William McCombie (1809 – 1870), farmer, self-educated
joint founder and first editor of the Aberdeen Free Press.
From: W. Robertson Nicoll, M.A.
William McComhie, the
editor of the Aberdeen Free Press, and perhaps, after Hugh Miller, the
most notable among the self-taught men of Scotland.
To say that Mr. McCombie should not be forgotten is to say too little.
He was never much known beyond his own district of the country, and no
one who was acquainted with him, however slightly, or who came under the
range of his influence, will ever forget him. He ought to be known much
more widely than he is, and a full record of his career could hardly
fail to take a place among permanent biographies. A "son of the soil,"
born in a frugal Aberdeenshire farmhouse, with only four or five years
of parish schooling, he became at a very early age the centre of
progress in the region where he lived, and ultimately, it is not too
much to say, the chief Liberal force of Aberdeenshire. He commenced to
publish when he was little more than twenty years old, and wrote books
full of strong thought and eloquent expression to the end of his days.
But his real greatness did not come from them, nor even from the work he
did as editor of a newspaper and an apostle of political Liberalism.
It lay in his grand character. He was one of those unspeakably pure and
exalted souls in which Puritanism sometimes perhaps rarely flowers. On
those who came close to him and especially on worthier spirits he acted
with a force so uncommon that nothing else came near it. For true
individual inborn greatness, he seemed to stand alone and along with
this went perfect refinement and a deep if somewhat shamefaced
tenderness. As one who knew him well testifies, his writing was only
part of the man; the full stores of his mind only came out in converse
with congenial spirits.
"Not a few will recollect the keen intellectual enjoyment, the vigorous
impulse,
they derived from these conversations. They will recollect the treasures
they bore away from an evening's converse with one who laid his hand
lightly and easily on widely-severed provinces of literature and
philosophy, and whose suggestive talk was steeped in that knowledge
which has never got, and never will get, into books. There will also be
a returning sense of that intellectual awe which was kindled at the
sight of a mind instinctively delighting to coast the shadowy margins of
the known, and to take occasional fearful and reverential incursions
into the void beyond. And with these recollections, provided they are
those of intimacy, there cannot fail to mingle thoughts of the delight
with which he who is dead looked upon all enthusiasm, however alien in
its object to his pursuits, of the tenderness with which he treated
youthful thought, however crude and shapeless, and of the width of his
intellectual sympathies. . . .
There is one side, the best side, of his life, which ought not to be
uncovered at the street corners. The last person in the world to flaunt
and strut in subscription lists, or to seek publicity for his deserts,
he would have hated to hear his good deeds spoken of, and the veil which
he cast over his countless acts of charity and kindness ought not to be
lifted."
Mr. McCombie used to say that one of the first things lie remembered was
the risp of the sickle in the harvest field, and he never ceased to be
an ardent and successful farmer. His early essays were written, soon
after he had ploughed from six to six, others after he had held the
scythe through a long summer day. On coming to Aberdeen to start the
Aberdeen Free Press in 1853 he still retained his farm of Cairnballoch,
near Alford. It is never an easy thing to start a new paper, and the
fact that the editor was only to give to it part of his energies looked
unhopeful.
But he wrote himself: "We start on a course of unknown interest,
checkered with peril no doubt, but radiant with hope. We press on
towards no uncertain goal; and, though we know somewhat of the courage
and patience demanded of us, we gird up our loins for it anew with
'heart and hope,' venturing ever to appropriate some encouragement from
the fact that the path of the true and brave is cheered by many a
wayside flower and refreshed by the gushing forth of many an unbidden
spring."
Progress at first was slow, but it was sure. From the beginning Mr.
McCombie had the literary aid of Mr. now Dr. William Alexander, and the
paper soon became not only solid, but interesting. Andrew Halliday was
secured as the London correspondent, and wrote bright amusing letters
which were always eagerly read. The news of the district was well
arranged, and the editor was quite as competent to deal with farming as
with more abstruse subjects. He respected his readers' intelligence, and
treated in a serious fashion the most serious themes. Great space was
given to reviews of books, which were written with courage as well as
with ability, and condemned when condemnation was merited. In this Mr.
McCombie secured the aid of his friends, including some of the more
thoughtful Nonconformist ministers around. The principles of the paper
made even more rapid progress than the journal itself, and Aberdeenshire
from being Tory became one of the most pronouncedly Liberal counties in
Scotland. The Free Press is now one of the best and most influential
daily papers in Scotland.
McCombies have been present in and around the Vale of
Alford, which lies about 30 miles west of Aberdeen, since at
least the early 18th Century. This tribe was remarkable for the
number of high-achieving individuals that it produced. Its
geographical origins and its arrival in this agricultural area
of Aberdeenshire has been dealt with elsewhere (see William
McCombie (1805 – 1880), “Creator of a peculiarly excellent sort
of bullocks” on this blogsite). Alford McCombie individuals
who were successful in life included members of the Established
Church, the legal profession, colonial administration,
manufacturing and commerce, and agriculture. The agricultural
interest was especially strong in the breeding and feeding of
high-value, black cattle, which are now called Aberdeen-Angus.
At the 1851 Census of Scotland five farms in
and around the Vale of Alford were being managed by members of
the McCombie lineage, Tillychetly - Charles McCombie (1803);
Waulkmill – Alexander McCombie; Nether Edindurno – William
McCombie (1810); Tillyfour – William McCombie (1806);
Cairnballoch – William McCombie (1809). Another relative,
William McCombie (1803), was the Laird of the Easter Skene
estate, which lay half way to Aberdeen, but who also owned a
farm in the Alford area. All these establishments were involved
in cattle production. The most prominent and internationally
-important farmer was William McCombie of Tillyfour, generally
considered, along with Hugh Watson of Keillor Farm, Angus, to
have been the most significant developer of the Aberdeen Angus.
Cairnballoch Farm and the early life of
William McCombie (1809)
The farm of Cairnballoch was located about 3
miles south of Alford in the direction of Craigievar Castle,
then the seat of the Forbes family. Cairnballoch, which was
owned by Lord Forbes, consisted mostly of undulating, “brae-set”
land. At the 1851 Census of Scotland it encompassed 115 acres
and typically four labourers were employed there, thus making it
a medium-sized farm in this decidedly rural part of
Aberdeenshire. William McCombie (1809) said that one of his
earliest memories was the risp of the sickle in the harvest
field but the farm was also engaged in cattle production.
William McCombie (1771) was the father of
William McCombie (1809), the subject of this story. William
senior was born at Logie Coldstone, a village lying about 10
miles south-west of Alford and, at some date before 1809,
William senior became the tenant of Cairnballoch
farm. According to James Macdonell (see below), William was
responsible for the reclamation of much land on the farm from
“rugged moorland and stony hillside”. He married his cousin,
Marjory (May) McCombie, at Tough a few miles east of
Cairnballoch about 1808. Marjory also hailed from an
agricultural background. The marriage does not appear to have
been very fecund, apparently the only child being William
McCombie junior, who was born at the family farm in 1809. It
was clearly expected that he would follow in his father’s
footsteps and become a farmer and, from an early age, “… he was
charged with the duties of the farm and while he was still a
youth the chief share of the work fell to his hand. At an age
when most lads are still at the grammar school, he was holding
the plough and among the young men of the district he saw no
more noble exemplar of life than that presented by the farm
labourers or the farmers’ sons who, when the work of the day was
done, thought of nothing but frolic or sleep”.
There is a frustrating lack of factual
precision concerning events in the formative years of William
McCombie (1809)’s life. What is available mostly comes from
recollections of associates, presumably drawing on conversations
with William and the most important of such sources is the
obituary written by James Macdonell, a one-time reporter with
the Aberdeen Free Press, which was published in the Spectator in
1870 following William’s death. William McCombie may only have
enjoyed four or five years of village schooling, perhaps between
the ages of about eight and thirteen (1817 – 1822). After all,
how much formal education would a farmer have needed in the
early 19th century?
William’s mother may have been involved in
his home learning and the Bible is said to have been a
significant reading primer in this deeply religious
household. What must have become clear at an early age to those
around him was that the lad had developed exceptional literacy,
which quickly progressed into a prodigious capacity for
self-learning. It was later remarked that one of his defining
characteristics was a lack of self-publicity. How true. In
subsequent years, when William was writing profusely, the one
topic he never covered was himself, his home life and his early
experiences. That William’s intellectual potential should
blossom in social circumstances which lacked articulate
companions is little short of remarkable and must surely have
had a significant genetic component in its determination. The
many achievements of his McCombie relatives tend to support such
a notion.
William McCombie (1771) died at Cairnballoch
in 1849 at the age of 78, though his son, William McCombie
(1809) had almost certainly taken charge of the farm at an
earlier date. At the 1841 Census, while William senior was
identified as the head of the household, both he and his son
were described as “Farmer”. One data set, that relating to
participation in local ploughing matches, indirectly suggests
that the year of succession may not have been later than 1845,
when William junior was 36.
William McCombie (1809) and ploughing
matches
The ploughing match was one of two key
events, the other being the annual cattle show, in the local
agricultural calendar of rural Aberdeenshire in the mid-19th century. In
his novel “Johnny Gibb of Gushetneuk” by William Alexander (see
below), which was inspired by Aberdeenshire and Banffshire
village life in the 1840s, there is an excellent description of
the mythical “Glengillodram Ploughing Match”, which highlights
the significance and conduct of such events. The ploughing
match was a winter event and, because of the short daylength in
northern latitudes, started at first light. Typically, 30 to 40
competitors would assemble on the ploughing ground with their
pairs of horses, well-groomed, perhaps with tails and manes
plaited and with harness spotless. Competition was intense and
the crowds of spectators were highly knowledgeable. A single
ploughman controlled both the horses and the plough, and he cut
his first, or “feirin”, furrow with great care, regarding both
straightness and constant depth on the patch of field allotted
to him. He then added another 30 or 40 furrows carefully
aligned with the first and evenly packed. (Anyone who
ventures his/her skill at ploughing with horses, as the author
has done, quickly finds that it is utterly exhausting.) There
were usually three competitions, one for the best ploughing
performance, one for the best turned-out pair of horses and one
for best-kept harness, but the first-mentioned was the one which
carried most prestige. The farmer providing the ground would
throw supper for his friends and the judges, though the
ploughmen would not usually be present. They, instead, received
a ploughman’s lunch, with whisky, during the competition. In
the late evening there would be a ploughman’s ball, open to all
levels of village life, from the laird down to the day
labourers, with vigorous dancing to fiddlers and/or a piper
until a late hour. Usually there would be a break in the
proceedings for oatcakes, cheese and whisky toddy. The next
morning the manual labourers would have to rise after a brief
sleep to go back to work.
Ploughing matches have been a feature of
Scottish rural life since the late 18th century and
they were established in the Vale of Alford by the late
1830s. In the decade 1835 – 1844 the Aberdeen Journal recorded
82 separate mentions of ploughing matches. This jumped to 288
mentions in the following decade, with a similar frequency, 257,
between in 1855 – 1864. The McCombies of Cairnballoch did not
support ploughing matches at all before 1845 but in the period
to 1851 are known to have provided help on 14 separate
occasions. Their interest in ploughing matches then ended
almost as suddenly, there being only one instance of cooperation
recorded after the latter year. Support for ploughing matches
could involve allowing farm servants to compete, providing prize
money, making available the ploughing ground and gifting the
following dinner, acting as a judge, or taking the chair at
dinner, giving a speech or supporting the chairman as
croupier. As will be seen later, William McCombie (1809) showed
empathy with the farm labourers and it seems possible that the
Cairnballoch support of ploughing matches followed a change of
regime at the farm, with the retiral of William senior before
1845. The cessation of support for ploughing matches after 1851
is less easy to explain. William McCombie (1809) did spend more
time away from the farm after this date but he still retained
his lease of Cairnballoch and continued in his role as farmer
there.
The intellectual development of William
McCombie (1809)
According to James Macdonell, “at times he (William
McCombie (1809)) could get no more nourishing intellectual
fare than the “Penny Cyclopedia” or Harvey’s “Meditations among
the Tombs”. Nevertheless, he became an insatiable reader. In
the long evenings of winter, he read by the light of the kitchen
fire and when sent to Aberdeen with the carts he seated himself
on the top of the stuff which he was bringing to Cairnballoch
and read as the horses jogged slowly home.” William did not
simply absorb knowledge, he also analysed the information he
acquired. One subject over all others had a profound impact on
the young man and that was religion. Having been brought up in
a strictly religious household where “… the Bible still keeps a
position of almost Hebrew supremacy. It is emphatically the
Book of Books, morning and night it is read with such eagerness
and such thoroughness as can be matched only in the studies of
the commentator …”, his scope for original thought was thus
constrained by fundamental religious dogmas indelibly imprinted
in his youthful mind and afterwards ever-present to guide and
direct his thinking processes. Within these boundaries he
became “an independent, original and vigorous thinker”.
William McCombie (1809), while still a young
man oppressed by the hard, physical work of the farm (ploughing
“from six to six” or holding the scythe “through a long summer
day”), started to set down his thoughts on paper in the form of
essays which were eventually collected together in his first
book. “The stone windowsill of a little opening in his father’s
cottage he used as a writing desk and for the want of a
convenient seat he had to kneel on a large chest.” The book
that emerged he called “Hours of Thought”. It was published in
London in 1835 when he was 26 and consisted of a series of
essays which bore the titles, “On
intellectual greatness”, “On moral greatness”, “On poetry”, “On
luxury”, “Obligations of Christians to devote their energies to
the dissemination of Christianity”, “On some defects in
evangelical preaching”, “On Christian Union”, “Future prospects
of this world”. The precise dates of creation of the individual
components of the book are unknown but must have extended over
several years. The book enjoyed some success and was published
in a second edition in 1839 and a third edition in 1856.
