Issue No 22 NEWSLETTER

of Perth & Kinross Council Archive

Honorary Presidents: Provost of Perth & Kinross Council and Sir William Macpherson of Cluny and Blairgowrie

Dundee versus Perth: Sixteenth Century Battles for Precedence ( page 4)

Also: Perthshire and Slavery p6 Victorian Police Pensions p9 Adam Anderson, Politician p13 Notes from the Chair p2 News from the Archive p2

Perth & Kinross Council Archive, AK Bell Library, York Place, Perth PH2 8EP, Tel: 01738 477012 Email: [email protected] Notes from the Chair

We start the 2007/2008 session with an exciting and varied pro- gramme of talks to look forward to. Some of the subjects may be fa- miliar, others less so. But I know we shall enjoy all the talks. A diary of the talks is available as an insert inside this issue and the next one is by James Irvine Robertson on 18 October at 2pm, titled ‘Slavery & the Stewarts of Garth’

The Friends' summer outing this year was to Tay Salmon Fishing at Seggieden on Saturday 1 Sep- tember. The afternoon was bright and sunny perfect weather for our picnic and most enjoyable boat trips and walk. In the Archive there are many references from the mid-16th century to the Seggieden Estate and its fishery. There is no longer any fishing there, but the present owner, a wildlife enthusi- ast, has plans to develop the left bank of the Tay so that walkers and cyclists may have easy access and the opportunity to sail along and across the river in specially designed boats or water-taxis. (These and other plans to develop recreational facilities in the Fair City can be seen on the Tay Salmon website at http://www.taysalmon.co.uk)

This year the Scottish Records Association Conference will be held in Perth at Perth Concert Hall, on Friday 16 November between 10am-5pm. This year's title is Keeping the Faith, and the confer- ence will focus on historical records created by religious bodies in Scotland. While conference talks and discussions are held in the Norie Miller Studio, the foyer will feature and information exchange and displays from various archives and related organizations, including the Friends of the Perth & Kinross Council Archive. Our stand will offer access to our website and data-bases. We shall be in good company, alongside the National Archives of Scotland, the Scottish Archive Network and the Scottish Catholic Archives. Members of the public are invited to visit these displays free of charge while admission to what promises to be a fascinating conference costs £10 for members and £13 for non-members.

Since the AGM in May, Provost John Hulbert has agreed to be one of our Honorary Presidents, and we look forward to welcoming him to our meetings. At the same time, his predecessor, the out- going Provost Bob Scott, has been created an Honorary Life Member of the Friends. Also since the AGM, David Wilson, the newsletter's editor, has been co-opted to serve on the Committee.

With all good wishes Margaret Borland-Stroyan

2 News from the Archive

The Archive staff and Friends volunteer Jackie Hay have been con- centrating recently on producing the Cry Freedom programme as part of October’s Archive Awareness Month (see page 6 for details). Ar- chives Awareness is part of an annual campaign to raise the profile of archives through activities and events which are publicised locally and nationally. The theme of the 2007 campaign is ‘Freedom and Liberty’, looking at the struggle for rights in history, including the Chartists, the Suffragettes and the 200th anniversary of the Parliamentary abolition of the transatlantic slave trade – which is what we’ve been focussing on. If you’re interested in finding out more about events nationwide, you can log on to http://www.archiveawareness.com/

Outreach like this is an important part of our job – but there would be no point in letting people know about our collections if we didn’t have any to show them! So we continue to welcome additions and new collections, which we arrange and list. Recent accessions and accruals include legal papers and personal correspondence, 1698-1826, concerning members of the Small of Finegand family and family letters of the Smeaton and Brugh families, 1784-1834. Although they are not originals, these letters are full of news sent from London, Edinburgh, Canada, India and Perthshire about the health of family members, their births, marriages, deaths and activities. The collection also contains a will by Andrew Brugh Captain of the United East India Company, a letter excepting the orphan John Brugh to the Upper School of Kidderpore and a presentation by the Earl of Kinnoull in favour of James Burgh to be minister of the United Parishes of Trinity Gask and Kinkell.

Angling clubs have also featured strongly recently, and we’ve received records from both the Tulloch Angling Club, 1889-1949 and the Luncarty Angling Club, 1963-1983. We’re also lucky to receive a copy of Irvine Butterfield’s ms, 'A Perthshire Whiskey Trail'.

