He was born at the seaport town of Ayr, in Scotland, on the 11th of March, 1811. Hugh Allan, who was also destined to be prominently identified with the commerce of Montreal, had been born about six months previously, at Saltcoats, a few miles to the northward, and in the same shire. The parents of John Young were in the humble walks of life, and he was early taught to recognize the fact that it would be necessary for him to make his own way in the world. He was educated at the public school of his native parish, which he attended until he had entered upon his fourteenth year. He was at this time much more mature, both physically and mentally, than most boys of his age, and succeeded, notwithstanding his youth, in obtaining a situation as teacher of the parish school at Coylton, a little village about four miles west of Ayr. Here, for a period of eighteen months, he instructed thirty-five pupils. It would have been safe to predict that a boy of fourteen who could preserve discipline over such a number of scholars, many of whom must have been nearly or quite as old as himself, might safely be trusted to make his way in life. He saved enough money to pay his passage across the Atlantic, and in 1826, soon after completing his fifteenth year, he bade adieu to the associations of his boyhood, and set sail for Canada. He had not been many days in the country ere he obtained a situation in a grocery store, kept by a Mr. Macleod, at Kingston, in the Upper Province. He served his apprenticeship to the grocery business, and then entered the employ of Messrs. John Torrance & Co., wholesale merchants, of Montreal. After remaining as a clerk in this establishment for several years, he, in 1835, formed a partnership with Mr. David Torrance, a son of the senior partner in the firm of John Torrance & Co., and took charge of the Quebec branch of the business, which was carried on under the style of Torrance & Young. He remained in business in Quebec about five years, during the last three of which he carried on business alone, the firm of Torrance & Young having been dissolved in 1837.