John Bryce

On 5 December 1823 William (junior) died, leaving his two younger brothers David and John with financial responsibility for his widow and three young children, Margaret, William and David.

To provide an income for the family David and John continued the (architectural) academy, and Burn gave David his brother's place in his office. This arrangement enabled William Bryce Senior to retire from business in 1826, when he moved to Agnes Grove, Trinity.

c.1832 his brother John had left the Bryce household and academy to set up independent practice in Glasgow.

Nevertheless the brothers remained close, jointly undertaking speculative development in Garnethill and in Cambridge Street in Glasgow.

Very early in their careers David and John Bryce became accomplished in the design of neo-Jacobean ornament, a development related to the transition from neo Tudor to neo-Jacobean in Burn's practice in the years 1826-29.

More innovatively the brothers were also pioneers of neo-Mannerism and neo-Baroque, making their debut in these idioms at David's St Mark's Unitarian Church in Edinburgh and John's McGavin Monument in Glasgow Necropolis. Their development seems to have had its origin in the 17th-century Italian publications David had acquired, supplemented by tracings taken from others found in the libraries of clients. These studies made possible Burn's completion of Salvin's Harlaxton, and the accomplished detailing of his great houses at Falkland, Whitehill, Stoke Rochford and Revesby: they were also extensively used for the inventive neo-Baroque doorpiece details of Burn's lesser country houses.

(Source: Wikipedia)

John was married to Ann (or Annie) and they had five children (or possibly six ). John Bryce died of 'debility' on 13 August 1851 at the age of 46 and was buried in Glasgow Necropolis (Gamma 27).

The family returned to live in Edinburgh after the John's death and were living at 2 Maryfield Duddingston in 1861. His brother David Bryce (pre-eminent Scottish Architect) took care of his widow and children.

His son John who was born about 1843 (died 1922) and therefore a child when his father died, subsequently joined his uncle David's practice. It is this John who is buried in New Calton Cemetery and listed on the same memorial as his uncle David.