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BREAD RIOTS IN THE BURGH - A
RAIDING PARTY FOILED -- THE MILITARY CALLED OUT WITH FATAL RESULTS-MORE
TOWN IMPROVEMENTS: A NEW SLAUGHTER-HOUSE AND BUTCHER MARKET CONSTRUCTED-
QUEENSBERRY SQUARE FORMED-THE MILLS REBUILT-ERECTION OF THE INFIRMARY, AND
STATISTICAL INFORMATION RESPECTING IT-DISASTROUS EFFECTS OF THE FAILURE OF
THE AYR BANK IN THE TOWN-RETROSPECT OF THE PRECEDING EIGHTY YEARS.
MORE rioting! Has the
quarrel between the Pyets and the Corbies broken out afresh, that bands of
angry men are gathering in the High Street, and frantic-looking women are
moving to and fro, instead of minding their household affairs? The groups
merge into one great turbulent throng, and, actuated by a common impulse,
and swelled by contributions from Bridgend, move at twilight towards the
mills on the Galloway side of the Nith, as if they had serious work to do
in that direction. It is no municipal question, no party conflict, that is
generating such a commotion. A terrible dearth of food is experienced in
the Burgh; meal has been at a famine price for weeks; the patience with
which hunger was borne for a long time has given way; and the prevailing
maxim with the populace is now that of the freebooter - that
"They should take who have
the power,
And they should keep who can."
Not that indiscriminate
pillage is the main design of the mad rabble : to prevent the exportation
of grain and meal is what they chiefly wish. This is why they surround the
mills, and what is expressed in hundreds of hoarse voices; the plundering
which ensues being but the natural sequel to long suffering, and the
tempting opportunity for removing it that is now enjoyed. The rioters are
so powerful and fierce, that the legal authorities scarcely attempt to
cope with them; and by the midnight of this dreadful day, the mills,
granaries, and many private stores, have fallen into the undisputed
possession of the mob.
At this grave juncture,
Provost Dickson, after consulting with his brother magistrates, resolved
on applying for aid to the chief of the law establishment in the
metropolis. A communication to that effect was sent off, addressed to the
Burgh's agent, "John Davidson, Esq., at his house in Castlehill,
Edinburgh," with a note to that gentleman as follows: [The original is in
the hands of Mr. David Laing.] -" Sir, the enclosed Letter to the Lord
Justice-Clerk contains an information of a mobb that has happened here to
prevent the exportation of meal from this part of the country to the `vest
parts of Scotland, which the peace officers of the law have not been able
to quell; and application is made to his Lordship for a military aid, and
his authority and counsel on this unhappy occasion-and as dispatch and
much secresy and prudence are necessary, we have thought it best to give
you the trouble of managing the matter; and I beg you will immediately
make the application to his Lordship, for which we shall gratefully
acknowledge. - We are, Sir, your most obedt. servt., - Jno. DICKSON,
Provost. Drumfries, 23 Febry., 1771, Saturday night."
It is obvious from this
application, and the legal proceedings which arose out of the riot, that
it must have been of a very alarming character indeed. The indictment
served upon its captured leaders, charged them with holding " unlawful and
tumultuous assemblies," with committing "masterful invasions,
depredations, assaults, riots, batteries, and other criminal acts;" but as
they were not accused of having withstood the military when sent from
Edinburgh at the request of the magistrates, it may be safely inferred
that peace was restored, and the law rendered paramount without much
difficulty. One William Johnston, and several others, were tried at the
circuit court of the Burgh in the following August, for the above crimes,
perpetrated with others their associates, "during the night between the
22nd and 23rd days of February that year, in or about Dumfries and the
village of Bridgend." A somewhat indefinite verdict was returned by the
jury, they finding the libel not proved as to several of the panels; but
as to the rest, finding it proved "that there were mobs at the time and
places libelled, and that certain of the panels (whose names they
specified) "were guilty art and part of the crimes libelled." The High
Court of Justiciary, on being appealed to, were of opinion, though the
verdict was not so distinct and accurate as it should have been, that
execution should pass upon it; and therefore they sentenced two of the
prisoners to be transported, and the rest to be imprisoned, some for a
longer, some for a shorter term." [For a report of this appeal case, see
Maclaurin's Arguments and Decisions in Remarkable Cases before the High
Court of Justiciary, pp. 541-551.]
