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EXTENSIVE BUILDING SCHEMES
ENTERED INTO-IMPROVEMENTS IN DWELLINGHOUSES-A ROAD FORMED THROUGH LOCHAR.
MOSS-INSTITUTION OF A GRAMMAR SCHOOL IN THE BURGH-SINGULAR REGULATIONS FOR
ITS MANAGEMENT-COCK-FIGHTING IN THE SCHOOL A FAVOURITE PASTIME OF THE
PUPILS-ENDOWMENT OF SEWING AND MUSIC SCHOOLS-LIBERAL EDUCATIONAL BEQUESTS
BY BAILIE PATERSON-CHARITABLE BEQUESTS BY THE REV. JOHN RAINING-PROGRESS
OF THE PORT-CONTINUANCE OF SMUGGLING- FRESH ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE "RUNNING"
TRADE-GIPSY LIFE IN THE DISTRICT: NOTICES OF BIG WILL BAILLIE AND JOCK
JOHNSTONE-FEARFUL SCENE AT THE EXECUTION OF JOHNSTONE.
WHEN the excitement caused
by the Rebellion had fairly subsided, a spirit of improvement sprang up in
Dumfries which produced valuable results; and before the first half of the
eighteenth century had passed away, the sky-line of the town - to use an
artist's term-did not differ very materially from what it is at present.
At the date of the Union, the Mid-Steeple rose up in the centre of the
Burgh; a spire-surmounted church soon afterwards was erected at its
northern extremity, which was ere long followed by another in the south ;
whilst, in the meantime, many houses were rebuilt, several roads were
formed to connect the town with the neighbouring district, new schools
were instituted or endowed, and several springs of charity began to flow
for behoof of the poor. Leaving the building of the churches to be noticed
afterwards at greater length, we shall briefly glance at some of the other
operations and occurrences belonging to the period.
For many years after 1715,
the Town Council books contain numerous references to the removal of
ruinous tenements, and their replacement by new erections; as if. in the
course of a generation or so a considerable proportion of the Burgh had
been rebuilt. And the new houses were, it may be inferred, much better
than the old ones had ever been. The latter for the most part were roofed
with straw or other vegetable substance, and many of them were of wood or
clay. As a consequence, fires were of frequent occurrence: a most
destructive one nearly ruined Lochmaben-gate in 1691, and another of less
extensive sweep did much damage to Friars' Vennel in 1701. Not till 1724
did the town possess "a water engine" for use on such occasions. On the
15th of July, 1723, the Council, after taking into account the great loss
caused by fires, ordained that henceforth all heritors and others, in
reconstructing or reroofing houses joining with or fronting into High
Street, should cause the roofs to be made of slates or tiles, and not of
straw, heather, broom, breckans, or other combustible matter, under the
penalty of one hundred pounds Scots.
In the old fighting times, as has been
repeatedly noticed, Lochar Moss was prized by the inhabitants as a natural
barrier of defence. Now, however, they had no reason to dread hostile
incursions from the South; and, in order to open up a closer communication
with Lower Annandale and Cumberland, the Council, assisted by neighbouring
proprietors, projected a passage through the Moss. In terms of the
contract, it was to extend "from Hannay's Thorn to the syde of the Lake of
Lochare, in the place where the bridge went over to Colin;" was to cost a
hundred and fifty pounds sterling; and to be completed by Michaelmas,
1724, about which time it was duly opened for public use. [Pennant,
writing in 1770, says :-" Over Lochar Moss is a road remarkable for its
origin. A stranger, a great number of years ago, sold some goods to
certain merchants in Dumfries upon credit; he disappeared, and neither he
nor his heirs ever claimed the money. The merchants, in expectation of the
demand, very honestly put out the sum to interest; and after the lapse of
more than fifty years, the town of Dumfries obtained a gift of it, and
applied the same to the making of this useful road. Another is now in
erection for the military, to facilitate the communication between North
Britain and Ireland by way of Portpatrick." - Tour in Scotland, vol. ii.,
p. 95.] Soon after
the Reformation a grammar school was set up in the Burgh, and a parish
school beyond it for the rural districts. Ninian Dalyell-who, it is said,
gave lessons to the great Reformer Welsh-is the first teacher of the Burgh
school of whom we read. At first its masters taught English as well as the
classical languages; and up till nearly the close of the seventeenth
century, there seems to have been only one authorized teacher in the whole
town. When, in 1663, Mr. Matthew Richmond was appointed to succeed Mr.
M`George as rector of the grammar school, he was spoken of in
comprehensive terms as "schoolmaster of this Burgh." The duties assigned
to him were multifarious, he being required to precept in the church, to
officiate as parish clerk, as well as to give instructions in Greek,
Latin, and English, all for X100 Scots a year, "with the benefit of
quarter-days " (free-will offerings from the pupils), and fees for
marriage proclamations, baptisms, and burials. Mr. John Fraser was
schoolmaster in 1673, with a salary of X40 Scots per quarter.
