Birkeland, Mairianna (1999) Politics and society of Glasgow 1680-1740. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1487/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My first debts are to my supervisors, Dr Irene Maver and Dr Colin Kidd, of the Scottish History Department, for their scholarship and unfailing assistancein reading and commenting on this thesis and for providing constant advice and encouragement. Professor EJ Cowan is also due thanks for his continuing patience and support. The indefatigable scholarship of Dr John Durkan provided invaluable advice in the early stages, as did the commentary of Professor Tom Devine, then of Strathclyde Universi- ty. Dr John McCaffrey has also provided scholarly hints at many crucial moments. Thanks are also due to Gordon Jackson of the City of Glasgow Archives (formerly Strathclyde Regional Archives) for his knowledge and assistance which provided important insights into the workings of the city. Likewise I am indebted to all his archival staff for their patience and guidance at all times. David Weston of Glasgow University Special Collections is due special thanks for his knowledge of eighteenth- century Glasgow intellectual material, especially on Francis Hutcheson, and for providing scholarly regeneration at times when my spirits were flagging. I am also indebted to his staff for their efficient and friendly assistance at all times with the extensive collections of the Glasgow lawyer, David Murray. Inez Maclntyre of Glasgow University Library provided invaluable assistanceas did Michael Moss with the university's own archives. At the National Archives of Scotland my debts are too many to acknowledge as they are at the National Library of Scotland, but Dr Louise Yeoman is due a special thanks for her assistancewith the daunting and voluminous material generated by the church historian Robert Wodrow, and for her knowledge of the impenetrable world of seventeenth century spirituality. Dr Alex Murdoch of Edinburgh University has likewise provided insight and commentary on eighteenth century ecclesiastical and political figures and given unstinting advice. The growth in Scottish historical studies in recent years has created an abundance of fellow travellers whose friendship and conversation have been invaluable in providing encouragement and stimulus. In this light I would like to thank Dr Kristina Fenyo, Dr Eila Williamson, Dr Andrew Mackillop, Mhairi Dewar and above all the late Robert G Lindsay whose comradeship I continue to miss. The late Mary McGilly has been a beacon of inspiration whose light will never diminish. I would like to thank the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland for providing me with the scholarship which made this researchpossible. Finally, andmost importantly,my husband,Dr RobertClyde, is due my deepestthanks for all his sacrificesand sufferingsduring the writing up of this thesis,and especially for his undiminishedbelief in its completion.It is dedicatedto him. Mairianna Birkeland November 1999 POLITICS AND SOCIETY OF GLASGOW 1680-1740 Ph.D. thesis University of Glasgow 1999 MairiannaBirkeland Abstract Abbreviations INTRODUCTION p. 1 ChapterOne: Glasgow and the Whig Revolutionof 1688-89. p. 16 Chapter Glasgow Two: Civitatis Dei, the Church at 1687 - 1740 p. 59 Chapter Three: Revolutioners, Cavaliers and Country Party Men p. 135 Chapter Four: The Hanoverian Ascendancy and the City of Glasgow p. 189 ChapterFive: Glasgowand the Malt Tax Riots of 1725 p. 225 CONCLUSION p. 286 Appendices Bibliography ABSTRACT The thesis examines political culture in Glasgow from the Revolution until 1740. During this time Glasgow was conservative in religion but radical in politics, the pivotal moment being 1648-50. Both tendenciesconverged to support the Whig Revolution and the Presbyterian settlement of the church 1688-90. The presence in the city at the Revolution of an influential minority Jacobite Episcopalian element with deep roots in the city, requires careful assessment.This exercised a lingering impact on the politics and society of Glasgow 1690-1740, which, though detrimental to the long- term survival of the seventeenthcentury Calvinism to which the city's majority Presbyteriansremained fervently attached,was by no meansan illiberal or negative influence on the city's administration or in encouraging the citizens' aspirations for greaterpolitical freedom.A distinction must thereforebe made betweenthe ideology and the role of such an element,for they were not found