Figure 1. Archibald McLellan from Memoirs and Portraits of 100 Glasgow Men. (1886)
Archibald McLellan’s gift to Glasgow was an unusual, if somewhat inadvertent, one. It was an idea, not necessarily his, which led to the creation of a municipally owned art collection and the building of Kelvingrove Art Galleries.
He was the son of Archibald McLellan, a coach builder and his wife Christian Shillinglaw who married in 1794.[1] No record of his birth has been discovered however he died in 1854, his death registration document recording his age as 59 years.[2] There appears to have been a brother, James, and a sister, Christian, born in 1796 [3] and 1799 [4] respectively, both seem never to have married nor have any death records for either been identified.
Archibald senior was born in Luss in 1749.[5] On the 14th of March 1782 he became a Burgess and Guild Brother of Glasgow, being described as a hammerman and having served an apprenticeship with coach and harness makers Archibald Bogle and John Edmiston.[6] In the 1799 Glasgow directory he is listed as a partner in the coachbuilding company of McLelland and Dunbar, his name being spelt incorrectly with the addition of a ‘d’.[7] It wasn’t until 1812 that the entry was corrected to McLellan and Dunbar.[8] The business was located at various addresses in Miller Street, mostly at number 21.
In 1814 Archibald junior joined with his father, the business now being known as Archibald McLellan and Son at number 24 Miller Street, [9] eventually moving to 81 Miller Street.[10] Archibald senior died in 1831 in Glasgow. His Trust and Deed Settlement written in the same year mentions only his wife Christian and son Archibald.[11]
Archibald junior matriculated at Glasgow University in 1808, his date of birth being given as 1797.[12] His education seems to have been extensive, and might be described as a classical one, which was probably the basis for his interest in art and literature which became evident in later life.[13] He also had acquired the necessary skills to join with his father in coachbuilding, particularly as a heraldic draughtsman.[14] On the 26th of August 1813 he became a Burgess and Guild Brother of Glasgow. [15] The following day he became hammerman number 822, being described as a coachmaker. His ‘essay’ ( the manufacture of a piece of equipment to demonstrate the required skills) was a screw, bolt and nut.[16] At best he would be 18 years old, if the university birth date applies then he would 16 years old. Normally a member of the trade would be 21 years old at the time of their membership.[17] In 1819 he became Collector of the Incorporation of Hammerman probably in recognition of his varied practical and intellectual skills. In 1821 he became Deacon of the Hammermen.[18]
Prior to the Burgh Reform Act (Scotland) of 1833 members of the Trades and Merchants Houses could be nominated by these organisations to become Glasgow councillors. McLellan was nominated in 1822 and on the 8th March gave his oath of allegiance and abjuration. He was described in the minutes of the council as a councillor of the Crafts rank. He was to remain a councillor in various roles for several years thereafter.[19]
He subsequently became a magistrate (bailie) of Glasgow being elected on the 2nd October 1827. There were eleven crafts candidates for the position of youngest or second trades bailie. They were split into two groups of six and five, McLellan and Walter Ferguson coming top of their respective groups to run off against each other. In the event McLellan was elected unanimously. He served as bailie until October 1829. He also served as deacon convener on the council for various periods in 1831, 1832, 1833, 1834 and 1835 and was elected city treasurer on the 11th October 1831.[20]
Most sources say he became a bailie before he reached the age of twenty five years. Clearly that is not true. If he was born in 1795 he would have been thirty two. The latest birthday I have come across for him is 1798, which means he would have been twenty nine on becoming a bailie.
McLellan was a multifaceted individual. In addition to running the coach business, initially with his father then on his own, and advancing the interests of the city through the council and the Trades House he also had a passionate interest in art, literature and music. He was friends with a number of artists of the day including Sir Daniel Macnee and Sir David Wilkie.[21]
In 1825 he became a member of the Glasgow Dilettanti Society which had been formed around February of that year. Its stated aim was ‘ to improve the taste for, and advance the knowledge of the fine arts,’ its membership being restricted to painters, sculptors, etchers and engravers but also included those individuals possessing artistic taste and knowledge. It’s first president was Andrew Henderson, a portrait painter, McLellan and David Hamilton the architect joining later that year. The society met monthly with essay readings and exhibitions of work by the members or owned by them. In 1826 McLellan exhibited a number of prints from his own collection.[22],[23] In 1834 he was the society’s president.[24] He was also the first president of the Glasgow Fine Arts Association in its foundation year of 1853 and on the Glasgow Art Unions management committee.
His growing influence in the Trades House resulted in him becoming it’s deacon convener in 1831 and again in 1832. The following year saw the introduction of the Reform Act which initially prohibited the Trades and Merchant Houses from nominating councillors. McLellan was instrumental in maintaining the right of the Deacon Convener of the Trades House and the Dean of Guild of the Merchants House, to become councillors ex officio.[25] He was again elected deacon convener of the Trades House in 1834, probably for his success in having the Act revised.[26] They also had his portrait painted by his friend Sir John Graham Gilbert which hangs in the Trades House today.[27]
It’s not clear when he started to collect works of art but it was an eclectic collection which included paintings, sculptures, and books. How it was housed is also not clear as initially he probably lived with his parents. However by 1828 he was living at 78 Miller Street,[28] nearby the coachworks. He remained at that address until 1838 [29] at which time he moved to 3 Dalhousie Street in the Barony parish. This last address according to Dr. Wangen, director of the Royal Gallery of Pictures in Berlin who visited Glasgow around 1852/53, housed a significant collection of paintings from the 17th century Dutch and Flemish schools. It also contained a number of Italian, English, Spanish and French works. Dr. Wangen was pretty scathing about other Glasgow collectors, or the lack of them, describing McLellan as an honourable exception. He described the house as being overfilled with paintings and listed and commented on over sixty of them in three of the rooms there which include works by Van Dyk, Sir David Wilkie and Brueghel. [30] McLellan also had a country domicile at Mugdock Castle, leasing the castle from around 1836 from the Marquis of Montrose family, the Grahams.[31]
He had a great interest in the architecture of Glasgow undertaking new buildings on his own account culminating in the galleries building in Sauchiehall Street named after him. He wrote ‘Essay on the Cathedral Church of Glasgow‘ which was published in 1833 which lamented the state of the cathedral since reformation times and suggested action to improve. Not all of his suggested changes were made however it was ‘renovated and became the pride and ornament of the land.’[32] He also proposed a new western approach to the cathedral and purchased land between Weaver Street and Stirling’s Road to achieve this. The land was subsequently given to the city council and the Merchant’s House who carried out the required improvements.[33]
He never married however in a talk given to the Old Glasgow Club in 2010 by Mrs Jane Anderson, a guide at Kelvingrove Art Galleries, she describes him as having two mistresses, one, Isabella Hutcheson at Dalhousie Street who had been his servant/housekeeper there at least since 1841, the other at Mugdock, Elizabeth Park. She described them as his town and country common law wives. One other comment she made was that he was expelled from the university for vandalising the tomb of Bishop Wishart at the cathedral.[34]
He died at Mugdock Castle on the 22nd October 1854. His obituary in the Glasgow Herald, including an extract from that of the Courier, described him as an orator and debater who was unrivalled, but also as someone who could be over emphatic. He was also described as kind-hearted. The Courier described his character as not being flat or neutral. He was warm, impetuous, irascible and also generous, open hearted, kind and hospitable.[35]
However one capability escaped him, namely that of keeping control of his finances. He was indebted to several banks, to such an extent that his intention to leave his art works and other property to Glasgow could not be complied with. In the event the city purchased those works and the Sauchiehall Street galleries for £44,500,[36] (today worth £4.4m re RPI changes or £143m re project cost changes[37]) from his trustees which in due course was the genesis of the city’s art collection. He may not have seen his collection as the basis of a municipal one, whether gifted or otherwise but the idea of such occurred to those who promoted the purchase however inadvertently it was arrived at.
John Blackie jnr. donated three paintings by Hugh William Williams to Glasgow museums in 1868, the subjects of the paintings being a portrait of David Dale, industrialist and philanthropist who founded the cotton mills in New Lanark, and two different views of his factories.[1]
Although being described as John jnr. he was in fact John Blackie the fourth, his great grandfather, grandfather and father all being named John.
The Blackie family originated from the east of Scotland, great grandfather John living in Haddington. Grandfather John was born and christened in 1762 [2] in Yester, Haddingtonshire, and for the first part of his life he lived in the parish of Dirleton and Gullane. He was a tobacco spinner and in 1781 he moved to Glasgow, presumably to pursue his trade more effectively. Later that year he married Agnes Burrell,[3] the daughter of James Burrell and Margaret Anderson, who was born in Scoonie in Fife in 1760.[4]
John and Agnes lived in the Old Wynd in Glasgow and had five children, three boys and two girls, the first of whom was John born in 1782.[5] He, in due course, became known as John senior.
Around 1793/94 John, Agnes and family decided to move to Newcastle, however son John snr. remained behind to serve an apprenticeship as a weaver with his father’s friend Robert Dobbie who had a four loom weaving business. The terms of the indenture were that John snr. would serve five years as an apprentice, then two years as a journeyman thereafter. Another common condition of the time was that John snr. would be given board and lodging with the family of Robert Dobbie. In the event John snr. was released from his journeyman commitment after one year.
His maternal grandfather James Burrell and his wife came to Glasgow around 1799/1800, James being involved in supplying water to the military barracks in the Gallowgate. The water conduit passed through Ark Lane near Duke street on its way to the Gallowgate. In that area resided John Duncan, a well to do weaver. Burrell got to know Duncan and he recommended his grandson to him. Duncan agreed to employ John snr. and on the 30th January 1800 he formally joined Duncan’s business and lived with the family for nearly five years until December 1804, when on the 31st December he married Duncan’s daughter Catherine, who was five years older than him. Their first home was in Barrack Street where on the 27th September 1805, son John was born, later known as John jnr.[6] They also had two other sons, Walter Graham, born in 1816 [7] and Robert born in 1820.[8]
John snr. did not remain a weaver for long. He clearly had ambitions to improve his lot and was offered the opportunity to change his occupation by A Brownlie of the firm W.D. & A. Brownlie who were publishers and booksellers located at 414 Gallowgate.[9] It’s not clear how long he stayed with them however the last entry in the Glasgow P.O. directory for Brownlie was in 1807, located at 20 New Vennel.[10] There is some evidence to suggest that the business ran into financial difficulties and that John snr. was asked to take on some of it by its main creditor and Brownlie.[11]
He seems to have been successful in what he did as in 1812 he first appears in the Glasgow directory as J. Blackie and Co., printers and booksellers, located at 5 Saltmarket.[12] He remained there until 1816 when he moved premises to 8 East Clyde Street.[13] Also located at 5 Saltmarket was Edward Khull, printer, and it seems likely that Blackie used him for his own publications as when he moved to East Clyde Street so did Khull.[14] By 1819 the entry in the directory was for Khull, Blackie and Co.[15] The formal partnership was established in 1820,[16] it being dissolved in 1826.[17]
In 1824 he formed a partnership with Archibald Fullarton and William Somerville, the company being known as Blackie, Fullarton and Co.[18], located in 8 East Clyde street, and first appearing in the directory of 1828.[19]John jnr. joined the partnership in 1826.[20] This lasted until 1831 when the partnership was dissolved.[21] In the directory of 1832-33, Blackie’s entry is as Blackie and Son, consisting of John snr. and Johnjnr., printer and publisher, still in East Clyde Street; Fullarton is listed as Fullarton and Co., printer and stereotype founders, located at 34 Hutcheson Street.[22]
John jnr. was initially educated at the school of William Angus thereafter attending the High School being tutored in English by a Mr. Gibson and in commercial arithmetic (accountancy) by Thomas Rennie which he excelled at. This was to be of great benefit to him in his early days working with his father. As the business had developed, various agencies had been set up in different parts of Great Britain. Johnjnr. had the task of visiting these agencies to supervise, look at accounts, and to generally be satisfied that the conduct of each agency was acceptable. Dealing with the English agencies only could take as long as three months to visit them all.[23]
Figure 2. John Blackie Jnr. From Memoirs and Portraits of 100 Glasgow Men. 1886.
He was also involved with company publications, the Casquet of Literary Gems being the first major book entrusted to him. It sold very well and probably confirmed to his father that he had [24] the capability to deal with all aspects of the business. Another major success for John jnr. was obtaining the publication rights in 1833 to the Winter Evening Tales by James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd. The first volume was published in 1836, the year after Hogg died.[25]
John jnr. continued to develop his activity in the business getting more involved with its publications and finances and sharing the management load with his father. His younger brothers Walter and Robert had also become active in the business and became partners in 1842.[26] He was a member of the Free Church of Scotland and became heavily involved with the publication of the company’s religious books. In particular he was instrumental in the publication of Scotland’s first religious newspaper, ‘Scottish Guardian’ in 1832. It was a liberal minded publication and evangelical, it’s motto being “The people of Great Britain are a free and religious people and by the blessing of God I will lend my aid to help keep them so”. It remained in publication until 1862.[27]
His beliefs also manifested themselves in a number of practical ways. He helped set up three model lodging houses in Glasgow in 1845 (Green Dyke Street), 1847 (Mitchell Street) and 1856 (Carrick Street) in attempt to alleviate the squalor of existing lodging houses and generally to try and improve the conditions of the housing that the poor were forced to live in which were consequentially overcrowded, and unhealthy. In the mid-1860s he was to do much more as I’ll explain later.[28]
John jnr. married Agnes Gourlie, the daughter of Glasgow merchant William Gourlie in 1849.[29] They had three children, all boys: John James, born 1851 [30], William Gourlie, born 1853 [31], and Alfred, born 1855.[32]
Incidentally John snr. at the age of 68 married again in 1850, his second wife being Margaret Frame, the widow of wine merchant David Ferguson,[33] his first wife Catherine Duncan, having died in 1847 according to the Ancestry website although there is no primary proof of this.