In June, 1724, the Council were fortunate
enough to secure the services as rector of the Rev. Robert Trotter, A. M.,
who by his learning threw a bright lustre over the Burgh school. He was
son of the Laird of Prentonnan, parish of Eccles, Berwickshire, head of
the old Border clan of the Trotters, who boast of a Norman lineage, and
who fought gallantly at Flodden under the Earl of Home. Rector Trotter
published a valuable Latin grammar, that was long popular as a school
book. ["Grammaticae Latino Compendium ad Puerorum captum summa ope
concinnatum. In usum Scholar Drumfriesiensis, Auctore Roberto Trottero,
A.M., Scholarcha ibidem. Edinburgi : Typis Thomae Lumisden and Joannis
Robertson. Anno Dom., 1732." In a presentation copy to him of Johnston's
Latin Psalms of David, from the editor, Gulielmus Landerus, he is styled "Doctissimo
Viro Roberto Trottero, A.M., Scholae Drumfriesiensis Proefecto meritissimo,
1740." The year of his death is not certain ; but he was alive in 1760, in
the winter of which year he went to place his grandson Robert at College
in Edinburgh, and travelled with him on foot from Dumfries in one day to
Morton Hall, the seat of Mr. Trotter, a relation of his. A thruch stone,
with a Latin inscription written by himself, was erected to his memory in
St. Michael's churchyard, but has unaccountably disappeared, and when
searched for about forty years ago, it could not be found; but the late
Mr. Crombie said he had seen the stone some years previously, He is
mentioned in " Heron's Tour" as an eminent Latin scholar, in the "
Scottish Nation," also in a note to Anderson's "Lives of the Poets," and
by other authors; and could converse with learned men in Latin, Greek, and
Hebrew. When at church, he always used a Greek Testament. It is also
related of him, that when engaged in prayer during the great storm known
as " Windy Saturday," the window was violently blown in on his sick
grandson, then in bed, hurting him severely. This grandson was afterwards
an eminent physician for fifty-five years in the Glenkens, Galloway, where
the family have long maintained a respectable position in society. In
Douglas's " Baronage " the family is said to have borne originally the
Norman name of Gifford; and in the " Ulster Journal of Archaeology" it is
stated that the first of the name in Scotland was a Celtic chief, who
saved the life of King Fergus when his galley was wrecked on the shore of
Skye; who, taking hold of the King, cried out, "Trouthard!" viz., "Come
here to this rock!" The place where this occurred was called Troutharness,
now Trotternish, in Skye, and the Celtic chief and his descendants took
the name of Trouthar, now Trotter.] On his induction he had to subscribe
twenty conditions, some of which were in effect as follows. During the
summer half-year, beginning on the 1st of April, the teacher, under
teacher, and children were to enter the school at seven o'clock each
morning, and continue there till nine; the rest of the hours being from
ten till twelve, and from two till six, forming altogether eight hours
daily, except on Saturdays, when the school was closed at noon. In winter
the morning classes were omitted, the course of study remaining in other
respects the same. After such lengthened hours during the week, the
children might have been permitted to remain away from drill, and out of
harness, on the Lord's day. But no : it was any thing save a day of rest
to them. Rule number four required that the teacher, his usher, and the
pupils should be present at the school each Sabbath morning by nine
o'clock, and should at the ringing of the steeple bells repair to the
church, the master going before, his assistant bringing up the rear; that
they should return to the school at one o'clock, proceed to the church
again, go back to the school after worship, and there be catechised on the
lectures or sermons they had listened to; and then, supplementary to all
this, two scholars were selected each Sabbath to repeat or read the Larger
or Shorter Catechism in the church, during the intermission, to such of
the congregation as chose to remain between the services. In accordance
with the seventh rule, the under teacher was enjoined to put fresh rushes
on the schoolhouse floor once a month, "for preventing the spoiling of the
children's cloaths."
We learn from other regulations, that on Candlemas day literal candles, as
well as other gifts, were brought as offerings by the children to their
teachers; and that the Latin scholars were required, in their converse
with each other, in and out of school, to speak exclusively in that
tongue. But the strangest rule of all was one relating to the mode in
which the rough pastimes of an annual festival were to be conducted by the
pupils. Fastern's E'en [The English Shrove Tuesday, held on the 6th of
April.] had for ages been associated with fighting cocks; and always, when
the season came round, young and old, rich and poor, shared eagerly in the
cruel but exciting sport. It must have been looked upon as something like
a national institution, when "the most potent, grave, and reverend
signiors" of the Dumfries Town Council made the following arrangements for
its observance in their Burgh school. - "That at Fastern's Even, upon the
day appointed for the cocks fighting in the schoolhouse, the under teacher
cause keep the door, and exact no more than twelve pennies Scots for each
scholar for the benefit of bringing in a cock to fight in the schoolhouse;
and that none be suffered to enter that day to the schoolhouse, but the
scholars, except gentlemen and persons of note, from whom nothing is to be
demanded; and what money is to be given in by the scholars the under
teacher is to receive and apply to his own use, for his pains and trouble;
and that no scholars except who pleases shall furnish cocks, but all the
scholars, whether they have cocks or not, are to get into the school" -
such children as have none, paying two shillings Scots by way of
compensation. What a ludicrous mixture does this academic code display of
piety and pedantry, of hard mental labour and boisterous relaxation! The
scholars of a former generation, and probably those of this one also, were
allowed play-acting as a pastime, as appears from a charge made against
the Council in 1693 of £7 5s. Scots "for 10 pr. deals at 14s. 6d. each,
for a stage to the scholars when they acted `Bellum Gramatical.' "
Rector Trotter retired in 1760 on a yearly
allowance of £30 from the Burgh. His assistant and successor was Dr.
