David Baxter (1793-1872)
Sir David Baxter (1793-1872) of Baxter Brothers and Co
1872 Obituary [1]
At the ripe old age of seventy-nine years, Sir David Baxter, Dart., of Kilmaron, died on Monday morning.
The deceased gentleman was the head of the well-known firm of Baxter Brothers, Dundee manufacturers. His eminent position as a manufacturer, and his princely gifts to the town of Dundee, induced the late Lord Palmerston to request the Queen to confer the honour of a baronetcy on him about ten years ago, when Mr. Francis Crossley, of Halifax, and Mr. William Brown, the founder of the Free Library, Liverpool, were also honoured in a similar way.
But Sir David Baxter calls for notice at our hands more particularly on account of his generous endowment of a chair of engineering in the University of Edinburgh, now so ably filled by Professor Fleeming Jenkin, C.E., F.R.S., and scholarships in physical and natural science in the same university. Sir David Baxter's endowment for the engineering chair had the effect of inducing the Government to contribute towards its maintenance by a vote from the Treasury.
The wealth which he has left is said to be from £700,000 to £800,000. Mr. W . E. Baxter, M.P., for the Montrose Burghs, and Secretary to the Treasury, who is the nephew of the deceased baronet, will, it is stated, succeed him in the baronetcy, as he had no family of his own.