John Glassford

One of the most prominent Tobacco Lords of Scotland, Glassford owned tobacco-producing slave plantations in the British North American colonies of Virginia and Maryland, for which he has become controversial in the 21st century.

His immense wealth allowed for the construction or purchase of a number of major properties in and around Glasgow; Whitehill, Shawfield and Dougalston, from which he took his title, are the most notable.

The portrait also features the faint outline of a Black servant, which serves to highlight Glassford's involvement in the slave trade.

[4] In or before 1745 he bought the ruinous mansion of Shawfield which was the target of the Malt tax riots in 1726 and previously the home of John Campbell of Mamore.

[1] Celebrated in his lifetime, Glassford was the most extensive ship owner of his generation in Scotland, and one of the four merchants who laid the foundation of the commercial greatness of Glasgow through the tobacco trade.

In the last war, he is said to have had at one time five and twenty ships with their cargos – his own property – and to have traded for above half a million sterling a year.In business Glassford was not confined to traffic from the colonies.

The American War of Independence (1775–83) ruined Glasgow's part in the trade, and while other tobacco lords were shrewd enough to sell their shares in the business before the crash, Glassford was not among them.