George Chapman, who also earned literary distinction as the author of an
excellent treatise on education.
So early as 1719, the Town Council instituted
and endowed a school in which girls were to be taught "shaping and sewing
all sorts of white and colloured seims, embroydering and paistry." We are
apt to think that such an institution as this is a thing of modern growth;
and it says much for the wisdom of our ancestors that they in this manner
made provision for the industrial up-bringing of their female children.
Dame Glendinning, the first teacher of the school, was allowed five pounds
sterling of annual salary, besides a fee of half-a-crown per quarter from
each pupil, burdened with the condition of instructing six children of
poor burgesses free of charge.
In further illustration of the growing
refinement of the times, it may be stated that, about twenty years
afterwards, the Town Council voted an annual salary of £100 Scots to a
teacher of "the tuneful art." They were led to do so from a belief " that
it will be of considerable advantage to the youth of the Burgh and others,
that a music school be erected." The school, when opened, was made "free
to all" - the usual distinction between burgesses and other inhabitants
having been set aside; and that the music master might have plenty to do
for his money, he was required to give lessons daily in the Burgh school,
Sundays excepted, from twelve till one o'clock, and from six till eight
o'clock in the evening.[Education in other useful occupations was also
promoted by the Council. On the 24th of December, 1753, Thomas Huddleston,
cook and confectioner, was admitted a freeman and burgess on condition
that he should teach three poor girls "the arts of cookery and
confectionery or paistry."] We find early traces also of a spinning
school, the numerous wheels in which had for their chief motive power a
money grant from the Town Council. It was superintended in 1751 by
Elizabeth Hill. Her scholars that year numbered forty, for teaching whom
she received a salary of £2 10s. sterling per annum.
To Bailie John Paterson, who died in 1722, the
High School and the cause of education generally in Dumfries were deeply
indebted. He bequeathed eight thousand merks as a fund from which to
maintain a schoolmaster "for teaching children in ane free schooll in this
Burgh the Latin Rudiments and grammer, rhetorick, classick authors, and
Greek New Testament;" also seven thousand merks in payment of a second
preceptor " for teaching of children of burgesses, who shall be indwellers
and burthin bearers within the Burgh, and of eight children of the poorer
sort of merchant burgesses and burthin bearers, in the arts of writing,
arithmetic, book-keeping, and navigation." The moneys, amounting to £835
6s. 8d. sterling, were secured partly over the twenty-four merk land of
Preston, with the merse and fell of Criffel in the parish of Kirkbean, the
eight merk land of Kirkbean, and the eight merk land of Nimbellie and
Fallowend in the same parish; and partly over the seven merk land of
Meikle Culloch in the parish of Urr. The mortifications or deeds of the
intelligent and benevolent testator were laid before the magistrates and
Town Council on the 5th of February, 1722; and they, with the ministers of
the parish, being named administrators of the trust, took steps for giving
it effect with the least possible delay.
Bailie Paterson was born in the parish of
Newabbey in Kirkcudbrightshire. In early life he commenced business as a
merchant in Dumfries, and for many years took an active part in its public
affairs. In his benefactions he remembered the place of his birth, as well
as the town of his adoption. The bridge at the entry of the picturesque
village of Newabbey bears an inscription that it was built by him in 1715;
and the poor of that parish have reason to bless the name of Bailie John
Paterson, he having left a large sum for their behoof - £156 -which,
invested in land, and slightly added to from other sources, yields a
handsome rental of £190 to the parochial funds of Newabbey. A humble
tombstone in St. Michael's churchyard, just at the entrance on the right
hand side, bears the simple inscription:-" Here lies John Paterson,
merchant, late Bailie of Dumfries, who died 17th January, 1722, aged 65
years." [An adjoining stone erected in memory of Bailie Paterson's son,
who died in his seventeenth year, bears upon it the following epitaph:-
When When parents, friends,
and neighbours hoped to see
This early bud of learning, piety,
And temper good, produce some fruit,
Behold, Death plucks the plant up by the root."]
With all truth there might
have been added:" Bailie Paterson was a large benefactor to the public,
having left considerable sums for the endowment of Dumfries schools, and
built a bridge at Newabbey, and provided for the poor of Newabbey, his
native parish." [Birth-place and Parentage of William Paterson, by William
Pagan, of Cupar. Mr. Pagan shows pretty conclusively, in this work, that
Bailie Paterson was not, as is popularly believed, brother to the
projector of the Darien scheme, and that it is probable they were not in
any way related to each other.]