A few years after this
riotous outbreak, some of its leading features were reproduced, with the
addition of others still more tragical. Another dearth, with its train of
suffering and repining, visits the Burgh; and it is again caused or
intensified by the grain dealers and farmers exporting their stuff rather
than sell it to the townspeople at a lower price. The "masterful invasions
and depredations" of 1771 are repeated, only they are this time directed
against vessels in the river, and the yellow corn growing upon its banks.
A party of the marauders, hurrying down the Dock, lay violent hands on
some farmers who are sending their produce out of port. Not a single sack
can be got on board ; and the ships have to sail away minus their expected
cargo, whilst the frightened ruralists beat a rapid retreat, leaving their
precious stuff in the possession of the crowd. Another party of them
openly resolve upon a plundering expedition to Laghall, a farm on the
Galloway side of the Nith. Fortunately the announcement reaches the ears
of one Janet Watson, "a servitrix" at the very farm that is threatened
with such an unwelcome visit. Off at once she sets down the Dumfries bank,
crosses the river, which was very shallow at the time opposite Mavis
Grove, hurries to Laghall, near by, and raises the hue and cry with such
effect, that before the predaceous rioters arrive such a guard is mustered
at the farm that the former, resolute though they are, never venture
within fighting range, and, fairly out-generaled by the faithful Janet,
beat a retreat back to the Burgh-only, however, to become more unruly
there.
Days elapse, and the mob
becomes increasingly mischievous and threatening, till the military have
to be called out; and in a moment of indiscretion, the chief magistrate
bids them fire. Most of the soldiers elevate their pieces when doing so;
and but for this humane movement, the results would have been dreadful. As
it is, a stray shot takes effect on a fine young man not connected with
the rioters, who falls lifeless on the street. Truly a tragical finale to
these protracted bread riots; and the wonder is that those engaged in them
did not exact summary vengeance when they saw the poor youth's blood
reddening the pavement. On the day of his burial, the whole trading
population turned out; so that from Townhead to St. Michael's Gate nothing
was seen but a mass of mourners, with countenances expressive of grief and
indignation. The funeral procession had to pass the offending Provost's
shop (the first south of the King's Arms Hotel, in High Street) [At
present occupied by Messrs. Lawson & Shaw, clothiers.] while proceeding to
the churchyard; and the pall-bearers, acting according to a previous
arrangement, advanced to the door of the premises, in order, by way of
testimony, to lay the coffin for a minute or two on the counter. But,
before this could be done, those inside closed the door with such critical
haste, that it struck the coffin: and the bearers, unable to gain
admission, knocked solemnly with it three times on the door, and then
departed.
Though sometimes
interrupted by disturbances such as these, and always straitened by
inadequate resources, the Town Council kept the external improvement of
the Burgh steadily in view, To enable them to meet liabilities and carry
on public works, they, in 1770, opened a cash account, to the extent of
£1,000, in the Dumfries branch of Douglas, Heron, and Company's Bank.
Having such a command of funds, they effected many salutary changes. One
of the principal undertakings entered upon at this time was the erection
of a new butcher market and slaughter-house, on a site between the back
street called East Barnraws and the Loreburn; this being associated with
another scheme scarcely less important, the opening up of a market square
by the removal of the existing flesh market and slaughtering place,
together with part of the ruins of the New Wark ranging beside them along
the east side of High Street. All that remained of that ancient structure
was purchased from Mr. Patrick Heron of Heron, at an expense of £90, and
nothing more was left standing of it except the north wall; the
inhabitants being, it is said, thankful to see such a memorial of the late
unhallowed scenes put out of the way.
