McGILL UNIVERSITY THE EMIGRATION OF ADAM SMITH'S PLOUGHMAN: A Case Study of the Intellectual Culture of Scots Emigrants to Lower Canada 1760-1850 Sarah Katherine Gibson A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Faculty of McGill University in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History McGILL UNIVERSITY Montreal, Quebec August 2007 © Sarah Katherine Gibson, 2007 Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-50821-3 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-50821-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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Canada Abstract THE EMIGRATION OF ADAM SMITH'S PLOUGHMAN: A Case Study of the Intellectual Culture of Scots Emigrants to Lower Canada 1760-1850 My dissertation examines the knowledge culture of ordinary Scots in late-18th Scotland and early-19th century Canada from a microhistorical perspective. In 1803 a branch of the Brodie family from Lochwinnoch parish, Renfrewshire in western Scotland emigrated to Montreal in Lower Canada. In so doing they created a direct link between the knowledge cultures of late-18th century Scotland in which they had grown up and that of colonial Montreal. The Brodies' intellectual and cultural formation is explored through the prism, first, of the family's consumption and production of knowledge in Scotland and second, their reproduction and embodiment of that Scottish knowledge in Canada. The dissertation comprises four linked studies addressing different facets of widely-held claims of Scotland's distinctively high rates of literacy at the turn of the 19th century and of the disproportionate contributions of ordinary Scots to British colonies such as Canada. Despite the virtual absence of studies addressing the issue from the perspective of the ordinary Scot, the idea of a widely and democratically educated Scottish population—captured in the expression the "democratic intellect"—has been an important facet of Scottish identity at home and abroad for over two hundred years. The dissertation concludes that the idea of Scotland's "democratic intellect" does indeed have historical reality, but not in the way that many historians have suggested. A close reading of the intellectual and cultural material the Brodies consumed and produced reveals the inapplicability of the concept of a "democratic intellect" as an expression conveying the idea of the popular Scottish-mind as a product of elite institutions. In Scotland the Brodies exercised agency and independence in acquiring knowledge that surpassed basic literacy skills at the parish school. They wove together facets from a folk culture with select ideas from the Scottish Enlightenment to produce distinctive intellectual and cultural values based upon the concept of the primitive or the folk. Contrary to the 18th century elite invention of the folk as a vessel bearing the essential and anti-modern spirit of the nation, the Brodie helped advance the folk as a forward- looking group identity that included mental cultivation and independence of mind as core values. 11 Resume ^EMIGRATION DU LABOUREUR D'ADAM SMITH: Etude de cas de la culture intellectuelle des emigrants ecossais au Bas-Canada, 1760-1850 Ma these examine, d'un point de vue microhistorique, la culture du savoir des Ecossais ordinaires en Ecosse a la fin du XVIIf siecle et au Canada au debut du XIXe. En 1803, une branche de la famille Brodie de la paroisse de Lochwinnoch (Renfrewshire), dans l'ouest de l'Ecosse, a emigre a Montreal au Bas-Canada. Ce faisant, les membres de la famille ont cree un lien direct entre la culture du savoir de la fin du XVIII6 siecle en Ecosse, ou ils avaient grandi, et celle du Montreal colonial. La formation intellectuelle et culturelle des Brodie est exploree a travers le prisme, tout d'abord, de la consommation et de la production de savoir par la famille en Ecosse et en deuxieme lieu, de leur reproduction et incarnation de ce savoir ecossais au Canada. La these comprend quatre etudes interreliees portant sur differents aspects d'affirmations souvent entendues touchant les taux d'alphabetisation particulierement eleves de l'Ecosse au tournant du XDCe siecle et les contributions disproportionnees d'Ecossais