In the following year Mr. John Raining, a
Dumfriesian long resident in the city of Norwich, "devised liberal things"
for the benefit of his native Burgh. An extract from his last will and
testament was produced at a Council meeting held on the 24th of October,
in which he bequeathed five hundred pounds sterling to be laid out to
interest or in the purchase of lands or tenements for behoof of six poor
old widows, sixty years of age or more, belonging to the town; the
overplus, after so doing, to be applied in paying a schoolmaster for
teaching destitute fatherless boys in English, Latin, and arithmetic. Mr.
Raining also left ten pounds to be distributed among the poor of Troqueer
parish, a similar sum for the poor of Holywood parish, and many additional
sums for charitable and religious purposes in other parts of Scotland and
in Norwich. As
results of these benefactions, two seminaries apart from the grammar
school were opened; one for arithmetic, mathematics, and writing, the
first master of which was Mr. Charles Mercer; the other for English, which
was first taught as a separate branch by Mr. James Turnbull. Mr. Alexander
Shand, who succeeded the latter in 1755, had an annual salary of £11; £6
of it being taken direct from the Burgh revenue, and £5 from Raining's
mortification. He was also provided with a school-house and residence; and
his income was eked out by the quarterly wages, whose amount was "left to
the generosity of the inhabitants," and by £4 paid to him yearly for
precenting in the New Church. If Young Dumfries was not well tutored, a
hundred years ago, in Latin, Greek, English, mathematics, writing, and
music, it was certainly not for the want of teachers.
The importance of the Nith, as a means of
trading intercourse, was now more than ever recognized. We find the
Council, in the summer of 1772, causing sundry huge rolling stones to be
removed that- impeded the channel at Kingholm, and taking other steps to
make the river more navigable. For a series of years after the Rebellion
had been suppressed, the legitimate commerce of the port steadily
increased ; and the lapse of time brought no diminution of the "running
trade," though, after a party of soldiers had been stationed at the town,
in 1720, the smugglers conducted their proceedings with greater caution.
In this respect, the annals of Dumfries, from
1715 till the second Jacobite insurrection, are characterized by the same
incidents as those that occurred during the earlier part of the century:
the systematic landing of contraband goods, extensive seizures of them by
the Government officials, frequent conflicts between the daring
free-traders of the Dirk Hatteraick [Yawkins, the prototype of Dirk
Hatteraick, plied his vocation for many years in the waters of the Solway.]
type, and the not less courageous guardians of the law; and all the other
features of the long war waged for and against the revenue duties. A few
details will suffice. In order that the Custom-house officers might be
able more effectually to cope with the enemy, they procured two
fast-sailing skiffs from Whitehaven, "built as near as possible to the
shape of an Isle of Man boat," the dimensions being sixteen feet and a
half keel, six feet two inches beam, twenty feet from stem to stern, and
costing with full outrig about £12 each. By means of these cutters in the
Solway, and numerous riders, runners, and waiters on shore, a good
look-out was kept, and many a smuggling enterprise was checked, or
rendered fruitless; though hundreds more, in spite of all that could be
done, were carried to a successful issue every year.
"On the 10th of September, 1722," the
collector writes, "we went to a place called Kirkbride, about seven miles
from Dumfries, in pursuance of an information of some brandy lying there.
Accordingly we found five small casks of brandy in and about the house of
one Andrew Hewitson; and after we had got it upon horseback, and brought
it a small way from the house, the said Hewitson raised the whole country
about upon us, who came with stones, clubs, and fire-arms, and violently
deforced us of the said seizure." [Custom-house Records] "This is to
inform you," the collector writes again, under date 2nd May, 1726, "that
upon the 28th ult. the King's warehouse here was broken open betwixt one
and two of the clock that morning, and five casks of brandy taken out
thereof; to our great surprise, considering the strength of the warehouse,
for it had a strong double door" with a big lock, and padlock affixed by a
chain, which every body thought impregnable; "but it appears the door has
been forced open by a crow iron, and the great chain been broken by the
same instrument. As soon as we were informed of the same, we immediately
got a warrant to search for the stolen brandy, and were informed that it
was lodged in the Bridgend of Dumfries, where we found it in a house
belonging to Robert Newal, wright there, and brought the same back to the
warehouse." [Custom-house Records] It is then stated by the writer that,
after great exertions, two of the "authors of the villainy" had been
apprehended, and that he expected all the others would be secured. "We
persuade ourselves," he goes on to say';` getting virtuously indignant,
"that a vigorous prosecution of the guilty now will effectually secure the
warehouse from ever being broken again; for altho' the warehouse has been
broken open in this place before, yet the offenders were not discovered,
which has given those fellows the assurance at this time to commit such a
villainy." A Leith
merchant, named Briceson, figures in the next narrative as a smuggler
bold. He is described as "one of the greatest runners upon this coast,"
[Ibid] for the apprehension of whom both the Excise and Customs' officers
held warrants, which they had vainly tried to enforce. It was his
practice, we infer, to run tobacco and brandy from the Isle of Man to the
Solway coast; sell as much of them as he could to the people of the
district, and send the rest overland to his establishment at Leith. On the
12th of August, 1726, whilst a boatman named Affleck was proceeding to
Dumfries with three casks of brandy which he had seized at Glenluffing
Moss, Briceson appeared upon the scene. He had brought the liquor across
the sea to a friend; and not liking the idea of its being diverted into
another channel, he, assisted by the son of his confederate, set
ruthlessly upon the revenue officer, who had to relinquish his prize, and
was glad to escape with bare life from his assailants.[Ibid] Whether this
notable smuggler-merchant, who acted so much in the style of a modern
filibuster, was ever brought to justice, is not mentioned; but we may be
sure that his premises in Leith would not be allowed to remain long open
after this outrage. was reported.
