History

This article seeks to provide a narrative of the development of the Dumfries and Maxwelltown Co-operative Provision Society (DMCPS) during the 1870s through a detailed reading of the first of the extant minute books of the society held at Dumfries and Galloway Archives, and covering the period from June 1870 to December 1879. Co-operative societies developed in Scotland from the late eighteenth century onwards as attempts by groups of working people to provide good-quality food supplies for themselves at affordable prices. The article shows that, during the 1870s, DMCPS experienced sustained growth in its trading activities, consolidated its membership and moved to enlarged premises. First established in 1847, more than twenty years before the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society, DMCPS survived and prospered in the 1870s at a time when Dumfries itself was enjoying a period of increased prosperity. The article considers this growth in some detail and attempts to place the experience of DMCPS within the wider contexts of Victorian social and economic development, and the contemporary growth of both Dumfries and the wider co-operative movement in Scotland and Britain as a whole.

Lit by gaslight and powered by steam, by 1815 the cotton-spinning mills of Ancoats in Manchester represented technology at the leading edge of the industrial revolution. Side by side on the Rochdale canal, two huge cotton-spinning factories dominated Ancoats, each employing over 1000 workers (Kidd, 1993, p.24). Remarkably, the founders of these two mill complexes, partners John Kennedy (1769–1855) and James McConnel (1762– 1831), and brothers Adam (1767–1818) and George Murray (1761–1855), all came from Kells parish in the Glenkens district of Galloway. The industrial revolution, which transformed Britain between the 1780s and 1830s, drew many thousands of people from similar rural backgrounds into fast-growing towns and cities. Very few, however, were able to succeed and prosper by mastering the technological and economic challenges of these new environments. Why were the Glenkens group able to do so? To answer this question requires an understanding of the social and economic background from which they emerged. A key argument will be that the development of the cattle trade with England led to the early advent of capitalist farming in Galloway. By the later eighteenth century, the social and economic environment of Galloway had been shaped by market forces for the best part of a century. Although this was a form of agricultural rather than industrial capitalism, it meant that when Kennedy, McConnell and the Murray brothers began their businesses in Manchester, the marketplace was a familiar rather than alien environment.

Contemporary and near contemporary medieval accounts dating from the period of the Wars of Independence frequently describe the tumultuous events of the period but are singularly inaccurate in providing accounts of the number of people involved; exaggeration and distortion are the norm. There are very few sources available by which we can objectively estimate and verify this population with any accuracy. Nevertheless (with many riders and provisos) it is possible to use the few statistics we have available to calculate a range of population totals for specific geographical areas. Sources dating from the period of the Wars of Independence indicate the sharp nature and degree of dispute that occurred but the human tragedy which befell the region and its inhabitants is put into sharper focus by comparison with calculated population totals.

This article is based on a bundle of papers forming part of a case at the Court of Session in Edinburgh between William Kirkpatrick of Conheath and Thomas Chisholm formerly of Kirkbean, both near Dumfries, discovered during research into the life and times of David Currie of Newlaw (one of Kirkpatrick’s partners) in 2011. These papers provide new information about Lot 52 on St John’s Island and the voyages of the Lovely Nelly of Whitehaven, carrying settlers there in 1774 and 1775.

Lot 52 had been drawn by three people, all by the name of Douglas. The settlement was neglected until 1775, when it was taken over by people named Tead [sic], Dodd, Curry [sic] and Fontenalle. They, too, did not bring out settlers (part of the requirements for ownership of lots), so the land reverted back to the Crown for dispersal.

Because there were so many St John’s in Canada, including in Labrador, Newfoundland and New Brunswick, in 1799 St John’s Island in the Gulf of St Lawrence was renamed Prince Edward Island, after George III’s fourth son Edward, Duke of Kent.

This article seeks to explore and assess enlightenment influence upon the inhabitants of Dumfries and Galloway. There is a substantial and ever-increasing literature about the subject for Scotland as a whole, though almost nothing concerning our three south-western counties. That has now changed during the last few years with the appearance of several studies which are of great assistance in our doonhame quest.

