SCOTSTOUN is situated on the right bank of the Clyde, in the parish and county of Renfrew, and is the property of James Gordon Oswald, Esq.
The house was originally built about the beginning of the eighteenth century by William Walkinshaw, the then owner, who also adorned the place "with curious orchards and gardens, stately avenues and large enclosures sheltered with a great deal of beautiful planting; so that" (adds Crawford) "it has become one of the sweetest seats upon the river Clyde in the shire." The river front was added in 1825 by the late Miss Oswald from designs of David Hamilton.
The estate (including the lands of Balshagray, once the property of the famous Provost Walter Gibson, and other lands) contains about 1,000 acres, lying immediately west of Partick, and stretching from the river to the Great Western Road. The value has of late years grown greatly, and will be much greater yet if Glasgow takes again to thriving.
Scotstoun belonged in ancient times to the great house of Montgomerie, and was held under them by a younger branch. After owning it over 200 years, the Montgomeries of Scotstoun sold it in 1634 to John Hutchison, Nottar and Town Clerk (1) of Glasgow. His daughter Margaret married in 1636 Archibald Stewart, second son of the laird of Blackhall (ancestor to Ardgowan). Their son, George Hutchison, sold it in 1691 to William Walkinshaw, merchant in Glasgow. William Walkinshaw of Scotstoun was one of the Walkinshaws of Barrowfield, who were cadets of the old Renfrewshire family of Walkinshaw of that Ilk. The Walkinshaws of Scotstoun shared the Jacobite views and the ill fortune of their Barrowfield cousins.
John Walkinshaw of Scotstoun, eldest son to William, was one of those attainted by Act of Parliament in the '15, and he had to fly the country. Thereupon his superior, Alexander, ninth Earl of Eglinton, claimed and got the estate under the Act just passed "for encouragement of loyal superiors, vassals, landlords, and tenants in Scotland;" and on 13th August 1719 he had final decreet from the Court of Session against the Commissioners for the Sale of Forfeited Estates. In 1729 Lord Eglinton conveyed Scotstoun to his grandson Alexander, sixth Earl of Galloway (then Lord Garlies), under reservation of the rights of William Wood, "Chamberlain to the Marquis of Clidsdale," holder of a bond over the lands for £20,000 Scots. And in 1750 Lord Galloway (with consent of Captain John Wood, the Chamberlain's son) conveyed it to William Crawfurd, merchant in Glasgow, eldest son to Matthew Crawfurd of Balshagray.
The deeds bear that the loyal superior had done diligence for Scotstoun "really and without colusion." In this his Lordship had stretched his conscience to help a poor broken man; for a back letter declared that the estate (less the Chamberlain's bond, which may or may not have been bonâ fide) was held in trust for Walkinshaw of that Ilk, who held it for John Walkinshaw. And the conveyance by Lord Eglinton, then an old man near death, to his grandson was no doubt for the purpose of putting a young life on the trust. But the kindly plan failed. Like their Barrowfield cousins, the Scotstoun Walkinshaws were past saving.
After the '15 had blown over, John Walkinshaw reappeared on the scene, and claimed under the back letter. He was opposed by Matthew Crawfurd of Balshagray. The two had been partners together in the old ropework of Glasgow (which survives in Ropework Lane), and some money stood there at John Walkinshaw's credit. But Crawfurd had counter claims against Walkinshaw, (2) and the whole matter was ultimately referred to arbitration. The arbiters, "Mr. Robert Craigie of Glendoick and Mr. Henry Home, Advocats," found that on a general count and reckoning Crawfurd was owed £3,000 sterling, and, failing the money by a named day, was entitled to have the land. The £3,000 was not forthcoming, and Lord Galloway conveyed Scotstoun accordingly, not to Matthew, but at his request to his son, William Crawfurd. On the same day he also conveyed to him certain shares in the Ropework, which he had held under a similar trust : and the ruin of the Walkinshaws was complete.
The Crawfurds (3) thus held both Scotstoun and Balshagray (forming the bulk of the existing estate). But they were not long able to hold either. In 1751 Richard and Alexander Oswald, merchants in Glasgow (who had already acquired the Chamberlain's bond), bought Scotstoun, and in 1759 they had a Decree of Sale for Balshagray. One glimpse more we get, years after, of the unfortunate John Walkinshaw. In 1764 he - then described as "merchant in Borrowstouness" (which sounds poor) - granted the Oswalds a ratification of their title "for any right he had in the lands." It is hard to see what right he could have had in them. Perhaps the deed was a delicate excuse for some benefaction to him from his successors. They were rich and kindly men, and would think all the better of him for his Jacobite doings.
