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COMMERCE OF THE
PORT-CUSTOM-HOUSE RETURNS-THE CATTLE, SHEEP, AND PIG TRADES OF THE
BURGH--HOSIERY-TANNING AND CURRYING-BASKETMAKING-HORTICULTURE AND THE
NURSERY TRADE-RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE TWEED MANUFACTURE - THE MAXWELLTOWN
IRON-WORKSBUSINESS OPERATIONS IN DUMFRIES.
TWELVE or thirteen vessels
were all that the port of Dumfries could boast of in 1790. Three of these
traded in foreign wines, or in timber and hides from the Baltic; the
others being employed as coasters, exporting grain and potatoes, and
bringing back lime, coal, and merchant goods. Forty years before that
time, Dr. Burnside tells us, "there was a considerable tobacco trade
carried on from Dumfries. At an average of four years, 1,250 hogsheads
were annually imported. It is alleged, however, that the exportation was
considerably greater; and that, in consequence of some unhappy mistakes of
this kind, the trade was discouraged. It has since entirely failed."
The first link in the
railway chain by which Dumfries is now united to the great centres of
business throughout the country, was formed by the opening of the Glasgow
and South-Western Company's line from the Burgh to Gretna, on the 22nd of
August, 1848: others were supplied when the whole of that railway was
completed to Glasgow, in September, 1850, when the Castle-Douglas and
Dumfries railway was opened, in November, 1859, and when the Burgh was
brought within the range of the Caledonian line by the opening of a branch
to Lockerbie, in September, 1863. These various railways have done much to
develop the trade of the Burgh and the district; but, as already noticed,
they have seriously reduced the traffic of the port.
In 1831, the Commissioners
of Tonnage had a revenue of nearly £1,100; in 1844, just before the rival
mode of transit began to take effect, the revenue had risen to £1,212; but
even then the trust was heavily indebted to the Bank of Scotland - the
expenditure including payments for debt and interest to the extent of
£1,356, and there being a deficit on the year of £144.
In the same year (1844) the tonnage dues
inwards were as follows:-1,233 tons register, foreign vessels, at 6d., £30
16s. 6d.; 27,473 tons, coasting vessels, at 2d., £228 18s. 10d.; 6,413 1/8
tons of goods, at 1s. 2d., £374 2s.; 13,928¾
tons of coals, at 6d., £348 4s. 4d.; 212 tons of lime, at 6d., £5 6s.
Outwards: 540 tons coasting vessels, at 2d., £4 10s.; 3,776½ tons of
goods, at 1s. 2d., £220 5s. 11d.; total revenue, £1,212 3s. 7d.
Twenty years afterwards, the revenue showed a
great depreciation. In 1864 the dues inwards were: 1,930 tons, foreign
vessels, at 6d., £48 5s. 2d.; 9,229 tons, coasting vessels, at 2d., £76
18s. 2d.; 2,925 tons of goods, foreign, at 8d., £97 10s. 2d.; 6,564 tons
of goods, coasting, at 8d., £218 16s. 7d.; 2,843 tons of coal, at 1d., £11
16s. 11d.; 346 tons of lime, at 1d., £1 18s. 10d. Outwards : 70 tons,
coasting vessels, at 2d., 11s. 8d.; 2,980 tons of goods at 8d., £99 6s.
9d.; total revenue, £554 14s. 3d.
In the year last ended (10th June, 1867), the
income of the Commissioners was set down as follows:-Inwards, 702 tons,
foreign vessels, at 6d., £17 11s.; 7,191 tons, coasting vessels, at 2d.,
£59 18s. 6d.; 148 tons of goods, foreign, at 8d., £4 19s.; 833 tons, at
10d. (the rate having been raised in August, 1866), £34 14s. 6d.; 567 tons
of goods, coasting, at 8d., £18 18s. 6d.; 4,859 tons, at 10d., £202 9s.
10d.; 282 tons of coals, at 1d., £1 3s. 6d., and 2,170 tons at 2d., £18
1s. 8d.; 198 tons lime, at 1d., 16s. 6d., and 577 tons at 2d., £4 16s. 2d.
Outwards: 111 tons register, foreign vessels, at 6d., £2 15s. 6d., and 276
tons at 2d., £2 6s.; 176 tons of goods, at 8d., £5 17s. 4d., and 1,702
tons at 10d., £70 18s. 5d.; 86 tons, foreign, at 10d., £3 11s. 8d.;
donation of Mr. Withal, for lengthening wall at Aird's Point, £25; total
revenue, £473 18s. 1d., or fully £738 less than in 1844, before the
railways came into operation.