The Friends have donated conservation money towards the treatment of an important recent acces- sion – the first three volumes of the County of Perth car registration registers, 1903-1921. These con- tain descriptions of cars, their owners and registration numbers, as well as when the cars were first and last registered and were thought to be lost, so it’s good news that they’ve survived.

Finally, we’re really pleased to receive John Kerr’s collection, the Atholl Experience, which now has the reference number MS249. You may have read about this in the press, and how the collection is the culmination of decades of study into the settlements, place names and people of Atholl. The work of 45 years, John Kerr’s research ranges from the 13th to 20th centuries, covers 500 square miles of Perthshire and contains 1.5 million words and 2700 photographs – and its here in the Ar- chive for people to see!

Jan Merchant

3 Snowballs and Fisticuffs: Rivalry between Perth and Dundee in the Sixteenth Century

Every country has its local rivalries, some more well-known than others. Our most famous is between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Gowing up near Portree on Skye, it was enough for me to know that people from Staffin were un- sophisticated country bumpkins, while the inhabitants of Lewis were strange foreigners, whose Gaelic even had a different word for water. It was only recently that I discovered the rivalry between Perth and Dundee. It began as a dispute over navigation rights on the Tay and reached a peak in the sixteenth century, focusing oddly on parlia- mentary ceremonial.

In the riding of parliament, the procession marking the opening of the Scottish parliament, the entire member- ship processed from Holyrood Palace to the parliament house. It emphasised the majesty of parliament and the unity of the nation. Yet at the same time it emphasised hierarchy. Your place directly related to your status: the more important you were, the closer to the rear you processed, creating a crescendo of status, culminating with the honours of Scotland (crown, sword and sceptre).

Places were hotly contested and disputes led to protests and even violence. Nobles who felt that they had not been given their proper place refused to join the procession. One dispute delayed the start of parliament for five hours. Some burghs, Dundee and Perth in particular, were just as concerned about their place in the pecking order. The longest-running dispute involved Dundee and Perth. It began in December 1567 when a ‘tumult happynnit upoun the gait of Edinburgh betuix the nychtbouris [of Dundee] and the inhabitantis of Sanctjohn- nestoun in tyme of parliament’. There was a brawl! According to a Victorian historian of Perth, it ‘raged with lu- dicrous vehemence on the part of the Dundonians’.

In 1579, it erupted again. The convention of burghs at Glasgow in February 1580 was ordered to decide the is- sue ‘according to the auncientie of the saidis burrowis’. Commissioners from Dundee and Perth (both insisting on their right to second place) agreed to submit to arbitrators chosen by the convention. Before anyone could take a breath, Stirling’s commissioner declared: ‘quhatsumever thing is decernit betuix Dondie and Perth pre- judge nocht Striveling and the privilege it hes to second place’. In spite of this unhelpful intervention, it was de- cided that Dundee and Perth should each choose three burgesses to meet at Rait and that those six should choose an ‘overisman’ with a casting vote It is easy to imagine the groans of exasperation at the next convention of burghs when they found that nobody had even turned up at Rait! The convention ruled that Dundee and Perth should ‘produce thair allegeances, defenssis and ressonis’ in writing at Edinburgh in April 1581. At that meeting, there was ‘lang debaitt and controversie’ between Perth and Dundee, while Stirling reasserted its claim. The dispute was ‘swa debaitabill and intricate’ that they asked the privy council to decide. The privy council or- dered the burghs to decide and Perth was given ‘the priority before Dundie’ but only until the next parliament. When parliament met in November, it handed the decision back to the burghs, demanding a final resolution at their next convention in 1582 at Perth.

Perth’s dean of guild, Henry Adamson, raised a letter at the court of session ordering the burghs to resolve the dispute. He secured the signatures of the king, the treasurer, William Ruthven, earl of Gowrie (a good friend to Perth), and the abbot of Dunfermline. The letter (drafted by the council of Perth) ordered the burghs to

4 ‘considder onlye the maist ancient burgh’, while noting ‘the antiquitie of Perth’. So, the convention of burghs ‘declarit Perth to haif the first place afoir Dondy’. Dundee complained to parliament that a convention at Perth could hardly be neutral: the estates remitted the case back to the burghs.

