Alexander Johnstone Wilson b1841-d1921

AJ Wilson was the father of Uncle Alec, Isabel, Laura, Edwin Clement and Hew Anandale.


He wrote many books on economics, finance and investment and the following is an incomplete list: 'Practical Hints to Investors and Some Words to Speculators' (1897); 'The Business of Insurance (1904); and edited 'Colloquial Slang and Technical Terms in Use on the Stock Exchange and in the Money Market'; 'Reciprocity, Bi-metallism, and Land-tenure Reform'; 'The National Budget: The National Debt, Taxes and Rates'; 'Banking Reform: An Essay on Prominent Banking Dangers and the Remedies they Demand'. He was editor of 'The Investor's Review'; 'Investment Index'; he also wrote an introductory note to 'Labour, Socialism and Strikes' by Yves Guyot (political editor of 'Le Siecle' and former Minister of Public Works in France). As far as I know, the only fiction he wrote was 'The Life of Thomas Wanless'. All in all, he seems to have been a very knowledgeable person regarding finances, economics and banking, and according to family rumours would have been Chancellor, had it not been for his "irregular birth".


AJ was the son of George Washington Wilson (GWW), who has his own Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Wilson) and is the subject of a book by Queen guitarist Brian May.  GWW did not marry AJ's mother but they had 2 children together: AJ and Robert. GWW then married someone else and her children went to live in New Zealand, a descendant of whom is Murray Wilson, who I met in 1993. Murray's wife Diane researched the descendants of GWW and she was made QSM in 2016 for services to genealogy and the community (https://gg.govt.nz/images/diane-wilson-auckland-qsm-services-genealogy-and-community).




There's an interesting blog about GWW photographs of South Africa here:
http://www.theheritageportal.co.za/article/george-washington-wilson-man-company-and-photographers

Hugh Wright b1831- d1911

This Hugh Wright was born at Alticry. He was the nephew of Duncan Wright (who left Kilmarnock for Monte Video and Buenos Ayres to make his fortune in commerce as an agent) and he inherited Alticry from Duncan. Hugh married Irishwoman Margaret Bell (b1833 in Belford, Co Down, d1911). They were married on 12 Feb 1863 at Holywood, Co Down, Ireland and had Mary "Mimie", Duncan, Hugh "MacIntyre", Anne Campbell "Annie", Leslie, Dorothea "Dora", Graham Duncan and Angus, all born at Alticry. When his uncle Duncan died, Hugh became a trustee of the Duncan Wright Endowment and set about investing money in land companies and stocks and shares. One of his investments was The Canada North-West Land Company (Limited), where in 1885 he was on the board of directors, amongh 11 others. Other investments included land in Bahia Blanca, to where he sent his son Hugh and land in the north of Argentina; to where he sent his son Leslie. I believe at this point of my research and could have to edit later, that his son Duncan was sent to Canada. Apologies for the confusing repetition of names down the generations - it is a tad confusing but I can't change that. This Hugh Wright seems to have had some involvement with his local church because in a newspaper article of The Scotsman, March 1882, he is declared an Elder of the Wigtown Presbytery. There is a lot to fill in of Hugh Wright's life and strife, but he lived the later part of his life in London in a house called Heidelberg on the King's Road in Clapham and later at Cornwall Mews, Kensington, where he died in 1911. His son Hugh and he had such a falling out that his son took the drastic action of changing his name so as not to be associated to his father or brothers, so this is how my branch became MacIntyres.