Joseph Leask

Leask was the eldest son of Capt. Thomas Leask and Elizabeth Johnson. The family moved to Lerwick in 1806, and in 1814 Joseph began working George Linklater, a merchant and magistrate in the town. Joseph began his own mercantile and shipping business in 1822. He became a town councillor in 1835 and served until 1850, then returned from 1862 until 1865. When it was decided that Shetland required municipal buildings in order to conduct official business, a Limited Liability Company was formed - Lerwick Town Hall Company Limited - and Leask became the chairman of the group.

Leask was an extremely successful businessman, and assembled a large landed estate, with its centre at Sand in [Sandsting]. He was extremely interested in Shetland’s maritime affairs, and gave lively evidence about them to Frank Buckland’s Herring Fishery Commission in the 1860s. At the end of his life he played an important part in the great herring fishery that had just arrived in Shetland, by assisting fishermen to buy the new large boats, and by providing accommodation for them at his premises at Garthspool. He died in Lerwick on 16 November 1882.

On 13 July, Leask fell from his horse and broke his leg.

His estate owned the Caroline, a 33 tonne, oak-built 55ft sloop, Venus, a 53 tonne schooner and the hull of Milberg, another schooner, weighing 137 tonnes. These were auctioned off in 1883 at Garthspool after his death.

Politically, he was a Liberal. His obituary in the Shetland Times notes that despite being a member of the Parish Church, he contributed to all religious denominations.