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MOVEMENT FOR ERECTING NEW
TOWN BUILDINGS-FULL DETAILS REGARDING THE ERECTION OF THE MID-STEEPLE
-PORTIONS OF THE BURGH LANDS ENCLOSED AND PLOUGHED-ALTERATIONS ON THE
RIVER: MILLS AND A CAUL CONSTRUCTED-THE UNION WITH ENGLAND STRENUOUSLY
OPPOSED IN DUMFRIES-A BAND OF ARMED MEN ENTER THE BURGH, BURN THE ARTICLES
OF UNION, WITH THE CORDIAL APPROVAL OF THE POPULACE, AND PUBLISH A
DECLARATION AGAINST THE MEASURE-THE PROCEEDINGS ARE DISCUSSED IN
PARLIAMENT; THE DECLARATION IS ADJUDGED TO BE BURNT, AND THE PRINTER OF IT
TO BE PROSECUTED - NEWS-LETTERS CIRCULATED IN THE TOWN-BENEFICIAL EFFECTS
OF THE UNION-CONTRABAND TRAFFIC IN THE SOLWAY AND THE NITH-COLLISIONS
BETWEEN THE REVENUE OFFICERS AND SMUGGLERS.
SOON after the beginning of
the next century, a great building scheme absorbed the attention of the
Dumfries public, the money available for which was obtained in a very
singular way. In the year 1697 the tack or lease of the Customs and
Foreign Excise of Scotland was exposed by public auction, and taken by a
committee of the Convention of Royal Burghs for £33,300 sterling. Each
burgh having been offered a share of the lease in proportion to the amount
of the tax paid by it, the Town Council of Dumfries engaged in the
speculation, and then sold their share to Sir Robert Dickson of Inveresk,
and Mr. John Sharpe of Hoddam. At this transaction the inhabitants were
indignant. They held a public meeting, at which it was thoroughly
repudiated; and, with the view of getting it annulled, legal proceedings
were instituted by them against the civic authorities. An internecine war,
involving the loss of much money and temper, seemed about to be declared,
when, at the instance of Mr. Sharpe, a truce was agreed to, and the
question at issue was wisely left to arbitrators; who decided that the
tacksmen should be permitted to retain their bargain on condition of
paying 20,000 merks into the burgh purse.
Here was a windfall, great and unexpected; and what to do with it, became
an interesting question. The burgesses and "burden bearers" who had taken
a lead in arraying the commonalty against the magnates of the Tolbooth,
wished the compensation money to be spent on something that would be both
useful and ornamental-which idea was, as may be conceived, highly
acceptable to the latter body; and, as the result of several public
meetings, it was unanimously resolved that a new town-house, overtopped by
an imposing steeple, should be erected to benefit and adorn the Burgh. It
was on the 30th of April, 1703, that a definite arrangement was made to
this effect, at a meeting of " the magistrates, members of council, the
most eminent and considerable heritors, burden-bearers, burgesses, and
haill community," and that after receiving an overture subscribed by
ninety-three influential persons, the principal passages of which we
subjoin "We doe hereby propose and offer to the magistrats and council, .
. . that whereas the toun is not at present provided with sufficient
prisones, whereby several malefactors guilty of great crimes, and others
for debt, have made their escape, to the dishonour and iminent perill of
the Burgh; as also that there is not ane steeple in the whole toun, nor
ane suitable council-house and clerk's chamber for keeping the charter
chist and records of the Burgh, nor ane magazine house, nor room for the
sure keeping of the toun's arms and ammunition thereto belonging ;
therefore it is our opinion and unanimous advice, ... that the said sum of
twenty thousand merks be disposed of and employed for the uses foresaid,
which we judge may be conveniently done for the money; and that the same
be built on the waist ground at the back of the Cross, being in the middle
of the toun and highest place thereof." [Town Council Minutes.]
A committee was appointed
to carry the wish of the meet ing into effect, consisting of John Sharpe
of Hoddam; Thomas Rome, ex-Provost; William Craik of Duchrae; John Irving
of Drumcoltran; John Irving, younger of Logan ; Alexander M'Gowan, writer,
Edinburgh; and Walter Newall, late Convener of the Trades: to whom were
added by the Council, John Coup land of Colliston, Provost; Bailies
Crosbie and Barclay; Captain Robert Johnston of Kelton, ex-Provost; John
Irvine of Logan, ex-Provost; James Milligan, dean; John Gilchrist,
merchant; John Brown, ex-treasurer; John Irving, deacon-convener; and
Robert Newall, deacon of the wrights. John Moffat, a Liverpool architect,
was employed by the Committee to come to Dumfries and "furnish a modall "
for the proposed fabric. He arrived in due time; and, that he might obtain
the requisite architectural inspiration, he proceeded to the city of St.
Mungo, as is shown by an item in the Treasurer's account: "To Mr. Moffat,
architect, and Dean Johnston, 24 lbs. [Scots] to bear their expenses in
their journey to visit Glasgow steeple." According to another entry in the
same account, dated 10th April, 1704, Mr. Moffat was paid £104 Scots "for
drawing the steeple scheme, and in name of gratification for his coming to
Dumfries." For some reason or other he backed out of his engagement with
the Committee; and they, in January, 1705, "considering how long the
designed building is retarded for want of an architect," resolved "to send
for one Tobias Bachup, a master builder now at Abercorn, [Bachup was then
engaged in building a house at Abercorn House; but he resided in Alloa,
his native town.] who is said to be of good skill." [Minute-book of the
Steeple Committee. This book, consisting of nearly sixty pages of
beautiful manuscript, is preserved in the Record Room of the Town Hall.]
What Moffat left at an incipient stage, Bachup cordially agreed to
complete-he coming to the Burgh for that purpose in the following month.
