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William Fairbairn was born in the town
of Kelso, in Roxburghshire, on February 19, 1789.
His father, Andrew Fairbairn, was
descended, on the male side, from a humble but respectable class of
small Lairds, or, as they were called 'Portioners,' who farmed their
own land, as was the custom in Scotland in those days.
On the female side the pedigree may have
been of a higher character, for Andrew's mother was said by him to
have claimed descent from the ancient Border family of Douglas. This
lady's maiden name was Anderson; she was a tall, handsome,
commanding woman, and lived to a great age.
William writes thus of his father :—
My father was never brought up to any
business, and simply learned to read when very young at Smailholme.
At the early age of twelve, my father's parents considered it time
that he should be doing something for himself. His brother William,
then only fifteen, was teaching a school at Holy Island; and my
father was accordingly hired out to a neighbour as an assistant on
the farm. In this humble situation he learned to be an expert
ploughman, and one of the first agricultural operatives in that part
of the country. The commencement of my father's career as a
practical agriculturist was at the time when the new systems of
draining, deep ploughing, and rotation crops were making some noise
in the country. It was a new era in the history of agriculture, and
one that has produced, and is yet producing, very extraordinary
results. With these new processes my father became perfectly
familiar, and the knowledge subsequently served him in the
development of those resources which exhibited themselves some years
afterwards in Rossshire.
He afterwards went to reside near a
seaport in England, where, during the American war, he was pressed
on board a frigate, from which he was drafted into a ship of the
line, and served under Lord Howe at the destruction of the Spanish
fleet off Gibraltar. At the close of the war, the fleet was ordered
round to Spithead, where he was when the 'Roval George' sank (August
29, 1782), and assisted in saving the survivors. On receiving his
discharge he returned to Scotland, and married shortly afterwards.
William's mother was a Miss Henderson,
the daughter of a tradesman in Jedburgh, and the direct descendant
of an old Bolder family of the name of Oliver, for many years
respectable stock-farmers in a pastoral district at the northern
foot of the Cheviots.
At four years of age William was sent to
a small day school, not so much for the purpose of learning as to
keep him out of mischief. As, however, his chief recollections at
this time refer to the frequency and severity of the punishments he
received, it would not appear that even this object was successfully
attained. The first real steps in education he describes as follows
:—
From Mr. Ker's seminary I was in due
time transferred to the parish school, kept by Mr. White, a man of
considerable talent, and a good English scholar. Mr. White had a
large school, with an usher, Mr. Phail, a young man of some
learning, but irritable in his temper, and with knuckles harder than
flint, which he applied with a peculiar jerk to the cranium; he was
by nature unfit tor a teacher. His superior, Mr. White, was quite
the reverse: with a fine open benevolent countenance, he enjoyed the
reputation of being an agreeable companion and a man of great
goodness of heart. He was one of those men of whom there are many in
Scotland, who love their profession; he was full of enthusiasm, a
strict disciplinarian, and took great delight in exhibiting his
pupils not only in the various branches of learning, but more
particularly in their powers of declaiming selections from our best
poets, such as Dryden's Alexander's Feast, the orations of Cicero,
Paul before Agrippa, &c. All these used to be favourite exercises,
and great preparations were made for the annual examinations, which
took place every autumn before the ministers and the influential
people of the town.
I learned to read, in Scott and Barrow's
collections, pieces selected from some of our best poets and prose
writers, amongst whom may be enumerated Addison, Fielding, Swift, De
Foe, Hume, Goldsmith, Robertsun, Johnson, &c. If to these be added a
course of arithmetic as far as Practice and the Kule of Three, they
will constitute the whole of my stock of knowledge up to my tenth
year.
He was early fond of athletic exercises.
He records that when very young he succeeded, after many fruitless
attempts, in climbing a high boulder-stone with polished sides and a
conical top; but, falling off, he cut a gash in his forehead, the
mark of which remained all his life.
While at school he kept up his skill by
running races and so on, and he adds :—
I also learned to improve my climbing
propensities by performing with a number of others certain feats of
ascent to the top of the mouldering turrets of the old Abbey at
Kelso, which, next to Melrose, still remains as one of the finest
specimens of the Norman Gothic in Scotland.
With every tower, arch, and cranny I was
familiar, and the great feat used to be which of us could reach the
bells over the western window in the shortest time, starting
altogether by different routes from the kirkyard. At that time the
ruins were open to any intruder, and in too many cases they were the
receptacle of stray cattle, ' cuddies,' donkeys, and all the filth
of that part of the town.
