McManus 168

Subscriber no.55 – Peter Carmichael – son-in-law of James Carmichael senior and brother-in-law of George Carmichael.

Founders of J. Carmichael & Co.

James Carmichael (1776-1853) and Charles Carmichael (1782-1843) were brothers born in Glasgow, the sons of George Carmichael, a Bailie of that city and one of the original partners in the Glasgow Arms Bank. George died while the boys were still young and his widow decided to return to her native Loanhead, Midlothian. Both sons were apprenticed to her brother, Mr. Umpherston, millwright there. On completion of his apprenticeship James went to the Adelphi Spinning Works in Glasgow of Messrs Thomson & Buchanan. Charles came to Dundee in 1805 as a young journeyman and entered into partnership with Mr. Taylor as a millwright.^[10] The firm of Taylor & Carmichael was located in Perth Road, Dundee.^[11] At the end of this co-partnery in 1810, Charles induced his elder brother to join him in Dundee^[10] and start the firm of James & Charles Carmichael, millwrights, in the West Wards area of Dundee.^[12] The business proved very successful and the brothers established a tremendous reputation with their machinery and innovations:

The spinning of flax was then the staple trade of Dundee, and as it was increasing with great rapidity at this time, there was ample scope for the development of constructive engineering. The application of steam as a motive power had revolutionized applied mechanics, and the Carmichaels soon made their firm famous as makers of steam-driven machinery for spinning purposes. A new industry was introduced by them in 1821 by their construction of the steam-engine fitted up by them to drive the ferry-boat between Dundee and Woodhaven. The success which attended this experiment was so great that two years afterwards they were commissioned to supply a similar engine for another ferry-boat on the same station, in which many improvements in marine steam-engines—especially that of the reversing gear—were anticipated, and have since been perfected.^[10]

In many respects the firm were at the forefront of Scottish engineering:

To the Carmichaels the honour belongs of having constructed the first Scottish locomotive: for the traffic on the Dundee and Newtyle Railway. These were made in 1832-33, and were used continuously on this line for over thirty years, but were finally displaced by the more elaborate locomotives of the present day. They were also the inventors of the Fan-blast, by which the manufacture of iron was greatly accelerated, and the cost of its production much reduced. The Carmichaels did not take any steps to protect their new methods of operation, with the result that their inventions thus became public property. Their ingenuity, however, did not pass unnoticed, for in April, 1841, James Carmichael was presented at Glasgow with a handsome silver service, subscribed for amongst the members of the iron trade, ” in testimony of their deep sense of the liberal manner in which he and his brother have permitted the unrestricted use of their valuable invention of the Fan-Blowing Machine.”^[10]

Charles and James were both admitted burgesses of Dundee on 23 December 1822. Charles went on to serve as a police commissioner^[13] and town councillor.^[14] The firm was also an annual subscriber of one guinea to Dundee Royal Infirmary.^[12]

James married Grace Henderson in 1807^[15] and the couple had Beatrix (1809),^[16] Clementina (1811),^[17] Charles (1815),^[18] James (1817),^[19] George (1821)^[20][21] and a second James (1826).^[21][22]

Charles married Margaret Sommerville, also in 1807^[23] and they had Beatrix (1810),^[24] James (1812),^[25] George (1815),^[26] David (1817),^[27] John (1820),^[28] Agnes (1825)^[29] and Helen (1828).^[30]

James made his home at Milnbank^[31] and then 6 Fleuchar Craig^[32] and 22 Fleuchar Craig,^[33] all in the same area of Dundee. Charles occupied one of the Regency villas in Somerville Place, most likely named after his wife, Margaret Somerville.^[34] Charles died 13 May 1843,^[10] by which time the firm had become James Carmichael & Co.^[32] James’s son, George Carmichael, and nephew, David Carmichael, also engineers, joined him at Ward Foundry soon after.^[35] James died 14 August 1853^[10] after which James Carmichael junior joined the company.^[36] The three of them carried on the company and this second generation of engineering Carmichaels acquired the North-East and Column Mills in order to extend the foundry.^[37]

At the time of the subscription to the Albert Institute George, David and James junior^[8] would have been the partners.

