3rd of October

St Dionysius the Areopagite, bishop of Athens, martyr, 1st century. St Gerard, abbot, 959.

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Born. – Giovanni Baptista Beccaria, natural philosopher, 1716, Mondovi.

Died. – Robert Barclay, celebrated Scottish Quaker, author of the Apology for Quaker tenets, 1690, Ury, Kincardineshire; Victor, French dramatic writer, 1846; A. E. Chalon, artist, 1860, London.

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ROBERT BARCLAY.

Though not the founder of the Society of Friends, Robert Barclay, was one of its earliest and most energetic champions, and did more than any other in vindicating and explaining its principles to the world. The great apologist of the Quakers was the eldest son of Colonel David Barclay of Ury, in Kincardineshire, a Scottish gentleman of ancient family, who had served with distinction in the wars of the great Gustavus Adolphus. Robert received his first religious training in the strict school of Scottish Calvinism, but having been sent to Paris to study in the Scots College there, under the rectorship of his uncle, he was led to become a convert to the Roman Catholic faith. Returning, in his fifteenth year, to his native country, he found that his father had joined himself to the new sect of the Quakers, which had only a few years previously sprung into existence under the leadership of George Fox. Robert’s faith in the Romish church does not appear to have been very lasting, as, in the course of a few years, we find him following the example of his parent, and adopting enthusiastically the same tenets. Father and son had alike to experience the effects of the aversion with which, in its early days, the Society of Friends was regarded both by Cavalier and Puritan, by Presbyterian and Prelatist. The imprisonment which they underwent is said to have been owing to the agency of the celebrated Archbishop Sharp of St Andrews. It was not, however, of long duration, and through the interposition of the Princess Elizabeth, Princess Palatine, and cousin of Charles II., Robert Barclay was not only liberated from confinement, but seems afterwards to have so far established himself in the favour of the king, that in 1679 he obtained a royal charter erecting his lands of Ury into a free barony, with all the privileges of jurisdiction and otherwise belonging to such an investiture. The remainder of his life was spent in furthering the diffusion of Quakerism, travelling up and down the country in the promulgation of its tenets, and employing his interest with the state authorities in shielding his brethren from persecution. He enjoyed, like Penn, the friendship of James II., and had frequent interviews with him during his visits to London, the last being in 1688, a short time previous to the Revolution. Barclay’s own career came to a termination not long afterwards, and he expired prematurely at Ury, after a short illness, on 3d October 1690, at the age of forty-one. He left, however, a family of seven children, all of whom were living fifty years after his death. One of them, Mr David Barclay, who became an eminent mercer in Cheapside, is said, as lord mayor, to have entertained three successive English monarchs – George I., II., and III. The celebrated pedestrian and athlete, Captain Barclay, was a descendant of the great Quaker-champion and the last of the name who possessed the estate of Ury. The old mansion-house having passed, in 1854, into the hands of strangers, was pulled down, and with it ‘the Apologist’s Study,’ which had remained nearly in the same condition as when used by Barclay, and had formed for generations a favourite object of pilgrimage to the Society of Friends. 

Barclay’s great work, An Apology for the true Christian Divinity, as the same is held forth and practised by the People called, in scorn, Quakers, was first published in Latin and afterwards translated by the author into English. It comprises an exposition and defence of fifteen religious propositions maintained by the Quakers, and forms the ablest and most scholarly defence of their principles that has ever been written. The leading doctrine pervading the book is that of the internal light revealing to man divine truth, which it is contended cannot be attained by any logical process of investigation or reasoning. Among other works of the great Quaker were: A catechism and Confession of Faith, and A Treatise on Universal Love, the latter being a remonstrance on the criminality of war, and published whilst its author was enduring with his father imprisonment at Aberdeen for conscience’ sake. Though so far led away by enthusiasm, on one occasion, as to walk through the streets of Aberdeen, clothed in sack-cloth and ashes, as a call on the inhabitants to repentance, Barclay was far from displaying in his ordinary deportment any of that rigour or sourness by which members of his sect have been often supposed to be characterised. He was exemplary in all the relations of life, and was no less distinguished by the gentleness and amiability of his character, than by range and vigour of intellect.

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On this Day in Other Sources.

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Fresh from his Roman school Wilfrid found the clergy at home preaching and practising heresy. Ardent and eloquent, the Columban Church gave way before him, and soon his influence was exerted over Northumbria and the lowlands of Scotland. As a revolt against the evils of monasticism he instituted orders of secular clergy. Wilfrid’s Reformation brought with it a model church plan. As described above, it consisted of a nave, with a semi-circular apse at the east end and a porch at the west. This plan probably came from Rome, through France, but I find the original, not so much in the Roman Basilica, as in the smaller and simpler Roman Curia. 

