Full text of "History of Glasgow"

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

VOLUME II

PUBLISHED BY

JACKSON, WYLIE & CO., GLASGOW
to the Suibersttt)

LONDON : SIMPKIN MARSHALL, LD.

Cambridge - Bowes and Bowes.

Oxford B. H. Blackwell, Ltd.

Edinburgh Douglas ami Foulis.

New York The Macmillan Co.

Toronto The Macmillan Co. of Canada.

Sydney Angus and Robertson.

MCMXXXI

GEORGE HUTCHESON,
NOTARY AND FOUNDER OF HUTCHESONS' HOSPITAL.

HISTORY OF

GLASGOW

VOLUME II

FROM THE REFORMATION
TO THE REVOLUTION

GEORGE EYRE-TODD

F.S.A. SCOT.

EDITOR OF "THE BOOK OF GLASGOW CATHEDRAL"

AUTHOR OF "THE STORY OF GLASGOW," "FAMOUS SCOTTISH BURGHS "

"THE HIGHLAND CLANS OF SCOTLAND: THEIR HISTORY

AND TRADITIONS," ETC.

GLASGOW
JACKSON, WYLIE 6? CO.

PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY

I93 1

v. 2-

PREFACE

WITHIN the last ninety years most important additions have
been made to the documentary evidence readily available for
a complete History of Glasgow. In 1843 the Maitland Club
published the entire extant Registrum Episcopatus Glasguensis
containing the charters of the bishopric from the twelfth century
till the middle of the sixteenth. Three years later the same
club published the Liber Collegii Nostre Domine, documents
dealing with the affairs of the Church of St. Mary and St. Anne,
now the Tron Church, and Munimenta Fratrum Predicatorum
de Glasgu, the documents of the monastery of the Dominicans
or Friars Preachers in High Street. In 1854 it published the
muniments of the University, and in 1875 the Grampian Club,
under the name of Diocesan Registers, piiblished a series of
Protocols of the Cathedral Chapter, of the years 1499 to 1513,
and the Rental Book of the Archbishops from 1509 to 1570.
These collections of documents furnished authentic and fairly
complete material for a history of the bishopric and city of
Glasgow down to the time of the Reformation. Twenty years
later, in 1876, Sir James Marwick, then Town Clerk, began
publishing the Burgh Records, or minutes of the Town Council,
from the year 1573. Under the authority of the Council itself
the publication was supplemented by a series of the protocols
of the Town Clerks from 1530 till 1600. At the same time Sir
James published, in three quarto volumes, Charters and Docu-
ments, the actual legal deeds upon which the material fortunes
of the city had been built. The civic records which were thus

vi PREFACE

made readily accessible provide detailed data of unquestionable
kind for a history of Glasgow from Reformation times downward.

On the rich store of facts contained in these publications Sir
James Marwick set to work, and in several compilations an
elaborate introduction to Charters and Documents, The River
Clyde and the Clyde Burghs, and Early Glasgow threw parts of
the information into narrative form. But Sir James died in
1908.

After that event the publication of the Burgh Records was
continued by Mr. Robert Renwick, Town Clerk Depute and
Keeper of the Register of Sasines, and completed down to the
year 1833, when the provisions of the Reform Bill came into
action, and the old Town Council of selected members gave
place to a new popularly elected body. The publication of the
records was finished in 1916. Shortly afterwards, in view of
the highly interesting and valuable information embedded in
these old minutes, Dr. Renwick (he had received the degree of
LL.D. from Glasgow University in 1915) was invited by the
Town Council to compile a comprehensive History of Glasgow.
This invitation, though he was then seventy-five years of age,
he was persuaded to accept, and forthwith set about the task.
The work was planned to occupy four volumes (i) from the
earliest times till the Reformation, (2) from the Reformation
till the Revolution ; (3) from the Revolution till the passing of
the Reform Bill ; (4) from the passing of the Reform Bill till
the present time.

Dr. Renwick had completed the first volume of the History,
and passed it for the press, when he died, in 1920. The volume
was published in that year under the direction of Sir John
Lindsay, the Town Clerk. The present writer was then in-
vited to continue the work. While warmly appreciating the
compliment, he pointed out that the enterprise could only be
undertaken in the intervals of a somewhat busy life. This fact
must now be cited to crave the indulgence of the reader for the

PREFACE vii

interval which has elapsed between the publication of the first
and second volumes.

The volume now published covers a period which has been
less exploited than perhaps any other by writers who have
dealt with the annals of Glasgow. It was the period during
which the country passed through the greatest of its revolutions
the political and social upheaval which followed the Reforma-
tion. It was the time of the greatest of our civil wars the
struggle between Episcopacy and Presbyterianism. Its mighty
moving spirits were John Knox and Oliver Cromwell, the
brilliant Marquess of Montrose and the astute Marquess of
Argyll. Covenanter and Cavalier in turns held the reins of
government, and in turns worked their will upon the opposing
faction. In all these exciting movements the city of Glasgow
played an outstanding part, and its annals throw a vivid and
often new and highly suggestive light upon the history of
Scotland of that time. Argyll's huge borrowings from the
Glasgow magistrates, still unrepaid ; the vital effects upon the
fortunes of Montrose of his leniency to the city of which he was
personally a near neighbour ; the experiment of Charles I in
" nationalising " the sea fisheries of the West of Scotland ; and
a score of other facts illuminated by these annals, all involved
issues worthy of more consideration than they have yet
received from historians.

In more purely domestic annals also the Glasgow records of
the period present a highly interesting panorama. The
change-over from ecclesiastical to industrial means of liveli-
hood ; the transfer of Church lands and revenues to the town ;
the rise of a medical profession ; the development of a musical
tradition ; the wise settlement of differences between merchants
and craftsmen the " classes " and the " masses " of that
time ; the experiments in bureaucratic control of trade ; the
founding of one of the greatest charitable institutions of Scot-
land ; the building of a civic sea-port on the Firth of Clyde ;

viii PREFACE

the methods of meeting national emergencies, and of providing
for the unemployed ; the occurrence of great city fires, which,
like that of London in the same century, helped to wipe out an
old order of things and usher in a new ; these are matters of
much more than merely parochial interest.

The makers also of the civic annals of the period were a
succession of men of whom enough has not hitherto been made.
Every Glasgow citizen, of course, knows the story of the cap-
ture of Dunbarton Castle by Captain Thomas Crawford of
Jordanhill ; but not everyone knows of the damning part
played by Crawford in bearing evidence against Mary Queen of
Scots. Everyone is acquainted also with that stout soldier of
fortune, Dugald Dalgety, in Scott's Legend of Montrose, but
few are aware of the intimate connection of his original, Sir
James Turner, with the Glasgow garrison and the old mansion
in the Gorbals. It is time also that more should be known
about notable citizens like Colin Campbell of Blythswood, who
entertained Cromwell on his visit to the city ; Thomas Petti-
grew who commanded part of the Glasgow contingent of
fighting men in James VI 's raid against the Catholic earls of
the north after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and who
subsequently showed such business acumen in securing a lease
of the town's revenue from burgess fees ; George Porterfield,
who commanded the Glasgow forces in General Leslie's cam-
paigns against Charles I, and who afterwards became Covenant-
ing provost of the city, and from his exile in Holland sent home
letters which implicated the Covenanters in plans for a Dutch
invasion : and John Spreull, the die-hard town clerk, cousin of
the Paisley "sufferer" known as Bass John, who united to
strong Covenanting convictions a singular legal shrewdness and
ability in holding fast to the emoluments of office against all
comers.

These and many other elements of much more than passing
moment or merely local interest substantiate the claim of the

PREFACE ix

period of Glasgow history which forms the subject of the
present volume to a greater measure of attention than it has
yet received. ,._

In the production of this volume a deep interest was taken
by the late Sir John Lindsay, Town Clerk, and a similar interest
has been manifested by his successor in office, Mr. David
Stenhouse. To the indispensable support of both of these
gentlemen, in making the civic records available for the work,
and in making the necessary business arrangements, the most
grateful acknowledgments must be made. Warm thanks are
also due to Lady Mason and her brother, Mr. Alfred Mylne,
for the loan of contemporary letters, which throw interesting
light on noted characters of Glasgow in the seventeenth
century.

GEORGE EYRE-TODD.

GLASGOW, March 1931.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE

Economic Effects of the Reformation i

CHAPTER II
Queen Mary's Reign The Battle of Langside - 6

CHAPTER III
The Transference of Church Property under Mary and Moray - 21

CHAPTER IV
The Regent Lennox Capture of Dunbarton Castle - 29

CHAPTER V
Superintendent Willocks Archbishop Porterfield - 35

CHAPTER VI

Archbishop Boyd Allotment and Feuing of Lands Arrival of

Andrew Melville and Esme Stewart - 42

CHAPTER VII

Archbishop Montgomerie Conflict with General Assembly

Raid of Ruthven 54

CHAPTER VIII

Archbishop Erskine Rise of Walter Stewart, Lord Blantyre

Feuing and Selling of Lands - 62

CHAPTER IX

Parsons and Ministers Archibald Douglas David Wemyss - 69

xii CONTENTS

CHAPTER X

PAGE

The Churches of Glasgow - 81

CHAPTER XI
The University- 85

CHAPTER XII
The Song Schools and Grammar School - 100

CHAPTER XIII
Maister Peter Lowe and the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons 1 1 1

CHAPTER XIV
Sir George Elphinstone and the Letter of Guildry - 119

CHAPTER XV
Archbishop John Spottiswood - 130

CHAPTER XVI
Life in the Burgh in the Reign of James VI. 144

CHAPTER XVII
James VI. visits Glasgow - 186

CHAPTER XVIII
Archbishop Law and his Time - 189

CHAPTER XIX
Archbishop Lindsay and the Overthrow of Episcopacy - 208

CHAPTER XX
George Hutcheson, Notary, Banker, and Philanthropist - - 232

CHAPTER XXI
The Civil War 242

CONTENTS xiii

CHAPTER XXII

PAGE

Domestic Annals about 1640 - - 255

CHAPTER XXIII
The Campaign of Montrose - 264

CHAPTER XXIV

Glasgow under the Covenant - - 2/8

CHAPTER XXV
Under the Covenant - - 290

CHAPTER XXVI
Under the Commonwealth - 33

CHAPTER XXVII
Under the Merry Monarch - 3 J 9

CHAPTER XXVIII
Alexander Burnet's First Archbishopric - - 33^

CHAPTER XXIX
The Policy of Conciliation 349

CHAPTER XXX
Alexander Burnet's Second Archbishopric - 364

CHAPTER XXXI

Second Insurrection of the Covenanters - - 37^

CHAPTER XXXII
In the Last Years of Charles II. 390

CHAPTER XXXIII
Rebellion and Revolution - - 409

INDEX --.------- 423

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

George Hutcheson Reproduced by permission from the portrait

in Dr. Hill's History of Hutchesons' Hospital frontispiece

James Hamilton, Earl of Arran and Duke of Chatelherault 8

Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley - 16

Old Houses in the Drygate, c. 1650 - 32

The Regent Morton - 36

Seal of Archbishop Boyd, 1572-81- 40

The Regent Lennox - - 48

George Buchanan - - 64

Seal of James Balfour, Dean of Glasgow - 80

Andrew Melville - - 88

The Old College and Blackfriars Church, in the Seventeenth

Century - 96

The Old Grammar School - 104

Master Peter Lowe Reproduced by permission from the portrait
belonging to the Royal Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons,
Glasgow - - 112

Glasgow Merchants of the Fifteenth Century Emblem of the

Merchants of Glasgow - - - 120

The Old Hall of the Glasgow Merchants, in the Briggate - - 122
Glasgow Tolbooth, 1626- ----160

The Clyde at and below Glasgow, c. 1650 - - 176

Archbishop Laud - -----192

George Gillespie - - - . 224

Alexander Henderson - -----228

Thomas Hutcheson Reproduced by permission from the portrait

in Dr. Hill's History of Hutchesons' Hospital - - 234

xvi ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

George Hutcheson's " Kist " Reproduced by permission of the

Faculty of Procurators, Glasgow - 236

The Old Hutchesons' Hospital, Trongate, Front View - 238

The Old Hutchesons' Hospital, Trongate, Back View - 240

James Grahame, Marquess of Montrose Reproduced by per-
mission of the Duke of Montrose - 272

Pulpit Hour Glass The " Deid " Bell, 1641 - 288

Oliver Cromwell Reproduced by permission of Sir John Stirling-
Maxwell, Bart., of Pollok - - 296

Zachary Boyd Reproduced by permission from the portrait in

the University of Glasgow - - 300

Silvercraigs Mansion, Saltmarket - - 304

Gilbert Burnet - 328

Acts Against Covenanters - - 384

Seal of Archbishop Cairncross - - 416

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

CHAPTER I
ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF THE REFORMATION

WHEN, on a winter day in 1559, the burgesses of Glasgow saw
Archbishop Beaton ride away from the city with the French
troops whom the Queen-Regent had lent him for the rescue
of the charters and other valuables in his castle, 1 probably few
of them realized that the event marked the greatest crisis and
turning-point in the civic history. Much has been made of
the fact that, with the departure of the Archbishop, the ancient
burgh acquired a new measure of independence, that from that
time, with some temporary interruptions from the Protestant
archbishops of the following century, the town council would
be free to elect its own bailies and transact other business with-
out the interference of an ecclesiastical superior. But the yoke
of the archbishops seems never to have pressed very heavily
on the burgesses. As a matter of fact, under the rule of a long
line of great churchmen, the city and other possessions of the
bishopric had enjoyed almost complete immunity from the
ravagings and burnings and calls to arms which were the
common lot of the vassals of secular barons. It was only during
the previous sixteen years, since the death of King James V.,
and the rise to power of the principles of the Reformation, that
the burgesses had seen red war within their gates. At the same

1 Keith's Hist. (Spottiswood Society), i. 245, 246.

H.G. II. A

2 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

time, they had enjoyed the very ample and substantial benefits
arising from the residence in their midst of a great church
dignitary with his court of wealthy prebendaries. The Arch-
bishop's castle and the thirty-two manses of the canons, each
with its considerable household of officers and domestics, must
have afforded constant employment to a large number of
craftsmen, and trade to a host of merchants. The ecclesi-
astical revenues of Glasgow at the Reformation have been
moderately computed in the value of money in 1874, as follows : 2

Archbishopric, rented in money - 1417 6 o

Deanery of Glasgow - 349 o o

Subdeanery - 63 5 8

Chantry- - 293 6 8

Vicar Portioner - 68 13 4

Monasteries - - 260 o o

Collegiate Churches - 250 o o

2701 ii 8 3

The expenditure of such a sum, or even a considerable part
of it, among a population so small as that of Glasgow at the
time of the Reformation was a very important matter. In
1581, when the Confession of Faith was carried from house to
house by the elders, and it seems likely that the greater part
of the adult population was induced to sign, the number of
names adhibited was only 2250. 4

2 Walsh's History of the Catholic Church in Scotland, 329-331. See also
Lawson's Roman Catholic Church in Scotland.

3 The free rent in money and victual of the Archbishopric of Glasgow, with
its several baronies, as given at the general assumption of Thirds in 1561, will
be found in the Diocesan Registers, i. 23. The amount received in cash was
987 8s. 7d., besides 32 chalders, 8 bolls meal, 28 chalders, 6 bolls malt, 8 bolls
bear (barley), 12 chalders, 13 bolls, 3 firlots horse corn, and 14 dozen salmon.
The temporal lands were " the baronies of Glasgow, Carstairs, Ancrum,
Lilliesleaf, Eskirk, Stobo and Ediston, with the Bishop's Forest, and other
little things in Carrick, Lothian, and elsewhere."

* MacGeorge's Old Glasgow, p. 144 ; Stephens' Hist, of the Church of Scotland,
i. 300.

EFFECT OF REFORMATION IN GLASGOW 3

Hitherto the city had subsisted as a metropolis subsists,
upon the custom brought to it by the presence of the great, and
of suitors flocking to the court of the metropolitan. By the
Reformation this means of living was at once very seriously
diminished, and the inhabitants of Glasgow, especially those
in the upper part of the city near the cathedral, immediately
felt the pinch. It is true that by an order of the Lords of
Council in 1562 the Roman clergy were allowed to retain two-
thirds of the rents of their benefices for life an order which
greatly enraged John Knox ; but they were no longer called
upon to reside in their cathedral manses. It is true also that
the Earl of Lennox retained a town mansion at the Stablegreen
Port, near the Bishop's Castle ; 5 but since his forfeiture in
1545, after the Battle of the Butts, and his supersession by the
Earl of Arran in the office of bailie of the barony and regality,
he had had small occasion to reside there. By the abolition
of the Pope's jurisdiction on 24th August, 1560, the con-
sistorial courts of the old Church were closed, or only opened
on very rare occasions. Two of these occasions may be
noted.

In July, 1561, the Archbishop of St. Andrews, as Primate
of All Scotland and Legate a later e, granted two commissions
to the Abbots of Sweetheart and Crossraguel and two canons of
Glasgow, to confirm charters by the Abbot of Glenluce to the
Earl of Cassillis, 6 and on ist April, 1562, he commissioned the
sub-chantor and other two canons of Glasgow to hear and
determine the action of divorce raised by Hugh, Earl of Eglinton,
against his reputed wife, Lady Jane Hamilton, daughter of the
Duke of Chatelherault. This trial proceeded publicly and
formally, and, on the ground that the parties were related
within the fourth degree of consanguinity, sentence of divorce

6 Diocesan Registers, preface ; p. 18 ; Marwick's Early Glasgow, p. 61 ;
MacGeorge's Old Glasgow, p. 117.

6 Orig. at Culzean, quoted in Consiliar Scotice, clxxiv. note.

4 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

was pronounced in the High Church of Glasgow on 3oth May,

1563-'

But the recourse of the public to Glasgow for such trials
was now very rare indeed, and was likely soon to cease alto-
gether. On 8th February, 1564, the Queen appointed four
Commissaries, sitting at Edinburgh, to exercise the jurisdiction
formerly exercised by the Officials and Commissaries of the
archbishops and bishops in their consistory courts. 8 Glasgow,
in fact, ceased to be the spiritual and legal metropolis of the
West of Scotland, and the consequences were for a considerable
period calamitous.

Nearly a generation later, in 1587, a petition was presented
to Parliament by the freemen and other inhabitants of Glasgow
above the Greyfriars Wynd, setting forth that, whereas that
part of the city had, before the Reformation, been " intertenyt
and uphalden " by the resort of the Bishop and clergy, it had
now become ruinous and decayed, and the residents greatly
impoverished and without means to keep their property in repair.
The petitioners suggested as a remedy that "the grite confusion
and multitude of mercattis togedder in ane place about the
croce " should be taken in hand, and some of these markets
removed to the upper part of the city. As an argument they
pointed out that they were equally subject with the people in
the lower part of the town to be " taxt, stent, watcheing,
warding, and all uther precable charges/' and should therefore
equally enjoy the benefits ; and they concluded by pointing
out that " that part of the said cietie abone the said gray frier
wynde is the onlie ornament and decoratioun thereof, be
ressone of the grite and sumptuous buildingis of grite antiquitie,
varie proper and meit for the ressait of his heines and nobilitie
at sic tymes as thai sail repair thereto, and that it wer to be
lamentit to sie sic gorgeous policie to decay."

7 Eraser's Mem. of Montgomeries, ii. 163-181.

8 Sir J. Balfour's Practicks, pp. 670-673 ; Act. ParL, iii. 33, 41.

GLASGOW IN STRAITS 5

In response to this bitter cry, on 2gth July, 1587, Robert,
Lord Boyd, Walter, prior of Blantyre, the provost, bailies, and
certain others, were commissioned to take action. First the
salt market was removed to a place above the Wynd head ;
but this was so inconvenient to the fish curers that it was
returned to its old position nearer the river, and the bear and
malt market was established above the Wynd head in its
stead. 9

This petition indicates not only the straits to which the
inhabitants of a large part of the city had been reduced, but
also that the burgesses had at last realized the change which had
taken place, and had become aware that they must no longer
depend for their subsistence upon the patronage of the Church,
but must rely upon their own exertions. This change was the
greatest that has ever taken place in the history and character
of Glasgow. The ancient feudal and ecclesiastical regime
established by the far-seeing David, Prince of Strathclyde, in
the twelfth century, had served its purpose and was dead.
The city was now to enter upon a new era of greatness as a
place of trade, manufacture, and foreign enterprise.

The old order did not pass away, however, without serious
physical disturbance, and in the throes which accompanied
the birth of a new era Glasgow experienced its full share.

9 Glasgow Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. p. 213 ; p. 243, No. 82.

CHAPTER II
QUEEN MARY'S REIGN THE BATTLE OF LANGSIDE

WHEN Queen Mary returned to Scotland, on igth August,
1561, the Duke of Chatelherault was still in possession of the
nineteen years' lease of the bailieship of the barony and
regality of Glasgow, which, as Earl of Arran and Governor
of the Kingdom, he had secured from Archbishop Dunbar in
1545, after overthrowing the forces of the Earls of Lennox
and Glencairn at the Battle of the Butts on Glasgow muir.
By way of confirming himself in possession, after the de-
parture of Archbishop Beaton in December, 1559, and the
final withdrawal of the French troops in March, 1 Chatel-
herault had seized the archbishop's Castle of Glasgow and
also his manor of Lochwood, by the Bishop Loch, some six
miles to the north-east of the city. 2 The head of the house
of Hamilton was then on the side of the Reformers. 3 The
series of events by which he was to be restored to his natural
position as one of the chief personages of the Catholic party

1 Supra, vol. i. p. 409.

2 Thomas Archibald, the Archbishop's chamberlain, writing to his master
in Paris on 28th August, complained that " he could not get anything of the
archbishop's revenues, neither could he get restitution of the castles of
Glasgow and Lochwood, for which he had applied in vain to the Duke, to the
Council, and to the parliament of reformers " (Keith's Hist. 488-9 ; Chalmers's
Caledonia, iii. 639, note f.).

3 The letter which he wrote to the Duke of Norfolk on 2ist March, des-
cribing the retiral of the French troops from Glasgow, was signed by himself,
the Earls of Argyll and Glencairn, and Lord Boyd (Bain's Calendar of State
Papers, i. p. 336, No. 694).

RETURN OF THE EARL OF LENNOX 7

was destined to be among the most dramatic in the history
of Scotland.

As grandson of the Princess Mary, daughter of James II.,
he was nearest heir to the throne, and his keen ambition was
to marry his eldest son, the Earl of Arran, to the queen. 4
This hope was destined to be bitterly disappointed. Arran
went suddenly mad. 5 Further, Chatelherault's old enemy,
the Earl of Lennox, whom, for rebellion and embezzlement of
French subsidies, 6 he had overthrown and driven into exile in
1544, had married at the English court Lady Margaret Douglas,
daughter of the Earl of Angus and Queen Margaret Tudor,
widow of James IV., and the eldest son of the marriage, Lord
Darnley, was therefore next heir to the English throne after
Queen Mary herself. While Mary was the daughter of Queen
Margaret's son, Darnley was the son of Queen Margaret's
daughter. At Queen Elizabeth's request Mary recalled Lennox
to Scotland, and in September, 1564, he rode to Holyrood in
much state and was received by the queen. 7

Chatelherault's nineteen- year lease of the bailiary and
justiciary of Glasgow was now at an end, and on 28th October,
1564, by an order in council, the queen, understanding that he
then held " in tak and assidation the baillierie and justiciarie of
Glasgow, quhilk of auld wes ane kyndlie possessioun to the
said Erie of Levenax hous, as he allegis," ordered the duke to
yield up these offices, " and all uther rycht, titill of rycht, entres
or possessioun," so that the Archbishop might dispose of them
at his pleasure. 8 At the same time, she desired the duke and
earl to compose their feud, and they promised to do so. Next,
on 1 5th December, parliament rescinded the forfeiture of
Lennox, who was restored to his titles and estates, and in due

4 MS. Letter Randolph to Cecil, 3rd Jan., 1560, State-paper Office ; Tytler,
iii. ch. 5.

5 Ibid. ch. vi. 6 Lesley, p. 175 ; Burton, iii. p. 220.

7 Keith, p. 255. 8 Privy Council Register, i. pp. 290-1.

8 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

course he returned to his office of bailie and justiciary of the
Glasgow archbishopric.

Worse was to follow, however, so far as Chatelherault was
concerned. Shortly afterwards the queen sent Sir Robert
Melville to the English court to induce Lord Darnley to visit
his father in Scotland. Melville found " yonder long lad "
bearing the sword, as nearest prince of the blood, at the ceremony
of conferring the earldom of Leicester on Lord Robert Dudley,
whom Elizabeth was then proposing as a husband for the
Scottish queen. 9 By I2th February Darnley was in Scotland,
introduced to Mary at Wemyss Castle, and danced a galliard
with the queen. On 2gth July that same year, 1565, the two
were married. The queen was twenty-two and Henry Darnley,
King of Scots, was nineteen years of age.

In these events Chatelherault foresaw the ruin of his house,
and made a " band " of defence with the Earls of Moray and
Glencairn, the former of whom saw power slipping from his
hands, and moreover had been threatened by Darnley, now
suffering from swollen head. 10 Already on the eve of the
queen's marriage, Moray had summoned his supporters to meet
at Glasgow, and the queen had sent a herald thither to forbid
the meeting as an illegal assembly. 1 Three days after the
marriage Moray was commanded to appear at court, and,
failing to do so, was proclaimed a rebel. Then Mary, with the
energy of her race, aware that her treacherous half-brother was
gathering her enemies against her, marched from the capital
with a strong force, and drove the rebel lords from Stirling to
Glasgow and from Glasgow to Argyll. 2 Next, returning to
Edinburgh, the young king and queen on 22nd August
summoned a muster of men of the shires of Renfrew and

9 Melville's Memoirs, Bannatyne edit. pp. 120, 122.

10 Keith, p. 274 ; Tytler, iii. ch. vi.

1 Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer, 12 July, 1565.

2 Keith, pp. 314, 316 ; Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 82.

JAMES HAMILTON, EARL OF ARRAN AND DUKE OF CHATELHERAULT.

QUEEN MARY'S MUSTER IN GLASGOW 9

Dunbarton to meet them at Glasgow, " well bodin in feir of
weir," and with fifteen days' supplies, 3 and on 2gth August
they themselves marched into the city at the head of five
thousand men. 4 Next day Chatelherault, Moray, and Glen-
cairn, with a thousand men, appeared in Edinburgh ; but not
a man there joined them, and, hearing that Mary was marching
against them, while a cannonade opened from the castle, they
left the city and fled to Dumfries.

The queen was probably a good deal in the west country
at this time, as the original seat of the Stewarts of Darnley,
Earls of Lennox, was Crookston Castle, four miles west of
Glasgow, and they had a " palace " or " place " at Inchinnan,
and a mansion, as already mentioned, in Glasgow. 5 So,
probably, it came about that in the city on 5th September a
bond was entered into by Lords Cassillis, Sempill, Ross, Somer-
ville, and others, to give loyal obedience to their majesties and
to the Earl of Lennox as their lieutenant. 6

In the upshot, on ist December Chatelherault was pardoned
and retired to France, while the other rebels fled from the
country. To enact their forfeiture a parliament was called
to meet in February, 1566, and as the Catholic party was now in
the ascendant in the country it seemed that their doom was
certain.

Just then Mary was being pressed to join the league which
had been formed among the powers of France, Spain, and the
Emperor, for the destruction of the Protestant cause in
Europe. It was known that the queen's secretary, David
Rizzio, exerted with his mistress a powerful influence in favour
of the league. If Rizzio continued to have the ear of the queen

3 Privy Council Register, i. p. 355.

4 Spottiswood, ii. 31.

6 See the admirable monograph on " Crookston Castle," by Robert Guy,
Glasgow, 1909.

" Privy Council Register, i. 355-363.

io HISTORY OF GLASGOW

the ruin of Moray and his friends was certain. 7 It was accord-
ingly decided that Rizzio must be removed.

Darnley became the tool of the conspirators. By reason
of his unfitness the queen had delayed the fulfilment of her
promise to confer on him the " crown matrimonial " an equal
share with herself in the government and he was induced
to believe that she did this by Rizzio 's advice. By hints
worthy of lago the Reformers even brought him to believe
that the secretary had supplanted him in the queen's affec-
tion. 8 A plot was therefore prepared and bonds were signed
between Darnley, Moray, Morton, and others. The plan was
to murder Rizzio, slay or imprison the queen, make Darnley
the nominal king, and place all power in the hands of the
Reformers. 9

On the night of Saturday, 6th March, 1565-6, the tragedy
took place. At Holyrood, in the queen's presence, Rizzio was
murdered, Mary was seized and threatened with death, and
Darnley, his dagger still sticking in the secretary's flesh, issued
his letters as King, dissolving parliament. 10 Next day Moray
appeared in Edinburgh, and, at a meeting of the conspirators,
arranged to imprison the queen in Stirling Castle, force her
to resign the crown to Darnley, and confirm the protestant
religion.

That night, by winning over her weak husband, Mary
escaped to Dunbar, where an army of her loyal subjects soon
gathered about her ; but when the bonds signed by Darnley
were placed before her, and she realized all his falsehood and

7 Douglas of Lochleven, one of the conspirators, afterwards wrote " I
causit offer to him, gif he wuld stay the Erie of Murray's forfaltour, he suld
haif V thousand pundis Scottis ; his answer was XX thousand and that wer
all alik ; it wald not be " (MS papers of the Laird of Lochleven, quoted in
McCrie's Life of Knox, Period 9, footnote).

8 Keith, Appendix, p. 119.

9 See documents first printed by Tytler, iii. ; Proofs and Illustrations,
xv. and xvi.

10 Spottiswood, p. 195 ; Keith, p. 126.

DARNLEY SICK IN GLASGOW n

treachery, 1 her feelings of revulsion and contempt rose beyond
control. 2

After the birth of her son in June, 1566, when she was labour-
ing anxiously to heal the feuds among her nobles, Darnley's
actions became more and more a danger to the state. Mary did
everything that a woman and a wife could do to bring him to act
reasonably and honourably, 3 but the foolish young man would
listen to nothing. When the queen herself lay in what was
thought to be a mortal sickness at Jedburgh in October, he
went only once to see her, and he did not attend the baptism
of his son in December. By his constant intrigues and plots
he made himself hated and feared by every party in the state,
and with his father, Lennox, did everything he could to thwart
the measures of the queen. Finally, when Mary, moved by
reasons of state, pardoned the murderers of Rizzio, Darnley
abruptly left the court, and went to live with his father at
Glasgow. Here within a few days he fell sick of a disease
which at first was given out as the result of poison, but which
turned out to be smallpox. 4

The town mansion of the Earl of Lennox, in which Darnley
lay, stood close to the Bishop's Castle, on the west side of what
is now Castle Street, on ground now partly covered by the
Barony North Church. Originally the manse of Stobo, it had
been purchased from Adam Colquhoun, rector of that prebend,
in August, 1509, by Mathew- Stewart, second Earl of Lennox,
who became provost of Glasgow in the following year, and fell
at Flodden in 1513. After his death his widow, Lady Elizabeth
Hamilton, sister of the first Earl of Arran, and granddaughter
of James II., lived there. Following the forfeiture of Darnley's

1 MS. Letter State-paper Office, April 4, Randolph to Cecil, quoted by
Tytler.

2 Melville's Memoirs.

3 Keith, p. 347.

4 Letter from Drury to Cecil, 23 Jan., 1566-7, printed by Tytler in Proofs
and Illustrations, to vol. iii. No. xvii.

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

father in 1545, the property had been bestowed on John
Hamilton of Neilsland in 1550, and on John Stuart, Com-
mendator of Coldingham, in I556, 5 With the rescinding of the
forfeiture, however, in 1564, it appears to have been restored
to the Earl. 6

Here Darnley lay, attended by the queen's own physician
whom she had sent him, and by Thomas Crawford, one of his
gentlemen, who was destined to play a conspicuous part in
the affairs which followed. In the deposition which formed one
of the most important documents at the subsequent so-called
trial of the queen, Crawford gave an account of what took
place.

Already at Craigmillar a bond for Darnley's murder had been
signed by Huntly, Argyll, Lethington, and Sir James Balfour,
and was in Both well's hands. 7 The sick man knew that the
Earl of Morton, who had plotted for him the murder of Rizzio,
and whom he had afterwards betrayed, had returned to Scotland ;
that Joseph, Rizzio 's brother, was now the queen's secretary,
and that Mary had spoken very severely of himself. 8 When,
therefore, he learned that the queen was on her way to visit
him he was seized with misgiving. He sent Crawford to meet
Mary with the excuse that he was still weak and did not presume
to wait on her himself till assured of the removal of her dis-
pleasure. Replying that there was no medicine against tear,
the queen came on to Glasgow. At the momentous interview,
which took place in Darnley's bedchamber on 22nd January,
1567, the sick man expressed regret for his errors, protested his
affection for her, and explained his fears regarding a plot
against himself. Mary told him she had brought a litter with

5 Diocesan Register, i. pp. 18, 446.

6 Marwick's Early Glasgow, pp. 61-2.

7 Pitcairn's Trials, pp. 511-512 : also other evidence cited by Tytler, iii.
ch. vii.

8 Thomas Crawford's Deposition.

MARY'S VISIT TO DARNLEY 13

her, and as soon as he was thoroughly cleansed of his sickness
she proposed to carry him to Craigmillar, where she intended
to give him the bath. Meanwhile she asked him to keep
secret what had passed between them, as it might give umbrage
to some of the lords, to which Darnley answered that he could
not see why they should mislike it.

On Mary leaving him, Darnley called in Thomas Crawford,
and telling him all that had passed, bade him inform the Earl
of Lennox, at that time also lying sick in his own chamber.
He then asked Crawford what he thought of the queen's taking
him to Craigmillar. Crawford answered, " She treats your
majesty too like a prisoner. Why should you not be taken to
one of your own houses in Edinburgh ? " "It struck me much
the same way," said Darnley ; " and I have fears enough, but
may God judge between us, I have her promise only to trust
to. But I have put myself in her hands, and I shall go with her,
though she should murder me."

Such was the account given by Crawford in his deposition
submitted to the Commissioners at York on gth December,
I568, 9 which he said he had written immediately after the
interview described ; Tytler says he has discovered no reason
to doubt its truth. It is, however, somewhat obviously the
narrative of a partizan of the house of Lennox.

But Crawford's deposition is not the only document of
momentous effect which purports to have been written in
Glasgow at that time. Much debate has taken place over the
question as to the house in which Queen Mary lodged during
her ten days' visit to the city. Tradition in Townhead in the
eighteenth century declared that the queen resided in the old
manse which still stands at the corner of Macleod Street, on
the west side of Cathedral Square. 10 Built originally in 1471
as a house for the priest in charge of St. Nicholas Hospital

9 Anderson, iv. 168, 169 ; Tytler, iii. ch. vii.
10 The Old Ludgings of Glasgow, pp. 36, 37.

14 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

adjoining, and other clergy, it had, in 1565, along with the other
property of the old canons of Balernock and Lairds of Provan,
been granted by the queen to William Baillie, President of the
College of Justice, whose family had long held these posses-
sions as a prebend. It has been shown with fair probability
that this house, with its fourteen large rooms, was the only
dwelling at hand, not excepting the bishop's castle itself, at
all large enough and in fit condition to receive the queen and
her retinue at that time. 1 Only two small houses, the town
manses of Renfrew and Go van, stood between the " Place of
Stable Green," the Lennox mansion in which Darnley lay, and
Sir William Baillie's house, and the queen had less than a
hundred yards to pass from one to the other. 2 According to
the charge brought against her at York, the second and most
incriminating of the Casket Letters was written to the Earl of
Bothwell by the queen from her Glasgow lodging immediately
after her interview with Darnley. The similarity of the
details of the interview recounted in Crawford's deposition,
and Mary's alleged letter, forms the crux in the great con-
troversy between the assailants and the defenders of the
queen. 3 Whatever their character of genuineness or good
faith, these two documents, written or alleged to have been
written in Glasgow, were vital factors two years later in
deciding the queen's fate.

After a week spent with her sick husband in Archbishop
Beaton's city, Mary carried him by easy stages to Edinburgh.
On the way they were met by Bothwell, who escorted them,
not to Craigmillar, but to the southern suburb of Kirk o' Field,
where the Duke of Chatelherault had his town residence.
There Darnley was lodged in a house belonging to Robert

1 Old Ludgings, 37.

2 Provand's Lordship, by William Gemmell, M.D,

3 See Froude and Henderson for the impeachment, and Hosack and Skelton
for the defence of the queen.

QUEEN MARY AND BOTHWELL 15

Balfour, brother of that Sir James Balfour who had drawn up
the bond for his murder. 4

Events now hastened apace. Darnley reached Edinburgh on
3ist January, 1567. He was strangled and the house was blown
up at two o'clock in the morning of loth February. Ten days
later the Earl of Lennox accused Bothwell to the queen, but
nothing was done for two months. When Bothwell's trial at
last took place, on I2th April, his forces dominated the court,
and he secured an acquittal. At the parliament which forth-
with opened Mary chose him to bear the crown and sceptre
before her, and proceeded to load him with further honours.
On igth April, when parliament rose, Bothwell entertained the
principal nobles at supper in Ansley's tavern, and, having
surrounded the house with his hagbutters, overawed the
company into a declaration of their belief in his innocence, and
into a recommendation that he was a suitable husband for the
queen. Two days later Mary paid a visit to her son in Stirling,
and as she returned on the 24th, was met at Almond Bridge
by Bothwell with a force of eight hundred spearmen, and
carried to the Earl's castle of Dunbar, with, it is said, her own
consent. 5 With indecent haste, in two days' time, Bothwell
procured a divorce from his wife, Lady Jane Gordon, sister of
the Earl of Huntly. On I2th May the queen created Bothwell
Duke of Orkney and Shetland, and at four in the morning of
the i5th, in the presence-chamber at Holyrood, Mary was
married to her favourite. Next morning on the palace gate
was found a paper bearing Ovid's well-known line embodying
the popular superstition regarding marriages in May

Mense malas Maio nubere vulgus ait. 6

The prediction thus made was almost immediately to begin
its terrible fulfilment. Already, a month before the marriage

* Anderson, iv. 165. 5 Melville's Memoirs, p. 177.

6 Melville's Memoirs, pp. 176, 177.

16 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

a confederacy had been formed to defend the infant prince
against his father's murderers. Outraged by the marriage,
the nobles rapidly joined their strength to this association.
Mary tried to summon her forces, but found her orders dis-
regarded. Then, as she lay at Borthwick, the castle was
suddenly surrounded in the night. Both well escaped through
a postern, and the queen only managed to follow by riding
dressed as a man, booted and spurred, to join him at Dunbar.
There she contrived to gather two thousand men, and advanced
to Carberry Hill. Here on Sunday, I5th June, 1567, exactly a
month after her marriage, she saw her forces melt away, gave
Bothwell her hand, saw him ride from her sight for the last
time, and then yielded herself to the confederate lords. Next
day she was carried to Lochleven Castle, where soon after-
wards they compelled her to sign her abdication.

Meanwhile the Hamiltons, foreseeing a regency with prob-
ably their enemy the Earl of Lennox at its head, gathered
Mary's friends at Dunbarton, and declared for the queen. On
8th August the Earl of Moray returned to Scotland, and on the
22nd was declared Regent. On the Sunday, when the herald
arrived at Glasgow to proclaim the regency, he was forbidden
by Lord Herries to do so, and ordered to depart out of that
noble's rule. 7

This highly dramatic series of events was to have its culmi-
nation at Glasgow. On nth March, 1567-8, Moray came to
the western city to hold a justice ay re for the shires of Dunbar-
ton and Renfrew, and numerous acts of the Privy Council show
him to have remained there till news reached him that on 2nd
May the queen had escaped from Lochleven Castle. Her first
night she had spent at Lord Seton's stronghold, Niddry Castle,
and next day passed to Hamilton, where the loyal nobility
crowded about her, and she soon found herself at the head of
six thousand men. Declaring all the acts against herself

7 Calendar of State Papers , ii. 845.

HENRY STEWART, LORD DARNLEY.

PREPARATIONS FOR BATTLE 17

illegal, she yet desired to save the country from the miseries
of civil war, and sent Moray her offer of forgiveness and recon-
ciliation. 8

Moray was counselled to retire from Glasgow, but saw in
such an act only certain ruin. Gaining time by pretending to
consider the offers of the queen, he sent out a proclamation
declaring his support of the king's government, and summoning
his party to reinforce him. 9 Within a few days he had under
his command an army of 4000 men, including some 600 of
the citizens of Glasgow. Twenty-four years previously the
burgesses had fought against the Hamiltons at the Battle of
the Butts, and had suffered severely at their hands. The Earl
of Lennox, also, was one of Moray's chief supporters, and the
people of Glasgow were likely to follow their hereditary bailie,
and to cherish no very affectionate regard for the queen since
her marriage with Both well, the murderer of Lennox's son,
Darnley.

Had there been a competent leader on Mary's side he would
probably have marched at once on Glasgow, and prevented
Moray's forces gathering to a head. Her supporters, like Seton
and Herries and Lord Claude Hamilton, though brave and
devoted to her cause, were not experienced soldiers. Moray, on
the contrary, while himself an expert leader, had the immense
advantage of the services of one of the best generals of the time
in Europe, Kirkaldy of Grange. A detailed account of the
battle which now took place is given in Melville's Memoirs and
in the recent admirable monograph on the subject by Mr.
A. M. Scott.

On I3th May both parties were ready to move. The
intention of the queen's lords was to place Mary in the strong
fortress of Dunbarton, then kept by her adherent, Lord Fleming,
Expecting that her forces would attempt to cross the river by

8 Keith, 474, 475 ; Melville's Memoirs, 200.

9 Privy Council Registers, i. 622.

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

the fords at Dalmarnock or Cambuslang, Moray drew out his
army on the Burghmuir, to the east of the city. On being
informed however, that she was marching across country
further to the south, he hastily withdrew from that position.
Mounting a hagbutter behind each of his horsemen, he crossed
the river by the bridge and fords at the foot of the Stockwell,
and pushed out to the village of Langside. His right wing was
posted where the battle monument now stands, at the head of
the narrow lane which ran between high banks and hedges up
to the village of Langside. His centre, with the few cannon
sent by the Earl of Mar from Stirling, held the slope above
the present road, where the farmhouse of Path-head still
stands ; and his left wing was massed on the hillside beyond
the farm.

The queen's army, coming up from the direction of Ruther-
glen, deployed along the side of the Clinkart Hill, where the
Deaf and Dumb Institution now stands. As it came into
position, the artillery on both sides the queen had ten brass
cannon exchanged a few shots across the level ground between.
Then the mounted men on both sides rode forward, and, in the
skirmish, Lord Herries inflicted a swordcut on the shoulder of
Lord Ochiltree, which put him out of action and endangered
his life.

While these preliminaries were going on, the Hamiltons, who
led the queen's vanguard, with two thousand men, pushed on
to force the passage of the village. As the spearmen met at
the head of the narrow lane they fixed their weapons in their
opponents' armour, and so closely were they jammed that
when they fired their pistols and threw them in each other's
faces these weapons rested on the spears, without falling to
the ground. 10 The issue was decided by Grange bringing
reinforcements from the main body, and lining the hedges
above the sides of the lane with the hagbutters. These fired

10 Melville's Memoirs, p. 201,

BATTLE OF LANGSIDE 19

point-blank down upon the queen's men, and did much damage,
till at last the Hamiltons were forced to give way.

The situation might have been saved by the queen's general,
her brother-in-law, Argyll, ordering a general advance, or
sending cavalry to attack Moray's hagbutters and right wing
in the flank, but, according to the contemporary account, " The
Earl of Argyll, even as they were joining, as it is reported, for
fault of courage and spirit, swooned." *

As the Hamiltons fell back, Moray advanced with his main
body, and the queen's forces gave way and began to flee. At
this point the chief of the Macfarlanes, who, not twenty days
before, had, for some misdeed, been condemned to death by
Moray himself at the justice ayre, but had been pardoned at
the intercession of the Countess of Moray, and had brought two
hundred of his clansmen to the battle, fell upon the retiring
troops and " executed great slaughter." 2

The spot " within half a mile distant " from which Mary
herself viewed the conflict has by immemorial tradition been
identified as the Court Knowe, marked by a stone on the hill-
side near Cathcart Castle. With her were Lord Boyd, Lord
Fleming, Lord Herries' son, and thirty others. When she saw
the battle lost she turned her horse's head and rode away to
the south, to Dundrennan Abbey, sixty miles distant. Three
days later, on i6th May, against the advice oi her counsellors,
she crossed to the English coast, and threw herself upon the
hospitality of Elizabeth, by whom she was kept a prisoner till
her execution on 8th February, 1587.

The Battle of Langside lasted only three quarters of an
hour. On Moray's side, though several, including the Earl
of Home, were sore hurt, not a man of note was slain. Of the
queen's forces, on the other hand, some six or seven score were

1 Advertisement of the Conflict in Scotland, MS. in State-paper Office,
printed by Tytler, iii. ; Proofs and Illustrations, No. xxii.

2 Ibid.

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

slain on the field, and, according to tradition, were buried in
the Dead Men's Lea, the ground to the east of the present
Queen's Park Gate. 3 Three hundred were taken prisoners,
including Lord Seton, Lord Ross, Sir James Hamilton, the
Master of Montgomerie, the Master of Cassillis, and other
notables. The captives, who were mostly of the name of
Hamilton, were confined in the Bishop's Castle. The Earl of
Eglinton escaped by covering himself with straw in a house
till night, when he got away. 4

After the battle the regent returned to the city, where he
attended a solemn thanksgiving service in the cathedral and
was entertained by the town council.

The Battle of Langside, thus fought within a few miles of
Glasgow, must be regarded as a decisive factor in confirming
the Reformation in Scotland. The smallness of the numbers
engaged in it does not detract from its importance. The
numbers were still smaller at the Battle of Largs, three centuries
earlier, which ended the Norse ascendancy of five hundred
years over the western isles and the north. John Knox, who
had hidden himself in the recesses of Kyle and elsewhere after
the murder of Rizzio, for his complicity in that event, 5 had
returned after Mary's imprisonment at Lochleven. Had the
queen been victorious at Langside he would have been forced
into hiding again. As it was, he remained iree, till his death
two years later, to exert, along with the Regent Moray, the
strongest influence in the state.

3 Scott's Battle of Langside.

4 Advertisement of the Conflict.

5 Tytler, iii. ; Proofs and Illustrations, xvi.

CHAPTER III

THE TRANSFERENCE OF CHURCH PROPERTY UNDER
MARY AND MORAY

A VERY important change directly brought about by the
Reformation in Glasgow was the transference to private owner-
ship of the vast estates which had formerly belonged to the
Archbishopric. It is a common idea that these lands and
properties were simply seized by rapacious individuals, who
transferred them to their own use without other right or
equivalent than physical force or King's favour. This idea
probably originated in the declamations of John Knox, who
had hoped to see the greater part of the property of the Church
of Rome transferred to the use of the preachers of the Reformed
faith. 1 This had been done in England under the strong hand
of Henry VIII., and it was not unnatural to suppose that events
might follow a similar course in the northern kingdom. Matters,
however, did not fall out so favourably, and for this the methods
and temper of Knox were themselves largely responsible.
What he succeeded in doing was not so much to reform the
Church as to abolish it, and it was a bitter discovery for him
to make afterwards that the little party of Protestant preachers
which he distributed over the country 2 was regarded as only one
of the many claimants to the reversion of the Church's property,

1 Knox's History of the Reformation, p. 276.

a " Previous to September, 1559, eight towns were provided with pastors ;
and other places remained unprovided, owing to the scarcity of preachers "
(Letter, Knox to Locke, Cald. MS. i. 472, quoted in McCrie's Life of Knox).

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

On 22nd December, 1561, the Privy Council ordered a
return to be made of the revenues of all the bishoprics and
religious houses in the kingdom. On the basis of this return
a third part of the rents of all ecclesiastical benefices was
appropriated to the use of the queen's household, and of that
sum, the Knoxian ministers were to receive half. 3 The remain-
ing two-thirds of the benefices were appointed to remain with
the Roman clergy. Regarding this order Knox fulminated
from the pulpit in characteristic style. " The Spirit of God,"
he declared, " was not the author of that order, by which two
parts of the church rents were given to the devil, and the other
third part was to be divided between God and the devil. Oh,
happy servants of the devil, and miserable servants of Jesus
Christ, if after this life there were not hell and heaven ! "

From the date of the Church's overthrow, however, and at
an ever-increasing rate as the old clergy died out, the lands of
the Churchmen and religious houses were destined to pass to
other ownership. On i5th February, 1561-2, the Privy Council
ordered that all the revenues of chaplainries and friars in towns
and burghs, as well as the rents of friars' lands elsewhere, should
be dealt with by such persons as the queen might appoint,
and used in support of hospitals and schools and for such
other purposes as the queen, with advice of her council, might
direct. At the same time, to this end, the magistrates of
Glasgow and other burghs were directed to maintain and use
for the common good such religious houses belonging to the
friars as had not been demolished, till the issue of further
orders from the crown. 4

The first of these further instructions, so far as Glasgow was
concerned, was issued in a letter under the queen's privy seal
on I3th July, 1563, which is still preserved in the archives of
the University. For the royal intervention on this occasion

3 Privy Council Reg. i. 412.

4 Privy Council Register, i. 201-203.

QUEEN MARY'S GIFT 23

it has been suggested that the University owed something to
the famous Latinist, George Buchanan. 5 In this letter the
schools and chambers of the pedagogy, or college of Glasgow,
are described as only partly built, while the provision for its
poor bursars and teachers had ceased, so that what remained
appeared rather the decay of a university than an established
institution. The queen, therefore, founded within the college
and university bursaries for five poor " bairns," to be called
" bursaries of oure foundatione." At the same time, for
furnishing the bursars with meat, clothing, and other sustenance
she granted the manse and kirk room of the Friars Preachers
within the city, along with thirteen acres of land outside, ten
marks of rent formerly drawn by the friars from tenements
within the city, ten marks rental from the Netherton of
Hamilton, ten bolls meal from certain lands in Lennox, and ten
marks from the lordship of Avondale. The master of the
college and University was authorized to uplift and apply these
revenues and properties till the queen should take further
order in the matter " at the quhilk tyme we mynd to dote the
landis and annuellis forsaidis thairto, and als to mak the said
college to be provydit of sic sessonable levyng that thairin the
liberale sciences may be plainlie techit as the samyn ar in
utheris colleges of this realme, sua that the college forsaid sal
be reputit oure foundatioun in all tyme cumyng." 6

Thus, by the goodwill of Mary Queen of Scots, the monastery
of the Black Friars, on the east side of High Street, passed,
with other property, into the possession of the University.

This letter of the queen was followed, a month later, by an
act of the bailies of Glasgow, ordaining certain burgesses to pay
to the Principal Regent of the Pedagoguy of Glasgow 28 bolls
of malt for the yearly rent of 13 acres and 3 roods of land

5 George Buchanan, Glasgow Quatet -centenary Studies, 1906, pp. 33-39.

6 Glasgow Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. pp. 129-131, No. 58 ; Mun.
Univ. Glasg. i. p. 67 ; Privy Seal Reg. xxxi. 138.

24 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

" belonging in times past to the Friars Preachers, and conveyed
to the College by the grant of Queen Mary." 7

Among the " various tenements within the city " referred
to in the queen's letter, one had been the subject of an inter*
esting transaction nearly two years previously, a transaction
which shows the straits to which the Friars Preachers in
Glasgow, in common with the occupants of many other religious
houses throughout the kingdom, had been almost at once
reduced by the upheaval of the Reformation. A charter
granted by Andrew Lecke, prior, and John Law, superior of
the Friars Preachers in Glasgow, describes the dispersion of the
order and the aid rendered to the friars in their extreme necessity
by John Graham, son of James Graham, burgess of Glasgow,
without which aid they could not have sustained life. In
consideration of this the prior and superior grant to John
Graham and his wife " the great tenement occupied by the said
John, with the gardens belonging thereto (the cemetery thereof
excepted) to be held by these and other heirs of the said friars
in conjunct infeftment for payment annually of four merks,
subject to the provision that if the friars were replaced and
their order restored, they should be repossessed of the gardens,
but that the tenement should be retained by the said John for
payment of three merks annually." 8 This charter was con-
firmed by Queen Mary under the Great Seal in 1567. 9

The further orders of the queen with regard to the posses-
sions of the friars and minor clergy of the Church in Glasgow
were contained in a charter under the Great Seal dated i6th
March, 1566-7. Under the preamble that it was incumbent
on the queen to provide for the ministers, hospitals, the poor
and orphans, the charter conveyed to the provost, bailies,

7 Mun. Univ. Glasg. i. p. 69 ; Charters and Documents, i. p. 20, No. 331.

8 Great Seal Register, 1546-1580, p. 449 ; Charters and Documents, i. p. 19,
No. 328.

Ibid. No. 1790.

CHURCH'S PROPERTY BESTOWED ON CITY 25

council, and community of Glasgow the whole possessions, real
and movable, within the city, belonging to any chaplainries,
altars, and prebends there or elsewhere, as well as the manor-
places, orchards, lands, annual-rents, emoluments, and duties
which formerly belonged to the Dominican or Preaching Friars
and to the Minorites or Franciscans of the city. The charter
next proceeded to state that many of the prebendaries, chap-
lains, and friars had, since the Reformation, given away their
endowments, and that many persons had, by brieves from
chancery, reclaimed properties given by their ancestors to the
Church. All such alienations, by which the first purpose of the
founders was infringed, were now rescinded, and the properties
handed over to the city. The whole possessions thus trans-
ferred were incorporated into one body, to be known as " the
Queen's Foundation of the Ministry and Hospitality of Glasgow"
and the proceeds devoted to the support of the Reformed church
in the city and to hospitality and other similar purposes. No
injury was to be done to the chaplains, prebendaries, and friars
who were in possession at the change of religion. These men
were to enjoy their endowments during their lives. But in
effect the charter conveyed to the magistrates and community
of Glasgow the whole possessions within the city of the friars
and minor clergy of the Roman Church.

The possessions of the Archbishopric were the subject of
other and different dispositions.

Though the head of the house of Hamilton had, as we have
seen, superseded the Earl of Lennox as bailie of the barony
and regality in 1545, and had seized the Bishop's Castle on
the flight of Archbishop Beaton in 1559, ne does not appear
to have permanently alienated any of the real estate in his
jurisdiction.

Further, on igth September, 1560, by a decree of the Court
of Session, the see of Glasgow had been declared vacant, but
that decree evidently did not affect the temporalities of the

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

archbishopric. The rental book of the diocese, printed in
Diocesan Registers, shows that the archbishop's steward con-
tinued to enter tenants and transact business till I5th October,
1570. The complaint of Beaton's steward, already quoted,
must have referred only to a temporary seizure of the property
by Chatelherault, or to seizure of the revenues. In 1564, at
the end of his lease, and upon the order of the Privy Council,
Chatelherault yielded up his bailieship, 10 apparently without
any dilapidations having taken place.

These dilapidations only began after the defeat of Mary at
the Battle of Langside. By M'Ure and by most of the later
annalists of Glasgow, as well as by Mr. James Ness in his
History of the Incorporation of Bakers, it has been stated that
at the banquet to which he was entertained on returning from
the battle, Moray took occasion to thank the bakers of the city
for the material help they had afforded by supplying his forces
with bread, whereupon Matthew Fawside, deacon of the
Bakers' Incorporation, took the opportunity to suggest that a
permanent token of his gratitude might be afforded by a grant
of a piece of the bishop's lands on the Kelvin, with the right
to erect a mill. It has been argued * that in 1568 the Regent
was not in a position to make this grant, as Archbishop Beaton
was still legal owner of the land. Sir James Marwick suggested
that what the Regent did was to promise the site when the land
should become crown property, as it would on the archbishop's
death or forfeiture. In any case, as is pointed out by Marwick,
there is evidence that the bakers did at that time build
themselves a mill on the Kelvin. This evidence is contained in a
decreet before the bailie of the regality on i6th November,
1569, at the instance of Archibald Lyon, tenant of the mill in
Newton on Kelvin, against the Baxters of Glasgow, finding

10 Privy Council Register, i. 290.

1 Correspondence by Mr. Joseph Bain, Dr. David Murray, and Mr. James
Ness in the Glasgow Herald in May, June, and July, 1893.

DILAPIDATIONS OF CHURCH PROPERTY 27

them in the wrong in " bigging up of ane dam to thair mylne
newlie biggit be thaim upone the wattir of Kelvyne, benetht the
said Archibaldis mime," the result being that Lyon's mill was
left in back water, without the current necessary to supply
power. 2 Apart from the assignment of the thirds of all bene-
fices already referred to, 3 this grant of land and mill-building
rights to the Glasgow Incorporation of Bakers appears to have
been the first alienation of the real estate belonging to the
archbishopric.

Another of the archbishop's possessions which the Regent
made no scruple to touch was the Castle of Glasgow itself. In
May, 1568, he committed the keeping of the stronghold to Sir
John Stewart of Minto, and for the purpose assigned him five
chalders of malt, five chalders of meal, two chalders of horse-
corn, and two hundred merks (11 2s. 2d. sterling) out of the
revenues of the bishopric. Sir John and his servants were at
the same time expressly relieved from any responsibility for
these intromissions, though " James sometime archbishop "
was not yet denounced rebel and put to the horn. 4

But the Regent Moray's example was soon followed by
local dilapidators. Under the kindly rule of the archbishops
the inhabitants of Glasgow had been allowed to use as common
pasture and for casting peats certain lands, such as the Easter
and Wester Commons, the Burgh Muir, and Garngad Hill.
About the year 1568 the magistrates appear to have taken
possession of these lands, and proceeded to dispose of them in
plots to individual inhabitants. On 6th April, 1569, William
Walker, the archbishop's agent, wrote to his master in France,

2 Charters and Documents, i. pt. i. p. i, and p. 24, No. 348. On loth August,
1554, Archbishop Beaton admitted Archibald Lyon as rentaller of his waulk
mill on the Kelvin, with power to change the waulk mill into a wheat mill,
Lyon being bound to grind all the wheat which the bishop consumed in his
house and pay four merks yearly (Charters and Documents, i. pt. i. No. 324).

3 Antea, p. 22.

4 Privy Council Register, xi. p. 302.

28 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

that he had been " in great troublis " which had changed the
colour of his hair from black to white. The magistrates, it
appears, had demanded that he should become a burgess ; this
he had refused to do, and in consequence he found it impossible
to procure justice from the provost and bailies. In particular,
he tells how " al the borrow muir of Glasgow on the Southe syde
of the towne, and als Garngad hill on the north part of the
toune, ar distribuit be provost, baillies, and communitie of the
towne to the inhabitaries thairof, every ane his awin portioun
conforme to his degrie, and hes revin it oute, and manuris it
this zeir instantlie, but I walde have na parte thairof quhill
(until) it plies God and zoure Lordship to make my parte, be
ressoun I knewe thai hade na power to deill zour Lordship's
lands withoute sum consent of zoure Lordship or sum utheris
in zoure Lordship's name." 5

The act by which further dilapidations of the archbishopric
were to be legalized was not long delayed. On i6th August,
1569, the Privy Council ordained that, as the archbishop had
failed to appear and answer such charges as might be brought
against him, he should be denounced as a rebel and put to
the horn, and that all his movable goods should be escheate
and brought to the king's use. 6

Moray himself seems to have gone no further, however, in
alienating the real estate of the bishopric. On 23rd January,
1569-70, he was shot in Linlithgow by James Hamilton of
Bothwellhaugh. Six months later, on I2th July, the Earl of
Lennox, grandfather of the infant James VI., was appointed
regent, and he forthwith became engrossed in active measures
to strike a decisive blow at the cause of his daughter-in-law,
Queen Mary.

5 MacGeorge's Old Glasgow, p. 165.

6 Privy Council Register, i. p. 638.

CHAPTER IV
THE REGENT LENNOX CAPTURE OF DUNBARTON CASTLF

MATTHEW, Earl of Lennox, the hereditary Bailie of the Glasgow
archbishopric, appears on the historic page as one of the least
heroic characters among the venal Scottish nobility of his time.
At the Battle of the Butts in 1544 he left his charge at Glasgow
to be defended against the Earl of Arran by his ally Glencairn,
and, following the defeat, fled to England, where he received a
bride at the hands of Henry VIII., in the person of that
monarch's niece, Lady Margaret Douglas. Immediately after-
wards he led the English squadron of ten ships in its attack
on the shores of Clyde, where he plundered Arran, Ayrshire,
and Kintyre, and captured Bute, but was refused possession
of his own fortress of Dunbarton by his own vassal, Stirling of
Glorat. 1 For twenty years after that he had remained an exile
in England. Recalled by Queen Mary, he had seen his son
raised to royal state, only to throw every opportunity away by
his miserable folly. After Darnley's murder, and his own
failure to bring the murderers to justice, he had again fled to
England, and it was as Queen Elizabeth's envoy, and at the
head of an English army, that he again returned to Scotland,
to avenge the death of the Regent Moray upon the House of
Hamilton.

One English army under the Earl of Sussex had just
devastated Teviotdale and the Merse, while another under
Lord Scrope had burned Nithsdale and the western border.

1 Tytler, vol. iii. ch. i.
29

30 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

The business of Lennox was to vent the English queen's
vengeance and spleen by carrying fire and sword still farther
into the country of her rival, Mary. Writing, as he went,
letter after letter of abject submission to Elizabeth's minister,
Cecil, and even stooping to beg the queen to pity his poverty
and send him more money, 2 he had first marched upon Glasgow,
where the Hamiltons were besieging the Bishop's Castle. The
garrison consisted of only twenty-four raw soldiers, unprovided
with the necessaries of defence, but Lennox, with his English
force of twelve hundred foot and four hundred horse, arrived
in time to save the place, and the Hamiltons withdrew. Lennox
then proceeded to devastate the country of his old enemies in
Clydesdale and Linlithgowshire, capturing Cadzow Castle,
burning the palace at Hamilton, and bringing the whole house of
Hamilton to the verge of ruin. 3 Following these achievements
Lennox was appointed Regent' on receipt of letters of recom-
mendation from the English queen. 4

As Regent, Lennox showed some energy, capturing Huntly's
small garrison at Brechin, and another placed by the Hamiltons
in the town of Paisley. 5 While at Ayr, shortly afterwards,
receiving the submission of the Earl of Cassillis, he was severely
hurt by a fall from his horse, and it was on returning to Glasgow,
to recover from the injury and an attack of gout, that he had
the means of accomplishing his most cherished purpose placed
in his hands. 6

Dunbarton Castle, the chief stronghold in the west country,
was still held by Lord Fleming for Queen Mary, and by reason
of its access to the sea was specially valuable for the receiving
of succours from abroad. Already in August, 1569, the towns
of Glasgow, Ayr, and Irvine had been taxed to provide a

2 MS. Letters in State-paper Office, quoted by Tytler, v. iii. ch. x.

3 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 177 ; Murdin, p. 769 ; Buchanan, vol. ii. p. 587.

4 Buchanan, ii. 589. 5 Ibid. p. 592.
6 Ibid. p. 593.

CRAWFORD OF JORDANHILL 31

pinnace with forty hagbutters, to be stationed in the firth
opposite the castle, to prevent supplies reaching the garrison
by sea ; and Glasgow, Renfrew, and other places had been
prohibited from sending fishing boats up and down the river
or allowing them to go near the castle ; while, later in the same
year, the provosts and bailies of Glasgow, Ayr, and Irvine had
been ordered to pay to the Earl of Glencairn two successive
taxations of nine shillings and three shillings on every pound
land of old extent, for the support of hagbutters to assist at
the siege of the stronghold. 7 But what these various efforts
had failed to accomplish was brought about by a very simple
circumstance. The wife of a soldier of the garrison, who was
accustomed to visit him, was accused of theft, and was whipped
by order of Lord Fleming. The man, who was fond of his wife,
and deeply resented the treatment she had been subjected to,
deserted from the castle, intent on revenge. Approaching
Robert Douglas, a relation of the Regent, he offered, if put in
command of a small party, to effect the capture of the place.
By Douglas he was passed to Cunningham of Drumquhassel,
and by Drumquhassel to the Regent. By Lennox the enter-
prise was entrusted to his stout henchman, Thomas Crawford
of Jordanhill. 8

This intrepid soldier of fortune was the sixth son of Lawrence
Crawford of Kilbirnie. He had been wounded and made
prisoner at Pinkie, had followed Queen Mary to France, where
he served in the Scots Guards. He had returned with Mary to
Scotland, and on her marriage to Darnley had become one of
that young lord's gentlemen. When the clergy took to parting
with their lands he bought the estate of Jordanhill, a few miles
west of Glasgow, which his father had given to the church
twenty years before. He built the first mansion on that estate,
and is remembered to this day as "of Jordanhill." We have

7 Privy Council Register, ii. pp. 12, 21, 22, 65, 66.

8 Buchanan, ii. 593.

32 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

seen the part he played at Queen Mary's visit to her sick
husband at Glasgow. From the time of Darnley's murder he
became one of Mary's most active opponents. He was made
captain of a body of men under the Regent Moray, probably
fought against the queen at the Battle of Langside, and, by
his deposition at her trial at York, contributed vitally to her
twenty years' imprisonment and final execution. Finally, on
Moray's return from his arraignment of Queen Mary before
Elizabeth at Westminster, and his betrayal of the Duke of
Norfolk to the English queen, and when yet another victim
was necessary to restore him to favour with that sovereign,
it was Crawford who appeared before the Privy Council at
Stirling, and, in the name of the Earl of Lennox, denounced
Maitland of Lethington as one of Darnley's murderers. 9

For the capture of Dunbarton Castle Crawford laid his
plans well. A truce with the garrison expired at midnight
on 30 th March. On the evening of that day Crawford sent
Cunningham forward with some horsemen to cut the approaches
and prevent any news of the attempt reaching the garrison,
while he himself followed with the foot soldiers. Sometime
after midnight he was met at the foot of Dunbuck Hill, a
mile from Dunbarton, by Cunningham, with the scaling ladders,
and the news that all was quiet. Only now were the soldiers
informed of their enterprise. Crawford showed them the guide,
who had promised to ascend the rock first, and assured him and
the others of high military honours in the event of their success.
Having rested a little, they moved forward, and reached the
foot of the rock a little before daybreak.

So negligent and secure had the garrison become that
numbers oi them were in the habit of spending the night in the
neighbouring town of Dunbarton " in wanton re veilings/' and
the watch on the walls must have been careless enough. At

9 Diurnal of Occurrents, pp. 147-8 ; MS. Letter, State-paper Office, quoted
by Tytler, vol. iii. cb. ix f

OLD HOUSES IN THE DRYGATE.

CAPTURE OF DUNBARTON CASTLE 33

first the sky was clear, with stars, but a mist came down at
the moment of attack, and hid the summit of the crag. The
assailants were hindered, first by a broken bridge, and then
by a sudden flame which they took for a signal that they were
discovered, but which turned out to be merely a marsh will-
o'-the-wisp. Next, when they set the ladders up, one of them
with the men on it, fell. Then, higher on the rock, one of the
men on a ladder was seized with a fit. He was tied to the
spars, the ladder was turned round, and the others ascended over
his body. It was not till they topped the wall that the scaling
party was discovered. As three of the guard gave the alarm,
and rushed to the attack, Alexander Ramsay, followed by two
others, leapt into the fortress. The old wall crashed down
after them, filling up the inequalities of the rock, and, as the
whole party poured in, with the shouts of " A Darnley ! A
Darnley ! " the astonished garrison fled in all directions.
Lord Fleming escaped by sliding down a precipitous rock and
making off in a small boat ; but his wife was seized, as well as
John Hamilton, Archbishop of St. Andrews, and others.

Lennox, arriving before noon, consoled Lady Fleming by
restoring her plate, wardrobe, furniture, and one of her husband's
estates ; but the Archbishop he hurried off to execution, and
he was hanged in his episcopal robes on the 6th oi the month
at Stirling. 10 For his services Crawford received the lands of
Bishop's Meadow, Blackstone Barns, and Mills of Partick, with
a pension of 200 Scots. 1 He also, shortly afterwards, bought
for a town house the manse of the Parson of Glasgow 2 in
Limmerfield or Drygate Lane east of the Bishop's Castle. 3
There with his wife he lived a good deal ; but his warlike

10 A circumstantial account of the whole enterprise is furnished by Buchanan
in vol. ii. pp. 593-9.

1 Great Seal Register, iii. 578, No. 2199.

2 Gibson's Hist, of Glasgow, p. 59 ; see also infra, p. 40.

3 Old Ludgings of Glasgow, p. 32.

H.G. II. C

34 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

exploits were not yet over. In 1573, when the capture of
Edinburgh Castle was resolutely determined upon, Captain
Crawford was one of the two commanders in the attack, and,
after the storming of the Spur, it was they who were secretly
admitted to receive the surrender of the fortress. Crawford
became provost of Glasgow in 1577, as a substitute for a later
Earl of Lennox. It was he who is said to have saved the
cathedral in that year when the rabble wished to destroy it, by
saying he was quite in favour of " dinging down the Hie Kirk,
but not till they had built a new Kirk in its place." l He also
built the bridge over the Kelvin at Partick, which stood till
1895, bearing his arms and a shrewd motto. And he repre-
sented Glasgow at the Convention of Estates in 1578. In the
end the old soldier of fortune, long a substantial citizen, died
in his bed in 1603.

1 See, however, infra, p. 158.

CHAPTER V

SUPERINTENDENT WILLOCKS ARCHBISHOP PORTERFIELD

MEANWHILE the church of John Knox seems to have found
enough to do in arranging its own machinery. The ideals of
Presbyterian church government were still in a nebulous state.
The small handful of reformed preachers, scattered over the
country, evidently required watching. Several of these persons
were merely, in the words of Knox himself, " certain zealous
men who took upon them to preach," without education or
ordination, 1 and more than once they proved a source of
weakness. On one occasion Knox had to journey to Jedburgh
to investigate a scandal of the grossest sort into which one of
these lay-ministers had fallen, for which the minister had
subsequently to do penance in sackcloth and on the cutty-
stool at St. Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh. 2 The Reformer could
not appoint bishops as overseers of his new church, for he was
not a bishop himself, and of the three Catholic bishops who
became Protestant, only one, Alexander Gordon, Bishop of
Galloway, had been consecrated. 3 In the emergency Knox hit
upon the plan of appointing " superintendents " over the
various districts. These men there were five of them had

l Hist. of Reform, p. 251. The qualifications demanded of them were, to
judge from the Book of Discipline, primitive enough.

2 McCrie's Life of Knox, pp. 250, 251. The early Assemblies had to deal
with many cases of the misbehaviour of the ministers with young women of
their congregations.

3 Stephens' Hist, of Ch. of Scot. i. 125, note.

36 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

the disciplinary powers of bishops, 4 and the literature dealing
with the time is full of controversy regarding their authority-
In particular it was questioned how Knox, who was not him-
self a bishop, could appoint bishops. Like the ministers, some
of these superintendents, such as the famous John Erskine of
Dun, were laymen, and the actions of some of them were also
open to question. 5

The individual thus appointed Superintendent of the West
was John Willock or Willocks, formerly a friar in the town of
Ayr. Adopting the Reformed doctrines, he had fled to England
to avoid persecution. There he acted as a preacher in St.
Catherine's, London, and as chaplain to the Duke of Suffolk.
On the accession of Mary Tudor he had fled to Emden in
Friesland. By the Countess of Friesland, he was, in 1555 and
1556, sent on missions to the Queen Regent of Scotland, and
had taken an active part in the Reformation, 6 being Knox's
most trusted coadjutor. The two sides evidently held very
different views as to his character. Thomas Archibald,
Chamberlain to Archbishop Beaton, wrote to his master in
Paris " John Willocks is made bishop of Glasgow, now, in
your lordship's absence, and placed in your place of Glasgow " ;
and he goes on to tell how Willocks had taken possession of the
Dean of Glasgow's house, and secured 1000 out of the revenues
of the archbishopric. 7 And the venerable Father Thomas
Innes, in his letter to Glasgow University in 1738, forwarding
extracts from the Protocol Register of the Diocese, accounts
for the fewness of these records saved by Archbishop Beaton
by the statement that " the Friar Willox, with those of his
gang/' had possessed themselves of the Glasgow buildings. 8

4 Keith, iii. p. 516-519.

5 The time of the General Assemblies of 1565 was largely taken up with
complaints of ministers against superintendents, and vice versa.

6 Gibson's Hist, of Glasgow, p. 58 ; Wodrow Miscellany, vol. i. pp. 261-4 ;
Knox's History.

7 Keith, iii. 490. 8 Spalding Club Miscellany, ii. 368.

THE REGENT MORTON.

SUPERINTENDENT WILLOCKS 37

On the other hand, when Knox found it prudent to abandon
his flock and flee from Edinburgh when the queen-regent
entered the city in 1559, Willocks took his place, and by his
prudence and firmness did much to maintain peace. 9 The
esteem of his brethren in the Reformed Church was shown by
the fact that he was chosen Moderator of the General Assembly
in 1563 and again in 1565. Within his own district he evidently
had some trouble, for the General Assembly of June, 1562,
whose principal business was to ordain that " if ministers be
disobedient to superintendents they must be subject to correc-
tion," remitted " the slander raised upon Mr. Robert Hamilton,
minister of Hamilton " to the trial of the superintendent of
Glasgow, " to remove him out of the ministry if he thought
expedient." 10

Willocks seems to have had no power to touch the temporal-
ities of the bishopric. In 1571, however, a change took place.
The Reformed Church had now become more powerful. There
were 252 ministers, 157 exhorters, and 508 readers, 1 and they
began to exercise a greater influence in state affairs. Seeing
the superintendents were advanced in years, and others un-
likely to take up their duties without greater emolument, the
Assembly appointed a commission to attend Parliament and
treat with the Regent as to a better settlement. 2

It appears to have been upon this petition that Lennox
as Regent proceeded with the new device of appointing actual
archbishops for the express purpose of legally alienating the
properties of the Church. The public, seeing the object for
which these persons were appointed, gave them the name of
' Tulchans," after the stuffed image of a calf which it was a

9 McCrie's Life of Knox.
10 Stephens' History of Ch. of Scot. i. 164.

1 Note to Life and Times of Archbishop Hamilton in Episcopal Magazine,
" 337-

2 Spottiswood, v. 258.

38 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

common device to bring into a byre to enable the cows to be
more easily milked. In the policy which Lennox thus adopted
there is reason to believe that personal interest also played
a strong part. The Regent seems to have been entirely under
the influence of the Earl of Morton, who, according to one
writer, had such an ascendancy over him that he " could have
made him forfeit his word of honour ten times in a day." 3
Another authority, referring to the hanging of Archbishop
Hamilton, says : " There is some ground to suspect that the
Earl of Morton, who had been gasping for the revenues of St.
Andrews, and who managed Lennox as he pleased, had been
the chief promoter of the primate's hasty fate ; for, immediately
on his death, he solicited so strongly for the rich temporalities
of that see, that, by threatening to leave the court in case of a
refusal, he so overawed Lennox, who could not do without him,
that he obtained a gift of them ; which through all the various
forms of polity that ensued, he took care not to part with." 4

The " gift " thus mentioned was not a direct proceeding,
but was effected by appointing Morton's nominee, John
Douglas, rector of the University of St. Andrews, to be arch-
bishop of that see. The Kirk, seeing the revenues of the
archbishopric thus passing into other hands, protested against
the appointment, and the superintendent of Fife inhibited the
archbishop elect from voting in parliament in name of the Kirk,
under pain of excommunication. Morton, however, rebuffed
the protest " with contumelious words," and commanded
Douglas to vote under pain of treason.

Having thus feathered his friend's nest, Lennox proceeded
to feather his own.

Archbishop Beaton was still alive, and acting as Queen
Mary's ambassador in Paris ; but three months after Mary's
overthrow at Langside the Privy Council, as we have seen, had

3 Crawford's Memoirs.

4 Skinner, quoted by Stephens in Hist, of Ch. of Scot, i. 221.

ARCHBISHOP PORTERFIELD 39

passed an Act ordaining that, as he had failed to appear and
answer " such things as might be laid to his charge," 5 he should
be denounced rebel and put to the horn, and all his movable
goods escheated and brought to the king's use. A month
later, on i8th September, a decree of forfeiture had been pro-
nounced against him as a favourer of Queen Mary. 6 Still,
however, as we have seen from the rental book of the diocese,
Beaton's steward continued to enter tenants, draw rents, and
transact business. This now came to an end. Lennox
appointed a new archbishop to the see. The person selected was
obviously a creature of his own. John Porterfield was minister
of the parish of Kilmaronock, on the south-eastern shore of
Loch Lomond. This parish, which then extended from the
water of Endrick on the east to the River Leven on the west,
was the headquarters of the old Earldom of Lennox, containing
that earldom's two chief strongholds, Balloch Castle and
Gatter, and notwithstanding the " partition " of the earldom
a century before, it was still largely in possession of Lennox
himself. 7 Porterfield 's stipend in Kilmaronock was 120
Scots. The purpose of his appointment to the archbishopric
appears clearly enough to have been to transfer the possessions
of the see to Lennox himself. 8 His appointment must have
been one of the last acts of the Regent's life. On jih September,
1571, sitting as archbishop in the Parliament of Stirling, he
subscribed an Act then passed, 9 but already, three days
previously the Earl had met his fate.

While the king's party were holding their parliament in
Stirling the assembly in which the infant James VI. remarked,
pointing to some damage in the roof, " There is ane hole in this
parliament " Queen Mary's adherents were holding a parlia-

6 Privy Council Register, i. p. 638.

6 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 188.

7 Retour of Charles II. to the Darnley portion of the Lennox, printed in
Irving's Hist, of Dunbartonshire, pp. 87, 88.

8 Keith, p. 260. * Acts of Parliament of Scotland, iii. p. 70.

40 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

ment of their own in Edinburgh. Hearing that the Regent lay
with few precautions against surprise, the lords of the Queen's
party formed the plan of a sudden raid. A little before sunset
on 3rd September, with a force of 60 hagbutters and 340 Border
horse, Huntly, Buccleuch, and Lord Claud Hamilton set out
from Edinburgh. About sunrise next morning they reached
Stirling, and so rapid and unexpected were their movements
that before the town was aware they had captured the Regent
Lennox himself, with seven other earls and three lords of the
king's party. While the Borderers, however, scattered for
plunder, the town rose and the Earl of Mar opened fire from
his half -built mansion at the head of Broad Street. The
tables were turned and the raiders forced to flee. Before
they went, however, one of their leaders, Captain Calder,
seized the opportunity to shoot the Regent, who died that
same night.

Porterfield's only intromission with the affairs of the arch-
bishopric appears to have been his consent, on 2oth October,
1571, to the conveyance of the parsonage house of Glasgow,
with its garden, sloping down to the Molendinar on the east side
of the Bishop's Castle, by the rector or parson, Archibald
Douglas, to the redoubtable Thomas Crawford of Jordanhill,
the capturer of Dunbarton Castle a few months earlier. 10 The
licence for Porterfield's election was only issued on 8th February
following, and he seems almost immediately to have retired into
private life and his parish on Loch Lomondside again, for at
the parliament held at Edinburgh in January, 1572-73, Epis-
copacy was established in the Scottish Church, 1 and in the
September following, James Boyd of Trochrig, minister of
Kirkoswald, was made Archbishop of Glasgow.

The circumstances attending this appointment are suffi-
ciently interesting. Robert, fourth Lord Boyd, was the great

10 Great Seal Register, iii. p. 540, No. 2068.
1 Spottiswood, p. 260 ; Tytler, iii. chap. xi. ; Cunningham, i. 341-346.

THE SEAL OF JAMES BOYD, ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW, 1572-81.

LORD BOYD AND THE ARCHBISHOPRIC

man of the family which was afterwards to attain the Earldom
of Kilmarnock. He had fought for Queen Mary at Langside, 2
but on her cause becoming desperate had joined the party of
the Regent Lennox, where his natural ability appears to have
made him welcome. On 28th August, 1571, his escheat was
removed and he was appointed a commissioner to treat with
Queen Elizabeth. The death of Lennox and the appointment
of Mar as Regent did not interrupt Boyd's career, for on 4th
October he became a member of the Privy Council, 3 and when
in turn, on 28th October, 1572, Mar died, and a month later
Morton became Regent, it was probably felt more necessary
than ever to secure Boyd's adherence. A cheap and easy
means of doing this lay at hand. On the day of Morton's
election, 24th November, 1572, John Knox had died, and the
way was cleared for the wolves to descend on the patrimony
of the Church. Six weeks later the ordinance was passed
restoring Episcopacy, and forthwith, while Morton's nominee,
John Douglas, rector of St. Andrews University, was confirmed
in the archbishopric of St. Andrews, the archbishopric of
Glasgow was conferred on Lord Boyd's nephew, the minister
of Kirkoswald.

2 Great Seal Register, iii. 509, No. 1969.

3 Privy Council Register, ii. 83.

CHAPTER VI

ARCHBISHOP BOYD ALLOTMENT AND FEUING OF LANDS-
ARRIVAL OF ANDREW MELVILLE AND ESME STEWART

JAMES BOYD of Trochrig, second son of Adam Boyd of Pinkhill
and Helen Kennedy of the house of Cassillis, had, like Lord
Boyd himself, fought on behalf of Queen Mary at Langside,
but, having obtained a remission, had been appointed to a
charge in the Kennedy country. Immediately upon his pro-
motion as archbishop, Boyd appears to have set about the
transference of power and property into the hands of the
head of his house.

To begin with, the archbishop himself entered into posses-
sion of the castle of Glasgow. By the Regent Moray, after
the Battle of Langside in 1568, the keeping of the stronghold
had been committed to Sir John Stewart of Minto. By the
king's letters Stewart was now ordered to hand it over to the
archbishop, and was granted a discharge of his actings while in
possession. 1

Sir John Stewart of Minto was then provost of Glasgow and
bailie of the regality as nominee of the late Regent, Matthew,
Earl of Lennox. 2 The new archbishop, however, superseded
him in both of these offices. The earliest extant record of the
Burgh of Glasgow, on igth January, 1573-74, shows " ane noble
and michtie lord, Robert Lord Boyde," acting as provost-
A few days earlier, the archbishop, with consent of the dean

1 Privy Council Register, ii. 301, 697, 698.

2 Charters and Documents, ii. 149, No. Ixiii.

THE SPOILS OF PATRONAGE 43

and canons, had by charter appointed the same noble and
michtie lord hereditary bailie and justiciar of the barony and
regality, and, to meet his " great expenses and labours " in
these offices, granted him 40 a year of the rents of Badley,
Mollence, Gartaforrowrie, Mukcrawis, Gartynquene, Gartyn-
quenemure, Johnestoune, Crystoun, Auchingeich, Gartinkirk,
Auchinlocht, Robrestoun, and Davidstoune, within the barony,
along with the amercements and escheats of courts. 3

To fortify the position still further, the Privy Council a
month later declared Archbishop Beaton and a number of
other persons to be traitors, and prohibited all communication
with them. 4

There are signs that the new archbishop and his bailie
showed a tendency to be grasping in their exploitation of the
temporalities of the see. Sir John Stewart of Minto presented
a memorial to the General Assembly setting forth how, while
keeper of the castle and steeple of Glasgow, " and of the
principal keyes of the cuntre," he had been forced, not only
to spend his own means and the means of friends, but to take
up part of the revenue of the bishopric for the year 1569, to
keep and furnish the castle and steeple and " set forward other
common affairs/' This had been done with the approval of
Mr. Andrew Hay, commissioner, and Mr. David Wemyss,
minister of Glasgow, both of whom thought it better that the
revenues should be thus applied than that they should be used
by enemies " to maintain the adverse cause." Nevertheless
Sir John and the tenants from whom these revenues had been
uplifted now found themselves called upon to pay the sums
over again. The matter was remitted from the Assembly to
the Privy Council, by whom Sir John and the others were
assoilzied from the claim. 5

3 Great Seal Register, No. 2407, pp. 647, 648.

4 Privy Council Register, ii. 334.

5 Privy Council Register, ii. 347, 348.

44 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Under Lord Boyd as provost the enclosing and allotting of
the common lands of the city appear to have made further
progress, and more than one protest was made against the
alienation of ground required by the inhabitants for the cutting
of peat fuel and the grazing of milk cows. It may or may not
be significant that the first protest was made against the assign-
ment of a plot of land to one of Lord Boyd's own name. On
ist May, 1574, the merchants (i.e. shopkeepers) and six deacons
of crafts protested against the assigning of part of the common
muir to James Boyd, " or to ony utheris mair nor is ellis delt,"
and also urged that the parts already divided out and given
off without their consent " in tymes bigane " should be made
subject of revision and recall. 6 On 2ist June, 1576, a further
and more considered protest was made on the same subject.
By this it appears that it had been arranged that each burgess
was to have half an acre, but that the provost and bailies had
given off further ground without the common consent. " Wire-
pulling " had apparently been resorted to. The complainers
declare that " owre deaconis wotis ar socht seuerallie in private
houssis, quhair the haill suld be callit to geve our consentis
togidder," and they sturdily declare that if the provost and
bailies do not cease the giving off of land required for " the
pasturing of guddis for the sustening of our babies," they will
be to blame. They conclude by urging the provost " for the
luf ye beir to God and the commoion wiell of our toun and our
successouris that your lordschip haif better attendance thairto,
and nocht for ewery licht sute or requeist acquiesce or grant
thairto, and suffer nocht our haill communitie (common land)
to becum proper (an individual possession) and taine fra us/'
After debate the council agreed that, since what was left of
the common lands would scarcely serve the townsmen for the
pasturing of their cows and the furnishing of fuel, no further
feuing or portioning off should take place. It was moreover

6 Burgh Records, L p. 9.

ANDREW MELVILLE'S RETURN 45

declared that any such further feuing or allotment should, if
attempted, be "of nane awaill, strengthe, nor effect." 7

Lord Boyd continued to secure the foundations of his
family by acquiring large properties elsewhere. Among these
were broad lands in Cunningham Portincross and Ardniel,
Netherton, Bircat, Braidschaw, and Knockindon, and also, it
is said, Giffortland, for which he obtained charters from the
king. 8

At the same time the archbishop attended the Assembly
on 6th March, 1574, was appointed to the committee for
drawing up the Second Book of Discipline, and was chosen
Moderator. But in the autumn that stout coadjutor of John
Knox, Andrew Melville, returned from Geneva, was appointed
Principal of the College of Glasgow, and proceeded to organize
opposition to the episcopal system. In the spring and again
in the autumn Assembly of 1576 the archbishop was challenged
for not attaching himself as pastor to a particular congregation.
The same objection might have been raised a few years earlier
against the superintendent, John Willocks, but that was, of
course, " another pair of sleeves." The archbishop urged that
he was acting according to the agreement between the Regent
and the Assembly itself, which was to last during the king's
minority, or until parliament should alter it, and that by his
oath he must conform to that agreement or be guilty of perjury.
At the same time he offered, without prejudice to his episcopal
authority, to act as pastor of one particular church whilst
residing in Ayrshire and of another whilst in Glasgow. This
arrangement seems to have remained undisturbed till the end
of Morton's regency, in March, 1577-8. A month later the
General Assembly met at Edinburgh, chose the uncompromising
republican, Andrew Melville, as moderator, declared that all

1 Burgh Records, i. p. 52.

8 Great Seal Register, iii. 580, No. 2201, 742, No. 2717 ; Douglas Peerage,
ii. 34.

46 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

bishops must be called by their own names, or simply brethren,
and that, owing to the great corruption already visible in the
estate of bishops, no further appointments to that office should
be m,ade till the next General Assembly. 9 At that Assembly
held in June, this order was made perpetual, and at the next,
on 24th October, the Archbishop of Glasgow was accused of
neglecting his duties. Boyd maintained the scriptural authority
of his office, but his answer being declared unsatisfactory, and
Melville deputed to threaten him with excommunication, he
submitted unconditionally to the Assembly held in Edinburgh
on 27th July, 1579. 10

Meanwhile by a coup at Stirling on 26th April, 1578, Morton,
though no longer Regent, had regained the chief power in
Scottish affairs, and the archbishop's temporal authority was
not interfered with. He had, however, other troubles. Calder-
wood states that, a year or two after his appointment, Lord
Boyd found him less pliable than he had expected, and caused
his son, the Master of Boyd, to seize the archbishop's castle
and levy the episcopal revenues. 1 This may refer to the action
of a party employed, it is said, by Robert Boyd of Badinheath,
who on loth January, 1578-9, destroyed the archbishop's
country seat and stronghold of Lochwood a few miles to the
east of the city. Sir James Marwick suggests that this outrage
may have been occasioned by the refusal of the archbishop to
submit to the demands of the Kirk. 2 But there appears to be a
more obvious reason. On 4th March, 1572-3, after the decree of
barratry against Archbishop Beaton, the keeping of Lochwood
had been given by the Regent Morton to Boyd of Badinheath.
Archbishop Boyd would naturally reclaim this, and its des-
truction by Badinheath would be an act of revenge. The

9 Tytler, iv. ch. i.

10 Chalmers's Caledonia, iii. 625 ; Spottiswoode, ii. 202, 256-7 ; Calderwood,
iii. 403, 411-428.

1 Calderwood, iii. 302. a Charters and Documents, i. cxii.

FEUING OF THE BARONY LANDS 47

archbishop complained to the Privy Council, but the only
result was that, while Badinheath was ordered to cease from
further destruction, the archbishop was directed to cease from
molesting him and his helpers for what they had done. 3 Loch-
wood evidently remained in the hands of Badinheath, for a
generation later, on 2oth March, 1617, Robert, Lord Boyd,
was served heir of Robert Boyd of Badinheath, his grand-
father's brother, to the four-pound lands of Lochwood, with the
lakes and fishings in the regality of Glasgow held in fee farm. 4

For these events the archbishop evidently cherished no
malice against his uncle and patron. On ist June, 1579, ne
granted to Lord Boyd a feu of the lands of Whiteinch meadow,
with the New Park and Auld Park of Partick. 5 On I3th
November, 1579, he granted to George Elphinstoun of Blyths-
wood, one of the bailies of Glasgow, a feu of the lands of Gorbals
and Bridgend, with half of the five merk lands of Woodside. 6
And on 2nd February, 1580, he granted Lord Boyd a feu of the
lands of Bedlay, Mollanys, and others, part of the Provost's
Haugh, with four acres of Cuninglaw, all in the barony and
regality of Glasgow which lands Lord Boyd had previously
held in rental for payment of a feu duty of 8 2s. Scots. This
feu duty the archbishop allocated as part payment of Lord
Boyd's fee of 40 Scots payable as remuneration for his
labours as bailie and justiciary of the barony and regality. 7

Already, two years previously, Lord Boyd had been dis-
possessed of the office of bailie of the regality. The circum-
stances are interesting. By the death of the regent, Mathew,
Earl of Lennox, in September, 1571, the earldom with its lands
and other property had devolved on King James as only son

3 Privy Council Register, iii. 99.

1 Chalmers's Caledonia, iii. 639, note g.

1 Great Seal Register, iii. 807, No. 2937.

8 Inventure, i. p. 44, No. i ; Great Seal Register, iii. 807, No. 2938.

1 Great Seal Register, iv. p. 155, No. 509.

48 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

of Lord Darnley. The earldom and lands were, however, made
over to the king's uncle, Lord Darnley 's younger brother Charles.
When Earl Charles died in 1576, leaving an only daughter,
Lady Arabella Stewart, the earldom and its possessions again
fell to the king. Two years later, action was taken to reclaim
for the king, as heir of the Regent Lennox, the hereditary
bailieship of the regality of Glasgow. It was declared that the
office had been enjoyed by the Earls of Lennox from time
immemorial, and that Lord Boyd, during the later troubles,
had intruded himself into it. Accordingly, on I4th May, 1578,
it was ordained that the king, as Earl of Lennox, should be
repossessed in the bailieship. 8 A month later the earldom
of Lennox with its lands and offices was conferred on Robert
Stewart, Prior of St. Andrews, younger brother of the Regent
Lennox. 9 The charter included the other rights of old incor-
porated with the earldom, and accordingly the bailieship of
the regality of Glasgow became once more an appanage of the
house of Lennox. On 30th September, in the same year, the
new earl was made a burgess of the city, and the archbishop,
reviving his right to nominate the provost and bailies, appointed
the earl to be provost. By this act Thomas Crawford of
Jordanhill, who during the previous year had been provost
as nominee of Lord Boyd, 10 was superseded in the office.
Crawford protested at the time, " that the auld libertie and
privilege of the toun be observit and keipit," and also, two days
later, that he had been put out of the council " but ony fait
and vncallit thairfore." x But the transaction stood, and the
procedure was repeated by the archbishop on 6th October
in the following year. 2

Another event of far-reaching consequence now occurred,

8 Privy Council Register, ii. 697.

9 Great Seal Register, iii. 762, No. 2785.
10 Burgh Records, i. 71, ist Oct. 1577.

1 Burgh Records, i. 71. z Ibid. i. 76.

THE REGENT LENNOX.

ESME STEWART MADE EARL OF LENNOX 49

Esme Stewart, son of John Stewart, Lord d'Aubigny, governor
of Avignon, captain of the Scots gens d'armes in France, and
a younger brother of the Regent Lennox and the new Earl
Robert, came home from France. When he arrived at Leith
on 8th September, 1579, ne was probably about thirty years
of age, 3 and with his handsome person and the refinement and
graces of the French court, he at once attracted to an extra-
ordinary degree the admiration and affection of King James,
then in his fourteenth year. At Holyrood he had splendid
apartments provided for him next those of the youthful
monarch, and James proceeded to heap upon him favour after
favour in unprecedented fashion. On I4th November, two
months after his arrival, he was presented with the rich abbacy
of Arbroath, recently forfeited by Lord John Hamilton. 4
Next, on 4th March, the infeftment of Robert Stewart in the
earldom of Lennox was revoked, 5 and next day was conferred
on Esme Stewart, along with many rich lands in different
parts of the country. 6 The new earl was also appointed Great
Chamberlain of Scotland, an office which included the personal
guardianship of the king.

It was rumoured that Lennox was a Catholic emissary,
sent from France by Queen Mary's uncle, the Duke of Guise,
to influence James against England. He had brought with
him forty thousand crowns, possibly for purposes of corruption; 7
he had had a consultation before leaving France with Mary's
agents, Archbishop Beaton and the Bishop of Ross ; and the
Duke of Guise had accompanied him to Dieppe, and conferred
with him long on the ship before his departure. 8 It is true that

3 Calderwood, iii. 457. 4 Great- Seal Register, iii. 803, No. 2920.

5 Privy Council Register, iii. 271, 272. He received in exchange, two years
later, the Earldom of March and Lordship of Dunbar ; Great Seal Register, iv.
139, No. 448 ; Douglas's Peerage, ii. 98, 99.

6 Great Seal Register, iii. 816, 817, Nos. 2971-4.

7 Calderwood, MS. British Museum, fol. 1098 ; Tytler, iv. ch. i.

8 French Correspondence, quoted by Tytler, iv. ch. i.

H.G. II. D

50 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Lennox, at the king's instance, changed his creed, but it soon
became clear that a new and strong party had arisen at court,
headed by the king's cousin, against the ex-regent Earl of
Morton, Queen Mary's bitterest enemy.

