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From the Book of Eminent Burgesses of Dundee 1513 to 1885.
Thomas Ivory, Watchmaker - 6th July 1795
THOMAS IVORY, WATCHMAKER, DUNDEE, WAS ADMITTED BURGESS BY THE PRIVILEGE OF THE DECEASED JAMES IVORY, His FATHER.
THOMAS IVORY was the third son of JAMES IVORY, watchmaker, who was admitted Burgess on
22nd September, 1767 (vide page 223), and for a considerable time followed the same occupation as his father. His talent as a draughtsman led him to abandon this calling early in the present century, and to take up the art of engraving ; and he is believed to have been the first native engraver in Dundee. He executed illustrations for an edition of ROLLIN'S Ancient History, published in Dundee by FRANCIS RAY, in 1800; and he was also employed to furnish numerous maps of the Town and Harbour to accompany the various reports of eminent engineers as to proposed extensions of the harbour and the establishment of the Tay Ferries. His best¬ known work was a set of copy lines prepared for teaching handwriting, published in 1811, and long used as a model in the Dundee Schools.
In 1815 he was elected by the Nine Trades as Commissioner anent the Harbour Bill; and though he did not take an active part in civic government, he was regarded as a severe and intelligent critic of the "self elected" Council of the time. He made the education of the youth of Dundee his special study, and it was largely owing to his trenchant letters, signed "Parens," in the newspapers of the period, that important reforms were accomplished in the scholastic system within the Burgh. His literary abilities were analytical rather than constructive, and several of his criticisms upon popular literary works were published in pamphlet form, and are evidently the productions of a refined and cultivated mind. He died circa 1825. His son, LORD IVORY of Session, was admitted Burgess on 21st November, 1816, and another Son, WILLIAM IVORY, writer, Dundee, was enrolled on 6th April, 1818.