Cotton Road runs through the site of a once famous city mansion house, Hillbank House, the residence of the Wyse family (now spelled Wise)? The mansion was built on the eminence to which Cotton Road now leads, and had a very artistic layout.
The estate has been in the hands of that family for nearly two centuries, Alexander Wyse having bought the estate of Lunan in 1734. His eldest son, David Wyse, who was an able engineer, erected a cotton-spinning machine and installed it in his own factory. In turn, his eldest son, Thomas Wyse, a physician, went to Jamaica in that capacity, and there he made a large fortune.
On his return he married the daughter of William Chalmers of Glenricht, who was Town Clerk of Dundee, and acquired the estate of Hillbank, which was near his father’s mill.
The name Hillbank survives in the name of the upper portion of Cotton Road/Hillbank Road, while a memorial of the early life of Thomas Wyse remains in the name Jamaica Street.
Source: ‘The People’s Journal’, D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.