James Shewan

Shewan was born on 6 January 1848 in Rora, Aberdeenshire in Scotland. He was the son of Agnes (née Robertson) Shewan (1815–1891) and James Shewan (1819–1854), who died when he was four years old.[1]

After attending school for only a few years, Shewan apprenticed to a ship carpenter. He first traveled to Greenland, where the ship was held by the ice for three and a half months. After his return, he went to London followed by a trip to Singapore with his uncle who was a sea captain. For four years, he traded in tea at various ports in China, Japan, and Australia.[1]

In 1869, he sailed from Yokohama to New York City where he started a dry dock and ship repair business, first called Shewan & Palmer and later known as Shewan & Jenkins. In 1877, Shewan bought out Jenkins and became the sole owner of the business, which he renamed James Shewan & Sons.[1] After his death, his sons ran the business and during World War 1, the shipyard had the largest tonnage capacity of any dry docks in America.[2] Edwin later sold the business to Bethlehem Steel and retired.[3]

In 1870, Shewan married Ellen Curley (1850–1934), a native of Cardiff in Wales.[4] Together,[5] they had three daughters and two sons, including:[1]

• Nellie Shewan (d. 1940), who lived at 1170 Fifth Avenue and did not marry.[6]
• Ada Shewan Galvin Chambers.
• Agnes Shewan (1881–1974), who later became the Marquise Rizzo dei Ritii after her marriage to Marquis don Guglielmo Rizzo dei Ritii in 1928.[7] She owned Shewan's Plumbush estate in Cold Spring, New York.[8]
• James Shewan Jr. (1869–1926), who married Jessica Brown (1886–1935).[9] His daughter, Patricia Carrington Shewan, married Count Jacques de Sibour (nephew of Jules Henri de Sibour).
• Edwin Arthur Shewan (1877–1945)[3]

James owned an estate in the Hudson Valley opposite West Point known as Inverugie (named after a small village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland that lies on the entrance to the River Ugie just north of Peterhead) and the Plumbush estate in Cold Spring.[10][11]

Shewan died at his home, 43 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, on 7 May 1914 and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.[12] His business passed into the hands of his sons.[13][1] Upon the death of his widow in 1934, she left her entire estate, valued at several million dollars, to her three daughters and nothing to her son, stating: "they are amply provided for and have such splendid prospects for further bounty that none of them needs and gift, legacy or bequest from me."[4]

• James Shewan at Find a Grave