In the midst of these intrigues, on 4th October, 1580,
Mathew Stewart of Minto, acting as procurator for " Esme,
Earl of Lennox, Lord Darnley and Aubigne," presented to the
town council of Glasgow a letter from Archbishop Boyd,
nominating and presenting the earl as provost for the year,
which nomination the bailies and council accepted " gladly
with reverence." At the same time Mathew Stewart himself
was made a member of the council, and the retiring bailies and
council presented a list to the archbishop from which he named
three new bailies for the year. 9

A curious thing then happened, the reason for which is not
quite clear. The three bailies thus appointed, whose names
had been submitted by the town council, appeared on I5th
October before the Privy Council, and at the request of the
king, and for the favour they bore to the earl, resigned the
bailieship, and consented to the nomination of such other
persons as the Earl thought good, without prejudice to the
appointment of magistrates in the usual way in years to come, 10
and on iQth October, Stewart of Minto produced to the town
council another letter from the archbishop nominating in their
place three other bailies, Robert Stewart, Hector Stewart, and
John Graham.

Meanwhile trouble was brewing for Archbishop Boyd him-
self. At the General Assembly held at Dundee on I2th July,
1580, the opponents of episcopacy, led by Andrew Melville,
proceeded to condemn and abolish the system as unwarranted
by scripture, and fitted to overthrow the true church of God.
All bishops were required not only to demit the office, but to
cease acting as pastors till admitted anew by the Assembly.

9 Burgh Records, i. 79. 10 Privy Council Register, iii. 323.

HONOURS CONFERRED ON ESME STEWART 51

Synods were appointed to meet in St. Andrews, Aberdeen,
Glasgow, and Moray, to receive the submission of the bishops
of these dioceses, and report to the next assembly to be held
at Glasgow, on 24th April, such as refused to submit, with a
view to their excommunication. Nothing would probably
have pleased the republican, Andrew Melville, better than to
see Archbishop Boyd, the chancellor of his own university,
humiliated in his own city.

Events, however, were moving rapidly in another direction.
At the Privy Council meeting on 3ist December, 1580, Captain
Stewart, son of Lord Ochiltree, direct descendant, by the way,
of Murdoch, Duke of Albany, grandson of King Robert II.,
executed by James I. in 1425, suddenly appeared and accused
the Earl of Morton of being accessory to the murder of Lord
Darnley. Morton was at once arrested and confined in Dun-
barton Castle till his trial and condemnation on ist June, and
his execution next day. 1 Morton's arrest meant the downfall of
the Presbyterian and Elizabethan party, and placed almost
absolute power in the hands of Lennox, who on the same day
was granted a number of other lands and baronies, 2 after
Morton's execution received his escheat, with the other lands
and baronies, 3 and on 5th August was made Duke of Lennox,
Lord of Aubigny, Tarbolton, and Dalkeith. 4 He was also made
governor of Dunbarton Castle, captain of the guard, and first
gentleman of the bedchamber. 5

The rise of Lennox to predominant influence came too late,
however, to save Archbishop Boyd. The conflict with the
uncompromising firebrands of the General Assembly had
undermined his health. It is pathetic to find that one of his
last acts was to confer a substantial favour on the university
which had afforded a status as principal to his acrid persecutor,

1 Privy Council Register, iii. 339, 388 ; Calderwood, iii. 482-4, 557-575.

2 Great Seal Register, iv. 24. 3 Ibid. iv. 66 ; No. 204
4 Privy Council Register, iii. 413. 5 Crawford, p. 33.

52 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Andrew Melville. On 28th May, 1581, with consent of his
chapter, he granted to the college in perpetuity the whole
customs dues of the tron, with the customs of fair or market,
of meat or weight, within the burgh. 6 This grant afforded the
means of establishing an additional regent in the university. 7

On 3oth May the archbishop conveyed to Andrew Paterson
younger, in West Schiell, the nineteen shilling land there and
the twelve shilling and sixpenny land in the village of Meikle
Go van both then possessed by him. The transaction affords
a good example of the process then going on, of affording the
tenants of church lands security of tenure by converting their
existing rents into feu-duties. The preamble to Paterson's
charter expressly states that " by the acts of the most noble
Princes of Scotland, made for the benefit of the kingdom and
common weal, it is provided and decreed that the lands and
possessions as well of prelates and barons as of any others
heritably possessing lands, and of churchmen, should be let
and set in feu farm and heritage especially to the old tenants
and possessors, that, by the care, industry, and labour of wise
men they might be manured, improven, and made to yield
better crops." For the nineteen shilling land of West Shields,
Paterson undertook to pay a feu-duty of seventeen and five-
pence, with three firlots each of bear and oats, two capons and
two poultry, and for the twelve shilling and sixpenny land in
Meikle Go van, ten and fourpence halfpenny, with two firlots and
one peck each of bear and oats, one capon and a half, certain
multures, salmon, and services, and twelve pence in augmen-
tation of rental, the sum of money to be doubled in the first
year of entry of heirs to the lands. 8

Three weeks later, on 2ist June, the archbishop died. 9
According to Spottiswoode, he was " a wise, learned, and

6 Charters and Documents, ii. 189, No. Ixxii.

7 Stat. Accounts, xxi ; Caledonia, iii. 626.

8 Judicial Records of Renfrewshire, p. 271. 9 Grub, ii. 215.

DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP BOYD 53

religious prelate, worthy to have lived in better times." He
provided for his wife and family from the estates of the see,
made some other small grants from the same source, granted
a tenement in Edinburgh to James Boyd of Kipps, and a
pension of 200 Scots for life to the king's preceptor, Peter
Young. 10 Boyd was buried in the choir of Glasgow Cathedral,
next Archbishop Dunbar. 1

10 Act. Parl. iii. 471, 491, 616.
1 Keith, pp. 260, 261 ; Grub, ii. 191-215.

CHAPTER VII

ARCHBISHOP MONTGOMERIE CONFLICT WITH GENERAL
ASSEMBLY RAID OF RUTHVEN

So far, the alienation of the temporal possessions of the
archbishopric had not proceeded to any great extent. A more
determined effort was now, however, made. Notwithstanding
the acts of the General Assembly, which probably expressed
the feeling of a large number of the burgess and the lower classes
of the people, the king strongly desired to continue the episcopal
system of church government. In this he was supported by a
large proportion of the nobility, partly, no doubt, from desire
for the orderly conduct of religion and from dislike of the
republican temper of the presbyterian church courts, but partly
also, there is good reason to believe, from desire to profit by the
transference of church property which the episcopal dignitaries
had power to carry out. Foremost in supporting the young
king in this policy was the now all-powerful Lennox, and it
has been made quite clear that he proceeded of set purpose to
exploit for his personal profit to the fullest possible extent the
appointment of a new archbishop at Glasgow.

A suitable tool for his purpose lay to his hand in the person
of Robert Montgomerie, minister at Stirling. Montgomerie
must have been well known to the king and court, who would be
among his constant hearers in the noble old kirk under the
walls of Stirling Castle. So far he had been a vehement
supporter of the party which opposed episcopacy, 1 but he was

1 Spottiswoode, ii. 281.
54

KING JAMES VISITS GLASGOW 55

evidently a poor creature, and Lennox had recognised this.
The duke made a pact with him by which, if appointed arch-
bishop, he was to receive an annual sum of 1000 Scots, with
some horse corn and poultry, while all the remaining revenues
were to be made over to the duke and his heirs. 2

The king himself went to Glasgow on 28th August, and while
he remained there, on 3rd October, sent a letter to the town
council, requiring it to acknowledge Montgomerie as archbishop,
and present the usual leets to him for nomination of bailies.
This instruction the council promised " with thair hart " to
obey, and the time-honoured proceeding was forthwith carried
out. 3 On 1 6th October the king left Glasgow, and next day,
at the meeting of the General Assembly, Montgomerie 's appoint-
ment was intimated to it. The fathers of the kirk refused,
however, to recognize the appointment, and an unseemly
squabble forthwith began. 4 Montgomerie, with an armed escort,
went to Glasgow, and entered the cathedral, but, finding the
pulpit occupied by a minister who refused to give way to him,
withdrew for the time. 5 The presbytery of Stirling then
suspended him, and ordered him to attend the synod of Lothian
to hear himself excommunicated. 6 The Privy Council next
took up the matter and summoned the recalcitrant kirk session
of Glasgow, along with the presbyteries of Glasgow and Stirling,
to appear before it. 7 Montgomerie himsell also cited the synod
of Lothian to appear. These bodies all declined the juris-
diction of the Privy Council, and that high authority thereupon,
on I2th April, 1582, declared that, as the kirk had refused to
elect Montgomerie, the appointment to the archbishopric had
fallen into the hands of the king, who exercised his right to fill
the office, and forbade the kirk from taking any action against

a Richard Hay's MS., quoted in Chalmers's Caledonia, iii. 626.
8 Burgh Records, i. 89. 4 Calderwood, iii. 577, and on.

6 Ibid. 595. Ibid. iii. 619, 620.

7 Spottiswoode, ii. 285.

56 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

the new archbishop. 8 In defiance of this order, the ministers
summoned Montgomerie to appear before the General Assembly
at St. Andrews on 24th April. Montgomerie, equally defiant,
attended, and when the Assembly, with Andrew Melville as
moderator, proposed to proceed against him, a letter was
presented from the king, referring them to the order of the
Privy Council, and warning them not to interfere with the
royal jurisdiction. On their disregarding this, a messenger-at-
arms appeared, and charged them to desist under pain of being
denounced as rebels and put to the horn. Still they persisted,
and deposed Montgomerie from the ministry. They were
proceeding to excommunicate him when he appeared in person
and undertook neither to meddle with nor attempt anything
regarding the archbishopric except by advice of the General
Assembly. 9

On returning to court, however, Montgomerie was induced
to resile from his promise, and was furnished with letters from
the king calling on persons in the west country to support him.
He then went to Glasgow to preach. The presbytery met to
deal with the matter, but, while they were in session, the
provost, Sir Mathew Stewart of Minto, with the bailies and
some citizens, entered, forbade the proceedings, and summoned
the ministers before the Privy Council. On the presbytery
refusing to disperse, the magistrates, it was said, laid hands on
John Howeson, the moderator, and in the struggle his beard
was torn and one of his teeth knocked out, and he was im-
prisoned in the Tolbooth. 10 During the fracas the college
students rushed to help the presbytery, and as blows were
exchanged, the provost, fearing a riot, caused the bells to be
rung, and by tuck of drum called the burgesses to help.

On the Saturday night the students took possession of the

8 Privy Council Register, iii. 474-7.

9 Register of Assembly ; Chalmers's Caledonia, iii. 626-7.
10 Calderwood, iii. 621 ; Spottiswoode, ii. 187-8.

TROUBLES OVER ARCHBISHOP MONTGOMERIE 57

cathedral, and next day excluded Montgomerie, while Principal
Smeaton preached from the text, " He that enters not by the
door, but by the window, the same is a thief and a robber." 1
Next the presbytery of Edinburgh summoned Montgomerie, and
the Privy Council proceeded to deal with the ministers, both of
Edinburgh and Glasgow. But on loth June, in the church of
Liberton, sentence of excommunication was published against
the archbishop. 2

On i6th June a letter from the Duke of Lennox was pre-
sented to the town council. Referring to " the truble maid
laitle into your toun of Glasgw be the colleigis mouit be the
ministeris," it mentioned that the king had given the college
charge " not to do the lyke again," and it directed the bailies and
town to resist " the violence and bosting of the college." 3

Eleven days later Andrew Melville, as moderator, opened
the General Assembly with a vehement sermon against the
interference of the Privy Council, 4 and proceedings were
instituted against the Duke of Lennox, the Lord Advocate, the
magistrates of Glasgow, and others, for abetting Montgomerie
while under excommunication. The provost and others were
declared worthy of excommunication, and sentence was only
delayed at the king's request. 5 On 2nd July the Privy Council
had Montgomerie 's appointment and the nullity of his excom-
munication proclaimed at the cross of Edinburgh. 6 Four days
later the commissioners of the kirk presented a list of fourteen
grievances before the king at Perth. 7 On the nth of the
month the Privy Council ordered the Principal and students of
Glasgow College to appear before them on loth September, to

1 Privy Council Records, iii. 486.

2 Calderwood, iii. 621 ; Spottiswoode, ii. 289.

3 Burgh Records, i. 94. * Tytler, iv. ch. ii.
6 Calderwood, iii. 626.

6 Privy Council Records, iii. 489.

7 Book of the Universal Kirk, ii. 582-3.

58 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

answer for their action in opposing Montgomerie ; 8 and on
the 20th it passed an act declaring that, as Montgomerie had
been lawfully appointed to the see, all feuars and tenants must
pay to him the entire fruits of the archbishopric. 9

The whole miserable business assumes larger interest as the
earliest example of that clash between the royal power and
the will of the people in ecclesiastical affairs which lasted
throughout the reigns of James VI. and Charles I., and cost
the latter monarch his head, and which was revived in the
reigns of Charles II. and James VII. and II. only to end in the
Revolution of 1689, which cost the Stewarts their throne.

Not least to be pitied was the luckless archbishop himself.
As a person under the ban of the kirk he dared not appear in
the streets of Edinburgh, where he was stoned and insulted,
and forced to seek safety in flight. He was refused admission
to the courts when he sought redress. The magistrates,
instead of protecting him, sided with his persecutors. And
even the king seemed to be rather amused than otherwise by
his discomfiture. 10

Meanwhile Montgomerie 's appointment to the archbishopric
of Glasgow, and the struggle between the court and the kirk
to which it led, played a highly important part in Scottish
affairs, for it may be held to have led directly to the famous
incident known as the Raid of Ruthven. From the first the
appearance in Scotland of Esme Stewart, and his rise to power
as Duke of Lennox, had been watched by Queen Elizabeth with
jealousy and dismay. When the Earl of Morton, head of the
English party in Scotland, was seized and thrown into prison,
she had exerted herself strenuously to save him, even going
the length of organizing a plot, through her envoy, Randolph,
for the seizure of the king and the murder of Lennox, Argyll,
and Montrose. Lennox, however, discovered the plot in the

8 Privy Council Register, iii. 489-90, note.

9 Ibid. iii. 496. 10 Tytler, iv. ch. ii.

THE RAID OF RUTHVEN 59

nick of time, and Randolph only saved himself by fleeing to
Berwick, while the Earl of Angus, his chief tool, was banished
beyond the Spey. 1

The Duke's proceedings in the matter of the Glasgow
archbishopric gave Elizabeth another chance. Her new envoy,
Sir Robert Bowes, exerted himself to excite the fears of the
Earls of Cowrie, Mar, Glencairn, and others, regarding a
supposed counterplot of Lennox to seize them, banish the
leading ministers of the kirk, establish episcopacy, and recall
the imprisoned Queen Mary to take part with her son in the
government. These " revelations," added to the alarm which
had already been excited by the action of Lennox in enforcing
the appointment of Montgomerie, immediately brought about
the coup d'etat. Lennox was at Dalkeith, his chief ally, Captain
Stewart, who had been made Earl of Arran, was at Kinneil,
and the king was at Cowrie's house, Ruthven Castle, near
Perth. On the evening of 22nd August, 1582, Cowrie, Mar,
Lindsay, and the other conspirators, surrounded the castle
with a thousand men, and the Earls of Mar and Cowrie, entering
the royal chamber, removed the guards, and took charge of
the king. Arran, galloping to retrieve the event, was seized
as he entered the castle courtyard, and thrown into confinement,
while Lennox was forced to retire, first to Dunbarton and
afterwards to France, 2 where he died in the following year.

Meanwhile Montgomerie, harassed beyond endurance, sub-
mitted to the kirk, as also did Sir Mathew Stewart the provost,
and other Glasgow supporters, and the General Assembly

1 Tytler, iv. ch. ii.

2 Privy Council Register, iii. 506-11. On his way the Duke passed through
Glasgow, and it gives some idea of the troubled state of the country to know
that his train consisted of 300 men. He arrived from Edinburgh on 6th
September at six in the afternoon and left at six next morning. It was the
last occasion on which a member of his house occupied the Lennox mansion
at the Stablegreen, for while in Dunbarton Castle the Duke conveyed it to
William Stewart of Bultreis, and soon afterwards the site was broken up into
building lots (Glasgow Protocols, 2456, 2666-7, 2673-4).

60 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

remitted their case to be dealt with by the Glasgow presbytery. 1
Before this could be done, however, another revolution took
place. On 25th June, 1583, King James escaped from Falkland
Palace to the castle of St. Andrews, called his own friends about
him, and overthrew the power of Gowrie and the English
faction. 4 At a parliament held in Edinburgh in May, 1584,
Montgomerie petitioned and secured a declaration commanding
the censure of the kirk upon him to be stayed and the excom-
munication of no effect, as also that he should continue to possess
all his honours, dignities, and benefices. 5 The archbishop,
however, continued most unpopular. When he appeared in the
streets of Ayr, where he lived, he was mobbed by crowds of
women and boys, who denounced him as an atheist, a dog, and
an excommunicated beast. 6 Nevertheless on 2ist June the
king sent a letter to Glasgow town council desiring that Mont-
gomerie should be assisted and fortified by the magistrates.
This they promised to do, 7 and on i8th August, at the arch-
bishop's request', sent a guard of six persons to accompany him
to the sitting of parliament. 8 On yth October, exercising his
powers, Montgomerie chose three persons to be bailies, and
appointed Sir William Livingstone of Kilsyth to be provost.

This was the last intromission of Montgomerie, for two
years, with the election of magistrates. On 2nd October, 1582,
and on 30th September, 1583, in the absence of the archbishop
and of his hereditary bailie, the Duke of Lennox, the nomination
of a provost was made by King James himself. In the former
case Sir Mathew Stewart of Minto was requested by his brother,
the Prior of Blantyre, " direct from the King's majesty," and
" conform to his credit and commission of the King's majesty "
to accept the provostship ; and in the latter year John, Earl of
Montrose, appeared before Sir Mathew Stewart and the bailies

3 Calderwood, iii. 690.

4 Tytler, iv. ch. iii. 6 Act. Parl. iii. 292-311.

6 Tytler, iv. ch. iv. 7 Burgh Records, i. 108-9. 8 Ibid. i. no.

RESIGNATION OF MONTGOMERIE 61

and council of the previous year, and presented a letter from
the king nominating him as provost. Both nominations were
accepted. 9 Montrose was a supporter of the Lennox party.

A month after the second of these transactions, in November,
1583, Ludovic, heir of the late Duke of Lennox, having been
sent for by the king from France, landed at Leith, and was
warmly welcomed by James, who confirmed him in all his
father's honours and estates. 10 He succeeded also, under the
arrangement made by his father, to the revenues of the Glasgow
archbishopric.

In the f oh 1 owing May, 1584, parliament annulled the kirk's
excommunication of Montgomerie, and on 7th October of that
year he exercised his right by nominating Sir William Living-
ston of Kilsyth to be provost, and George Elphinstone, William
Conyngham, and Robert Rowat to be bailies. 1 Also, on 5th
October, 1585, he appeared personally in the council, and
again nominated Sir William and selected three bailies. 2

Not long afterwards, however, another revolution in the
government took place, and Montgomerie, in his distress and
uncertainty, resigned his rights in the archbishopric in favour
of William Erskine, parson of Campsie and late commendator
of Paisley. 3 Ultimately the General Assembly allowed the
luckless ex-prelate to settle as minister of Stewarton in
Ayrshire. 4

9 Burgh Records, i. 98, 105.

10 Calderwood, iii. 749; Privy Council Records, iii. 609, 614, 615.
1 Burgh Records, i. 112. 2 Council Records, i. 117.

3 Spottiswoode, ii. 375. 4 Ibid.

CHAPTER VIII.

ARCHBISHOP ERSKINE RISE OF WALTER STEWART, LORD
BLANTYRE FEUING AND SELLING OF LANDS

THE new archbishop was a layman, and " bare no charge in
the church/' but he had borne a considerable part in the politics
of the time. He was a relative of the Earl of Mar, and his
appointment to the archbishopric seems to have been a
direct result of the coup d'etat which finally overthrew the
domination of Arran, and brought Lord John Hamilton, the
Earls of Angus, Mar, and other chiefs of the English party into
power. Erskine's first appointment appears to have been that
of parson of Campsie. In 1579, as chamberlain of Paisley, he
is found administering the affairs of that abbacy, which had
fallen to the crown through the forfeiture of Lord Claud
Hamilton. 1 Two months later, in November of the same year,
he was himself made commendator of the abbey, under burden
of an annual payment of 4000 merks for the furnishing of the
king's house. 2 He received, also, other lands and favours from
the king, including a discharge of the burden of 4000 merks. 3
But, along with the Earl of Mar, he took part in the coup
d'etat, the raid of Ruthven, on 22nd August, 1581, and on the
escape of the king in June, 1583, and the return of Arran to
power, he was imprisoned in the castles of Blackness and

1 Privy Council Register, iii. 219, 220.

2 Great Seal Register, iii. p. 803, No. 2922 ; Privy Council Register, iii. 267.

3 Great Seal Register, iii. 821, No. 2990 ; Privy Council Register, iii. 285 ;
Ibid. iii. 454, 455.

ARCHBISHOP ERSKINE OPPOSED 63

Doune 4 and afterwards in Renfrewshire. He took part also with
the Ruthven raiders when they seized Stirling in April, I584, 5
and when, by the warlike promptitude of the king, who marched
against them at the head of an army of 12,000 men, they were
forced to flee to England, the Earl of Gowrie was executed,
and Erskine was ordered to surrender the abbey, place, and
fortalice of Paisley, and banished the realm. 6 When, however,
the Ruthven raiders again entered Scotland in October, 1585,
at the head of 8000 men, and, marching on Stirling, compelled
Arran to flee, 7 these decrees were abrogated. As the Hamiltons,
along with Angus and Mar, returned to power, and Paisley
was restored to Lord Claud Hamilton, 8 Erskine could not, of
course, continue his commendatorship. It was apparently to
make up to him for this loss that on 2ist December, 1585, the
king, with the advice of the Privy Council, granted him the
archbishopric of Glasgow. 9 Curiously enough, in the charter
by which this grant was made, no notice was taken of the
tenure of the luckless Montgomerie. The charter conveyed
to Erskine " all the churches, lordships, and possessions, as
well spiritual as temporal," of the archbishopric, " vacant by
the decease of Archbishop Boyd, and the forfeiture of Arch-
bishop Beaton, with entry to the fruits of the archbishopric as
from 1585, under burden of a pension granted by King James
to Nicholas Carncross."

Though the grant of the archbishopric to Erskine was stated
in the charter to be for life, he did not enjoy the benefice long.
The Glasgow presbytery duly admitted him, but on 2oth June,
1587, the General Assembly unanimously declared his admission
unlawful, and ordered the presbytery to annul it by Michaelmas. 10

4 Privy Council Register, in. 613, 623. 6 Privy Council Register, lit. 657.

6 Ibid. 663, 664. 7 Spottiswoode, ii. 331.

8 Act. Parl. iv. 373, 432. 9 Great Seal Register, iv. 290-1, No. 903.

10 Spottiswoode, ii. 375 ; Calderwood, iv. 615, 638 ; Booh of the Universal
Kirk, ii. 693 ; Privy Council Register, iv. 191.

64 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

As a matter of fact, another bright particular star had
arisen in the household of James I., and its claims had to be
provided for. Sir John Stewart of Minto, whom we have
already seen as active in the affairs of Glasgow, was twice
married. By his first wife, Johanna Hepburn, he had Sir
Mathew Stewart, the provost who installed Archbishop Mont-
gomerie. By his second marriage, with Margaret, daughter of
James Stewart of Cardonald, he had an only son, Walter.
Walter Stewart was the companion of King James himself
under the tutelage of the famous Latinist, George Buchanan.
It was a quarrel between the two over possession of a tame
sparrow that Buchanan settled by boxing the king's ears and
calling him " a quarrelsome bird out of a bloody nest." As a
boy he was made Commendator of the Priory of Blantyre by
James. He was made one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber
in 1580, and was sworn a privy councillor, and made keeper
of the Privy Seal in 1582. l In 1583 James further conferred
on him the lands of Calderhall in the regality of Dalkeith. 2 But
the grant which played the greatest part in enabling Walter
Stewart to found the fortunes of a family came in 1587.

The burgh records of Glasgow from 27th April, 1586, till
22nd October, 1588, have been lost, but, so far as is known,
William Erskine, while drawing the re venues of the archbishopric
of Glasgow, appears to have interfered not at all in the affairs
of the city. After the General Assembly had ordered his
installation to be annulled, the temporalities were annexed to
the crown by the general Act of 2gth July, 1587. 3

Under the archbishops, as we have seen, these temporalities
had been managed by a steward and governed by a bailie. The
fruits which might accrue to the crown after the intromissions
and charges of these officials were satisfied were probably some-

1 Douglas's Peerage, i. 231.

2 Great Seal Register, iv. 183, No. 589.

3 Act. Parl. Hi. 431 ; Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. p. 192, No. Ixxiv.

GEORGE BUCHANAN.

CHURCH LANDS FEUED TO WALTER STEWARD 65

what hypothetical. At anyrate the crown decided to make its
share of the proceeds a matter of definite payment. While,
accordingly, the ancient episcopal baronies of Stobo and
Eddlestoun were disponed to the Chancellor, Maitland of
Thirlstane, and that of Carstairs was transferred to Sir William
Stewart, son of Sir Andrew Stewart of Ochiltree, the greater
part of the Glasgow temporalities the lands and barony, town
and burgh of Glasgow, the baronies of Ancrum, Ashkirk, and
Lilliesleaf in Roxburghshire, the lands of Bishop's Forest,
Niddrie Forest, the Halfpenny Lands in Carrick, the Kirklands
of Cambusnethan, and others were conveyed to Walter
Stewart for payment of an annual feu-duty of 500 Scots.
The grant included all patronages which had belonged to the
archbishop, as well as the offices of bailie and justiciary of the
whole regality, and for the duties connected with these offices
Stewart was allowed a fee of 200 Scots yearly. 4 At the same
time the lands thus conveyed were erected into a temporal
lordship, to be called the lordship of Glasgow, with the castle
of Glasgow for its chief messuage. On 26th August, 1591, this
grant was confirmed by the king, and the commendator and
his successors were empowered to feu the lands and baronies
to the ancient and native tenants. 5 Under this authority
Stewart feued out most of the possessions of the barony to the
existing rentallers, who thus obtained security of tenure by the
conversion of their former rent into a feu-duty. 6

One of these transactions, which concerned the city as a
whole, possesses an interest of its own. Mention has already
been made of the mill on the Kelvin tenanted by Archibald
Lycn. Originally a waulking or fulling mill, established by
Archbishop Blacader, this had originally been let to Donald

* Great Seal Register, iv. p. 483, No. 1406 ; Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii.
p. 215, No. Ixxviii.

5 Great Seal Register, iv. p. 652, No. 1932 ; Charters and Documents, pt. ii.
No. Ixxx.

6 Diocesan Registers, preface, p. 30.
H.G. ii. w

66 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Lyon, Archibald's father, in 1517. When Archibald Lyon
was received as rentaller in 1554 he was authorized to convert
it into a wheat mill, the rent being four merks yearly, and Lyon
being bound to grind all the wheat consumed in the arch-
bishop's house. 7 In May, 1577, the town's common mill on
the Molendinar was found unable to grind all the grain brought
to it by the townsmen, and the magistrates accordingly agreed
with Lyon to take over his mill. 8 The price was 1000 merks,
and until the town should pay the money Lyon was to be paid
thirty bolls of unground malt and twenty bolls of oatmeal
yearly, and his heirs, if he should die, 100 merks yearly. For
security he received the old town's mill in pledge. 9 As the
town had still to pay the four merks of original rent yearly to the
archbishop, it will be seen that the annual value of the mill had
gone up from four merks in 1554 to one hundred and four in 1577.
When Walter Stewart became feuer of the barony this was
one of the rentals which he desired to see converted into a
feu-duty. 10 In order to raise the necessary money the town
sold six acres at the Old Greenhead, next the Briggate, and
some other properties, by auction for 1338 6s. 8d. Scots, or
m sterling, and some small feu-duties, and on gih November,
received from Stewart a charter of the mill on the Kelvin, with
the miller's house, yard, and ground of Schilhill, for a payment
of 600 Scots, and an annual feu-duty of four merks and
twelve pennies Scots. 1 From all this it would appear that while
the magistrates made anything but a shrewd bargain with
Archibald Lyon, they could certainly not complain of the
treatment they received from the new owner of the barony. 2

7 Charters and Documents, vol. ii. p. 512, No. 26. 8 Burgh Records, i. p. 57.

9 Ibid. p. 553, No. xxxix ; Charters and Documents, pt. ii. p. 446, No. 74.

10 Burgh Records, i. 120. 1 Charters and Documents, pt. ii. p. 452, No. 97.

*Two centuries later, in 1771, Archibald Lyon's, or Clay slaps Mill was
sold to the Bakers' Incorporation, but was repurchased by the city three years
later, and the site now forms part of Kelvingrove Park (Marwick's Early
Glasgow, p. 1 60).

DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP BEATON 67

By such means, within a generation from the establishment
of the Reformation in 1560, were the vast possessions of the
Catholic Church of Glasgow transferred to other hands. One
final act still remained. On 8th July, 1587, Parliament had
rescinded the forfeiture and other sentences against the exiled
Archbishop Beaton. 3 On 2Qth May, 1589, this act was reversed
by the Privy Council ; 4 but on 2Qth June, 1598, in considera-
tion of his services as ambassador, Beaton was restored to his
honours, dignities, and benefices, notwithstanding all sentences
and acts against him, and although he had never made confes-
sion of his faith, nor acknowledged the religion professed in
Scotland. 5 Under this act the aged prelate appears to have
recovered the enjoyment of nothing more than the revenue
of the ancient royalty of Glasgow. 6 He never returned to Scot-
land. In France, where he took a considerable part in politics,
he enjoyed the revenues of the Abbey of La Sie, the priory of
St. Peter's, and the treasurership of St. Hilary of Poictiers.
When he died, at the age of 86, in 1603, he left all his goods to
the Scots College, which regarded him as its second founder. 7

Meanwhile, on 2ist July, 1593, Ludovic, Duke of Lennox,
was granted for his lifetime the superiority of the whole lands
and rights of the archbishopric 8 a grant by which he probably
drew the feu-duty payable by Walter Stewart and the feu-
duties of other rentallers who had received charters from the
archbishops and the crown. This act was confirmed on i6th
December, 1597, 9 and on 9th March, 1600, the king granted
an undertaking to erect the archbishopric, after the death of
Archbishop Beaton, into a temporal lordship, to remain with
the house of Lennox for ever. 10 Finally, on 7th April, 1603,

3 Act. Parl. iii. YP., pp. 467-470. 4 Privy Council Register, iv. 388.

5 Act. Parl. iv, 169, 170. 6 Diocesan Register, preface, p. 31.

7 Life, by Archbishop Eyre. 8 Act. Parl. iv. 38.
9 Ibid. 146.

The Lennox, by W. Fraser, ii. 343 ; Hist. MSS. Commission, App. to
Third Report, p. 395, No. 155.

68 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

while on his journey to occupy the English throne, King James
erected " the lands and barony of Glasgow, the castle, city,
burgh, and regality of Glasgow, the lands and tenements of
that burgh, and certain other lands " into a temporal lordship,
to be called the lordship of Glasgow, which he conferred upon
the duke, to be holden of the crown for an annual payment of
304 8s. 4d. of money, 36 chalders 4 bolls meal, 13 chalders
4 bolls oats, 49 dozen capons, 31 dozen poultry, and 14 dozen
kane salmon, together with all other duties specified in the
annual rental of the bishopric, in use to be paid to the arch-
bishop, with twenty merks further of augmentation. 1

1 Great Seal Register, 1593-1608, No. 1457, p. 531; Privy Seal Register,
vol. Ixxiii, fol. 265 ; Charters and Documents, pt. ii. p. 258, No. Ixxxviii.

CHAPTER IX

PARSONS AND MINISTERS ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS
DAVID WEMYSS

IT has already been mentioned that, although the ritual of the
Roman Church was made illegal at the Reformation, the clergy
of that Church were allowed to retain their benefices for life,
subject to deduction of one-third for the Crown and the support
of the Protestant ministers. Under this arrangement Henry
Sinclair, Dean of Glasgow and Bishop of Ross, was in the
enjoyment of the fruits of the parsonage of Glasgow in 1561. 1
Following him, Archibald Lauder, the " persoun " or Parson of
Glasgow, continued to enjoy the revenues of the benefice till
1 568. 2 His only recorded action in connection with the affairs
of the city was one for which, as a clergyman of the Roman
Church, he can hardly be blamed. He appears to have refused
to furnish bread and wine for the celebration of communion
by the Protestant congregation. In this matter he found
himself in the same dilemma which would have assailed John
Knox if Queen Mary had asked him to furnish the elements for
her Mass at Holyrood. The provost, bailies, and community
of Glasgow, however, carried their complaint before the Privy
Council, and on 5th October, 1566, Lauder was ordered to comply
with the demand. 3

The next Parson of Glasgow was one of the greatest black-
guards of his time. Archibald Douglas was a grandson of

1 Glasgow Protocols, iii. 643. 2 Cleland's Annals, i. 124.

3 Privy Council Register, i. 402.

70 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

John, second Earl of Morton, and a near relative of thai
sinister personage, the Regent Earl. He was Parson of Douglas
in 1565, when he was made an Extraordinary Lord of Session.
To avoid the consequences of his implication in the murder of
Rizzio he fled to France, but by the intervention of the French
king was allowed to return, and helped to secure the pardon
of the other conspirators. Almost immediately, however, he
engaged in the plot for the murder of Darnley, and it was at
his elder brother's seat of Whittingehame that Both well, Lething-
ton, and he first proposed to Morton to join the conspiracy. 4
He was present in person at the murder itself, and on the ground
was found a shoe he had dropped as he fled. 5 It throws a
curious light on the character of the Regent Moray that in
1568 he appointed this man an Ordinary Lord of Session, and
also Parson of Glasgow. The kirk refused to admit him, but
the Privy Council sustained his title. 6 A significant account
is on record of his behaviour when examined as to his fitness
for the latter position. After casting over the leaves of the
Psalm book in an uncertain fashion, he " desyrit sum minister
to mak the prayer for him," with the nai've observation, " I am
not used to pray." 7 His attempt at the construction of a
homily was equally inept and ridiculous. For sending money
to the queen's party in Edinburgh Castle he was arrested and
imprisoned at Stirling, 8 but escaped with a mock trial. Ten
years later, when James Stewart, captain of the Royal Guard, as
already narrated, secured the downfall of Morton by accusing
him before the Privy Council of the murder of Darnley, he drove
home his accusation with the taunt, " As to the Earl's pretended
zeal against the guilty, let me ask him, where has he placed
Archibald Douglas, his cousin ? That most infamous of men,
who was an actor in the tragedy, is now a senator, promoted

4 Tytler, iii. ch. vii. 5 Ibid. iv. ch. ii.

6 Privy Council Register, ii. 79, 80. 7 Bannatyne's Journal, pp. 311-13.

8 Ibid. 334-5.

THE TREASONS OF ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS 71

to the highest seat of justice, and suffered to pollute that
tribunal before which he ought to have been arraigned as the
murderer of his prince." As a result, while Morton was
instantly seized, Hume of Manderstone, with a party of horse,
rode furiously all night to apprehend Douglas in his castle of
Morham, only to find that he had escaped, a few hours earlier,
across the English Border, his friend the Laird of Lang-Niddry
having ridden two horses to death to give him warning in time. 9
His brother Whittingehame was the " deep dissembler and fearful
wretch " whose " faithless and traitorous dealing " in revealing
secrets brought Morton to the scaffold. 10 In England Archibald
Douglas ingratiated himself into the confidence of Queen Mary
and the French Court, who trusted him in their confidential
communications. 1 After the Raid of Ruthven he was base
enough to write to Elizabeth's agent, Randolph, that Captain
Stewart, now Earl of Arran, had offered, in order to save his
own life, to accuse his friend, the Duke of Lennox, of high
treason. 2 But while he was exultingly preparing to return to
Scotland he was seized by order of Queen Elizabeth, had his
house and papers ransacked, and was committed to the keeping
of Henry Killigrew, who in a letter to Walsingham styled him
" The old Fox." 3 Then, to secure his own freedom the
precious Parson of Glasgow proceeded to betray all he knew
of the secrets of Queen Mary, and to plot against her with a
success which ultimately led to her destruction. 4 He was the
chief organiser in England of the plot of Queen Elizabeth and
of the treacherous Master of Gray by which in November, 1585,
the banished lords returned, besieged Stirling Castle, and

9 Calderwood MS., fol. 1116, quoted by Tytler. iv. ch. ii.

10 Randolph's " Negociations " in Tytler 's Proofs and Illustrations, vol. iv.
No. 7.

1 Tytler, iv. ch. iii.

2 Tytler, iv. Proofs and Illustrations, x. 3 Tytler, iv. ch. iii.

4 Ibid, from Letter in State-paper Office, addressed to Walsingham, June,
1582-3.

72 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

seized the king and government. 6 As a reward for this and
for betraying the secrets of Queen Mary, he was set free by
Elizabeth and sent with a letter to King James, who received
him at a private interview, and after a mock trial and acquittal
restored him to his rank and estates and took him into the
highest confidence. 6 This friendship of the king Douglas
proceeded to exploit in order to bring about the ruin and death
of Queen Mary. 7 James appointed him his ambassador to
the English court, and in this position he played fast and loose
with the interests entrusted to him. 8

Tytler sums up his character in a few words. He " united
the manners of a polished courtier to the knowledge of a scholar
and a statesman." But, while " externally all was polish and
amity, truly and at heart the man was a sanguinary, fierce,
crafty, and unscrupulous villain." 9

Naturally Glasgow itself derived little benefit from the
ministrations of Archibald Douglas. In 1571, as already
mentioned, he sold the manse of the parsonage to Captain
Thomas Crawford of Jordanhill. 10 On ist May, 1573, he feued
to David Rollok of Kinclayde and his spouse 13 acres of land,
comprising the Parson's Croft, near the Stable-Green, the
Parson's Haugh near Stobcross, and some ground near the
Broomielaw. 1 And on ist November, 1576, he renewed for
19 years the tack granted by Queen Mary in 1565 to William
Baillie, Lord Provan, of the teind sheaves of the lands of
Provan at the old rental of 88 i8s. Scots. 2 On the application

5 MS. Letters, Master of Gray to Douglas, August 14, and to Walsingham,
Nov. 6, 1585, quoted by Tytler, iv. ch. iv.

6 Tytler, ibid.

1 Robertson's Hist, of Scotland, Appendix Nos. xlix and 1 ; Lodge's Letters,
vol. ii. p. 295.

8 Tytler, iv. ch. v. 9 Tytler, iv. ch. iv.

10 Supra, p. 33 ; Great Seal Register, iii. p. 540.

1 Great Seal Register, iv. No. 2954.

2 Great Seal Register, v. No. 232 ; Act. Pavl. iii. p. 242.

betters,

THE FIRST MINISTER OF GLASGOW 73

of David Wemyss, the acting minister of the city in 1572,
Douglas was ordered to pay him and his successors a stipend of
22 Scots yearly. 3 On ist June, 1586, after his return from
England, he leased the teinds of the parsonage to Walter
Stewart, the prior of Blantyre, for a yearly payment of 300
merks (16 135. 4d.) to himself, and 800 merks (44 8s. lofd.)
to the two ministers of Glasgow. On I3th March, 1593, he
was deposed for non-residence and neglect of duty, but retained
the emoluments till 4th July, 1597,* and on 8th November of
that year his demission was intimated to the presbytery.

It need only be added that this strange Parson of Glasgow,
whose career is worthy of more attention than has hitherto
been accorded it, was married to Lady Jane Hepburn, widow
of John, Master of Caithness.

Archibald Douglas, it will be seen, was totally unfit to per-
form any part of the spiritual duties of his office as Parson.
These were attended to by a member of the Reformed Church.
David Wemyss was appointed minister of Glasgow in or about
the year 1562. The population of the city at that time has
been estimated at 4500, and of this for a time Wemyss was
in sole charge. The support of the ministry in the city was
provided for by Queen Mary's charter under the Great Seal
of i6th March, 1566-7, in which she conveyed to the provost
and city of Glasgow the possessions of the chaplainries, altarages,
and prebends, and of the Black and Gray Friars of Glasgow for
the support of the ministers, churches, and hospitality of the
city. 5 As the existing Roman clergy were not to be deprived
of their benefices it is unlikely that this charter brought any
great immediate revenue to the civic authorities. Accordingly,
two months later the Privy Council ordained that the magis-
trates of Glasgow should pay the minister resident in the
burgh the sum of So Scots (6 135. 4d.), for which they were

3 Privy Council Register, ii. 114, 115. 4 Fasti Ecclesia, iii. p. 3.

5 Charters and Documents, part ii. p. 131, No. 59.

74 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

to tax all the inhabitants according to their ability. 6 Again,
on 5th June, 1568, three weeks after the battle of Langside, a
precept under the Privy Seal authorized the magistrates to
uplift the thirds of the revenues of the prebends, altarages, etc.,
and apply these to the support of the ministry. 7 In 1569,
when Sir John Stewart of Minto, then in charge of the castle of
Glasgow, found it necessary to make use of the third of the
revenues of the bishopric for the maintenance of the strong-
hold, he did so with the consent of Wemyss. 8 In 1571, however,
the minister found it necessary to bring the state of his affairs
before the Commissioners of the kirk. Stating that he had
served as minister for ten years, " in some trouble and without
certainty of his stipend," he asked that it should be determined
whether he should be paid out of the fruits of the parsonage
collected by Archibald Douglas, or from some other source.
It was then ordained that Douglas should pay him and his
successors 200 (16 133. 4d. stg.) of yearly stipend in name of
the third of the parsonage benefice. 9

At the same time a convention of the clergy at Leith con-
sidered an abuse that had crept in, of appointing unordained
individuals to the higher dignities of the church, by virtue of
which they enjoyed a seat in parliament. With consent of
the Privy Council it was then declared that this proceeding
must cease, and that meanwhile, in matters spiritual, including
the election of the archbishop, only such holders of the offices
as were ordained ministers should act. Meanwhile four
ministers were named to act as chief officers of the chapter, and
to succeed to these offices at the death of the existing holders.
Of these four ministers Wemyss was appointed to act as chan-
cellor. 10 Wemyss appears to have been a shrewd man of

6 Privy Council Reg. i. 508-9.

7 Chaffers and Documents, i. pt. ii. p. 137.

8 Priv. Coun. Reg. ii. 347. 9 Priv. Coun. Reg. ii. 114.

10 Priv. Coun. Reg. ii. 168 ; Calderwood, iii. 168, 219 ; Spottiswoode, ii. 170.

APPOINTMENT OF A SECOND MINISTER 75

business, and had the terms of his relationship with the town
council set forth in a written contract. 1

Wodrow in his life of Wemyss states on the authority of
Calderwood that the bailies and council in the beginning of
July, 1584, took Wemyss out of the cathedral pulpit in order
to place the excommunicated archbishop, Robert Montgomerie,
in possession ; 2 but this seems merely a repetition of the
previous episode in which Mr. John Howieson was the minister
ejected. 3

A more threatening experience sustained by Wemyss is
recorded in the Presbytery records of 25th August, 1587. The
minister was attacked in the public street by William Cunning-
hame and his son, Umphra, each armed with whinger and
pistol. Wemyss, however, stoutly defended himself, drawing
his own whinger, and, assisted by Andrew Hay, the parson of
Renfrew, who happened just then to come down the Rottenrow
with a whittle in his hand, put his assailants to flight. 4

Down to 1587 a single minister sufficed for the needs of the
whole burghal and landward parish of Glasgow. On 28th
February, 1587-8, however, the kirk session records declare that
" Mr. Johne Couper is gladlie and willinglie acceptit and
admittit as minister secund in Glasgow." They were to take
the Sunday forenoon and afternoon services in the " Hie Kirk "
alternately, and during the week the first pastor was to exercise
on Wednesday and the second on Friday. In the previous
year Archibald Douglas had leased the teinds of his parsonage
to Lord Blantyre for a yearly payment of 300 merks (16 135. 4d.)
to himself, and 800 merks (44 8s. lofd. sterling) to two
ministers. This was now apportioned by the provost, bailies
and presbytery, 500 merks to David Wemyss and 300 merks
to John Couper.

1 Treasurer's Accounts, 3oth June, 1573.

2 Collections, Maitland Miscellany, ii. pt. ii. pp. 4, 5. 3 Supra, p. 56.

4 Wodrow's Collections, ii. app. iii. ; Regality Club, 3rd Series, pp. 53, 54.

76 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

It was not long after this till Glasgow had a third minister.
The collegiate church of St. Mary and St. Anne, with its cemetery
in the Trongate, having fallen into a ruinous state, had been
feued in 1570 by the magistrates and council to James Fleming
and his heirs for an annual payment of 5 6s. 8d. Scots. 6 About
1592, however, the town reacquired the property and had
it repaired. The next thing to do was to find the means of
supporting a minister. The old revenues of the church, which
had been conveyed to the magistrates of the city by Queen
Mary's Act of 1566-7, had been used to furnish certain bursaries
for poor scholars at the college. These bursaries, it was now
alleged, had been improperly applied to the support of the
richest men's sons. An Act of Parliament was therefore
obtained on 8th June, 1594, cancelling the bursaries and
devoting the revenues " to the sustentation of the ministrie
within the citie of Glasgow." 6 John Bell, minister of Cardross
and one of the regents of the University, was then appointed
to the charge of the restored church, which became known as
the Tron or New Kirk. In 1599 the ministers applied to the
Town Council desiring that the town be divided into two
separate parishes in order that each minister might know his
own flock. To this, after due consideration, the city fathers
consented, on the stipulation that the citizens should not be
burdened with the building of more kirks or the support of
more ministers than already existed. 7 Thus the Tron was
separated from the High Kirk. The town's records for the
period are awanting, but the accounts for 1607-8 show the
revenue collected and paid over to Bell in that year as 250
Scots. Additions were afterwards made to the church, and
the steeple, still existing, was built in i637. 8 The church was
burned and rebuilt in 1793.

5 Charters and Documents, i. 140, No. Ixi.

6 Charters, i. pt. ii. page 242, No. 81 ; Act. Parl. iv. 73.

1 Burgh Records, T 195-6. 8 McUre, p. 59.

BARONY PARISH CONSTITUTED 77

Still another charge was set up almost immediately after-
wards. On loth April, 1595, the kirk session records mention
that the synod and presbytery had ordained the landward
part of the parish of Glasgow to have a kirk and minister of its
own. 9 On igth July Patrick Sharp, principal of the college,
with David Wemyss, John Couper, and John Bell, ministers,
presented to the town council " maister Alexander Rowatt,
to be admitted and appoyntit the ferd minister of the towne
and perrochun." The council not only admitted Rowatt, but
allowed him 20 yearly for house rent. 10 Next, on ist February,
1596-7, it was announced that the parishioners without the
town should form a congregation by themselves with Rowatt
as their minister. 1 Thus, without any formal disjunction, the
Barony parish was constituted. Its place of worship was the
lower church in the cathedral. The arrangement was a revival
of pre-Reformation usage, by which there was a vicar in burgo
and a vicar in rure. 2 There is no record as to the source of
Ro watt's stipend, but it is almost certain to have been paid
out of the teinds. 3

In 1593 Archibald Douglas was deposed from the parsonage
on account of non-residence and neglect of duty, and in 1597
he ceased to draw the emoluments. On i5th December of that
year parliament declared it lawful for the king to appoint
bishops, abbots, and other prelates, 4 all new appointments to
be confined to qualified ministers and preachers, and in March,
1598, the Act was adopted by the General Assembly. This
was followed on 29th June by an Act restoring Archbishop
Beaton to his honours, dignities, and benefices, to enable him
to sustain his position as Scottish ambassador in France. 5

9 Wodrow's Collections, ii. 7.
10 Burgh Records, i. 169. x Maitland Club Miscellany, i. 70, 86.

2 Glasgow Protocols, No. 1318, pp. 117, 119, 122.

3 Early Glasgow, 255 ; Charters and Documents, i. 179, note.

4 Act. Parl. iv. 130. 5 Ibid. iv. 169.

78 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Another Act in November, 1600, confirmed this restitution,
but excepted the feus which had been given off, the deductions
for ministers' stipends, the rents, etc., assigned to the college,
the possession of the castle, the choosing of the magistrates,
and the offices of provost and bailie. 6 Two days later the
king, by a charter under the Great seal, conveyed to the Duke
of Lennox and his heirs the castle of Glasgow and the heritable
bailieship of the archbishopric. 7 The duke had already been
made superior of the possessions of the diocese, 8 and had been
promised the erection of the archbishopric into a temporal
lordship in his favour on the death of Beaton. 9 All that
remained to be restored to the old archbishop at his restitution
was but a shadow of his once great possessions and power in
Scotland. On ist December, 1601, the king presented Wemyss
to the parsonage and vicarage, with the manse, glebe, teind
sheaves, and other properties, which included, of course, the
balance of tack duty, 300 merks (16 135. 4d. sterling), payable
to Lord Blantyre.

Great changes were now taking place in the kingdom.
On 24th March, 1603, Queen Elizabeth died, and on 5th April,
King James set out from Edinburgh to assume the English
crown. Two days later he granted a charter, feuing to the
Duke of Lennox the lands and barony, the castle, city, burgh,
and regality of Glasgow, the lands and tenements of the burgh
and certain other lands, constituting him and his heirs superiors,
and erecting these possessions into a temporal Lordship of
Glasgow, to be held of the crown for an annual payment of
304 8s. 4d., 36 chalders 4 bolls of meal, 31 chalders 5 bolls
of barley, 13 chalders 4 bolls of oats, 49 dozen capons, 31 dozen
poultry and 14 dozen kane salmon, with all other duties
specified in the annual rental of the bishopric, and twenty

6 Act. Parl. iv. 256.

7 Great Seal Reg. 1593-1608, p. 379. 8 Act. Parl. iv. 146.
9 The Lennox, by W. Fraser, ii. 343.

ARCHBISHOP SPOTTISWOOD 79

merks further of augmentation. 10 This was probably the
whole revenue of the archbishopric at that time, out of which
the stipulated thirds and other payments had to be made.

Further on his journey, at Burleigh House, near Stamford,
news reached the king that Beaton had died at Paris on 25th
April. He thereupon designated John Spottiswood, minister
of Calder, in Midlothian, who was in attendance upon him, to
be archbishop, and sent him back to escort the queen to
England. 1

The career of Spottiswood, who was to play an important
part in the affairs of the reign of James and his son Charles I.
will be referred to later. Meanwhile it is enough to say that
there appears to have been some transferring to him of the
revenues of the archbishopric then vested in the crown. To
help him, a pension of So English money was granted by the
king, and, probably with the same object, David Wemyss in
1605 demitted his benefice as parson of Glasgow. The king, at
any rate, immediately granted the emoluments of the parsonage
to the archbishop, 2 and confirmed the grant three years later
by a charter under the Great Seal, 3 and the archbishop granted
a lease of them to the Master of Blantyre for 300 merks a year,
the Master to keep the kirks in repair, and the archbishop to
pay the ministers' stipends and the cost of bread and wine for
the communion. 4

Among the stipends the archbishop appears to have paid
Wemyss a retiring allowance of twelve chalders yearly. 5

Wemyss had then been some forty-four years minister of
Glasgow, and the respect in which he was held may be judged

10 Great Seal Reg. 1593-1608, p. 531.

1 Priv. Coun. Reg. vi. 568 ; Spottiswoode, i. 139.

2 Charters, i. Append, p. 53.

3 Reg. Mag. Sig. vi. 2084 ; Charters and Documents, i. pt. i. App. 61.
* Charters and Documents, i. pt. i. Abstract, p. 62.

6 Charters and Documents, i. pt. i. Abstract, p. 74.

8o HISTORY OF GLASGOW

from the fact that, when the famous Letter of Guildry was
drawn up in 1605, defining the respective powers and relations
of the Merchants' House and the Trades House, he was
appointed an oversman or referee along with Sir George
Elphinstone and other trustworthy persons. 6 In his last days
certain accusations were brought against Wemyss before the
presbytery. It was declared that he was " found to be de-
clynand in doctrine, negligent in preparacioun, and in his teach-
ing hes gevin occasioun of lauchtir, and aftymes to be overtaine
with drink." 7 But the old minister had borne the burden and
heat of strenuous times, he could not remain vigorous for ever,
he may have needed the comfort of a little aqua mice, and his
stipend was only 500 merks, equal to 27 155. 6d. Altogether
the first minister of Glasgow appears to have been of a kindly,
capable, and sufficiently shrewd character, without the narrow-
ness and bitter bigotry which marked too many of the early
ministers of the Reformed Kirk.

6 Charters and Documents, i. pt. i. 620.

7 Presbytery Records, 29th October, 1600.

THE SEAL OF JAMES BALFOUR, DEAN OF GLASGOW,

AND VICAR-GENERAL OF JAMES, ARCHBISHOP OF

GLASGOW, USED IN 1566.

CHAPTER X

THE CHURCHES OF GLASGOW

MENTION has been made, in the previous chapter, of the
Cathedral or High Kirk, the Tron Kirk, previously the collegiate
church of St. Mary and St. Anne, and the Barony charge, or
congregation of the rural part of the parish of Glasgow, which
worshipped in the lower church of the cathedral.

Of various chapels which existed in Glasgow previous to the
Reformation the service then appears to have come to an end.
Little St. Mungo's chapel and burying ground at the Dow Hill
on the north side of the Gallowgate, just outside the city gate,
and beyond the Molendinar, near St. Mungo's trees and well,
founded by David Cunningham, archdeacon of Argyll in I50O, 1
seem to have been sold by the magistrates, its new owners,
when its endowments were transferred to the University. It
was bought back by the city for 200 merks (13 6s. 8d.) on
loth May, 1593, from Donald Cunningham of Aikenbar and his
wife, to be converted into a hospital for the poor. 2 The con-
version seems never to have been carried out, and on 2nd
February, 1600, the council ordered all the stone, timber, and
growing trees of the kirk to be taken down and used for the
repair of the Tron Kirk. 3 In the following year it was resolved
to enclose the kirkyard with a wall and maintain it as a burying
place ; 4 and in 1754 the ground was sold to Robert Tennant
for the building of the Saracen's Head Inn.

1 Reg. Epis. Glasg. 501. 2 Glasgow Records, iv. 679-80.

8 Glasgow Records, i. 202. 4 Glasgow Records, i. 225.

H.G. ii. 8; F

82 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

The chapel of St. Roche the Confessor, founded in 1508, by
Thomas Muirhead, rector of Stobo, and one of the cathedral
canons, on the common muir north of Glasgow, was from the
first under the patronage of the provost and magistrates. 5
With its burying ground it was conveyed to Adam Walles and
his wife in 1569, the right of burial being reserved. 6 Its
revenues were transferred to the University in 1572. 7 The
name of the chapel is now perpetuated as that of the district,
St. Rollox.

In connection with the hospital of St. Nicholas, founded
about 1470 by Bishop Andrew Muirhead, near the castle, on
ground now occupied by Macleod Street and the Barony church,
there was a Gothic chapel, familiar in old prints of the city. 8
It was a small building, and was probably used only by a few
aged and poor persons who lived in the hospital. Till the
abolition of episcopacy the hospital was managed by the
archbishop ; in 1688 it passed to the Lords of the Treasury,
who managed it through a preceptor, and in 1716 they devolved
the duty on the magistrates of Glasgow, who still distribute
the revenue of about 50 among certain poor persons. 9 The
chapel itself was standing as late as the year 1780.

The church of the old monastery of the Blackf riars on the east
side of High Street passed into the possession of the University
by the charter of the provost and magistrates of 8th January,
1572-3, the principal being bound to read and expound the
scriptures every day in the pulpit, while the regents read
prayers in their turn, and the " poor " students rang the kirk
bell, in order that the students and the townsfolk might assemble
to the service. 10 In 1635, the kirk having become ruinous, it

6 Glasgow Charters, No. 42. 6 Glasgow Protocols, 1674, 3516.

7 Charters and Documents, pt. ii. p. 149.
9 Marwick's Early Glasgow, p. 272.

9 Charters and Documents, i. 46.
10 Charters and Documents, pt ii. 149.

ST. THENEU'S CHAPEL 83

was transferred to the magistrates, who undertook to repair it,
to pay the college 2000 merks, and to endow a minister for it
with a stipend of 1000 merks (55 us. id. Stg.). 1 The arrange-
ment, confirmed by the king, was that the town council should
elect a minister and present him to the archbishop for appoint-
ment. 2 In 1666 during a violent storm the church was des-
troyed by fire. Rebuilt in 1699, it continued in use till the
removal of the College to Gilmorehill in 1870, when it was
removed to its present site in Westercraigs, in the Dennistoun
district of the city.

West of the city on the pleasant haugh by the river stood
the chapel dedicated to St. Theneu, mother of St. Mungo.
From it the road leading westward from the market cross took
the name of St. Theneu's Gait, and the stream which still flows
under Mitchell Street to the river was known as St. Theneu's
Burn. The name of the road, after the' establishment of the
official weighing place, took the name of Trongate, and the
stream had its name corrupted into St. Enoch's Burn. With
the transfer of its revenues to the University, St. Theneu's
chapel appears to have been left to go to ruin. The actual
property seems to have been disposed of to a lay owner.
On I5th May, 1593, William Fleming, merchant, was asked
by the presbytery whether he intended to cultivate the kirk-
yards of St. Theneu and St. Roche or to build on them,
and he replied that he meant to leave them in their existing
use. 3

In St. Theneu's Gait, and not far from St. Theneu's chapel,
was still another place of worship, dedicated to St. Thomas of
Canterbury, murdered in 1170. As early as 1320 Walter Fitz-
Gilbert, founder of the house of Hamilton, bequeathed certain

1 Charters and Documents, pt ii. 356, 359.

2 Reg. Mag. Sigilli, Iv. 210 ; Charters and Documents, part ii. 364.

8 Presbytery Records, Maitland Club Miscellany, i. 61 ; Glasgow Protocols,
35, 16.

8 4

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

vestments to the cathedral, on condition that they might be
available twice a year for the use of this chapel. 4 The chapel
was in existence in 1505. 5

It will thus be seen that for a place of which the population
at the Reformation is estimated to have been not more than
4500, Glasgow was well supplied with churches and chapels.

4 Reg. Epis. Glasgow, p. 227, 228.

5 Lit. Coll. N.D., Glasg. 258.

CHAPTER XI

THE UNIVERSITY

THOUGH the University of Glasgow had been founded with
great acclaim in 1451, its fortunes during the first hundred
years of its existence do not appear to have been too prosperous.
John Major or Mair, who was its principal Regent from 1518 to
1523, described it in his History, published in 1521, as " poorly
endowed and not rich in scholars/' By each of the successive
sovereigns, from James II. to Mary, it, with its regents and
students, was specially exempted from taxation. 1 In 1563,
in the letter under Queen Mary's privy seal, it is described as
" rather the decay of a university than an established founda-
tion," its schools and chambers being only partly built, and
the provision for its poor bursars and teachers having ceased. 2
The young Queen of Scots was, in fact, the first to give the
struggling seat of learning in the west a helping hand. By
the letter just referred to, the enlightened young ruler founded
bursaries for five poor scholars and granted the convent and
kirk of the Blackfriars to the college, with thirteen acres of land,
forty merks of annual rent from various properties, and ten
bolls of meal. At the same time she intimated her intention
to provide further for the establishment in order that the
liberal sciences might be taught there as freely as in other
colleges of the realm. Her desire was that the bursaries should
be called " bursaries of owre foundatione," and she hoped so

1 Chatters and Documents, i. pt. ii. p. 118, No. 50.

2 Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. p. 129, No. 58.

86 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

to benefit the college that it " sal be reputit our foundatioun
in all tyme aiming." But the times which followed were in
the hands of the queen's enemies and detractors. The men
who benefited most by her gifts in Glasgow would have been
the very last to acknowledge that Mary Stewart could do any
good thing. And for the history of that period succeeding
generations have trusted most to the pens of her most bitter
and ungenerous enemies, John Knox and George Buchanan.
One may look in vain through the Calendar of Glasgow Uni-
versity to-day for any sign of Queen Mary bursaries and other
benefactions.

With an enlightened zeal for which it has not always
received credit the Town Council next came to the help of
the struggling University. In January, 1572-3, it conveyed
to the college all the lands and church property granted to the
city by Queen Mary in 1566-7. In their charter the Town
Council laid down the constitution of the College. After
setting forth that, for lack of funds, the " Pedagoguy " had
wellnigh gone to ruin, and that, through excessive poverty, the
pursuit of learning had become utterly extinct, the magistrates
declared that " with the constant and oft-repeated exhortation,
persuasion, advice, and help of a much honoured man, Master
Andrew Hay, rector of Renfrew and vice-president and rector
of our University of Glasgow," they " endowed, founded and
erected the said college." This was to consist of a Professor
of Theology, who should be president or principal, with the
regents, who should teach Dialectics, Physics, Ethics, Politics
" the whole of Philosophy " and twelve poor students. The
endowment was for the " support and daily provision of these
fifteen persons and their common servants." The appoint-
ment of the Principal was to be for life or fault, but, at the
will of the Principal, the Rector, and the Dean of Faculty, the
regents might be removed every sixth year, " that is, when they
have conducted two classes completely through the curriculum ;

ARRANGEMENTS OF THE COLLEGE

especially if they begin to weary of their work, and do not
apply themselves with sufficient diligence to their duty." The
twelve other poor persons were to be " duly provided, main-
tained in meat and drink, College rooms and bedrooms, and
other easements, for the space of three and a half years only,
a time we deem sufficient for obtaining the master's degree in
the faculty of arts, according to the statutes of that faculty."
The Principal was to employ himself every day of the week
in reading and expounding the scriptures in the College pulpit,
and for remuneration was endowed with the vicarage of
Colmonell with forty merks, as well as twenty merks from the
College funds, while the stipend of each of the regents was to be
" twenty pounds of good money." The Principal was pro-
hibited from residing anywhere except within the College, and
the regents were forbidden to " entangle themselves " in any
other business except that of their office. The scholars were
to live in community, eat together, and sleep within the College,
and week about they were to perform the duties of janitor, read
the Bible in the public hall, and give a short discourse after
supper on the Saturday. The College doors were to be locked
from 8 p.m. till 5 a.m. in winter and from 10 p.m. till 4 a.m. in
summer. All who lived in the College and their servants were
to be free from ordinary jurisdiction, and from all tolls and
exactions. Twice a year the College was to be visited and its
accounts were to be audited. Finally, no one was to be
admitted as a student unless he made beforehand a pure and
sincere confession of faith and religion.

The twelve students thus provided for by the municipality
were not, of course, the only students at the College. The city's
deed of gift refers to " the twelve poor scholars and the two
regents and all students that prosecute their studies in the
College " ; but all were to be equally bound by the rules laid down. 3

3 Charters and Documents, pt. ii. p. 149 ; Act. Parl. iii. 487, v. 88 ; Stat.
Ace. xxi. App. 20.

88 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

On 26th January, 1572-3, this charter was ratified by the
Regent Morton.

Notwithstanding the city's generous gift, however, the
College appears still to have been but poorly provided for, and
five years later, when James VI. was ten years of age, the Regent
Morton granted to it the rectory and vicarage of the parish of
Govan upon terms which amounted to a new erection and
foundation of the University. Under this new foundation the
Principal, to be appointed by the king, was to be well versed
in Holy Writ, and to act as Professor of Hebrew and Syriac.
On alternate days he was to lecture on these languages and on
Theology, and on Sundays was to preach to the people of
Govan. If he were absent for three nights from the College
his place was to be considered vacant. His salary was to be
two hundred merks as Principal and three chalders of corn as
minister of Govan. Of the three regents the first was to be
Professor of Rhetoric and Greek, the second of Dialects and
Logic, with the elements of Arithmetic and Geometry. Each
of these two was to have a salary of fifty merks. The third
regent was to teach Physiology and the observation of Nature,
with Geography and Astronomy. In the absence of the
Principal he was to take his place, and his stipend was to be
" fifty pounds of our money yearly." The appointment and
dismissal of the regents was entrusted to the Principal, who
himself in turn might be dismissed if necessary by the Chancellor,
Rector, and Dean of Faculty. The charter also provided for
the maintenance of four poor students or bursars, who must
be " gifted with excellent parts and knowledge in the faculty
of grammar." These were to be nominated by the Earl of
Morton and his heirs, and admitted by the Principal, who was
to see to it that " rich men were not admitted instead of poor,
nor drones feed upon the hive."

There was to be a " steward or pro visor," who was to
collect the rents and purvey the victuals, his accounts to be

ANDREW MELVILLE.

ANDREW MELVILLE 89

entered in a book and submitted daily to the Principal. His
salary was to be twenty pounds and his expenses, besides his
keep in the College. The Principal's servant and cook and a
porter were also provided for, the two last to have six merks
apiece and their food.

Everyone admitted to the College was to make profession
of his faith once a year, for the " discomfiting of the enemy of
mankind," and the community was to enjoy all immunities
and privileges granted at any time to other universities in the
kingdom.

The wisdom of this new constitution, with its checks and
counterchecks, is believed to have been owed to Andrew Hay,
the Rector of that time. If the new erection discarded the
pre-Reformation idea of a University, and substituted for it, as
Cosmo Innes says, " a composite school, half University, half
Faculty of Arts," 4 it had the inspiring support of a new and
fervid faith, and the advantage of a man of ripe and varied
scholarship in the Principal who was to give it a start. John
Davidson had been principal regent from 1556 till 1572, and
had been succeeded by Peter Blackburn for two years. But
in 1574 the redoubtable and learned Andrew Melville had been
appointed Principal. Though a stern and uncompromising
insister upon every jot and tittle of the new form of church
government, he was " accomplished in all the learning of the
age, and far in advance of the scholars of Scotland." 5

Born in 1545, Melville had received his early education at
Montrose grammar school under Pierre de Marsiliers, and at
St. Mary's College, St. Andrews, and had proceeded to Paris,
where he studied Greek, oriental languages, mathematics, and
law, and came under the influence of Peter Ramus. He had
helped to defend Poitiers during the siege in 1568, and in the
same year the year of the Battle of Langside had been

4 Charters and Documents, pt. ii. p. 168.

5 Cosmo Innes, Sketches of Early Scotch History, p. 225.

go HISTORY OF GLASGOW

appointed Professor of Humanity at Geneva. Among those
whom he met were Beza, Joseph Scaliger, and Francis Hotto-
man. Returning to Scotland in 1573, he was almost at once
singled out by his qualifications for the office of Principal at
Glasgow University, and entered upon his duties in the following
year. The astonishing range of his teaching may be gathered
from the narrative of his nephew, James Melville, who accom-
panied him to Glasgow, and was himself afterwards a professor
at St. Andrews and a moderator of the General Assembly.
" Sa," proceeds this recorder, " falling to wark with a few
number of capable heirars, sic as might be instructars of
vthers theretu, he teatched them the Greik grammer, the
Dialectic of Ramus, the Rhetoric of Taleus, with the practise
therof in Greik and Latin authors, namlie, Homer, Hesiod,
Phocilides, Theognides, Pythagoras, Isocrates, Pindarus, Virgill,
Horace, Theocritus, etc. From that he enterit to the Mathe-
matiks, and teatched the Elements of Euclid, the Arithmetic
and Geometrie of Ramus, the Geographic of Dionysius, the
Tables of Honter, the Astrologic of Aratus. From that to the
Morall Philosophic ; he teatched the Ethiks of Aristotle, the
Offices of Cicero, Aristotle de Virtutibus, Cicero's Paradoxes
and Tusculanes, Aristotle's Polytics, and certain of Platoes
Dialoges. From that to the Naturall Philosophic ; he teatched
the buiks of the Physics, De Ortu, De Caelo, etc., also of Plato
and Fernelius. With this he ioynid the Historic, with the twa
lights thereof, Chronologic and Chirographic, out of Sleidan,
Menarthes, and Melancthon. And all this, by and attoure his
awin ordinar profession, the holie tonges and Theologic. He
teatchit the Hebrew grammar, first schortlie, and syne more
accuratlie ; therefter the Caldai and Syriac dialects, with the
practise thereof in the Psalmes and Warks of Solomon, David,
Ezra, and Epistle to the Galates. He past throw the haill
Comoun Places of Theologie verie exactlie and accuratlie ; also
throw all the Auld and New Testament. And all this in the

MELVILLE'S POPULARITY 91

space of six yeirs, during the quhilk he teatchit everie
day customablie twyse, Sabothe and vther day ; with an
ordinal conference with sic as war present efter dennor and
supper." 6

Melville's teaching was certainly universal enough. Within
two years it was famous throughout Scotland and even further
afield. Numbers who had graduated at St. Andrews came
to Glasgow and entered again as students. So full were the
classes that the rooms could not contain them. Among the
most constant hearers was Mr. Patrick Sharpe, master of the
Grammar School, who was wont to declare that he learned
more from Andrew Melville's table talk and jesting than from
all the books. Altogether, James Melville concludes, " there
was na place in Europe comparable to Glasgow for guid letters
during these yeirs, for a plentifull and guid chepe mercat of
all kynd of langages, artes, and sciences."

In addition to all these labours Melville took a leading part
in the organization of the Scottish Church, and assisted in the
reconstitution of Aberdeen University in 1575, and the re-
formation of St. Andrews University in 1579. I* 1 I 5^ ne was
transferred to St. Andrews as Principal of St. Mary's College,
and there promoted the study of Aristotle and created a taste
for Greek literature. There in 1582 he was Moderator of the
General Assembly which excommunicated Archbishop Mont-
gomerie. From the time of his leaving Glasgow he was mostly
concerned in the political squabbles of the kirk against the
court, and for four years, from 1607 till 1611, was for his bitter-
ness imprisoned in the Tower, only to be released at the request
of the Due de Bouillon, who wished to make him professor of
theology at Sedan. He died there in 1622. 7

Glasgow undoubtedly had the benefit of Andrew Melville's
best years, and his ability and zeal appear to have set the

8 Mr. James Melville's Diary, Bannatyne Club, p. 38.
7 McCrie's Life of Andrew Melville.

92 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

reconstituted University on a path of success and prosperity
from which it has never turned back.

Some idea of the scholarship which made Glasgow Uni-
versity famous in an age when Greek was not yet a popular
study may be learned from the article in Bayle's Historical
Dictionary on John Cameron, who at the age of twenty left
Glasgow for France in 1600. " On admira justement que dans
un age si peu avance il parlat en Grec sur le champ avec la
m^me facilite et avec la meme purete que d'autres en Latin. " 7x

On attaining his majority in 1587, James VI. ratified and
granted anew the various gifts and privileges conferred upon
the College of Glasgow during his reign the rectory and
vicarage of Govan, the properties which formerly belonged to
friars, chaplainries, and altars within the city, the customs
of the tron, and the freedom from taxation. 8 Thirteen years
later, Archbishop James Beaton, who for forty years had been
an exile in France, had his " whole heritages and possessions "
in Scotland restored to him, as already mentioned, but the
Act of Parliament by which this was done expressly excepted
" quhatsumevir rentes and dueteis pertening to the College of
Glasgow." 9

To the same period belongs the restoration to the University
of its ancient treasure and symbol of authority, the Mace.
Presented by the first Rector, Mr. David Cadyou, on the
occasion of his re-election in 1460, this fine piece of silver-work
appears to have been in some danger from the plundering
propensities of the Reformers in 1560, and when Archbishop
Beaton made his hurried visit to Glasgow, to rescue the
church jewels and documents, it was entrusted to him by the
Rector of that year, Mr. James Balfour, Dean of Glasgow. In
1590 the Principal of the University, Mr. Patrick Sharpe, secured

7A Cosmo Innes, Sketches of Early Scotch History, p. 228.

8 Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. No. 75 and No. 79.

9 Ibid. i. pt. ii. No. 86.

HE COLLEGE BUILDINGS

its return, and had it repaired and enlarged. Its original
weight was 5 Ib. yj oz., it now weighs 8 Ib. i oz. 10 The arms
it bears are those of Bishop Turnbull, founder of the University ;
James II., who procured the Papal bull ; Lord Hamilton, who
gave the first endowment ; the Regent Morton, who restored the
college in 1577 ; and the City of Glasgow, within which it has its
seat.

Much had been said of the inconvenience and incomplete-
ness of the old college buildings in the High Street the tene-
ment acquired from Lord Hamilton in 1459, the " place " or
manor-house of Sir Thomas Arthurlee secured in 1475, and the
manse and " kirk room " of the Blackfriars granted by Queen
Mary in 1563, with the " schools and chambers standing half-
built," which excited the benevolence of the brilliant young
queen. But it was not till 1632 that a beginning was made
with the erection of new buildings, and it was not till 1656 that
the main part of these buildings was completed. The eastern
or back quadrangle, containing the houses of the professors,
still remained unfinished. Immediately to the south of the
college buildings the old chapel of the Blackfriars, standing in
its graveyard, was recognized as the college chapel. A bird's-
eye view of the buildings, previous to the fire which destroyed
the chapel in 1670, appeared in Captain Slezer's Theatrum
Scotiae, which was published in 1693. This shows some of
the old tenements then still standing on the street front to the
south of the new fagade, with, between them, a wide passage
ascending by steps from the street to the graveyard, and away
behind college and kirk the spacious college gardens surrounded
by hedges and trees.

These college gardens were not open to the students in
general, but only to those who were sons of noblemen, and who
were accordingly allowed keys. 1

Many of the students lived in the college buildings, paying

10 Munimenta Univ. Glasg. iii. 523. x Munimema, ii. 421.

94 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

no rent for their rooms till the year 1704, when a charge of
four shillings to ten shillings per session began to be made. 2
The occupants apparently furnished their own rooms, and some
of the townspeople seem to have made a business of hiring
them the furniture. Writing of his residence there in 1743,
Jupiter Carlyle says, " I had my lodging this session in a college
room which I had furnished for the session at a moderate rent.
John Donaldson, a college servant, lighted my fire and made
my bed ; and a maid from the landlady who furnished the
room came once a fortnight with clean linens." 3

In 1594 certain abuses seem to have excited the resentment
of the citizens. It was alleged that the rents, chaplainries, and
other emoluments of the Black friars kirk which had been
assigned by the provost and bailies, for the support of poor
bursars in the college, were being wrongly applied to the support
of sons of the richest men in the town. The provost and bailies
took drastic action in the matter, withdrew their gift of these
rents and emoluments, and applied the revenues to the support
of the ministry within the city. Their action was confirmed
by act of parliament. 4

Twenty years later trouble arose over another source of the
University's revenue. In 1581 Archbishop Boyd had mortified
to the college the whole customs of the Glasgow tron and market. 5
In 1614, however, Archbishop Spottiswood, ignoring that
transaction, granted the town customs to the provost and burgh
for a yearly payment of a hundred merks. 6 The college
authorities replied by feuing and disponing to the provost and
burgh the same customs and duties for the ancient feu-duty of
50, being 16 133. 4d. less than the hundred merks demanded

2 Munimenta Universitatis Glasguensis, iii. 513.

3 Autobiography of the Rev. Alex. Carlyle, D.D., p. 99.

4 Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. No. Ixxxi.

5 Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. No. Ixxii.

6 Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. No. xcv.

PROPERTIES AND PRIVILEGES 95

by the archbishop. 7 As the town had paid the archbishop a
grassum of 4500 merks on his charter the provost and bailies
naturally called upon him to set the matter right. He there-
upon gave them a bond undertaking to procure a renunciation
from the college of its claim under the " pretendit gift " of
Archbishop Boyd, or in default of this to repay to them the
grassum of 4500 merks. 8 As sasine was granted to the town
six months later by the college authorities on their own charter
it would appear that Spottiswood had failed to make good his
claim, and that the burgh obtained the customs on the lower
terms offered by the college. 9 Thirteen years later, in 1628,
probably with a view to the avoidance of similar contentions
in future, the University obtained from Spottiswood's successor,
Archbishop Law, a charter confirming the mortification of the
tron dues by Archbishop Boyd in 1581. 10

Notwithstanding this and other profits accruing to the
town from the goodwill of the University, the city fathers did
not hesitate to take exception to the ordinances of the college
authorities. The sons of burgesses enjoyed certain privileges
and exemptions, mostly, it may be supposed, living and taking
their meals at home. Accordingly, on i8th November, 1626,
complaint was made that the Principal and regents had made
an undue exaction on the town's bursars, " quha are urgit to
gif ane silver pund at their entrie." l

King Charles L, in 1630, granted a charter under the Great
Seal, confirming and re-granting to the University all its
properties and privileges, under burden of the stipends to the
ministers of Govan, Renfrew, Kilbride, Dalziel, and Colmonell,
whose revenues had been annexed to the college. 2 The king

7 Charters and Documents, i. ii. p. 466.

8 Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. No. xcvi.

9 Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. No. xcvii.
10 Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. p. 471.

1 Burgh Records, sub die. 8 Charters and Documents, No. civ.

g6 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

also took a personal interest in the affairs of the students and
the University. In 1634, with his own hand, he wrote to the
archbishop requiring him to see that the members of the
college attended service in their gowns in their proper pews in
the cathedral.

Among other rights claimed by the college authorities was
that of exclusive and complete jurisdiction, even in criminal
matters, over the students. Delinquents were rebuked, fined,
and committed to durance in the college tower for such offences
as cutting the gown of another student on the Lord's day,
being found by the Principal " with a sword girt about him
in the toun," and sending a letter to the Principal " conceived
in very insolent terms." 3 In 1667 it was decreed that students
found breaking the college windows or otherwise damaging the
buildings should be " furthwith publicklie whipped and ex-
truded the colledge." * And for performing the practical joke
of handing in the name of a fellow student to be publicly prayed
for in church, an act of uncalled-for solicitude which became
rather common for a time, a number of the youths were sum-
moned before the regents and severely reprimanded, while
one was expelled. 6

On one occasion, on i8th August, 1670, the college
authorities even proceeded to try a student for murder. The
court sat in " the laigh hall of the universitie," with the rector,
Sir William Fleming of Farme, as president, and the Dean of
Faculty and three regents as assessors. In the indictment
made by John Cumming, writer in Glasgow, elected as procurator
fiscal, and by Andrew Wright, nearest of kin to the deceased,
Robert Barton, a student, was charged with the murder of
Janet Wright in her own house, " by the shoot off ane gun,"
and the punishment demanded was death. The accused
pleaded not guilty, and thereupon a jury of fifteen was im-
panelled and the trial proceeded. Before pronouncing their

3 Munimenta, vol. ii. p. 415. 4 Ibid. p. 340 5 Ibid. ii. 373-379.

COLLEGE JURISDICTION 97

verdict the jury very wisely demanded that the University
should hold them scatheless of any consequences, " in regaird
they declaired the caice to be singular, never haveing occurred
in the aidge of befor to ther knowledge, and the rights and
priviledges of the universitie not being produced to them to
cleir ther priviledge for holding of criminall courts, and to sitt
and cognosce upon cryms of the lyke natur." The court
replied that, having agreed to " pase upon the said inqueist in
initio," the jury made this demand too late ; nevertheless,
" for satisfactioune and ex abundante gratia," the court under-
took to hold them free "of all coast, danger, and expenses."
Whether or not the jury were completely satisfied with this
assurance we are not told, but their verdict was on the safe
side Not Guilty. 6

Still later, in 1711, when some of the students who had
been making trouble in the city were arrested, tried by the
magistrates, and compelled to pay a fine, the University
authorities demanded the repayment of the fines, declaring that
the magistrates, if they refused, would be held liable, " for all
expenses and damadges that the said Masters of the University
may be putt to in vindicating their right and jurisdiction over
any of the scholars committed to their charge." 7 The upshot
is unknown.

Meanwhile the functions of the college and the kirk were
gradually being separated. In 1621, by an Act of the Arch-
bishop of Glasgow the Principal of the University was relieved
from the ministry of the parish of Go van, the stipend and
emoluments of a separate minister were arranged for, and the
patronage was vested in the college authorities. 8

A few years later the Principal was similarly relieved from
the necessity of regular ministration in the kirk of the Black-
friars.

Munimenta, ii. 340. 7 Ibid. ii. 400.

8 Munimenta, i. 521, 522 ; Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. p. 470.
H.G.II. G

98 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

In 1635 the college authorities found the upkeep of the old
Blackf riars kirk too much for their resources. It had become
ruinous, and a new settlement had to be found. An arrange-
ment was therefore made with the Town Council whereby that
body agreed to take over the kirk, with the ground westward
from it to the meal market, and a space of eleven ells width on
each side of the kirk for enlargement of the building, if necessary.
As part of the bargain the Town Council was to pay 2000 merks
towards the completion of the college buildings, the college was
to have the next best seat in the kirk after the magistrates,
and free use of the building at all times for ceremonial purposes,
and at the same time four of the " new laigh chambers " in
the college were to be assigned to the use of burgess' sons while
students. 9 This arrangement was confirmed by the archbishop
and the Crown. Thus the old kirk of the Blackf riars finally
passed into possession of the city. 10

Another notable windfall which accrued to the college for
the completion of its buildings was a sum of 20,000 left in
I ^53 by the stout old minister of the Barony, Zachary Boyd,
who was also dean of faculty, rector, and vice-chancellor of the
University. The legacy was burdened with the stipulation that
the University should publish all its benefactor's literary works.
A number of them, Zion's Flowers in poetry and The
Last Battell of the Soul in Death in prose, have seen the
light, but in merciful consideration of Boyd's memory the
authorities still delay complete fulfilment of his stipulation.
Zachary's bust, however, was piously set up by the college
authorities, and the buildings were erected at intervals. About
1690, Principal Fall records, the stone balustrade was put up
on the great stair leading to the fore common hall, " with a
Lion and a Unicorn upon the first turn." Bust, stair, and
balustrade are all still to be seen in the new college at
Gilmorehill.

Charters and Documents, No. cvii. 10 Charters, i. pt. ii. cviii, cix.

COLLEGIATE LIFE 99

An excellent idea of the student life, of the more orderly
sort, at Glasgow University in the latter half of the seven-
teenth century is furnished by the extracts from the Register
of Josiah Chorley published by Cosmo Innes in his Sketches of
Scotch History* A large amount of intimate and interesting
information of the same period is also to be found in Principal
Baillie's Letters and Journals. There can be no question of
the tremendous effect upon Scottish character in the seven-
teenth and eighteenth centuries which must have been produced
not only by the learning of Glasgow University, but also by
the social influence of its collegiate life. The abandonment
of that collegiate life at a later day has ever been a subject of
regret to lovers of education as distinct from mere information,
and they regard as a happy augury the present-day movement
to remedy the defect by the establishment of student hostels
and an enlarged union.

1 pp. 231-238.

CHAPTER XII

THE SONG SCHOOLS AND GRAMMAR SCHOOL

IN the first volume of this history occasional reference has been
made to the early schools of Glasgow. These schools were
probably of more importance in the life of the community than
the casual mention in the various early records might seem to
imply. The Rule of Sarum, or Salisbury, which was adopted
as the ritual of the Glasgow bishopric almost from its restoration
in the twelfth century, ordained that the chancellor should
regulate schools and the precentor provide for the instruction
and discipline of the boys serving in the choir. 1 Abundant
evidence exists in the early Scottish chartularies of the pro-
vision of schools by the clergy throughout the country as early
as the twelfth century itself. 2

In connection with Glasgow Cathedral there must have
existed from the very first a song school for the musical instruc-
tion of the boy singers of the choir. Its location was probably
at the hall of the vicars choral on the north side of the cathedral,
from which Vicars' Alley, the passage between the Royal
Infirmary and the graveyard of the cathedral, still takes its
name. 3 Among other references to this song school there is
the deed by which, in 1539, John Panter, " formerly preceptor

1 Regist. Epis. Glasg. i. 270, No. 211.

2 Charters and Documents, i. 44 ; Grant's History of the Burgh and Parish
Schools of Scotland.

3 " Hall of the Vicars Choral," by Archbishop Eyre, in The Book of Glasgow
Cathedral.

100

SONG SCHOOLS 101

of the song school of the metropolitan church of Glasgow,"
settled certain rents of a tenement and yard on the east side of
Castle Street on the master of the cathedral song school and
others for the performance of anniversary services at certain
altars. 4 Under the various Acts which followed the Reforma-
tion, the revenues of the Vicars Choral were transferred to the
provost and bailies of Glasgow, the need for training boys in
the elaborate Latin services of the cathedral came to an end,
and the song school of the metropolitan church ceased to
exist. Accordingly, in 1590 John Panter's nephew, Sir Mark
Jamieson, life-renter of the tenement above mentioned, went
to the Tolbooth and delivered to the provost and bailies
the documents of his uncle's gift " in ane litill box, to be
keipit in the commoun kist." 5 The cathedral song school
had served its time, and had laid the foundations of a musical
taste in Glasgow and its cathedral which has never since died
out.

Meanwhile, at a much later date, a second song school had
been founded in the city. When the Church of St. Mary of
Loretto and her mother St. Anne, now the Tron church, founded
by James Houstoun, vicar of Eastwood and sub-dean of the
cathedral, in 1525, 6 grew into a collegiate foundation, the
magistrates and council endowed it with sixteen acres of the
Gallowmuir and nominated the third prebendary, whose duties
were to have charge of the organ and to carry on a song school. 7
After the Reformation the Trongate church and churchyard
were sold by the bailies and council, but it says much for
their good taste and enlightenment that they carried on this
school as long as they could. In the deed of 1570, conveying
the church and churchyard to James Fleming, " the common
school called the Song School/' standing immediately to the

4 Charters and Documents, ii. Appendix, No. xxi.

5 Glasgow Burgh Records, i. 155.

8 Charters and Documents, ii. pp. 494-7. 1 Lib. Coll. pp. xv.-xxv.

102 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

west of it, is not included. 8 The Town Council seems to have
gone still further, and to have accepted some responsibility for
carrying on the school. Towards the support of the teacher,
one Thomas Craig, in 1575, the " burgess fines," or entry money
of a new freeman, John Camming, were assigned a somewhat
frequent method of making payments at that time. 9 A few
days earlier the town's accounts show a payment to Thomas
Craig, of twenty-three shillings for straw and thatching of the
" New Kirk scule." 10 Three years later, in February, 1578,
appears a payment of ten pounds " to Thomas Craig for his
support in teicheing of the new kirk scole." x In June, 1583,
again, occur payments forty shillings " to Mr. William
Struthers for to pay the maill (or rent) of ane sang scole/' and
eight pounds " gewin to Thomas Craig, maister of the Tronegait
scole, for his chaplainrie." 2 In 1588, however, the town council
found itself in money difficulties. To meet these it decided
on feuing certain of its common lands and other properties,
Among these last was " the scuile sumtyme callit the Sang
Scuile." 3 It does not appear, however, that the school was
actually sold, and eleven years later there is a record of a
burgess fine being given " to Johne Craig scholemaister for his
service done be him." 4 It seems likely that the school had
been removed to new premises, for payments of forty shillings
are recorded in 1577 and 1583 for the rent of a chamber " to
be ane sang scole." 5 In 1626 the council made an agreement
with James Sanders to give instruction in music to all the
children of the burgh who might be put to his school for a
salary of ten shillings a quarter to himself and forty pennies
to his man, and at the same time forbade all others to teach
music in the burgh. 6

8 Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. pp. 140-142.

9 Burgh Records, p. 43. 10 Burgh Records, 457. 1 Burgh Records, 465.

2 Burgh Records, i. 472. 3 Burgh Records, i. 125. 4 Burgh Records, i. 187.
6 Burgh Records, i. 462, 47^. 6 Burgh Records, i. 354.

ENCOURAGEMENT OF MUSIC 103

At a salary like that it is evident that the music school
master must have had other means of livelihood. In the next
entry regarding the Song School, twelve years later, Sanders
is mentioned as " reader," so it may be gathered that the pre-
Reformation office of the third prebendary of St. Mary's, who
was appointed by the magistrates, and whose duties were to
have charge of the organ and to carry on a song school, had
been perpetuated in a readership in the Tron kirk with the
same musical duties attached.

The entry alluded to, on 5th May, 1638, sets forth that the
music school within the burgh was altogether decayed, " to
the grait discredit of this citie and discontentment of sindrie
honest men within the same who hes bairnes whom they wold
have instructit in that art." The magistrates accordingly
called Sanders before them, and with his consent appointed
Duncan Burnet to " take up the said school again." 7

Still later, in 1646, the town council engaged John Cant
at a salary of 40 per annum for five years to raise the psalms
in the High Kirk on the Sabbath and in the Blackfriars at the
weekly sermons, " and for keeping ane music school." 8

These facts should be enough to show that, whatever may
have been the effects of the Reformation in other parts of the
country in killing and discrediting love of the fine arts, the art
of music at any rate continued to find approval and substantial
support from the magistrates and the people of Glasgow.

Equally creditable is the support which appears to have
been given from very early times to the maintenance of a
grammar school in the burgh. It is true that the first reference
to that Grammar School occurs only in 1460, but there is every
likelihood that, as enjoined on the chapter of the cathedral
by the ritual of Sarum, the school had been set up before the
close of the twelfth century. Bishop Jocelyn, the energetic
and enlightened prelate who began the building of the present

7 Burgh Records, i. 388. 8 Burgh Records, ii. 96.

104 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

cathedral in 1175, and secured from William the Lion the
charter of a burgh and a fair for his episcopal city of Glasgow,
set his seal, in the year 1180, to the deed confirming the Abbot
of Kelso in possession of the churches and schools of Roxburgh,
and was not in the least likely to overlook the duty and the
advantages of setting up a grammar school in his own new
burgh on Clydeside. When the Grammar School of Glasgow
is first referred to, in 1460, it was already a long established
institution. It is notable that the deed by which Simon
Dalgleish, precentor and official of Glasgow, conveyed to Master
Alexander Galbraith, rector and master of the school, and his
successors, a tenement on the west side of the Meikle Wynd,
or High Street, to be held by the master and scholars for certain
religious services, declared that the provost, bailies, and
councillors of the burgh were to be patrons, governors, and
defenders of the gift. 9 It does not seem likely that this was
the first official connection of the town council with the school ;
but real authority in appointing and dismissing the master of
the school still lay with the chancellor of the cathedral. In its
well-known judgment of 1494, the chapter of the bishopric
solemnly declared that Master Martin Wan, the chancellor, and
his predecessors of the church of Glasgow, had been, without
interruption and beyond the memory of man, in peaceable
possession of the appointing and removing of the master of the
grammar school, and of that school's oversight and govern-
ment, and further, that it was unlawful, without the chancellor's
permission, to keep a grammar school in the town ; and
accordingly that " a certain discreet man," Master David Dun,
presbyter of the diocese, who had set himself to teach youths
grammar and the elements of learning within the city, had no
right to do so, and accordingly must be " put down to silence
in the premises for ever." 10

Glasgow Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. p. 436.
10 Charters and Documents, i. 89, No. xl.

THE OLD GRAMMAR SCHOOL.

THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL 105

The magistrates nevertheless made certain claims. In
1508, when Mr. Martin Rede, then chancellor, appointed Mr.
John Rede to be master, the provost, Sir John Stewart of
Minto, and others, protested and claimed for the magistrates the
right to admit Mr. John and the other masters of the schools.
The matter was decided by reference to the foundation and
letters of Mr. Simon Dalgleish in 1460. 1

For his stipend the master of the Grammar School seems
to have had to look, not to any direct remuneration for the
work of teaching, but, after the manner of the church of that
time, to the revenues of some other office. In connection with
St. Ninian's leper hospital at the south end of Glasgow bridge,
William Stewart, a canon of the cathedral, had built a chapel
near it at the corner of Rutherglen Loan, and in 1494 he endowed
it with certain annual rents and a tenement on the south side of
the Briggate. At that time the chaplain was the master of the
Grammar School, and from certain provisions it appears to
have been intended that the two offices should be held in
perpetuity by the same individual. 2

Further, on 8th January, 1572-73, when the Provost and
town council made over to the University all the kirk livings
which had been bestowed on the burgh by Queen Mary in
1566, they specially exempted the chaplainry of All Hallows
or All Saints " granted formerly by us to the master of the
Grammar School," and ordained that it should remain for ever
with him and his successors. 3

Stimulated perhaps by the kindly interest of the town
council, the attendance at the school appears to have increased,
for iii 1577 Robert Hutcheson and his wife renounced their
right to a house and yard on the west of the school in order
that these might provide more accommodation. 4 At the same

1 Diocesan Registers, i. 427, ii. 267. 2 Reg. Epis. Glasg. No. 469.

3 Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. p. 161.

4 Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. p. 447.

