Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

ABERDEEN
cultural implement works ; 4 saw, 2 file, 6 gun, and
4 brush factories ; 25 mills and meal stores ; 5 tan-
ning or currying works ; 12 rope, twine, and sail
factories ; 2 brickfields, etc. , with — last but not least
—the yards of 53 granite polishers and 6 stone mer-
chants. — The hosiery trade of Scotland began in Aber-
deen, with which the African Company (1695) con-
tracted for woollen stockings ; and at the time when
Pennant wrote (1771), 69,333 dozen pairs of stockings
were yearly produced here, these being worth about 30s.
per dozen, and being chiefly exported to Holland, for
dispersion thence through Germany. But the trade
has since dwindled into insignificance. — The linen
manufacture, introduced about 1745, soon grew so large
as to pay some £5000 a-year in wages ; and now, in
the articles of thread, sailcloth, osnaburgs, brown
linens, and sacking, employs between 2000 and 3000
hands. The thread manufacture was introduced at a
later date than the spinning ; was soon carried to
great perfection ; and employed 600 men, 2000 women,
and 100 boys in 1795, when the sailcloth manufacture
was commenced. — Several large flax-spinning factories
were established on the Don, near Old Aberdeen, about
1800. — The woollen manufacture, in the beginning of
last century, comprised chiefly coarse slight cloths,
called plaidens and fingroms. These were made by the
farmers and cottagers from the wool of their own sheep,
by the citizens from wool supplied by country hill-
farms, and were mostly exported to Hamburg. Woollen
factories were established in the city about 1748 ; are
still there of considerable extent ; and belong to the
same proprietors as factories at Garlogie and Don, with
these consuming about 2,000,000 lbs. of wool per
annum, and employing upwards of 1400 hands. The
carpet manufacture has an annual value of about
£50,000, the tweed manufacture (at Grandholm em-
ploying nearly 600 hands) of more than £120,000, and
the wincey manufacture of at least £250,000. The
aggregate woollen trade employs at least 600 hand-
looms, 230 power-looms, and 3000 or more persons ;
and annually produces upwards of 3,000,000 yards of
fabrics. — Banner Mill is now the only cotton factory,
but is so extensive as to employ above 650 hands. — The
meat-preserving trade of Scotland was commenced at
Aberdeen in 1822 ; made slow progress for a time, till
it overcame prejudice and created a market ; began by
preserving salmon for exportation, and proceeded to the
preserving of meats, game, soups, and vegetables ; is
now carried on in several establishments ; employs up-
wards of 500 persons, produces preserved provisions to
the annual value of about £221,000 ; supplies a large
proportion of the meat stores to ships sailing from
Glasgow, Liverpool, and London ; and has extensive
connection with India, China, and Australia. Salmon,
caught chiefly in the Dee and Don, appears to
have been exported from as early as 1281, and was
shipped to the Continent towards the end of the 17th
century, at the rate of about 360 barrels yearly, of 250
lbs. each. The quantity sent to London, during the
seven years 1822-28, amounted to 42,654 boxes, and
during the eight years 1829-36 to 65,260 boxes ; but
later years have witnessed a decline. Dried whitings
and haddoGks, sometimes called Aberdeen haddocks
from their being shipped at Aberdeen, oftener called
Findon or Finnan haddocks from a village about 6
miles to the S where they were originally dried for the
market, are a considerable article of commerce coastwise
as far as to London. Beef and mutton also are largely
prepared for exportation ; and, together with live stock,
are forwarded to the southern markets to the value of
about £1,000,000 a-year. — Steam-engines, anchors,
chains, cables, and all kinds of machinery are manu-
factured in extensive ironworks at Ferryhill, Footdee,
and other localities. — Rope-making, paper-making, soap-
making, comb-making, and leather manufacture also
are carried on. — The granite trade has been associated
with Aberdeen for fully 300 years ; and now it makes a
very great figure. Effective quarrying was not begun
till about 1750, nor the exporting till 1764 ; whilst the
14
ABERDEEN
use of machinery in quarrying dates only from about
1795, the dressing of the granite into regular cubes
from 1800, and the polishing of granite for manufacture
into monuments, columns, fountains, etc. , from 1818. But
now the trade in dressed blocks for paving, bridges,
wharves, docks, and lighthouses, and so forth, is
gigantic ; while that in polished granite, or in numer-
ous and diversified ornamental articles of polished
granite, at once exercises remarkable artistic skill, and
is considerably and increasingly extensive. Upwards of
80,000 tons of granite are quarried annually in Aber-
deenshire and the contiguous parts of Kincardineshire,
and more than half of the quantity quarried is exported.
