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Agrarian
and Industrial upheaval
'There has been in England a gradual and progressive system of assuming the management of affairs entirely and exclusively proper to Scotland, as if we were totally unworthy of having the management of our own concerns.'
Sir Walter Scott
The final loss of independence
With the 'Treaty of Union' on 1 May 1707, Scotland officially ceased to be a country or nation and became 'that part of the United Kingdom, North Britain'. England similarly lost its identity but everyone knew that what had really happened was the final subjugation of the Scots by the English and the absorption of the northern people into the polity and name of the southern. From the victory of Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn until the end of the 'killings' in 1690 and even after the Union of the Crowns in 1603, Scotland had to resist the aggression of the English monarchy.
In 1707, the 'Societies' protested against the 'sinful incorporating union with England and the British Parliament'. The Covenants were once more renewed at Crawfordjohn, where a large gathering had assembled, and the Covenants, as then renewed, continued to be a 'Term of Communion' until 1822.
However unpopular the Treaty of Union was at the time, and for many years afterwards, it was a blessed relief from the horrors of the past. Thereafter the Scots, and in particular the Lowlands, ceased to suffer the regular depredation of war with the English thus permitting the Lowlands to enjoy a period of unprecedented growth and prosperity.
Lesmahagow Parish circa 1700
To paint a mental picture of the world of the Lesmahagow peasant at the beginning of the eighteenth century requires a considerable effort of historical imagination because peasants don't leave wills and property. What follows is gleaned from research covering the whole of the Lowlands supported by the details of the Poll Tax Record of 1695.
Roads and communications
Dismiss all thoughts of a network of roads criss-crossing the Parish and substitute a mean collection of narrow tracks meandering between settlements, impassable in winter due to the mud, and rutted and dusty in summer barely wide enough to accommodate a sled or skid not much wider than the pony with bags slung over its back dragging the sled through the slippery muck.
There were some better routes such as, that which carried the lead ores mines at Leadhills to the port at Leith and the road which led through the Parish from Hamilton to Carlisle. The latter old road ran from, in the north, the Southfield Inn in a fairly straight line to Kirkmuirhill Cross, then via Strathaven Road ('the High road') to Knocken hill; descending the hill to meet and follow the route of the road (Station Road) which once ran to the Railway Station, thence past Milltown Inn, over the old 'Roman' or 'Monks' bridge and up Smiddy Brae to World's End. From there, the road passed through Brocketsbrae, Devonburn and Righead before heading across the Broken Cross Muir and leaving the Parish at Poniel Old Bridge (Ordnance Survey Sheet NS 83/93 853352). This route became the post road followed by the mail coach from London until 1790: previous to that, the mails were carried along this route on horseback. An English traveller, in April 1704, described the roads and the people of Lesmahagow as follows:
"I sett out from Hamilton early in the morning, having no good usage there, and came for Lesmaga; but before I reached that village, my horse tired, and I could not get him nearer than within a mile of Lesmahag; so, seeing a small village at a small distance, I halted at it, and inquired for some beer. The woman there pointed to another woman, and told me that goodwife would help me to it, for I was very dry myself, and thought beer would refresh my horse too; but that gudewife acquainted me that there was neither beer or ale in the town (besides beer in which is meal and barley), or nay meat; but that the people there drank water, and got a sort of pancakes (some of which she showed me) made of pease and barley together; and she said that they eat no (butcher) meat, nor drink anything but water, all the year round; and the common people go without shoes or stockings, especially the women. I pitied their poverty but observed the people were fresh and lusty, and did not seem to be under any uneasiness about their way of living. Gott to Lesmaga which I found to be but a small village; but in it is a sort of inne of considerable note, kept by a farmer of great dealings. Here I had an inclosed room to myself, with a chimney in it, and dined on a legg of veale, which is not to be had in every place in this country."
The appearance of the farm-land in the Lowlands was also quite different, with the ground everywhere lying as open as virgin moorland and seldom divided in any way by hedge, wall or dyke apart from the 'head dyke' which marked the perimeter of the cultivated area around a settlement. Within; the ploughed land was a series of strips or 'rigs', divided into blocks by weedy baulks, studded with large boulders. The English visitor found it all intensely depressing and greatly inferior to the neat, prosperous, enclosed farms of his own countryside. The common unit of settlement was a hamlet about a 'ferm-toun', the size of which was determined by the area that one or sometimes two or three plough teams of horses (or more probably oxen) could keep under cultivation (ie. the 'ploughgate').
Farming practices
A survey was conducted in 1990 by the Association of Certified Field Archaeologists (Glasgow University) north-west of Coalburn in advance of the open-cast coal mining venture.
