Charles Mackintosh, Alexander Downie, and John Cabbell were James Clark's immediate predecessors.
(4) It appears in Tait as "James Finlay," but this is a misprint of Tait's. The existing style of the firm is at least as old as 1778, when "James Finlay & Co." are down for 50 gold guineas in the subscription list for the Glasgow Regiment. As far as we know, only three Glasgow firms of to-day existed 100 years ago in to-day's style. These are J. & R. Tennent of Wellpark, William Stirling & Sons, and James Finlay & Co., and the last two Tait misprints as "William Stirling & Co." and "James Finlay." J. & R. Tennent is thus the only firm that actually appears in the same style in the earliest and in the latest of our Directories. It is also the only firm of the three, and probably the only firm in Glasgow, that in the 100 years has changed neither family nor trade nor location.
(5) There is some confusion about this "Glasgow Regiment." The regiment commonly so known is the "Highland Light Infantry," to give its new name to the old 71st. This famous corps was first regimented in 1778. It was then numbered the 73rd, and was re-numbered the 71st in 1786. It was originally raised by John Lord MacLeod, eldest son of George, third Earl of Cromartie. Father and son had both been out in the '45. The father had been condemned to death with Kilmarnock and Balmerino. His life had been spared, but his estates and honours had been forfeited. The son had been pardoned, and had taken military service with the King of Sweden. He came home in the crisis of the American war, raised a splendid battalion of 1100 men, chiefly on the old family estates, and was rewarded with the colonelcy. A second battalion was very soon added to the first. This second battalion was largely recruited in Glasgow, and a connection formed between Glasgow and the regiment which has been kept up ever since. The Colonel's sister, Lady Margaret Mackenzie, found a Glasgow husband in John Glassford of Dugalston; Glasgow men have never to this day been wanting in the ranks or among the officers; and the corps was named officially the "Glasgow Highland Light Infantry," and popularly the "Glasgow Regiment." Glasgow has never needed to be ashamed of her namesake.
The "Glasgow Regiment" which James Finlay blew up was a different corps altogether, and has long vanished from the army list. It was known as the "Royal Glasgow Volunteers," its regimental number was the 83rd, and it was disbanded in 1783. A "John Finley," who appears among its subalterns, may have been the piper's elder son, afterwards Major, R, E. This 83rd had no connection with the later 83rd or "Dublin Regiment," now the "Royal Irish Rifles."
[In 1784 the forfeited Cromartie estates were restored to Lord MacLeod. They have come down now to his great-grand-niece, the present Duchess of Sutherland, nee Anne Hay-Mackenzie of Cromartie. And the old Cromartie honours have been revived in her person, with remainder to her second son. The Cromartie estates now contain close on 150,000 acres.]
(6) Kirkman Finlay was James Finlay's second son. His elder son, Major John Finlay, R.E., F.R.S., Secretary to the Duke of Richmond, was father to George Finlay of Athens, the historian of Greece, in whom the perfervidum ingenium came out in another form. George Finlay was originally an apprentice with Graham & Mitchell, writers, but he had no taste for the law, and after studying at Gottingen he became an ardent Philhellene, and joined Byron in the attempt to free Greece. He afterwards settled at Athens, and was to the last, in spite of disappointment and disillusion, the firm friend and wise adviser of his adopted country. He died at Athens 26th January, 1876, aged seventy-six. He had married a Greek wife. An only child, a daughter, died before him. "Kirkman" has become naturalized as a Christian name in the allied families of Finlay and Hodgson. James Finlay had a London correspondent, Alderman Kirkman, M.P., and thought so much of him that he called his son Kirkman Finlay. John Hodgson in his turn thought so much of Kirkman Finlay that he called his son (the late M.P. for Bristol) Kirkman Hodgson. John Hodgson was a Newcastle lad, whom Kirkman Finlay had raised to be head of his London house, Finlay, Hodgson & Co.
(7) Here is an instance (as commonly reported, whether accurately or not) of his resourcefulness. After he had sent out to India (of course round the Cape) large orders for cotton, the market fell, and there on to his own hand he expressed a letter overland, which reached India in time to stop the purchases.
(8) His opponent for Parliament, "Old Blythswood," was the Tory manager for the West. Blythswood always had Renfrew in his pocket. He had also Dumbarton. Finlay had Glasgow and Rutherglen: and Glasgow having at this election the casting vote he won. He afterwards sat for Malmesbury. The day of his election here was a great day in Glasgow. Kirkman Finlay was well known and well liked, and had done the town good service: he was a citizen, and no citizen had been M.P. since Neil Buchanan in 1741: he was Provost, and no Provost had been M.P. since Robert Rodger in 1708: and the good folks tint their reason a' thegither. He was franked of all expense. Medals were struck, inscribed "Faith, Honour, Industry, Independence. Finlay: 1812." There were cheering and toasting and clinking of glasses in front of the Town Hall. Finally his constituents seized their member's carriage, and dragged him along Trongate to his house in Queen Street. This was on 30th October, 1812. They paid him a second visit on 7th March, 1815. They found him not at home, and it was well it was so. He had been voting for Prosperity Robinson's Corn Bill. They had met in an angry crowd on the Deanside Brae. Dispersed there by horse-patrol, they reappeared in force in Queen Street, attacked Finlay's house and smashed the windows, pelted the patrol with mud and stones, and were with difficulty stopped at last by the constables, backed by a detachment of the 71st (or Glasgow Regiment) and by two troops of cavalry from Hamilton.