The expenditure in 1866-7 was £480 4s. 2d.,
leaving a deficit of £6 6s. 1d.; but this is exclusive of the heavy
interest on the sum borrowed for the construction of the sea-dyke between
Glencaple Quay and Aird's Point, which, on account of the reduced
condition of the trust, was not paid this year.
From the Custom-house point of view, the port
of Dumfries stretches far beyond the jurisdiction of the Nith
Commissioners, extending as it does from the river Sark, the boundary
between Scotland and England, to the rivulet or offing of Kirk Andrews
Bay, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, and including, as creeks, Annan,
sixteen miles, Barlochan, seventeen miles, and Kirkcudbright, twenty-eight
miles distant from Dumfries.
In 1790 the vessels entered to the port
inwards in this extensive sense numbered 253, with a tonnage of 8,982, and
357 men; while 135 vessels, of 5,264 tonnage, with 357 men, entered
outwards. Before twenty years had elapsed, the trade of the port had
doubled in amount, as the following figures for 1809 will show:-Vessels
entered inwards, 493; tonnage, 18,985; men, 1,389. Outwards: 287 vessels,
12,090 tonnage, 802 men. As further illustrative of the progress of the
port, it may be mentioned that the annual average of five years, ending
with 1794, shows only 459 vessels, 15,718 tonnage, and 1,310 men; while
the average of the quinquennial period ending with 1809 exhibits 743
vessels, 29,427 tonnage, and 2,069 men. The returns issued for the year
ending the 31st of March, 1864, are as follows:- Number of vessels, 117;
tonnage, 13,139; vessels entered inwards, of which 19 were foreign,
tonnage, 795; outwards, of which 4 were foreign, tonnage, 314. The total
duties amounted to £5,970, made up thus:-On imports not warehoused, £296;
on warehoused goods brought from other ports, £5,664; miscellaneous, £20.
Since 1864, a considerable amount of traffic
has been withdrawn from the port by the recently-formed wet dock at
Silloth, on the Cumberland side of the Solway, where the freights are
lower than at Dumfries, and vessels are discharged afloat. Timber can be
landed at Silloth, and floated in rafts up the Nith, at much less expense
to the importers than if brought direct into the river; and sometimes, to
escape the heavy dues, they get their cargoes landed at Grantors, and
brought down to Dumfries overland by the Caledonian railway. The Dumfries
Custom-house returns for the year ended the 31st of March, 1867, give 99
vessels, with a tonnage of 12,714; 7 vessels (all British) entered
inwards, with a tonnage of 1,383; and 2 entered outwards (one foreign and
one British), tonnage, 353; duties, £6,991 9s. 7d. The revenue would
probably have exhibited a serious decrease, owing chiefly to the late
reduction of the tea-duty, had not the Government, since December, 1865,
allowed British spirits to be warehoused alongst with foreign spirits, and
thereby made the duties more productive. In round numbers, the revenue of
the Dumfries Custom-house may be set down at £7,000, and its annual
expenditure at £640.
Long before the Union, a considerable weekly cattle market was held on the
Lower Sandbeds, now the White-sands. It took place every Monday till 1659,
when, to prevent the desecration caused by the droving of cattle on the
preceding Sabbath day, the market, by Act of Parliament, was changed to
Wednesday. Taylor, the water-poet, who made a pedestrian journey through
Scotland in 1618, noticed numerous herds of cattle browsing in the
south-west of Dumfriesshire as he passed through it-in Annandale alone he
counted "eleven hundred neat, at as good grass as ever man did mow;" but,
as in 1655 the custom levied on live stock and merchandise at the bridge
amounted to only £573 6s. 8d. Scots, [Town Council Minutes.] it is clear
that at that early date the cattle sent to the market from its chief
source of supply, Galloway, must have been few in number-small as compared
with the 30,000 beeves exposed annually for sale on the Sands in our own
day. The yearly Rood-fair for horses, in September, is also of remote
origin, it having been long in existence when James VI., by a charter
dated the 30th of November, 1592, granted two other annual fairs to the
town, one at Candlemas, the other early in July, the latter of which had
gone into disuse previous to 1790.
The growing importance of the cattle-rearing
trade of Galloway, was in 1697 marked by a demand for a road whereby the
stock might be driven to the English markets. In June of that year the
matter came before the Privy Council. "It was represented that while there
was a customary way between the burgh of New Galloway and Dumfries, there
was no defined or made road. It was the line of passage taken by immense
herds of cattle which were continually passing from the green pastures of
the Galloway hills into England-a branch of economy held to be the main
support of the inhabitants of the district, and the grand source of its
rents. Droves of cattle are, however, apt to be troublesome to the owners
and tenants of the grounds through or near which they pass; and such was
the case here." [Chambers's Domestic Annals.] "Several debates," the
Council record says, "have happened of late in the passage of droves from
New Galloway to Dumfries, the country people endeavouring by violence to
stop the droves, and impose illegal exactions of money upon the cattle, to
the great damage of the trade; whereby also riots and bloodsheds have been
occasioned, which had gone greater length if those who were employed to
carry up the cattle had not managed with great moderation and prudence."
