On the last Saturday of March 2023 my son Andrew and his partner Charlotte graduated from the University of Edinburgh. Their degrees were awarded in McEwan Hall:
After the graduation ceremony we walked down Bristo Place to a restaurant on George IV Bridge. We passed by this shop front [one that had taken me 55 years to notice]:
Looking round the corner, into Bristo Port, I could just make out ‘ghost writing’ on the wall:
I was beginning to realise [belatedly so] that this China Merchant had been quite an enterprise:
John Donald & Co occupied the whole corner of Bristo Place and Bristo Port:
1860 advert:
1864 advert:
1869 advert:
1871 advert:
1904 advert:
1907 advert:
A sketch of John Donald & Co, China Merchants [c1910]:
Bristo Port has been a ‘corner of all things’ for many centuries:
Incorporated into the basement of John Donald & Co, indeed holding the china warehouse up, is a portion of the ancient Flodden wall of Edinburgh:
So who was John Donald?:
John Donald was born in Ireland but it was Scotland that was to be his lifelong home. In his boyhood he was a Blantyre school companion of David Livingstone. He later trained under the tuition of Robert Owen, New Lanark.:
In December 1887, John Donald died from a weak heart in his family home, 3 Lauder Road, Edinburgh:
His estate was shared between his widow and children [two of his sons, Archibald and John Quin, were medical doctors]:
Archibald Donald was a pioneering Gynaecological surgeon:
Dr John Quin Donald specialised in addiction:
May 1904:
September 1906:
April 1907:
May 1909:
May 1909:
Backdrop: Some of the personal details for Dr John Quin Donald:
John Quin Donald married Helen Middlemass in November 1881. Two of their children, Robert and Duncan were born in Edinburgh. There was a “correction” to the marriage certificate stating that they were divorced in 1891. However, five more children were born, three in Missouri and two in Massachusetts; the last two being after 1891, so there was presumably a reconciliation.
The 1900 Census reveals that he lived with his family in Gloucester city, Massachusetts.
November 1891:
June 1908, Dr John Quin Donald marries for second time [He is three decades older than his new wife, who is just 22 years old]:
May 1912:
January 1922:
March 1929, death of Dr John Quin Donald [his nephew seems to have been the only family member present]:
BRISTO PORT: the corner of all things:
