WM class leader and local preacher, born at Peterhead into a poor fishing family. He worked as a cooper, eventually establishing his own business, which included herring-curing. Setting aside early Presbyterian influences, he joined the Methodists. His preaching later developed into a campaign of personal evangelism, sometimes provocatively critical of ministers and office-holders whom he regarded as unconverted. His work fostered many societies in Aberdeen and along the Banffshire and Moray coast. In his own works he operated a profit-sharing scheme, never withdrawing wages from anyone who fell sick, and each day started with a scriptural reading and prayer.