Introduction
William Gray was the 4th child and 3rd son of Alexander Gray, who was the village baker in Aboyne between 1828 and 1876. William followed in his father’s footsteps and entered the baking trade but it is not known if he served his apprenticeship in his father’s establishment or elsewhere. At the Census of 1851, William, described as a confectioner and presumably time-served, was living in lodgings at 115 Gallowgate, a street which runs north from Marischal College in the centre of Aberdeen. He had moved out of the rather crowded family home in rural Aboyne for the big city on the coast, 40 miles away. William’s landlady was Ellen Anderson, whose lodging house had three other male lodgers in addition to William. Also at home was Susan, 22-year-old daughter of Ellen, who was probably employed by her mother to support the lodging enterprise. Susan and William must have been attracted to each other, because they were subsequently married at nearby St Nicholas Church in July 1853.
Bakery established in Banchory
William Gray was the 4th child and 3rd son of Alexander Gray, who was the village baker in Aboyne between 1828 and 1876. William followed in his father’s footsteps and entered the baking trade but it is not known if he served his apprenticeship in his father’s establishment or elsewhere. At the Census of 1851, William, described as a confectioner and presumably time-served, was living in lodgings at 115 Gallowgate, a street which runs north from Marischal College in the centre of Aberdeen. He had moved out of the rather crowded family home in rural Aboyne for the big city on the coast, 40 miles away. William’s landlady was Ellen Anderson, whose lodging house had three other male lodgers in addition to William. Also at home was Susan, 22-year-old daughter of Ellen, who was probably employed by her mother to support the lodging enterprise. Susan and William must have been attracted to each other, because they were subsequently married at nearby St Nicholas Church in July 1853.
Bakery established in Banchory
Between July 1853 and November 1855, when their first child,
Andrew, was born in Banchory Ternan (now more usually known simply as “Banchory”)
a village on the north bank of the River Dee, about half way between Aberdeen
and William’s home village of Aboyne, he appears to have become established in
his own baking premises on the south side of Banchory Ternan’s High Street. He was probably following his father in
seeking to run his own bakery, rather than work for others. Alexander Gray had had a similar start in
life, but he had started a new bakery business in Aboyne at the age of 22. Apparently, the Banchory Ternan business was
well-established and had previously been run by a Miss Torry. William would have been a tenant of the
property but would probably have had to buy out the stock, equipment and
goodwill of the business. He may thus have
been indebted at this stage of his career.
Bankruptcy and Revival
Bankruptcy and Revival
For some years, until 1863, William’s bakery seems to have
been operated successfully. At the 1861
Census William was employing a baker, George Smart and two domestic servants. At the same time his family was growing. Son Alexander (1857) and daughters Margaret
(1859), Ann (1861) and Susan (1863) were all born in Banchory Ternan. But then disaster struck. In June 1863 William was declared
bankrupt. The reason for his bankruptcy
is not known but it can be speculated that he may have been having difficulty
servicing debts associated with acquiring the business. In July 1863 both the property that William
was occupying and the bakery business were separately put up for sale. The property consisted of two cottages with
gardens attached, one cottage being occupied by William Gray and the other by
Mr Ross, a coachbuilder. The cottages,
to be sold by public roup, were offered at an upset price of £250. The then current rental of the cottages was
£33/year and, as was usual in Scotland, there was a feu duty (ground rent) to
pay. The stock and equipment of the
bakery business and household furniture of the Grays was advertised for sale on
6th August.
This must have been a difficult and very disheartening time
for William Gray. He was about to lose
his home, business and many of his possessions.
