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A GOLD CHAIN PURCHASED FOR
THE PROVOST -PRESENTATION ADDRESS BY DR. SCOTT-THE NEW ASSEMBLY ROOMS
BUILT-GAS INTRODUCED, AND OTHER IMPROVEMENTS EFFECTED-FORMATION OF A
MECHANICS' INSTITUTE -REMOVAL OF LAG TOWN HOUSE, THE TURNPIKE-THE BURGH'S
CHARTERED RIGHTS CONFIRMED BY THE CROWN-THE DEAN CONSTITUTED DEAN OF
GUILD-THE "DRY YEAR," 1826-EXTRAORDINARY MEAL MOB-THE MURDERER HARE IN
DUMFRIES-HE IS MOBBED AND PURSUED TO THE JAIL BY THE POPULACE-THE PRISON
BESIEGED-TERRIBLE RIOT.
THOUGH for many years after
1817 the rulers of the town were much engrossed by matters of finance,
they did not neglect other public questions; and the enterprise of private
parties united with theirs in promoting several beneficial measures. A new
approach was made to the Burgh from the north; the site of the cattle
market on the White-sands was enlarged and paved; a free school was built
on the Green-sands in 1821; and the Mid-Steeple and St. Michael's steeple
were each supplied with a new clock, the cost of both, defrayed by
subscription, being about £190. Just when the monetary shoe might have
been supposed to pinch most severely, the lieges clubbed their shillings
and guineas on an expensive article of luxury with which to decorate their
chief, though the town could barely pay its debts. This was a magnificent
double chain of gold, which cost within a trifle of £150. It was publicly
presented to the Provost, Mr. John Kerr, on the 3rd of August, 1822; the
Rev. Dr. Scott, minister of St. Michael's, making an eloquent presentation
speech in name of the subscribers, and the Provost responding in
appropriate terms. At the next meeting of Council a minute was adopted
recommending his honour to wear the smaller part of the chain constantly,
but to reserve the longer and heavier part, with a medallion that is
attached to it, for "extraordinary occasions." This advice is still acted
upon; and on great days the Provost also wears a rich ermined robe
purchased by the Council in 1862.
The modern part of the
town-commenced in the north, after the building of the new bridge-received
an important addition when the new Assembly Rooms were erected, in 1825;
and the following year was signalized by a great event-the lighting of the
Burgh with gas, provided by a company having a capital of £8,000. Almost
contemporaneously with this increase of material illumination, there came
into existence a society which has been the means of diffusing much
intellectual light-we refer to the Dumfries and Maxwelltown Mechanics'
Institute. It was started on the 15th of March, 1825, at a meeting held
for the purpose in the Trades' Hall, presided over by Provost Thomson; and
in the course of the following year it was in full working order. The
members of the original committee are entered in the minute-book as
follows:-Provost Thomson, Mr. John Gregan, Mr. William M'Gowan, Mr.
Connechie, Dr. T. T. Duncan, Mr. Grierson, Mr. J. Charteris, Convener
Anderson, Mr. John Gibson, Mr. Thomas Roberts, Dr. H. Duncan, Mr. Barker,
Mr. Walter Newall, Mr. Thomas Watson, and Mr. James Wilson. At first the
annual subscription was 8s. per annum; for children of members, and
apprentices, 4s. When the Institute was ten years old it numbered 150
members. Its fortunes have been very varied: more than once it almost
ceased to exist, and was only kept alive by the zealous efforts of Mr.
William Mundell, grocer; Mr. Thomas Roberts, carver and gilder; Mr. John
Bell, ironmonger; Mr. James Charteris, turner; Mr. Alexander Crombie,
architect; Mr. William C. Aitken, brassfounder; Dr. W. A. T. Browne,
president of the Institute, and others of its early promoters. Sixteen
years ago, when the Institute was in a somewhat sickly condition, Mr.