Probably no short period in modern history has been as intensively studied as the month of July 1914 — or more precisely, the five weeks between the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, the Archduke Franz-Ferdinand, in the Bosnian town of Sarajevo on 28 June and the British declaration of war on Germany on 4 August. Within the vast corpus of resulting literature the reporting of the so-called war crisis in the British press remains, nonetheless, a relatively neglected aspect. Coverage of events in the provincial press has been even less well examined. At one level this is not surprising. The focus of analysis has inevitably been an attempt to understand precisely what was going on within the corridors of power — what were the motives behind key developments such as the Austrian ultimatum, the German ‘blank cheque’ and the Russian mobilization; which countries were prepared or even keen to accept the transition from diplomacy to war and on what scale; and which countries were genuinely striving for a peaceful resolution. If contemporary political and military leaders, and their governments and cabinets, with all the resources of diplomatic representation and clandestine intelligence operations at their disposal, could not settle these questions with any certainty or accuracy, then it would be unrealistic to turn to the press, and particularly provincial newspapers, for answers. Only painstaking research on the secret diplomatic and political files of the various powers has enabled historians to base their conclusions on hard evidence. Many crucial documents remained concealed from such scrutiny for several decades after the end of the Great War. Even after a hundred years, with little more governmental documentation likely to come to light, historians still find it difficult to reach a consensus on the basis of the vast quantity of archival material now available to them. Explaining what actually happened is, then, unlikely to be the main historical value of the contemporary provincial press. But in their record and interpretation of the events of that fateful summer a century ago, and of reactions to the fast changing picture as it emerged, newspapers are themselves part of the wider history of the time and worthy of note. What follows is an analysis of the coverage of the 1914 crisis by two local newspapers with sharply differing political stances, the Dumfries and Galloway Standard and Advertiser and the Dumfries and Galloway Courier and Herald. 

Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society’s lending library was already established by 1864. In 1904, when the Ewart Public Library opened, books of local importance were transferred to the Ewart Library and formed the core of the ‘Local Collection’. Over the years many of the remaining books have been dispersed either by donation or sale. In 2011, the Council of the Society formed a committee2 to assess the residue of the Society’s library and to organise its disposal, also to collate and catalogue the archive collection relating to the Society.3 This article recounts the history of the Society’s library and records the actions taken by this committee.

The history of smuggling in Annandale covers the complete story of that trade in Dumfries and Galloway during the period between the late seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries. It includes all aspects of the trade from the merchant based in Annan who engaged in tobacco, brandy and wine smuggling, to the tenant farmer living on the Solway shore who smuggled smaller cargoes of contraband from the Isle of Man and beyond. In addition, there was a brief period when Scottish salt and whisky were smuggled across the Border into England. During the 1720s, the collectors of customs at Dumfries became obsessed with stopping the smuggling trade in Annandale — they were unsuccessful. Smuggling only ended over a century later, when it became uneconomical. 
 

This article explores the involvement and conduct of Lord Herries in the dramatic events and changes which took place in Scotland in the 1560s. It also examines the significance of the Herries memoirs. John Maxwell of Terregles (d.1583) became the fourth Lord Herries in right of his wife — a custom not uncommon at that time. His wife was the daughter of the third Lord Herries who died in 1543. Terregles is on the left bank of the Nith near Dumfries. Before assuming or being granted his peerage he was known as the Master of Maxwell. As early as 1560 it was said that he ‘laboureth to be Lord Herries.’ It is not clear exactly when he became known as Lord Herries, but at least by April 1567 he was Lord Herries. For convenience he will be referred to as Herries throughout this article.

This essay sets out to trace the development of Sanquhar from the earliest times to the close of the nineteenth century, with a glance at its more recent expansion, a section on its outlying dependency of Crawick and a look at the roads which may have been the main reason for the town’s existence. Conclusions are drawn from maps, observation on the ground, the historical record — mainly the comprehensive 1891 work of local historian James Brown — and information from local residents.

Archaeology is making the ‘Picts of Galloway’ famous: in contrast are historians and philologists, who denounce them as mythical, fictitious, non-existent, and (in short) being for Galloway what Monsters are for Loch Ness. However, since the supposed Picts of Galloway refuse to vanish from journalism and popular culture, what follows gives accounts of them over the years. Readers can then put the evidence of archaeology besides that of history and linguistics, and decide for themselves.