In 1857 John jnr. was asked by the electors of the seventh ward in Glasgow to put himself forward for election to the town council. He was duly elected in November of that year and served on the police committee. In 1860 he was elected in ward six after becoming a bailie in 1859. He became a senior bailie in 1862 and in November 1863 he was unanimously elected as Glasgow’s Lord Provost remaining so until 1866.[34]
As a councillor, bailie and Lord Provost John jnr. continued to seek, in accordance with his political and religious beliefs, practical solutions to the housing of Glasgow’s poor whose living conditions were filthy, disease ridden and over-crowded, the buildings being too close together lacking full daylight and air. In a talk given to the Glasgow Philosophical Society in 1895 by Bailie Samuel Chisolm, a future Lord Provost of Glasgow who promoted further city improvement action, the condition of central or old Glasgow in the 1860s was clearly stated:
“There were narrow streets, with high and crowded tenements on either side ; and closes, dark and filthy, running at right angles to the streets, were literally swarming with inhabitants. Within a comparatively narrow area 75,000 persons were huddled together, a large proportion of them under conditions which made physical well-being difficult, and moral well-being all but impossible.”
“ From each side of the Gallowgate, High Street, Saltmarket, Trongate, etc. there are narrow lanes or closes running like so many rents or fissures backwards to the extent of two, or sometimes three hundred feet, in which tenements of three or four storeys stand behind each other, generally built so close on each side that the women can either shake hands or scold each other, as they often do, from the opposite windows. When clothes are put out from such windows to dry, as is usually done by means of sticks, they generally touch each other. The breadth of these lanes is, in most instances, from three to four feet, the expense of the ground having at first induced the proprietor to build upon every available inch of it. Throughout the whole of these districts the population is densely crowded. In many of the lanes and closes there are residing in each not fewer than five, six, and even seven hundred souls, and in one close we observed thirty-eight families occupying one common stair. In the Tontine Close there are nearly eight hundred of the most vicious of our population crowded together, forming one immense hot bed of debauchery and crime”
Dealing with this situation was therefore the key action of his time as Glasgow’s chief magistrate. Initially he and some like-minded friends joined together for the purpose of purchasing property in some of the worst districts of the city, with the view of laying out wider streets and thereafter reselling the remaining building ground, or of themselves building upon it. That was not successful mainly due the exorbitant prices asked for by the landowners. What they did however was to bring the issue to the general public’s attention and demonstrate, by their failure, that the problem would only be resolved by means of an Act of Parliament which would compel change.[35]
He first brought before the council his City Improvement Scheme on the 17th September 1865. It was well received by council members and the public at large. It provided for 88 acres of over built land being dealt with, the creation or improvement of 45 streets and the power to spend £1,250,000 on the purchase of property. It also included a general rental taxation of 6d per £ for five years. This latter feature was to result in John jnr. leaving the council, more of which in due course. In June 1866, the Act of Parliament was approved and trustees were appointed to deal with its implementation. In 1867 the first imposition of the 6d rental tax was due to be applied which led to a negative reaction to the act and John jnr. personally. So much so that when stood for re-election in November 1866, his three years tenure being up, he lost by two votes. [36]
He never sought election to the council again, continuing to play an informal part in city affairs and running the family business. He died of pleurisy on the 12th February 1873.[37]
His obituary in the Scotsman of the 13th February recorded his many attributes and included the following comment:
“Ex Provost Blackie, as originator of the (City) Improvement Plan, has perhaps done more for the good of the city of Glasgow than any other of its chief Magistrates, with the exception of Lord Provost Stewart who promoted the Loch Katrine water scheme.”[38]
John snr. died in 1874,[39] the company he formed essentially in 1809 ceased trading in 1991.[40]
Shown below are examples of the children’s books Blackie published which are in the writer’s possession.
Figure 3. Published 1928
Figure 4. Published 1890.
Figure 5. Published 1935.
One other point worthy of mention, it was William Wilfrid Blackie, the son of Walter Graham Blackie, brother of John jnr., who commissioned Charles Rennie Mackintosh to design and build the Hill House in Helensburgh.
Archibald Gray Macdonald was an engraver/lithographer who bequeathed twenty three paintings to Glasgow, eleven of which were by the landscaper Samuel Bough. The paintings were to go to Glasgow on his death or on his wife’s if he predeceased her,[1] which is what happened as she died in 1903, three years after he did.[2]
Archibald was born in 1813 in the Barony parish to John Macdonald, writer (lawyer) and Thomina Gray[3] who had married in 1810.[4] He was named after his maternal grandfather Archibald Gray and was the youngest of their three children, Mary being born in 1811[5] and Eneas in 1812.[6]
Very little has been established about father John, not helped by the fact there were two writers of the same name in Glasgow at the same time. When he was born is not clear but it may have been around 1790. He died intestate at Bridge of Allan in 1856, son Archibald was confirmed as executor, his estate being valued at £295 6s 9d. Interestingly in his inventory document he was described as being the owner of the Gartverrie Fire Clay Works in New Monklands and lived in Kingshill Cottage in the parish of Cadder.[7] In the Glasgow Herald of the 12th January 1855 he is recorded as donating £1 to the Patriotic Fund, set up to support the troops fighting the Crimean War (1853-56).[8] His death is recorded in the Inverness Courier on the 19 June 1856.[9] On his father’s death Archibald became owner of the Clay Works [10] eventually selling it c.1860 to J. Arthur and Co. and the Garnkirk Company.[11] Archibald’s mother Thomina was born in Kilmallie in 1780, the daughter of merchant Archibald Gray and Mary Cameron.[12]
Where Archibald was schooled has not been established nor is there any evidence to support his attendance at university. By 1835 however he partnered Andrew Maclure in the lithographing and engraving company Maclure, Macdonald & Co, situated at 190 Trongate,[13] the company first appearing in the Post Office Directory of 1836/37.[14] It’s not clear how he got involved with that profession, perhaps he and/or Andrew worked with another company initially. As it happens Hugh Wilson was an engraver and lithographer situated at 197 Trongate. Wilson had been in the profession since 1822 in Argyle street[15] and had moved to the Trongate in 1828[16] at which time Andrew would be age 16 and Archibald 15. Is this where one or both served their ‘apprenticeship’? Pure conjecture of course.
In 1838 their description in the directory was given as ‘lithographers, printers, draughtsmen and printers to Her Majesty’[17]the latter part subsequently becoming ‘ornamental printers to Her Majesty’ in 1846.[18]
In 1839 they moved their business premises to 57 Buchanan Street[19] remaining there until 1853 when they moved to 20 St. Vincent Place.[20] They were to stay there for the next thirty one years, moving to Bothwell Street in 1884. Their directory entry for that year gives a clear indication of the range and growth of the company which now included engineering activity, chromo lithographs, photographs, photo engraving, making medals, die sinks and embossing.[21] They were also at the forefront of innovation in their profession having bought a Sigi machine from Germany in 1851 which could print 600 sheets per hour and were the first company in the UK to use steam power for lithographic printing.[22]
Their business activity was not confined to Glasgow. In 1840 they opened premises in Liverpool, then London in 1845. In 1886 they opened in Manchester[23] by which time the founders of the company were no longer there. Andrew Maclure had died in 1885 at Monzie Castle in Perth, usual residence given as Ladbroke Square, London [24] having lived there from at least 1861.[25] Archibald retired from the business in 1886.[26]
Their products included portraiture, events and postage stamps. The National Portrait Gallery in London have forty four lithographs and chromolithographs of significant Victorian individuals including royalty, politicians, artists and soldiers, the original artwork on a number of them being done by Andrew Maclure.[27] The Wellcome Collection based at London University has thirty three lithographs of varying subject matter, with a small number of portraits. They also have thirty published reports produced by the company on a variety of subjects . [28]
The stamps they produced were mainly for the National Telephone Company, which was based in Glasgow, although they also created postage stamps for Uruguay and Sarawak.[29]
Some examples of their output are shown below.
Figure 1. Queen Victoria
Figure 4. Gordon of Khartoum
Figure 3. Sir John Millais
Figure 2. Lord Randolph Churchill.
These lithographs are from the National Portrait Gallery. The two below are from the Wellcome Collection .
Figure 5. Duke of Wellington Lying in State
Figure 6. Opium Factory at Patna, India
Figure 9. Uruguay Postage Stamp.
Figure 7. National Telephone Company.
Figure 8. Sarawak Postage Stamp.
Stamp images from Wikipedia Commons.
The company remained independant until 1992 when it was taken over by J. R. Reid of Blantyre.
Archibald married Janet Gemmill Aitken in 1845.[30] She was the daughter of Dr. John Aitken and Margaret Montgomerie Thomson who married in 1817.[31] The Aitkens had four children, Janet being the third, born in 1823.[32] Her father was a graduate of Glasgow University gaining an MA in 1815 and an MD in 1839 and was also at one time the Register of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons.[33]
Archibald and Janet’s marriage was childless. Two years after their marriage they were living at 1 Fitzroy Place in Glasgow.[34] They moved to 8 Park Circus in 1866 where they lived for the rest of their lives.[35]
Archibald died at home on the 25th April 1900, cause of death given as Pulmonary Congestion.[36] Janet died, also at home on the 10th January 1903, cause of death recorded as acute bronchitis.[37] They were both buried in the Glasgow Necropolis in the tomb of Janet’s father and mother.[38]
Their favourite artist seems to have been Samuel Bough. He was born in England in 1822 but became well known and influential in landscape paintings of Scotland in the 19th century. He initially started out by painting theatrical scenes but by 1855 had moved to Edinburgh and was elected to the RSA the following year.[39] His portrait was painted by Daniel Macnee which is shown below.
Having written about Spiers and Glassford I have now got round to completing the trio of the major Glasgow Tobacco Lords by writing about William Cunninghame.
The Cunninghame Family
Cunninghame’s wider family can be traced back at least to the mid seventeenth century in Ayrshire, in the parish of Stewarton, his great grandfather being Adam Cunninghame. He was connected to the Cunninghame’s of Caprington in the county and was servitor (assistant) to Sir William Cunninghame, a position usually taken by a family member. In 1653 Sir William borrowed £2,000 with Adam acting as cautioner (he would be liable for the debt if Sir William defaulted). Unfortunately that is what happened and a decree was granted in 1654 against Adam by the Commissioners of Justice in Scotland in favour of Lieutenant Colonel Osborne.[1]
Prior to that he acquired the lands of Kirkland in 1653 and in the same year he married Janet Baird. It seems they had several children, the eldest surviving son being George, the Tobacco Lord’s grandfather. In 1673 he purchased the lands of Little Bridgehouse in the parish of Riccarton thus beginning the family’s connection with that estate.[2] He died in 1677,[3] his wife Janet being his lawful heir in accordance with the marriage contract agreed in 1653. There were five surviving children when he died, four daughters and son George who was his mother’s heir.[4]
George had a son, Alexander, however it’s not clear if and when he married. He died in 1696 [5] just before he intended to marry, the lady in question bearing him the son after he died. If true that would make Alexander illegitimate. There is a suggestion however that he actually married a Sarah Miller, but no evidence has been discovered that supports that or any marriage, or Alexander’s birth date. Three surviving sisters of Alexander appear to have been the beneficiaries after their mother’s death however before that in 1726 by various decreets of the Court of Sessions he had gained one half of his grandfather Adam’s property.[6]
Alexander was a very successful merchant in Kilmarnock and was a bailie of the parish in 1729 and 1730.[7] He married Barbara Hodgert, widow of William Findlay in 1727,[8] who had one son by her first husband who became Professor of Theology at Glasgow University.[9]
Alexander and Barbara had eight children, all born in Kilmarnock parish, as follows:
John, born 1729.[12] He matriculated at Glasgow University in 1742 and graduated MA in 1746. He was licensed as a minister by the Presbytery at Irvine in 1753 and was ordained at Dalmellington in 1756. In 1762 he moved to Monkton parish where he died unmarried in 1774,[13] his younger brother William his heir as the next eldest brother.
William Cunninghame, the Tobacco Lord, more of him in due course.
