[Scottish National Memorials Contents]
ANCIENT BELL, which till 1881 formed part of the chime in the steeple of the Tolbooth of Glasgow. This fine bell stands 2 feet 1 inch high with a crown of 7 ½ inches, and across the mouth it has a diameter of 2 feet 7 ¾ inches. On one side it has, in a medallion, a mitred episcopal figure; and on the opposite side in a similar medallion a shield with griffins rampant as supporters with a flying griffin in the centre. Between this is on one side a crowned female figure with a sword and a book, and on the other a male figure in a flowing robe bearing a long crucifix. Underneath an ornamental belt on the shoulder is the legend: KATHELINA . BEN . IC . GHEGOTEN . VAN . JACOP . WAGHEVENS . INT . JAER . ONS . HEEREN . MCCCCCLIIII (‘Katherine, I am cast by Jacob Waghavens, in the year of our Lord 1554’). The bell has obviously not been cast for Glasgow, and must have been obtained second-hand, probably from Holland. The Tolbooth, which was built in 1626, had from the first a bell in its steeple. There is no trace of any bell having been purchased at the time of the building. But the Tolbooth of 1626 replaced an older municipal building, the Prætorium, which dated, at least, from 1454. In 1576 the Council added to this Prætorium a ‘foir-werk,’ and this seems to have included a steeple or belfry, for at the same time they ordered for it a ‘knok’ and a bell. In the 1626 Tolbooth, a new knok was provided, but no new bell – bells do not wear out like ‘knoks’ – and there can be little doubt that the bell got for the Prætorium in 1576 was the same which was set up in the Tolbooth in 1626, and which hung there till 1881, when the existing chime of bells was set up. The old bell, sole relic of the Prætorium, or first Municipal Buildings of Glasgow, is now deposited in Kelvingrove Museum. It hung alone till after the Restoration, but in 1663 the Town Council added to the Tolbooth ‘ane paill of belles to be made in Holland, and to have the toune’s armes fixit on them.’ (See ‘Glasgow Bells’ in The Regalilty Club, second series, part ii. Glasgow 1890.’)
(936) Lent by the TOWN COUNCIL OF GLASGOW.
BELL, formerly in Calton Parish Church, Glasgow. As noted under the Tolbooth Bell. No. 936, the Glasgow Council in 1663 resolved to have ‘ane paill of belles to be made in Holland, and to have the toune’s armes fixit on them.’ These bells were placed in the Tolbooth Steeple; but when in 1881 the Chime there was taken down, not one of these Dutch Bells was found in the steeple. The whole of the ‘paill’ had disappeared in the various tinkerings and alterations to which the Tolbooth had been subjected. The Calton Bell, however, is a survivor of the ‘paill.’ It had been a gift from Glasgow to the Calton Church, which was founded in 1792 as a Chapel of Ease to the Barony Parish of Glasgow. It hung in the Calton Belfry till 1881, when it was found to be cracked, and after resting for some time in the bell-foundry of Mr. John C. Wilson, where it was in danger of being melted, it was repurchased for the city. It weighs 408 lbs., stands 1 ft. 9 in. high, with a crown of 6 in., and its diameter across the mouth is 2 ft. 3 ¼ in. It bears the arms of Glasgow, as ordained by the Council, with the motto in Latin: FLOREAT GLASGUA PRÆDICATIONE EVANGELII. It has a double ornamental band around the shoulder with the legend: GERARD KOSTER ME FECIT AMSTELODAMI ANNO 1663.
(763) From KELVINGROVE MUSEUM.
FRAGMENT OF BELL, of Old Grammar School, Glasgow, 1663, inscribed with city arms, and motto: ‘FLOREAT GLASGUA PRÆDICATIONE EVANGELII.’ In 1656 the Town Council resolved to erect in the School Wynd a new building for the ancient Grammar School of Glasgow, and they concluded that ‘some littal thing be raisit on the westmost gavill for the hingin of ane bell thairin quhen the toune sall think it convenient.’ Seven years later the ‘convenient’ time came when the town ordered a ‘paill’ of bells from Holland (See Calton Bell, No. 763, p. 211), and this fragment is the remains of a bell then supplied to the School from the set obtained from Koster in Amsterdam. About 1790 the School was transferred to new premises in George Street, and the old bell was presented to the Lord Provost James McDowall. who erected it at the Print-works of Milton, near Bowling, of which he was a partner. There it remained till it was shattered and partly fused in a fire in 1850; this fragment found its way to Mr. John Wilson, bell-founder, and ultimately it was deposited in Kelvingrove Museum. The arms and motto are precisely as on the Calton Bell, but on a reduced scale.
(765) From KELVINGROVE MUSEUM.
THE ‘DEAD or DEID’ BELL of Glasgow, bearing the city arms and date ‘1641.’ The Bell was the direct successor of a much more ancient and famous piece of Cathedral property, known and revered in Glasgow as ‘St. Mungo’s Bell.’ According to tradition the Saint and founder of the See received this bell from the Pope himself on the last of seven pilgrimages to Rome; but there is no actual proof of its existence before 1321, when it is figured on the seal of the chapter of Glasgow. It was a regular Celtic quadrangular bell, and as such it is repeatedly figured on the arms of the See and the city, till it disappeared in 1560. Seventeen years later it reappeared, and on 19th November 1577 the Town Council ‘coft fra Johne Muir and Andro Layng the auld bell that ged throu the towne of auld at the buriall of the deid,’ and they ‘ordainit the bell to remane as commowne bell to gang for the buriall of the deid.’ On 10th February 1612 there is an ominous entry in the Thesauraris compts: ‘Givin to Thomas Pettigrew for casting of the bell xlvj s viii d [46s. 8d.],’ indicating in all probability the final disappearance of the ancient ‘deid’ or mort bell of St. Mungo. The 1612 bell had but a short life, for on 24th October 1640 the Council ‘ordaines the Deane of Gild to cause mak ane new deid bell,’ and the outcome of that minute was the bell shown in the Bishop’s Castle. This Bell also disappeared from official custody – when, we know not; but in 1867 Mr. W. H. Hill was informed that an old lady, Miss Morgan, living at Gretna, had in her possession an old Glasgow bell, from an inspection of which he at once recognised it as the ‘Deid Bell’ of 1641. Miss Morgan’s brother had received it from a tinsmith in Glasgow, but further its vicissitudes could not be traced. The lady kindly agreed to restore it to the city, and its receipt was acknowledged with due thankfulness by the Town Council on 1st August 1867. (See Fig. 151.)
(764) From KELVINGROVE MUSEUM.
GLASGOW COPY of the Stirling Jug. This in all probability is one of the thirty-four copies of the ancient standard of capacity supplied to Scottish Burghs in 1624 by the Town Council of Stirling. (See No. 1040, page 248.)
(770) From KELVINGROVE MUSEUM.
REQUISITION FROM PRINCE CHARLES to the Provost, Magistrates, and Town Council of Glasgow, dated ‘Leckie, Sept. 13th, 1745,’ demanding the sum of £15,000. Printed in the Cochrane Correspondence (Maitland Club), p. 105. In connection with the receipt of this demand, Provost Cochrane writing to the Duke of Argyll and the Marquis of Tweeddale on 16th Sept. says: ‘Saturday forenoon two gentlemen came to town and put into the hands of the magistrates a letter whereof enclosed is a copy signed CHARLES P.R., requiring £15,000, and all our arms to be delivered up, and threatening the very greatest severities in case of disobedience. This occasioned a very numerous meeting of the chief and other inhabitants, who, considering our unhappy situation, that we could expect no favour on account of our always having been attached to the present Royal Family; that the King’s troops were at a distance, and the rebels, at least 4000 within 12 miles of us; that our enemy wanted nothing more than plunder, whereof there was a great deal in a place like ours:- the inhabitants unanimously desired four of their number to repair to the camp and try what could be done with the leaders of the rebels in order to gain time, if happily the Dutch might arrive or Sir John Cope to this side of the water.’