If William McCombie (1809) had ceased his
intellectual endeavours at that point, it would still have been
truly remarkable that a 26-year-old farmer from a peripheral
area of Aberdeenshire, with only a few years of basic education,
limited access to books for self-education and no opportunity to
debate and refine his thoughts with educated colleagues, should
have produced and got published a book of such breadth. The
title of this first book indicates both William’s great
strengths and his limitations. His confined upbringing and
education left him with a greater reverence for ideas than for
facts, a limited appreciation of the fruits of science but
little sympathy for quantitation and the scientific method for
testing ideas. His technique of inquiry was to absorb the
writings of others and then to think deeply about what he had
learned, subjecting all constructions to his own mental tests,
before producing his synthesis of ideas on a given topic. The
areas where he experienced greatest comfort were Theology (the
study of the nature of God and religious belief), Philosophy
(the study of general and fundamental problems concerning
matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and
language) and Metaphysics (abstract theory with no basis
in reality). The result was that his readers were often
left in awe at his erudition and use of language but baffled by
the complexity and length of his writing, especially when
dealing with religious and philosophical topics. The obituary
on William McCombie in the Buchan Observer described his large
library at Cairnballoch as being “filled
with treatises of revolting dryness on the controversies of the
Christian sects”. Some
of his own works were impenetrable to the general reader. Often
reviews of his books indicated that the reviewer fell into the
“baffled” category, since comments were reduced to the
employment of superficial but complimentary generalisations, for
example, “By all those who
are interested in the harmony and consistency of religious
truth, it will be highly appreciated.”
It would probably be fair to say that
William developed a high local reputation as a theologian,
philosopher and social commentator but failed to make an impact
on the national or the international stage in these
fields. Still, those who met and conversed with him invariably
came away with a powerful impression of an honest and highly
intelligent man, always capable of original thinking. As the
Buchan Observer put it, “But
it was in conversation that his powers were most vividly seen”.
After his first book, “Hours of
Thought” (1835), William McCombie (1809) was involved with
several other major publications as author, or author/editor, or
editor. They are listed here, with date of publication. In
addition, he was also the creator of many newspaper articles.
1838. “The Christian
Church considered in relation to Unity and Schism” (author). In
this theological book he dealt with the importance of
maintaining Christian unity and the sinfulness of actions that
promote division.
1842. “Moral Agency, and Man as a Moral
Agent” (author). The Baptist Magazine reviewed this book
with the following statement. ““There are two great inquiries,”
Mr McCombie states, “embraced in the following treatise viz 1st What
is moral agency, considered in itself? And 2ndly. What are the
powers and conditions of man in relation to it? Under the first
the author has endeavoured to ascertain what the nature of moral
agency is and what are the indispensable conditions of its
being exercised; in doing so he has been led to inquire what the
kind of knowledge is which forms properly the basis of moral
agency and how is it obtained; and has endeavoured to meet the
difficulties which arise from the divine foreknowledge and to
subvert the position that mind in its actings is subject to the
law of causation, or that in choosing and willing, it is not
free. In the second part of the treatise the writer has entered
on the inquiry what the powers and capabilities and resources of
man are , considered as a moral agent; in what respects and to
what extent he has considered in this light been affected by the
sin of Adam or the fall and in what respects and to what extent
by the work of Christ.” Erudite theologians may have found such
theorising intriguing but for most adherents the content of the
book must have been perplexing.
1845. “Memoirs of Alexander Bethune
embracing selections from his correspondence and literary
remains” (author/editor). Alexander Bethune was one of
three brothers born into a peasant family in Fife in
1804. Family poverty precluded him from being apprenticed in
any trade, resulting in Alexander becoming an agricultural
labourer. Despite his strained circumstances, he proved to have
great skill in expressing himself in writing. The following
example of his poetry shows the extent of his talent in
illustrating the circumstances of his life.
“And for my fare I ate a crust as dry,
And drank from the ice-girded stream, and
rested
Upon a stone from which I swept the snow
My dining-room had clouds for tapestry,
Mountains for walls, the boundless sky for
ceiling,
And frosty winds for music whistling
through it.”
He composed a variety of works including
“Tales and Sketches of the Scottish Peasantry” and a series of
lectures on economics (with his brother John), designed to help
the working man better his financial circumstances. The Bethune
brothers also wrote stories and poetry, and, after John’s early
death, Alexander published a collection of his sibling’s poetic
works. Alexander Bethune wanted to reform the relationship
between working men on the one hand, and the tenant farmers and
land owners on the other, which he saw as exploitative. He
believed a change in such conditions would remove the feelings
of bitterness, negativity and addiction to charity engendered in
the working class, thus acting as a stimulus to them taking a
positive attitude to the improvement of their conditions of
life. The Bethune brothers practised what they
preached. Alexander and his brother built their own house with
£30 and then invested a £5 fee from Alexander’s first book in
adding an extra storey, which they hoped eventually to
let. Alexander saw economics as a more important subject than
geography and thought it should be taught in schools to all
pupils. William McCombie (1809) struck up a correspondence with
Alexander Bethune. It is clear the two of them had a mutual
attraction arising from their similar circumstances, both being
self-taught, talented thinkers and writers, and being proponents
of rural social reform. The two met in 1842, a year before
Bethune’s death, when Alexander walked from Arbroath to
Aberdeenshire. Before his demise at the age of 39, when illness
precluded further intellectual work, Bethune entrusted his
archive to the care of William McCombie (1809) and this
biographical work about his friend was the product.
1850. “The
foundations of individual character. A lecture”
1852. “Modern Sacred Poetry” (editor).
Curiously, this volume was published by the Presbyterian Church
of Canada. It is a substantial collection of works extending to
370 pages and it is presumed that the selection of works to be
included was made by William McCombie. The preface to the first
edition, written by William, was dated “Cairnballoch 22 June
1852”. William McCombie saw sacred poetry as having “a high
value both as ministering to spiritual enjoyment and as
influentially entering into that great educational process –
that training of the spiritual and moral nature – essential
alike to right doing, right being and to ultimate
happiness.” It is interesting to note that in early 1853 the
printer and friend of William McCombie (1809), George King,
exported two boxes of books from Aberdeen to Quebec, which may
have been connected with this poetic compilation by William (see
below).
1852. “Use and abuse or right and wrong in
the relations to labour of capital, machinery and land” (author). This
essay on the economics of capital and labour, especially as it
applied to the relationship between landowners, land occupiers
and labourers in (then) current, rural Scotland appears to have
been influenced by the views of his friend Alexander Bethune,
but also by John Stuart Mill, the philosopher, social reformer
and economist. The book consists of two lectures produced
independently (for delivery to local Mutual Instruction classes
– see below) which were then linked by an introduction, written
later. Interestingly, one comment to a lecture audience
remains, where William admits that he tended to write and talk
at too great a length. “(A) great part of a lecture I delivered
last July to a neighbouring class was occupied with these
enquiries; to resume them here, though it might be important to
my general object, would be unendurable by your
patience.” William McCombie (1809) saw the fundamental defect
with the then current arrangements as being an unfair
distribution of capital between the different social
strata. “The distribution of the elements of wealth presented
by nature to man and of the constituents of wealth secured from
Nature by man forms the great social problem of the times. Not
only does this problem underlie all the various schemes of
communism and organisation of labour; but, discerned or not, is
at the bottom of all jealousies between employers and employed –
of all strikes and combinations and though more indirectly not
the less truly of all questions of rent, protection and the
incidence of taxation.” He was heavily critical of individuals
who accumulated capital but did not invest it to generate
greater value. In this context he was particularly critical of
owners of large tracts of land which were turned over to
sporting estates and the rental income squandered, rather than
being invested in soil improvement for more productive
agriculture. “Take the case of a proprietor of land in the
predicament already referred to. He keeps a stud, or a pack of
hounds; he passes the gay “season” in the metropolis, gives
expensive entertainments, patronizes opera artistes
…”. However, he did not absolve the working class from a
measure of blame for its condition. The monotony of manual
labour combined with moral deficiency of individuals were seen
by him as major influences. “These causes, combined with
defective training in childhood and early association with the
contaminated and deprived, induce a hand-to-mouth and too often
dissipated life.” He also saw alcohol consumption as a major
problem. “How many in all classes are poor – become bankrupts
indeed – because of the habits of expense they allow to grow on
them. How many a one has the indulgence in strong drink made to
go hatless and shoeless and coatless and even shirtless, yea
brought to a premature grave - leaving probably a widow and half
a dozen orphans on the poor roll or in the workhouse.” Tobacco
consumption received a lashing too. This was ironic for someone
whose family wealth had been significantly based on tobacco
importation and snuff manufacture! “…millions’ worth of the
products of the earth and of human labour combined annually
vanish in mere smoke …”. William McCombie (1809) also perceived
another problem and that was the use of borrowed money for
speculative investment, for example on railway shares. The
modern financial system would hardly have agreed with that
notion!
William saw four general schemes for the
distribution and redistribution of wealth in society. 1. To
promote and fence large distributions in the hands of
individuals by means of social usage and public law. 2. By law
to restrain accumulation and to compel distribution. 3. To
leave the distribution of wealth free, like its production, to
the spontaneous operation of social forces. 4. To make the
distribution of wealth entirely a matter of social arrangement
according to one or other of the schemes of communism. He
rejected scheme 4 on the grounds that communism “abolishes
self-action and places individuals entirely under the direction
of others”. Scheme 1 represented the then current position,
where law (for example the Law of Hypothec and the Law of
Entail) protected the accumulation of wealth derived from land
ownership, in a few hands. He theoretically supported Scheme 3
but admitted that no society was known which operated in this
way “in a state of enlightenment and moral elevation”. He
therefore concluded that there would have to be compulsion in
the redistribution of wealth, through the reform of the laws of
the country. One has to admit – that is what has happened!
The history of land ownership and
management in Scotland was a particular target of William
McCombie’s ire. He regretted the transformation of the Highland
chief from guardian of his people to landlord. “He no longer
shares fish, fowl and fauna with his retainers but keeps them
for himself and persecutes tenants who take them. The chief may
no longer live amongst his people but hundreds of miles away,
often in London. He has no obligation to make a contribution to
his local community except when they fall into pauperism. He
now may also claim the right to clear the land of its people,
land where their ancestors had an expectation to live. The
tenant not only has to pay rent to the landlord, but he also has
to compete for a new tenancy at the end of a lease.” William
McCombie’s radical solution to such ills was essentially land
nationalisation, where the Government would own the land and let
it to individuals on more favourable terms than the current
owners.
1857. “On education
in its constituents, objects and issues” (author). This
volume contained a series of essays and lectures by William
McCombie. In 1850 he had been one of a large number of Scotsmen
who had subscribed their names to a document calling for the
reform of the national educational curriculum, based on
perceived deficiencies in then current arrangements, ie
education at the hands of the Established
Church. Interestingly, James Adam, the editor of the Free
Press’ rival, the Aberdeen Herald (see below), was a
co-signatory.
1860. “The Literary Remains of George
Murray with a sketch of his life” (author/editor). George
Murray was a Peterhead loon born into straightened circumstances
in 1819. At the early age of seven he showed great persistence
in improving his family’s income by wandering off into the
country and asking a farmer he met by chance for work, to which
the farmer eventually agreed. George was set to herding “the
kye” and was retained in this role by the farmer for six
months. George Murray was then sent home with a shilling in his
hand and a fustian suite on his back. (“Fustian” was a
thick, hard-wearing cloth composed of cotton with linen or wool). Like
William McCombie’s other hero, Alexander Bethune, George Murray
showed an early aptitude for reading. There were few books at
home and George would pick up scraps of newspaper in the street
with which to practise his literary skills. He became
apprenticed to a cobbler about the age of 14 and eventually set
up business on his own account, which he continued until his
death at the age of 40. While working as a cobbler George spent
long hours in self-education, becoming thoroughly acquainted
with poetry, theology and science, especially geography and
astronomy. Eventually he turned his hand to writing and
produced stories, essays and poetry, usually with a local
context. “A tale of Ugie in olden time”, which was described as
having “considerable dramatic merit”, shining out in a rather
barren Buchan creative landscape. An example of his poetry
follows, which attempts to buck up the working class by turning
them to religion.
“Wearied and worn one, stricken
in spirit,
Fret not at feeling the gall in
thy lot;
Seemingly favoured ones do not
inherit
All thy imaginings – envy them
not
Who shall give way to forebodings
of sadness?
Clouds and thick darkness may
compass our way;
But there’s an Eye ever beaming
forth gladness,
Over and near us; look up! He
will stay.”
George Murray was instrumental in setting up
the Union Industrial School for poor children in Peterhead and
taught there for many years, while still pursuing his occupation
as a cobbler. In 1855 he was recruited to work for the Aberdeen
Free Press as Peterhead reporter, a role he fulfilled with great
tact and skill. For the last two years of his life he was
District Editor in charge of both the journalistic and
commercial aspects of the newspaper office. In an obituary, the
Peterhead Sentinel described him as “A man of sterling
integrity, unflinching independence and genuine Christian
character, he was respected while amongst us and will be deeply
regretted and long remembered.” When George Murray died at the
age of 40 from chronic enteritis of many years’ standing
(inflammatory bowel disease?) he left a widow and eight
children. William McCombie (1809) then devised a plan to
publish and sell this volume of George Murray’s work, the
proceeds to be donated to his family. It was divided into three
sections, headed “Tales”, “Essays” and “Poetry” and the price
was 2/6.
1864. “Modern Civilisation and its
relation to Christianity” (author). This was yet another
volume of collected essays by William McCombie (1809)
1869. “The Irish Land Question” (author). William
McCombie was a supporter of the Liberation Society which
campaigned for the abolition of state support to religion. At a
meeting held in Aberdeen in 1867 he moved a resolution, “That
the Irish Protestant Establishment is a gross political
injustice and a fruitful source of national disaffection, that
the subsidising of other religious bodies is equally to be
condemned and instead of lessening the evil only renders it more
intolerable and that the only practical remedy is the withdrawal
of all legislative endowments for the maintenance of religion,
due regard being had to the existing interests of
individuals.” He was
highly critical of the Protestant Ascendancy, the insecure
tenancy of the (mostly Catholic) Irish peasantry and the lack of
investment in land improvement. He toured Ireland to get a
personal acquaintance with conditions there. While he put much
of the blame for the inability of Ireland to support its
population on the big and often absent landlords, he found other
problems too, such as the lack of coal to form the basis of
manufacturing, the size of the population in relation to the
productive capacity of the land (and advocated emigration to
solve this problem) and the reluctance of the peasantry to
changing their agricultural methods. As with Scotland, he
suggested that land nationalisation would be appropriate if the
landlords refused to carry out land improvement works. His
pamphlet, “The Irish Land Question” took the form of a letter to
William Gladstone, then in his first premiership.