George Carmichael

George Carmichael was born on 28 April 1821.^[20] He was educated in Dundee and joined his father’s firm as a young man.^[38][39] He continued to live at the family home at Milnbank^[21]/Fleuchar Craig^[40]/22 Fleuchar Craig^[41] (which was probably the same house with varying addresses). In 1853 he married Agnes Anderson Low,^[42] sister of James Low, engineer, Monifieth.^[38] The family moved briefly to Balgay Street^[43] before going to 11 Dudhope terrace next door to his cousin, David, in the mid-1860s. By this time they had been partners in James Carmichael & Co for almost a decade and they would go on to live side-by-side for more than 20 years.^[44] George Carmichael and Agnes Anderson Low had the following children: Jane (1854),^[45] James William (1856),^[46] Grace Henderson (1858),^[47] Agnes Amelia (1859),^[48] George (1861),^[49] Bernard (1863),^[50] Edward (1865),^[51] George Henry (1867)^[52] and Louisa Mary (1869).^[53] The first child named George died in 1862, aged 7 months,^[20] Bernard died in 1870, aged 7,^[20] and Louisa Mary in 1888, aged 19.^[20] George had moved to Taymount, West Ferry about 1886 and this would remain his home for the rest of his life.^[54]

George was involved in numerous organisations in Dundee including being a director of the Dundee Industrial Schools Society, c.1867-1910;^[55] a committee member of the Dundee Bible Society (Auxiliary to the National Bible Society of Scotland), c.1871-1904 and then its vice president, c.1904-1910;^[56] a Gas Commissioner, c.1874-1879;^[57] a director of Dundee Chamber of Commerce, c.1874-1875;^[58] a director of Dundee Royal Infirmary, c.1876-1881;^[59] a director of the Dundee Mission to the Outdoor Blind, c.1884-1910;^[60] vice president of the Hawkhill United Presbyterian Total Abstinence, c.1884-1888;^[61] vice president of the Dundee Adult Free Breakfast Mission, c.1887-1892^[62] and on the committee of Dundee Colportage Society, c.1892-1909.^[63] He had been a skilful lawn tennis player in his day^[38] and served as president, of the Dudhope Lawn Tennis Club, c.1885-1887,^[64] a role in which his cousin, David, followed him.^[65]

George Carmichael died 10 August 1910, aged 89, leaving an estate valued at £88,503 11s. 9d.^[66] At his death he was the oldest member of the Tay Square Church congregation, although he had been unable to attend for some while and had instead worshipped closer to home at the Queen Street United Free Church in Broughty Ferry. He still held an eldership in his Dundee church at his death.^[38] He left a widow, three sons and two daughters. Two of his surviving sons, James William Carmichael and Edward Carmichael,^[66] had followed him into the Ward Foundry.^[38] His widow died on 23 May 1914.

David Carmichael

David Carmichael was born 24 November 1817, the son of Charles Carmichael and Margaret Somerville.^[27] He served his engineering apprenticeship at Ward Foundry before working at Woolwich for the government.^[37] The 1841 census showed David at an address in Brown Street, Dundee, with, presumably, his older brother, George (not his future partner, also George, his cousin). The brothers, aged 23 and 25, were both described as engineers.^[67] The 1851 census showed him living with his mother, Margaret, his sisters, Beatrice Berrie, 40, and Helen, 22, and Beatrice’s daughter, Margaret Berrie, 15, at 19 Isles Lane, Dundee.^[68] David continued to live with his mother at Cherryfield Cottage, Blackness Road, Dundee^[69] until he married Margaret Low.^[70] The couple had Charles William (1859),^[71] David Low (1861),^[72] John Edward (1863)^[73] and Margaret Jane (1867).^[74] By 1861 David had moved to Dudhope Terrace, Dundee and was described as an engineer master employing 183 men.^[75] This house at 10 Dudhope Terrace was his home for the rest of his life.^[76] The property has been turned into a care home known as Carmichael House.^[77]

David Carmichael served as a vice president of the Curr Night Refuge, c.1884-1895;^[78] a trustee and vice president of the Children’s Free Breakfast Mission, c.1890-1895;^[79] and acted as a trustee of the Robson Curr Fund, c.1894-1895.^[80] He also became president of the Dundee Tennis Club, c.1884-1885^[81] and then president of Dudhope Lawn Tennis Club, c.1887-1889, (his son, David Low Carmichael, was the honorary secretary)^[65] in succession to his cousin, George.

David’s youngest son, John Edward Carmichael, died in 1871, aged 8,^[82] and his only daughter, Margaret Jane Carmichael, died in 1891, aged 24.^[83] His oldest son, Charles William Carmichael, died in 1894, aged 35.^[84]

David died on 5 May 1895, aged 77, leaving an estate valued at £70,484 8s. 6d.^[85] He was regarded as one of the ablest engineers in Dundee, enjoying the confidence of the local millowners and spent nearly 50 years as a partner of his cousin, George Carmichael, in James Carmichael & Co.^[37] He was a member of Free St. David’s Church and a Liberal Unionist in politics.^[37] He left a widow and one son at his death. His widow died on 2 September 1900, aged 77.^[70]

James Carmichael junior

James was born 12 November 1826,^[22] the second son of James Carmichael senior and Grace Henderson to be named after his paternal grandfather. Presumably the earlier James did not survive his childhood. In 1851 James was living with his father and older brother, George, at Milnbank, Dundee with two female servants and was described as an engineer’s clerk.^[21] He married Helen Carmichael in 1854^[86] and by 1856 he had become a partner in the family firm and was living in Brown Street, Dundee.^[36] The family moved to 8 and then 4 Somerville Place, Dundee.^[87] The couple had the following children: James (c.1855),^[88] Charles (1856),^[89][88] David (1857),^[90][88] Harry Somerville (1859),^[91][88] Alfred John (1861),^[92][88] Lillian Helen (1862)^[93] and Adeline Beatrice (1865).^[94] Two of the children pre-deceased their father: David in 1863 and Adeline Beatrice in 1870 (her birth date is mistakenly given as 1864).^[22] James Carmichael junior died shortly afterwards, aged 43, on 10 March 1870.^[95] His widow, Helen Carmichael, died at Newport on 29 November 1891.^[96]

Legacy

The Dundee Directory of 1874-75 contained the following:

Ward Foundry was first established by Messrs James and Charles Carmichael, the celebrated engineers. They commenced business here about the year 1810, and soon attained to distinction by the superiority of the various kinds of machinery they manufactured. In the construction of steam-engines they particularly excelled, and were extensively employed in that department of the business. They made the machinery for the first steamer that ever floated upon the bosom of the Tay, and for most of the Ferry steamers, including the twin boats, introducing one improvement after another as they proceeded. So ingenious and useful were these improvements found to be, that ferry boats of the same construction were built and employed in river traffic, not only in this country but in foreign lands as well. In 1833 they made, for the Dundee and Newtyle Railway, the first locomotives ever constructed in Scotland. In 1829 they invented the fan-blast for heating and melting iron; and having been freely given to the public, like their other inventions, its great practical utility and economy were soon acknowledged by universal adoption. In recognition of the liberality of the firm in thus giving to the trade an invention which, if protected by patent, would have secured them a fortune, the leading engineers in Glasgow entertained the brothers to a banquet in that city in 1841, and presented them with a handsome service of plate. In appreciation of the talent and generosity of Mr James Carmichael, his townsmen have resolved to erect a bronze statue to his honour. It is now in preparation, and, whenever it is completed, will be placed in a prominent position in Albert Square.^[58]

The statue was completed in time for the centenary of James Carmichael’s birth in 1876 and is situated outside the McManus (Albert Institute).^[97]