On a petition from the great landlords of the district-James, Earl of
Galloway; Lord Basil Hamilton; Alexander, Viscount of Kenmure; John,
Viscount of Stair; Sir Andrew Agnew of Lochnaw, and othersa commission was
appointed by the Privy Council, "to make and mark a highway for droves
frae New Galloway to Dumfries, holding the high and accustomed travelling
way betwixt the said two burghs."
When the Border wars ceased, and cattle were
no longer obtained by "lifting," a great impetus was given to the
legitimate traffic, which was further stimulated by the Union with
England. Soon after that event, the droving trade to the South rapidly
progressed, till it became the spring of much wealth to the entire
district. It was speedily felt that the demand was unfailing. The breeders
of Galloway stock in their native district could not send too many of them
to the Sands. A few scores per week were readily absorbed - the Southern
appetite, whetted by the sweetness of the prime Scots beef, still cried
for more; and before the current century was far advanced, some 15,000
head of heavy cattle were annually exported from Dumfriesshire and
Galloway for the English market, most of which changed ownership on the
Dumfries Sands. [Pennant, who visited Dumfries in 1772, says:- "The great
weekly markets for black cattle are of much advantage to the place; and
vast droves from Galloway and the shire of Air pass through on the way to
the fairs of Norfolk and Suffolk." - Tour, vol. ii., p. 101.] Thirty years
ago the number had risen to 20,000; their value, on an average of years,
being not less than £200,000.
The true Galloway is a hardy, well-shaped,
profitable beast : the body long, deep, and round; the back straight and
broad; the leg short and thick; the foot large; its coat of hair shaggy
and black; while the circumstance of its being hornless renders it
increasingly valuable. Its native fields are in many instances so
sheltered as to favour the health of the animal, and the fine meat it
yields-doubtless owing in some degree to the quality of the herbage it
browses upon, which is rich and sweet, even when scanty. The cattle of
this breed driven to the Sands are chiefly two and three years old. On
being bought for the London and other English markets, they lay on
additional layers of fat in the nourishing pastures of Norfolk before
being sent to the shambles. Though the dusky Galloways have long figured
most prominently at the Dumfries market, other breeds, making up about a
third of the whole, are well represented; especially the picturesque West
Highlanders, which Landseer and Rosa Bonheur like so well to paint, and
large herds of which are wintered in Galloway; the "milky mothers" of the
Ayrshire race; and a sort of mongrel short-horned breed from Ulster,
inferior to the real Irish short-horns, few of which find their way to
Dumfries. When
railways were introduced into the district, the beasts, no longer
tediously driven along dusty roads, were sent southward by truck-a change
which operated beneficially on the Dumfries market; till, by the opening
of the Castle-Douglas railway, in 1859, facilities were afforded for
despatching Galloways direct, without first sending them to the old
central emporium, the White-sands. The business of the market was also
much changed when, in 1858, at a mart in the immediate vicinity, Mr.
Andrew Stewart originated a weekly sale of live stock by auction - an
example which has been extensively followed in many other towns. The palmy
period of the Dumfries cattle trade was in the earlier half of the present
century, it having declined since about 1848 by the operation of various
influences; the chief being the extension of the railway system into
Galloway, the establishment of competing markets in the district, and the
substitution of sheep for cattle on many farms.
It is still, however, of vast extent-second to
none, indeed, on the north side of the Border, as the following statistics
for the ten years immediately preceding a severe attack of rinder-pest
will tend to show:- The number of cattle exposed for sale on the Sands in
1854, was 28,184; in 1855, 31,552; in 1856, 28,876; in 1857, 24,625 ; in
1858, 22,605 ; in 1859, 22,129 ; in 1860, 20,405; in 1861, 22,186; in
1862, 23,564; in 1863, 20,264; and in 1864 the number was but 17,974,
exhibiting a decline of 2,290 head as compared with the preceding year.