1871. “Sermons and
Lectures by William McCombie” (author – the collection was
edited, after the death of William McCombie, by his daughter,
May, who died in 1874). When he acquired a house in Aberdeen,
William McCombie (1809) became a member of the John Street
Baptist Church. On occasions when the minister was absent,
William often took charge of the service, including giving the
sermon. The 29 sermons contained in this volume were written
between 1856, or thereby and 1870. The volume also included two
lectures. There are no dates on the actual manuscripts and some
of the individual works appear to have been prepared in a
hurry. The
titles of the sermons are as follows. “Faith”, “Christ as the
sacrifice”, Christ as the sin-destroyer”, Christ as the source
of the higher life”, “Christ the light of men”, “The teaching of
Christ”, “The origin of the spiritual life”, “Spiritual
freedom”, “Spiritual sonship”, “The two schemes of life”, “The
life of faith”, “True worship”, “The homage of the soul”, “The
reconciliation of the world to God”, “The law in the heart”,
“Service”, “Striving”, “Faith and works”, “He that believeth
shall not make haste”, “Self-denial”, “The thorn in the flesh”,
“The Christian armour”, “The reproach of Christ”, “Ashamed of
Christ”, “The prodigal”, “Sin the great agent of destruction”,
“The permanency of moral habits”, “Overcoming” and “What is
religion?”
It is clear from the
above list of publications that William McCombie (1809) never
set out to write a book as such. Rather he wrote many shorter
items, such as essays, lectures, newspaper articles and sermons
and then subsequently cobbled them together to publish as books
or pamphlets. He clearly subscribed to the idea that God was
beyond human understanding. “Religion
is not, either as to its object, or as to its action on the
mind, to be brought fully within the comprehension of the human
understanding, but that is no reason why we should cease to
regard it rationally.” He was aware of the long history of the
past stored in layers of the earth’s crust and the many
revolutions in nature revealed by this record, but he did not
see such information as impinging on his religious
theorising. In “Christ the light of men” he dismissed the idea
propounded by some philosophers that life is just the result of
the operation of natural laws. “What is life? We cannot
tell. Even in the plant there is something that eludes both our
senses and our physical science. There is a class of
philosophers in these days who think they can dispense with a
principal of life. It will not ordinate in their scheme of
positive science and they ignore it or cast it out. I should as
soon think of ignoring the principle of gravitation.” William
clearly subscribed to the idea of a “life force” which animated
living things.
Mutual Instruction
Classes
“Mutual instruction” is a term which was
originally used to describe the monitorial system of education,
developed by Bell and Lancaster and introduced widely in the UK
and in Continental Europe early in the 19th century,
as a means of providing cheap schooling for poor pupils. In
this system the more able children (class monitors) were used to
teach the less able.
Another early 19th century
development to bring education to the masses was the
introduction of Mechanics’ Institutes, establishments which
provided education, mostly to working men, usually in technical
subjects. The motive for this innovation was partly to improve
the technical skills of the workforce but also to give working
men an alternative in the evenings to intoxication and
gambling. The first Mechanics’ Institute was established in
1821 by Leonard Horner, an Edinburgh businessman. This was
followed by the Glasgow Mechanics’ Institute, which was founded
by Dr George Birkbeck, a Yorkshireman who studied Medicine at
Edinburgh University before being appointed Professor of Natural
Philosophy at the Andersonian Institute in Glasgow (later to
become the University of Strathclyde). In 1800, he provided
free lectures on science and technology for young working men
and later, in 1823, he created a Mechanics’ Institute in the
city.
Mechanics’ Institutes were usually only
sustainable in big cities with at least some philanthropic
employers, manufacturing industry and large
populations. However, the principle of mutual instruction was
later adopted in, and adapted to, other social settings by a
variety of organisations. For example, in 1836 the Caledonian
Mercury, commenting on a course of chemistry lectures mounted by
the Dalkeith Scientific Association, noted that such
associations were spreading across the country offering
instruction to the greater mass of the population and “affords a
pleasing earnest of the dawn of that bright era in the world’s
history when all shall combine for mutual instruction and when
the lights of science shall dispel those clouds of ignorance
which still hover around man’s destiny, and cheer and brighten
the happy home of the humblest labourer and artisan in our free
and happy land.” Provision of mutual instruction classes was
often sponsored by teetotal groupings, such as the Liverpool
Total Abstinence Society. In Windygates, Fife in 1837 the
Windygates Agricultural Association meeting “gave an opportunity
for landlord and tenant, producers and consumers to meet for
mutual instruction in diffusing knowledge of the best means of
production.”
However, the most significant development in
mutual instruction was its introduction to the working class in
small towns and villages, not only as a means of gathering
knowledge in any subject, but also in gaining self-esteem,
writing and presentation skills, and empowerment to take their
own initiatives. In 1842 it was noted that the Wick and
Pultneytown Young Mens’ Mutual Instruction Society had increased
to about 30 members which met every Monday evening. Any member
was at liberty to propose the discussion of an “edifying and
instructing” subject. The Society’s President then nominated
four members to give opinions of the subject on the succeeding
evening, either by written essay or by oral
address. Unfortunately, not all young men were immediately won
over by this new movement. The John O’Groats Journal lamented
in 1845, “It is a pity indeed to see so many young persons
parading the streets at a time when they have an opportunity of
having their minds improved and having additions made to their
stock of knowledge for nothing.”
Rhynie Mutual Instruction Class
The first Mutual Instruction Class identified
in the North East of Scotland was the Craibstone Class, Parish
of Newhills, near Aberdeen. In 1842 it celebrated its first
anniversary with a soiree and ball on the evening of New Year’s
Day. “Some neat and appropriate speeches” were presented on the
benefits of mutual improvement societies. Similar societies
were in existence in Macduff (Banffshire) and Tarves
(Aberdeenshire) by 1844. But it was in 1846 that the most
significant development in mutual instruction occurred in
Aberdeenshire, not close to the city of Aberdeen but in the
remote parish of Rhynie, which in 1841 had a population of
1033. In the New Statistical Account of Scotland of 1842,
written by the minister of the Church of Scotland, the parish
was described as having “only” about 12 dissenting (ie
Non-Conformist) families. But that was quite a high
proportion, given the small overall population of the parish.
Robert Harvey Smith was an intelligent lad,
who was born into a farming family in Rhynie and was only 20
when in 1846 he collected together eleven other young men for a
meeting and submitted a set of draft rules to them for the
formation of a Mutual Instruction Class. Robert would later
attend university in Aberdeen and graduate with a degree in
Divinity. The rules of the class were debated by the attendees
and adopted, with some modifications. The principal aim of the
movement was mutual instruction of its members “by
the reading of essays and criticisms thereupon”. Members were
fined one penny if they were ten minutes late for a meeting
“unless an excuse satisfactory to the majority were given”. In
addition to member essays and talks, lectures by established
speakers were also presented.
The Rhynie Mutual
Instruction Class became very successful. Robert Harvey Smith
recruited a dedicated group of helpers who, over the next few
years repeatedly supported the Class by making
presentations. The cohort included Rev Alex Mackay, FRGS, Free
Church schoolmaster, Rev George Stewart, Established Church
schoolmaster, Rev A Nicholl of the Congregational Church and
John Stuart, Free School, all Rhynie. Schoolmasters and
ministers were recruited from nearby parishes too, such as
Auchindoir, Kinnethmont, Huntly and Lumsden. In addition, local
doctors and veterinarians gave talks. It is remarkable that the
Congregationalists and the Free Church were so heavily involved
and, just a few years after the disruption of 1843, the
Established Church also played its part in this movement which
was heavily dominated by the Non-Conformist churches. Rhynie
was one of the few parishes in Scotland where the Established
Church incumbent was displaced.
The programme of lectures arranged for the
Rhynie Mutual Instruction class in the spring and early summer
of 1847, mostly on science subjects, was as follows. 1st lecture
Rev A Mackay, Free Church, Rhynie “Heat”. 2nd Lecture
Dr Macdonald, Surgeon, Huntly “Anatomy part 1”. 3rd lecture
Rev George Stewart, Established Church, Rhynie “Origin of
Language”. 4th lecture Rev H Nicoll, Free Church,
Auchindoir “Geology”. 5th lecture Rev A Nicoll,
Congregational Church, Rhynie “Astronomy”. 6th lecture
Rev D Rose, Free Church, Kinnethmont “Magnetism and
Electricity”. 7th lecture R Troup jun, Schoolmaster,
Rhynie “Light”. 8th lecture Rev A Mackay, Free
Church, Rhynie “Laws of Motion”. 9th lecture Dr
Macdonald, Surgeon, Huntly “Anatomy part 2”.
At the end of 1847 the Rhynie Class held an
evening festival (such an event was often called a “soiree”) to
celebrate the achievements of the first year. During the
evening nine members of the class delivered their maiden
speeches while the audience “expressed their approbation of each
speaker by successive bursts of applause”. Rev Mr M’Kay and Rev
Mr Nicoll also gave enthusiastic addresses to the meeting. Such
annual celebrations became a standard feature, both at Rhynie
and at other Mutual Instruction Classes. These events were
usually preceded by tea and the presentations were often
followed by music or even by a ball.
While Mutual Instruction Classes were almost
exclusively a preserve of young males, who were mostly employed
in manual work, and the ones who were causing social problems
through drinking and other disruptive activities, in 1848 a
class member, William McConnochy made a presentation on “Female
Education”. In 1851, the Aberdeen and Banffshire Mutual
Instruction Union (see below) mounted an essay competition on
“Female education and training etc”. The winner was farmer
William Anderson of Alford. The Forgue Mutual Instruction Class
in 1851 heard an address on “Female influence and education, and
the indifference of society about these” and in 1854 a similar
class in Kinmuck received a presentation on “Female influence
and its value in the temperance cause”. The Leith-Lumsden class
encouraged ladies to join Female Mutual Instruction Classes at
their 1849 festival. This occasion was addressed by William
McCombie (1809). He was greeted “with much applause”. Such
egalitarian ideas, which William espoused, were rare at this
time.
Robert Harvey Smith was also instrumental in
taking the message of the Mutual Instruction Class to other
parishes outwith Rhynie, initially through a Corresponding
Committee, established in 1847. Two years later this work was
taken over by the creation of the Aberdeen and Banffshire Mutual
Instruction Union (ABMIU), an umbrella body, at a meeting held
in Rhynie, with Robert Harvey Smith as its Chairman. Eighteen
delegates from existing classes attended, though other classes
were unable to be represented. William McCombie (1809) of
Cairnballoch was elected as the first President of the ABMIU,
though it was probably a non-executive position. The entry on
William McCombie (1809) in the Dictionary of National Biography
says, “He
soon showed a taste for literature, and local debating societies
(presumably Mutual Instruction Classes) gave him an
opportunity of cultivating his talents”, but this can hardly be
true. Rhynie was the nearest Mutual Instruction Class to
Cairnballoch, lying about 11 miles distant by road. By the
time the Rhynie Class was established in 1846, William was
already 37 and had established his reputation with a string of
publications, the most prominent of which, “Hours of Thought”
had originally appeared in 1835. His first known contribution
as a speaker to the Rhynie class was in June 1849. It must have
been the case that William was elected President of the ABMIU
because of his already established literary reputation and his
sympathy for rural self-help. He was a figurehead for this
movement, an illustration of what could be achieved in a farming
community through determination, allied with innate ability.
William McCombie (1809)
of Cairnballoch was President or Honorary President of the ABMIU
between 1849 and at least 1856. The ABMIU had as its objective,
“The
cultivation of friendly feeling and sincere cooperation in
everything related to the interests of the Associated Mutual
Instruction Classes and the establishment of others in
favourable localities”. To help promote its message, the ABMIU
published for six months in 1850 “The Rural Echo; and Magazine
of the North of Scotland Mutual Instruction Associations”. It
had a monthly circulation of more than 1,000 but appears not to
have reached a level of sustainability. However, the ABMIU was
still successful in spreading the message about mutual
instruction across the region. At the 4th annual
assembly of the Union, held at Forgue in 1853, the following
information was reported. The
constituent societies (Alford, Auchleven, Drumdollo, Essie,
Gardenston, Grange, Insch, Lumsden, Leochel-Cushnie and Rhynie)
all pursued the self- and mutual-instruction of their members
and the intellectual improvement of the people in their
respective neighbourhoods. They were all non-sectarian in their
constitutions and collectively had 660 members, who had read
1177 essays or papers. They had raised twelve libraries
containing 1206 volumes, presented 132 public lectures, with an
average attendance of 120 and 40 social meetings with a mean
audience of 210. Some papers, written entirely by members, had
been published and 10,260 copies of these distributed. This was
a remarkable achievement and a major contribution to the
education of the rural working class in Aberdeenshire. William
McCombie (1809) must have been proud to be associated with such
a worthy initiative.
William McCombie (1809) appears to have
spoken three times at meetings of the Rhynie class in 1849, 1850
and 1851. His 1849 contribution was particularly noteworthy in
presenting his opinions on mutual instruction. The Aberdeen
Journal reported that, “After
noticing the condition of farm servants and the conduct of their
masters to them, making some remarks on the bothy and large farm
systems and giving a gentle hint to smokers and snuffers he
adverted to a remark which fell from one of the speakers
regarding the acquisition of knowledge. He said that the mind
should not receive knowledge mechanically as the sponge takes up
water and give it forth again without being influenced by it,
but as the lime shell which imbibes it and becoming assimilated
with it is fitted for fertilising the soil on which it is
spread. One of the lectures had been on ghost-seeing – he
trusted there would be but one other ghost seen in Rhynie – the
ghost of ignorance – departing as a certain traditional ghost
once did (Here Mr McCombie gave an account of this ghost and its
last words amid shouts of laughter). One speaker had said that
twelve Mutual Instruction Classes could now be seen from the Top
o’ Noth (a local hill); they all knew the old rhyme – “The Buck,
Belrinnes, Noth and Bennachie, Are the four landmarks on this
side the sea.” He had hoped these would speedily become
landmarks of an intellectual sea which would submerge ignorance
and vice beneath its waves. Top o’ Noth was likely to become
so, the others had yet not that honour.” (Top o’Noth lies close
to Rhynie, the other hills are respectively close to Keith,
Dufftown and Inverurie). It
was reported that William McCombie had given “decidedly the
speech of the evening was frequently interrupted by bursts of
applause and sat down amid loud cheers”. He was clearly admired
by the working class in this locality.
