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

Scottish-American Scottish Americans or Scots Americans (Scottish Gaelic: ''Ameireaganaich Albannach''; sco, Scots-American) are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Scotland. Scottish Americans are closely related to Scotch-Irish Americans, d ...

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 and

ship repair Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befo ...

ing facility in the Port of New York.

Early life

Shewan was born on 6 January 1848 in Rora, Aberdeenshire in Scotland. He was the son of Agnes ( née 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

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, 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 T ...

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 estate in

Cold Spring, New York Cold Spring is a village in the town of Philipstown in Putnam County, New York, United States. The population was 1,986 at the 2020 census. It borders the smaller village of Nelsonville and the hamlets of Garrison and North Highlands. The cen ...

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

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opposite

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known as Inverugie (named after a small village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland that lies on the entrance to the River Ugie just north of

Peterhead Peterhead (; gd, Ceann Phàdraig, sco, Peterheid ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is Aberdeenshire's biggest settlement (the city of Aberdeen itself not being a part of the district), with a population of 18,537 at the 2011 Census. ...

) and the Plumbush estate in Cold Spring. Shewan died at his home, 43 Fifth Avenue 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