In 1582, Gowrie’s support was worth having. He had seized power in a coup in August 1582 (the ‘Ruthven Raid’) but a counter-coup in July 1583 overthrew him and he was arrested, ironically at Dundee, while attempt- ing to flee and was executed for treason. Dundee’s reward came quickly: in May 1584, it was granted ‘second place in parliament nixt [to] Edinburgh’. Perth’s protests were brushed aside but it persisted. In exasperation, the burghs tried to get Edinburgh to decide the dispute but Edinburgh’s commissioner flatly refused. Dundee tried to get the next parliament to decide, but parliament remitted it to the court of session. Nobody wanted to make the decision.

In 1594, Perth was back in favour and the king ordered it to be placed second after Edinburgh. Relations be- tween Dundee and Perth were getting worse, because a new royal charter to Perth removed all of Dundee’s rights to levy tolls on Perth’s merchant shipping. In February 1601, a messenger (David Drummond) came to Dundee to proclaim royal letters, raised at the court of session by Perth. The bailies of Dundee organised a crowd to heckle him, ‘caling him knaif, lowne, and deboschit swingeour [i.e. scoundrel], casting of snaw ballis at him, and interrupting him in proclaimeing of the saidis letters, and for schoutting and hoying of him with loud cryis throw the gait as gif he haid bene a theif or malefactour’. Drummond alleged that the bailies had or- dered that nobody should give him shelter. He brought his complaint to the privy council but ‘failed in his proof’ – nobody could be found in Dundee who knew anything about the incident.

Things reached a climax in December 1602: Perth decided to borrow whatever sums were necessary for the case, while Dundee borrowed over £3,000 ‘in the defense of certane wrangous actionis aganes thame be the toune of Perth’. The case was so important that when the court of session sat on 30 December 1602 to give its judgement, the king himself was present. Perth’s arguments began with its strongest suit: ‘the gryt antiquitie of the said burgh, of auld the residence of your hienes progenitouris with thair princeis, bairnes, and fameleis, and quhair parliamentis, publict conventiounes, generall counsellis and assembleis of the esteattis of the realme wer hauldin.’ . Dundee argued that it was ‘mair ancient’ (which was not true). It also asserted that Dundee paid more tax than Perth, but wealth was not used by anyone else arguing for precedence. The judgement favoured Perth: ‘As to the first place and rank acclamit be ather of the saidis burrowis in parliamentis, generall conven- tiounes, counsellis of the esteattis of this realme and assembleis of burrowis, Our soverane lord findis and de- cernis that Perth sall have the plaice befoir Dundie, And the burgessis of Dundie thair successouris and com- missioneris sall mak na impedimentis to thame in na tyme cuming’ And that was an end to it – the highest civil court had given its judgement and Dundee was forced to relent.

The dispute and its provocation of other burghs to assert their own claims show that parliament was the na- tional institution where many things were affirmed and confirmed, not least the status and position of people and towns within the national hierarchy. They took it very seriously and spent considerable sums on fine cloth- ing, formal written protests drawn up and witnessed by lawyers and, in the case of Dundee and Perth, the legal costs of a case before whatever national tribunal was willing to hear them.

Dr Alan R MacDonald University of Dundee 5 Cry Freedom: Perthshire and Slavery

To mark the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade and also the Archives Awareness Campaign 2007, it was felt that it would be interesting for the Friends to investigate Perthshire’s involvement with slavery. Clearly Perthshire’s inhabitants were consumers of slave-harvested sugar and cotton, but this project explored the ways in which the people of Perthshire were involved in both the slave trade and the abolitionist movement in the period 1760s to 1860s. We started by trawling through the P&K Council Archive’s catalogues for the papers and the collections of families known, or suspected, to have had business dealings in the Americas and the West Indies.

One of the earliest documents, and perhaps the most sobering, was among the Threipland papers: the 1768 asset inventory of the late Mr Gadd, a pimiento planter in St James, Jamaica. This includes a list which is re- oroduced below, of thirty-six named slaves with their individual values. At the bottom of the same page is a list of steers, horses and mules. It is graphic evi- dence of human beings and animals being considered as livestock property in exactly the same way [Ref: MS169/2/2/2(11)].

Peter Duff was a Perth paper merchant, Bailie and Dean of Guildry at the end of the eight- eenth century. While he does not appear to have had direct links with slavery, his contacts certainly did. He was executor to the will of a slave-owner in Jamaica, and his dealings with Mr Ritchie, attorney in St James, enabled him to pass on advice to the Master of Perth Acad- emy, whose son was about to set off for the West Indies. Ritchie’s comments are hard to reconcile. One moment he discusses slaves as a commodity: “…purchase a few Negroes… they bring a very handsome interest…” and in the same letter he writes of “…Negroes, who are our fellow creatures…” [Ref: B59/37/4/29, 5 August 1800].