106 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

time the town's master of works was instructed to " mak the
grammar scole wattirfast, and at the spring of the yeir to mend
the west parte thairof ." 5 On i6th November the accounts show
a payment of 483. " for XII threif of quheit straye to theik
the Grammer Scole," and on I2th May following one of 8
" gevin to James Fleming, maister of work to mend the grammar
scole." 6

The first actual record of the appointment of a master by the
town council occurs in 1582. On i^th November Mr. Patrick
Sharp, master of the grammar school, appeared before the
council and resigned his office, along with the chaplainry of
All Hallows altar and all other rents and duties belonging to
it, and the provost and council instantly, with advice of the
regents of the University, elected Mr. John Blackburn to the
mastership and chaplainry. 7

Blackburn proved to be an energetic manager. Money
evidently was needed, and he approached the town council
with the proposal that the front schoolhouse and yard should
be sold. He offered to pay the council a hundred merks and
odds if they would allow him to sell the property ; or, alter-
natively, he offered to accept two hundred merks for his consent
that they should dispose of it. In the end they agreed to pay
him two hundred and ten merks, and, this being agreed to, they
sent round the drum on three several days, as was customary,
to advertise the sale, and finally disposed of the property to
Bailie Hector Stewart, the highest bidder, for four hundred
and seventy merks and an annual payment of five merks. 8

Four years later drastic action had to be taken with the
schoolhouse itself. First the council appointed a committee
to visit and report on the repairs required. 9 The committee
reported the school to be altogether ruinous. The minute of

6 Burgh Records, i. 64. Burgh Records, i. 465, 466.

7 Burgh Records, i. 99. Burgh Records, i. 176, 177, 178.
9 Burgh Records, i. 208.

A NOTED SCHOOLMASTER 107

23rd August, 1600, contains a fine outburst of generous senti-
ment : " It is condiscendit be the pro vest, bailleis, and counsale
that thai think na thing mair profitabill, first to the glory of
God, nixt the weill of the towne, to have ane Grammer Schole."
Then as always, however, Glasgow was prepared to back its
sentiments with solid deeds, and the council gave order that
" the haill stanes of the rwinus dekayit fallin dovne bak
almonshous pertenyng to the towne " should be devoted to
the rebuilding of the school, and that Blackburn should report
every council day on the progress of the work. 10 Money was
required for the job, and Blackburn was authorized to pay to
the master of works for the purpose four hundred merks, of
the legacy left by " Hary the porter " of the college. 1 Other
funds were got from the feuing of the common lands, while
800 were raised by means of a tax. 2

In the midst of the enterprise Blackburn received a call
to the ministry of a kirk in some other part of the country.
Reluctant to lose him, " that is and hes bein ane guid and
sufficient member in instructing of the barnes of the towne and
vther effaires of the kirk thairinto," the council appointed two
members to see the presbytery, and promise Blackburn any
" benefit " about the town when it should happen to fall vacant,
in order that he should be retained as master of the school. 3
These persuasive efforts were successful, and four years later
we find the council dealing with a certain Robert Brown,
gardener, for delay in paying to Blackburn "sax pundis money "
for the Martinmas term's rent of the All Hallows chaplainry
due from a house and yard he occupied, belonging to " ane
noble and potent Lord Hew erll of Egglingtoune." 4 A year
later still, in 1606, it became evident that among the " benefits "
conferred on the schoolmaster to induce him to remain in the

10 Burgh Records, i. 210.

1 Burgh Records, i. 217. 2 Burgh Records, i. 218.

3 Burgh Records, i. 226. 4 Burgh Records, i. 343.

io8 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

town must have been a certain number of burgess " fines " or
dues. William Balloch, maltman, is made burgess and freeman
of the burgh as " one of Master John Blackburn's burgesses
granted to him by the provost and bailies of the burgh for his
service in the Grammar School." 5 By and by this source of
revenue appears to have been interfered with by an ordinance
declaring that burgesses were no longer to be admitted in
favour of any person by reason of his office, but only by the
dean of guild. Blackburn complained that this meant an
annual loss to him of two burgess fines, and requested that the
loss be made good by a payment from the burgh treasury.
As an equivalent he was granted a yearly sum of forty merks. 6

In 1611 it was arranged to feu further ground belonging
to the Grammar School, and Blackburn, appearing before the
council, very adroitly declared that while he believed the whole
of the money thus obtained belonged by right to himself, yet
he would submit to the will of the city fathers in the matter.
After discussion it was decided that " the said maister John "
should have half the money, the other half being assigned to
the use of the town. 7

Nothing more is recorded of Master John Blackburn, but
the town council continued to take a vital and kindly interest
in its Grammar School. In 1624 the accounts show a payment
of 80 to " Maister William Wallace, scholmaister." 8 The
school must now have grown beyond the powers of one man,
however, for in 1629, with Wallace present, the council deputed
two city ministers, the Principal of the University, and four
well-known citizens to visit the school and report, and four
months later we find other two individuals named as masters
of the Grammar School. The council ordered forty merks each
to be paid to John Hamilton and James Anderston, in that
capacity " for helping the ministers to preach in their absence

5 Burgh Records, i. 246. c Burgh Records, i. 310.

7 Burgh Records, i. 318, 319. 8 Burgh Records, i. 477.

GRAMMAR SCHOOL EMOLUMENTS 109

,t divers times. " 9 A year later the council recorded its approval
of the efforts of Wallace, who " hes thir divers yeiris by past,
sen his entrie thairto, exercet his office faithfullie and treulie
in training of all scholleris putt under his chairge," and they
therefore earnestly requested and desired him to renew his
engagement with them. 10 Eight years later still, in 1638, it
was ordered that he be paid all the rents due to him out of the
" hous of manufactorie " and that the burgh officers help him
to collect the rest of the dues belonging to him as master of
the Grammar School. 1

At that time the school and the town evidently suffered
from a certain looseness in the management of their affairs.
In 1639 the attention of the council was drawn to the fact that
small rents due to the town and school from a number of houses,
barns, and kilns in the city had gone out of use of payment, and
that others were likely to follow. It was therefore ordained
that such rent and dues should be engrossed by the town clerk
all future sasines. 2

After the abolition of episcopacy by the famous General
Assembly held in Glasgow Cathedral in 1638, an effort was
made to secure a competent allowance out of the revenues of
the bishopric for the maintenance of the High Kirk, the Bishop's
Hospital, and the Grammar School. 3 For these purposes King
Charles I. actually signed a deed by which the teinds of Glasgow,
Drymen, Dryfesdale, Cambusnethan, and Traquair were
handed over to the town. 4 This deed was ratified by Act of
Parliament, but was rescinded in 1662 after the Restoration
of Charles II. and episcopacy. 6

As a token of the town council's special interest in the

8 Burgh Records, i. 370, 372. 10 Burgh Records, i. 376.

1 Burgh Records, i. 391. z Burgh Records, i. 397.

3 Burgh Records, i. 431.

4 Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. p. 480.

5 Act. Parl. Scot. vii. 372.

no HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Grammar School, the scholars were in 1648 appointed to sit
every Sabbath day in the college seat of the Blackfriars Kirk,
which stood nearly opposite the school, on the east side of
High Street. 6

The Grammar School was not, however, the only school in
Glasgow. In 1604 the presbytery complained of a plurality
of schools, and considered "the school taught by John Buchanan
and the Grammar School quite sufficient, and in 1639 the town
council ordained that nae mae Inglisch scoolles be keipit or
haldin within this brughe heirefter bot four only, with ane
wrytting schooll" ; 7 and though in 1658 the council directed
the bailies to inhibit " the womane that hes tackine vpe an
schole in the heid of the Salt Mercatt at hir awin hande," 8 two
years later an order was made " to tak up the names of all
persounes, men or weomen, who keepes Scots Schooles within
the toune, and to report " ; and three years afterwards no fewer
than fourteen persons, eight of them women, were permitted
to keep Scots schools, " they and their spouses, if they ony
have, keiping and attending the ordinances within the
samyne." 9

Altogether it does not seem that Glasgow was at any time
ill supplied with means of education for its rising generations.

6 Burgh Records, ii. 156.

7 Burgh Records, i. 397. 8 Burgh Records, 2oth Feb.
9 Burgh Records, 2oth Oct. 1660 and I4th Nov. 1663.

CHAPTER XIII

MAISTER PETER LOWE AND THE FACULTY OF
PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS

FROM a very early period Glasgow appears to have made
public provision for the sick and infirm. From at least the
year 1350 it had a hospital for lepers, St. Ninian's Hospital,
near the bridge end, on the south side of the river an insti-
tution commemorated to the present day in the names of St.
Ninian Street and Hospital Street. There were also other
hostels or spitals, mostly almshouses for the poor, as at Pol-
madie, St. Nicholas' Hospital in Castle Street, founded by
Bishop Muirhead in 1471, and the hospital near the Stable-
green founded by Dean Blacader in 1524. From the earliest
times also, there can be little doubt, the city had the advantage
of the presence of practitioners of the arts of medicine and
surgery. As in other affairs of learning, the monks carried on
the best traditions of these healing arts. So far, indeed, did
they progress that at one tune there appeared a danger of the
cure of the body usurping the place of the cure of the soul, and
in 1215 Pope Innocent III. found it desirable to limit their
activities by forbidding churchmen to undertake any operation
that involved the letting of blood. Unwilling to forego the
emoluments of their surgical practice, the monks hit upon the
plan of deputing one of their lay brethren or servants to
perform operations. Accordingly, the barber came to be the
surgeon, and barber-surgeons continued to be the orthodox
blood-letters till the early years of the eighteenth century.

H2 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

These barber-surgeons acquired their skill, not by study at
a college or university, but by apprenticeship to a member
of the craft. It was in this way that Tobias George Smollett
qualified for his profession in the city of Glasgow.

The sister art of medicine in similar fashion came to be
practised by more or less unlearned individuals, many of them
the merest quacks and charlatans. Many of the cures which
they used, down even to the days of the celebrated Cullen,
were quite surprising abominations. As late as 1737 the official
pharmacopoeia contained such remedies as the excrement of
horse, pig, goat, and peacock, mummy, snails, and the juice of
wood-lice.

Towards the end of the sixteenth century, however, steps
were taken in Glasgow to put the practice of medicine and
surgery upon a more satisfactory footing. The new movement
appears to have been due, like most other developments and
improvements in human society, not to any wisdom of the
community as a whole, but to the character, ability, and genius
of a single person. There were already recognized practitioners
of surgery and medicine in Glasgow. On I7th May, 1577,
Alexander Hay, " chirurgiane," applied to the town council,
declaring his desire to remain in the city and serve the people
in his art and craft, and for support he was granted ten merks
yearly. At the same time he was made a burgess and exempted
from taxation, as his former master, James Abernethy, had
been. 1 And in 1580 the admission fees of a burgess were given
to " Thomas Mylne, chirurgiane, for his curing of Thomas Muir,
hurt in the townes besynes." 2

1 Burgh Records, i. 58.

2 Burgh Records, i. 83. Milne was the purchaser, for eleven hundred merks,
on 2nd January, 1588-9, of the Milndamhead, Peatbog, and Dassiegreea,
when the town's necessities compelled it to dispose of some of its common
lands. (Ibid. 126.) On 3rd June of the same year he was charged before
the Council with calling some of the bailies deceivers and traitors, and
was ordered to make confession at the cross, and forfeit his pension for
a year. (Ibid. 138.)

MAISTER PETER LOWE.

MAISTER PETER LOWE 113

But the man who first set the practice of medicine and
surgery in Glasgow on the path of real progress and reliability
was " Maister Peter Lowe.'* A Scotsman, probably a native
of Glasgow or its neighbourhood, and born about the year
I550, 3 he declares, in the preface to the second edition of his
Chyrurgerie, published in 1612, " that he was Doctor in the
Faculty of Chirurgerie at Paris, and ordinary surgeon to the
French king and queen, that he had practised in France,
Flaunders, and elsewhere the space of 22 yeers, thereafter being
Chirurgian maior to the Spanish regiments at Paris 2 yeeres,
next following the French king, my Master, in the warres
6 yeeres, where I took commoditie to practise all points and
operations of Chirurgerie/' He appears, in fact, to have been
one of the class of wandering Scottish scholars, soldiers, and
adventurers, like Michael Scot in the thirteenth century,
John Major in the fifteenth, and George Buchanan in his own
time, who, finding little opportunity of learning and advance-
ment in their own country, betook themselves to the continent
and achieved distinction there. In 1596 he published his work
on the " Spanish Sickness " in London, and the preface to his
great work, the Chirurgerie, is dated " From London the 20th
day of Aprill, 1597." He would appear to have come to
Glasgow in the spring of 1598, for on iyth March in the following
year it was/' aggreit of new and contractit betuix the towne
and Doctor Low for iiij xx merkis money be yeir," that he should
attend the poor of the town.

In the meantime he had come under the censure of the
clergy in the city for some trespass on the strict lines of conduct
then insisted upon by these inquisitors, and was ordered to do
penance " at the pillar " of the kirk. A man familiar with a
wider world than these inquisitors had known, he appears not
only to have treated the sentence of the spiritual fathers with
unbecoming levity, but actually to have forgotten to satisfy

3 Life and Works, p. 17.

H.G.II. H

n 4 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

their " thesaurer " as regards the pecuniary part of his sentence,
and accordingly the worthy presbytery had him again before
them, and ordered him both to " satisfy the thesaurer " and
stand another couple of Sundays "on ye Filler." 4

Already, however, Lowe appears to have been taking action
to have the practice of medicine and surgery in Glasgow placed
upon a footing of greater reliability. It can scarcely be doubted
that an entry in the kirk session records of i4th September,
1598, was due to his initiative. According to that record " the
Session think it good that the University, Ministers, and Pres-
bitry take cognition who are within the Toun that pretend to
skill in medicine ; that those who have skill may be reteaned
and others rejected." 5 The session approached the town
council on the subject, and the town council deputed a com-
mittee consisting of three bailies, the three ministers of the city,
and the principal of the college, with Mr. Blais Lowery and Mr.
John Blakburne, master of the Grammar School, to consider
as to the examination and trial " of all sic persounes as vsit or
sal happin to vse the said arte within the towne in tyme
cumyng." 6

An examining board thus constituted was not very likely
to prove the most satisfactory means of attaining the desired
purpose. Lowe appears to have felt very strongly on the
subject. In the Latin preface to the first edition of his Chirur-
gerie, in 1597, he had told his late colleagues of the College of
Surgeons at Paris that in his own country he had not found
any such accomplished practitioners as themselves. In the
second edition of his work, in 1612, he inserted a dedication to
his " very Worshipfull, learned, and well-experimented good
friends, Gilbert Primrose, Sergeant Chirurgian to the King's
Maiestie ; James Harvie, Cheife Chirurgiane to the Queenes
Maiestie ; those of the Worshippull Companie of Chirurgians

4 Tron Session Records, iii. 274.

6 Wodrow's Collections, ii. pt. ii. p. 76. 6 Burgh Records, i. 192, 193.

FACULTY OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 115

in London and Edenborough, and all such well-experimented
men in the Kingdome who are licensed to professe the Divine
art of Chirurgerie. " At the same time and in the same dedica-
tion, he inveighed warmly against all Quack Doctors and such
"as do their worke vnskilfully . . . like as cosoners, quack-
salvers, charlitans, witches, charmers, and divers other sorts
of abusers," . . . who " are permitted to vse charmes, lyes,
execrable oaths, mortiferous poyson, fallacious and vncertaine
experiments, whereby they destroy both friend and foe, euer
detracting the true professors of the Art."

His idea was to eliminate all such charlatans and empirics,
and to establish in Glasgow some such college as that of Paris,
for the benefit of the West of Scotland. He appealed to King
James, and as a result procured a " gift," " privilege," or charter
under the Privy Seal dated " Penult November, 1599." By
this charter the king " makis, constitutis, and ordinis Maister
Peter Low, our Chirurgiane and chief chirurgiane to oure
dearest son the Prince, with the assistance of Mr. Robert
Hamiltone, professoure of medicine, and their successouris,
indwelleris of our Citie of Glasgow," giving them full power to
summon before them all persons professing surgery in Glasgow
and the West of Scotland, to examine them as to their learning,
and, if found worthy, to admit them to the exercise of the art.
At the same time severe penalties were imposed on any who
should practise without the necessary licence. 7

This deed, granted at Holyrood, was in fact the charter of
foundation of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, under
which that Faculty exercises authority at the present hour.
Under its provisions, the Visitors, as Lowe and Hamilton were
termed, were required to attend every injured, murdered, or
poisoned person, and report the cases to the magistrates on
the first Monday of every month ; they were to prescribe gratis
for the sick poor, and they were empowered to make statutes

7 Life and Works, by Maister Peter Lowe, p. 66. Burgh Records, i. 202.

n6 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

governing the profession, and to pursue and interdict unlicensed
practitioners. The charter further regulated the sale of drugs
and poisons ; it exempted licentiates from weaponschawings,
watching, warding, attending at justice courts, etc., and it
obliged all law officers and magistrates to enforce the decisions
of the Faculty. 8

This charter, of whose provisions there can be little doubt
Lowe himself was the author, was a piece of legislation as
enlightened as any Act of Parliament or by-law of the present
day, and in its provision for an inquest and for medical relief
of the poor was far in advance of its time. Under this charter
the Faculty took rank, as the Incorporation of Physicians and
Surgeons, among the incorporations of the Trades House,
when that body was constituted under Sir George Elphinstone's
Letter of Guildry six years later, and it is the governing charter
of the Faculty to the present day.

Curiously enough, Peter Lowe was never himself president
of the Faculty, though he appears repeatedly as one of the four
" quartermasters." That he was a citizen held in great respect
is shown by the fact that he and Hamilton were among the eight
representatives of the crafts named in the Letter of Guildry, and
the veneration in which his memory was held in shown by the
care with which the copy of his work in the library of the
Faculty was bound and forbidden to be lent out of the building.
His portrait also and his gloves remain among the chief treasures
of the Faculty.

Not a great deal is known of the subsequent life of this
notable surgeon. In 1601 he accompanied the Duke of Lennox
in his embassy to France, the town council, at the special
request and desire of the Duke, excusing his absence and
continuing the payment of his " pension " or retaining fee. 9
The amount of this fee was 53 6s. 8d. 10 Another fee paid

8 Notarial copy in possession of the Faculty.

9 Burgh Records, i. 223. 10 Memorabilia, p. 55.

A PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE 117

him by the town was one of 40 in 1610, for " bowelling " or
embalming the Laird of Houston, who had been provost of the
burgh. 1 Some time before 1604 he married Helena, daughter of
David Wemyss, the first Presbyterian minister of Glasgow, by
whom he had a son John, admitted a member of the Faculty
in 1636, though it is doubtful whether he was ever a surgeon at
all. 2 John Lowe was admitted out of respect for his father,
and " for the benefit of his children/' much as the son of a
member of one of the trades' incorporations would be admitted,
to give him status as a burgess. John Lowe's son, James,
again was admitted in 1677, for the same reason, though he
was a lawyer in Edinburgh.

Peter Lowe died either in 1612, the date on his tombstone
in the cathedral churchyard, or between that date and
30th June, 1617, when the death is recorded in the index of
Paris surgeons. His widow afterwards married Walter
Stirling, and one of her descendants founded Stirling's Library
in the city. 3 In 1834 the Faculty purchased Peter Lowe's
tomb, and it remains in their possession.

The first hall of the Faculty stood in Trongate, immediately
to the west of the Tron Kirk, till 1791, when it was removed to
St. Enoch Square. It now occupies a stately mansion in the
higher part of St. Vincent Street.

Though Lowe's collaborator in establishing the Faculty is
named " Professor " Robert Hamilton, there does not appear
to have been any occupant of such a post in the University of
Glasgow till 1637, when Dr. Robert Mayne was transferred
from Arts to Medicine there, with a salary of 400 merks Scots
(22). Five years later a Commission of the General Assembly,
visiting the city, declared " that a professor of medicine was
not necessar in all tyme cumming, but Dr. Mayne may continue
during his tyme." In 1646 he died, and no further appoint-

1 Burgh Records, i. 314. * Life, p. 27.

Life, p. 30.

n8 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

ment was made till 1714, when the Chair was revived by the
University and endowed by Queen Anne. In the meantime
surgery was taught in Glasgow by the apprenticeship system,
the apprentice paying a fee of 50, being indentured for five
years, and finally submitting himself to an examination by the
Faculty. Physicians had to produce a certificate from a
famous University where medicine was taught. The nearest
was London, but most Scottish students went to the continent,
to Leyden, Utrecht, Rheims, or Paris.

In 1602 it was " statute and ordained " that barbers, being
" a pendicle of Chirurgerie," should be admitted at certain fees ;
but they were strictly enjoined not to meddle with anything
beyond their own province, namely, the dressing of simple
wounds, bleeding, tooth-drawing, and the like, these operations
being performed under the supervision of a physician or
surgeon. 4

By the charter of 1599 tne Faculty had also the supervision
of the dispensing of drugs, and along with Lowe and Hamilton
appears the name of " William Spang, Apothecary/' Spang
was again and again paid by the city for medicines supplied
to the poor, and his portrait hangs with those of Lowe and
Hamilton in the Faculty Hall. In 1614 Gabriel Sydserf,
" pothecar," was admitted a member of the Faculty, and for
two centuries afterwards the Faculty alone granted licences
for the practice of pharmacy. 5

4 Weir's Origin and Early History of the Faculty, pp. 22, 23.
6 Origin and Early History, p. 23.

CHAPTER XIV
SIR GEORGE ELPHINSTONE AND THE LETTER OF GUILDRY

FROM an early period the population of Glasgow must have
fallen roughly into two classes, the merchants and the crafts-
men. To begin with, the " merchants " were not necessarily
traders overseas. Every shopkeeper was a " merchant," just
as, to the present hour, the packman is, who sells his wares from
farm to farm in Scotland. As early as the year 1209 a statute
of William the Lion ordained the merchants of the realm to
have their guild, with liberty to ply their business of buying and
selling within the bounds of burghs. 1 For some centuries, how-
ever, in Glasgow they did not incorporate themselves under a
common constitution. By reason of their wealth and ability
they exercised much influence, and thus probably did not feel
the need of union. 2

The industrial class, or craftsmen, were in a different position.
By an Act of Parliament of James I. at Perth in 1424 it had
been ordained that in each town each craft should choose a
deacon or master to govern and assay all the work done by the
craft. At first these deacons had no legal powers to enforce
their rulings, and had to apply to the magistrates to do this.
By and by, however, they obtained powers by appealing to the
magistrates, who granted a " Seal of Cause," or " Letter of
Deaconry." The first recorded Seal of Cause in Scotland was
that granted by the magistrates of Edinburgh to the Cordiners

1 Charters and Documents, i. pt. i. p. 211.
* History of the Hammermen of Glasgow, p. 6.
119

120 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

of that city in 1449. The earliest in Glasgow was that of the
Skinners and Furriers, granted by the magistrates and arch-
bishop in 1516. It was followed by that of the Weavers in
1528 and by that of the Hammermen in I536. 3

These incorporations of the crafts were, in fact, the trades
unions of their time, and their history afforded a curious
parallel with the history of the trades unions of four centuries
later. Their business at first was solely to supervise the work
of their crafts and to make sure that no unqualified person
invaded their monopoly. Like the trades unions, they set
themselves strenuously against free trade in labour, and per-
mitted no outsiders or " blacklegs " within their bounds.
Soon, growing in power, they began to seek to exercise juris-
diction in other than purely craft matters, and from the days
of James I. to those of Queen Mary a succession of Acts of
Parliament directed them to confine their activities to their
legitimate business. They were, however, more numerous
than the merchants. In 1604 there were in Glasgow 213
merchant burgesses and 363 burgesses of the crafts. 4 For this
reason, among others, the crafts resented the influence exercised
and the authority assumed by the merchants. They showed
a disposition to resist that influence and seize that authority,
and they united in a demand for a share in the magistracy.

In 1584 the trouble came to a head in Edinburgh, and James
VI., acting as referee, issued a decree arbitral, setting forth the
limits of the separate interests and powers of merchants and
craftsmen, and giving the latter definite rights in the election
of magistrates, in the management of the burgh patronage and
property, and in voting taxes and contributions.

In Glasgow the need for a similar ordinance became con-
stantly more apparent. On 6th July, 1583, the day before the
fair, at a weaponschaw of the townsmen, a dispute arose as to

3 Hist, of Hammermen of Glasgow.

4 Act Book of the Dean of Guild Court.

RIOT OF MERCHANTS AND CRAFTSMEN 121

the ranking and placing of the merchants and craftsmen in
their several companies, and the dispute ended in a riot. Next
day the deacons of the hammermen, tailors, cordiners, fleshers,
baxters, skinners, and weavers were summoned before the
magistrates, and required to give surety, each for his own craft,
that no trouble should arise during the week of the fair. As
the deacons averred they could not give the desired surety the
magistrates declared that any person, merchant or craftsman,
causing disturbance should be fined 100 Scots and banished
from the town, and that everyone should meanwhile lay aside
his armour and weapons. On the i6th the matter of the riot
came up before the provost and magistrates, and it was agreed
that the magistrates should draw up regulations to prevent like
outbreaks in future. All the parties agreed to abide by the
orders made, but nothing further appears to have been done.
The space left in the council's records for the regulations was
never filled up.

In 1593 an Act of Parliament recognized the power and
jurisdiction of Dean of Guild courts in burghs, " according to
the lovable forme of jugement usit in all the guid townis of
France and Flanderis, quhair bourses ar erected and constitute,
and speciallie in Paris, Rowen, Burdeaux, and Rochelle." 5
And in 1595 the Convention of Burghs sent a message to Glasgow
that the other burghs were offended that the community there
did not conform itself to the comely action of other burghs by
appointing a Dean of Guild and electing guild brethren. Twice
the Convention requested Glasgow to send representatives,
two from the merchants and two from the crafts, to Edinburgh,
to confer with the commissioners of seven burghs on the subject,
but though the city at last did send delegates, no conclusion was
arrived at, and in the end the Convention, wearying of Glasgow's
unwillingness, resolved to " desert the matter." 6

5 Act. Parl. iv. 30.

6 Convention Records, i. 469, 479, 495, and ii. 27. 28, 96.

122 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

The strife between the merchants and the crafts the
classes and the masses of that time meanwhile continued,
the latter claiming an equal share, both in the government of
the city and in the sea-going trade. The merchants resisted this
claim on the ground that each man should keep to his own
business. Through these disputes arose " terrible heat, strifes,
and animosities, which threatened to end in bloodshed, for the
craftsmen rose up in arms against the merchants." 7

The man who in the end brought the matter to a settlement
and laid the foundations for amicable co-operation between the
merchants and the craftsmen remains an interesting figure in
the city's life of that time.

It is commonly understood that the founder of the overseas
trade of Glasgow was William Elphinstone, a member of the
noble family of that name, who settled in the city about the
year 1420. Setting up the business of curing salmon and herring
he sent these commodities to France, and traded them there
for cargoes of brandy and salt. It was no doubt a descendant
of his, John Elphinstone, who in 1508 obtained a licence from
James IV. to build an embattled house in High Street, 8 became
a bailie of Glasgow in 1512, and before 1520 was rentaller, or
tenant, of Gorbals and Bridgend on the archbishop's lands oi
Govan. 9 In 1521 his son George appears as rentaller, 10 and in
1554 his son again, another George, was entered as tenant oi
these lands. In 1563 he purchased the lands of Blythswood tc
the west of the city from the parson of Erskine. In 1570
George Elphinstone of Blythswood converted the old family
tenancy of Gorbals and Bridgend into a permanent posses-
sion by obtaining a feu charter from Archbishop Boyd
for an annual consideration of 6 and eight bolls of meal. Ir
the charter of confirmation which Sir George Elphinston*

7 McUre's History of Glasgow, pp. 161-2.

8 Privy Seal Reg. i. 1696.

8 Charters and Documents, i. 495. 10 Diocesan Reg. 26, 78, 82.

THE OLD MERCHANTS HALL IN THE BRIGGATE.

ELPHINSTONE OF BLYTHSWOOD 123

secured from a later archbishop in 1607 it is stated that these
lands had been held by him and his forebears " beyond the

memory of man." l
Meanwhile in 1572 George Elphinstone was one of the
bailies who made over the Church property in Glasgow to the
University ; 2 in 1579 ne represented the city at the Convention

I of Burghs, 3 and in 1584 he was one of the magistrates appointed
by Archbishop Montgomerie. 4
It was probably a son of the bailie who secured for his
family its final rise to consequence in connection with the city.
In 1594, at the baptism of Prince Henry, George Elphinstone
was knighted. In 1595 he had his lands erected into a barony
as the Barony of Blythswood, 5 and five years later, in September,
1600, he was admitted a burgess of Glasgow as Sir George
Elphinstone of Blythswood. 6 At the same time, as nominee
of the Duke of Lennox, and upon the recommendation of King
James, he was appointed Provost of the city. 7 Two months
later he obtained from the king charters of the barony of Leyes
and of the New Park of Partick. 8 So far as appearances went,
Sir George Elphinstone was a wealthy man, with every prospect
of becoming a great one.

Though the burgh records for part of the period are missing,
he appears to have been chosen Provost each year till 1605.
In October of that year, the last of his appointment, the council
records bear that the city fathers " all in one voice," in respect

1 Great Seal Reg. 1609-20, p. 201.

* Charters and Documents, pt. ii. p. 149.

3 Records of Convention, i. 83-90. 4 Burgh Records, i. 113.

5 Inventure, No. 5, p. 100. It was upon the authority of this charter that,
after acquiring the lands of Gorbals in 1650, the magistrates of Glasgow
exercised baronial jurisdiction over that district for about two hundred years.
(See The Barony of Gorbals, Regality Club IV. pp. 1-60. See also the
monograph on Gorbals by Superintendent Ord).

Burgh Records, i. 211. 7 Burgh Records, i. 1:13.
8 Great Seal Register, 1593-1608, p. 381.

124 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

of the singular care, great zeal, and love he had shown the burgh,
and the kindness of him and his forebears to the town, elected
him their provost for the year, and that he as a free gift made
over to the common good of the town all the fines which might
accrue to him in the term of his office. 9 Meanwhile there had
occurred the crisis in city politics, by the successful settlement
of which Sir George is chiefly remembered.

As already mentioned, the incorporations of craftsmen were
pressing, more and more urgently, like the trades unions of
to-day, for a direct share in government, and their jealousy of
the merchant class showed itself in disturbances of the peace.
As late as I3th July, 1605, a certain " fleschour " of the town
was summoned before the magistrates for intruding himself
into a merchant's place when the town guard paraded for the
keeping of the fair, and for drawing his whinger to enforce his
claim. 10

In 1604 the magistrates and ministers intervened, and on
8th November, having agreed to submit their differences to
arbitration, the merchants and the crafts each appointed
twelve commissioners, and each body of commissioners
appointed four oversmen or referees. The deliberations of
these commissioners resulted in the signing of a " decree
arbitral " or " letter of guildry " on 6th February, 1605. This
was submitted to the town council three days later, and ordered
to be registered in the burgh court books, and it remains the
governing charter of the Merchants' House and the Trades'
House to the present day. 1

The Letter of Guildry provided for the annual election of a
Dean of Guild, who must always be a merchant, and of a
Deacon-Convener, who must always be of craftsman rank, as
well as a Visitor of Maltmen, who must be of that craft. It
defined the duties of these officials, and their powers, and, in

8 Burgh Records, i. 234. 10 Burgh Records, i. 228.

1 Gibson's History, pp. 339-361.

THE LETTER OF GUILDRY

125

jries of fifty-four articles, laid down a code of rules for the
admission and conduct of burgesses. It provided that the

)ean of Guild should have a court of four merchants and four
jraftsmen, which should meet every Thursday at ten o'clock
to decide disputes between merchants, align holdings and

mildings, oversee the Master of Works and weights and
measures, punish usurpers of burgess privileges, and tax the
guild brethren for the support of distressed members and their
families. Any burgess of good character, or the widow of one,
might become a Guild brother by paying thirteen shillings and
fourpence to the hospital and showing that, in the case of a
merchant, he was worth five hundred merks, and, in the case of a
craftsman, two hundred and fifty. Sons and sons-in-law of
Guild brethren had to pay a slightly higher fee. To induce
apprentices to prefer their masters' daughters in marriage it
was ordained that no apprentice should be admitted a burgess
until he had served a burgess " for meat and fee " two years
beyond his apprenticeship, nor a Guild brother till he had been
a burgess for four years. An incomer to the town might
become a Guild brother by becoming a burgess, satisfying the
Dean of Guild as to his character, and paying a fee of thirty
pounds, with 135. 4d. to the hospital. If he married the daughter
of a Guild brother his fee was substantially reduced. Future
Guild brethren were forbidden to traffic in certain small wares,
such as butter, milk, eggs, herring, candles, and onions, as such
traffic was " not agreeable to the honour of the calling of a
guild brother." And, for the converse reason, burgesses who
were not guild brethren were forbidden to trade in silks, spices,
sugars, confections, wine, wax, indigo, cloths above twenty
shillings the yard, etc., nor to deal wholesale in certain goods.
Cramers, or street stall-holders, were restricted to deal only
in the less honourable wares, and were only to be allowed to
set their " crames " on the street on Mondays and at fairs.
No burgess or guild brother was to buy goods with borrowed

126 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

money on pain of a fine of twenty pounds and loss of burgess
rank. This rule was made " in respect of the greit hurt and
domage that friemen of this burgh hes susteinit be sic doing
heirtofoir." Evidently speculation was not unknown in those
days, but the rule must have placed a serious handicap on
expansion of trade.

An officer was to be appointed to measure all cloths coming
into the town for sale, especially the woollen cloths from
Galloway and Stewarton, and no one else was allowed to do the
measuring.

Regulations were also made for the appointment of a Deacon
Convener from among the craftsmen, to exercise control over
the craftsmen and their assistants. Each apprentice at his
indenture was to pay a fee of forty shillings and twenty merks,
and on becoming a burgess he was to pay two pennies weekly
a sort of health insurance premium of that time.

Provision was also made for the election of a Visitor of the
Maltmen, whose business it was to see that no work in connec-
tion with brewing was done on " the Saboth day," and to see
that no unwholesome grain was used in beer-making. It was
declared unlawful to buy malt, meal, or bear for the purpose of
selling it over again, and it was also forbidden to buy grain
except in the open market. The making of malt, either for
home use or sale, was confined strictly to members of the craft.
Every making of malt for sale was subject to a tax of eight
pennies and every kiln of corn to one of eight pounds, the
money to be devoted to the support of the decayed brethren. 2

On the whole, the Letter of Guildry must be regarded as a
wise measure, well in advance of the spirit of its time, notwith-
standing the close monopolies it attempted to set up in favour
of certain trades. In any case, backed up by an order of the
town council that there should be no further disputes as to
precedence between merchants and craftsmen at weapon-

2 Charters and Documents, i. pt. i. pp. 605-620.

A CITY FEUD

127

schawings and other assemblies, 3 it proved effective for its
purpose. For the authorship of the measure credit has, by
common tradition, been given to Sir George Elphinstone This
tradition is supported by the facts that Sir George was provost
at the time, and presided at the meetings at which the measure
was passed, and he was also the chief of the three oversmen
appointed to settle any differences which might arise in the
framing of the proposals.

Almost immediately after the successful arrangement of
this important matter Sir George became involved in the first
of a series of troubles which seem to have harassed him till the
end of his career.

In 1603 the king had infefted his cousin, Ludovic, Duke of
Lennox, in a feu of the lands and barony of Glasgow. 4 The
difficulty of communicating with the duke in London probably
suggested to the magistrates the desirability of relief from the
need of consulting him as to the appointment of provost and
magistrates. Accordingly in 1605 Sir George Elphinstone rode
to London and secured from the king a letter allowing the city
to choose its own magistrates free from any superiority of the
duke. 5 By the Lennox party in Glasgow this was regarded
as a movement to oust them from their long-accustomed
position of influence. 6 In July, 1606, the common procurator
and two others rode to Edinburgh to prevent the ratification
of the king's letter by parliament. 7 At the same time Sir
Walter Stewart of Minto and his friends raised a riot in the city,
and with a large armed party drove the provost and his friends
to the Castle Port, the northern entrance to the city. Sir
George Elphinstone and his party found refuge in the house of
the Earl of Wigtown, and were protected by him, the Master

3 Charters and Documents, i. pt. i. p. 620.

4 Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. p. 258.

6 Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. p. 269 ; Priv. Coun. Reg. vii. 141.
6 Burgh Records, i. 243. 7 Ibid. i. 249.

128 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

of Mont rose, and the Laird of Kilsyth, all privy councillors, at
the hazard of their lives. 8 As a result both parties were com-
mitted to prison by the Privy Council Sir Matthew and Sir
Walter Stewart and their friends on the one side, and Sir
George Elphinstone and James and John Elphinstone, his
brothers, on the other. 9 On the matter coming to a judgment
Elphinstone was assoilzied, while the Stewarts were heavily
fined. 10 In a later letter the king stated that he understood
the strife to have been caused by a rivalry for the provostship. 1
In the year after the settlement of this difference another
source of trouble for Sir George arose. By way of relieving
the debt under which it found itself the town resolved to
create and exploit a monopoly in the milling of grain. It
possessed its own Old Mill on the Molendinar, and it leased
from Archibald Lyon his New Mill at Partick, from the arch-
bishop his mill at the same place, and from the Laird of Minto
the sub-dean's mill at Wester Craigs. The whole of these it
leased for 4400 merks per annum to George Anderson and
James Lightbody, and passed a resolution that every citizen
must take his grain to these mills to be ground under pain of
heavy fines. Now James Elphinstone, Woodside, Sir George's
brother, had a mill of his own, at which Sir George and his
tenants naturally preferred to grind their corn. They raised
a suspension of the action of the town council, and by way of
reply the council directed them to be fined, imprisoned, and
deprived of their burgess privileges. 2 The action came before
the Privy Council, 8 and dragged on for years. Again and
again the city sent representatives to Edinburgh to attend to
its interests in the " guid-ganging plea." 4 In 1609 the differ-

6 Priv. Conn. Reg. vii. 213. Burgh Records, i. 251, 253.

9 Priv. Coun. Reg. vii. 233, 234. 10 Priv. Coun. Reg. vii. 247.

1 Charters and Documents, i. 237. Burgh Records, i. 255.

* Burgh Records, i. p. 274, and on. 3 Priv. Coun. Reg. viii. p. 179.

4 Bur?h Records, i. 297, 298.

;TONE

129

ence was submitted to the Earl of Abercorn and the Archbishop
f Glasgow, and is stated to have been amicably settled ; 5 but
as the thirlage and sucken enacted by the town was made
perpetual in 1615, Sir George and his brother appear to have
really lost their case. 6

PFrom that time Sir George appears to have taken no further
part in the public affairs of the city, though in 1615 he acted
as chancellor of the jury which was empanelled for the trial of
John Ogilvie, charged with the crimes of being a Jesuit and
assisting the supremacy of the pope, and who was found guilty
and duly hanged. 7

In the following year Elphinstone secured from the college
a lease of the teinds and teind sheaves of his lands in Gorbals
and elsewhere, 8 but this appears to have been his last trans-
action towards the building up of a great estate. No record
remains of his descent into difficulties, or the reason for his final
ruin, but in 1634 the crash came. In that year he conveyed to
Robert, Viscount Belhaven, the whole of his possessions, in-
cluding Woodside, Cowcaddens, Nether Newton, Blythswood,
Gorbals, and his house in Glasgow, with the offices of bailliary
and justiciary he had secured over them. 9 In the same year
he died. 10 Some idea of the value of his great estates may be
gathered from the fact that a year later the town council agreed
to buy the lands of Gorbals and Bridgend for 100,000 merks
(5555 IIS - id- sterling), though the bargain did not take effect. 1
So complete was Elphinstone's ruin that, as recorded by M'Ure,
" his corpse was arrested by his creditors, and his friends
buried him privately in the chapel adjoining his house."

5 Priv. Coun. Reg. viii. 706-7. 6 Burgh Records, ii. 309.

7 Spottiswood, iii. 222-6 ; Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, iii. 330-352 ; Charters
and Documents, i. 276.

8 Inventure, No. 8, p. 100.

9 Inventure, No. 9, p. 101 ; Charters and Documents, i. 496.

10 Charters and Documents, i. 345. 1 Burgh Records, ii. 31.
H.G.II. I

CHAPTER XV

ARCHBISHOP JOHN SPOTTISWOOD

WHILE the prelates appointed in Scotland in the early days of
James VI. can be regarded as little more than nominal occu-
pants of their office, installed to legalize the transfer of church
property to another set of owners, and while most of them
justified their popular nickname of " tulchans " x by easy
compliance with the mercenary designs of those who placed
them in the episcopal chair, an entire change took place when
the king crossed the Border to ascend the English throne.
Strengthened by the public opinion and the might of his
southern kingdom, and freed from the domination of the
ministers of the kirk, James became as anxious to gather
together and restore the revenues and powers of the Scottish
hierarchy as he had previously appeared willing to disperse
them. Perhaps the best example of the change of policy is
to be seen in the case of the archbishopric of Glasgow.

The circumstances of the appointment of Archbishop
John Spottiswood have already been narrated. 2 The appoint-
ment of the five successive " tulchan " archbishops had all
been more or less questionable from the Catholic and ecclesi-
astical point of view, for Archbishop Beaton, the pre-Reforma-
tion holder of the see, was still alive in France, and had
never resigned his office. But when, at " Burleigh House by

J A tulchan was the stuffed image of a calf set up in a byre to induce the
cows to allow themselves to be more easily milked.
2 Chapter ix. supra.

130

EARLY LIFE OF SPOTTISWOOD 131

Stamford town," on his migration south, the king received
news of the death of Beaton, the way was opened for an
appointment which no one could question. John Spottiswood,
minister of Calder, in Midlothian, whom he forthwith designated
to the vacant archbishopric, was a man in every way suited
to fill the dignified post in that most difficult time, and he
was destined in his own person to see from beginning to end
the drama of the efforts of James VI. and Charles I. to establish
episcopacy as the order of the national church of Scotland.
He came from the inner circle of the Presbyterian Kirk. His
father, John Spottiswood, was superintendent of Lothian,
one of the six " Johns " of the Scottish Reformation, and a
Reformer who was on friendly terms with Queen Mary. The
son himself had been a student under Andrew Melville
at Glasgow, where he took his degree in 1581 at the age of
sixteen. Licensed to preach before he was twenty, he was
ordained almost immediately to a parish in the Merse, and
in 1586 was a member of the General Assembly. In 1590 he
became minister of his father's parish of Calder, and eight
years later married a daughter of David Lindsay, minister,
of Leith, afterwards Bishop of Ross. His attitude on church
policy having commended him to the court he was in 1602
sent as chaplain of the embassy of the Duke of Lennox to
France, and in the following year was one of the Scottish
clergy chosen to accompany King James on his migration to
England.

On receiving news of the death of Archbishop Beaton
the king not only designated Spottiswood to be Archbishop
of Glasgow, but made him a privy councillor and sent him
back to escort the queen to England. 3 The queen made him
her almoner, and in that office he accompanied her and her
children to the south.

Though he bore the high-sounding title of an archbishop,

3 Priv. Coun. Reg. vii. pp. 44 et seq.

132

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Spottiswood found himself in very straitened circumstances,
and certainly unable to support a position at the English
court, very little being left available for return to him of the
once ample revenues of the Glasgow archbishopric. 4 To help
in the difficulty, the king gave him a pension of 80 in English
money, 5 and ordered that such temporalities as were still
available should be restored to him. Accordingly an Act
of the Scottish Parliament was passed in 1606 rescinding the
Act of Annexation of 1587, and restoring to the bishops the
honours and privileges, lands and other properties, belonging
to their bishoprics, under the burden of maintaining the
ministers serving the cure of the kirks. All persons who had
acquired lands or teinds of bishoprics since the Act of Annex-
ation were ordained to have their deeds renewed and ratified
by the bishops, and to pay them the grassums, entries, and
renewals of their feus. It was specially provided, however,
that, as the feuars of the barony of Glasgow were numerous,
and mostly too poor to pay the cost of renewing their infeft-
ments, they were relieved from the obligation of doing this,
and were to receive from the archbishop a ratification which
was to be held as valid and effectual. Conform to this Act
we find Spottiswood in the following year granting to Sir
George Elphinstone of Blythswood a charter of the six-pound
land of old extent of Gorbals and Bridgend, with half the
five merk lands of Woodside, the New Park of Partick, and
the lands of Nether Newton, Meikle Cowcaldanis, and part
of the moss of Meikle Govan, which lands Sir George and his
predecessors had possessed beyond the memory of man, and
held by ancient as well as by new infeftments granted by the
king after the Act of Annexation, and which the king had
erected into the free barony of Blythswood all for an annual
sum of 8 53. 4d. in money and some payments in kind. At
the same time the archbishop constituted Sir George and his

4 Burton, v. 446-9, vi. 9-13, 94-99. 6 Crawford, 160-195.

>TORATI<

iRALITIES

133

heirs hereditary bailies and justiciars of these lands. 6 As
the Act, however, specially excepted the gifts and pensions
granted to the Duke of Lennox, and Sir George, Sir James,
and Sir Archibald Erskine, it is to be feared that only a moiety
of the ancient possessions of the archbishops of Glasgow
returned to the hands of Archbishop Spottiswood. 7 That
the king did not entirely divest himself of the annexed pos-
sessions of the archbishopric is shown by the fact that in 1609
he granted to James Hamilton, merchant burgess, a feu of a
dwelling and pertinents to the south-east of the old manse
of the Vicars Choral on the north side of the cathedral for a
yearly duty of los. 8d. 8 Matters were perhaps made a little
better by the charter granted in 1608, by which the
parsonage and vicarage of Glasgow, resigned by David Wemyss,
were suppressed and united indissolubly to the archbishopric. 9
Spottiswood granted a tack of the teind sheaves and other
teinds of the parsonage and of the teind herring and other
teind fish of the vicarage to James, Master of Blantyre, and
his heir, for life and for thirty-eight years afterwards, for an
annual rent of three hundred merks and the cost of repairing
the kirks and other burdens. 10

Another Act of Parliament on 24th June, 1609, restored
the archbishops and bishops of the realm to their former
authority and dignity, privileges and jurisdictions, and especi-
ally to the jurisdiction of commissariats and the administration
of justice in all spiritual and ecclesiastical causes in their
bounds. 1 The powers thus conferred were to involve Spottis-
wood in the one act which has left a stain on his memory.

Meanwhile the archbishop exerted himself to further more

6 Great Seal. Reg. 1609-20, p. 201, No. 540.

7 Act. Parl. iv. 281-4. 8 Great Seal Register, 1609-20, p. 51, No. 138.
9 Great Seal Register (1593-1608), p. 761, No. 2084.

10 Charters and Documents, i. Abstract, p, 62.
1 Act. Parl. iv. 430.

134 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

than one of the projects of the king. In July, 1604, he was
one of the Scottish commissioners appointed to report on the
suggested union of the parliaments of Scotland and England,
and on 6th December he signed the articles. Had the union
taken place then it might have expedited by a hundred
years the developments of modern times ; but the age was
not ripe, and the project was allowed to lapse by reason of
lack of interest on both sides.

In 1604 also he was appointed a Lord of the Articles
the permanent committee appointed by the Scottish Parlia-
ment to carry on its business while the ordinary members
occupied themselves more to their pleasure and profit with
their own affairs at home. He was re-elected to this office
by successive parliaments, and it enabled him to bring
greater influence to bear in supporting the king's measures
for establishing episcopal government in the Church of Scot-
land. In 1605 and 1606 he was in close correspondence with
James on the subject, and it was partly as a result of his
activities that the six ministers who most vigorously opposed
the king's policy were sent into exile. A serious blow was
struck at presbyterian church government when in 1606 the
General Assembly was induced to appoint him perpetual
moderator of the presbytery, and that action was backed up
by an order of the Privy Council to the presbytery in 1607
to obey the ordinance within twenty-four hours, under pain
of being treated as rebels. The effect of these proceedings
was of course to place the presbytery largely under the control
of the archbishop, a substantial step towards the complete
establishment of episcopacy. By these acts Spottiswood
aroused extreme resentment and indignation in the pres-
byterian party.

These feelings were certainly not allayed when a General
Assembly, held in Spottiswood's own city of Glasgow in June,
1610, and it may be presumed under the direct influence of

GLASGOW ASSEMBLY OF 1610 135

the archbishop, passed Acts declaring (i) that the calling of
General Assemblies belonged to the king, by virtue of his
royal prerogative ; (2) that synods should be held in every
diocese twice a year, and that the archbishop or bishop of
the diocese should preside ; (3) that no sentence of excom-
munication or absolution should be passed without the know-
ledge of the bishop ; (4) that presentations should be directed
to the archbishop or bishop, and that, if he found the presentee
qualified, he should take the assistance of the ministers of
the district, and perfect the act of ordination ; (5) that the
bishop should suspend or deprive ministers with the advice
and cooperation of the other ministers of the bounds ; (6) that
on admission to a kirk the minister should take the oath of
obedience to the king and the ordinary ; (7) that bishops
should visit their dioceses themselves, or by a substitute
when the bounds were too extended ; (8) that weekly exercises
of doctrine should be held by ministers at their accustomed
meetings, the bishop or deputy being moderator ; (9) that no
minister should, in the pulpit or in private exercise, argue
against or disobey the acts of this assembly, under pain of
deprivation, or discuss in the pulpit the party or unparty of
ministers. 2

The last of these provisions was a real drawing of the
teeth of the ministers, whose dearest privilege for forty years
had been that of inveighing from the pulpit against anything
or anyone they chose and in any language they chose. The
other ordinances amounted to nothing more or less than a
virtual full establishing of episcopacy and a placing of the
entire control of the church in the hands of the bishops. Nor
was there much comfort in two further provisions : (i) that in
all things bishops should be subject to the General Assembly,
and, when found culpable, might, with the king's consent,

2 Calderwood, vii. 99-103. Spottiswood, iii. 206-7. Ratified by Act,
1612, c. i. Act. Parl. iv. 469.

136 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

be deprived ; (2) that no one should be eligible as a bishop
who was under forty years of age, and had not taught as a
minister for ten years. As the General Assembly could only
be called and dismissed by the king, its veto upon bishops
was of little value, and Spottiswood himself had been no
more than thirty-eight when appointed archbishop.

To sustain a position of increasing importance the arch-
bishop in the following year, 1611, partially repaired the
Bishop's Castle of Glasgow, and resided within its walls.
He also began the roofing of the cathedral with lead. In the
impoverished state of the archbishopric it may appear strange
that he was able to do so much. But apparently he exploited
all available resources. Of these an instance may be cited.
In 1613, for a payment of 2,000 merks (166 135. 4d. sterling)
he granted the burgh a lease for nineteen years of all the
bishop's customs of the tron and harbour, 3 and in the follow-
ing year he conveyed these customs to the town absolutely
for an annual feu-duty of 50 Scots with 16 135. 4d. of aug-
mentation, altogether 100 merks or 5 us. ijd. sterling. 4
As these customs had already been conveyed to the college
by Archbishop Boyd, trouble shortly arose. To protect
itself the town obtained from the college a charter of the
customs at the same rate of feu-duty as it was paying to the
archbishop, then for its relief it obtained from the archbishop
a bond by which he undertook either to obtain a renunciation
from the college or to refund the money which had been paid
to himself. 5 Apparently in the end the case went against
the archbishop, for in 1617 the king confirmed the charter
of the college to the town. 6

While he made attempts of this kind to secure again the

a Inventory of Writs and Evidents (1696), p. 34. B.C. c. 8, No. 5.

4 Council Records, i. 337.

5 Charters and Documents, vol. i. pt. ii. pp. 295, 296, No. xcvi.

6 Inventory of Writs (as above), No. 9.

EPISCOPAL RIGHTS RECOVERED 137

cient revenues of the archbishopric, Spottiswood appears
to have succeeded in recovering the right to appoint the
provost and bailies of GlasgowT This right had been exercised
down to 1595 by Walter Stewart, commendator of Blantyre,
as Lord of Glasgow, 7 and had passed to the Duke of Lennox
along with the superiority of the burgh and lands of the arch-
bishopric. Thus, on 6th October, 1601, we find Aulay Mac-
Aulay of Ardincaple presenting a missive " fra my Lord
Duikis grace, lord of Glasgw, superiour, and having power
of the nominatioune of the provost and bailleis of Glasgw/'
desiring the bailies and council to admit Sir George Elphin-
stone of Blythswood to the provostship, which order the
bailies and council duly carried out. 8 But on igth September,
1607, the archbishop in person presented a letter from the
king, restoring to the archbishop the privilege of electing
the magistrates, and, this being agreed to, the archbishop
appeared with the Duke of Lennox in the council on 6th
October, and nominated John Houston of Houston to be
provost, with three others to be bailies. Houston, in taking
office, gave his oath of fidelity to the king and the arch-
bishop. 9 The town council then elected consisted of twelve
merchants and eleven craftsmen, with George Hutcheson as
common procurator, Thomas Pettigrew as master of works,
and Alexander Pollok as treasurer, and four days afterwards
there were added Ninian Anderson as deacon-convener,
James Lightbody as convener, and William Symmer as Dean
of Guild. 10

But while he thus reserved to himself the ancient right of the
Archbishops to appoint the magistrates of the city, Spottiswood \/
used his influence with the king to secure for Glasgow a very
notable rise in rank and importance. It was at his " express and
earnest request " that James, on 8th April, 1611, granted a

7 Burgh Records, i. 170. 8 Burgh Records, i. 225.

9 Burgh Records, i. 268, 269, 270. 10 Burgh Records, i. 272.

138 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

charter conveying to the provost, bailies, council, and community
the burgh and city of Glasgow, with all its privileges and
possessions, and at the same time erecting it into a free royal
burgh, all for an annual payment to the Archbishop and his
successors of sixteen merks Scots (us. ijd. stg.). 1 It was no
doubt also on his initiative that, two years later, in recognition
of the city's expense in maintaining the cathedral and the
bridge, the king conveyed to the magistrates the " tennandry of
Ratounraw," between forty and fifty acres in extent, which had
formerly been the separate property and jurisdiction of the
Sub-dean of the metropolitan church. This must be regarded
as the first extension of the city. 2

Partly through the personal favour with which he was
regarded by King James, and partly through his own modera-
tion and courtesy, Spottiswood appears to have held his position
with wide general acceptance. In those difficult times the fact
spoke eloquently for his enlightenment and good sense.
His difficulties were not lessened by a circumstance which
has been mostly lost sight of by later historians.

Though the Reformation had done away with the hier-
archy and services of the Roman Church in Scotland, it
is not to be supposed that the beliefs and usages of that
Church had been rooted entirely out of the minds of the people.
The session and presbytery records of those times are full of
sentences against persons who continued to celebrate Yule
and follow other " superstitious practices " of the older time.
People who called themselves Protestants were still naturally
under the influence of the traditional feelings and opinions
of their forefathers, and kept up customs which had become
interwoven with their social and domestic life. On Mid-
summer Eve many still kept up the kindling of bonfires.

1 Great Seal Register, vi. p. 170, No. 462. Charters and Documents, pt. ii.
pp. 278-283.

2 Ibid., 1609-1620, p. 351, No. 965.

SURVIVALS OF PAGAN CUSTOMS 139

it All-Hallows Eve or " Hallowe'en " they practised many
ancient rites of augury rites, though they did not know it,
of a faith older even than the Roman Church itself. At
Yule and New- Year's Day men and women dressed up and
went guisering to the houses of their neighbours. On Sunday
people were still found holding market, or fishing or taking
in their crops. In 1597 a Glasgow elder was fined and ordered
to make repentance on the pillar for drying bear and making
a haystack on the Lord's Day. Glasgow citizens still believed
that a crucifix painted on their houses brought good luck. 3
So-called Protestants were to be found going upon pilgrimage
and washing themselves in holy wells. 4 Fines and penances
failed to eradicate altogether the rustic merriment, folksong,
and other customs which had made Scotland a lightsome
land in the days of the Roman priesthood. Reformers like
the Wedderburns of Dundee did their best to alter the outlook
of the people by converting the gay old songs into serious
hymns "gude and godlie ballates " ; while others sought to
discredit the old regime by setting the ancient cathedral
music to ribald songs like " We're a' noddin' " and " John
Anderson my Jo." Persons who absented themselves from
the services of the kirk were fined, and eavesdroppers were
employed to go about the streets and report inadvertent
remarks. 5 Under such compulsions to seriousness there were
doubtless many who looked back with a sigh for the " brave
old days," and among these the secret missionaries of the
Roman Church found a fertile soil for their propaganda.
There was reason to believe that many of these missionaries
were at work in the country, and the fear of popery was still
strong in the minds of the ministers of the kirk. In the

3 MS. Presbytery Records, i6th Aug. 1597, 28th Aug. 1599, 29th Oct.
1600, etc.

4 Ecclesiastical Records of Aberdeen, 1606, p. 50, 1608, p. 61.

5 Ecclesiastical Records of Aberdeen, 1606, p. 50. Cunningham, i. pp. 480-81.

140 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

parliament held at Edinburgh in August, 1607, an Act was
passed against the sayers and hearers of mass. 6 There is
reason to believe that the king himself was panicky on the
subject, perhaps not without reason, as the Guy Fawkes
plot of 1605 would seem to show. In 1614 the zeal against
popery of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities in Scotland
received a spur in the shape of a letter from James urging
severe measures against all persons " infected with that
leprosie."

Among the authorities moved to action by that letter
the chief was Archbishop Spottiswood. Among persons
believed to be travelling in the country in the interest of
Rome was one John Ogilvy. A Scotsman by birth, as his
name implied, he had been twenty-two years on the continent,
and on coming to Glasgow he had been well received by a
number of the citizens. The bruit, however, went about
that he was a " Jesuit and messe priest," and as such he was
arrested and examined about the beginning of October, 1614,
at the instance of the archbishop. It was an unhappy busi-
ness, which was to throw the single shadow of obloquy on
Spottiswood's career. Ogilvy's arrest having been reported
to the king and Privy Council, the archbishop and three
others were appointed justices to try the case.

The trial began in Edinburgh on 8th December, but was
afterwards transferred to Glasgow, where Ogilvy was im-
prisoned, first in the archbishop's palace and afterwards in
the tolbooth at the cross. 7 A formidable commission was
appointed to try the case. It consisted of the provost and
bailies, with the archbishop and six assessors, of whom one
was Sir Walter Stewart, bailie-deputy of the regality. There
was also a jury, of which Sir George Elphinstone was chan-

6 Acts of Parliament, iv. p. 371.

7 Ogilvie's " Relatio," published three months after his death. Macgeorge,
3rd ed. appendix.

EXECUTION OF JOHN OGILVY 141

jllor. As in other cases of religious persecution, Ogilvy was
ied, not for what he had done or said, but for what he believed,
'o make him confess he was kept without sleep for several
lights, and it was upon what he stated to be his views under that
rdeal that he was tried. The king sent down two questions to
>e categorically answered " Whether the Pope could excom-
municate and depose the king ? " and " Whether it be no
murther to slay his majesty being so excommunicated and
deposed by the Pope ? " The archbishop tried to leave a loop-
hole by the manner in which he put the questions, but Ogilvy
answered honestly, saying he would give his life for the
doctrine of his church, should it decide these questions in the
affirmative.

On 28th February, 1615, the trial took place in the tol- ,
booth, the crime averred being high treason for declining
the king's authority, alleging the supremacy of the pope, and
hearing and saying mass. The jury found the accused guilty,
and on the same afternoon he was led over the street and
hanged at the cross, termed the forum or market-place in the
contemporary account. His body was afterwards buried in
the ground set apart for malefactors on the north side of the
cathedral. 8

While Ogilvy lay in prison some thirteen or fourteen of
the inhabitants of Glasgow were also tried before a court
consisting of the archbishop and three members of the Privy
Council, under a commission from the king, and were con-
victed of the crime of hearing mass and entertaining a mass
priest. " The bruit went that they were to be beheaded,
drawn, and quartered ; but they were in no danger/' 9

Ogilvy is said to have been the only Roman Catholic
priest put to death for his religion in Scotland after the Refor-

8 Pitcairn, Criminal Trials, iii. 330-352. Privy Council Reg. x. 284-6,
304-7. Spottiswood, iii. 222-6. Calderwood, vii. 193, 196.

9 Calderwood, vii. 193.

142 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

mation, and considering the lateness of his time and the
active interest taken in the case by the king and Privy Council,
his trial and execution would appear to have had rather a
political than a religious motive. The presbyterian Calder-
wood approved of the action, but the prime mover was certainly
Archbishop Spottiswood, and it is to be regretted that his
occupation of the see of Glasgow should have closed with such
an act. Two months afterwards the primacy became vacant
by the death of Archbishop Gledstanes, and Spottiswood
was transferred to St. Andrews. 10

After he had thus passed out of direct connection with
the city of Glasgow, the archbishop played a part of increasing
importance in the affairs of Scotland. In 1616 he purchased
the estate of Dairsie, and in that and the two following years
presided at the meetings of the General Assembly. In 1632
he subscribed a thousand merks to the library of Glasgow
University, but deferred payment till changed circumstances
put it out of his power. In 1633 he crowned Charles I. at
Holyrood ; in 1634 ne took an active part in the prosecution
of the second Lord Balmerino, sentenced to death for petition-
ing against episcopacy ; in 1635 he was appointed Chancellor
of Scotland, and secured the erection of the bishopric of Edin-
burgh ; in 1637 ne was present in St. Giles' when the new
Dean of Edinburgh essayed to read the liturgy, and it was he
who called upon the magistrates to suppress the ensuing
riot. Finally he was present at the momentous General
Assembly held at Glasgow in 1638, when episcopacy was
abolished and he was deposed and excommunicated ; and
twelve days afterwards he died of sickness and grief. By
the king's command he was buried in Westminster Abbey
near the grave of James VI. His History of the Church and
State of Scotland remains a work of much value for the light
it throws on the movements of his own time. One of his

10 Great Seal Reg. 1609-1620, p. 453, No. 1237.

ARCHBISHOP SPOTTISWOOD'S SONS 143

sons, Sir John Spottiswood of Dairsie, was a gentleman of
the bedchamber to James VI. ; the other, Sir Robert Spottis-
wood of Pentland, became lord president of the Court of Session,
and, joining the wars of Montrose, was taken prisoner at the
battle of Philiphaugh in 1645, and executed afterwards in
cold blood by the Covenanters. 1

1 It was Archbishop Spottiswood who in 1611 built a castle on the bank
of the Kelvin, at Partick, to serve as a country seat for the archbishops of
Glasgow, as the former country seat at Lochwood to the east of the city had
been demolished as already mentioned. In the following year his financial
position was further improved by King James appointing him Commendator
of the Abbey of Kilwinning, whereby he enjoyed the spiritualities of that
foundation. Chalmers, Caledonia, iii. 629.

CHAPTER XVI
LIFE IN THE BURGH IN THE REIGN OF JAMES VI

JOHN LESLEY, Bishop of Ross, and confidential agent of Queen
Mary, in his History published in 1578, gives an interesting de-
scription of Glasgow in his time. As translated by Father
Dalrymple in 1596 this runs : " Beyond the water of Clyd is a
noble toune, to wit, of Glasgwe, quhair is ane archibischopes sait.
Surelie Glasgw is the most renouned market in all the west,
honorable and celebrat. Afor the heresie began thair was ane
academic, nocht obscure, nather infrequent or of ane small
number, in respect baith of philosophic and grammar and
politick studie. It is sa frequent x and of sick renoune that it
sendes to the easte countreyes verie fatt kye, herring lykewyse
and salmonte, oxne-hydes, wole and skinis, buttir lykewyse that
nane better, and cheise. Bot, contrare, to the west (quhair is a
peple verie numerable in respect of the commoditie of the sey
cost) by 2 uther merchandise, all kynd of corne to them sendes.
Bot till Argyle, in the Hilande lies, and lykewise to the outmost
lies in Irland it sendes baith wine and ale and sik kynde of
drink as thir natiouns have plesure off, to wit, maid of ale, of
honie, anat seide and sum uthires spices (this drink the commone
peple commonlie callis Brogat) . In this cuntrie thay lykewyse
sell aqua vitce, quhilke heir in place of wine thay commonlie use.
It is a very fair situatioune and plesand, abundant in gairdine
herbes, aple trees, and orchardis. Farther, it hes a verie com-
modius seyporte, quhairin little schipis, ten myles from the sey,

1 The market is so popular. 2 Besides.

144

THE EARLY TOWN COUNCIL 145

restis besyde the brig, quhilke brig having 8 bowis, 3 is ane gret
delect atione to the lukeris upon it. The landes rounde about, the
space of 4 or 5 myles, perteines to the Archibischope : of quhilkis
the rentes 4 hes nocht bene takne from the heires thir thousand
yeris and mair. Mairover that, in the same heritage, ilke hes
rychteouslie from age to age, succeidet till uther, that worthilie
they may be called perpetual heires." 5

The extant Burgh Records of Glasgow for 1573 downwards
afford a fairly comprehensive view of the kind of life led by
the inhabitants of the little city, about the size of a moderate
village of to-day, which lay pleasantly taking the morning
sun on the high western bank of the Molendinar.

The head court of the burgh and city what is now known
as the town council consisted in the earliest of these records
of a provost, two or often three bailies, fourteen to seventeen
councillors, five " lynars," and a water bailie, with four officers.
From among the members were appointed a treasurer, a
master of works, and a common procurator, as well as keepers
of the separate keys of the two locks and padlock of the strong-
room, the two locks of the " little kist " inside, and the key
of the box containing the common seal. 6 The court sat in
the tolbooth at the foot of High Street, and it included in
its functions not only those of the town council of later times,
but also those of a parochial board or parish council, those
of a police court, and some of those of a sheriff court.

With primitive simplicity the council carefully ordained
the prices to be charged for various goods, in the fashion that
has been followed in more recent times during a great war.
The best ale " king's ale " was to be no more than six-
pence the pint, while the fourpenny loaf must weigh fourteen
ounces, and be well-baked, of good stuff, with the name of

3 Arches. 4 Occupation.

5 Lesley's History of Scotland (Scottish Text Society), i. pp. 16, 17.

6 Burgh Records, i. 24.

H.G.II. K

146 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

the baker printed on it, so that any deficiency might be brought
home to him. No blown mutton was to be exposed for
sale, and no tallow exported out of the town in wholesale
quantities till after Eastern's Even. Fleshers were not allowed
to buy tallow or dead meat to sell again, and all flesh and
fish brought into the town had to be taken to the market for
sale at once, without holding back part for a better price.
Tallow was to be no more than seventeen shillings the stone,
and candles no more than twelve pence the pound. None
of these commodities was to be sold or made for sale by others
than freemen of the burgh. The bailies were required to visit
the markets, one of the council attended by an officer was
deputed to attend the meal market, and tasters were appointed
to the various districts to make sure that all the ale brewed
was of sufficient quality. Nothing is said as to what should
happen if bakers, brewers, and tallow-makers should find that
the prices ordained for their commodities resulted in loss, and
the effects of the laws of supply and demand were evidently
unknown. The wheels of life in the burgh must have run
somewhat grittily when every detail of existence was subject
to the supervision and interference of some meddlesome
bailie or councillor.

Some notion of the habits of the time and of the slow rate
at which life progressed may be gathered from the order that
no middens were to be made on the front street or on the green,
and that stones and timber were not allowed to lie in the
street for more than a year and a day. A wholesome ordin-
ance was that made to enforce the acts of parliament against
banning, swearing, and blaspheming God's name, and one
may draw conclusions as to certain social customs from a
remit to the minister and kirk-session to take action for the
discouragement of riotous banqueting at bridals, baptisms,
and house-warmings. 7

7 Burgh Records, i, 25, 93.

PRECAUTIONS AGAINST THE PLAGUE 147

A bailie was a man of very real authority in those days.

A frequently recurring trouble in those times was the
outbreak of the pest or plague in various parts of the king-
dom. On agth October, 1574, the provost, bailies, and council,
" understanding that the contageous sickness called the pest "
had newly broken out in the realm, take strenuous measures
to protect their " gud town thairfra." No persons coming
from Leith, Kirkcaldy, Dysart, or Burntisland were to be
admitted within the burgh or traded with, and in the case of
Edinburgh, where the outbreak was so far confined to Bell's
Wynd, only such persons as brought certificates from the
magistrates of the capital were to be admitted. Further,
no person was to bring goods from these or other infected
places on pain of death. No pipers, fiddlers, minstrels, or
other vagabonds were to remain in the town without special
permit from the provost All beggars not born in the burgh
were to depart within twenty-four hours on pain of burning
in the cheek. If any person in the town fell sick the master
of the house was to report the occurrence at once, and every
dead body was to be inspected by an appointed officer before
being placed in the winding sheet. Searchers were appointed
for the different districts to visit each house morning and
evening, and make sure that the regulations were enforced.
Any neglect was to be punished by banishment. At the
same time, watchers were appointed for the bridge, the river
fords, and the four main ports or gates of the burgh at the
Stablegreen, Gallowgate, Trongate, and South Port, or Nether
Barras Yett. At the same time, the Rottenrow, Drygate-
and Greyfriar ports were to remain locked, while the School-
house Wynd and all the vennels were to be " simpliciter con-
dampnit and stekit up." 8

The action of the council was prompt, energetic, and
comprehensive, and it appears to have been effective, for

8 Burgh Records, i. 27.

148 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

there is no record of the plague having touched the city at
that time.

Ten years later, in 1584, when the pest was increasing in Fife,
two persons, chosen from among the townsmen, were ordered
to keep each of the ports and exits, the hours being from
six in the morning till six at night, while a considerable number
of " quartermasters " were chosen to keep watch on the yard
ends, back gates, and private entries to the town. These
last there were forty-one of them had evidently to quarter,
or march to and fro, each on his own beat. 9 As the plague
on that occasion lasted for more than four years, and came
as near as Paisley, the tax entailed upon the time of the citizens
may be understood. 10

As a head court of the burgh and city, the provost and
bailies, sitting in the tolbooth, dealt with a large variety of
causes. Amongst the most frequent during the reign of
James VI. were those of poor creatures adjudged to be lepers.
These were forthwith either banished altogether from the
community or ordered to take up their abode in the lepers'
hospital on the farther side of the river. Sometimes when
the leper could be kept at home without danger to others
he was ordered to confine himself to his own house. On two
days in the week the lepers were allowed to come into the
town quietly and visit their friends. The disease was evidently
very common and a serious danger to the community. 1

Debtors were confined in the tolbooth, and failing the
payment of their debt could only obtain their discharge by
" swearing themselves bare." The process made matters
public enough. Thus, on 4th March, 1574-5, a certain Mathew
Hamilton supplicates the court that he has been confined in
the tolbooth for four weeks for the non-fulfilment of an order
to pay Alexander Rhynd a debt of twelve merks for a hogs-

9 Burgh Records, in. 10 Ibid., 119.

1 Ibid., i. 34, 36, 91, 93.

BANKRUPTCY PROCEDURE 149

head of herring. He declares that during his confinement
he has had nothing to sustain him but the alms of the citizens,
and he offers to swear that he has no goods of any kind worth
five shillings, and is unable to procure any to pay the debt.
The magistrates thereupon order proclamation of the facts
to be made at the cross, warning all who may have claims
against the debtor. Then as none came forward to object,
and no one offered to sustain him in prison, and as Hamilton
instantly gave his oath, " swearing himself bare, as the saying
is," they discharged him from the tolbooth.

We have already seen how the government of the country,
when it came into possession of a third of the land of Scotland
through the disestablishment of the Catholic Church, found
it more convenient and remunerative to hand over these
lands to private ownership for a fixed annual payment or
feu duty, than to manage them directly by means of State
officials or factors. In the same way the burgh found it less
troublesome and more profitable to let the fees of its markets
and the toll of its bridge to private individuals for a definite
sum annually, than to levy these fees and tolls by the hands
of salaried officers. Thus on 25th May, 1575, appears the
entry, " The casualties of the market, called ' the ladle/
set to John Wilson, pewterer, for 170 merks ; and the new
gift given to the brig, and small casualties granted thereto,
set to John Snype for forty pounds." *

The magistrates were keenly alive to infringements of
the burgess privileges. Free trade was anathema in their
eyes. On 3ist May, 1575, certain skinners in Pollok and
Carmyle were " found in the wrong " and fined for buying
skins within the bounds of the burgh, " they being unfree,"
otherwise non-burgesses, and they were warned to abstain
from the practice in time coming on pain of forfeiting the
goods thus acquired.

z Burgh Records, i. 37.

150 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

The cutting of turf and peat on the common lands of the
burgh was a privilege of the freemen of the city which the
magistrates might be expected to safeguard with even greater
jealousy. Outsiders were only allowed the liberty at a price.
On I4th June, 1575, James Fleming, the common procurator
of the burgh, brought a charge against Christian Paul, widow
of the late Robert Crawford, and her son John, dwelling in
Wester Craigs, " another lord's ground," that they had cut
and carried away turf and peat that year without a licence.
The defence was that the accused had done the same thing
under licence in previous years, but had neglected to procure
a permit for the current season. 3

The existence of the original cross of Glasgow at the inter-
section of Drygate and Rottenrow with High Street and
Castle Street 4 has frequently been questioned. But a case
decided before the magistrates' court on nth October, 1575,
would appear to place the existence of this early cross beyond
doubt. On that date James Rankin was found guilty and
fined for removing " ane greit croce hand in Rattounraw
pertenyng to the toun." 5

In those days as in late times there were " conscientious
objectors " against measures of warlike defence, who found
their religious or political views in curious agreement with
their personal convenience and inclinations. In this category
would appear to have been John Wilson and James Anderson,
fleshers and burgesses, who were convicted and fined for
absenting themselves from the general weaponschawing held
on the Green on loth October of the same year, and " con-
temptuslie abydand thairfra," though they were in the town
at the time. 6

There were, of course, the common police court cases of

3 Burgh Records, i. 38.

4 Old Glasgow, by A. Macgeorge, 121. 6 Burgh Records, i. 42.
6 Burgh Records, i. 42.

COMPENSATION FOR MANSLAUGHTER 151

assault and battery. It is clear, too, that the " cornerman "
was not more chivalrous in his treatment of women then
than now. John Wilson, tailor, for example, is convicted of
casting Elizabeth Brokas down on the ground at the cross,
dumping her with his knees, and scattering her syboes. By
way of amends, which must have been very galling to him
and gratifying to her, he was ordered to appear at the cross
on the following Monday, and there, upon his knees ask God
and her for forgiveness. Ninian Swan, again, was " fund in
the wrang " for striking Marion Simson with " ane tangis "
and throwing her to the ground. In this affair the lady had
retaliated by " spitting upon the said Ninian's face/' so both
parties were held to be in fault. 7

More curious is a case of blood payment, or compensation
for manslaughter, to which the court interponed its authority
on 2gth November, 1575. A certain burgess, Ninian M'Lister,
had been slain by one Ninian Syar, also a burgess, how long
previously is not stated, and the representatives of the two
parties, having composed the matter, bring their agreement
to the magistrates' court, to have it inserted in the burgh
books, and obtain the strength of a decree of the provost
and bailies. The compact bears that Margaret Cairns, relict
or widow of the slain man, and William his son and heir, for
themselves and the other children, kin, and friends, have
made agreement with David Syar, son and heir-apparent of
Ninian Syar, the slayer, acting for his father, brethren, kin,
and friends, to remit and forgive all malice and hatred of their
hearts for the slaughter, and to forgo any action, criminal or
otherwise, which they might have taken against the slayer,
his kin, friends, assisters, or partakers, to hold themselves
towards the latter without rancour, as they were before the
slaughter, and as if it had never been committed, and to
subscribe a sufficient Letter of Slayanes, in due and com-

1 Burgh Records, i. 42, 43.

152 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

petent form, conform to usage in such cases. For these con-
cessions David Syar undertakes that his father shall appear
in the High Kirk on a certain date, and there make homage
and repentance for the slaughter with such ceremonies and
circumstances as should be ordained and devised by two
Glasgow burgesses chosen by both parties for the purpose ;
and he also undertook to pay the widow and her children
the sum of three hundred merks in name of kynbute for the
slaughter. The names of three burgesses are given as
security for the payment, George Elphinstone of Blythswood
and John Stewart of Bowhouse undertaking to relieve these
burgesses of responsibility, and Ninian and David Syar
undertaking to " relieve and keep scatheless " all their cau-
tioners for the payment. The sitting magistrate, William
Cunninghame, considered the agreement reasonable, and
ordered it to be registered in the books of the burgh, and
to have the strength of a decree of the court. Thus was
the slaughter of a burgess compounded for in Glasgow in the
year 1575.8

An action which throws light on the jurisdictions of the
time is recorded on 6th December of the same year. One
David Morison had granted Thomas Hutchinson a wadset
or bond over a property in the Stockwellgate, and had failed
for five years to pay the yearly interest of five merks. On
the case coming up, both parties were present, but there also
appeared Robert Lindsay of Dunrod as bailie to Lord St.
John, owner of the whole Temple lands. Lindsay claimed
that as David Morison was Lord St. John's tenant in these
Temple lands the case must be referred to his lordship's juris-
diction, and he offered caution of colraytht to that effect.
Morison was accordingly repledged to the bailie of Temple-
lands court ; Lindsay as Temple bailie appointed a day when
the court should sit in Morison's house in the Stockwell, and

8 Burgh Records, i. 43.

SUNDAY MARKETS 153

David Lindsay, elder, became caution of colraytht for the

administration of justice in the case. 9
By way of correction to the common idea that Sunday
was always observed in Scotland with the rigours that have
earned the name Sabbatarianism, it is interesting to find that
only so late as 3rd October, 1577, was a regulation made by
the magistrates that no markets should be held on the Sundays,
and that only in the previous July was it resolved that the
Fair Day, which fell on the Sunday, should be postponed,
and that no merchants should be allowed to open their booths
or to erect " crames " or stalls on the streets on that day.
This was followed in the same year by prosecutions for " slay-
ing of flesche and wirking on the Sondaye " and the like, in
which fines and poindings were imposed as punishment. 10

Even as late as 1608 the magistrates are found issuing
ordinances against the buying and selling of timber in the
market at the bridge on Sunday afternoons, but the objection
on that occasion was as much to the fact that the trade carried
on upon that day was by wholesale merchants, to the prejudice
of retail trade, as to the fact that it was an invasion of Sunday
observance. 1

On igth November, 1577, appears the earliest record of
causewaying the streets of the burgh. At that date the
provost, bailies, and council, with the deacons of crafts,
finding that there was nothing of the " commowne guddis "
or " common good " available for the purpose, agreed to impose
a tax of two hundred pounds on the inhabitants to pay a
contract they had concluded for two years to come. The
tax was payable in two instalments, at the first of January
following and " at Beltane nixt." The ancient festival of
Baal-fire Day, the second of May, was evidently not yet
forgotten in Glasgow. 2

9 Burgh Records, i. 45. 10 Ibid. i. 60, 62, 65.

1 Ibid. i. 282. 2 Ibid. i. 64.

154 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Neither was the last authentic relic of Glasgow's patron
saint, for on the same day the city fathers purchased from
John Muir and Andrew Lang, for the sum of ten pounds
and a burgess ticket to the latter, " the auld bell that yed
throw the towne of auld at the buriall of the deid," in other
words, as named in the rubric to the entry, St. Mungo's bell,
and they ordained the bell to remain in all time coming the
common dead-bell of the burgh. 3

The causeway-maker was evidently a piece of precious
goods, if he was not, indeed, a serf or chattel like the colliers
and salt-makers. The provost, Thomas Crawford of Jordan-
hill, and his bailies solemnly obliged themselves to restore
and deliver to the provost and bailies of Dundee at the follow-
ing Michaelmas, without fraud or colour of any sort, Walter
Brown, the causeway-maker, whom they had borrowed for
their work. 4

Proceedings which would startle the trade unions of to-
day were the actions brought by deacons and brethren of
crafts against the inefficiency of certain workmen. Thus in
March, 1577, the deacons and craftsmen of the masons brought
a complaint to the provost and council desiring to have John
and William Ritchie interdicted from work, on the assertion
that they were unable to hew. The city fathers took a less
rigorous course. In case the Ritchies should require to build
higher than a single storey of hewn work their efficiency was
to be tested by a committee of craftsmen and councillors.
With this provision they were licensed to work, and, should
the deacon be agreeable, to pay their fees and be admitted to
the craft. 5

As one of the obligations of their citizenship the burgesses
were, of course, liable to be called out to fight ; every man of
substance was required to keep himself furnished with a

3 Burgh Records, i. 64. 4 Ibid. i. 69.

6 Ibid. i. 66.

CONFERRING THE FREEDOM 155

hagbut, powder, and bullets ; the less prosperous were to
have each a long spear, and all were to possess jack, steel
bonnet, sword, and buckler. The annual review or wapin-
schaw at the Summerhill must have been a sight to see. The
town had its own ensign or battle flag, which was carefully
kept by the bailies in office. 6

Tradesmen's contracts, again, were more solemn affairs in
those days than now. In the summer of 1577, f r instance,
the town council recorded in its court book a contract between
the Earl of Eglinton and George Elphinston, glass-wright,
by which the latter undertook to renew and keep in repair,
all the days of his life, the glass-work at the earl's houses of
Ardrossan, Eglinton, Polnoon, Glasgow, Irvine, and Cumbrae,
the earl to furnish the material and transport, with two bolls
of meal and a stone of cheese per annum, as well as his meat
on occasion, and the blown-down glass and lead. 7

The perambulation of the burgh marches each year at
Whitsun Tuesday was an ancient ceremony which the burgesses
were beginning to neglect, and in June, 1578, the provost and
bailies issued an order that all the councillors and deacons
should accompany them on the occasion on penalty of a fine
of eight shillings. 8

While this early custom has long fallen into desuetude,
another has grown into greater consequence with time the
conferring of the freedom of the burgh upon notable persons
as a mark of honour. In Glasgow, as early as 6th October,
J 579> a " reverend father/' John, bishop of the Isles, and Alan
M'Cowle of Ragary, were in this way made burgesses and free-
men of the city " gratis." 9 Twenty years later Fletcher, Shake-
speare's future partner at the Globe, was, while visiting Aber-
deen with his company, made a freeman of that city.

On the other hand, with persons of objectionable reputation

6 Burgh Records, i. 67, 96. 7 Ibid. i. 67.

8 Ibid. ii. 69. 9 Ibid. i. 76.

156 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

the city fathers had a way that was no doubt equally impressive.
Bessie Brown and Marion Young, for example, having con-
fessed to being mansworn, were ordered to " abstract " them-
selves from the burgh and barony in all time coming, and
they gave their consent that, if found within its bounds, they
should, without more ado, be drowned. 10

Mention has already been made in these pages of the feud
between the Stewart party and the Elphinstone party in the
government of the burgh. The chief mover in the matter,
was Mathew Stewart of Minto, who on 4th October, 1580,
produced letters from the king and the archbishop appointing
the king's cousin, Esme Stewart, Earl of Lennox, Lord Darnley
and Aubigne, to be provost. At the same time Mathew
Stewart had himself made a member of the town council.
A fortnight later he produced a letter from the Secret Council
stating that George Elphinstone, William Cunningham, and
Robert Rowat had demitted office as bailies at the king's
request, and that Robert Stewart, Hector Stewart, and John
Graham had been nominated in their room. Next day Elphin-
stone recorded a protest, which of course effected nothing,
and the Stewart party settled down to enjoy the sweets of
office. That these sweets were not entirely unsubstantial is
shown by the fact that on 28th January following the three
prebends of St. Andrew, St. Martin, and Trium Puerorum in
the Tron Kirk, which had fallen into the hands of the town
council through the death of the incumbent, Sir Robert Watson,
were given to the son of John Graham, one of the new bailies,
" for his sustentatioun at the scholes." The prebends were
worth twenty pounds yearly, and the whole business appears
as an example of the art of " wire-pulling " from which bodies
entrusted with the management of public affairs were not
even then exempt. 1

On coming into power, the Stewart faction apparently

10 Burgh Records, i. 77. 1 Ibid. i. 79, 81, 83.

APPOINTMENT OF TOWN CLERK

157

proceed to purge the roll of burgesses in drastic fashion. At
the instance of the common procurator a number of individuals
were summoned to answer the charge that, though they were
freemen and burgesses, they neither dwelt nor had houses
in the city, and took no part in scat and lot, walking and
warding, and underlying the other duties required by the
oath. Eighteen of those challenged found security for the
due performance of the required services, but other three,
who lived at Cathcart, failed to appear, though summoned
at the cross, and were accordingly declared to have forfeited
their burgess-ship. 2

The Stewart party also proceeded to appoint a new town
clerk, Archibald Hegate, who duly inscribes himself in the
minutes as " presented and admitted thereto by a noble and
potent lord, Esme, Earl of Lennox, Lord Darnley, Dalkeith,
Aubigne, etc., provost, and with authority and command of
the King's majesty to that effect." 3

Alas 1 under this complaisant entry there appears inter-
polated another, dated nine years later, when the city fathers
felt themselves in a less subservient mood, to the effect that
the act was deleted by command of the provost, bailies, and
whole council, who were absolutely entitled to elect their
own town clerk. 4

Meanwhile the new party in power proceeded actively
to reverse the acts of its predecessors. It rescinded the ordin-
ance that the burgesses should pay milling charges to the
town's mills for the grinding of all their grain, whether ground
at these mills or not ; and, to make the matter doubly sure,
it declared that in all time coming it would be unlawful to
thirl the freemen and burgesses of the city in such fashion. 5

No notice is contained in the burgh records of the traditional
episode in which the townsmen are said to have clamoured

2 Burgh Records, i. 83.

4 Burgh Records, i. 84, 146 ; infra, p. 184.

3 Infra, p. 183.

5 Burgh Records, i. 87.

158 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

for the destruction of the cathedral, and the prudent provost,
Thomas Crawford of Jordanhill, to have replied that he quite
agreed with the suggestion, but would defer the carrying of
it out till a new kirk had been built in its place. The first
actual notice of the cathedral occurs on loth December, 1581,
when the superintendent and kirk members bring the ruinous
and decaying conditions of the edifice to the notice of the
council. As a result, on 27th February, 1582-3 the provost,
bailies, council, and deacons resolved, without binding them-
selves in any way for the future, to undertake the complete
repair of the building. It seems clear that from first to last
the citizens of Glasgow had an enlightened pride in their
ancient cathedral, and were less moved by the iconoclastic
ideas of the Reformation than the eastern communities of
Scotland. 6

Curious light upon the perils of the seas with which the
Scottish commerce of the days of James VI. had to contend
is thrown by an application made to the magistrates of Glasgow
in August, 1583. A burgess of Renfrew and two merchants,
it would appear, had complained to the king that their bark,
on its way to the fishing in Loch Foyle, had been attacked
off the Irish coast by a birlinn and " great boat " belonging
to the prior of Colonsay and manned by fifty or more robbers,
broken men, and sorners. In the attack Somerville, the
burgess, had been shot through the arm with " ane flukit
arrow," while one of his crew had been shot in the thigh with
a dart, another had been struck in the mouth with a sword,
another had been shot through the hand and " metulat of
his formest fingare, etc." The pirates had further plundered
the ship of a somewhat curious cargo for a fishing vessel-
seven puncheons of wine, value 80, three score gallons of
aquavitse at 405. per gallon, six pounds of saffron at 10, two
barrels of madder and two of alum worth 40, 6, and 143.

6 Burgh Records, i. 92.

AN ACT OF PIRACY 159

sterling, twelve pieces of ordnance worth 40, powder and
bullets worth 16, seventeen single-handed and two double-
handed swords, a dozen steel bonnets price 40, a habergeon
price 20, four hogsheads of drinking beer worth altogether
20 merks, four hogsheads of salt of the same value, and clothing
worth 40. Complaint had been made to the king and the
Privy Council, who had ordered the provosts and bailies of
burghs within the shires of Lanark, Renfrew, Dunbarton,
Ayr, and Stirling to arrest the bodies and goods of the reivers
should they appear within their bounds. The prior, Malcolm
Macilfie, with his boat and crew, were actually lying, it seems,
at the bridge at Glasgow, and complainers and defenders
together appeared before the bailies of Glasgow. Their
method of deciding the case was, with the consent of both
parties, to refer the whole matter to the " great oath " of the
said Malcolm Macilfie. Thereupon this individual upon his
" great oath " declared that he had neither art nor part in
the act of piracy complained of, nor so much as knew anything
about it. The bailies thereupon absolved him from the
claim for ever. Implicit, evidently, was the trust reposed in
the " great oath " of the Prior of Colonsay. 7

It would be interesting to know whether some of the by-
laws made by the town council at the close of the sixteenth
century remain in force at the present hour. One of these
decreed that if any member of the council transgressed the
town's statutes he should incur double the ordinary penalty.
Another declared that no bridal within the burgh should
cost more than a penny, and that any person who attended
a more costly wedding, or countenanced such surfeit, should
pay a fine of eight shillings. 8

In the records of the burgh court there is a remarkable
infrequency of petty crimes. Some reason for this probably
lay in the fact that the punishments were of the personal

7 Burgh Records, i. 105. 8 Ibid. i. 106.

160 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

kind which at all periods have been most disliked by criminals.
Imprisonment in the tolbooth was probably a much more
disagreeable experience than the hydropathic holiday afforded
in the city's prisons in the twentieth century, but the worthy
bailies of the sixteenth century did not evidently care to
burden the community with the support of lawbreakers even
in the tolbooth. They preferred to take their punishment
out of the offender's own skin and be done with it. Thus
a certain John Hunter convicted of cutting purses at Ayr
and Glasgow was considerately dealt with. In view of his
youth, and the possibility that he might amend his ways,
he was ordered to be burnt on the shoulder with a hot iron,
scourged through the town, and then banished from burgh
and barony. The experience probably convinced him, as
the lash has convinced the garotter in more recent times,
that the pursuit of crime as a profession was unattractive. 9

Imprisonment was at that date a really dreadful experience,
very different from what it has become in recent times ;
and imprisonment in the tolbooth of Glasgow was no
exception to the rule. Both sexes and all sorts of mis-
demeanants were herded together in cold and filth, and
while those who had means might purchase better fare from
the jailor, the ordinary prisoners were forced to sustain life on
the coarsest viands. Still more wretched than the cells of the
tolbooth at the cross appears to have been the prison in the
upper part of the town mentioned as the " heich tolbooth " in
the records of 1574. In 1605 a certain John Greenlees had
been warded in the latter at the instance of Alexander Dunlop
for a debt of a hundred merks and ten merks expenses. By
way of relief his brother James appeared before the magistrates
and secured his transference to the " laich tolbooth," becoming
security at the same time that the prisoner would remain in
ward till he had paid his debt. 10 The old tolbooth was evidently

9 Burgh Records, i. 91. 10 Ibid., 228.

GLASGOW TOLBOOTH, 1626.

PUNISHMENTS FOR CRIME 161

becoming frail and insecure. As a matter of fact, a prisoner
shortly afterwards did escape from it. One Thomas Neill,
cor diner, was fined for breaking ward, coming down the tolbooth
stair, and severely wounding John Tours on the head with a
whinger. 1

Some of the punishments inflicted at that time were of
singularly disagreeable and mortifying sort. Thus, for a
serious slander upon Margaret Fleming one Janet Foreside
was ordered to have the gyves put on her hands and the
branks in her mouth, and in this condition to stand as long as
Margaret Fleming chose, then on the following Sunday to
sit on the stool of repentance in the High Kirk, publicly
confess that her words were entirely false, and ask the forgive-
ness of God, the congregation, and the injured Margaret. 2
For further control of evil-tongued women the town council
ordered a pair of jougs to be set up in 1589. 3 Even more
dreadful, probably, was the " pit/' or bottle dungeon of the
castle, from which the bailies, council, and deacons in 1584,
by a sort of Habeas Corpus ordinance, rescued a certain towns-
man, John Park, who had been laid by the heels there without
their authority. 4 Convicted thieves, again, were liable to
be marked in unmistakable fashion. On 24th August, 1599,
George Mitchell, confessing theft, was banished from the
town, and sentenced if ever he should return, to be burnt
on the shoulder and cheek, " and to want ane lug out of his
heid." 5

Provision against the plague from which Scotland suffered
from 1584 till 1588 ran the city into debt. This with
other expenses which had gone before amounted to six hundred
pounds. Being unable otherwise to find the money, the

1 Burgh Records, i, 230, 234. z Ibid. i. 109. 3 Ibid. 138.

4 Ibid. At Cathcart Castle, near Glasgow, there still exists a bottle dungeon
into which prisoners were lowered from the first floor of the stronghold.

5 Ibid. 349.

H.G. II. L

i62 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

council resolved to feu out as much of the common land to
the east and west of the city as would realize that amount.
The necessary land was accordingly measured off, stobbed,
and disposed of by roup or auction to the highest bidders. 6

At the same time, the town continued to extend, and on
the west-port becoming ruinous, in 1588, it was with very
evident satisfaction that the council unanimously agreed to
remove it further west to the head of the Stockwell, so as to
include an entirely new street and houses extending in that
direction. 7 In the following year, in laying off a plot of
ground twenty-four feet wide and three roods deep, abutting
on the new gateway, which had been sold to Robert Chirneside,
the bailies stipulated that the tenement to be erected should
have no windows below the level of the first floor joists, except
slits six inches wide, which were to be stanchioned. The
need for defence was clearly still a consideration.?

