William was the 5th child of Alex and Helen. A grocer to trade, he helped his mother in the pub in the evenings. His future wife, Agnes (nee McWilliams) was employed there as a waitress. Daughter of Wm McWilliams a mason's labourer, and Mary Fagan, schoolteacher, who were married in Dumbarton on 13 May 1869, she was a lively lass, and was known as a wit and a raconteur. After their marriage, William worked in the building trade, as the wages provided better for his family of three daughters and five sons. (Note only 4 sons listed in tree). During World War One, he served as a driver (RASC) in France from 1916 to 1918, after which he returned to the building trade in which he worked, out in all weathers, until then age of 67, when he retired because of arthritis in his knees.
Two of his sons were double honours graduates of Edinburgh University, in French and German. James became a District Commissioner in Assam India from1940 until 1950, after which India was granted independence in 1947 from Britain. On his journey out to India in 1940, he was torpedoed and had to return to Britain to sail on a different ship. His brother William was in the Control Commission in Germany, serving as an interpreter at the Nuremberg trials, after the Second World War. At the time of writing (2000) only one son James remains at the age of 83 and lives in Linlithgow known to locals as ''Echie''. James was honoured with an MBE in 1947 for his services in establishing independence for India.