Evidence of individual Negro servants, probably former slaves, cropped up across Perthshire, for example in George Johnston of Perth’s household census of 1773 [Ref: B59/24/1/40(14d)].

David Grimond’s letters to his sisters detail conditions for labourers and planters in Guyana immediately after the emancipation of slave labour. Black labourers had allotments where they could grow their own food, they

6 could withhold labour, and some eventually bought small estates vacated by ruined planters. Grimond, an overseer on his uncle’s sugar plantation in Demerara, was not paid for months [Ref: Bruce family papers MS71, c1840-1860].

We produced a broad timeline of national and international events to help us place the documents in their historical context and this exercise helped to focus the search for evidence of known events, such as the Jo- seph Knight case. Knight was purchased as a slave in Jamaica and brought back by Sir John Wedderburn to be his house-servant at Ballindean on the Carse of Gowrie, where he was baptised and educated. When Knight wished to leave, Wedderburn objected and took him to the Perth Justices of the Peace who found in Wedderburn’s favour. But Knight successfully appealed this decision in Perth Sheriff Court which ruled that he was a free man. The case was then brought by Wedderburn before the Lords of Council and Session in Edinburgh in 1778 where they found that, although Knight was a free man protected by law in his person and property, Wedderburn was still entitled to his perpetual service as before. The frustrating puzzle is that there seems to be no evidence as to whether Knight then returned to Ballindean. Earlier correspondence between Sir John Wedderburn and Lord Kinnaird exists in the Archive, providing some insight into Wedderburn’s character as he favourably compares the life of plantation slaves to that of Scottish agricultural labourers [Ref: MS100 Bundle 117, 15 Jan 1792], but we could find no further mention of Joseph Knight

Perthshire people were also actively involved in the anti-slavery movement. The Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade (1807) abolished the trade in slaves, but a campaign soon began for the abolition of slavery itself. The main abolitionist arguments were moral (“fellow creatures”) and religious (“men are equal before God, therefore slavery is a sin”). Scottish churches, particularly the independent congregations, were at the fore- front of this movement.

A Petition, signed by 3800 Perthshire inhabitants, was presented to Parliament in February 1833 [Ref: Perthshire Advertiser 28 Feb 1833], contributing to a groundswell of public opinion across Britain. That

7 same year, the Act for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Colonies “freed” slaves and promised compensation to their owners. In reality, slaves became unpaid apprentices until 1838. Now the abolitionists set their sights on America. The Perth Female Anti-Slavery Society was set up in April 1846, followed by the Perth Anti-Slavery Society in December of that year after presenting a petition to the Council [Ref: PE15/116B, 1846]. Newspaper articles tell of “gentlemen of colour” addressing Perth anti-slavery meetings and letters to Lord Kinnaird from American abolitionists explore contemporary politics [Ref: MS100/ Bundles 520,588,628, c1860].

This Friends project stretched beyond the Archive to AK Bell’s Local Studies Section, where we found nu- merous newspaper articles covering the anti-slavery movement in Perth. We are indebted to Miss Fothergill who unearthed many relevant articles during her own newspaper research. Also, AK Bell’s Reference section holds copies of the Acts of Parliament of 1807 and 1833, which repay detailed examination. The Joseph Knight papers are held at the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh [Ref: CS235/K/2/2]

The result of the project is a small display of panels which will can be seen at the AK Bell Library until Octo- ber 19 before being circulated to local schools and libraries. This will coincide with the talk by James Irvine Robertson on 18 October in the Library Theatre about ‘Slavery and the Stewarts of Garth’ – we hope to see everyone there at 2pm!

A CD-ROM of the source material, together with activities and questions is also available for use in Perth & Kinross schools, aimed at P6-S2 pupils. We have produced a list of slavery-related sources in the P&KC Ar- chives, and a list of relevant newspaper articles in Local Studies, which will provide a starting point for anyone wishing to explore this subject further. After all, we didn’t find documentary evidence of the dinner attended by six Perth ministers and Frederick Douglass, fugitive slave, in 1846. We were unable to discover the “earlier court case” referred to in the Perth Sheriff Depute papers relating to Joseph Knight. And what hap- pened to Joseph Knight after the verdict? Perhaps the answers to these intriguing questions lie in a pile of papers somewhere, just waiting to be discovered… Jackie Hay

8 Jobs for Life?

A Victorian alternative to Public Service Pensions

One fascinating aspect of the Archive is how historical documents reveal situations which seem contemporary. Nineteenth century Police Commission- ers papers demonstrate that concern about the costs of public service pensions, with central and local government in conflict over funding, is nothing new. Pa- pers in the 1880s also record financial corruption and the intervention of the Secretary for Scotland over the treatment of John McDonald, a Perth police officer. A somewhat less contemporary touch, however, was that the Mr # McDonald was almost eighty years of age, and had served in the Perth force Inspector MacDonald for no less than forty-six years !