The Galloway cattle sold in 1864 brought from £6 15s. for oneyear-olds, to
£14 for those that were between three and four years old; and altogether
their value was upwards of £98,000. For Highlanders, the prices ran from
£5 for one-year-olds, to £13 for those that were between three and four
years; the worth of the whole being at least £63,600. Ayrshire and crosses
brought £9 10s. per head; Irish, £5 10s., and adding the estimated value
of these to that of the principal stock, a grand aggregate of close upon
£162,000 is obtained. The cattle plague alluded to did not appear in the
district till about the end of autumn, in 1865, but it seriously reduced
the supply of stock for the whole year. The disease, during its course of
about five months, appeared on forty farms in Dumfriesshire, fifteen of
which were in the Parish of Dumfries. About 710 cattle died of the
disease, and more than 130 were killed in order to assist in checking its
ravages: the aggregate value of the animals must have been at least
£6,000. In consequence of the outbreak, the market was closed on the 8th
of November, 1865, and was not reopened till the 15th of August in the
following year. The cattle shown in 1865 numbered only 9,605; and during
the four and a half months of 1866, only 5,907. For 1867, till the
beginning of August, the number was 6,991; making the twelve-month's
supply, after the cessation of the disease, 12,898. In 1859 the number of
cattle sent from Dumfries by railway was 13,975: since the opening of the
Portpatrick railway, in 1861, a gradual decline has been experienced, only
5,362 having been trucked in 1864, 4,751 in 1865, and 3,470 in 1866; the
two last years having also been affected by cattle plague.
We can find no traces of a sheep market in
Dumfries at an early period. People still living can recollect when the
appearance of so many as a score or two of "bleaters" on the Sands was a
rare occurrence: but the rapid increase of turnip husbandry and pastoral
farming throughout the County eventually told upon the sheep trade of the
town; and it now almost promises to rival in importance the traffic in
cattle. As many as 28,000 sheep, old and young, have been annually offered
for sale, taking the average of the five years previous to 1866, their
value each year being not less, perhaps, than £40,000; the Cheviots, and a
breed formed between these hardy mountaineers and the more delicate and
heavier fleeced Leicesters, forming the greater portion of the stock.
Every year immense flocks that are never shown
on the Sands are sent from the Dumfries railway station, chiefly to
Liverpool, Carlisle, Penrith, Appleby, Preston, and Newcastle. The number
thus exported was 43,932 in 1859, 39,460 in 1860, 46,007 in 1861, 40,691
in 1862, 37,937 in 1863, 39,811 in 1864, 47,105 in 1865, and 35,076 in
1866. As already hinted, much business not included in any of the above
figures is done by the hammer of the auctioneer.
Mr. Stewart sold, at his mart adjoining the
Sands, 1,592 cattle, 14,345 sheep and lambs, and 246 calves, in 1864; 856
cattle and 10,427 sheep in 1865; 290 cattle and 9,278 sheep in 1866. A
second auction mart was opened in Mr. Michael. Teenan's extensive horse
bazaar in 1860, and there also extensive sales take place every Wednesday.
Mr. David Creighton, who officiates, disposed of 1,518 cattle, 11,453
sheep, and 265 calves, in 1864; 2,513 cattle and 20,293 sheep in 1865; and
1,488 cattle and 18,152 sheep in 1866. In 1865, Mr. Thomas Anderson
commenced weekly sales of stock by auction within a temporary enclosure on
the Sands. He thus disposed of 282 cattle and 6,422 sheep in 1865, 173
cattle and 7,756 sheep in 1866.
The entire stock sold at Dumfries, on the
Sands and in the marts, numbered 13,261 cattle and 68,004 sheep in 1865,
9,828 cattle and 47,239 sheep in 1866. The rapidity with which the sales
by auction are effected, contrasts favourably with the old tardy mode of
bargain-making, and it is highly probable that the "hammer-in-hand" system
of selling stock will come to prevail over every other in all our leading
market towns. For
about ninety years, pig-feeding has formed one of the industrial features
of Dumfriesshire. In 1794, the value of the pork cured in Annandale alone
was estimated at £12,000; for the whole County, in 1811, the returns were
little short of £50,000, [Dr. Singer's Survey of Dumfriesshire.] the chief
sales taking place on the Dumfries Sands. For many years previous to 1832,
upwards of 700 carcasses were sold weekly on the Sands; the average of
which was at least 8,000 stones. During the heat of the season, the amount
was often a great deal more; and instances have occurred in which from
four thousand to five thousand pounds' worth of pork have been disposed of
in a single day. At one period of the war with France, prices rose to an
exorbitant pitch; and even long after they had settled down, the sales in
Dumfries averaged £50,000 annually. [Picture of Dumfries, p. 27.]
