James McCall

Glasgow merchant, awarded the bulk of the compensation for the Adelphi estate on St Vincent after counter-claiming as judgement creditor. He probably reached as settlement over a sharing of the compensation money with members of the Grant family, the owners.

1. James McCall, 'a merchant in Glasgow' of 17 Princes Street. Burke's Landed Gentry: "The family came originally from Dumfriessshire. Samuel McCall, a wealthy merchant, possessed properties in Virginia and Maryland, which his family lost in the War of Independence by their loyalty and adherence to the British Crown.” James McCall (1778-1866) was the son of Samuel’s son James McCall (1726-1803) and his wife Sarah nee Reid. He married Anna Catrina Jacoba De Wet Fehrszen, daughter of Henricus Fehrszen, in 1815.

2. James McCall purchased Daldowie estate in 1830 and left £141,945 on his death 07/09/1866. According to Rubinstein, 'He was apparently a wine-merchant in Glasgow.'

3. Anthony Cooke shows 'James McCall (1778-1841, [dying] Athens Greece), Glasgow merchant of Daldowie (purchased 1830). Father James McCall Glasgow merchant. Matriculated from Glasgow University. Partner in John McCall & Co.' Left estate of £4854. It is not yet clear how to reconcile Cooke's data with the details of the James McCall in this entry.

T71/892 St Vincent 456A & B.

1. Burke's Landed Gentry (London, Harrison, 1871) Vol. 2 pp. 837-838. 'The Family of McCall' in Hardy Bertram McCall, Some Old Families: A Contribution to the Genealogical History of Scotland (Birmingham, Privately Printed, 1890) pp. 119-141.

2. William D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? 1860- (Volumes 3 and 4, manuscripts in preparation), reference 1866/78. Rubinstein suggests James McCall's second wife was Janet Ker but in fact she married James McCall, 1780-1853 (son of George McCall of Virginia and Mary Smellie), and the characterisation of James McCall as a wine-merchant might refer to a different James McCall: see 'Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry XXXIII Daldowie' at http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/smihou/smihou033.htm [accessed 31/05/2013].

3. Anthony Cooke, 'An elite revisited: Glasgow West India merchants, 1783-1877', Journal of Scottish Historical Studies 32.2 2012 pp. 127-165, at p. 161, 'McCall, James'. SC 36/48/30/289 20/03/1844. James McCall of Daldowie (d. 1866) was the twin brother of John McCall (d. 1833), the two men being sons of James McCall, while Cooke shows the father of James McCall (1778-1841) as James McCall of Glasgow and of John McCall (d. 1833) as Samuel McCall.

We are grateful to Ian Miles for his assistance in compiling this entry.