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Two of our Glasgow streets, Dale Street, Bridgeton, and
Dale Street, Tradeston, derive their name from the estimable gentleman
above named, whose multifarious activities, mercantile, manufacturing,
financial, municipal, benevolent and religious, both "here about and far
away," were truly astonishing !
He was the father of the cotton trade of Glasgow, or it may even be said
of Scotland. In 1783 he took an active part in forming the Chamber of
Commerce; was one of its first directors, and was twice chosen chairman.
In the terrible years between 1782 and 1799, when meal rose to 21s. 4d. a
boll, he chartered ships and imported great quantities of grain, not for
gain to himself, but to sell it cheap to the poor starving people.
Mr. Dale was also for many years a
magistrate of Glasgow, and in this capacity won the golden opinions of his
fellow-citizens, as he tempered justice with mercy. Hence, the poor
blessed him, and affectionately distinguished him by the title of the
"benevolent magistrate." In person he was short and corpulent, and the
complete beau ideal
of a Glasgow bailie, in living
and genuine reality, and not merely ideal like the famous Bailie Nicol
Jarvie.
It is also recorded that in
connection with his mills at New Lanark he set himself to provide his
workpeople with good houses, good sanitation, good schooling, and good
training, intellectual, moral, and religious. He always tried to make
business yield something better than profit; and outside of his own
business connections he was a zealous friend and helper "in every good
word and work." Originally a member of the Church of Scotland, he became a
founder of the "Old Scotch Independents;" he travelled all about to
counsel and comfort their scattered congregations; for thirty-seven years
he officiated as pastor, and preached regularly on Sundays to his own
congregation in Greyfriars Wynd; yea, so earnest was he, that to help his
pulpit work he had taught himself to read the Scriptures in the original
Hebrew and Greek. He also sought like his Lord and Master to seek and save
those who were counted lost, as he visited Bridewell to preach to the
prisoners.
To crown all he was no sour, gloomy zealot, but a
genial, humorous man, given to hospitality, and he both could and would
sing a good old Scotch song with such feeling as to bring tears to the
eyes. Yet, strange to say, all these good and noble qualities did not save
him from fanatical persecution and insult, because his true and genuine
Christianity did not run in the regular popular channel. His taking on him
the work of the Christian ministry grated against the prejudices of his
Presbyterian fellow-citizens, by whom he was denounced as a Nadab or
Abihu, and he was hooted and pelted on his way to his labours, in what was
sneeringly called the Candle Kirk, which edifice was actually attacked by
the mob of would-be orthodox believers or professors.
But none of these things moved him; he lived down the
scath and the scorn; for when he rested from his labours on 17th March,
1806, in his 68th year, all the city mourned; and he was laid in the
Ramshorn kirkyard with a great following of gentle and simple. He lies
beneath a plain stone let into the east wall, bearing on it—
This BURYING GROUND
Is THE PROPERTY
OF DAVID DALE,
MERCHANT IN GLASGOW.
1780.
By his wife Ann Campbell, he left
five daughters, of whom the eldest was married to the well-known Robert
Owen. His portrait is preserved for us in Kay’s Morning Walk
(reproduced in Stuart). His offices and warehouses on the east side of St.
Andrew’s Square, also his town house at the south-west corner of Charlotte
Street; and his country house, Rosebank, near Cambuslang, are all still to
the fore. |
