Born in Inverkeithing, Fife, Hutcheson's family moved west where his father established a cooperage in Port Glasgow but soon died. Hutcheson worked his way up through the shipping trade, eventually becoming a manager and partner at the Burns shipping company, which initially mainly operated steamers between the Clyde and Liverpool.
In 1851, by which time the company owned ocean-going vessels, the steamers were sold to the MacBrayne brothers, for whom Hutcheson now worked. The company leased the island of Staffa in the interests of the tourist trade, and sailed as far north as Lochinver,
Hutcheson died in Glasgow but was buried between Oban and Dunstaffnage. An obelisk was built in his memory on Kerrera.
DAVID HUTCHESON was born at Inverkeithing in 1799. His parents soon after went to reside in Port-Glasgow, where his father carried on the business of a cooperage. Here his father died, leaving David at an early age to the care of a widowed mother, a conscientious Scottish woman, who in the midst of a hard struggle gave him the rudiments of a sound education, which in his early manhood he improved and extended by his own application and love of knowledge.
His first employment was that of a clerk in Steel's cooperage in Port-Glasgow. Leaving that situation in 1817, he entered the service of a shipping firm who were owners of two small luggage steamboats, named the "Industry" and the "Trusty," which carried goods between Glasgow, Port-Glasgow, and Greenock. Mr. Hutcheson continued in this position for several years, and subsequently transferred his services to the Glasgow and Leith Shipping Company at Port-Dundas, and afterwards to Mr. Kid, the agent of Messrs. Mathie & Thixton, who were owners of a line of Liverpool smacks. Mr. Kid dying soon afterwards, the Messrs. Burns succeeded to the agency, and assumed Mr. Hutcheson as manager, with a share in the profits.
Mr. Hutcheson's connection with the Messrs. Burns lasted till 1851, when the firm, who by that time had become a great Ocean Steam Navigation Company, sold the whole of their steamers engaged in the Highland carrying trade to Mr. Hutcheson, his brother Alexander, and Mr. David MacBrayne.
Since the completion of the Caledonian Canal in 1822, the trade of the West Highlands had been gradually developing, but the steamers were of a small class, with limited accommodation. The new firm at once began to replace these by others of a different description, and in 1852 the "Mountaineer" was built, the first of the grand steamers on the Ardrishaig route, and the precursor of the present magnificent fleet of mail steamers to the Western Highlands. Following the "Mountaineer" came three steamers, each called the "Iona." The first two, after running between Glasgow and Ardrishaig for several years, were sold to the American Confederate Government, and both, strange to say, were wrecked on the outward voyage: one being run down by a screw steamship between Roseneath and Fort Matilda, while the other foundered off the English coast. In 1864, the third "Iona" was placed on the station, and her fame became world-wide. She runs now between Crinan and Banavie, her place on the Ardrishaig route being supplied by the "Columba," a steamer which has far surpassed any of her predecessors, and which may be described as unrivalled either in the Old or New World as regards speed, comfort, and elegance.
While developing the traffic between Glasgow and Ardrishaig, Mr. Hutcheson and his partners were at the same time extending their enterprise among the Western Hebrides, and along the northern coast of the island. They leased the Island of Staffa to secure the public from interruption in viewing the wonders of Fingal's Cave, and establishing a fleet of well-appointed steamers between Oban, Iona, Mull, Skye, the Lewis, and the small ports lying along the north-west coast, as far north as Loch Inver, gave an impulse to the whole trade of the West Highlands. Oban, from being an unattractive, insignificant village, has become a great centre of tourists. Villages and villa residences have sprung up everywhere, and what is probably the grandest picturesque country in the world has been opened up, not merely to the thousands who inhabit our crowded cities, but to the traveller and the tourist from every quarter of the globe.
It is almost impossible to estimate the amount of good which has been conferred on the Highlands by the enterprise of the firm of which Mr. Hutcheson was the moving spirit. Not only has the value of property been increased, but the blessings of social improvement have been brought within the reach of the thousands who people the shores of its beautiful bays and lochs, who also enjoy the advantage of convenient and economical intercourse between their once remote hamlets and the great centres of industry: benefits which will extend to the Highlands of the future a prosperity far more real and enduring that can ever be attained through the varied philosophies of Land and Socialistic Reform.
This is not the place to speak of Mr. Hutcheson otherwise than as an energetic man of business; but we cannot refrain from saying that in private life he was esteemed by a large circle of friends, many of whom were distinguished for their high position in the world of letters and art, who appreciated his worth and varied abilities.
He was a man of refined culture, courteous and genial, alike to the prince and the peasant; a lover of literature; a liberal patron of the fine arts; fond of music, and an enthusiastic admirer of our great national bard, whose songs and poems he used to sing and recite. Few who had the pleasure of meeting him socially could forget his rendering of the "Wee, Wee German Lairdie," or "Tam o' Shanter," or his favourite song, "Farewell to Lochaber," a district which he dearly loved. Himself a poet of no mean rank, it is a great satisfaction to his friends that the desire breathed in one of his poems some years ago has been realized:-
"For I would wish my bones to lie
Among the scenes I loved so well;
The mountain glen, the gorgeous sky,
The wimpling burn, the gowany dell.
And where were sepulchre more sweet
For me than 'mong dear Oban's braes,
Where oft in contemplation sweet
I, rambling, tuned my simple lays."
The wish was not disregarded; and when he died, in his 82nd year, his remains were brought from Glasgow and interred in the picturesque cemetery of Peny-friar, between Oban and Dunstaffnage Castle.
His fellow-citizens and the leading inhabitants of the West of Scotland felt that some memorial of Mr. Hutcheson's worth and public service should be preserved, and, after much consideration, a monumental obelisk was erected on the Island of Kerrera, and now forms a conspicuous feature in the scenery of Oban Bay.
Mr. Hutcheson was married early in life to Miss Dawson, a lady of a family well known both in Glasgow and Linlithgow, who died May 16th, 1885. Without drawing aside the veil which encloses the domestic circle, we know we speak the sentiments of all who ever entered their hospitable mansion, when we say that in her Mr. Hutcheson had for his long-life-partner one of kindred tastes and aspirations.
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