Christopher Harkness became its secretary; and from that date it has grown
in size and improved in health. It is now, and has been for a lengthened
period, one of the most prosperous societies of the kind in the United
Kingdom. There are connected with it an excellent reading-room, a
well-selected library of nearly 8,000 volumes, a course of lectures during
the winter, and classes for young lads whose early education has been
neglected. The terms are only 4s. a year for adult males, 3s. for females,
and 2s. for apprentices. Usually the membership numbers between 600 and
700. A very elegant and commodious hall, built for the Institute from a
design by Mr. Alexander Fraser, architect, was opened about the close of
1861. It has sitting accommodation for 1,000 persons, and cost about
£1,500.
One of the local
journalists, writing on the 5th of September, 1826, thus notices the
improvements to which the introduction of gas formed a sort of climax.
"For a long period," says the writer, "Dumfries was so stationary that it
might have been included in the list of what an Irishman calls finished
towns. But a new spirit has gone abroad. . . . If we consider the number
of streets in Dumfries and Maxwelltown that have been finished, planned,
and partly executed within the last few years, the tenements rebuilt, the
houses gutted to make shops of, or in other respects remodelled and
repaired-the marvels, in a word, worked by Messrs. Sinclair and Howat,
Newall and Inman, Brown, Hair, and many others, we are quite sure that the
original `shooters of the Siller Gun,' were they to rise from their graves
at this moment, would scarcely be able to recognize the ancient Burgh they
lived, died, and earned their bread in. The widening of English Street,
and the approach by the Townhead, are both very great improvements ; and
strangers visiting us from the South and North must now receive favourable
impressions of the cleanliness and neatness that characterize Dumfries
from the moment they approach the shores of the Nith."
One of the changes involved
the removal of a large old pile called the Turnpike, the town house of the
Lag family, and in which the noted persecutor Sir Robert Grierson spent
the latest years of his life, and died in 1736. It is pretty generally
known that Sir Walter Scott depicted Sir Robert under the title of
Redgauntlet, in the romance of the same name; but the facts are known to
few, that the monkey companion of the aged knight, Major Weir, had a
veritable existence, and that the " cat's cradle," where the curious
creature slept, was a remote turret of the Turnpike that had been built
for a place of observation in ancient times. [The Laird of Lag and his
favourite are so racily described by Wandering Willie, in Scott's romance
of "Redgauntlet," that we must here introduce a portion of the sketch.
"There sat the Laird his leesome lane, excepting that he had beside him a
great, ill-favoured jackanape, that was a special pet of his; a cankered
beast it was, and mony an ill-natured trick it played-ill to please it
was, and easily angered-ran about the haill castle, chattering and
yowling, and pinching and biting folk, especially before ill weather or
disturbances in the State. Sir Robert ca'd it Major Weir, after the
warlock that was burnt; and few folk liked either the name or the
conditions of the creature-they thought there was something in it by
ordinar'. . . . Sir Robert sat, or I should say lay, in a great armed
chair, wi' his grand velvet gown and his feet on a cradle-for he had baith
gout and gravel-and his face looked as gash and ghastly as Satan's. Major
Weir sat opposite to him in a red laced coat, and the Laird's wig on his
head; and aye as Sir Robert girned wi' pain, the jackanape girned too-like
a sheep's-head between a pair of tangs : an ill-faured, fearsome couple
they were. The Laird's buff coat was hanging on a pin behind him, and his
broadsword and his pistols within reach; for he keepit up the auld fashion
of having the weapons ready, and a horse saddled day and night, just as he
used to do when he was able to loup on horseback and away after ony of the
hill-folk he could get speerings of." The Major was literally pistolled by
Sir Gilbert, the next laird of Lag, though not (need we add?) under such
circumstances of diablerie as are so graphically narrated in the romance.]