(1553) Lent by HENRY MACDOWALL.
REQUISITION by the Principal Citizens of Glasgow to six fellow-citizens to treat with the rebels in order to prevent the town being plundered. Dated (14th) Sept. 1745. Printed and facsimiled in the Cochrane Correspondence, p. 132. This Requisition, alluded to in the above letter of Provost Cochrane, is addressed to Andrew Aiton, Andrew Buchanan, Lawrence Dinwoodie, and Richard Oswald, Merchants; and Allan Dreghorn, Wright, and James Smith, Weaver. Four of the number went the length of Kilsyth with the view of negotiating with Prince Charles’s army, but finding there that the troops had gone towards Edinburgh, they returned thinking that the city had obtained at least a respite. The respite was however brief, for on 25th September the Prince issued from Holyrood a similar order, and John Hay of Restalrig was sent as commissioner to treat with the magistrates. After ‘long communing’ the inhabitants of Glasgow got off on this occasion by paying £5,500 ‘mostly money and bills and part goods.’
(932) Lent by J. BARCLAY MURDOCH.
GLASGOW BURGESS TICKET, dated 1st October 1751, in favour of Captain Christopher Parker of H.M. Ship ‘Tartar.’ (See Fig. 152.)
(862) Lent by MATTHEW SHIELDS.
BURGESS AND GUILDRY TICKET of Wm. Shortridge, Glasgow, 15th September, 1769.
(1559) Lent by JOHN WILLIAM BURNS.
SPECIAL CONSTABLE’S MEDAL of the Burgh of Calton, dated 1817. The Burgh of Calton was, along with Bridgeton, Gorbals, and Anderston, annexed to the city by Act of Parliament in 1846.
(768) From KELVINGROVE MUSEUM.
COMMON SEAL of the City of Glasgow, in use from 1789 till 1866. This is the fifth of six common seals which have been made for the Burgh of Glasgow. It was ordered in 1789, and discarded in 1866. Its heraldic iniquities provoked its fate: the blazon was wrong, the motto was wrong, the bell was wrong, the fish had its head the wrong way. and lay back, instead of belly, up. A deep score across it has effectually stopped the repetition of these atrocities. The sixth seal is the one now in use, and not likely to be soon superseded. It was prepared with the help of Mr. Andrew Macgeorge, and formally patented with the Lord Lyon on 25th October 1866. It shows a proper blazon of the arms of the city, with new crest and new supporters, but the old motto, ‘Let Glasgow Flourish.’ (See Figs. 153 and 154.)
(769) From KELVINGROVE MUSEUM.
SMALL BATON, used as insignia of office of Police Commissioner, 1826. The Board of Commissioners of Police was established under an Act of Parliament obtained in 1800, and continued till 1846, when their functions were vested in the Town Council.
(767) From KELVINGROVE MUSEUM.
DRUM of the Glasgow Fire Department, with inscription: ‘North: Bell Street, High Street, Rottenrow Street, Balmanno Street, Albion Street. – Glasgow Police.’ This route was one specified in the regulations dated January 1834, when the Central Fire Station was in Bell Street.
(1584) Lent by WILLIAM PATERSON.
FIRE DRUM of the Burgh of Gorbals, inscribed G. IV. R. PRO REGE GORBALS. In use in the Burgh of Gorbals prior to annexation to Glasgow in 1846.
(1585) Lent by WILLIAM PATERSON.
GOLD MEDAL AND CHAIN, belonging to the Trades House of Glasgow, worn by the Deacon Convener since 1801. The Deacon Convener is the principal elective official of the combined Trades Incorporations of the city. The office was created under the Letter of Guildry, which also instituted the Dean of Guild and Guild Court on 9th February 1605. In 1766 it was resolved by the Trades House that the Deacon Convener should be provided with a gold chain as an emblem of office.
(798) Lent by the TRADES HOUSE.
GOLD MEDAL AND CHAIN, belonging to the Trades House of Glasgow, recently worn by the Collector. The office of Collector is equivalent to that of Treasurer in the Trades House, and its occupant is by unwritten law looked upon as successor to the dignity of Deacon Convener.
(799) Lent by the TRADES HOUSE.
CARVED OAK BOX, or Small Chest of the Glasgow St. John’s Lodge of Freemasons and the Masons’ Craft of Glasgow, with arms, Masonic emblems, inscription, and date 1604. The Masons’ Incorporation of Glasgow forms a Lodge of Freemasons as well as a body of municipal craftsmen. As Freemasons they claim to have a charter from King Malcolm III. dated 1057; as craftsmen they were originally conjoined with the Wrights’ and the Coopers’ crafts. The Coopers were formed into a separate Incorporation in 1597, and the Wrights were disjoined in 1600.
(813) Lent by the ST. JOHN’S LODGE.
ANCIENT BLUE SILK BANNER, of the Hammermen Incorporation, traditionally regarded as having been borne at the Battle of Langside. The Hammermen Incorporation, which embraces all metal workers and saddlers, was incorporated under ‘Seal of Cause’ granted by the Town Council with concurrence of Gavin Dunbar, Archbishop of Glasgow, in 1536.
(812) Lent per ALEXANDER DAVIE.
THE CHARTER BOX, of the Gardeners’ Incorporation of Glasgow, with relief ornamentation in plaster and colour, 18th century work. It is stated that the Deacon of this Incorporation died of plague in 1649, and that the original charter of the body was inadvertently burned with his furniture and papers, which were consumed to prevent infection. But the Incorporation is not enumerated among those enjoying corporate privileges when the Letter of Guildry was issued in 1605. In 1690 a ‘Seal of Cause’ was granted by the Town Council, instituting the Incorporation which is therefore the youngest of the fourteen which make up the Trades House of Glasgow.
(810) Lent by the GARDENERS’ INCORPORATION OF GLASGOW,
per ROBERT ELLISON, DEACON.
BOX, of the Incorporation of Wrights, in carved Mahogany. The Wrights, which originally formed a branch of the Masons’ Incorporation, were established as a separate corporate body in 1600.
(811) Lent per R. J. BENNETT.
PART OF CROZIER, found in Tomb (so called) of St. Kentigern in the Cathedral Crypt about 1804, by William Bullock, the London Naturalist and Collector. Whether with or without authority, Bullock broke into the tomb, and removed thence the remains of a crozier having a metal crook, and an Episcopal ring. The staff of the crozier was much decayed, but this well-preserved section 7 ½ in. long, was given by Mr. Bullock to Allan Burns, son of Dr. Burns, Minister of Barony Parish, who was at the opening of the tomb. From Allan Bums it has descended to his nephew, Mr. John William Burns of Kilmahew. The ring and the crook have disappeared, and there is no trace of them in the sale catalogue of Bullock’s collection, which was dispersed in April 1819. There is good reason to conclude the desecrated tomb to have been that of Bishop Wiseheart or Wishart who was consecrated in 1272. For his patriotic devotion in those troublous times he was carried prisoner into England, and it was only after the Battle of Bannockburn that, blind and broken in health, he was allowed to return to his see, where he died in 1316. He was fittingly honoured in his death with a grand tomb in the crypt (or rather bassa ecclesia) between the chapels of St. Peter and St. Andrew.
(761) Lent by JOHN WILLIAM BURNS.
PHOTOGRAPH, of Bedlay House, near Chryston. Bedlay was among the lands gifted by William the Lion (1166-1214) to the See of Glasgow, and was conveyed away by James Boyd of Trochrig, Tulchan Archbishop (1572-1581) to his cousin Robert, Lord Boyd, who had already acquired the Manse of the Rectory of Glasgow. The Lodge at Bedlay is partly built of stones taken from the Manor House of Lockwood. the old country seat of the Bishops and Archbishops of Glasgow.
