Saints Basilides, Quirinus, or Cyrinus, Nabor, and Nazarius, martyrs. St Onuphrius, hermit. St Ternan, Bishop of the Picts, confessor, 5th century. St Eskill, of Sweden, bishop and martyr, 11th century. St John of Sahagún, confessor, 1479.
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Died. – James III. of Scotland, killed near Bannockburn, Stirlingshire, 1488; Adrian Turnebus, eminent French scholar, 1565, Paris; James, Duke of Berwick, French commander, 1734, Philipsburgh; R. F. P. Brunck, eminent philologist, 1803; General Pierre Augereau (Duc de Castiglioni), 1816; Dr Robert Brown, eminent botanist, 1858.
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ROBERT BROWN.
A kind, modest, great man – so early in the history of science, that he may be called the originator of vegetable physiology; so late in the actual chronology of the world that he died on the 12th of June 1858 (at, it is true, the advanced age of eighty-five) – has to be described under this homely appellative. His gentle, yet dignified presence in his department of the British Museum will long be a pleasing image in the memory of living men of science. The son of a minister of the depressed episcopal church of Scotland at Montrose, he entered life as an army surgeon, but quickly gravitated to his right place; first acting as naturalist in an Australian surveying expedition; afterwards as keeper of the natural history collections of Sir Joseph Banks; finally, as keeper of the botanical collection in the National Museum. His great work was the Botany of New Holland, published in 1814; but he wrote many papers, equally valuable in point of matter, for the Linnæan and Royal Societies. What was a dry assemblage of facts under an utterly wrong classification before his time, became through his labours a clearly apprehensible portion of the great scheme of nature. The microscope was the grand means by which this end was carried out – an instrument little thought of before his day, but which, through his example in botany, was soon after introduced in the examination of the animal kingdom, with the noblest results. Indeed, it may be said that, whereas little more than the externals of plants and animals were formerly cared for, we now have become familiar with their internal constitution, their growth and development, and their several true places in nature, and for this, primarily, we must thank Mr Robert Brown.
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On this Day in Other Sources.
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In the year 1300, John [Red] Comyn, the Governor, defeated the English army several times; and this same year King Edward sent a great army to Fife, and miserably wasted the same. The Governor sent Sir John Fraser with 4000 men in their rear, who often cut them short, and [on the 12th of] June, in a battle near the castle of Lindores, assisted by Sir William Wallace, overthrew them quite, and killed their general, Sir John Siward [Earl of March’s son]. This battle is called Dillecarew field, wherein 3000 English were killed, and 500 taken [as] prisoners; the Scots lost not above 300, in respect the woods and passages of the mountains and quagmires were well known to them, only Sir John Seaton, Sir Thomas Lochore, and Sir John Balfour, Sheriff of Fife, were wounded and hurt.
– Historical Works, pp.77-88.
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In 1365 we find a four years’ truce with England, signed at London on the 20th May, and in [Edinburgh] Castle on the 12th of June.
– Old and New Edinburgh, pp.21-26.
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The year 1375, there was a law made by Charles [V.] the Wise, the French King, [about] the coronation of the Dauphins of France, their father’s being dead, at the age of 14 years; which was ratified by the whole courts of parliament in France, 12th day of June.
– Historical Works, pp.124-133.
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The original “Pedagogy” was situated in the Rottenrow, but in the year 1460 the High Street site, adjoining the property of the friars, was granted to the Faculty of Arts.1 Shortly after this, and when there was doubtless a growing demand for building sites in the neighbourhood, and arrangement was made for disposing of the surplus ground belonging to the friars, as set forth in the Indenture2 of which a translation follows:-
*
‘IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. By this present public instrument be it evidently known to all that on the twelfth day of June in the year of the incarnation of our Lord one thousand four hundred and sixty seven, in the fifteenth indiction and the third year of the pontificate of the most holy father in Christ our Lord, Paul the second, by divine providence Pope. In presence of venerable and noble men, personally present in the tolbooth of Glasgow, and in presence of me, notary public, and the witnesses underwritten, it was finally agreed between the provost, bailies, and community of the burgh and city of Glasgow, on the one part, and the Prior and Friars Preachers of the Convent of the foresaid city, on the other part, in manner following, that is to say the said prior and convent of the foresaid place have given full consent and assent to the setting in feu farm of certain roods lying contigious in the highway, in the great Wynd (in communi via, in magno vico), at the wall of the said friars, between the entry of the said place from the south to the enclosure of the cemetery thereof in the north; for a certain annual rent to be paid yearly, according to the estimation and discretion of the community of the foresaid burgh and city and of the prior and convent, and their successors for the time being, shall yearly celebrate, pray, and perform exequies, and other