Biography

For a short period in the second month of the Great War, the attention of the people of Dumfries and Galloway was focused on the seemingly tragic plight of the family of Andrew Hume, a local music teacher. In a journalistic scoop the Dumfries Standard reported that Hume’s 23-year-old daughter Grace, a nurse with the Red Cross in Belgium, had been brutally butchered by advancing German troops. It appeared to be one episode among many proving the depravity of Britain’s enemy. But granted that, less than three years earlier, Hume had lost his son Jack on the ill-fated maiden voyage of the liner Titanic, it also seemed that lightning had for once struck twice in the same place. In practice, the story proved to be something of a nine-day wonder, quickly exposed as a cruel fabrication. Yet, in highlighting the broader issue of enemy atrocities and wartime propaganda, the Hume case is illustrative of key historical themes whose importance transcends even the First World War itself.

At the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society meeting on the 17 October 1913, Mr Hugh S. Gladstone MA, FRSE, FZS, FSA(Scot) read as his Presidential address: Addenda to the Statistical Account of Dumfriesshire and Galloway written at the end of the Eighteenth Century by Capt. Robert Riddell LLD, FSA(Scot).3 Gladstone had found in his own library six volumes of the Statistical Account of Scotland, volume I and volumes III to VII. As Volume I and volumes III to VI contained annotations by Robert Riddell, Gladstone assumed that Riddell had annotated all of the first six volumes. He regretted that all his efforts to trace volume II had failed and hoped that the publication of his paper would lead to its discovery.

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.

John Rutherford (1842–1925) was a local photographic pioneer and well worthy of study. Three published papers will result in a fairly comprehensive review of his recording of scenes of South-West Scotland at the end of the Victorian period. The current paper, which is the third and final one, features his photographs of Dumfries. The first paper in the series presented biographical information and a study of the excavations at Birrens in the 1890s, both aspects of Annandale. The second paper dealt with his photographs of Nithsdale from north to south. Each paper has quotations from writings largely contemporaneous with Rutherford’s photographic work.

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.

John Semple was a revivalist preacher who rose to prominence during the Ulster Revival. Appointed the first parish minister of Carsphairn, he quickly became renowned for his powerful preaching and drew people from far and wide to his communion seasons. He inspired a deep Christian faith and commitment in many who came under his ministry, and his influence helped establish south-west Scotland in its strong Covenanting sympathies. A neglected figure in recent years, it is proposed that he had far more influence on the years of the Covenanting struggles than has been recognised.

John Rutherford (1842–1925) was a photographic pioneer and well worthy of study: so much so that three papers, in all, over three years will gradually build up a picture of his activities, achievements and, especially, his recording of scenes in South-West Scotland at the end of the Victorian period. The current paper features his photographs of Nithsdale. The first paper in the series presented biographical information and a study of the excavations at Birrens in the 1890s, both being aspects of Annandale.2 The third and final paper will concentrate on his scenes of Dumfries itself .

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.

At the foot of the kirkyard at Mouswald, sloping down towards the Solway Firth, lie the mortal remains of Robert Threshie Reid, first and last Earl Loreburn. The simple stone cross marking his grave, lies broken on the ground, its condition a telling commentary on the evaporation of the historical reputation of one who served for more than six years as a leading and much respected member of Britain’s pre-First World War Liberal government. That distinguished administration, formed by premier Henry CampbellBannerman in December 1905, contained three future Prime Ministers – H.H. Asquith, David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill – as well as such luminaries as Edward Grey, Foreign Secretary at the start of the war, and Richard Burdon Haldane, perhaps the most accomplished War Minister of the twentieth century. But Reid’s appointment to the Lord Chancellorship was seen at the time as a step of considerable importance. Indeed, he was the first prospective minister to be approached by Campbell-Bannerman as the latter set about constructing his cabinet.

Today, Andrew Barrie (1798-1866) is long forgotten in his adopted town of Dumfries and fares little better in his home town of Paisley, commemorated only by his grave at Woodside Cemetery and the annual award of ‘Barrie’ Dux Medal at Paisley Grammar School. Yet during his life he was highly regarded by the citizens of both towns for his contribution to civic life and private and public financial support for a wide variety of organisations. He brought to civic life the same drive and determination that had enabled him to rise from relatively modest beginnings to become a wealthy and influential figure. On his death in 1866 the Dumfries Standard and Paisley Herald were fulsome in their praise for his work as a Sheriff Substitute and Justice of the Peace; as a Trustee and Elder of St Mary’s Church in Dumfries; for the numerous public appointments he held; and for his extensive financial support for charities. It is all the more surprising that such importance during his lifetime should be reduced to so little in posterity.

Although Joseph Train (1779-1852), the celebrated antiquarian and associate of Sir Walter Scott, was an Ayrshireman, he was based for the principal part of his career in Dumfriesshire and Galloway.2 Train’s antiquarian endeavours have been noted in these Transactions on previous occasions as have the Statistical Accounts.3 This article argues that antiquarianism had a considerable impact on the Statistical Accounts and notes Train’s contribution to them in particular. It also suggests that Train’s production of a Statistical Account of the Isle of Man (1845) was the direct result of his involvement with Scott, ‘statistics’ and South-West Scotland; and that his work on Man should be seen as an expression of territorial identity within an over-arching and increasingly patriotic British state. The article begins by contrasting the background and career of Train with the principal authors of the Accounts, the ministers of the Church of Scotland, as a means of emphasising his achievements.

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.