All these operations,
together with the opening of a street named the Wide Entry, or King
Street, leading from the new square to the new flesh market, were
completed in 1770, at an expense of more than £700, about 9114 of which
was raised by public subscription. For the market an annual rent of from
£40 to £50 was obtained, in the form of rates on the sheep and cattle
slaughtered and exposed in it for sale. In the year preceding, the grain
mills were rebuilt, after a design by the celebrated engineer, Mr. Smeaton,
at a cost of £633. Among the minor works effected at this busy period was
the enlargement of the Council-house. It was rickety with age, as well as
restricted in its accommodation ; and the authorities were spurred on to
its reconstruction from a rather singular circumstance. In 1769, the
portrait of their patron, the Duke of Queensberry - for which he had sat,
at their request, to an artist in London-arrived in due course; but, like
the Vicar of Wakefield's grand family picture, it was so large that the
low-ceilinged house could not take it in; so that the councillors were
laid under a renewed obligation to amplify their hall, which they did
accordingly. As a more striking illustration than any yet given, perhaps,
of their enterprise at this time, it may be mentioned, that, anticipating
the great sanitary enterprise of our own day, they patronized a scheme for
supplying the town with water, to be distributed from a tank in pipes, by
means of the new machinery at the mills-a most laudable project, which
proved abortive owing to no fault of theirs.
A hospital or infirmary for
the sick poor was still awanting; and to secure that desideratum a
committee was formed, presided over by Charles, Duke of Queensberry, and
with Sir William Maxwell, Bart., of Springkell, vice-president. The Town
Council cordially granted an acre of the High Dock as a site for the
proposed building, for an annual fen duty of £5, which the Council allows
as a yearly subscription, so that no ground-rent burdens the
establishment. With due masonic pomp, the foundation stone was laid on the
11th of July, 1777, by the worthy vice-president, who had from the
beginning zeal ously promoted the philanthropic undertaking. The
Infirmary, a neat, plain structure of three stories, was completed at an
expense of 1823; and a score of patients, or more, who had been attended
to in a temporary hospital, were at the close of 1778 transferred to the
new house-the first of a long line of inmates that have been ministered to
within its walls. No fewer than 330 patients were treated during 1789-90;
and the demand for admission was such that a wing had to be added to the
building, the expense of which was £458. That year the. subscriptions
amounted to £229, the total receipts to £387 - figures which furnished
proof that the institution was much needed, and heartily appreciated. As
time rolled on, bringing an increase of population to the district, with a
proportional increase of sick and poor, many more patients pleaded yearly
for admission into this mansion-hospitable in the truest sense; and
additional wards were obtained by the construction of a second wing in
1809, at a cost of £600. [From a period soon after the opening till 1839,
a ward was set apart for insane patients-an arrangement only excusable
because there was no lunatic asylum in the County. By the completion of
the Crichton Institution, in that year, due provision was made for the
proper treatment of sufferers from mental disease; and the Infirmary was
freed from a class of patients to whom it could offer little better than
seclusion and restraint, according to the old mad-house system-now,
happily, exploded.] On the 13th of May, 1807, a charter from the Crown
incorporated the contributors into a body politic, under the name of the
Governors of the Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary-the governors
consisting of benefactors to the extent of twenty guineas or more, paid
within two years, who thereby become governors for life; subscribers of
not less than one guinea annually, and the two physicians, the two
surgeons, and the treasurer for the time being. For the first fifteen
years the medical officers were paid nothing for their services, except a
small allowance of five shillings a day granted by the Government for
military patients, when troops used to be billeted in the Burgh. That
allowance having ceased in 1821, a salary was given to the staff; the
amount of which at present is £20 to each of the physicians, and £25 to
each of the surgeons. A house surgeon, who is termed clerk and apothecary,
receives £40 a year, besides board and lodging.
