James David Marwick

Sir James David Marwick (15 July 1826 – 24 March 1908) was a Scottish lawyer, historian and town clerk. He served as Town Clerk of Glasgow for thirty-one years, during which time the entire city was transformed. Its powers and amenities were improved by by-laws and Acts of Parliament, and Marwick directed the city's Glasgow development for much of the second half of the 19th century.

A son of William Marwick, a merchant from Kirkwall, Orkney, James was born in Leith, and was educated at Kirkwall and the University of Edinburgh. He was admitted a procurator at Dundee in 1852, and became a solicitor before the Supreme Courts six years later. For some time he was a member of the Town Council of Edinburgh, and he became Town Clerk of that city in 1860. He was also clerk to the Convention of Royal Burghs from 1861 to 1876. In 1873 Marwick was offered a salary of £2,500 per annum (three times his previous salary) to succeed Angus Turner as Glasgow's Town Clerk. He used his influence to promote the expansion of the city's boundaries. The City Chambers was erected between 1882 and 1888 as a symbol of municipal confidence and wealth. During those years he occupied a unique place in the municipal, literary, and social life of the city. He enjoyed the friendship of the successive Lord Provosts of Edinburgh and Glasgow. He gradually built up a reputation as the leading authority on municipal law in Scotland. His knowledge was utilised by successive Lord Advocates, and his opinion constantly sought by the Town Clerks of other burghs; and in no instance was that opinion overturned by the Courts. As a municipal organiser he had the task of framing and carrying out many of the greatest city enterprises of his time, including extension and improvements of the city, duplication of the water-works, the purification of the River Clyde, the Municipal Tramways, and municipal electricity.

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