Formerly, many hundreds of pigs were fed every year in the Burgh; but as
this was deemed objectionable in a sanitary point of view, it was finally
put a stop to in 1858. The supply at the market was more seriously
diminished by the same influence that reduced the show of cattle on the
Sands - the extension of railway intercourse to Castle-Douglas, since
which period the falling off has been considerable. Then, of late years,
some English dealers who used to buy pork at Dumfries market have adopted
the practice of purchasing live pigs in Upper Nithsdale, and sending them
by rail to Liverpool, Birmingham, and even sometimes to London; thus
further reducing the supply to Dumfries.
For these reasons it is not much to be
wondered at that the stock on the Sands, which amounted to 13,550 in
1858-59, had dwindled down to 8,761 in 1860-61, and that there is little
chance of it soon reaching its former annual average. In 1861-62, the
carcasses numbered 7,998; in 1862-63, 8,620; in 1863-64, 7,307; in
1864-65, 7,268; in 1865-66, 10,773; and in 1866-67, 10,235. Thirty years
ago, 5s. 6d. per stone of 16 lbs. was about the usual price. More recently
a higher figure has been obtained, rising from 6s. to 8s. 6d. per imperial
stone of 14 lbs., according to quality, and also to size; carcasses of
twelve or thirteen stones being preferred by curers. In 1861, as much as
7s. 6d. per stone was obtained for best pork, and 7s. 4d. in 1865; while
in March, 1866, the very high figure of 8s. 6d. was obtained; these sums
being more readily given because of the supply not keeping pace with the
demand. [The varying courses of the pork market are shown in the
statistics of the extensive trade carried on by the largest bacon-curer in
Dumfries, Mr. William Bell, provost of the Burgh in 1864. In 1835, Mr.
Bell bought pork at 3s. 2d. per stone of 16 lbs.; and next year, when the
imperial stone of 14 lbs. was introduced, he paid to the same dealer 5s.
10d., equal to 6s. 8d. the heavy .stone. His transactions on the Sands
during the last ten years were as follows:-Season 1856-57: 15,974 stones;
average price, 7s. 2d. per stone of 14 lbs. Season 1857-58: 11,294 stones;
average, 5s. 8d. Season 1858-59: 14,478 stones, 131bs.; average, 5s. 102d.
Season 1859-60: 13,144 stones, 9 lbs.; average, 6s. 4d. Season 1860-61:
8,455 stones; average, 7s. 0½d. Season 1861-62: 12,709 stones, 7 lb..;
average, 6s. 6d. Season 1862-63: 14,552 stones, 6 lb..; average, 5s. 5d.
Season 1863-64: 12,481 stones, 11 lbs.; average, 6s. 84d. Season 1864-65:
14,532 stones, 1 lb.; average, 6s. 9d. In season 1865-66, the average rose
to the high figure of 7s. 3d.; Mr. Bell's purchases of 13,924 stones, 9
lbs., that season, costing nearer £6,000 than £5,000. Next season
(1866-67), pork experienced a sudden downfall, he paying an average of 6s.
1d. on 12,912 stones, 2 lbs. Most of the Dumfries hams are sent to London
for exportation to India, where they are in high repute.] The season lasts
for nearly five months, beginning in the middle of November, and
terminating at the end of March or early in April. When the trade was at
its best, seven or eight years ago, its annual value was at least £65,000;
now it is not worth more than £50,000.
A great stimulus has been given to the
agriculture of the district by the exhibitions of the Highland and
Agricultural Society, held periodically in the Burgh or neighbourhood. The
first of these took place in 1830, when the cattle shown numbered 180;
horses, 60; sheep, 247; swine, 19; implements, 18: total, 524. The second
took place in 1837, with the following entries:-Cattle, 181; horses, 77;
sheep, 512; articles of dairy produce, 31; implements, 36: total, 841. A
third show was held in 1845, when the entries were:-Cattle, 297; horses,
75; sheep, 537; swine, 62; poultry, 101; dairy produce, 88; implements,
143: total, 1,302. A fourth show took place in 1860; and the entries at
it, compared with those of 1830, illustrate the rural progress of the
district during the intervening generation. At this, the last show held
under the auspices of the Highland Society at Dumfries, the cattle
numbered 298; horses, 166; sheep, 558; swine, 54; poultry, 216; dairy
produce, 195; and the extraordinary number of 911 implements: total,
2,398. Good results have also arisen from the competitions entered into by
local farming clubs, and which, joined into a Union Agricultural Society
at the suggestion of the Duke of Buccleuch, hold quinquennial exhibitions
in Dumfries, which are beginning almost to rival those that take place
under the auspices of the parent society. The first Union show was held in
1852; at the third, in 1862, the entries included 247 cattle, 112 horses,
177 sheep, 26 swine, and 365 implements; and at the fourth, held on the
1st of October, 1867, there were 232 cattle, 126 horses, 171 sheep, 14
swine, and 138 implements.
