William Gibson

He was one of the most outstanding members of the Scottish colony in Gothenburg in the early 19th century. Born in Arbroath, where his father was a sailmaker and shipowner, he left Scotland for Gothenburg at the age of 14, and was employed in an ironmonger’s. By the age of 23 he was able to open his own business, and like many others he made a fortune out of timber and iron exports during the Continental blockade.

The depression in 1815 hit him very hard, and for a number of years afterwards he seems to have tried his hand in building and construction. In the early 1820’s, however, he began, following his father, to specialise in rope-making and sail-making. In 1834 he moved his factory from Gothenburg out to Jonsered, east of the city, and here he and his friend and partner, Alexander Keiller, built up, with the help of Scottish and English workmen, the highly modern factory that soon dominated the entire Scandinavian market. A foundry was added and in the 1850’s an engineering shop that produced agricultural machinery. A cotton spinning mill and a weaving mill were also added around this period.

After the death of William Gibson, the management of the Jonseredfabriken was taken over by his son William (1816-65), who developed the engineering shop in particular, and with great success started to manufacture timber processing machines, which came to be of great importance for the Swedish timber industry. The latter’s son, William Gibson III (1848-1917), successfully carried on the proud traditions of the firm, and still further expanded its production programme.