ADAM DRYSDALE (1806-1886) OF MONTREAL

[William Douglas]

ADAM DRYSDALE (1806-1886) OF MONTREAL, His Ancestors, Descendants and
Related Families (1987) by Alpin Ogilvie Drysdale, can really be sub-titled The
Drysdales of Dunfermline, Montreal, and Newfoundland, for the families were all
connected. The families can be traced back to Dunfermline to the Thomas Drysdale
who married Janet Walker. They had 3 children: Adam (b 1738), who married Margaret
Thomson in Inverkeithing in 1762; William (b 1740), who married Catherine
Cunningham in Dunfermline, also in 1762; and Elsped (born Dalgety, 1747). The
Montreal Drysdales descend from Adam and the Newfoundland from William, Adam's
son, Captain Adam Drysdale (1767-1849) married Torryburn, 1795, Grisal Magdalene
Robertson (d 1835). His early history has been lost, but not that of his career as a
master mariner. Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars he went into partnership with
Captain Alexander Allan of the Canadian Allan Line and built their first brigs, the Jean in
1819 and the Favourite in 1825, to transport goods and emigrants to the New World
from Glasgow to Montreal, including the first Scottish emigrants to Canada. In 1837
Captain Drysdale retired from the sea and he and his son, also Adam Drysdale (1806-
1886) settled at St Andrews East near Montreal, but the father only remained there six
years. The son was quickly followed to Canada by his fiancee, Mary Black (1810-1902),
also from Dunfermline, who from her great-grandmother, Ann Wardlaw, married to
Robert Mudie in Balmule (1766), could claim descent from the noble Wardlaw line and
through them to King Robert the Bruce. In 1842 the yr Drysdale, who had been trained
as a wheelwright, moved to Montreal, and branching out into the construction business
with a new partner, Robert Allan, they became today's equivalents of developers; many
of their subsequent building endeavours took place in the central section of the city.
Thus, firmly established Adam Drysdale and Mary Black were the progenitors of the
Montreal branch of the family. As stated earlier the Newfoundland branch of the family
stem from William Drysdale (b 1740) in Dunfermline. From him four Adam Drysdales
followed in succession. The third Adam (b 1803) was a blacksmith in the Hydepark
Locomotive Works in Glasgow. His son, Adam Drysdale (1832-1921), born Dollar, Aug
31 1832, married Jeanie McKersay in Glasgow on Dec 31 1868, and worked with Wylie
and Lochhead, a fashionable Glasgow store, from 1860 until his retirement. His only
son, Adam (b 1871) and grandson, William (1906-1985), were both newspaper printers
in Glasgow. The third son of the last Adam, Charles Drysdale, also started out in the
newspaper printing trade, but qualified as a chartered accountant, and went to
Newfoundland in 1928, where, as well as becoming a founding member of the
Newfoundland Institute of Chartered Accountants, was also the progenitor of the
Newfoundland Drysdales, by his wife, Claire Murray