John Galt

Career, early publications

It was usual in Greenock for lads starting careers in commerce to first improve their penmanship by copying entries in the books of the custom house, so Galt and Park were "desked" there for a few months. At the age of 17, Galt became a junior clerk at a Greenock firm of merchants. He was a "voracious reader" using the town's subscription library. With his friends, he went on long walks, wrote essays and stories, some of which were published in Constable's The Scots Magazine, and founded a Literary and Debating Society. In early 1804, at the Tontine Hotel, this hosted James Hogg, who was not widely known at the time. Hogg, with two companions, arrived unannounced in Greenock at the start of a tour of the highlands, and was surprised and gratified by the invitation to supper with a large literary community. He remembered Galt as "a tall thin young man, with something a little dandyish in his appearance", dressed in a frock coat and new top-boots, with his shirt collar fashionably high at one side, while the other flapped down, but debating with "such good-nature and such strong emphatic reasoning" as to be "no common youth". The discussion, songs, and stories were "much above what I had ever been accustomed to hear". They became good friends.

Though seemingly doing well, Galt "felt at Greenock as if I was never in my proper element", and was restless about "the narrowness of my prospects". Incensed by an abusive letter, he pursued its author to Leith and got a written apology, then on return told his father and the merchants' firm he intended to quit Greenock. Galt made preparations and, accompanied by his father, took post chaise and mail coach to London in May 1804. Letters of introduction got him, at most, dinner invitations. In 1805 he used an advance of his father's patrimony to fund a partnership with a factor. In 1809 he began studying law at Lincoln's Inn.

During a subsequent trip to Europe, where he was commissioned by a merchant firm to establish trade agreements, Galt met and befriended Lord Byron in Gibraltar. He traveled with Byron and his companion, John Hobhouse, 1st Baron Broughton, to Malta. He met them again in Greece. Parting company, Galt continued alone to Constantinople, Adrianople and then Sofia. He returned to Greenock via Ireland. He then embarked to London to pursue business plans, but these did not come to fruition and he took to writing. Galt wrote an account of his travels, which met with moderate success. Decades later, he would also publish the first full biography of Lord Byron. He also published the first biography of the painter Benjamin West, The Life and Studies of Benjamin West (1816, expanded 1820).

In 1813, Galt attempted to establish a Gibraltarian trading company, in order to circumvent Napoleon's embargo on British trade; however, Wellington's victory in Spain made this no longer necessary. Galt then returned to London and married Elizabeth Tilloch, daughter of Alexander Tilloch. They had three boys, John Galt Jr (1814–1866), Thomas Galt (1815–1901), and Alexander Tilloch Galt (1817–1893). In 1815, he became Secretary of the Royal Caledonian Asylum in London. He also privately consulted in several business ventures.

Galt started to submit articles to Blackwood's Magazine in late 1819, and in March 1829 he sent Blackwood the publishers the plan for "The Ayrshire legatees".

Concentrating on his writing for the next several years, Galt lived at times in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh and elsewhere, writing fiction and a number of school texts under the pseudonym Reverend T. Clark. Around 1821 he moved his family from Greenock to Eskgrove near Musselburgh. In addition to moving his residence frequently during this period, Galt also switched publishers several times, moving from Blackwood's Magazine to Oliver and Boyd and then back again. In 1821 Annals of the parish was published as were two instalments of The steam boat and he started work on the novel Sir André Wylie. Annals of the parish established Galt's reputation overnight. Sir Andrew Wylie was published in 1822.

Return, debts and health problems

On his return to Great Britain, Galt prepared his case for the Company directors, and was given considerable support. On 14 July 1829, he wrote to his friend, the physician David Macbeth Moir, saying he had brought from Canada "book-material", some of which he had sent on to Blackwood for possible publication. At the insistence of his debtors, he then spent several months in King's Bench Prison for failure to pay debts, and used the time to write. After his release in November 1829, he published books including novels set in Canada; Lawrie Todd in 1830, and Bogle Corbet in 1831. He pressed on with his biography of Byron.

Around this time, he began to suffer symptoms of nervous disease. He told Moir In April 1831 that, while still in Canada, he had stumbled and hurt his spine on a tree root. In early April, 1831, he moved with his family to Barn Cottage in Old Brompton. He wrote more novels. The most successful, The Member and its sequel The Radical, reprised the device of being written in the first person by a protagonist, revealing more than they intend, with political corruption as the central theme, drawing on his own recent experiences.

Galt was involved in another colonial business venture, the British American Land Company, which was formed to develop lands in the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada (now Quebec). Galt served as secretary but was forced to resign in December 1832 because of his health. By this stage, his spinal injury was crippling him. A series of strokes affected his speech and handwriting, and he had great difficulty walking. Unable to write, he dictated a two volume Autobiography which sold well.

Galt's three sons returned to Canada in 1833. The eldest, John Jr., would be appointed Collector of Customs and Registrar of Deeds at Goderich and become part of the Colborne Clique. His youngest son Alexander became one of the fathers of Confederation and Canada's first minister of finance.