Scandinavian incursions and settlements in both Scotland and Ireland were of significance in the development of both nations. Social, political, and economic change then ensued, leaving long lasting linguistic, cultural and genetic legacies. The name Galloway contains the Gaelic words ‘Gall’, originally a foreigner and later a Scandinavian, and Gàidheil, a Gaelic speaker. Fergus of Galloway was known as ‘righ Gall-Ghàidheil’, king of the foreign or Scandinavian Gaelic speakers. Questions arise as to the geographical origins of the Gall-Ghàidheil and when they intruded into greater Galloway. That greater Galloway was Gaelicised can be seen not only from place-name studies but also from the very large number and great variety of Gaelic surnames associated with the region. The origin of Fergus of Galloway, still an unsolved problem for historians, is considered in the light of the given names of his descendants. These names suggest that Fergus was either a Gael or a very much Gaelicised individual. The focus then moves to the medieval cenéla of greater Galloway. The names of leading individuals and kindreds, in particular those of the greinours of the Clenafren, are analysed. Two Muintir groups recorded in Carrick are also examined in some detail. The tantalising but as yet unproven possibilities of Irish Dál Fiatach origins for both the Clenafren and the McKerrells are outlined. The apparent absence of well-researched genetic data which might prove helpful in illuminating the origins of the kindreds of greater Galloway is commented on. The future availability of such data could potentially assist in further unravelling Galloway’s complex past. The meanings of contractions and Gaelic words used are given at the end of the article.

It is truly an honour to be invited to speak on this auspicious occasion, which I see as an opportunity to reflect on some of the great achievements and some of the great achievers in Dumfries and Galloway around the time the Society was founded on 20 November 1862. A secondary theme is the relationship of most of these people with the unique landscape of the region and the influence of the environment upon them. In 1862 most of the population of the three south-western counties still depended upon the land for their material existence. A remarkable number became naturalists, while poets and writers celebrated Nature’s heritage in the beauty of their surroundings. In a Christian era many were concerned with the wonder of Creation rather than with any sense of ‘blood and soil’ or lebensraum, with celebrating the joy of their environs rather than environmental determinism.

Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society celebrated its 150th year in 2012. To mark the anniversary the Society held a one-day conference on Saturday, 8 September 2012. The President of the Society, Dr Francis Toolis, opened the event with a history of the early days of the Society. He recounted something of the lives of founders such as Dr Gilchrist, the second Physician Superintendent at the Crichton Royal Institution and Dr Grierson of Thornhill, whose remarkable private museum was the inspiration for the African explorer, Joseph Thomson, also a member of the Society, the man after whom the Thomson gazelle is named and the inspiration himself for Sir H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines. Sir William Jardine of Applegarth, a true polymath and the author of many books, was the Society’s first President. Among the later members was Samuel Arnott, one-time Provost of Maxwelltown, who wrote extensively for the Society’s Transactions and was recognised in his time as a world authority on snowdrops. This is the text of the President’s opening address.

The career of David Armstrong was unusual by the standards of the eighteenth-century Scottish bar but at its height it presents a picture that was in some ways a signpost for the future development of the legal profession. Financial problems, consequent to the collapse of the Ayr Bank, reveal the importance to him of his local Dumfries connections and also led him into a scandal by which his career was cut short. This article examines that scandal and draws from Armstrong’s career a number of conclusions about the nature of contemporary legal practice in Scotland that have a wider resonance for the history of the profession generally during the long eighteenth century.

The family of Hairstanes rose to prominence as burgesses of Dumfries in the later 1500s, only to die out in the male line in the mid-1700s when four sisters inherited. In 1739 they sold the family properties, Over and Nether Kelwood and Bourlands. The family took their designation from the lands of Over Kelwood, but used the name ‘of Craigs’, that being the house on the property. In Edgar’s History of Dumfries (1915) which R C Reid edited, there is a long note, no 30, on Kelwood and its owners and at the end of the volume a pedigree of Hairstanes is included. Unfortunately, the descent as deduced by Reid is not correct in some details, although one must pay tribute to his scholarship. Only two of the four sisters, Isabella and Elizabeth, appear to have had issue. Elizabeth married William Maxwell of Preston and was the mother of two daughters; Mary, wife of William Gordon, 17th Earl of Sutherland; and Willielma wife of John Campbell, Lord Glenorchy. Lady Glenorchy died without issue, so it is probable that the surviving genes of the family rest with the Sutherlands.