In September 1849 William McCombie
addressed the annual soiree of the Leith-Lumsden Class. “During
the evening a glass of ginger wine was handed round” – a highly
atypical occurrence, as such meetings were usually
alcohol-free. William McCombie (1809) addressed the meeting and
he made his own position clear on the effect of alcohol on
intellectual activity. He disagreed with Burns’ theory of wit
“Leese me on drink”. He held to an older saying “When the
drink’s in the wit’s out”. William attributed the demise of
some associations to their being too narrow and associated with
drink, such as cattle shows. Also, a distinguished literary man
had told him that no one spoke sense after dinner. William
thought they should deal with the whole nature of man. He urged
the young men on mutual instruction courses that mere
intellectual training was insufficient, but that the moral and
spiritual nature of man must also be cultivated.
William McCombie was also known to have
addressed several other organisations involved in adult
education, including the Clatt Mutual Instruction Class and the
Huntly Mutual Instruction Society, both in 1850, the Aberdeen
Young Men’s Literary Union and the Aberdeen Mechanics’
Institute, both in 1854, the Alford Mutual Instruction Society
in 1855, the Oldmeldum Mechanics’ Institute in 1856, the
Bon-Accord Literary Society, the
Free Gilcomston Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association and
at Huntly in 1857, at Aberchirder and separately at Portsoy on “Money
credit and banking” in 1858, and
to the Banff Mutual Instruction Society in 1859.
A brief history of Aberdeen newspapers
It is perhaps not surprising that William
McCombie (1809) should have begun to harbour thoughts of owning
or editing a newspaper as a means of propagating his personal
philosophy on religion, politics and social affairs, poetry and
literature. But before delving into William’s involvement in the
local press in Aberdeen and more widely in North East Scotland,
it will first it be important to set the scene by briefly
recounting the history of Aberdeen’s newspaper titles.
The first Aberdeen newspaper was the
Aberdeen Journal which was initially published on 5th January
1748, by Aberdeen printer James Chalmers. It appeared as a
weekly edition. During the next 84 years several attempts were
made to found rival organs, but none lasted for long. It was
not until 1832 that a serious competitor came along in the form
of the Aberdeen Herald and General Advertiser (but generally
known by the truncated title of the “Herald”). It was created
by the fusion of the Aberdeen Gleaner and the Chronicle. Fierce
competition for readers commenced between the Aberdeen Journal
and its new rival. They were briefly joined by other would-be
competitors, the most notable of which was the North of Scotland
Gazette (NSG) in 1845 but none of the newcomers proved to be
enduring titles. In 1841 Aberdeen, with a population of 67,000,
had four weekly newspapers, the Journal
(2300 circulation), Herald 2050, Banner 1200 and Constitutional
500. The Banner (terminated 1851) and the Constitutional soon
met their demise in this clearly overcrowded newsprint market.
The Aberdeen Herald and General Advertiser
This newspaper was created in 1832 by the
merger of the Aberdeen Gleaner and the Chronicle. Politically,
the Herald supported the Whigs. Its first editor was John
Powers, but he was replaced by James Adam, who was characterised
by being politically radical and unafraid to criticise religious
views, especially those of ministers of the Established Church,
which he did at the time of the Disruption in 1843. He
supported the Chartists, a movement dedicated to gaining
political rights for the working classes, which was active
between 1838 and 1848. The demands in their charter were
universal male suffrage, secret ballots, equal-sized electoral
districts, abolition of property qualifications for MPs, payment
of MPs and annual parliaments. At this time there was a strong
Total Abstinence movement in Aberdeen, which was entrenched in
the evangelical Presbyterian churches. James Adam was
unsympathetic to abstinence and used to meet with his cronies in
the Lemon Tree tavern.
Ministers of Religion were often outraged
by the content of the Aberdeen Herald and, famously in 1841,
James Adam retaliated by seeking damages from Rev John
Allan. It was claimed that Rev Allan had used the words, “There
is an infidel weekly publication or paper in Aberdeen edited by
an infidel, an infidel villain, a blasphemous villain, a low
villain, a hired agent for attacking the clergy, an agent of the
devil, a Satanic agent.” William McCombie (1809) had been a
supporter of the Aberdeen Herald during the 1840s because of its
Liberalism, but his views on the newspaper must have been
somewhat ambivalent. He was in tune with its political stance
but must have been uncomfortable with its irreligious
tone. James Macdonell (a sometime reporter on the Free Press
– see below), said of Adam “If
he wants that free and easy air respecting religion and that
desperately witty manner, which are characteristics of Mr A’s
effusions, it has a depth of meaning and a moral suggestiveness
which to them is utterly foreign.” He
further described James Adam as follows, quoting from Hazlitt, “he
is an honest man with a total want of principle”. Adam remained
as editor of the Herald until 1862 when he was succeeded by
Archibald Gillies.
The North of Scotland Gazette
The prospectus for a
new title, the North of Scotland Gazette (NSG), was published in
early 1845, which proposed a four-page, large-size, weekly
newspaper with content split equally between advertisements and
commercial intelligence on the one hand, and local and general
news on the other. It was divided into two sections, the
advertisements to be distributed free and the news and
commercial section available by subscription. The annual fee
was £5 for which customers would receive both sections. It
described its own policy in the following terms. “In so far as
general politics are concerned, the Gazette preserves strict
neutrality; but its columns exhibit a concise yet comprehensive
view of the varied and complicated movements of the whole
political system. Unbiassed by party , it gives weekly a
faithful and impartial record of Domestic and Foreign Affairs, -
the sole aim being to afford every necessary information to the
Politician to secure the countenance and patronage of the Man of
Business, to interest the Farmer as well as the Proprietor of
the Soil, to instruct and amuse the more General Reader, and in
every way to make the Gazette a Complete Family Newspaper.” It
was proposed that publication would start as soon as 700
subscriptions had been secured and this point seems to have been
reached about the end of March 1845 as the first edition
appeared on 1 April of that year. The publisher / proprietor
was William Bennett, a printer based at 42 Castle Street,
Aberdeen.
Almost immediately the NSG got into a
stooshie (disagreement) with two of its rivals, the John
O’Groats Journal and the Aberdeen Herald, over the appropriation
of paragraphs from those newspapers without acknowledgement, and
the NSG then seemed to labour to become economically
viable. Another rival, the Banner, the newspaper of the Free
Church, was also struggling for survival at about this time. By
1847 the NSG had acquired Rev JH Wilson as its editor. He was a
vice-president of the Total Abstinence Society. Rev Wilson
continued in this role until at least 1851, though after that
date he was no longer listed as having a connection with the NSG
in the Post Office Directory. He was succeeded by David
Macallan (see below), one of the newspaper’s proprietors, until
1853. The
great significance of the NSG was that it was taken over by a
partnership of George King,
William McCombie (1809) and David Macallan in 1849. In
political character it became a “decided advocate of liberalism
and voluntaryism”. As part of the change in editorial policy,
the editor of the NSG, JH Wilson left the paper to become the
Minister of the Albion Street Chapel, Aberdeen. He departed
with a £50 “golden goodbye” from the proprietors. The new
owners clearly had their own political and social agenda and
installed William McCombie (1809) as the editor of the new paper
in 1853. He supported disestablishment of the Church of
Scotland. Two subjects on which the Free Press campaigned
consistently were universal suffrage and the expansion of
secular education.
So, what was the background of the new owners
(other than William McCombie (1809)) and what did they have in
common?
David Macallan, a Baptist, was the son of
an Aberdeen ship’s captain, born about 1793, who himself took up
the trade of upholsterer, initially at 1 Martins Lane, but from
1835 at Strawberry Bank, in the firm of Allan and Macallan. He
resigned from his business partnership in 1848 after the firm
received a Royal Warrant and he felt that, on principle, he
could not sign an oath of allegiance. David Macallan seems to
have been reasonably well-off. When he died in 1858, his
personal estate was stated at between £1,500 and £2,000
(£162,000 - £216,000 in 2018 money). The value of his share in
the newspaper co-partnery with George King and William McCombie
was estimated at the time at £53 (£5,725 in 2018 money). David
Macallan devoted much of his time to public life. He was a town
councillor for many years and took a strong interest in the
welfare of the poor, for example, contributing to the West
Aberdeen Coal Fund, the Public Soup Kitchen, the Albion Street
Mission, the House of Refuge (for destitute persons), the
Aberdeen Lodging House Association, the Benevolent
Fund for Female Domestic Servants while labouring under
sickness, the Industrial School Association and the Aberdeen
Property Investment Company. This last body was a private
sector vehicle set up to build adequate houses for the poor,
which was also supported by George King. David Macallan was a
deeply religious man and
a member of the Auxiliary Religious Tract Society.
George King was born at Slains on the
north east coast of Aberdeenshire in 1797. He was the son of a
shoemaker, leather merchant and currier and this line of
business seemed to be his destiny too but, by 1827, he and his
brother Charles, who was born in 1800, had moved to
Aberdeen. Charles set up as a furnishing tailor and followed
this business until he retired about 1856. George was initially
described as a book agent but from 1828 this changed to
bookseller, often with additions to that enduring
title. Between 1831 and 1842 his business was also as a
stationer and between 1829 and 1842 the shop was also the
Depository of the Tract and Aberdeen Auxiliary Bible
Societies. In 1843, on his brother Robert joining him, the
trading name changed to George and Robert King (G&R) and the
Depository function lapsed. In 1853 another brother Arthur
establishing his printing business (see below) and printing was
dropped by G&R. Although Robert had died in 1845, his name was
retained in the title of the business until about 1864. By 1864
George King too had retired and the business was passed on to
another bookseller, James Murray.
George King’s bookshop, stationery and
publishing business in St Nicholas Street was well known to
Aberdonians with religious and social interests. In addition to
new books with a religious theme, pamphlets and sermons, he
frequently advertised books of poetry and lists of second-hand
books which had been passed to him for disposal. George King
was the publisher, in 1845, of “Memoirs of Alexander Bethune” by
William McCombie (see above). G&R were also the publishers of
Christian Sociology by the Rev John Peden Bell in 1853. Bell
was a close friend of William McCombie (1809). In the social
sphere, George King was a thorough-going liberal and
abstainer. In 1847 he was the signatory of a letter to Lord
Provost Blaikie objecting to the provision of intoxicating
liquor at funerals. He subscribed to good causes such as the
West Aberdeen Coal Fund, the Aberdeen School of Industry for
Girls, the relief of the unemployed in the Aberdeen suburb of
Woodside, the unemployed weavers in Lancashire in 1862, the
Boys’ School of Industry and the Model Lodging House. He was
involved in the setting up of the Improved
House Accommodation Company Ltd in 1859, whose objective was the
provision of decent accommodation for the working
classes. Another housing initiative to receive his support was
the Aberdeen Property Investment Company which appeared to
function like a building society in taking deposits for interest
and providing loans to members to build their own heritable
properties. He
was a member of Captain Dingwall-Fordyce’s (Liberal) election
committee in 1847. At the General Election of 1852 he was a
member of the committee supporting Mr Thomson who stood for
election to the constituency of the City of Aberdeen on a
platform of “progressive reform” and in 1855 he supported the
candidacy of Colonel Sykes. George King was for many years a
member, then the chairman, of the Old Machar Parochial Board
where he took a particular interest in the relief of the
poor. He wrote a tract “Modern
Pauperism and the Scottish Poor Laws” in 1871 and at one time he
was chairman of the Old Machar Poorhouse. In
religion George King was a Congregationalist and was a trustee
of the Congregational Chapel in George Street. He was heavily
involved in the building of a new Congregational Chapel in
Belmont Street in 1864 and he was also a member of the London
Missionary Society.
Unsurprisingly, George King was opposed to
slavery in America and was instrumental, along with William
McCombie (1809) and his cousin James Bain McCombie, in
establishing the Freedman’s Aid Society in 1865. The purpose of
this body was to promote the work of an anti-slavery delegation
from America to the religious community in Aberdeen. In
addition to his main business of bookselling, he had other
business interests from time to time, such as partner in a
flesher business and he was a shareholder in the Aberdeen Music
Hall Ltd and various other companies. His non-business
interests included the Volunteer Artillery and Rifle Association
and antiquarian studies (he was elected a Fellow of the Society
of Scottish Antiquaries in 1870). George King was also a member
of the Spalding Club, which was devoted to antiquarian studies
in Aberdeenshire. When he died in 1872, George King left a
personal estate of £3,821 (about £428,000 in 2018 money). He
also owned number 19, Carden Place, an upmarket residential
street in Aberdeen.
Robert King was born in 1811 in Banff. He
started a bookshop and printing business in Peterhead but, in
1843, Robert went into partnership with brother George, as
George and Robert King, based in St Nicholas Street, Aberdeen,
with a separate printing works in Golden Square and, from 1849,
in Flourmill Lane. Robert was also an accomplished writer but,
sadly, died in 1845. Shortly before his demise, G&R published “The
Covenanters in the North”, Robert’s best-known work. (Robert’s
son, also George, became a distinguished botanist and doctor in
the Indian Army, who worked on the extraction of quinine (for
treating malaria) from the Chinchona tree, and the distribution
of the drug throughout India via the postal service, for which
he received several honours).