Nether Auchenbegg and Over Auchenbegg farms (as they are referred to in the 1695 Poll Tax record) were possibly laid out in the mid-17th century in a reorganisation of the Stockbriggs estate. The smaller site, Nether Auchenbegg, surveyed as a typical linear Lowland 'ferm-toun' of, probably, three structures, a dwelling house flanked by byre on one side and stable and implement shed on the other. With its small in-field to the rear, its well and midden in front and its little kale yard and fruit garden falling to the north, it almost certainly represented the settlement recorded in 1695 with Thomas Whyte and his family in occupation. The larger property, Over Auchenbegg, may have developed from a linear two or three unit steading to an L-shaped steading with an improved central range during the tenancy of the McCowan family from 1799 to 1833 when they emigrated to Canada. In 1695 this farm was tenanted by William McWharrie.
The peasant's home and possessions
In 1690, Thomas Morer gives the following contemporary account of a Lowland peasant's house:
"The vulgar houses and what are seen in the villages are low and feeble. Their walls are made of a few stones jumbled together without mortar to cement 'em, on which they set up pieces of wood meeting at the top, ridge fashion, but so order'd that there is neither sightliness or strength... they cover these houses with turff of an inch thick and in the shape of larger tiles which they fasten with wooden pins and renew as often as there occasion; and that is very frequently done. 'Tis rare to find chimneys in these places, a small vent in the roof sufficing to convey the smoake away."
The timber beams were, in fact, the most valuable part of the building and courts of barony laid special penalties on those who took their roof tree with them when they removed from their dwelling. Walls were generally of turf or stone depending on the locality and availability of materials, and were seldom as high as a standing man. Windows, if any, were small square openings without glass which, for most of the year, were stuffed with straw or old rags to keep out the cold wind.
As the century progressed and the Parish continued to enjoy peace, the investment in better housing became evident with a great wide chimney piece dominating the living room where one ate, slept and worked and, behind the living room, a 'spence' or parlour where the best furniture and the peasant's few precious possessions might be displayed for the delight of visitors. A passage or 'through-gang' led from the living room to the byre; with no ceiling, the warmth and aroma of the cattle spread throughout the house unimpeded by the brushwood filling the space beneath the thatched roof. From sleeping on straw strewn on the floor of puddled clay and smithy ashes, the peasant progressed to a large tick bag filled with chaff. When bedsteads arrived on the scene; they were 'like cupboards in the wall with doors to be opened and shut at pleasure'. To light the fire, 'spunks' or pieces of stick about two feet (75 cm) long, smeared at both ends with brimstone, were used as firelighters – coal would most likely have been in use in Lesmahagow Parish due to the close proximity of coalfields. (The earliest records of coal being won in the Parish come from mid-seventeenth century accounts of customs duty payable on 'licht' coal passing through the Burgh of Lanark) To read his Bible, the Lesmahagow peasant would use cheap, good rushlights or he may buy an oil-lamp from a local smith: the 'crusie, a lamp of French design and origin was a popular choice at that time.
Of the peasant's possessions, we know little, as he made no will and had little a bailiff might wish to seize however, we can surmise that he might own a meal kist or press (in which was kept the meal, bread and cheese), a cooking pot, a few short-hafted spoons carved from a cow's horn, a common wooden dish from which all the family supped and drinking vessels and, perhaps a bed and a stool or two. He would wear a plaid, like his Highland fellow-countryman, but worn over trousers or 'breeks' and, unlike most of his women-folk, shoes of home-tanned leather at two or three shillings a pair. The women went generally barefoot, wearing linen skirts with a plaid draped over their heads. Adjacent to his humble cottage, would be his kailyard or infield-holding mainly for his own family's consumption.
A peasant's diet
Meal of one kind or another formed the staple diet of most of the population. Kale was a most popular and savoury dish: a broth made from oats, with perhaps a little cabbage, boiled for several hours, eaten both hot and cold. Sometimes, if available, meat might be added or the vegetables omitted. Breakfast might consist of porridge or brose with milk or kale; bannocks and kale for dinner (with meat for those who could afford it) and, for supper, either porridge or 'sowans' (a sour porridge mixture) or yet more kale. By 1760, most families could supplement their diet with the now widely-grown potato or turnip. 'Soor-dook', at one penny a Scots pint, was a popular drink. Ale, as a regular drink at mealtime, had just begun to wane in popularity in favour of tea and, meanwhile, smoking clay pipes had come into favour – even among the ladies.
