John Norwell was born in 1829 and grew up in the Skinnergate vicinity of  Perth. He became a master craftsman, a shoemaker, and an outstanding father  and brother. His family were well known in the Shoemakers Incorporation guild  and around the markets, shops and alleys of the area. Skinnergate then was  described as "leaving the visitor in no doubt as to the occupation of its  residents" and was one of the crowded tenement alleyways of Perth  where "filth, that no one unaccustomed to it could for a moment tolerate, is  unheeded, and self-respect is nowhere to be seen." But, by the end of the  century he, his sons and daughters had risen from this bleak start to a better  life: his sons as a Free Church Minister, a GP, a College Principal and a  Ship's Draughtsman and his daughters either married or in a respectable caring  occupation.