(1568) Lent by T. CRAIG CHRISTIE.
OIL PAINTING, Ruins of the Archbishop’s Castle from Kirk Street. Painted by A. Henderson. (See Plate XXVIII., which is a reproduction of a rare lithograph by Allan from the picture while in the possession of John Smith, youngest.) The old Castle of Glasgow, for several centuries the residence of the Bishops and Archbishops of the see, stood, as was natural, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Cathedral, its site being now covered by the buildings of the Royal Infirmary. It is not known when, or by whom, the original portion of the edifice was erected, but it probably dated from the latter half of the thirteenth century. By the beginning of the fourteenth century the Castle had come to be recognised as a place of some strength, and in 1301 was occupied by a body of English men-at-arms under the command of the redoubtable Bishop Beck of Durham, whom Edward I., in the course of his attempt to subdue Scotland, had nominated to the see of Glasgow in room of the patriotic Bishop Wishart. The Southerns did not, however, long maintain their position, as Wallace made a descent upon Glasgow, and after a skirmish in the High Street, known afterwards as ‘the Battle of the Bell o’ the Brae,’ from the name of the part of the street where the conflict took place, succeeded in completely defeating Beck and the English, who retired to the Border.
At this time the Castle was in all probability nothing more than a plain battlemented structure, surrounded by a moat. The first important addition to it seems to have been made by Bishop Cameron (1426-46), who erected at the south-west of the main building a strong tower five stories in height, which is frequently referred to in later days as the ‘Great Tower,’ or ‘Bishop Cameron’s Tower.’ A few years before the battle of Flodden, Archbishop Beaton enclosed the Castle with an embattled wall fifteen feet high, having a bastion in front of the angle formed by the junction of the western and south-western portions of the barriers.1
One effect of the works undertaken by Archbishop Beaton was to elevate the Castle of Glasgow into a position of considerable importance in the eyes of the contending factions who during the minority of James V. were striving for the control of the kingdom, and to make its possession an object of no small moment. During Beaton’s own episcopal reign the fortress was twice subjected to a siege. The first of these took place in February 1515, when a number of the west-country nobles, among whom were the Earls of Arran, Lennox, and Glencairn, made a determined effort to oust the Duke of Albany from the Regency. The Archbishop was Chancellor of the kingdom under Albany, and, as was only natural, his castle became one of the chief rallying-places of the Regent’s party. John Mure of Caldwell, an active partisan of the opposing faction, saw that it would be greatly to the advantage of his leaders if he could obtain possession of the fortress, not only from its importance as a place of strength, but also from the fact that it seems to have been used at the time as a depot for stores and artillery. He accordingly invested it, and, though the garrison made a gallant stand, succeeded in taking it. He held it for a short period; but as Albany, with a strong following, advanced upon Glasgow, he was compelled to evacuate it. Before, however, doing so, he pillaged the Castle, and the ravages he executed upon the furniture and belongings of its unfortunate owner subsequently formed the ground of civil proceedings by the latter against him. The decree which was pronounced in the action, of date 4th March 1517, has been preserved, and affords very interesting illustrations of the domestic conditions of the household of a Scottish prelate, in the early portion of the sixteenth century. Among the articles which John Mure was ordered by the decree to restore to the Bishop, ‘or the avale and prices of thame,’ may be mentioned ‘xiii fedder beds, price of ilk bed five merks, xviii verdour beds price of the pece xl s. * * * vi ruffs and courtings of say and four of lynning, price of the pece ourheid xxx s. * * * xiii spets weyand xxiii stane of irne, price of the stane v s., tua ketills, price of the pece 1 s., xviii pots, price of thame xx marks, xiii pannis, price of thaime all vi li. x s. * * * xxvii lokks, price of the pece iii s., tua pair of gardevyance, price of thaim baith iiii li. * * * v mantills, price of the pece xl s., xxiiii martis, price of the pece xx s., xv swyne, price of the pece x s. * * * vi dusand of salmond, price of the pece iv s., ane last of salt herring, price of the barrel xxviii s. * * * Ix punds of sugar, price of the pund iii s. * * * Ten chalders of mele, price of ilk chalder x marks, xii tunnes of wyne, price of ilk tunne x li. Fifty lammer beds price xl s., * * * vi barrels of gunpulder, price of the barrell xx marks, xi gunnis, price of the pece xx s.’ Mure was found liable in payment to the Bishop of 200 marks ‘for the scaith sustenit be the said reverend fader in the destructioun of his said castell and palice of Glasgow.’
Plate XXVIII. – Ruins of the Archbishop’s Castle, Glasgow.
The second investment of the Castle occurred in 1517, when the Earl of Lennox laid siege to it. But the defences had evidently in the interval been sufficiently restored to enable the garrison to make a stand until the Regent could again march on Glasgow and compel the insurgents to retire.
Beaton was succeeded in the see by Archbishop Dunbar, during whose episcopate the buildings of the Castle received a further addition in the embattled gatehouse, with its two flanking towers, erected at the south-eastern corner of the wall.
A few years before Archbishop Dunbar’s tenure of the see came to an end by his death in 1547, the fortress was subjected to a siege of much greater severity than any of those which had preceded it. This event took place in 1544, during the Regency of Arran. The Earls of Lennox and Glencairn were the leaders of the faction opposed to the Hamiltons, and a garrison of their followers took possession of the Castle. Arran resolved to capture the place at all hazards, and surrounded it with a large force. Despite great privations and the severe cannonade to which they were exposed from the Regent’s artillery, the garrison held out for ten days, and even then only surrendered on being promised quarter and a safe-conduct. This promise was, however, basely broken, and the gallant defenders were, by Arran’s orders, cruelly slain. The siege of the Castle was almost immediately followed by the ‘Battle of the Butts,’ on the adjoining Gallowmuir, between the Regent’s forces and those of Glencairn.
In June 1545 a meeting of the Privy Council (at which Mary of Guise was present) was held in the Castle.
During the stormy period of the Reformation it was inevitable that the Castle (which a few years later was designated in the Privy Council Registers ‘ane of the principall keyis of the cuntrie’) should become involved in the strifes and bickerings of the time. The then Archbishop, James Beaton (secundus), a nephew of the Cardinal, but a man of a much higher type, in order to preserve the many valuable possessions of the Cathedral from spoliation, had removed them to the comparative safety of the Castle, in which was a small garrison of the Queen Regent’s French troops. He had also shortly before entered into an arrangement with Arran (whom he appointed Bailie of the Regality of Glasgow for the period of nineteen years), under which the Duke became bound not only not to interfere with the Archbishop or his people, but to defend him and them from all wrong and molestation, and against all persons save the sovereign. In flagrant breach of this covenant Arran, in 1559, seized the Castle of Glasgow, and it was only by the aid of a timely reinforcement of French men-at-arms that its owner was able to drive out the Hamiltons and regain possession of his residence. Beaton now saw that it was his best course to seek safety in flight, and he therefore escaped to France, taking with him the records and treasures of his diocese. After his departure Arran again entered into occupation of the Castle, from which he was finally ejected by the Earl of Lennox.
The last occasion on which the old fortress was besieged was 1570, at which time the garrison seems to have consisted of a mere handful of soldiers, who were holding it on behalf of Lennox, the then Governor of the kingdom. They were attacked by a considerable force of the supporters of the cause of the unfortunate Mary (then a prisoner at Tutbury in Staffordshire), but, offering a stout resistance, the assailants were driven back and eventually compelled, by the near approach of Lennox, to abandon the siege.