Often, it is said, the smugglers obtained a
wonderful amount of co-operation from the well-trained horses which they
either had in their employ, or which were placed at their service by the
people of the district. Individuals, according to a writer in the
Dumfriesshire Magazine, then alive (1821), or only recently dead, had
frequently seen one famous troop of these quadrupeds, heavily laden, at
day-dawn, with contraband goods, unattended by any human being, and
preceded by a white horse of surpassing sagacity, scouring along the Old
Bridge, down the White Sands, and through the streets of Dumfries,
without' any one daring to interrupt their progress. Indeed, in those
days, such an attempt was not likely to be often made; for it was
notorious that the inhabitants themselves were too deeply implicated in
similar transactions, to induce them to restrain others. "It is related,
however, that on one or two occasions, when some individual more officious
than the rest rashly attempted to intercept the leader of the troop, the
wily animal either suddenly reared and struck its opposer to the ground,
or by a peculiar motion swung the kegs with which it was loaded with so
much violence that no one durst approach within its reach."
It was found in course of time that the boats
from Whitehaven, though built according to the Manx model, were easily
distanced by the free-trading craft; that the aid given to the revenue
officers by soldiers was irregular, and of little value; that the export
of prohibited articles, as well as the import of contraband goods, went on
increasing; and that, therefore, a reform of the protective system of the
Solway was urgently required. Actuated by this conviction, representatives
from the ports of Dumfries, Whitehaven, Carlisle, and Workington, held a
conference at Wigton, Cumberland, on the 20th of November, 1724, and
agreed to lay before the Customs' authorities certain remedial proposals.
They recommended that two well-armed, well-manned sloops should be
procured, fitted for both sailing and rowing, and that one of them should
be stationed at Silloth, on the English side, the other at Annan Waterfoot,
so as to command the open channel, whilst the smaller boats in the service
should be employed along the shore. The Dumfries collector, in urging the
adoption of this scheme, says:-"The charge of each of these sloops would
amount in the first year to £180, and afterwards to £130 yearly-which,
indeed, will be an additional charge upon the revenue; but I am convinced
your honours will find it very sufficiently made up, either by the
increase of the King's moiety of seizures, or the advance of the duty at
the foresaid ports, and particularly the duty on tobacco; for,
notwithstanding of the great quantity of tobacco made use of in this
country, there is but a small consumption of what is legally imported and
fairly pays duty, which makes it plain that there are vast quantities of
that commodity run from the Isle of Man." He expresses his belief that
were one of these sloops placed on each side of the Frith, the passage
betwixt them is so narrow, that it would be difficult for any boat to pass
undetected; though at the same time the little revenue yawls would be
needed to cruise after such contraband craft among the sandbanks and up
the creeks, as succeeded in eluding the guardians of the channel.
These proposals were partially acted upon; yet
the profits of the running trade were so much greater than its risks, that
it continued to flourish. The first notice of tea being brought into the
County occurs in September, 1724, in which month "one small cask of Bohea"
was seized near the Border. In the same year we begin to read of malt and
wool as articles of export-quantities of the latter being carried from
farm-houses down to the Colvend coast, and smuggled from Glenstocken to
that rendezvous of all lawlessness, the Isle of Man. [In a valuable
manuscript account of the Burgh of Annan, prepared by the late Mr. John
M'Lellan, writer there, he says :-"Annan Waterfoot, Newbie, Seafield,
Battle-Hill, and Port Stormont, were all noted landing-places for
contraband goods. There is a vaulted subterranean cellar standing till
this day at Waterfoot, which was used in these times as a depot for
smuggled brandy, &c. At Kenziol and the other places named there were also
depot-cellars; and frequently ankers of liquor were secreted in fields and
gardens along the shore. Having been checked by legislation, another
system of smuggling sprang up, viz., the carrying of whisky across the
Border in skins and tin casks, which has also now ceased, owing to the
alteration of the revenue laws, by a wise equalization of the duty in
Scotland with that of England. Large casks of whisky were brought from
Leith by carriers to supply the spirit merchants of Annan. Several
puncheons would often be disposed of in a night, to gangs who proceeded
across the Frith, the difference of duty (4s. or 5s, a gallon) being the
gain for the risk of detection by the revenue officers."]
