William Lindsay

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soc ...

SSC (24 November 1819 - 20 February 1884) was a Scottish shipowner who served as Provost of

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

from 1860 to 1866. Lindsay Road in Edinburgh is named after him. As a lawyer he was responsible from framing the General Police and Improvement Act (Scotland) of 1869 which was known as the Lindsay Act.

Life

He was born in 1819 on Coburg Street in North

. He was the son of Captain James Lindsay (d.1839), a shipmaster, and his wife, Helen Allan of

Alloa Alloa (Received Pronunciation ; educated Scottish pronunciation /ˈaloʊa/; gd, Alamhagh, possibly meaning "rock plain") is a town in Clackmannanshire in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It is on the north bank of the Forth at the spot where ...

. He was apprenticed to Alexander Simson SSC nearby, at 38 Bernard Street 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 The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

his proposer being Thomas Williamson. 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 Leith Links ( gd, Fìghdean Lìte) is the principal open space within Leith, the docks district of Edinburgh, Scotland. This public park is divided by a road into two main areas, a western section and an eastern section, both being largely flat ...

. He died on 20 February 1884. A memorial was erected to his memory in the south aisle of

South Leith Parish Church South Leith Parish Church, originally the Kirk of Our Lady, St Mary, is a congregation of the Church of Scotland. It is the principal church and congregation in Leith, in Edinburgh. Its kirkyard is the burial place for John Home (author of ''D ...

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

, 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 at Leith Town Hall (now Leith Police station) along with a marble bust of him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindsay, William 1819 births 1884 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh People from Leith Ship owners Lawyers from Edinburgh