Arthur King was another brother of George,
Charles and Robert, though the youngest of the four, having been
born at Peterhead in 1815. About 1835 he too joined the
printing trade and served a seven-year apprenticeship as a
compositor, presumably with Robert King in Peterhead. After
completing his training, Arthur worked for a short while for the
Aberdeen Banner and on his own account before setting up as a
printer by 1843. At the 1851 Census of Scotland, Arthur’s trade
was described as printer and compositor.
According to the obituary written by James
Macdonell, “For
many years he (William McCombie (1809)) had strongly felt
the need of a local newspaper which should be at once decidedly
Liberal and earnestly Christian. The need was the more
impressive because the Aberdeen Herald was then edited by a very
clever and reckless man (James Adam – see above) who
constantly poured ridicule on all religious earnestness and
whose writing was made formidable by its broad humour and its
force of style.
The first stage in the process of creating an
alternative journalistic organ had been the purchase of the
struggling NSG and the change of editorial direction in
1849. The second stage had been the replacement of the NSG with
a new publication, the Aberdeen Free Press and North of Scotland
Review (generally abbreviated to “Free Press”) in 1853. This
title was modified in 1855 to “Aberdeen Free Press, Peterhead,
Fraserburgh and Buchan News and North of Scotland Advertiser”,
though this title change was reversed in 1869. The owners of
the Free Press were David Macallan, William McCombie, George
King and Arthur King. The following abstract from the Aberdeen
Herald in March 1853 is the announcement by Arthur King of the
impending change. “Arthur King and Co, Printers Broad Street
respectfully intimate to the public that in place of the North
of Scotland Gazette which in consequence of a partial change in
the proprietary (presumably the admission of Arthur King to
the partnership) is to be discontinued, they will commence
publishing on 6th May ensuing in a considerably
enlarged size and under the same editorial superintendence “The
Aberdeen Free Press and North of Scotland Review”. The Free
Press will be conducted on the same general principles as the
“North of Scotland Gazette” has been for the last four years.”
In June 1852 Arthur King placed the
following notice in the Aberdeen Journal. “Arthur
King, Printer, begs respectfully to intimate to the inhabitants
of Aberdeen and its vicinity that he has commenced commercial
business in the above line in those central premises 2 ½ Broad
Street (second floor) where he will devote his attention to
general printing including Book, Pamphlet and Jobbing work.” He
was the sole partner in the company. Arthur
King’s business was much more extensive that the publication of
the Free Press. He developed a high reputation as a book
printer and became the printer for the Aberdeen University
Press. But in 1869 he both moved premises and ceased to be the
printer and publisher of the newspaper. “Arthur King & Co
Printers beg to intimate that with a view to secure extended
accommodation for their largely increased general printing
business they have taken a lease of those premises Clark’s
Court, Upperkirkgate, to which they will remove at the end of
the month of July ensuing. Ceasing by mutual agreement its
connection with the Aberdeen Free Press.” What caused the split
with his other partners is presently unclear. The Free Press
then undertook its own printing of the newspaper. However,
successful though he was as a printer Arthur ran into trouble
three years later when he overtraded and ran out of capital. He
had to grant a trust deed over his assets in favour of his
creditors. The business was put up for sale and then acquired
by the company’s foreman, William McKenzie and continued in a
successful way. In marked contrast to his brother George,
Arthur King seems to have been almost exclusively focussed on
his business and not much interested in civic or social
matters. Arthur died in 1882.
William McCombie (1809)’s editorship of
the Free Press
It is not known how William McCombie came
to meet George King and David Macallan but, from the above
review of the background of his two partners, they clearly
possessed common interests in religion and religious books,
social policy and literature and it is likely that these shared
themes brought them together, perhaps initially on William
McCombie’s occasional forays to Aberdeen on farm business, when
he would likely have stocked up on books, at religious meetings,
or on occasions when he was addressing mutual instruction
classes, or similar associations, or when he sought a publisher
for his first work, “Hours of Thought”, which reached the
bookshops in 1835.
William McCombie (1809)
was editor of the Aberdeen Free Press from its introduction in
1853 until his death in 1870. James Macdonell said of this
development, “Untrained in the ways of journalism and despising
some of its traditions, he tended for a time to write over the
heads of his readers. The leading articles which he penned in
the seclusion of Cairnballoch, or in the quiet study of his town
house (latterly 9 Broadfold Place) too often bore traces
of the metaphysical atmosphere in which they had been
conceived. Readers who pined for the personality and the hard
hitting which distinguished the provincial press (eg from the
Aberdeen Herald) were often dragged against their will
through a thicket of ethical and philosophical principles. Like
most men with a decided turn and aptitude for metaphysical
thought, Mr McCombie found it difficult to discuss any subject
without a reference to first principles. He constantly sought
an ethical or a philosophical basis on which to rear the
slightest superstructure of Imperial or Ecclesiastical
policy.” And, “If Mr McCombie thus limited the number of his
readers, he gave a new moral dignity and a new tone of intellect
to the journalism of Northern Scotland by the subjects which he
chose for discussion, by his philosophical habit of treatment
and by the noble morality of his creed.” It clearly took
William McCombie some time to come to terms with his new role
and to recognise that his readers would likely cease to
subscribe if the content of the paper was above or beyond their
intellectual grasp.
The circulation of the Free Press encompassed
the counties of Aberdeen,
Kincardine, Forfar, Banff, Moray, Nairn, and Inverness. In
1855 the Free Press had a circulation of only 731 against 3885
for the Journal and 3067 for the Herald. The Free Press had to
struggle for its place in the market for newspapers in Aberdeen
and the surrounding country, especially with the Herald, but by
1865 its circulation had risen to about 2500. The Aberdeen
Journal had a clearly separate editorial stance being a
supporter of the Conservatives and the Established
Church. However, the Free Press gradually gained ground on its
two larger rivals. Stamp Duty on newspapers had kept their cost
high but in 1855 this tax was abolished. Also, taxation of
advertising was eliminated. Then, in addition to the regular
edition of the Free Press, published on Friday, price 4 ½ pence,
a second edition, really a cut down version of the Friday
edition was published the following Tuesday. This new edition
was priced at 3 ½ pence and was known as the “Penny Free
Press”. It continued for eight months. In 1865 the Free Press
again moved to producing two separate editions per week and in
1872 this increased to daily publication, but still with a
weekly version. It was not until1876 that the Aberdeen Journal
moved to daily publication, on its ownership moving to a limited
company structure. The Aberdeen Herald went into decline and in
1876 it was absorbed into the weekly edition of the Aberdeen
Free Press. Competition then continued between the Aberdeen
Journal and the Aberdeen Free Press until 1922 when the two
merged under the title of the Aberdeen Press and Journal (see
below).
William Alexander (1826 – 1894)
William McCombie (1809) was aided in the
growth of the Free Press by the recruitment of some outstanding
journalistic talent, the most important of which was William
Alexander (1826 – 1894). William was born on the farm of
Westerhouses, Rescivet, Chapel of Garioch, Aberdeenshire. He
was the eldest of ten children and his father James was a farmer
and blacksmith. William Alexander had only a basic school
education at Daviot and at an early age went to work on his
father’s farm, another “ferm loon” destined to follow in his
father’s footsteps. At the age of 20, William suffered a severe
injury on the farm and had to have a leg amputated, which
necessitated a revision of his career intentions. During a long
recuperation he taught himself shorthand and extended his basic
education. It quickly became apparent that William Alexander
had substantial literary talent. At the time of the 1851 Census
of Scotland, William Alexander, despite his disability, was
still working on his father’s 50-acre farm. However, through
mutual instruction classes, he came into contact with William
McCombie (1809), when he won an essay competition on farm
servants. McCombie gave him a thorough grounding in “the
leading philosophical tendencies of the age”. William McCombie
then offered William Alexander a job as a journalist, which must
initially have been on the NSG, in the autumn of 1852. He wrote
under the pseudonym “Rusticus”. This paper was replaced by the
Aberdeen Free Press in May 1853.
William Alexander was first listed in the
Post Office Directory of Aberdeen in 1858, when he was described
as “Reporter (Free Press Office)”. This status was maintained
until 1863. Between 1864 and 1870, William’s status was raised
to “Sub-Editor (Free Press Office)”. William McCombie (1809),
the first editor of the Free Press died in post in 1870 and
William Alexander was appointed in his place. From listings in
the Post Office Directory, he retired in turn about 1876 and
from 1877, while his connection to the newspaper was maintained,
he had no special title.
Like William McCombie (1809), William
Alexander espoused radical views on the social organisation of
land and promoted the rights of tenant farmers through the
newspaper. He was an elder of the Free Church. William
Alexander was also a member of Aberdeen Philosophical Society
and the New Spalding Club. When the Institute of Journalists
was formed in 1884, he became president of the Aberdeen branch.
William Alexander (1826 - 1894)
William Alexander as author
His position on the staff of a weekly
newspaper gave William Alexander the opportunity to write
creatively and to have his novels published, initially by
serialisation, in the pages of the Free Press. In the mid-19th century
the working language of most of the rural Aberdeenshire
population was the Doric and William’s work was written in a
mixture of raw, uncompromising Doric and English. He
progressively developed his reputation, which was always
greatest in his native county, partly because of the use of the
native dialect, partly due to his descriptions of rural life,
but also due in some measure because of the artistic quality of
his creations. Sketches
of Rural Life in Aberdeenshire first
appeared in the Aberdeen Free Press during 1853 and The
Authentic History of Peter Grundie was published in
the Penny Free Press in 1855. His
other publications included - “The Laird of Dammochdyle” (1865),
“Johnny Gibb of Gushetneuk in the Parish of Pyketillim” (1869 –
1870), “Sketches of life among my ain folk” (1875), “Notes and
Sketches illustrative of northern rural life in the eighteenth
century” (1877), “Twenty-five years: a personal retrospect”
(1878), “Memoir of the late Andrew Jervie” (with JG Mackie)
(1879), A study of the Rinderpest outbreak of 1865 – 1855
(1882), “Mrs Garden: a memorial sketch” (1887), “The making of
Aberdeenshire” (1888). “Johnny Gibb” was his most famous oevre. After
being serialised, it was published in book form in 1871 and then
went through many editions, such was its appeal. Even today, it
is one of the most popular works of fiction employing the Doric.
James Macdonell was born in 1842 at Dyce,
near Aberdeen. His father, a Highlander and a Roman Catholic
worked for the Excise, in consequence of which the Macdonell
family moved from place to place during James’ formative
years. James’ mother, Rachel, in contrast to his father, was a
Protestant. While the family was based in Inverness, Rachel
Macdonell taught young James to read and he showed an early
affinity with the written word. However, he did not take to
school lessons and his education was advanced by the Rhynie
Mutual Instruction Class when the family was based in this
remote parish. James joined the class on 3 December 1857 when
he was 15 and is known to have read at least three papers, on
“Light Periodical Literature”, “Dress” and “Public
Opinion”. James also started to learn French, which would serve
him well in his future career as a journalist.
Sadly, James Macdonell’s father developed
rheumatic fever, which led to heart disease. He moved the
family to Aberdeen, but he died there in 1858. James then took
a job as a clerk in Alexander Pirie’s paper mills at Stoneywood
near Dyce. (The last functioning paper mill in Aberdeen
still occupies this site). He blossomed in the more open
and cultured life of the city, but this environment also caused
him to question the tenets of his Roman Catholic faith, which
issue had already been stirred in Rhynie, due to the mix of
religions in his home, where he had argued with his
father. James was introduced to William McCombie (1809) by Dr
Peter Smith of Rhynie and Macdonell and McCombie immediately
took to each other. McCombie had a great intellectual influence
on the young James Macdonell and, realising his potential,
recruited him to make contributions to the Aberdeen Free
Press. James Macdonell never had a fixed position on the staff
of the newspaper but worked for the Revenue, writing in his
spare time. In both the 1861 and 1862 editions of the Post
Office Directory for Aberdeen, James was listed as “Officer of
the Inland Revenue”, while continuing his side-line as a
journalist. He gave up his Roman Catholicism and joined the
John Street Chapel which was the meeting place for a very active
group of Aberdonians with intellectual inclinations. James
Macdonell wrote a series of articles on his new perception of
the Roman Catholic faith, which were published in the Free
Press. The first was entitled “Romanism and some of the sources
of its strength”. In December 1860 James Macdonell reviewed the
autobiography of Carlyle of Inveresk for the newspaper.
But all was not well with the
editor. William McCombie had suffered from ill-health for some
time, due to a lung condition and in June 1861, James Macdonell
wrote. “Mr McCombie’s health which for years has been delicate
has at last fairly given way. Continued brain work with hardly
any intermission for years has reduced his strength to the
lowest ebb. The result has been a command from his medical
adviser to proceed to the Continent without delay. He starts
for Geneva on Wednesday next with two of his family. In his
absence I have consented to write the leaders for the Free Press
… I am glad to have the opportunity of making some return for
his oft-repeated kindness to me. … This week two articles of
mine will appear one on “The Indian Budget” and the other on
“American Slavery”. The one on “Vagrancy” is by the sub-Editor
(William Alexander)”. Clearly, every crisis is
somebody’s opportunity!
After his father’s death, James Macdonell
felt his responsibility as head of his family, consisting of his
mother and her nine children. James now wanted and needed a
full-time career as a journalist and, as a consequence of his
journalistic work and a lady acquaintance, Mrs Baker, that he
met through the John Street Chapel, he gained an introduction to
the Edinburgh Daily Review. Unsurprisingly, since he had made
his mark so rapidly at the Aberdeen Free Press, he was taken on
and thus became a full-time newspaper employee. He left
Aberdeen and his close association with William McCombie (1809)
but he made clear in the obituary of his former mentor,
published in The Spectator in 1870, that McCombie’s influence
upon him had been profound. James Macdonell enjoyed an
illustrious journalistic career. After the Edinburgh Daily
Review, he became editor of the Northern Daily Express (at the
age of 22), then had a staff position on the Daily Telegraph and
finally became a leader writer on The Times. He died in London
in 1879.
