William Steel
Mason
William Steel (1845–1906) was a builder, contractor and quarry owner in the adjoining Clydeside burghs of Gourock and Greenock. In 1870 he left the Greenock partnership of Steel & Pollock, builders, and established his own firm, which employed 30 men and eight boys a decade later. 1
Steel occasionally sat on the Gourock Dean of Guild Court, but a conflict of interest does not seem to have occurred. 2 He won contracts for the Greenock Prison extension – 36 cells and infirmary for £3000 (1889); alterations to Greenock Sugar Exhcange (1889); Port Glasgow's municipal baths and wash-house, architect J. B. Stewart (1893); Greenock New Model Lodging House (1893); Greenock Post Office 'in the Renaissance style', architect W. W. Robertson (£20,000 in 1896–9); Gourock Steam Laundry Company, architect James Ritchie (1896); Skelmorlie United Presbyterian Church, additions by William Leiper (1897). 3
Steel was a keen politician: he became a Gourock Commissioner in 1887; a Gourock Parish Councillor in 1895; he stood for Greenock School Board in 1888; became a Renfrewshire County Councillor in 1890; and was president of Gourock Liberal Association. 4 From 1895 to 1898 he was Provost of Gourock and around 1903 he 'joined Greenock Corporation, and was soon ... elected to the Magistracy'. 5
His 1877 marriage to his deceased wife's sister caused controversy and his church membership was suspended. The resulting clerical dispute over ecclesiastical procedures lasted two decades. 6
Notes:
1: Birth, death and census information, www.ancestry.co.uk and www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk [accessed 17 September 2012]; Edinburgh Gazette, 18 November 1870, p. 1375.
2: 'Gourock Directory Appendix', in Greenock Post Office Directory, 1888–9, p. 376.
3: Glasgow Herald, 9 February 1889, p. 6; 13 August 1889, p. 4; Scotsman, 4 September 1889, p. 6; <i>Glasgow Herald</i>, 1 February 1893, p. 8; 23 November, 1893, p. 6; 21 March 1896, p. 7; 6 May 1896, p. 6; 13 May 1896, p. 7; 23 May 1899, p. 3; 8 September 1896, p. 4; 2 June 1897, p. 11.
4: Glasgow Herald, 3 November 1887, p. 9; 'Gourock Directory Appendix', in Greenock Post Office Directory, 1888–9, p. 376; Glasgow Herald, 27 March 1895, p. 8; 3 April 1895, p. 7; Glasgow Herald, 10 April 1888, p. 9; Scotsman, 6 February 1890, p. 6; Glasgow Herald, 10 May 1888, p. 6; 1 December 1894, p. 6.
5: Glasgow Herald, 9 November 1895, p. 9; 'Appendix for Gourock', Greenock Post Office Directory, 1896–7, p. 172; 1898–9, p. 171; Scotsman, 13 August 1906, p. 6.
6: Marriage details, www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk [accessed 17 September 2012]; Scotsman, 16 May 1878, p. 4; 9 May 1896, p. 8; 8 May 1897, p. 12;Glasgow Herald, 9 May 1896, pp. 3, 6; 12 March 1897, p. 8; 8 May 1897, p. 9.