The Poll Tax Record of 1695
In 1693 the Scottish Parliament passed an Act for poll money. This method of raising taxes, six shillings Scots per head plus a valuation on other assets, proved so unpopular that it was soon abandoned. The document remains however as a valuable record of the residents of the Parish, their dependants, occupations and residence location.
Population
Armed with the Poll Tax Record of 1695, which is reproduced in full in Greenshields' "Annals of the Parish of Lesmahagow", we are able to add a little flesh to the foregoing description of life in the Parish around that period. An analysis of these records produces the following statistics which bear interesting comparison with the modern-day Parish. Excluding Blackwood estates, for which, lists may never have been compiled (so controversial was this tax, that it was soon dis-continued), the total number of persons comes to less than 1200. From the number of households, at approximately 430, we can derive an average total of persons per household of less than three. In view of the appalling harvests which blighted the district throughout the 1690s, bringing severe famine conditions, this does not come as a surprise. The total population of Scotland was around one million. For the seven years beginning in 1696, every harvest was a failure; many of the starving people perished from weakness, cold and hunger, and as sheep and cattle died in their thousands so the cost of food soared. Men and women were forced to forage for their food like animals.
Occupations
With the exception of the calling of 'cottar', the foremost trade is that of 'weaver' at eighteen persons, followed by sixteen smiths, ten tailors, six masons, four shoemakers, three chapmen and one couper. That the hamlet of Abbeygreen was in its infancy, as a focal point for the Parish community, is evidenced by the fact that there was only one of the weavers resident there, although it boasted two of the three 'chapmen' or hawkers, three tailors, two masons and the sole 'couper' in the Parish.
Given names have not changed dramatically in three hundred years. 'John' is the most popular name for males at 147, followed by 'James' at 116 and 'William' in third place with 87. Thomas, Robert and George make up the bulk of the remainder and, at the other end of the scale, we find among others, only one Richard, one Matthew, one Charles and no Peter, Michael or Edward. The most popular three girl's names are Janet (79), Marion (67) and Margaret (67). Generally the distribution of first-names is more even among females but it is surprising to find only one Elspeth and four Rachels at the lower end. It is also interesting to note the use of 'Christian' and 'Ellison' as girl's names.
Given and family names
Surnames are dominated by the 'Weir' family at 107, followed by 'Hamilton' at 53 and 'Brown' at 52. This must have created not a little confusion as the list reveals fifteen 'James Weir', ten 'John Weir' and eight each of 'James' and 'John' Hamilton. Of the names still numerous in the Parish in the twentieth century, we find thirty-five Tweddles or Twaddels, twenty-nine Steels, seventeen Clellands, sixteen Stodharts, fifteen Purdies, twelve Lockharts and ten Meikles. The more unusual findings include the surnames 'Gilkerson' and 'Pret' (of which there were seven), only one Douglas and one Blackwood. The discovery of merely five 'Mc' surnames confirms the gulf which, at that time, still separated the peoples of the Highlands and the Lowlands.
Placenames
The long-standing continuity of many place-names within the Parish is confirmed by the Poll Tax list and, notably, the district of 'Raw' which lies along the course of Poniel Water on the south-eastern edge of Broken Cross Muir still bears a remarkable number of the old names, spelling unchanged from that recorded on the list. What is also clearly evident, is the extraordinarily high number of inhabitants seemingly dependent upon each 'ferm-toun' or hamlet for their existence but we must recall that the condition of the roads precluded even the most rudimentary form of commuting and agriculture was predominantly only for consumption within the 'ferm-toun'.
Transformation of the agrarian society and economy into a recognisable facsimile of what is seen in the Parish by the mid-twentieth century in the wake of the Union of Parliaments and the formation of a 'British common market' did not happen overnight. Although, following the years of disastrous harvests and the failure of the Darien colony (which is believed to have consumed one third of Scotland's wealth and over two thousand lives), it was seen by many as a panacea to the problems of a poor and backward economy. Significant, if less obvious, changes than the Industrial Revolution of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries were taking place in the Lowlands for half-a-century before the American War of Independence in 1776. A few land-owners; indeed, they were the only class on the land with any capital, began to attempt to transform the backward Scottish peasant model to that of the advanced English commercial one. Mostly beginning on the 'home farm', they enclosed fields, planted new crops and employed the newly-acquired methods of English husbandry. To persuade the peasants to follow their example, they used a mixture of the carrot and the stick. Eviction, for those who would not or could not undertake the new husbandry and secure and long (nineteen years) leases at reasonable rents, to those who were willing and cooperative in carrying out the new modes of agriculture with regard to liming, ploughing, sowing, the use of artificial grasses and due rotation of crops. The fields became gradually enclosed, the 'ferm-touns' broken up, new steadings built, the ground drained, limed and manured and new crops introduced which would alter and enrich the traditional rotations throughout the holding. But, in doing so, they destroyed the old traditions of Scottish husbandry which the people had known for generations and decimated a peasant subsistence economy which had been mainly dedicated to producing only enough for themselves in a rural society where all others were also producers. A new society arose which now comprised a land-owner or large tenant farmer and a land-less labourer both dedicated to producing food for the new great towns filling with people for the factories.