To many it may seem remarkable, yet it is true, that the table or altar held a more or less subordinate place in the arrangement of the interior of the early church. Wilfrid was not revolting from early Roman custom when he made the focus of his church the bishop’s or abbot’s seat or cathedra.¹ The seat was placed on an elevated platform in the centre of the apse behind the altar, and the clergy were accommodated on each side. This was a suitable and satisfactory arrangement, designed for a church which looked to the bishop or abbot as the apostle of Christ. The change which was made at a later time may be traced to the Council of Rheims, held on the 3rd October 1049, when it was forbidden for any bishop, except the Pope, to assume the title of “Apostolic.”²

– Scots Lore, pp.192-210.

¹  Viollet-le-Duc’s Dictionnaire Raisonné de L’Architecture. Voce Autel and Cathédrale. 

²  Nicholas’ Chronology of History, p. 226.

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If, again, a provost had to be elected, he was nominated by the bishop, and when bailies fell to be appointed a list was prepared by the provost, who, along with the council, proceeded to the castle and presented it to the bishop, who chose from the list any two names he thought proper, and these were elected to the vacant offices. There is preserved a curious instrument under the hand of John Hamilton, notary, bearing date 3d October, 1553, in which one of these transactions is recited. The instrument bears how “an honourable man, Andrew Hamilton of Cochnay, provost, and all the rest of the council of the said city,” came into “the inner flower garden, near the palace in Glasgow, of the most reverend father in Christ, James, by divine mercy Archbishop of Glasgow having in their possession a certain schedule of paper in which the names of some of the most respectable and substantial men of the said city were inserted, which they reached out, desiring the most reverend father that he would admit two of them to be consuls or bailies for the ensuing year… out of which the said most reverend elected two by pointing out the names of those on the schedule to be proclaimed by the said provost and council,” which, being done, the instrument bears, “the provost and council promised faithfully to the most reverend” to elect the parties named “by saying these words: We will satisfy the desire of your lordship; and having so said they repaired to the town hall.” 

– Old Glasgow, pp.83-98.

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ALEXANDER CAMPBELL THE LAIRD OF CALDER

HIS PURSMAISTERIS COMPT.

The thrid of October being Sonday.

   Item giffin to the gude wyfe for sax nichtis the chalmer fie frae Munounday at evin the xxvij day of September till Sonday in the morning the third of October, half merk the nicht,, in candill beddis and fyre extending in haill 

xl s.  

– Sketches, Appendix VIII.

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Oct. 3 [1637]. – This day began a fall of rain in Moray-land, of ten days’ continuance; ‘waters and burns flowing up over bank and brae; corn-mills and mill-houses washen down; houses, kilns, cots, faulds wherein beasts were keepit, all destroyed. The corns, weel stacked, began to moch [become fusty] and rot till they were casten over again. Lamentable to see, and whereof the like was never seen before.’ – Spal. 

– Domestic Annals, pp.257-277.

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Not till 1636 did Glasgow take its place among the royal burghs under the charter of Charles I. granted in that year. Yet even this did not bring independence. Certain rights were still reserved, and the archbishop not only claimed but exercised the right to appoint the provost and magistrates, under the charter granted by James VI. and Charles I.;¹ and when the power of nomination fell from the hands of the archbishop, it was taken up and exercised by a temporal baron. 

– Old Glasgow, pp.83-98.

¹  Burgh Records, 3d October, 1637.

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The Scottish Parliament met to consider the Treaty of Union on the 3rd October 1706, and continued their sitting, with one or two adjournments, to 25th March 1707. The House was divided into two distinct parties – the English, or Union party, and the National or Anti-Union party. The English, or Union party, represented themselves only, but as they had a plurality of votes, they were all-powerful in Parliament. The National party expressed the unanimous voice of the people; but although they fought the measure clause by clause, they never received a single concession, but the various parts were passed, in spite of their protest, by a ‘mechanical majority.’

– How Scotland Lost Her Parliament, Chapter II.

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11. ROBERT DINWIDDIE.

Born at Germiston, 3rd October, 1692; died at Clifton, 27th July, 1770. 