After this the history of the Castle possesses little interest; and though during the periods in which Anglican Episcopacy was recognised as the established religion of Scotland it became from time to time the residence of the Archbishops, it seems latterly to have been principally used as a prison. During the episcopate of Archbishop Spottiswoode (1603-15), it was repaired and restored to somewhat of its former condition, but by 1634 it had again fallen into evil case, and is described by Sir William Brereton, who travelled through Scotland in that year, as ‘a poor and mean place.’ In 1689 Morer, in his Short Account of Scotland, speaks of it as ‘in ruines,’ except ‘what was the ancient prison,’ by which he evidently means Bishop Cameron’s Tower. The latter was used in 1715 as a place in which to incarcerate 300 Highlanders who had been concerned in the rising of that year, and this is the last occasion on which we hear of the old fortress figuring in the city annals.
As Glasgow began to increase in extent and importance, the ruins of the Castle came to be looked on by the people who were erecting houses in its neighbourhood as a useful and convenient quarry from which to convey building material. In 1720 a complaint as to this practice was addressed to the Barons of Exchequer, apparently without result, and in 1755 the Town Council, with inexcusable vandalism, expressly authorised the removal from the Castle of the stones for the erection of the Saracen’s Head Inn, Gallowgate. In 1788, by the widening of Castle Street, further ravages took place, and on the erection of the Royal Infirmary in 1792 all the remaining vestiges of the edifice were swept away. Thus, within little more than a century, by the barbarous action of the burghal- authorities, and the conduct of a small section of the citizens, the old Castle of Glasgow, a building of considerable architectural interest, and around which many historic memories clustered, was needlessly destroyed.
It may be mentioned in conclusion that the only portions of the stonework of the Castle which have been preserved and can be identified are three sculptured stones. One of these bears the arms of Archbishop Beaton, and is believed to have formed part of his enclosing wall. It is now in the porch of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, North Woodside Road, but a cast of it was inserted by Mr. Sellars above the doorway of the model of the Bishop’s Castle. The other two, which came from the Gatehouse erected by Archbishop Dunbar, bear the coats armorial of that prelate and James Houston, then the Sub-Dean of the Cathedral, and in the upper compartment the Royal Arms of Scotland, with ‘I 5’ (James V.) at the foot of the shield. These last-mentioned stones were for a long time built into the wall of a tenement at 22 High Street, but are now at Mochrum, Wigtownshire, the seat of Sir William Dunbar, the present representative of the house of which the Archbishop was a cadet.
All that remains of the wood-work is a portion of a carved panel of walnut, which is the property of the Glasgow Archæological Society, and which, by permission of that learned body, formed part of the Bishop’s Castle Collection.
There are, however, considerable remains of the Castle wall beneath part of the buildings of the Infirmary; and as recently as 1853, in the course of some excavations, there were found traces of the moat and portions of the drawbridge which spanned it.
(1569) Lent by JOHN KNOX.
HOUR-GLASS from the Cathedral, Glasgow. This hour-glass, like the Bible (No. 775, pp. 171, 172) had long disappeared from the Cathedral. It too was recovered by the late Allan Clark, and was restored by his daughters to the Kirk-session. The glass inside the stand is 6 ½ inches high, and the circumference of the globes is 9 inches. The sand runs for thirty-eight minutes. The glass dates from the beginning of the seventeenth century. The original object was to give the minister a minimum, not a maximum, for his sermon. (See Fig. 155.)
(776) Lent by the REV. G. STEWART BURNS, D.D.
PRESENTATION for the Barony Kirk to Mr. Zachary Boyd, dated 2d February 1625. Previous to his appointment to the Barony Parish, this Iearned and eminent divine was Regent of Saumur College in France, whence he was driven in 1621 by the persecution of Protestants. He was elected Rector of Glasgow University in 1634, 1635, and 1645. To that seat of learning he bequeathed his books and MSS., together with half his fortune, a sum of £20,000 Scots. Zachary Boyd was a most voluminous author, his writings being principally cast in poetical form which now form curious reading (See Nos. 807-8, pp. 178, 179).
(806) Lent by the KIRK-SESSION OF BARONY
per E. R. CATTERNS, SESSION-CLERK.
CALL by Heritors and Elders to the Barony Parish Church, in favour of Mr. John Burns, Preacher of the Gospel, 16th December 1773. Dr. John Burns was minister of the Barony Parish, 1773-1839, and having been appointed assistant to the previous incumbent. Dr. Laurence Hill, in 1770, he was almost seventy years continuously connected with the same charge. He was father of Sir George Burns, Bart., one of the pioneers of Steam Navigation, and a founder of the Cunard line of steamers.
(1560) Lent by JOHN WILLIAM BURNS.
ORIGINAL CONTRACT AND SPECIFICATION for building ‘Partick Castle,’ between George Hutcheson of Lambhill and William Miller, mason in Kilwinning, dated 9th and 14th January 1611. Indorsed ‘Contract betuix me and ye Masoun in Kilwying anent the bigeing of the house of Partick,’ the standard of measurement being stipulated to be ‘ye said Georges awin fate.’ Noticed in Hutchesoniana: An Account of the Founders of Hutcheson’s Hospital, their Parentage, Family, and Times; and The Story of Partick Castle, etc., by Laurence Hill, LL.D., pp. 33-40; and History of the Hospital and School in Glasgow founded by George and Thomas Hutcheson, by W. H. Hill, p. 31.
(915) Lent by WILLIAM H. HILL, LL.D.
‘DEPUTATION granted to George Huchesone off the Comissariot of Glasgow,’ otherwise the Original Commission by John Boyle of Kelburne, Commissary of Glasgow, with consent of the Right Reverend Father in God, James (Law), Archbishop of Glasgow, to George Hutcheson of Lambhill, to act as Commissary Depute, dated 24th June 1630. Noticed in History of the Hospital and School, pp. 21 and 22.
(916) Lent by WILLIAM H. HILL, LL.D.
MINUTE, dated 31st December 1636, by which ‘Johne Boill of Kelburne, Comissar of Glasgow, on ye ane pt and George Huchesone of Lambhill on ye other pairt, hes dissoluit and rendit ye Contract maid betuix thame, respecting the dewties of ye comissariat of Glasgow.’ Holograph of George Hutcheson. Noticed in History of the Hospital and School in Glasgow, pp. 22, 23.
(917) Lent by WILLIAM H. HILL, LL.D.
THE ANCIENT MACE of the University of Glasgow. This beautiful mace is of silver parcel-gilt, and is described as the silver staff ‘quhilk the Bedal carrieth before the Rector at sollem tymes.’ It measures 4 feet 9 ¾ inches in length; the weight is 8 lbs. 1 oz. The head is an elaborate piece of tabernacle work of three stages, all of them hexagonal, resting on brackets; the lowest stage on each of its six faces presents a shield surmounted by the head of an angel whose wings clasp the shield. The six shields carry-
1. The Arms of Glasgow.
2. The inscription: Haec Virga empta fuit publicis Academiae Glasguensis sumptibus A.D. 1465: in Galliam ablata A.D. 1560: et Academiae restituta A. D. 1590.