That such precautions were not without reason was shown
by a requisition made to the town council shortly afterwards.
It was the year after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and
the Government of England was still apprehensive of attack
by the Catholic Powers. It was known that the Catholic
nobles of the north of Scotland, Huntly and Errol, were
restless, and Elizabeth's minister sent to the Scottish king
what purported to be copies of letters addressed by these
earls to Philip of Spain acknowledging subsidies and asking
the loan of troops to overthrow the Scottish Government.
The whole north of Scotland was rumoured to be on the eve
of revolt, and in the south the turbulent Earl of Bothwell
was said to have threatened to ravage the lowlands if the
king moved to attack Huntly. In this emergency James,
then twenty-two years of age, acted with the same prompti-
tude as his mother had shown in similar circumstances. He
instantly assembled an army, marched by Perth and Brechin

6 Burgh Records, i. 121, 124, 126, 127. 7 Ibid. 125. 8 Ibid. 151.

LEVIES OF TROOPS 163

to Aberdeen, and brought Huntly back a prisoner in his train. 9
In this expedition Glasgow played a part. The king asked
for three score of hagbutters from the town, and the council,
pleading poverty, sent fifty, and taxed the citizens five hundred
pounds for the expense. 10 It is pleasant to know that the
warriors sent by the town did well, and were commended
to the provost by the king. Each man was paid ten shillings
per day for his services, and on the return of the contingent
a hundred merks were voted for their gratification, while their
officers, William Stewart and Thomas Pettigrew, were to
be " gratified " separately at the discretion of the provost and
bailies. 1 On another requisition being made in the month of
June, however, a deputation was sent to the king at Hamilton
to endeavour to secure exemption for the town. 2

Nearly twenty years later, in the summer of 1608, the war-
like abilities of the citizens were again put to the test. For the
expedition to the Isles under Lord Ochiltree, Glasgow con-
tributed a ship full of provisions and liquor, along with thirty
hagbutters under command of John Stirling, deacon of the
hammermen. Each soldier on this occasion was paid fifteen
pounds Scots per month, and the captain forty pounds. 3

Bankruptcy proceedings were, on occasion, conducted by the
town council in most orderly fashion. A merchant, Guthrie
Howie, having been challenged and arrested by his creditors,
appeared before the city fathers in 1589. He duly acknowledged
the debts, and declared his inability to pay, but craved that two
honest merchants, with two of the bailies and the clerk of the
court should visit his booth or shop and value his goods and book
debts, and he offered to pay every creditor at once half the
amount owing, and the other half as soon as God should send
him goods. To this arrangement the creditors agreed, and
the provost and bailies interponed their authority. 4

9 Tytler's History of Scotland under date 1589. 10 Burgh Records, i. 131.

1 Ibid. i. 135. 2 Ibid. 139. 3 Ibid. 283-287. *Ibid. i. 134.

164 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

An interesting feature of Glasgow at that time must have
been the dovecots belonging to the citizens. The upholding
of these was considered to be for the public good, and there
were Acts of Parliament in existence for the protection of
dovecots throughout the country. In 1589, however, certain
evil-disposed persons had taken to shooting the pigeons and
raiding the dovecots round the city, and one on the Green,
belonging to Marion Scott and Robert Chirnside, had suffered
especially. So great was the damage that the council sent
the drum round the town, forbidding the shooting of the
birds and breaking of the dovecots, under severe penalties. 6

Even in those Reformation times the city was not without
its recreations. The playing of football was so far counte-
nanced by the authorities that on 3ist January, 1589, they
made a bargain with a certain John Neill, cordiner, to supply
six footballs every Fastern's Even during his lifetime, for
which he was made a burgess without payment of fees. 6
Nor were the ancient festivals of pre-Reformation and even
pre-Christian times altogether forgotten. In June, 1590, the
mort and skellat bells and the puntership were let for a year
to George Johnston for the sum of sixty pounds, payable
one-third at once, one-third at Luke's-mass, and one-third
at Beltane. 7 Still more significant was an order of the town
council in February, 1600, in accordance with a royal pro-
clamation prohibiting the fleshers of the city from killing or
selling any flesh in time of Lent. Any flesh thus sold was
to be escheated, and the user of it banished from the town. 8

In 1594 for the first time, for the purpose of administering
the town's statutes, the city was divided into four quarters
and a bailie appointed to each. The quarters were divided
by the line of High Street and Saltmarket, and the line of
Gallowgate and Trongate. 9

5 Burgh Records, i. 143. 6 Ibid. 149. 7 Ibid. 153.

8 Ibid. 203. 9 Ibid. 157.

REPRESENTATIVES TO PARLIAMENT 165

In curious contrast to the spirit of more modern times,
the representation of the city in Parliament received only
very slight consideration. Thus on 8th March, 1594-5, the
town council ordained Robert Rowat, bailie, and James Bell,
to attend the Convention of Burghs to be held in Edinburgh
on the nth of that month, and the parliament to be held
on the I7th. A commission was made out for them, and a
daily payment was allowed of 26s. 8d. to the bailie and 2os.
to " the said James " for the time they should remain away. 10

The city fathers evidently felt that, while affairs of State
hardly touched them, the matter of real importance was the
keeping of order within their own bounds. Thus a few days
later, to put down a plague of night walkers, who prevented
people going about their lawful business, it was ordained
that eight citizens should watch nightly from eleven till three
in the morning or longer. The watchers were to provide
themselves with sufficient armour, and non-appearance entailed
a fine of twenty shillings. 1

At the same time they were a loyal folk, the citizens of
that day, and for bringing the " glaid tydens " of the birth
of a prince on i8th June, 1595, they made a worthy blacksmith,
John Duncan, a burgess gratis. John had bruised his horse
in his strenuous endeavour to be first with the news. 2

Another event which about the same time made a con-
siderable stir in the city was the procuring or recasting of
the great bell for the cathedral. For this a special " extent "
or tax, amounting to seven hundred pounds, was levied on all
the inhabitants. Including the metal of the old bell the
town paid Arthur Allan altogether for the new possession
the sum of 1,002 os. 4d. 3

At times the town seems to have been apprehensive of
becoming burdened with an inflow of beggars. In 1595 the
town council passed a by-law ordering all beggars who had

10 Ibid. 162. i Ibid. 163. 2 Ibid. 167. Ibid. 165, 169, 182.

166 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

not been five years in the place to remove within forty-eight
hours, under pain of scourging through the town and burning
on the cheek. At the same time the inhabitants were for-
bidden to receive or lodge any stranger beggar on pain of
banishment for a j^ear and a day. 4

A vast difference might have been made in the character
and fortunes of Glasgow if a proposal made in 1596 had been
carried out. This was nothing less than a suggestion from
the Government that the Court of Session and College of
Justice might be transplanted to the western city. The
Corporation was asked to state what it was prepared to offer
for the transference. The council unanimously declared that
the city could make no contribution in money, but was pre-
pared to offer its services. These services, whatever they
might be worth, proved an insufficient inducement, and the
courts of law remained in Edinburgh. 5

Even before the end of the sixteenth century the shipping
of Glasgow was by no means inconsiderable. On 28th April,
1597, there were entered eight vessels of twenty-one and a
half to three score tons, from places as far away as Pittenweem,
Aberdeen, and Dundee. Most of the vessels belonged to Glas-
gow itself, and on 22nd May was entered the largest of these,
of ninety-two tons. 6

Scarcity of provisions and the fear of actual famine were
naturally not infrequent in days when most of the land of
the country was unreclaimed and so much of what remained
was common pasture. On these occasions the city fathers
took peremptory measures against forestalling and hoarding
of foodstuffs. Buying and selling of foodstuffs were forbidden,
except in the open market, all export of provisions was declared
unlawful, and no one was allowed to purchase more than
sufficed for the immediate needs of his household. 7

4 Burgh Records, i. 174. B Ibid. 183. 6 Ibid. 187.

7 Ibid. 189.

AUCTION OF BURGESS FEES 167

Salt was then a valuable commodity, being mostly obtained
by the evaporation of sea-water in open pans. Upon occasion
the town council seems to have bought it in quantity and
allotted his portion to each citizen. On these occasions the
drum was sent round, and those who did not come to claim
and pay for their portions were liable to imprisonment. 8

One of the most active movers in the affairs of the city
at that time was Thomas Pettigrew. We have seen how he
came into notice first as one of the officers who commanded
the small Glasgow levy sent to join the king's army in its
expedition against Huntly and Errol in the north. His
efficiency on that occasion was rewarded with a " gratification "
in the shape of a burgess' fine. In the years that followed
he took a more and more prominent, and always practical,
part in the city's business, both as master of works and as an
enterprising private citizen, acting on many committees and
commissions of trust. One of his most interesting speculations
took place in 1599. At that time the granting of burgess
privileges gratis had become a serious abuse. While it meant
a serious loss to the town it was a proceeding which the provost
and bailies found difficult to resist. In this emergency Thomas
Pettigrew saw at once a means of relief for the magistrates
and a source of profit for himself. No doubt at his initiative
the council agreed to lease the revenue from burgess fees
to the highest bidder. This was done in the tolbooth, and
the fees were leased to Pettigrew for three years for two hun-
dred and sixty merks yearly. At the same time it was declared
unlawful either for the magistrates or the tacksman to admit
burgesses gratis or at a lower fee than was ordained by the by-
laws. 9 It would be interesting to know what profit Pettigrew
made on his speculation. In view of his evident shrewdness
it may be concluded that the sum he offered was considerably
less than the actual receipts of the town from burgess fees.

8 Ibid. 189. 9 Ibid. 197, 198.

i68 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Dunbarton, holding the gateway of Glasgow's sea-going
trade, remained a serious menace to the city's mercantile
development. In December, 1599, some of the merchants
who had salmon to export to France and other foreign ports,
appealed to the town council for protection against the Captain
of Dunbarton, who had placed a new impost of twenty pounds
on each last of the cured fish shipped from the river. Recog-
nizing the hurt to the city's trade which this would cause,
the council appointed a commissioner to ride to Edinburgh
with one of the merchants, to interview the Duke of
Lennox and the provost, Sir Matthew Stewart of Minto, on
the subject. 10

A great work of the last years of the sixteenth century
was the causewaying of the streets of the city. Constantly
extra revenue of all sorts was devoted to this purpose, and
the work was pushed steadily forward. The townsfolk were
prohibited from leaving middens on the newly paved streets,
and labour was even commandeered for certain thoroughfares.
On 28th March, 1600, every householder in the town was
warned by sound of drum to send one person to the work of
causewaying the thoroughfare at the Green under pain of a
fine of 6s. 8d. Thus apparently was the present Great Clyde
Street laid down. 1

Among minor matters, the minstrels of the town appear to
have given fairly constant trouble. A drummer and a piper
were officially employed and provided with uniform, 2 and
injunctions are again and again recorded in the council records,
ordering them to refrain from misbehaviour of various kinds.
Sometimes they neglected their duties by going out of town to
play at weddings and other festivities, and at home they were
apt to be objectionable in various ways. Apparently they
lived pretty much at large upon the townsmen, and were

10 Burgh Records, i. 200. 1 Ibid, 204.

Ibid. 50, 194, 454, 45 8.

THE TOWN'S HANGMAN 169

inclined to presume upon their privileges. 3 They had to be
warned to take neither boy nor dog with them when they were
entertained to " ordiner " or dinner, to refrain from soliciting
silver from their hosts, and to make no complaints as to the
fare. They were also to refrain from " extraordinar " drinking,
and to work twenty days at causewaying. It is clear that in
their hands, in the days of James VI., the minstrel art had
fallen to very low repute. 4

Another city official of questionable repute was the common
hangman. Evidently there was no competition for his post.
In January, 1605, one John M'Clelland was banished from the
town on suspicion of theft, and on the understanding, agreed to
by himself, that if found again in Glasgow he should be hanged.
In September, however, he returned, took again to theft, and
was caught. The town at this moment, fortunately for him,
was " desolat of ane executour," and instead of putting the
rascal to death, as they might justly have done, the council
appointed him to the post, with the stipulation that if ever he
forsook office he should himself be hanged without further
trial. Evidently the hangman was an object of common
obloquy, for at the time of M'Clelland's appointment the
council ordained that if any one, young or old, " abuisis the said
John, ather be word or deid," he should be liable to a fine of
five pounds. 5

The musical reputation and culture of Glasgow at that time,
however, happily did not depend entirely upon disreput-
able individuals. Among the elaborate preparations for the
king's visit to the city on ist September, 1600, appears an
instruction to John Buchanan to be present on the cross with
all his singers. 6

3 The citizens were only relieved of the duty of feeding the " menstralis "
in 1605, as amends for the levying of a tax of ten shillings each for payment
of the causeway builders (Records, i. 240).

4 Burgh Records, i. 207, 208. 6 Ibid. i. 234.
Ibid. 211.

170 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

On that great occasion the inhabitants were ordered to
clear all their middens, timber, and stones off the streets on pain
of a fine of five pounds. All men were to hold themselves
ready to turn out to meet the king in sufficient armour, with
hagbuts, jacks, spears, and steel bonnets, and otherwise in best
array. In particular, no man was to wear such an unceremoni-
ous head-dress as a blue bonnet. The council and deacons
were to accompany the bailies, and there were to be bonfires
in the evening. The occasion was further celebrated by the
conferring of the freedom of the burgh upon seven of His
Majesty's attendants, and upon a number of local notables
who graced the proceedings with their presence. 7 It was only
some three weeks since the king had escaped from the hands
of the conspirators at Gowrie House, and the welcome given to
him in Glasgow was no doubt all the more enthusiastic on
that account. The same thing was done on the occasion of
the king's visit on ist September in the following year, no
fewer than forty-three persons receiving the freedom at that
time. 8

The methods of taxation in those times may have been
somewhat clumsier and more difficult of adjustment than
the methods of the present day, but they had the merit
of bringing home to each citizen the actual cost of State
enterprises. As a result, we find no record of demands that
expensive works and ventures should be undertaken by the
Government. If they called any such tune the burgesses were
well aware that they themselves would be called upon to
pay the piper. The fact had a salutary restraining effect which
is absent when people have reason to believe that the cost of the
enterprises they advocate will be taken out of the pocket of
someone else. The plan followed in James VI. 's time was
for Parliament to vote a sum of money, and to assign to
each burgh and county the amount it must contribute. The

7 Burgh Records, i. 211. 8 Ibid. 225.

TAXATION 171

whole proceeding is made clear by an entry in the Glasgow
council records of I4th March, 1601. The provost, bailies,
and council on that occasion ordered certain persons to be
apprised of a taxation of " VHP lib " (40 stg.) as their part
in a levy of one hundred thousand merks made at the last
convention of Parliament and a sum required for repairing the
Grammar School, and their part also of a sum of one thousand
merks required from the burghs for a certain mission to Flanders
and elsewhere. 9 Naturally enough, the stenter or tax-gatherer
was no more popular then than now, and special injunctions
for his protection from slander and ill-usage had to be made
from time to time. 10

On at least one occasion an attempt was made by certain
individuals to evade taxation. In 1605, in compliance with
the king's desire to effect a union of the Parliaments of Scotland
and England, commissioners were appointed by the Scottish
Government to proceed to England to treat on the matter. For
their expenses the burghs were " stented " or taxed. In
Glasgow, however, the two " st enters " complained to the
council that certain persons refused to pay and pretended to be
exempt. These included " medicineris, chirurgiounis, bar-
bouris, procuratouris, messingeris, notteris, and sic vtheris."
On that occasion the council took prompt action, declared that
all who enjoyed the freedom of the burgh must pay, and that
in case of refusal they be " hornit, poindit, or wairdit
thairfor." 1

Another entry in the council records of that year shows the
dim beginning of a consciousness that it would be better for the
different burghs of the kingdom to forgo mutually their fiscal
war one against another. The entry runs that, with a view to
improving friendliness between Glasgow and Dunbarton, the
burgesses of Dunbarton resorting to Glasgow to sell goods
should not be required to pay customs dues, provided the

9 Burgh Records, i. 218, 273. Ibid. 273. * Ibid. 241.

172 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Dunbarton authorities granted the same privilege to the
burgesses and other inhabitants of Glasgow. 2

A few days after the passing of this amicable resolution, in
June, 1 60 1, a serious fire broke out among the wooden houses
and thatched roofs of the city. On that occasion an example
was afforded of the public spirit which has from the first been an
outstanding characteristic of Glasgow. A public meeting was
forthwith convened, and the bailies, council, deacons, and
minister organized a house-to-house collection throughout the
town for funds to help the sufferers. At the same time a public
enquiry was made regarding the origin of the fire, which had
started in the smiddy of one James Leishman. After careful
examination, however, it was concluded that neither Leishman
nor his servants were to blame, but that the fire had proceeded
from the providence of God. 3

The provost of that time, Sir George Elphinstone of Blyths-
wood, was a persona grata at court. On his appointment by
the Duke of Lennox in the previous year he had brought with
him a letter from the king recommending him to the council.
In consequence, he appears to have lived a good deal in Edin-
burgh. A pleasant incident was the invitation he sent to the
council for one or two of them "to be gossips to him " at his
daughter's baptism there on 22nd September. The council
accordingly deputed William Wallace to ride thither, and gave
him ten pounds (los.) for his expenses, one eight merk piece
for the nurse, and forty shillings (35. 4d.) for the hire of a horse. 4

In those days men were as tolerant of physical horrors as
they were intolerant in matters of opinion, religious and other-
wise an attitude exactly the opposite of that of the twentieth
century. Down to the year 1605 it was one of the ordinary
sights of Glasgow to watch the butchers " hough kye on the
causeway and slay cattle on the front street." In that year,
however, the indecency and brutalizing effects of such opera-

2 Burgh Records, i. 223. 3 Ibid. 224. 4 Ibid. 225.

PUBLIC DEBT 173

tions in public seem to have occurred to the city fathers, and
the butchers were forbidden to do these things except in houses
or back yards. 5

Among other amenities which the town had to protect and
preserve for itself were the old rights-of-way and means of
access. Again and again these were encroached upon by
aggressive members of the community. Thus, in November,
1607, the bailies and council held a special meeting by the side
of the Gallowgate Burn to deal with encroachments made by
Gabriel Liston and James Pollok, cooper. The former had
removed from the burn certain large boulders used as stepping-
stones by men leading horses and carts across the water on the
south side of the footbridge, and had narrowed the passage so
that one cart could not pass another at the spot, while Pollok
had taken away the steps and built up the passage by which
the neighbours descended to the burn to draw water. Needless
to say, the city fathers ordered the two worthies to restore
stepping-stones and passages at once to their former condition. 6

In 1608 the penalty of that extravagance in money matters
which is so common among public bodies came upon the town.
The council had managed to pile up a debt of thirteen thousand
merks. Already there had been threats of putting the magis-
trates to the horn, and attempts had been made to borrow
money in Edinburgh. 7 On the trouble becoming acute the
council made an offer to one of the city merchants, " John
Bornis," to lease to him for a period of years the town mills,
the customs of the ladles and bridge, and the revenue from bur-
gess dues and common fines, in return for a payment of nine
thousand merks, to be applied to the relief of the debt of the
burgh. Burns proposed to accept this offer, the period to be eight
years, or, without the mills, eleven years. Thereupon other two
suggestions were made by councillors, one that the ladles and
burgess dues be leased for a term of years for four thousand

6 Burgh Records, i. 230, 253. 6 Ibid. 272. 7 Ibid. i. 264.

174 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

merks, the town's common land for other four thousand, and
the town taxed for five thousand ; the other that the common
land be leased for four thousand merks, to be used as ordinary
income for the town's expenses, the burgesses being taxed for
any deficiency, while the burgess dues and common fines should
be handed over for a period of years to anyone who would
relieve the town of its whole debt. After much debate none of
these suggestions was adopted. Instead, the town secured a
lease for ten years of the archbishop's mill at Partick, and of
the water mills and man mill belonging to Stewart of Minto.
The council decreed that all the inhabitants of Glasgow be
suckened, thirled, or bound to these mills, to have all their
victual ground at them alone. The mills " the Auld Milne of
Partick, the New Milne, the Auld Toun Milne, and the milnes
perteaning to the Laird of Minto callit the Subdeanis Mimes
(twa wattir milnes and ane man milne " were then leased to
George Anderson of Woodside and James Lightbody, visitor of
the maltmen and mealmen, for a yearly payment of 4400
merks. 8

It was this arrangement which, as already mentioned, was
disputed by Sir George Elphinstone and led to considerable
litigation and trouble. 9 Strangely enough, it was directly
contrary to the ordinance made by the same Stewart party in
the town council in July 158 1. 10

In the winter of 1607 a great frost bound up the River
Clyde and the harbour of Glasgow for sixteen weeks, so that
no vessels could come up to the bridge. In consideration of
this fact, and of the complete stoppage of the trade in herring,
which was the only source of revenue to the lessee of the
customs, the council agreed to remit the sum of forty pounds
from the rent payable by him. 1

An outstanding public act of that time was the printing

8 Burgh Records, i. 274-281. 9 Ibid. 282, etc.

10 Ibid. 87. i Ibid. 290.

RAISING MONEY 175

of the Regiam Majestatem, or collection of laws said to have
been compiled by order of David I., King of Scotland, though
its authenticity has been questioned in more recent times, and
it has been characterised as merely an artifice of Edward I. in
his endeavour to assimilate Scots law to the law of England.
For that publication Glasgow was charged a hundred pounds
by the Clerk Register. Because of their delay in raising this
money by a tax the magistrates were in danger of horning, and
to avoid that unpleasant experience they borrowed a hundred
and six pounds in silver from William Burn, a merchant of
the city, and settled the debt. 2

Two months later another money difficulty threatened
the town. The ministers of the burgh drew the attention of
the magistrates to the dilapidation and threatening ruin of
the cathedral. The council had no money in hand to devote
to repairs. Among other resources an appeal to the king was
suggested, also a levy upon the ancient common lands of the
kirk, now owned by private gentlemen, but as the readiest
means of securing funds it was resolved to appeal for voluntary
subscriptions, at any rate until the return of " my lord of
Glasgow," the archbishop, when other means might be con-
sidered. 3 It was probably as a means of solving this difficulty
that Archbishop Spottiswood, as already mentioned, granted
a lease of the teinds of the parsonage and vicarage of Glasgow
to the Master of Blantyre for an annual rent of 300 merks, and
the cost of repairing the kirks, etc. 4 Further, as we have also
seen, in 1611, the archbishop himself began the roofing of the
cathedral with lead. 5

Still another kind of emergency which the magistrates and
burgesses had to meet is exemplified by an incident which
occurred in 1609. On a Friday, the igth of May, the magis-
trates learned that, by an order of the Privy Council, the

2 Burgh Records, i. 200. 3 Ibid. 301.

4 Charters and Documents, i. ; Abstract, p. 62. 5 Supra, page 136.

i 7 6 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Earl of Glencairn and Lord Sempill, with their friends, were
to meet in Glasgow on the Monday for the reconciliation of
their deadly feud. Meetings of such a kind were notoriously
apt to result in anything rather than the object proposed,
and the magistrates were evidently determined to take no
risks of an outbreak of hostilities in their burgh. Calling the
council together at once, they arranged that a body of forty
men armed with spears and swords, should be placed under
the command of the provost, while the two bailies, each with
a body of three score men similarly armed, should attend at
the lodgings of the respective noblemen, and accompany them
and their friends to and fro in their interviews with each other.
At the same time the drum was sent through the town to warn
all the inhabitants to hold their arms in readiness for any
emergencies, and to meet the provost on the green on the
Monday morning at seven o'clock. 6 As no more is heard of
the matter, the precautions appear to have been effectual.

No record remains of the actual ceremony on such occasions
as the celebration of the king's birthday, but the magistrates
did not let the occasion pass without some sort of hospitality.
The conviviality was evidently an out-of-door affair, for one
comes upon such accounts as a sum of 16 los. " for expenses
of wyne and confeitis at the Croce vpone the fyfte of Julj, the
Kingis day, my Lord of Glasgu being present with sindrie vthir
honorabil men." 7 Disapproval of such hospitalities, and the
grimmer view of life and religious observances, seem to have
been a growth of a later day, of the time of Cromwell and the
Puritan invasion.

In 1609 an important change took place in the personality
of the chief magistrate of the burgh. Till that year it had been
customary for the archbishop to nominate and the council to
elect to the provostship some neighbouring laird or person
of consequence, like Stewart of Minto or Houston of that Ilk

6 Burgh Records, i. 302. 7 Ibid. i. 303.

FEES TO PROVOST, BAILIES AND OFFICIALS 177

or Elphinstone of Blythswood. An Act of Parliament now,
however, ordained that within all burghs the office of provost
should be held by "an actual resident burgess and trafficker."
Following this Act, in 1609, James Inglis, merchant, was
recommended by the archbishop and elected provost by the
council, 8 and to the present day the rule has been followed.
In the face of this Act, it seems doubtful whether the attempt
which has been made in recent years, at places like Rothesay
and Kirkcaldy, to revive the old custom by electing some
magnate of the neighbourhood to the provostship, is a strictly
legal proceeding.

Another proceeding on the strict legality of which an
ordinance of that time might be taken to throw some doubt
is the conferring of " the freedom of the city " without charge
on persons whom the magistrates may wish to honour. In
1609 the attention of the council was drawn to the loss suffered
by the community from the increasing habit of admitting
burgesses gratis, and of making grants to individuals, by way
of honoraria, for services done, of the fees of one or more new
burgesses. To stop this abuse it was declared that no more
burgesses were to be admitted without payment of the full
fees to the city treasurer in public in the ordinary Dean of Guild
Court. For these fees the Dean of Guild himself was made
responsible, as well as for the five merks payable out of each
new burgess* fee to the two hospitals. At the same time the
provost, bailies, and council gave up the rights of themselves
and their successors in office to certain of these fees, and agreed
that instead, in all time coming, money payments should be
made of 40 to the provost, 20 to each bailie, and 15 each
to the clerk, master of works, and treasurer. If any burgess
was admitted otherwise his admission was to be null and
void. 9

Constantly in the town council records and the Acts of Parlia-

8 Burgh Records, i. 304. 9 Ibid. i. 305.

178 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

ment of those years one comes upon ordinances against trading
" in great," or by wholesale. From these Acts and ordinances
it is evident that modern ideas as to the ultimate benefit to
the community of liberty to buy in the cheapest and to sell
in the dearest market were not understood. All exports from
the burgh seem to have been considered a loss, and one has
difficulty in understanding how the merchants of Glasgow ever
managed to develop a foreign trade. An instance of this
short-sighted policy was an Act of the Scottish Parliament
forbidding the export of tallow. This Act certain merchants
of the city found means of circumventing, under colour of
their freedom as burgesses to trade in the burgh, and they
were evidently in the way of establishing a thriving business
when the town council stepped in. It was pointed out that
while the merchants were exporting tallow their neighbours
were in need of it for household use. It does not seem to have
occurred to the city fathers that these neighbours could secure
the tallow for themselves by paying a better price, and that
the merchants who exported it were doing the country a
service by securing a higher price for it abroad. Accordingly,
it was " statut and ordanit " that no one in the town should
buy tallow wholesale to render or melt, on pain of a hundred
pound fine, and that no one should export it on pain of
confiscation. 10 No doubt that settled the business.

More rational was an ordinance made against abuse of the
river. The shipmasters who brought their vessels up to the
Broomielaw for cargoes of coal, herring, and salmon, had
developed a habit of unceremoniously throwing their ballast
overboard. This proceeding threatened in course of time to
render navigation impossible. The council therefore made a
by-law forbidding the dumping of ballast in the waterway,
and ordering that it be laid forty feet above flood-mark, on
pain of a fine of five pounds and such other punishment as the

10 Burgh Records, i. 306.

TROUBLE WITH DUNBARTON 179

council might inflict. 1 This is one of the earliest evidences of
interest taken by the magistrates in maintaining the navigable
channel of the Clyde. An earlier occasion was that of the year
1600, when the magistrates procured an order of the Privy
Council permitting them to apply certain river and bridge
dues to uphold the High Kirk, repair the bridge, make cause-
ways on the green, and remove sand from the harbour channel. 2

But the interest of Glasgow in the river was to be quickened
almost immediately by action from another quarter. On I3th
December, 1609, the burgh of Dunbarton obtained from King
James a charter which it proceeded to interpret as giving it a
complete monopoly of trade on the river. On 5th March
following, Glasgow town council discussed the situation and
resolved to fight the question. It instructed the provost,
James Inglis, and the common procurator, George Hutcheson,
to consult counsel in Edinburgh, and lay before them an array
of documents, from the charter of King Alexander downwards,
proving the right of Glasgow to free navigation of the river. 3

In twelve days the provost was back with his evident s. 4
Apparently the men of law advised a friendly settlement, for
successive meetings of representatives of the two burghs were
arranged to be held on nth April and i6th June. 5 These
meetings failed to effect their purpose, and Dunbarton tried
to compel certain merchants and shipmasters to ^discharge
and load their vessels at that port, thus practically closing the
river to Glasgow. The matter was then taken before the Lords
of Council and Session, and they on 25th July, 1611, decided
the case against Dunbarton. 6

In this emergency the city was still further helped by the
archbishop, who in person carried the affair to London and
placed the plight of his burgh before King James. 7 As a result

1 Ibid. 307. 2 Privy Coun. Reg. xiv. 387-8.

3 Burgh Records, i. 309. 4 Ibid. i. 310. 5 Ibid. i. 311, 315.

6 Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. 464. 7 Burgh Records, i. 319.

i8o HISTORY OF GLASGOW

His Majesty granted a new charter to Glasgow, confirming all
its ancient privileges, raising it to the position of a royal burgh,
conferring its possession, with all its rights and privileges, upon
the provost, magistrates, and community themselves, to be
held directly of the king, and only reserving to the archbishop
the right of nominating the magistrates. 8 This charter, which
was dated 8th April, 1611, gave the community for the first
time a written title to the common lands and other possessions,
which had been held originally merely by tolerance of the
archbishops, and latterly by virtue of various Acts of Parlia-
ment dealing with the ancient possessions of the Church. It
also expressly conveyed to the burgh community the privilege
of the River Clyde " from the Clochstane to the brig of
Glasgow," and thus freed the city for ever from interference
with its trade by burghs like Dunbarton situated lower on the
stream.

Immediately they had secured this definite grant of juris-
diction over the river, the magistrates proceeded to take
active measures for clearing and improving the channel. The
provost, James Inglis, having occasion to ride to Culross on
the Firth of Forth, was requested to bring back with him, at
the town's expense, a certain Henry Crawfurd, to inspect the
waterway and advise as to how it might be improved. 9

Culross was at that time probably the greatest coal-shipping
port in the kingdom. Through the energy of Sir George Bruce
the mines there had been pushed far under the firth, and among
other engineering works a wonderful mole had excited the
admiration of James VI. when he paid a visit to his " courtly
collier " at the spot. Crawfurd was probably the engineer of
these works, and the chief expert of the time in undertakings
of the kind, and it says much for the shrewdness and enterprise
of the Glasgow magistrates that they set out by taking the best

8 Reg. Mag. Sig. xlvi. no. 314 ; Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. 278.

9 Burgh Records, i. 320.

IMPROVING THE RIVER 181

advice available in their time. Nor did the matter end with
the taking of advice. The engineer had evidently struck upon
certain great stones in the river bed at Dumbuck ford as the
chief hindrance to navigation, and in the following June, when
the water would be getting to its lowest, the town council took
action by directing the master of works and certain others
to prepare chains, ropes, hogsheads, and other apparatus for
removing those stones. 10 For the actual work the merchants
of the city were ordered to furnish twenty men, and the crafts
other twenty. 1 Ten of these forty failed to appear, or to
send substitutes. Labour on the river at a point twelve miles
below the city did not perhaps appeal to them. But the magis-
trates took a more serious view of the matter. For their
disobedience, "in sa necessar and notabill ane werk of this
commoun weill " the recalcitrants were fined six pounds each, 2
and the work went on.

The stout magistrates of Glasgow were up against a bigger
task than they knew something like a tearing up of the actual
ribs of the world. The final clearing away of the " grit stanis "
in the bed of the river at Dumbuck and at Elderslie was not
to be accomplished for something like two centuries and a
half. But the active improvement of the Clyde had been
begun, and the great artery was being opened through which
the life-blood of commerce was to flow in ever-increasing
volume, for the growth of the greatness of Glasgow at a later
day.

As if a new spirit of enterprise and development had begun
to awaken in the city about that time, in the year following
the promotion of Glasgow to the dignity and privileges of a
royal burgh, the community made the first extension of its
borders. Since the magistrates in 1609 had resolved to appeal
to the king for help to repair the cathedral, several references
had been made to the matter, along with provision for repair

10 Ibid. i. 329. J Ibid. i. 329. 2 Ibid. i. 330.

182 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

of Glasgow bridge. In December, 1613, however, His Majesty
came to the rescue in right royal fashion. A charter was passed
under the Great Seal, which, after reciting the expense to
which the city had been put in repairing the bridge and kirk,
" two great ornaments to the kingdom," conveyed to the burgh
a considerable extent of property which had formerly belonged
to the sub-deans of Glasgow, but had come into possession
of the crown by virtue of the Act of Annexation of Church
lands. The property thus conveyed comprised several acres
of land and buildings outside the Rottenrow port, eight acres
in Deanside, three in Crubbis, and thirty in Provanside. These
possessions were to be held and applied for the benefit and
advantage of the burgh for payment to the crown of thirty-six
shillings and eightpence, and to the College and Crafts Hospital
of the duties used and wont. They were incorporated into a
single holding to be called the Tenandry of Rottenrow, and
were united to the burgh. 3 Thus was the extension of the
City of Glasgow hanselled by James VI.

An interesting characteristic of the public life of Scotland
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was the readiness
with which municipalities, kirk-sessions, and the like came
to the help of each other on occasions of urgent need. In such
generosities Glasgow was at least equal to the other com-
munities of the country. Thus on loth November, 1612, a
certain David Ochterlonie, one of the bailies of Arbroath, then
known as Aberbrothock, was received by the provost and
council in full meeting. The harbour and pier of Arbroath
had fallen into disrepair, and as harbours were few on that
part of the wild east coast, the Convention of Burghs at its
meeting in the previous June had passed an act ordering
repairs to be made. Arbroath itself had not resources sufficient,
and the worthy bailie was sent forth as a commissioner to ask
help. The corporation of Glasgow was at that time itself hard

3 Charters and Documents, i. pt. ii. no. xciv.

APPOINTMENT OF TOWN CLERK 183

J Dressed, and driven to various resources to find money for its
)wn needs, but it made a grant of a hundred merks, to be paid
it the Whitsunday following. 4 From that day to this,
Glasgow, whether as a corporation, or by the hands of its
private citizens, has never failed to respond to the need of
stricken communities, suffering from famine, earthquake, mine
explosion, or other disaster.

Not less characteristic of the city was the series of efforts
which it made to free its actions in the appointment of its
officials. We have seen how, after the flight to France of
Archbishop Beaton at the Reformation, the town council made
a valiant effort to assert powers of nominating its own provost
and bailies. The freedom in this respect which it enjoyed for
a time was lost when the king again proceeded to appoint
archbishops. A similar fate appears to have attended the
town council's effort to exercise the power of appointing a
town clerk. To begin with, this appointment was made
annually, and in 1574, and for a number of years afterwards,
Henry Gibson, who, from his denomination of " maister,"
was a university graduate, was placed in the office by the
council, with no outside interference. One of the candidates
in 1574 was a certain William Hegate, and he appears to have
tried for the post in succeeding years, 5 without success. In
1581, however, there appeared upon the scene, as already
mentioned, Archibald Hegate, probably a son of William. 6
The entry in the record is made by himself, and bears that,
bringing a letter from Esme, Earl of Lennox, as provost, and
with authority and command of the king, he took the oath
before one of the bailies, who delivered to him a scroll minute
of the proceedings of the previous meeting of council. 7 For
several years he enjoyed the office, and was annually appointed. 8
From 27th April, 1586, to 22nd October, 1588, the records

4 Burgh Records, i. 332. * Ibid. i. 15, 75. 6 Supra, p. 157.

7 Burgh Records, i. 84, 85. 8 Ibid. i. TOO, 107.

184 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

are awanting. Between these dates, under another provost,
Sir William Livingstone of Kilsyth, the town council had
asserted itself, and appointed Mr. John Ross to be clerk. In
May, 1589, at the annual appointment of officials, William
Hegate appeared with a letter from the Duke of Lennox,
" commanding and charging " the council to appoint James
Hegate, his son, to be town clerk. The attempted dictation
was resisted, at the instance of Adam Wallace, the town's
procurator, who cited an act of the council itself of igth October,
1588, declaring no such nomination competent ; and John
Ross was appointed for the year. On gth September the council
went further and ordered the deletion of the entry of 23rd
May, 1581, by which Archibald Hegate had taken office, as
repugnant and maist prejudiciall to the libertie of the toun,
they haifand electioun in their awin handis of the said office
in all tyme bygane. 9 John Ross was reappointed in 1590,
and in 1597 " Maister Henry Gibsone standis conforme to his
gift," and continued in the office till 1600. Several further
gaps occur in the records, and nothing more is heard of the
appointment of a clerk till January, 1613. It then transpired
that another of the Hegate family had been occupying the
position of Town Clerk. This Archibald Hegate, however,
had by his " depart our and absence " left the office vacant.
Further, the provost, bailies, and council had taken advice,
and understood that Hegate had left the election of a successor
absolutely in their power. Accordingly they proceeded to
" admit, elect, and choose " John Thomson, writer, to fill the
post. At the same time they safeguarded themselves for the
future by making acceptance of the office conditional upon
Thomson renouncing any pretension to a right to the appoint-
ment through any agreement with Archibald Hegate ; also that
he should conform to the regulations of the council in his
charges for sasines and other services. Further conditions

9 Burgh Records, i. 135, 146.

REGULATIONS FOR TOWN CLERKSHIP 185

were an admission by Thomson that the office was subject to
yearly election by the Town Council, and that any contraven-
tion of the stipulations entailed immediate dismissal. The
new arrangement apparently brought to an end some claim
of the Hegates to a vested interest in the Town Clerkship,
and to a right of the Town Clerk to exact fees at his own
discretion. 10

10 Burgh Records, i. 335.

CHAPTER XVII
JAMES VI. VISITS GLASGOW

As early as February, 1616, it was intimated by proclamation
in Scotland that the king intended to visit his northern kingdom
in the following year. In order that there should be abundant
sport for his majesty and the royal retinue strict observance
of the laws against hunting and shooting of deer, hares, and
wild-fowl was enjoined within certain areas, and it is of interest
to note that one of these areas was a district within eight
miles of Glasgow. 1 Also, in order that the royal residences
should be furnished becomingly it was ordered that all persons
in possession of the king's tapestries should report where these
were to be found. Among others, a servant of the late Duchess
of Lennox declared that a chamber in the donjon tower of the
Castle of Glasgow had been hung with this, and contained a
silk bed. 2

On the last day of 1616 the king addressed a letter to the
provost, bailies, and council of Glasgow, intimating his desire
that the nobles who should accompany him in the coming
summer should see neither signs of rudeness nor appearance
of scarcity in his ancient realm, and ordaining the city to send
commissioners to a convention of the estates to devise means
for making the necessary arrangements for the royal enter-
tainment. 3 Next, in February, came an order from the
Privy Council for Glasgow to send seven masons, with their

1 Priv. Coun. Reg. x. 459. a Ibid. x. 515, 521.

8 Burgh Records, i. 338.

1 86

THE ROYAL RETINUE 187

tools, to help with the refitting of Edinburgh Castle and Holy-
rood Abbey. 4 Then the Convention of Estates on 7th March
resolved on a voluntary taxation of 200,000 (29,250 stg.)
to meet the expenses of the royal visit. Of this, 100,000
(14,625 stg.) was to be furnished by the clergy, 66,666 135. 4d.
(9>750 stg.) by the barons, freeholders, and feuars of the
crown lands, and 33,333 6s. 8d. (4,875 stg.) by the burghs. 5
On 2nd May, proclamation of the coming visit was made at the
market crosses of the chief burghs, with an injunction that the
people should conduct themselves in orderly fashion, on pain
of death ; and at last on Tuesday, i3th May, the king entered
Scotland.

James was accompanied, on this long-looked-for visit, by a
great and distinguished retinue, which included the Duke of
Lennox, five English earls, three English bishops, and, among
other notables, lay and clerical, Dr. William Laud, who after-
wards, as Archbishop of Canterbury, was to play so conspicuous
a part as an opponent of Puritanism and Presbyterianism,
and in the reign of James's son, to seal his convictions and
end his career on the block. Each of them had, of course, his
own retinue of gentlemen and servants, and as the great and
brilliant cavalcade rode into Edinburgh, it must have filled
to overflowing the ancient capital on its high narrow ridge
between the Castle and Holyrood, already crowded with the
nobility and gentry of Scotland, who had gathered there to
meet their sovereign, and with the clergy, crown vassals,
and commissioners of burghs, who had assembled for the
meeting of Parliament.

It was not till two months had been spent in a round of
sports, gaieties, and visits to various burghs, and when James
began to think of returning to the south, that the Privy
Council caused a proclamation to be made in Glasgow, requiring
all the inhabitants to allow their houses and stables to be
4 Priv. Coun. Reg. xi. 31. 6 Act Par/, iv. 518.

i88 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

inspected and set apart for the noblemen and others of the
royal retinue, and ordering the owners and occupiers to prepare
their premises for the accommodation of those who might be
billeted on them. Any who failed to obey this order were to
be committed to prison and otherwise punished. 6

On 22nd July, 1617, the king arrived in Glasgow. His entry
was made the occasion of much speechmaking. William Hay
of Barro, commissary of Glasgow, welcomed him in a flattering
English speech ; Robert Boyd of Trochrig, principal of the
college, delivered a Latin oration and verses; while David Dick-
son recited a set of Greek verses in his honour. The city at the
same time presented him with a gilt cup in the form of a salmon.

The Burgh Records from 28th August, 1613, till 2oth
September, 1623, are unfortunately lost. No details, there-
fore, are available from them of the arrangements made for
the royal entertainment on the occasion. We do not even
know where the king himself lodged, though it was likely to
be either in the archbishop's castle or in the old mansion of
the Earls of Lennox, at the Stablegreen Port, where his mother
had paid her momentous visit, just fifty years before, to his
father Darnley, when he lay there recovering from smallpox. 6 *
On the 24th James went to Paisley, but on Sunday the 27th
he returned to the city, and held an important meeting of the
Privy Council, attended by Archbishop Spottiswood of St.
Andrews, Archbishop Law of Glasgow, the Duke of Lennox,
and the Bishop of Aberdeen. 7 It is said also that a gentleman's
child was baptized before him in the presence chamber by an
English bishop. 8 He then set out on his return south, visiting
on the way the Marquess of Hamilton at Hamilton Castle in
Cadzow, Lord Sanquhar at Sanquhar, and Sir William Douglas
at Drumlanrig, and journeying thence by Lincluden, Dumfries,
and Annan, to Carlisle, which he reached on 4th August.

6 Priv. Coun. Reg. xi. 186. * See supra, p. 12.

7 Priv. Coun. Reg. xi. 198, 202, 206. 8 Calderwood, vii. 272,

CHAPTER XVIII

ARCHBISHOP LAW AND His TIME

BY the time James Law succeeded Robert Spottiswood in the
archbishopric of Glasgow, Scotland tiad become fairly well .
reconciled to the episcopal system of church government upon
the establishment of which King James had been more or less
continuously engaged ever since he really wielded the sceptre.
Had he and his son Charles I. been content to leave public
opinion to take its own natural course, and had not proceeded
to insist upon such minor details as the kneeling position at
communion and the use of a prescribed liturgy, there is every
reason to believe that the Church of Scotland would have come
down to us to-day in episcopal form, and that some of the most
regrettable chapters in the history of the country would never
have been written. Spottiswood as Primate at St. Andrews
was the king's most active minister in pressing further effort to
bring the administration of the Scottish Church into line with
that of England, and Law at Glasgow appears to have devoted
himself rather to the immediate interests of his diocese.

The new archbishop, it is true, was an ardent supporter of
episcopal forms. Otherwise he would never have received his
appointment. On one occasion, it is recorded, when the com-
munion was being celebrated in Glasgow Cathedral, he noticed
some of the college students remaining seated. Approaching,
he commanded them to rise if they would not receive the ele-
ments in the ordained attitude, kneeling. His conduct in this
matter excited the high indignation of the College Principal,

189

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Robert Boyd of Trochrig, and next day the latter, with the
college regent, wended his way up the High Street to the
Bishop's Castle, and expostulated with the archbishop for
dealing at Christ's table " as imperiously as if removing his
horse-boys from the bye-board." 1 Such demonstrations, how-
ever, were merely local, and while they served to show the
personal sympathies of the archbishop, they could not have
the effect of the larger acts of Spottiswood's ecclesiastical state-
craft.

Archbishop Law was a son of John Law of Spittel, near
Dunfermline. As he took his degree at St. Andrews only in
1581, he was one of the newer school which had sprung up since
the days of John Knox, and had seen nothing of the fires and
ravages of the Reformation. His first charge was the parish of
Kirkliston in Linlithgowshire, to which he was appointed by
the king in 1585. There he showed himself so little influenced
by the sterner ideas of the Calvinistic school, as to indulge in
the pastime of football on Sunday. For this he was rebuked
by his synod, but the fact did not prevent his appointment in
1589 to be one of the commissioners for the maintenance of
religion in the Linlithgow sheriff dom. In 1606 the king made
him Bishop of Orkney, and he was consecrated by Archbishop
Spottiswood four years later. 2 He was evidently esteemed and
trusted by James, for on 20th July, 1615, less than two months
after the transference of Spottiswood to St Andrews, he was
promoted to the archbishopric of Glasgow, where he was
installed in September. 3 Between these two dates he was, by
the king's order, admitted a member of the Privy Council, and
took the oaths. 4

The great event of Archbishop Law's reign at Glasgow was
the visit of King James to the city in July, 1617. Not much is
known of the part he played on that occasion, except that he

1 Life of Robert Blair, p. 37. z Keith, Cat. Scot. Bish. 264.

* Calderwood, vii. 203. 4 Privy Coun. Reg., x. 381.

ARCHBISHOP LAW'S BENEFACTIONS 191

attended a meeting of the Privy Council, and apparently did
not object to the baptism of a gentleman's child in the king's
chamber by an English bishop. 5

To the cathedral and the city Law was a generous benefactor.
He contributed a thousand merks for the reconstruction of the
library house, and completed the leaden roof of the cathedral. 6
He bequeathed five hundred merks to the poor of St. Nicholas
Hospital, and two hundred and fifty each to hospitals of the
merchants and crafts. Two other monuments of him remain
a MS. commentary on several parts of Scripture, which " gives
a good specimen of his knowledge, both of the fathers and of
the history of the church," 7 and the notable erection over his
grave in the Lady Chapel of the cathedral. This monument,
the finest in the High Kirk, was set up by his third wife, Marion,
a daughter of John Boyle of Kelburne, ancestor of the Earls of
Glasgow, and it declares that he bestowed considerable largess
upon the schools and hospitals of the city.

Law's first wife was a daughter of Dundas of Newliston ;
his second, Grissel Boswell, brought him three sons and a
daughter. To his eldest son, James, he left the estate of
Brunton in Fife. His second son, Thomas, became minister
of Inchinnan. 8

During Archbishop Law's time the country saw great accel-
eration in the movements of a policy in ecclesiastical affairs
which was to bring dire disaster upon both church and throne.
That policy was chiefly inspired by King James himself, and
in Scotland its principal mover was no doubt Archbishop
Spottiswood, now of St. Andrews ; but Law must have been,
of course, a party to it, and Glasgow was destined to be the
scene of some of its most dramatic episodes. The successive
acts of this policy are part of the most vital history of Scotland
at that time. They show a gradual tightening of the cords and

5 Calderwood, vii. 272. 6 Keith, Cat. Scot. Bish. 263-4.

7 Keith, 264. 8 Fasti Eccles. Scot. i. 189-190, iii. 378.

192 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

perfecting of the machinery by which the king and his advisers,
like Laud and Spottiswood, proposed to regulate the spiritual
affairs of men through a centralised bureaucracy. Scotland,
which had burst the bonds of a similar control at the Reforma-
tion only half a century before, was not inclined to accept again
the orders of anyone, king or prelate, as to the attitude in which
it should approach the Almighty or the words in which it should
address Him. The royal policy therefore met with an opposition
which grew constantly stronger till it burst into open rebellion.

In February 1610, King James, following the example of
Henry VIII., set up two courts of High Commission in Scotland,
one presided over by each of the archbishops, with absolute
power to try, judge, and punish offenders in life or religion. 9
In 1615 a royal ordinance consolidated these courts, appointed
the commissioners, and made five, of whom one must be an
archbishop, a quorum. 10 And in 1619 all burgh magistrates
were ordered to give effect to the findings of the court. 1 By
these ordinances and the Acts of the Glasgow Assembly of 1610,
already alluded to, presbyterianism was practically abolished
and episcopacy established. Then, to make the consecration
of the Scottish bishops valid, according to the views of the
English churchmen, the Archbishop of Glasgow and the Bishops
of Brechin and Galloway went to London and were consecrated
by the Bishops of London, Ely, Rochester, and Worcester, and
on their return consecrated the Archbishop of St. Andrews and
the other Scottish bishops. 2

The Act of 1592, establishing Presbyterian Church govern-
ment, was still on the statute book, and bishops, as bishops,
had in reality no legal standing. This Act, the Magna Charta
of presbytery as Cunningham calls it, was repealed by the
Parliament held at Edinburgh in 1612. That Parliament rati-
\J

9 Priv. Coun. Reg. viii. 612, 614 ; Act. Parl. iv. 435.

10 Calderwood, vii. 204, 210. 1 Priv. Coun. Reg. xii. 121.
2 Balfour, ii. 35, 36 ; Gibson, 62 ; Chalmers's Caledonia, iii. 628.

ARCHBISHOP LAUD.

A NEW CONFESSION OF FAITH AUTHORIZED 193

fied the Acts of the General Assembly of 1610, with additions,
legalized the authority and jurisdiction of the bishops, and
established episcopacy on an unquestionable legal basis as the
order of church government in Scotland. At that Parliament
Glasgow was represented by the provost, James Inglis, and by
James Bell. 3

The General Assembly still remained part of the machinery
of church government, but it was completely controlled by the
king and the bishops, and was only called to meet at their
pleasure. After the Glasgow Assembly of 1610 no meeting
was called for six years. In July, 1616, however, the Privy
Council directed a meeting of Assembly to be held at Aberdeen
in the following month. On that occasion the Earl of Montrose
was Lord High Commissioner, and Archbishop Spottiswood, as
Primate, occupied the Moderator's chair. 4 That Assembly
passed several Acts against popish practices, and it gave effect
to King James's far-sighted suggestion that every clergyman
should keep a register of all baptisms, marriages, and deaths
in his parish. 5 But the chief work of the Assembly was the
sanctioning of a new Confession of Faith, a new catechism, a
new liturgy, a new book of Canons, and new rules for baptism,
confirmation, and communion. 6 In sanctioning these Acts of
the Assembly the king took occasion to express regret that they
had not been more thorough. This shortcoming he soon found
opportunity to amend. During his visit to the north in 1617
at the Parliament which he attended in person, he secured the
passing of the Acts prescribing the method for electing bishops,

3 Act. Pavl. iv. 469-470 ; Calderwood, vii. 165-173.

4 Privy Coun. Reg. x. 580, 581.

5 Previously the registration of deaths or burials had been provided for by
the synodal statute of St. Andrew's No. 161 (Stat. Eccles. Scot. ii. 70) and that
of baptisms, marriages, and the proclamation of banns by a canon of the
Provincial Council held at Edinburgh in 1551 (Lord Hailes, Annals iii. 263).

6 Calderwood, vii. 220, 242 ; Spottiswood, ii. 305, 306 ; Priv. Coun. Reg.,
x. pp. cii. ciii. 598, 60 1.

H.G. II. N

194 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

restoring deans and chapters, planting kirks, limiting the
leasing of church lands, and preventing the dilapidation of
benefices. He desired to pass another Act declaring that
whatever he, with the advice of the archbishops, bishops, and
a competent number of the clergy, should ordain regarding the
temporal government of the Church, should have the strength
of law. This Act would have finally superseded the General
Assembly. Had it been passed, the king's policy would have
been completely successful. There would have been no need
for the General Assembly of 1638, and no opportunity for the
revolution effected at that Assembly. There might have been
no signing of a National Covenant and of a Solemn League and
Covenant and no Civil War, and a whole chapter of the story
of Scotland the fifty-year episode of the Covenanters might
never have been written. But the proposal was resisted by
certain ministers and withdrawn by the king, who declared that
he could do more by his royal prerogative than the Act proposed.
At the same time he evidently recognized the significance of his
rebuff, for he had two of the ministers deprived of their bene-
fices and thrown into prison, and had Calderwood, the future
historian of the time, banished from the country. 7

Before James left Scotland on that occasion he arranged for
the calling of another Assembly at St. Andrews in November.
At this the Five Articles which had been withdrawn from the
Assembly of 1616 were again brought forward. By these articles
it was proposed to introduce kneeling at communion, private
communion and private baptism in urgent cases, confirmation
of children by the bishop, and observance of fast days and other
holy days. But the only ordinances the Assembly would agree
to were those allowing private communion in urgent cases, and
instructing the minister at communion to give the bread and
wine direct to the communicant. The remaining proposals
were deferred for consideration at another Assembly.

7 Calderwood, vii. 257, 276, 282.

KNEELING AT COMMUNION 195

Angered by this result, the king proposed to take extreme
measures with those who had opposed him, but was persuaded
by the bishops to leave the matter to their private persuasion. 8
This proving effective, another meeting of Assembly was called
for the following August, 1618. At this Assembly, held at
Perth, Spottiswood as moderator ruled that only the ministers
who held commissions and the noblemen and gentlemen who
had received royal missives were entitled to vote. Under
these conditions the disputed articles were passed, 9 but
even in an Assembly thus regulated, keen opposition was
shown, and throughout the country popular antagonism to
the high-handed action was strongly apparent. 10 In Glasgow,
according to Calderwood, Archbishop Law forbade all persons
except those who proposed to kneel from coming to the
communion service on Easter day ; " whereupon the Principal
of the College, Mr. Robert Boyd, the regent and the scholars,
and the town minister, Mr. Robert Scott, communicated
not."

Meanwhile, in January, 1618, the king had issued a procla-
mation commanding the observance of the five holidays,
Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day, and Sunday, 1
and in June he had further extended the powers of the Court
of High Commission. 2

Later, in July 1621, when a Parliament was held in Edin-
burgh, a body of ministers drew up a petition against the
ratification of the Five Articles of Perth. They were, however,
ordered to leave the city, and prevented from lodging their
protest. The ratification, though opposed, was passed, and
though it was suspended during the Civil War, it was restored
at the Restoration, and as a matter of fact remains on the

8 Calderwood, vii. 284-286 ; Spottiswood, iii. 248-252 ; Priv Coun. Reg. xi.
intro. Iviii. lix. 270, 271.

9 Priv. Coun. Reg. xi. 454, 456. l Grub, ii. 326, 327.

1 Priv. Coun. Reg., xi., 296, 297. z Calderwood, vii. 384-388.

196

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

statute book to the present day, and has only lapsed by the
Scottish custom of desuetude. 3

Some further idea of the ways in which the royal influence
was exercised in favour of the complete reestablishment of
episcopacy, may be gathered from an incident which occurred in
Glasgow in 1622. At that time the Principal of the College was
Robert Boyd, a son of Archbishop James Boyd. He had been
presented to the senate by Archbishop Spottiswood as chancellor
of the University in January, 1615. He is said to have been a
good and learned man, but he did not share his father's approval
of the episcopal system, and at the time of the Perth Assembly
in 1618 he headed the other regents and the students of his
college in opposing the action of the king and that body. James
and his Scottish Council of course desired that the influence of
the universities should be in favour of their schemes, and
pressure was accordingly brought to bear upon the Principal to
induce him to resign. Up till that time a chief part of the
emoluments of the Principalship had been derived from the
parsonage of Govan, the duties and revenues of which were
attached to the office. In December, 1621, however, Archbishop
Law and the other visitors of the College separated the parish
from the Principalship, fixed the emoluments of the minister,
and left only the appointment of that individual to the officers
of the college. 4 Further pressure being brought to bear, Boyd
was forced to resign the principalship in i622. 5 He was replaced
by John Cameron, a Glasgow man, who was not only a noted
scholar and theologian, but was also a strong supporter of the
royal policy.

King James was not unaware of the strength of the opposi-
tion to his desires which existed in Scotland. The minority in
the Parliament of 1621 which resisted the confirmation of the

3 Act. Parl.

4 Munimenta Universitatis Glasguensis ,i. 521 522.

5 Wodrow's Biographical Collections, vol. ii. pt. i, 122-164 ' P*- 2

8*. 22 3-

KING JAMES PROHIBITS CONVENTICLES 197

Articles of Perth could hardly be ignored, and when in 1623 he
further exhorted the Scottish bishops to take stronger measures
against resisters, the Earl of Melrose pointed out to him that
these measures were giving rise to serious popular resentment.
In view of these facts he was wise enough to resist the advice
of Laud, then Bishop of St. David's, that he should force the
Scottish Kirk to conform to the English Church practice. 6
This did not hinder him, however, from issuing proclamations
on loth June and 24th July, 1624, prohibiting all conventicles
and meetings in private houses by night. 7 Nor did it prevent x -
the Privy Council, two months later, from issuing an order,
reminding the king's subjects of their duty to obey the enact-
ments of the Perth General Assembly of 1618, sanctioned by
Parliament in 1621, drawing attention to the evasion of these
enactments in many burghs, and the failure of magistrates to
enforce them, and strictly enjoining all burghs to choose as
magistrates only persons of whom they had good assurance that
they would yield " obedience and conformitie to the ordours
of the church." 8

Such acts of interference with their religious liberty could
not fail to incense and irritate a high-spirited and independent
people ; but to these feelings an element of alarm was added
by certain other transactions of the time.

The king's eldest son, Prince Henry, upon whom so many
of the nation's hopes had been set, was dead. The second son,
Charles, born at Dunfermline in the year 1600, had been made
Prince of Wales. For him the king contemplated a marriage
alliance with a daughter of Philip of Spain. With the memory
so recent of the Spanish Armada's attempt to crush England,
and the knowledge that Spain was the chief stronghold of
Roman Catholicism in Europe, the prospect of such a match

6 Gardiner, vii. 276.

7 Priv. Coun. Reg. xiii. 519, 577, 582 ; Balfour's Annals, ii. 99.

8 Priv. Coun. Reg. xiii. 603, 604.

198 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

must have raised forebodings in every Protestant heart. James
probably trusted to be able to safeguard the religious interests
of his country by the terms of the treaty which would be drawn
up, but his plans in this respect were upset by the headstrong
action of the prince himself. Charles, twenty-three years of
age, abetted by the Duke of Buckingham, determined to go
to Madrid in romantic fashion, and complete the wooing
and the treaty in person. Foreseeing complications, the king
only gave his consent with great reluctance, and in the upshot
his foresight was justified. Knowing that the prince would be
reluctant to return home in the character of an unsuccessful
suitor, Philip and his ministers proceeded to insist on conditions
which would never have been suggested had Charles remained
in his own country. In this way the prince was forced to
undertake to give immunities to the English Catholics, and to
have them ratified by Parliament within three years. After
giving away so much he discovered that, even though he
married the Spanish king's daughter she was not to be allowed
to go with him to England. Accordingly, after spending nine
months in negotiations he returned home indignant, and three
days before the date arranged for the marriage ceremony, broke
off the match. A year later, on I2th December 1624, James
and his son ratified a treaty of marriage between the prince and
Henrietta Maria the fifteen-year-old daughter of Henry IV. of
France and his queen, Marie de Medici. In this case again,
however, a condition was that the disabilities under which
Roman Catholics lay in this country should be removed. This
was a direct contravention of the assurance given to the English
Parliament that no such favour should be shown to Roman
Catholics. 9

While affairs were in this compromising position King James
died at his mansion of Theobald's of what was called a " tertian
ague." He was in his fifty-seventh year, longest lived of all

9 Balfour, ii. no.

ACCESSION OF CHARLES I. 199

the kings of the name of James, and, but for his obsession on
the subject of church government, a wise monarch and suc-
cessful ruler. The speed with which news could be carried to
Scotland at that time may be judged from the fact that while
James died on 27th March, 1625, Charles was proclaimed king
at the cross of Edinburgh on the 3ist. 10 A month later, on ist
May, Charles was married by proxy at Paris, and on I2th June
the young queen landed at Dover. 1 Charles I. thus began his
unhappy reign in a position of compromise : he must break
his solemn engagement either to his subjects or to his queen
and the court of France.

Within a few weeks of his marriage the young king's diffi-
culties began, and it almost immediately became evident that
Charles was to be a zealot without the caution and sagacity of
his father. Moved largely by his own wounded amour propre,
Charles had, as one of his first acts, declared war on Spain,
and at the meeting of his first English Parliament, on i8th
June, 1625, ne niade a demand for supplies to prosecute the
campaign. These supplies Parliament refused until Charles
should agree to certain stipulations. The king replied by
dissolving Parliament, raising money by taxes without parlia-
mentary authority, and enforcing his demands and ordinances
by means of the oppressive Star Chamber and Court of High
Commission. 2 Thus began the open quarrel between the
King and the Commons in England which was to go on with
increasing asperity till the head of Charles was laid on the block.

In Scotland, with equal wrong-headedness, Charles almost
at once raised strong enmity against himself by his efforts to
restore episcopacy to its pre-Reformation position of ascendancy,
and to bring the Scottish Church service into conformity with
that of England. Though archbishops and bishops had been
appointed to the ancient Scottish sees by King James, they
were very inadequately provided for. The ecclesiastics of the

10 Balfour, ii. 115, 117, 119. 1 Balfour, ii. 119. * Gardiner, v. 432.

200 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Roman Church, we have seen, had been left at the Reformation
to enjoy two-thirds of their benefices for life ; but as these
ecclesiastics died off their lands and revenues had been conveyed
by the Crown, for various considerations, to secular owners,
sometimes with, sometimes without, an obligation to provide
a modest support for the ministers of the kirk who had suc-
ceeded the Roman clergy. One of the first proceedings of
Charles on coming to the throne was to endeavour to increase
the endowments of the bishoprics. By arrangement with the
Marquess of Hamilton he secured the revenues of the ancient
Abbey of Arbroath for the Archbishop of St. Andrews, and by
similar arrangement with the Duke of Lennox regarding the
lordship of Glasgow he improved the revenues of the Archbishop
of Glasgow. In similar fashion he increased the incomes of
other bishops. 3

Such methods, by simple negotiation, however, proved too
slow and ineffectual for Charles. Arguing that what the Crown
had conferred the Crown could take away, he formed the plan
of a wholesale resumption of church lands and revenues. In
November, 1625, accordingly, proclamation was made of a
general revocation of all grants of Church lands that had been
made by the Crown. 4 Such a proclamation was equivalent to
a sentence of ruin to many of the great families of Scotland.
Many of these had been in possession of the lands for more
than the period of prescription ; 5 many had had their titles
confirmed by Acts of Parliament ; and however just it might
have been to regard the possessions as inalienable from religious
purposes, if that view had been adopted from the first, it was
certainly a revolutionary exercise of the royal prerogative to
reverse the ratified and accepted transactions of more than
half a century at a single stroke. The proclamation excited
the greatest alarm and hostility. So formidable was the
opposition that Charles found it advisable to placate the people

3 Grub, ii. 236. 4 Act. Parl. v. 23. 5 Cunningham, i. 503.

k CHARLES I. AND CHURCH LANDS 201

; had proposed to impoverish. The nobles and gentry were
admitted to the prospect of purchasing and leading their teinds.
This meant that instead of being compelled to keep their crops
in the field till the owner of the teinds had selected and carted
away every tenth sheaf, they could arrange permanently to
commute the teind for a money payment based on the rental. 6
At the same time the ministers were tempted to support the

t royal projects by the prospect of increased stipends, and, by a
new proclamation, ministers who had been appointed before
the passing of the Articles of Perth were exempted for a time
from complying with them. 7 Still later, however, Charles
proceeded by legal action to annul the grants of Church property
and though, in response to remonstrance from the holders, he
was induced to appoint a Commission to arrange terms for the
surrender of this property to the Crown, a feeling of insecurity
and of resentment became widespread among the landowners
of the country. 8

Among these owners of former Church property was the
University of Glasgow. Evidently that body was seriously
alarmed by the royal policy. If a general revocation of all
grants of Church lands and revenues were carried out the
University would be reduced to utter ruin, and left in the
abject and helpless condition in which it was found by Queen
Mary. Its authorities, therefore, exerted themselves, and in
1630 secured a charter under the Great Seal, confirming the
University in possession of all the properties, revenues, patron-
ages, etc., which had been conferred upon it. These included
the rights and revenues which had belonged to the Friars
Preachers and the Vicars of the Choir of Glasgow, the parsonage
and vicarage teinds and the patronage of the churches of Govan,
Renfrew, Kilbride, Dalziel, and Colmonell. The charter detailed
the salaries payable to the principal and regents of the Uni-

6 Cunningham, i. 280. * Balfour, ii. 142, 145.

8 Cunningham, i. 503 ; Gardiner, vii. 278.

202 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

versity, under burden of the stipends of the ministers of the
parishes mentioned, and it provided for the exemption of the
University, its resident members and servants and its property,
but not its tenants, from the burgh taxes and other impositions. 9

In the midst of the king's quarrels with the English parlia-
ment over his illegal levying of taxes, the Duke of Buckingham,
his chief adviser, gay companion, and luckless commander-in-
chief, was assassinated, on 23rd August, 1628, and after that
event power passed largely into the hands of Sir Thomas
Wentworth, afterwards Earl of Strafford, and William Laud,
afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. The former, with his
policy of " Thorough," devoted his energies to the establish-
ment of the royal prerogative as the sole engine of government,
while the latter redoubled his efforts to reduce to episcopal
conformity all religious rites and usages, and to crush relent-
lessly all presbyterian and puritan departures from this cast-
iron rule.

Laud's influence soon became apparent. Following the
resolution of the General Assembly held at Aberdeen in 1616 a
prayer-book had been prepared. It was ready in 1619, but
was not put into use. By that time the public resistance to
the Articles of Perth had warned King James of the need for
caution, and he had assured the Parliament of 1621 that, if it
confirmed the Articles, the use of the new prayer-book would
not be insisted on. Laud, however, induced King Charles to
order that the draft of this prayer-book should be submitted
to him. Though it had been approved by the Scottish bishops,
it did not satisfy the English prelate's High Church ideas, and
he proceeded to press upon the king the introduction of the
English liturgy to Scotland, in order that there should be
uniform service in the two kingdoms. Both to Laud and the
king the danger was pointed out of thus wounding the suscepti-
bilities of a proud people, strongly Presbyterian in principle,

9 Act. Parl. v. 75, 77 ; Glasg. Charters and Documents, ii. 328-351.

FAIRLIE AS GLASGOW'S SHIPPING PORT 203

id jealous of interference by the " auld enemy/' England.
But opposition only made Charles obstinate, he resolved to
bend popular opinion to his will, and embarked upon another
detail of the policy which was to prove disastrous to the country
and himself. 10

Affairs were in this position when, in November 1632,
Arclioishop Law died. In his time the relations between the
little city and its ecclesiastical superior appear to have been
altogether friendly. Except in the annual appointment of the
provost and the three bailies, Law does not seem to have
interfered in burghal affairs, and several happenings go to show
that the magistrates were anxious to pleasure the archbishop.
In June 1631, for example, the town council ordered the pay-
ment of three hundred merks to the laird of Kelburn, the arch-
bishop's father-in-law, towards the cost of building a pier at
Kelburnfoot, the modern Fairlie, which should be available to
the shipping of Glasgow. 1 The city's original shipping port,
Irvine, was becoming silted up. The library house of the
cathedral, also, having fallen into disrepair, the town council
in 1628 ordered it to be built up, joisted, and roofed with lead
at a cost of 3100 merks (172 45. 5d. sterling). 2

Under Law's regime the burgh showed signs of substantial
advance in prosperity. In 1628 it decided that the paving
from the cross down the Saltmarket should be widened and
laid as near as possible to the booths or shops on both sides. 3
In 1630 a new well was opened in the Trongate, slated and with
two pumps. At the same time the steeple of the Tron Kirk-
otherwise St. Mary's, the Laigh, or the New Kirk was height-
ened in the most approved fashion, and a new bell was provided
for it at a cost of 1058 6s. (88 33. lod. sterling). 4 Thirty-
seven constables were appointed for the city, 5 the town officers

10 Balfour, ii. 181-184. * Council Records, ii. 4.

2 Council Records, i. 365. 3 Ibid, 363.

* Ibid. ii. 5, 6. 5 Ibid, ii. 8.

204 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

were provided with uniform consisting of " coat, breeks, and
hose " of red kersey, and a " trustie youth " was appointed
" ane poist for this burgh." 6

But the greatest evidence of all of increasing prosperity
was the town council's resolve to provide itself with a more
dignified council chamber, court house, and prison. 7 In 1625
the work of demolishing the old tolbooth was begun, and by
the end of March, 1627, tne new tolbooth had been finished, its
steeple furnished with clock and bell, and surmounted with
gilded weather cock and vanes. 8 In the interval the council
met, and courts were held in the Tron Kirk, and the town's
books and charters were deposited in the house of the Dean of
Guild. 9 The new building on the old site at the west side of
the foot of High Street was worthy of the growing fortunes of
the city. Sir William Brereton, afterwards a general in the
Parliamentary army, who visited the city in 1636, thus describes
it. " The Tolbooth, which is placed in the middle of the town,
and near unto the cross and market place, is a very fair and
high-built house, from the top whereof, being leaded, you may
take a full view and prospect of the whole city. In one of
these rooms or chambers sits the council of the city ; in other
of the rooms or chambers preparation is made for the lords of
the council to meet in these stately rooms. Herein is a closet
lined with iron, walls, top, bottom, floor, and door, iron,
wherein are kept the evidences and records of the city ; this
made to prevent the danger of fire. This Tolbooth is said to
be the fairest in the kingdom." 10

McUre, the earliest Glasgow historian, writing in 1736, also
waxes eloquent regarding the building. " The town house, or
tolbooth," he says, " is a magnificent structure, being of length

6 Council Records, i. 373, 374. 7 Ibid, i 346.

8 Burgh Records, i. 349-363. 9 Ibid. i. 358.

10 Travels of Sir William Brereton (Chetham Society], p. 94 ; Early Travellers
in Scotland, p. 151.

fron

NEW TOLBOOTH 205

om east to west sixty-six foot, and from the south to the north
twenty four foot eight inches. It hath a stately staircase
ascending to the justice court hall, within which is the entry of
a large turnpike, or staircase, ascending to the town council
hall, above which there was the dean of guild's old hall, but
now is turned into two prison houses for prisoners of note and
distinction. . . . The steeple on the east side thereof, being one
hundred and thirteen foot high, adorned with a curious clock,
all of brass, with four dial plates. It has a large bell for the
use of the clock, and a curious set of chimes and tunable bells,
which plays every two hours ; and has four large turrets on the
corners thereof, with thanes finely gilded ; and the whole roof
is covered with lead. Upon the frontispiece of this building
is his majesty's arms, finely cut out, with a fine dial." l

On the other hand the state of shipbuilding, which in a
later century was to become so vast an industry on the Clyde,
may be judged from an entry in the burgh records for 1627.
This runs that Thomas Reid, boatwright, was allowed to be
admitted a burgess on payment of the modified fee of 40, the
concession being made by reason of the fact that " thair is
nane of his craft within this burghe, and such necesser to the
town."

But at least one of the sources of the city's prosperity was
to receive a blow from the action of the king. A large part of
the livelihood of the bishop's burgh was derived from the
fisheries of the Clyde and the West Coast, and it is not difficult
to understand the alarm of the community with regard to a
royal proposal which threatened to curtail public fishing rights
in these waters. The Earl of Seaforth, having acquired the
island of Lewis, applied to the king in 1627 for a charter erecting
Stornoway into a royal burgh with extensive and exclusive
fishing rights in these seas. This was strenuously resisted by
Tain, Inverness, Glasgow, and all the other royal burghs, as

1 Hist, of Glasgow, ed. 1830, pp. 207, 208.

206 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

an inroad upon their rights, and as a result Charles withdrew
the charter he had granted Seaforth. That nobleman had
already, however, brought fishermen from Holland, who prose-
cuted fishing at the Lewis to the deprivation of the native
population. Charles then, seeing the possibility of a profitable
enterprise, brushing aside the objections of the burghs, inti-
mated his resolve to take the Lewis into his own hands, set up
one or more free burghs there, and establish a common fishery
in the island, to be a nursery for seamen. 2 This was done by
advice of the English Privy Council, and the remonstrances of
the Scottish burghs and Scottish Parliament succeeded only in
securing a reservation in favour of the natives of certain
districts "of all such fishings as were necessary for their sub-
sistence, and which they of themselves have and do fish." 3
In this way the firths of Clyde and Forth were reserved for
" native " fishermen, while the other seas were handed over to
an incorporated society called " The Council and Community
of the Fishings of His Majesty's Dominions of Great Britain
and Ireland." This society consisted of six Scottish and six
English and Irish councillors and some one hundred and thirty-
five fellows, holding office for life, and it enjoyed the exclusive
right to export fish. Established by a charter under the Great
Seal dated igth July, this incorporation was an early attempt
to " nationalize " one of the chief industries of the country
against the methods of private enterprise. The charter was
confirmed by Act of Parliament on iyth November, 1641, but
already, in 1639, the management had proved so unsatisfactory
that the king had ordered an enquiry to be made into its
financial affairs, its losses, the oppressions it had committed,
and the best method of winding it up. It was finally dissolved
by an Act of William and Mary passed by the Scottish Parlia-
ment on i8th July, 1690, in which it was set forth that the

2 Letter to Scottish Privy Council, i2th July, 1630.

3 Privy Council Record, 28th July, 22nd and 2$rd Sept., 1630.

FISHERIES NATIONALISED 207

royal incorporation had continued to exact " 6 Scots per last
of all herrings exported furth of the kingdom, to the hurt and
prejudice of their Majesties' leiges." This Act further invited
the merchants of the royal burghs and other good subjects to
employ their capital and industry in the fishing and curing of
herrings, in which trade they would enjoy all the freedoms and
advantages competent to them before the said company was
erected. 4

It was the time of trials for witchcraft, and in 1621 and 1622
three poor creatures were tried for this crime in Glasgow. In
each case, however, the Privy Council appointed a special bench
of the magistrates to try the cases, and Archbishop Law appears
to have had no part in the transaction. 5

4 Act. Parl. iv. v. vi. pt. ii. and ix.

5 Priv. Coun. Reg. xii. 580, 651, 711.

CHAPTER XIX

ARCHBISHOP LINDSAY AND THE OVERTHROW OF EPISCOPACY

THE seeds of deadly trouble in Scotland were now being sown,
and of the two great crises of that trouble Glasgow was to be
the particular scene. It was in Glasgow Cathedral that in 1638
the General Assembly passed its momentous Act abolishing
episcopacy and deposing the bishops ; and it was in the hall of
the College of Glasgow that after the Restoration, twenty-two
years later, the Privy Council set up again the system, and turned
out of their livings some four hundred ministers who refused to
agree to the change. It has been the habit of historians to
describe the movements of that period as a religious struggle.
As a matter of fact it was something considerably different.
The deposed bishops and the deposed ministers in turn were
alike sincere Christians of the Protestant faith, and the Cove-
nanters, who suffered in the " killing times " under James VII.,
were of exactly the same religion as the Royalists whom they
themselves had hanged and beheaded during the time of their
own ascendancy forty years before. As already pointed out in
these pages, there is reason to believe that the struggle, to
begin with, at any rate, was not even one between Episcopacy
and Presbyterianism. John Knox himself found it necessary,
shortly after the Reformation, to appoint superintendents of
districts, who were merely bishops without the title. And when
James VI. died, in 1625, the country had settled down to a
system of church government in which the General Assembly
was coming to be recognised as the deliberative and law-making

208

THE COVENANTS AND THE CIVIL WAR 209

body and the bishops as the executive officers. Nor was the
use of a liturgy, again, repugnant to the public taste of Scot-
land. John Knox's Forms of Prayer and Catechism was itself
a liturgy derived from Geneva. This was translated into
Gaelic by Bishop Carswell of the Isles as early as the year
1567, and it was quite evidently the intention of the fathers of
the Reformed Church that some such ordered form of worship
should be provided.

The real cause of trouble obviously was the attempt of the
English churchman Laud to make the Scottish Church con-
form to English usage, and adopt the English prayer-book.
Almost exactly the same thing had happened in an earlier
century, with similarly disastrous results. There can be little
doubt that the insistent claim of the Archbishops of York to
be suzerains of the Scottish Church, from the time of David I.
downwards, was one of the chief contributing elements that
brought about the terrible War of Independence in the days of
Baliol, Wallace, and Bruce. In the seventeenth century, as in
the thirteenth, the spirit of the Scottish people resented the
English attempt at dominance, and it was this resentment
a political and not a religious motive which in Scotland led
to the signing of the Covenant and the Civil War.

Had the later Stewarts been a more judicious race the catas-
trophe which was to seal their fate might have been avoided.
The original line of the High Stewarts, which ascended the
throne in the person of Robert II., ended in Mary Queen of
Scots. The Lennox Stewarts, who succeeded, through the
marriage of Darnley to the Scottish queen, were of a different
breed and character. James VI., with all his sagacity, lies
under suspicion of contriving the Gowrie Conspiracy and the
murder of the Bonnie Earl of Moray, and made a very poor
appearance in the matter of his mother's imprisonment and
execution. Charles I., irreproachable in private life, was perfidy
itself in public affairs. Charles II., regenerated no whit by the

H.G. II.

210 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

stern experience of his exile, seems to have been intent on little
else than his personal enjoyment, and was inclined to be the
father of his people in rather more than the conventional sense.
And in his brother, the fair-haired, irreproachable James VII.
and II., the race appropriately reached its limit and shot its
Niagara a stubborn zealot, unmerciful as a judge and im-
possible as a statesman. Under the rule of such kings there
could hardly fail to be trouble and suffering for their people.

In Glasgow the man whom the blast of the storm was to
strike most severely was the new archbishop. Patrick Lindsay
was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel John Lindsay of Downie, a
cadet of the Lindsays of Edzell, and the family of which the
Earl of Crawford is the head. Having graduated Master of
Arts at St. Andrews in 1587, he was appointed in the following
year to the collegiate church of Guthrie, and translated five or
six years later to St. Vigeans, the parish church of the Abbey
of Arbroath. From King James he received gifts in 1601 of a
third of the vicarage and in 1602 of the fruits of the Abbey.
He was a member of five Assemblies and two Courts of High
Commission, and in 1613 was promoted to the Bishopric of
Ross. Two years later he inherited the barony of Downie,
Pitterlie, etc. ; and in 1616 he received a pension from the
stipend of St. Vigeans and got the Abbey of Feme annexed to
his bishopric. These pecuniary proceedings throw light on the
efforts which were being made, not unsuccessfully, to provide
revenues for the new bishops.

Lindsay was Bishop of Ross for twenty years. He was a
good man and a fervent preacher, and exercised his office with
much mildness and moderation. The esteem in which he was
held is testified by the fact that the degree of D.D. was conferred
upon him in 1633. In the same year, Archbishop Law having
died in the previous November, he was promoted by Charles I.
to be Archbishop of Glasgow. 1 Here, five years later, he was

1 Keith, 202, 265 ; Grub, ii. 300, 338, 339.

COR

CORONATION OF CHARLES I. AT HOLYROOD 211

to find himself in the midst of the tremendous upheaval of the
Church, and in his own cathedral to see the sudden overthrow
of the entire episcopal system, of which he was one of the most
notable figures.

But before these things came to pass the people of Scotland
were to have an opportunity of seeing with their own eyes the
actual personages who were, wisely or unwisely, pulling the
wires of the great state drama. In the month of May, 1633,
King Charles journeyed to Scotland to be crowned. In his
train came the Duke of Lennox, the Marquess of Hamilton, the
Earl of Morton, Dr. Laud, Bishop of London, and Dr. White,
Bishop of Ely. The court came by Berwick and Dalkeith, and
Charles entered Edinburgh in state on Saturday the I5th, and
took up residence in Holyrood Palace. Next day, in the
chapel-royal, he attended service conducted by his chaplain, the
Bishop of Dunblane. 2 On Tuesday, in the same Abbey Church
of Holyrood, after a sermon by Bishop Lindsay of Brechin, he
was crowned King of Scotland. 3

Spalding describes how on this outstanding occasion the
service was conducted with high episcopal accompaniments.
The Archbishop of St. Andrews, and other four bishops who
took part, wore white rochets and white sleeves, with capes of
gold having blue silk to their foot. There were unlighted
candles on the communion table, which was set out like an
altar. Most remarked of all, at the back was " a rich tapestry
wherein the crucifix was curiously wrought, and as those bishops
who were in service passed by this crucifix they were seen to
bow the knee and beck, which, with their habit, was noticed,
and bred great fear of inbringing of popery." One witness
asserts that Laud arrogated to himself the order and manage-
ment of the ceremonies, and that "the Archbishop of St.
Andrews being placed at the king's right hand, and the Arch-
bishop of Glasgow on his left, he thrust the latter aside, saying

2 Spalding, i. 35. 3 Balfour's Annals, ii. 199.

212 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

' Are you a churchman, and want the coat of your order ? ' and
put the Bishop of Ross in his place." 4 This, however, does not
appear likely. Spalding says that the Archbishop of Glasgow
and other bishops who were present but not in service " changed
not their habit, but wore their black gowns without rochets
or white sleeves." 5

On 20th June, a month after his coronation, Charles in state
opened the Scottish Parliament in the old Parliament House or
Tolbooth above St. Giles'. On that occasion, as was customary,
a committee known as the Lords of the Articles was appointed
to deal with the details of proposed legislation. The com-
mittee consisted of eight prelates chosen by the nobles or
greater barons, eight nobles chosen by the prelates, with eight
lesser barons or landowners, and eight representatives of the
burghs chosen by the sixteen prelates and nobles. This method
of election, of course, gave an immense preponderance to the
episcopal party, and as Parliament had no power to modify
the Acts framed by the committee, but could only accept or
reject them, an opportunity was afforded for the passing of
very one-sided legislation. 6 The episcopal leanings of Glasgow
at the time may be gathered from the fact that Provost Gabriel
Cunningham, the city's representative at the Parliament, was
one of the eight burgesses chosen as Lords of the Articles. For
the occasion he appears to have been provided by the city
fathers with a velvet foot-mantle and " haill harneising
thairto " at a cost of 340 marks, or 18 173. gd. sterling. 7

On Sunday, 23rd June, the king attended an English service
in St. Giles', where two English chaplains in surplices officiated,
and the Bishop of Moray, in a rochet, preached the sermon ; and
after the service he was entertained at a banquet by the town
of Edinburgh. 8

4 Rush-worth, Historical Collections, ii. 182.

5 Memorials, i. 36, 37. Burton, vi. 86.
7 Council Records, ii. 15. 8 Spalding, i. 39.

GLASGOW CHARTERS CONFIRMED 213

On 24th June, St. John's Day, in Holyrood Chapel, Charles
touched about one hundred persons afflicted with scrofula
" the king's evil." 9 On the 26th and 27th he attended the
meetings of the Lords of the Articles, where his presence could
not but influence the deliberations, and on the 28th he was
present in state when Parliament met to ratify the Acts of the
committee. Among these measures were Acts which confirmed
the episcopal form of church government and worship, and gave
the king power to regulate the apparel of churchmen. To this
latter ordinance the Earl of Rothes took exception, and when he
questioned the vote against him Charles intervened, and declared
that Rothes must either be silent or make good his charge at
the peril of his life. At which Rothes prudently said no more. 10

An Act to which Scotland owed much in the days to come
was that which effectively established a school in every parish,
and thus opened the advantages of education to the whole
youth of the country. 1 It is pleasant to think that the Arch-
bishop and the Provost of Glasgow were among the Lords of
the Articles who framed this beneficent measure. The previous
Act of 1616 to the same purpose had proved ineffective because
of the indefiniteness of its machinery. 2

The influence of these representatives of the city is to be
directly seen in yet another Act of this Parliament. In view
of the expense incurred by Glasgow in deepening the Clyde,
maintaining the bridge and cathedral, and building a tolbooth
and churches, confirmation was granted of all Glasgow charters,
infeftments, writs, and evidences, from the days of Alexander
III. downwards. This confirmation was given without pre-
judice to the rights of the Duke of Lennox, the Archbishop,
and the University. 3

9 Bailout's Annals, ii. 200. 10 Burton, vi. 88 ; Row, 367.

1 Act. Parl. v. 21, 22.

2 Priv. Coun. Reg. x. 671, 672 ; Row, 343, 344. Reports pub. by Maitland
Club.

3 Charters and Documents, ii. cvi. Act. Parl. v. 87, 89.

214 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

On the same day on which Parliament adjourned, 28th June,
the king and Laud met the bishops and ministers to deliberate
upon the introduction of the English prayer-book into Scotland.
In view of certain objections which the Scottish bishops pointed
out, they were instructed to prepare a liturgy " as near that of
England as may be." * Upon that occasion no one appears to
have been bold enough to represent to Charles that the Scottish
Church was entirely independent of the Church of England, and
by no means bound to conformity with its southern neighbour.
Recognition of this fact might have averted a great catastrophe,
but it is doubtful if Charles would have listened even if the
matter had been pointed out to him.

Next day the king set out on a progress through the country,
visiting Linlithgow, Stirling, Dunfermline, Falkland, and Perth,
and returning by Burntisland and Leith, and on i8th July he
took his departure for England. Scotland was to see him no
more for eight years. Edinburgh retained a memorial of the
royal visit in the fact that at the request of the Archbishop of
St. Andrews, Charles erected the archdeaconry of Lothian into
a bishopric, with the church of St. Giles for its cathedral. 5 He
also designed a benefaction to Glasgow.

At that time Dr. John Strang, who had been appointed
Principal of Glasgow University in 1626, was carrying out, by
means of private subscriptions, great extension of the buildings
and improvements of the grounds of the College. A con-
siderable space was enclosed and laid out as gardens, and the
northern and eastern sides of the inner quadrangle were built.
Towards these improvements some 2000 sterling were secured.
Archbishop Spottiswood of St. Andrews, and Archbishops Law
and Lindsay of Glasgow each gave a thousand merks (55 us.
id. sterling), the burgh of Glasgow 2750 merks, Stirling and
Ayr 300 merks each, Irvine, then the sea-port of Glasgow, 100
Scots (8 6s. 8d.), and many Scottish noblemen, courtiers, and

* Gardiner, vii. 290. 5 Keith, 44-61 ; Maitland's Hist. Edin. 280, 281.

GLASGOW TAXATION COMPOUNDED 215

gentlemen various sums. To help this work the king, on 14 th
July, four days before his departure for the south, promised a
contribution of 200 sterling. Unhappily, by reason of the
troubles in which he was presently to find himself, he was never
able to fulfil the promise.

On the other hand, the new taxation imposed by Parliament
was faced by Glasgow with exemplary promptitude. The first
Act of the Parliament had been to grant the king a tax of thirty
shillings on the pound land at each of six annual terms, and
the sixteenth penny of all annual rents. 6 Six months later,
on I4th November, Glasgow Town Council sent a deputation
to treat with the Collector General, the Marquess of Hamilton,
as to a reasonable composition to be paid by the burgh for these
imposts. 7 In a month the bargain w r as made. Glasgow be-
came bound to pay 20,000 merks (1,111 2s. 2d. sterling) for
the first impost, and 9000 Scots (750 sterling) for the second.
This covered all the inhabitants ; but honorary burgesses and
non-residents were excluded from the benefits of the arrange-
ment. 8 The transaction affords an illuminating suggestion of
some of the substantial advantages of burgess-ship in the
seventeenth century. The inhabitants of Glasgow were
evidently fully aware, even then, of the virtues of " collective
bargaining."

At the same time the city fathers appear to have been as
fully determined as the trades union leaders of the twentieth
century to prevent the creation of other bodies which might
assert a right to similar advantages. Just then Sir John Shaw
of Greenock was energetically developing the town and harbour
on his estate. In 1589 he had procured letters patent from
James VI. to erect a parish kirk at Greenock, and five years
later he had secured a statute erecting Greenock, formerly a
part of Inverkip, into a separate parish. 9 Then in February,

* Acti Parl. v. 13-20. 7 Council Records, ii. 18.

8 Charters and Documents, i. 339. 9 Act. Parl. lii. 549; iv. 75.

216 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

1634, he applied for a royal charter erecting Greenock into a
burgh of barony. This proposal excited the apprehension of
Glasgow, which foresaw not only a certain objectionable cheap-
ening of baronial privileges, but probable serious trading com-
petition from a harbour burgh at the navigable mouth of the
Clyde. A deputation was accordingly sent to Edinburgh to
oppose the application. The Lords of Exchequer, however,
saw the matter in another light ; the objection failed, and on
5th June, 1635, the king, as administrator for his son, the Prince
and Steward of Scotland, erected Greenock into a free burgh of
barony. 10

That Glasgow had substantial reason to fear the establish-
ment of another burgh on the Clyde may be gathered from the
fact that Patrick Bell, the town's commissioner to the Conven-
tion of Burghs in 1634, was instructed to consult with the town's
legal advisers in Edinburgh as to means of curtailing the
exorbitant customs exacted by the burghs of Dunbarton and
Renfrew, and as a result a summons was actually taken out
against Dunbarton on the subject. 1 The result of the effort is
not known, as the burgh records are awanting for a considerable
period, but the magistrates were apparently stimulated to more
energetic exercise of their rights on the river and firth. Their
jurisdiction extended from Glasgow Bridge to the Cloch Stane
between Gourock and Inverkip. The jurisdiction was exercised
by a special magistrate known as the River Bailie. For some
time the magistrates had allowed this office to fall into the hands
of " divers decayed and depauperat persons." They now,
however, resolved to restore it " to the old worthie and laudable
estait quhairin it once was," and to elect to it one of the best
rank in the council. He was to be an ordinary councillor
ex officio, was to be elected along with the Dean of Guild and
the Deacon Convener, was to sit on the bench in river cases,
and was to have the water sergeants under his command. He

10 Act. Parl., v. 440. * Burgh Records, ii. 22, 23, 25.

HERRING FISHERY 217

was to be paid an annual fee of 10, along with the fees to the

P provost and bailies. 2
At the same time the town made a wise departure in dealing
with elements menacing prosperity within its own bounds.
Edinburgh had, in 1632, set up a house of correction in which
" idle masterless loons and sturdy beggars " arrested by the
constables might be made to earn their living by honest work.
The experiment was authorized by a decree of the Privy
Council, and its success was followed by a royal patent em-
powering all royal burghs to establish similar houses. In 1635
accordingly the magistrates of Glasgow acquired from the Earl
of Glencairn the old manse of Cambuslang on the south side of
Drygate, and established within it a mill and wheels for the
manufacture of woollens. 3

Glasgow was now apparently recovering from the disastrous
effects of the Reformation, which had stopped the flow of
money from the Bishop's Palace and the thirty-two prebendal
manses at the Townhead. The records of presents of herrings
to the President of the Court of Session and the town's law
advisers in Edinburgh, as well as to other persons whom it was
desired to propitiate 4 suggest one of the sources of that renewed
prosperity. It is stated that as many as nine hundred boats
were employed in the herring fishery within the Cloch in the
early years of the seventeenth century. The shoals came much
further up the river in those days. When they did not come
in sufficient quantities the fishermen made voyages, three in a
season, to more distant waters. For each of these draves, or
voyages, they paid the Crown a thousand herrings. The grant
of these " assize herrings " was long held by the Argyll family
for a reddendo of 1,000 Scots (83 6s. 8d. sterling) per annum.
The actual value of the fishery is shown by the fact that in the

2 Burgh Records, ii. 35, 37, 38.

3 Ibid. ii. 22, 33, 34, 35 ; Cleland's Annals, 18.
* Burgh Records, ii. 25.

218 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

old Argyll rental books the amount realized from the disposal
of the " assize herrings " is more than the rental for the whole
estate of Rosneath. The herrings were mostly cured in
Greenock by the Glasgow merchants, and exported to France
and the Baltic. In 1564 no fewer than 20,000 barrels were
shipped from Greenock to Rochelle alone. 5

A few years later there is evidence of the beginning of cloth
manufacture on a large scale. In 1638 Robert Fleming and
his partners obtained from the burgh, free of rent for fifteen
years, a " great lodging " in the Drygate, and a shop under the
tolbooth, for the business of a factory in which a number of
" the poorer sort of people " might find occupation. 6 To quiet
the alarm of the weavers in the town the promoters of the
enterprise undertook that none but freemen of the craft should
be employed. 6

With the tide of prosperity thus flowing the town appears
to have been disposed to embark upon various undertakings.
In 1634 the council appointed Matthew Colquhoun, wright, to
attend to the fabric of the High Kirk, at a salary of 120 Scots
(10 sterling) per annum. 7 In the following year the magis-
trates and council completed negotiations for the purchase of
the lands of Gorbals and Bridgend from Viscount Belhaven, to
whom they had recently been conveyed by the unfortunate Sir
George Elphinstone. The price agreed upon was 100,000 merks
(5,555 us. id. sterling), but for some unknown reason the
transaction was not completed. 8

Expenditure was also incurred on a considerable scale in
connection with the religious interests of the burgh. In 1633
the communicants in the city numbered more than five thou-
sand. There were only three ministers to attend to them, and

5 Historical Manuscripts Report, iv. 481 ; Brown's History, ii. 315; Mac-
george, 234.

6 Burgh Records, i. 386, 388. ' Ibid. ii. 24, 25, 31.
8 Ibid. ii. 29, 31, 32.

BLACKFRIARS KIRK TRANSFERRED 219

" for their better comfort and instruction " the inhabitants
desired a fourth minister, Dr. James Elliot, to be appointed.

IThe archbishop issued an edict, the magistrates declared their
agreement to provide a stipend, and Dr. Elliot was appointed. 9
Next came the question of the Blackfriars Kirk. This stood
close to the south of the college buildings in High Street, and
had been conveyed to the college authorities. Almost from
the first, however, the magistrates, who had part use of it as a
church and meeting-place, had expended sums of money on the
upkeep of the building. 10 In 1635, nevertheless, it was reported
to be in a ruinous condition. At that time Dr. John Strang, the
Principal of the University, was busy with his great work of
extending the college buildings and laying out the grounds,
and, being a good man of business, he probably saw an oppor-
tunity of being at once relieved of the responsibility of main-
taining the old Kirk of the Blackfriars and acquiring funds for
the undertaking he had at heart. The moment was opportune.
Two of the town's ministers, whose consent was necessary,
were the rector and the dean of faculty of the college, and the
consent of the archbishop was assured for a transaction so
obviously in the best interests of the citizens and the kirk itself.
An arrangement was therefore made with the town council to
transfer the ownership of the kirk and kirkyard on certain
terms. These included a payment by the magistrates of 2,000
merks towards the " new wark " and library of the college, and
the reservation to the college of the seat next best to that of
the magistrates, with the use of the kirk for the conferring of
degrees and other purposes ; while the college authorities, on
their part, undertook to allocate to sons of burgesses attend-
ing college four of the ground floor chambers in their new
building. At the same time the inhabitants raised an endow-
ment fund, to be invested and held by the town council, sufficient
to pay the minister a stipend of a thousand merks (55 us. id.

Cleland's Annals, p. 18. lo Charters and Documents, i. 353.

220 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

sterling), and upon this basis the archbishop agreed to the
transfer of the church. The king afterwards confirmed the
arrangement by a charter under the Great Seal. 1

According to Sir William Brereton, who visited the city in
July, 1636, the revenue of Glasgow at that time was about
1,000 per annum, while its population was about 20,060. The
city, he says, is famous for its church, " the fairest and state-
liest in Scotland," and for its tolbooth and bridge. The nave
and choir or chancel of the High Church were divided by a
great wall, and service was held only in the choir, and in another
church below it. The town consisted of two streets, one run-
ning from the High Church to the bridge, and another, much
shorter, crossing it at the cross. The archbishop's palace, he
says, is a stately structure. The standing part of the college
is " old strong plain building," and the library a very little room
" not twice so large as my own closet," but for the new buildings
laid out collections had been made throughout Scotland and
more money subscribed than was needed. The college was
governed by one principal, four regents, and about a hundred
and twenty students who wore cloaks of various colours, some
red, some grey, as pleased themselves. The bridge was of seven
or eight fair arches supported and strengthened by strong
buttresses. The river was " now navigable " within six miles
of the city, and ebbed and flowed above the bridge, but the
water there was so shallow that you might ride with it under
the horse's belly. " Beyond this river there is seated pleasantly
a house, which was Sir George Elphinstone's, and is to be sold
to pay his debts. The revenue thereunto belonging is about
300 per annum. The price offered by this city, who are about
to buy it, is 6000. The suburbs and privileged places belong-
ing unto it induced them to buy it." 2

1 Charters and Documents, ii. 356, 358, 359, 363, 364, 374.

2 Travels of Sir William Brereton, Chetham Society, p. 94 ; Early Travellers
in Scotland, 150-153.

NEW PRAYERBOOK FOR SCOTTISH CHURCH 221

To assure all its recently acquired rights and liberties the
ity, in 1636, procured a new charter from Charles I., much as
procures an " omnibus " Act of Parliament at the present
iy. This confirmed all its former and recent powers and
>ssessions, including its status as a free royal burgh, for pay-
tent of twenty merks annually to the Crown. 3

But Glasgow, with the rest of Scotland, was now to have its
resources put to the test in very serious fashion.

Soon after the king's return from Scotland to the south in

1633, Abbott, the Archbishop of Canterbury, had died. Laud
succeeded to the primacy, and his influence over the king
appears to have become even stronger than before. In May,

1634, Charles wrote to the Scottish bishops expressing his
opinion that there was nothing more defective in their church
than the want of a book of common prayer and uniform service,
and requiring them to condescend upon a form of church service
and to draw up canons for uniformity of church discipline. 4
The draft of a new prayer-book and a draft of canons for the
Scottish Church were accordingly sent up to London early in
1635 and were submitted to Laud and the Bishops of Hereford
and London, and altered and adjusted by these prelates. In
May, 1635, the king sanctioned " Canons and Constitutions
Ecclesiastical for the Government of the Church of Scotland,"
and they were issued in the following year. Among other
matters these canons declared that if any one questioned the
king's supremacy in causes ecclesiastical he should be excom-
municated, and could only be restored by the archbishop of
his province after repentance and public recantation of his
errors. Anyone who affirmed that rites and ceremonies and
episcopal government of the church were repugnant to the
Scriptures, or were corrupt, superstitious, or unlawful, was to
be subject to the same penalty. No layman was to exercise

3 Charters and Documents, ii. 375.

4 Introduction to Sprott's Scottish Liturgies, p. 48.

222 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

any office of the ministry. All conventicles and secret meetings
of churchmen were forbidden, the sacrament was to be received
with bowing of the knee, all persons must kneel at reading of
prayers and stand at the singing of the creed. No prayers
except those in the public liturgy were to be used on pain of
deprivation.

