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at one time five-and-twenty ships, with their cargoes-his own property-and to have traded for above half-a-million sterling a-year." Great Britain had so much strife on hand in these days, that "the last war may be judged as of uncertain meaning; but as the novel was partly written and published in 1771, it may have been the expulsion of the French from Lower Canada, when Wolfe fell fighting so bravely on the heights of Abraham above Quebec, or the war with Spain of 1762, when Havana, Trinidad, and Manilla were seized.

Like most other merchants of his time, John Glassford took a deep interest in the construction of a Canal between the Forth and Clyde, although he was satisfied it could not be altogether so successful as its more sanguine promoters represented. For mineral, stone, timber, and general miscellaneous traffic, its utility, he thought, could hardly be overrated; but he doubted if the manufacturers of either Glasgow or Paisley would much avail themselves of that mode of transit. The cost of cartage to them from point to point appeared to him as trifling compared to what they were likely to reckon on as possible damage from water and delay in transhipment. Glassford's correspondence shows him to have been in frequent communication on this subject, and also on the Scotch paper currency, with his friends William Mure of Caldwell, Baron of Exchequer, ex-Provost Cochrane, Ritchie, and Colin Dunlop. Writing in 1762 to Baron Mure, Glassford expressed a hope that when the Baron came to Glasgow the Canal scheme might be a little riper for judging as to the expediency of taking any concern with others in carrying out the project. "I hope then to have the pleasure of seeing you, and that you will do me the favour of lodging in my house, as you lately gave me some reason to expect. You will be entirely at your own freedom. (Signed), JOHN GLASSFORD." In the course of the year above-mentioned (1762), Francis, Fifth Lord Napier, employed two surveyors to examine the ground from Carron at Abbotshaugh, about two miles from the place where that river discharges itself into the Forth, to the Clyde at Yoker Burn, about five miles below Glasgow, and his Lordship likewise caused accounts to be taken of the quantities of goods carried

between the two friths, and of the expense of carriage.

In 1764 Smeaton

declared himself strongly in favour of the route now so familiar to travellers by road and rail, and Lord Dundas, one of the leading promoters of the scheme, pushed an Act through Parliament for its construction. The works, the most difficult of the kind undertaken in the kingdom up to that time, were commenced in 1768, but lack of capital led to a delay of nearly twenty years, the canal not being finished till 1790 (by Whitworth, one of Brindley's pupils), when the opening of the new communication between east and west was celebrated with great rejoicing, the chairman of the Canal Committee, Archibald Speirs of Elderslie, symbolically performing the feat by launching a hogshead of Forth water into the Clyde at Bowling Bay terminus. It is but right to say that the name of John Glassford does not appear in the original list of the company formed under the Act of 1768 to carry out the canal works. There, however, will be found John, Earl of Glasgow, George Murdoch, Lord Provost of Glasgow, James and Richard Oswald, Archibald Stirling, and Patrick Miller of Dalswinton.

Powerful in the City as a "Tobacco Lord" alone-for he might daily be seen marching in front of the Tontine in his scarlet cloak, with curled wig, cocked hat, and gold-headed cane-John Glassford had also a large share in such lucrative concerns as the Cudbear Purple-dye Manufactory, the Pollokshaws Dyeworks, and the Glasgow Tanwork Company, the largest business of the kind then known. All these were in addition to his interest as a shareholder in the Glasgow Arms Bank, established 1753, and the Thistle Bank, set on foot some five years later. When Glassford commenced business on his own account in Glasgow about 1740, the population was put down at a little over 17,000, while the Clyde shipping made up an aggregate carrying power of 5,600 tons, represented by sixty-seven vessels, fifteen of which traded to Virginia, four to Jamaica, and six to London. For some years after the tobacco trade was opened up by the Union, Glasgow had only one ship of its own, a vessel of sixty tons, built at Greenock, and the precious weed had to be conveyed from the Plantations for the most part in vessels built at Whitehaven. Not

withstanding the pawky rule laid down by Bailie Nicol Jarvie about "pickling in their ain pockneuk," so far as concerned home-made goods for exportation, or at the worst, being able to buy English north-country wares cheaper even than English merchants, the principle, if desirable, could not always be carried out. Dr. Carlyle of Inveresk, a student for two years at the University (1743–44), and a shrewd observer, found that while the chief branches of trade in Glasgow then was with Virginia in tobacco, and with the West Indies in sugar and rum, there were often not enough manufactured goods either in the City or Paisley to make up a sortable cargo to such foreign markets, and for that purpose shippers were obliged to have recourse to Manchester. The merchants, he admits, were men of honour, industry, and enterprise, ready to seize with. eagerness and prosecute vigorously every new scheme in commerce which promised success; but manufactures among themselves were in their infancy, the single Inkle factory commenced in 1732, and extended in 1743 by the purchase of land in Ramshorn Yard, being shown cautiously to strangers as a great curiosity. The tobacco trade may be said to have reached the height of its prosperity in 1773 and 1774. In the first-mentioned year, when the Clyde shipping was over 60,000 tons, thirty-eight Glasgow firms imported the unprecedented quantity of 43,970 hogsheads (over 35,000 from Virginia), and, with stock-on-hand, were able to export to France, Holland, and other countries 47,778 hogsheads. Next year forty-six firms imported 40,543 hogsheads, and exported 34,146, leaving a stock on hand at the close of the year of 6,347 hogsheads. Matters in the States took a threatening turn in September, when the first Congress assembled at Philadelphia; but reconciliation with the mother-country can hardly be described as hopeless till April, 1775, when the first blow for independence was struck at Lexington. In June following Washington was appointed Commanderin-Chief of the American Continental Army. In October of this eventful year Franklin requested one of his correspondents to inform a common friend that Britain, at an expense of three millions, "has killed 150 Yankees this campaign, which is £20,000 a-head; and, at Bunker's Hill, she gained a mile of ground,

