Leys, Masson and Co

of Aberdeen

Leys, Still and Co., afterwards known as Leys Masson & Co., started a manufactory for linen thread and cloth at Gordon’s Mills, later known as Grandholm Works. Note: Gordon's Mills and Grandholm Works were possibly separate establishments on opposite sides of the River Don.

1749 First mill opened on the north bank of the Don by Leys, Masson and Co. This was Gordon's Mills.

1792/3 Cut a canal on the north side of the River Don to convey water for their bleach works. Court case in 1829.

1805. Advert. Dutch Flax. Leys, Masson and Co.

1822 Occupying the Weaver's Shop in Regent Street.

1827 Mention of Leys, Masson and Co, at Grandholm Mill.

1830. 'Landed Interests - A case, which beautifully exemplifies the zeal which the aristocracy feel in the improvement of the country, was tried in the Court of Session at Edinburgh the other day. The great house of Leys, Masson, and Co, at Aberdeen, have a manufactory and bleachfield situated on a meadow on the right hank of the Don, immediately above ”Black Balgonie’s Brig.” The erections have cost more than £200,000; the number of work people directly employed, amounts to nearly one thousand; the mere weekly wages exceed £700. This splendid establishment has existed for more than thirty years. It might have been imagined that a sense its manifold benefits would have gained access, by dint of repeated application, to the sensoriums of the lairds in the neighbourhood; but the heads of lairds are not so penetrated. So far were the aristocracy on the Don from estimating aright the praiseworthy and successful efforts of those respectable merchants, that four of them actually joined to destroy the manufactory altogether - and why? because, as was alleged, a dam built across the river, for the purpose of supplying the water necessary for carrying it on, intercepted the salmon fishery in the upper part of the stream, - a fishery worth to the lairds and the community, it may be, about a tithe of the sum per annum, the manufactory paid to its workmen in week. The names of the persons who coolly set themselves, for the supposed annual advantage some hundred foul fish, to destroy the fortunes of a most respectable firm, and to take the bread out of the mouths of eight or ten thousand individuals, mediately or immediately supported by them, deserve to be recorded. They were - Lord Forbes, Sir John Forbes of Cragievar, John Farquharson, Esq. of Haughton, and Hugh Gordon, Esq. of Manor. It was clearly proved that the dam did not affect the mighty Interests of the noble and worshipful complainants, and therefore the jury found at once for the company. The people of Aberdeen appear have been most highly gratified by the result of the trial, and they received the worthy representative of the company, Mr Hadden, on his return,, with triumphal honours. They had rockets, and firing, and porter, and were happy as great success in a just cause could make them. And long may they continue so!'

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1901 History of the Hadden family

THE HADDEN FAMILY; AN OLD ESTABLISHED BUSINESS. For a long time the manufacture of stockings was one of the staple industries Aberdeen, and one with which a number of the leading families were closely associated. As showing the connection of the Hadden family with the trade and the prominent and useful part they played in the history of the city, it may mentioned that Baillie Francis Leys, who died in 1753, and was father of Provost Thomas Leys (1797-98), was member of the firm of Leys, Still, and Co., afterwards Leys, Masson, and Co., with which the Haddens were connected.

In 1749 he started manufactory for linen thread and cloth at Gordon’s Mills. In this business the provost was actively engaged, along with hie brother-in-law, Provost Alex. Brebner, and Provost James Hadden of Persley, as partners. Baillie Alexander Hadden was married to Elspet Young, a sister of Provost William Young (1778-73), who carried large business as a stocking manufacturer. Provost James Hadden of Persley, who ultimately came to be known as “the father of the city” in recognition of his labours for the opening up and beautifying of the town, was Baillie Hadden’s eldest son. Born, on 27th May 1758, he was admitted, September, 1760, infant burgess of the city. He received his education at the Grammar School and Marischal College, and while still young became partner in two of the leading manufacturing firms in the city, viz. Leys, Masson, and Co., and Alexander Hadden and Sons; assisted in the formation and management of Commercial Banking Company, Aberdeenshire Canal Company, and Aberdeen Life Assurance Company. He had a large family, who took a prominent part in public and commercial life in Aberdeen and elsewhere. He died in 1845, at the age of 87.

