Sir David Baxter, 1st Baronet

Sir David Baxter, 1st Baronet (1793–1872), was a linen manufacturer in Dundee, Scotland, and a baronet. He also performed a considerable amount of philanthropic work, benefiting his home city of Dundee and more widely Scottish education.

Baxter was the second son of William Baxter, of Balgavies, Angus, and was born in Dundee on 15 February 1793. He was educated at the Dundee Academy.

In 1833 he was married to Elizabeth, daughter of R. Montgomerie, of Barrahill, Ayrshire.

While still a young man, he became manager of the Dundee Sugar Refining Company. The concern was never prosperous, and notwithstanding his prudent and energetic management it collapsed in 1826.

Thereupon he became partner in the linen manufacturing firm of Baxter brothers, which included his father and his two younger brothers. Edward, his elder brother, had left it in the previous year to commence the business of a general merchant. From the time that he joined the firm he was practically its head, and on the death of his two brothers and his father within a few years afterwards he and the former manager of the works remained the sole partners.

In 1828 an attempt had been made by him to introduce power-loom weaving, but after a short trial it was abandoned until 1836, when its revival was followed by complete and extraordinary success. Through the mechanical skill of his partner in perfecting the machinery, and the business capacity and tact of David Baxter, the firm speedily became one of the largest manufacturing houses in the world; and to its remarkable success may be in a large degree ascribed the position which Dundee attained as the chief seat of the linen manufacture in Britain in the nineteenth century.

Although much immersed in the cares of business, Baxter took an active, if not very prominent, share in public affairs. In 1825 he was chosen a police commissioner, and in 1828 a guild councillor and member of the harbour board. A liberal in politics, he took a lively interest in parliamentary elections, both in Dundee and in the county of Fife, where in 1856 he purchased the estate of Kilmaron.

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