He gives an animated description of the
family circumstances in his early youth :—
During the time I was at Mr. White's
school, my father lived in Kelso, at the foot of the Woodmarket, in
the same house with Mrs. William Curl, the aunt of the late Sir
Walter Scott. My father was on terms of intimacy with the Scotts of
Sandy Knowe. His father was the gardener there, as well as for
another family at Meliston, and, although inferior in station to the
family at Sandy Knowe, he was, nevertheless, highly respected by
every member of it, and mere particularly by Mrs. Curl and Miss
Scott. Both families lived at Smailholme lower, and my father,
although a few years older than Sir Walter, was well acquainted with
him and, as a boy, used often to carry him when unable to walk from
the dislocation of the hip-bone, which made, him a cripple for life.
All these circumstances of early association promoted a degree of
intimacy with the family which was kept up with Mrs. Curl and Miss
Scott till their deaths.
My mother, although exceedingly active,
never enjoyed good health. She had a very limited income on which to
maintain and bring up her family; and the efforts she was called
upon to make in her domestic duties, and her desire to assist in the
education and maintenance of five small children, by extraordinary
exertions in spinning upon the long and small wheel, exhausted her
strength and frequently incapacitated her for the performance of the
ordinary duties of the family. I remember that those extraordinary
efforts were a constant cause of anxiety to my father, whose strong
attachment for his wife caused him to remonstrate on the folly and
impropriety of her conduct.
His attempts were, however, fruitless,
as absence from home during six days in the week furnished abundant
opportunities for keeping the spinning-wheel constantly in motion
and increasing the evils of which my father complained. By these
exertions it must, however, be borne in mind that the whole of my
father's clothes and those of all the children, till I was fourteen
years of age, were spun and manufactured by my mother. She bought
the wool and the flax, spun it into yarn, reeled it into hanks, and
gave it out to the weaver to be manufactured. When the woollen cloth
came home it was carefully measured, and sent to the fulling-mill to
be dressed and finished; and when the linen web was finished she
bleached it herself; and many were the times I was set to watch and
water the web. For nearly twenty years, from 1785 to 1804, I believe
the whole, or nearly the whole of the woollen clothes, shirting,
sheets, and blankets, were spun and manufactured by my mother. In
addition to these industrial resources, which always formed a
prominent feature in my mother's character, there were her knowledge
and skill in the useful arts. She was thoroughly acquainted with
dyeing and bleaching! When my father resided in the Highlands of
Scotland, she made his coats, waistcoats, and breeches, as well as
all the jackets and trousers for her sons. She was also an adept at
dress-making, and used not only to make for herself and daughters,
but frequently cut out for the neighbours, and she encouraged the
same system of economy in other families as she practised in her
own.
My father, on the other hand, possessed
a strong and muscular frame, an excellent constitution, and could
undergo any amount of fatigue. He was a hard worker, a great reader,
and a man of unblemished integrity of character. No exertion was too
much for him; and the respect in which he was held by all the more
wealthy and intelligent classes was a great source of pride and
gratification to my mother. To each other they entertained the most
tender affection, and excepting only the words which occasionally
passed between them on the subject of the long wooden wheel, they
were a happy couple. In politics my father was a Liberal, or what
was considered in those days a staunch Whig, with a tendency to
Jacobinism; but he was never violent, as my mother, who was more
Conservative, exercised considerable influence over him, and
retained him within the bounds of moderation.
In their religious tenets they were both
of the Church of Scotland, from which they never deviated, and from
which my mother in particular derived great consolation. She was
pious and discreet, much more so than my father, who I always
thought was tinged with scepticism.
The writer of the autobiography proceeds
with his story, which comprises many interesting incidents :—
I must, however, now return to that part
of the narrative where I had been entered at the parish school, and
where I had attained some little proficiency in reading, writing,
and arithmetic. As near as I can recollect I was about three years
in that establishment, and during that time I remember Mrs. Curbs
nephew, Mr. Walter Scott, who was then an advocate at Edinburgh,
spending some months of two summers at Kelso. I believe he was then
collecting materials (or, as his aunt used to say, ' foolishly
spending his time amongst all the auld wives of the country,') for
his 'Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.' It was at this time I
frequently saw Mr. Scott, who used to hear me read to his aunt, and
rewarded me, when I read distinctly, with some little mark of his
attention. From the intimacy of those days I cannot recall any
indication of those great powers of imagery which afterwards became
the delight of every reader in Europe.