ordinaires aux colonies britanniques comme le Canada. Malgre l'absence presque totale d'etudes abordant cette question du point de vue de l'Ecossais ordinaire, depuis plus de deux cents ans l'idee d'une population largement et democratiquement instruite - idee traduite par 1'expression «intellect democratique » - constitue un element important de l'identite ecossaise, tant en Ecosse qu'a l'etranger. La these conclut que l'idee de « 1'intellect democratique » en Ecosse correspond bien a une realite historique, mais qui n'est pas celle evoquee par de nombreux historiens. Un examen attentif des materiaux intellectuels et culturels consommes et produits par les Brodie montre que la notion de «l'intellect democratique » n'est pas pertinente pour transmettre l'idee d'une pensee populaire ecossaise comme produit des institutions d'elite. En Ecosse, les Brodie ont manifeste leur independance et leur capacite d'agir en acquerant des connaissances qui allaient au-dela de l'alphabetisation de base transmise in par l'ecole paroissiale. Hs ont combine des elements de la culture populaire (folk culture) et certaines idees issues des Lumieres en Ecosse pour creer des valeurs intellectuelles et culturelles distinctes basees sur les notions du primitif ou du populaire. A l'inverse de la notion inventee par 1'elite au XVIDf siecle du populaire comme vehicule de 1'esprit essentiel et antimoderne de la nation, les Brodie ont contribue a promouvoir l'idee du populaire comme identite collective progressiste basee sur les valeurs essentielles de la culture mentale et de l'independance d'esprit. IV Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE 26 LOCHWINNOCH PARISH IN THE ENLIGHTENMENT. 30 THE LANDSCAPE OF LOCHWINNOCH PARISH 37 CIRCUMVENTING THE WASHED-OUT PATH TO LOCHWINNOCH SCHOOL 43 AN EVANGELICAL MINISTER WORTH THE RIGHT-OF-WAY THROUGH CASTLESEMPLE WOODS 51 DRILL MARCH TO LIBERTY OR FLIGHT TO RADICALISM: THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN PRACTICE 59 WOND'RING SHEPHERDS 65 CHAPTER TWO 73 BRODIEASFOLK 81 'THE FARMER SITUATION is TO ADAPT TO CONTEMPLATION' 90 'THE HILLS AND THE VALLEYS, AND THE CLODS OF THE EARTH' 110 CHAPTER THREE 114 MR HUGH BRODIE, FARMER, COTEAUST. PIERRE, MONTREAL 121 THE SCOTS IN MONTREAL 134 OF SEEDS AND Cows AND WILKES' SCOTCH PLOUGH 140 THE PRACTICAL FARMER 151 CHAPTER FOUR 161 THE CAIRN OF LOCHWINNOCH AND THE LOCHWINNOCH FOLK 166 THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF LETTERS 170 KEEPING THE NEIGHBOUR'S INTEREST AT HEART 174 THE APOTHEOSIS OF FARMER BRODIE 184 CONCLUSION 198 BIBLIOGRAPHY 208 v List of Figures Figure 1 Counties of Scotland 28 Figure 2 John Ainslie 's Map of the County of Renfrew, London: s.n., 1800 29 Figure 3 Detail ofAinslie's 1800 Map of Renfrewshire showing the regular streets of Lochwinnoch Village 40 Figure 4 Detail of Ainslie's 1800 Map of Renfrewshire showing the Relationship between Newtown ofBelltrees (far right, two thirds from the top) and the Town of Lochwinnoch (upper left hand corner) 44 Figure 5 Detail of Ainslie's 1800 Map of Renfrewshire showing Langcraft farm 66 Figure 6 District of Montreal, showing the Island of Montreal and Chambly on the Richelieu River 123 Figure 7 Spade and Boyne, detail from Ainslie's 1800 Map 150 Figure 8 Image of Wilkie's Plough 150 VI Acknowledgements I hereby acknowledge debts I owe colleagues, family and friends. First and foremost I must acknowledge my intellectual debts to my supervisor, Brian Young who is a good historian because he is a good gardener and understands about process, patience and deep attention. Thanks also to Elsbeth Heaman, Catherine Desbarats, Pierre Boulle, Elizabeth Elbourne, Brian Lewis, Susanne Morton, Nancy Partner, Jarrett Rudy, Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert and the History and Philosophy of Science seminar of James Delbourgo and Nicholas Dew. Marjory Harper and Elizabeth Jane Errington provided supportive interest, while Fredrik Albritton Jonsson provided encouragement and much insight into 18 century Scotland. In particular I must thank Nigel Willis, Gillian Leitch and Robert Sweeny for sharing research. Finally, to my parents John and Katherine Gibson, I owe a great debt of gratitude, as do I to my aunt, Ellen Henderson.