Records of John Somerville & Co Ltd, brewers, Edinburgh, Scotland

• Shareholding records 1897;
• Promotional material c19th-20th century;
• Historical notes 1897.

The firm of John Somerville & Co was founded as wine and spirit merchants of Quality Street, Leith, Scotland, in 1853. It expanded into whisky broking and blending and acquired a controlling interest in two Highland Whisky distilleries: Dalwhinnie Distillery, Dalwhinnie, Highlands, Scotland, and Glendronach Distillery, Forgue, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

In 1897 the company made a further move into brewing by merging with the recently formed partnership of Blyth & Cameron, who a short while previously had erected a substantial brewery, the North British Brewery at Duddingston, Edinburgh, Scotland. Alexander Blyth was a director of John Somerville & Co and Malcolm John Cameron was the head brewer of the new concern. The North British Brewery had been erected to plans of Peter L Henderson, architects, Edinburgh, and had a capacity of in excess on 50,000 barrels per annum. The newly merged concern was registered as a limited liability company under the name of John Somerville & Co Ltd. John Somerville became chairman of the new concern with Alexander Blyth and Malcolm Cameron acting as joint managing directors.

In 1906 Malcolm Cameron left the company and by 1909 Alexander Blyth and John Somerville had retired. They were succeeded by J Jarvie Purves who became managing director and J Morton Robertson, J. P., who became chairman. The North British Brewery produced a wide range of both bulk beers (Pale and Mild Ales and Stouts) and bottled beers (India Pale Ale, Bitter Table Beer, Extra Hopped Beer, Three and Four Guinea Ales, Brown Stout, Double Brown Stout, Oatmeal Stout, Imperial Stout).

The control of the Dalwhinnie Distillery had been relinquished to James Munro & Son Ltd in 1905 and in 1920 the Glendronach Distillery was sold to Captain Charles Grant. In 1922 the North British Brewery was sold to neighbouring Craigmillar, Edinburgh, brewers William Murray & Co Ltd and became known as Murray's No 2 Brewery. Brewing at the No 2 Brewery ceased in 1963.

Sources: McMaster, Charles. "Scotland's Forgotten Breweries. John Somerville & Co Ltd, The North British Brewery, Duddingston, Edinburgh." in "Scottish Brewing Archive Newsletter", No 15 (Autumn 1989)

The material is arranged according to the Scottish Brewing Archive classification scheme used within all SBA collections.

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Reproduction subject to usual conditions: educational use and condition of documents. Applications for permission to quote should be sent to Archives and Special Collections, please email: library-asc@glasgow.ac.uk

This material has been appraised in line with standard GB 248 procedures

The collection was previously housed with the rest of the Scottish Brewing Archive at Heriot-Watt University. It moved to the University of Glasgow in 1991. Custody of the Scottish Brewing Archive was transferred to Glasgow University Archive Services in 2008.

None expected

• GB 248 WMC: Records of William Murray & Co Ltd;
• GB 0234 BT2: Dissolved Companies Files (National Archives of Scotland).

This material is original