During the long winter evenings, when my
father was from home, which, as already stated, was five nights out
of the seven, Mrs. Curl used to bring down her wheel and join my
mother at a camp with the 'pirns,' or my mother went up to her, as
best suited their convenience. They were both good spinners, and
used to engage in a friendly competition as to the quantities each
could turn off in a given time. My mother was generally the winner,
as she spun with the double rock and both hands, whilst Mrs. Curl
never attempted more than the single 'pirn.' Eighty years ago
spinning was common in all the farm-houses of Scotland during the
winter months; at Mervinslaw, where my mother was brought up, all
the lasses were engaged at the wheel, and, in order to encourage the
rivalry and lighten the task, the Border songs were chanted in no
unmeasured time, and with a pathos and good feeling that not
unfrequently touched the heart. The same rivalry was carried on
between the two friends during the winter months of the residence of
the family at Kelso.
In the autumn of 1799 the pleasing
monotony of this quiet life was materially changed by new prospects
which were held out to my father in Rossshire, when he was offered
the charge of a farm of 300 acres. The farm was to be the joint
property of himself and his brother, Mr. Peter Fairbaim, for many
years a resident in that country and secretary to Lord Seaforth, of
Castle Brahan. The farm was leased from his lordship, on the express
condition that one half of the stock, and one half of the proceeds,
should belong to my father. It was situated at Moy on the banks of
the river Conan, about five miles from Dingwall, and although
possessing a few fertile spots, the greater portion was overgrown
with whins and brushwood, and covered with stone and rocks, some of
them of great magnitude.
The stocking of the farm was a heavy
business, as my uncle had a large family, with a limited income, and
a very scanty capital. My father had none; but he was to find skill
and industry in the management; and having purchased a good
assortment of carts and ploughs, and all the necessary implements,
as used in the best farms in the south, our little establishment at
Kelso was broken up, very much to the regret of Mrs. Curl and my
mother. To effect the transport my father bought an old horse, and
having bent some canvas over one of the carts, he left Kelso in
October with a delicate wife and a family of five children, the
youngest only six weeks old, on a journey of upwards of two hundred
miles through a wild country, at a most inclement season of the
year. It will not be necessary to recount the difficulties we had to
encounter, with a broken down and restive horse, under rain and
sleet, at that inclement season, over the Grampians. Suffice it to
observe, that my mother was so ill as to be lifted in and out of the
cart every night and morning.
At length we arrived at our destination,
but unfortunately the house intended for our residence on the farm
was not finished, and we had reluctantly to take up our quarters in
a temporary hovel very inferior to the comfortable abode we had
enjoyed for so many years at Kelso. Early in the spring the house
was completed, and my father set vigorously to work on a series of
improvements, which, in less than two years, completely changed the
face of the farm.
I have already observed that the whole
surface of the farm was nearly covered with whins and rocks, and to
remove these my father adopted an ingenious method. Having cut down
the brushwood and piled it upon the large blocks of whinstone, the
fuel was ignited, and, the stones becoming heated to almost a red
heat, the ashes were cleared away, and a small stream of water being
applied from a bottle, the rapid condensation, or rather
contraction, caused a fracture of the rock in any required
direction. This to the surrounding and wondering neighbours was an
extraordinary performance, which some of them did not hesitate to
attribute to an agency much more powerful and dangerous than the
little bottle which effected such wonders.
Two years were employed in this way, and
the farm began to exhibit, in place of whins and rocks, fine crops
of turnips and barley; and from the introduction of a good system of
draining, which was practised by deep trenching, several fields were
thus reclaimed that had never before felt the coulter of the plough.
The failure of the crops in 1800 and
1801 did great damage, and ruined most of the farmers, and amongst
others it bore severely upon the owners of the Moy farm, which had
incurred an expensive outlay without yielding any return. That was
not, however, the greatest evil that the family had to endure, as my
uncle, whose company as well as services had become indispensable to
Lord Seaforth—who was deaf and dumb—had engaged to go out with his
lordship as secretary on his appointment to the Governorship of
Barbadoes in the West Indies. This appointment made a total change
in the prospects of both families. My father was urged to continue
his improvements on the farm until my eldest cousin became of age,
and I was selected, as the eldest of my father's family, to go out
to India, through the influence of his lordship, as a cadet.
This arrangement, had it been carried
out, would have changed the whole course of William's life; but it
was frustrated by unforeseen difficulties, and he remained at the
farm with his father.
The effect of the residence at Moy on
William's education and prospects is described as follows; and here
we get the first indications of that taste for mechanics which
moulded his future career :—
The residence of the family at Moy was
entirely lost as regards the education of my brother Tom and myself.
