‘Being arrived in Crocko or
Crocavia, the capitall city of Polland (though but of small importance), I
met with diverse Scotish Merchants, who were wonderfull glade of mine
arrival there, especiaIly the two brothers Dicksones, men of singular note
of honesty and Wealth. It was my lucke here, to bee acquainted with Count
du Torne (Graf von Thorn) the first Nobleman of Boheme, who had newly
broake out of Prison in Prage and fled hither from Bohemia for safety.
Mathias then being Emperour, against whom hee had highly offended in
boasting him in his Bed Chamber with hard and intollerable speeches.
‘This Fugitive Earle stayed
me with him ten dayes. . . At last his trayne and treasure comming with
many other Bohemian Barons and Gentlemen his friends, I humbly left him,
and touching at Lubilinia where the Judges of Polland sit for halfe the
yeare, I arrived at Warsaw, the resident place for the King Sigismond, who
had newly married the other sister of his former wife, being both Sisters
to this Ferdinando now Emperour. . . .‘
He continues after an interval:
‘Polland is a large and mighty Kingdome, puissant in Horsemen and populous
of strangers being charged with a proud Nobility, a familiar and manly
Gentry, and a ruvidous Vulgarity.’ Between Cracow, Warsaw, and Lublin, he
met many compatriots. ‘Here I found abundance of gallant, rich Merchants,
my Countrey-men, who were all very kind to me, and so were they by the way
in every place where I came, the conclusion being ever sealed ‘with deepe
draughts, and God be with you.’ [The Totall Discoveries of the Rare
Adventures and Painefull Perigrinations, by Wm. Lithgow, pp. 367-368.
Glasgow, 1906.]
He continues to praise the
Land of Poland—which suited the Scottish adventurer—in an oft-quoted
passage: ‘And for áuspicuousness, I may rather tearme it to be a Mother
and Nurse, for the youth and younglings of Scotland, who are yearely sent
hither in great numbers, than a proper Dame for her owne birth; in
cloathing, feeding, and inriching them with the fatnesse of her best
things; besides thirty thousand Scots families, that live incorporate in
her bowells. And certainely Polland may be tearmed in this kind to be the
mother of our Commons, and the first commencement of all our best
Merchants’ wealth, or at least most part of them.’
This handsome tribute to
the Poles as the source of wealth is at least more complimentary than the
constant comparison later, almost the only allusion to the Poles one finds
in British sources, being that Parliament, when a Parliamentary debate
became unseemly, was becoming a mere ‘Polish diet’; [e.g. News Letters
of 1715-16, edited by A. Francis Steuart, p. 21.] and this one could
only have come from a Scot who knew the conditions of his own country and
his countryman’s adopted country.
But that we can know these
conditions, we had, until the present volume could be issued, to rely to a
great extent upon the works of a German savant who was by good
fortune known to the writer of these pages, Dr. Th. A. Fischer. He,
luckily for those interested in foreign parts where the Scot penetrated,
in past ages, wrote two monographs, The Scots in Germany,
[Edinburgh, 1902.] and The Scots in Eastern and Western Prussia,
[Edinburgh, 1903.] both of which shed much light on
Scottish travellers of the trading class in Poland. The present writer
feels less scruple in referring the curious reader to them for details,
and also for quoting very largely from them, for three reasons. First,
they are not as well known as, from their learning and information, they
ought to be; secondly, he was ‘at the biggin’ of both; and thirdly, that
the books are difficult to understand, as they are chronologically rather
confused, written in German-English, and have meagre indices, so that
although all essential information is there waiting a discoverer, possibly
their usefulness will be increased, through the assistance of this present
volume, for a future historian of the Scots in Poland.