So rigid were the revenue regulations at this
period, that when some charitable people in Dumfries commissioned two ship
loads of oatmeal from Ireland that the poor might obtain it cheap when it
was hardly to be had of home growth for love or money, the collector durst
not permit the meal to be landed till he was specially authorized to do so
by his official superiors. The officers were also scandalized by a daring
innovation which had sprung up, especially at Kirkcudbright, of importing
Irish cattle, and they sorely bewailed the connivance given to it by the
County gentlemen and their tenants. Long before other districts of
Scotland knew anything of tea save the name, it was a familiar beverage on
the banks of the Nith and along the shores of the Solway. Unfortunately,
"the cup which cheers but not inebriates" was for the most part obtained
by the Dumfriesians in an illicit way, the same smuggling boats that
brought them casks of rum, wine, and brandy, or rolls of tobacco,
supplying them with chests of tea; and so common had it become in 1744,
that magistrates and moralists lamented its use by the lower classes as a
pernicious luxury. At
a meeting of the Burgh and County authorities, held in the summer of that
year, presided over by Sir William Maxwell of Springkell, with Provost
Ewart of Dumfries taking a part in the proceedings, a solemn manifesto was
launched against smuggling, which was decried on four grounds-because of
its illegality, the thriftlessness to which it led, the luxurious habits
it engendered, and the encouragement it gave to the King's enemies in
France, from which many of the "run" goods were derived. Mark the weighty
words, the serious tone, of the opening statement. "'We, the Justices of
the Peace, Commissioners of the Land Tax, and Heritors of the Shire,
comprehending the Stewartry of Annandale, the Five Kirks of Eskdale, and
the Magistrates and Burgesses of the Burgh of Dumfries hereafter
subscribing, under a just concern for the welfare of our country, in a
special manner for this part of it, observe with regret that much idleness
and luxury prevail, and being in a particular manner highly sensible of
the pernicious consequences of unlawful smuggling, equally notorious and
disgraceful, and that the people of all ranks have been for many years
past so infatuated that, disdaining the produce of our own grain, out of
an affected delicacy have wantonly indulged themselves in the excessive
use of French wines and brandies, and of late years run teas have been
purchased at so low a rate that the use thereof is become universall, even
among artificers, to the impoverishment of this country, and the ruin of
the usefull and industrious husbandman."
This grave preamble is followed by a
lamentation "that to such a scandalous height is this hurtful practice
arrived, that in some parishes upon the sea-coast even servants of both
sexes have no sooner earned their wages than the same are laid out in
carrying on this unlawful business, whereby the smugglers secure their
assistance, so that many attempts of the proper officers to seize run
goods have been audaciously defeated, and they themselves beat and
abused." All this would have been bad at any time, but at present it is
doubly criminal, "now that this nation is engaged in a just but dangerous
and expensive war against France," when "it would be a kind of treason
against our country to use goods which are the produce of France, whereby
money, which is the sinews of war, would be impressed into our enemies'
hands, to our own destruction." For these reasons, moral and patriotic,
the subscribers of the document covenanted " to discourage and bear down
this infamous trade," by refraining from the use of French liquors during
the continuance of the war,. by discouraging all publichouses in which
they were sold, by moderating and discouraging the drinking of tea in
their several families, and suffering none knowingly to be used in them
which was not bought in the way of lawful trade, and by dismissing all
servants who took part in or patronized the running traffic.
One portion of this curious agreement breathes
the very spirit of Burns's lines:
"Wae worth that brandy, burning trash! -
Fell source o' mony a pain and brash -
Twines mony a poor, doylt, drunken hash
O' half his days!
An' sends, besides, auld Scotland's cash
To her warst faes."
And the closing part of it looks almost like a prose version of other
stanzas in the poem from which we have just quoted, so recommendatory is
it of "guid auld Scotch drink, in glass or jug." "And, moreover," say the
subscribers, "we resolve and promise that we encourage the brewing and
retailing of strong ale, the distilling and retailing of spirits made from
our own malt or other grain ; and we will not countenance any publichouses
who do not retail our own strong ale and spirits, and will discourage all
who retail French wines and spirits." Right cordially could the
resolutionists have sung the lines, had they then been penned, in which
their own sentiment is so forcibly expressed:
Let Let husky wheat the haughs adorn,
An' aits set up their awnie horn,
An' pease and beans, at e'en or morn,
Perfume the plain:
Leeze me on thee, John Barleycorn,
Thou king o' grain!
"On thee aft Scotland chows her cood,
In souple scones-the wale o' food! -
Or tumblin' in the boilin' flood,
Wi' kail and beef;
But when thou pours thy strong heart's bluid,
There thou shines chief."
Three hundred copies of this document were printed and circulated, and its
originators were at great pains otherwise to get its sentiments generally
adopted and acted upon in the district. Considerable success attended
their efforts; but neither this well-meant movement, nor the whole local
machinery of the Custom-house, backed by military power, sufficed to stop
the adventurous Manxmen, who continued to prosecute their trade, till, in
1784, Pitt cut it up effectually by his celebrated commutation measure,
which reduced the duties on excisable articles so that the lawful dealer
was enabled to compete with the smuggler. By those who had thriven upon
the illicit traffic, this statute of the "heaven-born minister" was
denounced as " the burning and starving Act."