How would he support his young family of 5, ranging from 8 years down to
2 months? However, the situation was
recovered by some means because in 1871 William was still operating as a baker
in Banchory Ternan, apparently from the same premises and seemed to be doing
well, since he now employed 4 men and a domestic servant. His sister, Martha, a 16-year-old scholar,
was also in the house. How was this
turn-around achieved? When Alexander
Gray died in 1876 he owned property in Banchory and son William owed rent to
his father. It is likely that Alexander stepped in to the
rescue in 1863 by buying the premises from which William was operating,
together with the adjacent cottage and renting the bakery back to William. Alexander may also have settled William’s
debts, removing the need for a sale of his possessions. Circumstantial evidence for this suggestion
is that there is no report in the local newspapers of the outcome of the sale
and William, unlike other brothers and sisters, was not a beneficiary of his
father’s will. Perhaps he had received
his share early? In subsequent years
William had tenants on the parts of the property which he did not occupy. Mr George Gordon, a house painter, occupied a
workshop owned or managed by William Gray at least between 1886 and 1891 and in
1887 William advertised “To
carpenters. To let at Martinmas the long
established premises presently occupied by Mr Lumsden, who is leaving owing to
other arrangements. Seldom such an
opning occurs. The stock has been
greatly reduced and will be given over to the incoming tenant if wanted”. In 1894 rents were being collected on his
behalf.
Incidents affecting the Bakery
Incidents affecting the Bakery
The Baking
business run by William Gray suffered a number of dramatic events over the
years. In December 1876, the Banchory
area suffered a severe snowstorm followed by two days of heavy rain which
caused extensive flooding in the town.
There was a foot of water on the road between the town and the station
and the main street was ridged with sand and stones which had been washed off
the fields above the village.
Properties, especially on the south side of the main street suffered
badly. William Gray had been storing
barrels of flour on the ground floor of the Hall and these were badly damaged,
along with a large quantity of leather belonging to Mr Craigmile.
In September 1886
Mary Birse, the wife of James Birse, General Merchant in Banchory was charged
with fire-raising at two sites, one being a shed belonging to William Gray,
where she was accused of setting light to some straw. The shed was destroyed and the fire spread to
the workshop where George Gordon the house painter stored paints, varnishes and
oils. That building was also
destroyed. The other site affected as a
store containing cut firewood belonging to David Russell, General Merchant. Mrs Birse pleaded not guilty at Stonehaven
Jury Court and, since the evidence against her was entirely circumstantial, she
was found not guilty.
A burglary was
committed against William Gray’s shop in1894.
Thieves managed to gain entry to the bakehouse through a locked door and
then broke into the adjacent shop by cutting a hole, big enough for a hand to
reach through, in the connecting door.
The key to this door had foolishly been left hanging in the lock. There was a locked safe in the office which
was also entered and £4 in coinage taken.
Interestingly, William detected the forced entry when he went to the
bakehouse at 3.30am to start work.
Banchory had its own town gas producer, the Banchory Gas and Light Company. In 1894 William Gray was a major customer of
the Company, presumably using gas to heat his bread ovens. However, in that year he was sued by the
Banchory Gas and Light Company for payment of a gas bill of £10 1s 10d. William defended his position on the grounds
that he had indeed paid the account. The
circumstances under which this dispute arose were unusual and of more than
passing legal interest. A solicitor by
the name of Stuart was practising in Banchory at the time and had been engaged
by William Gray as his agent to collect rent due from his tenants, which in
June 1894 amounted to £12 10s. Mr Stuart’s
clerk informed William that the rents had been collected and, in response,
William instructed Mr Stuart, via his clerk, that the gas company account
should be settled. The complication
arose from the fact that Mr Stuart also acted as treasurer to Banchory Gas and
Light Company. The clerk passed on
William Gray’s instruction to his boss and the message was passed back to
William that the matter was being attended to.
He accepted on trust that his instruction had been carried out and did
not ask for a receipt. He only found out
that the account was still outstanding when he received a communication from
the gas company. Mr Steuart proved to be
a fraudulent member of the legal profession and had been collecting money on
behalf of the gas company, not just from William Gray but from others too and
not crediting it to the company. He
absconded before the local police could feel his collar. The judge was left to decide whether, when Mr
Stuart absconded with the money he was holding was it in his capacity as agent
of William Gray or as treasurer of the gas company. Sadly, the case went against William Gray,
though the judge accepted this decision was hard on him because his “good faith
was beyond all suspicion”. It has not
been uncovered whether the long arm of the law finally caught up with Steuart. The impact of Steuart’s behaviour was even
more extreme on the gas company. They
lost £470 and had to resort to calling up 1s 6d per share from their
shareholders to cover their debt.