James Macdonell (1842 - 1879)
Other notable journalists recruited to the
Aberdeen Free Press by William McCombie included George Murray
(see above), based in Peterhead and Andrew Halliday, who was
engaged as the paper’s London correspondent. Andrew Halliday
(Duff) was the son of Rev William Duff and was born at Marnoch,
Banffshire in 1830. Andrew was educated at Marischal College,
Aberdeen. From 1830 he lived in London, where he discarded the
“Duff” surname. He wrote for Cornhill Magazine but was also
well-known for his dramatic work, for example, he adapted “David
Copperfield” successfully for the stage. He died in 1877.
William Watt was an Alford weaver who had
literary tastes, having been a founder of the Alford Literary
Society and a vigorous promoter of the ABMIU. William McCombie
recruited him as a reporter and reviewer on the staff of the
Aberdeen Gazette in early 1853. He then moved on to the Free
Press but sadly died in 1854, aged 31. William McCombie praised
him in the Free Press for “his
steady and enthusiastic devotion to self-education and the
acquisition of knowledge, and for his discriminative taste and
profound love of truth …”.
William Carnie was born in Aberdeen in 1825
but received little formal education. He was apprenticed to an
engraver and advanced his education through classes at the
Mechanics’ Institute. William also proved to have musical
talents, and these were developed through his membership of the
West Church. In 1849 he was recruited as a reporter for the NSG
and in 1852 took on the role of reporter and sub-editor on the
Aberdeen Herald. Later he became the drama critic of the Free
Press, a role he fulfilled for many years.
The style, content and layout of the Free
Press
This weekly newspaper consisted of eight
pages and the content has been summarised under the following
topics. Advertisements
(constituting about 25% of its space), money markets, home news,
foreign news (rather sketchily treated), commercial list,
poetry, births, marriages and deaths, shipping news, commerce
and manufacturers, agriculture (strongly represented),
horticulture, serial fiction, biography, memoirs, history,
temperance reform, voluntaryism, rural life, sketches, new
unions and societies, Olympic Games, political parties,
monuments, famous people, Boer War and popular events. The
paper “Circulates
amongst the middle and operative classes in the North of
Scotland, an agricultural, trading and manufacturing district"
In its early
years, the last page was where the
editor indulged his interests in literature, philosophy,
science, religion and church news. This page was also the venue
where readers aired their views, often in indignant terms, with
the editor frequently adding his own comments at the end of a
letter. For example, in the edition of 5 January 1855 contained
a very long and forthright letter on the immorality of ordinary
Aberdonians. The editor then questioned if Aberdeen really was
“the worst city in Britain” in this regard, as claimed by the
correspondent. The perils of alcohol consumption were a
frequent theme and the 9 February 1855 edition had a long
article on the problems of boozing throughout Scotland, written
by “Aliquis”. Thoughtful book reviews were a prominent feature
of the paper, often contributed by William McCombie’s
Non-conformist minister friends. The paper supported the Free
Church and also contained news of events in the United
Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches.
It was clear that the content of the Free
Press was aimed at a group which included working men in the
towns and countryside, and also the tenant farmers. In this
last respect, William McCombie’s familiarity with agricultural
issues and the prominence they received in the newspaper helped
it to advance its popularity in the countryside. In the 16
March 1855 paper, a correspondent suggested the institution of a
Mechanics’ Fair annually in Aberdeen to display the inventions
of working men. Emigration was another theme. In the 30 March
edition, there was information on wage rates in Canada and the
United States and Thomas McCombie (1819), a brother of William
McCombie (1805) of Tillyfour, who became a colonial
administrator in Melbourne, authored several articles on
Australia, including immigrant remuneration. During early 1855
the editor also included a substantial series of articles on
life assurance and its benefits. Other themes given an airing,
which were close to William McCombie’s heart, were the need to
improve the education of young male farm labourers and the lack
of spare time for young female servants to do likewise.
Was William McCombie a part-time editor?
William McCombie (1809) retained his farm at
Cairnballoch during his editorship on the Aberdeen Free Press
and he
could “go weeks without entering the office”. But
he had recruited some very able journalists to the paper,
particularly William Alexander, who were capable of producing
the newspaper in his absence. It should be born in mind that
the Free Press was a weekly paper throughout much of his
editorship and there was no pressing need for William to be
present in Aberdeen every working day. It is also known that
many of his literary contributions were penned at Cairrnballoch
and he received draft leading articles and other communications
at home on a regular basis Travelling the 30 or so miles from
Alford to Aberdeen would have been time-consuming, so it would
have made sense for the journey to be undertaken only when
necessary. The “Vale of Alford coach ran daily into Aberdeen
and was revived under a new partnership in 1852. It ceased in
1859 on the opening of the Aberdeen to Alford Railway. However,
without his dedicated and able staff William McCombie’s
semi-detached editorial status would probably not have delivered
success.
William McCombie (1809)’s farming
activities
Cairnballoch farm consisted on about 115
acres. In 1841 it employed four servants or labourers, in 1851,
five and in 1861, four. Most of the farm servants seemed to
live in the farmhouse. The farm was a mix of arable and pasture
land and cattle production was a significant endeavour. About
1867, William McCombie (1809) gave up Cairnballoch farm and
moved to the tenancy of another farm, Milton of Kemnay, which
possessed better agricultural land. It consisted of 200 acres,
all but 5 acres being arable. William McCombie (1809) had a
herd of polled black cattle, later to be called “Aberdeen
Angus”, like his namesakes, the lairds of Tillyfour and Easter
Skene. However, unlike his more famous cattle-breeding
cousins, William (1809) shunned the showring. But he did buy
breeding stock from famous breeders, such as two cows from
William McCombie (1805)’s Bridgend farm in 1850 and another cow
obtained from Mr Kelly of Mains of Bowie in 1858. He also
occasionally bred prize-winning stock. At the 1858 Highlands
and Agricultural Show, the most prestigious in Scotland, which
was held that year in Aberdeen, William McCombie of Tillyfour
won a first prize with a polled ox produced by his namesake at
Cairnballoch.
Between about 1850 and 1870, when he died,
William McCombie of Cairnballoch led a split life. On the one
hand he was a cattle farmer near Alford, partaking in all the
rural activities associated with this largely uneducated but
highly practical group of men, but on the other hand, he was
associated with liberal-leaning newspapers and moved in cultured
and educated circles in Aberdeen. He seemed to manage this dual
life with ease. To illustrate the kind of rural life that
William McCombie (1809) led it is tempting again to turn to
William Alexander and the tale of “Johnny Gibb of Gushetneuk”,
this time for a description of the annual cattle show.
Typically held in summer, the cattle show was
a great occasion for the agricultural community. The show ground
was littered with canvas booths, supplying food and drink to
attendees. Show cattle were judged by experts from other
parishes, usually farmers or cattle dealers, to avoid
partiality, and the cattle were divided into categories. Show
officials, in the main sporting Highland dress, busied
themselves, and the local laird was often present, exchanging
pleasantries with his tenants. After the winners of the general
classifications had been decided, there were sometimes challenge
cups to be awarded for the best male and best female breeding
cattle. Such cups were retained by anyone winning a competition
for three years in a row. The show was followed by dinner in a
large canvas marquee, but only men were present. The laird,
kilted, was usually the chairman, assisted by a croupier, a
senior farmer or other person of status in the community, and
the Parish parson sat on the right of the laird. The following
quote is taken directly from William Alexander on the appearance
of such cattle breeders. “A hale-looking man of Herculean
build, not under 70 years of age.” (This is very likely to
have been a description of either William McCombie of Tillyfour
or William McCombie of Easter Skene, both of whom were
prominent, of great height and regularly officiated at cattle
show dinners around Alford). Such gatherings were always
followed by speeches and toast-making. The toast list was “a
paper of portentious length”, starting with “The Queen” and
progressing by stages to all and sundry. Each toast, drunk in
whisky toddy, required a reply from the recipient of the
compliments. As the evening progressed the hum of conversation
grew louder. The winner of the challenge cup was typically a
farmer wearing “hodden grey”. (Hodden grey was a
hard-wearing, undyed, wool fabric favoured by north-east
farmers. William McCombie of Tillyfour even wore his suit of
hodden grey in Parliament.) By now well-lubricated, the
meeting would often then proceed to singing. When the dinner
party finally broke up, about half of the attendees would
gravitate to the local inn, many smoking pipes. The winners of
the cups would then be expected to pay for more drinks and the
cups would be filled and emptied repeatedly. By this time the
party was very noisy, with speech, song, smoke and incoherent
talk of beasts and their breeding. The occasion ended in late
evening, the farmers then riding home on their ponies, which not
infrequently resulted in accidents along the way.
William McCombie and charitable causes
While many in William McCombie (1809)’s
circle in Aberdeen were deeply involved in charitable acts and
William gave to good causes from time to time, he was not
prominent in such matters. He did contribute to the Patriotic
Fund for the relief of widows and orphans of soldiers, sailors
and marines who were killed in the Crimean War (1853 – 1856) and
he also contributed to a fund dedicated to relieving distress
amongst the unemployed in Lancashire in 1862. In this year too,
he served as a Manager of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary,
effectively a fund-raiser. A more esoteric appeal which also
gained William’s support was the funding of a new peal of bells
in St Nicholas’ Church, Aberdeen.
William McCombie’s family
William McCombie (1809) married Ann Robertson
in 1840. She was the sister of an eminent Aberdeen antiquary,
Dr Joseph Robertson, a co-founder of the Spalding Club in 1842,
which was dedicated to antiquarian studies in
Aberdeenshire. Joseph Robertson also had a spell as editor of a
series of newspapers, the Aberdeen Courier (publication dates
unknown), the Aberdeen Constitutional (existed from 1837 –
1844), the Glasgow Constitutional (editor 1843 – 1849) and the
Edinburgh Courant (editor 1849 – 1853). He died in 1866. It is
to be wondered if Ann Robertson’s brother was influential,
directly or indirectly, in awakening in William McCombie’s
imagination the idea of starting a newspaper.
William McCombie (1809) and his wife Ann had
a family of seven, two girls and five boys. It should not be
surprising, given the intellectual interests of the parents,
that all the children would develop along similar lines. The
eldest child, Mary (known as May) was born in 1841. She never
married and died at the early age of 33 from a lung condition,
having spent her last winter in Menton in the south of France to
try to gain relief from her symptoms. James Macdonell was a
close confidant. He encouraged May to write about her
father. “The story of your father’s life ought to be told
without delay. It should be told in connection with a
description of the class from which he sprang; of Scottish
religious life; of Scottish education as given in parish
schools; of Scottish politics and Scottish farming.” James
Macdonell promised May assistance in this task and he also
offered to write a chapter containing his reminiscences of her
father. William McCombie (1809) died in 1870 and, until her
death four years later, May McCombie was closely involved in the
management of the Aberdeen Free Press. The Aberdeen Journal
said of May after her death, “She had rare abilities and high
culture, which she devoted to various public questions of the
day, particularly those regarding her own sex.”
The second child of William McCombie (1809)
and his wife, Ann, was Annie born in 1842. She was very close
to her father and acted as his amanuensis (literary assistant). Like
her sister May, she was close to James Macdonell and when
Macdonell was absent from Aberdeen working for the Excise he
communicated with William McCombie via Annie. In one letter he
told Annie that he was determined to become a journalist and
this message was no doubt passed back to her father. James
Macdonell also urged Annie, like her sister and at about the
same time, to write an account of her father’s life. “Although
your father’s life was not eventful there is no reason why the
story should lack the element of personal incident and anecdote
and trait. Much must be said about Scottish religious life,
Scottish education, Scottish politics, and Scottish farming; but
even these subjects admit of being lighted up by details of
Scottish personality and indeed the book need not be darkened by
a single page of dry or bare disquisition.” Sadly, that
biography, if it was ever started by either daughter, was never
completed.
Annie married Henry Alexander, the brother of
William Alexander of “Johnny Gibb” fame, at Milton of Kemnay (the
McCombies’ new farm), in 1874. Henry, the junior of brother
William by 16 years, was originally destined to be an engineer
and worked in this capacity for some time in both Aberdeen and
Glasgow. However, he suffered a workshop accident, which
resulted in the loss of an eye and that caused him to change
career direction to more literary pursuits. This incident has a
remarkable parallel with the life of his brother William who
lost a leg as a young man, a fateful event which caused him,
too, to turn to literature. Annie died in 1905.
William McCombie (1844) was the eldest son in
the family. He went to work for the Free Press and became a
sub-editor. Later, he emigrated to Canada and took up fruit
farming. He died, aged 98, in Vancouver in 1935.
Joseph McCombie was born in 1846 and at the
age of 15 was a student at Aberdeen University. He became a
curator at Register House, Edinburgh. Sadly, he died of a fever
(typhoid?) at the early age of 24.
Charles McCombie the third son of William
McCombie (1809) and his wife Ann, entered the world in 1847. He
was another young man of promise who died early, at Strathpeffer
in 1872. He was a student at the time and had not recently been
receiving medical care, though it seems likely he was at
Strathpeffer seeking a cure for his pulmonary tuberculosis.
Henry Durward McCombie, the fourth son, was
born at Cairnballoch in 1849. He took over the tenancy of
Milton of Kemnay on the death of his father in 1870. Henry was
politically active and the President of the West Aberdeenshire
Radical Association. In 1881 he organised a public meeting in
Kemnay concerning the agricultural crisis, in association with
the local Free Church minister. HD McCombie was in the
chair. Tenant farmers were having a hard time due to
agricultural prices dropping, but with no concomitant change in
the rents that they were paying, and Henry Durward McCombie led
the calls for law reform to ease the situation. He subsequently
became a County Councillor in 1890 on the constitution of
Aberdeenshire County Council and for nine years he was its
convener. Henry Durward was also a Scottish Nationalist and
argued for Home Rule.
John McCombie was born in 1850 and studied
Medicine at Aberdeen University before pursuing a career in
England. At the 1881 Census of England he was Medical
Superintendent of the Deptford Smallpox Hospital. By 1901 he
had moved on to take the post of Medical Superintendent of the
Brook Hospital, Shooters Hill, Kent. In 1911 John McCombie was
the Medical Superintendent of North Western Hospital, Hampstead
which held 350 acute fever patients at the time of the Census.
