Drummond, Peter, 1799 - 1877, editor, elder

Peter Drummond (26 Feb 1799 - 09 Jul 1877) of the Drummond family, Stirling seed merchants and agricultural improvers in the 19th century, established the Stirling Tract Enterprise in 1848 in order to publish religious tracts. Drummond was born at Coney Park in Cambusbarron, Stirling. He was the eldest son of the second marriage of William Drummond, who had established a seed business in the Bannockburn area around 1760, and one of 15 children in total. When his father died in 1824, Drummond and his brother William, the eldest brother from William Drummond's first marriage, took over the land-surveyor and nurseryman business left to them by their late father and became the caretakers of the younger members of the family.

Shortly after taking over his late father's business, Drummond removed the seed department of the business from Coney park to the ground-floor of the Athenaeum Buildings on King Street. He also opened an agricultural museum in 1831, which exhibited the latest technologies in ploughing and harvesting as well as rare seeds, bulbs, and roots.

Drummond was involved with religion from a very early age and even taught at the local Sunday School. Following the Great Revival in 1839, the Disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843 and other religious events, he thrust himself further into religion and became a member of the Free Church and later became an elder of the Free North Church in Stirling, now known as St Columba's, and a lay preacher. In 1848, Drummond joined in the local condemnation of Sabbath desecrating in the nearby village of Cambuskenneth, Stirling and published a tract which he distributed at in the area and the Stirling races. He continued his involvement with tract publishing until he decided to dedicate himself to publishing full-time in 1852. Drummond continued his work in the Stirling Tract Enterprise for many years, the company had to move into larger premises a number of times as it continued to grow; the Enterprise had distributed over 60 million tracts by 1872 and had moved into publishing books and magazines as well. However, not everybody in the Stirling area had a very high opinion of Peter Drummond and, in 1863, he was accused of fraud. In order to counter these allegations, he set up the Drummond Trust in 1863 to run the Tract Enterprise.

In 1872, Drummond retired from active business and moved to Edinburgh, he died shortly after in 1877 due to failing health at the age of 78. The trustees of the Stirling Tract Enterprise kept the company in operation until nearly 100 years after Drummond's death in 1980 after a steady decline in business during the 20th century.

Cambusbarron, Stirling
Cambuskenneth, Stirling
Stirling, Stirling

Publisher

ISAAR(CPF): International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families, International Council on Archives (2nd edition, 2003); Rules for the construction of personal, place and corporate names, National Council on Archives (1997)

Created 07 Oct 2020, revised 16 Dec 2020.

http://catalogue.nrscotland.gov.uk/scancatalogue/person.aspx?code=NA15177&st=1&tc=y&tl=n&tn=y&tp=n&k=&ko=o&r=gb224&ro=s& https://www.smithartgalleryandmuseum.co.uk/stirling-christmas-drummond-tract-depot/ https://libguides.stir.ac.uk/c.php?g=530467&p=3628585 http://www.scotlandswar.co.uk/stirling_tract.html