Charles Stirling of Cadder

Glasgow merchant, son of William Stirling of Keir.

1. 'Mr. Charles Stirling, leading partner of the once eminent West India firm of Stirling Gordon & Co., had a life-lease of Cadder House and grounds from his elder brother, the proprietor. He took possession in 1816, and made many improvements. Among these, he built the west wing of the mansion, formed a piece of ornamental-water from a bend of the river Kelvin which sweeps close behind the house, laid off additional gardens, and otherwise embellished this charming place. He also made a choice collection, in Italy, of paintings bronzes sculpture and antiquities, which remain in Cadder House, where he died on 30th January 1830, aged fifty-eight.'

2. 'Charles Stirling, like his father and grandfather, was a West India merchant, and a partner in the great house of Somervell, Gordon & Co., of Glasgow, in the management of which he took an active part. In 1806 he purchased the lands of Kenmure, and built thereon, from the plans of the well known David Hamilton, what now forms the greater part of the present mansion. He resided there till 1816, when he sold the estate for £40,000 to his elder brother Archibald, afterwards of Keir. He obtained a life rent of Cadder, and resided there till his death in 1830.'

3. Anthony Cooke shows him leaving an estate of £77,640, including £2,909 in shares in the Renfrewshire Banking Co.; £20,665 interest in Stirling Gordon; £17,916 in George Mcintosh and Co.; and £24,772 in Hurlet and Campsie Alum Co.

1. Old country houses of the old Glasgow gentry XIV Cadder House.

2. Old country houses of the old Glasgow gentry LXIII Kenmure.

3. Anthony Cooke, 'An elite revisited: Glasgow West India merchants, 1783-1877', Journal of Scottish Historical Studies 32.2 2012 pp. 127-165, at p. 164; SC 36/48/22/137 15/07/1830.