The number of patients,
from the opening of the house till 1826, cannot be ascertained, but 9,320
were under treatment; and if the proportion of admissions, which each year
was about a twelfth, be deducted, the result - 8,544 - indicates the
number of inmates during that period. From 1826 till 1859, the admissions
were 14,070: total of both periods, 22,614 - a yearly average in the first
period of 170, in the second of 426. These figures are exclusive of 1,026
soldiers admitted prior to 1826, and a few militiamen since. From 1836
till 1866, the average admissions yearly ranged from 371 to 614, and the
patients under treatment from 405 to 650; the highest of these numbers
applying to 1847, the saddest year in the annals of the institution. There
are, in addition, many out-patients, who visit the Infirmary for medical
or surgical treatment. Prior to 1846, they sometimes numbered fully 2,000
yearly; but of late the average has not been more than 1,350. From an
elaborate calculation, we learn that medical cases in the house last
twenty-three days on an average, with a mortality of 10 per cent.; and
that the average period of the surgical cases is thirty days, with a
mortality of 11 per cent.: the rate in both together averaging about 7 per
cent. For the year ending 11th November, 1865, the death-rate was only
6•2. [For the sake of comparison, we give the mortality in the other
principal infirmaries of Scotland in 1865:-Greenock, 15.578; Glasgow,
11.669; Edinburgh, 11.35; Dundee, 8.97; Perth, 8.33; Paisley, 8.152;
Aberdeen, 7.994. - Eighty-ninth Report of the Dumfries and Galloway Royal
Infirmary, p. 7.]
The Infirmary is supported
by donations, legacies, and church collections, in addition to annual
subscriptions. During the first ten years, the subscriptions averaged
£177; and in the ten years ending 1826 they rose to an average of £324.
Usually the expenditure has been in excess of the annual income. In the
decade ending 1836, the yearly outlay was £889, and the income £927; in
the next decade, the average outlay was £1,037, and the income £811; and
in the next, the average outlay was £1,153, and the income £869. The
balance is made good by draughts upon the fund formed from donations and
legacies, which have been truly munificent; and but for which the doors of
the institution must have been long since closed, or its usefulness been
very seriously impaired. [For many of these facts and statistics we are
indebted to a well-written manuscript history of the Infirmary, by Philip
Forsyth, Esq., of Nithside, a gentleman who takes a great interest in the
establishment, and officiated for many years as chairman of its weekly
committee.]
The Infirmary contains one
hundred beds, which are never all occupied at a time ; and as the existing
accommodation is more ample than the demand for it, no applicant for
admission is rejected, provided he is recommended by one of the governors,
and his complaint is not incurable. Most of the patients, as might be
supposed, belong to the district; but Ireland and the north of England
furnish a large proportion; and occasionally some poor foreigner, fallen
down far away from his birth-place, finds a second home in the house, and,
set up there anew by kindly treatment, resumes his journey grateful and
rejoicing. The liberality of the directors in this respect is beyond all
praise. As a whole, the Infirmary is excellently managed: it is a blessing
to the poor, and a credit to the district.
Whilst prosecuting
improvements, and raising or helping to raise new public buildings, the
Council, prudently mindful of the old ones, caused them to be insured to
the extent of X4,600, in the Sun Fire Office, London. [The policies, as
still preserved, show what these edifices were, and furnish an idea of
their pecuniary worth. Schedule 1 consisted of the Council Chamber, town
clerk's office adjoining, and two upper rooms, occupied as a public
school, in which Dr. Dinwiddie taught arithmetic and mathematics: the
buildings, all under one roof, were insured for £300. 2. The grammar and
writing schools, with the lodging above, occupied, among others, by Dr.
George Chapman, the grammar school master-insurance, £500. 3. The
Presbytery house, insured for £100. 4. The new salt market, and room above
the same, also insured for £100. 5. The English school, and sheriff
clerk's office under it, insured for 9200. 6. The new flesh market and
slaughter-house-insurance, £700. 7. The guard-room, weigh-house,
court-house above these, and rooms in the upper story, all in the
Mid-Steeple buildings-insurance, £400. 8. The town's
proportion-one-half-of the minister's manse, £200. 9. The Millhole mill,
now used as a snuff-mill, insured for £100. 10. The town's mills, on the
Galloway side, as rebuilt in 1769, insured for £2,000-the building, £700
and the machinery, £1,300.] This prudential step was well and speedily
rewarded, as the grain mills were accidentally burned to the ground on the
night of the 31st of October, 1780; and the managers of the insurance
office, after a process of arbitration, paid the town £1,530, which, with
the value of the blackened materials, and such machinery as was rescued
from the flames, went far to make up the loss that had been sustained.