Richard and Alexander Oswald were the first comers of a family of Caithness origin, which was long connected with Glasgow, and is represented now by Oswald of Scotstoun and Oswald of Auchincruive.
JAMES OSWALD, son of a well-to-do Burgess of Kirkwall, about the middle of the seventeenth century crossed over to the mainland, and settled in Wick. There he became a Burgess and a Bailie, and owner of "Oswald's Land," an old tenement that his descendants own now. By his wife, Barbara Coghil, daughter of Coghil of that Ilk, he left two sons, James and George. They were both ministers, they married sisters, and they and their families after them were closely attached. But they differed widely in religion and in politics. In 1683, when the elder brother was ordained, the pious Charles, by help of the evangelists Lauderdale and Clavers, was seeking to convert Scotland to the religion of a gentleman, and so James Oswald was an Episcopal minister, and his family grew up keen Episcopalians and Jacobites. In 1697, when the younger brother was ordained, Scotland had been left to settle in her own way her form of Church Government, and so George Oswald was a Presbyterian minister, and his family grew up staunch Presbyterians and Whigs. The Episcopalian branch died out in the first generation : the other still flourishes.
I. JAMES OSWALD, minister of Watten in Caithness, born in 1654, died 1699, married Mary Murray, daughter of Richard Murray of Pennyland and Jean Smith of Methven, and had two sons and five daughters. All of these died without issue. Of the daughters - Margaret, who married Baird of Chester Hall, was one of the Jacobite ladies who, in the '45, were presented at the melancholy Court held in the Shawfield Mansion, and she never, it was alleged, recovered Prince Charlie's kiss. The two sons,
RICHARD OSWALD, born 1687, and ALEXANDER OSWALD, born 1694, came to Glasgow early in last century, and became rich merchants and shipowners. Alexander Oswald is named among M'Ure's "sea adventurers." Of the forty-one "ships, brigantines, and sloops" that made-up the foreign fleet of Glasgow in 1735, the Oswalds owned three, the Martha, the Amity, and the Speedwell. They traded to Virginia, to the West Indies, and to Madeira. In 1742 they built themselves "Oswald's Land" in the Stockwell, (4) for their house and their counting-house, with great cellars below for the Tobacco and the Madeira. In 1751 they bought Scotstoun, and in 1759 Balshagray. They took a warm interest in the erection in 1750 of St. Andrew's "English Chappel," long known as the "Whistling Kirk," (5) and Alexander was its first praeses. They had been suspected in the '45 of helping the Prince's financial arrangements, and it was perhaps as a persona grata that Richard was chosen one of the six Commissioners to treat with the rebel requisitioner, Squire Hay (see Mount Vernon) : it is said to have been for his good services in this matter that the Oswalds had a grant of their burial place in the nave of the High Church. (6) The brothers were kindly, hospitable, and generous old bachelors, with a special warm side to any one from Caithness. They both died at Scotstoun, Alexander, on 24th January 1763, Richard, on 12th August 1766, when Scotstoun passed to George Oswald, eldest son of their double first cousin,
II. GEORGE OSWALD, minister of Dunnet, the most northerly parish in Great Britain, born 1663, died 1725, married Margaret Murray of Pennyland, and had (with nine other children) two sons, the Rev. James Oswald, and Richard Oswald of Auchincruive.
I. REV. JAMES OSWALD, D.D., Moderator of the General Assembly in 1765, born at Dunnet Manse in 1703, died at Scotstoun 3rd August 1793. He succeeded his father as minister of Dunnet. Afterwards he became minister of Methven in Perthshire, but only after a hard fight for it. He was presented by his cousin, David Smyth of Methven, on 3rd December 1748, but he never saw the inside of the pulpit till 12th December 1750. The patron had somehow sorely offended the people : they retorted by opposing the settlement of his presentee : the Presbytery took the popular side : and a struggle followed between them and the General Assembly that reminds one of Strathbogie and Auchterarder days. In the end, the Presbytery were cited before the Assembly and rebuked from the chair, the presentee was settled by a "riding committee," and the people went over bodily to the anti-burghers. (7) Mr. Oswald did not deserve his rough welcome. He was a moderate. But if all moderates had been like him, there need never have been burghers nor anti-burghers, relievers, nor frees. He was a pious and faithful minister, a kindly and courteous gentleman, simple-minded and open-handed, and he did his best to heal the breach : and up-hill work it must have been. Dr. Oswald was fond of books, and was himself an author. He published his moderator's sermon, and some other sermons, and "An appeal to common sense on behalf of religion," an excellent but rather dry treatise on the lines of Butler. When over eighty, he gave up Methven, and retired to Scotstoun, but not to idleness. He took a great interest in the society for the sons of the clergy, and in other good works, and he laboured hard at a scheme he had for the abolition of unhappiness : he was busy with the final details, when death unluckily overtook him at ninety. By his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of James Murray of Clardon, he had (with other children of whom Barbara married William Laird of Port-Glasgow) two sons, George Oswald of Scotstoun, and Alexander Oswald of Shield Hall, both merchants in Glasgow.
