In previous posts, I introduced John Darroch's family, his parents, and some Milloy cousins who moved to Upper Canada. I also described John's trip to Glasgow, which is where we left him when we shifted our attention to the Greenlees' family. We learned that Agnes's father was a farmer and a sergeant with the Scots Greys. When Agnes was three, her mother tragically died of cholera, so Agnes lived with her dad while her siblings were dispersed to relatives. In the 1840s, Agnes moved to Glasgow, where she would meet John.
Because Glasgow is an obvious turning point in our family history, this post gives a backdrop to Glasgow as John and Agnes experienced it. It is a study of extremes between the rich and the poor. It is also a study in change, for the 19th century saw a seismic upheaval in economic strata. In a single generation, entrepreneurs of the industrial revolution could make a fortune in shipbuilding or cotton manufacturing. Similarly, trade merchants built fortunes in the West Indies or Jamaica and propelled themselves into opulent lifestyles.
By 1821, Glasgow had earned the name "Scotland's other capital," for its population and industrial prominence had exceeded Edinburgh's. Glasgow also laid claim (as did other cities) to the title of "the Second City of the British Empire" after London. Glasgow was one of the fastest-growing cities in the world and the consequences were disastrous. In spite of its majestic architecture, churches, schools, and beautiful parks, this new-found prosperity had a downside.
Amid Scotland's economic turmoil, the poor, the unemployed, and the uneducated were looking for work and a place to live. Displaced Highlanders gravitated to the city. Irish immigrants, destitute from the potato famine, poured in. “During 1848, the average weekly inflow of Irish into Glasgow was estimated at over 1000, and the figure for January to April of that year was put at 42,860.” [1] Glasgow's 1840 population was estimated at only 282,000. An influx of forty-two thousand people in four months would overrun any city of that size.
Multiple families would crowd into a single flat, fueling epidemics of tuberculosis. The lack of sanitation spawned cholera and other diseases, making it the unhealthiest city in Great Britain. The Glasgow Herald reported complaints by residents who said the “effluvia from dungsteads lying in the High Street until late in the morning and how the smell is so offensive that it produces a 'sickening sensation' within a twenty yard radius.” [*] In 1838, four years before John arrived, an assistant commissioner from an official inquiry reported the following:
I have seen human degradation in some of its worst phases, both in England and abroad, but I can advisedly say that I did not believe until I visited the wynds of Glasgow, that so large an amount of filth, crime, misery, and disease existed on one spot. [...] In the lower lodging-houses ten, twelve and sometimes twenty persons of both sexes and all ages sleep promiscuously on the floor in different degrees of nakedness. These places are, generally as regards dirt, damp and decay, such as no person of common humanity to animals would stable his horse in. [3]
Another contrast is the religiosity of the people versus public drunkenness. In the 1830s, Glasgow was dubbed the "Gospel City" and the "Metropolis of Puritanism." Indeed, the City had adopted the motto, “Let Glasgow Flourish by the preaching of the Word.” In the 1850s, a journalist wrote, “in no town or city in Scotland is the Sabbath more rigidly observed.” [*] It boasted 129 churches. The poor were not welcome in these churches, due to their crude appearance. Sadly, however, they were welcome in the pubs.
One tourist turned the phrase Metropolis of Puritanism to "Metropolis of Impurity," adding that Glasgow was "the most religious and most drunken city in Europe or the world.” Drunks were routinely carted to the police station on a narrow wheelbarrow built for the purpose. The ills of drink emerged in the abuse of children and women. Hordes of children "would hang about the pub doors waiting for their mothers or fathers to emerge." One journalist decried the fate of "unfortunate women, who were more 'sinned against than sinning'." [*]
In 1856, American author Nathaniel Hawthorne noted the contradiction of this "stateliest of cities" in which "the poorer classes of Glasgow excel even those in Liverpool in the bad eminence of filth, uncombed and unwashed children, drunkenness, disorderly deportment, evil smell, and all that makes city poverty disgusting." A year later, he returned and saw more of the same, writing "The children seem to have been unwashed from birth.” [4] The poor were caught in the vortex of drunkenness, poverty, and unemployment.