Alexander, born 1741.[18] He became involved in the tobacco trade through his brother William and went to America to act as agent for his company. He eventually returned to Glasgow and set up his own company, Alexander Cunninghame and Co., his partners being William, Alexander Houston, Robert Bogle and James Dougal.[19] He died circa 1773, testate, his will being confirmed at the Glasgow Commissary Court in March 1773 his heirs being his sisters Elizabeth and Barbara.[20]
Alexander senior died without leaving a will in 1748, eldest son John inheriting his estates and other property. A sum of £1800 was also left, William’s share being £300.[21] The registration of Alexander’s death adds to the puzzle surrounding his birth and parentage as his age is recorded as 58, which implies his birth date was c.1690.[22]
William Cunninghame
William was born in Kilmarnock on the 30th May 1731 and baptized the following day.[23] Where he attended school has not been established but in 1746 he went to Virginia as an apprentice working on the tobacco plantations of Andrew Cochrane who at that time was an established colonial trader and was the founding partner in Cochrane, Murdoch and Co.[24] Cunninghame was apparently related to Cochrane hence his introduction to the tobacco trade at which he was to excel. Andrew Cochrane was an original ‘Tobacco Lord’ long before Glassford, Speirs and Cunninghame came to the fore. He had been Lord Provost of Glasgow from 1744/45, in 1748/49 and again in 1760/61.[25] In 1745 he led the opposition to Bonnie Prince Charlie’s quartermaster (Squire Hay) who demanded a levy of £15,000 from the city. Along with Allan Dreghorn, Andrew Buchanan, Lawrence Dinwoodie, Andrew Aiton, James Smith and Richard Oswald he managed to reduce that sum to £5,000 cash plus £500 in goods.[26],[27]
Cunninghame was to remain in Virginia until 1762 during which time, from 1752, he had become responsible for running all of the company’s business in Virginia.[28] Whilst there in 1759 he entered into a partnership on his own account with two fellow plantation factors or managers, John Doncastle of Maryland and Alexander Finnie of Virginia, the purpose of which was to supply the British Army in Pittsburgh with wine, sugar and other similar produce. He also owned 2,000 acres of land in Virginia.[29]
On his return to Scotland he became a full partner in Cochrane, Murdoch and Co. and was established as the managing partner responsible for all aspects of the business, shipping, trading, and specifying the operations of each of the companies stores in Virginia.[30]
An indication of how successful he was is indicated by the company’s capitalisation values. In 1755 as Cochrane, Murdoch and Co. it was £22,903. In 1773, by which time the company name had changed to William Cunninghame and Co. it was £79,300.[31] The partners during this period were, Cunninghame, Peter Murdoch, Andrew Cochrane, son in law to Murdoch having married his daughter Janet, Robert Bogle, John Murdoch, James Robinson, William Reid, William Henderson, and John Hamilton, the last four named being located in America.[32] William was a partner in two other companies involved in Maryland, firstly with his brother Alexander’s company as previously stated. After his brother’s death c.1773 it became Cunninghame, Findlay and Co.[33], the other partners being Robert Findlay, Robert Bogle and Alexander Houston, the latter two being partners in the original company. In addition two others were based in America as storekeepers, James Dougal and David Walker. The third company was Cunninghame, Brown and Co., the other partners being Robert Findlay and James Brown.[34]
His major company was however the one bearing his name. The share distribution was such that Cunninghame owned 229, the Murdoch’s 104, Cochrane 48, Bogle 64 and James Robertson 13. The financial stability of the company was to a large degree assured by the fact it had access to the Glasgow Arms Bank, established in 1750, as Cochrane and John Murdoch were two of its founders, to be joined later as a major shareholder by Peter Murdoch.[35] It had fourteen stores in Virginia located at Fredericksburg, Falmouth, Richmond Petersburg, Culpepper, Dumfries, Fauquier, Amherst, Cabin Point, Brunswick, Granvill, Halifax, Mecklenburg, and Rocky Ridge, generally located in the vicinity of the Potomac, Rappahanock and the James rivers.[36] In 1772/3 just under 5,200 hogsheads of tobacco were shipped back to Glasgow, the ships involved being the Cunninghame, Ocean, Cochrane, Venus , Janett, and the Neptune, each ship making two journeys between December 1772 and September 1773, except the Janett.[37]
William also had other commercial interests being involved with the Port Glasgow Sugar House, the Pollockshaws Printfield Co., the Dalnotter Iron Co., the Glasgow Tanwork Co., the Glasgow Bottleworks, and the Anderston Brewery.[38]
He married three times, firstly to Jean Dunmore in 1763, the daughter of Thomas Dunmore a Glasgow merchant.[39] They had six children all born in Glasgow:
The sons from this marriage were disinherited by William, no reason has been ascertained.[46]
His second marriage in 1775 was to Elizabeth Campbell the daughter of James Campbell, another Glasgow merchant.[47] They had one child William, born in 1776.[48]
William was educated in London and studied at Utrecht University. He then went to India to serve in the Bengal Civil Service. It was there he met the Baptist missionary William Carey which led him in due course to become a biblical scholar. He was at the forefront of the 19th century’s prophetic scholarship movement. He died unmarried in 1849.[49]
Prior to this marriage William’s brother John had died in 1774 but it was not until 1777 he came into full ownership of his estates as John ‘s heir.[50] It was around this time, probably c.1778 that he started to build his mansion in what was Cow Loan, now Queen Street. The area was essentially swamp land and by the time the mansion was completed in 1780 it had cost c. £10,000.[51] He also purchased the estate of Lainshaw in Stewarton in 1779,[52] these two events demonstrating the wealth he had accumulated through tobacco trading, which like his contemporaries, relied on the exploitation of African slaves, men women and children.
There was one other action which he took which significantly increased his fortune. The American War of Independence began in 1775, with the colonists declaring themselves independent of Britain during 1776. Cunninghame’s company had some initial difficulties when the war started but as tobacco supplies decreased the price of tobacco increased to sixpence per pound as a consequence. The partners of William Cunninghame and Co. met to discuss selling the company’s stock which was the largest of any in Britain. Cunninghame offered to buy each partner’s share of the company stock at sixpence per pound which was readily accepted. The price subsequently rose to three shillings and sixpence per pound, Cunninghame having sold his stock before then ensuring a vast profit.[53]
The company’s ships were also eventually put to use as privateers, the Cochrane in 1778 capturing a French East Indiaman with a cargo valued at £100,000.[54]
His mansion house still exists today but not in its original form. He sold it to the Stirling family in 1789 for £5,000 who occupied it commercially and as a residence until 1817, it then being sold to the Royal Bank of Scotland. The bank made some alteration to the building, essentially retaining the mansion house, and thereafter carrying out its banking activity. It remained as such until 1827 when the bank sold it to the committee for establishing a new Exchange. Architect David Hamilton was charged with making major changes to the building and amongst his changes were the addition of the portico now seen at the front of the building, a newsroom described as Glasgow’s most magnificent 19th century interior and the cupola. It took from 1827 until 1832 to complete.[55]
The Royal Exchange as it was known continued to operate as such until 1954 at which time it became Stirling’s Library, the library donated by the Stirling family in 1791 moving from its original premises in Miller Street.[56]
Since 1996, its current manifestation is as the Gallery of Modern Art, (GoMA), the original mansion being subsumed into the building, the core structure being over two hundred and forty years old.
Elizabeth died at the age of 35 in 1778, cause of death given as ‘chilbed’ which I believe means a problem arose during her giving birth which resulted in her death
His third wife was Margaret Nicolson Cranston, the daughter of the Honourable George Cranston. They married in Edinburgh in 1780 and had eight children all born at Lainshaw.[57]
Ann, b. 1785. Interestingly his two sons by his first marriage Thomas and Alexander were present at Ann’s baptism, Whatever caused their disinheritance must have happened sometime after 1785.[61]
It seems that Cunninghame retired from business around 1780, spending the rest of his life at Lainshaw as evidenced by the birth of his children at Stewarton,[66] although he did become a founding member of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce in 1783.[67]
He died in 1799 at Lainshaw, son William inherited his Ayrshire and Peeblesshire estates, with his Kirkcudbright estate going to his youngest son John.[68]
There is a lot more to the story of William Cunninghame. I would recommend the following books:
The Tobacco Lords, Tom Devine, 1975, John Donald Ltd Edinburgh.
Scottish Firm in Virginia 1767 – 1777, William Cunninghame and Co., Tom Devine (ed.), 1984, Scottish History Society.
Studies in Scottish Business History, Ed. Peter Payne, 1967, Frank Case & Co. (Reprint from the William and Mary Quarterly entitled ‘The Rise of Glasgow in the Chesapeake Tobacco Trade 1707-1775)
Capital and Credit in British Overseas Trade, Jacob M Price, 1990, Harvard University Press.
Devine, T. M. “Glasgow Merchants and the Collapse of the Tobacco Trade 1775-1783.” The Scottish Historical Review 52, no. 153 (1973): 50–74. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25528986.
[26] Durie, Alastair J. ‘Cochrane, Andrew ’. (1692/3-1777). In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/65006
[27] Smith, John Guthrie and Mitchell, John Oswald. (1878). The Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry. 2nd. ed. Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons. LXXVI. Mount Vernon. http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/smihou/
The recent publication of a new book on the life of William Burrell has prompted me to look at some of the research I did eleven years ago on his activity as a councillor.
He was elected in November 1899 (see my post Sir William Burrell Glasgow Corporation Councillor 1899 – 1906). In his first year Burrell sat on the Gas, Electricity, Police and Library Department’s committees and two special committees on the Telephone Service and the setting up of a Friendly Society. As perhaps expected, he was also on these department’s Finance sub committees. He was also on the Police Department’s Health committee included in which was a subcommittee dealing with Uninhabitable Dwellings as defined by the Glasgow Police Act of 1890. This committee, whose membership was that of the Health committee, was chaired by Councillor Dick.
Burrell’s ‘maiden motion’ at a full corporation meeting on 17th May 1900 was to move that the city engineer be instructed to submit a statement showing the respective values of the sites of the city churches. The motion was delayed at meetings on the 7th June and the 5th July and eventually agreed on 27th September. An early indication perhaps that the ‘mills of the Corporation grind exceeding slow’.
He was however active in meetings before that in particular with those of the Police Department (he attended 90% of them). On the 7th February 1900 a motion was proposed and seconded that a resolution received by members of the Corporation from the Glasgow United Trades Council (in this case representing Cleansing Dept workers, in particular close sweepers) be remitted to the Committee on Cleansing for report. The resolution by the trade council regretted the Corporation’s refusal to grant a wage increase and the language used by some councillors when referring to the rights of employees to have their complaints represented to the Town Council by their union representatives. An amendment was proposed and seconded by Robert Graham and Thomas Watson (both of Exchange Ward) that the resolution ‘lay on the table’ i.e. no action to be taken. The amendment was supported by Burrell (also a member for Exchange Ward ) and carried. Interestingly his brother in law Charles John Cleland supported the motion.
On the 11th June all three members of Exchange Ward voted for a motion (which was carried) which gave approval to the Superintendent of Cleansing, the department’s Cashier and Bookkeeper all getting a rise in wages. However on the 15th October he voted for an amendment against a wage increase for sanitary inspector assistants, which was carried.
During this first year his attendance at the Health Department’s meetings were less than 50%. Around one third of these meetings had content referring to uninhabitable premises sub committee one of which Burrell attended.
25 addresses were deemed unfit over the year and appropriate action identified and implemented which included demolition, closure, re-housing of tenants and improvement action. It’s not clear if any demolitions occurred.
Section 32 of the Glasgow Police (Amended) Act 1890 was the relevant legislation for identifying such premises and for the action to be taken which ranged from improvement through closure to demolition of the premises. The process was begun by the issuing of certificates, by the city Sanitary Inspector, its Medical Officer and the Master of Works following inspection by these individuals stating premises were unfit for human habitation. Burrell was not a member of this committee at this time which had twelve members (7 Baillies and 5 Councillors), chaired by councillor J Carswell.
The next two years saw Burrell retain membership of the above referenced committees. Significantly perhaps, he was added to General Finance in 1901. He appears to have played a full part in all financial matters associated with his committee membership, no doubt bringing his own business experience into play. However on several occasions he was defeated on his motions or his amendments, ranging from dissenting to the acceptance of departmental accounts to trying to stop by amendment, the creation of Glasgow Corporation 3% Redeemable stock. He had some successes particularly with accounting for depreciation of departmental assets. Reference the committee on Uninhabitable Houses very little action seems to have been taken, Burrell becoming a member in 1901, it still being chaired by J. Carswell.
Towards the end of 1902 the Lord Provost set up a special committee within the Police Department to review the work of the Health Committee, apparently due to concerns about the effectiveness of the Uninhabitable Houses sub committee and the relatively new Public Health Act of 1897.
In 1903 at the first full Corporation meeting of the year Burrell was elected as a Baillie, a vacancy having arisen from the death of Baillie James Hamilton. He was nominated by River Baillie Shaw and seconded by Thomas Watson, fellow Ward 10 councillor. He was opposed by Councillor George Taggart who was nominated by Councillor Alexander Murray and seconded by Councillor W.F. Anderson. Burrell gained 44 votes to Taggart’s 26, having had the support of the Lord Provost John Ure Primrose, his brother in law Charles John Cleland and Robert Graham.
He remained on the General Finance, Police, Gas and Electricity committees becoming sub convener of Electricity. He was also on seven other special committees all dealing with different aspects of Corporation finances. These covered, amongst others, rates collection, capital expenditure, tendering and bye laws for auction sales.
His focus remained matters financial and he continued to put forward his responses to situations which he felt merited it. On 13th November 1903 for example he seconded a motion which would allow private enterprise to supply or hire electric motors adding the corporation should not undertake the responsibility (he was firmly against any municipalisation action by the corporation). The motion was defeated 10 votes to 3. He could also bring simple practical input to the meetings. In 1904 he proposed that no Corporation meetings should be held ‘in July fortnight which includes the Fair week’. The motion was passed – just!
On 6th November 1903 the Corporation (presumably on a recommendation from the Special committee set up in 1902) nominated the Health committee to enact the Public Health Act of 1897 “with a view of efficiently and with reasonable expedition carryinginto operation the Sanitary and Public Health provisions of the Act.” The sub committee of Uninhabitable Houses became ‘Uninhabitable Houses, Areas and Back Lands, and Underground Dwellings’ as required by the Act, Convener was W. F. Anderson, membership was again that of the Health committee. As before it had the power to issue closure notices and demolish premises that did not meet the requirements of the Act with respect to human habitability.
During the committee’s first year over fifty properties were identified as not complying with the Act: the previous 4 years had barely got into double figures when non-compliance had been measured against the Police Act.
Fifteen months after it was created, in January 1905, Burrell became its Convener, perhaps surprisingly as the general thrust of the committe was to resolve working class housing through some form of municipal action. Was that because it’s action would somehow be ‘contained’ by him or did he he have a genuine desire to improve the situation? His previous voting record, where he resisted what he called unnecessary expenditure which would not benefit the ratepayers of the time, makes me tend to the former reason rather than any altruistic feelings he may have developed to support the non rate paying working class. I recognise that I may be doing him an injustice in saying that as he was born into a tenement flat in 3 Scotia Street, however his life as a businessman, councillor and collector really give no indication of any kind of social concern.
He also continued to be involved in all his other committees in what proved to be his last full year as a councillor, but there is no doubt the Health sub committee became a major focus of his attention.
From the first meeting of the newly named sub committee on 7th November 1904 to the last chaired by him on 10th January 1906 nearly 200 premises were recommended for closure to be followed by demolition should the owners not comply with required improvements (they were given one month) or closure.
There seems to have been some initial success in that the first premises recommended for demolition at 101 Maitland Street and 240 Gallowgate were approved on 21 December at a cost of £37 10s., and in due course demolition took place.
However an indication of how the committee faired in the longer run in dealing with this significant social problem can be given by looking at the case involving 16 Sharps Lane.
