Thorburn, Grant (DNB00)  From Wikisource Jump to: navigation,
search  THORBURN, GRANT (1773–1863), original of Galt's ‘Lawrie
Todd,’ and author, son of a nail-maker, was born at Westhouses,
near Dalkeith, Midlothian, on 18 Feb. 1773. He became a nail-
maker, and worked for several years at Dalkeith. In 1792 he
joined the ‘Friends of the People,’ and in the winter of 1793,
along with seventeen others, was examined in Edinburgh as ‘a
suspicious person,’ but dismissed. In 1794 he emigrated to New
York, where at first he worked at his trade. In 1796 he and his
brother, having between them a little money, and getting credit
for something more, started a hardware business, which presently
became Thorburn's sole concern. Owing to the introduction of
machinery, nail-making in the old manual fashion ceased to be a
profitable industry, and in 1805 Thorburn became a seedsman. He
struggled through discouragements, failures, and even (in 1808)
bankruptcy, and ultimately made his seed business one of the
greatest in the wor