454 



GLASGOW. (HISTORY.) 



pe;irs to have been govenied by a provost and bailies, 

 and to have been in all respects an organized incor- 

 poration, having persons in official situations for the 

 investing and transferring of properly, with courts of 

 justice for determining disputes among the inhabi- 

 tants. 



In 1300, Glasgow was the scene of a spirited con- 

 test between Sir William Wallace and the English. 

 Earl Percy, under Edward I. of England, having at 

 that time usurped the military government of the 

 west of Scotland, and taken possession of the epis- 

 copal palace, the Scottish patriot, with a squadron of 

 300, attacked him in his stronghold, and after a se- 

 vere engagement, which took place, tradition says, 

 near where the college now stands, totally routed the 

 English, and rid the town for a time of their presence. 

 In this combat Percy is said to have fallen by the 

 hand of Wallace. In 1350, 1380, and 1381, the city 

 sntfered severely from the plague, but what numbers 

 perished is not recorded. In 1387, the great wooden 

 spire of the cathedral was destroyed by lightning. 

 Between 1390 and 1424, a mint house was erected 

 in the Drygate, where coins were struck. The royal 

 crest crowned, but unsceptred, with the motto Ro- 

 bcrtus Dei Gratia Rex Scotorum, appears on one side 

 of the money coined, and on an inner circle are the 

 words Villa de Glasgow, while Dominus Protector 

 appears on the outer. This mintage is doubted by 

 Chalmers, in his " Caledonia." Prior to 1450, the 

 inhabitants resided chiefly in the vicinity of the 

 cathedral, the cross or public place of resort being at 

 the intersection of the Rottenrow, Drygate, and 

 High Street. In 1435, bishop Cameron enjoined his 

 prebends, thirty-two in number, to erect houses for 

 themselves in the vicinity of the cathedral, and always 

 to reside there, leaving the duty of their respective 

 parishes to be performed by curates. Most of these 

 manor houses were erected in the Rottenrow, and 

 added much to the beauty and importance of the city. 

 After the establishment of the college, the buildings 

 gradually extended downward to the present cross, 

 and from thence eastward on the Gallowgate. Still 

 later, the Saltmarket and Bridgegate were formed, 

 the latter street being originally called Fishergate, 

 from being chiefly inhabited by people employed in 

 fishing in the river. 



Besides the cathedral, there was a collegiate church 

 in Glasgow, governed by a provost and eight pre- 

 bends, founded by the citizens about the year 1487, 

 and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. This is now the 

 Iron or laigh church. There were also several cha- 

 pels about that time in the neighbourhood of the city 

 one on the Dow-hill, dedicated to St Mungo ; a 

 second in the Gorbals, near the bridge, dedicated to 

 St Ninian; a third beyond the west-port, dedicated to 

 St Enoch; a fourth in the neighbourhood of the Stable- 

 green-port, near the bishop's palace, dedicated to St 

 Rolloch ; a fifth in the Rottenrow, dedicated to John 

 the Baptist ; and a sixth, a little above the cross, on 

 the right hand, dedicated to the holy Thanew, the 

 mother of St Kentigern. No vestiges of any of these 

 chapels now remain. There were also several hos- 

 pitals belonging to the town one at Polmadie, near 

 Rutherglen, which was of considerable extent ; 

 another, called St Nicolas' hospital, founded by bishop 

 Muirhead near his episcopal palace in 1471 ; another 

 at the Stable-green-port, endowed by bishop Black- 

 adder in 1491 ; and a small one for lepers in the 

 Gorbals, which was founded and endowed by a lady 

 of the name of Campbell, about the year 1350. Two 

 convents one of Black Friars and the other of Grey 

 Friars were early established in the city, but there 

 is no account of there ever having been a nunnery. 

 The first of the Dominicans or Blackfriars (also call- 

 ed Fratres Praedicatores, because of their frequent 



preaching) who came to Scotland, were brought o\tt 

 from France by bishop Malvoisin of Glasgow, soon 

 after the year 1220. Their convent in this place was 

 founded by the bishop and chapter, in the year 1270, 

 and stood where the college church now stands. It 

 was a fine specimen of Gothic architecture, and ex- 

 cited the admiration of Mr Milne, the king's archi- 

 tect, who surveyed it in the year 1638. It was struck 

 by a thunderbolt in 1668, and a new church built in 

 its place in 1699. The convent of the Grey Friars, 

 or Franciscans, was founded in the year 1476, and 

 demolished in 1560. It was situated in the narrow 

 street called, from them, Greyfriars' Wynd. These 

 friars were of the order of the mendicants, and pos- 

 sessed nothing, with the exception of the ground 

 upon which their houses stood. Their dress was a 

 grey gown (hence the name), with a cowl, and a 

 rope about their waist. As they entirely depended 

 on charity, they were allowed to go about constantly 

 with wallets on their backs, begging subsistence 

 from the pious. Indeed, in most instances, they dif- 

 fered only from sturdy beggars in that they disguised 

 their indolence under the cloak of sanctimony. 



The introduction of the reformed religion proved 

 for a time prejudicial to the interests of the city. 

 Its archbishop and clergy, through whom much of 

 the wealth of the place then flowed, were dispersed, 

 and its university almost entirely neglected. So early 

 as 1500, the doctrines of the reformation began to 

 spread in Scotland, particularly in Ayrshire ; and we 

 find about thirty individuals from that county cited 

 before archbishop Blackadder of Glasgow, accused 

 of "being Lollards, as the reformers were then con- 

 temptuously called, or of entertaining opinions hostile 

 to the mother church. On this occasion, the accused 

 were suffered to depart with an admonition ; but a% 

 the new doctrines extended and gathered strength, 

 the church, alarmed for its safety, became more 

 rigorous in punishing those who entertained them. 

 Numbers were put to death in St Andrews and Edin- 

 burgh ; and, in 1538, it was resolved to make some 

 examples at Glasgow, in order to intimidate the 

 heretics of the west. The victims there fixed on 

 were, Jerome Russel, one of the Grey Friars in Glas- 

 gow, a man of learning, and John Kennedy, a young 

 gentleman of Ayr, not above eighteen years of age. 

 After a long trial, in which Friar Russel defended his 

 opinions with great eloquence, they were both con- 

 demned to the flames, and suffered the execution of the 

 dreadful sentence with magnanimity. " O terrible, 

 truculent, and tragical actings !" exclaims old M'Ure, 

 the earliest historian of Glasgow ; " yet such as may 

 be erected amongst us, if ever, as God forbid, the 

 Roman antichrist, the scarlet coloured beast, drunk 

 with the blood of saints and martyrs of Jesus, shall 

 ever again recover his interest in these kingdoms." 

 It is but justice, however, to add, that the condemna- 

 tion of these men was much against the will of the 

 archbishop of the diocese, Gavin Dunbar, who insisted 

 that such executions hurt the cause of the church, 

 but his disposition to leniency was over-ruled by more 

 fiery ecclesiastics. Russel and Kennedy were the 

 only individuals who suffered in the diocese of Glas- 

 gow for the cause of the reformed religion. Notwith- 

 standing the intimidation of the church and many acts 

 of parliament passed against heretics, the reformed 

 doctrines gained proselytes every day, and in a very 

 few years, the Catholic system of church polity, 

 which had cost the labour of many ages to build up, 

 was, in Scotland, entirely overturned. 



After the Reformation in 1560, the Presbyterian 

 form of church government was established in Scot- 

 land by law, and a general assembly instituted and 

 convened. The establishment, however, was not on 

 a firm basis, for from 1572 to 1592, a sort of episco- 



