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1 January 1854
The birth of classical scholar and anthropologist, Sir James George
Frazer, in Glasgow. Educated in classical studies at Glasgow and
Cambridge universities, he became a fellow at the latter in 1879. His
interests were expanded by Sir Edward Tylor's Primitive Culture and he
blended Tylor's comparative method with his own to study ancient customs
by examining modern people living on the primitive level. However, this
work has been criticized that it took customs out of their cultural
context to compare with those that were only superficially similar.
Frazer was also interested in comparative religion, especially in
totemism. He did not do fieldwork but rather spent considerable time
doing library research in obtaining ethnographic information from the
accounts of travelers, missionaries, and officials. His great work,
written in grand Victorian style and published in 1890, was The
Golden Bough, a study of magic and religion that popularized
anthropology. His basic argument was that there is an evolutionary
process in which magic leads to religion that then leads to science.
Magic uses erroneous assumptions to try to control nature, religion
seeks to control nature by propitiating the gods, and finally, science
uses experimental and objective techniques. Critics admit the validity
of his distinction between magic and religion, but counter the idea of
an evolutionary stage with the observation that religious sentiments
have been noted among primitive people. His later works include
Totemism and Exogamy (1910), Folklore in the Old Testament
(1923), and Man, God and Immortality (1927). He was knighted in
1914, awarded the British Order of Merit in 1925, and died in Cambridge
on May 7, 1941.
3 January 1888
The birth of playwright James Bridie, pseudonym for Osborne Henry Mavor,
in Glasgow, to Henry Mavor and Janet Osborne. He showed an interest in
literature from a young age but was educated as a physician. He studied
medicine at the University of Glasgow, where he headed the Glasgow
University Magazine and wrote student dramas, and received his medical
degree in 1913. He had a successful medical career, working for the
Glasgow Royal Infirmary, teaching at Anderson College, and serving as an
officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps in both world wars. His enduring
fame though is as a playwright and he is credited with spurring the
revival of the Scottish Theater in the 20th century. His dozens of
plays, written 1928-1951, were celebrated for their satire and moral
soul searching. Among the most notable were The Switchback in 1929 and A
Sleeping Clergyman in 1933. He founded the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre in
1943 and the Glasgow College of Drama in 1950. He was a member of the
Royal Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons and the Royal Society of
Literature. He married Rona Bremner in 1923 and had two sons. He died of
vascular disease on 29 January 1951 in Edinburgh.
7 January 1451
The founding of Glasgow University, forty years after the creation of
St. Andrew's University, that enabled Scotland, like England, to boast
of two universities. King James II, reigned 1437-1460, persuaded Pope
Nicholas V to grant a bull authorizing Bishop Turnbull of Glasgow to set
up a university partially modeled on the University of Bologna. Turnbull
was a graduate of St. Andrew's and created a curriculum based upon that
of Paris and a constitution from the smaller French University of the
Loire that had the local Bishop as Chancellor. Glasgow University
originally operated from the Glasgow Cathedral and moved in the
seventeenth century to a building on High Street known as the 'Old
College' and referred to by contemporaries as 'the chief ornament of the
city.' It played a notable part in the Scottish Enlightenment by
association with notables such as Adam Smith and James Watt in fostering
the type of inquiry that helped produce the Industrial Revolution. The
university, which has continued in the grand European tradition, moved
in 1870 to its present site in the former suburb of Gilmorehill where it
celebrated its 550th anniversary in 2001.
8 January 1107
The death of King Edgar, fourth son of Malcolm Canmore (reigned
1057-1093) and Saint Margaret, after a short and obscure reign.
Following his father's death, as his uncle, Donald Bane (reigned
1093-1097), and elder brothers fought for the throne, he and his younger
siblings took shelter with William II (Rufus) in England. Four years
later, with the support of William Rufus and supposedly inspired by
visions of Saint Cuthbert, Edgar deposed and imprisoned his uncle, as
well as his brother Edmund, and became king at age 23. Shortly
thereafter, King Magnus Barelegs of Norway arrived with a large fleet
and forced Edgar to cede several of the western isles, including
Kintyre. It was observed that his father, Malcolm, would have fought
Magnus but Edgar really was not a fighter. In fact, he was nicknamed
Edgar the Peaceable. A virtual vassal of William II and Henry I of
England, one of his sisters was married to the latter though he himself
died unmarried and the kingdom passed peacefully to his next brother,
Alexander I. The king with the Saxon name was buried at Dunfermline with
his parents.