divine services or suffrages for our lord the bishop of Glasgow and his successors; also for the community of the said city in all time coming, according to the advice and pleasure (consilium et placabile desiderium) of our said lord bishop of Glasgow and community of the foresaid city and burgh of Glasgow; which condition was made in presence of master Robert of Hammiltoun, then chancellor and chamberlain of the said lord bishop; to which condition the said chamberlain distinctly acknowledged that the foresaid lord bishop had given his express consent and assent. Upon which, all and sundry, John Stewart, provost, and the bailies of the said city, and also a religious man John Mure, then prior of the foresaid Friars Preachers of Glasgow, asked a public instrument to be made to them in form of Indenture; to which instrument remaining with the said provost, bailies, and community of the said city of Glasgow, the common seal of the convent of the said Friars Preachers is affixed to remain for ever; and to the instrument remaining with the said prior convent and their successors for the time being the common seal of the said city of Glasgow is affixed to remain for ever. These things were done in the said city of Glasgow in the year, month, day, indiction, pontificate, and place above written. Present there, the venerable and noble and prudent and discreet men, master Robert of Hammiltoun, chancellor of Glasgow and chamberlain thereof, Alexander Stewart of Galstoun, John Stewart, provost foresaid, John Schaw, bailie, James Stewart, John Armulan, John Oliphant, William Dicsoun, Archibald Wetschaw, Robert Hynde, George Hynde, Robert Brouster, John Wisschart, William Jacsoun, sergeand, and Sir David Rede, notary public, with many other burgesses and citizens of Glasgow, witnesses to the premises specially called and required.
And I John Michael, priest, of the diocese of Glasgow, notary public, by imperial and royal authority, was personally present, together with the witnesses before named, in all and sundry the premises, whilst these things were being transacted, said, and done, as is above set forth; and I saw, knew, and heard them so done, and took a note thereupon, from which I have made, published, and reduced into this public form, this present public instrument, written by the hand of another, and have signed it, subscribing my usual and customary sign and name, in faith and testimony of the truth of the whole premises as asked and required.’
– Scots Lore, pp.103-106.
1 Munimenta Alme Universitatis, vol. i. pp. 9-14.
2 The name usually given to a contract entered into between two parties, and written in duplicate from a blank space in the centre towards each end of the parchment or other material used for the purpose. The material was then divided, along a wavy or indented line in the blank space, and one section given to each party.
* Picture scanned from the ‘Memorial Catalogue of the Old Glasgow Exhibition 1894‘, p.239. The information the book contains on it is:
“973B Indenture between the Provost, Bailies, and Community of
Glasgow and the Prior and Convent of the Friars’ Preachers
as to the feuing of certain roods adjacent to the Friars’
Place and Cemetery. 12th June, 1467.
A translation of this Indenture is given in ‘Scots Lore’
for February, 1895.”
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The insurgents, after stating the same motives, on the 12th of June [1567], commanded all the Queen’s people, within Edinburgh to be ready to join their standard, under the pain of being deemed murderers of the King. This was done, by Morton, the leader of the insurgents, and one of the principal assassins of Darnley: But, the citizens, who were not much affected, by such proclamations, joined the standard of insurgency, very slowly. The corporation of Edinburgh sent a deputation to the Queen, who endeavoured to excuse the city, for admitting the nobility, and council. In aid of those proclamations, sundry libels, both in prose, and rhyme, were published, “to move the hearts of the people:” Yet, the inhabitants were not much moved, and did not join the insurrection, with any alacrity; and many of the nobles were adverse, and some of them neutral. The insurgents were ill provided, with arms, and ammunition. From all those causes, the chiefs of the conspiracy, began to doubt the success of their cause, and even had thoughts of dissolving their association, and armaments; they would have certainly dispersed, if the Queen had remained a few days longer, at Dunbar.
After the Queen retired to Dunbar castle, which the insurgents, wanting artillery, and ammunition, could not have taken, she issued, on the 12th of June, proclamations; calling out her subjects, in the adjacent countries: And great numbers, from Lothian, and the Merse, came speedily to her assistance; so that she mustered, at the end of two days, two thousand fighting men. With these, she imprudently resolved to take the field. She had every thing to gain, from a few days delay, and nothing to gain from rashness: If, in the mean time, she had avowed her design, to bring to speedy justice the murderers of her late husband; particularly the Earl of Morton, and Secretary Maitland, as two of the chief murderers, she would have abashed them, and gained her many friends: But, Bothwell was but a weak man, and the Queen was not a manly woman: thus, of course, they were incapable of taking strong measures, and assuming vigorous acting.
– Life of Mary, pp.155-184.
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On the 12th of June, [1567,] “the lords of privy council and nobility” issued a proclamation charging Bothwell with the murder of Darnley, with seducing the queen, [Mary,] into “ane unhonest marriage, and with intent to murder her son.”
– A History of Scotland, Chapter XIV.
