Medieval Dundee I Have Been Fortunate in the Assistance Given by Many People
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the course of my research into medieval Dundee I have been fortunate in the assistance given by many people. My first debt is to colleagues on the Scottish Burgh Survey team, in particular Mrs Sylvia Stevenson, since this work owes its origins to the Scottish Burgh Survey Report: Historic Dundee, the Archaeological Implications of Development (1988). I am indebted to the Historic Buildings and Monuments Directorate of the Scottish Development Department for permission to reproduce illustrations from the Report. This publication is, however, of a much broader remit and is a new consideration of life in Dundee. The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent those of the Burgh Survey team. The notes attest to the value of research on Dundee undertaken by previous writers, and, although my approach to the town in the middle ages might at times be at variance with theirs, I would like to acknowledge the stimulus they have given to my own work. A number of friends have generously given their time, both by reading my text and also by offering advice in areas in which they are more able than I. In particular I wish to thank Dr H. Booton, Professor J.B. Caird, Professor I.B. Cowan, Mrs G.C. Dean, Dr E.L. Ewan and, also, the research team of the Scottish Urban Archaeological Trust. My husband, John, and children, Robin and Sarah, have given me their constant support, without which this work would not have been achieved; and I particularly acknowledge my indebtedness to my late father, Reverend Canon T. Dennison, for his wise and practical guidance. My work in Dundee has been greatly speeded by the assistance of various institutions and individuals: Miss L. Thorns and the Dundee Museum and Art Gallery; Mr I. Flett and the Dundee District Archive and Record Centre; the staff of Dundee Public Library, Wellgate; Tayside Environmental Education Project; Dundee University Library, Archive Centre; Mr J. Boyd; Dr W.H.K. Turner; and Mr J.F. Hutcheon, Chief Engineer, City of Dundee District Council. All of these I thank for their help and encouragement. I would also like to acknowledge my debt to the Abertay Historical Society. Their invitation to me to write a piece on this medieval town has given me the excuse to return often to the modern city, where I have been received with kindness and warmth by the people of Dundee. CONTENTS Acknowledgements 2 Abbreviations 4 Introductory Essay by S.G.E. Lythe 5 Chapter I Introduction 11 Chapter II. Pre-Burghal Settlement 15 Chapter III. Burgh Liberties 22 Chapter IV Markets and Merchants 31 Chapter V. The Growing Townscape 49 Chapter VI. Private and Public Lives 81 Chapter VII. Postscript 101 Index 109 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. i. Relief map of Dundee, compiled by S. Stevenson 14 Fig. ii Drift geology of Dundee, compiled by S. Stevenson 16 Fig. iii Conjectural sketch map of settlement in Dundee in the 18 early eleventh century, by E.P.D. Torrie Fig. iv Lady Walkstairs House 28 Fig. v Dundee's trading hinterland, by E.P.D. Torrie 32 Fig. vi R.A. Edward, 1678. Map of the Shire of Angus 38 Fig. vii J. Slezer, 'The Prospect of the Town of Dundee from the 39 East', included in Theatrum Scotiae Fig. viii Conjectural sketch map of Dundee in the late thirteenth 40 century, by E.P.D. Torrie Fig. ix Conjectural sketch map of Dundee in the late fifteenth 54 century, by E.P.D. Torrie Fig. x. J. Slezer, 'Dundee from the North', included in 73 Theatrum Scotiae Fig. xi Gardyne's house 74 Fig. xii Dundee in the mid-seventeenth century by E.P.D. Torrie 102 Fig. xiii W. Crawford, Dundee delineated in 1776 106 ABBREVIATIONS. APS The Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, edd. T. Thomson and C. Innes (Edinburgh, 1814-75) DAGM Dundee Art Gallery and Museum DDARC Dundee District Archive and Record Centre MsDBHC Manuscript, Dundee Burgh and Head Court Book PRO Public Record Office, London PSAS Proceedings of the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland RMS Registrum Magni Sigilli Regum Scotorum, edd. J.M. Thomson et al. (Edinburgh, 1882-1914) RRS Regesta Regum Scottorum, edd. G.W.S. Barrow and others (Edinburgh. I960-) RSS Registrum Secreti Sigilli Regum Scotorum, edd. M. Livingstone el al (Edinburgh, 1908-) SBRS Scottish Burgh Records Society SHR Scottish Historical Review SHS Scottish History Society SRO Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh SRS Scottish Record Society TA Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, edd. T. Dickson and J. Balfour Paul (Edinburgh, 1877-1916) 4 The Abertay and the Renaissance of Tayside History A Reflection by S.G.E. Lythe When they ventured into ponderous humour, academic reviewers of large books used to report with glee that 