2nd of September

St Justus, archbishop of Lyon, confessor, about 390. St Stephen, king of Hungary, confessor, 1038. St William, bishop of Roschild, confessor, 1067. Blessed Margaret, virgin and martyr, 13th century.

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Died. – Marie Therese, Princess de Lamballe, murdered by a revolutionary mob, 1792, Paris; General Jean Victor Moreau, mortally wounded at battle of Dresden, 1813.

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On this Day in Other Sources.

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Two days afterwards [Edward I.] offers the same sum in consequence of “good news which he had of the Lord Malcolm of Drumman, a Scottish knight, having been captured by the lord John of Segrave.” And on the 2d of September [1301] in the same year the occasion of his offering is “good news which he had of the Castle of Turnberry.”¹

– Old Glasgow, pp.124-131.

¹  Reg. Epis. Glasg., No. 548.

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The King, this year [1535], shows the nobility of his intended journey to France, and commits the government of the realm till his return, to the Earls of Huntly [George Gordon] and Eglinton [Hugh Montgomerie], ordaining them to use the counsel of the nobility for [the] preservation of the pubic peace. He ships in at Kirkcaldy, the 2nd of September, this year, accompanied with the Earls of Argyll [Archibald Campbell] and Arran [James Hamilton], with the Lords [Malcolm] Fleming and [Robert] Boyd, and a great many young noblemen and knights; he landed at Dieppe, where he was met with his ambassadors, the Earls of Moray [James Stewart], Lennox [Matthew Stewart] and Cassilis [Gilbert Kennedy], with the Lord [John] Erskine and Abbot of Arbroath [David Beaton]. From thence he goes to Paris, where he is solemnly welcomed by the French King with all public expressions of love and amity;..

– Historical Works, pp.238-275.

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On the 2d of September [1561], she made her public entry, when she dined in the castle. As she came out of this fortlet, she was met, by a boy of six years old, who came, as it were, from heaven, who presented her a bible, a psalter, and the keys of the castle; and he spoke some verses, that were, no doubt, analogous to the scene. The rest of this ceremony consisted of terrible significations of the vengeance of God upon idolators; and it had been proposed by them, if we may believe Randolph, “to have had a priest burnt, on the altar, at the elevation.” Here, then, is a specimen of the talent, which then existed, for effecting the difficult contrariety, of offering honour, and insult, in the same moment. 

– Life of Mary, pp.42-61.

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Finding the people of Edinburgh unmoved either, by Knox’s preaching, or by Murray’s writing, the rebels departed, from the capital, before day break, on the 2d of September [1565], from the energies of the castle: And, marching to Lanark, they proceeded thence to Hamilton, where they were joined by Sir John Maxwell, and Douglas of Drumlanrig: They were now induced to march, into Dumfries-shire. On the same day, the Queen dined, at Calendar, and slept, at Stirling, her army having orders to rendezvous, on the next morning, at Kilsyth. 

– Life of Mary, pp.98-126.

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Sir Ralph, though appointed, for a particular emergency, continued, in his uneasy charge, for eight months, from August 1584 to April 1585: But, he was so disgusted, by Elizabeth’s penury, and so harassed, by her jealousy, that, losing all patience, he besought Burghley, and Walsingham, in the bowels of Jesus Christ, to relieve him; as he would rather be a prisoner for life, in the Tower, than continue, in so disgustful a service. He arrived at Sheffield, on the 25th of August; and Shrewsbury informed him, that in pursuance of Elizabeth’s orders, he had resolved to remove the Scotish Queen, from Sheffield to Wingfield, on the 27th of the same month. She was accordingly removed, on the 2d of September, after a long sojourn at Sheffield, though Sadler would have rather retained the captive Queen with sixty soldiers, at Sheffield, than three hundred, at Wingfield; on account of the strength of the former place, and the openness of the latter. 

– Life of Mary, pp.281-293.

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In other matters, besides piper and drummers, and officers in scarlet uniforms, the magistrates, after the Reformation, made provision for their personal dignity. In 1610 a charge appears in the burgh accounts “for grein silk, fustean, and other furnesing to the twa grein claiths to the Counsall satis in the kirkis heich and laich.” Some thirty years afterwards there is a minute of the council which “ordains ane velvot cuschein and ane velvot black cloth to be laid in the kirks before the provost in tyme coming.”¹

– Old Glasgow, pp.215-237.

¹  2d Sept. 1643.

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On 2nd September, 1654, an order to the master of works “to gather together in one place the haill staines that is fallen aff the brige” seems to indicate considerable dilapidation of the structure…¹

– Scots Lore, pp.15-29. 

¹  Council Records, ii. 296.