William McCombie (1809) and politics
After the Great Reform Act of 1832 and the
following General Election of 1832 – 1833, Aberdeen was a single
Burgh constituency, until 1885 when it was split into two,
Aberdeen North and Aberdeen South. Likewise, Aberdeenshire
returned a single MP between 1832 and 1874. For the first time
in the General Election of the latter year, Aberdeenshire was
split into two constituencies, West and East, and returned two
MPs. Between 1832 and 1874 Aberdeen always voted in a Whig or
Liberal candidate but Aberdeenshire was a Tory/Conservative
stronghold in the two decades following the reforms to the
electorate in 1832. In 1854, Aberdeen returned a Liberal MP,
though a Conservative was elected at a by-election in 1861. At
the general elections of 1865, 1868 and 1874, the city of
Aberdeen returned Liberal members. Thus, Aberdeenshire was
staunchly Liberal after 1832, while Aberdeen was initially
Tory/Conservative but progressively, from 1854, also became a
Liberal-supporting constituency. It has been argued that this
switch in political preference in Aberdeenshire was influenced
by the Aberdeen Free Press and its (ultimately)
Liberal-supporting editor. This suggestion is plausible, though
the name of William Alexander should be joined with that of
William McCombie (1809), bearing in mind the role he played in
substituting for McCombie and in driving up the circulation
figures for the Free Press.
However, William McCombie (1809)’s political
allegiance appears to have wavered over the years. A general
election meeting was held in Aberdeen in 1857 which was
addressed by Colonel William Henry Sykes, the Liberal
candidate. Sykes had pursued a very successful career in India
with the Indian Army. He was also distinguished as an
indologist, ornithologist and statistician, being a founder of
the Royal Statistical Society. William McCombie (1909) attended
the election meeting and, after Sykes’ address, William was the
first to his feet to ask a question. “Does
Col Sykes approve of the action taken by the East India Company
in promoting the growth of the poppy and opium smuggling into
China?” The audience greeted this hostile question with “great
laughter, cheers and hisses”. Sykes started his answer by
admitting, “Your question is a very difficult one no doubt
…”. Unlike modern politicians, Sykes did not dissemble. He was
in favour of opium poppy cultivation “because we could not
prevent it”. This blunt answer caused pandemonium in the
hall. Up jumped McCombie to continue skewering Sykes. “I think
Col Sykes has misunderstood me. The question was, whether Col
Sykes approves of the action taken by the East India Company in
promoting the growth of the poppy?” Sykes ploughed on,
justifying not only the cultivation of the poppy but also the
export of opium to China, on the grounds that it was no concern
of the Government where it went after export or what use was
made of it. In any case, “We are all Free Traders, you know …”
and opium did not really harm people, “Opium does not destroy
the health, does not excite the passions, as gin does. It does
just the reverse – sends people to sleep.” McCombie knew full
well that opium was devastating the health of Chinese labourers
and he was unimpressed by the blasé approach of this
august colonial administrator. It appears that on this occasion
his humanitarian principles trumped any warmth towards Sykes as
a fellow Liberal.
There was a
byelection in 1861 in Aberdeenshire, where the two candidates
were Mr William Lesley of Warthill, for the Liberals, and the
Hon. Arthur Gordon, for the Conservatives. Both candidates
gathered together and published membership of their election
committees, consisting of high-profile supporters. William
McCombie of Cairnballoch, remarkably, supported the Conservative
candidate, while his cousin, William McCombie of Tillyfour, the
black cattle breeder, supported the Liberal contender. At the
ensuing election Mr Lesley, the Liberal prevailed. He was
popular in the countryside, whereas Arthur Gordon’s support came
mostly from the towns.
By 1866 the
political favours of the two William McCombies had both
switched. There was a by-election in Aberdeenshire after the
resignation of William Leslie, MP. A meeting of the
electors in the Alford district was held in front of the Station
Hotel, Alford in May of that year and Mr Farquharson of Haughton
was called to the chair. The two candidates were Sir James
Elphinstone (Conservative) and Mr Dingwall-Fordyce
(Liberal). Mr Anderson, Wellhouse proposed Dingwall Fordyce as
a fit and proper candidate for the county and this was seconded
by William McCombie, Editor of the Free Press. William McCombie
of Tillyfour proposed Sir James Elphinstone, seconded by Mr
Grant of Druminor. The meeting, on a show of hands, voted for
Dingwall Fordyce, who was returned at the actual election.
The general election of 1868 was a momentous
time for Aberdeenshire, for two reasons. Firstly, this was the
initial occasion that the county had been divided into two
constituencies, West Aberdeenshire and East
Aberdeenshire. Secondly, William McCombie (1805), Aberdeen
Angus breeder from Tillyfour farm, decided to stand for election
as MP for West Aberdeenshire. A full account of his remarkable
campaign is given in William McCombie (1805 – 1880), “Creator
of a peculiarly excellent sort of bullocks” on this
blogsite, but it is important to give a truncated version here
to understand the role of his cousin, William McCombie (1809),
by this date of the farm of Milton of Kemnay.
William McCombie (1805) was a tenant farmer
and understood the problems faced by tenant farmers. Yet their
representatives in Parliament were almost exclusively large
landowners. Legislation introduced into Parliament in 1866
proposed the creation of a second constituency for
Aberdeenshire. William McCombie (1805), who was frustrated with
the difficulties of reforming the laws which he perceived as
having a negative impact on tenant farmers, saw an opportunity
to become an MP and to exert his influence on vital issues by
that route. He conceived an utterly audacious plan. Without
seeking the nomination of either Liberals or the Conservatives
and without announcing his candidature (at that stage no second
Aberdeenshire seat existed) he went about lobbying his potential
supporters, the tenant farmers, at cattle markets and other
agricultural events. When he got a positive response, he
entered the name of the respondent in a small brown book, which
he carried for the purpose. He attracted over 1500 supporters
in this way. His scheme and the persistent way in which he
implemented it caught the two main political parties flat-footed
and, in the event, he was adopted as MP without a contest and
without ever addressing a public meeting as an announced
candidate.
The Aberdeenshire Liberals, realising that
they could not field a candidate against William McCombie (1805)
who had any hope of success then resorted to a crafty strategy
of their own. A previously unheard-of organisation the “Liberal
Association of Tenant Farmers”, led by William McCombie (1809),
editor of the Free Press, and James Barclay, an astute tenant
farmer and leading Liberal, then took a leading part in the
campaign. This Association claimed that William McCombie (1805)
was an Independent Liberal who held “enlightened views” and
appealed to voters to cast their lot with him. The
Conservative-supporting Aberdeen Journal, under editor William
Forsyth, represented this move by the Liberals as an
unprincipled conversion to Liberalism by William McCombie (1805)
to ensure that he got elected. William Forsyth had conducted an
unpleasant campaign against William McCombie (1805)’s candidacy
in the pages of his paper and this denigration of the Laird of
Tillyfour subsequently continued for several years. But the
fact remains that William McCombie (1805) stood as an
Independent, though many of his beliefs were close to those of
the Liberal party and he sat with the Liberals in the Commons
and, at a subsequent general election, he was the official
Liberal candidate. William McCombie (1809), after the return of
his cousin as MP for West Aberdeenshire, was able to strike back
at the rival Aberdeen newspaper with the remark in the pages of
the Free Press that the Laird of Tillyfour had been elected
“despite the sneers of witlings (persons who think themselves
witty) and the smiles of the incredulous”.
William McCombie (1809) continued to support
his namesake cousin, during his period in the House of Commons,
against the barbs fired from the offices of the Aberdeen
Journal. That paper accused McCombie, MP of reading his
speeches in the House in 1869 (supposedly impermissible). The
Free Press countered with the following comments. “Mr McCombie
(ie of Tillyfour) is perfectly able to speak for himself
and we need only say that we are assured by eye-witnesses that
he never was called to order for reading his speeches, simply
because he never did read a speech and as to handing copies to
newspaper reporters, our contemporary merely shows that he is as
far from being en rapport with the usages and necessities
as with the ideas of the time when he makes a novelty and a
marvel of what is done every day. We can understand this
ill-natured spurt of the Journal. Mr McCombie has been gaining
a position of respect and influence for himself in the House of
Commons. “Envy will merit as its shade pursue”; and the Tory
organ must move itself accordingly. Mr McCombie has, almost
alone amongst Scottish members exerted any influence in moulding
the Cattle Diseases Bill and for his services in this matter all
important to Aberdeenshire, the landlords’ organ rewards him by
this splenetic ebullition (a sudden outburst of emotion or
violence).” This phraseology must have sent many readers of
the Free Press hunting for their dictionaries!
The Rinderpest outbreak 1865 - 1866
In 1865 the Rinderpest (Cattle Plague), a
viral disease, was imported into Britain. The response of
Government was totally inadequate, and the disease quickly
spread to most parts of the British Isles, killing many of the
infected animals. It was left largely to local action at a
county level to combat the epidemic. Aberdeenshire, one of the
most important cattle-producing counties in Britain was
particularly effective in first controlling the spread of the
disease, and then eliminating it. This collective effort was
fronted by two men, William McCombie (1805) of Tillyfour, then
one of the most famous cattle breeders in the country and James
Barclay of Auchlossan, another tenant farmer and a leading
Liberal. But William McCombie (1809) of the Free Press, himself
a cattle farmer, also played a significant role.
The methods employed to control and eliminate
the outbreak were fundamentally to slaughter infected cattle and
to restrict cattle movements. This thrust of policy was not
easy for farmers or fleshers to accept, as it disrupted their
lives and reduced their assets and incomes. But William
McCombie (1805) and James Barclay were sufficiently
authoritative to carry the day. The success of Aberdeenshire in
controlling the Rinderpest was eventually noticed by Government
and its policies copied in the Cattle Diseases Act of 1866. The
effect was immediate and by late 1866 the outbreak had been
eliminated. A full account of the Rinderpest in Aberdeenshire
can be found in William McCombie (1805 – 1880), “Creator of a
peculiarly excellent sort of bullocks” on this blogsite.
Early in the Rinderpest outbreak, in August
1865, a meeting of landowners and farmers was held in Alford to
agree resolutions to confront the problem. McCombie of
Tillyfour and McCombie of Cairnballoch were both present and
played prominent parts in the proceedings, with McCombie of
Cairnballoch seconding the main motion. “That the landowners,
farmers and others present, looking with alarm at the spread of
the cattle plague in Aberdeenshire, resolved to adopt and urged
others to adopt every means in their power to prevent the
introduction of this contagious malady into the Vale of Alford
and in order the more effectually to do so they agreed not to
purchase or bring into the Vale cattle from any other district
so long as the cattle plague continues to spread in the county,
to use every legitimate means in their power to prevent cattle
being brought from a distance and exposed for sale in the Alford
or other markets in the Vale and in the meantime to
recommend to farmers, cattle dealers and others as much as
possible to restrict their purchases of stock and not to expose
cattle for sale in the Alford or other markets in the
district.” This supporting role played by William McCombie
(1809) continued throughout the crisis period in 1865 –
1866. His facility with the English language was put to
particular use in drafting documents and resolutions. For
example, at a public meeting in Aberdeen in December 1865 he
drafted all six resolutions that were debated and approved. But
it was not just as a drafter that he contributed to the
collective effort. He also made an input of ideas to the
ongoing debate, no doubt informed by his own long-standing
career in agriculture.
Legislation concerning the killing of game,
which was favourable to the interests of the big landowners,
accumulated over many years. This was not surprising since most
rural MPs were drawn from this social group. The impact of
these laws often generated a poisonous intrusion on the
relationship between tenant farmers and their landlords. In
Aberdeenshire, this was frequently related to the predation of
the turnip crop which, from the 1830s, became crucially
important in the overwinter feeding of beef cattle. The source
of the conflict usually arose when the landowner let the land
for growing crops separately from the let of shooting rights
over the same land. It was then in the landlord’s interests to
encourage game preservation, even though this was detrimental to
the tenant farmers’ interests.
From about 1865 there was considerable
agitation by the farmers for reform of the Game Laws. William
McCombie (1809), himself a farmer, sympathised with his brother
agriculturalists and played an active part in the movement
seeking Game Law reform. In May 1865 a discussion on the Game
Laws took place at the Chamber of Agriculture and Scottish
Farmers’ Club in Edinburgh. William McCombie (1805) of
Tillyfour, whose views coincided with his cousin, the editor of
the Free Press, played a prominent part in the meeting. William
McCombie (1809) was also present at the meeting. He was much
pleased with the tone of the discussion and said that he
entirely disapproved of the Game Laws and sincerely wished to
see them abolished. He felt it was time for the farmers to take
action but, in pressing for reform, he cautioned them against
taking “too advanced a position” initially. He felt this would
be counter-productive and that they should seek only that which
was practically achievable. At a public meeting in Aberdeen
Corn Exchange in June 1865, William McCombie of Cairnballoch
denounced game preserving as, “not only contrary to good farming
but contrary to the public good”. Sadly, he did not live to see
the Game Laws reformed. The power of the landowners in
Parliament was still strong and their views sufficiently
entrenched to ward off several attempts at reform.
Social reform in the countryside
Social reform, especially concerning the
conditions of life for farm labourers and small tenant farmers,
was another topic close to the heart of William McCombie
(1809). A public meeting was held at Kinmuick, Keith Hall in
October 1859, attended by farmers (including William McCombie
(1809)) and farm labourers, for the purpose of forming an
Association for Social Reform. According to the Aberdeen
Herald, “The speakers dwelt on the restless habits induced by
feeing markets, the want of cottage accommodation, the necessity
of individual improvement, the extension of moderate-sized farms
and small-holdings on a secure tenure, the evil results of
bothies, the necessity of promoting aspiration and industrial
habits among farm-labourers and the necessity of social
intercourse being guided, not by customs founded on selfishness,
but on a hearty recognition of the good old rule of doing as we
would be done by.” The Association was governed by a committee
consisting of 12 farmers and 12 farm servants. In 1860 William
McCombie (1809) addressed the Skene Social Reform Association
annual soiree in the Free Church school. A ploughing match was
due to be held on the same day, but it had to be called
off. William McCombie’s address was on, “The analogy between
good ploughing and culture of the mind.”