William had another brush with the law in 1882 when he was charged with
carrying a gun without having the necessary licence. He attended a shooting match at Dee Bank in April
1882. William owned a gun but had lent it
to George Craigmile jr that day. At the
match Craigmile realised that the wrong barrel had been attached to the stock
and mentioned this to William Gray. As a
result he picked the gun up to examine it and, on confirming the mistake, made
arrangements for the correct barrel to be collected and delivered. Some eagle-eyed busy-body must have noticed
this transient handling of the gun.
William was charged with carrying a gun for which he did not hold an
appropriate licence, to which he pleaded “not guilty”. The JP on the bench clearly realised that the
law was in danger of making an ass of itself over this trivial transgression
and found William not guilty on the grounds of insufficient evidence. These incidents show that William was a
law-abiding and principled man, ready to stand his ground if he thought he
stood on the right side of the law.
Success
Success
After his recovery from bankruptcy, William’s business appears to have
been consistently successful. In 1871 he
was employing four men and a domestic servant and there was a similar level of
employment in the bakery in 1881. From
1886 onwards there was a steady stream of advertisements in the local paper for
bakery staff at various levels - foreman, haflin, ovensman, journeyman,
apprentice, vanman. The advertisements
reached a crescendo towards the end of the 1890s and through to 1902, when
William died. This probably reflects his
increasing ill-health and the need to employ more staff with the decline in his
capacity for physical work as his kidneys progressively deteriorated. A second peak in advertisements occurred
during WW1, which probably reflected the difficulty of recruiting men during
wartime, with so many away on active service.
After their father’s death in 1902, the bakery and shop was run for
many years by William’s two unmarried daughters, Susan and Helen, though the
trading name “William Gray” was retained.
A gruesome accident
In 1910 the sisters must have suffered a deep shock from the occurrence of a gruesome accident on their premises. This was a time of growth in the use of telephones, especially by the landed proprietors, the professions and trades. John Davidson, who took over Alexander Gray’s bakery in Aboyne was one of the first local users of the new technology and sported the telephone number 6. On 15th September 1910, George Nicol, a telephone linesman was engaged in relocating telephone lines in Banchory and was working on the roof of the engine house of the William Gray bakery when he fell through the roof onto the engine and was crushed to death between the flywheel and the body of the engine.
Coasting along
A gruesome accident
In 1910 the sisters must have suffered a deep shock from the occurrence of a gruesome accident on their premises. This was a time of growth in the use of telephones, especially by the landed proprietors, the professions and trades. John Davidson, who took over Alexander Gray’s bakery in Aboyne was one of the first local users of the new technology and sported the telephone number 6. On 15th September 1910, George Nicol, a telephone linesman was engaged in relocating telephone lines in Banchory and was working on the roof of the engine house of the William Gray bakery when he fell through the roof onto the engine and was crushed to death between the flywheel and the body of the engine.
Coasting along
With the business being left in the hands of two spinster daughters and
son Alexander following a different path, there was no succession plan and the
impression given after 1910 was of a business coasting along, probably
surviving on its name, reputation and its prominent position in Banchory High Street. The sisters appear to have been amiable
employers. Alexander Taylor went to work
for them in 1903 and was still working there in 1945, so they were able to
retain staff. When the ladies took over
from their father in 1902, Susan and Helen were 39 and 38 years old
respectively. It is not clear for how
long they went on managing the business.
In 1911 they were living in a house with 6 rooms and each was described
as “Proprietrix of Bakery”. They did not
have much public profile in the town and since they were trading under the name
of their father, the management of the company was opaque. When they advertised employment positions
they did this under the name of the business.
They even used this personal anonymity in 1932 when one of them lost a
purse and then advertised for its return.
Job advertisements for the bakery and shop declined substantially after
1920 and an advertisement for a bookkeeper in 1937 (when the sisters were 74
and 73 respectively) may indicate that the sisters were progressively
withdrawing from managing the business.
New ownership
In 1940 the sisters advertised for a baker for scones and cakes, so they were presumably still in control at that time but by 1945 the business had been taken over by one of their competitors, Mr James M Burnett, an active Banchory citizen and businessman, who was Provost of the town at least between 1939 and 1945. Interestingly, the bakery in Aboyne which had been founded by William Gray’s father in 1828 and subsequently managed by Benjamin Gray, his brother, John Davidson, his brother-in-law and William Davidson, his nephew, was taken over in 1945 by a new company, William Gray (Bakers) Ltd, the Bakery, Aboyne, whose directors were James M Burnett and Edith E Burnett. Edith Burnett managed the Aboyne bakery and, presumably, James Burnett looked after the Banchory operation. The sisters Susan and Helen did not long survive after their exit from the Banchory bakery. Susan died at her home “Bona Vista” in the town at the end of 1945 and her sister followed her in 1948.
