‍ ‍GOURLAY

We know a lot less for sure about this side of the family, as I have yet to sort out which of two fathers belongs to John- it looks like James but some trees on ancestry have Robert but with no evidence to support. James would fit with traditinoal naming patterns as John calls his first born son James.

However we do know a reasonable amount about John Gourlay himself, and a tree showing his 13 children is shown below. John is Davids 3x great grandfather and his grandson William Harvey is the founder of Bruichladdich. We know he was a distiller from newspapers and trade directories, and have a copy of his will, plus several newspaper articles mention him as being a ‘Grand Juror’, as an owner of cattle, as an employer [Port Dundas distillery] and we see him chasing after moeny owed to him.

John is usually described as ‘of Cowlairs’ and a picture of the house taken in 1870 by Thomas Annan, which is from Glasgow University Special collections addn 73, is shown below, along with some history of Cowlairs

Links: home page; all Harvey; HARVEY at Bruichladdich;

COWLAIRS HOUSE

John bought the house in 1813 from Mr Allan Scott; apparently John was a staunch supporter of the Whig party in Lanarkshire. It was actually built by Alexander Williamson of Petershill in the mid eighteenth century. as the “Scottish House of Gourlay” describes it:

“He very much enlarged and improved the place. In particular, he purchased about thirty acres of the adjoining lands of Keppoch Hill, which enabled him to open a new and more convenient approach through them from the Port-Dundas Road to the mansion of Cowlairs, the original access from the Kirkintilloch highway having been somewhat circuitous. Near the point on that highway, where the former avenue to Cowlairs branched off, a queerish old cabaret stood, popularly known as "Lodge my loons." It was on Mr. Anderson's portion of Cowlairs, and, it is said, derived its somewhat forbidding soubriquet from the circumstance of a horde of the wild Highlandmen of Prince Charlie's forces having made it their quarters, and harried the neighbouring district, as their leaders did the town.

The original edifice of Cowlairs had a peculiarly quaint appearance, but having been found by Mr. Gourlay somewhat unsuitable, he built a new one in front of the old, as now represented in the photograph. This was in 1824. The property has ever since remained with Mr. Gourlay's descendants, and now belongs to his grand-daughter Mrs. Crichton. But it has been abandoned as a family residence. The N.B. Railway cut the property in two between the house and the offices, and what amenity was left has been destroyed by their great engine works, and by the spread of the city in this as in every other quarter.

The Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway crossed the Cowlairs estate when it opened in 1842 and the company built its engineering works there. The North British Railway Co acquired the E & G R in 1865, and Cowlairs became the largest railway works in Scotland. The works closed in 1969.

The Mrs CRICHTON referred to in the above is Marion Harvey CRICHTON nee GOURLAY [1840-1909] who had married George CRICHTON in 18868 at Maryhill. She and Geroge had three children: George Henderson CRICHTON, Elizabeth Harvey CRICHTON and Jessie Henderson CRICHTON.. We dont know yet what has become of the mansion, but if so close to a railway, it was probably offices if it still exists.