With the smugglers were often conjoined
another lawless class, the gipsies - the latter of whom swarmed in some
parishes of Dumfriesshire during the early half of the eighteenth century,
and long afterwards. Among these strange people "of the wandering foot"
were the Kennedys, who made Mid-Annandale their chief haunt; the Gordons,
whose tents were chiefly set up in Dryfesdale and on the Galloway side of
the Nith; and the Baillies, who roamed about in all directions, and were
ranked as the "upper ten" of the tinkler tribes. And truly, to see a band
of the Baillies mounted on horseback, attired in coats of scarlet or
Lincoln green, ruffled in front and at the -wrist, booted and spurred,
with cocked hats for head-gear, armed with swords and pistols, and
followed by hunting dogs, was an imposing spectacle, that . went far to
vindicate their claim to high descent and gentle blood. With showy,
fantastic cavalcades such as this, our Dumfries forefathers a hundred and
thirty years ago were not unfamiliar; but they were much more conversant
with the shady side of gipsy life-with the plebeian vagrants who vended
and mended small tin wares, who robbed the hen-roost and the fold, and who
with nimble finger did a large stroke of business in the High Street or on
the Whitesands at every Candlemas fair. Even the haughty Baillies, who
held their heads so high, and cut such a dash as they rode through
Nithsdale, lived, like the mosstroopers of old, whom they otherwise
resembled, by plunder alone. If labour was irksome to the sons of Little
Egypt generally, it was doubly odious to those of them who bore the name
of and counted cousinship with the royallydescended Laird of Lamington.
Of their predatory doings tradition has
preserved numerous illustrations; but we shall only adduce one of rather
an agreeable nature, the hero of which was none other than Big Will
Baillie, the chief of the clan, who, though " a rank riever," almost
rivalled Robin Hood himself in acts of generosity. A stalwart farmer from
Hutton, in Annandale, having had his pocket picked at a crowded Dumfries
fair of a large sum in gold, with which he was on his way to buy cattle,
bethought him of a plan for recovering his lost purse, or at all events of
getting some trace of it. Filling another purse with small stones, he
mingled in the crowd; and soon after he felt the bait nibbled at. A young
spare fellow, whose tawny face betrayed his origin, having stealthily
clutched the fancied prize, he was seized in turn by the farmer, who,
taking the pickpocket aside, laid before him the alternative of bringing
back the purse of gold, or being treated to free lodgings in the Tolbooth.
The gipsy lad, having due regard for his own neck, took the farmer, by
whom he was still held fast, to a low house down one of the closes leading
from the Vennel, and there introduced him to a tall, portly individual,
dressed like a gentleman. The latter, on being whispered to by the youth,
told his rural visitor to describe the purse he had lost, and the nature
of its contents. "A purse of green worsted, with forty gowden guineas in
it," was the prompt reply. "There it is," returned the stranger, giving
back to the delighted farmer his own veritable purse, with its full tale
of "jingling Geordies." Need we add that it was the gentle gipsy riah, or
chief of the Baillies, who acted this congenial part. Will had his
headquarters for many years in this same house whenever he visited
Dumfries, which was usually twice a year at least, during the great horse
fairs in February and September; and, by means of numerous lightfingered
emissaries belonging to his tribe, he managed to make more money on such
occasions than any dozen of honest dealers. No wonder that he and his boon
confederates, male and female, " lived like lords and ladies gay." But
never after the incident we have just narrated did he make the little
house in the Vennel his place of rendezvous. The Annandale farmer returned
to it in the evening, in order, as he told the occupier, a poor widow, to
give Mr. Baillie a treat for restoring his purse; but the gipsy chief,
knowing that he had been identified, and his retreat revealed, had, to the
great grief of his hostess, who knew him only as Mr. Stewart, bidden her a
long adieu. For many years afterwards, however, a stranger called every
six months with money for her rent-in recognition, it was understood, of
the former attention which she had paid to her mysterious lodger. [This
story forms one of M'Vitie's Tales, and is also related in Simson's
History of the Gipsies, pp. 197-8.]
