The Royal and Ancient Burgh of Sanquhar
100th Riding of the Marches 1910 - 2010. Friday 13 to Tuesday 24
August.
PREFACE
The feeling has frequently been expressed of late
years that a history of Sanquhar would prove of no ordinary
interest, considering the ancient origin of the town, its standing
as one of the old Scottish burghs, its intimate connection through
its old Castle and the doughty Crichtons, who ruled there with the
most stirring period of our national history, and, at a later
period, with the struggles of the Covenanters, and likewise, the
antiquarian and topographical features of the district of which it
is the centre.
It is true that a small history of the place was
published in 1865 by the late Rev. Dr Simpson, but it was defective
in various respects, particularly in that no attempt was made to
treat of municipal affairs, or of social manners and customs. I
waited, however, in the hope that the duty would be undertaken by
some one more experienced in literary work, but there being no
appearance of that, and as much valuable information to be derived
from oral sources was in danger of being lost, I felt constrained to
assume the task.
The first difficulty that presented itself was the
plan of the book, having to deal as I had with a great mass of
heterogeneous materials. No one plan was free from objections, and
the present was adopted as involving the least confusion. Another
difficulty was the extraordinary fatality that seems to have
attached to the ancient records of the town and parish. The Minutes
of the Town Council for the first 120 years have all disappeared,
and those of the Kirk-Session and other public bodies are likewise
defective; in this way, much information that would have been
invaluable in the compilation of such a history, has been altogether
lost. I have further to regret that I was denied access to certain
ancient charters of the Crichtons, recently discovered at Drumlanrig
Castle, but now in the hands of a literary gentleman in Edinburgh,
which would probably have thrown some light on the history of that
family, and been the means of verifying much that may have been
published on doubtful authority.
It is, however, my duty to acknowledge, which I now
gratefully do, the obligations under which I rest for valuable
assistance rendered in the performance of my task—to the family of
the late Dr Simpson, for the liberty of making extracts from the
history of Sanquhar published by him; to the representatives of the
late Dr Watson, Wanlockhead, and Mr Edmond, schoolmaster, there, for
the description of the Wanlockhead Mines ; to Mr Thomas M‘Naught,
S.S.C., Edinburgh, for searches made in the State Records in
Edinburgh; to Mr Galloway, Inspector of Schools, for the list of
derivations of place-names; to Dr Anstruther Davidson, for the
Chapter contributed by him on the Flora and Fauna of the district,
written during his residence in Sanquhar, thereby supplying an
element of interest not often found in a local history ; to Mr J. R.
Wilson, Royal Bank, for information on antiquarian matters, and for
access to his valuable collection; and to friends who have proved
exceedingly helpful in other departments.
In face, therefore, of the serious drawbacks
mentioned, but with the compensation of these valuable aids, I
launch the book in the hope that, notwithstanding its many inherent
imperfections, it may be received as a not unworthy history of a
town and district, interesting from many points of view.
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