Whilst the Committee were
put to some little trouble in this matter, they had many other
difficulties to surmount. There was no adequate timber, as in ancient
times, in the vicinity of the town; and the first impulse of the Committee
was to freight a vessel and send it for that material to "Noroway o'er the
faem." Then there was no available lime lying nearer than Annandale; and
though there were plenty of stones in the town's quarry at the foot of the
Dock, men able to excavate and use them were exceedingly scarce in the
district. The erection of a fabric that was to cost 19,000 merks (£1,041
13s. 4d. sterling), was such an extraordinary enterprise for a small town
of that day, like Dumfries, that the Committee were often at their wits'
end; and they must have spent a vast amount of time and energy, and lost
many a night's sleep, whilst engaged with their herculean task. At one of
their sederunts, Provost Coupland reported "that he and Bailie Corbet,
when they were at Edinburgh, had made search for a free Danish or Swedish
bottom for fraughting for timber to Norway, and after dilligent search,
they found that there can be none gotten at a easy rate." [Steeple
Committee's Minutes.] A resolution to search for the article in this
country was therefore come to; and, after an exploratory raid, trees of
sufficient size were discovered at Garlieswood, in the Stewartry, which
the proprietor was willing to dispose of. How to bring the Galloway oaks
to the banks of the Nith-" Birnam Wood to Dunsinane" - was the next
difficulty. The forest was some miles inland; so that the trees, after
being felled, had to be transported by horses over wretched roads to the
Dee, and then conveyed in a flat boat or gabbart, and in rafts, down
Kirkcudbright Bay into the Solway, and thence up the Nith to Kelton or the
Dock, where horse-power was again needed to take them to Dumfries.
These processes were
extremely perplexing, laborious, and expensive to our ancestors; and when
the Committee had, by means of them, laid in a considerable stock of
timber, they were very glad to come to such terms with the new architect
as rolled upon him a large share of their burden-he agreeing, at their
urgent request, to supply all the remaining materials, as well as to erect
the building. A sub-committee having met with Mr. Bachup on the 14th of
February, 1705, reported to the "Grand Committee" the result of their
interview as follows:-"That with great difficulty they had brought him to
offer to furnish all materialls necessar for the said fabrick, and to
construct the same conform to the scheme drawn, and the alterations of the
dimensions which the Committee had made, so as the same may be complete
both in mason and wright work, and in the doors, windows, roof, and other
parts thereof, against Martinmas, 1707, and to carry the work on as
followes, viz.: to build the first stories to the jests, in the first year
(the work being to be begun in May nixt), and to cover the roof of the
Council-house, and carry up the steeple as high the nixt year, and to
complete the steeple, and all the other work, and ridd the ground betwixt
and Martinmas, 1707 years, and then to deliver the keys, at that term, to
the toun; and that for the sum of nineteen thousand merks Scots, with a
complement to his wife, and another to himself, by and attour five hundred
merks, which he refers to the toun's will, whither they will give it to
him at perfecting the work or not." [Steeple Committee's Minutes.] All the
terms having been duly settled and signed, the foundation-stone of the
steeple buildings was laid on the 30th of May; and Mr. Bachup having
brought a large body of masons from a distance, and vanquished all
remaining obstacles as to the supply of materials, lie finished his
undertaking at the appointed time, and to the satisfaction of his
employers.
It was at first intended
that the stair at the south end of the Council-house should be fenced with
a stone wall; but, instead of that, it was supplied with a rail of
wrought-iron (forged by an Edinburgh artificer), the existing remains of
which prove it to have been a magnificent piece of workmanship.
In order that the lieges
might be duly apprised of the time of day, a clock for the spire was
commissioned from Mr. John Bancroft, Stockport, which cost £21 sterling,
the four dial plates for the same having been painted by Mr. John Chandley,
Cheedle, at an expense of £11; these sums being exclusive of the personal
charges incurred by the contractors in visiting the town. Then, by way of
furnishing a voice to the Burgh in seasons of festivity and triumph, and
to announce the time for church-going, three bells were cast for the
steeple by Mr. George Barclay of Edinburgh: one eight hundred pounds
weight, another of five hundred pounds, and the third of three hundred
pounds; the whole costing £1,698 14s. 6d. Scots, including the expense of
"tagging, tongueing, transporting, and hanging of the said three bells."
[lbid]
When all these items are
taken into account, it appears very obvious that the cost of the Tron
Steeple (as it was first called), the Council Chamber, and the rest of the
buildings, with their furnishings, would much more than exhaust the
original fund of 20,000 merks; and the probability is that the entire
expense was not less than £1,500 sterling.
To Inigo Jones the credit
of designing the Mid-Steeple is usually attributed ; but that, it now
appears, must be shared between Mr. John Moffat and Mr. Tobias Bachup, the
former having supplied the first sketch, the latter modifying it less or
more before translating it into stone, lime, and timber. That Bachup had
much more to do with the building than masonwork and superintendence, is
evident from the terms in which he is spoken of by the Committee; these
being, "Mr. Tobias Bachup, our architect," "builder and architect of the
fabric and desyned steeple," " architect and builder of the steeple and
Council-house." [We have been favoured by an Alloa gentleman with the
following note: It It appears that the architect's father, Thomas Bachup,
was mason to the Earl of Mar in the end of the seventeenth century. John
Crawford, our local antiquary, has a curious document in his possession, a
contract between John, Earl of Mar, and Thomas Bachup, 'masone in Alloway,
for building a new arch at the Bridge of Tullibody, mending the pier and
the calsie,' 18th January, 1697. The deed is signed by Tobias Bachup as a
witness. There is an old house in Kirkgate here, which was built by
Tobias. it has a sculptured stone on the front dated 1695, with the
initials of himself and wife, ' T. B.' and 'M. L.' His wife, to whom he
was married in 1684, was named Margaret Lindsay."]
Some other works of
considerable importance were carried on contemporaneously with the
steeple. When the century commenced the banks and braes on both sides of
the river appeared very much as Nature had formed them. In Bridgend there
was not a house further down than the one belonging to James Birkmyre ;
there were no mills nor road in that direction, the only regular roads
from the village being those leading to the parish church of Troqueer,
Terregles House, and Lincluden College. Dumfries terminated a little below
St. Michael's Church; and, save the excavations at the Castledykes quarry,
and the road which swept round the west of Lochar Moss to England, there
were few traces of man's handiwork in the southern vicinity of the Burgh.