Many of these canons were highly repugnant to the people
of Scotland ; they were issued without being submitted to
any General Assembly for discussion or approval ; and they
prescribed conformity with a prayer-book which had not
been seen, much less approved, by any Scottish ecclesiastical
authority.

On 1 8th October, 1636, the king wrote to the Lord Chan-
cellor, Archbishop Spottiswood, commanding him to proclaim
that all subjects must conform to the liturgy, " it being the
onlie forme of worshippe quhilk wee, having taken the counseall
of our cleargie, thinks fitt to be used in God's publicke worshippe
ther." 5 The Privy Council accordingly established the prayer-
book, and by proclamation in every head burgh the people were
ordered to conform. 6 But the liturgy itself did not reach
Scotland till the spring of 1637. It na cl been adjusted by Laud
and by Wren, Bishop of Hereford, and at once excited anger
and hostility throughout the country. It was considered more
popish than the English prayer-book, and the fact rankled that
it had authority neither from the Scottish Parliament nor the
General Assembly. 7 Nobility and burgesses alike were deeply
offended, remonstrances and protestations poured in upon the
Privy Council from all quarters, and in Edinburgh and the West
of Scotland actual resistance was threatened. In view of these
manifestations of hostility the Privy Council hesitated ; but
the reported opposition to his will only made the king obstinate,
he ordered it to be proclaimed that he was determined to en-

5 Bailie's Letters, etc. i. 33. 6 Balfour, ii. 224 ; Burton, vi. 104.

7 Cunningham, i. 515 ; Gardiner, viii. 313 ; Row, 398.

^RIOT AT INTRODUCTION OF PRAYERBOOK 223
rce obedience, and the proclamation was duly made at the
cross of Edinburgh on iyth October. Little did Charles guess
that the trumpeter who blew the fanfare on that occasion was
giving the signal for a rising of the country which was to end
the royal authority altogether. 8

On 23rd July, 1637, the new service book was introduced at
morning service in the middle church of St. Giles, Edinburgh.
The Bishop of Edinburgh, Dr. Lindsay, was to preach the
sermon, Dr. Hanna, the Dean, was to read the service, and
Archbishop Spottiswood of St. Andrews, the Lord Chancellor,
was present, as well as the magistrates of the city. No sooner
had the Dean begun to read than an uproar broke out. Com-
mon tradition, which has not been confirmed, says that one
Jenny Geddes, keeper of a stall in the street, led the disturbance
by exclaiming " Dost say mass at my lug," and throwing her
stool at the Dean's head. But, whoever began the riot, books,
stools, and other articles were thrown. The archbishop and
the bishop both tried in vain to quieten the angry feelings of
the congregation, and in the end the magistrates had to descend
from their loft and bring the secular power into action to eject
the rioters. Outside the cathedral surged a furious crowd, and
the bishop only escaped by the protection of the Earl of
Wemyss. Similarly, at the end of the afternoon service, Dr.
Lindsay was only saved from serious assault by the armed guard
of the Earl of Roxburgh. At the same time, on the attempt
to read the new service-book at the Greyfriars and other
churches of the city, similar riots broke out and frustrated the
proceedings. 9

Next day the Privy Council by proclamation denounced the
rioters, but before the following Sunday Spottiswood and the
bishops resolved to defer the use of both the old and the new
prayer-books till the matter should be reported to the king.

8 Gardiner, viii. 322.

9 Row, 408 ; Baillie, i. 18 ; Spalding's Memorials, i. 79.

224 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Charles, however, was obdurate ; the use of the service-book
must be insisted on. The Privy Council accordingly ordered the
attempt to be renewed on I3th August.

At Glasgow Archbishop Lindsay desired Robert Baillie,
minister of Kilwinning and afterwards Principal of the Uni-
versity, to preach on the last Wednesday of August at a meeting
of the Synod of the Diocese, urging conformity to the new
canons and prayer-book. Baillie refused, and his place was
taken by William Armour, minister of Ayr. Armour's ex-
perience was even more unpleasant than that of the Dean of
Edinburgh. As he, with the archbishop and magistrates, left
the church he was assailed by a mob of women, raging, scolding,
and cursing, and after supper, about nine at night, as he went
with other ministers to visit the archbishop, some hundreds of
women fell upon him, with fists, staves, and peats. He was
badly beaten, his cloak, hat, and ruff were torn, and he only
escaped when his cries roused the townsfolk to set candles out
at their windows. 10

In view of the public heat, and the representations of many
noblemen and gentlemen, the Privy Council again communicated
with the king ; but the only answer, sent on loth September,
was a reprimand for their slackness, and an order to the bishops
to enforce the reading of the liturgy in their dioceses. Forth-
with over three score petitions against the proceeding poured
upon the Council. One of these came from Glasgow, and one,
signed by the Earl of Sutherland, came from the nobility,
barons, ministers, and burgesses. 1

The petitions were sent to the king by the hands of the
Duke of Lennox, who, it was hoped, might be able to impress
upon Charles the serious position of affairs. By way of answer
the king merely ordered further proclamations commanding the
petitioners to leave Edinburgh within twenty-four hours, re-
moving the courts of justice to Linlithgow, and ordaining the

10 Baillie's Letters, i. 19. l Rothes, Relation, 48.

GEORGE GILLESPIE.

THE NATIONAL COVENANT 225

public burning of a book by George Gillespie, Against Popish
Ceremonies. 2

These proclamations were answered in Edinburgh by popular
demonstrations against the Privy Council and magistrates, and
by the drawing up of a complaint urging that the bishops should
be brought to legal trial. While this complaint was sent to the
king the petitioners formed a committee which ultimately con-
sisted of six or more noblemen, two gentlemen from each county,
one townsman from each burgh, and one minister from each
presbytery. 3 This was the first beginning of organized oppo-
sition to the policy of the king.

The seriousness of the position was laid before Charles by
the Earl of Traquair, but, resisting this earnest advice, the king
ordered another proclamation to be issued on igth February,
1638, censuring the petitioners and forbidding unlawful convo-
cations under pain of treason. This proclamation excited great
indignation throughout the country. 4 On 24th February
Glasgow town council sent a commission to Edinburgh to act
with the representatives of other burghs " anent the buikis of
canones and commoun prayer." The committee of petitioners
issued a protest refusing to accept orders and proclamations
from the Privy Council until the bishops were removed from it.
And, for readier action, four executive committees were ap-
pointed, which in common parlance got the name of " The
Tables." 5

To enlist the body of the people the Tables prepared a
National Covenant binding those who signed it to defend the
true Reformed Religion, and to oppose all innovations and
corruptions in church worship and government. 6 On 28th
February this Covenant was first signed in Greyfriars Church

2 Balfour, ii. 236 ; Gordon's Scots Affairs, i. 20.

3 Gordon, i. 28 ; Gardiner, viii. 325. 4 Gordon, i. 32 ; Burton, vi. 178.
6 Gordon, i. 28 ; Rothes, Relation, 35.

6 Gordon, i. 42 ; Gardiner, viii. 330 ; Cunningham, i. 526.

H.G. II. P

226 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

and churchyard at Edinburgh, and copies were afterwards
largely signed at Glasgow, St. Andrews, Lanark, and throughout
the country. On 28th April a further statement was drawn
up by the Covenanters and signed by the Earls of Rothes,
Cassillis, and Montrose, demanding not only the withdrawal of
the books of canons and church service, but also the abolition
of the Court of High Commission, and the summoning of a free
General Assembly and a free Parliament.

Realizing at last something of the seriousness of the position,
Charles now sent the Marquess of Hamilton to Scotland.
Crossing the Border on 6th June, this nobleman found the whole
south country in the hands of the Covenanters, supplies of arms
ordered from abroad, and the Castle of Edinburgh threatened.
This movement was strongly supported by Glasgow town
council, which at considerable cost maintained commissioners
in Edinburgh for the purpose. 7

The Covenanters now informed the Marquess that they
would submit their complaints only to a General Assembly and
free Parliament, and when he returned to England to confer
with the king, they declared that if a favourable answer was
not returned by 5th August they would proceed as they thought
best.

Glasgow town council, with its usual shrewdness, already
foresaw the possibility of recourse to arms. On ist August it
ordered all fencible persons to have their arms and armour
ready for mustering at twenty-four hours' notice. No one was
to lend his armour to anyone else, and all persons unprovided
with weapons were required to procure them forthwith under
fine of 20. Fifty muskets, staves, bandoliers, and pikes were
ordered from Flanders ; sixty young men were to be chosen
and trained to arms ; and for their training a drill instructor
was engaged to come from Edinburgh at forty shillings a day
and his horse hire. 8 Such a resolution shows how rapidly

7 Burgh Records, i. 389, 8 Ibid. i. 390, 391.

PREPARATIONS FOR GLASGOW ASSEMBLY 227

public opinion on the question at issue was now ripening
throughout the country. Nor was a decisive movement to be
long delayed.

When the Marquess of Hamilton returned to Edinburgh on
loth August he brought powers for the summoning of Parlia-
ment and the convening of a General Assembly. It was to be
the fate of Charles I., however, to make all his concessions to
public opinion a day too late. By this time the Covenanters
had begun to feel power, and had made up their minds to
demand nothing less than the complete abolition of episcopacy,
and the rescinding of the Articles of Perth and other legislation
upon which it was based. Feeling the force of the rising storm,
Hamilton hastened back to London, and laid the seriousness of
the whole situation before the king. Then at last, when his
concessions had no longer any appearance of graciousness,
Charles gave way. On gth September he agreed to recall the
prayer-book and canons, to abolish the Court of High Com-
mission, to assent to the repeal of the Perth Articles, and other-
wise to give way on the points upon which he had hitherto most
strenuously insisted. Proclamation of these intentions was
made on 22nd September, and arrangements were made for a
meeting of the General Assembly at Glasgow on 2ist November. 9
It was a meeting destined to be fraught with more serious and
far-reaching results than anyone could then foresee.

In preparation for the great ecclesiastical gathering to be
held in the city, the magistrates of Glasgow made preparations
on a notable scale. In order that the noblemen, commissioners
of presbyteries, and others, should be suitably accommodated
officials were appointed to allocate lodgings, stabling, etc., and
the citizens were forbidden, under serious penalties, from letting
or lending their houses or stables to any one without permission. 10
Guards were also appointed for keeping the peace in the town
by day and night, and the inhabitants were ordered to light up

9 Grub, iii. 22 ; Burton, vi. 203. 10 Burgh Records, i. 392.

228 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

the street by setting out candles and lanterns or " bowatts." l
The cathedral or High Kirk, also, was repaired, the floor of
the nave being put into order, and certain windows in the choir,
which had been built up, being opened again and provided with
glass. 2 Further, in order to take no chances, the town council
appointed its new provost, Patrick Bell, to be its representative
or commissioner to the Assembly, with the express stipulation
that he should not vote on any essential matter without con-
sulting the city fathers. 3

Following the example which had been shown them by the
king, the Covenanters took measures to make sure that the
persons appointed to attend the Assembly should be favourable
to their views, and though the Privy Council forbade members
of Assembly to bring more than their ordinary retinue, the
Covenanters came to the city armed and in large numbers, to
make sure that no attempt was made to overturn the pro-
ceedings by violence.

When the Assembly met on 2ist November the cathedral
was crowded from floor to roof. The Marquess of Hamilton,
who had been in Glasgow for four days, and had watched the
great concourse coming together, took his seat, as High Com-
missioner, in a chair of state under a canopy, with the chief
officers of the Government around him. In front of him stood
a table for the Moderator and the Clerk of the Assembly.
Down the centre of the church at a long table sat the nobles
and lesser barons who attended as lay elders ; and on seats
rising around were the ministers and commissioners of burghs.
The galleries, specially erected, were crowded with the public,
among whom were many ladies. Even the high clerestory sills
were occupied, and in one of the high passages sat young nobles
and men of rank to watch the proceedings . 4 None of the bishops
or episcopal dignitaries attended, and the Assembly was made

1 Burgh Records, i. 393, 395. 2 Ibid. i. 392.

3 Ibid. i. 393. 4 Baillie, i. 123 ; Gordon, i. 157.

ALEXANDER HENDERSON.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1638 229

up of a hundred and forty ministers and a hundred laymen.
Only one or two of the ministers wore their gowns, and the
nobles and gentlemen carried their swords. Thus the scene
was set for the momentous drama.

At the opening, John Bell, one of the Glasgow ministers,
acted as moderator, then, after the royal commission had been
read and the commissions of members handed in, Alexander
Henderson, minister of Leu chars, was appointed moderator,
and Archibald Johnston of Warriston, clerk. These were the
men who had drawn up the National Covenant, and their
appointment indicated the intentions of the Assembly.

It was not, however, till a week later that the proceedings
came to a crisis. A formal accusation of the fourteen bishops
had been tabled by the Edinburgh Presbytery, and a document
of dissent and protest signed by the Archbishops of St. Andrews
and Glasgow and the Bishops of Edinburgh, Galloway, Ross,
and Brechin had been handed in. On the 28th the moderator
said he would take the vote of the Assembly as to whether
they could lawfully decide the matter. At this the High
Commissioner, in the name and by authority of the king,
commanded the Assembly to proceed no further. The
moderator replied and the clerk proceeded to read a protest,
but the High Commissioner declared the Assembly dissolved,
and, accompanied by the Lords of Council, left the cathe-
dral. Next day he caused a proclamation to be made at
Glasgow Cross prohibiting further meetings of the Assembly,
and commanding the members to depart from the city within
twenty-four hours.

The proclamation, however, was not obeyed. In particular
the Earl of Argyll, one of the High Commissioner's Assessors,
refused to concur with it, returned to the Assembly, and de-
clared his adherence to it. This act was the turning point
which led him, first to the head of the Government of Scotland,
and afterwards to the block.

230 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

On the same day, the 2Qth November, Provost Bell called
the town council together, and asked their direction. After
full deliberation the council decided, by a majority of votes,
that he should vote for the Assembly continuing to sit, notwith-
standing any proclamation, and that he should vote also for
the Assembly taking upon itself to judge and decide in the
accusation against the bishops. 5

The Assembly thereafter resumed its session and proceeded
to pass several acts of the greatest import. On 4th December
it declared that the last six great Assemblies, at Linlithgow,
Glasgow, Aberdeen, St. Andrews, and Perth, had been unfree,
unlawful, and null. On the 6th it abolished the book of canons,
the book of common prayer, the book of ordination, and the
Court of High Commission, and deposed and excommunicated
the bishops ; and on the 8th it ordered episcopacy to be re-
moved out of the kirk. It continued to sit till 2oth December,
a month in all, passing Acts for the future government and rights
of the kirk, and concluding with a supplication to the king
craving that he should approve and ratify the proceedings. 6
This supplication was actually presented to King Charles by
the Marquess of Hamilton, but no answer was returned to it,
and both sides prepared for civil war. 7

Thus, in Glasgow and within the walls of the cathedral, was
the gauntlet first thrown down to challenge the arbitrary
government of Charles I. From that moment the struggle
continued till the king's head fell under the executioner's axe
at Whitehall. Its effect upon the fortunes of Archbishop
Lindsay was only less tragic. His rule of Glasgow had been
mild and moderate, and it is said he was opposed to forcing
Laud's liturgy on the people. But he was not the less rigor-

5 Burgh Records, i. 394.

6 Acts of General Assembly, 1638-1842, p. 5, etc.; Gordon's Hist, of Scots
Affairs ; Baillie's Letters ; Cunningham, ii. 12.

7 Baillie's Letters, i. 187, 188.

ARCHBISHOP LINDSAY EXCOMMUNICATED 231

ously deposed and excommunicated. Being already in poor
health he retired to England, where he died at Newcastle in or
before 1644. According to one writer he was then in such utter
destitution that he had to be buried at the expense of the
governor of the town. 8

8 Keith, 202, 265 ; McCrie's Melville, 221 ; Charters and Documents, i. 331.

CHAPTER XX

GEORGE HUTCHESON, NOTARY, BANKER, AND
PHILANTHROPIST

WHILE political affairs were in this critical posture throughout
the country there died a man who stands conspicuous as a type
of the better class of Glasgow citizen from that time till now.
Sir Walter Scott has stereotyped the Glasgow shopkeeper mag-
nates of a century later in his picture of the worthy, pawky,
generous, and warm-hearted Bailie Nicol Jar vie. A portrait,
equally true and interesting, of the professional class in bygone
Glasgow, is furnished by the career and character of George
Hutcheson, the original founder of Hutchesons' Hospital.

All the known facts regarding the Hutcheson family, and
in particular regarding the two brothers, George and Thomas,
who founded the most important charitable institution in the
city, have been brought together in the history of the hospital
and school by their collateral descendant, Dr. William H. Hill.
In the latter part of the fifteenth century the Hutchisons or
Hutchesons appear in the annals of the city as substantial
people, making gifts to the Church, and holding office in the
College ; and in the next century, the days of James V. and
Mary Queen of Scots, their sons are found enrolled as students
of the University. They were rentallers, or tenants of the lands
of Gairbraid, a mile to the west of the city, and when, after the
Reformation, the old annual rents were converted into feu-
duties, they became the owners of that property. Thomas
Hutcheson, the younger son of John Hutcheson of Gairbraid,

232

THE HUTCHESON PROPERTIES 233

ticquired from the archbishop in 1579 the two-merk land of
Lambhill, and from the Lord Feu-farmer, Walter Stewart of
Blantyre, in 1587, the merkland of Hutchesontoun at Nether
3armyle. He had also other properties in Provanside, Gallow-
gate, Dry gate, and elsewhere. He had at the same time a
house on the north side of Trongate, apparently adjoining the
tolbooth, which was afterwards the dwelling-house and place
of business of his son, the notary, George.

Thomas Hutcheson had two sons, George the eldest and
Thomas the youngest of his family, with three daughters
coming between ; he died about the year 1594. His son George
was then about forty years of age. The mother of the latter
was Helen, sister of Sir William Herbertson, a Roman priest,
and probably a cousin of the Hutchesons.

By the time he succeeded to his father's considerable estates,
George Hutcheson was evidently in a substantial position as a
writer or procurator and notary in the city. In 1587 he appears
as the notary acting in the infeftment of Walter Stewart,
afterwards first Lord Blantyre, as Commendator, or lay posses-
sor, of the barony of Glasgow. That he was a man of strong
passions is evident from the next item of his career in the
annals of the city. In the records of Glasgow kirk-session in
1588 it is set forth that, having become the father of a " demesell
bairn " by Elizabeth or Elspeth Craig, and having declared his
willingness to marry the lady, he is ordered to make his public
repentance on the first Sunday forenoon, and to marry " the
said Elizabeth " within one month. For due compliance with
these injunctions his father became his security to the amount
of forty pounds. Elspeth Craig is believed to have been a
sister or daughter of John Craig, writer and notary public in
Glasgow, and the union thus irregularly begun lasted for the
long period of forty-four years ; but there is no evidence that
any other children were born of the marriage. Outside the
marriage tie, however, the redoubtable notary had another

234 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

daughter, Janet, who lived and ended her days in Holland,
and it is tragic to find that she came to be dependent on the
public bounty of the city, of which her father was so great a
benefactor. In 1679 the Burgh Treasurer was ordered " to pay
to John Craig ten dukadounes, quhilk he is to send to Holland
to Janet Hutcheson, naturall daughter to umquhile George
Hutchesone, for her supply/' and the payment was to be
repeated yearly during her life. 1 The gratuity was not long
required. In 1684 the same records contain an order to the
Dean of Guild to pay 30 Scots to Jean Main, " for helpin to
pay the funerall of Janet Hutchesoune, ane pensioner of the
toune, who deceist in Holland."

The Presbytery records also show that in 1601 George
Hutcheson and a certain Ard Eglinton had drawn their " whin-
gers " and engaged in a brawl in the High Kirk. And as late as
1633 an action of lawburrows was taken out against Hutcheson
under a penalty of 400 merks by his neighbour at Partick, John
Ross of Stobcross, to assure that his wife, bairns, men, tenants,
and servants should be " harmless and skaithless " from
Hutcheson's interference.

But these somewhat questionable episodes in his private
career do not seem to have affected in any way George Hutche-
son's repute as a citizen and man of business. In 1589, in the
docquet to a sasine in favour of Mrs. Marion Luke of Clay thorn,
he excuses himself for not writing the whole docquet himself,
as he should have done, by the statement that he was much
engaged with other business. Part of that business was the
feuing of the lands of the Barony and Regality of Glasgow, on
behalf of the Commendator of Blantyre, to the old yearly tenants
of the archbishops, and this work, according to Sir Robert
Douglas of Glenbervie, " he performed to good purpose." He
also in 1601 acted as procurator for the Commendator in pre-
senting Mr. David Wemyss, the worthy minister of the city,

1 See also Burgh Records, 24th July, 1680.

THOMAS HUTCHESON.

ACTIVITIES OF GEORGE HUTCHESON

235

to the vacant parsonage of Glasgow. Probably a good deal of
the initiative for these far-seeing acts lay with George Hutcheson
himself, and to that far-sightedness the city no doubt owed
much of its subsequent happiness and prosperity.

Hutcheson appears also to have acted in many matters as
the Glasgow law agent both for Ludovic, Duke of Lennox, and
for the archbishop. A charter by the duke endowing a bursary
at the College in 1604 was written and witnessed by him, and
his name also appears in a charter by which the archbishop, three
years later, granted the College certain additional bolls of meal
from the mill at Partick. It is true that, when he applied
for the clerkship of the Dean of Guild Court in 1605 he was
placed only second in a leet of four, the appointment going to
Archibald Hey gait, the Town Clerk and Clerk of the Burgh
Court. But Hey gait, as has been already seen, had special
influences at work in his favour at that time. Hutcheson, all
the same, was entrusted with important business by the
Town Council. When the bailies of Glasgow and Dunbarton
brought an action against a Dutchman, John Lubbart, master
and owner of an Amsterdam ship, for disposing of his cargo
of timber privately in Glasgow before offering it to the burgh
authorities, George Hutcheson was the agent employed by
the city.

From entries in the munimenta it is evident that he also
acted as agent for the University. In 1606 and 1608 that body
was " pursuing " a certain John Stewart. In the former year
he received 4 for advising the process at Edinburgh, and us.
" for ane pynt of wyne quhen the proces was resavit " ; and in
the latter year he was paid 6 for his trouble in pursuit of the
same John Stewart before the Commissary Court at Hamilton.
Again, ten years later, he received 13 6s. 8d., with 3 6s. 8d.
for drink money to his men, for carrying out the sasine of the
kirks of Kilbride and Renfrew ; and in 1628 and 1629 he acted
for both parties in charters of confirmation, novodamus, and

236 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

ratification of teinds and immunities granted by Archbishop
Law to the College.

That the favours were not all on one side is shown by the
fact that in 1632, when the Principal of the University was
engaged in extending the buildings of the College, Hutcheson
appears among the subscribers as the contributor of 100
merks.

A transaction which to our eyes at the present day appears
somewhat questionable, is that by which the Glasgow notary
became a Judge-Depute in the Commissary Courts of Glasgow
and Hamilton. The Commissary Judge appointed by Arch-
bishop Law was John Boyle of Kelburne, ancestor of the Earls
of Glasgow, " a gentleman of so great legal knowledge and
integrity as to have had the honour of being appointed to revise
and improve the laws of Scotland." Kelburne did not him-
self act, but appointed a deputy. That deputy was George
Hutcheson, and for the appointment Hutcheson paid Kelburne
900 Scots per annum. The commission, granted with consent
of the archbishop, bears that Kelburne was too much distracted
by the king's business and his own to perform his duties in the
Commissary Court, while Hutcheson was well known to be in
every way qualified. The latter was therefore empowered to
pronounce and issue decreets, sentences, and interlocutors,
confirm testaments, and examine witnesses. The document
has its counterpart at the present day in the commission
granted to a sheriff-substitute. There are, however, two
important differences, significant of the contrast between the
ideas of administering justice at that time and now. The
sheriff -substitute of to-day does not pay for his judgeship, nor
does the sheriff-principal oblige himself to abide by his substi-
tute's decisions " without any revocation or gainsaying what-
soever."

While holding probably the foremost position as a notary
and procurator in the city, George Hutcheson also carried on a

GEORGE HUTCHESON'S " KIST.

BANKER AND MONEYLENDER

large business as a banker and moneylender. In this business
Scotsmen seem to have given the lead to England, where the
London goldsmiths only began to receive money and lend it
out at interest and to honour their customers' cheques in 1645. 2
In Scotland George Heriot had been lending money to the
king and queen on the security of the royal jewels as early at
least as 1599. 3 His business, however, was mostly confined
to Edinburgh and the East of Scotland. In Glasgow and the
West the Union of the Crowns in 1603 produced many develop-
ments. Industry and trade began to grow, and the city was
able to build itself a stately new tolbooth. The colonizing
project suggested to King James by Sir William Alexander,
Earl of Stirling, began to waken golden dreams in the minds of
the people. And, even more alluring, the possibilities opened to
Scotsmen of winning appointments and titles at the English
court made an irresistible appeal. For all these enterprises
money was required. Among owners of heritable property
the usual proceeding was to borrow money on the security of
a wadset or mortgage over their estates. The proceeding,
however, was cumbrous and expensive. For a merchant,
also, whose possessions were cargoes at sea and widely scattered
book debts, it was not available. In these circumstances
George Hutcheson's capital came into great request. His
plan was to lend money on simple bonds by the borrower, and
the security of two or more persons of substance. For the
drawing of these early promissory notes he allowed his clerk to
charge no more than three halfpence sterling, and his own
interest was seldom more than eight per cent. He must, there-
fore, be regarded as the earliest banker in Glasgow, anticipating
the foundation of the Bank of Scotland by some three quarters
of a century. Lists of these bonds still in existence, which were
handed to his three sisters and his sister-in-law after his brother's
death, show the sums in which he dealt to have ranged from a

z Annals of Commerce, ii. 427. 3 Memoir of George Heriot, p. 6.

238 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

hundred merks to five thousand, while among his borrowers were
Sir James Hamilton of Fingalton, Cuninghame of Carlung, the
lairds of Gadgirth and Achinemes, Sir Robert Montgomerie,
Lord Montgomerie, and the magistrates and town council of
Glasgow itself . 4 The last-named seem to have paid the interest
on their loan on at least one occasion by crediting " the said
George " with a portion of the stent or rates payable by him. 5
The notary had his counting-house or chambers on the
ground floor of his house next the tolbooth, up the gable of
which he paid the Corporation two hundred merks for the
right to train his chimney vents. In his business room stood
" a long fixed oak table, with his papers at one end, and at the
other a large silver drinking tankard, replenished with wine
or ale, for the refreshment, without ceremony or invitation, of
his clients." His bonds, ready money, and charters were kept
in his bedroom in a Dutch-built, spring-locked chest, woven
of strips of iron, now preserved in the Faculty of Procurators'
Library. He had a stable behind his house, a garden at hand,
and another property on the south side of Trongate, opposite
the present Hutcheson Street. Also he built for himself a
country house at the mouth of the Kelvin in Partick, on lands
which had belonged to the archbishop. This house latterly,
when a ruin, was popularly known as " the Bishop's Castle."
It is so named by Chalmers in his Caledonia (iii. 629), and the
ancient country seat of the archbishops very probably occupied
the same site. But Hutcheson's original contract with a Kil-
winning mason for the building still exists. It shows that the
standard of measurement was to be " the said Georges awin
fute." The price was five hundred and thirty merks, including
a hundred merks " in satisfaction of all morning and efter-
noonis drinks, disjoynes, Sondays meitt, drink at onlaying of
lyntalls, or onie uther thing that can be cravit fra ye said

4 History Hutchesons' Hospital, p. 27.

5 Burgh Records, 5th June, 1637, i4th Jan. 1638.

I' =- "_^_- , ., -. ^ __-

HUTCHESONS' HOSPITAL, TRONGATE (FRONT VIEW).

GEORGE HUTCHESON'S POSSESSION!

239

George, in ony sorte." The house had large walled gardens
and considerable lands belonging to it, and, with its beautiful
situation, spoke eloquently for the good taste of its owner. 6

George Hutcheson's other possessions included the lands of
Barrowfield to the east of Glasgow, on which Bridgeton is now
built ; Gartsherrie, Auchengray, and Caldercruix in the Monk-
lands ; Yoker and Blawarthill to the west, which he acquired
for 13,000 merks ; Deanfield in Renfrew ; Grainges in the parish
of Dunlop in Ayrshire ; Over and Nether Gairbraid and part of
Garioch in what is now Maryhill ; Ramshorn and Meadowflat,
including what is now George Square and the site of the City
Chambers in the city itself ; and the paternal estate of Lamb-
hill to the north of modern Glasgow. He had also eighty-seven
tenants paying him rent in kind straw, hens, capons, herrings,
and shop rents, while half the landowners in the West of
Scotland, from the Earl of Wigton to Colquhoun of Luss
were paying him money interest and annual rents. 7

Such was George Hutcheson, probably the most capable
and prosperous professional man in the Glasgow of his time.
His character, however, is further revealed in the institution
which so nobly perpetuates his name among the citizens of
Glasgow at the present day. He died on the day after Christ-
mas in 1639, and according to his own desire was buried in the
tomb of his family on the east side of the Cathedral. In his
last will and testament, which he declares to have been written
while he was " somquhat seik in bodie, bot of perfyte mind and
memorie," he left several kindly legacies to servants and rela-
tives, fulfilled his wife's desire that he should give his sister's
daughter fifty merks yearly during her life, and appointed as
his heir and executor his brother Thomas Hutcheson, whom he
exhorted " to follow sage advyce of counsell of friends in his

6 Hamilton of Wishaw's Description of Lanarkshire, p. 29 ; Hugh
Macdonald's Rambles Round Glasgow; Hist. Hutchesons' Hospital, p. 29.

7 Hist. Hutchesons' Hospital, p. 33.

240 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

adoes, because it hes not pleised God to give him sic knowledge
as his place and affers now requires."

This brother, some thirty-five years younger than himself,
George Hutcheson had reared and educated at the Uni-
versity. At first he was intended for the ministry, but took to
law, and by his brother's influence was appointed Registrar
of Sasines to the city. He was a graduate, a man of culture,
and on terms of friendship with the professors of the College,
subscribing 1000 to enlarge the library building and 2000 merks
to found a bursary as an endowment for the librarian. Between
the two brothers a very tender regard appears to have existed,
and after the death of George Hutcheson his wishes were most
loyally carried out by the younger man.

About that time two very notable benevolent institutions
had been founded in Scotland. George Heriot, the Edinburgh
goldsmith and financier, who figures as " Jingling Geordie "
in Sir Walter Scott's Fortunes of Nigel, and who died in 1624,
"mortified" or bequeathed a large sum of money for the founda-
tion of the " hospital " which still commemorates his name in
Edinburgh. The hospital itself was not built till 1759. Nine
years after him, in 1633, died John Cowane, a wealthy burgess
of Stirling, who in similar fashion " mortified " a considerable
sum for the founding of a hospital or almshouse. His hospital,
which is still one of the great benevolent institutions of Stirling,
was built in 1639, the year in which George Hutcheson died.
These beneficent bequests may or may not have furnished a
suggestion to the wealthy Glasgow notary, but they show that
the idea was in the air in his time. Whether he was inspired
by a movement fashionable at that day, or was simply following
the example of earlier founders of similar institutions in Glasgow
itself, like Bishop Muirhead, who founded St. Nicholas Hospital
in 1474, George Hutcheson ten days before his death bequeathed
a tenement and twenty thousand merks, or im 2S. 2d.
sterling, to found an almshouse for aged, decrepit, and destitute

HUTCHESONS' HOSPITAL, TRONGATE (BACK VIEW).

HUTCHESONS' HOSPITAL FOUNDED 241

men of good character. The foundation, he calculated, would
support eleven beneficiaries, who were to be lodged in the
Hospital, provided with fuel and a yearly gown, and receive
for their maintenance four shillings Scots, or f ourpence sterling
per day. His brother and heir, Thomas Hutcheson, not only
ratified the bequest, but added 10,500 merks (583 6s. 8d. ster-
ling) and several other sums to the endowment, and himself
laid the foundation stone of the hospital on the north side of
Trongate in 1641 . In the same month of March Thomas ' ' morti-
fied " an adjoining tenement in Trongate and 20,200 merks
for the lodging and education of twelve orphan boys, sons of
burgesses of the town.

The amount bequeathed by the two brothers for hospital
and school has been estimated to amount altogether to
4017 155. 6d. 8 By Thomas Hutcheson's direction the funds
were invested in " the cheappist and best haldin arrabill lands
they can gett to buy therewith, near to the said Burgh." By
later benefactors several smaller sums have been added, and to-
day the property of Hutchesons' Trust is valued at considerably
more than 400,000 sterling. Hutcheson Street, off Trongate,
occupies the site of the original hospital and its garden acre
behind ; the statues of George and Thomas Hutcheson decorate
the front of the later hospital building opposite the head of
the street ; and on the south side of the river a considerable
district, the land in which the greater part of the funds of the
hospital was ultimately invested, is known as Hutchesontown.

8 Hist. Hutchesons' Hospital, p. 65.

H.G. II.

CHAPTER XXI

THE CIVIL WAR

IT seems not a little curious to reflect that while the notary
public, George Hutcheson, and his brother Thomas, were quietly
laying the foundations of their almshouse for the aged and their
school for the youth of Glasgow, that city and the whole of
Scotland should be preparing to play a vigorous and warlike
part in the great rebellion against Charles I. In England that
king had all but gained his purpose, the establishment of
absolute monarchy. After several angry and heated collisions
he had dissolved Parliament at Westminster in 1629, and for
many years had continued to govern the country south of the
Tweed by his own royal prerogative. The courts of Star
Chamber and High Commission, acting on the authority of the
king alone, and under the direction of his arbitrary minister,
Strafford, had by unheard-of tyranny and cruelties reduced
the nation to a state of fear and passive obedience. At the
same time, by levying the so-called " ship money " throughout
the kingdom, Charles made himself independent of a House of
Commons' vote of supplies. In these circumstances it was an
act of the sheerest folly on the part of the king to attempt such
a provocative act as the forcing of Archbishop Laud's liturgy
on the people of Scotland. The riot in St. Giles' Cathedral, the
signing of the National Covenant, and the deposition of the
bishops by the General Assembly at Glasgow in 1638 were
the immediate results.

2^2

CHARLES PREPARES FOR WAR 243

With something like a common impulse the country pre-
pared to defend its liberties by force of arms. Even before the
holding of the General Assembly which abolished episcopacy,
Glasgow was purchasing pikes and muskets in Flanders, and
training sixty young men in their use. 1 It became known that
the king was taking steps to establish his authority by force of
arms. He had ordered supplies of weapons from Holland for
2,000 horse and 14,000 foot, had secured Carlisle and Berwick
as bases for operations, and was trying to raise 200,000 for the
expenses of an invasion of the north.

As early as the month of March the king had collected an
army of 20,000 men at York, and sent a fleet of nineteen ships
of war, under the Duke of Hamilton, into the Firth of Forth.
These preparations were avowedly for the purpose of forcing
the king's will in the matter of church government on the
people of Scotland.

Nor was episcopacy without friends in Scotland itself. In
particular a majority of the people of Aberdeen refused to
sign the National Covenant, and, headed by the Marquess of
Huntly, were prepared to defend their opinions. In this crisis
there came to the front, as usually happens in a great national
emergency, a notable personage.

Mugdock Castle, a few miles to the north-west of Glasgow,
had for a considerable period been the chief seat of the Grahams,
Earls of Montrose. James Graham, head of the house at this
time, had signed the National Covenant, and was one of the
most active leaders of the Covenanting party. With a sum of
twenty-five dollars he had headed a subscription to meet the
expenses of resisting the royal aggression. He also headed
a committee of Covenanting ministers sent to Aberdeen to
induce the people there to adopt the Covenant. That mission
resulted only in wordy warfare between the clerics of the
two parties, and, as a more effective method of dealing with

1 Burgh Records, i. 389, 390.

244 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

the " malignants " of the north before the menace of Charles
himself in the south became formidable, an army of between
three and four thousand men was raised and placed under the
command of Montrose. 2

Already the hint of possible hostilities was attracting back
to Scotland numbers of the soldiers of fortune, younger sons of
Scottish families, among whom it had been the fashion to seek
a livelihood and perhaps distinction in the wars of Gustavus
Adolphus. Most notable of these, General Alexander Leslie,
made his way over from Sweden " in a small bark," thus avoid-
ing interference from the English warships on the coast. 3 He
was appointed Montrose's chief of staff, and soon had the army
of the Covenant in good fighting order.

While this was being done, Montrose learned that a party
of the Aberdeenshire Covenanters, who were to meet at Turriff ,
was to be broken up by a strong force of Gordons under the
Marquess of Huntly, who had been named the King's lieutenant
in the north. With the energy for which he afterwards became
famous, Montrose, with a small force, not two hundred strong,
made his way by drove roads and unfrequented paths through
the mountains to the place, and had his men posted behind the
churchyard wall as a breastwork before Huntly appeared. On
finding matters in this position the Chief of the Gordons, though
at the head of a force of two thousand men, found it judicious
to retire. Montrose then with his whole army marched on
Aberdeen, took possession of the city, and levied ten thousand
merks from the inhabitants. 4 On that occasion this brilliant
general made the mistake of his life. Seizing Huntly, to whom
he had given a safe-conduct to come into Aberdeen, he carried
him a prisoner to Edinburgh. This action was never forgiven
by the great noble of the north, and at a later day, when his
help might have made all the difference between success and

2 Hill Burton, vi. 233-236. 3 Spalding's Memorials, i. 130.

* Spalding's Memorials, i. 154-172.

GLASGOW RAISES FORCES 245

failure to the enterprise of Montrose, he stood aloof, or gave
him only half-hearted support.

Two months later, in June, 1639, the king having appointed
Huntly's second son his lieutenant in the north, and the
Royalists having drawn to a head at Aberdeen, Montrose was
sent there again, defeated their forces between Muchalls and
Dunnottar, forced the Bridge of Dee, and took possession of
the city. In these transactions the Glasgow general gave
ample evidence of the able strategy and amazing energy which
were to distinguish his short but brilliant career on the Royalist
side a few years later. In that short first campaign of his in
the north the earliest blows were struck of the great Civil War
which was to ruin so many noble houses in both kingdoms, and
to bring the head of Charles I. himself to the block.

Glasgow, meanwhile, had not confined itself to the housing
of the General Assembly which threw down the gauntlet to the
king, and to providing the leader who struck the first warlike
blows. In December, 1638, it spent 1,888 8s. 8d. in the pur-
chase of a hundred muskets, thirty pikes, and four hundred-
weight of powder, and in March, 1639, it paid 600 and 160
dollars for a further supply of muskets, powder, and match
brought by the provost from Edinburgh. In February the
town council ordered that every burgess of the city should
provide himself with arms, under a penalty of 20, and in April
it resolved to raise and pay a company of one hundred men for
the army which was being raised to oppose the king's invasion
of Scotland. This company was raised by tuck of drum sent
through the city streets, and George Porterfield, member of a well-
known Glasgow family, was appointed its captain. 5 The city
was also divided into eight quarters, each with a captain and
sergeant to train its inhabitants in the use of arms, and within
the next few weeks, with resolution and energy, additional forces
were raised and further sums were spent on arms and stores fl

8 Burgh Records, i. 395-399. Ibid. i. 400-401.

246 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Throughout the country the popular party was equally
active. Since the accession of James VI. to the English throne
the strongholds of Scotland had been allowed to fall into a
defenceless state. These were seized in March by the Cove-
nanters. The castles of Edinburgh, Dumbarton, Dalkeith,
Stirling, Hamilton, and Douglas were thus in their hands. At
the same time Leith and the little Fifeshire ports were fortified
against the English fleet, 30,000 stands of arms were provided,
and an army of 20,000 men was embodied and actively drilled. 7
A proclamation from the king denouncing under the penalties
of treason all who should not accept its terms was refused
publication at Edinburgh, the authorities there pointing out
that such penalties could only be awarded by Parliament or
the Courts of Justice after trial and proof. 8 On 20th May the
Scots army paraded under General Alexander Leslie on the
links at Leith, a striking evidence of the Covenanters' deter-
mination and efficiency, and next day the march was begun
towards the Border. It was by no means only an army of the
common people. Its " cr owners," or colonels, were nearly all
noblemen. Montrose led a regiment of over 1,500 men, and the
Glasgow company marched under Lord Montgomery. 9

At Dunglass the Scottish leaders were met by a proclamation
from the king, who was now with his army at Newcastle. He
declared that he had no intention of invading Scotland if his
subjects of that realm showed timeous obedience. On the
other hand, if the Scots came within ten miles of the Border
they would be regarded as invaders of England, and attacked
by the English forces. 10 Desiring not to precipitate hostilities
the Scottish army entrenched itself on Duns Law, while Charles
advanced with his troops to Berwick. From the king's army
it could be seen that Leslie, with the skill of a practised soldier,
had chosen a position which closed all roads into Scotland, and

7 Burton, vi. 258. 8 Burnet's Memoirs.

9 Baillie's Letters, i. 211. 10 Burton, vi. 263.

ADDITIONAL GLASGOW COMPANIES 247

it was known that his army was in much better fighting order
than the English levies. Faced with certainty of defeat if he
attacked, Charles came to terms. As a result of a conference
in which the king himself took part, it was arranged that a
free Assembly and a free Parliament should be held in Edin-
burgh in August, and that meanwhile both armies should be
disbanded and the royal fortresses restored by the Covenanters
to the king. It was well known that the new free Assembly
and free Parliament to be called by the king would do exactly'
the things which had been done by the Glasgow Assembly
which had defied his authority, but the arrangement " saved
the face " of Charles and allowed of a peaceful settlement.

It was while these negotiations were going on that Montrose,
who had been despatched to the north, fought the battle at
Muchalls and forced the Bridge of Dee as already mentioned.
Thus the first round of the Civil War had been fought, and it had
not been won by Charles.

During the negotiations Glasgow continued its. military
preparations with the utmost vigour. The eight companies of
its inhabitants were drilled weekly by their captains. A second
battalion, under John Anderson, a cordiner and former bailie,
was sent on active service. On I3th June the inhabitants were
ordered by sound of drum to bring all their silver plate into a
common stock, and walls with gates were built at the most
vulnerable approaches to the town. By reason of the peace
that was patched up with the king these defences were not
immediately required, but they sufficiently showed the temper
of the citizens. 1 Equally significant, when the Assembly met
in Edinburgh and re-enacted with the king's authority the
proceedings of the Glasgow Assembly of the previous year
abolishing episcopacy, was the speech of one of the Glasgow
ministers, old Mr. John Bell, who was one of its members :
" My voice nor my tongue cannot express the joy of my heart
1 Burgh Records, i. 401-2.

248 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

ord

to see this torn-down kirk restored to her beauty. The Lo
make us thankful. Lord, bless His Majesty and Com-
missioner." 2

Following the abolition of episcopacy the town council of
Glasgow, on ist October, 1639, elected its own provost and
three bailies. 3 Thus for the second time the town appeared to
have been freed from the overlordship of its bishops.

But no era of peace had dawned upon the country. The
king's assent to the abolition of prelacy had been obtained by
force, and certain acts and letters which came to light showed
that the assent was not sincere. 4 On the other hand the Scot-
tish Parliament was discovered making overtures for help to
France. 5 The Scottish report of the treaty with Charles was
publicly burned by his order in London. The king did not
attend the Scottish Parliament as he had promised, and tried
to stop its proceedings by again and again adjourning it. In
the end, on 2nd June, 1640, it met, and ignored his order for
further prorogation. When it sent Lord Dunfermline and
Lord Loudon to Court to explain the position they were refused
an audience, and Lord Loudon was thrown into prison. In
these circumstances both sides prepared for war. 6

Leslie again got together the army of the Covenant at
Dunglass twenty thousand foot and twenty-five hundred
horse. At Coldstream, on 20th August, 1640, Montrose leading
the van, the Tweed was crossed, and at Newburn, five miles
above Newcastle, with the help of some cannon made of tin
cores, leather, and rope, Leslie forced the passage of the Tyne. 7

Meanwhile, the proceedings in Glasgow were probably
typical of those in other burghs throughout the country. On

2 Peterkin's Records, 250-252 ; Burton, vi. 273.

3 Burgh Records, i. 405. 4 Burnet's Memoirs, 150-154.

5 Burton, vi. 288.

6 Burton, vi. 292 ; Act. Parl. v. 259, 260.

7 Burton, i. 304.

CAPTAIN GEORGE PORTERFIELD 249

I4th March the drum was sent through the streets warning the
citizens to have their arms in readiness. On nth April the
town council ordered the purchase of forty additional muskets
and twenty pikes. On the 25th Henry Gibson was paid 40
for drilling the townsfolk. And on the 2Qth a general muster
was held, men who failed to appear being fined 40. 8 On 2nd
May George Porterfield was " continowit capitane to goe out
with the first companie," and 95 gs. id. was disbursed " for
outreiking of allevin sojers to the commoun service." On
27th May Patrick Bell, the late provost, was authorized to
attend the meeting of Parliament, and, in case the king should
prorogue it again, was empowered to support the majority of
members in continuing to sit and transact business " for the
publict good and preservatioun of thair religioun, liberties,
lyfis, and estaitis." 9 Through Patrick Bell, also, the town
council contributed sixteen thousand merks (888 175. 4^d.)
" for the commoun effaires of the countrie." 10 On gth June a
roll was made up of all persons in the city capable of bearing
arms, and on the 13th it was resolved to despatch 144 men
with their officers under Captain Porterfield, who was given
for the pay of his men the sum of 1,000 and promised another
1,000 within ten days. 1

Besides the young men of the city who thus went upon
active service, there appears to have been a body of mercenaries
employed by the town. In the Burgh Records several references
to " the colonel " appear, and on 22nd June the city treasurer
was reimbursed the sum of 518 135. given by him " to the colonel
for payment of the sojoris of fortoun " during the five months
past. There are orders given for " st en ting " or taxing the
citizens to raise the sum required by the authorities in Edin-
burgh. On 1 6th July a second company is sent to the Border
as a reinforcement for " Capitane Porterfield." Two days

8 Burgh Records, i. 411, 412. 9 Ibid. 412-413.

10 Ibid. 1.411. * Ibid. 414.

250 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

later, a troop of thirteen horsemen are fitted out and provided
with a month's pay. And on i6th August there are further
measures taken for collecting the silver plate and gold of the
citizens, as well as voluntary contributions and loans of money
" for the commoun cause." 2 The list of those who thus lent
money is headed by Thomas Hutcheson of Lambhill with
three thousand merks. 3 For the silver work and money then
raised and conveyed to Edinburgh by the provost Glasgow
got two " actis " signed by lords of the Committee of Estates. 4
The town also spent 239 I2S. on eight score pairs of shoes sent
to its company on active service. For the clothes for its
soldiers it received a warrant from the Committee to take the
cost out of the rents of the bishop and non-Covenanters. 5

As in wars in more recent times the town's soldiers on active
service were provided with comforts by their relatives and
friends at home. As some had no friends to do this for them,
and, finding themselves " miskennit or neglectit," might be
inclined to grudge and so prove less reliable, the magistrates on
I2th December sent 108 to be distributed among them.

It will be seen from these details that Glasgow was put to
large expense and very great trouble by the effort to secure
the form of public worship which the nation desired. That the
expense and trouble were undertaken willingly is shown by the
fact that no record exists of any resistance or refusal to co-
operate among the citizens, and by the promptitude and energy
with which the arrangements were carried out.

In England the Scottish army, after capturing Newcastle
and occupying Durham, had taken position along the line of
the river Tees, which divides Durham county from Yorkshire,
and on 4th September sent a humble supplication to the king,
who was then at York, asking him to redress the Scottish
grievances. 6 The request was made more urgent by the fact

* Burgh Records, i. 415-416. 3 Ibid. i. 419.

4 Ibid. 421. 5 Ibid. i. 424. Gardiner, ix. p. 201.

SCOTTISH INDEMNITY 251

that the invading army was levying its support from the
counties of Northumberland and Durham at the rate of 850
per day. It was further backed up by the news of the successive
surrender to the Covenanters of the castles of Dumbarton,
Edinburgh, and Caerlaverock. 7 Under these circumstances
the king called a " great council " of the English peers to meet
at York, and from that council sixteen commissioners were
sent to treat with commissioners of the Scots at Ripon. 8 The
eight Scottish commissioners on 2ist October agreed to an
armistice on condition of a payment of 25,000 for the support
of their army, and further discussion of the matters in dispute
was transferred to London, 9 where large audiences attended
the preaching of the Scottish ministers. 10

Harassed by the Scottish demands and the difficulty of
raising money in England, Charles was forced to call a Parlia-
ment, and the historic assembly afterwards known as the
Long Parliament met at Westminster on 3rd November.
That Parliament voted 140,000 for the maintenace of the
Scottish and English armies in the north, and instead of
providing the supplies desired by the king for the prosecu-
tion of his own schemes of compulsion, took up considera-
tion of English grievances, and impeached the king's ministers,
the Earl of Strafford, Archbishop Laud, and the Lord
Keeper Finch. 1 On nth May, 1641, Strafford was executed
on Tower Hill.

By the treaty with the Scots, which was concluded on 7th
August, the king was to ratify the Acts of the Scottish Parlia-
ment which had sat in 1640 without his authority, while the
authors of the late troubles in both countries were to be
punished. At the same time England agreed to pay the Scots
an indemnity of three hundred thousand pounds. The Cove-

7 Ibid. 20 7. 8 Burton, vi. 309.

9 Gardiner, ix. 209-214. 10 Clarendon, i. 190, ed. 1843, p. 76.

1 Gardiner, ix. 235-236, 249.

252 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

nanters, having thus secured the objects for which they had
taken up arms, disbanded their army. 2

While these events were taking place in England, the
Covenanters were using stern measures to stamp out the re-
mains of episcopacy in the north. General Munro, another old
soldier of Gustavus Adolphus, with a thousand scalliwag fol-
lowers, " daily deboshing, drinking, night- walking, and bringing
sundry honest women servants to great miseiy," plundered the
" malignants " of Aberdeen and the district, using such ex-
cruciating tortures as that of the wooden horse to enforce his
exactions. 3 At the same time, Argyll, securing a " commission
of fire and sword," and raising a Highland army of four thou-
sand men, swept the central Highlands and the Braes of Angus,
and destroyed the lands and houses of the Covenanters' enemies
and his own. It was during this campaign that the future
head of the Covenanting party destroyed the Bonnie House of
Airlie, as commemorated in the well-known ballad, showing his
zeal by himself taking hammer in hand and defacing the carved
work of lintels and doorways " till he did sweat." 4

These were the circumstances in Scotland when King
Charles, harassed and driven to desperation by the proceedings
of the English Parliament at Westminster, bethought himself
of escaping for a time to the north. In the Scottish Parliament
which he attended, however, his chagrin was probably not less.
The Estates no longer met in the dingy old tolbooth of Edin-
burgh, but in the hall of the handsome building still known as
the Parliament House, and in that hall, now the foyer of the
supreme Law Courts of Scotland, Charles had to listen and give
assent to Act after Act passed in his name, which must have
torn his heart with every sentence. He also found it necessary
to confer honours on those who had been his most active
enemies. General Leslie was created Earl of Leven, and Argyll

* Act. Parl. v. 337 et seq. a Spalding's Memorials, i. 275, 352.

4 Spalding, i. 291.

MONTROSE CHANGES SIDES 253

was made a Marquess. At the same time he accomplished one
thing which was to have the effect four years later of very
nearly turning the tide of fortune in his favour. He secured
the adherence of the gallant young Earl of Montrose. That
chief of the Grahams, then twenty-eight years of age, had
probably begun to weary of the intolerance of the Covenanters,
and perhaps may have felt some chagrin at the superseding of
himself in command of the army by his former chief of staff,
General Leslie. There may also have been an increasing
antagonism to Argyll, then coming to a foremost place in the
counsels of the Covenanting party, and fated to be his bitterest
enemy to the end. Lastly he had come into personal touch
with Charles, and had seen reason to support his cause. The
change over of Montrose was in no way different from that of
the men in the English Parliament of the same time, who, after
voting for the abolition of the Star Chamber and the impeach-
ment of Strafford, became foremost among the Cavaliers. 5

The Scottish Parliament ended its sittings on yth November,
1641, having effected many great changes in the affairs and
government of Scotland, and Charles hastened south to the
second session of the Long Parliament) which had opened in
October. The people of the northern kingdom had been paci-
fied by the king's concessions, and in the south, notwithstand-
ing fearful news of a Catholic rising and massacre of Protestants
in Ireland, matters were in a fair way of settling into an ordered
system. The two great parties of Cavaliers and Roundheads
were nearly equal, and it looked as if the king's party were in
the way of securing a majority, when Charles made the crucial
unpardonable mistake of his life. He sent the Attorney-
General to impeach Pym, Hampden, and other leaders of the
Roundhead party of high treason at the bar of the House of
Lords, and he went in person with an armed force to arrest the
leaders of that party within the House of Commons itself.

5 Macaulay, vol. i. chap. i.

254

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

These acts of high-handed folly and treachery threw the whole
country at once into an uproar. During the night London
rose in arms ; the gates of the king's palace were besieged by
angry multitudes, and presently Charles was forced to leave
his capital, never to return till the day of a terrible reckoning
arrived, when he came to be tried for his life and to lay his
head on the block outside the window of his palace of Whitehall.
The signal had been given for the beginning of that devastating
and long drawn out conflict, the Civil War.

CHAPTER XXII

DOMESTIC ANNALS ABOUT 1640

WHILE Glasgow was thus playing a decided and vigorous part
in the larger affairs of the nation, it was also attending to its
own internal affairs with efficiency and credit. The municipal
records afford a picture of orderly and wise arrangement, with
no disturbance of steady progress and painstaking forethought.
Among many similar matters the annals of Glasgow throw
valuable light on the methods of government, local and national,
of early times. It is a common mistake to suppose that in the
dawn of history an imagined golden age communities
elected their rulers by a free vote of all their members, in the
democratic fashion of to-day. The facts of history show
that this was not the case. The Anglo-Saxon Witan, 1 the
British or Welsh Cantref, 2 the high council of the Picts, 3 and
the governing bodies of the Irish Gael 4 and the Gauls across
the Channel 5 were all alike selected rather than elected
assemblies, in the choice of whom the common people had no
part. It is interesting to find to what a late period this system
prevailed in Scotland. Even in the seventeenth century the
Assembly of the Scottish Estates, or Parliament, remained, like
the high councils of the Picts, Britons, Gael, and Saxons, a
body composed of nobles, landowners, clergy, and representa-

1 Liebermann, National Assembly, 5. 2 Lloyd, History of Wales, i. 301-2.
3 Adamnan's Life of Columba, ii. 36.

1 Fustel de Coulange's Histoire, i. 1-22. 5 Caesar.

255

256

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

tives of burghs, no one of whom was elected by the people. The
representative of Glasgow was appointed by the Town Council,
and the appointment was in each case only for the duration of
a single meeting of the Estates. Thus on I4th October, 1637,
the Council " ordaines " Walter Stirling to ride to Edinburgh
with " Maister Robert Wilkie " for the next meeting of Parlia-
ment " to attend ane gracious ansuer of his Majestic anent the
buik of commoun prayer " ; and a month later the city fathers
similarly " ordained " Matthew Hamilton to accompany
Wilkie for the same purpose. 6

But the magistrates and Council of Glasgow were not them-
selves elected by the people. Down to the year 1637 the pro-
vost and magistrates were appointed by the archbishop. After
the abolition of Episcopacy they were selected by a com-
missioner appointed by the king. 7 There appears, however, to
have been no settled or regular arrangement for the election
of the Town Council. That body, still a close corporation, was
chosen, not by the citizens in general, but by the provost and
old and new bailies, with perhaps the most influential members
of the previous Council itself. 8 On igth August of that year,
however, the provost, bailies, and Council took the matter in
hand. They formally resolved that in future the members of
the Town Council should be chosen, not in any haphazard
fashion, but by the provost and three bailies, along with the
provost and three bailies of each of the previous two years, a
body of twelve in all, which, in case of the death or absence
otherwise of any of them, should make up that number by co-
opting other individuals for the purpose. 9 Accordingly, in the
October following, the archbishop having appointed James
Stewart of Floack, a merchant burgess, to be provost, and John

6 Burgh Records, i. 385. 7 Ibid. 432.

8 Burgh Records, i. 375. It was by an Act of James III. in the I5th
century that retiring town councils elected their successors. This usage
was only abolished by the Burgh Police Act of 1833.

9 Ibid. i. 382.

METHOD OF ELECTING TOWN COUNCIL 257

Anderson and Ninian Anderson, merchants, and Colin Campbell,
craftsman (founder of the Blythswood family), to be bailies, the
provost and bailies of that and the two previous years, with one
person chosen to make up the number of twelve, elected thirteen
merchants and twelve craftsmen to act as the council of the burgh . 10

Three years later, in 1640, occurred the first instance of the
appointment of a town clerk depute. The occasion was the
illness of the town clerk, John Hutcheson of Scotstoun. The
individual appointed was William Nair, notary, and " servitor
to the said John," and he was granted full powers to act during
Hutcheson's illness. His deputeship, however, was short.
Eleven days later, Hutcheson having died, he was himself
appointed town clerk. 1

As the educational authority of its day, the Town Council
took a creditable interest in the teaching of more than " the
three R's." From time immemorial, by reason, no doubt, of
the example and teaching of the vicars choral, who carried
on the services of praise in the Cathedral, Glasgow had been a
musical place. An instance of the real concern felt regarding
this matter appears in the Town Council records of 1638. One
James Sanders had previously been granted a monopoly of
music teaching in the city, but in course of time, probably
through his years or infirmity, the music school under his charge
had been allowed to decay. This the Council regarded as " a
great discredit to the city," and a cause of discontent to sundry
honest men who had children they wished to be instructed
in the art. Accordingly, Sanders was summoned before the
city fathers, and with his consent the licence was transferred
to Duncan Burnett, a former teacher of music in the town. 2

Ordinary education was also not less highly esteemed or well
provided for in the city. In order that the work should be in
respectable hands and properly controlled, the Town Council
ordained that there should be no more than four English

10 Burgh Records, i. 384. Ibid. i. 417. * Ibid. i. 388.

H.G. II. R

258 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

schools and one writing school in the burgh, the masters of them
being licensed and kept under strict surveillance by the magi-
strates themselves. 3

Still another evidence of the enlightenment of the rulers of
the city is to be found in the encouragement which they gave
to the establishment of printing in their midst. This was one
of the instances in which something of the nature of a subsidy
was granted by the town in order to secure the establishment
of an industry. Encouraged by such goodwill, George Ander-
son had been induced to set up his printing press in the city,
and the Council honourably stood by him in his enterprise. In
January, 1640, it paid him a hundred pounds as the balance of
cost of transporting his gear to the burgh, ten dollars having
been given him previously towards the expenses. 4

It is interesting to discover that within twenty years of this
enlightened proceeding the Town Council actually did some-
thing in the way of providing Glasgow with a newspaper. In
/ September, 1657, James Fleming was directed to write his
representative in London to send a journal weekly to Glasgow
for the town's use. Glasgow was thus the first community to
provide itself with a municipal newspaper.

These efforts to start and encourage industries did not
always meet with the approval of the citizens, and a consider-
able amount of tact had to be used by the city fathers to secure
the smooth working of the policy. In 1638 a merchant,
Robert Fleming, and certain partners approached the Town
Council with an offer to set up a " house of manufactory," by
means of which a number of the poorer people would be pro-
vided with employment. The advantages which must accrue
to the burgh from such an undertaking were at once perceived
by the Council, and for encouragement it was unanimously
agreed to grant Fleming and his partners, free of charge for
fifteen years, the town's great lodging and yard in the Drygate,

8 Burgh Records, i. 397. 4 Ibid. i. 407.

ORIGIN OF POOR-RATE 259

as well as a shop under the Tolbooth. The Council even under-
took to maintain the roof of the great lodging during the
period, free of all charge to the tenants. 5 The agreement,
however, at once excited the fears of the Incorporation of
Weavers, which appears to have complained to the Town
Council. An arrangement was therefore made with the
partners of the factory, and it was " enacted and ordained "
that during the time of the lease no webs should be woven
there by the servants of townsfolk, but that weaving should
only be done on the premises by the freemen of the Incor-
poration. 6

To the same period belonged the beginning of a new method
of dealing with the poor. Down till the end of 1638 the
derelicts of the community appear to have sustained them-
selves by common begging in the streets. On the occasion of
the great General Assembly of that year in the Cathedral, how-
ever, an order was made forbidding the poor to appear in the
streets, and making provision for their maintenance in their
own houses. This was found to be so great an improvement
that the Town Council resolved to continue the practice, and
for the purpose to institute a special stent or levy upon the
inhabitants. 7 This was, as a matter of fact, the origin of the
modern poor-rate in Glasgow. The levy, to begin with, added a
fifth to the amount of the stent or assessment then being
raised for municipal purposes, 8 and as the first sum allocated
for the purpose was 600, the city rates previous to the imposi-
tion of this addition may be taken to have amounted to
the modest sum of 3000 Scots, or about 150 sterling per
annum. Intimation of the levy was made by tuck of drum,
and the penalty for non-payment was the exaction of double
the amount, and the publication of the names of defaulters in
the churches. 9

5 Burgh Records, i. 385. 6 Ibid. i. 388. 7 Ibid. i. 395.

8 Ibid. i. 396. 9 Ibid. i. 397, 406.

26o

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Another great improvement followed the arrangements made
for the credit of the burgh at the time of the epoch-making
General Assembly. On that occasion it had been ordained that
the streets should be cleared and kept clear of middens and
filth. The order was evidently given effect, and the Town
Council, having discovered how comely and decent and credi-
table to the city it was to have the streets thus kept in order,
immediately passed a regulation permanently forbidding the
deposit of middens on the thoroughfare. 10

Still another nuisance that was then done away with must
have contributed not a little to the amenities of the burgh and
to improve the health ol the people. A practice had evidently
grown up among the butchers or tanners of the town of steep-
ing limed hides in holes and pools of the Molendinar. This was
no doubt an easy method of getting rid of certain deleterious
properties preparatory to the curing of the hides, but it must
have destroyed completely the beauty and healthful properties
of the stream. Accordingly, in 1641 the Town Council gave
the Dean of Guild and the Deacon Convener warrant to have
the practice done away with, and the Molendinar cleared of all
such holes. 1 Whether or not this order was entirely effective,
it is a curious fact that down to the twentieth century work-
men were to be seen in a tanners' yard in the heart of the city
scutching wet hides into the flowing Molendinar where it ap-
peared from underground for a space beside a main thoroughfare.

At the same time, in keeping with its origin and early his-
tory, the city never ceased to display a proper solicitude for
the maintenance of religious ordinances. The burgh records
contain frequent entries of sums voted to be paid to the city
ministers and others for their services. In consequence of the
trouble with Charles I. the Town Council had a very difficult
situation to deal with. A commission appointed by the king
reported that the archbishop during his residence had acted as
10 Burgh Records i. 396. l Ibid. i. 426.

MINISTERS APPOINTED WITH HAZARD 261

ordinary minister of the Cathedral, and recommended that the
burgh should appoint a minister to the charge at 1000 a year. 2
At the same period, in 1639 an d 1640, other vacancies occurred
in the pulpits of the city churches, and the Town Council again
and again deputed certain of its members to treat with ministers
elsewhere with a view to filling the charges. Two members
were sent to Kilwinning in November, 1639, to " requyre
Maister Robert Bailyie to cum heir conforme to the ordinance
of the last provinciall assemblie." In September, 1640, an
agreement was made with another minister, Robert Ramsay,
after some bargaining, to take up the duties, the consideration
payable to him being 800 of yearly stipend, with house rent
and two marts or bullocks, of which remuneration 175 merks
were to be paid immediately after his first sermon " for causis
knawin to the town." A month later the Council elected Hugh
Blair to be minister of the High Kirk, and arranged that he should
be interviewed as to whether he would " abyde the hezard of the
stipend belanging thairto." Apparently Hew Blair declined
the hazard, for the Council presently arranged with Maister
James Howstoun to preach once on the Sunday and once on a
week day during the Council's pleasure. A number of payments
were made to other ministers for their services in the vacant
pulpits, including ten dollars to a blind minister, Mr. John
Campbell, for his preaching, and " out of charitie to supplie
his necessitie." At last, in 1641, the Council appointed Mr.
Edward Wright, minister of Clackmannan, to the vacant charge,
and arranged that he should preach in the New Kirk in the
forenoon and in the High Kirk in the afternoon, no minister
being appointed to the New Kirk till it should be found that
Mr. Wright was assured of his stipend. 3 The whole transaction
throws light on the practical and legal difficulties which arose
out of the act of the General Assembly abolishing Episcopacy,

2 Inventure of Wrytes and Evident s (1696).

3 Burgh Records, i. 406, 420, 425, 428.

262

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

passed without the legalising presence of the Lord High Com-
missioner and without the Royal assent.

Another difficulty, apparently more easily overcome, arising
from this act, was the collection and disposal of certain
of the archbishop's revenues which had been payable in kind.
Certain teind sheaves were payable to the archbishop from the
lands immediately about the burgh. As harvest drew near in
1640 the Town Council bethought them of the need for finding
a place in which to store these, and they instructed their clerk
to secure two barns for the purpose. Four weeks later, how-
ever, and before the harvest was actually reaped, the city
fathers hit upon a better plan, which saved them all the trouble
of actually handling the grain. They sold the teind sheaves by
auction in the Tolbooth. The minutes carefully set down the
transaction as the " lawfull rouping of the samein," and the
sum realized was " aught hundreth pundis," payable one half
at Martinmas and the other at Candlemas following. 4

Among still further difficulties with which the city fathers
had to contend were those caused by the fact that England and
Scotland were ruled by separate Governments. An instance
occurred in 1640. A certain Michael Wilson in East-
bourne, Sussex, had bequeathed the sum of 500 sterling, other-
wise 9000 merks Scots, to the Provost of Glasgow and the Prin-
cipal of Glasgow University for the repair of the College and
the foundation of bursaries. As Wilson was a stranger in
England, and not denisoned or naturalized there, someone at
Court had secured a gift of his goods, gear, money, and lands,
and it looked as if Glasgow were to lose the benefit of the
legacy. The town, however, secured the interest of the Earl
of Stirling, then Secretary of State for Scotland, and by his
personal efforts at Court the king was induced to have a bond
drawn out by which the 500 was made payable out of Wilson's
estate. This bond was in the keeping of the Principal, Robert

4 Burgh Records, i. 416, 419.

METHOD OF FINANCE

263

Boyd of Trochrig, at the College in Glasgow, when his apart*
ment was burgled, and the bond and other valuables carried
off. News of this occurrence having reached the granter of
the bond (one wonders whether the burglary had not been
instigated by that individual), he refused to pay the money.
The authorities in Glasgow had now to secure another friend
at Court in the person of Sir James Carmichael of that ilk, to
represent the matter again to the king. The case was desper-
ate when at last a new bond was secured, not only for the
original 9000 merks, but for an additional thousand in name of
annual rent or interest for the years during which the payment
had been held back. The money, having been at length ob-
tained, was lent out, after the fashion of that time, to the Earl
of Mar and to the Earl of Galloway and his son, Lord Garlies,
with certain cautioners, while the interest was applied to the
founding of four bursaries, preferably for Michael Wilson's
kindred, one to be nominated by the Earl of Stirling and his
heirs, one by Sir James Carmichael and his heirs, and two by
the Provost of Glasgow, with advice and consent of the bailies
and Council. The arrangement was ratified by the exchange
of minutes between the University and the Town Council. 5

Altogether, by the year 1640, quickened by the action of the
General Assembly of 1638 in its midst, and by the conflict with
the king, Glasgow was quite evidently a progressive and busi-
ness-like place, though the death-bell was still rung solemnly
before the dead by an appointed officer as the townsmen were
borne to their long home in the Cathedral kirkyard. 6 The city
fathers had every reason to be proud of their burgh when they
authorised the treasurer to pay five dollars to James Colquhoun
" for drawing of the portrait of the toune to be sent to Hol-
land," 7 no doubt for inclusion in Blaeu's Atlas Major, which
was then in preparation, or the famous collection of views of
towns by the same publisher.

6 Burgh Records, i. 408. 6 Ibid. i. 424. 7 Ibid. i. 430.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE CAMPAIGN OF MONTROSE

WHILE King Charles was at Holyrood for the meetings of the
Scottish Parliament in the autumn of 1641 there was much
feverish coming and going of commissioners from Glasgow.
On 6th September the king granted to James, Duke of Lennox
and Richmond, the whole temporalities of the archbishopric
of Glasgow, lands and barony, castle, city, burgh, and regality,
with the right to nominate the provost, bailies, and other
officers, and incorporated the whole into a temporal lordship
of Glasgow, for an annual payment of two hundred merks
Scots (11 2s. 2d.). 1 Glasgow thus saw its hopes of freedom
from feudal authority in the appointment of its provost and
bailies once more overthrown. Strong representations were
accordingly made at Court ; presents of Holland and Scottish
linen cloth were made to " Maister Web the Duikis servand," 2
and at length it was arranged that while the duke should have
the power to nominate the provost out of a leet of three persons
submitted to him, it was left to the Town Council itself to elect
the provost, if the Duke or his commissioner were not present
at the time. 3

Upon similar representations from the city the king
assigned to the Town Council the teinds, parsonage, and vicarage
revenues of the archbishopric and of the kirks of Drymen,

1 Reg. Priv. Seal, cix. 294 ; Glasgow Charters and Doc. pt. ii. p. 403.

2 Burgh Records, i. 434.

3 Act. Parl. v. 412 ; Burgh Records, i. 433, 434 ; ii. 48, 49.

264

IRISH MASSACRES

265

Dryfesdale, Cambusnethan, and Traquair, for the support of
a minister in place of the archbishop, for the repair of the
Cathedral, and for the maintenance of schools and hospitals. 4

By another charter Charles conveyed to Glasgow University
the lands of the bishopric of Candida Casa and its dependencies,
the priory of Whithorn, the abbeys of Tungland and Glenluce,
and others. 5

It must have made sore the heart of the king thus to sign
away with his own hand the revenues supporting that Episcopal
system which his father and he had spent half a century in
building up.

Another and more terrible anxiety, however, was even then
descending upon Charles. News reached him at Holyrood of
the outbreak in Ireland of the great rebellion under Sir Phelim
O'Neil, in which the wild Catholics marched across the country,
butchering and burning in such horrible fashion as cast the
Sicilian Vespers and the Eve of St. Bartholomew into the
shade. The event was made more ominous and alarming by
the fact that the Irish leader produced a commission purporting
to have been sent by Charles and sealed with the Great Seal
of Scotland. Hill Burton shows that on ist October, 1641, this
seal was in doubtful hands, in transference between the Marquess
of Hamilton and the new Chancellor, Lord Loudon, and it is
still one of the problems of history whether the document that
had such terrible consequences was genuine or forged. 6

The king reported the outbreak to the Scottish Parliament,
which promptly offered to send a force of ten thousand men
to help the Protestants in Ireland. Accordingly, on 8th Decem-
ber, Argyll, who had now been made a Marquess, appeared
before the Town Council of Glasgow with a commission from
the Privy Council requiring transport for five thousand men.

4 Act. Parl. v. 581 ; Glasgow Charters, ii. 415.

5 Great Seal Reg. 1633-1651, p. 374.

6 Hill Burton, vi. 341-348.

266 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

The Town Council made its bargain with business-like prompti-
tude, undertaking to convey the force for thirty shillings
passage money and six shillings per day for meals for each man.
Glasgow further undertook to have the necessary boats in
readiness at forty-eight hours' notice, and stipulated that each
boat should have half payment before starting and the other
half on arriving in Ireland. 7 In the matters of business-like
arrangement and forethought the transaction could not be
bettered at the present day. In the end only some four thousand
men were sent from Scotland under General Leslie, who had
been created Earl of Leven. 8 Three years later, on 27th Feb-
ruary, 1645, the proportion of this force to be maintained by
Glasgow was fixed at no men, with monthly pay amounting
to 990 Scots (82 los. sterling). 9

This Irish rebellion was reflected in more than one other
way in the affairs of Glasgow. Almost at once it brought
across the Irish Sea a stream of refugees fleeing from the terrors
in their own country, and apparently for the greater part
destitute. In February, 1642, the Town Council ordered two
hundred merks to be distributed among them. In March a
charitable collection was ordered to be taken in the town, and
in October it was reported that 1099 2s. 4d. Scots (91 us. lod.
sterling) had been contributed and disbursed among these poor
people.

But there was also a later and greater reflex action on the
affairs of Scotland and the city.

On I7th November, 1641, the Scottish Parliament ended
its sittings, and on the i8th the king returned to London, to
find himself immediately embroiled in disputes with the English
Houses of Parliament sitting at Westminster. The events that
followed have already been alluded to the Grand Remon-
strance addressed by the House of Commons to the king, the

7 Burgh Records, i. 435. 8 Turner's Memoirs, pp. 24-29.

9 Act. Parl. VI. i. p. 352.

REQUEST

SCOTTISH HELP

267

impeachment of Pym, Hollis, Hampden, and other Opposition
leaders by the king's order at the bar of the House of Lords,
and the attempt by Charles in person, with an armed force,
to seize certain members within the walls of the House of
Commons itself. These high-handed and unconstitutional
acts brought thousands of indignant yeomen spurring into
London to defend the rights and liberties of their representa-
tives, and before the clamour of the furious multitude that
besieged his palace gates in Whitehall Charles was forced to
leave London, never to return except as a prisoner on his way
to trial and execution. On 28th August, 1642, the king's
standard was raised at Nottingham, and the Civil War in
England began in earnest.

At first the English Parliamentary Party steadily lost
ground in the conflict. Both sides were unused to war, but
while the Parliamentary ranks were filled with hirelings, " a
mere rabble of tapsters and serving men out of place " as
Cromwell called them, the Royalists were mostly well-mounted
gentlemen with their younger brothers, grooms, gamekeepers,
and huntsmen, all well used to firearms and field exercises,
with high spirits, courage, and daring. Newcastle, from which
London derived its supply of coal, had been occupied for the
king by the Earl of Newcastle; Bristol, the second city in
England, had been surrendered by its commander, Nathaniel
Fiennes, and the arms of Charles were victorious throughout
the western and northern counties. The leaders at Westminster
began to see before them the dreadful spectres of defeat and
death on the scaffold. In the emergency they cast their eyes
on Scotland, and made a bold bid for the help of that well-
organized and disciplined army under General Leslie, which
they had lately seen invincible on their own soil. On loth
August, 1643, a commission of the English Parliament ap-
proached the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland,
claiming credit for following the example of Scotland in the

268 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

path of reform, and declaring for the abolition of Episcopacy.
This compliment was followed by an even more overpowering
one, the agreement to adopt a declaration drawn up by Hender-
son, based on the Scottish National Covenant of 1638. Thus
the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643 came into existence.
Shorn of its references to Acts of the Scottish Parliament and
of the General Assembly, this document was little more than a
protest against Popery, an undertaking to preserve " the re-
formed religion of the Church of Scotland in doctrine, worship,
discipline, and government," and a promise to carry out " the
reformation of religion in the kingdoms of England and Ireland
. . . according to the Word of God and the example of the best
Reformed Churches." 10 Intoxicated by this tribute to their
superior sanctity and sagacity, both Parliament and Assembly
in Scotland adopted the Solemn League and Covenant with
rapture as a declaration for the establishment of Presby-
terianism in England, which it was not, 1 and passed acts for
its compulsory signature in all the parishes of the kingdom. 2

Further, the Scottish Parliament, meeting on its own
initiative on 22nd June, 1643, proceeded to raise an army of
21,000 men, and sent it across the Border under the
command of Alexander Leslie, Earl of Leven, with his nephew,
David Leslie, as major-general. With this force a consider-
able contingent, including two surgeons, went from Glasgow. 3

On i gth January, 1644, * ne Scots army crossed the Tweed
on the ice. On the 28th, in a blinding snowstorm, it crossed
the Tyne, drove back a Royalist force fourteen thousand strong,
under Sir Charles Lucas, and besieged Newcastle. While the
siege was going on Leslie marched to York, and, joining up
with the English Parliamentary army under Fairfax, fought
and won the first victory of the Parliament, against Prince

10 Hill Burton, vi. 353-355 ; Peterkin's Records, 294, 329, 347, 362.
1 Gardiner's Civil War, i. 19. z Cunningham, ii. 45.

3 Burgh Records, ii. 66-70 ; Act. Parl. VI. i. p. 89.

MONTROSE OPENS HIS CAMPAIGN

269

'upert, at Long Marston Moor. 4 On iQth October Newcastle
was stormed by the Scots, and London's coal supply set free
just in time for the beginning of winter. 5

This vital change in the fortunes of the Parliamentary Party
in England was obviously owed to the help of the hardy,
experienced, and well-disciplined army of the Scots. If that
army could be induced to withdraw again to Scotland it seemed
likely that the tide could be made to turn again in favour of
the king. In the crisis the meteoric and heroic figure of Mon-
trose again appeared upon the scene.

Queen Henrietta, who had been endeavouring, without
much success, to secure help in Holland for the Royalist cause,
returned in February, 1643. On her landing at Bridlington
Quay she was met by the Earl of Montrose, who, it is believed,
put before her the plan for a Royalist campaign in Scotland. 6
Afterwards, at Oxford, where she joined the king in July, he
had further interviews with the queen. Had the plan been
put into action at once it seems possible that the Earl of Leven's
army might never have crossed the Tweed, and the later history
of the kingdoms might have run in a different channel. But
it was always the fortune of Charles I. to do the right thing when
it was too late. In this case, at the instance of Hamilton, just
then made a duke, Montrose's project was delayed for a year. 7
It was not till the Scottish army were besieging Newcastle that
the king turned to Montrose. On ist February, 1644, the
latter received a commission as lieutenant-general, and set out
for Scotland. With only a small following he crossed the
Border and drove the Covenanters out of Dumfries ; but he
was in turn driven out of that place by the Covenanters of

4 Burton, vi. 361. 5 Ibid. vi. 360 ; Echard, iii. 482.

6 Napier's Montrose, p. 228. The young Earl of Montrose, some of whose
exploits have been already mentioned, must have been well known in the
streets of Glasgow, for his chief seat, Mugdock Castle, was only some five
miles north-west of the city.

7 Napier, p. 229.

270 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Teviotdale, and, falling back on Carlisle, captured Morpeth
Castle, stormed a fort near the mouth of the Tyne, and threw
supplies into Newcastle. Receiving an urgent message from
Prince Rupert, he hastened south with all the force he could
gather, only to come up with that leader on the evening of
2nd July, the day on which he had been defeated by the armies
of the Covenant and Parliament at Marston Moor. 8

It was then that Montrose, who had now been created a
marquess, put into execution the bold plan which has made
him for all time a hero of romance. Disguised as a groom in
attendance on Sir William Rollo and Colonel Sibbald, who
themselves wore the dress of troopers of the Earl of Leven,
he passed without detection through the Covenanting Lowlands
to Tullibeltane in the highlands of Perthshire, where he was
met by his kinsman, Graham of Inchbrakie. His idea was to
raise the clans, and, with the help of a force from Ireland, to
make Scotland so unsafe for the Covenant that the Earl of
Leven 's army must be recalled from the south. If this took
place it seemed likely that the Royalist forces under Prince
Rupert would again be able to gain the upper hand. Accordingly
from Tullibeltane, the spot from which in an early age the
sacred Baal fires were scattered over the country on Beltane
Day, Montrose sent his fiery cross through the glens, and in
an astonishingly short space of time found himself at the head
of three thousand men. Without losing time he marched on
Perth, and meeting, four miles west of that town, a force more
than double the number of his own, commanded by Lord Elcho,
won at a rush the battle of Tippermuir a Royalist victory
which, with the possession of Perth which it secured, did much
to encourage the cause of Charles in the south. The date was
Sunday, ist September, 1644. 9

Another Covenanting army, 2500 strong, under Lord

8 Napier, 249-256 ; Rushworth, v. 482.

9 Spalding, ii. 403 ; Memorabilia of Perth, p. 107.

VICTORIES OF MONTROSE

Balfour of Burleigh, lay at Aberdeen, and Montrose next
turned his attention to it. With fifteen hundred men on i3th
September, he crossed the Dee ten miles above the town,
and, in a battle between the Crabstane and the Justice Mills,
overthrew the Covenanting force, and pursued it into the city
with merciless slaughter. 10

There was still a third Covenanting army in Scotland,
consisting of three thousand Campbells, two regiments from
the army in England, and a strong force of cavalry, under the
Marquess of Argyll. As most of his Highlanders had gone home
with their plunder, Montrose avoided this force, and kept
moving from place to place, till at the approach of winter
Argyll disbanded his clansmen and retired to his stronghold
at Inveraray. Then the Royalist general descended through
the glens, and during the months of December and January
laid waste the country of the unhappy Campbells. 1

As he retired northward through the Great Glen Montrose
learned that his way ahead was barred by Seaforth with 5000
men, and that ArgylMiad mustered 3000 behind him. His own
force numbered only 1500 men, and it looked as if he were
trapped. But he turned and, marching rapidly through deep
snow, surprised Argyll at Inverlochy in Lochaber, on the shore
of Loch Linnhe. The Campbell chief took to his galley off the
land, and on Candlemas Day, 1645, watched his army being
cut to pieces with the loss of 1500 men. 2

Montrose then marched to attack Seaforth, but that leader
retired, and at Elgin came into the Royalist headquarters for
pardon.

The Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh was now thoroughly
alarmed, and, with Argyll as its moving spirit, proceeded to
organise further efforts against Montrose. On nth February
it passed sentence of death and forfeiture against him, 3 and

10 Spalding, ii. 407.
2 Napier, 293.

1 Spalding, ii. 442 ; Napier, 290.
3 Balfour, iii. 270.

272 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

on the 27th it passed an act requiring each county and burgh
to raise a certain number of soldiers proportioned to its popula-
tion, and maintain them at the rate of nine pounds Scots per
man per month. 4

Glasgow had already contributed considerably to the
carrying on of the war. In 1641 a Glasgow ship, " The Merrie
Katherine," had been sunk in the Clyde to prevent the king's
ships from victualling Dunbarton Castle, and a new ship,
" The Antelope," built by the same five merchant owners, had
made only one voyage to Bordeaux when she was employed by
Parliament to intercept the expected Irish invaders on the
west coast, and was wrecked in the entry to Lochaber. In
compensation the owners were ordered to retain a ship worth
340 sterling, given them by the Marquess of Argyll, and to
be paid 100 sterling in cash. 5 Further, in December, 1643, the
city again raised a company, and sent it under Captain Porter-
field with the Earl of Leven's army into England. 6

Glasgow also, by order of Parliament, maintained on the
west coast a vessel, " The Eight Whelpe," employed by Argyll
against the Irish force brought over by Alastair Macdonald
(Colkitto) to help Montrose. 7 And at Argyll's request it supplied
a hundred bolls of meal for the provisioning of his forces. 8

Sums were also spent in entertaining Lord Sinclair's regi-
ment quartered in the town, and the troopers who came into
Glasgow with Argyll on I7th February after the battle of
Inverlochy. 9 The city at that time was ready to defend itself,
for on 3 ist August, the day before the battle of Tippermuir,

4 Act. Parl. VI. i. 351. Glasgow's levy was no men, and taking the pro-
portion to be one man for every sixty of the population Dr. Robert Chambers
estimated the population of Edinburgh at 34,440, Glasgow and Perth each
6600, Stirling and Haddington each 2160, Ayr 2460, Dundee 11,160, Inverness
2400, St. Andrews 3600, Dumfries 2640, Montrose 3180 (Domestic Annals,
ii. 162).

6 Act. Parl. VI. i. 379. Burgh Records, ii. 64, 68.

7 Act. Parl. 1644, c. 139, pp. 139, 159 ; Burgh Records, ii. 73-76.

8 Burgh Records, ii. 73. Ibid. ii. 69, 76.

JAMES GRAHAME, MARQUESS OF MONTROSE.

GLASGOW PREPARED 273

every citizen between sixteen and sixty years of age had received
orders to be in readiness, with his best arms, powder, match,
lead, and twenty days' provisions, to come out under appointed
captains ; and guards were kept at all the ports. 10 For another
reason, also the outbreak of " war typhus " or plague, in the
armies in the south the inhabitants had been ordered to build
up their backyards and closes to prevent strangers coming in
by these entries. 1

It was perhaps these active preparations which saved
Glasgow from the fate of sack and massacre which overtook
Aberdeen and Dundee at the hands of Montrose. Descending
through the central Highlands, the Royalist leader stormed
the Tayside town on 3rd April, 1645. The Irish and Highlanders
were in the act of plundering that stronghold of the Covenant
when word arrived that Generals Baillie and Hurry, with a
strong force consisting mostly of disciplined troops from the
Scots army in England, were almost at the gates. With incred-
ible efforts Montrose got his scattered plunderers together
his whole force numbered only some 800 horse and foot and
made a dexterous retreat to the Grampians. 2 On gth May he
was lying at the village of Auldearn, between Forres and Nairn,
when General Hurry made a night march to surprise him. But
Montrose arranged his small number of men among the village
enclosures so as to make it appear that he held the place in
strength, and inflicted a severe defeat on his enemy. 3

The Royalist general then appeared to be making for the
Lowlands, and Baillie hastened to intercept him. On 2nd
July Montrose occupied a strong position at Alford on the Don,
and on seeing this Baillie would have retired. But the Cove-
nanters had now adopted the plan of sending a committee with
their forces to the field. This committee insisted on an im-
mediate attack, and Baillie, under this pressure, crossed the

10 Burgh Records, ii. 72, 73. l Ibid. ii. 74, 75.

2 Napier, 319 320. 3 Spalding, ii. 473.

H.Q. ii, s

274 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

river ; whereupon Montrose, swooping down upon him, cut
his army to pieces. 4

Meanwhile in England the Royalist cause had suffered some
severe blows. At Naseby on I4th June the king had lost his
infantry, his whole train of artillery, and no fewer than five
hundred officers ; and a fortnight later Carlisle had surrendered
to the Scottish army under the Earl of Leven. It was clear
that, to afford real help to Charles, Montrose must strike a
decisive blow further south. Accordingly, the fame of his
victories having brought reinforcements from as far as Inver-
ness-shire and Ross-shire, he left his headquarters at Dunkeld,
crossed the Forth at the fords of Frew above Stirling, and
traversing the Campsie Fells by Kippen and Fintry, on I4th
August reached Kilsyth. He had 4000 foot and 500 horse,
and the new Covenanting army under Baillie, which marched
by Stirling and Dunipace to intercept him, had 6000 foot and
800 horse. Even then Baillie would have waited for reinforce-
ments which were on the march to join him, but Argyll and the
committee supervising their general's actions believed Montrose
to be trying to evade them, and insisted on an attack. Baillie
obeyed his orders, and the issue was almost immediately decided
by the wild charge of the clans, which carried everything
before it. 5 It was said that not one unmounted Covenanter
escaped unwounded ; Argyll fled by ship to Berwick, and
the battle laid the whole of Scotland at the feet of Montrose.

The victorious general, with his wild Highlanders and Irish
troops, was now within twelve miles of Glasgow, and the city
had before it the fearful fate that had overtaken Aberdeen and
Dundee. It was even said that Montrose had promised his
troops the plunder of the city. With a view to conciliate him
Sir Robert Douglas of Blackerston and Mr. Archibald Fleming,
commissary, were sent to congratulate him on his victory

4 Britane's Distemper, 127-131 ; Napier, 341-343.
* BailJie's Letters, ii. 420-423.

MONTROSE AT GLASGOW 275

and to invite him and his army to spend some days in Glasgow.
He accordingly marched thither, and encamped in the neigh-
bourhood. 6 He then sent a demand to the magistrates for a
supply of bonnets, shoes, money, and other necessaries. The
Council waited upon him to ask an abatement of his demand,
when he not only granted their request, but detained them to
dinner, and, on leaving, some of them were so overcome by
their relief that they kissed his hand and wished him success. 7
Montrose entered Glasgow on i6th August, and " was welcomed
and entertained with great solemnity." 8 But the Irish and
wild Highlanders, seeing the wealth of the city, could not be
restrained from plundering, and after executing some of the
worst offenders without effect, and seeing there was plague in
the place, he withdrew his army on the i8th to Bothwell. 9

The city fathers have been accused of want of discretion in
inviting and entertaining the Royalist general, 10 and the provost,
magistrates, and council were afterwards punished by depriva-
tion of office and disqualification for election in future. 1 But
it is certain that in no other way could they have prevented
Glasgow from becoming a scene of wild rapine, plunder, and
destruction. Moreover, from what followed it is clear that
their canny complaisance, and the concessions it secured from
Montrose, actually effected more for the cause of the Covenant
than all the armies which had been put in the field against the
brilliant Royalist general.

At Bothwell Montrose received addresses and declarations
of loyalty from all parts of the country ; the counties of Ren-
frew and Ayr offered allegiance, and Edinburgh and the south
of Scotland acknowledged his authority. He thereupon sum-

6 Brown's Hist, of Glasgow (1795), p. 83.

7 Gibson's Hist, of Glasgow (1787), p. 94 ; Denholm's Hist. (1798), p. 20;
(1804), p. 62.

8 Brown, p. 83. Napier, 359. 10 Macgeorge, p. 215.
1 Burgh Records, ii. 80-83.

276 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

moned a Parliament to meet at Glasgow in October, and in
view of the expense which this would entail upon the city,
agreed to forgo the sum of 500 which was the levy the Town
Council had promised for distribution among the troops.

This last concession was the fuse which exploded the dis-
content of his followers. Denied the plunder of the rich city
which they regarded as the rightful fruit of their victory at
Kilsyth, the Highlanders broke up and went home, and the
Royalist leader was left with a force of no more than 580 all
told. 2 In these circumstances he marched towards the Border,
expecting to receive reinforcements there from among the sons
of the old moss-troopers, and afterwards to join forces with
the king. 3

Meanwhile, however, General David Leslie, with 4000 horse,
had been detached from the Scots army in England, and,
joined by 2000 foot from Newcastle, was marching northwards
to meet him. 4

On the evening of I2th September Montrose had encamped
his infantry at Philiphaugh on the left bank of the Ettrick,
while with his cavalry he himself quartered in the town of
Selkirk on the hillside opposite. He had been writing a letter
to the king far into the night, and was sitting down to breakfast,
when the sound of firing was heard. Causing the alarm to be
sounded, he leapt into the saddle, and, followed by his officers
and some of his cavalry, galloped across the river, to find that
Leslie's force, which had been encamped overnight at Melrose,
only four miles away, had approached unseen in the morning
mist, and had already routed his left wing. At the head of
150 horse Montrose himself charged twice, and drove back
Leslie's squadron ; but when a body of Covenanting troops,
which had crossed the river above Selkirk, attacked his right

2 Napier, 359 ; Britane's Distemper, 153, 164 ; Gardiner's Civil War, ii.
348.

8 Gardiner, ii. 350. 4 Gardiner's Civil War, ii. 309-354.

EXECUTIONS AT GLASGOW 277

wing in the rear, he saw that the day was lost, and with about
fifty horsemen he and a few friends, cutting their way through
the enemy, galloped from the field. 5

Then followed a horrible butchery by the Covenanters.
The common prisoners, confined that night in Newark Castle,
a little higher up the Ettrick, were shot next morning in cold
blood. The captured Irish officers were hanged in Edinburgh
without trial, and while a number of distinguished men were
retained for execution at St. Andrews, three, Sir William Rollo,
Sir Philip Nisbet, and Alexander Ogilvy of Inverquharity, a
youth not eighteen years of age, were carried to Glasgow and
beheaded on the 28th and 2gth of October. 6

Leslie sent half his force to Alloa to destroy the property
of the Earl of Mar for his loyalty, while with the other half he
accompanied the Committee of Parliament and the Commission
of Assembly to Glasgow, where he exacted from the citizens
a sum of 20,000 Scots, by way of interest, as he put it, on the
50,000 merks they were said to have lent Montrose. 7

Meanwhile Montrose, who had raised 1200 foot and 300
horse in the north, returned to the neighbourhood of the city,
and for nearly a month " daily threatening the town in the
most daring manner," tried to draw Leslie out to battle. But
at last, on igth November, he returned to Atholl, and presently,
on the second peremptory order from King Charles, disbanded
his force and retired to Holland.

5 Britane's Distemper, 156-162 ; Gardiner, ii. 355.

6 Britane's Distemper, 167; Napier, 392; Balfour, iii. 358-363; Burgh
Records, ii. 87.

7 Baillie's Letters, ii. 321 ; Brown's Hist, of Glasgow, 86; Burgh Records, ii.
79, 80, 1.17.

CHAPTER XXIV

GLASGOW UNDER THE COVENANT

BY the policy which it had followed in making terms with the
Marquess of Montrose Glasgow incurred the enmity of the
Presbyterian clergy, and was made to suffer in a variety of
ways. Not only was the regular election of provost, magis-
trates, and council interfered with, nominees of the Covenanting
party being thrust into office against the persons duly chosen,
to the serious dislocation of the city's affairs and derogation
of its dignity. 1 And not only was the heavy payment of
20,000 Scots demanded, as already mentioned, by General
Leslie and enforced by Parliament, the amount having to be
borrowed from private lenders by the magistrates for the
purpose; 2 but the citizens were made to dig a great trench
round the town through their lands and yards, 3 a work in which
all the inhabitants were ordered to take part at their own
expense, on pain of being considered disaffected and punished
accordingly. 4 A great garrison was also billeted on the town,
800 foot and a troop of dragoons, with magazines and victuals,
ammunition, and arms, 5 the provost, George Porterfield, being
required to provide for their maintenance as much at a time
as 2000 bolls of meal and large sums of money. 6 In December,
1646, the city petitioned to be relieved of the garrison and its

2 Ibid. ii. 79, 80.

4 Burgh Records, ii. 93.

1 Burgh Records, ii. 82, 83.
3 Baillie's Letters, ii. 89.

* Act. Parl. VI. i. 490.

Act. Parl. VI. i. 594, 655 ; Burgh Records, ii. 97, no.