Agrarian reform
Thus, the majority of people who got their living from the land either were or came to be simple wage-earners and, the closer one approaches the mid-nineteenth century, the greater the proportion of the rural population which falls into that category. That he was materially better off than his tenant predecessor is a matter of interpretation and depends on the individual case under examination but unquestionably, he had been reduced yet another rung on the social ladder. Peasant society now ceased to exist. When the tenant became capitalist farmer, with his sympathies broadly those of the 'landed interest', the cottar or sub-tenant became land-less labourer. With the exception of the so-called 'Levellers Revolt' in Galloway in 1724, the Scottish farm labourer took the change in his status with acquiescence, principally due to the constraints of the hiring policy. It was difficult for the farm worker to leave his employment at any other time than the annual Hiring Fair and when he did he needed to carry references to his new employer from the old and from the Parish minister attesting to his good character. Heavy penalties were exacted on servants who broke this contract of service.
The end of the Stuarts and old Scotland
In March 1708 a French fleet entered the Firth of Forth carrying six thousand men and the pretender James Stuart. Before a landing could be made, they fled north upon the arrival of an English fleet of twenty-eight men-of-war. However with the accession of George I in 1714, the Jacobites thought that restoration of the Stuarts might be achieved by armed rebellion.
On 6 September 1715, the Stuart standard was again raised in the Highlands. This act of rebellion was short-lived and suppression of the Jacobite rebels was mild compared to what would happen thirty years later.
The Jacobite Rising of 1745
The bonds to the old Scotland were finally broken with the failure of the second Jacobite Rising in 1745; thereafter, progress in the Parish developed along principally economic lines rather than by the dictates of military action and political or religious unrest. Although there was widespread dissatisfaction with the Union, it was too late to expect the Lowlanders to trust a Stuart who was a papist and whose fundamental support was derived from Highlanders who had displayed such bloody delight in persecuting the Covenanters only sixty years previously. It must also be recalled that the people of the Parish had not even the vaguest form of kinship with these strangers from north of the Forth-Clyde line; they had never at any time even shared the same language. The Highlanders' language roots were with Irish Celtic, the Lowlanders' being from British Celtic and the Northumbrian Anglo-Saxon dialect.
Kinlochmoidart
Following Prince Charles' successful mastery of Scotland, he advanced with his army over the border into England. His Secretary, the young Donald Macdonald of Kinlochmoidart, on a journey from the Highlands with despatches for the Prince passed through Lesmahagow Parish on his way to England. There he was recognised by, the then student of divinity, Thomas Linning whose religious persuasions were distinctly at odds with those of the Young Pretender's supporters and who was hostile to the Jacobite cause. Linning armed himself and gathered a group of neighbours to pursue the rebel Highlander and his servant, apprehending them on Broken Cross Muir. Linning commanded them to surrender, in the name of King George, and Kinlochmoidart gave himself up to the 'rabble with their old guns and pitchforks' rather than risk unnecessary blood-letting.
Kinlochmoidart was escorted under heavy guard to Edinburgh Castle where he was imprisoned. His arrival at Edinburgh would have created a dilemma for some of the populace in view
In view of the foregoing, it is perhaps rather incongruous that another Lesmahagow man has a direct link to Prince Charles Edward Stuart's ill-fated campaign to win the crown. John Greenshields, born in Lesmahagow in 1795, sculpted the figure on top of the Glenfinnan Monument. Greenshields began his working life as a stone mason before establishing a reputation as a sculptor. Interestingly, when commissioned by Angus MacDonald of Glenaladale to sculpt the statue of the young Prince he actually sculpted the wrong man – perhaps by design. Greenshields was also responsible for two statues of Sir Walter Scott, both done from memory. He met and became friends with Scott in 1829. The best known statue stands in Parliament House and the other on a pedestal in Glasgow's George Square.
The 'Forty Five', as it became known, ended the direct Stuart connection with Scottish politics and its doubtful romantic allusions to past glories.
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Economic growth
During the eighteenth century, the economic growth of the country was prodigious; the population of Scotland increased by fifty per cent while the national revenue rose by fifty times.