The Dock, the lands of Castledykes and Kingholm, all lay in pasture-their
virgin soil unpierced by plough or spade, and unprovided with either road
or fence. A portion of Castledykes, at the period to which we refer, was
private property, but it having been acquired by the Burgh about 1707, a
road was constructed from the foot of St. Michael Street to Kingholm, for
the special use of carters doing business at the quarry or with the
shipping; and at the same time an enclosure was formed on the east and
south sides of the Burgh roods, the river itself being deemed a sufficient
boundary on the west. A farther innovation was made when, in 1712,
forty-two acres of Kingholm grass were converted by the plough into arable
land, the same being let to John M'Nish, deacon of the weavers, for three
years, at rather more than 10s. sterling an acre yearly. Two horses and
eight oxen bought by the Council for this "clod-compelling " duty were
resold - one horse for £3, the other for £3 10s., the cattle for £2 10s,
each. More than double this rent was obtained in 1749, when the enclosed
land at Kingholm was let on a nineteen years' lease. In the same year, the
braes, of Castledykes were also let for nineteen years to one Robert
Anderson, gardener. He became bound by the conditions of his tack to turn
one half of the ground into a garden, the other half into an orchard, and
to enclose the whole with a feal dyke and ditch at his own expense. As the
ground was just about an acre in extent, it must have been reckoned of
good quality, since the stipulated annual rent was £1 5s. sterling, a high
rate for land at the period in question.
The Dock and "land
belonging thereto and inclosed therewith," was let on a seven years'
lease, at £23 sterling annually, in 1756. Their appearance then, so
different from what it now is, is partly indicated by the articles of the
lease. The tacksman was required to apply a sufficiency of manure or sea-sleitch
to the high ground, to free it from brambles and thistles; to lay it down
with bere or barley; to sow it with white clover and rye-grass during the
fifth year of his lease, or soon after; to abstain from ploughing up the
ground afterwards, and to keep all the dykes and ditches in good repair:
the magistrates reserving to themselves the right of improving the bank of
the Dock next the water, by sloping and planting it with willows; to keep
clean the sewer from the pound-fold along the back of the Dock into the
water, and reserving also a passage from the houses at Cats'-Strand to the
river, for the use of the tenants.
When Dumfries was still but
a very insignificant place, it possessed a grain mill, that being an
indispensable adjunct of all towns great and small in ancient times. We
read of Stakeford Mill, opposite the Castle, on the Galloway side, which
belonged to the barony of Drumsleet; of a mill on the Upper Sandbeds; of
two horse-mills in the same locality; and of a mill south of the Burgh,
the water motive power of which gave its name to the property of
Milldamhead. From 1685 till 1707, the main dependence of the Burgh seems
to have been on the horse-mills ; but these having gone out of gear, the
Council were led, in the following way, to erect others on quite a new
site. For the purpose of correcting the tendency of the Nith to encroach
on the Dumfries side, a small supplementary bed was cut in the opposite
bank, through which a large flow of water was diverted. Thus a division
was made in the river, a little below the bridge; one stream, the main
one, continuing with an eastward bias to pursue nearly the old path, and
the other narrow one passing over the newly formed channel for a hundred
yards or more, and then mingling with the larger body.
As by this operation a
water-course suitable for a mill was incidentally supplied, the Council,
with the consent of a public meeting of the community, held on the 2nd of
March, 1705, resolved to utilize it for that purpose. Accordingly, a
contract was signed with Mr. Mathew Frew, who agreed, for three thousand
merks and an adequate supply of stone, to build, " on the other syde of
the water, ane sufficient miln, capable of grinding malt, meall; flour,
and all other sorts of grain, with a sufficient caul and other pertinents."
Ground for a road through the fields, or rather brae-side, lying between
the bridge and the new building, was purchased by the Council; and in a
short time kilns were erected, and a few dwelling-houses for millers and
others sprang up in the neighbourhood-Bridgend thus obtaining an addition
to its size, and new elements of progress, from which it received a
lasting benefit. On the 27th of October, 1707, the new water-mill was let,
in a completed form, for the first time, alongst with the existing one at
Mill-hole, and two smaller branches of revenue, the whole bringing a rent
of two thousand four hundred and fifty merks. A barley mill and a wheat
mill were afterwards added, the latter in 1742. Such is the origin of the
town mills, which, three in number, still yield a considerable amount of
revenue to the Burgh-the rent in 1865-6 being £300, with an addition of
£35 for a waukmill, built some time prior to 1790, and £19 for granaries.
[A return, prepared by the Town Chamberlain, Mr. James H. M`Gowan, of the
rents and profits of the mills and granaries, and the cost of maintaining
the same and the caul for twenty years, ending 15th September, 1866, shows
the following results:-A total annual revenue, varying from £343 11s.,
which it was in 1848-9 (the year of the second cholera visitation) to £499
3s., which it was in 1859-60; and a net yearly profit, rising from £119
11s. 1d., to £446 13s. 4d. An explanatory note is appended in these
terms:- In addition to the mills and granaries, the [contiguous] property
at Williesdale, belonging to the Burgh, includes the Millgreen, with the
house thereon, and three gardens, the rents of which are not included in
the above return. The public burdens cannot be easily divided, and the
amount given above (an annual average of £35), is chargeable on the whole
property. I estimate the proportion of those chargeable on the Millgreen
and gardens at £4, which being added to the surplus each year, will make
the total profits on the mills, granaries, and ca A, during the last
twenty years, £6,000 or an average of £300 per annum." All these sums are,
of course, in English money.]
The construction of the
caul was opposed by Mr. Maxwell of Carnsalloch, and other fishery
proprietors in the higher reaches of the Nith; they contending that it
would prevent salmon from running up the river as formerly, and that it
was clearly at variance with the existing law regarding cruives and
similar obstructions. These objections were pleaded without effect in the
Supreme Court. It was represented on the part of the magistrates that the
town had formerly a mill a little above the bridge, the dam for which was
on the opposite or Galloway side, and so easily sanded up, that it was of
little service; wherefore the magistrates, taking advantage of the cutting
already referred to, built a new mill on the Galloway side, and placed the
dam dyke in such a position that it could not be sanded up by floods.
