Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

GLASGOW.
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was set by Sir John Monteath, for his capture, which
was brought to bear at Robroystown. The word,
at the battle of Glasgow, was ' Bear up the Bishop's
tail,' spoken jeeringly by Sir William to his uncle,
when their men were drawn up at the end of the
bridge." [History of Glasgow by Andrew Brown,
1797.] A portion of the above narrative has been
disputed by some historians, in so far as it is averred
by them that Earl Percy was not present at the en-
gagement, but was absent at the time in the east of
Scotland, or in Northumberland, and, of course,
could not have fallen as is here alleged. That a battle
took place, however, between Wallace and the Eng-
lish, there can be no doubt, and the circumstances
attending it long remained a most interesting subject
in Glasgow oral tradition.
In 1387, when Matthew Glendinning was bishop,
the spire of the cathedral was destroyed by lightning.
In 1408, his successor, William Lawder, rebuilt the
great tower of stone as far as the first battlement.
In 1484, Robert Blackadder, the son of Sir Patrick
Blackadder of Tullieallan, was translated to the see
of Glasgow from that of Aberdeen. He was a liberal
prelate, and expended vast sums on the church and
alterages. During his incumbency the see of Glas-
gow was erected into an archbishopric. He was fre-
quently employed in the public transactions with the
English, particularly in the year 1505, when he, in
conjunction with the Earl of Both well and Andrew
Forman, prior of Pittenweem, negotiated the mar-
riage between James IV. of Scotland, and Mar-
garet, eldest daughter of Henry VII. of England,
which subsequently led to the union of the two king-
doms in the person of James VI.
About the year 1392, in the time of John Stuart,
Earl of Carrick, afterwards Robert III., a mint was
erected'in Drygate-street, at which coins were struck.
On one side was represented the King's crest crowned ;
but without a sceptre, with the motto, Robertus Dei
Gratia Rex Scotormn ; and on the other, on an inner
circle, Villa de Glasgow ; and on the outer circle,
Dominus Protector. In 1420, there was a convent
for Grey friars in the neighbourhood of Greyfriars'
wynd. They were patronized by the unfortunate
Isabella, Duchess of Albany, cousin to James I. of
Scotland. In 1431, she mortified the lands of Bal-
lagan to the convent of the Grey friars at Glasgow,
for " the salvation of our souls, and that of Mur-
doch, Duke of Albany, of worthy memory, our dear
husband ; and also of Duncan, Earl of Lennox, our
father, and of Walter, James, and Alexander, our
sons." It is a painful feature in the history of those
times that this excellent lady received from the
King her cousin, as a present, the heads of her
husband, her father, and two of her sons, — James
having escaped by flight into Ireland.
In 1508, James Beaton, son of John Beaton of Bal-
four in Fife, was appointed archbishop of Glasgow.
He enclosed the palace with a magnificent wall of ash-
ler-work, and built a bastion and tower at a proper
distance. This prelate was succeeded in 1522, by
Gavin Dunbar, tutor to James V., and lord-chan-
cellor. It was about this time that the doctrines
of the Reformation began to be universally studied,
and to take that hold on the minds of the people
which eventually resulted in the complete over-
throw of the Roman Catholic religion in Scotland.
It is said that the progress of the Reformation in
the west of Scotland was vastly aided by those
very means which were intended to crush it, viz.,
the martyrdom of Russell and Kennedy. For the
purpose of banishing those doctrines which caused
the established clergy to tremble in their strong-
holds, many pious persons suffered death at' St.
Andrews and Edinburgh ; but it was deemed ex-
pedient to make an example in Glasgow in order
to intimidate the heretics of the West. Archbishop
Dunbar, however, was regarded as a man who had
such a thing as the heart of humanity about him ; and
John Lawder, Andrew Oliphant, and Friar Maltman
were sent from Edinburgh, to assist and steel his feel-
ings for the work. The men devoted to destruction
were Jeremiah Russell, one of the Grey friars in
Glasgow, a man well-learned for the age in which
he lived, and John Kennedy, a youth from Ayr-
shire, not more than 18 years of age. Upon being
brought before their accusers, Kennedy evinced
symptoms of trepidation, and seemed inclined to save
his life by retracting his professions of attachment
to the doctrines of the Reformation ; but he was re-
assured by the gentle chiding of Russell, and re-
mained firm to the last. After a mock trial they
were handed over — much against the will of Arch-
bishop Dunbar — to the secular power for execution,
and suffered martyrdom at a stake which had been
erected at the east end of the cathedral. These
were the only persons who suffered at Glasgow dur-
ing the progress of the Reformation ; and though
their death intimidated the people for the moment
it roused a spirit scarcely less ferocious than that of
the persecution which evoked it, and which nothing
could allay but the tearing up by the roots the
whole establishment of the papacy. Dunbar, how-
ever, though gentle in spirit, appears to have
been deeply tinctured by the bigotry of his order ;
for, upon the occasion of Lord Maxwell bringing a
bill into parliament, in 1542, to provide for liberty
to read the Bible in the vulgar tongue, this prelate
is found protesting most vehemently against it, both
for himself, and in name of all the prelates in the
kingdom. The measure passed into a law notwith-
standing. James Beaton, the nephew of Beaton,
archbishop of St. Andrews, succeeded Dunbar in
the archiepiscopal see ; but he found the minds of
men so much agitated upon religious topics, and his
whole diocese split into factions so furious and un-
compromising, that, after many efforts to maintain
his position, he at length came to the conclusion,
when churches and monasteries were crumbling in
every direction before the fury of the reformers, to
retire from the kingdom. He accordingly passed
into France in 1560, escorted by a party of the troops
of that kingdom, and taking with him all the relics,
writings, documents, and plate which belonged to
the see, and indeed everything valuable. In the
eyes of a member of the mother-church these must
have been highly prized, for we learn that when the
bull of the Pope, which erected Glasgow into an
archbishopric, in 1488, was promulgated, all the relics
were exhibited in the cathedral before the Pope's
nuncio, and among others there were — " the image
of our Saviour in gold, — the images of the twelve
apostles in silver, — a silver cross adorned with pre-
cious stones, and a small piece of the wood of the
cross of our Saviour, — a silver casket, containing
some of the hairs of the blessed Virgin, — in a square
silver coffer, part of the scourges of St. Kentigern,
our patron, — in a crystal case, a bone of some un-
known saint, and of St. Magdalene, — in a small phial
of crystal, part of the milk of the blessed Virgin
Mary, and part of the manger of our Lord!" Beaton
was afterwards appointed the ambassador of Queen
Mary at the court of France, and he was continued
in the same office by her son, who, in 1588, restored
to him the temporalities of the see of Glasgow. He
died at Paris, in August 1603, and left all he had taken
from Glasgow to the Scots college at Paris, and to
the monastery of the Carthusians, on "the condition
that they should be returned to Glasgow so soon as
its people returned to the bosom of the mother