Number 32 - Information on residents

1817 – 1861 William PatrickWilliam Patrick (portrait by Robert Isaac Cruikshank - collection University of Edinburgh) was a solicitor (WS) and worked with two other solicitors in the firm of Patrick, McEwan & Carment.

In 1807, Patrick purchased the lands of Roughwood and Millburn, near Beith in Ayrshire, from his brother Robert Patrick. The properties had originally passed to William Shedden, an uncle of the Patricks, but he had moved to America and having lost property in Virginia as a result of American independence, moved to Bermuda and finally settled in New York, never to return to Roughwood. On the death of Shedden, Robert Patrick avoided a judicial sale of the estate by paying the value of his late uncle's estate. Having bought the estate, William went on to purchase further land in the area, thereby acquiring what had originally been the estates belonging to both his mother and grandmother. William was responsible for many local improvements to his estates, including employing the builder and mason Robert Snodgrass to construct the Barnweil Monument, near Ayr, to the memory of William Wallace.

William was a member of The Maitland Club, a Scottish historical and literary club and text publication society. It took its name from Sir Richard Maitland (later Lord Lethington), the Scottish poet. The club was founded in Glasgow in 1828, to edit and publish early Scottish texts. Since the distribution of the publications was usually limited to members, the typical print run was between seventy and a hundred copies. The club was wound up in 1859, after publishing its own history as its 80th volume.

He subscribed to a range of appeals, including, in 1850, one to assist 37 Hungarian exiles who had been expelled from Hamburg and had arrived at Leith on their way to America. These would have been members of the ‘Forty-Eighters’, Hungarians who had supported the revolutions that swept Europe at this time. Threatened by their government they were forced to emigrate.

Patrick Street in Greenock is named after William Patrick as his firm Patrick, McEwan & Carment, were carrying our significant legal business for the local estate owners, the Stewart family, when the street was formed.

William died unmarried in 1861 at the age of 92.

1861 – 1902 Offices of Patrick, McEwen and Carment (later McEwen and Carment)

Following William Patrick’s death, his two partners, John Carment and James McEwen. continued to use the house as chambers. Thus this was the second house in the street to become primarily business premises during the nineteenth century. The firm’s name was changed later to McEwen and Carment. Resident in 1871 were Matthew and Margaret Reid, who acted as house-porter and house-keeper.

Around 1879, the firm was renamed Carment, Wedderburn and Watson as, following McEwen’s leaving or death, Joseph Wedderburn and Graham Watson joined John Carment. Joseph Wedderburn and Graham Watson had both become solicitors in 1876.

John Carment (photo) was a prominent SSC. He married Marion Anderson in 1855, but they had no children. He was active in the church but had a dark secret. Earlier in his life he had fathered an illegitimate son with Catherine McDowell (or McDonnell). However, clearly his religious genes were passed on, as his illegitimate son became the Reverend John Carment Urquhart of the Baptist Church. He was a leading biblical fundamentalist and founded the Perth Bible Institute in Western Australia. Although John Carment eventually gave his son some financial help, he does not appear to have acknowledged him otherwise. A fellow lawyer, relating memories of past colleagues, recalled Carment: ‘Then there was noble-minded John Carment. After an hour’s business in his room in Albany Street, he said to a minister he was advising, with his great, blazing, Highland, mystical eyes – “Noo, ha’e ye any word for an auld sinner?” That was John Carment in a nutshell. He was a most perfect Christian gentleman, the most liberal-minded and liberal-handed in Edinburgh; but to himself he was always “an auld sinner”. By 1891, the house was still primarily chambers, with the son of Matthew and Margaret, Henry and his wife Helen, resident in the roles of porter and house-keeper. The firm of Carment Wedderburn & Watson continued into the 20th century and, in 1922, merged with Guild & Shepherd to become Shepherd and Wedderburn, a major legal firm today. In 1902 the house was advertised for sale for £1,100.