An Act to render more efficient the Police in Counties and Burghs in Scotland , generally referred to as the Police (Scotland) Act, was passed in 1857. It laid down that the "state and efficiency" of every police force should be officially inspected annually. The Treasury could only release funds for a po- lice force once it received a certificate, signed by the Secretary of State, confirming the force's efficiency during the previous year.

This early legislation only allowed for pensions in cases where the Chief Constable certified that an of- ficer of 60 was incapable of carrying out his duties. In later legislation, the General Police and Im- provement (Scotland) Act 1862. provisions for payments to deserving and needy police officers appear. This provides: "it shall be lawful for the Commissioners to...reward [Constables] for meritorious Ser- vices, and to make Provision for any Superintendent, Constable or other Servant of the Establishment employed for any of the Purposes of this Act who may at any Time be disabled in or after long Service be unfitted for the Execution of his Duty." However there was no obligation laid on the local police commissioners to make such a provision, let alone to provide a universal superannuation system as had been adopted for some time in England.

Aware of the advantages enjoyed by colleagues south of the border, police in Scotland started to feel unfairly treated. ‘A Plea for Police Superannuation in Scotland by an officer of police’ is a printed peti- tion, dated 29th March 1875, arguing that Scottish police should, like their English and Irish counter- parts, benefit from superannuation.

Scottish Local Authorities, who would have had to fund at least part of the increase in costs from local rates, were less enthusiastic. The City of Glasgow took the lead in submitting a formal petition against the Police Pensions Bill on 13 April 1886. This argued that "the period of service after which a Consta- ble may claim a pension is too short", quoting the scenario of a man of only 55 drawing a pension of

9 between half and three fifths of his salary, and requested that the superannuation legislation currently before Parliament should not be compulsorily applied to Scotland. In May 1886, following the resignation in the previous autumn of the Police Treasurer over the embezzlement of some £266 of public funds by his clerk, Perth supported Glasgow's petition to Parliament objecting to compulsory pensions.

Despite these objections, four years later Parliament passed legislation under which pensions for police offi- cers with at least 25 years' service and at least 55 years of age (60 for more senior officers) became universal from 1891. However, this legislative activity was too late to help McDonald, whose treatment by the Perth Commissioners would eventually be a matter for concern at the highest levels of government.

John McDonald, 5 foot 10 inches tall, joined the Perth City Police in1840. Within the short space of four years he had reached the rank of Inspector. From census records we know that he was a native of Weem and that he and his wife Elizabeth had several children.

On 11 December 1871 Inspector McDonald and Inspector George Mearns wrote to the Perth Police Com- missioners, expressing "sincere thanks" on behalf of the Perth police force for the "liberal increase of pay". From 1867-1871, an Inspector's weekly salary was £1 5s [£1.25], while a Constable 3rd Class (the most junior rank) earned 16s [£0.80]. After the pay increase, Inspectors received £1 7s and Constables 3rd Class 17/6d [£0.875].

We hear little more of Inspector McDonald for over a decade, although his name duly appears in pay re- cords. Details of his age and years of service appear in the annual return of police officers dated Thursday 2 July 1885. This date coincided with the annual efficiency inspection by Captain Munro, Her Majesty's In- spector of Constabulary in Scotland.

Mr Munro had made various comments, generally favourable to the Perth City Police Force. But, as re- corded by the Lord Provost in his Report on Efficiency of the Police, there were some grounds for criticism:

On the other hand, he [the Inspector] stated that he had great difficulties in stating that the whole force were efficient seeing that we had some old men still on active duty. That if there had been a superannuation fund these men would assuredly have been on it, & that a man after 45 years ser- vice and in his 79 year could not be physically fit for all kinds of duty. These remarks in a less de- gree applied to other two or three members of the force. In keeping men so long in active service younger men were disappointed in not receiving promotion.

