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
Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland
Died20 February 1884(1884-02-20) (aged 64)
Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland
OccupationShipowner, lawyer
Spouse(s)
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.[2]

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[3] 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.[4] 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[5] at Leith Town Hall (now Leith Police station) along with a marble bust of him.

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References
  1. http://www.leithhistory.co.uk/2005/04/15/the-lindsay-monumentsouth-leith-parish-church/
  2. http://www.leithhistory.co.uk/2005/04/15/the-lindsay-monumentsouth-leith-parish-church/
  3. Edinburgh and Leith Post Office directory 1835-6
  4. 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.
  5. https://www.artuk.org/discover/artworks/william-lindsay-18191884-provost-of-leith-18601866-93431


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