From returns obtained by Government we learn,
that in 1866 the whole cattle in Dumfriesshire numbered 45,053; the sheep,
371,486; the pigs, 18,619.
A considerable hosiery trade existed in
Dumfries during "Burns's time," carried on chiefly by Messrs. Haining,
Hogg, and Dickson, the founders of that branch of business in the town.
Among others engaged in it at an early date were Mr. James Paterson, Mr.
John Pagan, Messrs. Scott and Dinwiddie, Mr. William Milligan (now of
Westpark), and Mr. William Carson. [Mr. Carson is the oldest operative
stocking-maker in Dumfries. He is hale and cheerful, working occasionally
at the frame, though in his eighty-sixth year. He commenced business in
1803, and at that time purchased from Mr. James Paterson the first frames
(it is believed) that were ever used in the Burgh. They were five in
number, and cost £80. ] At the beginning of the current century, about
thirty frames were at work. Then, and for many years afterwards, the
narrow frame of a rude construction was alone used, and no such articles
as drawers and shirts, which now form the best part of the business, were
wrought upon it. Mr. M'Diarmid, writing in 1832, says: "Dumfries, in the
proper sense of the word, can hardly be called a manufacturing town. In
former years, striped or checked cottons were made, but the trade, has
diminished, and of the cotton weavers found in town and country-amounting
to about three hundred in all - by far the largest portions are employed
through the medium of agents by the manufacturing houses in Glasgow and
Carlisle. Hosiery, on the other hand, has become a staple article of
trade, and gives employment to upwards of three hundred hands located in
Dumfries and the surrounding villages. Of stockings, socks, drawers, and
flannel shirts, from three hundred and fifty to four hundred dozen are
fabricated weekly, the value of which may be averaged at the same number
of pounds; and it would thus appear that the capital turned over in this
branch of traffic falls little short of £20,000 yearly." [Picture of
Dumfries, pp. 9, 10.]
Of cotton weaving there is now scarcely any;
but the manufacture of hosiery, with its underclothing accompaniments, is
still extensively carried on. Much more money than the above sum is now
"turned over" in it annually, though it gives employment to fewer weavers
than it did thirty-five years ago; the reason being that many of the
frames now in use are so improved, that the weaver or knitter can on an
average do fully twice as much work with them as with the old narrow
machines. The business commenced by Mr. W. Milligan, in 1805, is still
carried on by him and partners; one of whom, Mr. John M. Henderson, his
son-in-law, is about to enter into the tweed trade on his own account,
while the original hosiery trade will be conducted by another of the
partners, Mr. Milligan's eldest son, Mr. James B. Milligan. For a number
of years circular machines moved by steam power were used in their factory
at Dockhead to make hose for the million, each machine being capable of
turning out twenty-five dozen of socks per day; but this branch has been
discontinued, the firm paying increased attention to the finer departments
of the business. The late Mr. Robert Scott, the founder of another and
much greater trade in Dumfries, began a hosiery business in 1810, which is
still continued by his son, Mr. James Scott, and his son-in-law, Mr.
Murray, under the designation of Robert Scott and Sons, who carry on the
largest trade of this kind in Dumfries. The hosiery business gives
employment to about a hundred and . thirty operatives in the Burgh, and
nearly as many others at their own houses in Holywood, Collin, Lochmaben,
Lockerbie, and elsewhere throughout the district, besides numerous seamers,
finishers, and warehousemen.
"Some stockings and hats, a small quantity of
linens and coarse woollens, and leather on a large scale, are our
principal manufactures," says Dr. Burnside, writing in 1790. [MS. History
of Dumfries.] Fifty years afterwards some two hundred hatters were
employed in Dumfries; but the "heads of the people" give no employment now
to local hands in this line, all the hats sold in the Burgh being
imported. The leather manufacture has been retained and greatly extended.
Its annual value was £30,000 in 1832; now it cannot be less than £80,000.
The "lion's share" of the tanning and currying done in the Burgh falls to
the lot of Mr. Thomas D. Currie of Clerk-hill ; and a large business in
the same trades is also transacted by Mrs. Wallace, by Messrs. William
Watt and Son, and by Mr. John Weir. About 30,000 hides are transformed
into leather yearly by these and other firms in the town; the beeves of
the district supplying but a small proportion of the raw material, that
being chiefly obtained at Liverpool, Birmingham, Newcastle, and Leith. For
the finished fabric the principal markets are London and Liverpool.