Merchant in Glasgow. Son of Robert Dinwiddie of Germiston, merchant in Glasgow, by Elizabeth, daughter of Matthew Cumming, of Cardarroch, merchant in Glasgow. Appointed in 1727 Collector of Customs in Bermuda, and there and in other colonial appointments did good honest work for His Majesty. In 1751 appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, and served there for six anxious years; the first troubles with the French came in his time; in connection with these Governor Dinwiddie gave Major George Washington his first appointment on active service. During his Governorship he presented to the Corporation of Norfolk, Va., a splendid silver mace, which still exists, and to the library of the old college of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va., many books bearing his bookplate, which were burned during the Confederate war. To the library of our own University (of which he had been an alumnus, and had been made an LL.D.) he left a legacy of £100 which, “as being most respectful to his memory,” is still preserved intact. In January, 1758, Governor Dinwiddie returned from Virginia broken in health. He died at “Clifton Hot Wells” on 27th July, 1770, and was buried in the old parish church of Clifton, from which his elaborate monument has been removed to the present church. Two large volumes of the “Official Records” of Governor Dinwiddie have been published by the Virginia Historical Society (Richmond, Va., 1884), and throw a flood of light on colonial history, 1751-1758. Governor Dinwiddie is mentioned in Thackeray’s “Virginians.” He married Rebecca, daughter of the Rev. J. Affleck, and left two daughters, Elizabeth and Rebecca (No. 12). A younger brother of the Governor’s was Provost Lawrence Dinwiddie (No. 474). The Provost and the Governor were original partners in the Delftfield Pottery Co. of Glasgow. (See No. 1851.) 

– Memorial Catalogue, Gallery 1.

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Oct. 3 [1705]. – Walter Scott of Raeburn, grandson of the Quaker Raeburn who suffered a long imprisonment for his opinions in the reign of Charles II., fought a duel with Mark Pringle, youngest son of Andrew Pringle of Clifton. It arose from a quarrel the two gentlemen had the day before at the head-court of Selkirk. They were both of them young men, Scott being only twenty-four years of age, although already four years married, and a father. The contest was fought with swords in a field near the town, and Raeburn was killed. The scene of this melancholy tragedy has ever since been known as Raeburn’s Meadow-spot. 

Pringle escaped abroad; became a merchant in Spain; and falling, on one occasion, into the hands of the Moors, underwent such a series of hardships, as, with the Scottish religious views of that age, he might well regard as a Heaven-directed retribution for his rash act. Eventually, however, realising a fortune, he returned with honour and credit to his native country, and purchased the estate of Crichton in Edinburghshire. He died in 1751, having survived the unhappy affair of Raeburn’s Meadow-spot for forty-four years; and his grandson, succeeding to the principal estate of the family, became Pringle of Clifton. 

– Domestic Annals, pp.379-389.

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Charles contemplated the summons of a Scottish Parliament, but contented himself with denouncing, on the 3rd of October [1745], “the pretended Parliament summoned by the Elector of Hanover at Westminster,” and declaring it treason for the Scots to attend. On the preceding day the following proclamation was issued from Holyrood. 

“CHARLES P. R being resolved that no communication shall be open between the Castle and town of Edinburgh during our residence in the capital, and to prevent the bad effects of reciprocal firing, from thence and from our troops, whereby the houses and inhabitants of our city may innocently suffer, we hereby make public notice, that none shall dare, without a special pass, signed by our secretary, upon pain of death, either resort to, or come from the said Castle, upon any pretence whatsoever; with certification of any persons convicted of having had such intercourse, after this our proclamation shall immediately be carried to execution. Given at our palace of Holyrood House, 2nd Oct., 1745. 

(Signed) J. MURRAY.”

– Old and New Edinburgh, pp.329-334.

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2384. Strang (John). Noctes Sma’ Weftianæ, the web whereof being woven by various hands, was afterwards cut, pieced, and again put together by that cunning workman, John Strang, the original pattern drawer and designer of the same. Glasgow, 1849.

This unique volume consists of thirteen original articles from the columns of The Scots Times, mounted and bound, with a special titlepage and preface. These jeux d’esprits were written by Mr. (Afterwards Dr.) Strang, Allan Fullerton, J. D. Carrick, John Kerr, William Weir, and the Editor of The Scots Times, Robert Malcolm. The first number appeared on 3d October, 1829. (See “Glasgow and its Clubs,” 3d ed. p. 435.) The names of persons referred to in the text are supplied in MS. (See No. 2333,) 

– Memorial Catalogue, Gallery 1.

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– October 3, 1857., p.141. 

– Punch.