Peter Keir was working as a clockmaker in Falkirk in 1806 but the exact date of his start in business is not known, His shop was at 70 High Street and on the Callander sketch of the High Street about 1830, Keir can be seen standing outside his shop looking up at the town clock in the Steeple. Keir was a freemason and a minor poet. His son Robert, also had the poetic gift and the makings of an able scholar but he died in 1820 aged 20. Peter Keir married in 1806 and died in 1834 and was buried in the parish churchyard.