The new aristocracy
Although the Statistical Account of 1793 stated that there was little proof of 'great refinement in agriculture', no evidence in the form of statistics was volunteered comparing the earlier situation in the Parish. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, the Parish began to observe a by-product of Scotland's new economic growth as some of the old families, due to mismanagement or simply lack of a suitable heir, began to sell off their estates to the 'nouveaux riches' of the new prosperous middle class. Portions of, or entire, magnificent old estates such as Auchtyfardle, Auchenheath, Kerse, Harperfield, Kirkfield and Birkwood were finding themselves in the hands of profiteers and men of commerce who had made their fortunes as wine merchants, customs agents, 'late of Jamaica' (the grave of Scotland), the East Indies and belonging to cities from Glasgow or Edinburgh to London, England. This influx of 'men of business' had, unfortunately but not unexpectedly, a deleterious affect on the life of the small tenant. The price of land rose quickly and, to recoup the expense to which the new owner had been put, the rents were duly raised, forcing more of the small tenants to join the swelling ranks of the land-less peasant.
Mosman of Auchtyfardle and Australia
A few of the newcomers, such as the Mosman family, became for a time an important component of Parish life but others saw Lesmahagow only as an investment where a Coat of Arms might be forged or as a summer country retreat to which one might invite an impressionable guest and play at being minor aristocracy. The incomers also brought the 'sport' of fox hunting into Scotland and no doubt a few villagers blessed Lord Kelburne who introduced the rabbit as food for foxes about 1830.
Archibald, elder of twin sons of Hugh Mosman of Auchtyfardle who died in 1828, was a well-known early settler in New South Wales, Australia and, after whom, the Sydney suburb of 'Mosman' is named. His son, Hugh, born at Mosman's Bay, Sydney in 1843, discovered gold in 1872 at Charters Tors (Cornish for 'mountains') or Towers setting in motion a major gold rush to the area south-west of Townsville, Queensland. The main street of Charters Towers is named 'Mosman Street'. Charters Towers site
Demography of the Parish in the 18th century
In 1705, the population of the Parish was estimated to be 1680; in 1730, 2448; in 1755, 2996. An exact census, taken in 1793 by the ministers of the Parish, counted 'souls in all' as 2810. No explanation is given for the slight drop and it may be assumed that the earlier numbers were estimates only. The total average number of persons per household had increased from under three in 1695 to in excess of five persons in 1793. These figures, and allied to those provided by the in-exact Poll Tax list of 1695, are generally in keeping with the national average rate of growth in Scotland. This population and economic expansion was also reflected in the increase in numbers within the occupational classifications; weavers 62, tailors 26, shoemakers 16 and masons 40. The latter figure illustrates the extent of building in stone around the end of the century and into the beginning of the nineteenth. New trades, since 1695, are also in evidence with 21 carpenters, 3 butchers and 23 miners.
Weaving
Some of the local weavers produced yarn and cloth from the wool and flax grown locally to provide the Parish housewives with the material to make clothing for themselves and their families but the bulk of their employment came from the manufacturers in the big towns nearby in weaving fine linen and cotton cloth. The local women were mostly employed spinning linen yarn for the manufacturers which was supplied to them by agents who travelled around the Parish delivering the flax and collecting the finished product. It is understood that until cotton weaving was introduced into the Parish around 1790, little, if any, trade or manufacture was carried out beyond the immediate needs of the Parish. However, by the 1830s, most of the weavers of Lesmahagow were dependent upon Glasgow merchants for their raw materials and remuneration for the finished article.
Farm husbandry
The Statistical Account of 1793 also reveals that the lack of progress in farming could be illustrated by the fact that fallowing was not widely practised nor burning-off of old pasture and stubble and the old distinctions of croft and outfield were still being kept up. The 'Scotch plough', nearly in the same state as it had been for a century or more, was almost universally in use and, it was only near the Clyde, where any new agricultural improvements were being employed. Oats were the principal crop and wheat was almost unknown.
A local profile
The author of the 1793 Statistical Account, patronisingly, describes the inhabitants of the Parish as 'open and frank in their manners; keen in their attachments; cheerful to return favours, and no less ardent to resent affronts; equally ignorant of the cautious reserve of people hackneyed in the ways of men, and averse in the plodding perseverance acquired in the more busy walks of society. The general tenor of their moral deportment is decent and regular; and few among them have been accused of enormities. Their bodies are, for the most part, stout, brawny and active. The language spoken is the broad Scotch dialect, with this peculiarity (very observable to strangers) that the voice is raised, and the sound lengthened upon the last syllable of the sentence.' At least one of the populace was unquestionably 'brawny and active' as it was reported that, around 1770, a James Porteous, who was then one hundred years old, walked from his house near Abbeygreen to Hamilton and, having completed his business, walked back the same day. He is reputed to have lived for another five or six years thereafter and to have enjoyed the best of health up to the last.
