2 April 1854
The death of John Wilson, author and editor
known as ‘Christopher North’. Born in 1785 in Paisley to rich manufacturer
John Wilson and Margaret Sym, he attended Glasgow and Oxford universities,
graduating from the latter in 1807. A distinguished scholar and athlete,
he used his inheritance money to purchase an estate in England's scenic
Lake District. He devoted much of his time to writing and was friends with
both William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge. He married Jane Penny of
Liverpool in 1811 and published two collections of poetry in 1812. In
1815, he lost his inheritance because of mismanagement by a family member
and returned to Edinburgh. He joined the editorial staff of Blackwood’s
Magazine and wrote under the pseudonym ‘Christopher North’. He
contributed to the 'Chaldee Manuscript,' 'Noctes Ambrosianae,' and' Lights
and Shadows of Scottish Life,' the latter published as a book in 1822. He
also published the novels The Trials Of Margaret Lindsay (1823) and
The Forester (1825). He became Chair of Moral Philosophy in 1820,
resigning in 1851 due to bad health.
2 April 1862
The birth of William Bauchop Wilson, labor
leader and first American Secretary of Labor, in Blantyre, Lanarkshire. In
1870, his family emigrated to Arnot, Pennsylvania, where his early pro-labor
activities resulted in eviction, blacklisting, assault, and incarceration.
He was active in both the short-lived Miners' Amalgamated Association of
the National Federation of Miners and the coal union of the Knights of
Labor. In 1890, he was a founding member of the National Executive Board
of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and went on to serve as
District 2 President, 1890-1900, and national Secretary-Treasurer,
1900-1908. He was a Congressional Representative from Pennsylvania,
1907-1913, and Chairman of the House Committee on Labor the last two
years. He sponsored an investigation of mining safety conditions and
helped organize the Federal Bureau of Mines in 1910. He also promoted the
eight-hour workday for public employees, anti-injunction legislation, the
establishment of the Children's Bureau, and the creation of the Department
of Labor, which he headed, 1913-1921. His work there involved reorganizing
the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, developing agencies for
industrial mediation, and forming the United States Employment Service to
handle wartime work issues. He was President of the International Labor
Conference of 1919 but was defeated in his 1926 bid to be a United States
Senator from Pennsylvania. He married Agnes Williamson on 7 June 1883 and
they had eleven children. He died on a train in Savannah, Georgia, on 25
May 1934.
6 April 1320
The celebrated Declaration of Arbroath,
asserting Scottish independence from England, sent to Pope John XXII at
Avignon. Arbroath was both a royal burgh and North Sea fishing port in
Angus and its Abbey, from which the Declaration originated, was one of the
richest in Scotland. Previous popes had supported Scottish independence
but Pope John had accepted English claims so the Declaration was an
eloquent attempt to counter enemy propaganda. Ostensibly a letter from the
Scottish nobles pledging their support for King Robert the Bruce, it was
more likely written by Bernard de Linton, Abbot of Arbroath and Robert's
Chancellor. In committing Robert to completing the work of Scottish
independence, it also bound the eight earls and thirty-one barons who set
their seals to it. Among these were some whose support was lukewarm and
this document strengthened Robert’s hand against them. It begins with a
somewhat mythical narrative of the origin of the Scottish people and
stresses the patronage of Saint Andrew, the brother of Saint Peter. It
goes on to describe, less mythically, the tyranny of Edward I of England
and the liberty brought by Robert I. It also contains the stirring, often
quoted, and strangely modern sounding affirmation of Scottish nationhood:
"So long as a hundred of us remain alive, we will yield in no least way to
English dominion. For we fight, not for glory nor for riches nor for
honour, but only and alone for freedom, which no good man surrenders but
with his life." Since 1997, April 6 has been celebrated in the Untied
States of America and National Tartan Day.
9 April 1747
The execution of Jacobite schemer Simon
Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat and Chief of Clan Fraser, at Tower Hill, London.
