William Barr was born on 17 October 1820 in Beith, the youngest of five children born to Robert Barr, a master joiner, and Margaret Fulton. His siblings were: Agnes, born 25 October 1807; Robert, born 29 April 1810; James, born 22 February 1815 and Mary, born 30 May 1817. All the children were born in Beith. His parents were married in December 1806. Sadly, William’s father died when he was six years old.
After leaving school William worked as a weaver for two years, but seeing that the weaving trade was in decline, he obtained an apprenticeship with a Beith currier, Messrs Muir and Ramsay, in 1837. The 1841 census reveals that he was living at Newton, Beith (later known as Wilson Street), with his widowed mother Margaret and sister Agnes who were both employed as cotton sewers.
After completing his apprenticeship, he worked as a journeyman for a short time before accepting the position of Foreman with Messrs Bryce Muir & Son.
William married Jean Boyd on 01 January 1849 in Beith. Sadly, by the time that the 1851 census was taken his wife had died. William and his infant daughter Jane were living with his mother and sister in Main Street, Beith.
In November 1858, following the death of Mr Robert Ramsay, William bought the “Bathwell Tannery” at Bunswynd. The tannery consisted of two buildings, the old and new yards, which were surrounded by the beam houses and large, airy, drying sheds capable of hanging 750 pigskins, 50 crops and 100 horsehides at a time.
The old yard, used mainly for the preparation of sole leather, contained 32 large handlers, 10 pits and 8 leaches. The new yard, built around 1843, contained 52 handlers, 26 pit and 12 leaches. It was devoted to pig skins and light goods. Pig skin was used for making riding saddles. The surplus skin was used to cover furniture as well as being used for book bindings, bags, and gloves.
Within the new yard was a well, known as the ‘Bath Well’, from which the tannery got its name.
A steam powered engine pumped water from another well, lying at the rear of the tanyard, around the tannery. Additional water needs were supplied by the Cuff Reservoir.
Lorries were able to back up to the doors of the Beam Houses where untreated green ox and cow hides, horse hides and hog skins were deposited. Here they would undergo their initial treatments. The hides were sent to a building which held a row of small boilers which produced sufficient steam to render the fat off the hides, which would be made into lard oil. The hides were then soaked to remove the curing salt, limed (to remove hair, etc.) and soaked again, before being passed through the graining wheel. They were then soaked in liquor derived from Hereford oak bark.
Ox and Cow hides, mainly purchased from the Glasgow markets, were turned into riding crops and razor strops (for shaving). Crop leather was soaked for eighteen months until it became as firm as a board.
William Barr married his second wife Janet Snodgrass on 09 December 1856. They had one child, Agnes Dunlop Barr, born 05 November 1859 in Beith. The 1861 census reveals that William and Janet Barr were living in Crummock Street, Beith with their daughters Jane and Agnes Dunlop, at which time William employed six men and four boys. By 1871 William, Janet and their daughter Agnes were living at Dunlop Villa, Paisley Road, Beith. Their daughter Agnes would later marry Bryce Muir Knox on 06 July 1880 at the U.P. Church, Beith.
In public life, William Barr was an elder in the Head Street United Presbyterian Church. He was elected fourth President of the Scottish Hide and Leather Trades Provident and Benevolent Society in March 1888. He served as a Justice of the Peace for the county of Ayrshire, and he was also associated with the executive of the North Ayrshire Liberal Party. William Barr died 08 November 1892, 5pm at Dunlop House, Wilson Street, Beith after a long illness.