I. GEORGE OSWALD of Scotstoun, and afterwards of Auchincruive, born 1735, died 6th October 1819, one of our old "Virginia Dons." His firm of Oswald, Dennistoun & Co. stands sixth in the list of tobacco importers of 1774. He was also a partner (though not one of the original six) in the famous old Ship Bank. (8) He inherited, as did his brother, their father's love of books, and he was not unfitly chosen Rector of the University in 1797. He succeeded in 1784 to Auchincruive, but this he gave over by arrangement to his son, and lived on in his house in Virginia Street, (9) and at Scotstoun : he died at Scotstoun. By his wife, Margaret Smyth of Methven, daughter of his father's old patron, he had thirteen children. Of these were,
(I.) RICHARD ALEXANDER of Auchincruive (of whom hereafter).
(II.) JAMES of Scotstoun, captain in the Royal Navy, and the first man to sail a yacht on the Clyde (see Dalmarnock), born 1774, died 19th July 1822, when Scotstoun passed to his sister,
(III.) ELIZABETH, long known and respected as "Old Miss Oswald," born 6th July I767, died 28th October 1864. She was a genuine Scotchwoman, of a type, we fear, extinct: despising the modern love of luxury and excitement, looking on the young generation as a race of spoiled children, fine-mannered, hospitable, methodical, busy almost to the last in works of religion and charity. She was born at Scotstoun, and died there, and had lived there all her life. Whatever others might think, she thought there was no place like it. She might well think so. At ninety she had never seen a doctor, at ninety-five she retained all her powers of mind and body, and bade fair (like her neighbour, Mrs. Smith of Jordanhill) to make out the century, and she lived to her ninety-eighth year, having owned Scotstoun till 98 years after her father's accession to it. At her death it passed to the grandson of her sister,
(IV.) KATHERINE, the wife of Robert Haldane of Airthrie, and afterwards of Auchengray, well known in the religious history both of Scotland and of Geneva. Their only child, Mrs. Haldane Gordon, had (with three daughters, 1) Camilla; 2) Isabella, married Alexander Oswald Mitchell; 3) Georgina, married Colonel Henry Torrens Walker) one surviving son,
JAMES GORDON OSWALD, now of Scotstoun.
II. RICHARD OSWALD, younger son of the Rev. George Oswald of Dunnet, was the founder of the Auchincruive branch. He was trained here with his cousins in the Stockwell. He afterwards settled in London, and acquired great wealth, first as a merchant, and then during the Seven Years' war as Government Contractor. Finding his work not properly done, he went over to Germany, and served several campaigns as Commissary General to the allied armies. This position brought him into contact with men in high office. He became intimate in particular with Lord Shelburne, to whom he had been introduced by Adam Smith, a friend of his old Glasgow days. Lord Shelburne formed the highest opinion of his ability and energy, good sense and tact, simplicity and straightforwardness. He knew that he was also well acquainted with America (where he had large property) and with Franklin. And when England had at last made up her mind to treat with the revolted Colonies, Lord Shelburne sent Mr. Oswald to Paris to negotiate with Franklin and the American Commissioners. Mr. Oswald acquitted himself well of this delicate task, and signed at Paris on 30th November 1782 the preliminary treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States. Franklin gave him his portrait, which is now at Auchincruive. (10) Mr. Oswald died 7th November 1784, leaving a widow but no children. He had married Mary Ramsay, only daughter and heiress of Alexander Ramsay of Jamaica, a cadet of Balmain. Through her he had acquired large estates in America (which he lost, however, as a loyalist) and in the West Indies. In 1759 he had bought Auchincruive, the ancient seat of the Cathcarts, and he left other lands, and great sums of money to buy more lands. To his widow he left the liferent of everything. Auchincruive he left to George Oswald of Scotstoun, with remainder to his eldest son, Richard Alexander. The rest he left direct to Richard Alexander. The whole was strictly entailed, and made one of the best estates in the West of Scotland. Mrs. Oswald died in 1788 in her husband's house in Great George Street, Westminster, when the whole inheritance passed (by arrangement with his father) to
RICHARD ALEXANDER OSWALD of Auchincruive, M.P. for Ayrshire, born at Scotstoun in 1771, died at Vevay in 1841. He married firstly Louisa Johnston of Hilton (11) (by whom he had Richard, married Lady Mary Kennedy, but died without issue), and secondly Lady Lilias Montgomerie, widow of Robert Dundas MacQueen of Braxfield (by whom he had no children). On his death he was succeeded by his cousin,
JAMES OSWALD, M.P. for Glasgow (see Shieldhall), eldest son of Alexander Oswald of Shield Hall, brother of George Oswald of Scotstoun. Alexander Oswald married Margaret Dundas, daughter of John Dundas of Manor, and had a younger son Richard Alexander Oswald of Moore Park (see Moore Park), who died in 1821, leaving by his wife, Elizabeth Anderson, two sons, Alexander and George, successively of Auchincruive, and two daughters, Margaret Dundas, and Mary, married James Brown, son of William Brown, late of Kilmardinny. James Oswald died 3rd June 1853, aged 74, unmarried, and was succeeded by his elder nephew.
