The McInnes of Dunbarton

John McInnes 1828 - 1866 was a textile worker who moved to Paisley at the age of 20. He had already been working 12 hr days every day except Sundays for 7 years!

He grew up in Bonhill, Dunbartonshire, the third of Alexander McInnes and Agnes Campbell’s ten children. The family were originally from Cardross and moved to Bonhill for work in the cotton print works. All the children worked there after they left school, usually at the age of 14.

Cardross(purple) Bonhill(red) Paisley (blue)

Cotton first arrived from the U.S. in 1760 to the port of Glasgow. Bonhill was the perfect place for printing calico cloth as it was on the River Leven which flowed from Loch Lomond and down to the Clyde. The water was pure and perfect for the many cycles of washing that were needed during the complex process of dying and printing.

Before chemical dyes were invented dyes were made using rancid oil, sheep blood and manure. The process had 38 steps and took 4 months. The base ingredient for the color red was madder root which had been used by the Greeks and Romans. It was known as Turkey Red.

Teenagers started off as general laborers and then after a couple of years moved into specialized areas such as bleaching or printing.

Agnes was a calico block printer. Alexander was a cloth field scourer. It was a really hard life.

This map is a detail of Bonhill showing the Dalmonach Print Works. The McInnes family lived nearby on Susannah Street (mid left) in 1841 and had moved to Alexander Street by 1851.

I can find their addresses and see the occupations of the parents and the children. Then I look up a map of the area on the National Library of Scotland site. These engraved maps are incredibly detailed and easy to enlarge online.

Bonhill in the 1830s: Dalmonach Print Works

John was my great great grandfather. When he moved to Paisley he worked as a calico printer. His first wife was Margaret Hamilton, a grocer at Blackland Mill. She died and then he married Ann Raeburn Templeton in Paisley, the daughter of a grocer at Blackland Mill. They had three children before John died young at 38 of typhoid fever. Ann lived to age 76, working as a draper, a hosier, and a housekeeper after John died.

The Munros of Cromarty

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