James Sellars
British architect
James Sellars (2 December 1843 – 9 October 1888) was a Scottish architect who was heavily influenced by the work of Alexander Greek Thomson.
Life
Sellars was born in the Gorbals in Glasgow, son of James Sellars, house factor and Elizabeth McDonald. He was articled to H & D Barclay from the age of 13 and stayed there until he was 21 when he then moved to the employment of James Hamilton. Sellars was one of the designers commissioned by the Saracen Foundry to work on a set of standard designs for a series of decorative iron works, for example railings, drinking fountains, bandstands, street lamps, pre-fabricated buildings and architectural features. In later years he worked in partnership with Campbell Douglas and John Keppie.
Sellars was married to Jane Moodie (1844-1927). He died on 9 October 1888 of blood-poisoning contracted from a nail piercing his boot whilst on site. Sellars is buried in Lambhill Cemetery with his monument by his colleague John Keppie sculpted by his friend James Pittendrigh Macgillivray whom he worked with on several projects. The grave sits on axis with the main east–west path at its western end, but is set behind more modern graves and partially obscured by trees. It was originally the focal point of the main path.
The public source identifies “James Sellars” as british architect. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around James, Sellars and British.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 7, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q15437518. The first chronological checks are 1843, 1888, 1844 and 1927.
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This entry incorporates text from “James Sellars” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.