About 1816, basket-making was started in the
Burgh by an enterprising Yorkshireman, Mr. (afterwards Bailie) Hammond. In
a short period this seemingly insignificant branch of business grew to
such an extent that it became second to none of the same kind in Scotland.
Under his successor, Mr. James Kennedy, the Dumfries wicker-ware
manufacture retains its old repute. Mr. Kennedy, like Mr. Hammond, grows
all his own material, to the culture of which twenty-two acres of land are
devoted, and the reaping of which gives employment to about a hundred and
fifty persons during "the willow harvest."
In seeds, flowers, and plants of all kinds,
Dumfries has a large and valuable trade. About a hundred acres are laid
out as nursery grounds in connection with it, which help to beautify as
well as to enrich the Burgh. In these about a hundred and fifty hands find
employment during the busy season, which lasts about six months each year.
The most extensive nursery establishment in the town is that of Messrs.
Thomas Kennedy and Company, established in 1787, and which first acquired
a high position through the industry and energy of its head, the late
Provost Kennedy. [There are large nurseries in several other parts of
Dumfriesshire; those of Messrs. John Palmer and Son, Annan, which extend
to eighty acres, being the chief.] The sole partners at present are Mr.
Alexander T. Newbigging and Mr. Robert Cowan, who have seventy acres of
ground under culture for their products; and give employment in their
establishment during the spring months to a hundred and twenty hands.
Their home trade embraces the three kingdoms; and they have business
connections with Australia, New Zealand, China, France, Germany, and
Holland. Twenty years
ago, Dumfries was no more a manufacturing town than it was in 1832; but
the nucleus of a great business that was to make it one was formed in
1846, when Messrs. Robert Scott and Sons, hosiers, purchased premises that
had been occupied as a sawmill at Kingholm village, in order that they
might spin yarns for their hosiery business. The largest oak springing
from the smallest imaginable acorn, would but faintly symbolize the growth
of the manufacture that had such a small and simple origin. After the new
mill had been in operation for some months, its proprietors secured the
services of Mr. John M'Keachie, a weaver of damask table-covers in
Maxwelltown; and under his direction an experiment was tried in the
construction of tweeds which proved to be encouragingly successful. The
Messrs. Scott, with characteristic shrewdness and sagacity, saw at once
that the germ of the new business thus inadvertently hit upon was worthy
of being fully developed; and with that enterprise for which they were
also remarkable, they invested a very large amount of capital in the
trade. For a year or two it was only of small extent; but it rapidly
increased afterwards, till it became a prosperous concern, profitable to
its proprietors, and a great benefit to the Burgh and neighbourhood.
Mr. John Scott having in 1857 become the
proprietor of Kingholm Mills, Mr. Robert Scott joined his brother, Mr.
Walter Scott of Manchester, in establishing a second tweed factory. The
building, erected in an orchard between the foot of St. Michael Street and
the Dock Meadow, is truly a noble structure : huge, massive, and turreted,
with its chimney stalk rising a hundred and seventy-four feet high, it is
almost palatial in its aspect. Too often, elsewhere, town factories are
dull, dingy repulsive-looking erections; but in pleasing contrast to all
this, the Nithsdale Mills, as the establishment is termed, are a decided
ornament to the Burgh. Almost directly opposite, on the Galloway bank of
the river, the magic of labour, which performs so many wonders in our day,
has brought suddenly into existence another vast industrial hive, similar
in appearance, and for the same purpose-the manufacture of tweeds.
It is the property of Mr. Walter Scott; his
partnership with Mr. Robert Scott having terminated in 1866; and the
Nithsdale Mills having at the same time been disposed of to the latter,
who now leases them to his nephew, Mr. Robert Scott, junior, and partner,
Mr. Nixon, formerly of London. In 1865, the establishment at Kingholm was
purchased by a limited liability company, having a capital of £80,000,
with power to create additional shares; and since then it has been carried
on under the name of John Lindsay Scott and Cornpany. Mr. Walter Scott's
factory, which is termed the Troqueer Mills, was commenced in September,
1866: it is now, after the lapse of little more than a year, nearly
completed; and already about two hundred and fifty operatives make it
vocal daily with the hum of shuttles and the whir of spindles.
Fully eleven hundred and fifty hands are
employed in the three mills, directing or co-operating with thirty sets of
machines and a hundred and fifty power-looms, and producing from a million
to a million and. a quarter yards of cloth per annum. "The wool used is
principally the finer qualities of colonial, a very large portion being
Port Philip and New Zealand-sufficient guarantee for the excellence and
quality of the goods." [From a well-written paper on the Scotch woollen
trade, communicated to the Dumfries Standard by the late Mr. David Bell.]