Masons and millwrights soon made the spectral ruins give way to a more
commodious erection; and, before a twelvemonth passed by, the plash of the
wheels churning water into foam, and grinding husky grain into stuff for
life-sustaining bread, rose as pleasantly on the ear as if no sad
catastrophe had occurred.
But for the existence of
Douglas, Heron, and Company's Bank, some of the town improvements noticed
in this chapter could not have been carried out, and would scarcely have
been undertaken. The bank itself had a brief, brilliant, meteor-like
duration, going down in little more than. two years, carrying with it to
ruin not a few families connected with the town and district. It was not
without reason that Burns characterized it as "a villainous bubble."
Originated in November, 1769, by the Honourable Archibald Douglas and Mr.
Patrick Heron (the gentleman already named as owner of the New Wark), it
soon acquired popularity and patronage, on account of its imposing list of
shareholders, and its accommodating mode of doing business. Long and
liberal credits were given; the directors being seemingly more anxious
about the number than the commercial status of their customers. And the
former had, among themselves, several needy adventurers, who had neither
money nor respectability to lose; some who had both, but were destitute of
knowledge and prudence: so that, between the knaves and fools of the
directory, the original capital of £150,000 could not but melt away with
fearful speed, and all the exhaustive calls that came to be made upon the
proprietors failed to keep the concern afloat. At Ayr, its headquarters, a
speculative mania sprang up, resulting in the production of several
mercantile companies-airy nothings in a double sense, formed by partners
of the bank out of its cash account, who thus traded with themselves;
under the names of Whiteside and Co., Maclure and MacCree, and such like.
To complicate matters, these shadowy firms transacted business with each
other. The Bank of England, with its millions of bullion, could not have
borne up long against such gross recklessness.
When, early in 1772, a
storm from without gathered round Douglas, Heron, and Company's
establishment, it had no resistive force, having been already exhausted
from within. Their own notes came showering in upon them, representative
of crushing debts which they could not meet nor stave off. The local
crisis was intensified by the occurrence of a general monetary panic.
Anything-everything, to save the doomed ship. The desperate device of
selling redeemable annuities was tried among other measures, only to sink
it deeper in a sea of ruin; and in June it went down. The assets of the
bank, including debts and bills of exchange, amounted to £1,237,043 7s.
1d., the liabilities considerably exceeding that sum; for though there
were debts due to the extent of £700,000, the larger half of this sum had
been contracted, in the way already explained, by the directors
themselves. A committee appointed to wind up the company's affairs, found
it necessary to make a fresh call of £1,400 per share upon such partners
as still remained solvent; and, from the report given in, it appeared
that, after allowing for all assets, the balance against the bank was
£366,000, involving a loss of £2,600 on each share, exclusive of interest.
How seriously Dumfries
suffered from the collapse of this gigantic bubble company may be inferred
from the many names of the burgesses belonging to the town, and of
proprietors intimately connected with it, that appear in the share list.
On consulting it we find that Ebenezer Hepburn, the Provost, is down for
£500; that Edward Maxwell, merchant, is a subscriber to double that
amount; that Gilbert Paterson, James M'Whirter, David Forbes, William
Hunter, John Wilson, John Graham, junior, all merchants; Thomas Stothart,
writer; and Ebenezer Wilson, bookseller, are in the list for £500 each.
There are four subscribers to the extent of £2,000, including the Burgh's
patron, Charles, Duke of Queensberry, and Archibald Douglas of Douglas.