This, it was argued, the magistrates had a perfect right to do. They were
heritors on both sides of the river; the alveus of the water was therefore
their property, though others claimed the fishing: and they could not be
stopped from building their own dam dyke through their own water, upon the
pretext of the erection being prejudicial to those who claimed the
fishings above. The pleas-in-law for the town were: (1) Because mill-dam
dykes are no prejudice to fishes going over, they being "not a foot and a
half above the ebbest water." (2) The water being theirs, they may build
as they please, though some accidental prejudice to a neighbour may arise;
such as the building of a house may stop a neighbour's lights, and yet
will not hinder the building. And (3) in the present case, the town had
the like dam dyke formerly, and this shall be of the same height; and as
the former dyke had a mid-stream open nightly by the space of six foot, so
shall this, though no law requires the same, that being only in cruives
and wears, which are of a huge height and thickness. And the town does not
understand what argument can be brought from cruives and wears applicable
to the mill-dam dyke, wherein there is no cruive made nor designed, nor
any novum, opus, but only the former, which was failing, renewed, and with
a greater ease to the fishing." It was urged, on behalf of the town, also,
that the caul being pitched in much deeper water than the former dyke, and
having a mid-sluice kept open nightly, shoals of fish would pass through
with the utmost freedom.
A curious supplementary
statement was made, as follows: "The great drought which hinders the going
of burn-mills, and the stop put to the building of this mill, puts the
town and inhabitants to a great hardship for want of the grinding of meal
and malt; and besides this, Dr. Johnston having doled to the poor of the
town 600 lib. sterl., which poor are infeft in thir milns for payment of
their annual rent, which, if stopped, their provision fails, and the town
must sustain the burden of them, which they cannot otherwise defray, and
the inhabitants above measure straitned through their not getting their
corn and malt grinded, they being thirled to the miln; and besides, there
is no going miln near to the town, they being all standing by reason of
the drought."
The objectors failed to do
more than stop the works for a short time; and when they were all finished
they gave a picturesqueness to the river which it did not formerly
possess. ["The Caul," says a writer in the Dumfriesshire Monthly Magazine,
"is generally recollected very forcibly by the wandering natives of our
good town, and often forms an important subject of conversation when two
or three of them chance to meet. Perhaps an infusion of our national
predilection for the romantic in sound as well as show may mingle with the
home-recollections of the Dumfriesian. We remember meeting, in a little
town near London, with a woman 'bred and born in the Back-barnraws,' who,
after some general conversation about Dumfries, turned of a sudden to the
Caul. `I never sit doun by mysel',' said she, 'especially o' an afternoon,
when the bairns are out, but I hear the sough o' the Caul as plain in my
ears as when I was bleachin' claes on the island."'] It used to flow
rather tamely past the town; but now, partially separated, a verdant
peninsula-the Mill-green-rising up between the divisions, and a miniature
cascade formed by the Caul crossing it angularly below the venerable
bridge, it presents a view that is ever varying and never otherwise than
attractive ; and the sound of the broken water, whether murmuring softly
or swelled to tempest-pitch, is like music in the ear of all the genuine
sons and daughters of St. Michael.
The papers from which we
have quoted bring out a fact which must be new to most of our readers,
that the Sandbeds mill was kept in motion by means of a caul erected above
Devorgilla's bridge. There is a prevailing belief in Dumfries that the
town mills, prior to the erection of those built on the opposite bank,
stood below the bridge, near the head of the Whitesands; but in the
preceding pleas put forth for the Burgh (a copy of which lies before us in
a printed form), the explicit statement is made that the town of Dumfries
had "formerly a miln a little above their bridge, whereof the dam dyke or
water-caul was upon the other side;" and we have been unable to find in
any document the faintest trace of a mill having ever existed below the
old bridge on the Dumfries side. [In the action that arose out of the
erection of the mills and caul, it was stated that "the stoups for the dam
dyke were fixed in an rock that goes throw the water, being the very same
rock whereupon the bridge is founded;" but for all that it has on at least
four occasions been partially swept away, as if it had been built upon
sand. An account of the first catastrophe of this kind, and how it was
dealt with, is given in the subjoined Council minutes. 24th December,
1742.-" The magistrats and Council finding that there is a great breach in
the caall of the miln-dam, in the Water of Nith, and that it will be
necessary to have the same repaired as soon as possible, they appoint a
committee of the magistrats, dean, and treasurer," with others, "to
provide materials and employ workmen to repair and make up the said
breach." 27th December, 1742. The magistrates, in name of the committee,
report "that they had viewed the breach, and had considered several
proposals for repairing thereof ; and, as the most probable, had taken in
a proposal from John Baxter, wright, whereby he proposes to take up all
the stones washen off from the caall that can be recovered, and to make up
the said breach lately made therein by the frost and ice sufficiently, so
as to continue in good order till Lambas next ; and to make and put in a
sufficient frame of timber, fourteen foot long, for the gullet door to
open and shutt upon, within fourteen days after this day inclusive, for
ten pounds sterling-the town furnishing and laying down on the Sands what
more stones shall be needful from the quarry, and furnishing timber for
the frame: which being considered by the Council," they unanimously
accepted the proposal. In 1800, in 132Q and lastly on the morning of the
24th of January, 1867, portions of the Caul gave way; the destructive
agent having been each time the same, namely, huge masses of ice pressing
against the dyke after being loosened by a thaw.]
During the period in which
these public works were being constructed, the Commissioners appointed by
England and Scotland to frame a treaty of incorporation between the
countries, were holding their deliberations; and the object of them was
viewed with dislike by many persons in Dumfries, as well as by the people
of North Britain generally. Queen Anne, who succeeded to the throne on the
death of William in 1702, appointed James, second Duke of Queensberry, [
This distinguished nobleman
was born in 1662 at Sanquhar Castle, which, with the barony of Sanquhar,
was purchased from the Crichtons by Sir W. Douglas of Drumlanrig in 1630.