Provost James Hadden of Persley occupied office at the beginning of last century - 1801-02 - during which time important negotiations for the purchase of properties for the laying out of Union Street and King Street were completed. So rapidly was the work of improvement carried on that, though the foundation-stone of Union Bridge had only been laid on 7th July, 1801, the keystone was driven on 25th August, 1803. Provost Hadden’s portrait was painted by Pickersglll and placed in the Town Hall, where it now hangs. Provost Hadden, after the passing of the Reform Act of 1832, stood as a candidate for his native city in the Conservative interest against Mr Bannerman, but on the advice of friends he withdrew before the day of election. He had incurred great deal of unpopularity, and was defeated as a municipal candidate for the Third Ward in 1833. There had been charges of gross jobbery and corruption against the old council, but when the “Reform” Council investigated the affairs of the city they found that the charges were without foundation, and Provost Hadden was rehabilitated in popular favour. He was four times provost - in 1801-02, 1809-10. 1813-14, and 1830-31 - while his brother, Gavin Hadden of Union Grove, also a partner in Alexander Hadden and Sons, held the office in 1820-21, 1824-25, 1828-9, and 1832.

It was during the various provostships of the Haddens that Aberdeen made the greatest progress, and underwent its most important improvements, the laying out of Union Street and King Street, the construction of docks and other works at the harbour, the building of the new Bridge of Don at a cost of 820,000, and the introduction of new water supply from the Dee, taken at point above the old bridge and conveyed to the Waterhouse reservoir erected at the top of Union Street; the creation of the new North and South Parishes, and the erection of city churches these, etc. In Kennedy’s “Annals of Aberdeen“ special reference is made the establishment the mills the Green.

“About twenty years ago (about the end of the eighteenth century) Messrs Alexander Hadden and Sons, who had been long engaged chiefly in the manufacture of stockings, established,” says the volume, “an extensive work in the Green, the machinery of which is set in motion by means of two powerful steam engines. They manufacture coarse stockings, mits, frocks, cloths, and various other articles in the woollen branch to a very considerable extent both for home consumption and for the foreign market.

The following also occurs:— “The first introduction of machinery into the woollen manufacture Aberdeen was, as we have been informed, Mr Charles Baird, silk dyer, of this place, who, about the year 1789, brought from England, at considerable expense, two carding engines and four spinning jennies, with the requisite apparatus. Soon afterwards Mr Baird constructed a mill at Stoneywood, where he commenced his operations the power of water from the river Don; but the, spinning jennies, broad and narrow looms, etc., were employed in the town. Previous to that time the carding and spinning of wool were performed the hand; but the manufacture of seys, serges, piaidens, and other coarse cloths was afterwards in general carried on by means of machinery. The great advantage arising from this abridgement of labour soon became manifest, not only in the town, but over the whole county, and additional mills were constructed in different places on the same principles and for the same purpose. The manufacturers availed themselves of that advantage, and generally sent their wool to these mills to be carded and roved, while they fitted up and employed their spinning jennies, etc., in the town for completing the manufacture.”

Reference is also made in the volume to the business Messrs Crombie, Knowles, and Co., at Gotha Mills, the parish of Fintray, and to a business of a similar kind carried then on at Garlogie by Mr Thomas Black and Sons, Aberdeen.

There also paragraph in the volume is as follows:— “Another branch of woollen manufacture, being that of carpets, was established about the year 1781 at Barkmill, in the vicinity of the town. It chiefly confined to articles for the home market, but is now given up.”

In the Survey of Aberdeenshire at the beginning of last century it is stated that “the whole manufactories in woollen, hosiery and cloth included employ, more or less constantly, about seven thousand persons, and assist in supporting, where they not entirely maintain twenty thousand individuals". One third of these were inhabitants of Aberdeen.

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