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Sep. 2 [1724]. – A poor woman named Margaret Dickson, an inhabitant of the parish of Inveresk, was tried under the act of 1690 for concealment of pregnancy in the case of a dead child. A defence was made for her that she was a married woman, though living separate from her husband; but it was of no avail. A broadside – which proceeds upon a strong approval of the text, that ‘the works of God are works of wonder, and his ways past finding out’ – gives a minute recital of the circumstances of her execution in the Grassmarket; how the hangman did his usual office of pulling down her legs; and how the body, having hung the usual time, was taken down and put into a coffin, the cooms of which were nailed fast at the gibbet-foot. it then proceeds. ‘Being put into a cart, to transport her corpse to be interred in the churchyard of Inveresk, whither the magistrates had allowed her friends to carry her, there happened a scuffle betwixt her friends and some surgeon-apprentices and others, their accomplices, on this side of the Society Port. One, with a hammer, broke down one of the sides of the cooms of the chest; which having given some air, and, together with the jolting of the cart, set the blood and vitals agoing. the people intrusted with transporting her body having stopped at Peffermill to take a refreshment, and left her upon a cart in the highway, two joiners, from curiosity, came from a house to view the coffin, and, to their surprise, heard a noise within. Acquainting the persons concerned, they proposed to open the other side of the cooms of the chest, which, after some opposition, was agreed to. The coom being taken off, they perceived her to draw up her limbs. One Peter Purdie, a practitioner of phlebotomy, providentially breathed a vein, from which streamed blood, which recovered her so far, that twice she said: “O dear!” Being brought to her feet, she was supported by two to a brae-side, where the blood returned to her lips and cheeks, which promised a sudden recovery. Being laid upon blankets in a corn-cart, her head and body upheld by a woman, she was driven to Musselburgh, where she remained, at the magistrates’ command, all night; had restoratives and means of sustenance given her; was visited by Mr Robert Bonally, one of the ministers of that place, who prayed over her; and next morning was laid in a bed in her brother James Dickson, weaver, his house, whither a great many flock every day to see her, and not a few gave her money. She had little appearance of recovering her health or senses next day, and cried out to let her be gone, for she was to be executed on Wednesday, but it now pretty well – only complains of a pain in her neck. She went to church on Sunday last, and heard sermon, where the people were so anxious to see her, that the minister was obliged to conduct her out of the churchyard to keep her from being trodden down by the multitude. She still remains in a hopeful way of recovering strength and judgment. May this amazing dispensation of Providence be sanctioned to her, and teach all who shall hear it to act a needy dependence upon, and live to the glory of God, to whom belong the issues of life and death!’ – Miscellany Papers, Adv. Lib. 

Another brief chronicler of the time informs us that Maggie devoted the Wednesday ensuing upon that on which she was executed to solemn fasting and prayer, in gratitude for her deliverance, and had formed the resolution so to employ each recurring Wednesday during the remainder of her life. It is also stated that her husband, struck with a forgiving interest in her, took her ultimately back to his house. She lived to have several children creditably born, and cried salt for many a day through the streets of Edinburgh, universally recognised and constantly pointed out to strangers as ‘Half-hangit Maggie Dickson.’ 

– Domestic Annals, pp.390-397.

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The Charter erecting Greenock into a Burgh of Barony, having been in favour of the Superior, it had hitherto continued his Burgh, and was entirely under his government, and that of the officers appointed by him as feudal Superior. But in 1741, Sir John Shaw then the Superior, granted power to the feuars and subfeuars of the Burgh, to meet yearly and choose managers of the Public funds of the town, arising from the voluntary assessment laid on themselves on all malt ground by them at the Mills of Easter and Wester Greenock. By another Charter granted by Sir John Shaw, upon the 2d Sept. 1751, the community obtained the right to the Burgh of Barony of Greenock with all its privileges. Under this Charter, the feuars and subfeuars of the town, were authorised to make choice of their own Magistrates and Councilors, for the constant management of the funds, or common good of the Burgh. Under this Charter, the Magistrates and Council of Greenock are still elected; and it cannot be doubted that it is in some degree owing to the very liberal constitution of the Burgh then erected, that it has risen in so short a period to so great an extent as it has done. 

– Select Views, pp.103-114.

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When the French revolution threatened destruction to all records, and especially those of monarchy and the priesthood, the poor brethren of the Scots College were not found well fitted to resist the storm.¹ Alexander Gordon, who was then principal, escaped from France and took refuge in Scotland. The other members of the College were scattered in different directions. Alexander Innes, the great-grandnephew of Thomas Innes, alone remained in the Scots College, and upon him fell the storm which the others had foreseen and escaped. He was imprisoned in the same prison with the English nuns, and he, as well as his companions, was ordered for execution, and only escaped by the catastrophe of Robespierre happening on the very day appointed for their death. 

– Sketches, Appendix I.

¹  On the 2d September 1792, Alexander Gordon, then principal, writes to his friend, Andrew Lumisden, – “Will you believe that, since 13 August, the Scots College has been twice filled with an armed banditti; and that the first time, I was conducted, surrounded by four national guards, to the Section, in order to take their new oath, which I absolutely refused to take. I consented to take oath that I would do nothing against their liberté egalité et proprietés, and that was all I would promise. I leave Paris for a time, because non tam timenda proscriptio quam universorum interitus; such is the rage of the parties that divide this devoted-to-ruin country. Your letter to Mr. D’Aubenton was sent. May all that is good attend you, my dear friend, and believe me unalterably yours.” – Letter among the Lumisden Papers in the possession of Mr. Dennistoun.