HD bMt5 Gfc lb nOO a31 1 8801 1 ^00906b Hi) 6462 G6 16 1900 INCORPORATION OF WRIGHTS IN GLASGOW. INCORPORATION OF ^RtGHTS IN GLASGO«f« ' ' ^^ "'L^"'^X - "'^J^' THE |nc0rp0rati0ii 0f Wr}g|ts |n ^lasgoto. GLASGOW: PRINTED BY JAMES C. ERSKINE & SONS, 140 HOPE STREET. MCM. THE UB'^ARY UNlVER^u. ^. GUELPH Master Court—i8gg-igoo. Deacon. Late Deacon. James Goldie. Alexander Buchan, Collector. Late Collector. H. M'Taggart. D. Buchanan. Masters. Deacon Maben. Deacon Hunter. Deacon FERGUSON. Mr. W. Lightbody, Jun. Mr. Thomas Young. Mr. J. G. Sharp. Mr. A. M'Farlane. Deacon Porter. Mr. J. Keppie. Mr. G. P. M'R. Rome. Trade's Key, Thomas Kay. Deacon's Key, ....A. S. Neilson. Honorary Members. Deacon William Lightbody. Deacon M. Henderson. Deacon Andrew Gray. Representatives in tke Trades' House, \ '"^„^^-kT^J^'^.l^^°^^and Deacon HUNTER. Member of Committee on Hall Buildings—The Deacon. Delegate on Gorbals Lands—Deacon Maben. Director on Education—Mr. W. Lightbody, Jun. Clerk. James A. Reid, 172 St. Vincent Street. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/incorporationofwOOinco ; prefatory IRote. At the Annual Meeting of the Incorporation in 1876, a Committee was appointed to prepare a list of names of all the Members who had entered the Incorporation after the year 1800. Subsequently, in 1880, it was resolved by the Master Court of the day to print this list as well as the "Seal of Cause" and By-Laws; and the opportunity was taken of including in the print a brief record, under the title of "Historical Memoranda," of the more important events in the history of the Incorporation. A second edition, bringing dow^n the list of Members to date, was printed in 1883; but this becoming exhausted in 1889, a third edition, with no little assistance from Mr. Robert Renwick, Depute Town-Clerk, Glasgow, was prepared by me, and printed in that year. In this the " Historical Memoranda " were re-arranged and amplified and, in addition to other matter, it contained (1) the Roll of Members as at 16th August, 1889, giving the craft, genealogy of each Member, and (2) a fac-simile of the "Seal of Cause." The third edition has, in its turn, become exhausted, and I now submit to the Members of the Craft a fourth. In this the "Historical Memoranda" are brought down to date, and the new By-Laws, which w^ere adopted on 2nd November, 1891, and enacted by the Trades' House of Glasgow on 29th February, 1892, are substituted for those which were enacted in 1849. The Genealogical Roll of Members has been brought down to 1st January, 1900, and there has been imported into the " Historical Memoranda " a copy of the scheme for adminis- tering "Gardiner's Charity," which was settled by the Court on 16th November, 1893. In other respects this edition is practi- cally a reprint of the last. JAS. A. REID, Clerk. Glasgow, 1st January, 1900. — CONTENTS. Historical Memoranda :— page Constitutiou and Privileges, ... , 3 Records, 9 Charter Chests, 9 Master Court, 10 Official Insignia, 12 Coat of Arms, 12 Entrants, ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 13 Members, 13 Noteworthy Members, 16 Deacon Conveners, 18 Meetings, 19 The Essay, 19 The Essay House, 20 Mortcloths, 20 Gorbals Lands, ... 21 Trades' Halls, 22 Quarter Accounts, 22 Bequests to the Incorporation, viz. : {a) Gardiner's Charity, 23 (b) Deacon Thomson's Bequest, 29 (c) Deacon Clark's Bequest, 29 Gifts in Custody of the Deacon, 30 Incorporation Bursary, 30 Capital and Revenue, 30 Public Questions, 31 Contributions towards Public Objects, 32 Saw-Mill, 33 Concerning some Entries in the Collectors' Accounts, ... 34 Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Glasgow, 36 Seal of Cause, 45 By-Laws, 61 CONTENTS. APPENDIX. Page Names of Members (with their Craft Genealogy) as at 1st January, 1900, i List of the Members from 1800 till 1900, xxxix List of Deacons from 1604 till 1900, Ixxvii Clerks to Incorporation from 1782 till 1900, Ixxxi Master Courts from 1883 till 1899, Ixxxv Fac-simile of Seal of Cause, at end. 1bi8torical fibemoranba CONNECTED WITH THE INCORPORATION OF WRIGHTS IN GLASGOW. — 1bl0torical fiDemoran&a* Constitution and Privileges. On the 3rd of May, 1600, the Wrights of Glasgow obtained from the Provost and Magistrates of the City of Glasgow a Charter or ^eal of Cause, and became a distinct Incorporation by themselves. In their petition for the Charter they set forth that, along with the Masons and the Coopers, they had been joined together in one Letter of Deaconry, but that the Coopers had, "by a good "time bygone separated themselves from us and the said Masons, "and obtained a separate Letter of Deaconry, containing their " Statutes and Rules, to themselves only." And they asked for separation from the Masons, on the ground that, when the first letter of Deaconry was granted, "There was not such a number "of craftsmen indwellers in this