David Dale

David Dale (6 January 1739–7 March 1806) was a leading Scottish industrialist, merchant and philanthropist during the Scottish Enlightenment period at the end of the 18th century. He was a successful entrepreneur in a number of areas, most notably in the cotton-spinning industry, and was the founder of the cotton mills in New Lanark, where he provided social and educational conditions far in advance of anything available anywhere else in the UK. New Lanark attracted visitors from all over the world. Robert Owen, who married Dale’s daughter, Caroline, in 1799, used New Lanark to develop his theories about communitarian living, education and character formation. Scottish historian, Tom Devine, described Dale as ‘the greatest cotton magnate of his time in Scotland’. Early career Dale was born in Stewarton, Ayrshire on 6 January 1739, son of William Dale (1708–1796), a general dealer in the village, and Martha Dunlop (1719–1796). His date of birth is normally given as 6 January but there is no officially recorded date of birth. However, parish records show that he was baptised on 14 January 1739. As a child, he worked with the cattle as a ‘herd laddie’ in very basic conditions. This was the period of runrigs and impoverished tenant farmers. Dale’s family was not wealthy, but he did not experience the absolute poverty and near starvation of many of those involved in tenant farming. His father apprenticed him to a handloom weaver in Paisley & then he became an agent in Hamilton and, later, Cambuslang – putting out yarn to be woven and collecting the finished cloth. He arrived in Glasgow c1763 as a clerk to a silk merchant and began his own small business in the High Street, importing linen yarns from France and the Netherlands. The business grew rapidly and Dale became a wealthy merchant in the city. In 1777, at the age of 38, he married 24 year old Anne Caroline (Carolina) Campbell, whose late father had been the Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland. In 1783 Dale had his own mansion built in Glasgow’s fashionable Charlotte Street. The couple were together for 14 years until the death of Carolina. During that period, they had nine children, four of whom, including their only son, died in infancy.