The end of Gaelic in Galloway is as obscure as its beginnings. It is likely that the survival of Gaelic was intimately bound up with the survival of a distinct Galwegian identity. The persistence of this Galwegian identity was a recurring source of conflict with Scottish kings from David I to David II. Crucially, it led Galloway’s Gaelic kindreds to support the Balliols against the Bruces in a struggle for the Scottish crown which lasted from 1286 to 1356, when David II prevailed over Edward Balliol. Even then, it was not until after Archibald Douglas established his lordship of Galloway in 1372 that the power of the Galwegian kindreds was diminished through the plantation of Scots speakers in Galloway. Under the Douglases, Scots began to displace Gaelic as the language of Galloway. By the end of Douglas rule in 1455, the once powerful Galwegian identity had faded into insignificance and the region was peacefully absorbed into Scotland. This acceptance of Scottish identity suggests that Scots had also replaced Gaelic as the language of Galloway.

In its editorial on 14 December 1963 the Dumfries and Galloway Standard and Advertiser declared, ‘The fact must be faced, Liberalism in Dumfriesshire is on its deathbed and nothing short of a miracle will revive it.’ The evidence for such a statement was strong. In the by-election occasioned by the elevation to the peerage of the sitting member, Niall Macpherson, and whose result had just been declared, the Liberal party, fielding a candidate in the constituency for the first time since the General Election of 1945, had secured a derisory 4,491 votes and forfeited its deposit. This figure, suggested the Standard, was ‘amazingly small’. ‘No juggling of the figures can produce a single crumb of comfort for the Liberals.’ The party’s candidate, Charles Abernethy, and his supporters had ‘put everything they had into the campaign, but however strong Liberalism in Dumfriesshire may have been in the past the by-election figures show that the new generation of voters are thinking along different lines’. A week later, following the publication of two critical letters in its correspondence columns, the newspaper felt it necessary to defend itself against the charge that it had itself contributed to the Liberal party’s predicament because ‘it did not throw its whole weight behind the Party, as in the old days’. A newspaper’s primary function, the Standard argued, is ‘to give a fair and unbiased account of the news, particularly in the controversial field of politics’. If, then, the Dumfriesshire Liberals were looking for a scapegoat for the result of the poll, ‘they must look elsewhere. We have no intention of accepting the role.’

This paper uses a variety of original sources on planned settlements in South West Scotland and the local industrial archaeology in order to explore the progress of Gatehouse of Fleet from the early 1760s, focusing first on the early feuars in the settlement established by James Murray of Broughton near his new mansion at Cally. The paper tracks attempts to bring industry such as tanning and brewing to Gatehouse. Using legal papers in particular, evidence shows how James Murray, other landowners, his partners in the new businesses and local tradesmen all became caught up in the rapid rise and subsequent failure of the Ayr Bank in 1772. The lasting effects of the bank’s failure on the local economy due to the financial burden on Murray and others is examined and we see how this led to a lack of new building, followed by the emigration of a number of the Gatehouse feuars. Development began to pick up only in 1777 when Murray promoted the settlement in the press and reduced feu duties for all new building. Cotton manufacture came to Gatehouse in 1785 with the signing of a contract between Murray and the Birtwhistle family, which led to the construction of a substantial mill. The rapid but short lived development and subsequent decline of the cotton industry and its effect on Gatehouse is examined in some detail. Finally we see how Gatehouse returned to its earlier role as a supplier of tradesmen to Cally Estate under Alexander Murray of Broughton.