The inquiry into the town's
pecuniary matters made the circumstance painfully prominent, that some of
the legal deeds by which its property and privileges were held had been
lost or destroyed. Lest injurious results should follow, the Burgh's legal
agent in Edinburgh was instructed to take steps for obtaining a
confirmation of its chartered rights. On the 8th of May, 1827, the Provost
(Mr. William Thomson) intimated to the Council that the agent had
succeeded in procuring, at an expense of £144 15s., "a renewed charter of
confirmation by his present Majesty of the former charters granted to this
Burgh by the sovereigns of this part of the United Kingdom, in which all
the privileges, immunities, jurisdictions, and customs pertaining to the
Burgh were particularly and specially enumerated and confirmed." It was
further reported by the Provost, that on the 23rd of the preceding month,
public infeftment had been taken on the new charter at the market cross, a
record of which would be duly entered in the registers of sasines for the
Burgh and County.
By the same royal grant the
Burgh acquired a right of guildry, which it did not previously possess.
[Town Council Minutes.] As already pointed out, strenuous efforts were put
forth by the merchant councillors in the reign of James VI. to obtain a
privilege of this nature, which failed chiefly on account of opposition
from the Trades. The King, as appears from a document discovered in 1826,
when the Burgh records were removed from the old to the new Council
Chamber, actually gave his sign-manual in favour of the application; but
infeftment was never passed upon it. The dean, annually elected by the
Council, had no very extensive jurisdiction; but the charter of 1827, when
given effect to, converted him into a dean of guild, increased his powers
considerably, and gave him a court and officers of his own. Mr. John
Barker held the office in its simple form when the new law carne into
force; and he having resigned it, was thereupon elected as the first dean
of guild in Dumfries, at a meeting of Council held on the 31st of July,
1827; and at the same time five gentlemen were appointed to co-operate
with him, and a clerk and procurator-fiscal were attached to his court,
all in terms of the charter.
The crops of 1826 suffered
from a protracted drought, which has made the year a memorable one. As a
consequence, grain advanced considerably in value: oatmeal, which had
formerly been selling in the Queensberry Square market at a moderate
figure, rose to fully three shillings per stone-an advance that occasioned
much discontent in the town and district, and ultimately led to a serious
riot. On Wednesday the 12th of July there was a very welcome fall of
rain-the first that had occurred for several weeks-accompanied by a brief
but exceedingly violent thunderstorm. Just before the elemental strife
commenced, a storm of popular indignation burst forth, provoked by a
meal-monger from Maxwelltown, who, seeing that his stock was in great
demand, advanced its price to three shillings per stone. When challenged
for doing so, he defended his conduct; and, in exchanging verbal
compliments with the dames of the market, he ventured to assail one of
them with an epithet which no woman cares about submitting to. Blows
followed words, and a dangerous scuffle would have ensued had not the
hot-headed man of the meal been apprehended, examined before a magistrate,
and committed to prison.
He was unfortunately
liberated on bail, and with consummate foolhardiness resumed his position
beside his meal-bags, and vaingloriously announced to an assembled crowd
that "ThreeShilling Rab" was among them once more, and that he must have
an additional twopence per stone on account of the trouble he had been put
to. "Meal at three and twopence! Sorrow on ye for a rascally auld
skin-flint! Take that, and that, for yer shamefu' greed!" And with these
significant words came a shower of corresponding missiles, directed
against " Rab," who, hurriedly retreating from the furious tempest he had
reawakened, found temporary shelter in the house of Mr. Bairden, on the
opposite side of the square. From the voices of the disappointed mob rose
sounds which rivalled the bellowing of the thunder that afterwards rolled
above the Burgh. So violent was the rabble outcry, that in answer to it
the trembling refugee had to be turned out; and when that was done, off he
darted down the Long Close into Irish Street, in as great trepidation as
Tam o' Shanter with the witches on his track. Less fortunate than that
famous wight, he was caught at the foot of the close by a party of the
rioters who had taken a ready cut for that purpose; and after they had
given him a sound beating, he managed to escape from their hands; and, all
bloody and bruised, he reached with difficulty the Maxwelltown side of the
river, where he remained safely hidden for the night. The poor man's house
was then visited by the populace, who broke its window panes; and then, in
the madness of their rage, hurried to the houses of other meal-dealers,
which they treated in a worse way, though their owners had not sinned
after the similitude of "ThreeShilling Rab."
