His vision created the village which grew to become the largest in Angus.
But the foundation ‘Honest’ George Dempster provided for Letham is being shaken by a row splitting the community.
It revolves around the running of the Feuars’ Committee Dempster formed around 15 years after the village itself was created.
He wanted feu duties paid for land and buildings to benefit the common good of the people living there.
And for more than 200 years it’s done that – and more.
But there’s criticism over a claimed lack of transparency in the way the handful of remaining committee members are running the group.
Suggestions it has become a ‘secret society’ have forced stalwart figures to the brink of resignation.
The Feuars’ say they’re trying to sort out a legal row over local land before holding an AGM to elect a new committee.
Lack of public comment from each side contrasts with the volume of opinion being voiced on village social media.
And Scottish charities regulator OSCR has been pulled into the row.
The Feuars’ say they hope a public meeting will take place soon.
Critics don’t have the same faith a potentially lengthy legal wrangle will be sorted out very quickly.
So who was the founding father of Letham?
And what’s gone wrong with the body now unique in Scotland as the last of its kind?
Laird’s son
Born in Dundee in 1732, he was the son of Dundee merchant John Dempster, the 2nd Laird of Dunnichen, a few miles east of Forfar.
The historic lands witnessed the Battle of Dun Nechtan in 685AD when the Picts’ defeat of invading Northumbrians marked a seminal chapter in Scottish history.
Centuries later, George Dempster laid the foundations of Letham on land in the shadow of Dunnichen Hill.
And with it came the feu payments he hoped would improve the lives of all who settled in his new village.
But his influence and ambition stretched well beyond a pocket of Angus.
He founded the Dundee Banking Company in 1763 and was a director of the famous East India Company – at its peak the world’s largest trading business.
Dempster was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1755, around the same time he became a leading figure in the Scottish Enlightenment.
It was in the political sphere where the Independent Whig earned the nickname of Honest George.
He was an MP for the Perth Burghs for two spells during a Westminster career spanning almost three decades.
And he found time during that role to serve as Provost of St Andrews.
Dempster died at Dunnichen in 1818, aged 86.
Letham park bears his name, and the village’s East and West Hemming Street honour the surname of his spouse, Rose.
Feuars’ success
The committee formed in 1805 has handled feus from rent and property in Letham and re-invested it for the good of the community.
And the success story which has stood the test of time is evident all around.
The Square at the centre of the village was transformed from a dirt bowl to asphalt and pavements by a previous generation of committee members.
The Feuars’ Hall sits proudly there, and in more recent times looked over the thousands of visitors who enjoyed the annual Victorian Market and Letham street party.
It was reprised this summer when villagers rallied to organise what turned out to be a sun-kissed celebration of The Queen’s platinum jubilee.
A family fun day at the Feuars’ Green in The Den followed the next day.
But it’s there that the land boundary dispute is believed to be centred around so the storm clouds remain over the Vinney Burn running through it.
Conversation