Hal(.Z(^O.CL National Library of Scotland *B000446942* VIO D0UQLA5 PUBLISHER lo Castle Street Edinburgh "Z Q^yXy, 189^, • MEMOIR OF WILLIAM WILSON OF CRUMMOCK Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from National Library of Scotland http://www.archive.org/details/memoirofwilliamw1896dobi MR. DOBIE AND MR. WILSON. MEMOIR OF WILLIAM WILSON OF CRUMMOCK BY JAMES DOBIE, F.S.A. Scot:— WITH A PREFATORY NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR AND ADDENDA BY JOHN SHEDDEN-DOBIE OF MORISHILL F.S.A. Scot., F.R.S.G.S. EDINBURGH PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR THE EDITOR MDCCCXCVI Sixty copies printed of which this is No.AO.r SA^ > TO THE MEMORY OF A MOST KIND AND INDULGENT FATHER, AND A MOST LOVING AND DEVOTED MOTHER, THESE RECORDS OF THE PAST— IN WHICH THEY WERE DEEPLY INTERESTED AND PLAYED WELL THEIR PARTS- ARE DEDICATED BY THEIR LAST SURVIVING SON, J. S.-D. MORISHILL, I4lh February iSc)6. PREFATORY NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. The " Memoir of William Wilson " was not meant by Mr Dobie to appear in the printed form it has now assumed. That the author was an ardent admirer of the good man whose life he undertook to write, need not be said. In his — private journal, under date 30th July 1837, he says : " I wish I had leisure to write a memoir of Mr Wilson's life. It would be a useful narrative. His life was throughout a con- tinual scene of benevolence and charity. He was, without exception, the most moral man I have known. That he was sinless, or spotless, or blameless would be arrogant presump- tion to assert ; but oh ! how many professors would his ' practice shame ! Well has the poet said— Be good, and let Heaven answer for the rest.'" And again, on 27th May — 1838, he writes : " In March and April last I drew up a memoir of Mr Wilson's life. This I was enabled to do from his own letters, which Bogston had carefully preserved, and from Bogston's letter-books, in which his part of the corre- spondence was engrossed. I had much satisfaction in per- forming this duty. The work extended to 414 pages of MS., Vlll PREFATORY NOTICE. and has been neatly half-bound. The latter part of the narrative introduces some painful occurrences ; but I have overstrained nothing, and wished to put on record as little as possible which rested on my own testimony." Owing to these unfortunate family differences, much had been written in order to clear his own character from most unjust asper- sions and imputations. They all tended, however regrettable, to show the benevolence and forgiving kindness of Mr Wilson's disposition, and have been now retained only in so far as necessary to show forth that most excellent gift of charity that pervaded his life throughout. The author of the " Memoir," himself a most kind- hearted and truly benevolent man, is well worthy of being commemorated here. Mr Dobie's ancestors, so far as handed down, were from the parish of Kirkconnel, in Nithsdale, where his great-grand- father, John Dobie, owned a. farm. Being involved in the cause of the Covenant he fled to Ireland, and on returning found his land had been forfeited. He settled in Douglas, and married Jean Thomson of Glenim. By her he had a son, John, born in 1693, who became a farmer in Bowlee in that parish, and married, in 1735, Jean, eldest daughter of James White, in Kennochhead, and Elizabeth Broadfoot. PREFATORY NOTICE. IX This James was son to James White of Egerton, whose fore- fathers had, previously to the persecutions, possessed that farm for 200 or 300 years, and who, among others, was proclaimed, on 8th October 1681, as having forfeited lives, lands, and goods for their treasonable rising in arms in the late rebellion at Bothwell Bridge. He is therein designed as " in Douglas." In 1684, he was ordered for transportation to America. He is named in the Act of William and Mary, in 1688, rescinding the fines and forfeitures of the preceding reigns of despotism and persecution.^ John Dobie and Jean White both died in 1758, leaving two sons and two daughters. James, their eldest son, born in 1743, married, in 1770, Margaret, daughter of John Brown, in Douglas. He went to Paisley in 1771, where he got into the employment of the Messrs Fulton, silk manufacturers there, and, having been appointed their agent, went to Beith in 1777. He also held a branch of the " Paisley Bank," the first bank agency established in the town of Beith. His wife died in 1786, leaving a son and daughter. He married secondly, in 1787, Janet, eldest daughter of William Wilson of Bourtrees, in the parish of Lochwinnoch, and relict of John Fulton of Barcosh and Auchlodmont, by whom he had five sons and ^ ViUe " History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland," by Woodrow, vol. iii., p. 247, and vol. iv., pp. 8 and 12 ; edition of 1836 : Blackie & Son, Glasgow. PREFATORY NOTICE. two daughters.