Alexander Dennistoun (also known as Alex Dennistoun; 1790–1874) was a Scottish merchant, bank director, property developer and, for two years, from 1835 to 1837, a Member of Parliament for Dunbartonshire. He was responsible for establishing the Glasgow residential area Dennistoun, named after him.
His brother, John Dennistoun, was Whig MP for Glasgow from 1837 to 1847.
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Biography
Alexander Dennistoun was born 14 August 1790 to James Dennistoun of Golf Hill (1752–1835), a very prosperous merchant and banker prominent in Glasgow society, and his wife Mary, daughter of William Finlay of The Moss, Stirlingshire (cousin of politician Kirkman Finlay).
Alexander Dennistoun's father James Dennistoun, together with his brother Alexander, established J. & A. Dennistoun, a trading company active across the Atlantic, with interests in tobacco, cotton, and branches in Liverpool, New Orleans, Havre de Grace, and subsequently at New York, Melbourne, and London. With others he established The Glasgow Bank, a successful private Bank of Issue (a bank able to issue currency). James Dennistoun retired in 1829 and died in 1835.
His sons, Alexander and John were educated at a grammar school and college in Glasgow, and entered the family business. About 1820 Alexander resided in New Orleans, where the firm had established a branch to facilitate their trade in cotton. On his return to Britain, he took charge of the company's Liverpool branch, and resided in Cheshire. He was known as a keen sportsman, a capital shot, and hunted regularly with the Ayrshire, the Lanarkshire, and the Cheshire hounds. He engaged in friendly rivalry with William Cobbett in agricultural pursuits, particularly in the raising of root crops, which were then comparatively in their infancy.