278

TROOPS QUARTERED ON THE CITY

maintenance, and Parliament appointed a committee to con-
sider the matter. 7 But shortly afterwards Parliament ordered
the city to pay 3000 merks, the balance of a sum of 10,000
which had been ordered to be paid to the officers of General
Baillie's and the Earl of Cassillis's regiments, and also to provide
quarters for the baggage horses of these regiments then
quartered in the town. For this the Town Council had to
borrow the 3000 merks on bond. 8 Besides these burdens,
Glasgow had to pay its share, 1530, of the month's pay of
the army which overthrew Montrose at Philiphaugh. 9

The magistrates made a spirited stand against Parliament's
invasion of their right to elect their successors, and, against
strong odds, put their own nominees into office in the following
year, i646. 10 But the Covenanting ministers took action
against this " insolence " of disaffected persons, who, it appears,
lay under the censure of the kirk for " compliance with James
Graham." George Porterfield, the Covenanting provost, who
had been thrust upon the city in the previous year, with his town
clerk, John Spreull, carried a complaint to Edinburgh, and, as
a result, the legitimate election was overturned, and Porterfield,
Spreull, and their friends were replaced in office, while James Bell
and Colin Campbell, the leaders of the party who had attempted
to vindicate the city's freedom, were called to the bar of Parlia-
ment, found guilty of " scandalizing " the commissioners of the
kirk, and clapped into prison in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh. 1

7 Burgh Records, ii. 109 ; Act. Parl. 1646, c. 78.

8 Act. Parl. VI. i. 68 1 ; Burgh Records, ii. in, 112.

9 Burgh Records, ii. 112. 10 Ibid. ii. 100.

1 Act. Parl. VI. i. 625 ; Burgh Records, ii. 102-107. Mr. Harry Gibson, the
town clerk ousted by Spreull, apparently brought an action against the Town
Council for deprivation of office, and was awarded 3000 merks damages by
the Lords of Council and Session. This sum Spreull agreed personally to pay,
but in return procured a letter infefting himself in the clerkship and all emolu-
ments for fifteen years. At the same time Spreull was refunded his expenses
in the action and presented with the handsome douceur of a half year's salary.
The entire transaction was a notable piece of jobbery (Burgh Records, ii. 121).

280 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

This interference of the Presbytery and General Assembly
of the kirk in political and municipal affairs in Glasgow was
typical of what was happening throughout the country. The
ideals of Calvinism upon which John Knox had modelled the
Scottish Church at the Reformation were those of the Old
Testament rather than of Christianity, and now, armed with
the powers of the Solemn League and Covenant, the ministers
of that Church were setting themselves to dominate the affairs,
not only of private life, but of the nation, after the fashion of
the prophets of early Israel. We have already seen how, by
means of a committee, they even attempted to direct the
action of troops in the field at the battle of Kilsyth. An
attempt of the same kind, attended by still more disastrous
results, was that which, a little later, was to give victory into
Cromwell's hands at the battle of Dunbar, and lay the whole
of Scotland at the Protector's feet. Meanwhile Glasgow had
to submit to the officious interference of kirk ministers and a
Presbytery who took it upon themselves to arraign the magis-
trates and censure them for " compliance with the enemy,"
Montrose, and who, when these magistrates sought to interview
the Presbytery while " sitting in judgment," declared them-
selves to be " insolently affronted, menaced, and upbraided." z

In the same temper, assuming the role of the ancient
prophets in their dealings with the kings of Israel, these
Covenanting ministers endeavoured to impose their- dictation
upon the king himself. Things had been going badly with the
fortunes of Charles, and in the end of April, 1646, disguised
as a servant, with cropped hair and beard, he had left Oxford,
and made his way to the Scottish camp before Newark. There
he was met by the demand that he must sign the Solemn
League and Covenant, and order the establishment of Presby-
terianism in England and Ireland, and on refusing this demand
he was made a prisoner and carried to the headquarters of

8 Burgh Records, ii. 103 ; Act. ParL 1646, c. 31.

SCOTS WITHDRAWN FROM ENGLAND 281

the Scottish army at Newcastle. 3 Charles then once more
approached the English Parliament, but was met by it with
nineteen propositions, which also included a demand for the
establishment of Presbyterianism. These he likewise refused,
and the Scottish army, seeing its work was done, transferred
the custody of Charles to the English Parliament, along with
the various towns and places of strength which it had garrisoned,
and on nth February, 1647, had withdrawn every soldier
across the Tweed. As recoupment for its maintenance during
the year's campaign in England in the interest of the English
Parliament it agreed to accept a sum of 400,000, which was
paid in instalments. 4

The king made his journey southward from Newcastle
amid much rejoicing, touching sufferers from the " king's
evil, ' ' or scrofula, as he went. At Nottingham the parliamentary
general, Fairfax, when he met him, kissed his hand ; and it
looked as if Charles, even without making the concessions
which he hated, would very shortly be in full enjoyment of
his prerogatives again. A moderate amount of tact and good
judgment only was needed on his part ; but Charles was not
a tactful king. At Holmby House, which he reached on i6th
February, he made some unguarded statements which alienated
the House of Commons. The Commons accordingly, along
with a committee of the Scottish Parliament, proceeded once
more to press him for a formal agreement to their demands.
It was not till I2th May that he saw his way to agree, and,
like all this luckless king's concessions, the agreement came
too late.

The army had of late become strongly imbued with the
tenets of Independency, a method of church government, or
rather lack of government, looked on with much disfavour by
the Presbyterians of Scotland and the English House of Com-

3 Burton, vi. 404 ; Britane's Distemper, 193, 194.

4 Gardiner, Civil War, iii. 180-183.

282 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

mons. Parliament accordingly tried to supersede Fairfax,
and passed a resolution that no one who did not sign the Solemn
League and Covenant could hold a commission. The pay of
the army was allowed to fall into arrears, and, a crowning blow,
it was decided to disband the troops. At all this the army
was furious, and matters were not helped when it became
known that the king was to be removed to Scotland, the head-
quarters of Presbyterianism, whence another Scottish army
was to be brought south to enforce the acceptance of the
Covenant. In this emergency a meeting of officers was held
at Cromwell's house on 3ist May, the day before the army
was to be disbanded, and it was resolved to seize the person
of the king. Early in the morning of 2nd June, accordingly,
one Joyce, an ex-tailor, now a cornet of Fairfax's guard,
appeared armed with pistols in the king's bedroom at Holmby
House, and informed Charles that he must please go with
him. " Where is your commission ? " asked the unhappy
king. " Yonder/' said the cornet, pointing to his troop of
horse in the courtyard. " It is written in legible characters,"
answered Charles, and prepared to leave with his captor. 5
Next, on 6th August, the army occupied London, and proceeded
to " purge" the House of Commons of most of its Presbyterian
members.

Even then the king might have secured peace by coming
to terms with the army leaders, Cromwell, Ireton, and the
others. But while he temporized with them, first at Hampton
Court and afterwards at Carisbrooke Castle in the Isle of
Wight, he entered into a secret treaty with the Scottish Com-
missioners, by which he agreed to confirm the Solemn League
and Covenant, establish Presbytery, and concur in the sup-
pression of the Sectaries or Independents. In return the
Commissioners " engaged " to restore the king by force of
arms. The duplicity of Charles becoming known to Cromwell

8 Gardiner's Civil War, iii. 251-274.

THE ENGAGEMENT 283

and Ireton through letters intercepted between him and the
queen, they determined that he could never again be trusted
with any share in the government. The guards at Carisbrooke
Castle were doubled to prevent his escape, and commissioners
were sent to the Scottish Parliament at Edinburgh to induce
it to refrain from sending an army into England on his
behalf. 6

The treaty with Charles, known as " the Engagement," was
supported by the moderate party in Scotland, at whose head
was the Marquess of Hamilton, and was resisted violently
by the ministers and the extreme party led by the Marquess
of Argyll. These extremists declared that Charles had not
conceded enough, that he must not only take the Covenant
and become a Presbyterian himself, but must compel all others
in Scotland and England to do the same. 7 The ministers de-
nounced from their pulpits all traffic with " an uncovenanted
king," and kirk-session records then and afterwards relate
the punitive measures taken against all who favoured the
Engagement. 8

Meanwhile public feeling in England veered round once
more to the side of the king. London was strongly in his favour ;
Parliament, at the demand of Scotland, agreed to negotiate
with him ; Wales rose in insurrection ; a strong body of Cavaliers
mustered in the north ; the fleet declared for him ; Berwick and
Carlisle were surprised; Chester, Pembroke, and Colchester
were held by the royalists ; and outbreaks took place in the
southern counties. In March and May, 1648, attempts, which,
however, did not succeed, were made to secure the escape of
Charles. If, in these circumstances, the Scottish Parliament
had placed an army at once in the field under an able and
energetic leader like Montrose, the whole troubles of the country

6 Gardiner, iv. 28-56; Harrison's Cromwell, 117-118.

7 Burnet, 339 ; Cunningham, ii. 63.

8 MS. minutes of Kilmarnock kirk-session.

284 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

might have been brought to an end by the reinstatement of
the king on the basis of a limited monarchy. It was not,
however, till 23rd May that Hamilton secured from the Scottish
Parliament an order to raise 30,000 men, with himself as
commander-in-chief, and though by the adjournment of
Parliament on gth June he was left in supreme authority,
many delays were allowed to take place.

Hamilton and his party, certainly, had to overcome serious
hindrances placed in their way by the ministers and extremists
of the Covenanting faction. In Glasgow, indeed, a revolution
had to be effected in the city's government before the required
levies could be secured. The magistrates who had been placed
in office at the instance of the Covenanting extremists in 1645,
after the fall of Montrose, were of course opposed to the sending
of any help to the king. Accordingly, when the requisition
reached them to furnish a certain number of fighting men,
they took up the role of conscientious objectors. First they
sent Spreull, the town clerk, and one of the burgesses to Hamil-
ton to request the county committee to relieve them from the
quartering and maintenance of soldiers in the town. 9 This
having proved ineffectual they, a month later, on 23rd May,
addressed a formal " supplication " to the same committee,
setting forth that, " after serious and particular diligence used
to know the mind of this burgh," they found " a general
unwillingness to engage in this war through want of satisfaction
in the lawfulness thereof." They further declared that they
did not find themselves " satisfied in our consciences concerning
the lawfulness and necessity of this present engagement, so
that we may give our concurrence therein without sin against
God." They stated that they were about to address Parliament
on the subject, " for further clearing of their lordships' pro-
ceedings to the satisfaction of all the well affected," and they
begged that delay might be granted till the answer of Parlia-

9 Burgh Records, ii. 131.

SIR JAMES TURNER IN GLASGOW 285

ment should be given. 10 Parliament replied by summoning
the provost, magistrates, and Town Council in a body to
Edinburgh, and committing them to the Tolbooth for
disobedience. 1

At the same time the eight wards of Glasgow sent memorials
to Parliament declaring their willingness to obey the orders
as to raising troops. 2 On the strength of this the magistrates
and Council who had been ousted in 1645 were replaced in
office. At the same time Sir James Turner was sent to Glasgow
and soon broke down resistance. " I shortly learned to know,"
he says, " that the quartering of two or three troopers and
half a dozen muskets was an argument strong enough in two
or three nights time to make the hardest headed Covenanter in
the town to forsake the kirk and to side with the Parliament." 3
A few days after the reinstatement of Provost James Bell and
his bailies, John Lymburner was appointed captain of the town's
company, with James Moresoune, litster, as lieutenant, and
John Bell as ancient or ensign, all the male inhabitants were
paraded on the Green for enlistment, and the considerable
stock of pikes, muskets, swords, colours, and ammunition in
the Tolbooth was got out and furbished up. 4

In consequence of these and similar delays in various parts

10 Burgh Records, ii. 134. This supplication probably expressed the senti-
ments of, and was no doubt drawn up by, the Covenanting town clerk, John
Spreull. In consequence he was imprisoned and deprived of office with the
magistrates, and there are no entries in the burgh records from 2yth May
till 1 3th June, when William Yair was appointed in his place.

1 Ibid. ii. 135. 2 Act. Parl. 1648, 147.

3 Turner's Memoirs, 53-55. This old soldier of fortune from the wars of
Gustavus is said to have been the model for Dugald Dalgety in Scott's Legend
of Montr o$e. In 1666, while commanding the forces in Dumfries, he was
captured by the Covenanters of the Pentland Rising, and carried about with
them till their defeat at Rullion Green. He spent his last years and died in
the old Baronial Hall in Gorbals, in which Sir George Elphinstone of Blyths-
wood also died, and which was acquired along with the estate of Gorbals
itself by Glasgow Corporation in 1650 (Burgh Records, ii. 182).

4 Burgh Records, ii. 141, 142.

286 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

of the country, it was not till 8th July, 1648, that the Duke
of Hamilton crossed the Border and entered Carlisle. The
Scottish army numbered only 10,500 men, a third of the force
he had expected to lead. Not one man in five could handle
pike or musket, there was no artillery, and the soldiers were
short of provisions. 5 On I7th August the force had reached
Preston a place destined to have so many fatal memories
for the Stewarts when it was attacked by Cromwell with a
veteran army of 8600 men, and piecemeal, in a scattered fight
which lasted for several days, was defeated with heavy loss.
On 22nd August Hamilton capitulated at Uttoxeter, under
assurance, he and all with him, of life and safety. 6 Nevertheless
he was arraigned before the same court that tried the king, and
was executed on gth March, 1649. Of the other prisoners,
numbers were shipped as slaves to Barbados, Virginia, or
Venice. 7 In this w r ay some of the Glasgow prentice lads who
marched to the Border under Captain Lymburner may have
seen more of the world than they had dreamed of, or had any
desire to know.

The overthrow of Hamilton and his " Engagers " at Preston
had an instant effect in Scotland. Lord Eglinton, a zealoi
Covenanter, gathered a large body of men at Mauchline in
Ayrshire, and marched upon Edinburgh in what was known
as the " Whigamore's Raid " ; Leslie undertook to form a new
army of the Covenant ; and Argyll brought a strong force of
his Highlanders out of the west. The remnant of the Engagers
retired from the capital, Argyll formed a new Committee of
Estates with himself at its head, and Cromwell marched to
Edinburgh. The English general was lodged in Moray House
in the Canongate, and feasted in the Castle. He subscribed the
Solemn League and Covenant, and demanded that no person
who had been accessory to the Engagement should be " em-

5 Burnet's Memoirs, 355. Gardiner, iv. 192.

7 Gardiner, iv. 192, 193.

PESTILENCE IN THE CITY 287

ployed in any public place or trust whatsoever." 8 Following
this, Argyll's party, protected by two regiments of English
cavalry, passed an act on 27th September by which the provost,
magistrates, and Council of Glasgow, who had favoured the
Engagement, were deposed, and the body of extreme Covenan-
ters who had preceded them were restored to office. 9

The party of the Engagement, which had thus held power
in the city for no more than three months, were perhaps not
unwilling to be relieved of their task. Amid all their arduous
labours of raising funds and fitting out soldiers they had had
to contend with the worst outbreak of pestilence ever known
in the city, and to support large numbers of poor, unable, in
consequence of it, to earn a living. 10 The political disability
extended even to office-bearers of the Trades House, and, a
complaint being made to the Deacon Convener against one
John Wilson, " pretendit deacon " of the cordoners, that
individual was duly expelled, and a more righteous person
installed in his place. 1

An outstanding result of the new turn of affairs was to
place the whole concerns of the nation, public and private, under
the domination of the ministers of the kirk. The civil power
existed for little else than to enforce the enactments of the
church courts ; every kirk-session became an inquisition
ferreting out the most private relationships of the people ;
even kirk elders were exhorted to spy and report upon each
other's conduct ; and in consequence an atmosphere of sanc-
timonious hypocrisy grew up which was still prevalent a century
and a half later, when Robert Burns wrote his scathing satire,
" Holy Willie's Prayer." 2 As might be expected, the Glasgow
burgh records of the period are largely concerned with affairs of

8 Burton, vi. 420 ; Carlyle's Cromwell, ii. 223 et seq.

9 Burgh Records, ii. 149. 10 Ibid. ii. 145-147.
1 Burgh Records, 153.

a MS. kirk-session records of Kilmarnock aiid other parishes.

288 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

the kirk. In October, 1648, it was agreed to divide the Cathedral
into an inner and outer kirk with a wall of stone. In December
it was " inacted and concludit be all in ane voyce " that each
of the town's ministers should " in all tyme comeing " have a
yearly stipend of one thousand pounds. And on the kirk-ses-
sion's request the Town Council agreed that Fergus's Aisle,
the most sacred place in the Cathedral, being the ground
consecrated by St. Ninian in the fourth century, in which St.
Mungo buried the holy Fergus at his first coming to Glasgow,
be reserved as a burial-place for the ministers, their wives,
and children. 3

Among these transactions in which the Town Council
associated itself closely with affairs of the kirk, was one carried
through by George Porterfield, the provost of the Covenanting
faction, and John Spreull, his town clerk. Both of these
individuals were very good business men. Porterfield, who had
come into notice first as captain of the Glasgow company in
the Earl of Leven's first army, was provost, evidently with
much acceptance, for a number of years, and was the successful
commissioner for the city on many occasions requiring shrewd-
ness and address, while Spreull, as we have already seen, and
as there will be occasion to show later, was an adroit adminis-
trator in his own interests as well as in the interests of the
community. The transaction in which the two were associated
at this period which has had most enduring effect was the
settlement of the arrangements regarding the High Church or
Cathedral. On 7th December, 1647, the two had been deputed
to get the king's grant of the spiritual revenues of the arch-
bishopric confirmed by the lords of exchequer. To these, in
their somewhat depleted form, had lately been annexed, for
support of the dignity of the Protestant archbishopric, the
revenues of the parsonage and vicarage. This enterprise
Porterfield and Spreull carried through with much wisdom.

3 Burgh Records, ii. 152, 155, 156.

PULPIT HOUR GLASS.

THE DEID BELL.

MINISTERS' STIPENDS 289

They secured in February, 1648, a charter under the Great
Seal, conveying these revenues to the town for the support of
a minister to serve the cure in place of the archbishop, for the
repair of the High Kirk, and for the support of the schools and
hospitals. The Crown retained the right of appointing the
High Church minister, while the magistrates and councillors
undertook to support the minister so appointed, and also to
pay the other ministers of Glasgow certain stipends, six chalders
to the minister of the Barony and five chalders to the minister
of the new kirk at the Tron. 4

Meanwhile in England the final attempts at negotiations
between the king and his Parliament were taking place. At
Newport, liberated on parole, Charles negatived all efforts to
arrive at terms. The officers then took the matter up, but
with similar result, and on discovering that the king was
preparing to escape they carried him on ist December to
Hurst Castle, and confined him as a prisoner. 5 In rapid suc-
cession followed the last acts of the tragedy the " Remon-
strance of the Army," the military occupation of Westminster,
the exclusion of members of Parliament, and the trial of the
king. No attention was paid to the protests of the Scottish
Parliament, and Charles was beheaded in front of his own
palace of Whitehall on the afternoon of 30th January, 1649.

4 Glasgow Charters and Documents, ii. 418-423 ; Great Seal Register, 1634-51,
p. 917, No. 1928.

5 Gardiner, iv. 259-260. 6 Ibid. iv. 293-313.

H.G.JJ.

CHAPTER XXV
UNDER THE COVENANT

WHATEVER may have been the quarrel between the Scots and
Charles I. on matters of Church government, it was no part of
the desire of the people of Scotland to abolish kingly rule. No
sooner, therefore, was news of the execution of the king
received in Edinburgh than arrangements were made to pro-
claim his elder son as Charles II. This was done in the capital
on 5th February, I649. 1 In the Glasgow Burgh Records no-
thing whatever is said of the execution of Charles I., and it is
only on loth February that an entry appears stating that the
order for proclamation of Charles II. had been received late
on the previous night. Immediately, at eleven o'clock in the
forenoon, the whole Council marched two by two to the Cross
in " ane comelie maner," and, standing on it uncovered,
listened while the proclamation was made " with the gritest
solempnitie." Afterwards all the bells of the city were rung
till twelve o'clock.

The young king was then on the Continent, at The Hague,
and commissioners were sent over to offer him the Crown of
Scotland on condition that he should accept the National
Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant, and give absolute
compliance to the will of the Scottish Parliament and the
General Assembly. After a year's bargaining, and the forlorn
attempt to take the Crown by force of arms which ended in the
capture and execution of the Marquess of Montrose, Charles

1 Act. Parl. VI. pt. ii. 157.
290

PLAGUE IN GLASGOW 291

agreed to the terms, and landed near the mouth of the Spey on
i6th June, 1650. Meanwhile, within a month of proclaiming
Charles II., the Scottish Parliament had handed a protest to
the English House of Commons, which presently led to a
rupture and war between the two countries. 2

Glasgow was now to be called upon to stand the brunt of
the Civil War, as it had not been called upon to do before, and
the story of its fortunes during the three years that followed
forms one of the darkest chapters in its annals. These troubles
befell the city at a time when it was not too well prepared to
meet them, and one can only conclude that it was upheld in the
ordeal by a strong sense of the righteousness of the cause in
which its blood and its treasure were spent and its other suffer-
ings were incurred. For some previous three years, from 1645
till 1648, it had suffered from an infliction of pestilence which
not only cut off many of its citizens and taxed its resources to
the utmost, but which induced large numbers of people to leave
the city in the hope of escaping the scourge. During those
years considerable numbers of the poorer folk, suspected of
contact with the disease, had had to be supported in temporary
quarters on the Gallowmuir to the east of the city. The
patience of the people had also been sorely tried by the re-
quisitions of men for the keeping of a constant watch in all
quarters of the burgh for the exclusion of plague-infected
persons. At the same time the means and youth of the town
had been depleted by the repeated levies of money and troops
required for the sending of army after army into England, first
to oppose Charles I., and afterwards to rescue him. 3

In these circumstances, it might be concluded, Glasgow
was in no condition to respond to the demands for men, horses,
arms, provisions, and money for a new campaign. There were,
however, at the head of the city's affairs at that time two men
whose zeal for the Covenant was matched by extraordinary

2 Act. Parl. VI. pt. ii. 276. z Burgh Records, ii. 144, 146, 151.

292 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

natural energy. The provost, George Porterfield, was the
same who, at the first outbreak of war against Charles I., had
been appointed captain of the Glasgow company in Alexander
Leslie's army, and was continued captain in the next cam-
paign. 4 He was elected the city's commissioner to the Con-
vention of Estates in December, 1644. In October of the
following year, after the defeat of Montrose at Philiphaugh,
when the magistrates of Glasgow were ousted for having made
treaty with that general, it was Porterfield who was installed as
provost at the instance of the ministers and extreme Cove-
nanters. He was one of the conscientious objectors who
protested against the furnishing of troops by Glasgow for the
Engagement, 5 and on the failure of the Engagement and the
renewed ascendency of Argyll and the extreme Covenanting
party, he was at once re-elected provost. 6 He was again
elected in 1649 and 1651, and when not in office was constantly
entrusted with important business for the town. 7 Even after
the downfall of his party at the Restoration, when strict enquiry
was made regarding certain sums he had collected for the
Protestants in Poland and Bohemia, which had not been sent
abroad, he met the obligation and fully satisfied his questioners,
and was completely exonerated by the Town Council. 8 Porter-
field's labours for the city appear to have been entirely dis-
interested. There is no evidence in the Burgh Records that he
had any private axe to grind, and one can only regret that more
is not known of this staunch Glasgow citizen.

Of John Spreull, the town clerk, not quite so much can be
said. He was equally zealous and equally active, perhaps, in
the cause of the Covenant and the interests of Presbyterianism.
But when the opportunity arose he was no less particular and
exacting in securing his own personal interests. In 1647,
when he was all-powerful in the Town Council, he induced the

4 Burgh Records, ii. 64. 5 Ibid. ii. 134.

6 Ibid. ii. 150. 7 Ibid. ii. 194. 8 Ibid. 452.

PURCHASE OF GORBALS 293

city fathers to grant him an engagement with many unusual
advantages, emoluments, and powers for fifteen years. In
June, 1652, apparently because his own friends were no longer
dominant, and an English military governor was in charge of
the town, he deserted his office, though again and again desired
by the magistrates to continue. In consequence the Town
Council appointed its faithful servant, William Yair, to be town
clerk, and rescinded all acts, contracts, and promises made
with Spreull. Thereupon the latter, going to Edinburgh and
becoming one of the Clerks of the Court of Session, returned
with a decree of the High Court ordering the Town Council to
continue him in his office and emoluments, and allow him to
act by deputy, for the period of years of the agreement he had
originally secured. Evidently to a great show of zeal for
matters of religion, or rather of Church government, Spreull
united a very shrewd faculty for attending to his own interests. 9
Two months after the execution of Charles I., and while the
new political troubles between the Presbyterian Government
of Scotland and the Independent or Sectarian Government of
Oliver Cromwell in England were brewing, Glasgow Town
Council, under Porterfield as provost and Spreull as town clerk,
carried out its great enterprise of purchasing the lands of Gorbals
and Bridgend on the south side of the river. These lands had
been rented from the archbishops by the Elphinston family
from an early period. In 1579, after the Reformation, the rent
was converted into a feu-duty. In 1595 their owner, George
Elphinston, resigned these lands, with his other property of
Blythswood, on the west of the city, and obtained a precept of
chancery erecting the whole into a free barony, the barony of
Blythswood. 10 He acquired also the barony of Leyis and the

9 Burgh Records, ii. 121, 227, 243, 275, 295. Of the use Spreull made of
his reinstatement, and his activities during the following years, some
account will be found in Chap, xxvii. infra, page 323.

10 Mr. John Ord names his interesting and valuable monograph "The
Story of the Barony of Gorbals " ; but Gorbals by itself was never a barony.

294 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

New Park of Partick, and was knighted by King James VI.
In 1634, when Sir George was forced to part with all his pos-
sessions, these were acquired by Robert, Viscount Belhaven,
representative of the well-known family, Douglas of Mains, near
Milngavie. Two years later Lord Belhaven conveyed the lands
to Robert Douglas of Blackerstoun and Susana his wife. 1 Robert
Douglas in turn was knighted, but the glories of baronial posses-
sion and knighthood appear to have been as fatal to the fortunes
of Sir Robert Douglas as they had been to his predecessor, Sir
George Elphinston. The magistrates and Town Council had in
1635 offered to buy the lands of Gorbals and Bridgend from Lord
Belhaven at the price of 100,000 merks (5555 us. id. stg.), but
the negotiations had failed. 2 In 1648 these negotiations were
renewed, with George Porterfield as chief negotiator. 3 The
money belonging to Hutchesons' Hospital was now available,
and the rumour had got about that Blackerstoun was anxious
to sell the land. After a year's bargaining the town agreed to
pay Sir Robert 120,000 merks, with 2000 merks to his lady in
all the sum of 6777 155. 6d. sterling for Gorbals and Bridgend.
One half of the lands was acquired on behalf of Hutchesons'
Hospital, one-fourth on behalf of the Trades Hospital, and one-
fourth for the town itself, the town retaining to itself the
superiority and the heritable offices of bailiary and justiciary. 4
Of the price, half was to be paid at Whitsunday and half at the
following Martinmas. Meanwhile, however, war broke out,
and because of the successive levies made upon the city a
difficulty was found in raising the money. Fifty thousand
merks were paid to Sir Robert in June, 5 but the great disaster
of the war, the defeat of the Scottish army by Cromwell at
Dunbar, intervened. In September the town was still owing
Sir Robert 70,000 merks, with 2100 merks of interest. 6 In 1653

1 Charters and Documents, i. 495. 2 Burgh Records, ii. 29, 31.

3 Ibid. ii. 128. * Ibid. ii. 157, 158, 182, 184-185.

5 Ibid. ii. 189. 6 Ibid. ii. 212.

MUNICIPAL FACTORY IN DRYGATE 295

the town found still greater difficulty in raising the money. 7
Even part of the funds of Hutchesons' Hospital, which had
been lent to the Marquess of Argyll and the laird of Lamont,
could not be got in. 8 It may have been this long delay which
brought Sir Robert Douglas to ruin, but in November, 1654,
he appears to have been pressed by his creditors, and to have
urged the city to pay its debt. In reply the town clerk was
instructed to write a somewhat tart letter, stating that " the
bargain had not been so profitable to the town as to justify his
making so much din over the balance still owing, but that he
would be provided for at the magistrates' best convenience." 9

Meanwhile a bailie (afterwards two) for Gorbals had been
added to the number of Glasgow magistrates, the territory had
been divided between the city itself, the Trades House, and
Hutchesons' Hospital, and the magistrates had pledged the
city's portion as security for the 20,000 borrowed at the time
of the wars of Mont rose. 10

Another enterprise of the city at the same period was the
setting up of a municipal factory and waulkmill in Drygait.
The undertaking may have been suggested by an " Inglis
clothiar " who visited the town in the spring of 1650. At any-
rate, an agreement was made with him " for the erecting of the
manufactorie and placeing him thairin." The salary of this
Simon Pitchersgill was to be 45 sterling, and he received 5
sterling in advance on 23rd March. Forthwith a lavish expendi-
ture began on the work. Orders were given for work-looms

7 Burgh Records, ii. 262. 8 Ibid. ii. 288. 9 Ibid. ii. 301.

10 Ibid. 195, 277, 281. A full account of the known history of Gorbals is
given in the History of Hutchesons' Hospital by Dr. W. H. Hill. The price paid
by the Trades House for its quarter share of Gorbals was 31,000 merks,
equal to ^1743 123. sterling. This was divided into thirty-one shares of
1000 merks each, which were taken up in varying proportions by the
different Incorporations or Trades. How extremely profitable the trans-
action turned out may be judged from the fact that from the six shares pur-
chased for 6000 merks (333 6s. 8d. sterling) by the Incorporation of Malt-
men, the annual revenue from feu-duties to-day is not less than 1000.
Chronicles of the Maltmen Craft in Glasgow, 75.

296 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

and the making of a mill lade ; an advance of 500 was made
for the purchase of mill furnishings in Holland ; authority was
given for the purchase of 1000 or 1200 worth of wool, and the
agent bought 2000 worth. In May, 1651, Edward Robieson
was employed to sell the cloth and collect accounts, but each
piece before being sold was to be inspected and measured by
a committee. By November of that year difficulties had
arisen. It was suggested that a new salesman might be
engaged, or that the mill should confine itself to the weaving
of cloth after it was ordered. In April, 1652, the undertaking
had evidently proved a failure. The town drummer was sent
round to intimate that the manufactory would be leased to the
highest bidder, and a committee was appointed to take stock
and make up an account of the money that had been spent on
the enterprise and the amount of cloth sold. At last, in April,
1653, when the city fathers had grown tired of the risk, expense,
and trouble of the undertaking, the shrewd Simon Pickersgill
secured a lease of the factory for himself. Thus ended an
interesting early effort at municipal trading on the part of
Glasgow. 1

While these adventures were being undertaken the city was
passing through two of the most serious crises in its history.
On 3rd July, 1650, Charles II. had arrived at the mouth of the
Spey. On the i6th, Cromwell, fresh from his bloody career in
Ireland, crossed the Tweed with an army of 16,000 trained
veterans, with cavalry and artillery, to oppose him. Immedi-
ately Glasgow found itself busy with the raising of troops and
money and the provision of arms. The Town Council appointed
a captain (Peter Johnston) and eight lieutenants ; a hundred
and fifty foot were raised ; a hundred swords were bought at
six merks each ; and the townsmen were " stented " or taxed
for a sum of 9000 merks. By way of encouragement to enlist
it was agreed that all who came forward, if they were not

1 Burgh Records, ii. 185, 186, 187, 188, 199, 200, 207, 215, 224, 225, 264.

OLIVER CROMWELL.

BATTLE OF DUNBAR 297

already burgesses, should be made freemen of the city. 2 On
the 2nd September an order was given by the Town Council for
" 1200 bisket breid " to be sent east to the town's soldiers, but
the provision probably never reached them. During that
night the Scottish army practically committed suicide.

For a month and a half, acting on the defensive under the
capable leadership of David Leslie, it had successfully countered
all Cromwell's attempts to reach Edinburgh, and on 2nd
September the English general found himself completely
checkmated. Hemmed between the hills and the sea near
Dunbar, with his army on the point of starvation, he was con-
templating the difficult task of embarking his troops on ship-
board and escaping by water. Had the army of the Covenant
held to its position for another day it seems certain that the
campaign would have been decided in its favour, and the whole
later history of the kingdom directed into a different channel. 3
On that evening, however, Cromwell, anxiously watching the
Scottish lines in their unassailable position on the Doon Hill,
was startled and delighted to see them begin to move.

The facts were these. Throughout the campaign, following
the example of the Jewish prophets of old, a committee of
ministers and zealots had accompanied the Scottish army,
interfering with its leader's policy and its personnel. This com-
mittee, of which John Spreull, the Glasgow town clerk, was
probably a member, 4 had " purged " the army of thousands
of its most experienced officers and men because they did not
conform exactly to the theological views of the strictest of the
Covenanters. In place of the veteran officers thus cashiered
the committee had intrusted command, if we may rely upon
an English Royalist onlooker, to " ministers' sons, clerks, and
such other sanctified creatures, who hardly ever saw or heard
of any sword but that of the Spirit and with this, their chosen

2 Btirgh Records, ii. 188-191. 3 Carlyle's Cromwell, ii. 164-180.

4 Burgh Records, ii. 191, 208.

2g8 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

crew, made themselves sure of victory." 5 In this temper the
committee became impatient of Leslie's cautious tactics.
Looking down upon the English encamped in the park of
Broxmouth, and believing themselves inspired, they demanded
that the army of the Covenant should no longer provoke the
Almighty by its lack of faith, but should at once descend
" against the Philistines at Gilgal." An hour or two sufficed
to prove the folly of this proceeding. When the sun rose over
the North Sea on the morning of 3rd September, and Cromwell
saw that the Scots had left their fastness and were taking
position on the level plain, he exclaimed that " God had
delivered them into his hands," and at once ordered an attack.
Two regiments in Leslie's van fought bravely, and were cut
to pieces. The rest, undisciplined levies, almost immediately
broke and fled. Three thousand were slain and nearly ten
thousand captured, with the whole baggage, artillery, and
ammunition, including some two hundred colours and fifteen
thousand stand of arms. 6

Adopting a different policy from that which he had pursued
in Ireland, Cromwell after his victory showed a disposition to
deal leniently with the country. It is true that large numbers
of the prisoners of war were shipped as slaves to Venice and
the plantations, and when news of the battle reached Glasgow
the greatest alarm prevailed. The town's charters and other
papers were sent for security first to Evandale Castle at Strath-
aven, and afterwards to Carrick Castle on Loch Goil, 7 and when
Cromwell himself shortly after the battle paid a visit to the
city most of the magistrates and ministers pusillanimously
abandoned their charge and fled to the castle on the Little
Cumbrae. 8

5 Sir Edward Walker, 162-164 ; Hill Burton, vii. 17-21 ; Arnot's Edinburgh,
4to, p. 133.

6 Carlyle's Cromwell, ii. 191, 192. 7 Burgh Records, ii. 194, 197, 283.
8 Ibid. ii. 194, 201 ; Baillie's Letters, iii. 129.

ZACHARY BOYD 299

Of the number, however, one dauntless spirit remained at
his post. Zachary Boyd, or " Mr. Zacharias," as he is called
in the Town Council minutes, appears to have been notable
at once for the keenness with which he insisted on the just
payment of his dues and for his generosity towards both the
city and the university. 9 His career was typical of the Scot-
tish clergy of the better class in his time. A scion of a good
Scottish family, he had graduated at St. Andrews, and been
regent of the University of Saumur in France before he became
minister of the barony of Glasgow in 1623. On the day after
the Scottish coronation of Charles I. in 1633 he met the king
in the porch of Holyrood and addressed him in a Latin pane-
gyric. He afterwards, however, signed the Covenant, and
stigmatised as " a beastly fool " everyone who drew a sword for
the king. He is still popularly believed to have versified the
entire Bible, and burlesque verses of uncertain origin are
quoted as from that source ; but his poetical Work, Zion's
Flowers, consists really of only twenty-three episodes, and some
passages, like the temptation of Joseph by Potiphar's wife,
possess no little merit. He was one of the earliest Scottish
authors to express himself in Southern English, and his Last
Battel of the Soul in Death affords a vigorous example of the
prose of its time. He was thrice elected Dean of Faculty,
thrice Rector of the University, and thrice a member of the
Assembly's Commission of Visitation. On his death he left
20,000, with his books and MSS., to the college, which has not
yet, however, fulfilled his injunction to print his poems. Accord-
ing to a popular tradition, when he was making his last will and
testament his young second wife suggested that he should leave
something to Mr. Durham, minister of the Inner High Church.
To this Zachary with grim humour replied, " I'll leave him
naething but what I canna keep frae him, and that's your

9 Burgh Records, ii. 36, 253, 259, 305. A full account of Zachary Boyd's
career will be found in The Glasgow Poets, p. 9.

3 oo HISTORY OF GLASGOW

bonnie sel'." And sure enough, the minister of the barony
was little more than eight months dead when she married Mr.
Durham.

Cromwell paid his visit to Glasgow in the middle of October,
six weeks after the battle of Dunbar. Preparations were
being made by the magistrates, at the instance of George
Porterfield, to fortify the bishop's castle, 10 and it is said that
the Protector was warned not to enter the city by Castle Street,
as it was proposed to blow up the stronghold as he passed. He
accordingly came in by the Cowgait, now Queen Street, and
took up his lodging in the house of Colin Campbell in Salt-
market, afterwards known as Silvercraigs' Land. 1

For a considerable number of years his host had been one
of the most outstanding men in Glasgow. He was elected the
burgh's commissioner to Parliament in December, 1644, and
treasurer to Hutchesons' Hospital five days later. 2 When his
name was put forward in October, 1645, for election as Dean
of Guild, it was rejected by Provost Porterfield and his bailies
as that of a person who had been implicated in the dealings
with the Marquess of Montrose, 3 and in December, 1646, he was
specially indicted before Parliament by the General Assembly,
the Glasgow Synod, and the magistrates of the city for having,
along with the old provost, magistrates, and Council, dared to
protest to the Presbytery against its high-handed action, and
headed " ane unnecessarie and unorderlie convocatioune of
the multitud of the citie of Glasgow " to back the protest. For
this, Campbell and James Bell, the provost he supported, were
warded in Edinburgh Tolbooth for a time. 4 Notwithstanding
the offended pretensions of the presbytery, the substantial
merchant of the Saltmarket continued to perform a foremost

10 Burgh Records, ii. 194.

1 Burgh Records, iii. 138. Silvercraig's estate on Loch Fyne came into
practical possession of Colin Campbell's son, Robert, for a debt in 1669.

2 Ibid. ii. 75. a Ibid. 83. 4 Act. Parl. 1646, c. 31.

ZACHARY BO YD.

CROMWELL'S VISIT 301

and trusted part in the town's affairs. At the next turn of
fortune's wheel, under the Duke of Hamilton's Government, in
June 1648, he was elected provost, and though, foUowing the
failure of Hamilton's Engagement, he was ousted in the follow-
ing October, and Porterfield took the provostship, he was to
come into his own again at the Restoration. 5 When the magis-
trates purchased the lands of Gorbals from Sir Robert Douglas of
Blackerstoun, Colin Campbell appears to have acquired from
the same owner the lands of Blythswood to the west of the
burgh, for in January, 1650, the Town Council minutes record
that an agreement had been made " with Coline Campbell for
his lands of Blythiswoode " to pay twelve bolls meal and three
bolls bear by way of teinds. From that day to this Campbell
and his descendants have been owners of Blythswood, and
since the date when the stout merchant burgess received Crom-
well under his roof the Campbells of Blythswood have enter-
tained more of the royal and state visitors to the city than have
been entertained by any other hosts. 6

Not a great deal is recorded of Cromwell's visit to the city.
Baillie in one of his letters states that he himself, when he fled
with the ministers and magistrates, " left all my family and
goods to Cromwell's courtesy, which indeed was great ; for he
took such a course with his sojours that they did less dis-
pleasure at Glasgow nor if they had been at London, though
Mr. Zachary Boyd railed on them all to their very face in the
High Church." 7 On Sunday, i^th October, the Protector
attended service in the Lower Church of the Cathedral, then
the place of worship of the barony congregation. The chair in
which he sat is still preserved there, as well as the pulpit from

5 Burgh Records, ii. 140, 150, 452.

6 Colin Campbell was evidently a connoisseur in good ale. In 1655 he was
fined forty pounds for bringing barrels of that beverage into the city, and so
depriving the common good of the sums which should have been paid to the
town's mills for grinding the malt for brewing the liquor (Burgh Records, ii. 309).

7 Letters, iii. 129.

3 02

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

which Zachary Boyd preached on the occasion. So fierce did
the preacher become in denouncing the errors and heresies of
the English leader and his party, whom he banned as sectarians
and malignants, that the officer sitting behind Cromwell more
than once asked to be allowed to pull " the insolent rascal "
out of the pulpit. Cromwell, however, told him the minister
was one fool and he another, and bade him sit still, as he would
deal with the orator himself. 8 The tradition runs that he
invited Boyd to sup with him in the Saltmarket, and concluded
the hospitalities there by engaging in family worship, in which
he kept the minister of the barony on his knees by a prayer of
three hours' duration. His purpose seems to have been served,
for it is said that Zachary Boyd's tone was afterwards much
mitigated towards Independency and its adherents.

8 The incident from an independent source is recorded by Sir Walter Scott
in Tales of a Grandfather, ch. xlvi.

CHAPTER XXVI
UNDER THE COMMONWEALTH

BUT though Cromwell's policy was conciliatory, Glasgow
suffered heavily in more ways than one. Within a month of
the battle of Dunbar the bailies were called upon " to give
some considerable charity " to certain poor, honest widows
who had great families and had lost their husbands and whole
fortunes. There were wounded soldiers back in the town, for
whose cure payments to a surgeon are recorded. There were
cases like that of John Cotts, who had been taken prisoner by
the English and had lost his horse, purse, and arms, for which
he was allowed 100. There was ransoming of prisoners con-
fined in Durham and in slavery at Barbados, at the rate of
5 sterling per head in the former case and 22 sterling in the
latter. And there were allowances to be paid, and rents and
taxes to be remitted on account of crops destroyed by the
English. For the crop of Kelvinhaugh, for example, which
had been totally destroyed, John Stewart of Balshagrie, who
had agreed to pay a rent of 180, was allowed to commute the
amount for 40. l

The town had still more serious difficulties to meet, how-
ever. There were English troops quartered in the burgh, and
demands for supplies to the garrisons at Hamilton and Dun-
barton Castle. 2 At the same tune there were demands for men

1 Burgh Records, ii. 194, 197, 198, 199, 201, 213, 283.

2 Burgh Records, ii. 196, 199, 204. The demands of the English garrison at
Hamilton in December, 1650, amounted to " threttie bollis meill, threttie bollis
horse corne, ten bollis malt, and that by and besyde greit quantiteis of cheis,

303

304 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

in support of the Scottish army under Charles II. and the Duke
of Hamilton, which had drawn together at Perth and Stirling. 3
A letter from the young king himself to the magistrates throws
considerable light on the situation :

" CHARLES R. Trustie and weelbeloved : Wee greet yow
weell. The necessitie of our affaires forceth ws at this tyme
(the most pairt of our propper rent lyeing whair the enemie hes
power, our custumes made ineffectuall, and what was granted
to ws by the parliament being for our necessare enterteinment
and other neidfull affaires alreddie superexpended) to crave
your assistance for the present advance of some money for our
furnisheing and necessarie provision agains our goeing to the
feilds. These are earnestlie to desire yow presentlie to advance
to ws five hundreth pund sterling, for the which soume yow shall
have securetie either vpon any of our propper rentes, custumes,
impost, or casualiteis within this our kingdome, or otherwayes
what other privat securetie yow can crave from the commis-
sioneris of our thesaurie for the same, and interest thairof ; and
for that effect that yow send one whome yow trust to Stirling
vpon the 20 day of this instant, whare wee shall authorize the
commissioneris of our said thesaurie to give yow such securitie,
either privat or publict as in reason can be demanded. And
the publict securetie shalbe authorized and confirmed by the
nixt ensweing parliament for your better securitie. So,
expecting your care in provideing with all diligence the said
soume as yow tender the good of our service and the honour
of this our kingdome, wee bid you fare weell. From our court
at Stirling, the gth of May 1651. [Addressed] To our Trustie
and weelbeloved, The Magistrates, Counsel, and Comountie of
our Burght of Glasgow." 4

candill, salt, and breid, certifieing that, if they were not thankfullie payed and
readilie answerit therof they wald plunder the towne and give it over to the
mercie of insolent sogouris " (ibid. 256).

3 Burgh Records, 200, 202, 204. 4 Ibid. ii. 204.

(gg^pl^ . ; ^iM**W,

THE SILVERCRAIGS MANSION, SALTMARKET.

LEVIES OF MEN AND MONEY

305

Harassed on all sides by such difficulties and demands, the
city fathers did what they could. To a demand from the
lieutenant general at Stirling for a thousand merks and all the
pistols in the town, they replied that they had no money and
knew of no pistols in the place. At the same time, however,
they managed to send 300 sterling to the king. They after-
wards, on pressure by the Committee of Estates, paid the first
thousand merks demanded, and they also paid the 500 asked
by the king, and other 5000 merks in lieu of a hundred men they
should have levied. 5 In July, 1651, they actually raised and
fitted out two hundred men for the king's army, and though
they sent a remonstrance to a further request for carts, carters,
and artillerymen, they seem in the end to have furnished these,
and also to have supplied cheese to the value of 1000 as the
town's contribution to the commissariat of the royal army. 6

These constant demands were met by stenting or taxing
the citizens again and again and by borrowing in all directions.
Inevitably discontent arose in the city itself : the townsmen
refused to pay stent, and the provost himself was mobbed and
assaulted. 7 The temper of the citizens, indeed, had been
strained to a danger point, and the city itself had been brought
to the edge of ruin, when news arrived that King Charles and
his little army had suddenly left the country.

For some time encamped at the Torwood, between Stirling
and Falkirk, a strategical position which had been occupied
in similar circumstances by Sir William Wallace three and a
half centuries before, the royal army had defied Cromwell, and
at the same time had barred all passage to the region north of
the Forth. At last, however, the English general had made a
flanking movement. Sending part of his forces across the Firth
of Forth at Queensferry and cutting to pieces a force sent to
intercept him at Inverkeithing, he occupied Perth and threat-
ened to take the Scottish army in the rear. Finding his sup-

5 Burgh Records, 202, 204, 205. 6 Ibid ii. 206-211. 7 Ibid. ii. 203, 205.
B.G. ii, y

306 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

plies and communications from the north thus cut off, Charles
made a bold move. Breaking up camp, he marched rapidly
away to the south, and, followed by Cromwell, carried the
main drama of the war across the Border. With the battle of
Worcester on 3rd September, 1651, exactly a year after the
battle of Dunbar, the civil war which had ravaged the country
for so many years at last came to an end. Two days before the
battle Cromwell's lieutenant, General Monk, who had been left
to hold Scotland with five thousand men, stormed and sacked
Dundee. A number of the wealthier citizens of Edinburgh,
Glasgow, and Perth had taken refuge there with their valuables,
and in the three days' massacre which is said to have taken
place these people no doubt suffered in more ways than one. 8

At the same time Monk took effective means to prevent
supporters of the Covenant from giving further trouble. The
whole Committee of Estates, or executive of the Scottish
Parliament, was captured at Alyth, near Dundee, by a body of
English horse, and shipped off to London.

In January, 1652, Cromwell and a party of commissioners
from the English Parliament took up residence in Dalkeith Castle
with a view to settling the affairs of Scotland. They invited
representatives of the burghs to meet them there, and Glasgow
deputed John Graham, a late provost, and John Spreull, the re-
doubtable town clerk, to attend. The upshot was disastrous to
the Covenanting party in the city. The inhabitants, summoned
to a public meeting, agreed to the incorporation of Scotland
in the English Commonwealth, and at another meeting on 2 3 rd
March, by instructions of Cromwell and his commissioners,
elected a new provost and bailies, who in turn elected a new
Town Council to hold office till the usual time of election in
October. By this proceeding George Porterfield as provost,
and the Covenanting bailies and Council then holding office,

8 Hill Burton, vii. p. 43 ; Old Stat. Account, viii. 212 ; Balfour, iii. 314 ;
Nicoll's Diary, 58.

HUTCHESONS' HOSPITAL IN STRAITS 307

were once again deprived of power. A few days later John
Spreull also was superseded, and William Yair appointed town
clerk in his place. As if this were not enough, Porterfield,
Spreull, and the others were called to account for their intro-
missions with the town's moneys and the various debts which
had been incurred. 9

Glasgow quite evidently was hard pressed by all the burdens
which had lately been heaped upon it. A significant instance
was the condition of Hutchesons' Hospital. The hospital's
affairs had been brought to so serious a tangle that the new
Town Council made it one of its first duties to hold an enquiry.
At that enquiry it was found that all the money owed to the
hospital would be scarce enough to pay for its part in the pur-
chase of Gorbals, while the interest due to the hospital would
barely cover the interest owing to Sir Robert Douglas on the
part of the purchase money still unpaid. At the same time no
rents could be got from the Gorbals lands, as these lands had
now for two years been eaten up and destroyed by the emer-
gencies of the war. As the hospital now depended for its
support almost entirely upon these Gorbals rents, it was no
longer able to board and educate its boys. In these circum-
stances it was resolved that the five poor boys then in the house
should be sent home, that the schoolmaster's stipend be stopped,
and that the old men in the almshouse be maintained as cheaply
as possible. 10

This enquiry, which took place on 3rd June, throws reliable
light upon the straits to which the whole community had
almost certainly been reduced. These straits might have been
considerably relieved if the city had been able to obtain repay-
ment of some of the moneys which, in the absence of any bank-
ing system, it had lent out to certain great landowners. It was

9 Burgh Records, ii. 219, 223, 226.

10 Burgh Records, ii. 227. The Trades House was in similar difficulties
(ibid. 250).

3o8

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

not till 1659 that the Duchess of Hamilton, who had fallen into
serious arrears of her rent of the town's teinds of Cambus-
nethan, was got to pay a composition of 1000 merks, and as
late as April, 1660, when his own tragic fate was drawing near,
the Marquess of Argyll, who had paid no interest for seven
years on his loan of 25,000 merks, not only refused payment of
the principal, but tried to compound with payment of a single
year's interest. 1

But the city had still to suffer its most crushing blow. A
fortnight later, on I7th June, 1652, a fire which broke out in
Mr. James Hamilton's above the Cross spread rapidly among
the " closes," " lands," and " tenements " of Saltmarket, Brig-
gate, and Gallowgate, and reduced the whole centre of the town
to ruin. It was estimated that four score " closes " had been
destroyed and no fewer than a thousand families rendered
homeless. In reviewing the disaster five days later the Town
Council declared that " vnles spidie remidie be vseit and help
soght out fra such as hes power and whois hartis God sail
move, it is lyklie the towne sail come to outer ruein." 2 It was
the most devastating misfortune which had ever befallen
Glasgow, and happening, as it did, when the resources of the
city had been reduced by the war nearly to destitution, it might
easily have made an end altogether of the struggling industrial
burgh on the Clyde.

Recovering almost immediately, however, from its first
gasp of dismay, the Town Council took energetic measures to
remedy the disaster. The provost and one of the councillors
were sent to Ayr, the headquarters of Cromwell's military
government in the west, to secure letters to the authorities in
Edinburgh for the securing of help from the English Parlia-
ment. By this means the sum of 1000 sterling was secured out
of the sequestrated estates in Scotland. 3 A supplication was also

1 Burgh Records, 421, 442. * Ibid. ii. 230.

3 Act. Parl. VI. pt. ii. 775 ; Burgh Records, ii. 247, 253.

AFTER THE GREAT FIRE OF 1652 309

sent to the General Assembly, which granted a licence for a
general collection to be made in all the churches throughout
the country. 4 Meanwhile the Council deputed committees to
draw up schedules of the actual damage done and the persons who
had suffered. Also, foreseeing that, owing to the unusual demand
likely to arise, the limited number of wrights and masons in
the burgh might penalise the community by demanding
exorbitant wages, the Town Council decreed that the remunera-
tion of master workmen should not exceed 135. 4d. per day,
and those of qualified craftsmen los. ; also that, provided the
wrights and masons who were burgesses of the city were fully
employed, it should be lawful to employ workmen from other
places at the same rates of pay. 5 Opportunity was also taken
to restrict buildings to the straight line of the streets, and to
forbid the putting up of " windskews or hallens " such as had
formerly obstructed the streets with overhanging frontages. 6
In this way, though the streets took long to clear and rebuild, the
appearance of the town was actually improved, and though many
hardships were suffered by the people, and the churches had to
be opened to shelter them, Glasgow gradually rose again from its
ashes, and rebuilt its fortunes against the assaults of the future.

4 Burgh Records, ii. 237, 238.

5 Against these arrangements of the city fathers something like a riot took
place on 5th February, 1653, when the wrights of the city marched in a body
through the streets " with cleukis and balstones in their hands," assaulted the
stranger wrights at their work, and broke their tools and benches (ibid. 259).

The arrangement with stranger wrights and masons was not finally termi-
nated till 1657 (ibid. 370, 377).

Shortly afterwards another attempt was made by the hammermen, which
is curiously suggestive of modern Trades Union proceedings. It appears that
the deacon and masters of the craft had made a by-law prohibiting any of
their craft from working at any branch of the trade excepting that in which he
was " booked." A certain Robert Robieson appealed to the Town Council
against this by-law, and the city fathers, considering the by-law to be contrary
to " the guid of the leidges," declared that a hammerman might undertake any
branch of the work of the craft that he was able for, and ordered the hammer-
men to annul their by-law (ibid. 261).

6 Burgh Records, ii. 230-233.

310 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

The deputations sent throughout the country to collect
funds appear to have met a generous response, and there are
records in the town's minutes of the sending of letters of thanks
to places like Leith and Aberdeen. 7 Cromwell himself also
came to the help of the city by ordering that the monthly
assessment levied from the townsmen for the support of the
army of occupation should be devoted instead to the relief of
distress in the burgh. 8 So rapidly did the town recover that
in July, 1655, the Town Council felt itself justified in adding
600 to the 2000 it had already subscribed for the buildings
of the College, and in paying a sculptor, James Colquhoun, 500
merks for " hewing, forming, and putting up " the statue of
Thomas Hutcheson which still adorns the front of Hutchesons'
Hospital. 9 At the same time it was able, for the benefit of
the citizens, to embark with quite notable enterprise on the
digging of wells. No fewer than four of these were made at

7 Burgh Records, ii. 234, 242, 248, 249, 252. In the archives of the Sheriff Court
at Tain there is a paper headed "The voluntar contrabutions of the burghe
of Tayne, Gevin to the destressit fyrst toune of Glasgow penult Novr., 1652,"
and giving a long list of no. The first are : " Andrew M'Culloche, provist
and his familie, 4 lib. (i.e., pounds), 2s 8d ; Lachlune Ros, bailzie, 123 ; James
Hay, bailzie, iys ; Jon Monroe, bailzie, 123 ; Walter Hay, bailzie, 125 ; David
Forrester, 303 ; Jon Fergussone, 243 ; Mr Wm. Denune (apparently the
minister), 123; Kathrene Ros, his mother, 6s; Wm. Ros, Yor, 123; Wm.
M'Gull, 33 ; Agnes Nein (i.e., daughter of) Wat, is 6d." The last item is
noteworthy : " From tua poor women in Adam Hayes hous, 8d."

8 Act. Parl. VI. pt. ii. 755 ; Burgh Records, ii. 291.

9 This and the statue of George Hutcheson, which also adorns the front
of the hospital, with the bust of Zachary Boyd at the University, are the oldest
of Glasgow's personal monuments. The sculptor, James Colquhoun, appears
to have been a man of many parts. Following the great fire the city fathers
made successive purchases of large numbers of leather buckets and fire ladders,
but these were superseded when in 1656 Colquhoun was commissioned to
construct Glasgow's first fire engine on the model of one already existing in
Edinburgh. For this he was paid 25 sterling. He was also paid 400 merks
for painting the faces and gilding the letters of the town's clock in the Tolbooth
steeple, the work including the painting and fixing of " the town's arms and
year of God " on each face of the " horologe." Latterly he appears to have
been elected to the Town Council, and to have taken a prominent part as a
bailie in the conduct of civic affairs (Burgh Records, ii. 282, 331, 344, 358, 366,
367, 373).

CROMWELL'S RULE

this time, in Trongate, Saltmarket, at the Greyfriars gate, and
at the mouth of the Stinking Vennel above the Cross. 10 Also
for the good of the townspeople the Council agreed to pay
2000 merks to Patrick Bryse, weaver, and James Anderson,
Gorbals, to enable them to open a coal-pit in Gorbals muir,
for which they were to pay a rent of 600 merks for thirteen
years. This was the beginning of the great coal-working on
the south side of the river which has continued till the present
day. 1

Taking all things into consideration, there can be little
question of the fact that the eight years of Cromwell's rule in
Scotland were a blessing to the country in general and to
Glasgow in particular. The intolerable tyranny and inter-
ference of the Covenanting ministers Resolutioners, Re-
monstrants, and the rest was brought to an end when, in
July, 1653, Lieutenant-Colonel Cotterel closed the General
Assembly, and with a few musketeers and a troop of horse
escorted the members a mile out of Edinburgh, and intimated
that they must refrain from further meeting, and leave the city
on pain of imprisonment. 2 The Court of Session, which might
easily have become a source of trouble, was superseded by a
Commission of Justice four Englishmen and three Scotsmen
which, whatever its drawbacks, certainly took pains to
administer even-handed judgments. 3 The Marquess of Argyll,
about to hold a meeting of Parliament at Kilmun, which would
almost certainly have taken measures to continue the war,
was induced to sign a treaty by which he undertook to live at
peace under the Commonwealth Government. Finally a union
of the Scottish and English Parliaments was effected, which
threw the whole trade of England open to the Scots. 4 Under
this last arrangement Glasgow, on 22nd July, 1654, elected a

10 Burgh Records, 294, 298, 299, 316, 317, 318, 322, 336.

1 Ibid. 308. 2 Baillie's Letters, iii. 225, 226.

* Hill Burton, vii. 51. 4 Ibid. vii. 48, 52.

312 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

commissioner to attend the Parliament at Westminster, 5 and
ordered the coin of the Commonwealth to be accepted as legal
tender.

It is true that Cromwell's government in Scotland was
based throughout on military force. His four great citadels
at Ayr, Leith, Perth, and Inverness effectually prevented
any military risings. Glasgow had constant comings and
goings of troops, with requisitions for billets, transport, etc.
On igth June, 1654, tne Tolbooth was occupied by a garrison
for which the town had to supply beds, blankets, and other
furnishings. In September Andrew Gibson had to be turned
out of his house to provide quarters for Lieutenant-Colonel
Cotterel, when the city again had to supply furnishing. And
at the same time the flesh market was requisitioned for the
accommodation of certain horse guards, who were supplied
with coal, candle, and peats. 6 But the gains under this well-
guarded peace were much greater than the losses. The city
had time to gather its strength and rebuild its fortunes. From
first to last neither the townsmen themselves nor their friends
elsewhere seem ever to have doubted its future. An eloquent
instance of this was furnished by the noted lawyer, Sir John
Scot of Scotstarvet, one of the judges of the Court of Session
who lost their places during the Commonwealth, and a brother-
in-law of the poet, Drummond of Hawthornden. Sir John, in
consideration of the late calamity of fire and his own connection
with this " prime city of the west," endowed in Glasgow a fund
for putting poor boys of the name of Scott to learn crafts. The

5 Burgh Records, ii. 292, 423. The commissioner received a salary for his
trouble (ibid. 363).

6 Burgh Records, ii. 290, 296, 297, 322. This military occupation of the
Tolbooth caused the city one regrettable loss. In order to clear the soldiers
out of the Tolbooth the magistrates in 1656 built a guardhouse about and
upon the town's Cross. Three years later, when an order was received to
demolish the guardhouse, it was found that the Cross had been so much defaced
that the magistrates decided to have it removed. Thus disappeared one of
Glasgow's most interesting and historic monuments (ibid. ii. 330, 331, 432).

TUCKER'S REPORT ON GLASGOW

fund, amounting to sixty bolls of victual, was secured upon a
property known as Puckie and Puckie Mill, in Fife. 7 The value
of this endowment may be judged when it is noted that the
entire revenue, at that time, of the Leper Hospital beyond the
bridge, probably Glasgow's oldest charitable institution, was
no more than six bolls of meal and 12 8s. 4d. Scots in money
rents. 8

Tucker, Cromwell's commissioner, who drew up a report
for the Protector on the condition of Scotland in 1656, described
Glasgow in very favourable terms. " This town," he said,
" seated in a pleasant and fruitful soil, and consisting of four
streets handsomely built in form of a cross, is one of the most
considerable burghs in Scotland, as well for the structure as
trade of it. The inhabitants, all but the students of the college
which is here, are traders and dealers some for Ireland with
small smiddy coals in open boats from four to ten tons, from
whence they bring hoops, barrel staves, meal, oats, and butter ;
some for France with pladding, coals, and herring, of which
there is a great fishing yearly in the western sea, for which they
return salt, paper, rosin, and prunes ; some to Norway for
timber, and every one with their neighbours the Highlanders,
who come hither from the isles and western parts. Here hath
likewise been some who have ventured as far as Barbadoes ;
but the loses they have sustained by reason of their going out
and coming home late every year have made them discontinue
going there any more." 9 According to the same authority,
Leith was the chief port of Scotland, possessing fourteen vessels,
while Montrose, Kirkcaldy, and Glasgow came next with twelve
vessels each. Among the imports of Glasgow mentioned in the
burgh records were iron, lemons, and " oringeris," and among
the exports were red herrings, which are said to have been first

7 Burgh Records, ii. 266, 267, 271, 300, 328, 333.

8 Burgh Records, ii. 293.

9 Report (Bannatyne Club), 25, 38.

314 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

made at Greenock by Walter Gibson, afterwards provost of
the city, from which fact, it is believed, they have since been
known as " Glasgow magistrates." On igth September, 1657,
the Town Council directed a letter to be sent to the laird of
Kilbirnie thanking him for his offer to allow the burgesses to
" make their herring on his land at Greenock, and to put up
wooden houses there for the purpose." 10

Already in 1659 Glasgow was seeking a better outlet to the
sea. Irvine had previously been available, but Tucker re-
ported that the harbour there was becoming choked with sand.
Dunbarton had always been hostile, and as late as 1658 had
been the scene of a riot in which a Glasgow ship was plundered
of its " haill saills, amunitioune, missoures, armes, guid, and
gear," and its master, Robert Bogle, a burgess of Glasgow, was
thrown into prison. 1 Accordingly, arrangements were made
for " sighting " the ground for a possible harbour at Newark,
further down the river, where Port-Glasgow was presently to
be built. 2

The rising tide of the city's prosperity may be gauged by
the proposal of the merchants to rebuild their " hospital " in
Briggate with a higher steeple than that of Hutchesons'
Hospital, containing a clock and bell. Towards this work the
Town Council contributed one hundred pounds sterling. The
work was entrusted to Sir William Bruce, builder of the new
part of Holyrood, and master of the famous architects, the
brothers Adam, and till the present day the steeple remains one
of the finest architectural features of the city. 3

Following the great fire, the city fathers prohibited the
making of candles in houses within the burgh on account of the
risks involved. The prohibition apparently opened the way
for the rise of a new industry, and in 1658 permission was
granted to build no fewer than four candle factories. These

10 Burgh Records, ii. 379. * Ibid. 395, 396.

2 Ibid. ii. 417, 420. Infra, p. 335. 3 Ibid. ii. 412,

ORIGIN OF THE CANDLERIGGS 315

were kept well away from the buildings of the city, and were
erected on " the townes rig," six score ells to the west of the
thorn hedges of the flesh market in High Street. Their site is
commemorated in the name of the street known as Candleriggs
at the present day. 4

The mansion house of Gorbals, which with its yards and
grounds was leased to the young Marquess of Montrose for
five years at a rent of 180 Scots, was put into thorough repair. 5
At the same time the town's desire to keep abreast with the
larger events of the hour is shown by the request sent to the
agent of one of the city merchants in London " to send horn for
the tounes vse weiklie ane diurnall." 6

But while Glasgow itself obviously prospered under Crom-
well's iron rule, the Town Council had certain internal troubles
to overcome. One of these seems to have been an attempt by
Patrick Gillespie, 7 principal of the College, with the ministers
of the Presbytery, to regain domination in the public affairs of
the town. Gillespie appears to have sent a complaint regard-
ing the personal conduct of certain members of the Council
itself to the Protector in London, which was by him sent down
to General Monk for report. Monk in his reply advised Crom-

* Burgh Records, ii. 311, 401. 5 Ibid. ii. 367, 381. 6 Ibid. ii. 377, 400.

7 Patrick Gillespie was one of the extremist ministers of the Covenant.
A brother of George Gillespie, the " Galasp " of John Milton, and youngest mem-
ber of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, he was appointed minister of the
Outer High Church, Glasgow, when the nave of the Cathedral was first fitted
up for a separate congregation in 1648, and he was a strong opposer of the En-
gagement. After the defeat at Dunbar he raised the " Westland Force," and
drew up its Remonstrance against the treaty with Charles II. He was deposed
for protesting against the treaty with " Malignants," and was leader of the
" Protesters." In the following year, 1652, he was appointed principal of
Glasgow University by Cromwell, visited London, was intimate with Lambert
and Fleetwood, and was granted powers, known as " Gillespie's Charter," to
enable the Protesters to remodel the Scottish Church after their own ideas.
He secured additional revenues for his university from the property of the
church, but after the Restoration suffered deprivation and imprisonment. His
arrest in 1660 was actually made by the Town Council which he had con-
stantly endeavoured to harass. (Burgh Records, ii. 450.)

316 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

well not to interfere, pointing out that interference would be
resented by all the burghs in Scotland, which burghs had from
first to last been the best friends of the Commonwealth. He
had learned, he said, that the persons complained of were good
men, and he advised that the matter should be left to the free
election of the citizens. Notwithstanding this advice, Crom-
well ordered that the election of magistrates and Council should
be delayed till he had been better informed on the subject of
complaint. A remonstrance was sent to Cromwell's secretary,
Thurlow, by Lord Desborough in Edinburgh, with the sugges-
tion that instead of arbitrarily imposing a magistracy of his
own upon the burgh he should merely recommend some honest,
godly man for election as provost, and use personal influence to
have desirable individuals elected to the other offices. The
magistrates had to send witnesses, however, to attest the up-
rightness of their life and conversation before a committee in
Edinburgh, and to agree that, for peace sake, nine of the
Council should retire at the next election, and be replaced by
nine persons " of that partie quha ar awned be Mr. Patrick
Gillespie." But Gillespie, who had Cromwell's ear, would brook
no delay ; he must have immediate execution. Accordingly,
by order of General Monk, an election was held on 2nd March,
and a new set of magistrates and councillors appointed. 8 It
would appear, however, that the new Town Council was no
more inclined than its predecessor to be compliant with the
desires of the reverend principal and his friends. With only
one dissentient it determined to continue its case against him
before the Council of State in Edinburgh, and to that end to
employ " advocattis, lawiouris, and all vtheris of that kynd "
to plead in law for it. At the same time the magistrates pn
ceeded to carry the war into the opposite camp by refusing th<
request of the kirk-session to appoint its nominee, Mr. Georg(
Campbell, to the pulpit of the Inner High Church until he ha(

* Burgh Records, ii. 379, 382, 388, 390, 391.

fBLE WITH PATRICK GILLESPIE

317

first come to the city and preached several times " for the better
satisfaction of the people." If he refused, the Town Council
unanimously declared that it would appoint Mr. James Fergu-
son, minister at Kilwinning, to the vacant place. Campbell
refused, and the Council, along with the parishioners, sent a
call to Ferguson. Gillespie struck the next blow by demanding
that the town should pay over to the College 7000 merks which
it held under the testaments of William Struthers and Zachary
Boyd as endowment of certain bursaries of which the town was
patron. So the contest went on, the Town Council carrying
off the honours at every encounter, and, moreover, maintaining
to the end, when it achieved complete victory, a courtesy and
fairness which are conspicuously absent from the procedure of
Gillespie and his friends. 9 The episode is valuable as evidence
that the public had at last grown tired of the interference of the
ministers in secular affairs, which had been so marked a feature
of the Covenanting regime.

Another curious incident was a dispute with the surgeons
and barbers, led by their quarrelsome deacon, John Hall. This
body counted its existence from a patent granted by James VI.
in 1599. In 1656 the Town Council, at Hall's instance, granted
it a " letter of deaconhood," which established it among the
trades incorporations of the city. In 1658 the Town Council
deferred the election of a deacon convener for the Trades House
till it should be decided whether those who had taken part in
the Engagement of 1648 were still disqualified. Thereupon
Hall, who was now an ex-bailie, tabled a leet of three persons
for the office. At the same time Archibald Anderson, on
behalf of certain other trades, tabled a competing leet of three.
William Boyd, another deacon, protested against Hall's list.
On the ground that these proceedings were irregular the Town
Council refused to make an appointment. Hall then appeared

9 Burgh Records, ii. 385, 399, 403, 404, 408, 409, 410, 413, 414, 419, 427,
434. 435, 438, 440. 442, 458.

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

" with ane multitud at his back " at the door of the Council
House, and not being allowed to bring in his friends, protested
where he stood. Next, at a court dealing with a complaint
brought up by certain of the surgeons, Hall was excluded till
the books of the craft should be produced. It was then found
that Hall had interlined and deleted entries in the book with-
out authority, and that, slighting the letter of deaconhood
granted by the town, one Thomas Lockhart, an apothecary
who was not a surgeon, had been appointed deacon. The
Council therefore declared the deaconship vacant. 10 Thus
ended what appears to have been the last of the troubles en-
tailed on Glasgow by the acts of Argyll and the Covenanting
Government when it found itself in unquestioned power in
Scotland after the failure of the Engagement twelve years
before.

10 Burgh Records, ii. 340, 341, 377, 416, 417, 430, 432, 433, 437.

CHAPTER XXVII
UNDER THE MERRY MONARCH

THE eight years of Cromwellian rule in Scotland must be
regarded as the happiest the country had seen for a century.
It is true that the Government was a military despotism, but
it victimized no section of the community, and it fulfilled
admirably the chief functions of a government : it defended
the nation from its enemies abroad, and it kept the peace
effectually at home. Neither Prelatist nor Covenanter was
permitted to tyrannize over his neighbour, and the people enjoyed
a period of peace which allowed them to increase their comfort
and prosperity. A further advantage was that the practical
union with England allowed of Scottish products being traded
freely across the Border, and of Scottish vessels doing business
in the Irish ports and even in the English colonies across the
Atlantic. In their synods and kirk-sessions Remonstrants and
Resolutioners might rail against the unholy doctrine of tolera-
tion, but they were effectually prevented from tearing each
other's throats, and meanwhile the country was attending to
industry, and presumably gathering wider views of life from
increasing intercourse with foreign parts.

An interesting picture of Glasgow at this time is given by
an English traveller, Richard Franck, in his Northern Memoirs.
He describes the place as a city within whose flourishing arms
the industrious inhabitant cultivated art to the utmost. The
streets, he says, were " good, large, and fair," and the Tolbooth
" very sumptuous " and " without exception the paragon of

319

320 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

beauty in the west." Of the city merchants and traders he
speaks as having their warehouses " stuffed with merchandise,"
while " their shops swell big with foreign commodities and
returns from France and other remote parts." Further, " they
generally exceed in good French wines, as they naturally super-
abound with flesh and fowl." The linen, he observed, was
" very neatly lapped up " arid " lavender proof," while the
people were " decently dressed " and preserved " an exact
decorum in every society," which reminded him closely of his
own England. 1

With the death of Cromwell, however, on 3rd September,
1658 the anniversary of his victories over the Scots at Dunbar
and Worcester and with the consequent break-up of the
Commonwealth, the period of enforced peace and quiet pros-
perity came presently to an end.

Strangely enough, as it was Scotland which, by the General
Assembly at Glasgow in 1638, took the lead in the movement
which resulted in the overthrow of Charles I., so it was from
Scotland that the movement came which resulted in the
restoration of Charles II. While the various successive packed
and purged Parliaments at Westminster, and the Puritan
army at their gates, were alternately attempting to destroy
each other, General Monk, the commander of the Cromwellian
army in Scotland, resolved on a master stroke to settle all
differences by recalling the exiled king. His ostensible pur-
pose was to secure the establishment at Westminster of a
Parliament freely elected by the people, and free from the
dictation or domination of the army leaders. To prevent his
action General Lambert with a body of troops hastened to the
north. But before Lambert could effect his purpose Monk had
called together the men of means and influence in Scotland, and,
fortified with supplies of money and an assurance of support,
was already on his way south. It was in November, 1659,

1 Northern Memoirs, 104-107.

RETURN OF CHARLES II. 321

that he crossed the Tweed at Coldstream. Everywhere he was
met by the cry for a free Parliament, and by the time he
reached London the whole situation lay in his hands. He
removed all danger likely to arise from the army by dispersing
it in detachments over the country. A new Parliament, to be
afterwards known as the Convention, was called together, and
while it was debating terms to be offered to the king, Monk
had already opened negotiations with the exiled Court. Charles
landed at Dover on 25th May, and amid boundless enthusiasm
made his way to Whitehall.

In the official Glasgow records there is not much to connect
the city with the outstanding event of that time. The project
of the Restoration, however, was evidently well known by the
Glasgow authorities. On I5th May, ten days before the king's
landing, the Town Council invested the provost with emergency
powers to act at once upon any proclamation regarding " his
Majestic their lawfull King " which might reach the town, and
on the 26th of the month it was agreed to send His Majesty
" an address and supplicatioun," of which the provost sub-
mitted a scroll. The actual news of the king's return evidently
reached Glasgow on 4th June, for on that day a sum of 54
shillings was " sent east to Johne Nicoll and William Rae for
wrytting and sending intelligence to the toune " ; on i8th
June the town clerk issued a proclamation " for onputting of
baill fyres and using the remanent solemnities " for celebrating
the " happie returne," these " remanent solemnities " includ-
ing the broaching of two hogsheads of wine by the town's
garrison. 2

One immediate result of the Restoration was the dissolution
of the Union of the Parliaments which had been arranged by
Cromwell. For immediate attention to the affairs of the
northern kingdom there was revived the Committee of Estates,
to which the Scottish Parliaments had been wont to delegate

2 Burgh Records, ii. 443, 445, 447.
H.G. II. X

322 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

their authority, and it was perhaps significant that on 3ist
August a letter was produced to the Town Council, by which
the king himself nominated the provost to be a member of
that Committee. The Council dutifully accepted the nomina-
tion, and ordered the provost to receive 20 sterling for his
expenses in attending the meetings. 3 This action was followed
by a letter from the Chancellor, the Earl of Glencairn, through
the Convention of Burghs, directing that, in the forthcoming
election of magistrates, councillors, and office-bearers, no one
should be chosen who had shown disaffection to the Royal
cause. 4 In agreement with this order the Town Council
appointed a committee to scrutinize the records of candidates.
Then, upon instructions direct from the earl, they elected for
the coming year the provost and magistrates " that were most
unjustlie thrust from their places in anno 1648." In this way
Colin Campbell of Blythswood, who had been provost for a
few months during Hamilton's " Engagement " in that event-
ful year, though somewhat reluctant on account of his advanced
age, once more returned to office. 5

By the end of October the last soldiers of the Cromwellian
garrison had left the city. It was probably with a feeling of
relief for their removal that the Town Council voted a sum of
one hundred pounds sterling as a loan towards paying the
debts owed by the soldiers to the citizens, and forthwith
proceeded to appoint night-watchmen to take the place of the
military sentries. 6

But there were also other scores which were not so easy and
pleasant to pay off. As already mentioned, George Porterfield,
the keen and active Covenanting provost, was called to account
for moneys he had collected for the help of the Protestants in
Poland and Bohemia. On the recovery of the amount it was
applied to purposes nearer home. Six hundred merks were

3 Burgh Records, ii. 451, 452. 4 Ibid. 449.

5 Ibid. ii. 449. Ibid. 454, 455.

GILLESPIE IMPRISONED 323

given to Borrowstoness and four hundred to Crail, in name of
help asked by these two places, and the balance was reserved
for the use of the College. 7 Complaint was also made to
Parliament that Porterfield, when provost, had oppressed three
score and twelve burgesses of the city, because they were
Royalists, by quartering soldiers in their houses. 8 Patrick
Gillespie, principal of the University, and previously minister
of the Outer High Church, who, as a " Remonstrant " and
" Protester," and leader of the extreme Covenanting party,
had done his utmost to persecute men of moderate views, was
arrested and imprisoned. 9 And James Porter, clerk of the
kirk-session, evidently a busybody of the narrowest and most
intolerant sort, who had insistently prosecuted Gillespie's accus-
ations against the moderate members of the Town Council and
others, was similarly called to account for his behaviour.
Complaint was made against him to the Committee of
Estates that he had brought a hundred and fifty witnesses
against the petitioners without giving them any accusation
to meet, and had damaged and defamed them in his effort to
bring them under fine and imprisonment. By the Committee
of Estates he was remitted to the magistrates of Glasgow to be
dealt with. The magistrates asked him to produce the indict-
ment he had drawn up in his oppressive action, and on his
persistent refusal to do so, they ordered him to remove himself,
with his family and all his belongings, out of the burgh, and not
to come within ten miles of it without their permission. 10

But the person who was to suffer most severely from the
turning of the tables was the redoubtable town clerk, John
Spreull. As already noted, 1 Spreull had absented himself from

7 Burgh Records, ii. 446, 452, 453, 463. 8 Ibid. ii. 461.

9 Supra, p. 315 ; Burgh Records, ii. 450. It was characteristic of Gillespie
that, when deprived of office, he refused to give up the University writs and
the principal's house, and not only left the College deeply in debt, but claimed
9000 merks as salary till Whitsunday, 1661. Priv. Coun. Reg., ist Oct., 1661.

10 Ibid. ii. 458. 1 Supra, chap. xxv. p. 292.

324 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

his post in the early days of Commonwealth rule, and, refusing
to return, had been deposed by the Town Council ; but two
years later, by means of an order from the Court of Session,
had forced the magistrates to reinstate him under the original
agreement he had secured in 1647, conferring on him the office
and its emoluments for fifteen years. In September, 1661, the
Town Council again took up the matter. By the ordinance of
the Committee of Estates, Spreull, as notably a disaffected
person, and already incarcerated for his offences, was incapable
of holding office, and the Town Council accordingly once more
declared his place vacant. At the same time they rescinded all
agreements made in his favour, forbade William Yair, who had
acted as his depute, to pay over to him any of the fees accruing
to the post, and unanimously appointed the latter to be clerk
to the burgh. 2 A month later Spreull was summoned and
required to produce his original lease of the clerkship, and also
his agreement with Yair as his depute. On refusing, he was
committed to prison till the documents were produced. Under
this compulsion he gave way, and the Town Council proceeded
to examine the documents. It was found that the original
grant of the clerkship contained an express provision that if,
upon trial, it was found that he had committed any fault
worthy of deprivation, the agreement became null and void.
Further, it was found that the decreet from the Court of
Session by which he had forced the magistrates to reinstate
him bore a date when that Court was not sitting, and was
therefore of no effect. Also, although the decreet absolved
William Yair from repayment of any of the dues he had
received while acting as Clerk, Spreull had made him hand over
a thousand merks. The Town Council, now examining the
case, found that Spreull had again and again incurred the
annulment of his agreement. He had appeared with Patrick
Gillespie again and again in charges which placed the magis-

2 Burgh Records, ii. 467.

JOHN SPREULL, TOWN CLERK 325

trates of the burgh in peril of their lives. He had been the
chief mover in their being compelled to exhibit the Council
books, a derogation never before experienced. And he was
known to have been the main fomenter of the troubles among
the burgh crafts, and of the insults offered by these crafts to
the magistrates. By these many and divers faults, it was
declared, he had many times forfeited his office. He was
therefore ordered to refund all the fees and casualties he had
received as clerk since the date when he appeared with Patrick
Gillespie in the action against the magistrates, and also to sign
a discharge for all fees he might have claimed in the future
exercise of the clerkship. Failing to do this he was to enter
his person in ward till he had obeyed the order. The experiences
of Spreull's cousin as a prisoner in the island fortress in the
Firth of Forth, from which he got the name of Bass John, are
familiar to all readers of Covenanting literature ; but the facts
of the active participation of this older member of the family in
the embittered politics of the time, as set forth in the actual
records of Glasgow, are by no means so well known. 3

These events in Glasgow were closely related to the main
developments of Scottish history at the time. Three months
after the king's return a small body of extremist ministers and

3 Burgh Records, ii. 469, 472. In 1696, after the Revolution, Spreull's son
brought an action against the town. Ibid. iii. 440, 453. A full account of
the trial of Bass John Spreull, who was a merchant in Glasgow, is given by
Wodrow, ii. 165. This was reprinted, along with several of Spreull's own writ-
ings, in a memorial volume by his representative, John William Burns of Kilma-
hew, in 1882. In the introduction it is stated that Spreull was one of the
largest subscribers to the Darien Expedition, left a considerable library of
Greek, Latin, and French works and English divinity, and that he was the
greatest trader in Scotland in pearls. The writings include an elaborate
address to the Government urging the exclusion of English manufacturers
from Scotland by way of retaliation for the exclusion of Scottish products
from England and Ireland, also a lengthy disquisition on the wrongs he had
suffered in the year 1702 in not being duly allotted a seat as a heritor in
several of the Glasgow churches, treatment which he characterises as " contrary
to the Rule of God's Word, the Practice of present Churches, and the Acts
of our General Assembly." Spreull was born in 1646 and died in 1722.

326 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

elders had met in the house of Robert Simpson in Edinburgh
to draw up a " supplication " to His Majesty. The supplica-
tion took the shape of a reminder that Charles on his first
coming to Scotland had signed the Solemn League and Cove-
nant, and it instructed him that he must establish Presbyterian
Church government in his three kingdoms, and must extirpate
Popery, Prelacy, superstition, heresy, etc. Should he fail in
this he was threatened with " fearful wrath from the face of
an angry and jealous God." 4 The " supplication " was never
presented, but its authors, Gillespie, as above mentioned, and
Simpson himself, were arrested by the Glasgow authorities,
under a warrant from the Committee of Estates, and confined
in Edinburgh Castle. Gillespie lay long in prison, and would
have suffered more severely but for the interest of his relative,
Lord Sinclair, and his own abject submission. 5

The new Scottish Parliament met at the beginning of 1661,
with, as its Lord High Commissioner, the soldier of fortune,
General John Middleton, created Earl of Middleton for the
occasion. Its first proceeding was to annul the Acts of all the
Parliaments held since 1633. In this the Government followed
the unwise and dangerous precedent set by the Covenanting
Parliament of 1649, which first of all excluded all members
who had voted for the Engagement, and then repealed all
Acts of the Parliament which had authorised that undertaking. 6

Measures were next adopted against certain outstanding
enemies of the Royal cause. Among these the Marquess of
Argyll was one whose activities could not be overlooked.
Besides his acts which had led to the overthrow and death of
Charles L, he could not but be held responsible for deeds like
the massacre in cold blood of the Royalist prisoners captured
at Philiphaugh, and for the vindictive execution of the Marquess
of Montrose. There could also be cited against him transac-

4 Wodrow, i. 68. 5 M'Ure, 1830 ed., p. 188.

6 Andrew Stevenson's History of the Church and State of Scotland, p. 610.

NEMESIS OVERTAKES ARGYLL 327

tions like the massacre of the three hundred Macdonalds at
Dunaverty in Kintyre, and the destruction of Gylen and
Dunolly, strongholds of the Macdougalls both families being
hereditary rivals of his own house ; along with the premeditated
and cold-blooded murder at Dunoon of some two hundred and
thirty of the Laments, a clan whom his family had been seeking
for centuries to oust from Cowal. Any one of these deeds
would have justified the bringing of his head to the block. The
record of his trial has been lost, but he was beheaded on 27th
May, 1 66 1, on the spot in the High Street of Edinburgh at
which Montrose had suffered a much more agonizing death at
his instance ten years before.

At his death Argyll was owing Glasgow a great sum of
money. A representation of the city attended a meeting of
his creditors in Edinburgh, but there is no record that the
money was ever recovered. 7

Only two other individuals suffered capital punishment in
Scotland for the actions they had taken against the Royal
authority in the recent troubles. One was Archibald Johnston
of Warriston, Lord Clerk Registrar, who had helped Henderson
to draw up the National Covenant, had taken a leading part in
the trial of Montrose, and had sat in Cromwell's House of Lords.
The other was James Guthrie, minister of Stirling. Hill
Burton describes him as " the most vehement, active, and
implacable of all the Remonstrants," and declares that his
execution converted him " from an active, troublesome priest
into a revered martyr." Women dipped their handkerchiefs
in his blood, and legends about him became embodied in
Covenanting literature. 8

Meanwhile, in May, an Act had been passed ordering that
the anniversary of the king's restoration should be kept as a
holiday. Some extremists among the ministers objected to

7 Burgh Records, ii. 494, iii. 7.

8 Hill Burton, vii. 151-153 ; Wodrow, Analecta, i. 109.

328 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

this as an idolatrous proceeding, and they were accordingly
denounced as pretenders " to ane greater measure of zeal and
piety, and no less loyalty, than others, but who, under that
pretext, always have been, and are, incorrigible enemies to the
present ancient and laudable government of Church and State."
They were, therefore, declared to be incapable of holding any
Church benefice. 9

But the main bone of future contention was an Act passed
on 27th May " for the restitution and establishment of the
ancient government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops."
During his stay in Scotland in 1650, Charles had received a
highly unfavourable impression of Presbyterianism from the
behaviour of the Covenanting ministers and his treatment at
their hands. Their bitter intolerance, and constant insistence
on the public avowal of his own sins and the sins of his father,
had filled him with a disgust at the whole system, which may
or may not have found expression in the remark attributed to
him by Burnet, that Presbyterianism was " no religion for a
gentleman." Politically, at the same time, Charles and his
Scottish ministers, Lauderdale and Middleton, must have
regarded Presbyterianism as the chief instrument in the over-
throw of the Royal cause under Charles I. Nothing else,
therefore, could have been expected than that Episcopacy
should be restored. The Act, moreover, was passed by a duly
constituted Scottish Parliament, acting under no compulsion.
Under this measure Andrew Fairfoul became Archbishop of
Glasgow, and James Sharp, who had gone to London as
agent for the Presbyterian party, returned to Scotland as
Archbishop of St. Andrews. 10

Less trouble might have ensued if the Act could have been
allowed to take effect gradually, if the old ministers ordained
by the presbyteries had been allowed to die out before new
clergy collated by the bishops stepped into their places. But

9 Act. Parl. viii. 376. 10 Grub, Eccles. Hist. Scot. iii. 195.

PRIVY COUNCIL IN GLASGOW 329

this was not the method of the time. Twenty-four years
earlier, when the Presbyterian and Covenanting party was in
power, prelacy had been abolished, and the bishops themselves
deprived of their benefices, at a single stroke, by the General
Assembly which met in Glasgow Cathedral. Also, ten years
after that proceeding, on the failure of Hamilton's Engagement,
large numbers of Royalist ministers were by church judicatories
deprived of their office, and by the Act of Classes of the
Parliament of 1649 an * judges, officers of State, and persons in
public trust who had favoured the Engagement were similarly
deprived. 1 We have seen also how, still later, in Glasgow itself,
Principal Gillespie had insisted on the instant deprivation of
half the members of Town Council because their views were not
intolerant like his own. 2

Strangely enough, it was in Glasgow that, as if by a nemesis
the count erstroke now took place. By an Act of 1649 ^ a Y
" patronage," or appointment of ministers, had been abolished.
That Act had now been rescinded, and it was decreed that
ministers who held their benefices without having been thus
appointed must vacate them, unless they obtained a presentation
from the lawful patron and also collation from the bishop of
the diocese. While many ministers complied with the law,
and duly secured presentation and collation, a large number
ignored the edict, and continued to exercise their ministerial
offices in defiance of parliamentary authority. This attitude,
for reasons which are difficult to make out, was chiefly adopted
in the country of the " Westland Whigs," the counties of the
south-west. Probably it was for this reason that the Privy
Council, which met to enforce the law, held its deliberations in
Glasgow. With Middleton presiding it met on ist October,
1662, in the fore hall of the College, just then newly completed,
in High Street. One of its Acts forbade the resisting ministers

1 Stevenson's Hist, of Church of Scotland, 609, 610.

2 Supra, p. 316.

330 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

from exercising any functions of the ministry, declared their
churches vacant, prohibited the payment of their stipends, and
required them to remove themselves and their families out of
their parishes within a month. The resisters afterwards
declared that this meeting of the Privy Council was called by
the citizens the " drunken Parliament," from the condition of
its members ; 3 but whether or not this was merely a method
of discrediting their political opponents, common even at the
present day, is impossible to determine.

The month of grace was afterwards extended, but in the
end some three hundred and fifty ministers, refusing to con-
form to the new law, abandoned their benefices. 4 Numbers of
their people went with them, and almost immediately serious
troubles began. Acts were passed by Parliament and Privy
Council to compel people to attend their parish churches, to
forbid the holding of " conventicles," or unauthorized religious
services, and to inflict penalties on all who did not comply
with these edicts. Later writers on the side of the Covenant
have characterized these Acts as intolerant and tyrannical, but
they were identical with the orders of the Covenanters them-
selves when in power twenty years before, which directed the
Searchers or Compurgators to pass into houses and " apprehend
absents from the kirk." 5 Two blacks, however, do not make a
white, and to modern eyes all such compulsion must appear
oppressive and intolerable, whether it is exercised by Coven-
anter or by Episcopalian. What followed was not a " religi-
ous " persecution, as is often stated, for both sides held the
same Christian faith ; but it was a persecution none the less,
and was carried on with a relentlessness such as had not been
known since the burnings of heretics which preceded the

3 Kirkton, 150 ; Wodrow, i. 283.

4 Among the ministers thus turned out were Donald Cargill of the Glasgow
Barony and Ralph Rodger and John Carstairs of the " Inner High "
congregation at the Cathedral. Burgh Records, iii. 2, note.

* Macgeorge, Old Glasgow, p. 184.

GILBERT BURNET 331

Reformation. The use of torture the agony of the boot and
the thumbscrew alone must for ever place the authorities of
that time beyond the pale of apology. The question at issue
whether a man should use the ministrations of a pastor
ordained by a presbytery or a pastor ordained by a bishop-
may seem a matter of minor importance to-day, but what the
Covenanters of the south-western counties found themselves
really fighting for was liberty of action and opinion, and the
final triumph of their cause at the Revolution of 1689 was a
victory for human freedom.

Of the acts of persecution during the next few years Glasgow
and its neighbourhood had their share. Sir George Maxwell of
Pollok was heavily fined for a conventicle held in Haggs Castle
at the instance of his lady, and in the kirkyard of Cathcart and
on the north side of Glasgow Cathedral are to be seen inscribed
stones commemorating humble individuals who suffered for
conscience' sake. But the main stream of the city's life seems
to have flowed on little disturbed by the political ferment of
the time. As Principal of the University the firebrand Patrick
Gillespie was succeeded by Robert Baillie, a Glasgow man,
descended from the ancient house of Lamington, whose
Historical Letters and Collections throw much valuable light on
the events of his day. 6 A few years later, in 1669, a still more
distinguished man, Gilbert Burnet, was appointed Professor of
Divinity in the College. Burnet was one of the most indepen-
dent and impartial churchmen, statesmen, and writers of his
age. Holding later a high position at court, he deprecated the
persecution of the Roman Catholics, found places in England
for the dispossessed Scottish clergy, earned the disapproval of
all extreme parties, remonstrated with Charles II. for his evil
life, took a leading part in the Revolution, and was made Bishop
of Salisbury by William II. and III. His History of My Own
Time is more often quoted than any other history of the period.

6 A very full account of Baillie 's life is given in Wodrow's History, p. 288.

332 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

With such men leavening the spirit of the University the
unseemly differences between the authorities of town and
College came to an end. A chief bone of contention had been
the appointment of a " bibliothecar," or librarian, to the
College. The appointment lay with the town, but the Council's
nominee had been fiercely resisted by Patrick Gillespie. Now,
however, the town's presentation of James Bell, son of a
Glasgow burgess, was accepted, and peace declared. 7 On the
other hand, the town accepted the nomination of its provost,
no longer from the Duke of Lennox or his commissioner at the
castle gate, as in recent years, but from the Archbishop as
before the overthrow of Episcopacy in 1638. In the absence
of John Bell, the burgess thus installed in the provost's chair
by Archbishop Fairfoul in 1662, Colin Campbell, was appointed
to preside over the Council for a third term. 8

At the same time the Town Council did not relinquish its
rights to the management of the city churches. Previously
the congregations had sat on stools and forms mostly brought
by themselves ; but in 1661 the Council installed pews in the
Laigh Kirk, and rent for these was charged for the first time. 9
The Town Council, further, nominated the ministers to be
appointed to the city churches by the archbishop, and paid
them their stipends. 10

Glasgow was also, in those years, steadily extending its
bounds and improving its amenities. In 1661 an Act of Parlia-
ment was secured, annexing " the lands of Gorbals and town of
Bridgend " to the city. 1 Under this arrangement the appoint-
ment of a special bailie for Gorbals was no longer to be made, and

7 Burgh Records, ii. 471 ; iii. 14. 8 Ibid. 493.

Burgh Records, ii. 474. 10 Ibid. 494, 495 ; iii. i.

1 Act. Parl. vii. 222 ; Burgh Records, ii. 465. The Act itself did not free
the people of the annexed district from continuing to pay excise and other
taxes in Lanarkshire. They therefore complained to the Privy Council, and the
matter was referred to arbitration, and amicably arranged (Burgh Records,
ii. 478, note).

THE CITY'S FIRST POSTMAN 333

the people of the new district were expected to attend the
town's churches and the courts of the town's magistrates. 2
Notwithstanding this, however, a bailie of Gorbals continues to
appear in the later records of the Town Council. Further,
on ist January, 1662, the Town Council acquired from
William Anderson, for six thousand merks, the lands of
Linningshaugh. In order to meet the payment the magistrates
proceeded to sell feu-duties and rents of properties in the town
to the occupiers of these properties and others who cared to
invest, and the town drummer was sent round to advertise the
burgesses of the offer. 3 This purchase began the New Green
of Glasgow, which is still a public park at the present day.
The lands of Kinclaith and others were afterwards added, and in
1664, at considerable expense, a bridge was built across the
Molendinar, to afford access to the new possession. The town
was now buying back the old " common lands " of the bishopric
which it had so lightly parted with eighty years before. The
Old Green extended along the riverside from the Broomielaw to
the Molendinar, and was built over in the following century.

