The barque Randolph painted by Richard Ball Spencer. She was launched on 24 February 1864
A
rbroath is today probably best known for its abbey, the declaration of Arbroath and the Arbroath smokie. What is perhaps less well known is that Arbroath was once an important maritime, textile and engineering centre. Mariners, shipbuilders, merchants and manufacturers in Arbroath interacted in creating wealth, employment and prosperity.
A particular illustration of such interaction can be seen in the lives of two Arbroath families linked by marriage. The founders of both families were incomers to Arbroath, the Whannel family most probably arriving from Perthshire. The Keith family came, via Dundee, from Aberdeenshire. The Whannel family produced a son, James, who became a master mariner and ship-owner and a daughter, Hannah, who married George Keith, a successful plumber, businessman and provost of Arbroath. George and Hannah in turn had a son, James, who became a famous engineer and industrialist based in London. The interactions of these families – explored in the textbox on page 38 – illustrate the wider social and economic dynamics of the Angus town in which they lived