giving passiveobedience to any monarch or government after 1689 but assumed the role of an active, articulate opposition, whose interaction was frequently positive. By contrast, the monopolisation of office by the Whigs in the form of the Argathelians, perpetuatedthe 'black legend' of the Scots nobility and ensured that civic aspirations were kept in check leading to a confusion in the Revolutionercity by 1725 as to what 'revolution principles' actually were.Nonetheless the citizensmounted spirited efforts at assertingtheir autonomyand worked the spoils system of the eighteenth century, outwitting the great and the mighty, with increasingsuccess. Glasgow pre-1707 was not a political island but an intergral part of the informal Scottish 'state' revealing a greater centralisation of power than is perhaps realised in the period. -Noneflieless the city was also a proud self-conscious civic corporation with its own commercial development agenda and sought to improve its position by utilising all elements within it, both Whig and Tory, resisting the pressure to become a satellite. A degree of civicness erupted when conflicts of state threatenedto overawethe 'public good' of the city indicating involvement in party intrigue was far from subservient. Abbreviations APS Acts of the Parliamentof Scotland,1124-1707, ed. T. Thomsonet al., 11 vols., (Edinburgh,1814-75). BRG Burgh recordsof Glasgow,(printed series, Extracts from the Recordsof the Burgh of Glasgow, ed. Robert Renwick, Scottish Burgh Records Society,vols. iii, 1663-1690;iv, 1691-1717;v, 1708-1738,with charters 1708-1738, Glasgow Corporation). Fasti Hew Scott, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, 7 vols., iii, Synod of Glasgow andAyr, (Edinburgh,1915-28). Glas. Chtrs. Charters and Documents relating to the City of Glasgow, vol. ii, 1649- 1707, eds. Sir JamesMarwick and R. Renwick, Scottish Burgh Records Society, (Glasgow, 1906). GUL Glasgow University Library HMC Historical Manuscripts Commission. NAS National Archive of Scotland (formerly, Scottish Record Office). NLS National Library of Scotland. NLS. Adv. MS Advocates' manuscripts, Advocates' Library, (within National Library of Scotland). NLS. MS National Library of Scotland, manuscripts. RPC Records of the Privy Council. RSCHS Records of the Scottish Church History Society. SBRS Scottish Burgh Records Society. SHR Scottish Historical Review. SHS Scottish History Society. INTRODUCTION This study examinesthe political culture of a communitywhich underwenta dramatic processof transition in the early modem period. It covers the enigmatic years from c. 1687 to c. 1740, when the country as a whole was adjusting to the changes brought about by the Revolution, the union, and the Hanoverian succession. It follows on from W. S. Shepherd'searlier work, covering the period 1648-1674.' The economic changes have been dealt with extensively by T. C. Smout and T. M. Devine? But in sum, Glasgow'sprogress in the seventeenthcentury was exceptional;the city grew in wealth and population faster than any other burgh in Scotland to become the fourth in wealth by 1649 (on the evidence of the customs paid), and the second by 1670, overtaking Aberdeen and Dundee. This disturbed a pattern of economic ranking which had prevailed since the fourteenth century.3 From 1690-1740 the pace was slower, a period of recovery from the traumas of the later seventeenthcentury. Some expansion becomes apparent in the 1710s and then from 1735 onwards, but the overall picture remains a static one. Glasgow retained the secondplace in terms of taxation but populationactually fell from a mid-centurypeak to just below 12,000at the Revolution 1 William ScottShepherd, 'Politics and Societyof Glasgow1648-1674', Glasgow University Ph.D. thesis,1978. 2 T. C. Smout, 'The Development and Enterprise of Glasgow, 1556-1707 in Scottish Journal of Political Economy, vii (1960), pp. 194-212; 'he Early Scottish Sugar Houses 1660-1720' in Economic History Review, 2nd series, xiv, (1961-62), pp. 240-53; `The Glasgow Merchant Community in the 17th centuy in SHR, xlvii (1968), pp. 53-70; TM Devine, 'The Scottish Merchant Community 1680-1740' in R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner (eds.), The Origins and Nature of the Scottish Enlightenment (Edinburgh, 1982), pp. 26-41; The Cromwellian Union and the Scottish Burghs; the case of Aberdeen and Glasgow, 1652-60' in J. Butt (ed.), Scottish Themes (Edinburgh, 1976), pp. 1-16. 3 Michael Lynch (ed.), TheEarly Modern Town(London, 1987),p.