Hugh Allan - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Sir Hugh Allan, KCMG (September 29, 1810 – December 9, 1882) was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

-born Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

shipping magnate, railway promoter, financier and capitalist. He became the richest man in Canada with a personal estate estimated at about $8 million.

Early years

Born at Saltcoats

Saltcoats

- References :*McSherry, R. & M. . Old Saltcoats, Stenlake Publishing, Ochiltree. ISBN 1-872074-57-X.*Stansfield, G. . Ayrshire & Renfrewshire's Lost Railways, Stenlake Publishing, Catrine. ISBN 1-84033-077-5.-External links:***...

, Ayrshire

Ayrshire

Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...

, he was the second son of Alexander Allan (1780–1854) of Saltcoats and his wife Jean Crawford (1782–1856). Alexander Allan was a first cousin of Robert Burns

Robert Burns

Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...

and a relation of John Galt, the father of the Canadian Minister of Finance, Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt

Alexander Tilloch Galt

Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, GCMG, PC was a politician and a father of Canadian Confederation.He was born in Chelsea, England, the son of Scottish novelist and colonizer, John Galt, and Elizabeth Tilloch Galt. He was a cousin of Sir Hugh Allan.Alexander Galt is interred in the Mount Royal Cemetery...

. Originally a carpenter

Carpenter

A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....

on the estate of Fairlie, North Ayrshire, Hugh's father moved the family to Saltcoats and became the captain and part-owner of a brig

Brig

A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...

, which he named after his wife, 'Jean'. In 1815 he was running supplies from Scotland

Scotland

to the British troops engaged in the Peninsular War

Peninsular War

The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...

. By 1819 he had started the Allan Shipping Line, running dry goods from Greenock

Greenock

Greenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in United Kingdom, and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...

to sell in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

and returning with Canadian produce to sell back in Scotland, a route which quickly became synonymous with the Allan Line.

Hugh Allan received a parish education at Saltcoats before starting work in 1823 at the family's Greenock counting house

Counting house

A counting house, or compting house, literally is the building, room, office or suite in which a business firm carries on operations, particularly accounting. By a synecdoche, it has come to mean the accounting operations of a firm, however housed...

of Allan, Kerr and Company. Three years later Hugh Allan was sent by his father to Montreal to work as a clerk for the grain merchant William Kerr. He left in 1830 to travel for a year, a trip which included Upper Canada

Upper Canada

The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, Scotland and London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

Rise of the Allan Line at Montreal

Returning to Montreal in 1831 he became a commission merchant with one of Montreal’s leading importers. Aided by family and social connections he advanced rapidly within the firm, becoming a partner in 1835 in the now named Millar, Edmonstone & Co., expanding the company's shipping operations with capital from his family in Scotland

Scotland

.

In 1839 Hugh's younger brother, Andrew Allan (1822–1901), joined him in the company, which by then had the largest shipping capacity of any Montreal-based firm. Their eldest brother, James Allan (1808–1880) ran the shore-based aspects of the Allan Line at Greenock

Greenock

and Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, later acquiring Ashcraig House, Skelmorlie

Skelmorlie

Skelmorlie is a village in North Ayrshire, Scotland.Although it is the northernmost settlement in the council area of North Ayrshire it is contiguous with Wemyss Bay, which is in Inverclyde. The dividing line is the Kelly Burn, which flows into the Firth of Clyde just south of the Rothesay ferry...

. Another brother, Bryce Allan (1812–1874), ran the company in at Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

. He later bought Aros House on the Isle of Mull

Isle of Mull

The Isle of Mull or simply Mull is the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland in the council area of Argyll and Bute....

, which his son, Alexander (1844–1927), succeeded to after his death, giving up the shipping business to devote his life to the estate.

Montreal Harbour from the Notre Dame Church, 1863

By 1850 the firm of Millar, Edmonstone & Co., Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, was described by a credit-rating service as an 'old safe & respectable House.' By 1859, Edmonstone, Allan and Company (as it was now known) was 'one of the wealthiest concerns in the Province', known for its responsible management, its links to trading houses in London

London

, Liverpool, and Glasgow, and the spreading of its owners’ influence into allied shipping, railway, and banking concerns. The firm was said to have been 'as good as a Bank', and it continued as one segment of the intricate shipping interests of the Allan family in Scotland, becoming known as H. and A. Allan in 1863.

Allan Royal Mail Line

In 1851 Hugh Allan was elected President of the Montreal Board of Trade

Board of Trade

The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...

. He used his position to persuade the Canadian government to subsidize a regular mail ship to and from London

London

and Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, and London

London

and Portland, Maine

Portland, Maine

Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...