For a period of nearly one hundred years the senior customs officers at the port of Dumfries believed that the establishment of a king’s boat at Carsethorn was the best means of stopping smuggling up the Solway Firth. These king’s boats were comparatively small when compared with the revenue cutters stationed round the Scottish coasts – the nearest of these was at Whithorn. They were essentially open boats with four, six or eight sets of oars and a sail. They were manned by a commander with a crew of men, who had been bred to the sea. The main source of information about the king’s boats is the copy books of letters from the Board of Customs in Edinburgh to the collector and comptroller at Dumfries and the local officers’ letters to the Board and to their own staff. This paper describes the relationship between the collectors and the commanders of the king’s boat, during the period 1759 to 1799, for which there is the most detailed information.

For at least 600 years, between the tenth and the sixteenth centuries, Galloway was a Gaelic speaking land. Although both the beginning and the end of Gaelic Galloway are uncertain, that Gaelic was the language of the kingdom of Galloway established by Fergus in the early eleventh century, and was still the main language of the Douglas lordship of Galloway at its end in 1455, is indisputable. In addition to the Gaelic personal and place names recorded in medieval charters, the thousands of Gaelic place names which survived to be recorded by the Ordnance Survey in the 1840s bear witness to Galloway’s Gaelic past. Furthermore, despite the language shift to Scots, there is evidence of cultural continuity between the agriculture of Gaelic Galloway and the farming practice of seventeenth and early eighteenth century Galloway. Then, at the end of the eighteenth century, the process of agricultural improvement began, a process which has continued to the present. The cumulative effect of this process in the lowlands, combined with afforestation in the uplands, has been the erasure of Galloway’s past. The Galloway landscape known to the Galloway Levellers and the Covenanters would have been familiar to the medieval Gaelic farmers who named the land, but none would recognise the landscape of the present.

The relationship of the Balliols and Umfravilles of Redcastle and Urr has caused historians problems, even to the extent of the suggestion that there might have been two of the name Enguerrand (Ingelram) de Umfraville. The most recent book3 shows Enguerrand in an altogether different position in the pedigree, without annotation, but obviously as an attempt to make sense of the evidence. I shall show that Sir Enguerrand de Umfraville enjoyed an exceptionally long life, being born about 1245 and dying after 1321, that he was the first cousin and co-heir of Sir Enguerrand de Balliol II (d 1298) son of Sir Eustace (d 1270/76), and that his mother was indeed Eustace’s sister Eva, daughter of Sir Enguerrand de Balliol I (d ca 1244) of Urr and Redcastle. Furthermore I reposition Sir Henry de Balliol of Cavers as the son, not the brother, of Sir Enguerrand de Balliol I, both on chronological grounds, and on the evidence that Sir Enguerrand had a son Henry who also had a son Henry, as did Sir Henry de Balliol of Cavers have a son Henry, so giving two matching pairs of Henrys.

This article explores the vituperative controversy which erupted in the mid 19th century over whether the Wigtown Martyrs were drowned. As the available evidence is neither easily accessible nor widely known, it is explained and evaluated. The conclusion is that they were drowned but there remain several mysteries including what happened to a reprieve from the Privy Council. Some historians have therefore been unable to agree that the drownings took place.

The ‘Old Edinburgh Road’ marked on Ordnance Survey maps of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright forms part of a route of great antiquity. A brief summary of its history before the turnpike era was given by the writer in a previous paper.2 The following notes are intended as an amplification of this and its extensions into Dumfriesshire and Wigtownshire, based on observations made in the intervening forty years.

The Gordons of Earlstoun are interesting in that they, probably more than any other family in Galloway, suffered the most extreme vicissitudes of fortune. Senior cadet branch of the Gordons of Lochinvar (later Viscounts Kenmure), they built up such a large landholding that by the mid-1600s they had become one of the most powerful and influential families in Kirkcudbrightshire, and later they acquired a baronetcy. Yet within a century the family were so reduced that they were compelled to dispose of their estates, and for the next seventy-five years they remained landless. However, in the mid-eighteenth century a younger son emigrated to Jamaica where he became involved in the lucrative sugar trade, and established the foundations for a revival in the family’s fortunes. Building on this, and inheriting the baronetcy, his son was adjudged heir of entail to an estate near Borgue. Consequently the family regained much of its former eminence

The death of Alexander 3rd in 1286 threw Scotland into tumult and struggle. When, in the same year, the South West was attacked by the forces of Robert Bruce it gave an unpleasant foretaste of what was to come. The strategic position of the region ensured that it became a transit area, traversed by the participating armies at least 13 times during the period. However, through-transit cannot explain the full-scale invasions, almost 30 battles and serious skirmishes and the very frequent harrying of the region throughout a 70 year period of intermittent warfare. Indeed, only 27 of these 70 years were without significant conflict somewhere in the South West. Thus the South West became pivotal in the wars of this period and often exhibited non-conformist and anti-central authority patterns of allegiance and support. The reasons for this persistent local turbulence are complex.

