1892: Glasgow business for sale owing to proprietor's death.

[doddie]

On Monday 26th September 1892 a notice appeared in the North British Daily Mail stating that a Glasgow business was for sale "...owing to the death of the proprietor". This was in fact untrue. The most recent proprietor was very much alive and remained so until 1911. Surely, it would be very peculiar for the assertion in the notice to simply be a mistake. Could it be that there was actually a benefit (financial or otherwise) to selling a business if it was made known that the proprietor had died? I am rather puzzled.

Regards

Doddie

[WilmaM]

That does sound a little odd Doddie,

a few things spring to mind:
was he perhaps in partnership and the partner died [and the other name wasn't used in the business name]
was it in fact his father of the same name who died, and you are assuming the son was the owner or vis versa
did the newspaper or whoever was inserting the notice, get the facts wrong
was it a prank or maliciousness on the part of a rival?

or he just plain lied to get a better price for a failing business - a deceased owner sounds a more respectable reason for selling up.

Any other ideas?

[doddie]

Hi WilmaM, thanks for getting in touch. You've certainly got me thinking. Long story short, the company was founded in about 1810. Any connection with the founding family was severed when the founder's son (Thomas Smart Jnr.) died in 1840. After that the company passed to his brother-in-law (John Blyth). The brother-in-law invited one of the long serving staff (Charles Wragg) to become a partner in the company. After the brother-in-law died in 1875 his son (John Smart Blyth) replaced him as partner. Then, in 1879 the son decided he wanted to dissolve the partnership and seek pastures new and so the company became a sole proprietorship (is that the correct expression?). The company had always been successful and had a good reputation. The sole proprietorship lasted until the company went up for sale in 1892. By 1901 Charles Wragg was retired and in 1911 he died at the age of 87. I have scoured all sorts of sources to see if there was any mention of any financial issues connected to the company (bankruptcies etc.) because the company was never actually bought as a going concern, but have not as yet come upon anything. The building itself - the bricks and mortar - was eventually bought by a business nearby. Maybe it was all a simple mistake on the part of the newspaper.

Regards

Doddie