For his services in carrying the Union movement to a successful issue he
received a pension of £3,000. a year, the entire patronage of Scotland was
conferred upon him, and he was created a British peer, with the title of
Duke of Dover, Marquis of Beverley, and Earl of Ripon. The Duke died in
his forty-ninth year, just four years after he had realized the great
object of his ambition. His wife, Mary, fourth daughter of Charles Boyle,
Lord Clifford, predeceased him in 1709. They were buried in the family
vault in Durisdeer churchyard, and a magnificent mausoleum, containing
marble figures of the deceased, was raised over their remains. The
contents of the vault, when examined in 1836, were, in addition to the
dust of the Duke and Duchess, that of Isabella Douglas, wife of William,
the first Duke; that of Lord George Douglas, son of the latter nobleman;
of Charles, the third Duke; of his wife, Catherine Hyde, daughter of
Henry, Earl of Clarendon, celebrated for her beauty and wit by Pope and
Swift, and who was the bountiful patroness of Gay, who said of her,
"Yonder I see the cheerful
Duchess stand,
For friendship, zeal, and blithesome humours known;"
of Charles, Earl of
Drumlanrig, younger son of the third Duke ; of Elizabeth Hope, Dowager
Countess of Drumlanrig; of Henry, Lord Drumlanrig; and of Elizabeth,
daughter of the Union Duke. All these remains are in lead coffins. There
is one also in which the bones of the early chiefs of the house are stated
to have been placed; and there are also several other coffins without any
inscriptions to indicate their contents.] the leading nobleman in
Dumfriesshire, to be her High Commissioner in Scotland for promoting the
Union; but all his influence in the County and its chief town failed to
make them pronounce on its behalf.
The Presbyterian ministers
there, and generally, were afraid that the Union would be the means of
advancing Prelacy, if not of endangering the very existence of the
Established Church; and on patriotic as well as religious grounds it was
vehemently opposed by a majority of the nation. On the 3rd of October,
1706, the Scottish Parliament sat down to discuss the articles of the
projected Union, as previously agreed to in London; and the General
Assembly as representing the Church, and the Convention of Royal Burghs in
name of the general community, sent in petitions against the measure-the
petition in the latter case having been carried by a large majority, with
whom voted the Burgh's Commissioner. The representative of the Presbytery
in the Supreme Ecclesiastical Court took a similar course, as instructed
to this effect:- "That in a calm and regular way ye move that the
Commission [of Assembly] use what method they think fit for them in the
capacity of Church judicature, for the preventing the passing of that
article of the giving up of our Parliament: That ye do nothing in the
Commission that may be accounted a compliance with the passing such an
Act. If any such thing be likely to be conducted by the Commission that
may be accounted such a compliance, or any other way endanger the present
Church Establishment to the claim of right, and all Acts of Parliament
made thereanent, ye shall in our name protest against it."
These instructions were
given by the Presbytery on the 29th of October; and on the 20th of next
month a more emphatic testimony on behalf of the independence of the
nation was uttered at the Market Cross of the Burgh. The demonstration
originated with the followers of Cameron, the remnant of the extreme
Covenanting party, the successors of those who, in the same month exactly
forty years before, captured the persecutor Turner, and celebrated their
triumph over him at the Cross. [After the Revolution, the party was
divided; a portion rendering substantial services to Government; others,
like Sir R. Hamilton, maintaining a kind of passive resistance.] Matters
were moving quietly within the town. There was a powerful feeling of
discontent against the incorporating alliance with England ; but it had
not been openly, or at all events violently, expressed. The merchants were
selling their wares as usual, the workmen following their ordinary
avocations ; and whilst the masons of Mr. Bachup were busy at the bartizan
of the Mid-Steeple, they would, from their elevated position, be among the
first to notice the incoming, at twelve o'clock, of a somewhat tumultuous
crowd, including a force of nearly three hundred armed men. The latter had
assembled in the neighbourhood of the town to arrange their mode of
procedure; and as they entered within its precincts, numbers of the
populace, aware of their object, joined heartily in the movement. Near
noonday this formidable band-made up partly of resolute, high-minded,
well-organized men, and partly of the Burgh mob appeared menacingly in
High Street, and, making their way to the Cross unopposed by the
authorities, many of whom sympathized with them, they in a calm deliberate
manner proceeded with their work; and so exciting was it, that every other
sort of work was abandoned in the town, even the great enterprise of the
Steeple making no further progress on that eventful day.
"We must have a fire
kindled!" said the leaders; and forthwith plenty of materials were
supplied-the workmen at the adjoining building contributing, we may be
sure, odd bits of the Gailieswood timber to swell the rising blaze. In
order to foreclose any attempt at interruption, a double guard of horse
and foot was placed in martial order round the anti-Union ring, outside of
which stood the applauding populace. As the flames rose bright and high
from - shall we say? - the altar of the Market Cross, one of the men
stepped forward-the officiating priest of the ceremony-and, producing a
copy of the detested Articles of the Union, announced to all present that
he was about to commit them to the devouring element, in token that the
measure to which they referred merited destruction. The paper was
accordingly tossed into the angry fire, all the people by their
acclamations saying Amen' to the deed, and cheering to the echo when the
charred document was exhibited for a moment on the point of a pike and
returned to the flames. Scarcely had it been consumed, when another leader
of the party, holding up a roll, intimated that there were inscribed on it
the names of those Commissioners who, by signing the Treaty, had sold
their country; " and thus," added he, throwing it amongst the ashes of the
other document, " may all the traitors perish!" Something still remained
to be done, in order to make the demonstration complete; and this was the
uttering of a declaration explaining and vindicating the conduct of the
party. It was boldly and eloquently drawn. After a recital of some of the
evils supposed to be involved in the measure, the protesters against it
went on to say:- "But if the subscribers of the foresaid Treaty and Union,
with their associates in Parliament, shall presume to carry on the said
Union by a supream power, over the belly of the generality of this nation,
then and in that case, as we judge that the consent of the generality of
the same can only divest them of their sacred and civil liberties,
purchased Ad maintained by our ancestors with their blood, so we protest,
what ever ratification of the foresaid Union may pass in Parliament,
contrar to our fundamental laws, liberties, and privileges concerning
Church and State, may not be binding upon the nation, now nor at any time
to come: And particularly we protest against the approbation of the first
article of the said Union, before the privileges of this nation, contained
in the other articles, had been adjusted and secured; and so we earnestly
require that the representatives in Parliament, who are for our nation's
privileges, would give timeous warning to all the corners of the kingdom,
that we and our posterity become not tributary and bond-slaves to our
neighbours, without acquitting ourselves as becomes men and Christians;
and we are confident that the soldiers now in martial power have so much
of the spirits of Scotsmen that they are not ambitious to be disposed of
at the pleasure of another nation." [A broadsheet printed copy of this
spirited protest lies before us, with which we were favoured by Mr. David
Laing, and which bears intrinsic evidence of having been printed at the
time. It is headed thus:-" An Account of the Burning of the Articles of
the Union at Dumfries. These are to notify to all concerned what are our
reasons for and designs in the burning of the printed articles of the
proposed Union with England, with the names of the Scots Commissioners
subscribers thereof ; together with the minuts of the whole treaty betwixt
them and the English Commissioners thereanent." A note at the end says:-
"A copy hereof was left affixed on the Cross, as the testimony of the
South part of this nation against the proposed Union as moulded in the
printed articles thereof. This we desire to be printed and kept in record
ad futuram rei memoriam."]
