Details

Name

Christian Glassford

Brief Biography

1757-1839, Scottish

Description

Christian Glassford was John Glassford and Anne Nesbit’s third daughter (Anne, Catherine before), and John’s fourth (Jean, Anne and Catherine). She is in the Glassford family portrait (2887) as she was in the 1760s as a young girl, and is possibly the one in a white dress beside Anne. She was raised in Whitehill House from 1757 to 1767, then Shawfield House in Glasgow and Douglaston House in Dunbartonshire.

In 1784, aged 27, she married James Hopkirk of Dalbeth. He was the son of Thomas Hopkirk of Dalbeth, who was one of the original partners of the Glasgow Arms Bank, as was Christian’s father. The Hopkirk family shared similar business interests, trading in America (Maryland), and Glasgow’s own industries. The family also had property in Glasgow town and lived close to other family members (James Gordon/Ridell/Glassfords). These family-related businesspeople also saw one another at the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce (1791: James Gordon, Henry Riddell and James Hopkirk were members) and events such as the foundation of an aqueduct over the River Kelvin (1787, where Gordon and Hopkirk were among the guests.) Catherine Glassford’s will indicated how close the Glassford sisters were to one another, with Christian and Anne helping to take care of her affairs and estate.

In correspondence, James Hopkirk remarked in letters to the banker Gilbert Innes of Stow that his purchase of a piano and music teacher for his five daughters has led to all ‘rattling on it’ so hard that the instrument needed a tuner. Christian had ten children with James Hopkirk; their first son, Thomas, inherited Dalbeth and in later life helped to establish Glasgow’s Botanical Gardens. Their other children were Ann, Elizabeth, John, Christian, Barbara, Catherine, Mary, Isabella and James.