“A leather merchant conducting the tanning business in Dunfermline; but the peace after the Battle of Waterloo involved him in ruin...” [Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie, p.6:] 

       “Publisher of “The Precursor”, a small edition it might be said of Cobbett’s “Register” and thought to have been the first radical paper in Scotland”. “head of the advanced wing of the radical party in the district” [Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie, p.4:]