half of which she again lost by our taking part in Ploughed Hill. During the same time 60,000 children have been born in America. From these data his mathematical head will easily calculate the time and expense necessary to kill us all and conquer our whole territory." No foreign force, however brave, numerous, or well equipped, could strive successfully against the grim determination here shadowed forth. The tobacco trade in Glasgow was not only doomed, but, so far as monopoly was concerned, had already become a thing of the past. The leaf or "weed," it is true, on hand rose first from 3d. to 6d. per lb., and, greatly to the profit of Lainshaw, ultimately to 3s. 6d. per lb.; but the time was fast hastening when the proud "Tobacco Lords" could hardly find their favourite stock in the market at any quotation. Fortunately for Glasgow, the West Indies at this juncture could be kept open for sugar, as well as material for the favourite punch beverage, and a powerful impulse was at the same time given to the mineral and manufacturing industries of the district.

John Glassford, as has been mentioned, removed from his pleasant residence at Whitehill to the more spacious Shawlands mansion in Argyll Street. It had been built in 1712 by Daniel Campbell of Shawfield, M.P. for the Clyde Burghs 1716-1734, and sacked by the mob in 1725 from resentment at his vote in Parliament for extending the malt-tax to Scotland. Campbell, who had acquired a large fortune through farming the Customs in the Firth of Clyde, was awarded £6000 as compensation, to be paid by the City from a tax on ale and beer, and, investing his money in the Islay property, sold the dilapidated Argyll Street house to M'Dowall of Castle-Semple. Although occupied by the Young Pretender during his brief, unwelcome visit to Glasgow in 1745, the rooms would never appear to have been restored to their early splendour, as in 1760 M'Dowall sold it to Glassford, with all the ground stretching to the Back Cow Loan, now Ingram Street, for 1700 guineas. Here the enterprising merchant, still in the prime of life, lived and dispensed a wide hospitality for six or seven years, or till 1767, when he purchased Dougalstone estate (originally probably Dougal's town, seat of Dougald of the Lennox family), in New Kilpatrick parish, from

John Graham, advocate, the representative of a branch of the Montrose family whose chief residence, before Buchanan House came to be built, was at the old Castle of Mugdock, near to Dougalstone, although in a different parish. The east side of New Kilpatrick parish and the west side of Strathblane touch each other in this neighbourhood, the first being mostly within the county of Dumbarton, the other in Stirlingshire. The mansion-house, which stood upon the site of the fine new one erected by the present owner, Robert Ker, Esq., merchant, had been built in 1707 by John Graham, then of Dougalstone. Besides possessing property in the east end of Glasgow, this branch of the Montrose Family owned the western suburb of Grahamston, extending from what is now the south-west corner of Union Street west to a little past Hope Street, and backward to a line slightly north of Gordon Street. (See paper on Grahamston by C. D. Donald, Jun., "Glas. Archæological Pro.," pt. 2, vol. II.) On entering Dougalstone as his country residence, John Glassford laid out the grounds anew in the most ornamental style, and at the same time greatly enlarged the mansion. As appears from a memorial tablet in the western wall of the Ramshorn burying-ground, Mr. Glassford was three times married, his last wife being Lady Margaret Mackenzie, daughter of George, last Earl of Cromartie, whose son, James Glassford, raised an unsuccessful claim to the ancient Cromartie peerage, dormant for a time, but now held in her own right by Anne, present Duchess of Sutherland. John Glassford died in Glasgow, August 27th, 1783, aged 68. His son, Henry, sat in the Commons for Dumbartonshire, 1802-6, when he resigned, and again 1807-10, when he was succeeded by Archibald Colquhoun of Killermont, Lord Advocate of Scotland. Henry Glassford died unmarried, 19th May, 1819, aged 54. In 1792 he sold the family town mansion of Shawfield to a builder for £9,850. The fabric, not very old as we have seen, but which had experienced strange vicissitudes, was then removed for the purpose of opening up the well-known street stretching northward from the junction of Argyle Street with Trongate, and which now bears the name of the greatest merchant of his time.

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