3. The Arms of the Regent Morton, the Restorer, of 1577.
4. The Arms of Lord Hamilton, the Benefactor, of 1460.
5. The Arms of Scotland.
6. The Arms of Bishop Turnbull, the Founder, of 1451.
The Arms of Glasgow on the fifth shield are in a style not used before the middle of last century: the style of the lettering on the sixth shield indicates the same date, and this may be the date of engraving of all the six. The Mace is commonly said to be one of six that were once hidden for safety in Bishop Kennedy’s famous tomb in St. Salvator’s Chapel in St. Andrews. This story is absolutely fabulous. The true story is given in the inscription. In 1460 Canon David Cadzow, who had been the first Rector to the new-founded University, on being again chosen Rector started a subscription for a proper mace, and headed the list with 20 nobles (£6, 13s. 4d. stg.): in 1465 a committee was appointed to collect funds for finishing the mace; and in 1469 the mace was finished and was in use on high days and holidays. ‘It cam’ wi’ a Rector, and it had nearly gane wi’ a Rector.’ The last pre-Reformation Rector was James Balfour, Dean of Glasgow, and in 1588 this significant entry appears in the ‘lnventar’ of the evidents, lettres, gudis, and gear:- ‘The Dean of Glasgow, Mr. James Balfour, had the pedillis staff of sylver in keeping, quhilk was the fairest that was in any Universitie of Scotland, and hes not yet renderit it.’ Luckily it was recovered, we see from the Inscription, in 1590, and the ‘Inventar’ of 1614 thus records its adventures:- ‘Quhilk Mr. James Balfure, deane of Glasgow, Rector the yeir of God 1560, gave to the Bischop of Glasgow quho caryit the same with all the silver warke and hail juels of the Hie Kirk to Paris with him. Notwithstanding, the said Staff be the Travels of Mr. Patricke Sharpe, Principal, was recoverit, mendit and augmentit the yeir of God CIƆ.IƆ.XC as the date on the end of the staff bears.’ Since the sale to the Union Railway Company of the High Street property, gifted in 1460 by Lord Hamilton, the Mace is the oldest possession of the University, and it is a link with the ancient studium generale of 1451 which the later collegium has obscured. (See Fig. 156.)
(927) Lent by the SENATUS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW.
Plate XXIX. – Glasgow Burgess Ticket in Favour of Thomas Hutcheson of Lambhill.
REGIMENTAL COAT – red, with white and yellow facings – of Royal Lanarkshire Militia; gilt buttons, with R.L.M. and Prince of Wales’s motto and feathers. Worn by James Murdoch of Levenside.
(835) Lent by J. BARCLAY MURDOCH.
ROBERT AITKEN’S COMMISSION as Second Lieutenant in the Royal Glasgow Volunteers, dated 30th March 1797.
(1561) Lent by R. E. AITKEN.
ROBERT AITKEN’S COMMISSION as First Lieutenant in the Royal Glasgow Volunteers, dated 25th October 1797.
(1562) Lent by R. E. AITKEN.
The Royal Glasgow Volunteers were embodied in 1794 under an Act of Parliament passed in view of the troublous condition of continental Europe. In 1797 the volunteers consisted of two battalions of infantry, a squadron of light cavalry, and the ‘Armed Association of Musketeers.’ They were disbanded after the Peace of Amiens in 1802.
DECLARATION signed by the Corps of Glasgow Sharpshooters. Two sheets of parchment containing the signatures of nearly 500 citizens offering their services as volunteers, dated 12th October 1803.
On the renewal of war with France in 1803 the citizens again flew to arms, and with such fervour that upwards of 5000 volunteers – one soldier to every sixteen of the population – were enrolled. The infantry were divided into eight battalions or regiments, of which the Trades Regiment was No. 2 with 600 men, and the Sharpshooters 700 strong, were No. 4. There was also a squadron of light cavalry.
(832) Lent by the GLASGOW ARCHÆOLOGICAL SOCIETY,
per J. DALRYMPLE DUNCAN.
THE MUSTER ROLL of the ‘Old Guard or Volunteers of Glasgow, in and prior to the year 1819, herein inscribed by their own veritable hands in conformity with the spirit of the resolutions of the public meeting held in the Queen’s Hotel in the City of Glasgow, 8th February 1860. God save the Queen.’
When in 1859-60 the excitement which culminated in the organisation of the present Volunteer Force made itself felt in Glasgow, a meeting of the surviving volunteers of 1803-19 was held in the Queen’s Hotel, Glasgow. The veterans passed resolutions in favour of the movement, and a record of their proceedings was preserved, according to which they agreed with enthusiasm to tender their services to Her Majesty under the Act of 1804 as an Honorary Veteran Rifle Corps to be designated ‘The Old Guard of Glasgow.’ Upwards of 100 signatures of well-known citizens are adhibited to the Muster Roll, a great proportion of whom signed the ‘Tender of Service of the Old Guard.’
(836) Lent by GEORGE GRAY.
FOUNDERS’ DUPLICATE of the Original Contract betwixt the Provost, Bailies, and Council of Glasgow, and Mr. Thomas Hutcheson, anent Umquhile George Hutcheson’s Mortification, dated 16th December 1639, for the Endowment of Hutchesons’ Hospital, containing an Eik thereto by Thomas Hutcheson, dated said Contract 27th June 1640.
(918) Lent by WILLIAM H. HILL, LL.D.
FOUNDERS’ DUPLICATE of the Mortification by Thomas Hutcheson, for the Foundation and Endowment of Hutchesons’ School, dated 9th March 1641, with relative Eik by him for the further Endowment of Hutchesons’ Hospital and School, dated 3d July 1641. Noticed and transcribed in History of the Hospital and School, pp. 61-64, and 249-254.
(919) Lent by WILLIAM H. HILL, LL.D.
HONORARY BURGESS TICKET, with Extract Minute of the Town Council of Glasgow subjoined, containing the Freedom of the City to Thomas Hutcheson of Lambhill, one of the Founders of Hutchesons’ Hospital, granted in respect of ‘certane gratitudis and guid deidis, done, and to be done be him to this Burgh,’ dated 24th April 1640. Noticed and facsimile given in History of the Hospital and School, pp. 46, 47. (See Plate XXIX.)
(920) Lent by WILLIAM H. HILL, LL.D.
EPISTOLARUM APOSTOLICARUM EXPLICATIO. – MSS. in the handwriting of Thomas Hutcheson of Lambhill, one of the Founders of Hutchesons’ Hospital, probably compiled in the course of his theological studies at the university circa 1625. Noticed in History of the Hospital and School, p. 45.
(921) Lent by WILLIAM H. HILL, LL.D.
PENCIL SKETCH by Andrew Macgeorge in 1828 of ‘Partick Castle,’ formerly commonly known as ‘The Bishop’s Castle,’ built by George Hutcheson of Lambhill in 1611. Noticed in Hamilton of Wishaw’s Description of the Sheriffdom of Lanark, etc., published by the Maitland Club in 1831, p. 29; Chalmers’s Caledonia, vol. iii. p. 629; Hutchesoniania:- The Story of Partick Castle, pp. 4, 5, 33 seq., 40; History of the Hospital and School, pp. 29-31.
(922) Lent by WILLIAM H. HILL, LL.D.
PURSE of Mrs. Marion Stewart or Hutcheson, Spouse of Thomas Hutcheson, one of the Founders of Hutchesons’ Hospital, by whom gifted to her sister-in-law Mrs. Helen Hutcheson, Spouse of Ninian Hill of Garioch, Merchant, Burgess in Glasgow. Noticed and figured in History of the Hospital and School, p. 28. (See Fig. 158.)
(923) Lent by WILLIAM H. HILL, LL.D.
‘DUTCH-BUILT SPRING LOCKIT KIST, woven of stripes of yron in comelie forme,’ some time the property of George Hutcheson of Lambhill, one of the founders of Hutchesons’ Hospital, 1639- 1641, now of William H. Hill, LL.D., Glasgow. Noticed in Hutchesoniana, p. 26; and figured in History of the HospitaI and School, by W. H. Hill, p. 28. (See Fig. 159.)
(924) Lent by WILLIAM H. HILL, LL.D.
THE FIRST AND ORIGINAL MINUTE-BOOK of the Patrons of Hutchesons’ Hospital.
Facsimiles of certain portions of this book are given in Dr. Hill’s History of the Hospital and School. These illustrations also appear in Dibdin’s Northern Tour, and were pronounced by him to be among the finest examples of caligraphy he had ever seen. These portions were written by Mr. James Clark, Teacher of ‘Ane Wrytting Scol’ in Glasgow, who was paid the large fee of £13, 6s. 8d. Scots for engrossing six folios of the Minute-Book.