14 January, Every Year
The Feast Day of Saint Kentigern, first Bishop of Glasgow (some sources
say 13 January). Kentigern, which means 'head chief,' was also known as
Mungo, which means 'dear one.' He was born about A.D. 518 and died
603. It is thought he was a son of Thenew or Enoch, a daughter of the
King of Lothian, and born at Culross, in Fife, where he was taught in a
monastery by Saint Serf. He began his missionary work on the banks of
the Clyde and was consecrated a bishop in 540. He labored in this
district for many years, living an austere life in a cell and making
many converts by his example and preaching. A large community grew up
around him and became known as 'Clasgu' ('dear family') and ultimately
grew into the city of Glasgow. Kentigern also preached around Hoddom in
Galloway, in the kingdom of Strathclyde in Cumbria, and Clwyd in North
Wales. In the last place, where he is known as Cynderyn, he founded the
monastery of Llanelwy, now Saint Asaph. He eventually returned to
Glasgow where he is supposed to have met with Saint Columba. It is also
said that he is buried on the spot where the cathedral dedicated to his
honor now stands.
17 January 1746
The Battle of Falkirk fought between nearly 8,000 Jacobite rebels led by
'Bonnie Prince Charlie' and Lord George Murray and about 7,000 British
government troops commanded by General Henry Hawley. Retreating from
their abortive invasion of England, the Jacobite army had crossed back
into Scotland in December 1745 where it received reinforcements and
undertook to lay siege to Stirling Castle. Hawley's relieving force had
marched from Newcastle and reached the vicinity of Callendar House
southeast of Falkirk by 16 January 1746. The next day, the two forces
blundered into each other and a sharp fight ensued in mud and mist. The
Highlanders, divided into two wings and including MacDonalds and
Camerons, held the high ground and quickly decimated the rather
disorganized and panic stricken government soldiers. Government forces
suffered about 300 to 400 killed and 200 taken prisoners while Jacobite
losses were under 100. Hawley returned to Linlithgow and the Jacobites
returned to the siege of Stirling. Shortly thereafter, with news of the
approach of another government force under William, Duke of Cumberland,
the Jacobites lifted the siege and retreated north, to the their
eventual destruction by Cumberland at Culloden in April 1746.
17 January 1761
The birth of geologist and chemist Sir James Hall at Dunglass, East
Lothian. From an affluent background, he succeeded to his father's
baronetcy in 1776 and was educated at Christ's College at Cambridge and
Edinburgh University. When attending university, he was not much
interested in chemistry until he traveled extensively throughout Italy
examining volcanoes. After returning to Scotland, he began studying
chemistry and geology as well after meeting James Hutton and reading his
Theory of the Earth. Hutton argued that geological formation occur due
to the Earth's internal heat, which clashed with the prevailing theory
that all rocks were formed by water. He founded experimental geology by
artificially producing various rock types in the laboratory. In 1798,
Hall started conducting geological experiments that eventually proved
many of Hutton's theories and convinced the scientific community to
accept them. This was especially true for demonstrating that igneous
rocks from Scotland were produced by intense heat. His further
experiments reinforced many Vulcanists' ideas, including attempts to
find out how rocks become deformed by the application of pressure.
Today, Hall is considered to be the founder of experimental geology and
geochemistry. He later served as President of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh and died in that city on 23 June 1832.
19 January 1736
The birth of engineer and inventor, James Watt, at Greenock, a son of a
shipwright and merchant. As a boy, he worked in his father's store,
where he had his own tools, and was apprenticed to a London mathematical
instrument maker. He became skilled at producing navigational and
surveying instruments and was established in Glasgow by 1759 as an
instrument maker for the university. He became a friend of Joseph Black,
a trailblazer in both chemistry and the study of heat. Watt began his
own studies on the steam engine, and using the Newcomen model, he
produced a much more efficient one utilizing a separate condenser to
avoid large heat losses. This invention, patented in 1769, became a
universal power source and a critical part of the early Industrial
Revolution. Early on, Black had lent money and John Roebuck of the
Carron Ironworks in Stirlingshire was his partner. By 1773, Roebuck's
financial collapse led Watt to a partnership with Matthew Bolton of
Birmingham, England. In the 1780s, Watt worked to refine his steam
engine, particularly for mine-pumping and factory power, and invented
the practice, still in use, of measuring power on the value of horse
power, equal to 33,000 pound lifted one foot high per minute. His other
inventions include the letterpress copybook, chlorine bleach, and iron
cement. He was a member of the Royal Society of London and the French
Academy. In 1794, both Watt and Bolton turned the business over to their
sons. Watt maintained a private workshop until his death at Heathsfield,
England, on 25 August 1819. He was buried at Handsworth Church in
Warwickshire and commemorated by a statue in Westminster Abbey.
