Celebrating 190 Years of Grigor & Young

On Friday 04 May 2018, the offices of Grigor & Young will close at 12.30pm.

We will be going out for lunch to celebrate a few things.

There’s the recent conversion of the business to a limited liability partnership. We also celebrate the fact that Greg Robertson has become a member (a “partner”) in the firm. Greg has designed the header image for this article.

And there’s the fact that 2018 marks 190 years since this solicitors’ business began in 1828.

The firm has had its offices at the present location in North Street, Elgin, since no later than the 1830s. What was once a continuous road up to Bishopmill was subsequently divided by the A96 of Alexandra Road.

The gentlemen shown in the picture above represent both the Grigor and Young sides of the business.

Looking to the left is Robert Young, one of the founders of the partnership. This picture is a photo of an image which was projected onto the east wall of St Giles Church on the Plainstones of Elgin High Street during the Christmas lights display of 2017. The many pictures in that show – some static, some moving – portrayed the colourful history of Elgin.

Looking to the right is Alexander Grigor Allan. He was the nephew of co-founder, William Grigor. He was born in the U.S.A. and moved to Elgin with his mother when he was still of school age. As well as going on to be a partner in the firm, he was also owner of the local Glenlossie Distillery and of Talisker Distillery in Skye. He died suddenly, in August 1893. This year is the 125th anniversary of his death.

It’s not a good idea to live in the past but it’s a fine place to visit from time to time.

We have a lot of archive material about the firm – going back well into the 19th Century – and, if you are interested, you can find reference to some of the characters and stories associated with Grigor & Young in various articles in different places (see the links below).

We’ll be looking forward, as well as back, and hoping that Grigor & Young LLP has as long a future ahead of it as its “unlimited” predecessor.