| Architect Details |
John Henderson, architect 1849; James Matthews, architect 1870.
John Henderson was born at The Den Nursery, Brechin on 1 March 1804, the son of one of Lord Panmure's gardeners at Brechin Castle, also John Henderson, and Agnes Thomson. He served his apprenticeship as a carpenter and after studying drawings and building construction and erecting the steeple of the parish church at Arbroath in 1831 spent some years as an assistant in the office of Thomas Hamilton until setting up on his own account in 1835. Much of his early work was in areas within Lord Panmure's influence or from family connections. He appears to have taken on an assistant, John Nicol, in about 1833 who remained with him until about 1836 or 37. Although expert in neo-Jacobean design from the start, Henderson's neo-Gothic work was at first was of a very non-academic Georgian Gothic kind; but from 1843, when he received the commission for Trinity College Glenalmond, he became the foremost and for some years the only native-born exponent of Tractarian Gothic in Scotland, principally in the Early English and Mid Decorated styles. He was one of the eight applicants for the post of head of the Edinburgh office of the Office of Works in 1848, though without success. Henderson died at 7 Greenhill Park on 27 June 1862 and was buried at Grange. His wife, Hannah Matilda Exley (born 1 January 1821 at Hull), whom he had married on 4 December 1843, survived him, dying in Edinburgh on 12 December 1894. Their son George, a sixteen-year-old apprentice at the time of his father's death, was unable to continue the business. He completed his apprenticeship with David Cousin, a near-neighbour in Greenhill, who seems to have taken over at least some of the work in hand, though not the office records which were retained by his widow: Sir G G Scott took over at Glenalmond and, Cousin being a Free Church man, the Episcopall church building connection was lost to Scott's pupil Robert Rowand Anderson.
James Matthews was born in December 1819, son of Peter Matthews, a teller in the Commercial Bank in Aberdeen and a Burgess of Guild, and was christened on 12 or 13 December that year. His mother was Margaret Ross, daughter of William Ross, the architect-builder who had built Union Bridge. Educated at Robert Gordon's Hospital, he was articled to Archibald Simpson in 1834, and worked under the supervision of Simpson's assistant Thomas Mackenzie (born 1814). In 1839 he went to George Gilbert Scott's in London. On his return early in 1844, Simpson offered him the post of chief assistant with the promise of partnership in two years. He declined as he thought Simpson would be 'too greedy' (the Mackenzies, however, found Matthews 'a bit of a Jew'). Matthews then formed his partnership with Thomas Mackenzie, initially with Mackenzie doing most of the designing in Elgin, and Matthews attending to the management of the Aberdeen office. In that year they won the competition for the Free Church College (New College) in Edinburgh, in a competition assessed by Sir Charles Barry. The perspective, formerly at Bourtie, is now in the possession of Professor Alistair Rowan. The competition was set aside, however, and the commission given to William Henry Playfair. Initially the Elgin practice was much more prosperous than the Aberdeen one and in 1848 Matthews applied unsuccessfully for the post of head of the Edinburgh office of the Office of Works. Mackenzie died of brain fever - apparently brought on by an accident - on 15 October 1854, Matthews continuing the practice thereafter under his name alone, though he did form a brief partnership with George Petrie of Elgin in c.1857. Petrie presumably filled the role of Mackenzie manning the Elgin end of the practice. Just before Mackenzie's death an Inverness office had been established with William Lawrie in charge as resident assistant. Although not made a partner until 1864, Lawrie was given what seems to have been a free hand in the design work and for some years the Inverness office was the more prosperous. Matthews continued the Aberdeen office alone, and it was not until 1877 that Mackenzie's son, Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, was taken into partnership, having established a successful practice of his own in his native Elgin. Thereafter Matthews ran the practice as two separate partnerships - Matthews & Mackenzie in Aberdeen and Elgin, and Matthews & Lawrie in Inverness. When Lawrie died in 1887, the Inverness practice was inherited by John Hinton Gall (born 1848), who had been his chief assistant since 1872 and who continued the business under his own name, Matthews withdrawing completely from that branch of the firm. Matthews entered the Town Council in 1863, and retired as a councillor in 1871. In November 1883 he was recalled as Lord Provost and held office until November 1886. He was mainly responsible for implementing the City Improvement Act of 1883 which included building Schoolhill and Rosemount Viaduct and giving improved access to the latter area of the city. He was a director of the North of Scotland Bank, of which he was Chairman from time to time. His public services (in particular the Mitchell Tower and Graduation Hall) brought an Honorary LLD from the University of Aberdeen. In his later years Matthews lived in some grandeur at Springhill, which he had greatly altered for himself. Matthews retired from the practice in 1893 at the age of seventy-three, and died at 15 Albyn Terrace on 28 June 1898. He was buried in St Nicholas churchyard, where his monument records the earlier deaths of his daughter Margaret Rose Matthews on 18 May 1868, his son James Duncan Matthews on 21 November 1890 and his wife Elizabeth Duncan on 21 March 1895.
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Historic Environment Records (HER)