Henry, Duke of Buccleuch, is in the list for £1,000. The ancient family of
Craigdarroch sustained a severe shock, by being involved to the amount of
£1,500; and Andrew Crosbie of Holm, [Andrew Crosbie, advocate (son of
Provost Crosbie, Dumfries), was a successful lawyer, and justly looked
upon as one of the most eloquent pleaders of his time, at the Scottish
bar. As many of the incidents in "Guy Mannering" occurred in Dumfriesshire,
it was all the more natural in Scott to take the ablest lawyer of the
County as the prototype of the learned, witty, and benevolent advocate who
had the Ellangowan family and Dandie Dinmont for his clients. In these
respects the character of Mr. Crosbie corresponded pretty closely with
that of Paulus Pleydell, Esq., in the romance. ] who subscribed £1,000,
lost by the disaster all the fortune he had gained by his eloquent
pleadings as an advocate. Among the remaining Dumfriesshire partners were
Patrick Heron of Heron, one of the projectors, E1,000; William Douglas of
Kelhead, £1,000; Robert Maxwell of Cargen, £1,000; John Dickson of
Conheath, £500; Captain William Maxwell of Dalswinton, £500; Gilbert
Gordon of Halleaths, £500; Dr. William Graham of Mossknow, £500; John
Carruthers of Holmains, £500; William Hay of Crawfordston, £500; and Sir
Robert Laurie of Maxwelton, £500. Dumfriesshire furnished nearly one third
of the original shareholders, and one fourth of the capital; and when the
ruinous calls that were made upon them, enforced by diligence and hornings,
are taken into account, it is not surprising that sad memories of the Ayr
Bank still linger in the district.
The first eighty years of
the eighteenth century were thus, as we have seen, fruitful of great
events in Dumfries; and during that time the aspect of the place
experienced a greater change than in any period of corresponding length
before or since. Here, in old St. Michael's burying ground, among the dust
of these generations, sleep the relics of some whose lease of fourscore
years began with the century. Before they laid them down to die, what
curious tales would they tell their grandchildren of what had passed
before their eyes in youth and age: the burning of the articles of Union
at the Market Cross; the desperate conflicts between the "runners" of
tobacco and the enforcers of the revenue; the troubles of the '15, when
the town was turned into a military camp; the unwelcome visit of Prince
Charlie, with his reiving Highlanders, in the '45; the brewers' anti-exciseman
riot; the other internecine feuds of the Burgh, crowned by the
never-to-be-forgotten conflict between the Pyets and the Crows; and the
fell bank catastrophe, which ruined many families, and broke some
sufferers' hearts. When these patriarchs were boys, the town consisted of
the High Street, the East Barnraws and the West Barnraws running parallel
with it for a short way on each side; Kirkgate, by which the leading
thoroughfare was continued southward to the gates of St. Michael's; the
Friars' Vennel, running at a right angle from it to the Nith ; and
Lochmaben-gate and Townhead Street diverging from it in other directions.
Then the river wandered pretty freely according to its own sweet will,
there being no banks eastward to restrain its revels; the Dock meadow,
habitually visited by Lammas floods and Solway tides, lay a comparative
waste, partially fringed with willows, but wearing no woodland crown.
There was no harbour worthy of the name; no place of refuge for the aged
or orphan poor; no asylum for the sick; only one church; and not a
solitary steeple. They had seen a narrow lane widened to secure a second
convenient approach to the river; St. Michael Street prolonged far past
the Church; the commencement of Queensberry Street, an intermediate one
between High Street and the East Barnraws; the expansion of the suburbs;
the formation of extensive roads ; the construction of a new market-place,
Queensberry Square; the arborial decoration of the Dock; the embankment of
the wayward Nith; the erection of a caul over it below the bridge, of the
grain mills on its right bank, and of Glencaple Quay on its left bank,
nine miles further down. They had witnessed, moreover, the building of the
Mid-Steeple, always associated in their recollection with a terrific
anti-Union riot; the building of the New or Castle Church; the rebuilding
and spiring of St. Michael's place of worship, at a time redolent of
tartan kilts and Gaelic gibberish-the figure of a" pretty" youth mingling
in the maze-with sinister faces that long afterwards terrified them when
asleep; the erection of a home in which decayed burgesses and destitute
children received the merited hospitality of the town; the opening of a
house in which pale disease put on the hue of health, and " death, which
comes to all," was rendered less dismal to the poor and destitute; and the
completion of several other great undertakings, designed for purposes of
utility or ornament. And if any of these octogenarians had survived
another decade, they would have seen many additional improvements
projected and carried into effect. |