The killing of four Covenanters by Crown forces on Lochenkit Moor near present-day Crocketford in Kirkcudbrightshire in early 1685 was one of the most notorious events of the ‘Killing Times’. Today, a walled enclosure protects the site of their grave and an impressive obelisk nearby records the circumstances of their killing2. However, an account of the incident has been recently discovered in a manuscript book held in the Stewartry Museum in Kirkcudbright, which, if accurate, offers an alternative interpretation of the event.

This article illuminates the history of a rare survival of a 17th century farmstead, variously known as ‘Glenstocken’, ‘Glenstocking’, and ‘Nether town of Glenstocking’, on the coast near Colvend and describes a project to consolidate the structure. The scheme was implemented by the National Scenic Area (NSA) project on behalf of the partners (Scottish Natural Heritage, Dumfries and Galloway Council and the East Stewartry Coast NSA Advisory Group). 

For nearly four hundred years, historians have been perplexed by the location of ‘Rosnat’, a British monastery and house of studies mentioned in the lives of various Irish saints. It was long taken as Whithorn in Galloway, and this is still argued, as we shall see. However, what follows discusses the problem and then (on the basis of new evidence) suggests that the place was Old Kea in Cornwall, on a tidal creek between Truro and Falmouth. If so, it allows us to identify (somewhat unexpectedly) a home of Celtic learning and spirituality that for centuries enjoyed international fame, was the intellectual centre of Cornish or south-western Christianity in the sixth century, and has implications for our understanding of religion in early Scotland, as elsewhere in Britain and Ireland. The present paper may here seem ungracious in trying to show that a home of early learning was not at Whithorn. But, being published in Dumfries and Galloway, it perhaps suggests that, if there was not much learning there in the sixth century, there is a great deal in the twenty-first. 

A presentation which revealed how the Murray family developed their parks and pleasure grounds at Cally, Gatehouse of Fleet. Although the designed landscape is now largely hidden by forestry planting many historical features are still recognisable and hel

Lecture in Kirkcudbright Town Hall The speaker showed how records from some dozen English and Scottish archives had enabled a picture to be built of the lives of three generations of the Birtwhistle family, possibly the greatest drovers and graziers of th

Since the 1960s the historiography of the Union has been dominated by those historians who believe it was achieved by means of corruption, English threats and the venality of Scots MPs, and on the other hand, those who have concentrated on Scotland’s de

In an illustrated lecture, the retiring President, David Devereux, Museums Curator for the Stewartry in Dumfries and Galloway Museums Service, presented a wide variety of archaeological and local historical artefacts, fine and decorative art, photographs,

Obituary of Frank Stewart a Life Member of the Society - he contributed a numner of articles to the Transactions on the history of the New Abbey area.

Obituary of Duncan Adamson a former President of the Society - he contributed a significant number of articles to the Transactions on various aspects of the history of the Dumfries and Galloway area. He acted as historian to the Anne Hill Committee.

A review article

A review article

This report has arisen from the production of a management plan for Cally designed landscape for the Gatehouse Development Initiative in 2007. That plan is a practical tool to inform management and maintenance of the landscape and interpretation and enjoy

This article explores the distinctive features of the Accounts for the shires of Dumfries, Kirkcudbright and Wigtown and the changes revealed in the lives of the people and their environments between the First and Second and between the Second and Third A

Detailed lecture into sailing and navigation within the Solway.

An illustrated talk on the Dumfries Hannahfield estate c.1829-1928 was given by a local military enthusiast who, having discovered by chance two War Department Boundary Stones near the Kingholm completed some months of on site investigations and research