'on my wife's kitchen scales' each volume 'weighed 3½ lbs'. Alongside A.C. Lamb's Dundee: its Quaint and Historic Buildings such books were mere pamphlets. Published in 1895, Lamb measures 18" by 15" and 3 Viz" thick and weighs the best part of two stones. But whilst unrivalled in bulk and lavish production, this is but one of a formidable list of major works dating from the last decades of the nineteenth century. Without reference to any bibliography one recalls the two volumes of Old Dundee by Alexander Maxwell ('Uncle Alexander' to one of the Abertay's early officers); Warden's enormous scholarly contributions in The Linen Trade, Burgh Laws and Forfarshire; Hay's Charters and Writs; Norrie's Celebrities; Boase's Century of Banking; the general histories of the city by Thomson and Maclaren; Millar's edition of The Compt Bulk of David Wedderburne and the useful historical essays reprinted almost every year in the Dundee Year Book. Then came the barren years from the early 1900s to the Second World War. Certainly book production of the extravagance of Lamb was highly improbable as the economic life of Dundee slid rapidly into the slough of depression, but the virtual absence of any overt interest in local history seems to suggest a mass desire to let the dead past bury its dead. The dearth of on-going research was all too evident when it became necessary to write die historical chapters for the British Association's Dundee Handbook for the. 1939 meeting. Edited by the then doyen of professional historians in Dundee, R.L. Mackie, who himself wrote on architecture, the three history chapters were all by recent English incomers. Aside from that there were a few flutters of interest in the surrounding countryside with, for example, books on Errol and on the church at Fowlis Easter. When the city returned to peace conditions in 1946 it found that William Bain had published Witch's Blood, a powerfully imaginative version of' the town's story in the story of Elspet Rankyne's blood', but there was no carry-forward of orthodox local history study and no institutional provision for it, for, alone among the great Scottish cities, Dundee had never been associated with a city/county historical club such as the Bannatyne or the Maitand. In short a completely new initiative was 5 required and, in general terms, the major contribution of the Abertay Historical Society lay in reviving the very concept of local history and in providing a forum for its exponents. The founding fathers were in no doubt about their broad objective embodied in the formula 'to further the study of local history', which was endorsed at the foundation meeting in University College on 29 May 1947, and though there were some suspicions that established bodies in Perth might take exception, the territory was likewise quickly defined as 'Angus, Perthshire and Fife'. But as politicians are well aware, generalised policy statements are susceptible to a variety of interpretations. There can be no doubt that the initiative came from University College where General Wimberley had recently become Principal and Frederick Wainwright had been appointed as Head of the then small Department of History. Both were enthusiastic, but had different concepts of how the Society should function. Dr Geoffrey Seed, who also was in University College at the time and became the Society's first secretary, kindly confirmed the present writer's recollection that the Principal, initially at least, was thinking in terms of a sort of Tayside Spalding Club, publishing a handsome bound volume each year funded by an annual membership subscription of maybe twenty guineas. Wainwright, a dedicated 'Dark Age' researcher, saw the Society in terms of the work he was planning on Tayside earth-houses as the beginning of his wider study of Pictland. Aside from that he stood, and rightly, for a high standard of scholarship in lectures and publications so that the Society would command the respect of the historical fraternity at large. But when the members met for the first lectures, the handful of professional historians constituted a tiny minority alongside the mainly silent majority who wanted local themes (preferably illustrated) with bright presentation and who had no wish to be engaged in pedantic hair- splitting. In its early years the Society confined its activities to the programmes of lectures and excursions. Lectures had — and continue to have — an invaluable role in enabling the Council to cater for a diversity of tastes, to offer a platform for local enthusiasts to display their results and, periodically, to bring to Dundee experts from elsewhere to speak on subjects of 'general' historical interest. So the programme organiser could ring the changes from Bothy Ballads (with taped recordings) to Charles Phillips on his excavation of the ship burial at Sutton Hoo.