The owner of these premises (James McNicol) had been given an improvement order during November 1904. At a meeting held on 28th December the Town Clerk advised Burrell that the owner had appealed to the Sheriff to have a demolition order rescinded. The Sheriff indicated he would hear the arguments from both sides on the 16th January. It’s not clear what happened in detail at the appeal but what is certain the property reappeared as a concern to Burrell’s committee at their meeting on 29th March 1905 when a further order was recommended. This was approved at the full Corporation meeting on 27 April and the Town clerk instructed to pursue the issue. It’s worth pointing out at this stage that all the recommendations for improvement, closure or demolition that Burrell’s committee recommended during his 14 month tenure were all approved by subsequent full corporation meetings.
The owner continued to appeal until November when the Town Clerk was instructed to request the Sheriff (who always seemed to want more information, particularly from the Corporation) to refer the matter to the Court of Session for their determination as was allowed for by the Act, which the Sheriff refused to comply with! Eventually the property was demolished as was indicated to Burrell at his final meeting on 10th January 1906, at a cost of £25.
Burrell’s attendance at his other committee meetings declined noticeably during the latter half of 1905, he was building ships again and preparing to return to running Burrell & Son. Despite all his Uninhabitable Housing committee’s input and the Corporation’s approval there appears to have been no process or sufficient capacity in place to create the desired results. All Burrell’s recommendations went to the Town Clerk to action, all Corporation supporting actions or recommendations also went to the Town Clerk. This activity would not be the only responsibility he or his department would have. Was he and his department sufficiently prepared to deal with the process required, both in terms of understanding what that should be and what resources he needed? As an individual who always was running his business efficiently and seeking improvement this situation must have been very frustrating for Burrell, purely, at least, from an efficiency point of view.
There may have been one other source of irritation for Burrell during this time. At a meeting on 10th May 1905 his committee recommended that a report be prepared with plans, for circulation among Corporation members, dealing with the work done by it. On the 24th May a Special Committee was set up by the Lord Provost to deal with Part 2 of the Housing of Working Classes Act 1890 relating to ‘Buildings Unfit for Human Habitation and Closing Orders and Demolition’. This committee was initially chaired by Councillor Steele who was a member (and remained so) of Burrell’s. Burrell was present at the first meeting of this new committee as a member but did not attend any subsequently. In terms of what activity it undertook it clearly was no different from that of Burrell’s, which continued to meet, with Councillor Steele in attendance!
Burrell remained a Baillie until 10th November 1905. At the start of 1906 he decided to resign. His letter of resignation dated 17th January was accepted by the full corporation meeting on 18th January without comment.
His election as a councillor was not pre planned, he became a candidate due to the death of Robert Murdoch, who was one of three sitting members for Ward 10 (Exchange). He was the retiring member for 1899 and was standing again, unopposed for re-election. What is therefore not in doubt is that Burrell’s later comments that he had become a councillor to help solve Glasgow’s slum housing problem are not borne out by the facts. A number of ratepayers had specifically pressed him to become a candidate as there were some concerns that the selected candidate after the death of Murdoch, Richard Hunter, who helped found Quarrier’s orphans home, would have some degree of liberal concern for social issues despite his general conservatism, and that Burrell would better represent the views of commerce and business.
In my post John Glassford – Tobacco Lord (1715-1783) Part 2 I touched on his interest in art and his support of the Foulis brothers Art Academy. Further research has shown I understated the number of paintings sold by his executors in 1786 and that he had sold paintings at Christie’s in 1797. I have also identified purchases he made from the same auction house in 1779 and 1783.
Purchases.
February 1779. Sales Catalogue Br-A1186.
March 1779. Sales Catalogue Br-A1199.
Glassford bought nine paintings at these auctions, total cost being £37 2s. Notable artists bought were Albrecht Durer and Artus Quellinus, a scholar of Rubens, his painting being the most expensive purchase at £12 1s.
January/February 1783. Sales Catalogue Br-A1342.
April 1783. Sales Catalogue Br-A1353.
The sixteen paintings he bought at these auctions were most likely the last time he bought art as he died five months later on 27th August. His purchases included work by Jan Brueghel (the elder), William Hogarth, entitled ‘Story from Don Quixote’, and Samuel Scott, this last work costing £20 9s, total cost of the sixteen paintings being £80.16s.
What do these costs (total £117 18s) equate to today? Straight forward RPI changes since 1783 equate to somewhere around £15,000. However that number does not do justice to the true cost of a commodity in 1783. Using that comparison Glassford’s spend amounts to over £1.5m.
Sales.
May 1797. Sales Catalogue Br-A2231.
In 1797 Glassford sold twelve paintings, realizing £11 2s.
23rd December 1786. Sales Catalogue Br-A1548.
The catalogue associated with this sale included one hundred and twenty five paintings. Clearly I have not been able to identify anywhere near his total purchases, nor when he made his first buy, which is disappointing as some of the artists whose works were sold were, in modern parlance, ‘old masters’ and it would have been interesting and informative to have known from whom he bought the paintings and at what price.
The catalogue included works by Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Durer, Gainsborough, Breughel, Titian and Canaletto as well as paintings after the style of some of these artists. One Rubens sold for £2 1s., a Rembrandt for £1 15s.
The sale realized £384 2s which today by using the commodity measure would equate to £4.9m.
What these figures don’t show is the probable effect of the appreciation in value of some of the artworks sold in 1786. As an artist’s fame and skill grew and as a consequence demand increased, then what a particular painting sold for would be influenced by the reputation of the artist, its subject matter and rarity. An example perhaps of that is Ruben’s painting of Lot and his Daughters which was sold for £44.9m in 2016.
Glassford’s art collection, along with the properties he bought and his grandiose lifestyle would not have been possible without the exploitation of African slave labour, men women and children. We may be tempted to congratulate him for his apparent erudition and taste, ahead of his time perhaps, but I take the view that his interest in art was as a commodity, which was used to demonstrate his vast wealth, like all other tobacco merchants, with no regard as to how he achieved that wealth.
In 1916 Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham (RBCG), adventurer, politician and writer, donated a portrait of his wife Gabriella by John Lavery to Glasgow Museums.
Starting this research I rather assumed that following the surname of the donor back in time would present no more than the usual difficulties and similarly with his wife. However that that was not the case as Cunninghame Graham’s surname was not a consistent feature of his ancestry. Additionally his wife’s name was an assumed one, entirely different from her birth name.
RBCG’s great great great grandfather was Nicol Graham, the son of Robert Graham of Gartmore and his wife Isobel Buntine, who was the daughter of Nicol Buntine, laird of Ardoch. Unfortunately there are no primary sources that confirm this however I’m reasonably confident that this marriage is the source of the Bontine part of RBCG’s surname. Hopefully what follows will support that.
Figure 2. Gartmore House in 2oo8. Public Domain (Jonathan Ng).
Nicol Graham married Margaret Cunninghame, eldest daughter of the Earl of Glencairn in 1732.[1] This marriage is the source of the Cunninghame element of RBCG’s surname. They had four sons; the eldest William, baptized in 1733, [2] the second, Robert, born circa 1735,[3] being RBCG’s great great grandfather. William, the heir presumptive to Gartmore, and Robert both matriculated at Glasgow University in 1749.[4]
In his entry in the matriculation records William is described as being an advocate in 1756, although I have been unable to find any evidence to support a law degree from Glasgow. In James Boswell’s London Journal 1762-1763, reprinted in the Penguin Classics series in 2010, it is recorded in the notes that he met William on the 18th June 1763 and again in Lausanne, Switzerland on the 21st December 1764, this latter encounter caused Boswell to comment that it pleased him to see that ‘an Advocate may be made a fine fellow’.[5] In 1767 William married Margaret Porterfield, the daughter of Dr. Porterfield of Edinburgh.[6]
In the meantime Robert had decided his fortunes lay in Jamaica, going there it seems in 1752 at the age of 17. His father had a cousin there who was Clerk of the Court in Kingston therefore it’s probable he was the catalyst for Robert leaving Scotland. As it happens the cousin’s name was Bontein, the relationship no doubt as a consequence of the marriage of Nicol Graham and Isobel Buntin.
By 1753 he was appointed Receiver-General of Taxes, deputed by Thomas Graham (a relative?), a previous holder of the office. In August of that year he wrote to his mother essentially seeking news from home, in particular asking after his sister Henrietta.[7] He suffered all the usual sicknesses that newcomers to the Caribbean colonies did, overcoming them due to the care of ‘very friendly ladys, the power of medicine and the strength of his constitution.’ He wrote two letters to his mother in 1757, the first telling her of his health problems, the second stating that he was again fit and well.[8]
As he gained experience in his tax role he became confidant enough to write to Sir Alexander Grant, a London Parliamentarian who previously had business interests in Jamaica and had advised the Board of Trade on West Indian commerce,[9] criticising the methods employed in the collection of taxes and stating that it was a hindrance to trade. His first personal commercial venture was to invest ‘a small sum’ in a privateer whose sole purpose seems to have been capturing French ships for prize money.[10]
His relatively peaceful existence however was severely disrupted by a slave revolt in 1760. The ringleader was Tacky an Obeah man who claimed occult powers that would protect the rebelling slaves. (Obeah can be broadly defined as anything used, or intended to be used by anyone pretending to be possessed of any occult or supernatural power.)[11]
As can no doubt be imagined the revolt was put down brutally and without mercy, any captured rebelling slave being dealt with by ‘Burning, Hanging and Gibetting.’ The slaves set up a negress called Cabeah as queen of Kingston with robes and a crown. In due course she was caught and executed. Tacky was shot and killed during a chase by an army lieutenant, with two other ringleaders Kingston and Fortune being up hung up in chains alive, Fortune taking seven days to die, Kingston nine days. He reported these events to his father in a very matter of fact way, as if he was describing how to cure belly aches and fevers.[12]
At the end of 1760 a law was passed outlawing Obeah to prevent further slave revolts. Another view of this might be that Act in reality was to protect the concept of the slavery of Africans and to deny the slave population’s African origins.[13]
Robert remained in Jamaica until 1770 continuing with his public duty as Receiver- General until 1764. In the following year he was elected to the National Assembly for the district of St. David’s remaining in that position until 1768.[14] He was also the owner of two sugar plantations on the island: Roaring River and Lucky Hill, his biographical notes in the Glasgow University Story website stating he owned fifty-one slaves of the latter plantation valued at £3,604.[15] In 2018 Stephen Mullen and Simon Newman wrote a report for Glasgow University, its theme being how the University benefited financially from slavery. In it Robert Graham features significantly, including reference to his fathering illegitimate children writing to a friend that he had ‘rather too great a latitude to a dissipated train of whoring, the consequence of which [is] I now dayly see before me a motley variegated race of different complexions’.[16]
In 1757 the Bontine estate of Ardoch was entailed to him by kinsman Nicol Bontine, the entail requiring him to assume the name of Bontine.[17] In 1764 on the death of Bontine he duly became the Laird of Ardoch.[18] Some sources say that Bontine’s death occurred around 1767-68 although I can find no primary source to confirm that.
In 1764 in Jamaica Robert Graham married Anne Taylor, daughter of Patrick Taylor and sister of Simon Taylor,[19] a wealthy merchant who owned several plantations and at the time of his death in 1813 owned 2228 slaves.[20]
Robert and Anne had six children two of whom were born in Jamaica, the others in Scotland. Their first was Margaret Jane who was born in Kingston in 1765 [21] and died the same year. 1766 saw the birth of their second, also Margaret,[22] who in due course travelled back to Scotland with them in 1770.[23] She was a beneficiary of her uncle Simon Taylor’s will in 1813 inheriting £10,000.[24]
Their Scottish born children were John, born and died in 1773, William Cunninghame, born in 1775 and RBCG’s great grandfather, Ann Susannah, born 1776, died 1778 and Nicol, born in 1778,[25] who became a soldier in the Austrian army rising to the rank of Maréchal de Camp.[26]
Robert and Anne on returning to Britain had initially lived in London for a short period but by late 1772 the family were living in Ardoch House,[27] his father Nicol and his elder brother William and family living at Gartmore.
William had been in poor health for some time and in 1774 had gone to Lisbon with his wife hoping that would help him. Unfortunately no improvement occurred and he died there later that year. As his three children were all girls that meant Robert was the next male heir of his father. When his father died in 1775 Robert became Laird of Gartmore in addition to Ardoch. [28] He and his family moved to Gartmore House sometime during 1776.[29]
From that time on he worked to improve his estates He also appears to have supported his brother’s widow financially and paying for their three girls education. In 1779 he took a house in Edinburgh to facilitate the education of his own children. Funds were also provided for the education of his illegitimate ‘offspring’ in Jamaica. In 1784 he became a burgess and guild brother of Edinburgh.[30]
Since his return to Scotland he had not engaged in any commercial activity however in 1778 he gave a Captain Stephenson £250 to help fit out a ship to be used in the Jamaica trade.[31]
Despite periods of ill health (gout) life at this point seemed to be very satisfactory, his interest in politics and literary matters growing, however that was to change with the death of his wife Anne circa 1781. Her cause of death has not been established however RBCG refers to periods of illness from when she settled in Scotland. He also from time to time refers to her as Robert’s creole wife however no significant evidence is produced in his book to support that.[32] Robert subsequently married Elizabeth Buchanan Hamilton circa 1786 which was short lived, ending by separation in 1789.[33]
His interests in politics and literary matters had been developing for some time. He became MP for Stirlingshire from 1794 to 1796 with a keen interest in political reform. He promoted a bill of rights during his tenure which although unsuccessful could be said to foreshadow the Reform Bill of 1832. Prior to that he had been rector of Glasgow University from 1785 to 1787.[34]
He also wrote poetry, his main claim to fame lying with his lyrical poem ‘If doughty deeds my lady please’. When it was written is not clear, probably sometime between 1780 and 1790, but it was included in Palgrave’s Golden Treasury of 1875 and in 1866 Arthur Sullivan put it to music and dedicated it to a Mrs. Scott Russell, the mother of Rachel Scott Russell with whom he had or hoped for, a romantic attachment, much to her mother’s displeasure.[35]
Thereafter Graham was known as ‘Doughty Deeds’, RBCG’s biography of him bearing that title.
