Keiller's marmalade, named after its creator Janet Keiller, is believed to have been the first commercial brand of marmalade

Marmalade

Marmalade is a fruit preserve made from the juice and peel of citrus fruits, boiled with sugar and water. The benchmark citrus fruit for marmalade production in Britain is the "Seville orange" from Spain, Citrus aurantium var...

, produced in Dundee

Dundee

Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

.

The apocryphal story tells that James Keiller bought a ship load of oranges

Orange (fruit)

An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....

 from a ship which was seeking harbour from a winter storm. The ship was on its way from Seville

Seville

Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...

 and due to the storm the oranges were already less fresh than they ought to have been. The bargain gave his wife (Janet Keiller) the opportunity to manufacture a large quantity of marmalade. In reality the Keillers adapted an existing recipe for manufacture by adding the characteristic rind suspended in the preserve.

The first commercial brand of marmalade along with the world's first marmalade plant was founded in 1797. In 1880 the company opened a factory at Tay Wharf, Silvertown

Silvertown

Silvertown is an industrialised district on the north bank of the Thames in the London Borough of Newham. It was named after Samuel Winkworth Silver's former rubber factory which opened in 1852, and is now dominated by the Tate & Lyle sugar refinery and the John Knight ABP animal rendering...

 in London. By the late 19th century the marmalade was shipping as far afield as Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

.

The firm was acquired by Crosse & Blackwell

Crosse & Blackwell

Crosse & Blackwell is a food production brand which has been in existence since 1706.Originally trading under the Jackson brand and then West and Wyatt, the company was purchased in 1830 by Edmund Crosse and Thomas Blackwell...

 in 1920. It was subsequently sold on multiple times before ending up with Robertson's

Robertson's

Robertson's is a UK brand of marmalades and jams that was owned by RHM until that company's takeover by Premier Foods in March 2007. It produces the "Golden Shred" marmalade among other products....

One of Janet Keiller's great-great-great grandsons was Alexander Keiller

Alexander Keiller

Alexander Keiller was an archaeologist and businessman who worked on the site at Avebury in Wiltshire. He used his wealth to acquire a total of of land for preservation, conducted excavations, re-erected stones on the site, and created a museum to interpret the site. He founded the Morven...

 and one of her great-great-great-great grandsons is the British television presenter Monty Don

Monty Don

Montagu Denis Wyatt Don is a British television presenter, writer and speaker on horticulture, best known for presenting the BBC television series Gardeners' World.-Early life:...

.

It is believed that Keiller's marmalade were the first people to produce Dundee Cake

Dundee Cake

Dundee Cake is a famous traditional Scottish fruit cake with a rich flavour.The cake is often made with currants, sultanas and almonds; sometimes, fruit peel may be added to it. The cake originated in nineteenth century Scotland, and was originally made as a mass produced cake by the marmalade...

, or at least, if not the first to make this cake, the first to make this cake commercially available and to call it "Dundee Cake".