Born about 1667 at Tomich in Ross, he was a grandson of the 7th Lord Lovat
and noted for his endless feuds, unbounded avarice, and shifting
allegiances. His act in forcing the widow of the 9th Lord to marry him
greatly offended her Murray kinsmen and earned him a death sentence in
1698. He won pardon through the intercession of the Duke of Argyll but was
outlawed in 1701 for failing to stand trial for the rape of his wife. He
went to France where he contacted the exiled Stuarts and returned to
Scotland in 1703 on a Jacobite mission that he betrayed to the Duke of
Queensbury. On his return to France, he was imprisoned for ten years.
Escaping in 1715, he returned to Scotland to lead his clan against the
Jacobite rising. He was again pardoned and granted life rent on the Lovat
estates, gaining full title in 1730 and full possession in 1733. He hoped
for greater rewards from a Stuart restoration and was secretly created
Duke of Fraser in 1740 by James Edward Stuart, 'the Old Pretender.'
However, the failure of Prince Charles Edward, 'Bonnie Prince Charlie' or
'the Young Pretender,' to bring weapons and soldiers with him to start the
1745 Jacobite Rebellion caused Lovat to baulk. Hedging his bets, he forced
his son Simon to join the rebellion while he pretended loyalty to King
George II. Following their victory at Prestonpans, Lovat openly supported
the Stuart cause though after the Jacobite defeat at Culloden in April
1746, the elderly Lovat was captured near Loch Morar and condemned to
death by the House of Lords on 18 March 1747.
10 April 1512
The birth of King James V, son of James IV and
Margaret Tudor, at Linlithgow, West Lothian. He was the father of Mary,
Queen of Scots, and became king as a baby after his father was killed by
the English at the Battle of Flodden Field in September 1513. This epic
defeat removed a generation of leadership, including the King, many
nobles, several clan chiefs, and thousands of Highland clansmen and
Lowland soldiers. During his minority, James V was a pawn among the great
families who battled for power. The Douglases gained the upper hand and
kept the young James a prisoner. He later made a daring escape and
organized anti-Douglas forces in order to rule in his own name. He
maintained the French alliance, despite the fact that his mother was a
sister of Henry VIII of England, and was generally an effective king. Like
many other Scottish and English monarchs, James V was subject to male
favorites, which did little for his reputation, and he had an obsessive
fear of witchcraft. He died at age thirty in 1542. News that his army,
including his favorite Oliver Sinclair, had been defeated by the English
and that his wife had given birth to daughter, Mary, was too much for him
and he died saying "It came with a lass (the Crown through a daughter of
Robert the Bruce) and it will gang (go) with a lass." Mary did lose the
crown, but to her son, the Protestant James VI, who later became King
James I of England.
11 April 1827
The birth of soldier and explorer James
Augustus Grant at Nairn. He was educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen,
before being commissioned in the Indian Army in 1846. He served in the
Sikh Wars and was decorated for his actions at the Battle of Gujerat
during the Indian Mutiny of 1857. He is probably best remembered for going
with John Hanning Speke, a friend and comrade from India, in the search
for and discovery of the source of the Nile River, 1860-1863. Grant was
given independent command of parts of the expedition during long periods.
He was not there when Speke successfully identified the source of the
White Nile at the northern end of Lake Victoria in July 1862. A discovery
disputed by other explorers, Grant hurriedly published his own account of
the expedition, titled A Walk Across Africa, shortly after Speke’s
sudden death in a hunting accident in 1864. The title was inspired by a
joke made by Lord Palmerston that Grant had faced a long walk across the
continent and the account was based upon his journal describing native
customs and events of geographical importance. For his services, he was
awarded a gold medal by the Royal Geographical Society. He later won more
renown for his part in the Abyssinian (Ethiopian) Campaign of 1868 where
he served in the intelligence department under Lord Napier, retiring that
same year with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He died at Nairn on 11
February 1892.