Fortunately for John and Agnes, there was a narrow band of moderation between these extremes of rich and poor. The master blacksmith and lady for whom they worked were neither incredibly rich nor wretchedly poor. They made a decent living and had a reasonable home with hired servants and apprentices. We know little of the master and lady, except they seemed to have provided a safe harbour for John and Agnes. Nonetheless, they would have witnessed these socio-economic opposites in Glasgow.
In September of 2022, a great-grandson, Colin Darroch, visited Glasgow to research the Darroch family history. He saw some of the sites that existed when John and Agnes lived there 180 years ago, including the Glasgow Cathedral, the oldest building in the city. Towering above all other structures at the time, John and Agnes would have seen it, and may have walked its grounds. Below, I have contrasted an image from 1693 with Colin's photo from his visit a few weeks ago. These two images depict four centuries of constancy and change.
Colin also visited Mercat Cross, the Scots name for the market cross. Only towns that had been granted the right to hold a regular market or annual fair were allowed a Mercat Cross. Since it was granted only by a monarch, bishop, or baron, a Mercat Cross symbolized a burgh's authority and relative prosperity. Because of its singular importance, the Mercat Cross was typically situated at the heart of the burgh. This is the case with Glasgow Cross. It is at the hub of High Street and four other main roads, close to the River Clyde.
Colin also visited the first location of the University of Glasgow. Before building its own campus, it was housed in a single room in the Glasgow Cathedral, for the Archbishops were the appointed chancellors. As you might recall, several Darroch ministers received their degrees from the University of Glasgow. Colin was determined to find where they studied. Here is his story of walking High Street where Darrochs had formerly lived, visiting the Cathedral, and finding the original room of Glasgow University:
"While doing my research I wanted to visit the Metropolitan Church of Glasgow. Today it is called the Glasgow Cathedral. It is the oldest one in Mainland Scotland and the oldest building in Glasgow and is included in my book.
"It is at the top of High Street, the street on which Darroch people owned many properties all the way down to Mercat Cross, meaning Market Crossing. All the buildings they owned are gone but the Church is still there.
"I walked High Street several times trying to get a feeling of where they lived and visited the church. At the entrance, there were two gentlemen who let people in. One was in his fifties or so and another older. I asked where the University was.
"The younger man looked at me as if I was off my nut and stared at me with a kind of strange look. Then the older man piped up right away and said, 'Go in the door, turn right, walk to the end, then turn left and walk as far as you can. There you will find a set of stairs, go down the 7 or so steps and there was the University. It was just one room.'
"So I went there and found it. The floor of the room is almost certainly not original as it had heating ducts throughout, but the room itself is original. This was where our Darroch relatives studied Latin, Greek, and religion to earn their Master's degrees. Amazing that I stand where they were." [5]
The following photos are, from left to right: the interior of Glasgow Cathedral, the room in which the Darroch ministers likely studied, and Colin standing in that room.
Thank you, Colin, for sharing your photos, knowledge, and enthusiasm for the Darroch families in Glasgow!
We will next delve into John's and Agnes's occupations (apprentice and domestic servant) when they worked for the master blacksmith and lady of the house.
References:
[1] https://electricscotland.com/history/articles/migration_scotland.htm (retrieved October 30, 2022).
[*] Quotations without a numbered footnote are drawn from one or both of these two articles:
William Findlay, Glasgow's oppressive nightmare: midnight scenes from the “metropolis of puritanism” https://books.openedition.org/pufr/4583?lang=en (retrieved October 28, 2022).
Lionel Gossman, on Clyde-built: Thomas Annan’s The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow (1871), https://victorianweb.org/photos/annan/gossman.html, (retrieved October 30, 2022).
[3] British Parliamentary Papers, Reports from the Assistant Handloom Weavers’ Commisioners, vol. 42 (March 27, 1839), as quoted in https://victorianweb.org/photos/annan/gossman.html (retrieved October 28, 2022).
[4] Nathaniel Hawthorne, Passages From the English Notebooks, Volume 2, in Project Gutenberg EBook, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7877/7877-h/7877-h.htm (retrieved October 30, 2022).
[5] Excerpts from personal email by Colin Darroch, September 18, 2022.