General Note
Born in 1749, son of a Scottish surgeon who was out in the 45. The first printer in Stirling, since Lekprevik, he published, in 1794, “A general history of Stirling” which was several times reprinted. His principle concern was the publication of large quantities of chapbooks, some of which have the imprint 'Edinburgh: printed for the booksellers', and he ran a circulating library which he gave up in 1798. There is an advertisement in “The Glasgow Courier” of 29 March in that year of its sale, which describes it as consisting of 'upwards of three thousand volumes'. There are two volumes in the Blair's College collection in the National Library of Scotland with large oval labels for RANDALL'S/CIRCULATING LIBRARY/STIRLING/No. He married, about 1806 Mary Stedman, who was his junior by some twenty-seven years. They had three children, Margaret who died in 1830 at the age of 23; James, who died in 1821, age 10, and Charles, who changed his name to Randolph, and became a ship builder in Glasgow. His father died in December 1812 aged 63 and is buried in Holy Rude Churchyard Stirling. Mary Randall sold the business to William Macnie in 1820. Charles Randall probably employed Francis Ireland, printer, in 1800. Apprentices: Francis Ireland, John Fraser and John Shearer.