Capt John Brand - Modern Major General

John Brand was born in Essex, London in 1810

In 1857, Brand became part owner in a Sunday Steamer called the Petrel on the Clyde. This website, More Sunday Steamers, has a fascinating history. 

The Dunoon Castle captained by John Brand

http://www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?ref=22792#v

As noted on the Sunday Steamer webpage, Brand also owned the OddFellows Saloon at 31 Saltmarket in the late 1850s. 

The image below from the British Library by the photographer Thomas Annan  is titled 31 Saltmarket from a decade or so later. 

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/earlyphotos/c/006zzz00lr404g8u00026000.html

Another singing saloon that Brand owned for a time was the Brittania Theatre at 115 Trongate which has a prominent history in theatre, including one of the first to show silent films and one of the first stages where Stan Laurel of Lauren & Hardy performed. 

This book by Paul Maloney, The Brittania Panopticon Music Hall  includes much more detailed history of the theatre especially regarding the liquor licensing and the intimate relationships between the two types of institutions. 

Brand advertised his New Year's line-up of performers:

Yankee Smith was a blackface performer. 

Brand had three daughters out of wedlock with Sarah Louden although his death record includes her as a wife. The three girls were: Rosina, Mary, and Louisa. (Another record shows the mother's name was Louise Alfine.) Brand turned over his shares in his steamships to his first three children. In the 1871 census, the three girls live on the Isle of Bute, in Glenbeg House. One can see the house and its beautiful views on Google maps at 56 Ardbeg Road.

That same year, John Brand lived on George Street in St. David Parish and Mary Wilson was his domestic.

John Brand appears in the 1881 Postal Directory, steamboat owner, 48 Gallowgate. That address belongs to MacKinnons tavern which does not show ownership by John Brand. It may have been a typo as he lived at 88 Gallowgate in other directories.

http://content.iriss.org.uk/goldenbridge/nof/assets/1881_delivery.pdf

John Brand died of Acute Bronchitis on November 16, 1880. He had given over his share of the Dunoon Castle Steamboat to his three daughters. As such, his widow Mary inherited some furniture and household items.

Unable to care for her children, Mary took two of their three children to the City Orphan Home.

David Brand and his sister Helen were admitted to care of the Orphan Houses on 23 August 1881.



https://www.theglasgowstory.com/image/?inum=TGSE00371


We know that Mary visited her children but, ultimately, David was sent as a "child migrant" to Canada on 22 March 1882. Helen was sent three years later on 13th June 1885. Helen and David's story is linked here: Helen and David Brand

Mary was planning to take the youngest, Willie to the Quarriers, too, but he was disabled and they couldn't accept him to be adopted. Willie lived in a state-sponsored orphan home where he learned to tailor and supported himself that way for the rest of his life.

John Brand died intestate but his probate is shown below. The records from Quarriers indicate that Mary eventually remarried.

Rosina Brand had moved to Edinburgh and died in 1939. Her sister is listed still living in Glasgow.