An official who appears in those years for the first time is
the town's postman. In June, 1660, the Master of Works was
authorized to pay the " post " ten shillings sterling for all past
services, and twelve shillings Scots weekly thereafter for carry-
ing the town's letters. Seven months later 42 Scots were
advanced to the man for the purchase of " a sufficient horse to
serve the town." 4 In 1663 it was arranged that the postman
should have a wage of 3 Scots per week and a penny sterling
for each letter carried. 5

The comfort and convenience of the citizens were also met
in other ways. In 1661 the Dean of Guild was recommended
to set up leaping-on stones at four different places for the use

2 Burgh Records, ii. 474 ; iii. 60, 63.

3 Ibid. ii. 480, 483 ; iii. 22, 30, 33, 39, 58, 59, 64.

4 Ibid. ii. 447, 457. 5 Ibid. iii. 22.

334 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

of horsemen. In the following year bridges were built over the
Molendinar at the foot of Saltmarket, to give access to Aiken's
Well, and over St. Theneu's Burn, at the foot of the present
Mitchell Street, to carry westward the main route to Partick
and Dunbarton. The latter was ordered to be " ane hand-
some litle brige/' and the road between it and the West Port
at the head of the Stockwellgait was to be " calsayed " for the
first time. 6

Perhaps most significant of all was an erection directed to
be made in August, 1662. " For many guid reasons and con-
sideratiounes," the minute of Council runs, " for the moir
commodious laidining and landing of boats," the city fathers
determined to build " ane litle key " at the Broomielaw. 7

As a matter of fact, the harbour facilities for the sea-going
trade of the city were then receiving serious attention. As
mentioned in a previous chapter, the harbour from which
Glasgow traders had originally shipped a considerable quantity
of their goods had been Irvine on the Ayrshire coast, the traffic
being carried on by means of pack-horses over the comparatively
level neck of country through which the Eglinton Canal was at
a later day designed to be made. But in 1656 Cromwell's
commissioner, Tucker, reported that the harbour at Irvine had
silted up. 8 Glasgow then cast eyes on Dunbarton as a con-
venient harbour. But Dunbarton had always been hostile to
the river trade of the bishop's burgh, and whether or not the
tradition is true that on this occasion its authorities refused a
definite offer from Glasgow on the quaint consideration that
" the influx of mariners would raise the price of butter and
eggs to the townsmen/' the fact remains that Glasgow looked
for another site on which to build a harbour of its own. The
way to this was fully cleared by an important decision of the
Supreme Court of 8th February, 1666, which declared finally

Burgh Records, 475, 487, 489. 7 Ibid. ii. 491.

8 Report (Bannatyne Club).

FOUNDING OF PORT-GLASGOW 335

that Dunbarton had no right whatever to interfere with the
free passage of Glasgow's shipping and trade on the Clyde. 9
At first the thoughts of the city fathers turned to the bay of
Inchgreen on the lands of Greenock, belonging to Crawford of
Kilbirnie, who had already allowed the burgesses to erect huts
and cure herring at the spot, and in 1667 a bargain was struck. 10
Four months later, however, a feu contract was signed for the
acquisition of " ane mark land " a little farther up the firth,
from the Maxwells, elder and younger, of Newark. The price
was 13,000 merks, and four merks annual feu-duty, Glasgow
further relieving the Maxwells of " the king's taxatioune
effeirand to a mark land." x Thereafter the building of New-
port Glasgow, with houses, cellars or stores, quay, sea-wall, and
other pertinents, was busily proceeded with, and Port-Glasgow,
as it is now called, developed into a thriving harbour for the
city's sea-borne trade. Ground at the new port was given in
leasehold for thirty-eight years to burgesses of the city for the
building of houses for their skippers and seamen. The harbour
dues were fixed at a rix dollar for each Glasgow ship of over
100 tons, and 308. Scots for those of less. Dunbarton ships
were to be charged the same, and those of all other places
double. 2 The founding of the new harbour on the upper
Firth of Clyde entailed a vast amount of additional care and
labour on the provost, magistrates, and Council of the parent
city, and almost every page of the Council's records, for more
than twenty years, contains some note of Port-Glasgow matters
to be attended to ; but the project was carried out successfully,
and the Piraeus of Glasgow only ceased to fulfil its purpose
when, in the nineteenth century, the Clyde itself was deepened
sufficiently to allow sea-going ships to come up safely and
easily to the wharves of the city itself.

9 Burgh Records, iii. 72.

10 Burgh Records, ii. 379, 458, 465, 480 ; iii. 96.

1 Burgh Records, iii. 101. 2 Burgh Records, iii. 203, 239.

CHAPTER XXVIII
ALEXANDER BURNET'S FIRST ARCHBISHOPRIC

HISTORIANS of the reign of Charles II. in Scotland appear to
have taken hardly enough account of the formidable difficulties
which then beset the Government. Wodrow in his manse at
Eastwood, a few miles to the south of Glasgow, lived and wrote
in the midst of the district most deeply obsessed by the tradi-
tions and spirit of the Covenanters. The collection of their
tales, which he gathered from popular sources, had a tendency
to assume somewhat undue importance to his mind, and to
obscure the wider issues which had to be dealt with by the
statesmen of that time. Wodrow was closely followed by
Macaulay, who suffered further from his proclivity to make a
picturesque and telling story at any cost, and to whom there-
fore the highly-coloured popular legends of " Bluidy Claver-
house " and the " Christian carrier " offered more tempting
material than any sober and balanced account of the general
Scottish statecraft of the period, which might have been derived
from official documents like the Register of the Privy Council.
In this way, even to the present hour, the popular idea of the
time of Charles II. in Scotland is almost wholly a picture of
the sufferings of a persecuted peasantry in the south-western
corner of the country, and offers no hint of difficult political
problems of which these formed only a part.

There was, to begin with, the Navigation Act of 1660, whic
was being passed by the English Parliament when Charles
once more set foot in the country. That Act struck a serious

336

THE NAVIGATION ACTS 337

blow at the commerce and prosperity of Scotland. It ordained
that no goods could be imported into or exported from England
or any English colony except in English vessels or vessels of
the place from which the goods were brought. Thus the ships
of Scotland, no less than the ships of Holland and France, were
prohibited from taking any part in the English colonial and
foreign trade. 1 It was this Act which, at a later day, wrought
the ruin of the Darien Expedition, with the loss of half the
capital of Scotland. Meanwhile the Scottish Parliament re-
taliated with a similar Act providing that foreign goods could
only be imported into Scotland in Scottish vessels, or in vessels
of the kingdom in which the goods were produced. 2 Trusting
to this Act, the complaint ran, Glasgow merchants " hes gone
about to expend the most parte of their fortunes for building
of ships and advancing of trades," ten or twelve new vessels
being put upon the water. But notwithstanding the Act
certain foreigners, and especially Dutchmen, continued to im-
port goods in Dutch vessels to the Clyde and other ports, and
the Glasgow merchants were " lyk to be ruined." Two years
later, accordingly, Parliament ratified its former Act, and
directed the king's admiral to put it in force. 3

Though they objected to the Dutch shipping, the shrewd
Glasgow merchants were willing enough to avail themselves of
Dutch skill in other ways. Thus in 1661 the Glasgow Fishing
Company petitioned the Privy Council, and was allowed to
take a Hollander into partnership in order to get the benefit
of his knowledge of the Dutch method of curing fish. 4 The
Town Council of Glasgow itself also in 1663 purchased in
Holland a peal of bells for the steeple of the Merchants' House
which was then just being finished in the " Briggate." 6

As a matter of fact, Holland was then Scotland's best

1 Act. Parl. 12, ch. ii. ch. 18. 2 Act. Parl. 1661, ch. 277.

3 Act. Parl. 1663, ch. 8, vii. p. 454. 4 Priv. Coun. Reg. ist Oct. 1661.

5 Burgh Records, iii. n.

H.G. II. Y

338 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

ts and

customer, and when, in consequence of Navigation Acts
other friction, war with that country was declared in 1664, the
consequences were disastrous to the northern kingdom. The
hardship was increased when 500 Scottish seamen were
ordered to be impressed for the Royal Navy. Of these Glasgow
was called upon to furnish ten. 6

In at least one episode of the war Glasgow sailors were to
play their part with spirit. A Glasgow vessel laden with sack,
of which the provost, John Anderson, was part owner, was
making its way to the Clyde, when it was attacked by a Dutch
craft. Twelve Dutchmen boarded the vessel and ordered the
crew below deck. The Scottish master, however, had no in-
tention of giving up his ship without a struggle. He and his
men made a counter attack on the assailants, and, after a great
conflict, not only overcame the attackers, but captured the
Dutch vessel itself and carried it in triumph into Greenock. 7
About the same time, in February 1667, a Glasgow merchant
vessel of 300 tons carrying home a cargo of Spanish wines, was
captured by a Dutch man-of-war. When, however, the Dutch-
man had set off in pursuit of another prize the Glasgow skipper
brought up the larger part of his crew, whom he had concealed
below, re-took his ship, and brought her triumphantly into
Glasgow with twenty-two prisoners the Dutch attacking party
on board. 8

It can easily be understood that, amid the anxieties and
risks of this foreign war, the king and the Privy Council which
carried on the government in Scotland were peculiarly sensitive
to signs of disaffection within the country, such as were shown
by the implacable faction of Covenanters in the south-western
counties. Charles could not forget that it was these same
people who, a generation previously, had given the first signal
for the movement which brought about the overthrow and

6 Burgh Records, i5th Sept. 1664.

7 Priv, Coun. Reg. i5th Mar. 1667. 8 London Gazette, iSth Feb. 1667.

BURNET'S HIGH-HANDED METHODS 339

death of his father ; and, knowing personally the dour nature
of the people, he cannot have been without a certain nervous
apprehension that history might repeat itself. It was perhaps
in view of such possibilities, and in order to forestall and prevent
any movement of this kind that, on the death of Archbishop
Fairfoul, the king appointed Alexander Burnet to the See of
Glasgow.

Burnet was a member of a well-known family in the south
of Scotland, and is said to have fled to England, to begin with,
to escape signing the Covenant. He took orders in the English
Church, and to the last remained a member of that communion.
To avoid the Puritan domination in turn he seems to have fled
to the continent, and at the Restoration was acting as chaplain
to his relative, Lord Rutherford, then commanding at Dunkirk.
In 1663 he was made Bishop of Aberdeen, and in January of
the following year was promoted to the archiepiscopal See of
Glasgow. His views of church government were of an ad-
vanced Laudian type ; he hated Dissent, and at his first
diocesan meeting he expelled some of the Presbyterian ministers
whom Fairfoul had suffered to remain. His high-handed
methods and ideas of clerical supremacy were still further
shown by his treatment of the Glasgow magistracy. On
learning the date of his consecration the Town Council
courteously took considerable trouble and expense to send
a deputation to escort him from Edinburgh to St. Andrews,
and thence back to Edinburgh again and to Glasgow. 9 But
at the next election of magistrates, without waiting for the
usual leet to be submitted to him, he haughtily sent a
messenger with the intimation that he desired a certain
William Anderson to be made provost. On the council
pointing out that William Anderson was not even one of their *
number, and asking that the Archbishop should reconsider his
choice and comply with precedent, he peremptorily refused,

9 Burgh Records, iii. 27.

340 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

and the Town Council had perforce to accept the rebuff and
install his nominee. 10

A little later Burnet again put a pistol to the heads
of the magistrates and council. He sent the council a letter
stating that, after search, he found that several persons made
a practice of absenting themselves from public worship. They
flattered themselves, he declared, with hope of impunity,
though he did not know whence their confidence sprang. He
therefore thought it his duty to advertise the council that he
intended, if that body did not forthwith exact the fines of the
absentees, to employ the officers of His Majesty's militia, both
to note the persons who withdrew from the ordinances, and to
exact the penalties imposed by law. This, he pointed out,
would not only be a punishment to the offenders, but a dis-
honour and loss to the town. The Town Council was much
perturbed by this letter, and had it several times read, but
after much deliberation concluded that it was better that they
themselves should uplift the fines than have this done under
their eyes by the military. They therefore, perforce, agreed
to the archbishop's demand. 1

A churchman of this type was not likely to smooth the way
to reconciliation with the disaffected elements in the West of
Scotland, themselves as implacable as himself, and when in
April, 1664, Burnet was made a privy councillor by the king the
Covenanters could look for nothing else than to feel the weight
of a heavy hand. From the first he seems to have exerted a
strong influence on the Council's deliberations, and within a
year he was appointed preses for the time in the absence of
Archbishop Sharp. It was not only the Covenanters who were
subjected to severity. The Quakers and the Roman Catholics
'were both at that time also suspected of disaffection, and Burnet
was appointed one of the commissioners to deal with them. 2

10 Burgh Records, iii. 40. l Burgh Records, iii. 71.

2 Priv. Coun. Reg. 24th Nov. 1664. Ibid, soth July, 1667.

PESTILENCE AND LABOUR TROUBLES 341

The Privy Council had also to deal with labour troubles,
which bore a curious likeness to labour troubles of the twentieth
century. A complaint in particular was brought up by the
masters of the coal pits in the Glasgow Barony, who declared
that their enterprise was obstructed and made to result in
heavy loss by the action of the miners, who would only work
four days in each week, and spent all their remaining time, and
all their wages, in drinking. To " rectify these enormities "
a commission was appointed consisting of the provost of
Glasgow and others. 3

Still another menace which harassed the rulers of the
country just then was the outbreak of the Great Plague of
London. The fearful ravages of that pestilence in the English
capital in 1665 have been vividly described by Daniel Defoe
and other more authentic writers. In Scotland, however,
the Privy Council took prompt and effective measures. In
Glasgow, for instance, the master of works was ordered with
diligence to repair the city gates, and by tuck of drum the town's
folk were ordered to shut all entries by their closes and yards
under pain of a hundred pound fine and further personal
punishment. 4 Thanks to the efficient measures thus adopted
not a single case of pestilence appeared in Scotland.

Threatened with these various dangers war on the high
seas and labour troubles and pestilence at home the Privy
Council must naturally have been highly sensitive to the
elements of disaffection smouldering in the south-western
counties. That it was fully apprehensive of the danger is
shown by several facts. On 22nd April, 1665, the inhabitants
of Glasgow were ordered to deliver up all arms at the tolbooth
on pain of being considered disaffected, and punished accord-
ingly. 5 On 8th September, 1666, an order was issued that all
must take the Declaration, avowing the swearing of the Cove-

3 Priv. Coun. Reg. 4th Sept. 1662. 4 Burgh Records, iii. 61.

5 Burgh Records, iii. 53.

342 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

nant and the taking of arms against the king to be unlawful,
and that sheriffs and magistrates should send in lists of all who
subscribed and all who refused. 6 On I7th November, 1666,
the Privy Council ordered a garrison to be kept at Glasgow
for the suppression of possible risings in the West.

Two days after the issue of this last order the explosion
took place. A bailie of Dumfries rode hot-foot into Edinburgh
with the news that a body of insurgents had taken arms, in-
vaded Dumfries, and captured Sir James Turner, the military
commander in the district. 7

Great excitement was created by the news, and the extent
of the danger apprehended may be judged by the precautions
instantly taken. General Dalziel was ordered at once to
Glasgow, to take such measures as he could on the spot. The
ferries of the Forth were secured ; all available horses were
commandeered for military purposes ; and active measures
were taken to make Edinburgh safe.

In his interesting monograph on " The Pentland Rising,"
as the insurrection came to be called, Professor Sanford Terry
conveys the impression of an undisciplined and ill-armed mul-
titude coming together in haphazard fashion, and making its
way without much plan or order, through November rain and
snow, by Lanark and Bathgate to the capital. But there were
mysterious influences obvious behind the movement, providing
it with commanders and arms, and when, on 28th November,
Dalziel finally came up with the insurgents at Rullion Green
in the Pentlands, a few miles south of Edinburgh, they made
military dispositions, and displayed a knowledge of tactics and
power of resistance that were by no means casual. All that
was needed to make the Pentland Rising a widespread and

6 Priv. Coun. Reg.

7 The news reached Glasgow two days before it was known in Edin-
burgh. On iyth November the Town Council minute mentions the report
of "som rysing in the west, contrare authoritie," and it was resolved that
the town's folk be put "in ane gude postour for defence."

CON

CONSEQUENCES OF THE PENTLAND RISING 343

really formidable rebellion against the Government of Charles II.
was the merest flicker of success in an opening engagement.
To this grave danger the Privy Council was thoroughly awake,
and the severe measures it adopted to repress the insurrection
and discourage any possibilities of further rebellion were no
more than what the safety of the state demanded. Acting on
a letter from Charles himself the Privy Council ordered that
the oath of allegiance should be taken by all prominent persons
in the disaffected districts, that all arms should be given up,
and that a force of militia should be organized. 8 Already in
1663, in order to secure the country against just such out-
breaks, the Scottish Parliament had offered to organize a
militia of 20,000 foot and 2000 horse. 9 It was not till 6th May,
1668, that a letter was received from Charles ordering the
effective raising of this force, and steps were taken to carry
out the command. These orders brought to light certain indi-
viduals in the disaffected districts who refused respectively to
raise men or to serve in the new militia. This refusal was
regarded as an evidence of disloyalty, and an Act was passed
inflicting fines on such persons. 10

For the measures of repression which followed the Pentland
Rising Archbishop Burnet is said to have been a strong and
constant advocate. These measures had both a political and
an ecclesiastical purpose. The enemies of the Church had
shown themselves to be also the enemies of the Government,
and in such precarious times must be deprived of all means
and opportunity of concerting trouble. Accordingly on 7th
May, 1668, the Privy Council ordered the apprehension of all
holders of conventicles. On i8th February, 1669, it appointed
a committee to deal with absentees from church. And on
4th March of the same year it prohibited the baptism of chil-
dren by any other than parish ministers. Another order which

8 Priv. Coun. Reg. 2ist Mar. 1667. 9 Act. Parl. vii. 480.

10 Priv. Coun. Reg. 8th Oct. 1668.

344 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

implied considerable hardship was issued a month later, on
8th April. The order required all the lairds in the disaffected
districts to become personally liable and give bonds for the
good behaviour of their families, tenants, and servants. This
was no more than the adoption of a policy which had been used
again and again for the keeping of order among the turbulent
tribesmen of the north. No longer previously than December,
1664, the Privy Council had adopted " the good and auncient
custome of charging the landlords and cheiftains of clans to
find caution yearly in the Books of Council " for the good
behaviour of their people.

These orders were prosecuted with great rigour in the dis-
affected districts, and enforced with tortures, fines, and execu-
tions, for which Burnet was largely responsible. 1 On many a
lonely hillside and purple moor, where " the peesweeps and
whaups are calling," are to be seen the memorials of men
who suffered the last penalty rather than deny the oath of
their fathers, and profess loyalty to an episcopalian king.

Reports of these severities reached London, along with
proofs of their ineffectiveness in producing the results desired.
It was accordingly resolved to try a policy of conciliation.
In June 1669 there was issued from Whitehall an " Indulgence,"
signed by the king and countersigned by Lauderdale, allow-
ing " outed " ministers who had lived peaceably and orderly
to return to their parish churches and exercise the func-
tions of the ministry. To meet an objection of certain of
the Episcopal party that this Indulgence was illegal, Parlia-
ment in November passed an " Act of Supremacy " which
declared the external government of the Church to be a
right of the Crown. To carry this new policy into action,
Lauderdale, who as Secretary of State had hitherto remained
in London, was himself appointed Royal Commissioner on 4th
September, 1669, and came down to Scotland. Here he found

1 Cal. State Papers, 1666-7, 2 44 28o 33 6 -

BEGINNINGS OF TAXATION

345

the chief obstacle to the new policy to be Archbishop Burnet
of Glasgow, who stood entrenched behind his ecclesiastical
powers. The rivalry, however, was not long in being brought
to a head and disposed of. In the same month in which
Lauderdale assumed control the Privy Council was informed
that the Synod of Glasgow, over which Burnet had presided,
had adopted a " Remonstrance " which disputed the royal
supremacy in the affairs of the Church, and condemned the
Indulgence on the ground that it replaced in their charges
persons under ecclesiastical censure. 2 Burnet was ordered to
appear at the bar of the Privy Council, with all the minutes,
votes, and acts passed by his synod. This he did on I4th
October. The paper, for which he acknowledged responsibility,
was then summarily condemned " as tending towards the de-
praving of his majesty's law," and the lieges were forbidden to
possess a copy. Knowing whom he had to deal with, Burnet
was wise enough to bow to the inevitable. He resigned the
archbishopric. 3

Meanwhile the more local affairs of Glasgow appear to have
been competently carried on by the Town Council. A state
burden which had now become permanent on the citizens was
that of the Excise. Previous to the troubles of Charles I.'s
time the extraordinary expenses of government were met by
special levies on the Church, the nobles, and the burghs. In
1644, however, to meet the cost of the Scottish armies in
England and Ireland, the Scottish Parliament proceeded to
raise money by means of duties on certain articles. At first
the tax was to be only for one year, but it was afterwards
continued. In 1661 its purpose was to furnish the king with a
revenue of 40,000 a year for the maintenance of his forces
and for the expenses of government. Of this sum Glasgow
was called upon to furnish 1744 45. sterling, reduced in 1663

2 Wodrow's Hist. ii. 143.

3 Priv . Coun. Reg. 6th Jan. 1670.

346 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

to 1076 4s. 4 There are various entries in the Town Counci
records of the city accounting for these levies to Colonel, after-
wards Sir James Turner, the king's officer, who was captured
at Dumfries by the insurgents of the Pentland Rising. 5 Sir
James Turner afterwards became tenant of the " baroni;
hall " of Gorbals, and, when he died there, left his library
Glasgow University. He is believed to have been the origin,
of that stout soldier of fortune, Dugald Dalgetty, in Sii
Walter Scott's Legend of Montrose.

Another serious burden to the town at that time was t]
number of beggars and women of doubtful character frequent-
ing the burgh. Again and again committees were appoint <
to comb the several districts and expel such persons, while th<
inhabitants were expressly forbidden to afford them lodging
By way of making the order effective it was declared that tl
persons against whom the enactment was made were free
remove without payment of rent. 6 The city had its own legi-
timate poor to support, and lepers were still being sent to the
hospital at the far end of the bridge. 7 .

Another curious call upon the public charity at the ti
was the ransom of captives taken and kept in slavery by the
Turks. Thus in August, 1664, the town paid a thousand merks
for the liberation of John Dennistoun, son of a late merchant
burgess of Glasgow. Of this amount the Town Council was
shrewd enough to pay only half in advance, and the other half
upon assurance that Dennistoun had been given his freedom. 8

Notwithstanding these demands the city on 3rd September,
1667, concluded the purchase from the laird of Silvertonhills of
the lands of Provan for the sum of 106,000 merks, the money
being made payable to the laird's creditors. Shortly afterwards

4 Act. Parl. 1644, ch. 137 ; 1645, ch. 45 ; 1647, ch. 252 ; 1661, 128 ; 1662,
ch. 74 ; 1663, ch. 28. Burgh Records, ijth Jan. 1663.

5 Burgh Records, ii. 496 ; iii. i. 6 Burgh Records, iii. 7, 9, n, 12.
7 Ibid. Dec. 1662. 8 Ibid. iii. 35,

DECISION AGAINST DUNBARTON

347

the council appointed a Bailie of Provan, an appointment which
continues an honourable office in the city to the present day. 9

Further evidence of the shrewdness of the city fathers, and
also, it may be feared, of the venality of the law courts of the
period, is to be gathered from entries in the burgh records of
various gifts of sack and half-barrels of herrings sent to
" friends " in power in Edinburgh. At that date, in 1665, the
city had several cases pending against the authorities of Dun-
barton, and it is somewhat interesting to note that these cases
were decided in Glasgow's favour. 10

In those pleas Dunbarton claimed the right to harbour dues
in the River Clyde from the mouth of the Kelvin to the head of
Loch Long, and the immediate question at issue was the right to
levy dues at Glasgow's new " roads and ports of Potterige,
Inschgreen, and Newark," otherwise Port-Glasgow. Dun-
barton cited its charters granted by Alexander II. in the year
1220 and by James VI. in 1609, while Glasgow cited its charters
by William the Lion to Bishop Jocelyn in the twelfth century, by
Alexander II. in 1211, a charter by King Robert the Bruce, and
the fact that Glasgow was an episcopal see " seven or eight
hundred years before Dunbarton was founded." After full
trial the court declared that Dunbarton' s claim had been con-
tra verted, and that Glasgow must be immune from all dues and
interruptions of river traffic by that burgh. 1

At the same time, within its own jurisdiction, the Town
Council took vigorous measures to make sure that no inter-
ference with its own justiciary powers took place. In May,
1665, a case of this kind was dealt with. Two Glasgow tanners,
John Listen and John Wood, had bought nine hundred salt
hides for nine thousand merks from James Boyle, a merchant
in the city. Apparently the hides were to be of a certain weight.
This weight, the purchasers held, was to be, according to use
and wont, that shown at the common tron or weighing place

9 Burgh Records, iii. 95, 99. 10 Ibid. iii. 66, 68. 1 Ibid. iii. 72.

348 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

of the burgh. The seller, on the other hand, alleged that the
hides were to be delivered by the weight shown at his own
scales. The purchasers refused to take delivery on these con-
ditions, and the seller applied to the Dean of Guild, one
Frederick Hamilton, who was his own personal friend and
business partner, if not in this transaction, at anyrate in others.
Hamilton thereupon called Listen and Wood before him, and,
without proof and without consulting any of the other magis-
trates, arbitrarily, " at his awine hand," committed the two
tanners to prison. The two procured release on bail, but were
so beset in their houses, day and night, by the officers of the
Dean of Guild that they were forced to leave the town. They
then appealed to the Privy Council, which, having considered
the petition, remitted the matter to be tried by the Town
Council. The trial duly took place before the provost and
bailies, who, " after matur advyce and deliberatioune," decided
that the Dean of Guild had abused his office, first in holding a
court without a quorum of his brethren, and secondly in im-
prisoning Listen without concurrence of the magistrates. It
was therefore decided, by a majority of votes, that Hamilton
should be suspended from office as Dean of Guild during the
pleasure of the council. Six days later the council elected one
of the bailies to fill the post. 2 Two years later, on a report that
the citizens were forsaking the town's courts for the Commissary
Court, because of the remissness of the town's officers in execut-
ing decreets the Town Council ordered that the officers must
make execution within forty days, either by obtaining payment,
by poinding of goods, or by imprisonment. 3

2 Burgh Records, iii. 55, 58. 3 Ibid. iii. 94.

CHAPTER XXIX
THE POLICY OF CONCILIATION

IN pursuance of the policy of conciliating the extremists of the
Presbyterian party, King Charles in 1669 appointed Robert
Leighton, Bishop of Dunblane, to the vacant archbishopric of
Glasgow. Perhaps the most sincerely Christian of all the
Scottish clergy of his time, Leighton had a record which might
have convinced the most irreconcilable that the Government
desired to meet them at least halfway. The scion of a family
which possessed the estate of Ulyshaven, near Montrose, he was
the son of a man who had suffered grievously under the perse-
cution of the Star Chamber in the early days of Charles I. His
father, Alexander Leighton, was a doctor of medicine, professor
of moral philosophy at Edinburgh, and sometime minister in
London. For a virulent tract, Sion's Plea against the Prelacie,
he was condemned in 1630 to have his nostrils slit, his ears cut
off, and his face branded, to be twice scourged and pilloried,
to pay a fine of 10,000, and to be imprisoned for life in the
Fleet. 1 He was released, however, by the Long Parliament in
1640, and became Keeper of Lambeth House in 1642. When
these cruelties were perpetrated upon his father, the future
Archbishop of Glasgow was a young man of nineteen. Of a
saintly disposition from his youth, he spent some of his most
impressionable years in France, where he was deeply influenced
by the piety of the Jansenists. In 1641 he was inducted to
the parish of Newbattle, and soon became famous for the

* Glasghu Fades, i. 196 ; Gibson, Hist. Glasgow, 67.
349

350

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

writing and speaking of pure and beautiful English. H<
approved heartily of the National Covenant of 1638, but dis-
approved both of the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643
and of the intolerant way in which it was forced upon th(
people. When ordered, with the other Scottish clergy, t<
censure the Engagement for the release of Charles I., he hand(
the order to his precentor to read. In 1653 he was a meml
of the General Assembly which was dispersed by Cromwell'?
soldiers, and in the same year he was on the point of resigning
his charge, on account of the tyranny of the kirkmen, whei
he was appointed Professor of Divinity and Principal of Edin-
burgh University. On the restoration of episcopacy in 166]
he accepted the new order of things. Religion, he declared,
did not consist in external matters, either of government 01
worship. Accordingly, along with Archbishop Sharp an<
Archbishop Fairfoul, he was ordained in the episcopal com-
munion, and, having been persuaded by the king to accepl
a bishopric, was consecrated in Westminster Abbey and a]
pointed Bishop of Dunblane. In the direction of that smallest
of the Scottish bishoprics he urged upon his clergy th<
exercise of reverence in public worship, the preaching of
plain and useful sermons, and the cultivation of holiness in
heart and life. In political affairs he urged the fullest tolera-
tion, even for Roman Catholics, Quakers, and Baptists, and
so deeply did he disapprove of the repressive measures use<
against the Covenanters that, in 1665, he went to London,
and handed his resignation to the king. Charles, however,
would not accept the resignation of a man he had such
good reason to esteem, and, moved by the strength and manner
of the protest, promised to institute a milder policy. The
Pentland Rising of the following year, with its serious threat
to the peace of the country, interfered with the fulfilment
of this promise ; but in 1669, when conciliation again seemed
practicable, and Archbishop Burnet had been dismissed,

Leighton,

LEIGHTON TRIES COMPROMISE 351

iton, as the chief advocate of the policy, was appointed to
the vacant archbishopric of Glasgow.

In his new position, armed with increased authority,
Leighton proceeded to do his best for compromise between
the warring factions of churchmen and ministers in his diocese
and in Scotland. And there can be no doubt that had there
been more of the spirit of Christianity in the country, and less
clerical arrogance and intolerance, the serious troubles and
bloodshed which were to follow might have been altogether
avoided. As it was, on the strength of the Indulgence, of
which Leighton was supposed to have been the author, some
forty of the outed ministers were replaced in their parishes.
These were the men of moderate views, who set the teaching
of their flocks and the interests of religion above mere questions
of church government. But the extremists dubbed them
" King's curates," and accused them of a sordid desire to enjoy
the loaves and fishes. In many cases the houses of the con-
forming ministers were broken into, the ministers and their
wives dragged from bed and ill-treated, and their goods de-
stroyed and stolen. 2

Leighton bent his whole endeavour to bring about a settle-
ment by reasonable compromise. The spirit in which he
approached his task is well illustrated by his treatment of the
Town Council of Glasgow. In the autumn of 1670, as Leighton
had not yet been invested, the king himself sent a letter to the
magistrates commanding them to reappoint to the office of
provost William Anderson, the existing holder of the post, and
in 1671 another royal command to the same effect, signed by
Lauderdale, was received and complied with. 3 No reason is
given for the latter exercise of royal authority, but probably
the Government desired to be absolutely certain that such an
important office in the disaffected west country should be in
the hands of a man whose loyalty was unquestioned. When

* Wcdrow, Hist. ii. 146, 159. 3 Burgh Records, iii. 143, 156.

352 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

the Town Council met, however, on ist October, 1672, for the
election of magistrates, a letter was delivered to them from
Archbishop Leighton at the castle, desiring, " for certaine con-
sideratiounes moving him therto," to know whom the Town
Council and burgesses, or the majority of them, wished to be
appointed for the coming year. In the upshot William Ander-
son, the existing provost, was nominated by the Council and
duly appointed by the archbishop, who also appointed as bailies
the two persons nominated by the Merchants and one nominated
by the Trades. 4

The spirit in which he approached the malcontents in the
matter of church government was equally irreproachable.
With the king's approval he drew up proposals for an accom-
modation in the most liberal terms. Nothing more liberal, in
fact, could well have been suggested. The proposals amounted
to a return to the system set up after the Reformation by Knox
himself. The only difference was that the holder of the super-
visory office, who was known in Knox's church as a super-
intendent, was, under the arrangement proposed by Leighton,
to be called a bishop. No oath of canonical obedience was to
be required from the clergy, and the whole government of the
kirk was to be placed in the hands of the synods and presby-
teries, with the bishops acting merely as permanent moderators. 5
At the same time the Indulgence was revised and enlarged and
provision was made for the maintenance of outed ministers who
accepted the Indulgence, but whose places had meanwhile been
filled. 6 In support of these proposals Leighton sent a number of
the most eloquent and popular preachers through the disaffected
western district, and himself made a circuit of the archdiocese,
endeavouring to gain over the discontented folk by personal
appeal and Christian gentleness. His efforts, however, came to
nothing. Gilbert Burnet, who was one of the preachers sent

: Burgh Records, iii. 162-4. 5 Wodrow, ii. 181.

6 Burton, vii. 178, 179.

ABUSE OF LEIGHTON 353

round, describes how, as soon as they were gone, a set of " hot
preachers " went about declaring that the devil was never so
formidable as when he appeared as an angel of light. 7

The leading ministers were summoned to a conference at
Edinburgh, and for five months the interviews and efforts for
peace went on, but all without effect. Leighton 's advances and
concessions were met merely with suspicion and abuse. One
Stirling, a minister at Paisley, declared, " There is none of them
all hath with a kiss so betrayed the cause and smitten religion
under the fifth rib," then, referring to the bishops in general,
proceeded, " And therefore I shall rake no more into this un-
pleasant dunghill of the vilest vices which they and their
brethren in iniquity (whom, not naming here, doth not except
from their part of the charge of ambition, pride, sensuality,
idleness, covetousness, oppression, persecution, dissimulation,
perjury, treachery, and hatred of godliness and good men) have
heaped together in their own persons." 8

At the end of the five months of conferences and debates
it became clear that the extremists would be content with
nothing but the placing of absolute domination in their hands,
and Leighton was forced to give up his attempt. ' You have
thought fit," he said, " to reject our overtures, without assign-
ing any reason for the rejection, and without suggesting any
healing measures in the room of ours. The continuance of the
divisions, through which religion languishes, must consequently
lie at your door. Before God and man I wash my hands of
whatever evils may result from the rupture of this treaty.
I have done my utmost to repair the temple of the Lord, and
my sorrow will not be embittered by compunction should a
flood of miseries hereafter rush in through the gap you have
refused to assist me in closing." 9

7 Burnet's Hist. i. 535.

8 Naphtali, etc., postscript, 341-2, quoted in Stephen's Church oj Scotland,
ii. 645. 9 Pearson's Life of Leighton, xci.

H.G. II. Z

354 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

It was in January, 1671, that Leighton's efforts to reconcile
the extremists of the west country thus came to an unhappy
end. Almost immediately another factor came into play.
The war with the Dutch, which had been ended by the Treaty
of Breda in 1667, again broke out. It at once becomes evident
from the proceedings of the Privy Council that the Government
feared collusion between the disaffected folk of the west and
the enemy. The Lords of the Privy Council seem to have felt
that they were sitting upon a powder magazine which at any
moment might explode beneath them. Already in 1666 they
had had the lesson of the Pentland Rising, fomented by the
preaching of the conventiclers, whose career had only been
stopped at the gates of Edinburgh itself. And no longer past
than November, 1670, an incident had occurred which shook the
reliance of the king's ministers upon the loyalty even of their
own soldiers. News apparently reached the capital that the
garrison at Glasgow had mutinied on the pretext that their
pay was in arrears. At this news Colonel Borthwick's com-
pany, quartered in the Canongate, seized its colours and
quantity of ammunition, took an oath to stand by each other,
and set out for the west to join the mutineers. The seriousness
with which the Privy Council regarded the outbreak is shown
by the vigour of the measures taken to meet it. The gates of
Edinburgh were shut, the militia companies were called out,
and orders were sent to the Duke of Hamilton at Hamilton and
the Earl of Linlithgow at Stirling to raise forces, march on
Glasgow, and intercept the mutineers. At the same time the
magistrates of Glasgow were instructed to pay the soldiers in
the city their arrears of pay. 10 As a result of their prompt and
energetic measures the rebellion was nipped in the bud. The
Glasgow magistrates at once paid the soldiers their arrears,
amounting to 600 sterling, 1 and any chance of outbreak was

10 Privy Council Register under date.
1 Burgh Records, iii. 147.

SEMINARIES OF REBELLION 355

stopped by the arrival of Lord Linlithgow in the city. 2 Then,
on hearing that all was quiet in the west, the Edinburgh com-
pany returned to its quarters, and, after negotiations, laid
down its arms in the Abbey Close.

After two occurrences of this kind the Government was
bound to take all measures possible for the suppression of
seditious oratory and armed gatherings of disaffected persons.
The fact that the weapons carried by the conventiclers were
mostly imported from Holland was itself a disquieting circum-
stance. Many of the disaffected, indeed, had gone to live in
Holland. Among these was George Porterfield, the late provost
of Glasgow, and John Spreull, the late town clerk, and the
suspicion that a treasonous correspondence was carried on with
these persons is shown by the fact that the Privy Council inter-
cepted and preserved some of the letters addressed to them.
The terms of these letters would certainly be open to a trea-
sonous interpretation in any court of law at the present day. 3

The fear that the conventicles were political rather than
religious gatherings is shown by an order of the Privy Council
to the Archbishop and the Provost of Glasgow on 3rd June,
1669, regarding a conventicle held in the city. The order
instructs them " to take trial what persons were present at the
said conventicle, what qualities and fortunes they are of, and
how they are affected to the present Government." 4 The
Privy Council records speak of conventicles as meetings held
" under the pretence of the exercise of religion," and term them
" the seminaries of rebellion." 5 A specimen of the eloquence
used on these occasions is afforded by a letter of John Carstairs,
one of the ministers, which was passed from hand to hand with
much acceptance at the time. " It seems," concluded this
letter, "it is coming to a pitched battle between Michael and
his angels, and the dragon and his angels there. O, angels of

2 Ibid. iii. 151. 3 Privy Council Register, iii. 643.

4 Privy Council Register under date. 5 Ibid. iii. 626.

356 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Michael, fight, stand fast, quit yourselves like men, under the
colours and conduct of such a captain-general, and so noble
and renowned a quarrel, wherein and in whom it were better
(if possible) to be ruined than to reign with his enemies, if all
Caesars." 6

In view of the dangers of the situation, and in order to
counter them at first hand, Lauderdale came down to Scotland
in 1672, and proceeded to deal with matters in a firmer way.
The Privy Council Register from the time of his arrival becomes
full of orders against conventicles. In particular, an order was
sent to the Glasgow magistrates ' ' in view of divers conventicles
having been held within the burgh and barony, and that some
outed ministers resident there do not attend public ordinances
to put the late Acts of Parliament and Council against con-
venticles into execution, to call the accused persons before
them, and fine and otherwise punish them." 7 People were not
forbidden to hold worship in their own families, and to include
their guests. 8 The injunctions were directed against the gather-
ing of disaffected folk in larger numbers, " upon pretext of
worship," against the performance of baptisms and marriages
by unauthorized persons, and against the offering of affronts
and injuries to loyal and peaceable ministers, and forcing them
by threats and ill-usage to leave their churches. 9 The con-
cessions offered by Leighton had been taken by the extremists
for signs of weakening on the part of Government, and the
number of armed conventicles had increased. 10 The measures
adopted to vindicate authority had now therefore to be made
correspondingly severe.

In these circumstances, disappointed by the failure of his
own generous attempts at conciliation, and reluctant to be a

6 Wodrow, Hist. ii. 154, note. 7 Privy Council Register, 22nd Feb. 1672.

8 Ibid. iii. p. 30. 9 Ibid. iii. 157.

10 At the very time when Leighton was making his offers of accommodation
three great armed conventicles were held for the purpose of intimidating the
Government. Stephen's Church of Scotland, ii. 637.

LEIGHTON'S DEATH AND BEQUESTS 357

party to the acts of repression adopted by the Government,
Leighton resigned his archbishopric. Acceptance of the resig-
nation was delayed by the king in the hope that Leighton would
change his mind, and on information reaching Glasgow that the
archbishop intended to retire an incident occurred which shows
the esteem in which he was held by the people of his diocese.
A deputation from the merchant rank waited upon the Town
Council, to represent how through his Christian carriage and
the moderation and discretion of his rule the whole city had
lived peaceably and quietly under his administration, and to
urge that representations should be made to the Government
for his retention in office. 1 The resignation, however, became
effectual about the end of 1673, and Alexander Burnet, who
had previously filled the post, was restored to the archbishopric. 2

That Leighton 's relations with Glasgow were of the most
cordial description is shown by the fact that on I5th March,
1573, he lent the Town Council the sum of 400 sterling, " to
bear interest only from the following Whitsunday." 3 During
the next ten years he lived in retirement in Sussex, and it must
have been with grief that he learned there of events in Scotland
like the murder of Archbishop Sharp and the battles of Drum-
clog and Bothwell Bridge in 1679. In 1684 the king wrote to
him that he was resolved to try once more what clemency
would effect, and asked him to go north and do what he could
to further this policy. But on proceeding to London for an
interview on the subject, he was seized with pleurisy and died
next day at an inn. Among his benefactions he founded
bursaries at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, be-
queathed a sum to St. Nicholas' Hospital in the latter city, and
left his library of over fifteen hundred volumes to the clergy
of Dunblane, in whose keeping it may still be seen. 4

Among the local events at Glasgow itself during Leighton 's

1 Burgh Records, iii. 167. 2 Butler's Life of Leighton, pp. 500-1.

3 Burgh Records. 4 Ibid. 25th Aug. 1677.

358

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

years of office were several of more than temporary inter
On an October morning in 1670 the Blackfriars Kirk in Hi ;
Street was struck by a thunderbolt and destroyed. 5 Five y<
previously, on 4th March, 1665, it was reported to the Towi
Council that Glasgow Bridge, then a structure over three cen-
turies old, had been damaged by frost. Two years later it was
reported that the south end was decayed. It was not, howevi
till two years later still, in 1669, that orders were given for its
repair, and in consequence of the long delay the south a:
appears to have collapsed. In July, 1671, the " south bow
was ordered to be taken down ; in October there was a p
chase of timber for the purposes of repair ; in November the
provost went to London to secure a contribution to the work
from the Government, and in December an agreement was ma<
with a mason to build a gate at the south end of the bridge.

At the same period also two cases occurred in which the
traders of Glasgow found themselves aggrieved by the system
of monopolies granted by the Crown, which were a mischievous
custom of the time. In 1671 the Privy Council received a
protest from Robert Sanders, stationer and bookseller in
Glasgow, and several of the same trade in Edinburgh, against
Andrew Anderson, a printer in Edinburgh, who had procured
a monopoly of book production from the king. Anderson, with
certain friends, had come to Glasgow, and by threats and
promises had induced Sanders 's employees to desert their work.
Sanders urged that the monopoly of King's Printer should apply
only to the printing of Acts of Parliament and official docu-
ments. After hearing the parties the Privy Council took some-
what this view. Anderson got a monopoly of printing the
Confession of Faith, the Catechism, and such books of divinity
and school books as were used or read by public authority ; but
Sanders was allowed to complete the printing and issue of

5 M'Ure, ed. 1830, p. 50 ; Law's Memorials, p. 53.

6 Burgh Records, iii. under dates.

ABUSES OF MONOPOLIES

359

New Testament in black letter which he had then in hand.
Anderson was further ordered to restore the journeymen and
apprentices he had carried off from Sanders 's printing office. 7

Another grievance was a gift which had been made by the
king to Sir John Watson, of 33. 6d. on every pound of tobacco
imported. The day of the great Glasgow Tobacco Lords had
not yet come, but the tobacco trade of the city was evidently
already important enough to enlist the attention of the Town
Council, and accordingly an agent was sent to Edinburgh to
prevent if possible the king's gift from passing the Seals and
becoming effective. 8

Still another intromission of the Privy Council with the
mercantile affairs of Glasgow was an order to two Glasgow
merchants, Patrick Gemmell and John Walkinshaw. The
Fishing Company the national corporation already described
in these pages, 9 probably revived to compete with the
Dutch, then our enemies wished to send a cargo of herring
to Danzig, and the two Glasgow merchants had refused to
charter their ship, the Dolphin, for the purpose. Their reason
is not stated, but most probably it was the remuneration
offered. The Privy Council in any case took the part of the
Fishing Company, and ordered the shipowners to carry the
cargo. 10 The monopoly which had been granted to the Fishing
Company was indeed found to be ruinous to an important
Glasgow trade and a serious obstacle to development, and in
July, 1677, a deputation was sent to Edinburgh to urge the
Duke of Lauderdale to put some restriction on the powers
and exactions of the royal corporation, and secure some liberty
to the burgesses to carry on their business of salting herring. 1

7 Privy Council Register, 1671, p. 424. 8 Burgh Records, iii. 3rd Jan. 1672.

9 Supra, page 206. To this company Charles II. himself subscribed 5000,
and undertook that all its materials should be free from customs and excise.
Its stock amounted to 25,000. Sir G. Mackenzie's Mem. Affairs Scot.
p. 183.

10 p r i v y Council Register, i6th Feb. 1671. l Burgh Records, iii. 238.

360 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

The proportional importance of the city as regards the
burghs and landward parts of Lanarkshire at that time may
be judged by the fact that of the fifty- two soldiers to be sup-
plied for the Dutch war by the shire and its burghs Glasgow had
to furnish " between nine and ten." At the same time the city
had to provide six seamen for the royal navy. 2

The city also was progressing in the appliances of civil life.
Hackney carriages had been introduced in London in 1634, but
no notice of their appearance in Glasgow occurs till 1673. On
I5th March of that year the Town Council authorized the
provost to agree with a coachman to serve the town with
" haickna choches," and on 2nd June the town paid 200 merks
to John Taylor, the coachman, for his first year's wage.

A beginning also was made of the splendid art collection of
the city of a later day by a commission sent to the Dean of
Guild, when in London in June, 1670, to procure portraits
of Charles I. and Charles II. For the latter, still in the city's
possession, and showing the Merry Monarch as " every inch a
King," the Town Council paid the very moderate sum of 25
sterling. 3

A pleasant side of the point of view of the city fathers
also shown by an entry in the minutes of the Town Council,
in those evil years of war abroad and discontent at home,
directing that the fines collected by the magistrates in their
courts were to be spent in apprenticing poor boys to regular
trades in the burgh. 4

At the same time there was a dark background to the life
of the city, of which little is heard. There was in existence
no habeas corpus Act under which a prisoner could demand
to be either brought to trial or set free, and in the dungeons of
the Tolbooth many prisoners must have languished in almost
hopeless captivity. On I5th February, 1666, for instance, a

2 Burgh Records, 6th April and nth May, 1672.

3 Burgh Records, iii. 136, 139. 4 Ibid. 28th Sept. 1672, 24th Sept. 1674.

SCOURGE OF SMALLPOX

361

petition was presented to the Privy Council by one William
Drew, begging to be either tried or liberated, as he had lain in
Glasgow jail for five years on a charge of murder brought against
him by Stirling of Keir.

For six months also in 1672 the city was scourged with
smallpox. Hardly a family escaped, and over eight hundred
deaths occurred. 5

Perhaps, however, the darkest shadow which lay upon the
public and private life of that time was the widespread popular
belief in witchcraft. From the date of the Reformation, and
throughout the greater part of the seventeenth century, this
belief assumed the character of a mania which became virulent
in successive waves. It had its foundation in the belief in
the existence of a personal devil, which was one of the doctrines
most strongly inculcated by the preachers of that age. 6 With
this fearful personage it was possible to make a bargain by
renouncing one's Christian baptism and performing certain
loathsome rites. The bargain was such a poor one that it is
not a little surprising to find anyone believing in it. In return
for one's immortal soul one acquired no greater advantages
than the power to ride through the air on straws and broom-
sticks, to assume the shape of dogs or hares, and to play mis-
chievous tricks upon one's neighbours steal their cows' milk,
afflict them with disease, or even bring about their death. No
doubt often some poor creature found it profitable to give out
that she possessed the powers of a witch, and, on being ques-
tioned by the judges, even without torture, many accused
persons, old and young, avowed a compact with Satan, and
described in detail the incidents in which they had taken part
with him. So far can ignorant people be influenced by hallu-

5 Chambers, Domestic Annals, ii. 347.

6 The comparative strength of the belief in witchcraft and the measures
taken regarding it in Catholic, Anglican, and Calvinistic countries is very fully
discussed by Sir Walter Scott in Demonology and Witchcraft, viii.

362 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

cination, vanity, or excessive religious zeal for self-condem
tion. The popular belief in witchcraft, however, opened the
door for countless cases of cruelty and injustice, in which the
so-called witches and wizards were clearly the victims of
popular fear and suspicion, or personal spite and revenge.
One of the most outstanding cases of the latter kind occurred
in the neighbourhood of Glasgow.

Sir George Maxwell of Pollok was a well-known suppo:
of the city's enterprise, and was a chief shareholder in the great
whale-fishing company which had blubber-boiling works at
Greenock and a candle and soap factory in the city's Candle-
riggs. One night in December, 1676, when staying in Glasgow,
Sir George was seized with sudden illness a violent heat
accompanied with severe pain. While he lay ill at Pollok
House, a young vagrant woman, Janet Douglas, seemingly
deaf and dumb, appeared there, and by signs led the patient's
sister and daughter to believe that his sickness had its origin
in a cottage in the village at hand. With two men-servants
she led the way to the cottage of one Janet Mathie, whose son
had lately been imprisoned for stealing the laird's fruit. While
the woman was induced to step to the door, the girl put her hand
behind the chimney, and took out a wax figure wrapped in a
linen cloth. Hurrying away with this to Pollok House, she
showed it to the two ladies, who found two pins sticking in
its right side and one in the shoulder. The pins were taken
out, and that night Sir George began to mend. A few days
afterwards, when he was told the story, he had Janet Mathie
arrested and imprisoned at Paisley.

In the following month he was ill again, his face assuming
the leaden hue of death. At this the dumb girl again appeared,
with the information that Janet Mathie' s son had made a new
image of clay, with which he was practising evil arts against
the laird. Two gentlemen went with her, and, acting under
her directions, found an image with pins sticking in it under the

SIR GEORGE MAXWELL BEWITCHED

363

bolster of a bed. John Mathie and his sister Annaple were at
once arrested, and Sir George began to recover his health.

At first the young man denied all knowledge of the images,
but when witch-marks were found on his body he and his sister
made a confession, describing witch-meetings in their mother's
house, and implicating other three women. These three were
arrested, and one of them made a confession. Then followed
descriptions of the devil " a man dressed in black, with
hoggars over his bare feet, which were cloven," also of meetings
at which young Mathie renounced his baptism, and at which
Satan helped in the making of the images. In the upshot the
four older women and young Mathie were hanged at Paisley,
while Janet Douglas recovered her speech, and became a sort
of public heroine, people flocking to see her. She then pro-
ceeded to further witch-findings, secured the burning of five
or six other women, and the imprisonment of more. She her-
self led a dissolute, idle life, till the Privy Council took her in
hand, secluded her for a time in Canongate Tolbooth, and finally
shipped her overseas. 7

7 Chambers, Domestic Annals, ii. 376.

CHAPTER XXX

ALEXANDER BURNET'S SECOND ARCHBISHOPRIC.

THE failure of Leighton's efforts at conciliating the Covenant
of the south-western counties made it quite clear to the Prr
Council that it had to deal with people whose real purpose was
the overthrow of the Government itself. At the conventicles,
which became more and more desperate in character, the
preachers did not hesitate to declare that they considered th<
selves free from allegiance to a perjured king, and they quotec
Scripture to justify the most violent measures against that
king and his agents, as malignant persecutors of the true
religion. To the conventicles the audiences came armed and
in ever greater numbers, and it seemed that only a spark w<
required to set the whole west country aflame in open rebellioi
In these circumstances, a firm hand being obviously require
Alexander Burnet was reinstated in the Archbishopric of
Glasgow. It is unfortunate that in the histories of that time
written from the Covenanting side, a constant endeavour is
made to belittle and besmirch the personal character of political
opponents, and to represent them either as monsters of cruelty,
or as profligates or miserable time-servers. Thus Wodn
gravely records a rumour that Burnet secured his return
office by sacrificing the claims of his daughter to her jointure
as widow of the heir of Elphinstone, in favour of Lauderdale's
niece, who was to marry the next heir. 1 The statement is not
supported anywhere.

1 Wodrow, ii. 144.
364

FIRST GLASGOW COFFEE-HOUSE

365

The forefront of Burnet's offending was the firmness with
which he at once proceeded to deal with the situation in his
archbishopric. On 6th October, 1674, when Glasgow Town
Council met for the annual election of a provost and magis-
trates, it was presented with a letter from the new archbishop,
nominating John Bell to be chief magistrate. Bell had held
the office before, so was evidently a competent person, but
Burnet did not wait for his name to be presented in the usual
leet, and at once the new provost proceeded to show the purpose
of his appointment by ordering six persons to be sent for to
fill the places of six councillors, including the Deacon-Convener,
who had not taken the Declaration of allegiance, and were
therefore by law excluded from holding office. Several
councillors pointed out that the provost could not do this
without advice and consent of the Council itself, but Bell
answered that the Council had done wrong in allowing so many
men to sit without taking the Declaration, and that for this
reason his nominations must stand. For the same reason he
excluded the former provost, William Anderson, from taking
part in nominating the new Council. This action resulted in
what would now be called a " scene " in the Council, most of
the members leaving in a body. But the provost himself and
James Colquhoun, bailie, the only two left, went on to call in
a quorum of citizens, and forthwith elected a Council for the
following year. 2

Under this new Council the town's affairs were vigorously
attended to. Glasgow was evidently developing rapidly in
many ways. In October, 1673, the first coffee-house in the city
was established by Colonel Walter Whiteford on a monopoly of
nineteen years, 3 and at the same time the Town Council

2 Burgh Records, iii. 186-8.

3 Ibid. 172. The first coffee-house in London was established in 1654, and
the second in Scotland at Edinburgh in 1677 (Chambers, Domestic Annals,
ii. 359-60).

366 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

granted permission for the building of a " soparie," or soapworl
in Candleriggs. M'Ure describes this as " a great work, con-
sisting of four lodgings, cellars, houses of store, and other con-
veniences for trade, being a pretty square court." He states
that the company was formed in 1667 by " nine persons of
distinction," who each contributed 1,500 sterling of capital.
It built a fleet of four ships, including one, the Lion, of 700 tons
burden, carrying forty pieces of ordnance, for the Straits and
Greenland fishing. 4

In April, 1675, arrangements were made for the start of
still another industry in Candleriggs, when the Town Council
deputed the provost, bailies, and Deacon-Convener to measure
off and grant in feu, as much of the town's land there as would
serve John Cauldwall and his partners for the building of a
" suggarie," or sugar refinery. The actual rates of feu-duty
were not settled till 1679, when they were arranged to be 35.
Scots (3d. Stg.) per ell of frontage on the west side of the
street and 45. per ell on the east side. 5 Meanwhile, by way of
giving better access to the " suggarie," " soparie," and candle-
houses " at the back of the flesh-market," the city fathers
bought ground in High Street above the Cross from James Bell
of Provosthaugh and others, and formed the passage known as
Bell's Wynd, now widened into Bell Street. 6 M'Ure, writing
in 1736, says of this passage, " Bell's Wynd hath a noble gate
and entry of curious workmanship that excells all others in the
city. The Wynd stretches from the Kirk Street, and is of
length 220 ells and 10 ells wide. In it is the mutton market."
This appears to have been the first Glasgow thoroughfare to
be named after an individual.

The Council also paid zealous attention to the educational

4 Burgh Records, 173. Hist. Glasg. 1830, p. 227.

5 Ibid. iii. 197, 265.

6 Ibid. iii. 213, 216, 223.

GLASGOW'S RACE-MEETING 367

needs of the community, taking care that the Grammar School,
for instance, was kept supplied with competent teachers, or
" doctours," as they were called. The stipend paid these
" doctours " appears modest in the extreme. In 1674 John
Wingate, who by his title of " Mr." was a university graduate,
represented to the Town Council that his salary of 100 per
annum (5 sterling) was not enough to maintain himself and his
family, and the Council granted an augmentation of 20. The
salaries of the city ministers at that tune were from 900 to
1,000 (45 to 50 sterling). But the Grammar School doctors
could probably count on substantial additions to their income
from certain feu-duties, scholars' fees and Candlemas gifts,
the daily peats brought in for firing, and " fugies," or beaten
cocks from the cock-fights.

Apart from the classical teaching of the Grammar School,
which was the stepping-stone to the University, adequate
provision was made for the teaching of writing, reading, and
arithmetic. French and navigation were subsidized ; music,
dancing, and fencing were provided ; and the Council even
paid a mistress of manners a hundred merks yearly in order
that the young women of the town might have the means of
acquiring good breeding. 7

Sport and physical culture, as well, received encouragement.
In 1665 the provost was directed to make arrangements for a
Glasgow race-meeting, and payments were made to a goldsmith
for the making of prize cups for the occasion. And in April,
1675, the Council organized and provided a prize of 2os. sterling
for a foot-race to be run thrice round the New Green. At the
same time a town piper was appointed to regale the citizens
every morning and evening, at a wage of 100 merks per annum ;
a year later a town's trumpeter was appointed with the same
remuneration ; and free burgess-ship and exemption from
billeting were granted to a " common cook," or restaurateur,

7 Burgh Records, iii. 24, in, 120, 180, 308, 475.

368 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

to induce him to set up " ane guid hous for serving the
Leidges." 8

In 1678 an agreement was made with William Hume for
the running of the first stage-coach between Edinburgh and
Glasgow. Hume obtained from the Privy Council a monopoly
for seven years, and an exemption from the pressing of his
horses for any public service. The coach was to carry six
persons, to have six able horses, and to make the journey at
least once a week, going on Monday and returning on Saturday.
Each passenger was to have liberty to take with him a bag or
portmanteau, and the fare was to be 4 i6s. Scots, or eight
shillings sterling, in the summer months, and 5 8s. Scots in
winter. Glasgow subsidized the service with a payment of
200 merks per annum. 9

Particularly notable was the care taken to provide for the
poor of the city. So far there was no " town's hospital " or
poorhouse. Though several private foundations, like St.
Nicholas Hospital and Hutchesons' Hospital, lodged and pro-
vided for a limited number of decayed citizens, and the Mer-
chants' House and Trades' Incorporations supported members
who had fallen on evil days, the civic assistance was meanwhile
given only in the shape of a dole. Notwithstanding the efforts
made from time to time to expel strangers who had no claim on
the city, the burden was already heavy enough for the small
community. When the roll of indigent persons was made up
by a special committee in 1675, the cost of maintaining the
town's poor was settled at 469 45. Scots per month. At the
same time, by way of relieving the public purse as far as possible,
a number of the poor were provided with badges allowing them
to beg publicly in the town. This appears to have been the
earliest effort to deal with paupers in a comprehensive and
definite fashion. 10

8 Burgh Records, iii. 51, 54, 196, 204.

9 Chambers, Domestic Annals, ii. 392. 10 Burgh Records, iii. 195, 196, i<

RESTRICTIONS ON COMMERCE 369

But though the number of the city's poor seems to have
increased to an alarming extent at that time, Glasgow did not
neglect the unfortunate elsewhere. Thus on 30th October,
1675, the Town Council deputed two persons to go through
each of the four quarters of the city to collect money for the
ransom of Walter Gibson, skipper at Inverkeithing, and John
Reid his mate, from slavery with the Turks. 1 It also gave
Walter Whyte the sum of 6 sterling to pay his passage to
" the wast erne islandis of Birbados."

In the light of modern practice the trading restrictions
of that time appear curious and interesting, and entailed much
jealous supervision upon the Town Council. Upon a ship
entering the river with certain classes of cargo, such as wine,
salt, and timber, it was obligatory upon the owner to offer the
cargo to the magistrates and Council of the burgh. If the
magistrates thought the price too high, and refused to pur-
chase, they might make stipulations that were somewhat awk-
ward for the owner. Thus in January, 1674, two ships entered
the Clyde, one loaded with wine, the other with tobacco. The
owners asked a price which the magistrates could not see their
way to pay. They thereupon gave the merchants permission
to sell to anyone else, but coupled the licence with the shrewd
stipulation that the cargoes must only be disposed of to a
burgess of the city, " in haill saill " (i.e. wholesale), and at a
price not less than had been asked from the magistrates them-
selves. 2

In curious contradiction of these conditions were the various
enactments of the magistrates against " forst ailing of mercatis,"
or arrangement for the purchase of goods wholesale by one,
two, or three persons, before these goods had been offered for
sale in open market. In October, 1675, for example, an out-
standing case was brought before the Council. Three mer-
chants had made a contract with all the fleshers of the city

1 Burgh Records, 195, 211. 2 Ibid. iii. 174.

H.Q. ii, 3 A

370 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

for the purchase of the hides of all the animals slaughtered up
till the following Candlemas. This contract the cordiners, or
leather workers, of the burgh regarded as a grievance, a clear
case of " forstalling," against which several Acts of Parliament
and the use and wont of the kingdom could be cited. After
considering the complaint the Council ordered that, after a
fortnight, to allow the merchants to recoup themselves for money
advanced, the contract should be null and void, and that
thenceforth the fleshers must make no forward contract of the
kind, but must offer the hides for sale in the open market from
day to day, for purchase either by merchants or tradesmen. 3

Still another stipulation which must have meant consider-
able inconvenience to the citizens was brought about by the
need for preserving a valuable source of the town's revenue.
Complaint was made to the magistrates, probably by the renter
of the dues of the tron or weigh-house, that several of the
inhabitants were buying commodities, such as woollen yarn,
butter, tallow, cheese, linen, and tow, and carrying these ho:
to their shops and houses without having them weighed at th
tron and paying the dues for that service. The bellman was
accordingly sent through the town ordering that all such goods
must be weighed and the dues paid to the troner. At that
time the tron was farmed to a contractor for 800 merks per
annum. 4

While the city fathers thus exercised very arbitrary powers
over the actions of traders within their gates, they strongly
resented any restrictions or interference imposed by anyone
else. The chief trouble of this kind at that time was in con-
nection with the city's darling enterprise of establishing a
harbour at Port-Glasgow. That enterprise had been costly
both in effort and in money, and mention constantly occurs i
the records of the Town Council of improvements effected upo
the harbour works and town. Thus in June, 1674, a contr

3 Burgh Records, iii. 209. 4 Ibid. iii. 199, 202.

SEIZURE OF GREENOCK SHIP 371

was made with a mason to set up three perches on the " lawes,"
or sand-banks between Newport and Greenock, and in Febru-
ary, 1576, another contract was arranged for the construction
of a bulwark, or sea-wall, at a cost of 17,000 merks. 5 Then
in August, 1677, an official was appointed to enter in a book
at Port-Glasgow the names of all ships coming into the river,
and to charge the owners certain dues. Every ship of a hundred
tons and over belonging to Glasgow or Dunbarton was to pay
a rex dollar, and every ship under a hundred tons 305. Scots,
while for each hundredweight of French salt the dues were to
be 133. 4d. Vessels belonging to any other place were to pay
twice as much. 6

After all this care, labour, and expense it can be under-
stood that any action likely to damage the prospects of the new
harbour town would be regarded with objection and alarm.
The magistrates took action, for instance, against Thomas
Craufurd for putting up a yair at or near Craufurdsdyke, and
obliged him to remove the obstruction. 7

Much more serious, however, was the action of certain
unfree persons in Greenock. Without the privilege belonging
to freemen of royal burghs, these persons had dared to engage
in a contraband shipping trade. Greenock was only a burgh
of barony, and therefore only allowed to deal in staple com-
modities in retail. Notwithstanding this disability certain
defiant attempts had been made. On one particular occasion,
in 1675, the lairds, Shaw of Greenock, Bannatyne of Kelly,
and others, had ventured to bring a vessel into the Clyde laden
with wine, brandy, and salt, which were staple commodities.
While she lay in the roads opposite Ardmore, the magistrates of
Glasgow, Renfrew, and Dunbarton seized and carried her into
the harbour of Port-Glasgow, where, being tender of everyone's
interest, especially the king's and their own, they called in

6 Burgh Records, iii. 180, 215. 6 Ibid. iii. 239.

7 Ibid. iii. 260.

372 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

three tide waiters, and had the hatches sealed up. During the
following night the indignant owners came with an armed force
of 100 or 150 men, in six or seven boats, and attempted to
carry off the vessel, wounding several of those on board in the
proceeding. The attempt, however, was defeated, and the
ship carried for safety under the guns of Dunbarton Castle.
The three royal burghs then brought an action against the
owners in the Court of Session, and secured a decreet in which
it was declared that only royal burghs possessed the privilege
of importing " staple commodities," which included wine,
brandy, and salt, and that the penalty for contravention of the
law was confiscation of the goods or their value. Glasgow,
therefore, with the help of the other two royal burghs on the
river, won its case, and vindicated the claim of its pendicle,
Port-Glasgow, as against the neighbouring and older com-
munity of Greenock, to deal in " staple commodities." 8

Sir John Shaw of Greenock was at that time engaged in
building up the fortunes of his own little harbour town. Green-
ock had been disjoined from Inverkip in 1594, and constituted
a parish in 1636, while in 1635 it had been made a burgh of
barony. Sir John Shaw had built a harbour from which the
post and packet boats sailed for Ireland, and in 1670, faced
with the rivalry of Port-Glasgow, he secured from Charles II.
a charter granting the town the right to trade in " staple
commodities," wine, wax, salt, and brandy, as well as other
goods and merchandise. The charter, however, was not
confirmed by Parliament till 1681, and though it saved Greenock
from any penalties in the action brought by the royal burghs,
the town was forced to pay an " unfree trade cess " for liberty to
carry on its foreign trade. The cess was only eight shillings
Scots to begin with, but as the number and tonnage of ships
increased it rose till, in 1879, just before it was abolished, it

8 Burgh Records, iii. 210, 203, 228, 239, 261. Morrison's Dictionary of
Decisions, pp. 1908-1916.

INSTITUTION OF CITY RATES 373

amounted to some 75. Meanwhile the ultimate result of the
rival efforts of Charles II. 's time was that Port-Glasgow was
made the principal customs station on the Clyde, with Greenock
as one of its " creeks," an arrangement which was not reversed
till a much later day, when its existence had become a glaring
anomaly. 9

It is interesting to note that in this action the counsel
employed by Glasgow were Sir George Lockhart and Sir George
Mackenzie, at fees of 20 and 10 respectively, the former
afterwards Lord President of the Court of Session, shot by
Chiesly of Dairy, the latter one of the most cultured Scotsmen
of his time, founder of the Advocates' Library, and stigmatized
as " the Bluidy Mackenzie " in Covenanting literature. 10

While these various enterprises and developments were
going on, the Town Council used a businesslike acumen in
turning its resources to account. In August, 1674, the atten-
tion of the burgesses was called to certain former acts by which
the occupiers of lands in the city could commute their feu-
duties and rents for a single payment at seventeen years' pur-
chase. 1 In November, 1675, attention was drawn to the fact
that for many years owners of houses and lands within the
burgh who did not themselves reside there had not been asked
to bear any part of the town's burdens, either in cash or in
giving quarters to the troops billeted on the citizens. It was
accordingly ordered that each non-resident owner should pay
twelve merks yearly on every hundred merks of free rental for
the six preceding years, and the same sum yearly in all time
coming. This was the first approach in Glasgow to a systematic
levying of rates on the rental value of property. At the same
time the Merchants' House and the Trades' House were asked
to consider the Government's Act for levying a duty of four

9 Weir's History of Greenock. Campbell's Historical Sketches of the Town
and Harbours of Greenock.

10 Burgh Records, iii. 282. l Ibid. iii. 181.

374 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

shillings Scots per pint on all brandy " topped and vented
within the burgh. In the end the Town Council improvec
on the Act of Parliament by ordaining that brandy imported
by strangers and retailed in the burgh should pay six shillings
per pint, while brandy sold to persons outside the city should be
free of the tax. 2 The Town Council had hit upon the rule which
governs our excise law at the present day that exports must
be free of tax in order to encourage trade. The method,
however, was adopted of farming out the excise to a tacksman.

Similarly with the Town Council the trades' incorporations
of the burgh had begun to feel the pressure of their expenses.
One after another, beginning with the Hammermen, they
approached the city fathers, pointed out the unfairness of
admitting outsiders to burgess-ship on the same small payment
as was made by those who had served an apprenticeship in the
burgh, and secured an ordinance that strangers should thence-
forth only be admitted on payment of 100 Scots. 3 With
this modest charge of some five or six pounds sterling began the
raising of the cost of burgess-ship, till to-day, in some of the
incorporations, the " fine " for entry is as much as three or
four hundred pounds.

Considerable sums of ready money for the town's use were
secured by the further feuing of the burgh lands. In 1676
the Limehouse Bog was disposed of by auction for the sum of
940 and five merks annual feu-duty ; Cowlairs and Seggie-
holm in the Easter Common, with their pertinents, were sold
for three thousand merks and ten merks feu-duty ; and certain
holdings in the Wester Common were parted with for 2050
merks and ten merks feu-duty. 4 Among other efforts to
raise funds it was remitted to the Dean of Guild and the
Deacon-Convener to let " the town's house in the Drygate "
for the purpose of a manufactory. This was the old manse of

2 Burgh Records, iii. 211, 220, 221. 3 Ibid. 213, 233.

4 Ibid. 215, 218.

SECOND GREAT FIRE 37$

the prebend of Cambuslang, on the south side of the street,
which, after being acquired by the Earl of Glencairn, had been
sold by him to the magistrates in 1635, and used as a house of
correction for dissolute characters. 5

In the midst of these endeavours to set its affairs in order
the city suddenly encountered a series of misfortunes. To
begin with, among the prisoners in the Tolbooth was a certain
Thomas Blackwell, committed for the holding of conventicles
and the entertaining of nonconformist ministers in his house.
" One night," according to Wodrow, " the door being open . . .
he and William Stirling, a gentleman in prison with him, got
out." 6 For this occurrence, and as a deterrent against any
similar connivance at law-breaking in future, the Privy Council
fined the magistrates ten thousand merks. By the terms of
the sentence the magistrates were allowed to reimburse them-
selves out of the estates of the escaped prisoners and the effects
of Mungo Mathie, the careless or conniving jailer. With
considerable astuteness the provost made a bargain with the
Privy Council to pay immediately two thousand merks, and to
assign to the Council itself the decreet for the whole ten thousand
against Blackwell and Stirling, along with the bond of security
given by the jailer Mathie on his appointment to the post. The
occurrence nevertheless cost the town not only the two thousand
merks thus paid, but 400 Scots for advocates' and other fees
at court. 7

But a still greater misfortune was impending. On 2nd
November, 1677, a second great fire broke out, and consumed
a large part of the town. One hundred and thirty houses and
shops on both sides of the Saltmarket were destroyed, and
between six and seven hundred families were made homeless
and destitute. The fire was started by a smith's apprentice,
who had been beaten by his master, and out of revenge set his

6 Ibid. 219, 246. Cleland's Annals, i. 15.

6 Church History, 1829 ed. ii. 359. 7 Burgh Records, iii. 232.

376 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

workshop ablaze. It set alight the clock of the Tolbooth, and,
on the pretext of danger to life, a mob broke open the doors
and set free a large number of prisoners, many of whom, such
as the Laird of Kersland, were persons charged with disaffec-
tion to the Government. 8

To meet this disaster the Town Council took immediate
and energetic measures. There had been some difficulty about
securing payment of rent from the tenants of the Provand
estate, several of whom had been committed to the Tolbooth
for their debt. It was therefore resolved to dispose of that
estate to anyone who would hold it as a feu from the town. 9
The Privy Council also was appealed to, and gave authority
for a collection to be taken throughout the country. Nor did
the Town Council in this case merely wait for contributions to
be sent in, but at once appointed a collector and organized a
systematic appeal. 10 The town further took possession of a
sum of 300 sterling which had been gifted by Archbishop
Leighton to the College for the support of a bursar and two
poor men. The money had been lent out, after the fashion of
the time, to a substantial citizen, but the town now itself took
the capital sum on loan, and undertook to pay the interest for
the purposes of the endowment. 1 Thus was begun the system
by which the city has since borrowed vast sums of money on
more or less permanent loan to defray the cost of works of public
utility.

Following the fire the Town Council made a strict order
that no more houses should be built of wood, but that stone
should be used exclusively for front, back, and gables. 2 In-
directly some benefit was derived from the disaster. On the
petition of the burgesses in Saltmarket, the Town Council

8 Cleland's Annals, i. 20. Burgh Records, iii. 243, 244. Priv. Coun. Reg.

9 Burgh Records, 243. > Ibid. 246.
1 Ibid. iii. 247. z Ibid. 244.

GIBSON'S WYND 377

acquired one of the burnt tenements in that street, and formed
a new lane to the Trongate. The purpose of this lane was to
afford access in case of another fire. Gibson's Wynd, as the
lane was called, afterwards became Princes Street, and was later
embodied in Parnie Street. 3

3 Burgh Records, iii. 276, 277, and note.

CHAPTER XXXI

SECOND INSURRECTION OF THE COVENANTERS.

THERE can be little doubt, however, that the chief troubles ol
the city and surrounding country at that time arose from the
political disaffection of large numbers of the people on the
subject of Church government. In view of the sudden increase
of armed conventicles which followed Leighton's attempts to
conciliate the extreme Covenanters, the Privy Council in July,
1673, commissioned the Duke of Hamilton and five others t(
ensure obedience to the law within the diocese of Glasgow, am
in August the Town Council ordered intimation to be made ii
the city churches on the following Sunday that persons absent-
ing themselves from kirk would be severely punished. 11
also appointed individuals to go through the town, one in ea<
quarter, to take note of the persons absenting themselves. 3
To maintain order a garrison of several hundred men w<
quartered in the town, and an order of the Privy Council i]
June, 1675, directed that the soldiers should be billeted 01
known conventiclers and persons who harboured " outed "
or disaffected ministers. 2 The Town Council even, in February,

1 Burgh Records, iii. 169. The institution of these whippers-in, or " com-
purgators," did not cease at the Revolution, but was continued till well into
the eighteenth century, when Mr. Blackburn, arrested for walking on Glasgow
Green during church hours, brought an action against the magistrates, and
secured the abolition of the practice.

2 Ibid. iii. 200. One of these sufferers was Mr. James Hamilton, minister
of Blantyre, who, as detailed by Wodrow, had been compelled to leave
his parish, and not even allowed to hold services in his own house in
Glasgow. Curiously enough, as shewing the spirit of the time, this

378

FINES FOR CONVENTICLES 379

1676, appointed certain of its members to go through the town
with the ministers and elders, and make note of the young
people due to be examined, with a view to their taking com-
munion. At the same time, in obedience to the Acts of Parlia-
ment and the Privy Council, the magistrates and councillors
themselves subscribed the Declaration and oath of allegiance,
and a report of the proceedings was duly forwarded to the
authorities in Edinburgh. 3

In requiring the signature of this Declaration the authori-
ties were once more taking a leaf out of the book of the Cove-
nanters themselves, who thirty years before had forcibly insisted
on everyone signing the Solemn League and Covenant.

By this time the Government, finding more and more
reason to regard conventicles as occasions for the preaching of
sedition, were introducing a succession of repressive measures.
One of these was the intimation on ist March, 1676, that a
fine of 500 merks should be imposed on magistrates of royal
burghs for each conventicle held within their bounds. On
20th July several Glasgow citizens were fined for keeping con-
venticles, and the magistrates apparently became liable under
the new order. The provost, however, represented the hard-
ship to the authorities in Edinburgh, and the magistrates
appear to have escaped. 4

The Privy Council also adopted a plan which had been used
with success in previous reigns for keeping the peace in the
Highlands and other parts of the country. It required the
landowners or heritors to undertake that their wives, children,
servants, and tenants or cottars should not attend conventicles

Mr. Hamilton had, in 1653, himself displaced Mr. John Heriot, the Epis-
copal minister of Blantyre, and appropriated the whole stipend, so that
Heriot and his family were reduced to absolute destitution. Chambers,
Domestic Annals, ii. 282.

3 Ibid. 215.

4 Burgh Records, iii. 223. Wodrow, Church History, 1829 ed. ii. 318-19,
321-22.

380 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

or disorderly meetings, and should live in peaceful fashion
obeying the law. A number of the landed gentry in the shires
of Renfrew and Ayr declared that it was " not within the com-
pass of their power " to undertake this obligation, and the
Government accordingly organized a force to maintain the
authority of the law in the disaffected districts. This force,
some five thousand in number, was assembled at Stirling.
Like the Glasgow police of the present day, it was largely
composed of Highlanders, and on that account was given by
the Covenanters the name of " the Highland Host."

At first it was intended to send part of this force to Fife,
where there were a good many extreme Covenanters and
keepers of conventicles ; but the landowners there came together
and agreed to offer the Privy Council a bond in the desired
terms, undertaking to avoid conventicles themselves, restrain
their tenants and dependents, and have no traffic with vagrant
preachers. Thus reassured, the Government sent none of the
Highland companies to Fife.

Glasgow also avoided the attentions of the Highlanders
that occasion by the magistrates coming under an obligation,
like the gentlemen of Fife, to guarantee the lawful behaviour
of the citizens. Shrewdly enough, they adopted a plan which
might well have been adopted throughout the whole country,
and might have solved all the difficulties of the situation.
They took a bond in turn from the Merchants' House and the
Trades' House, indemnifying them against any loss or fine
to which their guarantee might render them liable, and the two
" houses " in turn took similar bonds from their individual
members. 5

A number of the gentry in the western shires came
under the same undertaking, but they were not numerous
enough to guarantee the peace of the district. The High-
landers therefore were commissioned to act throughout that

6 Burgh Records, iii. 247.

THE HIGHLAND HOST 381

m. Their instructions and commission were much the
same as those of modern police, and in the absence of
barracks they were of course billeted on the inhabitants,
preferably on those known to be disaffected. The measure,
however, does not appear to have been a success. The country
districts had had no previous experience of billeting. The
extremists then, like the extremists of the twentieth century,
regarded such control and discipline as an outrage ; and one
of the Highlanders was even murdered by the country people. 6
At the same time the Highlanders themselves, if one is to believe
the disaffected folk whom they were sent to control, and to
whom their presence was so objectionable, were too apt to
regard the occasion as a raid upon the lowlands, and to possess
themselves, with little bargain or ceremony, of such articles
as took their fancy. 7

After two months, at the instance of the Duke of Hamilton,
the king sent down an express with orders to disband the
Highland companies, and send the men back to their homes.
Thus the " Highland Host " retired to its native glens, and an
early experiment at policing the rural districts came to an end.

According to tradition in Glasgow, the Highland Host,
on its way to take up its duties in the western shires, encamped
to the west of the city on the high ground now known as
Garnethill, and on its return was " relieved " at Glasgow bridge,
by the students of Glasgow University, of a large part of the
plunder which it was carrying home to the glens of the north. 8
The fact that this could be done by a handful of young students
hardly supports the accusations of ferocity which have been
brought against the Highlanders on that occasion. Glasgow
itself seems even to have made some profit out of the visit of

6 Wodrow, ii. 375, 379, 382. Hill Burton, vii. 191.

7 Wodrow, 413.

8 Alison's A necdotage of Glasgow, p. 86. Brown's History of Glasgow,
(1795). 151-6.

382 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

lone

the " Host." For shoes supplied to the Angus regiment al
the magistrates received 1,056 Scots, part of which was paid
at the time by the Earl of Strathmore, commander of the
regiment, and part afterwards by the Privy Council direct. i
At the same time the town had to pay John Raltoun, a vintner,
10 sterling for the loss of wines and other liquor by the High-
landers letting the taps run in his cellar, and had to allow a
rebate of 50 Scots rent to the fleshers, for the occupation of the
fleshmarket by the Highlanders' carriages and ammunition. 10

The city was very shortly, however, to make still more
vivid and striking acquaintance with the warring passions of
the time..

Within the burgh itself there was evidently a defiant
element. On ist April, 1678, the provost and magistrates
were standing on the plainstanes beneath the Tolbooth, as their
custom was, to hear complaints and administer justice, when
one Thomas Crawford, a merchant burgess, " in ane arrogant
and proud maner, without consideratioune or respect," and
" in ane furious way," fell to questioning and challenging the
provost. Though the provost again and again desired him to
desist, in view of the fact that certain distinguished strangers
were present, Crawford declared that he knew his malice, but in
a short time would get word about with him, and meanwhile
defied him, with other opprobrious speeches. On being sum-
moned before the magistrates, Crawford avowed that he had
used the expressions complained of. The fact was confirmed
by witnesses, and forthwith, as a deterrent to others, the " wild
man " was deprived of his burgess-ship, ordered to pay 100
for the use of the poor, and committed to prison till the fine
was paid. 1

Still more ominous was a riot which occurred in connection
with a conventicle in the Saltmarket on a Sunday in the f ollow-

9 Burgh Records, in. 254. 10 Ibid. iii. 255, 257.

1 Ibid. iii. 250.

CONVENTICLE IN SALTMARKET 383

ing October. It is fully described in a letter of Archbishop
Burnet printed in facsimile in The Book of Glasgow Cathedral,
p. 1 66. Burnet relates how the provost, on his way to church, saw
a number of people going towards the Saltmarket. Suspecting
a conventicle he sent a Mr. Lees with the town's officers to
arrest the preacher and principal hearers. In the house Lees
found " not many men, but great multitudes of women." After
some scuffle he found it necessary to go for help, but on reaching
the street he was set upon by some hundreds of women, who
pelted him with stones, disarmed him, threw him down, trod
upon him, wounded him in three places on the head, and with
blows and treading under foot, left him for dead. The Arch-
bishop was seriously alarmed at the incident, declaring " it
doth but discover our nakedness, for if the women had beene
repulsed, and men obliged to appeare, it is to be feared this
tumult might have produced more fatall effects ; for I can assure
your lordship we are at their mercy every houre, and how far
the noise and report of this may encourage other disaffected
places I cannot tell."

Glasgow appears to have acquired a reputation for the
holding of these unlawful assemblies. Information reached
the Privy Council that John Hamilton, the town's tenant in
Provand, was in the habit of keeping conventicles. The
magistrates were informed of its displeasure, and, fearing
serious consequences, they ordered Hamilton to be ejected,
his goods and plenishing being retained till his rent was paid. 2

So seriously did the Privy Council regard the position that
in March, 1679, it ordered the magistrates to make up a list
each night of strangers lodging in the city, and hand it
to Lord Ross, the commander of the garrison, on pain of a
fine of a thousand merks. At the same time they were ordered
" to turne out the wyfes and families of all uted ministers,
fugitive and vagrant preachers, intercommuned persones,"

2 Ibid. iii. 258.

384 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

from the city and suburbs, under pain of a fine of 100 sterlin
for each person allowed to remain. 3

A few weeks later the worst fears of the Government were
realized, when open armed rebellion actually broke out. On
the 3rd of May, Archbishop Sharp was dragged from his
carriage and brutally murdered before the eyes of his daughter
on Magus Moor, near St. Andrews. After the deed the mur-
derers, Hackston of Rathillet, John Balfour, alias Burley, and
others, made their way to the west country, stopping their
flight only when they found themselves among friends at Clock-
burn, near Balfron, in the Campsie Hills. They took part in an
armed conventicle on Fintry Craigs on i8th May, and after
consulting with Donald Cargill, formerly minister of the Glasgow
Barony, 4 resolved upon a general rising against the Govern-
ment. 5

The 29th of May, which was the king's birthday, and also
the day of his Restoration, was specially obnoxious to the Cove-
nanters, who in their manifesto, now drawn up, declared the
keeping of that day as a holiday to be an intrusion " upon the
Lord's prerogative," and a giving of " glory to the creature
that is due to our Lord Redeemer." 6 That day, accordingly,
Sharp's murderers and their friends thought most suitable for
the demonstration which should summon the west country to
arms. At first it was intended to make Glasgow the scene of

3 Priv. Coun. Reg. igth March, 1679. Burgh Records, iii. 264.
* Burgh Records, iii. 117.

5 The spirit and intentions of these men may be clearly seen in their
waitings. One of them, their historian, Russel, protested against the pay-
ment of all feu-duties, land rents, and minister's stipends, and even of tolls
on roads and bridges. Regarding the king he wrote : " Charles Stewart ! a
bull of Bashan, and all his associates are bulls and kine of Bashan. What
would ye judge to be your duty if there were a wild and mad bull running
up and down Scotland, killing and slaying all that were come in his way,
man, wife, and bairn ? Would you not think it your duty, and every one's
duty, to kill him according to that Scripture, Exodus xxi. 28, 29 ?"-
Burton, vii. 220, 221.

6 Wodrow, iii. 67,

A C T

Againft Preachers

A N

ACT

Aaent the

CONVENTICLES, ' POVFXTATVTT

Aadthcfc prcfent at Field Conventici^4 . ^>V^ V JL IM /VIM 1 %

-Edinburgh, MythcStfr 16X5. *

OUR Svveraign Lv'^.Smf&ritg tht
Olijlinancy if the Fanatical Tarty,
tot* noFitkftant!ing all the Lavs formerly
made againft them ; yet they perfevere to fyep
their Houfe and Field Cmrjenticks, Ttkich are
tbt Nurferies and Rem&spjou^es of ReM/iat.
Therefore His Majejly, with Confer* of Hit
Eftatet in 'Parliament, 'Doth Statute and Or-
dtin, That aRfuchas fiall hereafter Treacb
at fuck Fanatical, Hottfe^ or Field Cnnwntidcs :
At alfo, fucb as /hall kt frefent as Hearers at
Fuld Qpy>t#les> (hall ke fimifM by Veoti,
ami Conffrotien of thetr Goods.

OUR SOVERAIGN LORD
and Eflates of Parliament, do here-
by Declare that the giving or raking of
the National Covenant, as explained in
the Year 1658. or of the League and Co-
venant, fo commonly called; or Writing
in defence thereof, or owning of them as
Lawful or Obligatory on thcmfclvcs, or
others, (hall infer the Crime and pains of
Trcafon.

i,i.rr *, P.intrd b y the Hr of A, fa* A<Urf,*, PrioWr to .ht King, nuj* Sacred M.)efty, A*m, D
R .-.-.tiatcdai a J, U,, the 3 3 A bj- Qtvg, Crm,* thr HM S'2 io Tlamn-frnl,

- ~-

ACTS AGAINST COVENANTERS, 1685.

BATTLE OF DRUMCLOG 385

the demonstration, but on learning that a considerable body of
troops had just been moved from Lanark into the city it was
deemed prudent to go no nearer than Rutherglen. Following
this resolution an armed party of eighty horsemen under
Robert Hamilton, brother of the Laird of Preston, marched
into that burgh on the king's birthday, threw the Acts of
Parliament of which they disapproved into the bonfire with
which the occasion was being celebrated, extinguished the bon-
fire itself, read aloud their own declaration and defiance, and
fixed a copy of it to the market cross.

Next day, Friday, as he rode in from Falkirk, Captain John
Graham of Claverhouse, commander of the dragoons in the
disaffected district, received information of these proceedings.
He had heard, on the previous day, that the conventiclers of
eighteen parishes had arranged to meet on the coming Sunday
on Kilbride moor, some four or five miles from Glasgow, and
that they meant to keep the field in an armed body. Waiting
only till Lord Ross came in to command the garrison, he rode
out on the Saturday with a force of a hundred and eighty men,
through Rutherglen, arresting on the way three of the men who
had taken part in the demonstration, along with an intercom-
muned minister named King, and reached Strathaven about
six on the Sunday morning. Still thinking he might come upon
a conventicle, he continued a few miles further to the west-
ward, and at Drumclog, near the scene of Bruce's famous
victory of Loudon Hill, discovered the people he was looking
for. " When we came in sight of them," he says in his dispatch
to Lord Linlithgow, the commander-in-chief, " we found them
drawn up in battle, upon a most advantageous ground, to which
there was no coming but through mosses and lakes. They were
not preaching, and had got away all their women and children.
They consisted of four battalions of foot, and all well armed
with fusils and pitchforks, and three squadrons of horse." 7

7 Barb6's Viscount Dundee, p. 48.

H.G. II. 2B

386

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Twice the dragoons drove back the skirmishers of the
opposite party, only to find their own horses checked by the
bog. Then the whole body of the insurgents advanced upon
them, killing and wounding a considerable number of men, and
laying open the belly of Claverhouse's own sorrel horse with a
pitchfork. The latter saved his standard, and made the best
retirement he could to Glasgow, though the people of Strathaven
tried to cut off his retreat in a pass near that town. 8 Among
the dead on the field was Claverhouse's own kinsman, Cornet
Graham, whom the conventiclers, mistaking the body for that
of his chief, mutilated by cutting off the nose, tongue, ears,
and hands, and scattering the brains on the ground. Of the
seven dragoons captured, five were granted their lives and
allowed to depart. This greatly incensed Mr. Hamilton, who
had assumed command of the Covenanters, and had ordered
before the battle that no quarter should be given, and on his
return from the pursuit he settled the fate of one of the others
by killing him himself on the spot. 9

In Glasgow immediate steps were taken to resist the attack
with which it was expected the Covenanters would follow up
their victory. Barricades were erected, of carts, timber, and
any other materials available, in each of the four streets con-
verging on the cross, and half of the troops were made to stand
to their arms all night. The insurgents, however, made no
attack till next day. The first news was brought by Captain
Creighton, who, with six dragoons, had been sent out at day-
break to watch the approaches to the city. About ten o'clock
he reported that the Covenanters were in sight, and had
divided into two bodies. One of these, under Hamilton,
marched along the Gallowgate : the other, hoping to take the
royalists' position in the flank, took the more circuitous roul

8 Barbe, p. 49, Letter of Claverhouse to Linlithgow. Napier, Memoric
of Dundee, ii. 222.

9 Ibid. p. 52. Burton, vii. 228, Faithful Contending Displayed, 201,

BATTLE AT GLASGOW CROSS 387

by the Drygate and the College. The two attacks, however,
were badly timed. When the force that came at Creighton's
heels, along the Gallowgate, reached the barricade, it was met
with a volley which at once threw it into confusion, and the
soldiers, leaping the obstruction, had no difficulty in driving
their assailants out of the town. They had time to do this and
return to their station before the force descending the High
Street could come upon the scene. That force was met in the
same fashion, and forced to fall back, but it did so in some order,
and rallied in a field behind the Cathedral, where it remained
undisturbed till five o'clock in the afternoon. It then retired
to Tollcross Moor, and presently, finding that Claverhouse was
in pursuit, it continued its retreat to Hamilton.

Claverhouse, considering the Covenanters' rearguard of
cavalry too strong for him, fell back on Glasgow, and, in the
words of Wodrow, " my Lord Ross and the rest of the officers
of the King's forces, finding the gathering of the country people
growing, and expecting every day considerable numbers to
be added to them, and not reckoning themselves able to stand
out a second attack, found it advisable to retire eastward."

The rebellion now became rapidly formidable. Encouraged
by their success at Drumclog, and taking it for a sign that the
Lord had at last " bared his right arm for the destruction of the
Amalekites," the disaffected folk flocked to join the little
army in such numbers that in a day or two there were five
thousand men in the field. The number is said even to have
reached ten thousand, though it fluctuated constantly.

To meet the menace, and put an end to the insurrection as
speedily and humanely as possible, the government got together
an effective army, which was placed under the command of the
Duke of Monmouth, who was known in Scotland as Duke of
Buccleuch, from his marriage with the heiress of the Scotts.

Meanwhile the leaders of the Covenanters were spending
their time in useless disputations. No attempt was made to

3 88

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

organize their followers under military discipline. Rol
Hamilton, the commander-in-chief, held that position becaus
his doctrines were more extreme than those of anyone els
He had no military experience, but the insurgents gloried in th(
thought that their reliance was placed, not in any arm of flesh,
but in a higher power. The dissensions in their councils wei
further increased by the arrival of John Welch, a clergyman,
and great-grandson of John Knox, who brought a body oi
followers from Ayrshire. Welch had shown some desire tc
bring about a compromise with the " indulged " ministers,
a desire which, in the eyes of the fanatics, was a sin sufficienl
to bring the curse of Heaven upon the whole undertaking,
they lay on the south side of the Clyde at Bothwell Bridge
these two parties devoted themselves to mutual recrimination.
The moderate party drew up a declaration of their views, an<
the extremists appointed a day of humiliation.

In the midst of their disputes, on 22nd June, news reach<
them that Monmouth's army was at hand. Even then Hamil-
ton made no effort to arrange his forces, but devoted himself
to superintending the erection of a huge gibbet, with some
cart-loads of rope piled around it, in preparation for completing
the vengeance of the Lord upon the enemy about to be deliver*
into his power.

In such circumstances the conflict could be expected to end
only in one way. For a time Hackston of Rathillet, with a
few determined followers, held the gate in the high centre oi
the bridge ; but when their powder and ball were exhausted,
and no more could be had, there was nothing for it but to retire.
Monmouth's men then filed across with little opposition. To
prevent carnage the good Duchess Anne of Hamilton is said
to have sent a request to the victorious general that he should
not disturb " the game in her woods." But in the flight and
pursuit, which extended for miles across country, some four
hundred Covenanters were slain and twelve hundred taken

BATTLE OF BOTHWELL BRIDGE 389

prisoner. Of these last two only, both clergymen, were
executed at once, and five others afterwards paid the death
penalty on Magus Moor. The rest, being too numerous for
the prisons, were penned in the Greyfriars churchyard at
Edinburgh, whence some were released on giving security that
they would keep the peace, and the remainder were shipped to
the plantations.

Thus ended another chapter of a drama in which Glasgow,
by reason of its situation, played a conspicuous part. Of the
city's expenses in connection with the campaign some account
is given in a minute of the Town Council of gth August, 1679 :
" Ordaines Johne Goveane to have ane warrand for the sowme
of three thousand twa hundreth and alevine pundis Scotis,
payit for the charges and expensses bestowed be the toune on
the souldiers at the barracadis, provisioune to their horssis,
and spent on intelligence and for provisioune sent be the toune
to the King's camp at Hammiltoun and Bothwell, and for
interteaning the lord generall quhen he come to this burgh, and
the rest of the noblemen and gentlemen with him, and for
furnishing of baggadge horrsis to Loudon Hill, Stirling, and
to the camp at Bothwell, and utherwayes conforme to the
particular compt thereof." 10 Among minor losses was 466
135. 4d. which the town found it necessary to forego of the
rent of the Green, which had been " almost all eaten and de-
stroyed " during the rebellion, and 450 similarly forgiven to the
Merchants' Hospital, because the Hospital's tenants in the
Craigs had had their corn and straw destroyed and eaten and
so could pay no rent.

Meanwhile, following the murder of Archbishop Sharp,
Alexander Burnet was translated from Glasgow to the primacy
at St. Andrews, and Arthur Ross, Bishop of Argyll, was
promoted to his place.

10 Burgh Records, in. 269, 277, 278, 299.

CHAPTER XXXII

IN THE LAST YEARS OF CHARLES II.

