Collectors of hand tools will be aware that iron woodworking planes were once made by makers such as Limond, Miller, McLauchlan and Rutherford in the town of Ayr, Scotland. Stewart Spiers was also a maker and an excellent book on the subject was published in 1998 by Nigel Lampert, Through Much Tribulation: Stewart Spiers and the Planemakers of Ayr, ISBN 0-646-36426-X. Only 1000 copies were printed so in order to more widely publicize Stewart’s family to genealogists, the author provides the following information about the family. He thanks Mr Lampert, who lives in Australia, for kindly giving permission to use his book as the source of much of this article.
Stewart, like his father, was a cabinet-maker and no doubt his need to smooth the wood on which he was working led him to manufacture hand planes of his own. He became a great innovator, using materials available from local founderies, such as iron and brass. He also had a large family to feed and no doubt he saw an opportunity to increase his income, so making and selling planes would seem an obvious choice. He was also an amateur violinist and member of the Ayr Musical Association which later became a member of the Ayr Choral Union. Apparently he became a plane-maker almost by accident having purchased a rough casting, finishing it himself at home and selling the completed plane to a local cabinet-maker for a large profit. His business had started. Obviously a very intelligent man. His cabinet-making business remained his main trade for some years until plane-making started to become a full time occupation from about 1864. His journey from Ayr to London in 1851 to visit the Great Exhibition would have been expensive but no doubt he was looking for ideas to improve his planes. At about that time the family moved to 11 River Street, Ayr, the Spiers business being at 12 Garden Street. The latter street was redeveloped in the 1960’s, but 11 River Street remains much as it was. In 1862 he still recorded himself in trade publications as a cabinet-maker and it was not until 1871 that he described himself as an iron plane maker. At that point he moved the family to a larger, grander house in Ayr, named Firth View.
, 