One of the conditions of the agreement with my uncle was that a
tutor should be engaged for both families, and that we should have
the benefit of a good education along with my cousins. For some
reason or other, which I could never clearly understand, this was
never accomplished; and the whole two years spent at Moy proved a
serious loss to myself, as well as the other branches of the family.
Attempts were made by both my father and mother to rectify the
error, but the laborious engagements to which my father was
subjected in carrying forward the improvements, and the assiduous
duties of my mother in keeping us all right and tight at home, were
as much as they could accomplish, and, with the exception of an
occasional lesson, and the reading on Sundays, I may with safety
affirm, that this time was for the most part unprofitably spent and
produced no good or lasting impressions.
It will readily be seen that a boy of
eleven years, with all the activity and bustle of youth, if not
engaged in some useful pursuit, is likely to do mischief.
Fortunately my inclination took a different turn. After the first
year's residence at Moy, my younger brother, Peter, then a child of
fifteen months old, required a great deal of nursing, and as that
duty devolved upon my eldest sister and myself, I managed, in order
to relieve myself of the trouble of carrying him on my back, to make
a little waggon with four wheels, and by attaching a piece of old
rope, used to drag him in all directions, sometimes to a
considerable distance from the farm. The construction of the waggon
was, however, a formidable undertaking, as I had no tools but a
knife, a gimblet, and an old saw. With these implements, a piece of
thin board, and a few small nails, I managed to make a respectable
waggon, which, though frequently out of repair, was nevertheless
much better than could be expected. The greatest difficulty was the
wheels, which I surmounted by cutting sections from the stem of a
small alder tree, and with a red-hot iron burnt the holes in the
centre to receive the axle.
The success which attended this
construction led to others of greater importance, which I continued
to practise, and which my father encouraged during the whole time we
were in the Highlands. In the formation of boats and ships I became
an expert artificer, and was at once a ' Jack-of-all-trades,' having
to build, rig, and sail my own vessels. From ship-building, I
proceeded to construct wind and water-mills, and attained such
proficiency that I had sometimes five or six mills in operation at
once. They were all made with the knife. The water-spout was
composed from the bark of a tree and the mill-stones were
represented by round discs of the same material. It is not for me to
offer an opinion as to the influence these excercises had on my my
future fortunes, I may leave others to form their own judgment.
Shortly after the departure of the uncle
for the West Indies, it appears that family differences arose as to
the management of the farm, and Andrew, who could not brook what he
considered improper interference, relinquished his post at Moy, and
engaged himself as steward to Mackenzie of Allangrange, where he
removed with his family.
William's prospects of education then
brightened, as he was sent to a school at Mullochy, a mile and a
half away; he says :—
The Mullochy school was conducted by a
Mr. Donald Fraser, a good classic and severe disciplinarian. Under
this gentleman's tuition I made great progress in reading, writing,
and accounts, but learned neither Latin or Greek, confining my
studies, according to my father's orders, to a plain English
education. The want of a good grammatical course, and a slight
knowledge of the classics, has always been to me a serious loss. I
have repeatedly found the want of it, and to the present day I am
unable to determine whether I write or speak correctly. Mr. Fraser
was a gentleman well qualified to impart this knowledge, but it was
not only considered as not essential, but as standing m the way of
the more practical and useful branches of study, to which it was
necessary I should apply. The classics were therefore at once
abandoned for arithmetic, book-keeping, and a smattering of
mensuration, which, with the exception of three months with my uncle
at Galashiels, constituted the whole extent of education I ever
received.
Whilst noticing the Mullochy school, I
may mention that it consisted of about forty boys and twenty girls,
a considerable number of them coming barefooted, and without bonnets
or caps, from a considerable distance. The boys were all dressed in
tartan kilts, and the winter always entailed severe trials upon the
wearers. What with poor feeding and thin clothing, the greatest
sufferings from cold were endured, often at the expense of the
health, and sometimes endangering the lives, of the children. I have
before observed that Mr. Fraser was a severe disciplinarian, and in
order to enforce the system he had adopted for the regulation of the
school, he called a muster roll every Thursday at three o'clock, and
having ascertained the defaulters in attendance, negligence, &c.,
for the week, the whole list was cleared off by the usual
application of the 'tawse' which never failed to effect a
demonstration on that part of the person which may be described as
being the most sensitive, and the least liable to injury. I must,
however, do Mr. Fraser the justice to say, that my brother and
myself (being differently dressed and wearing the Saxon costume) in
some degree escaped the severity of this application, from the
difficulty and trouble incurred in the unbuttoning and removal of
the tight trowse. This did not, however, enable us entirely to
escape, and a transfer was occasionally made from those parts to the
palm of the hand, which never failed to ensure pain and preserve a
glowing heat for a considerable time, afterwards. These were some of
the drawbacks upon the system which at that time was pursued
throughout Scotland, but in other respects, it must be admitted that
Mr. Fraser was an excellent teacher, and made several scholars who
afterwards distinguished themselves.