^ The eldest child of this marriage, James Dobie, the subject of this notice, was born 29th July 1788. After his school days were ended, Mr Dobie made choice of the Law as a profession, and at the age of fifteen entered on his apprenticeship with Mr William Dunn, writer in Beith. In November 1808, he went to Edinburgh, and, on being introduced by Mr Mathew Montgomerie, W.S., was engaged as writing clerk to Archibald Fletcher, Esq., Advocate. He became a favourite with both Mr and Mrs Fletcher, and was invited to their social evening parties. Of Mr Fletcher he had a very high opinion, as a man " of inflexible integrity and " " unbending principle ; and of Mrs Fletcher, who entertained the literati of Edinburgh, and was looked upon as the leader of the ' Blues,' " he was a great admirer. " She spoke admirably, and was a beautiful woman. Her manners were very polite and affable, and there was a winning grace about all she said and did." From both he received much kindness, and a friendship arose which continued in after life. In order to see a variety of business, he entered the office of Messrs Montgomery & Innes, S.S.C., and attended the Scots Law Class of Professor Hume. On loth March 1810, he passed Notary Public, and returned to Beith, when he entered into partnership with Mr Dunn. 1 Vide Appendix IV. — PREFATORY NOTICE. XI He became a Freemason about this time, and is entered in the minute-book of Beith St John's Lodge, of 20th Decem- ber 181 1, as "passed and raised." He was elected Depute Master on 3rd September 1818, and R.W.M. on 30th until November 1819 ; and was re-elected annually he resigned on ist December 1828. During his Mastership the minute-book and accounts of the Lodge were kept in his own handwriting, and were pronounced by the higher officials of Mother Kilwinning to be a pattern worthy of being followed by the other Lodges. On Mr Dunn's death, in 181 5, Mr Dobie was appointed Procurator-Fiscal for the Beith District Justice of Peace Court, clerk to the Heritors, and treasurer to the Road Trustees. At a later period he became agent first for the Glasgow Union Bank, and then for the Paisley Commercial and the Western Bank, with which it subsequently amalgamated. He soon took a leading part in all the affairs of his native parish, and was an active promoter of every project which had for its aim the improvement of the town and the benefit of its inhabitants. On 8th November 1835, a public meeting was convened in his honour, when he was presented with a hand- some silver claret jug, bearing the following inscription : " Presented to James Dobie, Esquire, Writer in Beith, by his Fellow-Townsmen, as a mark of their gratitude for his many Xll PREFATORY NOTICE. and valuable gratuitous services to the Public during a period of upwards of 20 years. 1835." He was pre-eminently the poor man's friend, and seldom, if ever, did the applicant for assistance in advice or charity, whether deserving or unde- serving, Jew or Gentile, apply for relief in vain. As a matter of course, he was frequently imposed on. In politics Mr Dobie was a Liberal, and took an active part during and after the passing of the Reform Bill in 1833, when he acted as political agent for Richard Alexander Oswald of Auchen- cruive, the successful candidate for the county at the first election under the new franchise ; and also for Sir John Dunlop of Dunlop, who succeeded him in the representation of the county. On the death of Mr Wilson of Crummock, he succeeded, conjointly with his wife, who was Mr Wilson's niece, to that property, and thenceforth it became his family residence. In Church matters, at the Disruption in 1843, he joined the Free Church party, and was mainly instrumental in forming the Free Church congregation in Beith, of which he afterwards became a ruling elder. At a very early period of his life Mr Dobie showed a taste for literature, and indulged in effusions both in prose and verse. This he appears to have inherited from his father, who, inter alia, has left in manuscript a history and minute — PREFATORY NOTICE. XUl Statistical account of the parish, and also some verses not undeserving of preservation. One of these compositions, an answer to Burns' " Address to the Deil," was intended for the poet, but not sent. Mr Dobie's youthful attempts were in imitation of Burns' style, picked up from reading his father's copy of the first edition of the poems, which he had almost entirely committed to memory.