Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 4

LERWICK
LERWICK
Lerwick Episcopalian — with respective accommodation
for 65, 162, 140, 194, and 87 scholars, had (1S82) an
attendance of 44, 154, 133, 77, and 42, and grants of
£30, 18s., £118, 16s., £98, £61, 15s., and £28, 15s.
The parish is the seat of the presbytery of Lerwick in
the synod of Shetland, and the living is worth £193
a year. Gremista, 2 miles NNW of the town of
Lerwick, is the only mansion and the largest estate in
the parish, belonging to the Nicolson family. There
are five other principal landowners, besides a number
of feuars. Valuation, inclusive of the burgh, (1S81)
£9340. Pop. (1801) 1706, (1831) 3194, (1861) 3631,
(1871) 4180, (1881) 4772, of whom 3854 were in the
burgh, 191 on board ship, and 727 in the landward
part of the parish, while 2141 were males and 2631
females.
The presbytery of Lerwick, meeting at Lerwick as
circumstances require, includes the qiwad civilia parishes
of Bressay, Dunrossness, Lerwick, and Tingwall, the
quoad sacra parishes of Quarff and Sandwick, and the
mission stations of Fair Isle and Whiteness, the latter
being a roj^al bounty station. Pop. (1871) 13,047,
(1881) 13,051, of whom 2778 were communicants of the
Church of Scotland in 1878.
Lerwick, a burgh of barony, a police burgh, and the
chief town and county town of Shetland, stands on
Bressay Sound, near the extreme E of the parish just men-
tioned. By road it is 4 miles SE of Tingwall, 6 ENE of
Scalloway, 21 J N by E of Sumbtj&gh Head, 42J S by W
of Balta Sound in Unst, and 115 NE of Kirkwall, by
reference to which its distance from places further S may
be ascertained. The sheltered landlocked bay must
certainly have been used to a large extent from very
early times, and there was in all probability from a very
early date a village on or near the site of the present
town, but of this there seems to be now no trace left,
unless it be in the narrow and inconvenient main street.
The present burgh, notwithstanding its very quaint and
ancient appearance, which makes it look older than many
places of thrice its age, dates only from the early part of
the 17th century. Mention is made of it in 1625, in an
'Act anent the demolishing of the houssis of Lerwick,'
when the sheriff of Orkney and Shetland gave orders
that, in consequence of the great wickedness of every
sort that was going on among the Shetlanders and the
Dutch who resorted to the Sound in the prosecution of
the herring fishing, all ' the houssis of Lerwick, quhilk is
a desert place,' should be demolished. Desert probably
refers to the condition of the country in the neighbour-
hood, and as indicating the worthy sheriff's opinion that
there was no need for a town in such a place. But in
spite of this, and though the houses then standing were
probably destroyed, the natural law of supply and
demand was not to be interfered with, and the suit-
ability of the place as the natural centre for the islands
was very soon again acknowledged, for in the time of
Charles II., during the first Dutch war, a fort was built
and a garrison of 300 men stationed here to protect the
place against the Hollanders, and probably also to attack,
if need'be, the Dutch herring-busses. (See Shetland.)
On the conclusion of peace, the garrison was withdrawn
and the fort dismantled ; and when the war was renewed
a Dutch frigate very soon visited the bay and took ad-
vantage of this defenceless condition by destroying the
buildings of the fort, and burning a considerable portion
of the town. In 1640 the part of the Sound opposite
was the scene of a conflict between 10 Spanish war ships
and 4 Dutch ones ; and in 1653 and 1G65 the fleet of the
Commonwealth, consisting of over 90 ships, lay at
anchor off the town for several days ; while during the
continental wars at the beginning of the following
century a good deal of damage was done on several
occasions by French privateers. Paul Jones was in the
bay, but is said to have been frightened away by the
sight of the red petticoats of the women going to market
on the Nab. The story is very doubtful, but at all
events he did no harm. Since then Lerwick has grown
slowly, and though vast improvement has taken place
since 1850, many of the arrangements are still somewhat
498
old-fashioned. The town, like so many of those on the
Scottish coast, consists mainly of one long narrow street,
following all the windings of the shore for a distance of
about 5 furlongs. This is bounded on the W by a high
bank, up which are a number of lanes leading to a road
along the ridge towards the docks. At the N end of
the town is Fort Charlotte, and further N still is the
headland known as North Ness, to the W of which are
the docks, where ship-repairing and boat-building are
carried on. At the E end of the town are the Widows'
Asylum and the Anderson Institute ; and on the high
ground to the W is the district known as Newtown,
occupied by modern houses built within the last twenty
years. Though it is no longer true of the main street
that it knows nothing of cart or carriage, and is seldom
trodden by anything heavier than a shelty laden with
turf, yet it is still very narrow and inconvenient ; and
though the houses are mostly good, in the older part of
the town they straggle very much, and present gable or
front or corner to the street, just as was most convenient
to the builder at the time.
Fort Charlotte is the headquarters of the Royal Naval
Reserve for the N, and one of the most important of all
the stations on the coast of the United Kingdom, both
as regards the number of men and their superior
physique. Exercise is engaged in with two 6J ton guns,
and shooting practice is obtained at the North Ness with
converted 64 pound Palliser guns. The town-hall and
the county buildings stand side by side on the highest
part of the ridge above the old town. The former was
erected in 1882-83, the foundation-stone being laid by
the Duke of Edinburgh on 24 Jan. 1882, and the
opening ceremony presided over by Sheriff Thorns on
30 July 18S3. The front elevation shows a central
gable with turrets at the angles and side wings. In
the gable is the chief entrance by an arched doorway ;
and above the main staircase is a clock and bell tower
rising to a height of 72 feet, with battlements and corner
turrets. Over the windows are the coats of arms of
various peers who are, or have been, connected with the
district. Over the lower windows from N to S are the
arms of the Earls of Zetland and Morton with a Viking
dragon ship in the centre ; those of the Earl of Orkney
and of Baron Sinclair, with the Norwegian lion in the
centre ; of the Stewarts and of the Earl of Caithness,
with the Scottish lion ; of Bothwell, Duke of Orkney,
and of Earl Rosslyn, with the Orcadian galley ; while over
the oriel windows are the arms of the town of Lerwick
newly granted by the
Lyon King-at-Arms.
These are 'Or,' in a
sea proper, a dragon
ship vert under sail,
oars in action ; on a
chief gules a battle-
axe argent. Above
the shield is placed a
suitable helmet with
a mantling gules
doubled, and on a
wreath of the proper
liveries is set forth
the crest, a raven pro-
per, and in an escrol,
over the same, this
motto, ' Dispccta est
Thidc' On the ground floor are the burgh court-room
(24 x 30 feet) with magistrates' rooms and police cells,
and the custom-house and inland revenue offices, etc.
Occupying the whole of the front of the first floor is the
town-hall, 60 feet long, 30 wide, and 25 high, with tim-
bered ceiling. There is accommodation for 500 persons.
In front it is lit by an oriel and mullioned windows, in
the S end by mullioned and traceried windows, and in the
N end by a large wheel window with lancets below. The
windows are of stained glass representing various persons
and incidents connected with the history of the Shet-
lands, and presented by various donors, including the
councils of Amsterdam and Hamburg. In the corridor
Seal of Lerwick.