. His firm, Montreal Ocean Steamship Company

Allan Line Royal Mail Steamers

The Allan Shipping Line was started in 1819, by Captain Alexander Allan of Saltcoats, Ayrshire, running dry goods from Greenock to sell in Montreal and returning with Canadian produce to sell back in Scotland, a route which quickly became synonymous with the Allan Line...

used sophisticated ships built in the Clyde

Firth of Clyde

The Firth of Clyde forms a large area of coastal water, sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre peninsula which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire, Scotland. The Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth of Clyde, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran.At...

, and with the help of his political contacts he ousted Samuel Cunard

Samuel Cunard

Sir Samuel Cunard, 1st Baronet was a British shipping magnate, born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, who founded the Cunard Line...

and took control of the mail contract from 1856.

An Allan Royal Mail Line Steamship at Montreal, c.1890

The Allan Line also carried immigrants under government subsidy. By 1859 service was on a weekly basis and Allan reported his capital investment in the company at £3.5 million.

Railway business

Though slow to move into the railway business, by the 1870s Allan had become Canada’s most flamboyant railway entrepreneur. He created a syndicate

Syndicate

A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies or entities formed to transact some specific business, or to promote a common interest or in the case of criminals, to engage in organized crime...

to build the national railway

Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...

, promised as a condition of British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

joining Confederation

Canadian Confederation

Canadian Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed on July 1, 1867. On that day, three British colonies were formed into four Canadian provinces...

. To get the contract, he bribed Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Canada

The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...

Sir John A. Macdonald

John A. Macdonald

Sir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, his political career spanned almost half a century...

, subscribing over $350,000 for Macdonald's re-election campaign in 1872, but the Pacific scandal

Pacific Scandal

The Pacific Scandal was a political scandal in Canada involving allegations of bribes being accepted by the Conservative government in the attempts of private interests to influence the bidding for a national rail contract...

(and Macdonald's defeat) ended his dreams of supremacy in the railway business. However, through his bank, the Merchant's Bank of Canada, he still financed and maintained a vested interest in many of the Canadian railway companies.

Merchant's Bank of Canada

While still in his thirties Allan became a director of the Bank of Montreal

Bank of Montreal

The Bank of Montreal , , or BMO Financial Group, is the fourth largest bank in Canada by deposits. The Bank of Montreal was founded on June 23, 1817 by John Richardson and eight merchants in a rented house in Montreal, Quebec. On May 19, 1817 the Articles of Association were adopted, making it...

and remained on the board for ten years (1847–57). He also held significant shares in the Commercial Bank of Canada, the Bank of Upper Canada

Bank of Upper Canada

The Bank of Upper Canada was a Canadian bank established in 1821 under a Charter granted by the colony of Upper Canada in 1819. The incorporators were William Allan, Robert C. Horne, John Scarlett, Francis Jackson, William W. Baldwin, Alexander Legge, Thomas Ridout, his son Samuel Ridout, D’Arcy...

, the Maritime Bank of the Dominion of Canada and the City Bank of Montreal. He was a director of the Montreal Credit Company and president of the Provincial Permanent Building Society which became the Provincial Loan Company in 1875.

Hugh Allan

Hugh Allan

Sir Hugh Allan, KCMG was a Scottish-born Canadian shipping magnate, railway promoter, financier and capitalist...

founded Merchant's Bank of Canada in Montreal, Quebec in 1864 with a capital of $6.78 million and a reserve fund of $6.8 million.

To service his financial needs and as a source of capital, Allan established the Merchants’ Bank of Canada. Run as a family business, it was chartered in 1861 but did not open until 1864. Allan served as president of the bank until his death when he was succeeded by his brother, Andrew. The bank soon became known as one of Canada's most aggressive. They took over the failing Commercial Bank of Canada and by the mid 1870's had branches in New York

New York

and London

London

.

The Merchant's Bank on St. James Street, Montreal, 1870

Allan's association with the bank facilitated his growth in other profitable ventures. Allan had interests in new communications technology, manufacturing, and mining. In 1852, he became president of the Montreal Telegraph Company, ultimately selling MTC's "telephone plant" to Bell Telephone

Bell Telephone

Bell Telephone may refer to:* Bell Telephone Company, several telephone companies with similar names* Bell Telephone Building , various* The Bell Telephone Hour, a long-running radio and television concert program...

for $75,000. He also established coal mines in Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

and factories for textile

Textile

A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...

s, shoes, paper, tobacco, and iron and steel in Central Canada

Central Canada

Central Canada is a region consisting of Canada's two largest and most populous provinces: Ontario and Quebec. Due to their high populations, Ontario and Quebec have traditionally held a significant amount of political power in Canada, leading to some amount of resentment from other regions of the...