13 April 1892
The birth of Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt,
pioneer of radar, at Brechin, Angus. The youngest son of a carpenter, he
studied electrical engineering and Physics at University College, Dundee.
He began working in 1915 for the London Meteorological Office using radio
waves to track thunderstorm activity that was essential to the safe flying
of early aircraft. He continued to work for the government where he
supervised two radio research stations and later researched the use of
radar, officially named Radio Detection and Ranging, for navigation. In
the early 1930s, he was appointed scientific adviser to the Air Ministry
with the job of making radar practical for air defense. Several important
discoveries along the way were fundamental for the invention of a radar
system. In 1922, the cathode-ray tube used for observing the returning
radar signal became available. In 1936, pulsed radar, which could pinpoint
locations, replaced continuous wave emitters that only detected the
presence of objects. Finally, in 1939, the microwave transmitter was built
which enabled the radar locator to function despite clouds and fog. The
construction of a radar defense network, completed in secret, was
instrumental in defeating the German Luftwaffe during the Battle of
Britain in 1940. He visited the United States in 1941 as a radar adviser
and became a private consultant in 1946. He was elected a fellow of the
Royal Society in 1941, was knighted in 1942, and received the United
States Medal for Merit in 1946. He lived in both New York and Canada but
died in Inverness on 5 December 1973.
14 April 1736
The Porteous Riots broke out in Edinburgh over
the execution of smuggler Andrew Wilson. He had won popular sympathy in
aiding a friend’s escape from Edinburgh’s infamous Tolbooth Prison. At his
hanging, a riot occurred and the City Guard fired on the crowd and killed
and wounded several people. John Porteous, Captain of the Guard, was
charged with responsibility for the incident, brought to trial and
sentenced to death. His execution was postponed after he petitioned Queen
Caroline who was acting as Regent for the absent King George II. This
reprieve was not well received by the populace of Edinburgh. On 7
September 1736, an armed mob broke into the prison, grabbed Porteous and
hanged him from a signpost in the street. It was believed that certain
important persons, perhaps with Jacobite sympathies, were involved but,
despite reward offers from the government, no one was convicted for the
murder. Public support throughout Scotland was so unmistakably on the side
of the rioters that the Parliamentary bill for the punishment of Edinburgh
merely levied a fine of 2,000 pounds Sterling to be paid to Mrs. Porteous
and the disqualification of the Provost from holding public office. The
Jacobite overtones of the event were used by Sir Walter Scott in his novel
The Heart of Midlothian.
16 April 1746
The Battle of Culloden Moor, also known as
Drummossie, the last battle of the ‘Forty-Five Rebellion,’ where Jacobite
rebels under Charles Edward Stuart, known as ‘the Young Pretender’ or
‘Bonnie Prince Charlie,’ were defeated by government forces commanded by
William, Duke of Cumberland. Culloden is about six miles east of
Inverness, the capitol of the Highlands. During the brief and unequal
fight, Prince Charlie lost about a 1,000 of his 5,000 man army, mostly
Highlanders from clans such as Cameron and MacDonald, while the Redcoat
force of about 9,000 suffered only 50 men lost. Superior numbers,
firepower, and tactics won the day as the Highlanders were killed or
dispersed. Scores of wounded were bayoneted on the field and hundreds more
were hunted down and killed in subsequent weeks by British troops. Dodging
spies and soldiers for five months, Charlie finally managed to escape to a
France and exile. In tribute to Cumberland, George Frederick Handel
composed ‘See the Conquering Hero Comes’ and the flower ‘Sweet William’
was named for him in England. In Scotland, however, it is known as
‘Stinking Willie’ or ‘Sour Billy’ and Cumberland himself as ‘the Butcher.’
The battle was a crushing defeat and the effective end to efforts to
restore the Roman Catholic Stuart Monarchy, in the person of Charlie’s
father, the 'Old Pretender' James III, to the throne of Great Britain.
This defeat also virtually ended the traditional Highland way of life.