THE next step in the political drama of the West of Scotland
was taken by a man who had a close connection with Glasgow.
Donald or Daniel Cargill has been already mentioned in connec-
tion with the murderers of Archbishop Sharpe. He was the
eldest son of Cargill of Hatton, had been appointed minister
of the Barony Parish, in succession to the famous Zachary Boyd,
as long previously as 1655, but na d been ejected in 1662 for his
rhetorical " rebuking " of King Charles. Since then he had
attained note as one of the fieriest of the field preachers in the
lowlands and west country, and had been among the most out-
standing of the Covenanting host who engaged against the
King's forces at the battle of Bothwell Bridge. Just a year after
that battle, along with another leader of the movement, Henry
Hall of Haughhead, Cargill was at Queensf erry concerting a fresh
manifesto against the Government, when the meeting w<
surprised, and Hall was captured with the draft of the docu-
ment in his pocket. Cargill himself escaped, and, along with
another well-known field preacher, Richard Cameron, completed
the composition. This was nothing less than a declaration oi
open war against the King and Government. After alluding t(
the acts of Charles as " perjury and usurpation in church
matters, and tyranny in matters civil," it proceeds : "Although
we be for governments and governors such as the Word
of God and our Covenant allows yet we for ourselves and
all that will adhere to us as the representative of the true

390

CARGILL EXCOMMUNICATES CHARLES II. 391

Presbyterian Kirk and Covenanted Nation of Scotland, consid-
ering the great hazard of lying under such a sin any longer, do
by these presents disown Charles Stewart, that has been reigning,
or rather tyrannizing, as we may say, on the throne of Britain
these years bygone, as having any right title, or interest in the
said crown of Scotland for government, as forfeited several years
since by his perjury and breach of Covenant both to God and
His Kirk, and usurpation of his crown and royal prerogatives
therein, and many other breaches in matters ecclesiastic, and
by his tyranny and breach of the very leges regnandi in matters
civil. For which reason we declare that several years since he
should have been denuded of being king, ruler, or magistrate,
or of having any power to act, or to be obeyed as such. As also
we, being under the standard of our Lord Jesus Christ, Captain
of Salvation, do declare a war with such a tyrant and usurper,
and all the men of his practices, as enemies to our Lord Jesus
Christ and His cause and covenant." The document concludes
by disowning the Duke of York, " that professed papist," and
protesting against his succession to the crown. 1

At the head of a small armed party, some twenty in number,
Cargill and Cameron, on the anniversary of the battle of Both-
well Bridge, rode into the town of Sanquhar, where Cameron
read the document and fastened it to the cross. Under the
name of the " Sanquhar Declaration " this was used afterwards
by the Privy Council and its officers, civil and military, as a test
of the loyalty of suspected persons. If a man refused to disown
the Sanquhar Declaration it was naturally concluded that he
was a rebel and a danger to the country, and many suffered the
extreme penalty in consequence.

Cargill himself went further. Convening a congregation in
the Torwood near Larbert, he solemnly excommunicated and
delivered up to Satan, King Charles the Second, and his brother
James, Duke of York, " with several other rotten malignant

1 Wodrow, iii. 213 note.

392

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

enemies." Shortly afterwards, with a well-armed party of some
seventy horse and foot, commanded by Hackston of Rathillet,
Cargill and Cameron were overtaken among the swampy fast-
nesses of Ayr's Moss near Muirkirk. There they put up a stiff
fight, and, though Cameron was killed and Hackston carried off
to trial and execution at Edinburgh, most of the party escaped
among the bogs of the region. Cargill himself was shortly after-
wards arrested at Covington mill in Clydesdale, and, after sternly
defying his judges at Edinburgh, shared Hackston's fate.

Meanwhile Glasgow took its part in the entertainment of
the King's brother, the Duke of York, whose visit to Scotland
so excited the vituperation of Cargill and his friends. In the
Glasgow records the Duke is consistently named by his Scottish
title, Duke of Albany. 2

While the English parliament was discussing the question of
this prince's future it was considered advisable to remove him
to a distance, and he was accordingly sent to Scotland to repre-
sent his brother as Lord High Commissioner The more modern
part of the Palace of Holyrood House is said to have been built
for his accommodation to the designs of Sir William Bruce of
Kinross, the architect of the Merchants' House of which the
beautiful steeple still stands in Glasgow Briggate. There, with
his wife, the gracious Mary of Este, and his daughter, who was
afterwards to become Queen Anne, the Duke did his best to win
the goodwill of the people, and restore the glories of the Scottish
court. While James played tennis and golf with the nobles and
gentry, the Duchess won the hearts of their wives by entertain-
ing them to tea, a luxury which was then first brought to
Scotland by the royal party. 3

Glasgow Town Council made its own contribution to the
gaiety of the little court by sending the Duke a gift of French
wine " of the grouth 1680 ; " 4 and when James came to Glasgow

2 Burgh Records, ist March, 1681. 3 Archaologia Scotica, i. 499.

4 Burgh Records, 25th June, 1681 : i8th Feb. 1682.

DUKE OF YORK IN GLASGOW 393

in October every effort was made to give him a hearty welcome.
The whole Council waited on him with the magistrates, the
handsomest young men of the town formed a bodyguard with
partizans, and a proclamation was sent out warning the inhabi-
tants to light bonfires at the head of each close when they should
be directed to do so by the ringing of the town's bell. 5

The Duke was entertained in Provost Bell's house on the
south side of Briggate, to the west of Saltmarket, and the wines,
confections, and provisions used upon the occasion, with the
gold and silver boxes in which the burgess tickets were presented
to his royal highness and his attendants, the drink money to
the Duke's servants, and other expenses, amounted to the sum
of 4001 I2s. Scots. 6

During his stay of some two years and a half in Scotland,
James, with his family, appears to have won golden opinions.
On many occasions he showed humanity towards the " phana-
tiques," as the extreme Covenanters were called, 7 and to prevent
the impoverishment of Scotland by the sending of Scots money
out of the country for the purchase of fine cloths he secured
the passing of Acts by the Privy Council and Parliament for
the encouragement of trade and manufactures, and induced
a company to establish a cloth factory at Newmills. 8 The
esteem in which he was held may be judged from the fact that
his birthday was celebrated with even more cordiality than that
of the King, 9 and it has been suggested that the goodwill secured
at that time played no little part in gaining support for the
Stewart cause in the Jacobite risings of the following century.
The Duke and his family left Scotland finally on 15 th May, 1682.
A year later Glasgow paid 20 for a portrait of his royal highness
to be hung in the council room of the Tolbooth. 10

5 Ibid, ist Oct. 1 68 1. 6 Ibid. 8th Oct. 1681 and note.

7 Fountainhall's Decisions, passim.

8 Chambers's Domestic Annals, ii. 410.

9 Fountainhall, Historical Observes, 49. 10 Burgh Records, isth Oct. 1682.

394

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

The example of Edinburgh in setting up a cloth factory
promptly followed by Glasgow, where three merchants, Jol
Corse, Andrew Armour, and Robert Burne, set up an establij
ment for the making of dimities, fustians, and " striped
miliones." Urging the advantage of their enterprise to tl
country in retaining money which would otherwise be spem
abroad for these commodities, they obtained the authority oi
the Privy Council to name their work a manufactory,
thus secure the privileges accorded by Act of Parliament. 1

At the same time other industries which Edinburgh n<
touched were being successfully developed in Glasgow. At tl
corner of the " new street/* Candleriggs, and the new wyn<
Bell Street, a company of four merchant burgesses feued froi
the town a block of ground, and built on it the great Western
Sugar-house or refinery, while an adjoining building in Bell
Street was known as the North Sugar-house, and also carrie
on a thriving industry.

The Town Council itself was by no means slack in pushing
forward enterprises for the public benefit. At a later day the
exploiting of the rich seams of coal underlying the lands on the
south side of the river was to make the fortunes of more t]
one enterprising family, but, while the coal measures of Gorl
were in possession of the town itself, the working of them appe*
to have been carried on at extravagant expense. In Augu<
1680, Patrick Bryce was only induced to sink a new pit " f(
furnishing the toune with coallis " by receiving a discharge f(
a debt of six hundred merks he owed the town, as well as fc
forty-eight pounds rent he owed for a crop on the Green, ant
10 sterling for grazing ground, while for his " furthe
encouragement " he was also paid 500 merks in cash. 2

To judge from repeated remissions of rent such as tfa
to Partick Bryce and to cultivators on previous occasions wh(
the town was subject to military occupation and the like,

1 Priv. Coun. Reg. 23rd Nov. 1682. z Burgh Records, 28th Aug. 1680.

FORMING THE NEW GREEN 395

public possession of land by Glasgow was never a profitable
enterprise. Yet throughout the latter part of the seventeenth
century the city fathers persevered indomitably in acquiring
plot after plot of ground to add to the common on the further
side of the Molendinar and along the bank of the Clyde, which
remains to-day the oldest of the city's public parks. That
ground was known as the New Green, to distinguish it from the
Old Green, which extended along the river side westward from
the Molendinar to the Broomielaw. The Town Council had
parted with these lands beyond the Molendinar light-heartedly
enough when it came into possession of them after the
Reformation in place of their former owner, the Archbishop.
Now, a century later, as if seized with land hunger, the magis-
trates lost no opportunity of buying back the ground, and
painfully acre after acre was added to the public possession. 3
A fair enough price was paid for the land. Thus Robert Rae
received four thousand merks for ten acres, the sum including
a small amount due for rent by the town, and Thomas Crawford
got 1800 merks for four acres, the amount including repayment
of a fine taken from him " quhen James Campbell was provost." 4
The town itself duly laid down these new possessions in grass,
and some idea of the agricultural costs of the time may be
gathered from the fact that 164 133. 4d. was paid for ploughing
and harrowing forty-eight acres. 5

The magistrates of those years were evidently shrewd busi-
ness men. They made an effort to recover from the Earl of
Argyll the 10,000 Scots which had been lent to his father, the
notorious " Glied Marquess." The money had been subscribed
by the burgesses as long ago as 1635 for the endowment of the
Blackfriars Kirk when that kirk was taken over by the town
from the University. It was the custom of the time in Scot-
land, before the days of banks, to entrust such church moneys

3 Glasgow Water Supply (1901), App. p. 28.

4 Burgh Records, i8th March, 1682. 5 Ibid. i6th July, 1681.

396

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

on loan to substantial persons who could be relied upon to pa]
the interest and repay the capital when required. But the
Marquess, though head of the Covenanting party, and profus
in religious professions, appears to have done neither, and wh<
he was executed for his misdeeds after the Restoration he
still owing the money. In consequence the Blackf riars Kirk We
for years without a minister, its duties being undertaken by tl
other ministers of the town. The burden upon these ministe
having, however, become too great, and the appointment of
incumbent having become urgent, the magistrates applied t(
the Marquess' son, the Earl of Argyll, for repayment of the debt.
At the same time they asked repayment of 10,000 merks, wi1
interest, which had been lent to the Marquess out of the fun<
of Hutchesons' Hospital. 6 In reply the Earl argued that, as hii
father's estates had been forfeited, the debt was now really due
by the Government. As for himself, the estates which had
restored to him were a gift of the royal bounty, free from an;
burden, so that by no law or reason could he be held liable f(
the debts mentioned in the town's letter to him. The magi<
trates naturally refused to accept such evasion, and proceede
to urge their claims both in Edinburgh and in London, bul
the effort met with no success, and, till the present day, th(
loans have never been repaid. 7

In the case of another debt the city fathers were more for-
tunate. The Archbishop, Arthur Ross, had borrowed from the
town shortly after his appointment the sum of three thousanc
merks. By way of repayment he sold to the magistrates f(
a similar sum the arrears of teinds of the enclosed lands in an<
about the city which had not been collected for a number oi
years, and he authorized the Council to secure the payment oi
these by the heritors and possessors either in the town's nam<
or his own. It may be presumed that in this instance th<

6 Burgh Records, 2ist May, iGSi.

7 Ibid. 2ist May and 25th June, 1681.

TITLE OF LORD PROVOST 397

entire debt, with perhaps something to the bargain, was duly
recovered. 8

About the same time occur the first evidences of the chief
magistrate of Glasgow being called Lord Provost. Edinburgh
had attained this dignity several years previously. Sir Andrew
Ramsay, provost of Edinburgh from 1654 till 1657 and from
1662 till 1673 obtained from Charles II the title of Lord Provost. 9
The title does not appear in use in Glasgow till 1681, and figures
first in a curious connection. The authorities of the
University had found difficulty in dealing with certain dis-
disorders among the students, and though they had, jealously,
more than once proclaimed their right to an independent juris-
diction, had been glad to accept the help of the civic power in
restoring discipline and expelling the disturbers. By way of
thanks the Principal, A. E. Wright, wrote a letter which the
Town Council duly recorded in its minutes, in which the provost
is directly addressed as "My Lord," and referred to as " your
lordship." 10 Responding with vigour, the city fathers asked for
a list of the recalcitrant students and their lodgings in the town,
in order that they might be bound over to keep the peace, or
removed from the burgh. They also, at request of the masters
of the college, ordered that all billiard tables near the college
should either be removed, or that no students be allowed to play
at them. 1 After that occurrence the title of Lord Provost was
used intermittently. 2

Whether spurred by this new dignity or not, Glasgow shortly
afterwards made a further bid for honour. When the rolls were
called at the meeting of the first parliament of King James VII.
in 1685, the provost, John Johnstone of Clachrie, who was also
the parliamentary representative sent up by the burgh,

8 Ibid. 6th June, 1681.

9 Chambers 's Traditions of Edinburgh, ed. 1929, p. 32, footnote.
10 Burgh Records, 2ist Dec., 1680.

1 Burgh Records, ist March, 1681. z Ibid, ist Oct. 1683.

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

demanded precedence before the burghs of Aberdeen, Stirli]
Linlithgow, and St. Andrews, which had previously rank<
above his city on the rolls. 3

While jealous of its dignity in such matters, Glasgow coi
tinued to be most generous to other communities when th(
required help. Thus in 1682 the Town Council subscribed ^
Scots towards the building of a stone bridge over the Ness
Inverness, and a like amount towards the erection of bridge
over the Clyde and the Duneaton near Abington. 4 It al<
arranged for a collection to be taken in the city churches fc
the repair of the harbour at Burntisland. 5 Again, in respon*
to a " supplication " from the magistrates of Dunbarton, il
arranged to make an organized collection through the town t<
help the building of a bridge over the Leven. In this case the
stipulation was made that in return the people of Glasgow an<
their goods should be entitled to free passage over the brid^
without payment of tolls. 6 And yet again, after the burnii
of Kelso in 1684, the Town Council directed the magistrate
and ministers to have a door-to-door collection made to h(
the rebuilding of the Tweedside town. 7

At the same time the city fathers did not neglect the mom
ments of the past within their own gates, and contributed foi
hundred merks towards the repair of " the consist orial court al
the west end of the High Kirk " one of the two western towei
of the Cathedral which were so mistakenly demolished by tl
" restorers " of i859. 8

Regard for intellectual interests also is to be gathered froi
the fact that the Town Council subscribed eight rex dollars fc

3 Act. Part. Scot. viii. 455. 4 Burgh Records, 4th May, 1682.

5 Ibid, igth June. 6 Ibid. 5th May, 1683.

7 Ibid. 26th July, 1684. Before the proceeds of this collection could
handed over a considerable conflagration occurred in Glasgow itself, and
application to the Privy Council, permission was granted to retain the monc
for the relief of the people at home thus made destitute.

8 Ibid. 26th June, 1684.

MASTERS OF THE REVELS 399

the publication by the Rev. William Geddes of his Memoriale
Historicum and another book, perhaps The Saint's Recreation,
printed at Edinburgh in 1683 . 9 Geddes had been minister
of Wick, but had resigned because of his objection to take
the Test, and seems to have taken to literary work as a
profession.

At the same time care of the poor at home and of the unfor-
tunate abroad continued to receive attention. Arrangements
were made with the Dean of Guild and the Merchants' House
to build " a large stane lodging for the use of the poor " at the
corner of Trongate and Saltmarket, on waste ground unbuilt on,
" by any who had interest therein " since the last fire. 10 And in
1681 sums of 200 Scots and 10 sterling were subscribed for
the relief of Christian prisoners held in slavery by the Turks.
This last appears to have been a fashionable charity of the time.
Several instances have been cited in previous chapters. In the
latest case the money was paid to a certain Francis Polanus,
" to relieve his twa brethern and a sister out of slavery," and,
notwithstanding the statement that he had " made the same
appear to be true by certificates he produced," one cannot help
a lurking suspicion of the good faith of Francis and others of
his kind. 1

An imposition of yet more obvious sort was the patent
which had been given in 1673 to Edward Fountain of Lochhill
and Captain James Fountain, his brother, to be " Masters of
the Revels " in Scotland. On the strength of their patent the
brothers demanded fees for authorizing public shows, balls,
lotteries, and other entertainments. Apparently they had
demanded fees from the Glasgow vintners for the games allowed
in their houses, and, failing payment, had taken out letters of
horning against these townsmen. In June 1682 the Town

9 Ibid. lyth May, 1684.

10 Burgh Records, soth Sept. 1682.

1 Ibid, aoth April and 25th Nov. 1681.

400 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Council compounded the matter by paying the precious Mast
of the Revels the sum of 240 Scots. 2

Yet another payment which throws curious light on the life
of the time is that of 5 sterling " to the montebank for cutting
off umquhill Archibald Bishop's legg." A mountebank was a
charlatan who mounted a bench or platform in the market-place
and undertook to perform surgical operations and cure diseases.
From the fact that the patient in the Glasgow case is described
as " umquhill," or deceased, it would appear that the mounte-
bank's skill on this occasion had been somewhat less than equal
to his effrontery. 3

A more reputable practitioner appears to have been Duncan
Campbell, who, on the strength of a certificate from the majority
of the surgeons in the town, as to his dexterity and success in
" sounding " and in cutting for the stone, was appointed to cut
the poor in place of Evir McNeill, who had become unfit through
infirmity. 4

Not less interesting for its light on the manners of the time
was a payment of 128 Scots for rosa solis and chestnuts given
by the magistrates to some unnamed persons in 1684. The
gift alludes to a luxury now forgotten. The rosa solis was the
common sundew of the Scottish moors. From it was made an
agreeable liqueur known as Rossoli, so the purchase made for
presentation purposes by the Glasgow bailies of Charles II. 's
time was something of the nature of the walnuts and wine that
figure on the dinner-tables of to-day. 5

2 The Fountains had forced some six thousand persons throughout the
country to compound with them, and had thus realized about ^16,000. Priv
Coun. Reg. 22nd July, 1684.

3 Burgh Records, i3th March, 1683. 4 Ibid. 2yth March, 1688.

5 Ibid. 23rd Aug. 1684. The liqueur alluded to was made thus. Four
handfuls of sundew were infused in two quarts of brandy, and to the infusion
was added a pound and a half of finely pounded sugar, a pint and a half of
milk, and an ounce of powdered cinnamon. The decoction was then strained
through a cloth, and to it were added two grains of musk and half an ounce
of sugar candy. The manufacture of the liqueur might be worth reviving
some of our Highland distilleries at the present day.

' SATAN'S INVISIBLE WORLD DISCOVERED ' 401

A steadily growing demand for information regarding
public events is indicated by the refund to " John Alexander,
post/ 1 of 60 Scots, which he had paid to Robert Mein for the
supply of news letters and gazettes, as well as ten merks for
half a barrel of herring given to Donald McKay for his trouble
in despatching the news sheets. 6

Alongside of these evidences of a generous outlook on life
on the part of the city fathers must be set a mental attitude
which reflects less credit upon certain members of the community
who might have been looked to for greater enlightenment.
Little need be thought of vulgar rumours of apparitions being
seen in and about the city, and of strange voices and wild cries
being heard in the night about such lonely places as the Dean-
side well. These are the common apparatus of ghaists and
bogles current among the ignorant even to our own time in
every part of the country. But more significance must be
attached to the mental attitude of a book written by the occu-
pant of a chair in Glasgow University. George Sinclair,
Professor of Philosophy at the College of Glasgow, was the
author of Satan's Invisible World Discovered. The character
of the work may be gathered from its sub-title, " A Choice
Collection of Modern Relations, proving evidently, against the
Atheists of this present age, that there are Devils, Spirits,
Witches, and Apparitions, from authentic records and attesta-
tions of witnesses of undoubted veracity." The book was
granted copyright for eleven years by the Privy Council, and
continued to be reprinted as late as the year i8i4. 7 In the mind
of Sinclair and a large body of the public of that time a man was
an " Atheist " if he did not believe in the existence of appari-
tions, witches, spirits, and devils.

Such were some of the preoccupations of the minds of the

6 Burgh Records, soth Sept. 1682.

7 Reg. Priv. Coun. 26th Feb. 1685. Chambers's Domestic Annals, ii. 435,

475-

H.G.II. 2C

402

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

citizens of Glasgow as the reign of Charles II. was drawing t<
a close. All the time there remained the constant disturbing
element which had bred trouble in Scotland for a hundred years.
As has been well said, " Men, in trying to make each oth<
Episcopalians and Presbyterians, almost ceased to be Christ-
ians." To us, amid the conditions of to-day, the ostensible
points then at issue do not appear to be so vital. The introduc-
tion of a liturgy, regarding which so much trouble was made
in the days of Charles I., was nothing new in Scotland. John
Knox himself drew up and introduced a liturgy, the " Forms of
Prayer and Catechism," which was even translated into Gaelic
by Bishop Carswell of Argyll. Nor was the government of the
Church by bishops much different from its supervision by the
" superintendents " appointed as overseers of ecclesiastical
affairs in all districts of the country by Knox and his friends.
Even the method of selecting and installing the ministers
appears to have been little different in the two communions.
Here are the proceedings which were followed in inducting a
minister in Glasgow in the year before the death of Charles II. :
" The proveist, baillies, and counsell of the said burgh being
conveened, and, taking to their consideration their calling and
presenting of ane able and qualified person for serving the cure
as ane of this burghs ordinary ministeris, now vacant throw the
transportation of Mr. John Gray, late minister here, from this
place to Aberlady, they all, with ane unanimous consent, being
assured and weill informed of the qualificatioune, good lyfe,
and conversatioune of Mr. John Saige, student of divinity, has
called, nominat, and presented, and hereby calls, nominats, and
presents the said Mr. John Saige, to be ane of the ordinary
ministeris of this burgh in place of the said Mr. John Gray, and
to the ordinary stipend payable yeirly to ane of the ministeris
within the said burgh, serving the cure ther, quhilk is, yearly,
ane thousand pounds money of stipend and four scoir pounds of
bows maill, to be paid at twa termes in the yeir, Whitsonday

THE ROOTS OF DISCORD 403

and Martimes, be equall portions, beginnand the first termes
payment therof at the term of Whitsonday j m vj c and eighty
fy ve yeiris for the half yeir immediately preceeding ; and wills
and desyres the most reverend father in God, Arthur, by the
mercy of God archbishop of Glasgow, to try and examine the
literatur, qualificatioune, good lyfe and conversation, of the
said Mr. John Sage, and, being found qualified, to admitt and
receive him to be ane of the ministeris of this burgh for exercing
the function of the ministrie therin, and to give him collation,
institution, and all uther sort of ecclesiastick ordouris requisit
for that effect, and to take his oath for giving dew obedience to
his grace the said archbishop, his ordinary, in forme as effeiris ;
and ordains the clerk to subscryve and give furth to the said
Mr. John Sage ane extract of thir presents, quhilk is declared to
be als sufficient as if ther wer a presentatioune drawen wp and
subscrivit be the saids magistratis and counsell themselves." 8
In view of the slightness of difference in the actual practice
of the two communions, the roots of the discord must be looked
for elsewhere. Perhaps it lay in the proclivity, already pointed
out, of the Church of Calvin to follow the teaching of the Old
Testament rather than the New, and a consequent feeling of
the ministers that, like Elijah and the other prophets of the
Jews, they should be subject to no human authority ; and should
exercise power over public and private affairs directly in the
name of God. A similar power had been claimed by the Roman
churchmen of an earlier day, the priests urging that they were
not amenable to the secular law, but were subject only to the
direction of the Pope and the courts of Rome. King Robert the
Bruce and other Scottish kings strongly resented that early
attempt .to set up an imperium in imperio, which made effective
government impossible, and they crushed its pretensions with
a firm hand. In like circumstances the Stewart kings of the
seventeenth century saw a menace to good government in the

8 Burgh Records, 23rd Aug. 1684.

404 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

claim of the Genevan churchmen to an absolute domination
the affairs of public and private life. They were, further,
naturally alarmed when that claim took the form of armed
force, and the fact that it actually succeeded so far as to bring
Charles I. to the block, made the rulers of Scotland after the
Restoration particularly alive to the dangers which might lurk
in the doctrines of men like Cargill and Cameron and Peden the
Prophet. They could not but be confirmed in their opinion by
the formidable armed risings which culminated in the battles of
Rullion Green and Bothwell Bridge and Ayr's Moss ; and when,
in 1680, the authors of the Sanquhar Declaration threw down
the gauntlet of open war, there could no longer be any question
as to what must be done.

The answer to that Declaration was the famous Test A
of 1 68 1. This Government measure, along with the oath
imposed on members of parliament which immediately pre-
ceded it, was apparently founded on the first of the English
Test or Corporation Acts then already in existence, which was
only finally repealed in the reign of George IV. 9 The oath
declared it to be " unlawful to subjects, upon pretence of refor-
mation, or other pretence whatsoever, to enter into leagues or
covenants, or to take up arms against the king or those com-
missioned by him " ; it characterized as unlawful and seditious
" all these gatherings, convocations, petitions, protestations, and
erecting and keeping of council tables, that were used in the
beginning of and for carrying out of the late troubles " ; and it
specifically mentioned as unlawful " these oaths, whereof the
one was commonly called The National Covenant, as it was
sworn and explained in the year 1638 and thereafter, and another
entituled A Solemn League and Covenant, . . . taken by and
imposed upon the subjects of this kingdom against the funda-
mental laws and liberties of the same." While the oath was
signed only by the members of the Scots parliament at t

9 Act 13 Carl. II. c. 2 ; 25 Carl. II. c. i ; 9 George IV. c. 17.

4-U

FERGUSSON THE PLOTTER 405

beginning of the session, the "Act anent Religion and the Test "
which that parliament placed upon the statute book had to be
accepted on solemn oath by all persons holding public office
throughout the country. It ran : " I own and sincerely profess
the true Protestant religion contained in the Confession of
Faith received in the first Parliament of King James the Sixth,
and I believe the same to be founded on and agreeable to the
written Word of God. And I promise and swear that I shall
adhere thereto all the days of my lifetime, and shall endeavour
to educate my children therein, and shall never consent to any
change or alteration contrary thereto ; and I disown and
renounce all such practices, whether Popish or fanatic, 10 which
are contrary to or inconsistent with the said Protestant religion
and Confession of Faith/' The Test further included the
assertion " that the King's majesty is the only supreme governor
of this realm over all persons and in all causes, as well ecclesias-
tical as civil." It was to this last statement that the Cove-
nanters in the West of Scotland chiefly took exception. They
held that Christ was the only head of the Church, and that, if
any of the King's acts did not conform to their personal reading
of Scripture, they were entitled to withdraw their allegiance
and make war upon the earthly monarch.

The Government was further stirred to action by the dis-
covery of the Ryehouse and Assassination plots in England.
These plots, mainly organized by a Scotsman, Robert Fergusson,
" the Plotter," proposed to remove the danger of a Roman
Catholic, in the person of the Duke of York, succeeding to the
throne, by deliberate murder of the Duke and King Charles
himself as they passed a certain place. Fergusson had actually
arranged the place for the assassination, had consecrated a
blunderbus for the purpose, and, as a clergyman, had composed
a sermon to be preached after the happy deliverance. He was
on one of his frequent visits to Edinburgh when the plot was

10 The rebels of the west country were commonly alluded to as " fanatics."

406

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

discovered, and only escaped the hue and cry by taking refu{
in the tolbooth itself, where the keeper of the prison was his
friend. Following the discovery a number of Scotsmen whc
had been in touch with Fergusson were arrested and put t<
the torture in Edinburgh. Campbell of Cessnock, a support<
of the Earl of Argyll, was brought to trial, but acquitted ;
while Baillie of Jerviswood, though his association with the
plotters in London was almost certainly innocent, was found
guilty and hanged.

In the West of Scotland the treatment of suspected persons
became more rigorous. For weeks a court sat in Glasgow t(
inquire into the loyalty of suspected persons. Its president w<
the Hon. John Drummond of Lundin, successively Treasure
Depute and Secretary of State for Scotland, and afterwan
Earl of Melfort, and much interesting information as to the
temper of the people and their treatment by Government at the
time is to be found in the reports which he sent daily to the
Marquess of Queensberry at Dumfries. The proceedings appear
to have been orderly, and most of the breakers of the law, chiefly
in the countenancing of conventicles and harbouring of dis-
affected persons, were dealt with by fines. Among those mulcted
in this way were Sir George Maxwell of Pollock and the Laird of
Duchal. 1 But there were also more serious cases. In Glasgow
on igth March, 1684, as described by Woodrow, "five worthy
and good men were executed at the cross." One had
present at Ayr's Moss, another, a Glasgow tailor, could give n<
satisfactory answer " anent Bothwell and the bishop's death, "
and all five were indicted with taking part at Bothwell Bridj
and with being " accessory to other insurrections, and reset an<
converse." The printed defence of one of the accused, Jol
Main, ran " that he was at Bothwell, but only as an onlooker
that he had conversed with one, Gavin Wotherspoon, who w<

1 Historical Manuscripts Commission Report on Drumlanrig MSS. oj Dt
of Buccleuch, ii. 175-196.

COVENANTERS EXECUTED IN GLASGOW 407

asserted to be a rebel but not proven one ; that indeed he had
not termed Bothwell a rebellion, neither would he renounce the
covenants ; that his silence as to the King's authority could
never in law be made treason ; that as to King Charles I. his
death, he knew nothing about it ; and as to the archbishop's,
he would not judge of that action." The answers of the other
men, says the historian, were much the same as these, and it
was chiefly upon their silence when questioned on the three last
points that they were condemned. " All of them died in
much comfort, peace, and the utmost cheerfulness," and were
buried in the High Church yard, where a memorial stone still
contains their names. At the execution one Gavin Black, from
Monkland, was arrested by the soldiers " upon mere suspicion,
and some tokens of sorrow appearing in him," and put in prison,
and afterwards, failing to give satisfactory answers to inquiries,
was banished to Carolina. And at the burial, James Nisbet, a
relation of one of the men executed, was arrested, and afterwards
shared their fate, being hanged at the Howgate-head near
Glasgow, in June. " He owned Drumclog and Bothwell lawful,
in as far as they were acts of self-defence, and appearances for
the gospel. He refused to renounce the covenants, and to own
the King's authority, as he expressed, in so far as he had made
the work of reformation and covenants, treason. After he was
condemned he was offered his life if he would acknowledge the
King's headship and supremacy over the Church, which they well
knew he would never do." 2 A stone in the wall of Castle Street
near the foot of Garngad Hill marks the burial-place of Nisbet
and other two, James Lawson and Alexander Wood, who
suffered on 24th October 1684.

While these arrests and executions were going on, the author-
ities put into more vigorous effect their measures against the
nonconforming ministers, whom they considered to be chief
agents in fanning the smouldering embers of disaffection and

2 Wodrow, iv. 62-67.

4 o8

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

rebellion. On 22nd April the magistrates of Glasgow sent a
proclamation through the town warning all nonconforming
preachers to leave the burgh within forty-eight hours, and to
remove their families before Whitsunday, " conform to ane act
of his Majesty's privy councell daited the 27th of July 1680."

Such was the state of affairs in the country when an event
occurred which immediately realized the worst fears of the
Government. On 6th February, 1685, King Charles II. died.
Within three months, landing with arms and munitions from
Holland, the Duke of Monmouth in the West of England and
the Earl of Argyll in the West of Scotland raised the standard
of rebellion, and the two kingdoms were plunged once again
into the throes of civil war.

CHAPTER XXXIII

REBELLION AND REVOLUTION.

THE Netherlands were, in the latter part of the seventeenth
century, the chief rival of this country in colonizing enterprise
and naval power. Since the days of Charles I. they had afforded
an asylum to discontented and disinherited persons from Eng-
land and Scotland alike. 1 Charles II. himself had found a
retreat there while he waited an opportunity to recover the
double crown from the Government of Oliver Cromwell. The
Netherlands also were the arsenal from which the weapons were
obtained which were used against the Government troops at
the battles of Rullion Green, Drumclog, Bothwell Bridge, and
Ayr's Moss. Accordingly, the arms and men were both ready
there when the accession of Charles II. 's brother, the Duke of
York and Albany, as King James VII. and II., seemed to offer a
favourable opportunity for another attempt. The new king was
a Roman Catholic, and for that reason unpopular, and the
discontented elements at Amsterdam and the Hague resolved to
seize the chance to effect a revolution without delay. Within
three months of the beginning of the new reign two strong and
fully equipped expeditions sailed from the Dutch ports.

The Earl of Argyll, as we have seen, had pleaded lack of
means as a reason for refusing to repay the money borrowed by
his father from Hutchesons' Hospital and the Town Council of
Glasgow. But lack of means did not prevent him from fitting
out a formidable expedition, with ships and men and ample

1 Coltness Collections. Chambcrs's Domestic Annals, ii. 540.
409

410 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

ess
wo

munitions of war, for a more definite attempt than had yet been
made to overthrow the Government of Scotland. And thus,
while the Duke of Buccleuch and Monmouth, son of Charles II.
and Lucy Walters, with certain pretensions to legitimacy and
a claim to the throne, landed with a force in the south-west of
England, Argyll, at the head of an equally threatening array,
disembarked in his own country, near the disaffected south-
western district of Scotland. The story of that ill-starred
campaign is told with fullness and, for him, unusual fairness
by Lord Macaulay in his history of that time.

Had the Earl been a leader of military ability, like the t
Leslies or Montrose, he might easily have raised an army of
formidable size and determined character from among the
Covenanters of Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, and Galloway, and might
have opened another campaign like that of forty years earlier
which resulted in the overthrow and execution of Charles I.
The very real apprehensions of the Government as to such a
possibility are shown by the fact that, at the news of Argyll's
rebellion, some two hundred Covenanter prisoners then in
Edinburgh were sent to safer keeping in the strong north'
fortress of Dunnottar. 2

But Argyll was no general. Leaving his munitions, wit
small garrison, on one of the islands at the mouth of Loch Ridden
in the Kyles of Bute, he proceeded, with a force of some eighteen
hundred men, to cross Loch Long and march upon Glasgow.
After fording the Water of Leven at Balloch, however, the
rebels came in sight of a strong body of Government troops
posted in the village of Kilmaronock. Argyll was for giving
instant battle, but the expedition was really under the control
of a committee of which Sir Patrick Hume of Marchmont was
the leading spirit, and on his advice it was determined to delay
till night, and then, crossing the Kilpatrick Hills, give the red-
coats the slip, and endeavour to reach the objective at Glasgo

2 Wodrow, iii. 322.

ARGYLL'S INVASION 411

where, it was expected, strong reinforcements would join the
rising. But the night was dark, the guides mistook the track,
and among the bogs and in the darkness many of the Highlanders
took the opportunity of going home. In the morning at Kil-
patrick the Earl found his force reduced to five hundred men.
Perceiving further attempt to be hopeless, he disbanded his
company, and, crossing the Clyde, changed clothes with a
peasant. He had made his way as far as Inchinnan, when his ap-
pearance excited suspicion, and he was seized by some rustics.
He is said to have betrayed himself by the exclamation " Un-
happy Argyll ! " and as a result found himself under strong
guard that night in the tolbooth of Glasgow. Thence, almost
immediately, he was conveyed to Edinburgh, where, on the
warrant of a bygone sentence, he was executed on 30th June.

How Argyll expected to find support or reinforcements in
Glasgow is difficult to understand. It is true that while he,
with three other officers and " ane poor Dutchman," " being all
wounded," lay in the tolbooth, the magistrates expended the
sum of 55 2s. Scots on dressing their wounds and furnishing
them with drugs. 3 But that was no more than a matter of
common humanity. On the accession of King James the magis-
trates had sent the new monarch a most loyal address. 4 At the
news of Argyll's sailing past the Orkneys, three regiments of
Lothian and Angus militia had been quartered in the town, and
the city fathers had themselves equipped a body of eleven
militiamen who were on service for forty-four days. 5

Argyll's invasion was the last armed attempt of any size
made against the Government by the Covenanters in the West
of Scotland. Lord Macaulay has justly said of it, what might
be said of the earlier efforts of the Covenanters at Dunbar and
Both well Bridge, " What army commanded by a debating club
ever escaped discomfiture and disgrace ? " Nevertheless the

3 Burgh Records, loth Aug. 1685. 4 Ibid. i3th March.

5 Ibid. loth Aug.

412

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

alarm which it caused was not the less profound. The Prr
Council protested against the withdrawal of troops to meel
Monmouth's invasion in the south, declaring that not many ol
the rebels had been captured, and that there remained " a
number of fanaticks ready for all mischief upon the fii
occasion." 6

At the end of July, a month after Argyll's rebellion had
suppressed, the prisoners, eight score and seven in number, whc
at the outbreak of hostilities had been sent for safe keeping
Dunnottar, were brought south again, and tried by the Loi
President of the Court of Session and four earls at Leith.
Among those who took the oath of allegiance and were set fr<
were two Glasgow men, John Marshall and David Fergusson
but the greater number, remaining refractory, were sent to the
plantations. 7

It is instructive here to note that, while so many of t]
Covenanters were being shipped out of the country, the Gov(
ment did not object to another much greater body of Dissent*
coming in. The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by the
Government of Louis XIV. is said to have brought some fifty
thousand French Protestant refugees into this country. A
colony of these settled in Edinburgh, where a large building,
known as Little Picardy, was erected for their accommodatioi
and where they established a cambric factory. 8 And no doubt
some of them, like the Huguenot refugees from the Massacre of
St. Bartholomew a hundred years before, made their way to
Glasgow and the West, to help the prosperity of the country
by their skill and industry. 9 In particular the paper-making
industry in Glasgow was started by one of these refuge(

6 Reg. Priv. Coun., 3rd Series, vol. xi.

7 Wodrow, iii. 326.

8 Maitland's History of Edinburgh, p. 215. The spot is commemoral
in the name of Picardy Place.

9 Names like Verel and Pettigrew (Petit croix ?), to be found in the Gh
Directory to-day, probably date from one of these immigrations.

FIRST GLASGOW PAPER MILL 413

Coming to Scotland with his little daughter after the Revoca-
tion of the Edict, Nicholas Desham made a living for a time by
picking up rags in the Glasgow streets, and in time saved enough
to start a paper mill close by the old bridge of Cathcart, where the
work continued to be carried on till near the end of the nine-
teenth century.

The rebellions of Argyll and Monmouth could not but give
the last spear-prick to the exasperation of King James. In
the proclamations of each of these leaders probably both drawn
up by " Fergusson the Plotter " he had even been accused of
poisoning his brother, the late king. It was too much to expect
that the Government should not take the strongest measures
to punish and prevent a repetition of such dangerous treasons.
Accordingly, while Judge Jeffries was sent down to visit with
retribution the supporters of Monmouth in the south-west of
England, measures were redoubled to stamp out the embers of
rebellion in the south-west of the northern kingdom. In the
one case the result was the " bloody assizes " of the notorious
English judge, and in the other the " killing times " which
have left so dark a stain in the Scottish annals. The Cove-
nanters in their day of power had been not less ruthless, and
they were to be equally ruthless again ; 10 but two blacks do
not make a white, and the fines and torturings and military
executions of those " killing times " make one of the most
distressing chapters in the history of the country.

The King himself, though so far away as Whitehall, took a
much more direct and intimate part in the actual government
of Scotland than might be believed in the twentieth century.
Of this an illuminating illustration is afforded by an episode in
which two of the provosts of Glasgow were concerned.

In October 1682 John Barnes was nominated by Archbishop

10 In their treatment of prisoners after the defeat of Montrose at Philip-
liaugh, for instance, and in the " rabbling out " of the episcopal clergy and their
families after the Revolution. Two hundred of these episcopal clergy were
rabbled out in the south-west of Scotland alone.

414

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

Ross to fill the provostship, and he was appointed again ii
1684. Barnes appears to have been a man of rude energy an<
determination, for he proceeded to fill up certain vacancies i]
the Town Council on his own initiative, without the usual pi
cess of nomination by the existing members ; and, in spite
protest by the previous provost, John Bell, he made good the
appointments, and had one of his nominees, who was not eve
a burgess, appointed a magistrate by the Archbishop. Also,
towards the end of his term of office in September 1684, the To^
Council was called upon to pay 6 93. sterling to one Allan Gl<
for a horse he had newly bought that died at Edinburgh," bein$
bursten ryding thither be the provost." By that time Barnt
appears to have been in financial difficulties, and, as Archbishoj
Ross had been translated to St. Andrews to fill the place
Archbishop Burnet, who died on 24th August, he apparently
resolved to play the part of the unfaithful steward, and make the
most of his opportunities before being superseded in the provost-
ship. The Town Council minutes of 26th September record
spate of payments. The keeper of the tolbooth clock and chirm
had his salary raised from 5 to 10 sterling. A contract, at
what looks a very high price, was given to Robert Boyd for buil<
ing a wall to protect the new washing-green on the north si<
of the Cathedral and a bridge beyond the Cowcaddens. Jol
Waddrop, a tanner, was forgiven a debt of 950 merks in con-
sideration of a number of hides that had been taken from hi;
tanning pits to protect houses from a recent fire in Gallowgat<
100 Scots was given to Robert Stirling in consideration of 1<
he had sustained in carrying on the Sub-Dean's mill. Jol
Cumming received 10 sterling on the plea that his tack of the
Green had proved unprofitable through few graziers pasturing
their cattle there. 725 los. was paid to Bailie Anderson foi
plenishing and coal and candle supplied for " the general's "
lodging. In view of the agreement that the librarian at th(
University should be appointed every four years alternately

A PROVOST'S SQUANDERMANIA 415

the college authorities and the Town Council, Mr. James Young,
Professor of Humanity, who within a year had received the
appointment from the college, was granted the post for the
next term of four years, three years in advance. The town clerk,
George Anderson, in addition to his expenses for various errands
on the town's business, was given a douceur of 480 for his
pains, while three clerks in his office received 180 of a gratuity
for their " extraordinar pains." Bailie Graham was paid 223
Scots, of which 40 were for expenses in attending Archbishop
Burnet's funeral, and the rest " for drink spent in his hous be
the magistratis wpon the touns accompt since the twenty eight
of June last." And William Stirling, bailie depute of the
regality, and John Johns, procurator fiscal of the commissariat
of the city, received 25 sterling, for their pains and service and
" their discretioun to the toun and inhabitants." Most glaring
of all, a new tack of the teinds of the Barony was arranged with
Archbishop Ross, entailing a greatly increased sum to be paid by
the city to the prelate, while the deed previously signed by Ross
was ordered to be delivered up to him. As there was no time
to lose over this transaction, John McCuir, writer, was sent post
haste through the country to secure the signatures of the dean
and chapter to this document. Finally, Provost Barnes himself
had apparently been borrowing considerable sums from the
city funds. His debt amounted to 1706 I2S. 6d. This sum
the magistrates and Council very complaisantly agreed to make
over to him as a gift, " taking in their consideration the great
pains and trowble the provest hes bein at in ryding and doing
the touns affairis these twa yeiris. " At the same time, probably
to make the transaction appear less extraordinary, John Wallace,
the deacon-convener, was forgiven a similar debt of 80, " for
his pains and ryding in the touns affairis." x

Two days after the last of these transactions another provost,
John Johnstone of Clathrie, was appointed, and within a month

1 Burgh Records, 26th, 2/th, and 29th Sept. 1684.

416 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

the new Town Council proceeded to deal actively with th
abuses.

Provost Johnstone was a man of substance, the laird o
considerable estates in Nithsdale, and one of the " venturers
who fitted out the Glasgow privateer George for action in th
war with the Dutch of that time. It was no doubt through
his Dumfriesshire connection that he was known to the new
Archbishop, Alexander Cairncross, who had been minister o
Dumfries before being appointed, through the influence of the
Duke of Queensberry, first to the Bishopric of Brechin, and, later
in the same year, to the Archbishopric of Glasgow. All these
three Dumfriesshire men, the Duke, the Archbishop, and the
Provost, were to be visited presently with the royal displeasure for
their lack of complaisance in the arbitrary actions of King James

Meanwhile the Provost lost no time in showing that he had a
mind of his own.

On 27th October the Town Council, in view of the heavy load
of debt with which the city was burdened, resolved to appoint
no regular physician for the poor, stopped the payment of money
to pensioners, and resolved that the magistrates should be
empowered to give no more than half a dollar at a time to any
poor person. It also considered certain abuses of power per-
petrated by the late magistrates, who had given judgment in
actions for debt and had exacted fines without proper trial anc
sentence in court, and it ordered that no magistrate should
determine anything between the town's people above the value
of forty shillings Scots, without proof and sentence in a proper
court. Next, on 4th November the Council dealt with the gift
of 1706 I2s. 6d. that had been made to Provost Barnes,
declared it to be exorbitant and without precedent, and in-
structed the town's treasurer to pursue Barnes for payment of
the amount of his bond. 2

2 The action was decided against Barnes by the Court of Session on 3rd
March. Morrison's Dictionary of Decisions, p. 2515.

THE SEAL OF ALEXANDER CAIRNCROSS,
ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW, 1684-7.

PROSECUTION OF PROVOST JOHNSTONE 417

Provost Johnstone, further, went to Edinburgh and con-
sulted Sir George Lockhart and the other legal advisers of the
town with regard to the other gratuitous payments made by the
late magistrates and Council payments which were bluntly
termed embezzlement. Last and most important of the matters
regarding which this high legal advice was taken was the new
bond granted to Archbishop Ross for 20,000 merks for the tack
of the Barony teinds. By the advice of Sir George Lockhart
and the other lawyers, and with the approval of the Town
Council, an action was raised for the reduction of this tack, the
plea being that 20,000 merks was an exorbitant grassum for
a tack of teinds not worth 500 merks a year, and it was averred
that the tack had been negotiated by Barnes " for his own ends
when he was put in by the archbishop to be provost, and when
he was bankrupt."

In this action Johnstone appears to have made some state-
ments against Archbishop Ross which gave offence to that pre-
late. The latter complained to King James, who took the
statements as an insult to the established order, and by a letter
dated Whitehall, igth March, 1686, directed the Privy Council
to take action in the matter. 3 In consequence Johnstone was
arrested, tried by a committee of the Privy Council with
witnesses, and found guilty " of being accessory to the giving in
of a defamatory bill of suspension to the Lords of Session against
the Lord Archbishop of St. Andrews, and of uttering calumnious
and injurious expressions at several times against His Grace
in relation to the said bill." Therefore, in pursuance of a letter
from the King, the Privy Council turned him out of the magis-
tracy, ordered him on his knees at the bar to crave pardon of
the Archbishop, committed him to the tolbooth, and directed
that, after liberation, he should repair to Glasgow and acknow-
ledge his crime to the Archbishop. At the same time he was
mulcted in the expenses of the action, including 7 sterling to

8 Fountainhall's Decisions, lyth June, 1686.

H.G. II. 2D

418 HISTORY OF GLASGOW

the Lords Secretaries on account of the letters sent down b
the King. 4 Next day, in obedience to an order from the Pri
Council, and the necessary letter from Archbishop Cairnc:
the Glasgow Town Council turned Johnstone out of the prov
ship and reinstalled John Barnes to act as provost till the n
election. 5

The imprisonment of the unlucky provost did not last lo
On 30th June, on the plea that his health was suffering in priso
and upon the intercession of Archbishop Ross himself, he was
set free, and ordered to compear before the magistrates and
Town Council of Glasgow before loth July, and crave pardon
in terms of the decreet, under a penalty of a thousand merks
in case of failure. 6 Accordingly, on 5th July, Johnstone duly
attended before the city fathers, and did " crave pardon for his
cry me and injurie done to his Grace the Archbishop of St.
Andrews. ' ' Obviously the Town Council had dramatic moments
among its experiences.

The arbitrary action of King James in thus displacing
Provost Johnstone, and installing an individual more complai-
sant to his purposes, was not the last high-handed exercise of
the royal authority which Glasgow was to experience. On the
eve of a new election of magistrates in that year, James sent a
letter to the Scottish Council ordering the suspension of all
elections in royal burghs till his further pleasure should be
known, and directing the existing councils to continue meanwhile
in the exercise of their authority. Two months later another
royal letter came down to the Privy Council, directly nominat-
ing not only the provost, magistrates, and town council for the
coming year, but also the dean of guild, deacon-convener, and
deacons and visitors of each of the trades, " being such whom

4 Reg. Priv. Coun. 25th June, 1686.

5 Burgh Records of date.

* The proceedings against Johnstone are detailed in a paper read by Mr.
Andrew Roberts before Glasgow Archaeological Society, i6th Jan. 1890
(Transactions, new series, ii. 34-43).

ARCHBISHOP CAIRNCROSS DEPRIVED 419

his Majesty judges most loyall and ready to promote his service."
By this means Barnes was directly appointed to another term
of office. 7

Archbishop Cairncross was directed to attend at the tolbooth
and see that these instructions were duly carried out. Such
an instruction was itself an infringement of the rights and
authority of the archbishopric which could hardly fail to
rankle in the mind of the prelate. Arbitrary royal acts of
this kind, which were rapidly alienating the general loyalty
of the country, were to exhibit one of their first sinister
results in the case of the Glasgow archbishop. Along with his
patron, the Duke of Queensberry, Cairncross ventured to express
disapproval of certain of the decrees issued by James on the
royal authority alone, without consent of parliament, and was
forthwith deprived of his archbishopric. At the same time the
Duke was deprived of his offices as Lord Justice-General and
Lord High Treasurer of Scotland.

The mandates of which Queensberry and the Archbishop
disapproved were those by which James sought to show favour
to members of his own communion, the Church of Rome. In
order to do this with a show of fairness, James had to include in
his indulgences the people hitherto denounced as conventiclers.
By the most notable of these proclamations he " suspended all
penal and sanguinary laws made against any for nonconformity
to the religion established by law in this our ancient kingdom,"
and allowed all men " to meet and serve God after their own
way and manner, be it in private houses, chapels, or places
purposely hired or built for that use." 8 This royal act, in
which they found themselves indulged along with Roman
Catholics and Quakers, greatly incensed the Covenanters, who
had no wish to see toleration for any form of worship but their
own. Yet it had certain solid results in Glasgow. Upon its

7 Burgh Records, 25th Sept. and i8th Nov. 1686.

8 Wodrow, iv. 226-227.

H.G. II. 2 D 2

420

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

permission the presbyterians in Glasgow proceeded to build
two great public meeting-houses, one at Merkdailly on the south
side of Gallowgate, which ceased to be used in 1690, the other
between the New Wynd and Mains Wynd, south of Trongat*
which was rebuilt as the Wynd Church about 1760. 9

Meanwhile the town, in addition to its own considerabl<
debt, found itself called upon to raise 1200 sterling per annul
as a tax payable to the King, with other dues and charges whic
brought the amount up to 1600 sterling, a very large sum, i]
the value of money at that time, to be raised by a small coi
munity. The stent-masters were therefore sent round to coll(
a tax, and the order was given to sell by auction the houses
and warehouses belonging to the city at " Newport, Glasgow,"
as well as the stores and houses which had been bought by the
town from the defunct Fishing Society. 10 To help the town's
finances the King granted a right to the magistrates to levy
excise duties upon ale and wine four pennies Scots upon ev(
pint of ale, two merks upon every boll of malt, twenty shillinj
on every barrel of mum beer, fifty pounds on every tun of Fren<

9 McUre's Hist. ed. 1830, pp. 60, 61. Burgh Records, 28th Sept. 1687, note.
At the Reformation, when Glasgow had a population of little over 4000, the
city had one church, the Cathedral, with one minister. In 1687 a second
minister was appointed as a colleague. Next the old church of St. Mary
and St. Anne, now the Iron Church, was restored, and a third minister was
appointed in 1592. Three years later a fourth minister was appointed and
in 1 599 took charge of the landward part of the parish, then separated from
the city part, and named the Barony Parish. Its congregation worshipped
in the Lower Church of the Cathedral. In 1622, further accommodation
being required, the old church of the Blackfriars monastery in High Street was
repaired, to become known as the Blackfriars or College Church. In 164$
another congregation was installed in the Cathedral, and became known
the " Outer High," as it worshipped in the nave. This, after removal
1836, became St. Paul's, as the Wynd Church, founded in 1687, became Si
George's. Of the city's later churches, St. David's (the Ramshorn) datt
from 1720, St. Andrews from 1740, St. Enoch's from 1780, St. John's froi
1817, and St. James's, purchased from the Methodists in 1820.

10 Burgh Records, 2oth Jan. 1687. The town had had great trouble ii
taking over the assets of the old Fishing Company the ill-judged State ent
prise initiated by Charles I. (see supra, page 206). See Burgh Records, 1683, pi
3 2 7. 33 1 , 343, 344, 34 6 -

LETTER TO JAMES VII. 421

Spanish, or Rhenish wine, and fifty pounds on every butt of
brandy, aquavitae, or strong waters, sold or consumed within
the city. Rapture at the royal grant seems to have gone to
the heads of the city fathers, as the liquor itself might have
done, and they wrote a letter of thanks to the King in probably
the most abject terms ever employed by a Scottish Town
Council. This precious epistle began : " May it please your
most sacreed Majestic, In the deepest sense of gratitude, wee
most humblie prostrat ourselves at your royall feet, acknow-
ledgeing your Majesties clemencie and bountie towards this
your city of Glasgow in rescuing it from sinking under inevitable
mine." Further on it proceeds, " For our pairt, who by your
Majesties nomination represent your authoritie here, wee shall,
under the prudent conduct and unspotted loyall example of
the most reverend archbishop your Majestic hath bein graci-
ouslie pleased now to nominat for ws, witness to the world our
fervent zeal against all your adversaries/' etc. 1 By such a
letter Provost Barnes no doubt felt that he had fairly earned
the King's favour, which again continued him in the post of
chief magistrate when the time for election once more came
round in 1687.

Troubles were now, however, thickening round the head of
James himself. The birth of a royal prince on i6th June, 1688,
was celebrated at Glasgow with every demonstration of loyalty.
Seven barrels of gunpowder and a large supply of French wine
were expended in rejoicings for the arrival of that " Prince of
Scotland and Waillis. " 2 The prince's birth, nevertheless, rather
increased than diminished the public discontent, for it promised
a perpetuation of the Catholic menace with which the country

1 Burgh Records, 28th Feb. 1687. The archbishop mentioned was Cairn-
cross' successor, John Paterson, previously Bishop of Edinburgh, who owed
his promotion to the ardour with which he served the wishes of the Court and
his endeavours to move Parliament to meet the King's desires for removal of
the laws against Catholics. Book of Glasgow Cathedral, 197.

2 Ibid. 3rd Aug. 1688.

422

HISTORY OF GLASGOW

was threatened by the religion and policy of King James, and
which, it had been hoped, would come to an end if the King's
elder daughter Mary, wife of the Protestant Prince of Oranj
succeeded to the throne.

The rapidly growing seriousness of the situation is reflected ii
events at Glasgow. Early in October, on the rumour of serious
trouble impending, the city offered to raise ten companies
of a hundred and twenty men each for the service of the King,
and the offer was promptly accepted on behalf of the Privy
Council by the chancellor, the Earl of Perth. Three days later
a complete list of officers for the companies, including the new
provost, Walter Gibson, was drawn up, and on I3th November
strict orders were issued and penalties prescribed regarding any
who should neglect their duty when called upon to mount guai
in the city or who should fail to appear " sufficientlie armed wi1
ane sufficient fyrelock and ane sword." 3

But already, on 5th November, William of Orange h<
landed at Torbay. In the days that followed, King Jai
had seen his armies fall away from him, his friends go over t<
the invader, even his daughter Anne desert him ; and on the
night of 22nd December he had himself finally fled to France.
The Revolution which James had brought about by his
obstinacy and folly, had effectively taken place.

3 Burgh Records, i$ih and i6th Oct. and I3th Nov. 1688.

INDEX

Abernethy, James, surgeon, 112.
Administration areas, division of

Glasgow into, 164.
Aird's Moss, battle of, 392.
Albany, duke of. See "James II."
Alexander, Sir William, earl of

Stirling, 237.

Alford, defeat of Baillie at, 274.
Anderson, Andrew, printer, 358.

George, printer, 258.

James, "conscientious objector,"

150.

John, ex-bailie, 247.

Angus, earl of, banishment of, 59.
Anne, queen, at Holyrood, 392.
Annexation, Act of, of 1587, re-
scinded, 132.

Archbishop, palace of, 220.
Archbishopric, value of, 2 ; erected

into temporal lordship, 67.
Archbishops and bishops of Glasgow :
Beaton, i, 26, 28, 38, 43, 46, 67, 77,

130, 183.

Boyd, James, 40, 41, 42-53.
Burnet, Alexander, 339 ; and see

"Burnet, Alexander."
Cairncross, Alexander, 416, 419.
Dunbar, 6, 53.

Erskine, William, 61, 62 et seq.
Fairfoul, Andrew, 328.
Law, James, 95, 189-207 ; and see

" Law, James."
Leighton, Robert, 349, 350, 351,

357-
Lindsay, Patrick, 208-231 ; and see

" Lindsay, Patrick."
Montgomerie, Robert, 54-61.
Porterfield, John, 39.
Ross, Arthur, 389, 396.
Spottiswood, John, 79, 130-143 ;

and see " Spottiswood, John."
Willocks, 36.
And see "Archbishops and bishops

of St. Andrews."

Archbishops and bishops of St.

Andrews :

Burnet, Alexander, 389.
Douglas, John, 38, 41.
Gledstanes, 142.
Hamilton, John, 33.
Ross, Arthur, 414.
Sharp, James, 328, 384.
Spottiswood, John, 142 ; and see

" Spottiswood, John."
And see "Archbishops and bishops

of Glasgow."
Archbishops and bishops, restored to

former position, 1609, 133.
Architecture of Glasgow, 1636, 220.
Argyll, earl of, at battle of Langside,
19-

at General Assembly, 1638, 229.

raises Highland army, 252.

made marquess, 266.

and " the Engagement," 283, 286,,

and Cromwell, 311.

measures against, 326.

execution of, 327.

Argyll, earl of, son of marquess,
rebels against James VII., 408,
410, 411.

marquess of. See "Argyll, earl of."
Art collection of Glasgow, beginnings

of, 360.

Articles, archbishop Spottiswood a
lord of the, 134.

Lords of the, and Scottish Parlia-

ment, 1633, 212, 213.

The Five, 194, 195, 197.
Assassination plot, the, 405.
Assault aod battery, 151.

" Assize herrings," 217.

Baal-fire day, 153.

Baillie, General, defeated at Alford,

273-

Robert, principal, 331.
Bakers, Incorporation of, 26, 27

423

424

INDEX

Balfour, John, murderer of arch-
bishop Sharp, 384.

Balfour of Burleigh, lord, defeated by
Montrose, 271.

Balfour, Robert, brother of Sir James,

15-

Sir James, and bond for Darnley's

murder, 15.
Balloch castle, 39.
Balmerino, lord, archbishop Spottis-

wood and, 142.
Bankruptcy procedure in Glasgow,

163.
Barbers, dispute \vith, 317 ; as

physicians, in, 118.
Barony parish constituted, 77.
Battery. See " Assault."
Beggars, regulations as to, 147, 165,

217, 346.

Belhaven, Robert, viscount, 129.
Bell, great, for cathedral, 165 ; in

Tolbooth, 205.
Bell, James, town councillor, 165, 193.

James, 279.

James, librarian, 332.

John, minister of Cardross, 76.

John, minister, 229.

John, provost, 1638, 230.

John, provost, 1662, 332.

Patrick, 216.
Bell Street, 366.

Births, marriages and deaths, regis-
tration of, 193.
Bishops, Acts regulating duties of,

135.

regulations as to age of, 136.

to be appointed by King, 77.
See "Archbishops and bishops of

Glasgow."
Bishoprics, increased endowments of,

200.
Black Friars, monastery of, passes to

University, 23.
Blackburn, John, master of Grammar

School, 106 et seq., 114.

Peter, principal regent of Univer-

sity, 89.

Blantyre, Walter, prior of, 5.

Blood payment for manslaughter, 15 1 .

Blythswood, barony of, 293.

Borthwick castle, queen Mary at, 16.

Bothwell bridge, battle of, 388.

Bothwell, earl of, trial of, 15 ; di-
vorced, 15 ; created duke of
Orkney and Shetland, 15 ; mar-
ried queen Mary, 15.

Bothwell, occupied by Montrose, 27'
Boundaries of city, extension of,

162, 182, 218, 293, 333, 346.
Bowes, Sir Robert, 59.
Boyd, James, of Trochrig, archbishc

40.

Boyd, master of, 46.
Boyd, Robert, fourth lord, 5, 19,

Robert, lord, grandson, 47.

Robert, of Badenheath, 46.

Robert, principal, of Trochrig, 18$

190.

Zachary, minister of the barony

98, 299-

Boyle, John, of Kelburne, 236.
Bread, regulations as to, 145.
Broomielaw, first quay at the, 334.
Bruce, Sir George, 180.

Sir William, builder of merchant

hospital, 314, 392.
Buccleuch, duke of, 40.

duke of. See "Monmouth, dul

of."
Buchanan, George, 23, 64.

John, choirmaster, 169.
Buckingham, duke of, 198, 202.
Burghs, convention of, 121.
Burley, John. See "Balfour, John,'

384-

Burnet, Alexander, archbishop,
348.

Alexander, appointed archbishoj

339 ; bishop of Aberdeen, 330
appointed preses of PrivyCouncil

340 ; resignation of , 345 ; restoi
to archbishopric, 357 ; secoi
archbishopric of, 364-377.

Gilbert, professor of divinity, 33]
Butts, battle of the, 29.

Cadzow castle, 30.
Caerlaverock castle, surrender of, 25]
Calder, captain, shoots regent Mar, .
Cambuslang, mill at, 217.
Cameron, John, principal, 196.

Richard, preacher, 390 et seq.
Campbell, Colin, burgess, 279, 300.

Duncan, unqualified practitior

400.

George, minister, 316.
Candleriggs, 315.

Candles, industry of making of, 31-
Canons, book of, abolished, 230.
Cargill, Donald or Daniel, 390 et
Carmichael, Sir James, 263.
Carrick castle, 298.

INDEX

425

Carswell, bishop, 209.

Casket letters, 14.

Cassillis, earl of, 30, 226.

Castle of Glasgow, seized by regent
Moray, 27 ; possessed by arch-
bishop Boyd, 42 ; as temporal
lordship, 65 ; conveyed to Len-
nox, 78.

Cathcart castle, bottle dungeon at,
161 n.

Cathedral, Glasgow, repair of, 158 ;
dilapidation of, 175 ; song school
in connection with, 100, 101.

Catter, stronghold of earldom of
Lennox, 39.

Cattle, regulations as to slaughter of,
172.

Cause, seal of, granted to craftsmen,
119.

Chantry, value of, 2.

Chapels. See "Churches and chapels
of Glasgow."

Charity of Glasgow, 172, 183.

Charles I., birth of, 198 ; marriage of,
198, 199 ; proclaimed king, 199 ;
coronation of, 211 ; imprison-
ment of, 282 ; treats with Scots,
283 ; trial of, 289 ; execution of,
289.

Charles II., proclaimed king in Edin-
burgh, 290 ; arrives at mouth of
Spey (1650), 296 ; text of letter
of, to Glasgow, 304 ; contribu-
tions to army of, 305 ; lands at
Dover, 321 ; Glasgow in reign
of, 3*9-335-

Chatelherault, duke of, 6, 9, 26.

Churches and chapels of Glasgow :
8 1 etseq. : High Kirk, 75, 76, 103,
109, 218; and see "Glasgow
Cathedral " ; Outer High, see
"Cathedral "; Blackfriars, church
of monastery of, 82, 93, 98, no,
218, 396, 358, 420 n. ; New Kirk,
see " Tron Kirk " ; St. Andrew's,
420 n. ; St. David's, 420 n. ; St.
Enoch's, 420 n. ; St. James,
420 n. ; St. Mary and St. Anne,
76 ; St. Mungo's chapel, 81 ;
St. Nicholas, chapel of hospital
of, 82 ; St. Roche, the confessor,
chapel of, 82 ; St. Theneu, chapel
of, 83 ; St. Thomas of Canter-
bury, chapel of, 83 ; Tron Kirk,
76, 81, 101, 203, 204, 289, 420 n. ;
Wynd church, 420 and n.

Tron Kirk, song school in connec-
tion with, 101.

St. Ninian's leper hospital, chapel
of, 105.

Church, patronage of, withdrawn, 5.

Church property, transference of, 21.

Church lands, revocation of grants of,
200

Church, reformed, power of, 37.

Church of Scotland, canons and con-
stitutions ecclesiastical for the
government of, 221.

Churches, collegiate, value of, 2.

Civil war, the, 242-254 ; preparations
for, 243, 245, 249 ; contribution
of Glasgow to, 272, and 272 n.

Claverhouse, Captain John Graham
of. See " Graham, Captain John."

Clergy, stipends of, 261.

Clochstane, the, 180, 216.

Cloth, manufacture of, 218 ; the
first factory for making, 394.

Clyde, river, navigation of, 178, 180,
181.

Coal pit, opening of, in Gorbals, 311.

Coal, early mining of, 394.

Coffee-house, Glasgow's first, 365.

Coldstream, Montrose crosses the
Tweed at, 248.

College of Glasgow. See " University
of Glasgow."

Colonsay, prior of, 159.

Colquhoun, James, sculptor, 310.

Commissaries, appointment of in

1564, 4-

Common lands, enclosure of, 44.
Common prayer, book of, abolished,

230.
Commonwealth, Glasgow under the,

303-318.

Consistorial courts, closing of, 3.
Convention, the, 321.
Cotterel, lieutenant-colonel, 311.
Couper, John, first of " second mini-
sters," 75.

Covenant, the national, 225.
Covenanters, the, power of, 227 ;

preparations of, 227.
Covenant, the Solemn League and,

268.
Covenant, Glasgow under the, 278-

302.
Covenanters, tyranny of, 280, 282.

second insurrection of, 378 et seq.
Conventicles, repressive measures

against, 355, 379.

426

INDEX

Cowane, John, burgess of Stirling,

240.

Cowlairs, feued, 374.
Craftsmen. See " Merchants."
Crawford, Thomas, 12, 13, 31, 32, 33,

34, 40, 48, 158.
Cromwell, Oliver, 282 ; visit of, to

Glasgow, 300.
Crookston castle, 9.
Cross of Glasgow, original, 150.
Cumbrae, little, magistrates flee to,

298.

Dalkeith castle, occupied by Crom-
well, 306.
Dalziel, General, ordered to Glasgow,

34 2 -

Darnley, Lord, 7, 8, 10 ; married to
Mary Queen of Scots, 8; inter-
viewed by Mary in Glasgow, 12 ;
murdered, 15.

Davidson, John, principal regent, 89.

Deacon convener, 126, 137, 216.

Deaconry, letter of, 119.

Deanery, value of, 2.

Debtors, treatment of, 148.

DeclaratioD, the, 341, 379.

Defence of Glasgow, arrangements
for, 162.

Desborough, Lord, 316.

Dickson, David, 188.

Douglas, Archibald, parson of Dou-
glas, 69-73.

Douglas, Lady Margaret, 7.

Douglas, Sir Robert, of Blackerston,
274.

Dovecots, 164.

Drugs, dispensing of, 119.

Drumclog, battle of, 385, 386.

Drummond, The Hen. John, of Lun-
din. See " Melfort, earl of."

Dumbuck ford, 181.

Dumbuck hill, 32.

Dunbar, Mary escapes to, 10.

D unbar, battle of, 298.

Dunbarton, 168, 171.

Dunbarton, charter of, 179 ; sum-
mons against, 216 ; and Clyde
dues, 347 ; capture of, 30 et seq. ;
Morton confined in, 51 ; surren-
der of, to covenanters, 251, 303.

Dundee, sack of, 306.

Dundrennan Abbey, Mary at, 29.

Dunfermline, lord, 248.

Dunglass, 246, 248.

Duns Law, 246.

Durham, capture of, 250.

Edinburgh, bishopric of, 142.

Edinburgh castle, 187.

Edinburgh castle, surrender of, 251

Eglinton, Hugh, earl of, divorce of, 3
escapes from Langside, 20.

Lord, 286.

Elcho, lord, 270.

Elizabeth, queen, plot of, to sei;
James, 71.

Elphinstone, Sir George. See " Elpl
stoun, George."

Elphinstoun, George, of Blythswood,
47, 80, 119-129, 132, 140, 156,
172 ; early history of, 122
knighted, 123 ; given baron]
123 ; made Provost, 123 ;
letter of guildry, 125-127 ; ii
prisoned, 128 ; inventory
possessions of, 129 ; died, i:

Elphinstone, William, 122.

" Engagement, the," 283.

Episcopacy, establishment of, 40, i<
et seq. ; overthrow of, 208-231
re-establishment of, 328.

Errol, earl of, 162.

Estates, committee of, sent to Lei
don, 306.

Evandale, castle, Glasgow cl
sent to, 298.

Excise duties, early, 420.

Faculty of physicians and surge
charter of foundation of, 115.

Fairfax, general, 282.

Fairlie, 203.

Falkland palace, escape of King
James from, 60.

Fawside, Matthew, and the reg
Moray, 26.

Ferguson, James, minister, 317.

Fergusson, Robert, the " Plotter,"

45-

Fiennes, Nathaniel, 267.
Finch, lord keeper, 251.
Fire, great, in Glasgow, 308 ;

building after, 309 ; the seconc

great, 375.

Fire engine, the first, 310.
Fish, curing of, 337.
Fisheries of Clyde and west coasi

205, 206 ; of Clyde in seventeenl

century, 217.
Fishing, perils of, 158.
Fishing company, the, 359.

INDEX

427

Fishing society, the, 420.
Fleming, lord, 17, 19.

Archibald, commissary, and Mon-

trose, 274.

James, master of works, 106.

James, procurator, 150.

Robert, and the manufacture of

cloth, 218.

Sir William, rector of Glasgow

University, 96.

Fletcher, John, dramatist, made free-
man of Aberdeen, 155.

Foodstuffs, hoarding of, regulations
against, 166.

Football, 164.

Fountain, Edward of Lochhill, and
Captain James Fountain, master
of the revels, 399.

France, overtures by Scottish parlia-
ment for help to, 248.

Freedom of city, conferring of, 155,
177.

Geddes, Jenny, 223.

General Assembly, the, 193.

General Assembly, Glasgow 1610, re-
gulations as to powers, etc., 135 ;
bishops made subject to, 135.

General Assembly, the, Glasgow, 1638,
227-230.

Gibson, Henry, town clerk, 183.

Walter, provost of Greenock, 314.
Gillespie, George, author of Against

Popish ceremonies, 225.

Patrick, principal, 315, 332.
Glasgow, castle of, 6.

Glasgow cathedral, 208 ; division of
into Inner and Outer Kirk, 288 ;
repair of, 289 ; attendance of
Cromwell at, 301 ; stipends of
ministers of, 289.

Glasgow, economic effects of the re-
formation, 1-5 ; queen Mary and
the battle of Langside, 6-20 ;
transference of church property
under Mary and Moray, 21-28 ;
the regent Lennox and the cap-
ture of Dunbarton castle, 29-34 '
John Willocks, superintendent of
the west, archbishop Porterfield,
35-41 ; archbishop Boyd, allot-
ment and feuing of lands,
Andrew Melville and Esme Stew-
art, 42-53 ; archbishop Mont-
gomerie, conflict with General
Assembly, 54-61 ; archbishop

Erskine, Walter Stewart, lord
Blantyre, feuing and selling of
lands, 62-68 ; parsons and mini-
sters, Archibald Douglas, David
Wemyss, 69-80 ; the churches of
Glasgow, 81-84 ; tne University,
85-99 ; the song school and
grammar school, 100-110 ; Mai-
ster Peter Lowe and the faculty
of physicians and surgeons, no-
118 ; Sir George Elphinstone and
the letter of guildry, 119-129 ;
archbishop John Spottiswood,
130-143 ; life in Glasgow in
James VI. 's reign, 144-185 ;
James VI. visits Glasgow, 186-
188 ; archbishop Law, 189-207 ;
archbishop Lindsay, and the
overthrow of episcopacy, 208-
231 ; George and Thomas Hut-
cheson, 232-241 ; the civil war,
242-254 ; domestic annals about
1640, 255-263 ; the campaign of
Montrose, 264-277 ; Glasgow
under the covenant, 278-302 ;
under the commonwealth, 303-
318 ; under Charles II., 319-335 ;
the first archbishopric of Alex-
ander Burnet, 336-348 ; arch-
bishop Leighton, 349-357 ; local
events under archbishop Leigh-
ton, 357-363 ; Alexander Bur-
net's second archbishopric, 364 ;
municipal enterprise, 365-370 ;
Port-Glasgow and Greenock, 370-
372 ; the great fire of 1677, 375-
377 ; second insurrection of the
covenanters, 378-389.

Glencairn, earl of, 176.

Glencairn, earl of, chancellor, 322.

Gorbals, lands of, acquired by Elphin-
stone, 122, 123 ; apportionment
of, 295 ; first bailie of, 295 ;

Gordon, Alexander, bishop of Gallo-
way, 35.

Lady Jane, divorced by Bothwell,

15-

Government, internal, of Glasgow, 256.
Graham, captain John, of Claver-

house, 385 et seq.

James. See " Montrose, marquess

of."

John, and the friars preachers, 24.
Grammar school, the, 367.
Grammar school. See " School, Gram-
mar."

428

INDEX

Greenock, 371, 372, 373 ; erection
into free burgh of, 216.

Greens, the old and the new, 333.

Greyfriars church, Edinburgh, 225.

Guild, dean of, 177, 216.

Guildry, letter of, 124 et seq. ; pro-
visions of, 125, 126.

Guild, dean of, courts, 121.

Guise, duke of, 49.

Guthrie, James, executed, 327.

Hackney carriages, introduction of,

360.

Hackston of Rathillet, 384, 388, 392.
Hall, Henry, of Haughhead, 390.

John, deacon of the surgeons, 317.
Hallowe'en celebrations, 139.
Hamilton, duke of, commands Charles

II. 's fleet, 243 ; and army, 304 ;
commissioned to ensure obedi-
ence to the law in Glasgow, 378.

Duchess of, 308.

Duchess Anne of, and Bothwell

bridge, 388.

Lady Jane, divorce of, 3.

Lord Claud, 17, 40.

Marquess of, envoy of Charles to

Scotland, 226, 227, 228 ; head of
the moderates, 283, 284, 286.

Sir James, captured at battle of

Langside, 20.

James of Bothwellhaugh, 28.
- Robert, " professor," 117.

Robert, at Drumclog, 385, 386 et

seq.

Hamilton, garrison at, 303.
Hangman, Glasgow's, 169.
Hanna, Dr., dean of Edinburgh at St.

Giles, 223.

Harbour facilities, early stage of, 334.
Hay, Alexander, surgeon, 112.

Andrew, commissioner, 43.

Andrew, rector of Glasgow Univer-

sity, 86, 89.

William, commissary of Glasgow,

188.

Hegate, Archibald, town clerk, 157 ;
183, 235.

William, 183, 184.
Henrietta, queen, 269.
Heriot, George, 237, 240.
Herries, lord, 17.
Herrings, curing of, 218.

High commission, courts of, 192, 199 ;

abolished, 226, 227, 242.
Highland host, the, 380, 381.

Holidays, observance of, 195.

Holland, trade with, 337.

Holyrood abbey, refitting of, 187
Charles crowned at, 211, 213.

Holyrood palace, duke of York at
392.

Home, earl of, 19.

Hume, Sir Patrick, 410.

Huntly, marquess of, 40, 162, 24;
244.

Hurry, general, 273.

Hurst castle, Charles I. imprisoned
in, 289.

Hutcheson, George, procurator and
philanthropist, 179, 232-241 ;
early life, 232-3 ; marriage and
early life, 233 ; professional
activity of, 233 ; judge-depute,
236 ; as banker and money-
lender, 237 ; properties of, 238,
239 ; death and burial, 239 ;
foundation of hospital by, 241 ;
trust of, 241.

John, of Gairbraid, 232.

Thomas, 232, 241, 310.
Hutcheson street, 241.
Hutchesontown, 241.
Hutchesons' hospital, acquires pai

of Gorbals, 294 ; enquiry int
finances of, 307, 368.
Hutchesons' trust, value of propei
of, 241.

Independency, tenets of, 281.
Induction of minister in Glasgc

proceedings in, 402, 403.
" Indulgence," an, 344, 352.
Inveraray, stronghold of Argyll at

271.
Inverkeithing, defeat of Scoti

army at, 305.

Inverlochy, defeat of Argyll at, 271
Ireland, refugees from, 266.
Ireland, rising in, 253, 265.
Irvine, sea-port of, 214.

James VI., seized at Ruthven castle
59 ; king, escape from Falklam
palace, 60 ; visit of, to Glasgc
in 1600, 170 ; charter of,
Glasgow, 1 80 ; visit of in 1617,
186-188 ; death of, 198.

James VII., 392 et seq. ; entertaint
at Glasgow, 392 ; at Holyrc
palace, 392 ; accession of, 409
arbitrary actions of, 417, 418

INDEX

429

birth of son to, 421 ; flight of, to

France, 422.
Johnston, Archibald, of Warriston,

229 ; executed, 327.
Johnstone, John of Clachire, Provost,

397-

Johnston, Peter, captain, 296.
Jurisdiction, disputes as to, 152.
Justice, commission of, supersedes

Court of Session, 311.

Kelburnfoot. See " Fairlie."
Kelvin, river, mill on, 26, 27, 65, 66,

174-

Kilsyth, battle of, 274.
King's printer, monopoly of, 358.
Kirkaldy of Grange, general, 17.
Knox, John, 20, 35, 208.

Labour disputes, early, 309, 341.
Land, alienations of, rescinded, 1567,

25-
Langside, battle of, 6-20 ; events

leading up to, 6-17 ; course of, 17.
Laud, Dr. William, later archbishop,

187 ; and episcopal conformity,

202 ; influence over Charles I.,

221, 222.

Laud, archbishop, impeachment of,

251-
Lauder, archibald, parson of Glasgow,

69.

Lauderdale, duke of, and orders
against conventicles, 356.

Law, James, archbishop of Glasgow,
189-207 ; early life, 190 ; bishop
of Orkney, 190 ; archbishop of
Glasgow, 190 ; works of, 191 ;
marriages of, 191 ; death of, 202.

John, superior of Friars Preachers,

24.
Lecke, Andrew, prior of Friars

Preachers, 24.
Lennox, first duke of. See " Lennox,

Esme, earl of."

Ludovic, second duke of, 61, 67,

127.

Esme, earl of, Esme Stewart

created, 49 ; appointed great
chamberlain, 49 ; created duke,
etc., 51 ; death of, 59.

Matthew, earl of, 3, 7 ; super-

seded in office of bailie, 3 ; re-
scission of forfeiture of, 7 ; town
mansion of, n, 59 ; regent, 28 et

seq. ; captured at Stirling, 40 ;
killed, 40.

Robert, earl of, Robert Stewart

created, 48 ; burgess, 48 ; earl-
dom revoked, 49.

Lent, observance of, 164.

Lepers, treatment of, 148.

Leslie, general Alexander, earl of
Leven, 244, 246, 252, 266, 267,
268, 286.

general David, 276, 297.
Leven, earl of. See ' ' Leslie, general

Alexander."

Lewis, island of, 205, 206.
Leyis, barony of, 293.
Limehouse bog, 374.
Lindsay, Dr., bishop of Edinburgh,

223.

Patrick, archbishop of Glasgow,

early life, 210 ; bishop of Ross,

210 ; archbishop of Glasgow,

210 ; D.D., 210 ; death of, 231.
Liturgy, attempted introduction of,

into Scotland, 202.
Liturgy, the, proclaimed, 223.
Liturgy, the, protests against in

Glasgow, 224.
Lochleven castle, 16.
Lochwood, archbishop of Glasgow's

manor of, 6.

Lockhart, Sir George, 373, 417.
" Lord Provost," title of, 397.
Lordship, temporal, of Glasgow

created, 65, 68, 78 ; and see

Archbishopric."

Lothian, bishopric of, created, 214.
Loudon, lord, 248.
Lowe, John, 117.

Peter, surgeon, 113-117; " chir-

urgerie," publication of, by, 113,
114 ; king's surgeon, 115 ; mar-
riage of, 117 ; death of, 117.

Lowery, Blais, 114.

Lucas, Sir Charles, 268.

Lymburner, John, " captain of the
town's company," 285.

Macdonald, Alastair (Colkitto), 272.
Macilfie, Malcolm, prior of Colonsay,

159-

Mackenzie, Sir George, 373.
Macleod street manse, 13.
Magistrates, chief, must be resident,

176.

Maitland of Thirlstane, chancellor, 65.
Maltmen, visitor of the, 126.

430

INDEX

Mar, earl of, regent, 41.

Marches, burgh, perambulation of,

155-

Markets and tolls, 148.

Marston Moor, battle of, 269.

Mary, queen, 6 et seq. ; married to
Darnley, 8 ; escapes to Dunbar,
10 ; birth of son to, n ; inter-
views Darnley at Glasgow, 12 ;
married to Bothwell, 15 ; im-
prisoned in Lochleven castle, 16 ;
abdicates, 16 ; escapes from
Lochleven castle, 16 ; at battle
of Langside, 18.

" Masters of the Revels," 399.

Mayne, Dr. Robert, professor of
medicine, 117.

Maxwell, Sir George, 331, 362, 406.

Meat and fish, regulations as to, 146.

Medicine, chair of, endowed, 118 ;
professor of established, 118.

Melfort, earl of, 406.

Melrose, earl of, 197.

Melville, Andrew, principal of Univer-
sity, 45, 50, 52, 89 et seq.

Merchants and craftsmen, the early,
119,120; disputes between, 121,
122.

Middleton, earl of, 326, 329.

general John, See "Middleton, earl
of."

Midsummer eve celebrations, 138.

Militia, organization of, 343.

Milling, town's monopoly in, 128.

Minister of Glasgow, appointment of
second, 75 ; appointment of
third, 76.

Minstrels, 168.

Moderator of General Assembly, arch-
bishop Spottiswood, perpetual,

134-
Moderators of General Assembly :

Bell, John, 229, 230.

Boyd, James, 45, 46.

Henderson, Alexander, 229.

Melville, Andrew, 45, 57.

Spottiswood, John, 134. And see
"Spottiswood, John."

Willocks, John, 37.
Monasteries, value of, attached to

Glasgow, 2.

Monk, general, 306, 320.
Monks, as physicians, in.
Monmouth, duke of, 387, 408.
Monopolies, system of, 358.
Montgomery, lord, 246.

Montrose, earl of, as Lord High Com-
missioner, 193, 226. See also
"Montrose, marquess of."

Montrose, marquess of, 243, 244
seizes Aberdeen, 245 ; joins the
king, 253, 269 ; campaign of,
264-277; created marquess, 270;
enters Glasgow, 275 ; deserte
by his followers, 276 ; retires t(
Holland, 277 ; capture and exe-
cution of, 290.

Moray, earl of, 8, 10, 17 ; declared a
rebel, 8 ; declared regent, 16 ;
shot, 28.

Morton, earl of, 10, 38-46 ; influem
of, 38 ; regent, 41 ; arrested and
imprisoned, 51 ; executed, 51.

Mugdock castle, 243.

Muirhead Thomas, rector of Stobo,
82.

Municipal factory, first, 295.

Munro, general, 252.

Musical reputation of Glasgow, 169.

Mylns, Thomas, chirurgeon, 112.

Nair, William, first town clerk depui

257-

Nantes, edict of, 412.
Naseby, battle of, 274.
Navigation Act, of 1660, 337.
Newark. See " Port- Glasgow."
Newark castle, Ettrickdale, 277.
Newburn, 248.
Newcastle, earl of, 267.
Newcastle, capture of, 250 ; siege of,

268.

New green, the, 395.
News letters and gazettes, the first,

401.

Newspaper, the first municipal, 25!
New year's eve celebrations, 139.
Niddry castle, 16.
Nisbet, Sir Philip, 277.

Ochiltree, Lord, 163.

Ogilvy, Alexander, 277.

John, trial of, 140 ; execution of,

141.

Old green, the, 395.
O'Neil, Sir Phelim, 265.
Ordination, book of, abolished, 230.

Paper-making in Glasgow started,

412.
Parish, Barony, constituted, 77.

INDEX

43i

Parishes, division of town into two,
76.

Parliament, representation of Glas-
gow in. See " Representation."

Parliament, the Long, 251.

" Parliament, the drunken," 330.

Parliaments, union of Scottish and
English, 311 ; dissolution of, 321

Parnie street, 377.

Parsonage and vicarage of Glasgow,
united to archbishopric, 133.

Parsonage house, 40.

Patronage, abolition of, 329.

Pentland, rising, the, 342.

Perth, occupation of, by Cromwell,
305-

Pest or plague, 147, 161 ; outbreak of,
287, 291.

Pettigrew, Thomas, 163, 167.

Philiphaugh, battle of, 276.

Physicians and Surgeons, Faculty of,
111-118 ; one of incorporations
of Trades House, 116 ; super-
vision of drugs by, 118 ; first
buildings of, 117.

Pirates, complaints against, 158.

Plague. See " Pest."

Plague, the great, of London, 341.

Police measures, 165.

Polmadie, hospital, in.

Poor, relief and support of, 259.

provisions for care of the, 368.

measures for relief of the, 399.
Population of Glasgow in 1636, 220.
Porter, James, 323.

Porterfield, George, 245, 249 ; cap-
tain, 272 ; George, 355.

Port Glasgow, 314, 335, 370 ; becomes
customs station of Clyde, 373.

Postman, the first town, 333.

" Prayer and the catechism, forms of,"
209.

Prayer book, establishment of, 222.

Preston, defeat of Scots at, 286.

" Pride's Purge," 282.

Printing, 258.

Prison conditions in James VI. 's
reign, 160.

Prisoners, ransoming of, 303, 346.

Privy Council, deliberations of, in
Glasgow, 329.

Provosts and bailies, to be appointed
by archbishop, 137.

Provosts of Glasgow : Anderson,
John, 338 ; Anderson, William,
339, 352 ; Barnes, John, 413,

418, 419, 421 ; Bell, James, 285 ;
Bell, John, 365, 410; Bell,
Patrick, 228, 249 ; Boyd, James,
42 ; Boyde, Robert Lord, 42 ;
Campbell, Colin, 301, 322, 332 :
and see " Campbell, Colin"; Craw-
ford, Thomas, 34 ; Cunningham,
Gabriel, 212 ; Elphinstone, Sir
George,i23,i37, and see "Elphin-
stone, Sir George " ; Gibson, Wal-
ter, 422 ; Graham, John, 306 ;
Houston, John, 137 ; Inglis,
James, 177, 179, 193 ; Johnstone,
John, 415, 416, 417 ; Lennox,
Esme, earl of, 50, 183 ; Living-
stone, Sir William, 60, 184 ;
Montrose, John, earl of, 60 ;
Porterfield, George, 279, 288.
292, 293, 306, 322 ; Stewart,
James, 256 ; Stewart, Sir John,
of Minto, 42, 74 ; Stewart, Sir
Matthew of Minto, 56, 60.

Puckie and Puckie mill, 313.

Punishment of offences in James VI. 's
reign, 160, 161.

Queensberry, duke of, 416, 419.

Race-meeting, Glasgow's first, 367.
Rates, first levy of, 373.
Reformation, economic effects of , 1-5.
" Regiam Majestatem," printing of,

175-

Remonstrance, the grand, 266.

Remonstrance of the army, the, 289.

Renfrew, 216.

Representation in Scottish parlia-
ment, 165.

Requisitions on city, 163.

Restoration, the, 321.

Revenues, ecclesiastical, of Glasgow
at Reformation, 2.

Revenues, of bishoprics, return of.
22 ; of chaplainries and friars,
22 ; instructions as to use of, 22.

Revenue of Glasgow in 1636, 220.

Rights of way, protection of, 173.

River bailie, appointment of, 216.

Rizzio, David, 9 ; murdered, 10.

Rizzio, Joseph, 12.

Rollo, Sir William, 270, 277

Ross, John, town clerk, 184.

lord, 20.

lord, commander of Glasgow garri-

son, 383, 385.
Rossoli, liqueur, 400, 400 n.

432

INDEX

Rothes, earl of, 213, 226.
Rowat, Robert, bailie, 165.
Rowatt, Alexander, minister, 77.
Rupert, prince, 269, 270.
Ruthven, raid of, 58, 59.
Ryehouse plot, the, 405.

St. Andrews, King James at castle of,
60.

St. Enoch. See "St. Theneu," 83.

St. Giles' cathedral, Charles I. at, 212,
214.

St. Giles' cathedral, riot in, 223.

St. Nicholas hospital, in, 240, 368.

St. Ninian's hospital, in.

St. Theneu's chapel and burn, 83.

Salt, 167.

Saltmarket, widening of, 203.

Sanders, Robert, stationer, 358.

Sanitation, regulations as to, 260.

" Sanquhar Declaration, the," 391.

School, establishment of one, in every
parish, 213.

School, Glasgow grammar, establish-
ment of, 103 ; school grammar,
103-110; stipend of master of,
105 ; attendance at, 105 ; Black-
burn, John,, master of, 106 et seq.
financial resources of, 106, 109
Wallace, William, master of, 109
town council, interest of, in, 109,
no ; Blackfriar's kirk as school
chapel, no.

School, new kirk, 102.

Schools, 100-110; number of in
Glasgow in seventeenth century,
no ; in 1640, 258.

Schools, song, 100-103.

Scots, Charles I.'s treaty with, 1641,
251.

Scott, Sir John, of Scotstarvet, 312.

Scrope, lord, burns Nithsdale, 29.

Seaforth, earl of, and the island of
Lewis, 205, 271.

Seal, the great, of Scotland, 265.

See of Glasgow, declared vacant, 25.

Sempill, earl of, 176.

Seton, lord, 17; at battle of Langside,
20.

Sharp, Patrick, principal of the
colleges, 77.

Sharp, Patrick, master of the gram-
mar school, 1 06.

Shaw, Sir John, 215.

Sir John, develops Greenock, 372.

" Ship money," 242.

Shipping of Glasgow, 166, 205.

Sibbald, colonel, 270.

Silvercraig's land, Cromwell lodges in,
300.

Sinclair, Henry, dean of Glasgow, 69.

Smollett, Tobias George, barber-
surgeon, 112.

Soap-works, the first, 366.

Spang, William, apothecary, 118.

Spottiswood, John, 130-143 ; ap-
pointed archbishop of Glasgow,
131 ; married, 131 ; accompanies
James to England, 131 ; privy
councillor, and queen's almoner,
131 ; pensioned by king, 132
appointed commissioner to re-
port on union, 134 ; appoint
Lord of the Articles, 134 ; ap-
pointed perpetual moderator,
134 ; acquires right to appoint
provosts, 137 ; in trial of John
Ogilvy, 140, 141, 142 ; arch-
bishop of St. Andrews, 142, 189,
223 ; moderator of Assembly at
Aberdeen, 193 ; crowns Charles
I., 142 ; appointed chancellor of
Scotland, 142 ; death and burial,
142.

Spottiswood, John, superintendent of
Lothian, 131.

Sir John, of Dairsie, 143.

Sir Robert, of Pentland, 143.
Spreull, John, town clerk, 279, 288,

292, 293, 297, 306, 323-325, 355.
Stablegreen hospital, in.
Stablegreen port, 3, 59, 188.
Stage-coach, first between Glasgow

and Edinburgh, 368.
Star chamber, court of, 199, 242.
Stewart, captain, earl of Arran, 59.

Esme, earl of Lennox, 49.

of Minto, Sir John, 27.

of Minto, Sir Matthew, 128, 156.

of Minto, Sir Walter, 64, 65, 127,

128, 140.

Robert, prior of St. Andrews, 48.

Sir William of Ochiltree, 65.

William, 163.

Stirling, John, deacon of the hammer-
men, 163.

Stirling, town of, capture of Lennox
at, 40.

Stobo, manse of, n.

Stornoway, 205.

Strafford, earl of, 202, 242 ; executed,
251-

INDEX

433

Strang, Dr. John, principal of
Glasgow University, 214, 219.

Strathclyde, David, prince of, 5.

Strathmore, earl of, 382.

Street, causewaying of, 153, 168.

Subdeanery of Glasgow, value of, 2.

Sugar-refinery, the first, 366.

Sugar refinery, the, 394.

Sunday observance, 153.

Superintendents, Knox's appoint-
ment of, 35, 208.

Supremacy, Act of, 344.

Surgeons, Faculty of. See " Physicians
and Surgeons, Faculty of."

Sussex, earl of, 29.

" Tables, the," 225.

Tallow, regulations as to, 146, 178.

Taxation, methods of, 170, 171 ; new,

215, 345-

Test Act, the, of 1681, 404.
Thomson, John, town clerk, 184.
" Thorough," policy known as, 202.
Tippermuir, battle of, 270.
Tobacco trade of Glasgow, the, 359.
Tolbooth, the old, demolished, 204.
Tolbooth, the new, description of, 204,

319.

Tolls. See " Markets."

Town clerk, office of, 183, 184, 185.

Town clerk depute, first appointment
of, 257.

Town council, constitution of, 137,
145 ; transactions of, 145, 146 ;
debts of, 173 ; entertaining by,
176 ; expenditure by, 218 ; as
education authority, 257 ; Justi-
ciary powers of, 347 ; trade in
seventeenth century, 171, 178.

Trade, restrictions upon, 369, 370.

Trades hospital, 294.

Tradesmen, contracts of, 155.

Traquair, earl of, and conformity, 225.

Trongate, derivation of, 83.

Trongate, well in the, 203.

" Tulchans," archbishops appointed
by Lennox, 37, 130.

Tullibeltane, Montrose at, 270.

Turner, Sir James, 285, 342, 346.

University of Glasgow, 22 ; bursaries
founded by Mary at, 23.

University of Glasgow, 85-99 ; foun-
dation of, 85 ; Queen Mary's
bursaries at, 85 ; town council,
helped by, 86 ; theology, pro-

fessor of, 86 ; principal, appoint-
ment of, 86 ; principal, residence
of in college, 87 ; scholars at, 87 ;
students at : see " Scholars at " ;
charter ratified, 88 ; Govan, rec-
tory of, granted to, 88 ; taken
away, 97 ; steward or provisor,

88 ; scholars, profession of faith
of, 89 ; Melville, Andrew, ap-
pointed principal, 89 ; Melville,
Andrew, work and influence of,

89 et seq. ; mace, the, 92 ; build-
ings of, 93 ; gardens of, 93 ; rent
of rooms, 94 ; charter of Charles
I-, 95 ; jurisdiction of authori-
ties, 96, 97 ; dean of faculty, 88 ;
chancellor of, 88 ; rector of, 88 ;
separation of functions of, from
kirk, 97 ; social influence of, 99 ;
episcopacy re-established in hall
of, 208 ; buildings, extension of,
214 ; bursaries founded at, 262,
263 ; charter of 1630 of, 201.

Vicar, portioner, value of, 2.

Wallace, Adam, town's procurator,

184.
Wapinschaw, or Weaponschaw, 150,

155-

Water sergeants, appointment of, 216

Weavers, Incorporation of, 259.

Welsh, John, great-grandson of Knox,
388.

Wells, digging of, 310.

Wemyss, David, minister, 43, 73, 74,
75, ?8, 79, 234.

Wentworth, Sir Thomas. See " Straf-
ford, earl of."

Westminster, united parliament at,
312.

" Whigamore's raid," 286.

Willocks, superintendent, 35-38.

Wilson, John, " conscientious ob-
jector," 150.

Witchcraft, 207.

Witchcraft, dealings in, 361 et seq.

Worcester, battle of, 306.

Wren, bishop of Hereford, 222.

Yair, William, town clerk, 293, 307,

324-

York, duke of. See James II.
Yuletide celebrations, 138, 139.

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890 History of Glasgow

1921
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