Daniel Wilkie & Son
Measurers
Daniel Stuart Wilkie (1843–1910), was a measurer (quantity surveyor) in St Vincent Street, Glasgow.. 1 Son of a joiner from Skipness, Argyll, Wilkie was born and raised in the Gorbals, and was already working as a measurer aged 18. 2 He married a local builder's daughter in 1870, and joined the established firm of Henry Herbertson & Co., of 154 (latterly 167) St Vincent Street, around 1873. 3 Wilkie's homes reflect his professional success, improving from city-centre tenements to residential Kilmalcolm by 1879. 4 His Kilmalcolm house was described as: 'That substantial villa called Hillington [with] ... six bedrooms ... conservatory ... stable ... three-quarters of an acre ... fruit trees'. 5 Wilkie was an art-collector, of 'refined taste', selling his 'cabinet of high-class modern pictures' and 'Noble bronzes' in 1880. 6
Wilkie remained with Herbertson & Co. at 167 St Vincent Street, until 1892, when he left his co-partners, John and James Muirhead, in order to 'carry on business in his own name'. 7 Among Herbertson's contracts were preparing schedules for Govanhill's new burgh buildings (1878), and reporting, with architect James Sellars, on the 'estimated and actual cost' of the Glasgow International Exhibition buildings (1888). 8 Wilkie was also a council-member of the Glasgow Institute of Measurers in that year. 9
Wilkie's two sons, Harry Duncan (c. 1874–1932) and Allan Wilkie (born c. 1879) were both apprenticed as surveyors, and 'D. Wilkie & Son' (apparently only referring to Harry) opened around 1899, at 53 Bothwell Street. 10 After Daniel Wilkie's death in 1910, Harry D. Wilkie continued practising. 11 H. D. Wilkie was a Fellow of the Faculty of Surveyors when that body replaced the former Institute of Measurers as the guarantor of professional standards in 1913. 12 The firm was still trading in 1925. 13
Notes:
1: Census Data, www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 30 July 2013]; Glasgow Post Office Directories 1870–1925; Glasgow Herald, 8 June 1910, p. 1.
2: Census Data, www.ancestry.co.uk; Family Details, www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk [accessed 3 August 2013].
3: Glasgow Herald, 7 September 1870, p. 5; Glasgow Post Office Directory 1873–4, p. 405; 1879–80, p. 514.
4: Glasgow Post Office Directory 1875–6, p. 457; 1876–7, p. 447; 1879–80, p. 514; Census Data, www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 3 August 2013].
5: Glasgow Herald, 2 March 1885, p. 3.
6: Glasgow Herald, 30 December 1881, pp. 4, 8.
7: Glasgow Herald, 24 September 1892, p. 1; Glasgow Post Office Directory 1892–3, p. 639; 1893–4, p. 639 [sic].
8: Glasgow Herald, 1 May 1878, p. 8; Scotsman, 5 October 1888, p. 4.
9: Scotsman, 2 October 1888, p. 4.
10: Death Date, www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk; Census Data, www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 30 July 2013]; Glasgow Post Office Directory 1899–1900, p. 635; 1900–01, p. 643.
11: Glasgow Herald, 8 June 1910, p. 1; Death Date, www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk [accessed 30 July 2013]; Glasgow Post Office Directory 1911–12, p. 707; 1913–14, p. 699.
12: Scotsman, 5 March 1913, p. 8; 20 March 1913, p. 6; 21 March 1913, p. 6; 28 May 1913, p. 1; Glasgow Post Office Directory ; 1913–14, p. 699; 1914–15, p. 702;
13: Glasgow Post Office Directory 1925–6, p. 710.