Afterwards, the only Highlanders bearing arms were in special regiments of
the British army. The Gaelic language was discouraged and replaced by
English, kilts and tartans were forbidden, and thousands were put off
their land and resettled either in the coastal areas of Scotland or in the
American colonies.
21 April 1671
The baptism of John Law, monetary reformer and
proponent of the 'Mississippi Scheme' for New World development, in
Edinburgh. Son of a wealthy goldsmith, he had great ability with finances
and gambling and became known as 'Beau Law.' In London, he killed a man in
a duel over a woman and was jailed before escaping to Holland. On the
continent, he studied banking methods and eloped with another man's wife.
In 1705, he was back in Scotland and unsuccessfully submitted proposals
for reforming the economy, including the issue of bank notes, and
petitioned for an indemnity from England. In 1716, his proposal for a
joint stock bank in France was accepted and France’s first bank created.
He became a French citizen and a Roman Catholic. It was his 'Mississippi
Scheme' that organized a company to exploit French lands in the New World
and resulted in the founding of New Orleans. He achieved wealth, election
to the Academie Francaise, and appointment as Controller-General.
Unfortunately, the company soon collapsed, the currency was devalued, and
he was forced to flee to Venice where he died in 1729. His son, Jean, was
later notable in India as one of the French opposing the British conquest
of Bengal under Robert Clive.
24 April 1825
The birth of Robert Michael Ballantyne, early
modern fiction author, in Edinburgh. He was a nephew of James and John
Ballantyne, printers and publishers for Sir Walter Scott. Educated at
Edinburgh University, he went to Canada in 1841 to work as a clerk for the
Hudson's Bay Company and returned to Edinburgh in 1848 to work as a clerk
for the North British Railway Company. Later that year, he published his
first book, Hudson’s Bay, Or, The Life In The Wilds of North America.
Success enabled him to become a partner in the publishing house of Thomas
Constable, 1849-1855. He went on to write and publish more than ninety
books, mostly adventures for children. Based upon personal experience, his
heroes were models of morality and self-reliance. Snowflakes and
Sunbeams, Or, The Young Fur Traders (1856) is an adventure story based
upon his time in Canada. Annoyed by a geographical mistake he made in
The Coral Island (1858), he thereafter traveled continually to
research story backgrounds. He spent three weeks on Bell Rock to write
The Lighthouse (1865), time as a London fireman for Fighting the
Flames (1867), and lived for months with tin miners for Deep Down
(1868). He was especially careful with details of local plants and animals
that served to give believable settings to his dramatic adventures. He
married Jane Dickson Grant in 1866 and they had four sons and two
daughters. His autobiography, Personal Reminiscences In Book-Making,
was published in 1893, the year before he died in Rome.
26 April 1711
The Birth of philosopher and historian David
Hume near Edinburgh. He failed in family sponsored careers in law and
business and, until over age forty, was employed only twice, spending a
year in England as a tutor to an insane nobleman and as a military aide,
1745-1747, to General James Sinclair on an expedition to the French coast
and embassies in Vienna and Turin. His first major philosophic work, A
Treatise of Human Nature (1739-1740), was poorly received and his
controversial Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, completed in
the 1750s, was published posthumously. His reputation during his lifetime
rested upon his work as an essayist and historian, especially his
Political Discourses (1751) and six volume History of England
(1754-1762). When he went to France in 1763, he was revered as a literary
celebrity among the philosophes. He retired to Edinburgh in 1769 and died
there on 25 August 1776, just four months after writing his autobiography.
He is considered an important philosopher though his philosophical
writings went unnoticed during his lifetime. It was Immanuel Kant’s
intellectual debt to him that stimulated interest in Hume, particularly
his skeptical (for lack of a better term) philosophy as an alternative to
the systems of rationalism, empiricism, and idealism. His notion of
causality, that virtue and vice are derived ultimately from impressions of
pleasure and pain, demonstrates an anticipation of Jeremy Bentham's
utilitarianism.