He was not [certain] how Perth stood in regard to the Superannuation Bill but he thought it neces- sary to point out the above cases in order that the Police Authorities might consider the matter in all its bearings.

The following June, Mr Munro announced in a letter that he proposed "if quite convenient for the Lord Pro- vost, Magistrates and Town Council of Perth…to inspect the City Police Force at 10 am on Friday the 18th

10 inst.". As in the previous year, a return of serving police officers was prepared. Ironically, it would appear that the Police Commissioners had accepted the point about older police officers blocking promotion for younger men - but by the tactic of demoting the octogenarian Inspector John McDonald, with his 46 years and one month's service, to a Constable 3rd Class! Pay records indicate that his demotion took effect on 11 March 1886, possibly to coincide with his birthday, his weekly salary decreasing from £1 10s [£1.50] to £1).

This mean-spirited decision on the part of the Perth Commissioners was clearly strongly criticised by Mr Munro after his inspection and earned the contempt of an under-Secretary, Mr. Sandford. A letter from him to the Clerk of the Perth Police Commissioners dated the 2nd of August combined persuasion with a thinly veiled threat to future funding:

I am directed by the Secretary for Scotland to state that his attention has been called to the re- marks made by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland, at p. 127 of his last Re- port. On the case of a member of the Police Force, who at the age of 80 has been reduced to the rank and pay of a 3rd Class Constable. Lord Dalhousie agrees with Captain Monro [sic] in thinking that this is a case in which the authorities would do well to bestow a liberal pension or gratuity on an old Police Officer who he understands has given faithful service to the City for more than 45 years.

While His Lordship thinks that the liberal treatment of such a case would encourage good and suitable men to join the Police Force, he must add that it seems very doubtful whether a Force which professed to keep in active employment a man over 80 years of age, ought to be consid- ered as “efficient” within the meaning of the Act under which a large grant is paid, towards the maintenance of that Force, from Imperial Funds.

This letter presumably caused the intended consternation in Perth. On 7 August Superintendent John Welsh (the most senior serving police officer in Perth) wrote to the Lord Provost:

Mr John McDonald entered the Perth City Police Force on 18th May 1840, and has therefore been in that service for the long period of 46 years. He has been Inspector for 42 years. He is a sober intelligent man, and has performed all his duties to the entire satisfaction, not only to the present Supr but also under the late Mr [Maple] who had charge of the Police at the time he en- tered the service.

Four days later, Mr McDonald received his last salary payment from the Perth City Police. Thereafter his name is not listed. The Perth Police Commissioners had met on 26 July. Minutes record that

The Lord Provost brought under the notice of the Meeting the remarks which Mr Munro, H M Inspector of Constabulary, had made at the recent Inspection of Police. On the motion of the Lord Provost…it was agreed to recommend the Commission to grant to Mr McDonald, on his resignation, and in terms of clause 121 of the General Police Act, a sum of £70 in recognition of his long and faithful service in the Force.

11 John McDonald, a widower, continued to live in Perth with his daughter Margaret, his son-in-law and their children. When he died six years later in June 1892, he left Margaret his estate of £62 2s 6d [£62.12] and was buried at Wellshill Cemetery in Perth.

But one mystery remains - that of his age. The 1891 census records him as 88 years of age, and at his death he was described in burial records and newspaper notices as a man of 90. However, Perth City Po- lice records consistently give his age as that of someone born in 1806, which would have made him a mere 86 at his death. Boys called John McDonald were christened in Weem both in 1802 and 1804 but not in 1805 or 1806. So did our otherwise honest hero lie about his age in 1840, possibly to meet Perth City Po- lice recruitment requirements?

Whatever the truth about his age, we know that John McDonald lived long enough to see the introduction in Scotland of statutory pensions for the police. And we can certainly speculate that his case, and cases similar to his, may have influenced the legislators.

The Perthshire Journal of 25 June 1892 gave this personal profile of Inspector McDonald:

(Courtesy of Local Studies, AKBell Library)

Margaret Borlan-Stroyan

12

spector. From Schoolmaster-Engineer to Schoolmaster-Politician ?

Adam Anderson and the Reform Crisis of 1831-32

Adam Anderson (1780-1846), rector of Perth Academy, usually appears almost synonymous with Perth’s early waterworks. The highly visible legacy of the ‘Round House’ renders this unsur- prising. Strangely, the original Victorian Diction- ary of National Biography (London, 1885-1901) ignored his water engineering, citing instead his gas system, scientific papers, and university chair. Anderson was multi-faceted, hence his enduring fascination. One lesser known, but interesting as- pect was his involvement in the Reform struggle, a risky activity for someone in his position.

