Author: Andrew Downie (page 2 of 32)

Blond sandstone 3 storey terrace, alternate houses (including 12) having bays

12 Marywood Square

April 19, 2026 / / 0 Comments

This is the story of the occupants of 12 Marywood Square, and formerly known as 5 Princes Square. The terrace was built by Robert Weir in 1878-9 but the project led to financial ruin and Robert’s tragic suicide. The houses and debts passed to his father William, but the family never recovered, as detailed in this blog about the Weirs.

William Fenton

Once the terrace was complete in 1879, the first tenant was William Fenton, a wholesale jeweller with premises at 15 Gordon Street. He didn’t get an auspicious start in Strathbungo however; he was declared bankrupt in June of the same year . In July he failed to turn up for his bankruptcy proceedings and an arrest warrant was issued . No more was heard of him.

Robert Samuel Fischer

The next tenant was Robert Samuel Fischer.

Fischer was an intriguing figure. He was in the house by 1881, as he appears in the census, though how long he stayed is unclear; no resident was recorded in the PO Directory for the next ten years, and neither did he appear anywhere. His low profile means that, other than him being a warehouseman, we don’t know his line of business, who he worked for or where he worked. Fortunately, we can learn something about him from Ancestry records and contemporary newspapers.

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6 & 4 Queen Square forming the two end houses of the terrace; blond sandstone, 3 storeys, stairs up to the main door. A basement window has been converted to a front door./

6 Queen Square

April 6, 2026 / / 0 Comments

No 6 Queen Square was built around 1865-6 by Daniel McNicol, and was originally No 2, being renumbered to 6 around 1929. Note how 1 & 2 (now 4 & 6), being the end pair in the terrace, protrude very slightly forwards of the rest, a discreet end pavillion to break up the frontage. It occurs at the other end as well. Yet it is so subtle very few ever notice it.

Rev William Rossborough

The Rev Rossborough was the first occupant of the house, renting from Daniel McNicol from 1866 to 1873. He was born in Ballymena in 1813. His father was an elder in the Presbyterian church at Culleybackey, Co. Antrim. William also became a minister, at the 1st Presbyterian Church at Rathfriland, County Down, from 1837. In 1842 he married Margaret McAlester of Belfast, but she died in January 1847, and his father died the following day. In December 1848 he married again, to Magaret Allan, and had six further children, four of whom survived to adulthood.

In 1858 he gave up his ministry after twenty-one years and, partly with a view to the education of his children, accepted a call from East Campbell Street Free Church, Glasgow. A deputation had come from Glasgow to hear him and some other Irish ministers. In 1881, after twenty three years in Glasgow without missing a day from his work, he retired, first to Kirn, Dunoon, then in 1885 back to Belfast, where he died in 1892.

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Large factory with company name, and three smokey chimneys

57 Marywood Square, the former 26 Moray Place

January 30, 2026 / / 0 Comments

This is the story of 57 Marywoood Square, formerly known as 26 Moray Place, and – briefly – as 57 Princes Square. The residence is the end building of the fourth Moray Place terrace, but its porch opens onto Marywood Square. Unusually, it was designed by Francis Armstrong, an architect from Dumfrieshire who had little involvement in Glasgow, but who purchased the land for development in 1876. He retained ownership of 28 Moray Place upon completion.

Blond stone terrace with large projecting bay at each end, the nearest being no 57.

View of 57 Marywood Square/26 Moray Place from Moray Place, with the rest of the terrace beyond.

William Fullarton Murray

William Fullarton Murray was the third William in succession in the Murray family, and the first occupant of 26 Moray Place.

The elder William Murray was a stationer in Paisley. His son, who styled himself William Murray Jnr, was born in Paisley in 1806. He married Agnes Fullarton and had eleven children, of whom William Fullarton Murray was the eldest son.

He was born in Glasgow in 1837, and married Elizabeth Rodger in 1869. She was a widow, with a daughter Agnes, and they had a further son William in 1871. Around 1878, on completion of the new terrace, the family moved into No 26 Moray Place with the two children.

In 1885 Elizabeth died at home, aged 52, and the following year, aged 49, William married again, to Jane Laidlaw. Jane was a neighbour, the daughter of school teacher John Laidlaw of 1 Princes Square (now 4 Marywood Square), the marriage taking place in her home. Despite his late start, he had four more children with Jane, three born in Moray Place, and the fourth after he had retired to a farm in Kilwinning c.1898, born in 1901.

The Murrays were potters, but not just any potters.

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