Duncan McLaren

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Duncan McLaren (born in Renton, Scotland in 1800, died 1886) was a Member of Parliament for Edinburgh.

Duncan McLaren was the youngest of ten children. Apart from two years of schooling, was self taught. After school, he was apprenticed to a merchant in Dunbar. In 1824 he set up his own business as a draper in Edinburgh. He became a member of the City Council in 1833. He became City Treasurer in 1837 and found that the city’s finances were in ruin and that the Scottish Capital was bankrupt. His work extricated Edinburgh from financial ruin. In 1835 he pioneered free education for all classes and started a building programme of thirteen schools.

He was elected Lord Provost of Edinburgh in 1851. McLaren was a Liberal and supported the anti-corn law campaign of John Bright, the opening of the Meadows in Edinburgh to the Public, and the establishment of 'the Industrial Museum'. McLaren was also a governor of the Heriot Free School trust.

In 1865 he was elected one of Edinburgh’s two Members of Parliament – a position he held until he retired 16 years later. In Parliament he proved a conscientious and intelligent representative, and acquired a position of so much authority on Scottish questions, that he was called “Member for Scotland”.

Duncan McLaren married Priscilla Bright (sister of John Bright) in 1848 and they lived together in Newington House, Edinburgh from 1852 until his death in 1886

He was the father of Charles McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway, John McLaren, Lord McLaren, Walter Stowe Bright McLaren (all three being Members of Parliament) and Helen Priscilla McLaren (wife of Andrea Rabagliati)

[edit] External links

• Correspondence of Priscilla McLaren
• Duncan McLaren on ThePeerage.com
• Edinburgh City Archives

[edit] References

• Mackie, John Beveridge (1888). "The Life and Work of Duncan McLaren". London: Thomas Nelson and Sons (2 Vols). ISBN.