John Campbell

Who is John Campbell?

John Campbell was a successful businessman who settled in the Falkirk, Scotland area in the nineteenth century.

He was born in 1834 in Kilmartin, Craignish in Argyllshire to James Campbell and Elizabeth McPherson. About 1873 John came to Redding from Glasgow as a storeman at the Redding Coal Company and then organised the shipping of coal on the Union Canal. He set up his own coal sales business later with sons James and Colin.

He also inherited property in Glasgow and a street in Stirling from his wife's family and built each of his five surviving children a house in the area. His first wife, Jane Hodgson, died of consumption in 1873. Three of their children, Margaret, George and Margaret Jane, died young in the 18 months prior to Jane's death. Edward, the eldest, became a seaman and was never heard from again. Edward Campbell was left a significant sum of money by his uncle in Glasgow, but was never traced. John Campbell's second marriage, to Janet Morrison, produced six further sons, James, William, John, Robert, Colin and Alexander, who built Craigenhall, a 14-bedroom mansionhouse off the prestigious Camelon Road in Woodlands, Falkirk and Craiglinn on Gartcows Crescent.

He was a Master Mason and was fluent in Gaelic.