In 1796 he inherited the estate of Finlaystone on the death of the last Earl of Glencairn, John Cunninghame, and assumed the name Cunninghame, thereafter known as Robert Cunninghame Graham. He died in 1797 at Gartmore, son William inheriting.[36]
At the age of twelve William matriculated at Glasgow University in 1787,[37] under the tutelage of family friend Professor William Richardson, who holidayed often at a cottage on the Gartmore estate.[38] Apparently destined to run the family estates rather than be involved in business or commerce he then went on to study French and German in Neuchatel in Switzerland from around 1790 until late 1793.[39]
He married twice, firstly to Anne Dickson in 1798 [40] and they had five children between 1799 and 1809, the first born being Robert Cunninghame his eventual heir and grandfather of RBCG. The others were: Anna (1802), William John (1803), Douglas (1805) and Charlotte Maria Elizabeth (1809).[41]
His second marriage, in 1816, was to Janet Bogle nee Hunter.[42] They had four children as follows: Thomas Dunlop Douglas (1817), Alexander Spiers (1818), Susan Jane (1820) and Margaret Matilda (1821).
Like his father he became involved in politics being MP for Dunbartonshire from June 1796 to May 1797, winning his seat by eleven votes to three, his father Robert being the other candidate. He apparently had committed to support the then government but subsequently ‘now found he was unable in conscience to do so,’ hence the short duration of his political career.[43]
If he really was destined to run the family estates then what he achieved was the exact opposite. He was a gambler, not a very good one as he lost a fortune, and ultimately a swindler. He was forced to leave the country in 1828 to avoid his creditors, having squandered the family art collection through his gambling plus compromising the financial stability of his estates. By 1832 he was living in Florence with his wife Janet and their two daughters.
He was something of a mechanical genius developing a machine with which he could very accurately make copies of rare and famous engravings, thereby earning a living by selling these copies. The machine however was in due course used to produce false letters of credit of the bank Glyn, Halifax, Mills and Co.
There were fourteen individuals involved the main instigator of the fraud being the Marquis de Bourbel. They initially obtained a genuine letter of credit from the bank, from a strong box which Cunninghame Graham’s stepson Allan George Bogle had control of, thus seeing the approval signatories required.[44] They were then able to procure the same paper used by the bank, create a number of letters of credit and then forge the bank signatures using Cunninghame Graham’s machine to ‘trace’ them on to the false documents. By this means the conspirators were able to defraud banks in Italy, France, Belgium and elsewhere of £10,700 in six days. That sum today would, on RPI changes alone, be worth around £1million.[45]
However, as always seems to happen, greed overcame caution with one of the fraudsters being arrested on the Ostend ferry whilst trying to flee, the rest when learning of his fate scattered. An article in the Times newspaper goes into great detail with regards to the scheme with all the fourteen conspirators being named, including William, his son Alexander and his stepson Allan Bogle. None of the main players in the fraud appear to have suffered any adverse consequences with the exception being the Graham family. Allan Bogle sued the writer of the article which he claimed defamed him. He was eventually awarded one farthing damages and ordered to pay his own legal expenses. Alexander lived under an assumed name in France and died there within the year at the age of twenty three. William was banished from Tuscany, ending up in London where he died in 1845.[46]
He was succeeded by his son Robert Cunninghame Cunninghame Graham. He had married Frances Laura Speirs in 1824 in the parish of Port of Monteith,[47] she being the daughter of Archibald Speirs, son of tobacco lord Alexander Speirs and his wife Mary Buchanan. They had nine children between 1826 and 1844, born in a variety of places. His eldest son and heir William Cunninghame Bontine was born in Leamington, Warwickshire in 1825 as was brother Douglas Alexander in 1844. Four were born at the family estate of Finlaystone between 1826 and 1834, a son and a daughter were born in Edinburgh in 1838 and 1839 respectively, and one daughter was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1842.[48] In the 1851 census he is recorded as a visitor to the Speirs family in the parish of St. Ninians in the county of Stirling.[49]
Presumably the Finlaystone births over eight years are an indication of his involvement with the management of his estates, what he was doing in the other localities, in particular Germany, has not been established. He was Vice Lieutenant of the county of Dunbartonshire and Deputy Lieutenant of the counties of Renfrew and Stirling.
Robert died in 1863 at Castlenaw House, Mortlake, in Surrey, his son William being his sole executer. Also in 1863 his son William was forced to sell of the Finlaystone estate to pay off outstanding debt, presumably emanating from his grandfather’s gambling activities.[50] In the year of Robert’s death his personal estate was valued at £20,358,[51] however in 1879 a second confirmation took place which identified further inventory valued at £134,276. On this occasion there was a reference to William’s curator bonis, a legal representative who looks after an individual’s affairs because of some physical or mental incapacity. The reason for that will become clear in due course.[52]
William Cunninghame Bontine Graham was to spend most of his life in the military. Prior to that however he attended Trinity College, Cambridge in 1842. What he studied has not been established.[53] In 1845 he became an ensign in the 15th Regiment of Foot (Scots Greys) by purchase,[54] a year later becoming a Cornet in the same regiment, again by purchase.[55] At that time he was serving in Ireland remaining there for circa five years.[56]
He married Anne Elizabeth Elphinstone Fleeming, daughter of the late Admiral Sir Charles Elphinstone Fleeming, in June 1851.[57] They had three sons, the eldest being Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham (RBCG), born at Cadogan Place, London in 1852.[58] The second son was Charles Elphinstone Fleeming Cunningham Graham, who enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1873 at the age of nineteen. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1877 and served until 1888.[59] He was awarded the M.V.O. and in 1908 became Groom in Waiting to the King.[60] In 1910 he became Groom of the Bedchamber.[61] The youngest son Malise Archibald Cunninghame Grahame became a minister of religion dying aged twenty five in 1885.[62]
William’s final promotion came in 1855 when he was made a major in the Prince of Wales Renfrew Regiment of Militia.[63] He remained at that rank until 1862 when he resigned his commission.[64] In the following year he became Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Stirling on the death of his father.[65]
From the late 1850’s he began to suffer mental health issues. Whilst in Ireland with his regiment he had been attacked in Waterford and had suffered a severe head injury, letters written by his wife between 1857 and 1866 making reference to his problems and suggesting that they arose from this attack.[66] By 1876 it was of such concern that there was a legal notice in the Edinburgh Gazette requiring ‘in the Queen’s name’ the Lord President of the Court of Session to summon William to attend the Parliament House in Edinburgh to determine his sanity.[67] Clearly at some time after a curator bonis was appointed to look after his affairs hence the comment in the 1879 probate statement.
For the rest of his life William continued to have significant mental health problems. He died in 1883 at Eccles House in Penpont, Dumfriesshire, cause of death given as ‘Insanity – about 19 years.’ [68]
RBCG’s life by any measure became an incredible journey starting essentially as a cowboy, then general adventurer, a politician holding, for the time and considering his lineage, very socialist ideas, and a prolific writer.
His schooling began at Hillhouse in Leamington Spa from 1863 to 1865 followed by two years at Harrow. His education continued in London and Brussels before he went to the Argentine in 1869/70.[69]
Why the Argentine? The answer probably lies with his mother Anne Elizabeth who was half Spanish, her mother being Dona Catalina Paulina Alessandro de Jiminez who married Sir Charles in Cadiz in 1816. She was apparently aged 16, he was 42 years old. Another connection to South America may have been that RBCG’s mother had been born on board her father’s flagship HMS Barnham in 1828, whilst it was off-shore from Venezuela. At any rate he was brought up heavily influenced by his Spanish grandmother, speaking Spanish fluently from a very early age, and in general having, for the time, an unconventional upbringing.
One other, perhaps more pressing reason, was that his father’s illness had resulted in significant debts for the family, hence, as the eldest son, he would feel an obligation to deal with those debts. It was during this time in the Argentine where he rode with gauchos, dealt in cattle and horses, for which he had an abiding passion, that he became known as Don Roberto. Unfortunately whatever he did in South America had no effect on the debt situation at home and only served to create debt of his own.[70] One clear benefit however was his experiences there were the basis of a number stories he wrote in later life detailing the turbulent every-day life with the gauchos and the physical expansiveness of their country. He returned to Britain around 1877 however he was to go back to South America in later life on a number of occasions, one specific stay was in Uruguay where he purchased horses for the British army during World War I.
He lived in Paris for a while which is where he met his future wife Gabriela de la Balmondiere, apparently half French, half Chilean, marrying her there around 1878. However that was an entirely assumed name, more of which later.
His political career began in the General Election of 1885 when he stood as a Liberal candidate in North-West Lanarkshire. He lost to his Conservative opponent John Baird by over a thousand votes. In July of the following year, again as a Liberal, he stood against the same opponent and won by 332 votes. However he clearly identified as a radical socialist throughout his political career being described as the first socialist elected to parliament. He condemned a whole series of injustices of the society of the day. He was anti-imperialism, anti-racism, against child labour and was for abolishing the House of Lords.. He was also vigorously against the profiteering he saw in property and industry which was to the detriment of the people making the profit, that is, the workforce. Considering his ancestry and family background these were astonishing views to have held but by all accounts not out of character.[71]
His maiden speech in the House of Commons included the following words:
‘ the society in which one man works and enjoys the fruit – the society in which capital and luxury make Heaven for thirty thousand and a Hell for thirty million, that society…. with its want and destitution, its degradation, its prostitution and its glaring social inequalities – the society we call London….’
In 1887 the threat of disorder was such that demonstrations were forbidden. That did not stop a rally in Trafalgar Square against unemployment which ended in a riot. Among the leaders of the rally were RBCG and fellow socialist John Burns. Police and the army were in attendance which resulted in violence with over seventy people seriously injured and over four hundred arrests. RBCG and Burns were both severely beaten, arrested and eventually each sentenced to six weeks in Pentonville jail.[72]
Throughout his time in Parliament (until 1892) he continued to espouse his socialist views clearly and emphatically. On one occasion at the end of his speech he said:
‘To sum up the position briefly. Failure of civilisation to humanise; failure of commercialism to procure a subsistence; failure of religion to console; failure of our parliament to intervene; failure of individual effort to help; failure of our whole social system.’
This led to his expulsion from the House of Commons.[73]
Around 1888 he left the Liberal party and along with Keir Hardy formed the Scottish Labour party, RBCG becoming its first president, Hardy its first secretary general. In 1892 they both stood for election as party candidates, Hardy was successful in West Ham, London however RBCG lost in the Camlachie constituency in Glasgow, thus ending his parliamentary career.
That set back did not change his political views, which even led him to criticise Labour MPs for not presenting a radical challenge to the government. He had always advocated home rule for Scotland becoming president of the Scottish Home Rule Association and in 1928 president of the newly formed National Party of Scotland. Six years later the Scottish National Party was created when the National Party joined with the Scottish Party, RBCG being appointed president of the new organisation.[74]
Being freed of his formal involvement with politics allowed him and his wife to travel more often. He also wrote prolifically about his travels, his politics and his concerns about the disappearance of local cultures and ways of life he had experienced in his travels. He had a large number of friends and acquaintances from all walks of life, including Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, artist John Lavery who painted portraits of him and his wife, Whistler, Epstein and Augustus John. From his early visits to South America his writings refer to gauchos he befriended in particular Exaltacion Medina and Raimundo Barragan. He had also become friendly with the author Joseph Conrad from about 1897 with the writer in a letter to RBCG commenting on his wide experiences and the people he had met by saying:
‘What don’t you know? From the outside of a sail to the inside of a prison!’
In 1900 due to the level of debt, including death duties, he was forced to sell his Gartmore estate to Sir Charles Cayzer, a cause of great disappointment and sorrow to him.[75]
Figure 5. Gabriela photographed in 1890 by Frederick Hollyer. Victoria and Albert Museum.
More was to follow with the death of his wife in 1906 in France. Her true name was Carrie or Caroline Horsefall born in 1858 to a Yorkshire surgeon. Why she chose her assumed name is not clear however it seems she was rebelling against her strict upbringing and took herself to Paris which may have been the reason. Another, perhaps the more plausible, is that she assumed her chosen name on her marriage to RBCG to be more acceptable to his social circle. Presumably close family members knew of the deception but that is not clear.
She was an accomplished writer contributing to The Yellow Book and writing, amongst others a life of St Teresa of Avila, had artistic and musical skills, and wrote poetry.[76]
She died on the 8th September at Hendaye in France, her name registered as Gabriela Chideock (where did that come from?) Cunninghame Grahame.[77] As she had wished she was interred in the Inchmahome Priory on the Lake of Menteith.[78]
RBCG’s writings covered over thirty books which included 200 short stories and sketches. He also wrote ‘Doughty Deeds’ a history of his great great grandfather Robert Cunninghame Graham. As may be expected during his life-time he had a very good reputation as a writer, his writings often being full of exotic individuals and adventure in faraway places. That has not fared very well since his death. A number of his stories also indicated the sadness he felt about the changes that occurred in some of the places he had visited such as the Pampas. His political reputation was also well established, particularly in the labour and Scottish Independence movements although with his privileged background it may have seemed strange but welcome to some and perhaps traitorous, to his class, to others. Again as for his writings his political activity is not well remembered today.
Figure 5. John Lavery (1856-1941). Don Pedro on Pampa.
He had one other passion and that was horses. He owned several throughout his life but his favourite was Pampa, an Argentinian stallion he saw pulling a tram-car in Glasgow. He bought it from the tram company and rode it at every opportunity until it died in 1911.