21 January 1721
The birth of British General, James Murray, in Ballencrief, the fifth
son of Alexander, Lord Elibank. He was appointed a second lieutenant in
Wynyard's Marines in 1740 and subsequently served in the West Indies,
Flanders, and Brittany. He participated in the Rochfort expedition of
1757 and, under James Wolfe the following year, commanded a brigade
during the successful siege of Louisboug, Cape Breton Island. In 1759,
he was in charge of the left wing of Wolfe's army that defeated the
French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham near old Quebec. Following
Wolfe's death in that battle, Murray assumed command of the surviving
4,000 British troops and spent a hard winter in Quebec. In the spring of
1760, he resisted a besieging French force that was eventually forced to
retire when a British naval squadron arrived. He then marched on
Montreal where the French surrendered in September. A month later, he
was appointed military governor and, with the signing of peace between
Britain and France in 1763, he became the first civil governor of
Quebec. He later served as governor of the island of Minorca off Spain
where he was besieged by thousands of French and Spanish troops in
1781-1782. He had to surrender in the end but was acquitted at his
court-martial of all but minor charges. He became a full General in 1783
and served briefly as governor of Hull in Yorkshire. He died at his
residence, Beauport House, Sussex, on 18 June 1794.
25 January 1759
The birth of Scotland's greatest poet, Robert Burns, in Alloway, to
William Burness and Agnes Broun. He followed his father as a tenant
farmer, and despite his poverty, was well read. At fifteen, he wrote his
first poem, My Handsome Nell, about the subjects that were to dominate
his life, Scotch and women. He became more interested in the romantic
nature of poetry than the hard work of ploughing and planned to emigrate
from Scotland. However, his first collection, Poems Chiefly in the
Scottish Dialect, was published to great critical success and helped
induce him to remain. Unfortunately, fame did not bring wealth and he
was forced to work as an exciseman to make a living. He continued to
write, contributing songs to James Johnston's Scots' Musical Museum and
George Thomson's Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs. His early
death at age thirty-seven on 21 July 1796 was a great shock. Shortly
thereafter, friends started a ritual Burns' Supper in tribute which is
now held by Scots and Scottish descendants worldwide. The basic format
has remained unchanged and begins when the chairman invites the guests
to stand to receive the Haggis as a piper leads the chef carrying the
Haggis to the top table. Someone then recites Burns' famous poem, To A
Haggis, and then cuts it open. This is followed by a toast to the Haggis
with a glass of Whisky. The menu typically includes Cock-a-leekie soup,
Champit Tatties, Bashed Neeps, Tyspy Laird (sherry trifle), and Coffee.
Someone then gives the Immortal Memory speech and there is also an
address to the women, both to thank those that prepared the food and to
the lasses in Burns' life. The evening continues with songs and poems,
especially Tam O' Shanter and Holy Willie's Prayer, and ends with
everyone joining hands and singing Auld Lang Syne.
28 January 1582
The birth of Scottish satirist and Latin poet, John Barclay, at Pont-a-Mousson
in France. His Argenis, a long poem of romantic adventure
published in 1621, was a major influence in the development of Romantic
writing in the seventeenth century. He received his early education from
the Jesuits and moved with his father, William Barclay, to London in
1603. He was a cosmopolitan man who married a Frenchwoman and traveled
often between Paris and London. He remained in London from about 1606 to
1616 as a minor court official, then settled in Rome. His
Euphormionis Lusinini Satyricon, published from 1603 to 1607, was a
biting satire on the Jesuits, the medical profession, and contemporary
scholarship, education, and literature. It was patterned on the style of
the Roman satirist Gaius Petronius Arbiter, with a mixture of prose and
verse. Filled with villains and unsavory characters, it was influential
in the later development of the picaresque novel. His publication of his
father's work, De Potestate Papae (1609), which denied the
temporal jurisdiction of the pope, resulted in prolonged controversy
while his Icon Animorum (1614) was a description of the character
and manners of European nations that mentioned Scotland with special
affection. At the invitation of Paul V, he went to Rome in 1616 where
he was welcomed by Bellarmine and pensioned by the pope. Perhaps to
prove his Catholic loyalty he published his Paraenesis ad Sectarios
the following year. Barclay's most celebrated work, the aforementioned
Argenis, was a wonderful example of modern Latin verse. Its
political implications were so pronounced that many editions were
supplied with an index to the characters and names. Its fame in Europe
endured as it was reprinted many times during the seventeenth century,
and literary figures such as William Cowper, Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
Richard Crashaw, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were familiar with it.
Barclay died in Rome, Italy, on 15 August 1621. He was admired by
contemporaries for his honesty, courtesy, and sense of irony.
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); 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);
Warner, Philip. Famous Scottish Battles (1975, 1996). |