Anderson’s reform sympathies were first nurtured at St Andrews University. Subsequently employed by the Greenhills of Fern, in Angus, he became closely acquainted with prominent Whigs, politi- cal connections that supported his successful ap- Adam Anderson (courtesy of Mr plication for the rectorship of Perth Academy in P.Nicholson and Mrs. L. Kavanagh) 1809. Later, marriage with Agnes Ramsay, daugh- ter of a former lord provost of Perth, joined Anderson to long-established members of the small, largely self-perpetuating elite, who mo- nopolized political power in Perth prior to the reform acts. Tension between reformist in- stincts and marital connections was inevitable, but his natural caution was probably reinforced by the alarming ‘Radical War’ of 1819-20, culminating in the ‘Bonnymuir Rising’. His political debut certainly suggested greater acceptance of the ancien regime. Proposed government legis- lation to deprive Queen Caroline of her title, following the accession of her husband, George IV, rendered the queen, somewhat equivocally, as a symbol of resistance to Tory ministerial oppression. Perth Guildry’s reformist majority publicly supported the queen in autumn 1820, but seventy-four members, including Anderson and his father-in-law, publicly pro- tested against the incorporation for ‘implying a doubt of the justice and integrity of one of

13 the Supreme Branches of the Legislature.’ The chief protesters were Tory members of the traditional ruling classes, a minority, according to one critic, who preponderated in ‘mere wealth’. In the crisis of 1819-20, Anderson’s previous reform sympathies had clearly become muted. He even worked anonymously to defend the existing political order. Lord Gray of Kinfauns later claimed that Ander- son had ‘on all occasions been a staunch friend and supporter of the Government and ... by his writ- ings in the Perth Courier, and other personal exertions has been greatly the means of preventing any radical meeting from taking place in this neighbourhood’

Anderson first emerged overtly on the political stage with the next crisis - in 1831. The Whig lord ad- vocate, Francis Jeffrey, was elected to Parliament by the Forfar district of burghs, which included Perth. As croupier at a celebratory dinner, Anderson publicly applauded Jeffrey’s ‘enlightened views, high literary reputation, and the splendid and varied talents of a man, whose name is so clearly inter- woven with the literature, and the science, and the general improvement of the age in which we live’. An ultra-Tory friend, Dr James Esdaile, the East Church minister, would contend later that Anderson had been ‘induced ... by the influence of his former Whig friends, to attend at the Dinner ... and from that moment he has been constantly plied by that Party on account of the weight which they conceived his name and respectability would give to their cause.’

Conservatives as well as Whigs saw Anderson, however, as a potential asset during the reform struggle. In April 1831 they witnessed the fright- ening spectacle of 6-7,000 people congregated in the short length of St John Street; disturbingly or- dered and well-regulated demonstrators, ‘walking arm in arm, six abreast, and comprising all the manufacturing population, from sprightly youth to tattering old age’, marching behind the blue blanket in support of the Reform Bill. Fear of revolution was rife, prompting Sir Alexander Muir Mackenzie of Delvine to hope that ‘the respectable class of re- formers’ would condemn what he termed violence and intimidation by political unions and sedition by the fourth estate. In particular, ‘if a person so much respected as Dr Anderson, for instance, would take that line; he might do much good’, and he might be persuaded ‘to write some healing paper, & get it into the Perth & Strathmore Journal’ (later The Perthshire

Advertiser). Anderson fitted the need for ‘some re- Adam Anderson’s wife Agnes, daughter of former spectable man in Perth; who tho’ friendly to the Lord Provost, James Ramsay measure of reform, in general — see that matters are carried too far; and that the populace is too much called into action.’ Anderson was potentially a

14 lightning conductor: leading a reform rally on the South Inch in May 1832 he openly affirmed that reform had ‘become absolutely necessary for the safety of the state’. This balancing act was difficult: his call for three cheers for reform was warmly greeted; attempting a similar ovation for the sovereign drew a mixed response.