William Gray dies
New ownership
In 1940 the sisters advertised for a baker for scones and cakes, so they were presumably still in control at that time but by 1945 the business had been taken over by one of their competitors, Mr James M Burnett, an active Banchory citizen and businessman, who was Provost of the town at least between 1939 and 1945. Interestingly, the bakery in Aboyne which had been founded by William Gray’s father in 1828 and subsequently managed by Benjamin Gray, his brother, John Davidson, his brother-in-law and William Davidson, his nephew, was taken over in 1945 by a new company, William Gray (Bakers) Ltd, the Bakery, Aboyne, whose directors were James M Burnett and Edith E Burnett. Edith Burnett managed the Aboyne bakery and, presumably, James Burnett looked after the Banchory operation. The sisters Susan and Helen did not long survive after their exit from the Banchory bakery. Susan died at her home “Bona Vista” in the town at the end of 1945 and her sister followed her in 1948.
William Gray dies
William Gray died from kidney failure in 1902, though the underlying
cause of his illness was not known. He was
interred in the Banchory Ternan churchyard on 10th January 1903. As the cortege passed through the village on
the way from the house to the burial ground, the shops of the town were closed,
as befitted the passing of one so popular in the community. His wife did not survive him for long. She died on 9th January of 1903,
one day before her husband’s funeral.
They were reunited on 13th of that month. The Grays’ only surviving son, Alexander did
not follow his father into the baking business but instead found employment
with the Northern Assurance Company in Aberdeen. Sadly, he suffered an early demise, dying
suddenly in 1907.
William Gray - a good citizen
William Gray - a good citizen
William was often involved in good deeds in the town, either
through the Oddfellows (a Friendly Society) or simply as an act of
kindness. In 1875 a fellow trader, Miss
Ann Hogg died and William was involved in the winding up of her estate, placing
an advertisement in the local paper, asking those indebted to Miss Hogg to make
payment to him within 10 days. Local
farmers and their employees frequently held competitive ploughing matches in
the winter months. Traders in the area
would often donate prizes for these competitions as a way of saying “thank you”
to their customers and of attracting future trade. Such a match was held at Durris in February
1880 to which William donated a special prize.
The Banchory Ternan Lodge of Oddfellows organised an annual picnic for
their members, which, in 1891 was held on the Market Hillock in early July. There were athletic sports and dancing to the
Banchory Brass Band. William Gray made a
handsome donation to the prize fund and served an excellent tea. In 1895 he donated bread rolls to the
Banchory Soup Kitchen. Banchory was not
considered to be in the Highlands but in the late 19th century, any
town with a significant tourist trade, as Banchory had, was almost obliged to
include such an event in its programme of summer events. William Gray was a subscriber to the 4th
Banchory Highland Games in 1901.
The character of William Gray
The character of William Gray
Being declared bankrupt in 1863 must have been a sobering
experience for William and his family.
He must have learned that in business you cannot take anything for
granted and that you must plan for the worst, while working for success. For the rest of his life his focus seems to
have been firmly upon his business and, while he was a member of the Freemasons,
a member of the town council, an Oddfellow, a sergeant in the Deeside
Volunteers, a budgerigar breeder and a founder member of the Banchory Draughts
Club, he does not seem to have played a leadership role in any of these
organisations, unlike other relatives who were located in Aboyne. When William died in 1902 his obituary in the
local newspaper emphasised his business focus. It was reported that “He started business in the village in the
early fifties and carried it on with vigour and success right up to his death”
though in the last few years he was restricted to a management role. “He
was a thorough businessman and kept his establishment well up to date. Twelve years ago he greatly extended his
premises and introduced improved plant.
He was a man of sterling honesty and of a very generous spirit and was very
popular in the community”.
Don Fox
20141222
donaldpfox@gmail.com
donaldpfox@gmail.com
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