FINDLATER WINE

The most famous wine-man of this family was Alexander Findlater, JP, the founder (1797-1873). As a lad in Greenock, he worked for his elder brother William in shipbroking. It is recorded that he saved the life of a child who was drowning in the dock.

He sailed for Newfoundland, where he was a merchant, before setting up as a wine merchant in Dublin, founding in 1827 the firm Alexr Findlater & Co, which he ran with his youngest brother Adam Seaton (1808-1879). Alexander never married, Adam Seaton married but had no children. Their sister Susanna, widow of Captain John Snowden (d 1847) kept house for them at The Slopes, Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire.) Having no direct succession, they called over from Liverpool the family of their brother Captain John on the death of his widow in 1837.

The elder son John (1828-1908) was trained up to run the firm, while the second son Joseph (1831-1912) ran the London office with his first cousin and brother-in-law, Col John Findlater Corscaden, who had married the elder daughter, Helen. Neither Corscaden nor Joseph had children, so they took into partnership Bruce Beverley Todd, whose descendants ran the firm, which was incorporated as Findlater, Mackie Todd & Co Ltd, until they sold out in 1968.

John Findlater, JP had a large family, six sons surviving to manhood and two daughters, both dying unmarried. Adam Seaton ran the firm but died in 1911 aged 51; John went to Texas; Alexander became a doctor in Edgware; William stayed put and took over on the death of his eldest brother; Charlie was unmarried and killed in 1916 in the Somme and Herbert Snowden, named after his Aunt Snowden, was also killed in the Great War in 1915, as one of ‘the Pals’ at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli.

John Findlater, JP (1828-1908), nephew of Alexr the founder, reigned for thirty-five years in Sackville Street from 1873 to 1908 when he died at the age of eighty. His eldest son Adam Seaton II (1860-1911) followed for a few years but died aged 51 and then his fifth son William (1867- 1941) handed over in turn to his son George Dermot (1905-1962), who handed over to his son William Alexander (b 1937). The firm was sold in 1968 to Weston’s.

At one time there were partnerships all over the United Kingdom, in which Alexander the founder was a sleeping partner. However when the local partners died, the individual firms went their own ways and none now trade under the original name.

In Dublin after the sale to Weston's, Alex took off some time and went to INSEAD and then returned in 1970 to refound the business as Findlater Wine Merchants Ltd. In October 2001 he published a 600 page book on the history of the family business in Dublin, with much else besides.  In England, Findlater Mackie Todd & Co Ltd was bought by Bulmers and then by Beechams, who tried to use it to launch a whisky brand using the Findlater name. They sold out to a management buy-out team, who in turn sold to John Lewis, so that the firm is now the mail order arm of Waitrose Wine Department. Alex Findlater, grandson of Herbert Snowden mentioned above, also founded an independent firm, Alexr Findlater & Co Ltd, in London in 1983. Thus there are three firms operating in the UK using the Findlater name.