John Campbell (Falkirk)

area in the nineteenth century.

He was born in 1834 in Kilmartin, Craignish in Argyllshire to James Campbell and Elizabeth McPherson. About 1875 John came to Redding as a coal merchant and organised the shipping of coal on the Union Canal. He set up his own coal sales business later with sons James and Colin.

He also inherited property in Glasgow and a street in Stirling from his wife's family and built each of his five surviving children a house in the area. His first wife died giving birth to his first son, Edward, who emigrated and was never heard from again. Edward Campbell was left a significant part of the estates of his uncles and aunts in Glasgow, but was never traced. John Campbell's second marriage, to Janet Morrison, produced six further sons, James, William, John, Robert, Colin and Alexander, who built Craigenhall, a 14-bedroom mansionhouse off the prestigious Camelon Road in Woodlands, Falkirk and Craiglinn on Gartcows Crescent.

He was a Master Mason and was fluent in Gaelic.

As a Campbell of Craignish, it has been suggested, though never proved, that John's descendants may be the inheritors of the Chieftainship of Clan Campbell of Craignish.