Somehow, from poverty or
love of adventure, one reason or another, the Scottish nation were forced
to go abroad as traders from an early period. That they did so in such
quantities seems to the writer to show that in early ages the population
was by no means so sparse as is now generally supposed. At any rate, as
far back as the mid of the fifteenth century, the Scots were firmly
established in wealth and prosperity in the Hanse city of Dantzig, and
thence were very numerous in Poland, an alien country, with scarcely any
settled rule as we understand it, and very far distant from their own. At
that time many things favoured them. The Government of Poland—such as it
was—was wholly military. There were but two classes: the nobles, who had
all the power; and the peasants, who had none. All commerce was left,
failing the Scots, Dutch, or German, or whatever foreigner chose to meddle
in it, to the despised Jews, who had colonised Poland in the thirteenth
century, if not much earlier, [Cf. Miss Beatrice Baskerville, The Jew
in Poland.] and were by this time settled there in vast numbers and
whose descendants were to be (as it has proved) the sole traders as soon
as the foreign merchants were ousted. The Scots, seeking to benefit an
unexploited country, and, incidentally, as usual, themselves, simply
swarmed on East Prussia and Poland via the city of Dantzig. [The
Hanse town of Dantzig, the chief home of the Scots in Northern Europe,
although it became Polish in 1454, and although it was represented in the
Polish Diet and helped to elect the Polish kings, remained a free city. No
notice of its history is therefore contained in this sketch. Dr. Fischer
supplies this want, however, and moreover gives a list of those Scots who
became burgesses, and mentions innumerable Scots who were connected with
the town in his Scots in East and West Prussia. The list of
burgesses begins in 1531 and ends in 1710.] They came mainly
from the class of small laird or town trader as hucksters, and were called
Krämers, Krahmers, Cramers, and revenditores in the different deeds
relating to their merchandise. ‘A Scot’s pedlar’s pack in Poland,’ which,
we are told, became a proverbial expression, usually consisted of cloths
[General Patrick Gordon mentions meeting at an inn near Elving ‘a fellow
standing befor a pack, measuring off lawn; and having heard in Braunsberg
that there were diverse Scottishmen who used this kind of trade in
Prussia, I began to suspect this was a countreyman.’ Diary of Patrick
Gordon (Spalding Club), p. 10.] and some kind of woollen
goods called ‘Scottish,’ and linen kerchiefs (often, it is said, decorated
with pictures of the Turkish wars). They sold tin-ware, ironware, such as
scissors and knives. In addition to this they kept booths and small shops
in the towns (institae Scotorum), attached themselves to the
powerful Polish princes, to whom they lent money and acted as bankers;
and, finally, eight of their chief merchants were made Mercatores
aulici or curiales, purveyors to the Court, a life appointment
of great importance. From 1576, as we will see from his Royal Grants,
until 1585, we find King Stephen (Bathory) protecting ‘the Scots who
always follow our Court,’ on the ground that they alone of all the
merchants would follow it into Lithuania. ‘Our Court cannot be without
them, that supply us with all that is necessary,’ and it is stated that
they had supplied the king well during former times of war. He, therefore,
commanded (dating from Niplomice on 7th May) [Fischer, The
Scots in Germany. In this book the first faculty to John Gibson to
‘follow the Court’ is dated Warsaw, 1576.]that a certain district in
Cracow might be assigned to them. That they were established there earlier
is certain, for it is interesting to find that in 1569 Sir George Skene in
his tract ‘De Verborum Significatione,’ under the word "Pedlar,’
mentions that he had met a vast multitude of his countrymen in that
condition at Cracow; many suffered great privations and dangers, and they
were not by any means all prosperous. Fynes Moryson writing in 1598
recognised this. He wrote that the Scots ‘flocke in greate numbers into
Poland, abounding in all things for foode, and yielding many
commodities. And in these (Northern) kingdomes they lived at this time in
great multitudes, rather for the poverty of their owne kingdome, then for
any great trafficke they exercised there, dealing rather for small fardels,
then for great quantities of rich wares.’ The Merchant Guilds were very
hostile to the huckster Scots, and to the Scots who did not gain admission
to them, and they were by no means favoured by the Polish laws. In 1564
they were taxed along with the Jews and Gipsies. In 1566 a universal
decree was promulgated forbidding Scottish pedlars to roam about the
country, and King Stephen in 1567 issued orders that the unpropertied
Scots must be forced to remove from his domains in Posen. Yet they could
not become burgesses of the towns without much difficulty and submitting
to many conditions. Poor Scots as well as more wealthy cramers continued
to swarm into East Prussia and Poland, and often died of hunger: hucksters
were forbidden to settle in Bromberg in 1568; and we have evidence that
they were still legislated against, sometimes coupled with the hated Jews,
which galled them greatly, and even occasionally with Gipsies and beggars.