(925) Lent by the PATRONS OF HUTCHESONS’ HOSPITAL.
PRESIDENT’S SILVER MEDAL of the ‘Glasgow Society for Borough Reform,’ with Inscription and Arms of the City: John Smith. President, 1792. John Smith was a watchmaker in the Trongate, whose active political sympathies at a risky period led him into no little trouble. He was a suspect, and as possession of this medal would have been sufficient proof of his treasonable intent, his wife sewed up the dangerous treasure in her stays. His house was actually searched, his beds and furniture ripped up, and his hearthstone turned over by soldiers in search of testimony against him. The medal was kept in hiding till 1832, when it was shown in the Town Hall at a meeting to celebrate the passing of the Reform Act, and the son, in whose possession it then was, was congratulated on his father’s public spirit. The inscription reads: ‘Friends of Reform, Be unanimous, active, and steady, in asserting and constitutionally establishing the Rights of Man, and be not weary of “well-doing,” for by Wisdom, Prudence, and Courage, “in due time ye shall reap if ye faint not.” It is significant that the word ‘constitutionally’ is interlined; obviously it was an afterthought, and, as with other agitations, constitutional measures were perhaps not an early device. In connection with the movement Thomas Muir, Advocate, a native of Glasgow, was in 1793 tried for sedition before the High Court of Justiciary, and sentenced to fourteen years’ transportation. (See Fig. 157.)
(790) Lent by MRS. ALLARDYCE.
TREASONABLE ADDRESS, printed and posted in Glasgow on the 1st April 1820. In 1820 the Government, imagining that Sedition was rampant in Glasgow, employed spies in the city with the view of dealing with the disaffection. On Sunday, 1st April 1820, the town was thrown into a panic by the appearance of this placard. It is now believed that the proclamation was the work of a spy, with the view of bringing about a crisis. The placard produced a prodigious sensation: the magistrates ordered all shops to be closed at six, and all citizens to be in their houses and all strangers out of the town at seven. Troops were poured into the town, three infantry regiments, two regiments of cavalry, eight pieces of artillery, several regiments of yeomanry, and the Glasgow Sharpshooters – in all about five thousand armed men being in readiness for any emergency. But beyond the pitiable ‘rising’ of the Strathaven weavers noticed below (928), and the equally miserable affair of Bonnymuir, which ended in the execution of Hardie and Baird, nothing happened, and the town simmered gradually back to its normal quietness. This copy was posted on the gate of the engineering works of Claud Girdwood and Co., Commercial Road, Hutchesontown. and was taken down by Mr. Girdwood and preserved in his family. (See Fig. 160.)
(841) Lent by ALEXANDER MACDONALD.
SWORD of James Wilson, the Strathaven Radical, borne by him at the so-called Strathaven rising, 2d April 1820, for which he was executed at Glasgow, 30th August following. He thus refers to this sword in his narrative, dated ‘Glasgow Jail, Iron room, 29th August 1820:- They threatened to blow out my brains if I did not accompany them. I said I had no arms; when the person noticed the blade of a sword which had no hilt, and was broken at the point, and which I used as a bow for my stocking-frame, and they observed “I might take it.” At length, carrying this useless blade with me, we left my house for Glasgow.’ (See Fig. 161.)
(928) Lent by J. B. DALZELL.
SWORD, single-edged. Found in the thatch when taking down the house of James Wilson, the Radical of Strathaven, to make room for his monument.
(929) Lent by J. B. DALZELL.
LETTER of Alexander Hart, who was the most severely wounded of the men taken prisoners at Bonnymuir, 5th April 1820. The letter was written from Stirling jail on the morning when the remission of the capital sentence pronounced on him was made known. He was born at Old Kilpatrick, Dumbartonshire, February 3d, 1794; and died at Sydney, March 28th, 1876, in his 83d year.
(930) Lent by JAMES HART.
POUND NOTE of the ‘Ship Bank,’ Glasgow, dated 2d May 1760. This Note contains the optional clause which conferred on the proprietors the power to delay payment for six months after demand, adding interest at 5 per cent. This clause was rendered illegal by Act of Parliament passed in 1764. The Bank of Scotland, immediately after its establishment, attempted to plant a branch in Glasgow, and again in 1731 the experiment was renewed; but on both occasions the business done was insufficient to encourage the maintenance of a banking office. It was not till 1750 that a few wealthy citizens established the concern which ultimately flourished as the Ship Bank. In the same year the Glasgow Arms Bank was instituted, and in 1761 the Thistle Bank began business. Subsequently several other private banking concerns were formed, and branches of Edinburgh and other local Banks were set up in Glasgow. In 1793 the Glasgow Arms and some of the other banking ventures came to grief The Ship Bank and other private Glasgow banking houses were ultimately incorporated in the Union Bank of Scotland. (See Plate XXX)
(1581) Lent by DANIEL FRAZER.
POUND NOTE of the ‘Ship Bank,’ dated 2d June 176-; the form issued after the optional clause became illegal in 1764. (See Plate XXX.)
(1582) Lent by DANIEL FRAZER.
Plate XXX. – One Pound Notes of the Ship Bank, Glasgow.
LIST of Subscribers (holograph) at Glasgow to the Darien Scheme. (See page 210.)
(802) Lent by the ADVOCATES LIBRARY.
ORIGINAL HOLOGRAPH LIST of Subscribers for the erection of the Theatre Royal in Queen Street, Glasgow, 1802. The Theatre Royal, built at an expense of £18,500, was opened in 1805. It was a losing concern all round; it ruined a succession of managers, the original share-holders lost all the money they invested in it, and after a uniformly dismal career, the Theatre was burned down on Saturday 10th January 1829, while ‘Blue Beard’ with ‘magnificent scenery and decorations’ worth £2000, was in rehearsal.
(1583) Lent by DANIEL FRAZER.
SILVER GILT MEDAL AND CHAIN, the insignia of office of the professor of swimming in the Bridgegate, 12th March Club. The Club was instituted to commemorate the great flood of 12th March 1782.
(766) From KELVINGROVE MUSEUM.
DUNLOP CABINET. A carved oak cabinet, made on the occasion of the marriage of John Dunlop, first of Garnkirk, Merchant burgess in Glasgow, to Bessie, widow of John Mackldune, 24th May 1632.
A two-doored cabinet, having in the upper panels a heraldic two-headed eagle, with initials in one M J D, and in the other B D, and date 24 . May . 16 . 32. The lower panels are carved in a cruciform design filled with leafy scrolls. The cabinet is supported on claw feet, and the top is modern work. Mr. John Dunlop, the original owner of the cabinet, was third son of James Dunlop of Dunlop, and Jean, daughter of Sir James Somerville of Cambusnethan. He became a merchant, banker, and money-lender, in Glasgow, and traded, it is believed, with Holland, then the chief centre of the foreign trade of Scotland. By his marriage with Bessie Mackldune he acquired a fortune of over £15,000 Scots, which enabled him to buy the estate of Garnkirk. Mr. Dunlop was a man of much public spirit and great note in Glasgow, and ever since his day his descendants have occupied prominent positions both in society and in business; they have been merchants, bankers, lawyers, and coal and iron-masters; and they have served the town as Councillors, Magistrates, Deans of Guild, Provosts, and Members of Parliament. The present owner of the cabinet, James Dunlop of Tollcross, is sixth in descent from John Dunlop first of Garnkirk. (See Fig. 162.)
(792) Lent by JAMES DUNLOP.
STONEWARE FLAGON, manufactured by the Glasgow Delft Work Company about 1790.