The quarrying employs upwards of 1000 hands ; the
transporting and the working employ a proportionally
large number of hands, and the polishing and con-
structing into ornamental objects employ very many
skilled workmen. The tons of granite exported from
Aberdeen were 25,557 in 1840, 30,385 in 1850, 32,023
in 1865, 43,790 in 1867, and upwards of 50,000 in
1868.
A weekly grain market is held on Friday ; a linen
market, on the Green, is held on the last Wednesday of
April ; a wool market, also on the Green, is held on
Thursday and Friday of the first week of June, and of
the first and second weeks of July ; and a market for
wooden utensils, in Castle Street, is held on the last
Wednesday of August ; but none of these, except the
weekly one, is now of importance. Hiring markets are
held in Castle Street on several Fridays about Whit-
sunday and Martinmas.
A printing-press was started by Edward Raban in
1621, from which in 1626 the earliest Scottish almanac
was issued, and in 1748 the Aberdeen Journal, the
oldest newspaper N of the Forth. There now are
16 printing-offices, and 7 newspapers — the daily and
Saturday Conservative Journal (1748), the Saturday
Liberal Herald (1806), the Liberal Daily Free Press
(1S53), the Tuesday Northern Advertiser (1856), the
Saturday Liberal People's Journal (1S5S), the Saturday
Weekly Ncics (1864), and the Evening Express (1879).
— The Spalding Club was instituted in 1839, for printing
historical, ecclesiastical, genealogical, topographical, and
literary remains of the north-eastern counties of Scot-
land ; and issued to its members nearly 40 volumes of
great interest and value, including Dr Stewart's Sculp-
tured Stones of Scotland and The Boole of Deer ; but it
came to a close in 1S70. See John Stuart's Notices of
the Spalding Club (1871).
The Town Council consists of a Lord Provost, 6 bailies,
6 office-bearers, 12 councillors, and 8 others ; and the
municipal constituency numbered 1902 in 1841, 2961
in 1851, 2701 in 1861, 9347 in 1871, and 12,193
in 1881. The corporation revenue was £15,184 in
1832, £18,648 in 1840, £16,894 in 1854, £11,376 in
1864, £11,447 in 1870, £12,560 in 1874, and (including
assessments and gas revenue) £122,328 in 18S0, when
for the twelvemonth ending with September, the revenue
on the general purposes account was £28,699, the ex-
penditure £25,450, and the outlay on capital account
£73,044. By the Aberdeen Municipality Extension Act
of 1871, the powers of the former commissioners of
police were transferred to the town council, the busi-
ness of the police department being thenceforth managed
by separate committees. The watching force for city
and harbour consists of a superintendent (salary £350),
2 lieutenants, 3 inspectors, 4 detectives, 9 sergeants,
87 constables, and a female turnkey, the total cost of
that force being £6955, 10s. in 1878 ; and the number
of persons arrested was 1959 in 1875, 2085 in 1S76,
1939 in 1877, 1077 in 1878, 1873 in 1879, and 19SS in
1880, of which last number 1817 were tried, and 1755
convicted. The sheriff court for the county is held in
the Court-House on Wednesdays and Fridays, the small
debt court on Thursdays, the debts recovery court on
Fridays, the commissary court on Wednesdays, and the
general quarter sessions on the first Tuesday of March,
Slay, and August, and the last Tuesday of October. —
The parliamentary constituency numbered 2024 in 1834,