William Lindsay (shipowner)

William Lindsay FRSE SSC (24 November 1819 - 20 February 1884) was a Scottish shipowner who served as Provost of Leith from 1860 to 1866. Lindsay Road in Edinburgh is named after him.[1]

William Lindsay

FRSE SSC
Lindsay's grave in South Leith.
Born(1819-11-24)24 November 1819
Died20 February 1884(1884-02-20) (aged 64)
Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland
Occupation(s)Shipowner, lawyer
Spouse
Mary Weatherstone Bruce
(m. 1844; died 1881)
Children3
Parent(s)James Lindsay
Helen Allan
RelativesCharles Augustus Carlow (grandson)

As a lawyer he was responsible from framing the General Police and Improvement Act (Scotland) of 1869 which was known as the Lindsay Act.[1]

Life

Memorial to William Lindsay, South Leith Parish Church

He was born in 1819 on Coburg Street in North Leith. He was the son of Captain James Lindsay (d.1839), a shipmaster, and his wife, Helen Allan of Alloa.

He was apprenticed to Alexander Simson SSC nearby, at 38 Bernard Street[2] as a solicitor.

In 1860 he became Provost and Chief Magistrate of Leith and organised the remodelling of Leith Town Hall to accommodate a new court room and prison (still extant) and absorb a line of Georgian houses to the east to create Leith Police Station.

In 1864 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposer being Thomas Williamson.[3] From 1864 until death he left the legal world and started a local shipping company, owning several ships.

In 1875, he was living at Hermitage Hill in Leith, a large Georgian villa south of Leith Links.

He died on 20 February 1884. A memorial was erected to his memory in the south aisle of South Leith Parish Church.

Family

He was married to Mary Weatherstone Bruce (d.1881). They had three children: James William (b. 1849), Mary Weatherstone (b. 1851), and William Walter (b. 1854).

He was grandfather to Charles Augustus Carlow FRSE, the son of his daughter, Mary Weatherstone Lindsay (1851-1929).

Artistic Recognition

His portrait by John Horsburgh is held by the City of Edinburgh Council[4] at Leith Town Hall (now Leith Police station) along with a marble bust of him.

References

  1. "Leith Parish Church". Leith History.
  2. Edinburgh and Leith Post Office directory 1835-6
  3. Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
  4. "William Lindsay (1819–1884), Provost of Leith (1860–1866) | Art UK". www.artuk.org.
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