John Smeaton
Wright and builder
John Smeaton (c. 1845–1908), a Glasgow wright and builder, was born in Methven, Perthshire and as a teenager, worked as a ploughman in Fowlis Wester, before joining his widowed mother and stepfather in Glasgow. 1 By 1871, like his half-brother, he is listed as a carpenter living in Hutchesontown, Gorbals. 2 From c. 1879 he was a self-employed 'joiner and glazier' in Govan Road, in the then-independent burgh of Govan, later inhabiting 'Govandale Cottage' (a detached house predating Govan's tenement layout). 3
As a master joiner Smeaton had four employees in 1881, and advertised 'shop fittings a speciality' (1891), but politics remained a predominant interest. 4 He chaired 'Associated Joiners of Scotland' meetings in 1874, and belonged to Govan Conservative Association, presiding when the Unionist parliamentary candidate campaigned among shipyard workers in 1892. 5 Smeaton was himself elected as the Lanarkshire County Councillor for Govan Fairfield that year. 6
In 1897, Smeaton was a founder-subscriber of property developers, the Glasgow Heritable Investment Company. 7 He was vice-president of the Glasgow Master Wrights Association in 1900, a longstanding official of the Glasgow Perthshire Charitable Society, and a J.P. for Lanarkshire. 8 Smeaton faced bankruptcy in 1905, but continued trading, joined by John Junior (born c. 1880), a foreman joiner, the same year. 9 Smeaton's sons Mungo (a measurer, born c. 1884) and James (another joiner, born c. 1882) emigrated to Canada in 1911, although Mungo returned to join the army in 1914. 10 John Junior was still in business at 583 Govan Road in 1930. 11
Notes:
1: Census Data, www.ancestry.co.uk; Death Date, www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk [accessed 29 July 2013]; Glasgow Herald, 5 December 1908, p. 1.
2: Census Data, www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 29 July 2013].
3: Glasgow Post Office Directory 1879–80, p. 451; 1890–1, p. 550; 1895–6, p. 502; Glasgow (West) Ordnance Survey Map 1894, Sheet VI.9.3, Scale 1:500, http://maps.nls.uk/ [accessed 29 July 2013].
4: Census Data, www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 29 July 2013]; Govan Burgh Directory 1891–2, Govan: John Cossar, 1891, p. 55; Appendix, p. xxi.
5: Scotsman, 10 December 1874, p. 6; Glasgow Herald, 21 February 1891, p. 4; 2 July 1892, p. 10.
6: Glasgow Herald, 23 November 1892, p. 8; 7 December 1892, p. 7.
7: Glasgow Herald, 13 March 1897, p. 5.
8: Glasgow Herald, 21 December 1894, p. 6; 24 December 1897, p. 7; 2 May 1900, p. 6; Scotsman, 21 December 1901, p. 9.
9: Edinburgh Gazette, 17 October 1905, p. 996; 21 November 1905, p. 1179; Census Data, www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 29 July 2013]; Glasgow Post Office Directory 1905–6, p. 650; 1906–7, p. 656.
10: Census Data, www.ancestry.co.uk; UK, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890–1960, Board of Trade, www.ancestry.co.uk; British Army W.W.I Service Records, 1914–1920, www.ancestry.co.uk; UK, Silver War Badge Records, 1914–1920, www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 29 July 2013].
11: Glasgow Post Office Directory 1930–1, p. 625.