When he went to buy horses for the British Army in Uruguay during the Great War he had two opposing emotions. He was happy to be riding again in the Pampas, but was saddened to think of their likely fate in Flanders. He wrote a book about his experience in Uruguay entitled ‘Bopicua’. The book ends with the words, to the horses, ‘eat well there is no grass like that of La Pileta , to where you go across the sea. The grass in Europe all must smell of blood’.[79]
His made one last trip to Argentina in 1936, dying there in the Plaza Hotel in Buenos Aries on the 20 March. He lay in state in the Casa del Teatro his strong affinity with the country being recognised by the attendance of the Argentinian President at his funeral. His body was subsequently returned home and buried beside his wife in the Inchmahome Priory.[80] The last of the family estates, Ardoch, was inherited by his brother Charles’ son Angus.[81]
[1] Marriages. (OPR) Scotland. Edinburgh. 23 April 1732. GRAHAME, Nicol and CUNNINGHAME, Margaret. 685/1 470 74. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
[16] University of Glasgow. Slavery, Abolition and the University of Glasgow, report, and recommendations of the University of Glasgow History of Slavery Steering Committee.https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_607547_smxx.pdf
[17] Shaw, Samuel (1784). An Accurate Alphabetical Index of the Registered Entails in Scotland. Edinburgh. p. 14. https://books.google.co.uk/books AND Graham, op.cit. p. 76.
[41] Births (OPR) Scotland. Port of Menteith. 14 September 1799. GRAHAM, Robert + Anna + William John + Douglas + Charlotte Maria Elizabeth. 388/ 10 385. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
[47] Marriages (OPR) Scotland. Port of Monteith 20 June 1824. BUNTIN, Robert Cunninghame and SPEIRS, Frances Laura. 388/ 20 120. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
[57] Marriage Announcements. (1851) Morning Post London. 14 June. BONTINE, William Cunninghame and Fleeming, Anne Elizabeth Elphinstone. p. 8. https://www.nls.uk/
[62] Testamentary Records. England. 19 January 1886. CUNNINGHAME GRAHAM, Malise Archibald. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995. https://www.ancestry.co.uk
[81] Testamentary Records. Scotland. 17 July 1936. Cunninghame Grahame, Robert Bontine. Scottish National Probate Index (Calendar of Confirmations and Inventories), 1876-1936. p. G63. https://www.ancestry.co.uk
In the 16th century many of Glasgow’s benefactors were clergymen. I’ve already written about Zachary Boyd and John Howieson who were both decided Presbyterians and against an Episcopalian Church of Scotland.
Figure 1 Archbishop James Law. Wikipedia Public Domain.
On this occasion my subject is James Law who became the seventh post reformation Archbishop of Glasgow in 1615.[1] James VI of Scotland who succeeded to the throne in 1567 was in favour of an episcopalian church and had restored bishoprics after becoming king, the first Glasgow post reformation archbishop being John Porterfield, appointed in 1571. When the crowns of England and Scotland united on the death of Elizabeth I in 1603 James specifically aimed to have the same church structure and doctrine in Scotland as existed in England.
This objective was shared by his son Charles I who succeeded in 1625, leading to the National Covenant of 1638 which opposed the king’s intentions. Bishops were finally abolished in the Church of Scotland when William of Orange and Mary Stuart ascended the throne in 1689.
James Law was born circa 1560 to James* Law of Spittal in Fife and Agnes Strang of Balcaskie, also in Fife.[2] He matriculated at St Andrews University in 1578 [3] and graduated M.A. in 1581. His first ministerial appointment (given by the king) was in 1585 to Kirkliston in the presbytery of Linlithgow. He was not a stern Calvinist and on one occasion was rebuked by the Lothian synod for playing football on a Sunday with his friend John Spottiswoode, who was to precede him as Archbishop of Glasgow. As time went on his leanings were not to the Presbyterianism of John Calvin or Knox but to the Episcopalian system espoused by the king. Probably the most fervent supporter of the king’s objectives re the Scottish church was Law’s friend Spottiswoode.
In general terms the majority of the leaders of the church at this time were king’s men and consequently Law’s career developed and grew accordingly. In 1589 he became a commissioner for the maintenance of religion in Linlithgow and became a royal chaplain in 1601. He remained in Linlithgow for a number of years and in 1608 was Moderator of the Assembly held there.
In 1605 he was appointed titular bishop of Orkney following the establishment of the episcopal Church of Scotland eventually being consecrated in 1611 by his friend John Spottiswoode, then the Archbishop of Glasgow. Other appointments in Orkney included being a commissioner of the peace and also for the justiciary. He also became chamberlain and sheriff principal during his relatively short tenure there.
His time in Orkney seems to have been very successful in that he established Scots law replacing Norse, and established the bishopric financially, legally and in accordance with King James’ objectives.[4],[5],[6]
He was also instrumental in bringing to an end the despotic and oppressive rule of Orkney and Shetland by Patrick Stewart, the second Earl of Orkney. His father Robert was the bastard son of James V, and initially he and his half cousin James (VI) had been close. However that was not to last as his behaviour, claims and his mistreatment of ordinary islanders, and in some cases those who owned land and property, brought him to the attention the authorities in Edinburgh. He faced a piracy charge in 1594 and between 1600 and 1608 was engaged in seizing property from the rightful owners, using islanders as slave labour and generally behaving in a manner that was construed as challenging the king’s authority.[7]
In 1609 Bishop Law laid charges against him and he was summoned to Edinburgh to face trial. In the event he was released on swearing he would not escape. That was not to last as he was reimprisoned in 1610 in Dumbarton Castle. Whilst there in 1614 his son Robert, at his father’s instruction, landed in Orkney, took possession of the Earl’s Palace, this action being seen as an uprising against the king. In the event it did not last more than a few months with Robert being captured and hanged in Edinburgh in January 1615. A number of prominent buildings were badly damaged or destroyed by artillery during the fighting, with St Magnus Cathedral being spared the same fate by the direct intervention of Bishop Law. Despite blaming his son for the ‘uprising’, a month later on the 6th February Patrick Stewart was beheaded, his execution being delayed to allow him to learn the Lord’s Prayer.[8]
In July 1615 James Law was promoted to Archbishop of Glasgow, following his friend John Spottiswoode who became Archbishop of St Andrews. He also became a member of the king’s Privy Council shortly afterwards. He remained as Archbishop for the rest of his life undertaking a variety of commissions which supported the doctrinal and structural church King James wanted. In 1616, he was chosen to compile a book on canon law.[9]
Since the Reformation Glasgow Cathedral had suffered structural damage and vandalism and there were views expressed that it should be demolished as it was in poor condition. There were also strong feelings that it was representative of the kind of doctrine and practises which existed in the pre-reformation church.
However it survived, James Law playing a part in that by donating 1,000 merks for the restoration of the library house and to complete the cathedral’s lead roof.[10] That sum equalled £56 sterling which in today’s terms is somewhere between £12,000 and £3.2m, with the latter number being the more likely one.[11]
He married three times, his first wife in 1587 being Marion Dundas with whom he had a daughter Margaret. She married Patrick Turner, minister of Dalkeith in 1612. He then married Grizel Bosworth and had a further six children, four boys and two girls, son Thomas being a minister at Inchinnan, and son George becoming a burgess of Glasgow in 1631. Grizel died in 1618 and two years later James married widow Marion Ross (nee Boyle).[12]
James died in 1632 and in his will bequeathed 500 merks to St Nicholas’s hospital and 250 merks each to the Merchants and Trades Houses hospitals.[13]
On his death his wife had erected in the chancel of the cathedral a magnificent monument, described as the finest in the ‘High Kirk’ commemorating his life and his gifts to Glasgow..[14]
[3] Anderson, James Maitland. (1926). Early Records of the University of St Andrews. Matriculation 1473-1579. Edinburgh: St Andrew University Press. p.293. https://digital.nls.uk/
[5] Scott, Hew. (1928). Fast Ecclesiae Scoticanae. The Succession of Ministers in the Church of Scotland since the Reformation. Vol. VII. New Edition. Synods of Ross, Sutherland and Caithness, Glenelg, Orkney and Shetland, The Church in England, Ireland and Overseas. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. p.322. https://archive.org/details/fastiecclesiaes07scot/page/322
[12] Scott, Hew. (1928). Fast Ecclesiae Scoticanae. The Succession of Ministers in the Church of Scotland since the Reformation. Vol. VII. New Edition. Synods of Ross, Sutherland and Caithness, Glenelg, Orkney and Shetland, The Church in England, Ireland and Overseas. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. p.322. https://archive.org/details/fastiecclesiaes07scot/page/322
[13] Testamentary Records. Scotland. 6 September 1633. LAW, James. Testament. Glasgow Commissary Court. CC9/7/26. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
Figure 1. Dragon Bob. Mitchell Library, GC 941.435 GOR
A few years ago I came across an individual named Robert Dreghorn (3rd of that name) who was very wealthy, facially scarred by smallpox and who liked to follow young women. His nickname was ‘Dragon Bob’, no doubt as a consequence of his scarring, and he lived from 1748 to 1804.
Recently I was clearing out some old research paperwork and came across notes I wrote about him which have prompted me to do a bit more digging into his family, where his wealth came from, what he did, if anything, professionally, and so on. Did he or his family benefit Glasgow in anyway being the question I’m trying to answer.
Dragon Bob’s grandfather was Robert Dreghorn(1st), a wright in Glasgow, born around 1679.[1] In 1703 he married Margaret Dickie, daughter of deceased fellow wright Robert Dickie and his wife Isobel Anderson.[2],[3]
It appears that grandfather Robert had wide business interests in addition to his trade as a wright and sometime plumber, the Dreghorn family being involved in timber and lead as merchants. He also invested in the coalfields at Govan and Camlachie,[4] having bought Easter Camlachie in 1731 from Walter Corbet of Tollcross.[5] He was a member of the Trades House in Glasgow and was Wrights Deacon in 1724, 1725, 1728, 1731, 1735 and 1740.[6] He was also a Burgess and Guild Brother of the city.[7]
He and Margaret had six children all born in Glasgow:
Allan, b. August 1704.[8] He was initially a wright like his father however he had wide ranging commercial interests which included trading in timber and lead and was a major partner in the Smithfield Iron Company.[9] This particular company which was founded in 1732 had strong trading links with the American colonies, where the partners had extensive possessions.[10] In Tom Devine’s book ‘The Tobacco Lords’ Allan is listed as a tobacco merchant with which company is not clear although it seems probable that he was in partnership with Peter Murdoch in Murdoch, Dreghorn & Co.[11] In 1741 however he and brother Robert (2nd) with three others, one of whom was Matthew Bogle, his wife’s half-brother, decided to use the ship ‘Boyd’ for a single journey to Virginia after which the vessel would be sold. This was despite the fact that ‘they had a settled factor in the colonies to purchase tobacco in advance … and drawing bills on the partners in Glasgow.[12]In 1750 a partnership was formed consisting of Allan, William McDowall, Robert and Colin Dunlop, Andrew Buchanan of Drumpellier and Alexander Houston to establish what became known as the Ship Bank (Dunlop, Houston & Co.).[13] It was located in the Bridgegate close to the then Merchants House. A man of many talents he is also known as an architect. Between 1737 and 1756 he is credited with designing and perhaps building the Town Hall, which later became the Tontine Hotel, and St Andrew’s Church in St Andrew’s Square, just off the Saltmarket, the design of the church being based on St. Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square, London. By 1752 he had also designed and built his house, Dreghorn Mansion, in what was then called Great Clyde Street.[14] Around that time using the joiners from his own woodyard he also had built the first private carriage to be seen in Glasgow in which he used to travel about town. Prior to the building of Dreghorn Mansion, in 1749, he had purchased the estate of Ruchill from the Peadie family.[15] Clearly all his commercial activity and partnerships, not least of which was tobacco trading, gave Allan Dreghorn significant financial benefit which allowed him to become an important businessman in Glasgow at a time when the tobacco lords were in their pomp. In 1755, along with others he granted power of attorney to William Cuningham and John Stewart who were merchants on Rappahannock River in Virginia. [16] He also undertook several civic duties. He became a Burgess and Guild brother of Glasgow in 1737 through his father [17] and in 1741 was a Glasgow Bailie.[18] A unique civic duty occurred in 1745 when he, and five others were commissioned by Glasgow to deal with Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobite army. The commissioners were charged with the following task: ‘Whereas the City of Glasgow is in danger of being attacked by a force which they are in no Condition to resist and the inhabitants and their Trade may be exposed to many inconveniences. These are therefor Beseeching you Andrew Aiton Andrew Buchanan Lawrence Dinwoodie and Richard Oswald merchants in Glasgow Allan Dreghorn wright and James Smith weaver in Glasgow. In case any such force shall approach the city and require to be Lodged therein That you meet with the Leaders of the said force and make the best terms you possibly can for saving the City and its Trade and Inhabitants.’ Hay, the Prince’s quartermaster levied the city at £15,000, in the event the commissioners were able to reduce that to £5,000 cash plus £500 in goods.[19]Allan married Elizabeth (Betty/Bessie) Bogle, daughter of Robert Bogle and Jean Carlyle in 1737,[20] The Bogles were a well-established merchant family involved in a variety of businesses including the tobacco trade.[21] There were two main branches of the family, Daldowie and Shettleston, Robert being a member of the latter. Allan and Betty had no children which resulted in his nephew Dragon Bob, son of his brother Robert (2nd), inheriting his estate [22] when he died in 1764 at Ruchill.[23] His wife was provided for, and he also bequeathed £21 sterling to the Merchants house of Glasgow.[24] Elizabeth died at Ruchill in 1767.[25]
Robert, (2nd) b. April 1706.[26] He was a wright, who like his brother was involved in a number of business activities, the main one seemingly being the Virginia tobacco trade. As mentioned above he was involved with brother Allan in the ‘Boyd’ venture, is described as a tobacco merchant by Tom Devine and was a partner in James Brown & Co, tobacco merchants.[27] It also seems probable that, like his brother, he was involved with Murdoch, Dreghorn & Co. He was a ship owner, owning two in 1735, the ‘Margaret’ and the ‘Graham’.[28] In 1737 he became a Burgess and Guild Brother of Glasgow.[29] Like many of his contemporaries, and his brother, his wealth enabled him to buy landed property which he duly did in 1752 with the purchase of the Blochairn estate from the Spreull family for £976 sterling.[30] He married Isabella Bryson around 1747 and they had three children as follows: Robert (Dragon Bob), born in 1748,[31] Elizabeth, born 1751[32] and Margaret, born 1755.[33] There seems to have been a fourth child, a daughter born in c.1858[34] called Marion. I can find no evidence of her birth however there is a death notice in the Caledonian Mercury of 3rd June 1815 announcing her death at Ruchill, describing her as the daughter of the deceased Robert Dreghorn of Blochairn.[35] Robert died in 1760,[36] Dragon Bob being his heir and executor along with his mother Isabella and others. He bequeathed £10 sterling to the poor of the Merchants House. [37] One interesting detail of his inventory was that he was owed a fifth share of just over £690 for goods sent to a William Cathcart of Jamaica.[38]
Margaret, b. July 1708.[39] Married shipmaster James Scot from Greenock in 1735.[40] They had nine children.[41]
Robert (1st) died in June 1742 [46] leaving to the poor of the Merchants House in Glasgow £100 Scots (£8 6s 8d Sterling).[47] Margaret died in 1756.[48]
Dragon Bob matriculated at Glasgow University in 1761 at the age of thirteen.[49] By that time he was already the putative owner of his father’s estate, including Blochairn. Four years later in 1764 he inherited his uncle Allan’s estate including Ruchill, thereby becoming an extremely rich individual. At one point his annual income was said to be £8,000,[50] personal and heritable estate being valued at £70,000,[51] in today’s terms worth £14.5m and £127m respectively.[52]
His physical appearance had suffered badly from smallpox. His nose was flattened and to one side and he had lost an eye. Some of the pock marks on his cheeks were ‘as large as threepenny pieces’.[53]
I have not been able to ascertain whether he played a part in any of the partnerships and activities of his father and uncle, as most accounts of his life deal with his looks and eccentric behaviour. The tobacco trade with Virginia was still going reasonably well as the family company Dreghorn, Murdoch & Co. imported 574 hogsheads of tobacco in 1773 and 502 hogsheads in 1774. The company his father had been a partner of, James Brown & Co., had over the two years imported just under 1,100 hogsheads, although I’m not sure if he had any continuing interest in that company. To put that into some perspective however it’s worth pointing out that Glassford, Spiers and Cunningham collectively imported over 14,000 hogsheads in each of these years.[54],[55]
Bob appears to have maintained at least an interest in the tobacco trade as he would join with other tobacco merchants at the Tontine Hotel, whether that was an active interest is not clear. Generally he seems to have been a man of few friends. He did not participate in social events such as concert and dances, perhaps as a result of his disfigurement, nor does he come across as someone with an intellectual bent. In his early years he rode his horse in town and was a member of the Glasgow Hunt. That gradually reduced to riding to Ruchill occasionally from Dreghorn mansion, with a manservant accompanying him.