Scotch woollen fabrics have long been the favourite wear of men of all
ranks; and Dumfries tweeds have acquired a very high repute in the
wholesale trade. ["An old name is still a great power; but, in this age of
constant competition, constant progress, and continuous change, the
prestige of the oldest houses will quickly disappear unless their members
are men fully up with the times - marching not only with them, but ahead
of them. It is because Robert Scott, the father of Dumfries manufactures,
was such a man, and because his sons have been animated by the same
spirit, that Dumfries has such a reputation throughout the world for the
excellence of her tweeds."-Paper by Mx. D. BELL.] They are sent chiefly to
London, Manchester, and Glasgow, from which they find their way to
continental Europe, to America, India, and Australia; and goods are also
sent direct from the mills to many foreign parts, including France,
Russia, and the United States. To estimate the beneficial results that
flow to the town from the tweed trade, would be no easy. task. But for
these, and the stimulus given to other occupations by the railways,
Dumfries, instead of advancing steadily and rapidly, as it has done during
the last eighteen or twenty years, would undoubtedly have retrograded,
both as regards population and wealth.
Strictly speaking, the Burgh has no
iron-works, but it is only separated by the Nith from a large foundry
(proprietor, Mr. Alexander Maxwell), which was established about sixty
years since, and is called Stakeford, on account of its proximity to the
ford of stakes which crossed the river in ancient times; while, a little
further inland, there is a second foundry, still larger (owned by Mr.
James A. B. M'Kinnel), that of Palmerstone, established in 1818: both of
them, with their bands of busy Vulcans numbering about a hundred and
thirty, making Maxwelltown ring with the clang of trade. Metal to the
extent of a thousand tons or more, is melted annually at these gigantic
iron-works. Their chief products are agricultural implements of all kinds,
builders' and joiners' castings, cranes, jennies, railway water tanks,
signals and girders, water wheels, gas-works, boilers, and steam-engines.
For variety and excellence of work, the establishments are equally
remarkable; "and," says the "Visitor's Guide," "we believe that, price
considered, nowhere in the kingdom can implements for rural labour be so
well obtained-a matter of the first importance to the district around,
when we consider that so many of its inhabitants are devoted to the
pursuits of agriculture." [Visitor's Guide, p. 66.]
Dumfries does not depend for its prosperity on
the surrounding district so much as it did in the ante-railway period, and
when there was no tweed manufacture within its bounds; but it is still,
fortunately, the capital of an extensive agricultural province, drawing
from it a princely revenue, which, distributed amongst its drapers,
grocers, ironmongers, jewellers, bakers, booksellers, apothecaries, and
other shopkeepers or handicraftsmen, assists them to maintain their
respective establishments, and both directly and indirectly confers great
benefits on the Burgh.
To some of them, Wednesday, when the country
folks come to market, is as good as any three ordinary days; to others it
is worth the whole secular week; and this, too, though in some of the
towns round about from which customers come, there are now shops which,
for appearance and resources, all but rival those of the County town.
When, therefore, the farming interest is depressed, Dumfries suffers; and
when it is buoyant because "horn, corn, wool, and yarn" are bringing good
prices, the Burgh sympathizingly rejoices with its agricultural neighbours
and patrons. Not content, however, with the customers that voluntarily
come from country to town, many Dumfries merchants make business raids
into the rural districts, from whence they take back more money yearly
than even their extensive town trade is worth. All the largest clothiers
of the Burgh adopt the same plan (begun by the late Mr. Kerr in 1813), of
travelling for orders to keep their needlemen in better work; and some of
them, stretching their measuring tape far beyond the locality, send back
vast quantities of English broadcloth in the form of manufactured garments
to the other side of the Western Border.
Since the Seven Trades ceased to exist as a
united incorporation, in 1834, most of the members then living have been "wede
away;" so that were a Siller Gun wappenschaw to be summoned in this
present year of grace, fifty men entitled to shoot for the trophy would
scarcely be forthcoming. But for all that there is no dearth of craftsmen
in the ancient Burgh and its sister town, as the following figures, which
refer to those working as journeymen belonging to the Trades that used to
be incorporated, will help to show : Hammermen, including the smiths and
moulders that are employed at the foundries, 198; squaremen, 268; tailors,
78; shoemakers, 268, besides 16 cloggers, or makers of strong shoes with
wooden soles; skinners and tanners, 60; fleshers, 14; and numerous weavers
of hosiery and woollen cloth, as already specified in this chapter, though
there is scarcely a vestige left of cotton weaving, which at the beginning
of the present century gave employment to about three hundred hands in
Dumfries and its immediate neighbourhood. |