.
The Merchants Bank Building on 92-94 Water Street, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island built 92-94 Water Street built 1871 is on the Registry of Historical Places of Canada.

Family life and death

In 1860, Hugh bought the estate of Simon McTavish

Simon McTavish

Simon McTavish was a Scots-Quebecer entrepreneur and the pre-eminent businessman in Canada during the second half of the 18th century.-Biography:...

and demolished the old manor house that stood there to make way for his new home, Ravenscrag, a sumptuous Italian Renaissance

Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...

house on the slopes of Mount Royal. The house, which then only rivalled Dundurn Castle

Dundurn Castle

Dundurn Castle is a historic neoclassical mansion on York Boulevard in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The house took three years and $175,000.00 to build, and was completed in 1835....

in scale and grandeur, was completed in three years in 1863, and the ballroom alone could comfortably accommodate several hundred guests. After his death it was lived in by the Allan's second son, H. Montagu Allan

H. Montagu Allan

Sir Hugh Andrew Montague Allan, CVO was a Canadian banker, ship owner, and a sportsman who donated the Allan Cup, the trophy symbolic of men's amateur ice hockey supremacy in Canada.-Early life:...

, until he donated it to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal in 1940. The Allans entertained Prince Arthur of Connaught

Prince Arthur of Connaught

Prince Arthur of Connaught and Strathearn was a member of the British Royal Family, a grandson of Queen Victoria. Prince Arthur held the title of a British prince with the style His Royal Highness...

, Lord Lisgar, Earl of Dufferin

Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava

Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, KP, GCB, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, PC was a British public servant and prominent member of Victorian society...

, Viscount Wolseley

Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley

Field Marshal Garnet Joseph Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley, KP, GCB, OM, GCMG, VD, PC was an Anglo-Irish officer in the British Army. He served in Burma, the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny, China, Canada, and widely throughout Africa—including his Ashanti campaign and the Nile Expedition...

etc.

At Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, August 13th, 1844, Hugh Allan married Matilda Caroline Smith (1828–1881), daughter of John Smith of Athelstane Hall, one of Montreal's wealthiest dry goods merchants.
Lady Allan was the mother of five sons and eight daughters. Lady Caroline Mathilda Allan died in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, June, 1881, aged 53.

Their eldest son, Alexander Allan (d. June 29, 1901), married Eva Belford Travers, daughter of John N. Travers and a niece of General James Travers

James Travers

General James Travers VC CB was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces....

V.C. The couple lived quietly on King Street in Brockville, Ontario

Brockville, Ontario

Brockville is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Though it serves as the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, Brockville is politically independent and is grouped with Leeds and Grenville for census purposes only.Known as the "City of the 1000...

, where he managed the Bank of Montreal

Bank of Montreal

office, with their one son. Their second son, Sir H. Montagu Allan

H. Montagu Allan

Sir Hugh Andrew Montague Allan, CVO was a Canadian banker, ship owner, and a sportsman who donated the Allan Cup, the trophy symbolic of men's amateur ice hockey supremacy in Canada.-Early life:...

inherited Ravenscrag. Their daughter Phoebe Mary Allan married March 1st, 1877, Captain George Lauderdale Houstoun-Boswall

Houstoun-Boswall Baronets

The Houstoun, later Houstoun-Boswall Baronetcy, is a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom.The title was created on 19 July 1836 for General William Houstoun. The second Baronet was a Colonel in the Grenadier Guards. In 1847 he assumed by Royal license the additional surname of Boswall on...

, 3rd Bart., grandson of General Sir William Houston, 1st Baronet

Sir William Houston, 1st Baronet

General Sir William Houston, 1st Baronet, GCB, GCH was a General in the British Army and the Governor of Gibraltar.-Military career:...

. Lady Boswall was the mother of one daughter and two sons.

After Hugh's death at Edinburgh, Scotland, December, 1882, at aged 72 the Allan businesses were continued by his brother, Andrew Allan (1822–1901), and after his death, by Hugh's second son, Sir H. Montagu Allan

H. Montagu Allan

Sir Hugh Andrew Montague Allan, CVO was a Canadian banker, ship owner, and a sportsman who donated the Allan Cup, the trophy symbolic of men's amateur ice hockey supremacy in Canada.-Early life:...

. Hugh Allan was knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

ed by Queen Victoria in 1871, for his services in connection with the development of ocean steam navigation with Canada. He died in 1882 whilst visiting relatives in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, of a heart attack, soon after his wife's death. His remains were brought back to Montreal where he is was buried. Sir Hugh Allan was one of the wealthiest men in the world at his death.

External links

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