McManus 168

Joseph Johnstone Barrie remained a partner of Halley & Barrie for five years and then carried on business on his own as a merchant and commission agent.^[22] He also continued to act as an agent for the Insurance Company of Scotland, 1869-1894.^[23] He became a director of the Dundee Chamber of Commerce and a committee member of the Dundee Trade Report Association in 1871.^[24] He was made an honorary member of the Dundee Choral Society/Union.^[25] He was also a long-term member of the Eastern Club in Albert Square, which opened in 1868.^[26]

He is variously described as living at Coldside and 124 Strathmartine Road in the directory of 1874-75, but this latter address, close to Paterson Street, would fall under the Coldside area. His mother was in the same directory as a grocer at 126 Strathmartine Road and appeared to be carrying on her husband’s business. The following year Joseph and his mother are both listed at 126 Strathmartine Road.^[27]

In 1875 Joseph became involved in the jute industry of India as part of the Samnuggur Jute Factory Co (Ltd), jute manufacturers^[28] and was secretary of its Dundee office.^[29] Located near Calcutta, this was the largest mill and factory in India. Joseph was later described as one of the pioneers of the jute industry of the east.^[30]  The Samnuggar Jute Factory which  was particularly successful at a time (c.1875) when other Calcutta mills languished or failed, proved the ability of the Calcutta mills to compete with Dundee for the American and Australian markets.^[31]

In 1876 Joseph acted as one of the governors of Morgan Hospital, representing the Nine Trades of Dundee, and was on the Dundee Harbour Trust, representing the Guildry Incorporation.^[32]

Joseph purchased The Vine, 43 Magdalen Yard Road, Dundee from the trustees of the late George Duncan, MP, and set up home there with his sister, Elizabeth.^[33] Adding to his business interests, he also became manager of the Craigie Yard Warehouse Company in 1878^[34] and a director of the Northern Marine Insurance Co., 67 Reform Street, Dundee in 1884.^[35] He also became an assessor of the Guildry Incorporation,^[36] a director of the Dundee Mission to the Out-Door Blind^[37] and a member of the council, and subsequently vice-president and then president of the S and T Whist Club, 104 Nethergate, Dundee.^[38]

In 1886 he wa,s vice-president of Dundee Chamber of Commerce before serving the following year as its president.^[39] The custom was for the outgoing president to provide a stained-glass window at the chamber and Joseph gave one on the theme of history.^[40] He subsequently acted as the Chamber of Commerce representative on the Dundee & District Association for the Promotion of Technical and Commercial Education.^[41]

Having been a loyal supporter of the Liberal Party, Barrie became a Liberal Unionist in 1886, when the party split over the issue of Irish Home Rule.^[42]

Joseph took on a further insurance agency for the Alliance Assurance Company in 1888.^[43] About the same time the firm became Joseph J. Barrie & Co, merchants, commission and insurance agents and agents for the Insurance Company of Scotland, with his nephew, Charles Barrie Ovenstone, brought into the business.^[44] In the  1891  census Joseph is described as an East India Merchant. The business was much more extensive than this, but this is perhaps how Joseph saw himself.By this time Joseph and his sister have two live-in servants at The Vine.^[45]

In his last few years Joseph became a committee member and then a director of Dundee Royal Infirmary,^[46] an honorary vice-president of the Dundee & District Liberal Unionist Association,^[47] a life governor of University College, Dundee^[48] and a Justice of the Peace connected with the Dundee district.^[49]

Joseph’s younger brother, Charles, was a ship and insurance broker,who had worked his way up the marine ranks before leaving the sea in 1881 to establish his own fleet of sailing ships for the jute trade. He also became Lord Provost  of Dundee in the early 20th century.^[50] Joseph was also said to have had a wide connection to the shipping of the port of Dundee and was at one time a director of the Dundee Polar Fishing Company.

After suffering badly from gout, but apparently somewhat recovered, Joseph died of angina pectoris at his home, The Vine, Dundee on 26 July 1894. His funeral procession consisted of sixty carriages:

A very large number of gentlemen, including a particularly representative concourse of merchants and manufacturers, turned out to take part in the obsequies. The Exchange seemed all but deserted as the funeral train passed; but in Nethergate, Reform Street, Panmure Street, King Street, Princes Street, and Arbroath Road the thoroughfares were lined with spectators.^[51]

His death was viewed as “a fresh disaster to the trading interests of this city.” In his obituary he was described as “quiet and unassuming” with “no more popular man in the jute market than he.” He was generous in his support of benevolent and charitable institutions, but averse to publicity and “many persons in indigent circumstances have also profited by his philanthropic actions.” He was “destitute of pride” and his genial nature “made his company much sought after.” He was also warmly attached to the Church of Scotland and was for many years associated with East Parish Church.^[52]

The inventory of his estate in Scotland, England and Ireland was  valued at £125,428.^[53] An additional inventory of his personal effects was registered the following year which showed dividends through his directorship of several companies. The Samnuggur Jute Factory Co, The Titaghur Jute factory and  Thomas Duff & Co Ltd, some of the oldest companies in Scotland.^[54]