The youngest son of a Glasgow merchant, Buchanan was born in the city's east end on 3 November 1802. He studied law, but in 1832 switched to banking and was secretary to the Western Bank from 1832-1857. He later managed the Bridgeton branch of the British Linen Company.
His chief interest was historical literature, and he had papers published on the Roman occupation of Britain and on "Old Glasgow". These included "Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry" and "Banking in Glasgow during the Olden Time". Some of his Roman-related work was signed "Aesica", this being a location (modern name Great Chesters) on Hadrian's Wall.
Buchanan served as president of the Glasgow Archaeological Society, and in 1872 was awarded an honorary degree by Glasgow University. He married Mary Macarthur, who predeceased him, and they had three daughters. He died at 17 Lansdowne Crescent in Glasgow on 28 June 1878.
JOHN BUCHANAN, the accomplished antiquarian, was younger son of John Buchanan, merchant in Glasgow, and Catherine Miller, only child of William Miller of Balornoc and afterwards of Slatefield.
Slatefield was one of several country-houses which in old times stood between the old Edinburgh Road (now Eastern Gallowgate) and the old Carntyne Road (now Eastern Duke Street). It was built by Mr. Miller in 1780; it faced south, with an approach from the Gallowgate, and in its prime was a beautiful place, with garden and orchard, pleasure-grounds and fields hedged with hawthorn. Two classical statues adorned the grounds, tall female figures draped in white; objects of universal interest to Young Gallowgate, and by it designated "the White Ladies." The old-fashioned gate was flanked by a queer, two-storied lodge, armed with a six-pounder cannon. House and lodge, grounds and fields, hawthorn hedges and White Ladies, have disappeared below the overflow of Glasgow, but the six-pounder cannon has been rescued from the flood, and the name of the old place survives in "Slatefield Street."
John Buchanan was born there on 3rd November, 1802. He was bred a writer, but he was better known in connection with banking than with law. He was originally apprenticed in 1818 to Andrew Ballingall, but he finished his time in 1823 in the office of Campbell & Barlas. The senior partner of this excellent firm was Alexander Campbell of Bedlay, a fine old chateau which from his boyhood was a favourite howff and study of John Buchanan's. In 1826 he became partner of the late Charles A. King of Woodneuk, in the firm of King & Buchanan, and in 1836 he passed procurator. But he had given up law for banking four years before this. He was secretary to the Western Bank throughout, from the opening of its doors at Whitsunday, 1832, till it shut them at two o'clock on that black Monday, 9th November, 1857. He was afterwards manager of the Bridgeton Branch of the British Linen Company.
But neither law nor banking was his chief interest. He was a lover of books, and was well read in general literature and in history, especially in Scotch history; but his favourite study was archaeology, especially the archaeology of Glasgow and its neighbourhood. He knew every foot of our Roman Wall, and on it and the Roman occupation of Britain he wrote papers whose value was acknowledged in this country and on the Continent. But after all, Old Glasgow was his speciality. He loved the place with a lover's love; he had made it a study from boyhood; and a knowledge of it died with him that can never be replaced.(1) A diligent student may bring to light as much of the past as lies buried in books and title-deeds, but John Buchanan had a minute personal knowledge of those who once lived here, that written records cannot give.
The Glasgow of a hundred years ago he knew as few know the Glasgow of to-day. Its old merchants and bankers, its ministers and professors, its beaux and its belles, still lived for him: he had known them from their cradles, and their fathers and mothers before them: he knew where they had been trained and the use they had made of their training, whom they had married and whom they had tried to marry, where they lived and how they lived, where they died and where they lie. And he had the rare art to make them live again for our benefit. At his bidding they rose from the Ramshorn or the High Kirkyard, and once more paced the Plane Stanes in red cloak and cocked hat, or tramped the Trongate in pattens and caleche.
He gave us no book - his modesty, alas! forbade him - but in "Glasgow, Past and Present," in the "Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry," in "Banking in Glasgow during the Olden Time," in the "Glasgow Herald," and in the "Transactions" of the Glasgow Archaeological Society (of which he was President) he gave us many papers; and no one who had read one of them needed the well-known signature of "J. B."(2) to recognize his hand. No one will ever again give us such papers, so easy and so racy, so full and so accurate, and withal so genial. He must have known queer things about every old family in the place, but he never printed a line that could give pain - it was not in him. And he was as modest and simple-minded as he was kindly, and was probably not less surprised than gratified when in 1872 the University of Glasgow rightly conferred on him the degree of LL.D.
Dr. Buchanan died in his house, 17 Lansdowne Crescent, on 28th June, 1878, aged seventy-five. He had gone in and out among us all his days, and was a familiar presence here - the tall, thin figure, the buttoned frock-coat, and the high stock, the kindly humorous face, and the keen eyes peering through the spectacles.
His wife, Mary Macarthur, had died years before. His remains had an appropriate resting-place beside her in the High Kirkyard, in which he was among the last to be laid.
Of his three daughters one was married to William Carrick, accountant, and one to William Holms, M.P. for Paisley. He had no sons.
(1) Some of his rich store, however, is not gone beyond recall. He wrote an exquisitely minute bind, and had the habit as he read of covering the margin of his books with notes. Further, he constantly wrote down what he remembered or learned, and in this way he filled many a note-book. It is to be hoped that his note-books may yet in some form or other be made available.
(2) He sometimes wrote under the signature of "Aesica." Aesica, or Great Chesters, is a station about midway between Bowness and Wallsend, on the Wall of Hadrian. This wall interested "J. B." almost as much as our own wall; he repeatedly visited it alone or in company with Dr. J. C. Bruce, its historian; and on 5th December, 1859, he read a long paper on it to the Glasgow Archaeological Society. But Aesica is too dilapidated to be of special interest, and "J. B." in his paper (see "Transactions" of the Society, vol. I., 112) expressly says that there is not much to detain a visitor there. Why he should have signed "Aesica" does not appear.
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