The John Crabbie
& Co. Story

Company Archives

From the middle of the 19th century, John Crabbie blended his own range of whiskies. In addition to procuring large stocks of Scottish single malt whisky, from some of the finest distilleries, Crabbie signed licences to produce his own whiskies at distilleries such as Balmanech and Benrinnes. However, his commitment to the field of whisky industry stretched further, as he became involved in the creation of one of Scotland’s most iconic grain distilleries, North British, sitting on its board in its formative years. Company archives reveal hand-written record of sales sheets to companies as far afield as New York, Buenos Aires, Constantinople, and St. Vincent.

Crabbie’s glory years span from the 1830s. These were pioneering times, and it seems John Crabbie and his successors were possessed of the same self-confidence as other famous explorers were responsible for building The British Empire. Using the Port of Leith in Edinburgh as its base, the company sent its products to the world – also seeking to bring the finest world products back to Scotland. Records show that its team of drinks makers was experimenting with a vast array of fruit, grains, herbs, spices and spirits – creating new and exciting beverages.

John Crabbie

John Crabbie was born on 2nd December 1806, the third child of Johan Duncan and Millar Crabbie an upholsterer. However by 1814, Millar’s business was described as a grocer, operating from 15, Canongate in the centre of Edinburgh.

John Crabbie never ran this family’s business, it seems John had more ambitious plans for his venture, trading in a range of drinks products, including ginger cordial, and four years later he went into partnership with William Cree to buy the business James Wyld & Co. The purchase included the company’s properties at Tolbooth Wynd in Leith, and by 1838 the business had moved there. This was the golden period for Crabbie & Cree and the company was not only exporting by now, it was importing ingredients from India, China, Indonesia and Nigeria among other places.

When William Cree died in 1840, the company was renamed John Crabbie & Co. John and would go on to buy more property in Leith, establishing bonded warehouses and a distillery as well a distillery at Haddington, and invested in railway stock across the world.

Perhaps John Crabbie’s biggest contribution to the burgeoning success story of Scotch whisky came in 1885, when he teamed up with whisky icon Andrew Usher and William Sanderson to found The North British Distilling Company, supplying a new, independent and cheap source of grain whisky. By 1897 the new distillery was producing more than 13 million litres of grain spirit a year – bigger than any single malt distillery in Scotland today. As his business grew John spent more time getting involved with local politics. He bought a property in Royal Terrace, which became known as Whisky Row because several spirits merchants lived there and the properties had a view of the ships arriving in to Leith.

Business went from strength, and in time his sons and grandsons would join the company and eventually run it. He died at Royal Terrace in 1891, leaving his business and assets across the world to his family. Much of his estate was sold off, with generous payments to his servants and to hospitals and charities in Edinburgh and Leith.

The Jacobite Connection

Few events in Scottish history are remembered with as much emotion as the Jacobite uprising and the resulting slaughter of the Jacobite army at the Battle of Culloden – an episode which directly links John Crabbie with the battle in 1745.

John’s great grandfather was called Macrobbie – pronounced ‘Macrabbie’ – and had fought alongside Alexander Robertson at Culloden. After the battle was dramatically and violently lost by the Jacobites, government troops sought to destroy permanently the Catholic claim to the Scottish throne, ruthlessly hunting down Highlanders who had backed the uprising, including totally destroying Robertson’s house as Loyalist troops set it alight.

In this climate, Macrobbie fled to Edinburgh and changed his name to Crobbie, dispensing with the ‘Mac’ part of his name that potentially revealed his political allegiances. Handwritten records of the time are littered with mistakes, so it’s impossible to know when the name was changed to Crab in the first instance, then to Crabie, and finally Crabbie.

John’s father was called Miller Crab, John and his brothers George (born 1808) and Miller (born 1809) were called Crabie but brother David, born in 1811, was registered as David Crabbie, and his birth records show that his father recorded his name as Millar Crabbie.

Leith’s History And Brand Origin

Leith, which lies to the North of Edinburgh on the southern side of the Firth of Forth, established itself as Edinburgh’s commercial port and Scotland’s gateway to an exciting and ever-expanding new world. It was also the home of John Crabbie as it was an ideal location for the business as the British Empire grew and import and export thrived.

It was here that John Crabbie first stored the malt whiskies he sourced, and created his blends. The company imported goods too, including various fruits, spices, and the finest ginger from Indonesia, China, India and Nigeria. It is from this port that John Crabbie often went along on the trips himself and it was in India that he encountered elephants which captivated him for the rest of his life.

Today the Port of Leith bears little resemblance to the Leith John Crabbie would have known. In the 19th century it was a dangerous place; a haven for smugglers and pirates, but as the British Empire grew Leith, which lies on the southern side of the Firth of Forth, established itself as Edinburgh’s commercial port and Scotland’s gateway to an exciting and ever-expanding new world. Over several decades it expanded from being a dry dock to being a sizeable wet dock and a trading point operating down the east coast of Britain from Wick in the far north of Scotland to Lowestoft and Yarmouth in England.

Leith became famous for wine and whisky storage, too, at its peak there were around 100 warehouses storing wine and brandy. In the late 1880s the wine harvest in Europe collapsed due to the spread of a parasite, opening the door for Scotch whisky. To reflect the changes, most of Leith’s warehouses were converted to whisky storage. Around 85 bonded warehouses stood in Leith in the 1960s. Jointly these matured about 90 per cent of all Scotch whisky.

Crabbie’s stored whisky for some of the foremost whisky distilleries, including Lagavulin, Talisker, Laphroaig. The last bond, on Water Street, closed around 1995.