The Turnpike Act
The improved condition of the roads in the previous fifty years would have contributed to an easing of such a trip. Within the Parish, there were now four substantial stone bridges; one over the Clyde to Lanark and three over the Nethan. The roads are still considered to be 'steep and inconvenient' but it is commented upon that a bill was proposed to be brought before Parliament to construct a new road between Lanark and Hamilton on the Lesmahagow Parish bank of the Clyde. Most of the improvements in the roads can be directly linked to the passing of the Turnpike Act of 1751, which assessed farmers and proprietors in equal proportion for the construction and maintenance of efficient public roadways. The growth of industrial communities towards the end of the century and the easier means of communication established under that Act brought the farmers of the Parish into touch with new markets for their produce, which now brought very rewarding prices.
Matters religious
In the Middle Ages religious matters were decided by priests. From the early sixteenth to the late nineteenth centuries, the churches both Catholic and Protestant made strenuous efforts to persuade the lay population to become actively religious and to accord church leaders even greater prestige than before.
A new church building is planned
On St. Machute's Day, 15 November 1799, (also known as St. Maggus' Fair) a meeting of the heritors of the Parish of Lesmahagow declared unanimously that a new church was necessary. But, because of the high price of wood, the war with France and other considerations, it was decided however to postpone a decision to commence building for twelve months. At the adjourned meeting in 1800, the wood was still dear, the war continued and the crops were worse than ever; delay was again resolved upon – but not unanimously. Another meeting was called on 25 February 1801 (eight days after the Fiars price for oatmeal had reached a record high) and, despite the opinion that the cost of the building of a new church would be 'highly oppressive to the heritors', the result was the construction of the present Old Parish Church in 1803-1804 with seating for about 1600 at a cost of two thousand five hundred pounds sterling. Meanwhile, the price of meal had dropped to less than half of that ruling in 1800. The ceremony of the laying of the foundation stone on the 21 March, 1803 was performed with full Masonic rites.
Freemasonry
There is a long history of Freemasonry associated with Lesmahagow. The earliest records have not survived and the oldest entry in the 'Records of the Lodge' is dated 1716. At a meeting of all the lodges of Scotland held in Edinburgh on 30 November 1736, some thirty-two lodges were represented including the Lodge of Lesmahagow. The original designation of the lodge was 'The Lodge of St. Machute' and it is believed that there is preserved the remains of an ancient flag and an engraved seal both bearing this inscription. Early in 1789, application was made to the Duke of Hamilton for land upon which to build a meeting place. The application was granted and the site selected from a number made available. On 30 July of that year, the foundation stone of the Lodge Hall was laid with due Masonic custom and Mr Wharrie of Pathhead, acting for Hugh Mosman of Auchtyfardle, GM, poured out the 'wine, the oyl, and corn.' The lodge, which observes 27 December (known in the Masonic Calendar as 'St. John's Day') as its anniversary, is now known as the 'Lodge St. John No. 20'.
By the middle of the eighteenth century, the dissenters or the 'Society people', as they were known, had three or four ministers travelling from place to place preaching in the favourite haunts of the Covenanters – Westoun, Skellyhill and Boreland Hill. The 'Reformed Presbytery' continued to grow.
Religious dissent
From the time of the Reformation, the people had believed that it was their right to have a say in the election of the clergy. In 1712, the 'iniquitous' Patronage Act, which made the Church a landlord's preserve, had been passed. Here was the origin of the dissension which split the Church of Scotland with three major secessions. Linning, who had proved to be a most eminent clergyman and who maintained 'evangelical' preaching within the Established Church throughout his life, died in November 1733. Within six years of his death, the first secession from the Established Church had taken place; a 'Praying Society' was formed in the Parish. This body acceded to the 'Associate Presbytery' established by the Seceders and, for some time, Lesmahagow and Lanark formed a single congregation outside of the Established Church. Between that date and that of the second secession in 1761, into a 'Presbytery of Relief' ('for that relief of Christians oppressed in their Christian privileges'), the Church suffered prolonged difficulties and dissension continued to mount – the voice of the people calling for justice had been set aside in favour of the legal power of the patron. A 'Relief' congregation was formed in Strathaven in 1777 and, until they had a church of their own, many attended from Lesmahagow.
