The History of Drever and Heddle
1990 saw the Centenary of the oldest Legal name in Orkney still extant. It is 100 years since the name Drever & Heddle was first applied to the Firm which is now known as Shepherd & Wedderburn,
Drever & Heddle, W.S. In 2004 and the firm itself celebrated its 150th anniversary as it is much older that the name, having its origins in 1854, the year in which The Orcadian was established. In that year P S Heddle set up Practice as a Law Agent in Kirkwall. The son of a Farmer, he was born in Kirkwall in 1825 and, after serving his apprenticeship there under B M Ranken, the then Procurator Fiscal, he moved South first to Dundee, then to Edinburgh where he studied Law and qualified. Seven years after his return to Kirkwall he was appointed Town Clerk, and in 1878 he became the first Agent for the Bank of Scotland in Kirkwall. The Bank Agency was established in the building Heddle had occupied with his Law Office since 1869, the former Town House of the Balfours of Elwick, now the premises of Woolworths.
P S Heddle died at his home at the Farm of Gaitnip in September 1884. On the day of his funeral as mark of respect all places of business in Kirkwall closed and the ships in harbour flew their flags at half mast.
Although he had for a time been in partnership with A J Gold, son of the Earl of Zetland’s Chamberlain, at the time of his death P S Heddle ran the whole business himself. His son, W J Heddle, being only an apprentice, could not take over the Firm. W P Drever did so, the firm becoming known as Heddle and Drever. W J Heddle went south to Edinburgh to qualify, and returned to become Junior Partner to Drever in 1888, which position was reflected in the change of name to Drever & Heddle in 1890.
W P Drever, the son of a Sea Captain, was born in Kirkwall and was apprenticed
there to
William Cowper before going to Edinburgh in 1869. There he spent a year in
the office of the
Town Clerk, Sir James Marwick who was a native of Kirkwall. He then spent
4 years engaged in
Court work and 
conveyancing with Messrs J A Campbell & Lamond CS, before
rejoining Sir
James Marwick on the latter’s appointment as Town Clerk of Glasgow.
There W P Drever spent
ten years in practice and in part-time study at the University before his
return to Orkney. Mr
Drever was a student of all things Norse, and contributed articles on udal
law to various legal
journals/journals and encyclopaedias. He purchased the estate of Rapness
in Westray, and lived
in Buttquoy House, Kirkwall. He died aged 75 in 1924.
W J Heddle succeeded to his father’s old office of Town Clerk in 1902. During his period of office, he succeeded in establishing a maintenance fund for St Magnus Cathedral from the bequest of Sheriff Thoms and in the 1920s successfully resisted the claims of the Church of Scotland to own the building. By the time of his retrial from business in 1945, W J Heddle had been for 61 years joint agent for the Bank of Scotland, for 57 years a partner of the firm and for 43 years Town Clerk of Kirkwall. His record of public service was honoured by his being presented with the Freedom of the Burgh of Kirkwall in 1948. He died at the age of 87 in 1952.
After Mr Heddle retired, the Firm was carried on by William Davie. Mr Davie had been an apprentice with the Firm, and after qualifying in Edinburgh he returned to become an Assistant in 1920 and became Junior Partner in 1937. On his death in 1950 his junior partner, Francis McGinn took over the firm. Mr McGinn had been sole partner of the Firm of Drever & Cormack and, on his joining Drever & Heddle early in 1950, the two Firms had been amalgamated. Mr McGinn continued the business under the latter name and was, in addition, Procurator Fiscal for the County of Orkney. For a number of years in the 1950s he was in partnership with J T Black.
The last partner of Drever & Heddle to be agent for the Bank of Scotland had been W J Heddle and for some years before his retrial the Bank office had been in separate premises. 1958 however saw the Firm and Bank in the same building once again, when Drever & Heddle moved to the premises it occupies today at 56a Albert Street.
History came full circle again when, on the death of Mr McGinn in 1972, the present Senior Partner, P L Tulloch found himself in the position W J Heddle had been in almost a century before. Mr Tulloch had been Mr McGinn’s apprentice but was not yet fully qualified. Mr David A Smith of Shepherd & Wedderburn, Writers to the Signet, Edinburgh came north to maintain the continuity of the firm and in February 1974 Drever & Heddle merged with Shepherd & Wedderburn. The old name remained on the letterheading however in 1980 the Kirkwall practice, whilst retaining an association with Shepherd & Wedderburn in Edinburgh, became the independent firm of Shepherd & Wedderburn, Drever & Heddle, W.S.