Curiosities of Glasgow citizenship

Short biographical notices of the principal merchants, manufacturers etc of Glasgow in 1783

DAVID TODD

DAVID TODD, third flat Reid's new land, south side Argyle Street, and of Todd, Shortridge & Co., linen printers; wareroom, east side High Street, near the Cross. (Jones' Directory.) This well-known firm had their works at Levenbank on the Leven, now owned by Archibald Orr Ewing & Co. (9) The Shortridge was William Shortridge (see Notice of him). David Todd was also a partner in the cotton spinning firm of Todd & Stevenson, with mills at Crosslee, near Bridge-of-Weir, and at Springfield, near Glasgow. Springfield is said to have been the first cotton mill built in these parts to be entirely worked by steam. On David Todd's death the mills were divided, the Stevensons taking Crosslee, and the Todds Springfield. David Todd's sons, John and Charles, were well-known citizens. John Todd carried on the printing on the Leven, and had as his partner Alexander Fletcher (afterwards of Alexander Fletcher & Co., the business with which George Anderson, M.P., was connected). John Todd latterly resided at his estate of Finnick-Malise, near Drymen, and died there unmarried in 1872, aged 85, the last of the Todds. Charles Todd carried on the Springfield business. There he had as his partner Samuel Higginbotham, who has just died at the good old age of 83. Under his energetic management the business developed into the well-known firm of Charles Todd & Higginbotham, whose great works opposite the Green are an epitome of the cotton industry from the original bale to the printed calico. In these works and in the warehouse at Springfield Court the name of David Todd's old place is preserved; but the original Springfield has vanished. It stood on the south-side of the Clyde below Windmillcroft, and close by the Fisherman's Hut. The Clyde Trust, after a memorable jury trial, acquired it for harbour extension; and the largest vessels now float in the reeking pool which now covers the very site of the old mill..

(9) Levenbank, the nearest to Lochlomond of the many works on the Leven, was founded in 1784, and was bought by A. Orr Ewing & Co. in 1845.