John Macgregor - Tod and Macgregor

Tod and Macgregor

In 1833 Macgregor and his friend David Tod formed a partnership to build steam engines themselves. The partnership Tod and Macgregor was initially based at Carrick Street, Glasgow in 1834. The business grew quickly and moved to a larger property in Worroch Street, where they added boiler making to their engineering activities.

Towards the end of 1836 Tod and Macgregor opened a shipbuilding yard on the south bank of the Clyde at Mavisbank. Finally in 1845 the firm moved to a new purpose built yard at Meadowside in the Borough of Partick. Tod and Macgregor were described as "the fathers of iron shipbuilding on the Clyde", building famous ships such as the City of Glasgow and the City of Paris.

In about 1830 he is assumed to have married Margaret Fleming (born 23 March 1809), the daughter of James Fleming and Margaret Biggar. Together they had seven children, of whom two boys and three girls survived.

In 1834 John was to be found at 90 Carrick Street, but by 1841 had moved to Clydebank with Margaret and the family, who were found there at the time of the 1841 census. In 1845 he gave his address as Rutland Place; which may have been the same as Clydebank. The family must have moved as the shipyard went to Meadowside in 1846 as John was registered as living at Meadowside House, Partick in 1848.

On the 18th September 1848 Margaret Fleming died, the cause is not known, she was only 39. Two and a half years later on the 9th of March 1851 John married Margaret York (born 20 April 1823), the daughter of William York and Janet Masterton, at Barony, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland.

At the time of the 1851 census, Margaret York, and the children from John's first marriage were found at Meadowside House in Partick. John had two further children with Margaret York:

William York (WY) Macgregor born Finnart, Dunbartonshire, 14 October 1855; died Oban, 28 September 1923

Peter Macgregor born 21 February 1857 at Partick; Died Hove, Sussex 22 April 1901

In around 1874, after the deaths of both David Tod and John Macgregor, the shipbuilding business was sold and renamed as D. and W. Henderson and Company.