Walking in the Trongate and Argyll Street became almost his sole preoccupation. He would be dressed in a fairly long coat, have a black ribbon bow in his hair pigtail and carry a cane. However his walks and his associated peculiar behavioural traits caused him some notoriety particularly when it came to following young women. Today, probably, it would be described as stalking.
When he came across a young female servant during his walks who caught his eye, he would immediately start to follow her. That continued until either the young woman moved indoors or more often than not another young woman would get his attention and he would immediately start to follow her; this process being carried out for several hours and during every daily walk, sometimes he would speak to the young woman being followed.
There seems to have been nothing sinister in this, with his walks being well known and the source of some amusement for other passers-by. To some extent it appears that the young women being followed felt complimented by his attention. He also had the habit of leaving a conversation with acquaintances abruptly and whistling.
Despite his fortune he was rather a miserly individual, keeping tight control of his finances. In 1773 Glasgow’s wealthier citizens were assessed to allow money to be provided for the poor of the city. He initially paid what was due by him but after twenty years of doing so in 1793 he objected to the amount asked of him, £19, and refused to pay. The subsequent litigation took four years to conclude with Bob losing and being ordered to pay the required amounts and the expenses of the legal action.[56]
There is also the story told of how on one occasion when hosting a dinner the wine ran out and he was encouraged to get some more from his wine cellar. He was unable to rise from his chair and one of his guests offered to go in his stead to get more wine, it seems he had previously been Bob’s butler, as he knew the way. Bob gave that short shrift by saying that he did not trust him and that he knew the road to the cellar ‘o’er weel’. Bob’s solution was to have his ex-butler carry him to the cellar to collect more wine and return to the table again carrying him and the wine, which is what happened.[57]
Dragon Bob comes across as a not particularly happy individual, with very few friends, mean with his money and with very odd behavioural habits. Unsurprisingly he never married and died in 1804, apparently by committing suicide[58] although the registration document simply says, ‘sudden death’.[59]
His fortune went initially to his oldest sister Elizabeth who was unmarried. When she died in 1824[60] it went to the four daughters of her sister Margaret, who I believe predeceased her, and James Dennistoun of Colgrain whom she married in 1785.[61] Niece Isabella Bryson, who married Gabriel Hamilton Dundas fell heir to Ruchill, her sister Mary Lyon, who married Sir William Baillie, to Blochairn.[62]
Figure 2. St Andrews Church in the Square.Creative Commons Licence CC BY-SA 4.0
Did the Dreghorn family benefit Glasgow? Like other people in the tobacco trade, they did, but at a cost in human misery in the American plantations. Allan Dreghorn is not exempt from that however he did design St Andrew’s in the Square, a beautiful building inside and out and described as the most important and impressive 18th century church in Scotland. It has been category ‘A’ listed by Historic Environment Scotland since 1966.[63]
I suppose it could also be said that Dragon Bob, benefited Glasgow in that he amused its citizens by his eccentric behaviour.
[1] Ewing, Archibald Orr. (1866). View of the Merchants House of Glasgow. Glasgow: Bell and Bain. p. 583.
[4] Smith, John Guthrie and Mitchell, John Oswald. (1878) The Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry. 2nd. ed. Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons. LXXXVI. Ruchill. http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/smihou/smihou086.htm
[5] Senex et al (1884) Glasgow Past and Present. Vol 2. Glasgow: David Robertson. p. 528.
[10] Devine, T. M. and Jackson, Gordon., eds. (1995) Glasgow, Beginnings to 1830. Vol. 2. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 206. https://books.google.co.uk/
[11] Devine, T.M. (1990) The Tobacco Lords. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 180.
[15] Smith, John Guthrie and Mitchell, John Oswald. (1878) The Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry. 2nd. ed. Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons. LXXXVI. Ruchill
To avoid confusion donor Cecilia Douglas will always be in bold.
In 1862 Mrs Cecilia Douglas (nee Douglas) bequeathed oil paintings and sculptures to the then Glasgow Corporation. The paintings, thirteen in total consisting of an old master, copies of old masters and other originals, initially were on display in the Mclellan Galleries in Sauchiehall Street. Currently they are located in the Glasgow Museum Resource Centre or on display in Kelvingrove Art Galleries.
She and her husband Gilbert represented two different branches of the Douglas family. Hers, according to one source, perhaps wishful thinking, descended from the Douglas Earls of Angus via the Douglas families of Cruixton and Stobbs,[1] Gilbert’s from the Douglases of Mulderg in Ross-Shire.[2] Her mother was a Buchanan, descending from the Buchanans of Leny, Gilbert’s mother was a Robertson, daughter of a farmer from Balcony (Balconie). Interestingly there is a line of descent chart which shows the Robertson family descending from Edward I of England and his wife, the daughter of the king of France.[3] All pre-eminent families, particularly the Douglases and the Buchanans who were heavily involved in the West Indies in the 18th century, owning plantations and dealing in sugar and tobacco.
Gilbert Douglas
Gilbert’s paternal ancestry can be traced back to Hector Douglas, the first of Mulderg, who is mentioned in the 1644 Valuation Roll of the Sheriffdom of Inverness and Ross. He seems to have been the proprietor of the estate from around 1630.He died before 1653, his son Hector succeeding him being “retoured as heir of his father” (legally recognised). Son Hector had married Bessie Gray around 1630 producing at least three sons, however his time as owner of the estate was short lived as he died around 1657, to be succeeded by son Robert. Robert, his brother another Hector who succeeded him, both had no issue the estate passing on to a third brother, first name unfortunately not known. This brother was succeeded by his son Hector who was Gilbert’s great grandfather. Around 1718 the Douglases ceased to own Mulderg, Gilbert’s great grandfather’s eldest son (Hector!) being the last.[4]
The second son was Robert [5] who married Catherine Munro in 1703.[6] She was his second wife and they had three children one of whom was yet another Robert, a farmer in Balcony, who was Gilbert’s father. He married Janet Robertson, daughter of farmer Hugh Robertson also of Balcony, Gilbert being born in 1749. He was baptised in the parish church of Kiltearn in Ross-shire.[7]
Cecilia Douglas
From 1378 to 1660 there were twelve Douglas Earls of Angus, the last one being William Douglas, who became the Marquis of Angus in 1633. No clear connection has been established between the Earls and Cecilia’s father John Douglas, a Glasgow merchant, however I believe his first traceable direct ancestor, and Cecilia’s paternal great great grandfather was Robert Douglas, an Edinburgh merchant who married Helen Hunter in 1665.[8] According to the Douglas Archives website they had a son, Robert of Cruixton, who married Rachael McFarlane, who in turn had a son named William, John Douglas’s father. William was a merchant in Leith. He married Katherine Dunlop of Garnkirk[9] and died in 1772.[10]
John Douglas was born in Leith in 1727.[11] He married Cecilia Buchanan in 1766,[12] the daughter of George Buchanan, a maltman, burgess and guild brother of Glasgow. Her paternal ancestry can be traced back to Walter Buchanan of Leny in the 16th century, his grandson Andrew Buchanan of Gartacharn being her great grandfather. She shares this ancestry with Mary Buchanan, the wife of Alexander Speirs, who also was Andrew’s great granddaughter.
Andrew’s son George was a maltman in Glasgow, a member of the Trades House from 1674, where he held a number of positions. At various times he was also a Glasgow Bailie and Deacon Convener of the Trades House. He married twice, his second wife being Mary Maxwell, daughter of Glasgow merchant Gabriel Maxwell. They had ten children, seven sons and three daughters.
The eldest was also George, born in 1686 who followed in his father’s footsteps becoming a maltman in Glasgow. He was also Glasgow Burgh Treasurer at one point and became a Bailie in 1732.[13] He married three times, his third wife Cecilia Forbes, whom he married in 1736,[14] being the mother of Cecilia Buchanan who was born in 1740.[15]
George’s younger brothers Andrew, Neil and Archibald, who was Alexander Speirs’ father in law, were heavily involved in the American tobacco trade becoming Glasgow’s largest tobacco importer by 1730.[16]
The Family of John Douglas and Cecilia Buchanan
John and Cecilia had eleven children, all born in Glasgow, as follows:
William, b. October 1766.[17] Matriculated at Glasgow University in 1778.[18] Died before 1828, the Trust deed of Cecilia Douglas, written in 1828 refers to him as her late brother as she bequeathed to his daughter Rosina £250.[19] As the name Rosina in the Scotlandspeople records for that time is rare there is some reasonably strong evidence, but not fully conclusive, that William was a ship’s captain, had married Rosina Service, daughter Rosina being born in 1811.[20] She died in 1912,[21] the widow of Peter Drew whom she married in 1854,[22] her father being described as a master mariner.
John, b. May 1768.[24] What happened to his twin George has not been established except that he matriculated at Glasgow University in 1780 and died young.[25] John also matriculated at Glasgow[26] and afterwards was significantly involved with the sugar trade in Demerara, (British Guiana, now Guyana) probably on his own initially but subsequently with his brothers through the family firm of J. T. and A. Douglas & Co. Probably/possibly his involvement in the trade was through Gilbert Douglas who owned plantations in the West Indies. He actually lived in Demerara around 1800 owning, with his brothers, at least three sugar plantations directly, plus others indirectly as mortgagees.[27] Whilst there he fathered three children, two boys and a girl, with a free creole woman. The second son James, born in 1803, was to have an astonishing career considering his parents never married and his mother was of mixed European and black descent. He came to Scotland with his brother Alexander, possibly with their father, for his early schooling and in 1819 they both went to Canada to work in the fur trade for the North West Company. By 1821 James was working for the Hudson Bay Company. He married Amelia Connelly, who was half native Canadian, half white in 1827 and continued to rise through the Hudson Bay Company, eventually being transferred to British Columbia to run its operation there with a wide range of responsibilities. By 1851 he had been appointed governor of Vancouver Island. When it became officially a crown colony in 1859 he became the first governor of British Columbia, holding the two posts until his retirement in 1864 at which point he became a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. He died in 1877.[28]
Figure 3. Sir James Douglas. From Dictionary of Canadian Biography. (source Wikimedia Commons).
John returned to Glasgow before 1809, probably around 1806/07 as the first time the family firm of J. T. snd A. Douglas & Co., located at 51 Virginia Street, appeared in the Glasgow Post Office Directory was in the 1807 edition.[29] He married Jessie Hamilton, the daughter of a Greenock merchant in 1809[30] and they had at least three children, one boy named for his father and two girls.[31] I have the impression that he returned to Demerara at some point but there is no clear proof of that. He eventually moved to Edinburgh living at Moray Place where he died in 1840. His estate in Scotland was valued at just under £71,500, the majority of it in bank, railway and canal stock.[32] Today that would be worth between £7m and £290m.[33] His estate in England was valued at ‘under £20,000’, being finally settled in 1862, his brother Thomas being by that time the sole surviving executor,[34] John’s wife Jessie having died in 1861 at Moray Place.[35]
R0bert, b. 20 July 1770.[36] Not mentioned in her 1828 Trust deed presumably having died before then.
Cecilia, b. 28 February 1772,[37] more of whom and husband Gilbert to follow.