The originators of the
movement having in this way fulfilled their mission, withdrew, and soon
disappeared. They came mysteriously, unexpectedly; and till this day the
names of even the leaders among them remain unknown. Highly exaggerated
accounts of their doings reached Edinburgh. It was reported there that
5,000 armed men had entered Dumfries; that 7,000 others had assembled on
the neighbouring hills to support them; and that unless strong measures
were promptly taken, there might soon be a dangerous anti-Union outbreak
in the south of Scotland. The subject was brought before Parliament by the
Duke of Queensberry on the 29th of November, in connection with other
disturbances of a similar kind. His Grace, according to the minutes of the
sederunt, stated that the Secret Council, at their last meeting, had under
their consideration several accounts of irregular and tumultuary meetings,
by some people of the common and meanest degree, in arms, and of abuses
committed by them at Glasgow, Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, and Dumfries,
and several places of Lanarkshire; and that there were papers dropt,
inviting people to take up arms, and to provide ammunition and provisions,
in order to their marching to disturb the Parliament : all which he was
directed by the Right Honourable the Lords of her Majesty's Secret Council
to lay before the Parliament, to the effect proper methods might be
resolved for preventing the evil consequences of such practices. [Defoe's
History of the Union, p. 98. ] His Grace then presented a letter from the
magistrates of Dumfries to her Majesty's advocate, " bearing an account of
the abuses and tumultuary meetings in that place, with a declaration
emitted by those who met, which was affixt on the mercat cross of
Dumfries:' both of which were read. Whereupon a draft of a proclamation to
be emitted by the Parliament, "against all tumultuary and irregular
meetings and convocations of the lieges," was presented and read; and
after some discussion, it was objected "that it did not appear that there
was a particular information of any tumultuary meetings or irregular
convocations in any other part of the shire of Lanark than at Glasgow."
Her Majesty's High Commissioner was thereupon pleased to notify " that he
had information not only from Glasgow and Dumfries, but also from several
places in Lanarkshire, of tumultuary and irregular meetings of men under
arms, and of their giving out and publishing their design of marching to
disturb the Parliament." Eventually, the draft of the proclamation, on
being verbally amended, was carried by a majority. [Ibid., p. 99; and Acts
of Scot. Parl., vol xi., p. 343.]
Defoe, commenting upon this
minute, says:-"It is observable that even in the House there appeared some
who were very loth to have these rabbles discouraged and discountenanced;
and though I could give more particular instances of it, yet this of
objecting against the certainty of the accounts is a clear proof of it:
whereas the matter of fact was that the Lord Commissioner had real and
direct information of this affair of Dumfries, and of- private emissaries
gone abroad to excite the people to take arms; and the respective meetings
of these agents or emissaries in the county of Lanark, and elsewhere, are
more than sufficient to justify the precautions mentioned in the minute."
[Defoe's History of the Union, p. 384.]
The proclamation thus
passed by Parliament was issued in name of the Queen. The various statutes
against the raising of tumults and the holding of disorderly meetings
having been recited in the preamble, her Majesty proceeded to say:- "Yet,
nevertheless, We and our Estates of Parliament are certainly informed that
in several corners of the realm, and particularly in our burgh of Glasgow,
and other places within the sheriffdom of Lanark, and in our Burgh of
Dumfries, and other places adjacent, people have presumed, in manifest
contempt of the foresaid laws, to assemble themselves in open defiance of
our Government, and with manifest design to overturn the same, by
insulting the magistrates, attacking and assaulting the houses of our
peaceable subjects, continuing openly in arms, and marching in formed
bodies through the country, and into our burghs, and insolently burning,
in the face of the sun and presence of the magistrates, the articles of
treaty betwixt our two kingdoms, entered into by the authority of
Parliament; and such crimes and insolencies being no ways to be tolerated
in any well governed nation, but, on the contrary, ought to be condignly
punished conform to the laws above mentioned." Orders are then given in
the proclamation to all persons so assembling to disperse; and
certification is made that all who should henceforth "be guilty, actors,
abettors or assistants, in convocating or assembling in arms, or those who
shall convocate and commit these practices above-mentioned, shall be
treated and pursued as open traitors." "Finally, our Lyon King-at-arms,"
and his brother heralds, with the sheriffs of counties, were charged to
pass "to the mercat-cross of Edinburgh, and the mercat-crosses of
Dumfries, Lanark, and Glasgow, and other places needful, and there make
publication hereof, by open proclamation of the premises, that none
pretend ignorance."
This document reflects, as
in a mirror, the alarm created by exaggerated reports of the anti-Union
movements. No wonder that a powerful minority in Parliament opposed its
adoption; misrepresenting, as it does, the design of the protesters, and
accusing them of attacking private property, as if they had been a band of
highwaymen, instead of being enthusiastic patriots, whose only error was
that they adopted a somewhat boisterous and tumultuous mode of discharging
what they believed to be a national and religious duty. Mr. Robert
Johnston of Kelton, Provost of Dumfries in 1692-3-4-6, who sat for the
Burgh in this Parliament, might have stated-and possibly did so-that the
men who entered the town on the 20th of November, and his constituents who
joined them, had no wish whatever to overturn the Throne, and that they
neither pillaged the peaceable inhabitants nor insulted the magistrates.
