Ewing Ancestry, Glasgow, Scotland

Today, I visited Glasgow's Necropolis where I obtained this photograph of a monument to James Ewing of Strathleven. This monument records the following deaths:

• James Ewing LLD, FRS who was born Dec 7th 1775 and died Nov 29th 1853.
• Janet Tucker Crawford, wife, died June 14th 1896.

James Ewing was the 5th child of Walter Ewing Maclae, 3rd of Cathkin and Margaret Fisher, daughter of Rev James Fisher and granddaughter of Rev. Ebenezer Erskine. These reverend gentlemen were two of the co-founders of the Secession Church in 1733. Walter Ewing was heavily involved assisting various distressed Glasgow tobacco merchants following the changes which occurred as a consequence of the American War of Independence.

Following business training under his father tutelage, James Ewing became a successful and wealthy businessman, in first instance as West Indian Merchant supplying sugar plantations in Jamaica and importing resultant products such as sugar and rum. Upon his death a substantial part of his huge fortune was left to charity.

The large, polished pink sarcophagus is of interest in its own right and forms part of the Glasgow Necropolis Heritage Trail. It was designed by John Baird I in 1857, sculpted by J. Mossman and made from Peterhead granite. The sarcophagus is located close the dominating John Knox Monument and hence is easy to locate.