[These laws are given in Fischer’s The Scots in Germany.] Sigismund
III., at the request of the town of Keyna, issued a mandate against
‘Jews, Scots, and other vagabonds,’ and later we shall see how the Scots
objected to have to pay a capitation tax along with the Jews. The hostile
measure of the trading communities forced the Scots also into a union or
Brudershaft regulating their traffic. We are told this was recommended by
King James VI.—no bad man of affairs—and agreed to by their German,
Prussian, and Polish suzerains. In 1603 the Polish Government, says Dr.
Fischer, commissioned Abraham Young (Jung), a captain in the King of
Scots’ army, to inquire into the governing laws of his compatriots in
Poland. [The Scots in Germany.] The evidence of a
witness, Richard Tamson, a merchant in Posen [See also Scots in
Germany.] shows that the Scottish Brotherhood in Poland had twelve
branches with their own elders and judges. The latter could not, only
fine, but could prosecute, proscribe, and, with the consent of the elders,
banish. Their meetings took place every fair day, and there was a general
Court of Appeal on the Feast of the Epiphany at Thorn. This was the
ultimate resort, there was no appeal to the king at home. The ‘decreta’
were kept in a special book, and the elders had special duties to protect
the guild and its privileges. They had to receive every new Scotsman into
the Brotherhood, and the clergy who collected a tax for the upkeep of the
Presbyterian churches were ex officio elders. Some of the Guild
books show hostility to the Catholics. William Forbes, Gilbert Orem,
William Henderson, and John Forbes, all merchants in Cracow, and
rich, were for many years judges. The highest judge they acknowledged was
the Royal Marshal according to a privilege granted them by King Stephen
Bathory. They disputed even Captain Young’s right to meddle in their
affairs until King Sigismund III., 20th March 1604, made him chief
merchant of all the Scots in Poland, and they were forced to enter their
names in his register ‘in order that they might be found easier if
required for the defence of the country.’ From this blow, Dr. Fischer
adds, ‘the Scottish autonomy never recovered.’
And yet it was at this time
they were very powerful. The connection between Scotland and Poland was,
considering the distance and interval of nations, wonderfully intimate. [I
have not called special attention to the Polish story that the daughter
born to Bothwell and Mary Queen of Scots died in a convent in Warsaw.] Mr.
Robert Abercromby, the intriguing priest, when he thought it wise to leave
Scotland for a time, went to Poland in 1607. [Register of the Scottish
Privy Council, vol, xiv. Addenda, p. 487.] Another evidence of the
intimate knowledge of what happened in Poland is shown by the incident of
the unfortunate John Stercovius. [See Register of the Scottish Privy
Council, vol. ix. pp. 540-543, and vol. x. pp. 100 n, 164, 191-193,
251.] This German inhabitant of Poland had (apparently a rare
experience) visited Scotland, where his Polish costume had made him
laughed at in the streets. On his return to Poland he published a tract on
his journey very detrimental to the Scottish people. This came into the
hands of King James VI., who felt it necessary that he must show great
irritation at this ‘libel’ on the nation from which he sprung. Therefore,
through his ‘famulus’ Patrick Gordon, the Scottish ‘factor’ [In a note to
the king’s letters, in Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James
VI. (Abbotsford Club), pp. 211-212, he is called ‘Author of The
Bruce.] at Dantzig, and one David Gray, born in Prussia, he prosecuted
the unhappy writer of this famosus libellue; and brought so much
weight. to bear upon the Polish government that the wretched Stercovius
was apprehended, convicted, sentenced, and beheaded ‘by the sword,’ at
Rastenburg in 1611. Nor was this all. The King was still unsatisfied. The
‘Chronicle of Rastenburg’ has an entry, 15th February 1612, that an order
was issued at the request of the King of Great Britain that all extant
copies of the libel were to be sent, well wrapped up and sealed, to the
magistrates by the owners, under a penalty in the case of disobedience. [The
Scots in Germany.]
But the king, though
anxious to vindicate the honour of his people, was by no means anxious to
pay the expenses of the prosecution in Poland set afoot by Gordon. He
proposed instead to obtain it by taxing the Scottish burghs. The
magistrates were unwilling, and the Lords of the Secret Council, to whom
he wished to refer his refractory subjects, refused to proceed on the
ground that they had no jurisdiction. The king then wrote a letter to John
Spermannus and all the other magistrates and officials of Dantzig,
proposing to raise the money by a tax on all his subjects resident there,
in Poland, and in Prussia. [Letters and State Papers of the Reign of
James VI., No. CXVII, Note 2.]