Education
Although, as noted in the preceding chapter, John Knox's schemes for universal schooling were never implemented as he would have wished, an important foundation was laid, upon which Scottish education flourished. Parliament had introduced the Compulsory Education Act in 1567 but, as the nobility had acquired the lands and incomes of the Roman Church, there was no money to put the ideas into practice and it was not until the seventeenth century that there was any widespread activity. The Education Act of 1616 laid down that every parish should establish a school and appoint a fit person to teach there at the expense of the parish. The parochial school of the Parish of Lesmahagow is first mentioned in the Session records of 1653 when a Mr Alexander Kinnear is recommended for the office of schoolmaster. Kinnear was to be paid 'fifty pounds Scots per half-a-year, besyd the common casualties' (which were, in fact, the birds killed in the annual cock-fight organised by the teacher in the 'loft' of the church as part of his duties). School life began for the child at five years of age; the day lasted eight to twelve hours, generally beginning at 6.00 am. in summer, with two breaks of an hour each for breakfast and lunch. It was not until the nineteenth century that the school day was reduced to a more humane six hours. There were no official school holidays but the needs of the harvest forced many schools to close for a month or more in the summer. The curriculum still varied with the knowledge of the master but everyone learned religious instruction, reading and writing in that order of priority. In 1773 the schoolmaster received a salary, school wages and his emoluments as Session clerk (a position held by most parochial schoolmasters) and Treasurer of the Poors' Funds. There was also 'a dwelling house for the schoolmaster and a house for teaching. English, Latin, writing, arithmetic, geometry, etc. are taught at this school, and many of the youth of the parish who have pursued the study of divinity and other branches of literature, have received the first elements of their education here. Among these, the late Dr. William Smellie, who was afterwards so much celebrated for his knowledge and success in the obstetric art, must not be omitted.' Dr. Smellie's treatises published in 1752 and 1763 were the principal works of that period in the development of the science of midwifery. In addition to the parochial school, there were also eight or ten private schools mainly devoted to teaching English and writing. Between 1743 and 1746, the schoolmaster was a Mr Gladstone of Biggar; an ancestor of William Ewart Gladstone, Prime Minister of Great Britain in the mid-nineteenth century.
The decline of handloom weaving
By the end of the eighteenth century, the cotton industry had become Scotland's foremost enterprise and, just over the Clyde at New Lanark, Robert Owen, son-in-law of David Dale the proprietor and founder in 1786 of the great cotton spinning venture, had begun his exciting social reform programme of worker education and incentive schemes which formed a key element in his theories of cooperative socialism.
The ascent of the cotton spinner mirrored the decline of the handloom weaver. As the Industrial Revolution progressed, the cotton industry, spurred on by the numerous new inventions and the employment of steam-driven machinery, expanded a hundred-fold. The spinning inventions – waterframes, jennies and mules – had produced a surplus of yarns of all kinds at such low cost that the employers could afford to pay high piece-rates to the weavers to get it speedily manufactured and on to the market as cloth. Allied to the introduction of the flying shuttle, the productivity of the weaver had more than doubled by the end of the eighteenth century. The ultimate decline of the handloom weaver was a result not of the introduction of power-driven machinery but of an over-supply of labour. The art of weaving plain types of cloth and linen fabrics was easy to learn and, within weeks, a whole family could be gainfully employed. The failure of the great strike of 1812, to fix a minimum statutory wage, was looked upon by later generations of handloom weavers as the turning point in the history of their trade. From then on, the industry entered a phase of prolonged and agonising decline until, by the late 1830s, enormous numbers of weavers were living on the brink of destitution after years of prosperity. But it was not until after 1840 that the total employed began to drop and handloom weaving was finally recognised as a dying trade. In the Statistical Account of 1834, drawn up by Andrew Smith of Fauldhouse, the writer noted that Abbeygreen and the other villages of the Parish depended upon Glasgow 'for employment as weavers'. Furthermore he disapproved of 'the facility with which even boys engaged at weaving get possession of money; able to earn considerable wages before they had acquired the sense to manage them, many hurried into matrimonial connections; their wives being equally young and thoughtless, they indulged in dress and luxuries, and preserved no portion of their gains against poverty in less auspicious seasons.' Between 1801, when it stood at 3070, and 1831 the population had more than doubled to 6409. The number of persons per household now averaged 5.5 and births (6% of which were illegitimate) were almost three times that of deaths. Forty-six percent of the population was now under fifteen years of age.
The sanctimonious tone of the writer continued with his disapproval of the character and habits of the people; 'their style and manner of dress may be said to be rather expensive, the servant girl dressing as gaily as the squire's daughters did thirty years ago.' He questioned the benefits and comforts these changes made to society and felt that 'the lower orders are not so contented nor independent as formerly; nor is their general character for morality or religion improved; while there cannot be a doubt that pauperism has greatly increased.' That some families were struggling to survive on five shillings a week by the 1830s, against a full pound for the same handloom weaving work in 1815, may have been one reason for the increase in 'pauperism'.