27 April 1296
The disastrous Battle of Dunbar fought between
English forces under the Earl of Surrey and the Scottish ‘host’ of King
John Balliol (reigned 1292-1296). In 1294, King Edward I of England had
demanded that Balliol, who Edward made King of Scots in 1292, supply him
with Scottish soldiers to fight in France. The Community of the Realm
forced John to refuse, renouncing his alliance with Edward, and joining
instead ('The Auld Alliance.') with France. Edward’s response was invasion
and the brutal sack of Berwick, one of Scotland’s major ports and trading
centers, on 30 March 1296. The main Scottish army was north of Dunbar so
an English army under John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, besieged Dunbar
Castle and confrontation soon occurred. As the English maneuvered to cross
the Spott Burn, the Scots mistook this as a retreat and abandoned their
vantage point upon the brow of Spottismuir to charge headlong into
destruction. Many Scottish nobles were taken prisoner and sent as hostages
to England. Dunbar Castle fell soon thereafter and the resistance of the
Scottish nobles collapsed as Balliol was captured and ritually stripped of
his kingship. The sacred Stone of Destiny was removed to London and
Scotland became a province ruled by an English Viceroy. For Edward, the
problem of Scotland seemed to be settled once and for all and is perhaps
best summed up with his statement "A man does good business when he rids
himself of a turd." Scottish patriots such as William Wallace and Andrew
Murray would soon disabuse Edward of this confidence.
28 April 1742
The birth of Henry Dundas, First Viscount
Melville and Baron Dunira, at Arniston in Midlothian, a son of Robert
Dundas. He was a career politician who served in several offices under
William Pitt the Younger and was known as 'King Harry the Ninth' and ‘The
Uncrowned King of Scotland’ for his skillful management of Scottish
politics, 1775-1805. Educated at the University of Edinburgh, he joined
the faculty of advocates in 1762 and was Lord Advocate, 1775-1783. In the
British Parliament, he represented Midlothian, 1774-1790, and Edinburgh,
1790-1802. He distinguished himself as a public speaker and, after holding
minor offices under the Marquess of Lansdowne and Pitt, became Home
Secretary in 1791 and Secretary for War, 1794-1801. He was also
influential in the affairs of India, especially the East India Company. A
close friend and ally of Pitt, he became a peer in 1802 as Viscount
Melville and Baron Dunira. In 1804, he became First Lord of the Admiralty
but was investigated by a special commission of inquiry regarding his
financial management of the Admiralty as Treasurer between 1782 and 1800.
The commission’s report in 1805 resulted in his impeachment and, though he
was acquitted of wrongdoing, he never again held public office. He refused
the offer of an earldom in 1809 and died on 28 May 1811 in Edinburgh.
By William John Shepherd
Note On Sources:
Some dates are based upon concise chronologies published by Ronald
McDonald Douglas in his Scottish Lore And Folklore (1982) and John
Wilson McCoy in the pages of The Highlander magazine in 1997. Additional
dates and information have been gleaned from my varied readings in
Scottish history. These sources include but are not limited to the
following: Brown, P. Hume. A Short History Of Scotland (1908,
1961); Donaldson, Gordon and Morpeth, Robert. A Dictionary of Scottish
History (1996); Fisher, Andrew. A Traveller's History Of Scotland
(1990); Gerber, Pat. Stone of Destiny (1997); Gordon, Ian Fellowes.
Famous Scots.(1988); Keay, John and Julia (eds.). Collins
Encyclopedia Of Scotland (1994); Mackie, J.D. A History Of Scotland
(1964, 1991); MacLean, Sir Fitzroy. A Concise History Of Scotland
(1970, 1988); Prebble, John. The Lion In The North (1971, 1973);
Sadler, John. Scottish Battles (1998); Smout, T.C. A History Of
The Scottish People, 1560-1830 (1969, 1998); Traquair, Peter.
Freedom's Sword: Scotland's Wars Of Independence (1998); Warner,
Philip. Famous Scottish Battles (1975, 1996). |