James Macdonell, who had been a part-time
contributor to the Aberdeen Free Press until 1862 but then
became a full-time journalist with the Edinburgh Daily Review,
maintained contact with William McCombie (1809) and his
family. In Edinburgh he made the acquaintance of Dr Begg,
another social reformer. James reported his conversation with
Begg in a letter to William McCombie in August 1862. “Tell Mrs
McCombie (ie William’s wife, Ann Robertson) that I made
known to the doctor her wish that he would come to Alford and
stay long enough to see the working of the farm-kitchen system (on
some farms, the farm servants ate with the farmer and his
family, rather than being accommodated in bothies) in that
quarter. I likewise told him what stores of information on that
subject Mrs McCombie had ready to pour into “his lap” … . I was
unable to give him an account of the schemes for the improvement
of the agricultural classes which Mrs McCombie has so often
dinned into my ears.” It is interesting that Mrs McCombie was
not just a farmer’s wife holding the fort at Cairnballoch while
her husband was away, but an active social reformer in her own
right.
The death of William McCombie (1809)
William McCombie (1809) did not enjoy good
health. As early as 1856 it was reported that he had a
“delicate state of health”. In 1861 James Macdonell wrote, “Mr
McCombie’s health which for years has been delicate has at last
fairly given way”. In early 1870 it was reported that “he was
laid low with a severe attack of bronchitis and chronic
dyspepsia, ailments from which he had suffered for most of his
life”. William died following an attack of bronchitis on 6th May
1870. He was buried in the churchyard at Tough near Alford,
close to many of his illustrious relations, including Rev Dr
Charles McCombie, Minister of Lumphanan for many years, William
McCombie (1805) of Tillyfour, the famous Aberdeen Angus cattle
breeder and Thomas McCombie, who spent much of his life in the
Legislature of Melbourne, Australia. It is a moving experience
to stand among the memorials to the McCombies in Tough kirkyard
and reflect upon their achievements of 150 years ago.
William Alexander becomes editor of the
Free Press
On the death of William McCombie (1809) in
1870, William Alexander of “Johnny Gibb” fame inevitably
graduated to the editorial seat at the Aberdeen Free Press, but
its editorial direction did not waver from the political and
social stance established by William McCombie. Also, like his
predecessor, William Alexander continued to write and publish
and to address meetings held in Aberdeenshire. In 1871 he
contributed a lecture on, “Illustrations
of home life in the olden time. Habits and customs of the
counties north of the Dee from 1690 to 1820”, to
a series mounted in the Parish of Woodside. In
the same year he also addressed Oldmeldrum
Mechanics’ Institute with a lecture entitled “Illustrations of
Social Life in the last century”. The following year, 1872,
William Alexander received a complimentary letter from William
Ewart Gladstone, then serving his first period as Prime
Minister, who had read and enjoyed “Johnny Gibb of Gushetneuk”,
which was published in book form in 1871. Gladstone was of
Scottish ancestry and he often stayed at Fasque House in
Kincardineshire. His liberal politics encompassed equal
opportunity and free trade and he was very popular with the
working classes. It is perhaps not surprising that Gladstone
should have been attracted to the character of Johnny Gibb and
the Doric dialect in which Johnny frequently
communicated. Politically, William Alexander was a strong
supporter of William Gladstone and hostile to Benjamin
Disraeli. William Alexander stepped down as editor of the Free
Press about 1876. He received the honorary degree of LL D from
the University of Aberdeen and was appointed a JP in his
retirement. He died in 1894.
Henry Alexander (1841 – 1914)
The following editor of the Aberdeen Free
Press was Henry Alexander, the brother of William
Alexander. Henry, who acceded to the editorship at the age of
34, had married Annie McCombie, William McCombie (1809)’s second
daughter, in 1874. Henry started to contribute articles to the
Free Press in the late 1860s and joined the paper on a full-time
basis in 1872, rising to the post of editor in 1876 on the
retirement of his brother. Henry’s life was totally focussed on
the Free Press and he took no part in public life. Like the two
previous editors of the newspaper he had a deep interest in
rural matters. Henry Alexander had a penetrating and
independent mind and did not adhere to a purely party
standpoint. On his death in 1915 he left a personal estate of
£26,817 (equivalent to about £2,950,000 in 2018 money).
Henry Alexander and his wife Annie had a
family of four children, two boys and two girls. Henry junior
was born in 1875 and William McCombie followed in 1880. Henry
junior was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and Aberdeen
University. At the 1901 Census of Scotland, Henry junior was
described as a journalist and William was a law student. By
1911 Census, both were employed by the Free Press. Indeed, by
this date, Henry junior must have become a part-owner of the
newspaper, since he was described as “journalist and employer”
while his brother William was a “journalist (worker)”. He
became the editor of the Weekly Free Press. William McCombie
Alexander continued to work for the Free Press until 1922, when
it merged with the Aberdeen Journal. After this date William
McCombie (1880) spent his time in scholastic pursuits, having
interests in a wide variety of topics. He travelled extensively
in Soviet Russia and also published “Place-names of
Aberdeenshire”. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate in 1952
and died in 1959. Henry Alexander junior became the fourth
editor of the Aberdeen Free Press in 1915 on the death of his
father. He lived at the prestigious address of 1 Queens Road,
Aberdeen and in 1919 at the age of 44 he was appointed a JP for
the City and County of Aberdeen.
Sir Henry Alexander (1875 - 1940)
The merger of the Aberdeen Free Press and
the Aberdeen Journal
In July 1919 the Free Press premises at 30
Union Street were badly damaged by fire and 14 linotype machines
were destroyed. However, the stereotyping department on the
upper floor was saved. Interestingly, the Free Press’ rival,
the Aberdeen Journal stepped in to help print the Free Press and
the Evening Gazette. Perhaps this act of generosity presaged
further cooperation? However, another factor was the beginning
of the decline of Liberal Party and support for Liberal views in
the aftermath of WW1. By the early 1920s, Aberdeen, in spite of
its relatively small population, still supported two daily
newspapers. Economic reality dictated that the city and its
environs would only be able to support one daily paper in the
future and the Free Press approached the Journal to suggest a
merger. In 1922, the Aberdeen Journal reported the inevitable
change as follows. “Negotiations have been completed for the
amalgamation of the “Aberdeen Daily Journal” and the “Aberdeen
Free Press” and the “Evening Express” and the “Evening Gazette”
and the weekly issues of the “Journal” and the “Free Press”,
subject to the approval of the shareholders of the Aberdeen and
North of Scotland Newspaper and Printing Co, Limited. The
amalgamated papers will be formed into a company to be styled
“Aberdeen Newspapers Ltd” and the accounts will be merged from 1st November
next, the fusion of the newspapers taking place at an early
date.” Both Henry Alexander junior and William Alexander were
shareholders in the corporate owner of the merged
newspaper. The amalgamated daily newspaper took the name
“Aberdeen Press and Journal”, which it maintains to this day,
the new title clearly indicating its origins in the Aberdeen
Journal and the Aberdeen Free Press.
At the merger, William Maxwell, editor of the
Journal was retained, putting Henry Alexander junior, erstwhile
editor of the Free Press, out of a job. Now wealthy, he turned
his attention to public life and entered the city council in
1925. He rose rapidly to prominence and was Lord Provost
between 1932 and 1935. His most important contribution to the
life of the city was his leading role in the preparation of a
district planning scheme for Aberdeen and its environs, which
was then the largest such plan of its kind in the country. He
was keen on outdoor pursuits, the author of the Scottish
Mountaineering Club guide to the Cairngorms and a prominent
early skier in Scotland. Henry Alexander junior also donated
the maze at Hazelhead Park, much beloved of generations of
Aberdeen children, to the city. He received an honorary LLD
from his alma mater and was knighted for civic services
in 1938. Henry Alexander junior died of a heart attack in 1940,
leaving a personal estate of £69,521 (about £M 4.3 in 2018
money). His funeral at St Nicholas West Parish church was
“largely attended”.
Thus, the Aberdeen Free Press, mainly the
creation of William McCombie (1809) of Cairnballoch, a farmer’s
son from rural Aberdeenshire who was essentially self-educated,
ceased to exist as an independent title. The new Aberdeen
newspaper, the Aberdeen Press and Journal is usually portrayed
as having had its origins in the Aberdeen Journal first
published in 1748. But it should not be forgotten that it
disappeared in the merger of 1922 between the Journal and the
Free Press, both titles being essential historical components of
the successor.
The context of William McCombie (1809)’s
life
There was nothing in the family circumstances
of William McCombie which led to any other expectation than that
he would follow in his father’s footsteps as a mixed farmer with
a herd of black cattle, hefted to rural Aberdeenshire. He had
no particular stimulus at home, nor at his village school, nor
in the social contacts of his parents, which might have
predisposed him to follow a life replete with intellectual
challenge in the city of Aberdeen. That he did so as well as
fulfilling his destiny as an Aberdeenshire farmer is doubly
remarkable. It is an inevitable conclusion that there was
something unusual about the genetic inheritance of this son of
the soil, some recombination of the hereditary material of his
parents which equipped him to tackle profound issues of
religion, philosophy and metaphysics, without an advanced
education by teachers immersed for years in such abstruse
matters, his only access to intellectual debate being the
writings of the leading practitioners and the time to digest
such material in the half-light of the farm kitchen during the
darkness of the Aberdeenshire winter.
But perhaps the dual life of farmer and
intellectual did impose a restriction upon William McCombie of
Cairnballoch, by shackling him with a degree of
parochialism. The need to be present on the farm on a regular
basis and especially at the busy times in the farming calendar
must have restricted his ability to travel, to study and to
engage in discourse with leading thinkers distant from his rural
home. Some of the topics that he evaluated had a national
relevance, yet he never made a great impact upon the
intellectual life of the nation. Would his reputation as a
thinker have been advanced by a higher education and by personal
contact with the leading thinkers of the day? Who can say, but
his impact would hardly have been diminished by such social
intercourse.
It has been suggested by others that William
McCombie (1809) stands second only to the geologist Hugh Miller
in the annals of self-educated Scotsmen who have made great
contributions to scholastic life over the last two hundred
years. There were similarities between the two in their family
circumstances. Both were sons of the northern half of Scotland,
both were born into modest homes, both showed an early aptitude
for reading, both were essentially self-educated, both became
writers, both were involved with the evangelical churches. Hugh
Miller graduated to geology through his apprenticeship to a
stonemason and his observation of fossils in the quarries where
he worked. In a similar way, William McCombie was directly
influenced by his workplace, the agricultural industry of rural
Aberdeenshire with its landowners, tenant farmers and peasantry
and the asymmetrical distribution of wealth between social
classes. The two men were also constrained by their adherence
to Biblical truths. Miller realised that the earth was of great
age, but he believed that the fossils of extinct animals that he
observed were evidence of Divine intervention and new species
arose by fresh acts of creation over geological time, the
similarities between older and newer species arising, not from
descent but from the preferences in the mind of God. Although
not a scientist, McCombie believed that there was a life force
in living things brought about by the Almighty, which
distinguished the living from the non-living. But an essential
difference between the two men was that Miller was an observer
of nature, while McCombie was a theoriser. Miller also broke
out of the parochial circumstances of his birth on the Black
Isle and travelled to Edinburgh, becoming editor of a church
newspaper, the Witness. But Edinburgh, the home of the
Enlightenment, allowed him to promote his geological ideas in
much more influential circles than those operating in Aberdeen,
which was the essential limit of William McCombie’s intellectual
travels. Also, the obscurity and impenetrable nature of many of
McCombie’s works limited their audience and thus also their
impact.
A constant theme of William McCombie (1809)’s
life was his attraction to others who, like himself, had risen
above modest circumstances and made a real contribution to the
society in which they lived. Alexander Bethune, the Fife
agricultural labourer, George Murray, the Peterhead cobbler,
William Alexander, the farmer’s son from the Garioch, James
Macdonell, the Excise man’s son from Dyce, William Watt, the
weaver from Alford, Andrew Halliday (Duff) the minister’s son
from Marnoch and William Carnie, the engraver from Alford, all
hailed from the north east of Scotland and all, except Bethune,
were recruited as contributors to the Aberdeen Free Press by its
first editor. Indeed, the quality of the staff stimulated the
ultimate success to that hopeful new entrant to the newspaper
market of Aberdeen, back in the 1850s. The Free Press
eventually swallowed its most direct competitor, the Aberdeen
Herald and then merged with its main rival, the Aberdeen
Journal.
The staff of the Free Press in its early
years shared with William McCombie similarities in their
approaches to religion and to the organisation of society. As a
generalisation they were liberals, with both a lower-case and an
upper-case “L”, they were members of non-conformist churches,
such as the Free Church, the Congregationalists, the Baptists
and the United Presbyterians. Politically, they wanted to
change society and give it a fairer, more just structure. They
were for the working man, without excusing him from his
responsibilities to be prudent with his limited resources and to
take responsibility for his own educational and economic
improvement. And they despised the lavish and wasteful
lifestyles of some big landowners. These characteristics were
also shared by two of the other founding owners of the Free
Press, David Macallan, George King. These men were essentially
practical businessmen with literary leanings and a compulsion to
do good works in their home city, rather than intellectuals, but
their role in risking their money and managing the newspaper
business were important, nonetheless.
The intermarriage of the McCombie and
Alexander families was brought about by the creation of the Free
Press and, in turn, the newspaper prospered under the editorial
guidance of family members throughout its 69-year history as an
independent title. William McCombie (1809) was the founding
editor of the Aberdeen Free Press and he was succeeded by
William Alexander, creator of “Johnny Gibb”. His brother, Henry
Alexander, both married William McCombie’s daughter, Annie, and
became the third editor, and their son, Henry junior, became the
fourth and last editor. Although the Aberdeen Free Press
disappeared as an independent title in 1922, it formed an
essential part of the historical fabric of its successor, the
still extant Aberdeen Press and Journal.
William McCombie (1809) deserves a place in
the pantheon of self-made Scots. Perhaps his failure to spread
his wings much beyond the boundaries of his native county made
his impact at home the greater?
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