An end to this misery did not begin until the 1840s and beyond, when the over-supply of labour began to be mopped up by the advent of railway construction accompanying the boom in iron and coal. Thereafter the handloom trade, exhausted by poverty and the growing strength and perfection of mechanical weaving, sank into oblivion within a couple of decades.
The coalmining industry
There was one class of 'the lower orders' who suffered a degree of degradation unequalled in the history of labour relations in Scotland. An Act of the Scottish Parliament in 1606 forbade anyone to employ a collier or coal-worker unless he could produce a testimonial releasing him from his former master. This Act was extended to encompass surface workers in 1641.
Collier slavery
Accepting employment in the coal mines in the seventeenth century meant serfdom for life; the collier became part of the mine's equipment and could be bought, sold and inherited by his master. Worse still; this serfdom could become hereditary through the custom of 'arling' which involved giving a present to the parents of the child at birth in return for which the master received a promise that the child would be brought up as a miner. We have no written evidence of this practice being employed in the early mining of coal in the Parish but it is worthy of note that, between 1607 and 1672, the lead miners of Leadhills were en-serfed in exactly the same way. Their release from bondage was only achieved as a result of the difficulties encountered in attracting experienced English miners to accept such conditions of virtual slavery. It is an example of hypocrisy at its worst when a group of privileged land-owners and nobles exploited a group of their least privileged fellow countrymen as cheap labour while at the same time much huffing and puffing was fashionable over the questions of religious freedom and the basic liberties of man. In Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account published in 1793, it is disturbing to read the following piece which illustrates the contemporary contempt for basic humanitarian considerations:
It has been observed by coal-masters that no instance is known in Scotland of a collier being executed for a capital crime though they are generally esteemed a rough and obstreperous class of men. It is also to be remarked, in honour of the cause of liberty, that since the era of their emancipation, the colliers are become a more respectable body than before. Instead of being considered as inferior beings, which was formerly the case, they now behave and dress like their fellow citizens.
It was only the economic reality of manpower deficiencies in coal mining which compelled the government to pass an act in 1799 unconditionally removing the last traces of servitude. Even that was only saved from further qualifying Clauses by the representation of some six hundred Lanarkshire miners who paid two shillings each for a lawyer to put their case to Parliament. However, emancipation did not bring the expected rush of new recruits to the industry and, in fact, many took the opportunity to join the army or take surface jobs at half the rate of pay of underground workers. But, with peace and demobilisation after 1815, together with accelerating Irish immigration, the labour shortage began to ease. Nevertheless, despite rapid expansion of the industry, the miners were on the defensive to maintain their real earnings. Efforts by organised labour to limit mine production or the hiring of new-comers into the industry were met by the wholesale importation of black-leg labour from Ireland. This began a tradition of bitter religious hatred which marred social harmony throughout the west of Scotland in the 1800s and, in some districts, is still alive today.
Mining in the Parish
Attempts had been made to mine the lead ores found in the Cumberhead district in both 1720 and 1758 without commercial success. On the north side of Nutberry Hill an old shaft can be seen and there is another on the south side, adjoining Priesthill Height.
Limestone, of good grade, was also mined at many places in the Parish including an old, now abandoned, major excavation beneath the 'High Road' to Kirkmuirhill which exhibits fine stalactite samples.
'Licht' coal
In 1793, coal was being wrought at Stockbriggs, Coalburn, Gunsgreen, Auchenheath and Westoun. Coal from Auchenheath was known as candle or 'cannel' coal (or light or 'licht' coal because of the bright flame it exhibited when burnt) and sold for five shillings per tonne whereas the other coals of lesser quality sold for between half-a-crown and three shillings per tonne. Glasgow's streets were first lit with gas in 1818 and the demand for this 'Lesmahagow coal, of a quality second to none in Scotland' put the price up to eight shillings per tonne at the pithead and sixteen shillings per tonne at Glasgow; a price the Glasgow Gas Company was willing to pay at a time when other gas coals could be bought for a half guinea (ten shillings and sixpence) per tonne.
The burgeoning demands for coal from Lesmahagow to power and light the factories of the new industrial world, while parallelling the decline of handloom weaving, inevitably changed the character of employment for the bulk of the common people of the Parish and instigated the division between miner and agricultural labourer.
The above is reproduced with permission from 'Agrarian and Industrial Upheaval', a chapter of "Lesmahagow, The Parish and the People" by W Clelland, originally published on the Lesmahagow OnLine website.
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