After Mr. Patrick Gordon’s
success in the matter of the unfortunate Stercovius, it is interesting to
find that he too had evil days. He returned to Scotland, and there, on 3rd
July 1617, was called upon to answer before the Privy Council in Edinburgh
a complaint lodged against him by Gilbert Wilson, Merchant, in Peterco,
for gross neglect of his duties in his Polish agency. The complaint begins
by showing that the Polish Parliament at Warsaw had passed an edict which
imposed on every Scot residing in Poland a capitation tax of two gulden
yearly. This tax caused great dissatisfaction among the Scots in Poland,
as it was also ‘layd upon the Jewis,’ and on no other Christian strangers
in the kingdom. Tie Scots agitated so much by their nominees, the
complainer, John Wynrahame and James Broun, that they obtained from their
delegates (after they had met at Lanschoittis) to the Polish Court, the
complainer and Alexander Narne, a suspension of the Edict. The complainer
then went to England, and begged the king for a letter of remonstrance to
the King of Poland, and in doing so told the king that Gordon had done
nothing in the matter. Royal remonstrances were sent. The edict was
modified by being made a ‘personal’ tax, and not a capitation tax like
that which the Jews endured; but we are told that this was by private
agitation, and ‘nawyse be the procurement of the said Mr. Patrick.’ Other
complaints in regard to the property of one Thomas Forbes, a Scottish
merchant in Poland, whose estate on his reported death became escheated to
the Polish Crown, were made also; and it appeared that Gordon had not come
clean handed out of this matter either, and during the dispute ‘avowit and
protestit to caus cut the luggis out’ from Gilbert Wilson’s head. The case
can be read in full, [Register of the Privy Council of Scotland,
vol. xi. Pp. cxli-v, 174-178, 357-362. Some letters of King James I. And
VI. to Patrick Gordon exist among the Denmyin MSS. In the Advocates’
Library.] and ended in the triumph—with seven hundred merks to the good—of
Wilson over Patrick Gordon. [A letter of Patrick Gordon to King James VI.
Will be found later in this volume.]
The position of the
mercantile Scot abroad, and indeed of the Scot in Poland especially, was
not improved after the death of James VI. by the Parliamentary
wars. When Parliament had overcome the king they were worse off owing to
the uncertainty in which the Scots stood in regard to the Commonwealth,
and the opposing claim of Charles II. The latter thought—during his
wandering—that his subjects in Poland ought, having been duly and
officially told of his Royal father’s execution, to contribute to his
maintenance. Desirable although the object may have been for himself, his
subjects at Dantzig and in Poland proper did not like it much, and
eventually it raised so much difficulty that King John Casimir of Poland
threatened in 1651 to expel all the Scots on account of their ‘forged
Royal letters,’ which were in reality but too real. We have to note that
when the forced subsidy was collected for the king there were only nine
trading Scots families left in Posen. These were Edward Hebron (Hepburn),
James Heyt, William Huyson (Hewison), James Farquhar, James Lindsay,
Daniel Mackalroy, Jacob and Andrew Watson and Albert Schmart (Smart).
These were all ‘new names’ since 1605, and, as Dr. Fischer points out,
prove the fluctuating nature of the Scottish settlements. [ The Scots
in Germany. Eleven are noted but only nine are named.] Eventually some
10,000 pounds was raised, and, as was supposed, transmitted to His
Majesty, but of the sum collected in Poland and Prussia one is afraid only
800 or 600 pounds reached him. [Clarendon, History of the Rebellion,
vol. v. p. 255.]
It is very interesting for
us to see how during this period the Scots traders had remained
established in their Polish El Dorado. The usual estimate in the first
half of the seventeenth century of the number of Scots who were in Poland
was the same as that Lithgow the traveller had made, as we saw, in 1616.
The Englishman Chamberlain wrote in 1621 to his friend Carlton: ‘The
Polish Ambassador had no audience of the King. . . there are about 30,000
Scots in Poland,’ [Cal. State Papers, Dom., p. 33.] and this is
corroborated by the statement of Sir James Cochrane, the English
Ambassador to Poland, that there were in 1652 many thousand of Scots in
the country besides women, children, and servants. [Thurloe, State
Papers.]