According to Defoe, the proclamation provoked the Glasgow populace, and
"made them more furious than before;" but "generally it had a very good
effect." The subject was again brought under the notice of Parliament on
the 30th of November, a printed paper having been then given in, entitled,
"An Account of the Burning of the Articles of Union at Dumfries," as "read
and affixt at the mercat-cross thereof, by the tumult assembled on that
occasion." It was then moved, "That inquiry shall be made who has been the
printer and ingiver of the said scurrilous paper, and that the print be
burnt by the hand of the hangman." [Acts of Scot. Parl., vol. xi., p.
344.] This motion was carried, and, in accordance with it, the
Uniondenouncing manifesto was publicly burned at the Market Cross of
Edinburgh; but the daring printer of the document-luckily for him-managed
to elude the vigilance of the Government.
The opposers of the Union
out of doors were represented by a resolute minority in Parliament, led by
the Duke of Athole and Lord Belhaven; and when a motion was brought
forward affirming the principle of the measure, it was, after much
opposition, carried by a majority of thirty-three votes. It need scarcely
be explained that, in this the last Scottish Parliament, Lords and Commons
deliberated as usual together; so that by one testing division the opinion
of both Estates was at any time readily ascertained. On this occasion
there voted for the Union forty-six lords, including the Duke of
Queensberry, the Earls of Galloway and Stair; thirty-seven barons,
including William Maxwell of Cardoness; and thirty-three burgh members.
Twenty-one lords, among whom were the Marquis of Annandale and the Earls
of Wigtown and Selkirk, voted on the other side; also, thirty-three
barons, including Alexander Fergusson of Isle, and John Sharpe of Hoddam,
and twenty-nine burgesses, of whom Provost Johnston of Dumfries was one.
When the die was cast, and turned up in favour of the measure, the Duke of
Athole tabled a spirited protest against it, which was signed by the
minority. The constitutional opposition given by Lords and Commoners, and
the tumultuous displays which manifested the feelings of the populace,
proved equally unavailing to stay the progress of the measure. Its passage
through the House, too, was facilitated by bribery; several peers and
burgesses, who stoutly opposed it at first, having been bought over or
silenced by English gold. Provost Johnston was not one of these recreants
: what influence he possessed was given against the Act all along; and, in
accordance with his wish, it was inscribed on his tombstone that, as the
Parliamentary representative of Dumfries, he asserted the liberties of
Scotland and opposed the Union:- "Scoticae libertatis assertor, Unioni
fortiter opposuit." [The monument is in St. Michael's churchyard. It is of
a tabular form, with an upright slab or headpiece (the latter
comparatively modern) screwed oil to it.]
It was probably by a local
press that the proclamation published at the Cross against that measure
was printed. We know that, at all events, a few years later, a "History of
the Rebellion of 1715" was printed at Dumfries by Robert Rae; the book, a
small quarto, forming a very good specimen of the typography of the
period. There was no newspaper in Scotland till the Caledonian Mercury
started, in 1660; and previously to that date letters containing the
current news and town gossip of the day were written in Edinburgh, copies
of them finding their way to the leading provincial towns, and thus
keeping their inhabitants conversant with public affairs. So early as 1696
the people of Dumfries enjoyed the luxury of a newspaper; but then it was
only at the rate of one copy weekly, which the Town Council with laudable
enterprise commissioned for the edification of the lieges, the cost of
each tiny sheet being no less than 4s. 21d. sterling. In the year above
named, a complaint was made to the authorities that the weekly news-letter
received from Edinburgh was frequently borrowed by neighbouring gentlemen,
so that those for whom it was purchased lost the use of it; whereupon the
Council ordered that " it should not be sent abroad out of the town, in
all tyme coming," but that the same was "to ly in the clerk's office,
there to be keeped by him for the use and benefite of this burgh;" it
being, however, politely intimated that if any country gentlemen desired
to take duplicates of the letters, they were to be allowed to do so. Some
years later the Council acquired a news-room or coffee-house of their
own-in the same building, we understand, that is similarly occupied at the
present time. The range of which this edifice formed a part, was planted
down on the east side of High Street, encroaching upon it just as the
Mid-Steeple, farther up, encroached upon the west side. The ground floors
of the newsroom, which are now occupied as shops, were at one time used as
an Exchange, having been built with open piazzas for that purpose.
[Manuscript Guide to Dumfries, by the late Mr. John Anderson, bookseller.
A well-written production, upon which we might have drawn more largely,
had not the MS. been unfortunately lost sight of, and only turned up when
it was too late to be made available by us to any great extent.] By 1755,
however, the Council, under the pressure of monetary difficulties, had
given up this news-room luxury. The house itself was sold by them to Mr.
George Lowthian (son of Prince Charles's landlord); and he was informed
that they had discontinued the newspapers, so that he might, if lie
thought fit, provide others for the room at his own charge.
Though the Union was viewed
with marked displeasure, it soon exercised a stimulating influence on the
commerce of Scotland; and of this benefit the port of Dumfries obtained
its due share. A large legitimate trade sprung up with the American
colonies, which, added to that already carried on with the north of
Europe, contributed much to the prosperity of the town. A considerable
addition was made to the officers of Excise and Customs; this being
needed, however, not simply for the regulation of the lawful traffic, but
to check smuggling, which, owing to the heavy duties imposed on various
articles, had become a flourishing occupation along the coast of the
Solway. The Custom-house officers of the port, with their regular quota of
tide-waiters and boatmen, numbered fifteen in 1710: too few for the duties
imposed upon them, as a large portion of the Galloway coast, including the
port of Kirkcudbright, was now under their care. At this time Dumfries
owned only two or three vessels; but the crafts engaged in the contraband
trade-yawls, luggers, and wherries - which the Government officers had to
cope with, were numerous, active, and defiant. The Isle of Man was their
chief home or place of rendezvous; tobacco, brandy, rum, and wine were
their principal cargo-to run which, under cover of night, or even in the
glare of day, into some familiar creek, for their expectant customers, was
their constant aim.