The legislation of 1831-32, had two consequences locally. First, Perth acquired its own MP (previously shared with other burghs). Secondly, the councillors lost their exclusive franchise to a new middle-class electorate of nearly 800 property-owners. As a salaried teacher, Anderson had effectively helped to remove his own employers’ parliamentary voting privileges. Equally remarkable, when municipal reform closely followed, he endorsed that too, albeit judiciously applauding the superseded elite. This detached, potentially controversial assessment in the charged atmosphere of reform was more than a balancing act between marital connections and new political allies. A view prevailed that the Perth council in the decade prior to municipal reform had, as the new reformer lord provost himself stated, done ‘the best they could under the rotten tree of corruption’ and had even been distinguished for careful economy.

Anderson’s political activism continued beyond the Reform Act, as the principal supporter of the independent Whig, Laurence Oliphant of Condie, who served as Perth’s MP for several years, but his main contribution was then past. Gray had carried ‘a more efficient and comprehensive system of Par- liamentary Reform... It is this great healing measure — this measure of truly conservative policy’, to which his fame would be owed. Anderson too had attempted ‘healing’ measures, in 1819-20 and 1831-32, to contain the political temperature locally. He supported ‘needful reform’ to correct flagrant abuses, but also as a stitch in time. Characteristically, he always sought a rational, practical, and balanced solution to a specific problem – whether in politics or engineering.

Kenneth J Cameron University of Strathclyde

Readers wanting to learn more about the extraordinary life of Adam Anderson can read a full account in Kenneth Cameron’s recent biographical study, The Schoolmaster Engineer, now available in a second enlarged edition. In this abundantly illustrated monograph he describes the origins and construction of Anderson’s water system, and deals with the bewildering array of contributions he made to his adopted city during a period of rapid economic change, technological advance, social upheaval and political and religious crises. Anderson’s personal contributions towards Georgian Perth’s public service infrastructure, economic development and environmental preservation were unequalled, and many proved durable. Dr Cameron’s book, published in Dundee by Abertay Historical Society earlier this year, is on sale in the AK Bell Library shop and other good booksellers

15 LETTERS

Dear Sir, Kirk o' the Muir, Kinclaven

In response to a question from Donald M Abbott of Invergowrie, the following article written by the late Ewan Duncan, a member of West Stormont Historical Society, may be of interest.

"The Sunday service at Kinclaven Kirk on 8 October 1732, had been a fiery one. The guest preacher was one Ebenezer Erskine who was father-in-law to Kinclaven's minister James Fisher. Erskine, whose own parish was near Stirling, had stirred the congregation with his thundering sermon. When the ser- vice finally came to an end, Erskine walked out of the church with half the congregation in his wake to form a new church. This dramatic exit of a number of worshippers was symbolic of a deep-rooted theological dispute in the Church of Scotland throughout the 1730s and 1740s, and Kinclaven Parish Kirk, like a number of others, was split by what became known as the First Secession.

The Seceders, such as Erskine and Fisher, who supported him, were part of a group which rejected the Church of Scotland's systems of patronage. There were other points of contention too, many of which were rooted in the aftermath of the Covenant disputes. These original Seceders were rather a serious lot by modern standards and kept rigorously to their fast days and covenants.

The events which followed that dramatic Sunday service in October 1732 led eventually to the estab- lishment of a second church in the environs of Kinclaven. After leading a large number of the congre- gation away from that day, Erskine and his son-in-law held their services in the fields and woods around the parish until two years later, when they were granted a piece of land on which to build their own place of worship. This was the Kirk o' the Muir, located about four miles west of Kinclaven and a mile south of Murthly. It was one of the earliest of these Secession churches, and it was built with a galleried interior as shown on the enclosed photograph. Barn-like in appearance, little remains of it today apart from its walls and collapsed roof.

Despite the separate services, two congregations and two ministers, the graveyard remained at Kin- claven. By the time of the 1843 Statistical Account, the Kirk o' the Muir had 465 members from 96 families, while the Established Church at Kinclaven had 413 members from 86 families. One can imagine that the Kinclaven minister might have been rather impressed by the dedication of the Seces- sion members to their church, which in time was enhanced by a rather grand and substantial manse which still stands today .

Almost two hundred years went past before Kinclaven Church and the Kirk o' the Muir were re- united. In 1929 the General Assembly witnessed the United Free Church, of which these original Seceders had become a part, reunited with the Church of Scotland. Then, in 1938, on the retirals of the Rev R M Bright of Kinclaven and the Rev W Inglis of Kirk o' the Muir, the two congregations finally came together under the ministry of the Rev Ian B. McCalman."

Russell Ritchie, Perth

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