GIBSON in his History of Glasgow,
published in 1777, chronicles the following wave after wave of
misfortune, from which the city suffered from 1648 to
1652. He states:-
"The town of Glasgow about this time
was almost destroyed by
misfortunes. To the calamities attending civil war and division, were
added those of pestilence and famine; the plague had raged for some time
in the city and neighbourhood, the crops of corn had failed, the meal
was sold at one shilling and ninepence sterling per peck; and to
complete their misery, violent fire breaking out
in June, 1652, had destroyed the greater part of the Saltmarket,
Trongate, and High Street." The fronts of the houses were then mostly of
wood, so that they became an easy prey to the violence of the flames.
An account of the fire was supplied to Cromwell and
his council by the magistrates of Glasgow, and certified by Colonels
Overton and Blackmore. From this it appears that the fire broke out on
Thursday the 17th June, "within a narrow alley upon the east side of the
(High) street above the crosse, which within a short space burnt up six
allies of houses, with diverse considerable
buildings upon the fore-street." ‘While the inhabitants were doing their
utmost to save their property and effects, "the wind blowing from the
north-east carried such sparks of the flame as kindled unexpectedly some
houses on the west side of the Saltmarket, where the fire so spread that
it did overrun all from house to house, and consumed, in some few hours,
what came in its way.
"This fire, by the hand of God, was carried so from
the one side of the street to the other, that it was totally consumed on
both sides, and in it the faire, best, and most considerable houses of
the town, with all the shops and warehouses of the
merchants which were therein, and from that street the flame was carried
to the Trongate, Gallowgate, and Bridgestreet-gate, in all which streets
a great many considerable houses and buildings, with the best part of
the movables and commodities of the inhabitants, were burnt to ashes.
"When some hundreds of families, in great distress
and want, had, till the Saturday at night, laine in the open tields and
diverse of them were beginning to get some shelter with such of their
neighbours as the Lord had spared, upon the Lord’s Day, betwixt seven
and eight in the morning, the fire broke out anew
in the north side of the Trongate and continued
burning violently till near twelve o’clock in the forenoon. This new and
sad stroke, upon the back of the other, not only destroyed diverse
dwelling-houses, and occasioned the pulling downe of many more, but it
so terrified the whole inhabitants, that all carried out of their houses
whatever movables they had, and took themselves againe, for some nights,
to the open fields; and in this feare, and removing of their goods from
their houses to the streets, and from the streets to the fields, the
loss by stealing and spoiling of goods was very great to all; and
diverse, on whom the fire unexpectedly seized, were altogether ruined."
On the 14th of September, 1652, John Wilkie, a
burgess of the city, was sent to London to petition Parliament, in name
of the town, for help in making up the loss occasioned by the fire.
Cromwell and his councillors, in a document dated 7th
April, 1653, shortly review the account given them, saying that "in such
places, so consumed, were fourscore bye-lanes and alleys with all the
shops, besides eighty warehouses, which alleys were the habitations of a
thousand families; all which losses computed, amounts to one hundred
thousand pounds sterling."
The diem
cent further recommended "the
said poore inhabitants," as "an object of charity,
to such pious and well-diposed people as shall be willing to contribute
towards time reliefe of" their "present
and pressing necessitIes. ‘Whether the city
received anything more than a recommendation from Cromwell, and what the
total sum subscribed amounted to, is unknown. A
committee of the Town Council undertook the work of distribution, and in
mak!ng their grants for the rebuilding of the property destroyed, they
made a distinction. They gave more money to those
who proposed erecting their houses entirely of stone, than to those who
intended to keep by the old system, having their windows and fronts
built with dealls. It is surprising that the Tolbooth, so near the
place where the fire originated, was not involved in the general
destruction of the district.