To purchase a truss of the
Virginian weed, or a keg of stimulating liquor, at a cheap rate, from
these adventurous Manxmen, was looked upon as a light offence by the
country people; nay, many of them were active partners in the business,
ready to reset or carry the cargo into the interior, and to withstand the
King's officers when the latter audaciously stepped in to seize the prize.
Collisions of this kind are frequently noticed in the reports sent by the
collector at Dumfries, M'Dowall of Logan, to his superiors in Edinburgh.
Writing on the 16th of April, 1711, he relates, that two small boats
having been seen hovering on the coast, all the officers were ordered to
be on the look-out; that tracks on the sands at Ruthwell led to a search
in that parish, resulting in the seizure of a secreted cask of brandy,
which the tide-waiters, five in number, were ordered to bring to the
Custom-house next morning; and that, when they were ready to set out with
it, upwards of a hundred women broke the doors and windows of the place
where it was kept, and carried off the liquor. "We humbly lay before your
honours," continues the collector, " the necessity of prosecuting such
abuses, as well for the security of the revenue as the protection of the
officers, who are so discouraged that they dare not, without the hazard of
their lives, go about their duty;" and he adds, that the Ruthwell folks
are " such friends to the running," that they will not, for any money,
give lodgings amongst them to a revenue officer. [Custom-house Records.]
A still more serious
smuggling affray occurred in the following month, a few miles further down
the coast. A waiter named Young, hearing of some suspicious circumstances,
hurried early in the morning to Glenhowan. There he learned from a
fisherman that a notorious native smuggler, Morrow of Hidwood, bad "come
home" from the Isle of Man. Accompanied by the parish constable, he
proceeded to Morrow's house, found in it a large pack, and two trusses of
leaf tobacco, and was just preparing to return with the precious spoil,
when a "multitude of women" pounced, vulture-like, upon the captors. The
wrathful amazons first dispossessed the constable of the pack which he
carried ; and whilst they were running away with it, Young, leaving the
trusses to the care of his companion, foolishly set off in pursuit. The
consequences may be readily guessed at. He might as well have sought to
make a troop of wolves give up their prey, as these Glenhowan termagants
surrender theirs. The bold, rash man of the revenue was soundly beaten by
them, and lodged as a captive in the smuggler's stronghold, Hidwood House,
till they had secured the whole of the tobacco ; after which, sore in mind
as well as in body, he was set at liberty. On reporting himself at
headquarters, he was sent back to the scene with a force of ten men. They
searched all the houses, fields, and gardens-discovered at length a pack
of tobacco in a dry ditch near "the town of Bankend" - were hieing
homewards with it, when, lo! another "monstrous regiment of women," armed
with clubs and pitchforks, waylaid the party. Young, thinking to terrify
his assailants, shouted out that they would be punished with the utmost
rigour for resisting the Queen's officers. "Punish us with those who
deforced you at Arbigland and Rival!" (Ruthwell), was the scornful reply.
After a smart conflict, the women were put to the rout, and the men
carried their capture to Dumfries without further disturbance. [Ibid.]
In the report of this
affair forwarded to Edinburgh, much emphasis was laid on the impunity with
which the law was defied, and its representatives maltreated; and an
urgent request was made for the prosecution of the offenders, and for a
troop of dragoons to assist the revenue officers in the execution of their
duty. Some of the women were tried at the Circuit Court of Justiciary in
Dumfries on a charge of rioting and deforcing the officers; but the
witnesses in the case intentionally neutralized their own testimony, by
professing to entertain malice against the prisoners, and so the latter
escaped punishment. [Custom-house Records.] Occasionally the Customs'
warehouses were broken into by marauding parties, and their contents
carried off. A gang of this kind, towards the close of 1711, assaulted the
officer in charge at Kirkcudbright and rifled his premises; another, about
the same time, effected an entrance into the warehouse at Dumfries by
means of false keys, and made away with five hundredweights of tobacco;
whilst, some years later, a crowd composed of smugglers and their friends
mobbed the magistrates and collector there, in order that they might
intercept four confiscated casks of brandy that had been forwarded from
Annan.
If the legal commerce in
tobacco and brandy bore any thing like a due proportion to the contraband
trade in these articles, the importations of them must have been immense.
The seizures alone might have gone far to supply the wants of the
district, unless our forefathers' propensities for smoking and drinking
were inordinate. We read of the collector getting hold of thirty-four
rolls of leaf tobacco and a rundlet of brandy in one house, and of a
hundredweight of the former commodity in another; of five hundredweights
rewarding the officer's search in a third locality; of five tuns of brandy
being pounced upon at Heston; of a hundred quarter-hogsheads of the same
liquor being seized in Balcary Bay, and of four big casks of it and twelve
hogsheads of wine being captured at Annan - such seizures as these being
matters of weekly occurrence, and strikingly illustrative of the extent to
which the "running" business was carried on.
Mr. Crosbie, Provost of
Dumfries, and one of its leading merchants, owned in 1712 a vessel named
the "James," which brought regular cargoes of tobacco from Virginia and
Maryland, and sometimes tar, timber, or other products from the Baltic;
and we find him in the summer of 1719 importing nearly 57,000
hundredweights of tobacco in another ship, the "Kirkconnell." There is
every reason to believe that about this latter period, and for long
afterwards, from 1,000 to 1,200 hundredweights of this, the great staple
of the Dumfries trade, paid duty in the port every year. The monthly
return of the Customs' revenue dated 21st November, 1717 - the earliest we
have been able to discover-amounts to £116 6s. 10d. on all articles. In
that year the staff of officers was composed of a collector, Walter
Murray, at an annual salary of £50; a deputy-collector, at £25; a
comptroller, at £40; a deputy-comptroller, at £20; a land surveyor, at
£40; a land waiter and searcher, at £25; an overseer of boatmen, at £30;
ten tidesmen and four boatmen, at £15 each: the whole numbering
twenty-one, and maintained at a yearly expense of £440. [Custom-house
Records.] |