town as there are at present, "and for avoiding of confusion of the multitude thereof, and con- "sidering other inconveniences crept in among us, in that the said "Masons could not judge upon our work, nor we upon theirs "perfectly, and without the partiality that they might have to "their, and we to our craftsmen, and contentions among us if we "remain together." Reading between the lines it is very manifest that the Masons and the Wrights had not been agreeing; and we have it on record that they continued to disagree even after their separation. In 1607 the dispute between the two crafts was so great that it was referred to the Deacon-Convener and the Deacons of the Trades. The question on this occasion was, to which of the two Trades did the work of slating and " pointing " houses belong. By an Act, dated 21st May of that year, the Deacon-Convener and other Deacons decided, in the particular case before them, that the Wrights involved—viz., Robert Petegrue, Archibald Reid, who was Deacon in 1607-08, and William Reid—should finish the work begun by them as soon as possible, but should not undertake any new work of that kind until the general question was decided. It was, at the same time, determined to convene a meeting, to 4 HISTORICAL MEMORANDA. settle the rights of parties, before 1st August following; but that never seems to have been done. Three years later there was another quarrel between the two Incorporations, which also came before the Deacon-Convener and Deacons of the Trades. Here, again, Archibald Reid figures as the Wright who encroached on the Masons' privileges. The Masons objected to his "outstreking ane void"^ in Mr. David Hay his "houss and sclaiting thairof;" and parties having appeared personally and been heard, the Deacon-Convener and Deacons found "the outstreking of the said void be the said Archibald " Reid, Wrycht, to be a part of Measonis craft properlie belong- "ing thairto, and thair chartour in that heid vioUatit and brokin," and restrained him and all other Wrights, in time coming, from doing that kind of work. They further fined him in "the soum "of ten pundis money, to be applyit to the weill of the craftis " hospitall and puir thairof." On the question of slating there was no decision. But whatever the relationships of the two Incorporations may have been, the Wrights, in obtaining a Charter or Seal of Cause, secured a strong and independent position of their own, as it conferred very extensive and exclusive privileges upon them. One of its first enactments is, " That no person of the said craft "set up booth to work within this city, until he be first made "burgess and freeman of the same, and be examined by three " or four masters of the said crafts if he be a sufiicient workman, " and able to work good and sufficient work to serve our sovereign " lord's lieges." Another is to the effect, that "It shall not be "lawful to any persons to sell, make, or work any kind of work "of the said work and crafts within this city, except they be first ; " free with the town, and next with the said craft " and there are others of an equally stringent character regarding the employ- ment of " strangers " and apprentices. A full copy of the " Seal "of Cause," printed both in the ancient and modern styles, will be found at page 43, and a facsimile of it is given at the end of the volume. The monopoly thus created was rigidly upheld and defended. On 12th September, 1744, it was reported to the Court of Session by the Master Court that "it had been the constant practice of * An opening, probably. HISTORICAL MEMORANDA. O ^' the Incorporation of Wrights in Glasgow, ever since their Erec- " tion or Seal of Cause from the Magistrates and Town Councill ^' of Glasgow, past memory of man, as well as of every other " corporation in Glasgow, to stop or hinder all such as were not ^' Burgesses of the Burgh of Glasgow, nor incorporate with them " from working or setting up work belonging to any of the ^' severall corporations, either in building or repairing houses or '' other ways within the Territory s of the said burgh, by seize- " ing the unfreemen's tooUs and sometimes confiscateing the piece " of work, and sometimes obtaining the unfreeman intruder fyned "and incarcerate by the concurrence of some of the Magistrates ^' of the City, untill paying of the fyne incurred, and granting " bond to desist in time comeing." The Report was made in an action at the instance of the Wrights, Masons, and Artisans of the Incorporation of Mary's Chapel of Edinburgh, in defence, as it is said, " of their privileges against an unfree Wright who was " found not only repairing, but making new work within Burgh;" and it is valuable for the reference which it makes to a contract between the Wrights of Glasgow and the Wrights of Gorbals, under which the latter were admitted to do work within the city.