The Pottery of which this vessel is a memorial was founded as the Glasgow Delft Work or Delpht House in 1754. It was one of the earliest of joint-stock enterprises in the city. The original partners were Provost Laurence Dinwiddie of Germiston, his brother Robert Dinwiddie, Lieut.-Governor of Virginia, Robert Findlay and Patrick Nisbet, Merchants in Glasgow. In 1768 James Watt, at that time designated Merchant in Glasgow, acquired an ⅛ interest in Delftfield, and he is said to have lived for some time in ‘Delftfield House’ in the works. Delftfield was given up as a pottery before 1817, in which year James Watt, junior, James Watt’s sole surviving son, was vested in the whole property. This, along with an addition to the east acquired in 1822 from the Gas Light Company, Mr. Watt sold in 1846 to William Connal, merchant in Glasgow, who opened up the ground for building. ‘Delftfield Lane,’ which formerly ran through Delftfield from Anderston Walk (Argyll Street) to the river, has been amplified into ‘James Watt Street.’
(791) Lent by WILLIAM H. HILL, LL.D.
ANDREA FERRARA SWORD, which belonged to John Spreull ‘alias Bass John.’
John Spreull, Merchant in Glasgow, born 1646, died 1722, was one of the most kenspeckle figures of the ‘killing times.’ In an evil hour for their peace of mind the Privy Council took him in hand; they fined him, they imprisoned him, they booted and they better booted him, and they crushed his legs, but they could not crush his spirit, and they were beaten at last all along the line. They had ended by throwing him into the Bass to rot to death, but rot he would not, and when they had let out all other prisoners, and were sick of him and of the Bass, there he sat on, his sole companion a well-thumbed Bible, still preserved in his family. He might have got out any day on easy terms, but making terms when he was in the right was not in John Spreull’s line. He did indeed ask ‘the Liberty of a free-born Subject to follow his lawful Calling, or at least Liberty, a Competent Time, to see if by Law he could obtain anything of his Debitors to maintain himself in Prison,’ but on finding that his application was held to imply approval of ‘His Majesty’s late gracious Proclimation, which he was far from approving,’ he quietly sat him down to his Bible again. The unhappy Council threw up the sponge, and bade him go or stop as he pleased. On these terms he had ‘clearness’ to go, and after due Protestation to the Council that they were wrong (a) in fact, (b) in law, (c) in equity, he marched out, drums beating and flags flying. He was known ever after as ‘Bass John,’ taking his title, like Scipio Africanus, from the scene of his triumph. He resumed his calling as a merchant, dealing in everything from pearls to pills, and trading everywhere from the ‘Islands of the East Indies’ to ‘Surrinam an Dutch Plantation.’ He realised a good fortune. In the Glasgow sheets (No. 802) of Darien Subscribers he signs for £1000 sterling. The signature ‘John Spreull, Senior, alias Bass John,’ is deliberately figured: Bass John was never in a hurry.
(804) Lent by JOHN WILLIAM BURNS.
PISTOL used by Bailie Shortridge, of Glasgow, one of the Glasgow Volunteers, at Battle of Falkirk, 1745. Bailie Shortridge was a grandson of James Spreull, Surgeon in Paisley, elder brother of Bass John (see No. 804, above), his only daughter having in 1700 married James Shortridge.
(803) Lent by JOHN WILLIAM BURNS.
SATIN WAISTCOAT, embroidered with gold and silver thread by Miss Helen McCall, daughter of Mr. Samuel McCall, Merchant, Glasgow, for her future husband, Mr. Andrew Thomson of Faskine, merchant and banker in Glasgow, and worn by him on the occasion of their marriage, 13th November 1749.
(805) Lent by GEORGE GRAHAM THOMSON.
MINIATURE of Mr. George Thomson, Merchant and Banker, Glasgow, an original member of the Chamber of Commerce, 1783. George was the eldest son of Andrew Thomson of Faskine, (see No. 805, above), one of the most prominent of the eighteenth-century merchants who laid the foundations of the commercial prosperity of Glasgow. In 1783 his father left the Glasgow Ship Bank, of which he was a partner, and with George and his second son Andrew formed the private bank of Andrew, George and Andrew Thomson. This bank failed in the crisis of 1793; the creditors, however, were paid in full, and the Thomsons retained the general respect.
(851) Lent by GEORGE GRAHAM THOMSON.
MINIATURE of Mr. James Johnstone, a Glasgow Merchant, who died in 1781. Mr. Johnstone was a man of the multifarious business activities of our last century merchants. His legitimate business was stocking-weaving, but he was also engaged as co-partner or co-adventurer in manufacturing, in importing, in shipping, in shipowning, and in underwriting; he operated in Glasgow, in London, in Virginla, in Jamaica, and in Tobago, and he was owner or part-owner of plantations and plantation ‘hands’ in St. Kitts and Grenada. He was the first feuar in Buchanan Street. His house occupied the site of the southern part of Prince of Wales Buildings, and a portion of his garden wall still runs along the north back of the Arcade. It was in this house (then the property of John Gordon of Aikenhead) that the famous Peel Banquet was held on 13th January 1837.
(856) Lent by GEORGE GRAHAM THOMSON.
MEDALLION of David Dale, by Tassie. (See Fig. 163.)
(846) Lent by J. B. GREENSHIELDS.
MEDALLION of David Dale, founder of the Royal Bank in Glasgow, by Henning.
(845) Lent by J. B. GREENSHIELDS.
ENGRAVING of David Dale, from Tassies Medallion.
(848) Lent by J. B. GREENSHIELDS.
FULL-LENGTH COLOURED ENGRAVING of David Dale, as ‘The Benevolent Magistrate.’
(847) Lent by J. B. GREENSHIELDS.
HALF-LENGTH COLOURED ENGRAVING of David Dale, as ‘The Benevolent Magistrate.’
(849) Lent by J. B. GREENSHIELDS.
David Dale, born 1739, died 1806, was originally a Stewarton herdboy. He became a weaver, then he took to tramping the country to gather yarn from farmers’ wives, and he came to Glasgow to sell his gatherings. Once planted there he branched out in all directions; he became a great yarn merchant and importer; a manufacturer; founder, in conjunction with George Macintosh, of Barrowfield, the first Turkey-red work in Great Britain; founder, in conjunction with Sir Richard Arkwright, of New Lanark, once the largest cotton work in the world; founder of a cotton work at Kilmore, near Oban; part founder of a cotton work on the Dornoch Firth: partner in the cotton works at Catrine, Blantyre, and Stanley; an inkle maker; a coal master; and a banker: he took his full share in public work: and he was given to hospitality. But the real business of his life was charity and religion. To make men happier and better he spared neither time nor money. In the famine years he imported cargoes of grain for the famishing poor; his Kilmore and Dornoch works were founded not for profit, but for work to the starving Highlanders, and at New Lanark, long before such things were the fashion, he set himself to provide his people with good houses, good sanitation, and good schooling. He was a warm friend to foreign missions. He visited Bridewell to preach to the prisoners. He helped to found in Glasgow the earliest auxiliary to the Bible Society, and until his death acted as the Society’s Treasurer for the West of Scotland. Originally a member of the Church of Scotland, he became a founder of the ‘Old Scotch Independents;’ he travelled all about to counsel and comfort their scattered congregations: to his own congregation in Grammar School Wynd he had at his death acted for thirty-seven years as pastor, preaching regularly on Sundays and occasionally on other days, and to help his pulpit work he had taught himself to read the Bible in the original Hebrew and Greek. The marvel is how he got through it all. He rested from his labours in 1806, and lies in the Ramshorn Kirkyard. He left no son to perpetuate his honoured name, but it is faintly echoed in Dale Street, Bridgeton, and Dale Street, Tradeston.