"The scene that now
ensued," says the local journalist, " baffles description. Stones and
other missiles were flying in all directions; windows were smashed, doors
forced, furniture broken, and even stolen; and some houses in which not an
obnoxious individual resided, soon exhibited an appearance resembling the
effects of a bombardment. The damage thus done to many individuals was
great; and one in particular rates his loss at upwards of £20. On the
Dumfries side the police and special constables prevented, in a great
measure, the fatal results which might have been anticipated; but in
Maxwelltown there was no regular police or public body of sufficient power
to suppress such general risings, and hence the fury of the mob raged
there almost without control, until it might be said to have exhausted
itself merely by its own violence."
A meal-dealer in Church
Street had a narrow escape. He was closely besieged in his own premises;
and when doors and windows had been beaten in, he retreated by a back
door, and hurrying out for bare life, broke through a thick thorn hedge,
and near "the noon of night" presented himself, pale and trembling, at the
house of a neighbour, by whom his escape was facilitated. We well
recollect seeing, next day, the "cairn" of huge stones, some of them ten
pounds in weight, which, piled up in the floor of his shop, seemed in our
childish eyes a terrific memorial-and it was really such-of the fury of
the rioters. The cause of all the commotion was punished with a fine of
two guineas. When returning from the police court, he received some verbal
abuse, but no actual violence; and in the afternoon he propitiated the
populace, and saved himself from further annoyance, by offering his meal
at the reduced rate of two shillings and nine pence per stone.
By far the greatest riot
that ever occurred in Dumfries of modern date, took place on the 6th of
February, 1829. For months before, the deeds of the notorious Burke, who
strangled a number of persons and sold their bodies to doctors for
dissection, excited the horror of the whole country. He suffered death for
his crimes, but his accomplice, William Hare, escaped by turning "king's
evidence;" and the authorities in Edinburgh having arranged to send him to
his native country, Ireland, he arrived at Dumfries by coach on his way to
Portpatrick. The news spread rapidly; and under its excitement a vast
crowd, estimated at eight thousand people, collected on the streetsthe
greatest concourse being in the vicinity of the King's Arms Hotel, where
Hare was located, waiting the departure of the Galloway mail. At first,
several gentlemen were freely admitted to see him. When, however, the
crowd outside increased, and began to use threats of violence, he was
removed for greater security to a closet adjoining the tap-room. There he
was traced; and a fierce band of intruders, with cries of " Burke him!
Burke him!" burst in, who would undoubtedly have made their words good,
had not several policemen arrived and cleared the room. The time for the
Portpatrick mail to start (eleven o'clock) having come, the inn-yard was
cleared with difficulty, the horses were yoked, and the coach was drawn
out. Hare did not make his appearance. If he had ventured forth, no
trembling quadruped with the name he bore ever experienced a worse fate
than that which awaited him. The wrath of the "Monument rangers," of the "Kirkgate
blades," and all the nameless rabble of the town, from the Moat-brae to
the Cat's Strand, was fairly up : they would have torn him to pieces
without mercy; and it is scarcely exaggeration to say, in the words of
Shakspeare:
"Had all his hairs been
lives,
Their great revenge had stomach for them all."
Two passengers were sent
forward a few miles in a gig, and the coach started perfectly empty,
excepting the guard, driver, and Mr. Alexander Fraser, one of the sons of
the proprietor. The vehicle literally toiled through the multitudinous
living mass that surged and heaved in High Street, and barely opened to
let it pass. When at the head of Buccleuch Street, the coach was stopped
and scrutinized. No one was found inside; and lest Hare, who was a small
man, should be secreted in the boot, it too was searched; and the mob
being satisfied that the object of their hatred must still be at the
King's Arms, permitted the mail to pass on its journey without further
harm. According to a statement current at the time, the rioters had
arranged to stop the coach a second time at the bridge, and throw Hare
over the parapet into the river; and failing that, to "Burke" him at
Cassylands toll-bar, the gates of which had been barricaded by them
beforehand. Not having found him in the coach, they returned bent on
finding him in the hotel, and making him there feel their vengeance.
