| History
Page Index
The Whites J&J White James White Fanny Campbell John White Grace McClure Douglas White |
The
Family Business Then in 1830 they began to manufacture bichromate of potash or chrome produced from chrome iron ore imported from Turkey or Russia and sold to textile manufacturers as a mordant or agent for fixing certain dyes. Demand for chrome grew as it became an important agent in other manufacturing process and it became almost their sole product. Indeed the company florished and with an output greater than the sum of all their competitors they had a dominant market share. A well know Glasgow citizen he was heavily involved in local politics and business. As well as running J&J White's he was president of the Chamber of Commerce and a director and deputy chairman of Glasgow and South Western Railways. He was also famous around Glasgow for his philanthropic good nature. He helped found a Christian Institute on Bothwell Street in Glasgow and set up a fund for people who lost out on the collapse of the City of Glasgow Bank. After his death in 1884 the city erected a statue in his honour in Cathedral Square. He seems to have been the epitome of Victorian paternalism. James White moved into Overtoun House in 1862. Fanny
Campbell (James White's Wife) When first married, they had lived in a house in Hayfield near Rutherglen, but James wanted a house that would reflect his status and provide a retreat and so they moved close to her childhood home. Together they had seven children: one son (John Campbell) and six daughters (Fanny Campbell, Jessie, Susan Campbell, Jane Campbell, Margaret Campbell and Elizabeth Campbell). Their only son John Campbell White became Lord Overtoun. She remained at Overtoun House until her death on 18th Jan 1891. The professor became famous in 1866, and he nearly took his pupil John with him when he sailed on the steamship the "Great Eastern" to supervise the laying of the first ever transatlantic communications cable. John was late applying for the job and instead went into accountancy in 1867 before joining his father's firm. Upon his fathers death he became joint partner in the firm with his cousin William Chrystal. John was a deeply religious man, a philanthropist and a Liberal. Heavily involved in the Free Church of Scotland by his mid-30s he was also the West of Scotland's principal organisers for the US evangelists Moody & Sanley. He continued to support the Christian Institute in Bothwell Street as well as the Bible Society and the Livingstonia Mission in Africa. He gave a staggering £10,000 a year to charity and for his workface he donated a gymnasium, swimming pool and 12 acres of parkland in Rutherglen which today is known as "Overtoun Park". In 1907 he was given the freedom of the burgh of Rutherglen. As well as local politics he also took an active interest in national affairs, specifically with the Liberal Party under its famous leader William Ewart Gladstone. Although he never stood for Parliament, because of his tireless work for the party, in 1893 at the personal request of Gladstone himself, he was made a life peer in the Queen's birthday honours list. It was only from this time that he became Lord Overtoun. All these works were funded from profits from the chemical works in Shawfield that had expanded to 20 acres and 500 workers mostly Irish immigrants. The workers were known as "Whites canaries" on account of the yellow dust on their clothes. However the yellow dust and other chemicals were extremely toxic to humans, eating away at their noses and skin. For this dangerous work they got 15s 6d per week and were expected to work a twelve-hour day, seven days a week - with no time off for meals. In 1899 the workers striked and turned to Keir Hardie, a socialist later to became the founder of the Labour party. Hardie published a series of pamphlets attacking Lord Overtoun to which he replied that they were paid the going rate for unskilled labour and that factory conditions satisfied factory inspectorates. The strike ended when Lord Overtoun offered modest concessions on conditions and a wage increase. Lord Overtoun died on February 15th, 1908 and the obituaries were kind. To his contemporaries conditions and pay in his factories were in no way abnormal, the environmental and health impact of his chemicals not known, but his widespread generosity was remembered.
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