So much for the Bailies and their chief: let
us turn for a minute to notice a humbler gang, and illustrate by a more
tragical incident the darker features of gipsy life. On the 7th of March,
1732, John (or, as he was usually termed, "Jock") Johnstone, was, with
several other "tinklers," found guilty by the Kirkcudbright justices of
being "an Egyptian vagrant and sorner;" and for such negative crimes he
was whipped through Bridgend, and then burned on the cheek. This was not
the first or last time in which Jock suffered punishment; but all the
stripes, scorchings, and imprisonments he was subjected to did no more to
cure his wandering and thievish disposition than to take the tan from his
visage. When Jock was roaming about, he was invariably accompanied by
quite a seraglio of women; and on one occasion-ever memorable to him-he
withdrew with some of them to a small ale-house, kept by an old widow
named Margaret Farish, at Parkgate, eight miles from Dumfries, on the
Edinburgh road. A quarrel between one of his concubines and the hostess,
about the price of the liquor, provoked the interference of Jock. Heated
with drink and rage, he repeatedly struck the poor old woman on her head
with the heavy pint stoup in which the ale was served, killing her on the
spot. He was
apprehended at Lockerbie next day, and forthwith lodged in the Dumfries
Tolbooth. During the dreary interval before his trial, he was allowed the
companionship of a pet jackdaw, which had travelled the district with him
in happier days for them both. But just as the judges passed the prison,
on their way to court, the heralds of the procession blew a flourish with
their trumpets, and that moment the gipsy's feathered favourite dashed
convulsively against the iron bars of the window, and dropped down dead. "
Lord ha'e mercy on me! for I am gane!" cried Jock, naturally enough
considering that the fate of the poor daw was ominous of his own: and so
it turned out. He was condemned to die; but life was sweet, and he
resolved to keep it or sell it dearly, while deceitful hope buoyed him up
with the idea that the men of his tribe would yet enable him to elude the
gallows. Jock doggedly refused to leave his cell; and as he was one of the
strongest men in all Dumfriesshire, it was with the utmost difficulty that
he was dragged out and carried to the upper story, from the front of which
the fatal noose hung dangling, waiting for its human tassel. The convict
wanted the thumbs of both hands, and was often called "Thoomie Johnstone"
on that account; but this defect no way unfitted him for maintaining a
tremendous resistance. Apprehensive of a rescue, the authorities placed a
hundred stout burgesses, armed with Lochaber axes, as a guard around the
Tolbooth. Eventually, long after the appointed hour, the figure of
Johnstone appeared upon the scaffold, enclosed by six town officers; and
we must leave the scene that ensued to be described by the Rev. Dr.
Carlyle of Inveresk, [Autobiography of the Rev. Dr. Alexander Carlyle,
minister of Inveresk. W. Blackwood & Sons, 1860. In this work there are
numerous references to Dumfries, Dr. Carlyle having at various periods
paid visits to it, as he had several relatives residing in the town. "The
first journey I made," he says, "was to Dumfriesshire, in the summer 1733,
when I was eleven years of age. There I not only became well acquainted
with my grandfather, Mr. A. Robison [minister of Tinwald], a very
respectable clergyman, and with my grandmother, Mrs. Jean Graham, and
their then unmarried daughters, but I became well acquainted with the town
of Dumfries, where I resided for several weeks at Provost Bell's, whose
wife was one of my mother's sisters, two more of whom were settled in that
town-one of them the wife of the clergyman, Mr. Wight, and the other of
the sheriff-clerk. I was soon very intimate with a few boys of this town
about my own age, and became a favourite by teaching them some of our
sports and plays in the vicinity of the capital that they had never
heard." Again he says: "I passed most of the summer of this year [1739] in
Dumfriesshire, where my grandfather kept me pretty close to my studies;
though I frequently walked in the afternoons to Dumfries, and brought him
the newspapers from Provost Bell, his son-in-law. . . . During the period
when I so much frequented Dumfries, there was a very agreeable society in
that town. They were not numerous, but the few were better informed and
more agreeable in society than any to be met with in so small a town."]
who, when a boy, viewed it from the window of his uncle Provost Bell's
house, situated opposite the prison.
"When Jock first issued from the door," says
Carlyle, "he looked a little astonished; but looking round a while, he
proceeded with a bold step. Psalms and prayers being over, the rope was
fastened about his neck, and he was prompted to ascend a short ladder
fastened to the gallows, to be thrown off. Here his resistance and my
terror began. Jock was curly-haired and fierce looking, and very strong of
his size-about five feet eight inches. The moment they asked him to go up
the ladder he took hold of the rope round his neck, which was fastened to
the gallows, and with repeated violent pulls attempted to pull it down,
and his efforts were so strong that it was feared he would have succeeded.
The crowd in the meantime felt much emotion, and the fear of the
magistrates increased. I wished myself on the top of Criffel, or anywhere
but there. But the attempt to go through the crowd appeared more dangerous
than to stay where I was. I returned to my station again, resolving
manfully to abide the worst extremity. Jock struggled and roared, for he
became like a furious wild beast, and all that six men could do they could
not bind him; and having with wrestling hard forced up the pinions on his
arms, they were afraid, and he became more formidable; when one of the
magistrates recollecting that there was a master mason or carpenter of the
name of 'Baxter who was by far the strongest man in Dumfries, they with
difficulty prevailed with him, for the honour of the town, to come on the
scaffold. He came, and putting aside the six men who were keeping him
down, he seized him, and made no more difficulty than a nurse does in
handling her child; he bound him hand and foot in a few minutes, and laid
him quietly down on his face near the edge of the scaffold, and retired.
Jock, the moment he felt his grasp, found himself subdued, and became
calm, and resigned himself to his fate." Carlyle closes his graphic
narrative by saying: "The dreadful scene cost me many nights' sleep"-a
circumstance not to be wondered at. If a rescuing party of Jock's friends
had appeared in his time of need, they would very likely have succeeded in
carrying him away in triumph. [We are partly indebted to Mr. W. F.
Johnstone, bookseller, Dumfries, for our reminiscences of Jock Johnstone.
He had them from his father, the late Mr. Walter Johnstone, who possessed
a rare store of Annandale traditions, many of which he committed to paper;
but unfortunately the manuscript has been lost sight of. An account of the
gipsy chief is also given by Simson, pp. 200-1.] |
