| Architect Details |
James Matthews, architect 1858 and 1873; Hay & Henderson, architectural practice 1877-1905.
William Hay was born at Dykeside, Peterhead on 17 May 1818, the son of William Hay, grain merchant, and his wife Jean Alexander. He was apprenticed as a joiner but broke his leg in a fall when working on Ellishall House, and encouraged by his doctor, studied architecture during his convalescence, his first job being St James Episcopal Church, Cruden Bay, 1842-43. In 1844 he married his first wife Janet Reid (1819-60) and moved to Edinburgh as an assistant with John Henderson in order to gain experience. In 1846 he moved to George Gilbert Scott's in London and was entrusted with the building of St John's Cathedral, Newfoundland for which he travelled extensively in England and Scotland in late 1846 and early 1847 recruiting craftsmen and ordering materials. He sailed in April 1847 with his wife and her brother Thomas, who was his ward, and remained in Newfoundland until the completion of the nave of St John's in 1850. In 1848-49 he was consulted by Bishop Reid on James Cranston of Oxford's designs of 1844 for Holy Trinity Cathedral, Hamilton, Bermuda and made alterations in the course of execution, but no other work is recorded in his years at St Johns. In 1850-53 he seems to have at least intermittently been based in Peterhead where he built St John's Episcopal Church at Longside and No 22 Broad Street for his mother, but he visited Montreal and Chicago with a view to setting up practice before finally settling on Toronto, probably late in 1853. There he became Vice-President of the Mechanics Institute and Secretary of the Association of Architects Civil Engineers and Provincial Surveyors of Canada, but after his wife died childless in 1860 he abruptly departed in 1861, handing over his very prosperous practice to his assistant Henry Langley. In 1862 he was in Bermuda and in 1863 in Halifax having formed a short-lived partnership with David Stirling: in 1864, however, he returned to Scotland, married Jemima Huddleston (1838-1905) of Ryde, Isle of Wight, by whom he had one daughter, Fanny, and set up practice in Edinburgh. In 1871 he secured the important commission for the restoration of St Giles from William Chambers. In December 1875 Hay invited George Henderson, the son of his former employer, to join him in partnership. Henderson had been born on 3 October 1846, and had been educated at the Royal High School in Edinburgh from 1858 to 1861 and then trained with his father until his death in June 1862, completing his apprenticeship with David Cousin who took over at least one of his father's commissions. He had left to emigrate to Australia, arriving in May 1867 and joining the office of his former fellow assistant in his father's office, Alexander Davidson in Rokewood, Victoria. At first he had acted as an unpaid associate to Davidson, though before long both Henderson and Davidson had been able to send money home to assist their respective families, a number of large commissions coming their way in late 1868 and in early 1869 when the practice moved to Geelong in Victoria. A partnership had been formalised in late 1869, with Davidson receiving 2/3 of the profit and the younger partner 1/3. In early 1870 the partners had won the important commission for Geelong College in Newtown and in line with stylistic developments in Britain had used for the first time 'constructional polychromy'. A venture in the field of speculative building in Geelong had however not been a success and a series of unfortunate episodes of losing jobs to other architects and disputes with contractors (relating to a clause written by the practice in their terms of agreement about their right to be the sole judge of quality without arbitration) had caused them financial difficulties. Moreover in the early 1870s there had been a short depression in the wool industry and some sources of work temporarily dried up. Their first partnership had ended in December 1873 and although a new one had been formalised in July 1874 with Davidson receiving 5/9 of the profits, by this time Henderson, who had lived with Davidson and his wife since his arrival in Australia, found this arrangement a strain. Moreover he was becoming disillusioned with the work. He accepted Hay's offer and his partnership with Davidson was terminated on less than friendly terms in April 1876, Henderson sailing home later that year. The new partnership with Hay officially began in the following year. Hay died at Rabbit Hall, Hamilton Street, Joppa, on 30 May 1888, after eight months of illness. Henderson continued the practice after Hay's death. He married Mary Elizabeth Leith Malcolm in 1897. They had two daughters, Elizabeth Stella and Amy Louise Huntly. Henderson died on 24 March 1905 at 25 Hermitage Gardens. His office was then at 12 Queen Street.
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)