The eight sons of James Steel and Mary Heron

Our Steel family history revolves around the family of James Steel and Mary Heron who married at Greenock in 1825. They had eight sons, all born and educated in Glasgow.
1. John Steel 1826-1908 joined his father in his shipping company. He married Jane Mitchell Hart, the eldest daughter of a papermaker-ironfounder, in 1864 and they had one son, James.
2. James Steel 1828-1869 went to India with the Bank of Bengal, perhaps around 1860. His youngest brother joined him, but James died in an asylum in Melbourne in 1869 at age 41. He did not marry.
3. William Heron Steel 1830-1889 was probably named after his uncle. He became an engineer, and, while on a voyage for his health in 1857, decided to stay in Melbourne where he rose to become the Inspector-general of Public Works before succumbing to diphtheria. He married in 1882 but three of his four young children also died of the disease at that time. They were buried in the family plot at St Kilda cemetery. It is possible that his widow and infant daughter went to Scotland with her uncle Charles Nicolson, who had inherited a baronetcy and estate at Fetlar in the Shetland Islands. She died in Edinburgh in 1912.
4. Robert Heron Steel 1832-1904 joined his father and older brother in the shipping business in Glasgow. He married Margaret Robina Kirk Yellowlees in 1871 and they had a son and a daughter before she succumbed to tuberculosis, a disease which also claimed her children later in life.
5. David Heron Steel 1833-1854 trained as a mining engineer, but he died when he was only 21 years old.
6. Thomas Heron Steel 1835-1893 attended the Glasgow High School then graduated in medicine from Glasgow University in 1860, arriving in Victoria in 1861, where he commenced practice at Creswick near Ballarat. He visited Glasgow in 1870-1, shortly before his mother died, and married Isabella Hart, sister of Jane.
7. Donald Steel 1837-1884 went to India with his brothers and became a tea planter in Cachar along with Robert and Andrew Hart, brothers of Jane and Isabella. He married Anne Webb but she died in Ceylon in 1868. Donald later lost his way and drowned in Ceylon in 1883.
8. Octavius 1840-1893 went to India in 1860 and worked at the Bank of Bengal for three years before joining his brother James in business in Calcutta. After James died, he went into partnership with Alexander McIntosh from 1870 until 1876 when he formed Octavius Steel and Co. which lasted over 100 years and still exists as Octavius Tea. He brought his nephew John into partnership in 1891, but Octavius suffered from a weak heart and died in Melbourne aged 53. John also had poor health and died at his aunt's holiday home at Portarlington in Victoria in 1895, so his cousin James left the Glasgow firm of Steel and Bennie and joined Octavius Steel & Co. in London. He died in 1946, shortly before the company was nationalised.
John had 3 granddaughters and no subsequent generations, and both Robert's children died without issue, but William's surviving daughter married in UK and left grandchildren.
The Steel surname has been continued by Thomas's descendants in Australia who have continued to use the family names of Heron and Hart.