James Shewan (6 January 1848 - 7 May 1914) was a

Scottish-American Scottish Americans or Scots Americans (Scottish Gaelic language, Scottish Gaelic: ''Ameireaganaich Albannach''; sco, Scots-American) are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Scotland. Scottish people, Scottish Americans are cl ...

businessman who made his fortune in

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

in the United States. He was the founder of the largest

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

and ship repairing facility in the Port of New York.

Early life

Shewan was born on 6 January 1848 in

Rora Rora may refer to: * Rora (name) *Rora, a village administered by the city of Sighișoara, Mureș County, Romania *Rora, Aberdeenshire, a rural settlement in Aberdeenshire, Scotland *Rora, a diminutive of the Russian feminine first name Avrora (a fo ...

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

in Scotland. He was the son of Agnes (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Robertson) Shewan (1815–1891) and James Shewan (1819–1854), who died when he was four years old.

Career

After attending school for only a few years, Shewan apprenticed to a ship carpenter. He first traveled to

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

, where the ship was held by the ice for three and a half months. After his return, he went to London followed by a trip to Singapore with his uncle who was a sea captain. For four years, he traded in tea at various ports in China, Japan, and Australia. In 1869, he sailed from

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

to New York City where he started a dry dock and ship repair business, first called Shewan & Palmer and later known as Shewan & Jenkins. In 1877, Shewan bought out Jenkins and became the sole owner of the business, which he renamed James Shewan & Sons. After his death, his sons ran the business and during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the shipyard had the largest tonnage capacity of any dry docks in America. The company was one of the six New York yards that merged into

United Shipyards The Morse Dry Dock and Repair Company was a major late 19th/early 20th century ship repair and conversion facility located in New York City. Begun in the 1880s as a small shipsmithing business known as the Morse Iron Works, the company grew to ...

in 1929. Edwin later sold the business to

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succe ...

(where it became "27th St. Works" ) and retired.

Personal life

In 1870, Shewan married Ellen Curley (1850–1934), a native of

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

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. Together, they had three daughters and two sons, including: * Nellie Shewan (d. 1940), who lived at 1170 Fifth Avenue and did not marry. * Ada Shewan Galvin Chambers. * Agnes Shewan (1881–1974), who later became the Marquise Rizzo dei Ritii after her marriage to Marquis don Guglielmo Rizzo dei Ritii in 1928. She owned Shewan's

Plumbush Plumbush is the former house and farm of Robert Parker Parrott, inventor of the Parrott gun. It is located at the junction of NY 9D and Peekskill Road south of Cold Spring, New York, United States. The house was built for Parrott by local ar ...

estate in Cold Spring, New York. * James Shewan Jr. (1869–1926), who married Jessica Brown (1886–1935). His daughter, Patricia Carrington Shewan, married Count Jacques de Sibour (nephew of

Jules Henri de Sibour Jules Gabriel Henri de Sibour (December 23, 1872 – November 4, 1938) was a French architect who worked in Washington, DC. Early life He was born in Paris, France, to Vicomte Gabriel de Sibour and Mary Louisa Johnson of Belfast, Maine. He mov ...

). * Edwin Arthur Shewan (1877–1945) James owned an estate in the

Hudson Valley The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...

opposite West Point known as

Inverugie Inverugie ( gd, Inbhir Ùigidh) is a small village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to the northwest of Peterhead Peterhead (; gd, Ceann Phàdraig, sco, Peterheid ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is Aberdeenshire's biggest settlement ...

(named after a small village in

, Scotland that lies on the entrance to the

River Ugie The River Ugie (Scottish Gaelic: Uisge Ùigidh) or Ugie Water is a river in North East Scotland; it flows into the North Sea on the east coast at Peterhead, north of Cruden Bay. There is considerable evidence of prehistoric settlement within the ...

just north of Peterhead) and the

estate in Cold Spring. Shewan died at his home, 43

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...

in Manhattan, on 7 May 1914 and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. His business passed into the hands of his sons."James Shewan & Sons" v. U.S. March 2nd 1925, https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/267/86.html Upon the death of his widow in 1934, she left her entire estate, valued at several million dollars, to her three daughters and nothing to her son, stating: "they are amply provided for and have such splendid prospects for further bounty that none of them needs and gift, legacy or bequest from me."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shewan, James 1848 births 1914 deaths 19th-century Scottish people 19th-century American businesspeople People from Aberdeenshire Scottish emigrants to the United States Scottish shipbuilders American shipbuilders Real estate and property developers 19th-century Scottish businesspeople