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As the magistrates refused to supply [Sir Patrick Ruthven] with provisions, and raised 500 men to keep a watch upon his garrison, this testy veteran of the Swedish wars fired a few heavy shot at random on the city, and on the renewal of hostilities between Charles and the Scots, Leslie was ordered by the Parliament, on the 12th June [1640], to reduce the fortress [of Edinburgh Castle]. Ruthven’s reply to a summons, was to open fire with guns and matchlocks in every direction, and a sortie, under Scrimgeour, the constable, was made from the gate. Batteries were thrown up at nearly the same places where they had been formed in Kirkaldy’s time. Ruthven refused to give the estates the use of the regalia. Under Colonel Hamilton, master of the ordnance, the batteries opened with vigour, while select musketeers were “told off,” to aim at individuals on the ramparts. Most bitter was the defence of Ruthven, whose cannonade imperilled the whole city and the beautiful spire of St. Giles’s; while poor people reaping in the fields at a distance were sometimes killed by it.
– Old and New Edinburgh, pp.47-66.
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The magistrates did something also in the fine arts. But not much. In 1641 they ordain the treasurer “to have ane warrand to pay to James Colquhoun fyfe dollars for drawing of the portraict of the toun to be sent to Holland.”1
– Old Glasgow, pp.215-237.
1 12th June, 1641.
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The proprietor [of Gourock] was likewise empowered [in 1694] to appoint baillies, serjeants, and all other officers necessary to govern the burgh, yearly, in all time coming; and, if necessary, to have and hold a tolbooth, court, harbour, and port within the burgh; to hold a court and market weekly upon Tuesday, and two fairs yearly, the one upon the 12th of June, O. S., to be called the summer fair of Gourock, to continue three days.
– Select Views, pp.115-118.
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On the 12th of June [1815] Mrs. Siddons [theatrical actress] departed for Dublin. She had shared £50 for ten nights; at her benefit she drew £350, and was presented with a magnificent piece of plate. The Courant tells us that during her performance of Lady Randolph “there was not a dry eye in the whole house.”
– Old and New Edinburgh, pp.340-348.
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You [Mrs. H. Beecher Stowe] say, “The general agent of the estate of Sutherland is Mr. Loch.” You are right, he was, and you provided a place for his whole speech before the House of Commons, on the second reading of the Scotch Poor Law Bill, June 12th, 1845, where he strenuously endeavoured to vindicate and exonerate himself and His Grace of Sutherland from the charges of cruelty and injustice to the people, brought against them in that House on that occasion by Mr. Crawford. No wonder that he exerted himself that day to silence his opponents, and to dupe the House. He was 21 years a member in the House for the Northern Boroughs, and this is the only speech of his which found its way to the public prints, or considered worthy of being borrowed or copied by any other print. (The honour of it was left for you alone Madam.) If I am not mistaken the very day this speech was delivered in the House of Commons, the case of a poor cripple[d] woman, from the parish of Farr, Sutherlandshire, was decided against His Grace, in the Court of Session, Edinburgh, and I had 71 more cases from his estate at the same time, in the hands of a solicitor, all pursuing his Grace for the support the law of the land provided for them, but denied them.
– Gloomy Memories, pp.71-110.
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2633. Two Letters from Charles Dickens to A. S. Dalglish. 12th June and 21st June, 1848.
These letters relate to the arrangements for the Readings given by Dickens in Glasgow in June, 1848.
– Memorial Catalogue, Gallery 1.
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“… It may be interesting to add, in reference to the above, that the ancient regalia of Scotland were carried off or destroyed by Edward First, in 1296. The present regalia were established by James Fifth, in 1536, secretly deposited after the treaty of union in 1707, and discovered by George Fourth, then Prince Regent, in the crown room of Edinburgh castle, in 1817, having been secured in an oak chest for 110 years.”
– Wiltshire Independent, Thursday 12th June, 1856.
N.B. More on “Entombing the Regalia” can be read in Chapter 7 of James Grant’s Old and New Edinburgh (1880), in the site’s Book List section.
– Treaty of Union Articles, 1850-1875.
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Alexander Cruikshanks is the late Strathclyde goalkeeper who died as the result of injuries accidentally sustained while playing against Rutherglen Glencairn at Barrowfield Park. There was a great congregation, representative of the whole football world present in St Thomas’s Parish Church, Campbellfield Street, with which the tragic victim had been closely associated, and where he began his football career. The Reverend Andrew Bryson, minister of St Thomas’s, also took part in the service. Mr David Meiklejohn and Mr George Brown (Rangers FC) read the lessons; Mr W G Holburn the well known referee was the soloist, and Mr Purcell J Mansfield, F.R.C.O., A.R.C.M., the noted organist was at the console. Alexander Cruikshanks died 12 June 1932 aged 24.
– Glasgow’s Eastern Necropolis. (Guest Article)
