James Baird (merchant)

Baird was born in Saltcoats in Ayrshire, Scotland, the son of Hugh Baird and Margaret (née Anderson).^[1] He emigrated to Newfoundland at the age of 16 in 1844 and soon established himself as a prominent merchant. Alongside a brother and later his nephew, the Baird family built up a business which included a large array of general merchandise and eventually branched into the fishery supply business. He was an early steam yacht owner: the Griffin was built in 1865 for him by Aitken & Mansel, Whiteinch, Glasgow, Scotland. By the mid-1880s, James Baird Ltd. had entered the fish export trade and survived both the St. John's fire in 1892 and the banking collapse a few years later. He was highly important in the founding and supporting of many industries.^[1]

Baird, despite his high profile and important business career, is best known in Newfoundland history for the famous Baird et al. v. Walker case. It was a dispute over the location and operation of a lobster factory on land deemed to be assigned to the French. Baird won a settlement in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland. In 1898 he was appointed to the Legislative Council of Newfoundland, a position he held for the remainder of his life.^[2]

Baird's summer house, known as both Bryn Mawr Cottage and Baird Cottage, was built in 1905 by architect William F. Butler. It burned in an early morning fire in December 2022.^[3]