Neil, b. 24 February 1774.[38] Matriculated at Glasgow University in 1786 then became a partner in Douglas and Brown, cotton spinners.[39] Joined the Rifle Brigade in 1801 as a second lieutenant and had an extremely successful military career. By 1811 he had attained the rank of major and had fought with Sir John Moore in Portugal and Sweden. He was no desk soldier being wounded twice between 1810 (Busaco) and 1815 (Quatre Bas). In June of that year he had commanded his battalion at Waterloo. He continued to progress through the ranks becoming by the end of his career Lieutenant General of the 78th regiment in 1851. He was an aide de camp of William IV from 1825 to 1837 and from 1842 to 1847 was governor of Edinburgh Castle.[40] He was awarded many honours being made a Commander of the Order of Maria Theresa in 1815 by the Austrian emperor,[41] in 1831 he was knighted becoming a Knight-Companion of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order,[42] finally becoming a Knight Commander of the Bath. I’ve not been able to clearly identify when he was given this last honour but when he was appointed to Edinburgh Castle in 1842 he was described as a KCB.[43] In 1816 he married Barbara Robertson, the daughter of George Robertson, a banker of Greenock.[44] They had at least one son, Sir John Douglas, who like his father became a soldier. He fought in the Crimean War and was involved in dealing with the Indian Mutiny of 1857. He reached the rank of general in 1880.[45] Sir Neil Douglas died in Brussels in 1853.[46]
Figure 4. Sir Neil Douglas. National Portrait Gallery of Scotland.
Thomas Dunlop, b. 1 February 1776.[47] He began his business life as an apprentice hat maker with Thomas Buchanan (a relative of his mother?) in Glasgow and by 1801 had his own hat making business located between Brown Street and Carrick Street.[48] Following the partnership with his brothers John and Archibald in 1807 he continued as a hat maker until 1816, the last year he appears in the Glasgow directory as such.[49] From 1823 until 1857/58 he was described as an insurance broker. From 1807 until 1855 he continued to be a partner of J. T. and A. Douglas & Co., that being the last year the company appeared in the Glasgow directory [50]. He married Rose Hunter of Greenock in May 1808,[51] there being, apparently, no children of the marriage. He was a member of the Board of Green Cloth, a Glasgow whist and supper club from at least 1809 and in 1845 bought the Dunlop estate in Ayrshire, which was once owned by the Dunlop family his grandfather William Douglas had married into.[52] He died in 1869 at Dunlop House, his wife Rosina pre- deceasing him.[53] His inventory of assets totalled over £64,000 in Scotland and £176,000 in England, combined total being £241,600.[54] Today this would equate to around £500m in terms of economic worth.[55] In his trust settlement of 1867 he made several bequests to the families of his brothers, other family members, servants, farm hands and charitable institutions, however the most significant beneficiary was Thomas Dunlop Douglas Cunninghame Graham, who I believe was a nephew or great nephew, but not proven.[56]
Archibald, b. 10 October 1778.[57] Reliable information about Archibald has been difficult to get, however like his brothers he matriculated at Glasgow University in 1789.[58] He clearly was a partner in the family business but rarely appeared in the Glasgow directory. There is an Archibald Douglas, stocking manufacturer, in the 1801 directory, becoming Archibald Douglas & Co, hosiers by 1807, thereafter no further entries. Similarly his personal life only becomes clear through his Trust settlement of 1860. In the Regality Club of Glasgow publications he is described as a merchant in 1811 and a member of Glasgow Golf Club in 1815.[59] In addition to being a partner in J. T. and A. Douglas and Co. he was also a partner, with brother Neil, in Douglas, Brown and Co., cotton spinners. He purchased the estate of Glenfinnart in Argyllshire in 1845 where lived for the rest of his life.[60] He died there in 1860 and it is in his Trust document that you get primary evidence that he married and had children. He married firstly Christina Riddell in 1810, then Harriet May in 1828, and finally Anna McNeill in 1838. There appears to be children only of the last marriage, namely John, a colonel and Assistant Adjutant General of Cavalry who was his executor and main beneficiary, and daughters Anna Glassford and Eleanor Louisa, who pre deceased him. His estate was valued at over £28,000.[61]
James, b. 8 August 1779.[62] Very little known about this brother except he seems to have lived and died in Demerara. The only evidence I have for that is that there is a reference to his death in the July-December 1853 issue of the Official Gazette for British Guiana concerning a share of the Good Hope plantation there being transferred to his brother Thomas Dunlop Douglas.[63] In his sister Cecilia’s Trust deed of 1828 he is described as ‘of Demerara’[64] however it’s possible he may have returned to Glasgow on occasion as in his brother John’s will in 1840 he is described as a merchant in Glasgow.[65] In his only entry in the Glasgow directory in 1850/51 he is described as a partner in the family company his house address given as 234 St Vincent Street. [66]
Colin, 25 November 1781.[67] Matriculated at Glasgow University in 1793 and graduated M.D. in 1802.[68] He is very likely to have died unmarried before 1828 as sister Cecilia does not mention him or any family of his in her Trust settlement of 1828
As Indicated previously John Douglas senior was a Glasgow merchant. Around 1775 he purchased from John Miller a plot of land in what became Miller Street.[70] In the same year he and two other city merchants were charged by the Sheriff Depute of the County of Lanark, with ensuring that the Clyde from Dumbuck Ford to the Broomielaw had been deepened in accordance with the contract between Glasgow and a Mr. Goldburne, which was confirmed as seven feet at an ordinary neep tide![71]
What kind of merchant he was is not entirely clear as entries in the Glasgow directories don’t always specify. His first entry in the1783 John Tait directory simply says he was a merchant in Miller Street.[72] However in the Jones directories in 1789 and 1790/91 the only John Douglas entry in each states he was a wine and rum merchant, located in Miller Street.[73] Confusingly another source states he was the father of Sir Neil Douglas, which is correct, but then goes on to describe him as an insurance broker.[74]
I have not been able to clearly identify when John Douglas died but it must have been after 1803, the date of his last entry in the Glasgow directory and before 1810, the date of his wife Cecilia’s death where she was described as the relict (widow) of merchant John Douglas.[75]
J. T. and A. Douglas and Co.
The company lasted for just under fifty years, the final entry in the Glasgow directory being in 1854. Its main area of operation had been the sugar plantations it or the brothers owned in Demerara and Berbice in British Guiana. They had an involvement with at least six plantations Union, Better Hope, Enfield, Good Hope, Belmont and Windsor Forest either as owners or mortgagees which collectively had 1155 slaves. Additionally there were five more slaves presumably household for either John or James. When slavery was abolished they claimed compensation, eventually receiving as owners £41517 and a further £48874 from other owners which paid off the outstanding mortgage debt.[76] The total of these sums, £90391, equate today to £392m in terms of economic power.[77] That sum was in addition to the profits they made over the lifetime of the company, the majority of that time investing in human misery to their clear advantage. That misery erupted into a slave rebellion in Demerara in 1823 which was savagely put down by the military with hundreds of slaves killed, those who weren’t being sentenced to 1,000 lashes and hard labour.[78]
Cecilia and Gilbert Douglas
Cecilia and Gilbert married in Glasgow on the 26th January 1794.[79] There were no children of the marriage. As a farmer’s son Gilbert presumably spent his early working life on his father’s farm in Balcony, however there is not a great deal known about his subsequent business activities. At the time of his marriage he was described as a merchant in Glasgow but the usual sources to confirm that such as the city directories, the Merchants House and the Scottish Record Society records of burgesses etc, contain no reference to him. Nor is there any record of matriculating/graduating from the University. What is known is that at the time of his death he owned a cotton plantation called Fairfield in Demerara and a sugar plantation called Mount Pleasant, on the island of St. Vincent, where he had lived for a period.[80] How and when he acquired them has not been discovered.
In 1800 he bought the Douglas Park estate from Major-General John Hamilton of Orbiston,[81] following which he engaged architect Robert Burn to build a mansion on the site of the old Orbiston House based on plans apparently prepared in 1795.[82] He also bought the estate of Boggs from Hamilton a year later. He and Cecilia lived there for the rest of their lives.
He died in 1807 at Douglas Park,[83] his deed of settlement in St. Vincent naming Cecilia and her brothers as trustees of his estate. She specifically was bequeathed half shares in the two plantations as well as life rent of the Douglas Park and Boggs estates.[84]
As it turned out the plantations had debts which Cecilia paid off by continuing to sell the Demerara produce for a time and eventually her half share in the plantation itself.[85]
Figure 5. Orbiston House. From: Smith, John Guthrie and Mitchell, John Oswald. (1878). The Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry. 2nd ed. Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons.
The remainder of Cecilia’s life does not reflect that of a typical Victorian lady. She travelled to Italy and lived there for an extended period, she purchased the estate of Orbiston, adjacent to her own and renamed the whole estate and house Orbiston,[86] and she had a number of significant industrial and financial investments which included the Forth and Clyde Canal (£3536), the Bank of England (£7977) and various railway stocks (over £9700).[87] She also retained her half share in the ownership of the St. Vincent plantation which had 231 slaves. When slavery was abolished in 1834 she claimed compensation and in 1836 was duly awarded £3014.[88] She collected art in many different formats, paintings, sculptures, furniture and so on, the collection in due course being donated to Glasgow.[89]
Figure 6. The Tontine Building in 1868, photographed by Thomas Annan. From ‘ Glasgow’s Treasure Chest’ by James Cowan, ‘Peter Prowler’. Published June 1951, page 393.
In December 1860 she came into the ownership of the Tontine building in Glasgow. The Tontine scheme in 1781 financed the reconstruction of the old Tontine Hotel creating what became known as the Tontine Building. Individual shares were purchased at £50 per share, there being a total of one hundred and seven shares sold. Two shares were bought in young Cecilia’s name one of which was by her grandfather William Douglas, the other by Glasgow merchant Alexander McCaul. The objective of the scheme, apart from having a grand civic building, was that the last living share holder would have ownership of it. That turned out to be Cecilia,[90]although it was a close run thing as she was the oldest of four survivors in February of that year.[91]
She died at home in 1862 in her ninety first year, essentially from old age.[92] She left a personal estate valued at just over £40,365. In accordance with her Trust deed her bequests included family and a number of charities and organisations, and individual members of her domestic staff.[93] In accordance with her husband’s Trust deed the Orbiston estate was left to his grandnephew Robert Douglas.[94]
She and her husband are commemorated by a plaque on the wall of St. Bride’s Collegiate Church in Bothwell inscribed as follows:
To the memory of Gilbert Douglas of Douglas Park Born 28th May 1749 Died 10th March 1807 and also of Cecilia Douglas of Orbiston his wife Born 28th Feby 1772 Died 25th July 1862
Before her death she funded a window in Glasgow Cathedral dedicated to her husband and her parents and siblings, which was completed in October 1862, part of it being shown below.[95]
Figure 8. Kind Permission of Heritage Environment Scotland.
In 2013 articles about the paintings bequest to Glasgow appeared in the Herald newspaper, one entitled “The Paintings Sullied by Slavery”. It goes into detail about the Cecilia Douglas fortune being founded on slavery and asks the inevitable question about whether paintings with their financial provenance should ever go on show. A complex question with no easy answer. The following are two telling and moving extracts referring to the conditions on the Douglas plantation in St. Vincent.
“Slavery conditions on the Mount Pleasant estate on St. Vincent were brutal.Large gangs of slaves would spend much of the day digging holes for the sugar cane and constantly weeding the plantation, with women not spared such physical labour.”
“The slaves die off because they are being worked in very difficult conditions very hard with inadequate nutrition.” [96]
It’s clear that the fortunes of the family of Cecilia Douglas, both paternal and maternal, came about, either directly or indirectly through the exploitation of African slaves, the extracts above indicating what little regard they had for the enslaved people creating their fortunes.
Glasgow generally has come late to the idea that slavery underpinned the city’s commerce from around the Act of Union to the mid 1800’s. This was a major ‘self-denial’ that persisted well into the twentieth century, the following, which was printed in the Herald in 1883, being typical of the mindset that existed until fairly recently..
“The American War of Independence finished the latter (the tobacco lords), but the trading instinct of Glasgow was not to be denied, and prompted no doubt by its favourable situation for the purpose, the merchants of Glasgow embarked largely in the West India (West Indies) trade. The other great sugar ports were London, Bristol and Liverpool, and it is to Glasgow’s lasting honour that while Bristol and Liverpool were up to the elbows in the slave trade Glasgow kept out of it. The reproach can never be levelled at our city, as it was at Liverpool, that there was not a stone in her streets that were not cemented with the blood of a slave.”[97]
[2] Ross, A.M. (1895) The Genealogy of the Families of Douglas of Mulderg and Robertson of Kindeace and theirdescendants. Dingwall: A.M. Ross and Co. pp. 9-12.
[34] Testamentary Ancestry. England. 9 April 1862. DOUGLAS, John. National Probate Calendar. (Index of Wills and Administration). 1858 – 1995. p. 147. https://www.ancestry.co.uk
[40] Stephens, H. M. “DOUGLAS, Sir Neil, (1774-1853)” In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/7913
[46] Stephens, H. M. “DOUGLAS, Sir Neil, (1774-1853)” In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/7913
[47] Births. (OPR) Scotland. Glasgow. 1 December 1776. DOUGLAS, Thomas Dunlop. 644/1 160 218. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
[56] Testamentary Records. Scotland. 26 March 1869. DOUGLAS, Thomas Dunlop. Trust Disposition and Deed of Settlement. Ayr Sheriff Court Wills. SC6/46/6. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
[60] Devine, T. M. An Eighteenth Century Business Elite: Glasgow West India Merchants etc. In : The Scottish Historical Review Vol 57, No. 168. Part 1 April 1978. pp. 40-67. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/27301
[61] Testamentary Records. Scotland. 22 January 1861. DOUGLAS, Archibald. Trust Deed of Settlement and Inventory. Dunoon Sheriff Court. SC51/32/11. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
Glasgow's Benefactors 