(9) The only citizen Lord Rector before or since, with the doubtful exceptions of John Orr of Barrowfield, George Oswald of Scotstoun, and Henry Glassford of Dugalston, who were rather lairds than citizens.
(10) The portrait is one of Graham Gilbert's best, and gives us the man as he was, dressed as he used to be, in the familiar full black with limp white neckcloth. The statue by Gibson is a little heroic (as statues are wont to be) and it shows him in a toga, a dress which Kirkman never wore, at least in these parts.
(11) The connection was a natural one. Carston marches with the Moss (in which it has now been incorporated); and the two families were Highland cousins to begin with. It was with one of these Buchanans that Kirkman had served his time in the Stockwell. Subsequently he and Archibald Buchanan, the youngest of the Carstons, married sisters, Janet and Hannah Struthers of Greenhead.
(12) James Finlay & Co. still have Catrine and Deanston. They gave up Ballindalloch about 1845. After being run for many years by Robert Jeffrey & Son, Ballindalloch was sold in 1883 to J. M. Dawson of Balfron. It was originally built by an enterprising laird, Robert Dunmore of Ballindalloch and Ballinkinrain. It was in the hands of James and Archibald Buchanan when James Finlay & Co. took it over. It is said to have been the earliest mill in Scotland where the workers were all women.
(13) He freighted the first ship that ever left the Clyde for India, the "Earl of Buckinghamshire," 600 tons, for Bombay direct, in the spring of 1816. In the following year (1817) he sent out the "George Canning," the first ship from the Clyde to Calcutta, and in 1834 (in connection with others) the "Kirkman Finlay," the first ship from the Clyde to China.
(14) The partners of James Finlay & Co. at this time were very numerous: John Gordon of Aikenhead, Archibald Smith of Jordanhill, and other leading citizens were among them. Indeed, Archibald Smith's firm of Leitch & Smith (which itself had at least a dozen partners) was bodily partner in James Finlay & Co. The partners are understood to have had periodical meetings and regular minute books. If these books exist, they ought to be full of valuable information, not elsewhere to be found, as to the trading of the time. This system under which the people were partners in other businesses besides their own, was common in old days. Even Robin Carrick, banker though he was, was in several trading concerns. The system was natural enough in days when a man whose business out-grew his capital had not the financial facilities of our days, and a man whose capital out-grew his own business had not our choice of investment.
(15) Kirkman Finlay had, with five daughters - of whom were Mrs. Thomas Campbell (John Campbell, sen., & Co.), Mrs. Thomas Graham (Mitchell, Graham, & Mitchell), Mrs. Campbell of South Hall - five sons, James, his eldest, and John of Deanston (both of James Finlay & Co.), Thomas, Robert (who died in Ceylon), and Alexander Struthers, the only survivor, now of Castle Toward, formerly of Ritchie, Stewart & Co. of Bombay, and M.P. for Argyllshire. Thomas Finlay was of Finlay & Co. of Liverpool, in which he had, as partner, John Thomson, son of the well-known John Thomson of the Royal Bank, and brother of William Thomson of Balgowan. On Thomas Finlay's death the firm became Thomson, Finlay & Co., and consisted of John Thomson, Kirkman Finlay now of Dunlossit (eldest son of James Finlay, eldest son of Kirkman), and Duncan James Kay. Thomson, Finlay & Co. was merged in Finlay, Hodgson & Co. (Kirkman's old London house), and Finlay, Hodgson & Co. has since been merged in Baring, Brothers & Co. By failure of the line of Kirkman's elder brother, Major John Finlay, Kirkman Finlay of Dunlossit now represents his grandfather, the Kirkman, and his great-grandfather, the Founder.
(16) It stands in the centre of the south side of the Court. It was afterwards occupied by Smith & Wardlaw, pullicate manufacturers, of which firm the Wardlaw was Bailie William Wardlaw, father of Dr. Wardlaw. The large Calendar on the north side of Smith's Court was originally ran by the late well-known William Ewing, underwriter. Archibald Smith of Jordanhill (who was William Ewing's uncle by marriage) was a partner in this among other businesses. He built Smith's Court; hence its name. The Calendar was afterwards run by James Black, second son of Provost James Black of Craigmaddie.
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