Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Quarrier, William
QUARRIER, WILLIAM (1829–1903), founder of the 'Orphan Homes of Scotland,' the only son, and the second of three children, of a ship carpenter, was born in Greenock on 29 Sept. 1829. When the boy was only a few years old his father died of cholera at Quebec, and shortly afterwards the mother removed with her children to Glasgow, where she maintained herself by fine sewing, the boy and the elder sister assisting her. At the age of seven Quarrier entered a pin factory, where, for ten hours a day in working a hand machine, he received a shilling a week. In a few months, however, he was apprenticed to a boot and shoe maker, becoming a journeyman at the age of twelve. About his sixteenth year he obtained work in a shop in Argyle St., Glasgow, owned by a Mrs. Hunter, who induced him, for the first time, to attend church, and not long afterwards he was appointed church officer. At the age of twenty he started a bootshop, and seven years afterwards, on 2 Dec. 1856, he married Isabella, daughter of Mrs. Hunter. Business prospered with him and he soon had three shops; but his early life of hardship made him resolve to devote his profits towards the assistance of the children of the streets. In 1864 the distress of a boy whose stock of matches had been stolen from him led Quarrier, with the help of several others, to found the shoeblack brigade. This was followed by a news brigade and a parcels brigade, with headquarters for the three brigades in the Trongate, called the Industrial Brigade Home; but, from various causes, the brigades were not so successful as he anticipated, and in 1871 he turned his attention to the formation of an orphan home, which was opened in November in Renfrew Lane. In the same year a home for girls was opened in Renfield Street. From these homes a number of children were, through a lady's emigration scheme, sent each year to Canada, where there were receiving homes with facilities for getting the children placed in private families. In 1872 the home for boys was removed to Cessnock House, standing within its own grounds in the suburb of Govan, and shortly afterwards Elm Park, Govan Road, was rented for a girls' home. About the same time, a night refuge was established at Dovehill, with a mission hall attached to it. This was superseded in 1876 by a city orphan home, erected at a cost of 10,000l., the building, which apart from the site cost 7000l., being the gift of two ladies. There about 100 children are resident, the boys being at work at different trades in the city, and the girls being trained in home duties; the building also includes a hall for mission work. In 1876 a farm of forty acres near Bridge of Weir was purchased, where three separate cottages, or rather villas, and a central building, were opened in 1878, as the 'Orphan Homes of Scotland.' The homes, the gifts chiefly of individual friends, and erected at an average cost of about 1500l., each provide accommodation for about thirty children, who are under the care of a 'father' and 'mother.' The homes now number over fifty; and the village also includes a church — protestant undenominational — a school, a training-ship on land, a poultry farm, extensive kitchen gardens, stores, bakehouses, etc. On additional ground the first of four consumptive sanatoriums was opened in September 1896; and there are now also homes for epileptics. The annual expenditure of the orphan homes, amounting to about 40,000l., is met by subscriptions which are not directly solicited.
Quarrier died on 16 Oct. 1903 and Mrs. Quarrier on 22 June 1904. They were buried in the cemetery of the 'Orphan Homes.' They left a son and three daughters. The institution is now managed by the family with the counsel and help of influential trustees.
[John Clunie's William Quarrier, the Orphans' Friend; J. Urquhart, Life-Story of William Quarrier, 1900; The Yearly Narrative of Facts; information from Quarrier's daughter, Mrs. Bruges.]