Strange to say, many
persons were allowed to visit Hare in the afternoon at his quarters in the
tap-room, whilst a posse of policemen stood at the wide entry to the inn,
keeping the angry crowd at bay. "By these successive visitors he was
forced to sit or stand in all positions; and cool, and insensate, and
apathetic as he seemed, he was occasionally almost frightened out of his
wits. Abuse of every kind was plentifully heaped upon him, as the only
fitting incense that could meet his ear; and one woman, it is said seized
him by the collar and nearly strangled him; while a sturdy ostler who
happened to be present, though perhaps not at the same moment, addressed
him in these emphatic words:- `Whaur are ye gaun, or whaur can ye gang to?
Hell's owre guid for the like o' you-the very deevils, for fear o'
mischief, wadna daur to let ye in; and as for heaven, that's entirely out
o' the question!'" [Picture of Dumfries, p. 100.]
How to get rid of the
unhappy man became every hour a more pressing question for the
magistrates. They saw that on no account must he be kept in the King's
Arms till after sunset; as the mob, favoured by darkness, might resort to
desperate measures in order to reach its prey. It was thought if he could
by any means be consigned to the prison in Buccleuch Street, its walls
would defy any siege to which it might in consequence be subjected; and,
with this end in view, an ingenious device was resorted to. A little
before three o'clock a chaise and pair were brought to the door of the
inn, to which a trunk was attached, and about which a great fuss was made.
"Now we'll catch the gallows loon, and gie him't hot and heavy!" roared
the exulting rabble. Not so, good Master Mob, bent on a red-handed
ministry of retribution; the chaise you see is but a delusive decoy-duck,
and the wretched man you seek for has, under guidance due, leaped from the
window of his apartment, crawled like a viper, as he is, along a
lengthened line of wall lest his upright form should attract observation,
and hurrying into another chaise that stood ready for him at the bottom of
the yard, has set off in it at a lightning-like pace.
The postilion, Murdoch by
name, plied his whip and managed his team in gallant style. Had he been
driving a worthy man instead of a vile miscreant away from a host of foes,
he could not have performed his task more heroically. Before reaching his
destination he had to make the circuit of half the Burgh-down Shakspeare
Street; round Nith Place, the corner of which was turned so sharply that
the conveyance ran for a moment on two wheels, and was nearly upset; up
the White Sands. Lashed right and left, how the half-maddened horses did
run! Even if they had flown like the fiery Pegasus, they could not have
altogether eluded the vigilance of the Argus-eyed multitude; and just as
the clattering equipage dashed by the foot of Bank Street, it was
encountered by such a rush of rioters from that thoroughfare and other
quarters, that to make way against the cataract seemed for a while
impossible. Many a one in the condition of the King's Arms Jehu would have
compounded for his own safety, by complying with the fierce demand, "Stop,
and let the murderer oot!" that greeted him on all sides; but Murdoch
neither stopped nor parleyed, but drove right on, though before he reached
the head of the Sands, the crowd, swelled by contributions from Friars'
Vennel and Maxwelltown, had become so dense that he only made way through
it with the utmost difficulty. Several times the chaise, caught by a score
of hands, was brought to a dead stand; and had not the mettled steeds
plunged forward again the next minute, Hare would have had no chance.
Keeping up the panel as best he could, cowering in a corner to escape the
stones directed against him, his condition during that terrible ride was
truly pitiable ; though perhaps scant pity was due to the monster who had
without compunction assisted in putting numbers of his innocent
fellow-creatures to death.