MINIATURE of Robert Cleghorn of Shawfield, M.D., Lecturer on Chemistry to the University of Glasgow from 1791 till 1818, and originator of the Royal Lunatic Asylum. Dr. Cleghorn was a physician of great eminence in Glasgow, occupying the foremost professional offices of his time. Among others he was first physician to the Royal Infirmary, and first physician to the Royal Lunatic Asylum, where a memorial portrait of him by Raeburn is preserved. He also attended Captain Patoun on his deathbed. See Lockhart’s Lament.
And in spite of all that Cleghorn
And Corkindale could do,
It was plain from many symptoms
That death was in his view.
(852) Lent by GEORGE GRAHAM THOMSON.
MINIATURE of Major Walker of Shawfield, of the 42d Regiment, died 1844. In 1826 Major Walker married Helen, only daughter of Dr. Cleghorn of Shawfield (No. 852, above). Mrs. Walker survived her husband, and died childless in 1853.
(853) Lent by GEORGE GRAHAM THOMSON.
MINIATURE of a Virginia Don, or Glasgow Merchant of the eighteenth century, in the red cloak which was worn by the merchants of the period.
(858) Lent by DR. ALEXANDER PATTERSON.
This anonymous miniature gives an interesting presentment of the famous red cloaks which were worn last century by foreign merchants, especially by Virginia Dons, and were the symbol of a caste who claimed the ‘Exchange’ as their exclusive walk. The ‘Exchange’ was a strip of the Trongate in front of the Tontine, marked off by a row of stone posts in line with the outer face of King William, and from this, a part of the main street of the town, the scarlet-cloaked gentlemen were positively allowed to exclude everybody else. Manufacturers and smaller traders, wishing to speak with one of the great men inside the charmed circle, had to wait humbly on the open street till they could catch his eye.
The Cloak as shown in this miniature is without collar or cape, and has long V-shaped sleeves or flaps with the arms coming through below. James Young, a cloth merchant in the Gallowgate, was the recognised purveyor of the cloth, and in honour thereof he gave the name of ‘Scarlet Hall’ to his house, a villa at the south-west corner of North Witch Lane (now Bellgrove Street). The collapse of the Virginia trade was a death-blow to his custom, and to the strange privileges of his customers.
CARTOON of Dr. William Ritchie, of St. Andrew’s Church, in connection with the Organ Case – the first introduction of instrumental music into the Scottish Presbyterian Church in 1807.
(859) Lent REV. JOHN W. RITCHIE.
Dr. Ritchie came to Glasgow as minister of St. Andrew’s Parish Church in 1802. He was a man of mature years and enlarged views, who had travelled much in continental countries. In 1806 he applied to the Town Council, as patrons of the Church, for permission to make structural alterations in the church with the view of introducing an organ, but the Council declined to warrant the execution of the work without presbyterial sanction. In 1807 a chamber organ was placed in the church, and for some time played on at week-day psalmody practisings and other meetings; and on Sunday 23d August of that year its strains were raised at a regular diet of public worship. A storm of public excitement immediately arose, and Presbytery and Town Council promptly interfered to put down the innovation. Dr. Ritchie at once bowed to authority, but an acrid controversy ensued which did not subside without the publication of a mass of violent partisan literature. The outcry did not prevent Dr. Ritchie from being called to the High Church of Edinburgh in 1808, and in 1809 he became Professor of Divinity in Edinburgh University.
MEDALLION, in wax, of Robert Owen of New Lanark.
Robert Owen, born 1771, died 1838. A Lancashire lad (Welsh by birth), who had raised himself from a humble position to the managership of a large cotton mill at Chorlton, he made the acquaintance, in 1799, of David Dale, and in that year married Dale’s eldest daughter. From his father-in-law Owen soon after bought New Lanark for £66,000 on behalf of a company he had formed, with himself as managing partner. In the course of this partnership and another that followed it, twenty-eight years in all, the New Lanark mills, besides five per cent, on capital, showed a net profit of £360,000. But the original co-partners found they could not manage their manager, and in 1813 they intimated a separation. The mills were sold by auction, and again bought by Owen at the great price of £112,000. He had found new partners, among whom were Jeremy Bentham and William Allan, John Walker, and Joseph Foster. The object of the new co-partnery was not gain, but benevolence. The contract provided that all profits, after five per cent, on the capital, were to be laid out ‘for the religious, educational, and moral improvement’ of the workers, and of the community at large. The co-partnery was scarcely begun when good William Allan and his friends found that Owen’s views on religion and even on property were wildly opposed to theirs. After much grief of mind (as told in Allan’s Life and elsewhere) they had first to take the education out of his hands, and finally in 1827 to sever his connection with New Lanark. Owen broke out in a new quarter. His benevolent enthusiasm had meantime found him new followers, of whom the then Hamilton of Dalzell, not to the benefit of the Dalzell fortunes, was the chief. By their help he founded ‘New Harmony,’ near Motherwell, but discord of the old type broke out in New Harmony, and the Happy Valley was abandoned. Owen was nowise shaken in his belief in himself. He spent the rest of a long life and a large fortune in working a patent for making an end of religion and of poverty, and died in 1858 survived by both. (See Fig. 164.)
(850) Lent by J. B. GREENSHIELDS.
SIR JOHN MOORE’S SWORD. This is the sword worn by Lieut.-General Sir John Moore, K.B., when he was slain by a cannon-ball at the Battle of Corunna, on the 16th of January 1809, after his memorable retreat from Salamanca with 29.350 British, pursued by Napoleon Buonaparte with 70,000 French. Miss Jane Moore, Cadogan Place, Sloane Street, Chelsea (Sir John’s sister), gave the sword as a present to the late Samuel Tyler, Esq., Castle Court, Cheapside, London, and it came into the possession of his son-in-law, Robert Stewart McDonald (of Harris), Glasgow, in 1866. Sir John Moore was born at Glasgow, 13th November 1761. He was son of Dr. John Moore, Physician in Glasgow, author of Zelucco and other works. It is a curious fact that Dr. John Moore and Tobias Smollett, two of the principal novelists of last century, were both apprentices of Dr. John Gordon, a medical practitioner in Glasgow.
(933) Lent by GEORGE M. JOHNSTONE.
SILVER CLUB of the Glasgow Golf Club, with 24 silver balls attached, bearing the names of the Captains from 1787 to 1828. (See Fig. 165.)
(826) Lent by WILLIAM McINROY.
MINUTE-BOOK of the Glasgow Golf Club, from which it appears that the Club was revived in 1809 after an interval of fifteen years, and entries continued to be made till 1832.
(827) Lent by WILLIAM McINROY.
Before the year 1786 a Golf Club was established in Glasgow, and the Silver Club (No. 826) was procured, which, with a slight interval, was played for annually till 1828. The members played on the Green, then a much better golfing course than it is now. While it could not compare with St. Andrews or Musselburgh, still there were a number of ‘hazards’ or difficulties to be got over, consisting mainly of ditches and roughnesses of the ground. All these Dr. Cleland improved away in 1813. The Silver Club was played for yearly in April or May, and the winner, who had the privilege of adding a silver ball to it bearing his name, became captain for the following year. The club was manufactured in Edinburgh, the initials 
on it being those of William Cunningham and Patrick Cunningham, silversmiths there. There appear to have been seven holes, and the medal or club round consisted of three rounds of the green or twenty-one holes in all. (See The Regality Club, First Series, page 147, Glasgow, 1889.)
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1 McUre, the old historian of Glasgow (who wrote in 1736), also ascribes to Beaton the erection, as part of the wall of ‘a stately tower * * * fronting to the High Street,’ but as Mr. George MacGregor, F.S.A. Scot., in his valuable Historical Notices of the Castle of Glasgow (Glasgow Archæological Society’s Transactions, 2d Ser. vol. i. 232), has pointed out, this statement is inaccurate, unless the chronicler meant to refer to a circular tower which stood at the north-western corner in line with the present front wall of the Royal Infirmary.
The GU mace is particularly fine.