Andrew Fairbaim remained only two years
in his steward's place.
My father was never satisfied with the
Highlands, as the whole of his time had been spent in laborious
improvements, which enriched others, but presented to himself and
family no result. Thoroughly disgusted with the people and the
country, he accepted an offer made to him by Sir William Ingleby to
remove to Yorkshire and take the management of his farm at Ingleby
Manor, near Knaresborough. This arrangement made a total change in
the condition and prospects of his family, and faring sold off
everything in the shape of furniture, our necessaries were packed
up, and in three days we embarked at Cromartv.
After a tedious voyage we landed at
Leith on the King's birthday, June 4, 1803, and what caused me to
recollect the date were the rejoicings which we witnessed at
Edinburgh on the evening of the same day. A few days more replaced
us at Kelso, where we found on enquiry that Mrs. Curl had left the
old house at the foot of the Woodmarket, and we were therefore
content to take up our residence in a small cottage in another part
of the town. Having settled the family, my father lost no time in
preparing for his departure for the scene of his future labours in
Yorkshire.
Previously, however, to leaving Kelso,
William, his eldest brother at Galashiels, proposed to take me for a
few months, in order to improve my arithmetic, and give me a short
course of book-keeping and land-surveying. These offers were gladly
accepted by my father, and I forthwith started on foot for my new
destination. My uncle had been at the head of the parish school for
nearly thirty years. He was a good English scholar, an excellent
land-surveyor, and a person of considerable attainments as a
practical mathematician. Like other members of his family, he was
self-taught, and he had exercised the vocation of a schoolmaster
from fourteen years of age till the day of his death, which was
occasioned by a severe cold caught during his surveys in the autumn
of 1809. To my uncle I was indebted for some knowledge in
land-surveying, but he was a severe taskmaster. I think too much so,
as he exacted from his pupils lessons which to me were exceeding
disagreeable, such as verses from the Psalms of David, which he
insisted should be committed to memory every Sunday. I laboured
incessantly at the 119th Psalm, until I got thoroughly disgusted
with the whole book; and such was my antipathy to the task that, to
the present day, I never look into it without thinking of the
unprofitable labour to which I was at that time subjected. At
Galashiels I, however, made some progress, but the time was so
short—only three months—that I was only beginning to understand what
I was about when I was removed.
William being now a tall lad of
fourteen, it was considered desirable he should render some
assistance towards the support of his younger brothers and sisters;
and, in August 1803, he was taken away from school, and sent back to
Kelso. He goes on :—
In a few days, through the influence of
some of the neighbours, I got employment at the New Bridge, which
was then building under the direction of the late Mr. Rennie, and a
more chaste and beautiful structure, with the exception, probably,
of the Waterloo and new London Bridges, does not exist. I was only a
few days in this employment, to which I took a great dislike, when I
met with an accident which nearly crippled me for life. Those who
noticed the methods in use at that time for carrying the materials
for buildings would observe that the smaller stones were carried on
handbarrows by two men, one before and another behind. On this
occasion I was the leader, and during the process of carrying the
stone, one much beyond my strength, with a coarse, unfeeling fellow
behind, I sank under the load, and the stone fell over upon my right
leg, making a fearful gash, which effectually barred my claims for
the honourable distinction of a mason's clerkship. Nearly three
months' confinement was the result of this accident; and a hard
struggle we had for it, as the money my father was enabled to send
from Yorkshire was a mere trifle. My earnings were only three
shillings per week—and to increase the difficulties, my father's
money was badly paid, which caused him to throw up his appointment,
and return again to Kelso. All these hardships were endured with
resignation by my mother. What added to the misery, and increased
the troubles under which she laboured, was the loss of my youngest
sister, Eliza, a beautiful child of two years of age. This was the
heaviest blow my poor mother had yet received. She appeared to sink
under her affliction, and I well remember the intensity of her grief
when she saw her eldest boy, almost a confirmed cripple, take the
place of his father in the position of chief mourner. My sister's
funeral, doctor's bills, and the limited remittances received from
Yorkshire, entailed a great deal of suffering upon the family, and
before the following November, when my father returned, we had
expended the last shilling and were almost in a state of
destitution. His return was most welcome to my distressed mother,
whose health had suffered from the anxieties attendant upon the loss
of her child and the exhausted state of the funds upon which she
depended for support.
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