Up Bridge Street! The mass
becomes closer as the passage grows narrower, and the panting horses make
scarcely any progress up the incline. The mob becomes denser and more
desperate; and the vehicle, wedged in all round, rocks with the heaving
multitude as if it would capsize. At this moment, when all hope must have
left both driver and passenger, the crowd suddenly opens up; a portion of
it withdrawing to the end of the new bridge, to hold it, in the belief
that the route of the chaise lies that way. It luckily lies in quite an
opposite direction. Now then, postillion, there is yet a chance left of
life and safety! Handle your ribbons and lay on whip as you never did
before! And he does by a marvellous feat in jockeyism clear the corner
into Buccleuch Street, almost at a bound; and then, having a wide
thoroughfare before him, he rapidly leaves the baffled rabble behind,
reaches the prison-the next instant its huge door opens, and then closes
between the fugitive and those who seek his blood.
His escape raised their
fury to a higher pitch than ever. They forthwith laid regular siege to the
jail; and for hours afterwards the whole neighbourhood rang with a Babel
of noise -the sound of blows struck against the prison gate, of breaking
gas lamps and window panes, of howls, threats, and curses, by which the
"night was made hideous." For four hours the north-west part of the town
was in full possession of the rioters; and it was only because the jail
was strong compared with their "munitions of war," that their pertinacious
endeavours to storm it proved unavailing. They wrenched the ponderous
knocker from the massive door, kept up an incessant battery of large
stones against the door itself, while lighter missiles of the same metal -
a truly petrifying shower-were poured down into the prison yard, doing
much mischief to the buildings. Whether the leaders of the assailing mob
had ever heard of the means by which Bruce in 1305 won the Castle of
Dumfries, we know not; but when their other appliances failed, they
thought, like him on that occasion, of resorting to fire. "Tar-barrels and
peats!" "Peats and tar-barrels!" they muttered to each other. "Ay, ay; let
us burn down the door, and roast the wild beast in his den!" responded in
louder terms the rank and file; and in all likelihood the incendiary
proposal would have been acted upon, and much valuable property been laid
in ashes, had not a hundred special constables reinforced the police and
militia staff at this critical period, and joined them in a bold attempt
to clear the ground.
Repeated charges were made
by the men of peace for this purpose, and eventually with more success
than could have been looked for, seeing that the "insurgents" were so
numerous and menacing. Once that the rabble tide began to turn, its waters
receded rapidly, and in one short hour afterwards it became manifest that
the fearful crisis was over; though a diminished crowd occupied most of
the street, and seemed still bent on mischief. When the ten o'clock bell
rang, the rioters, congregated outside the ring made by dint of staff and
baton, numbered several thousands; but a while before midnight they melted
away, till only a few hundreds were left; and when the morning of the 7th
of February came, cold and bleak, it found not a solitary son of violence
astir. Wearied with the work of the wild day and wilder night, the mob,
dissolved into quiet fragmentary units, was taking its needed rest; and
none but the friends of order kept the streets. Before day-dawn, Hare was
roused from a troubled slumber, and told to prepare for his instant exit:
he was rightly looked upon as an Achan in the camp, who for the sake of
the town's peace, not less than his own safety, must be thrust out, now
that an opportunity for doing so presented itself, before that the
populace rose again in wrath, "like a giant refreshed with wine;" and so
he was conveyed to the English road by a sheriff's officer and two
militia-men, and the tempestuous episode of Hare in Dumfries was brought
to a peaceful issue. [Hare had, it appears, been smuggled out of Edinburgh
jail muffled in a cloak, and been taken up by the mail coach at Newington.
"In his progress to the South, his life was repeatedly placed in the
greatest jeopardy. Like Cain, a mark was set on his head; yet he finally
escaped, and, when the storm blew over, found his way in a coasting vessel
to the shores of Ireland. Half a year afterwards, his sister, while
returning from the harvest, called for his bundle at the King's Arms Inn,
announcing herself in a whisper; and readily obtained an article that was
found lying in a corner of the tap-room, like a polluted thing that nobody
would appropriate, or even encounter the defilement of throwing away." -
Picture of Dumfries, p. 102] |
