Wilson's eari,y yh)ars in scoti^and 41 



occupations in Scotland. There had grown up 

 hearty hatred for the laws, which followed the Act 

 of Union, on these matters, and with the proverbial 

 Scottish independence they showed their contempt 

 for them by systematically breaking them. It was 

 almost a patriotic duty. Says a close student of 

 Scotch conditions in the eighteenth century, "Gen- 

 tlemen holding high position in the county and of- 

 fices of justices of the peace joined the smugglers 

 in their ventures of running in the cargoes, while 

 excisemen were hopelessly baffled."* Even the 

 clergy covertly winked at this traffic and not infre- 

 quently openly approved of it. "Illicit distillers were 

 as much respected as smugglers and equally uncon- 

 scious of any heinousness."t So Wilson lost none 

 of his fellow-townsmen's respect but he was held as 

 one of the worthiest and wealthiest of his class, 

 when he became sufficiently thrifty to possess sev- 

 eral looms and employ journeymen. Among his 

 associates Wilson, Sr., was regarded as "a man of 

 sober and industrious habits, of strict honesty and 

 superior intelligence," and from America his son, 

 after he had become a mature man, wrote as counsel 

 for his brother David that he should "take his fa- 

 ther's advice in every difficulty. If he does I can 

 tell him he will never repent it." 



Alexander Wilson, Sr., married first Mary Mc- 

 Nab, whose family moved during her own girlhood 

 from the "Row" in Dumbarton to Paisley. All the 

 little that we know of her is to her credit, and she 

 would seem to belong to that long list of noble 



* "Social Life in Scotland in the Eighteenth Century," II, pp. 261-2. 

 t Ibid. 