ALEXANDER OSWALD of Auchincruive, M.P. for Ayrshire, born 1811, died 1868, a man of fine presence and manner, keen intellect, and strong will. (12) He married another "Louisa Johnston," Lady Louisa Craven, widow of Sir Frederick Johnston of Westerhall, and left two daughters, Mrs. Farquharson of Invercauld, and the Hon. Mrs. Yorke. He was succeeded by his brother,
GEORGE OSWALD of Auchincruive, born 1813, died 1871, well known here, and well liked everywhere for his frank cheery manners and unfailing temper.
RICHARD ALEXANDER OSWALD, his elder son, is the present proprietor of Auchincruive.
(1) John Hutchison of Scotstoun was no relation to the more famous cotemporary "Nottar" George Huchesone (always so spelled) of Lambhill, Founder of Huchesone's Hospital. But, as it happens, he was first Clerk to the Foundation.
(2) When forth of the country Walkinshaw had drawn bills against Crawfurd, which Crawfurd had accepted and paid. Bills in name of an attainted rebel would not have been very negotiable, and Walkinshaw had always signed "William Crawford," (the name of Matthew's son). But he made no attempt to repudiate the bills.
(3) The Crawfurds of Scotstoun and Balshagray were cadets of Crawfurdland, and no relations to their neighbours at Jordanhill, who were Crawfords of Kilbirnie.
(4) This house was removed a few years ago by the Union Railway Company; the eastern abutment of their bridge over Stockwell stands on its site. Like some of the houses lately taken down in Stockwell and Saltmarket, it was a good specimen of the houses that our well-to-do burghers built themselves before they had got the length of the detached mansions: they were in flats, very solid, finely wainscoted throughout, with open fire-places lined with Dutch tiles. The first floor was long occupied by Alexander Munro, father of Sir Thomas Munro and of Miss Meg Munro. The extensive cellars were occupied in our own day by the well-known wine firm, J. & J. Buchanan.
(5) The building of the Whistling Kirk caused some ecclesiastical trouble. The Session of Shuttle Street Burgher Congregation were aghast to hear that Andrew Hunter, one of their members, had taken the contract for the masonwork. They tried to convince him privately "of the Great Sin and Scandal of building an Episcopal Meeting House." But their tenderness was wasted : the hardened sinner "actually began the work" : and justice had to take its course. Andrew was excommunicated.
(6) This is in the Nave of the High Church, between the two eastmost pillars, under eight slabs marked G.O. The Oswalds have been buried here from their first coming to Glasgow. And, though the Dunlops and Dennistouns and Hills and other old Glasgow families have their graves in the Crypt and in Blackadder's Aisle, the Oswalds are the only family that had a right of burial in the church itself. Since the Woods and Forests took the High Church over, all right in any of these old burial places has been withdrawn, each burial has had to be specially authorized, and it is understood that leave will only now be given to complete a generation already begun.
(7) The Anti-Burghers managed to get a site for their place of worship, but the Laird stopped their getting materials in Methven. The deserters were not to be so won back to the Established camp. The farmers turned out from all the country side, and the Laird had to look on while fifty carts filed past his windows, leading stones and sand from Brig-of-Almond.
This was not the first stand-up fight between the Methven folk and the people at the Big House. Two generations before, in the good old Clavers days, a great company of Covenanters had met for worship on part of the Methven lands. Word of this wicked purpose came, in the Laird's absence, to Lady Methven. She mustered forthwith a band of 60 armed men : she headed them herself, carbine and sword in hand : and she summoned the "vagueing gypsies" to be off. Perhaps had she let them finish their sermon, their grandchildren would not have been so stiff with their Laird's presentee.
(8) The Ship Bank, the first private bank in Glasgow, began in 1750 with six partners - William Macdowall of Castle Sempill, Andrew Buchanan of Drumpellier, Allan Dreghorn of Ruchill, Robert Dunlop of Househill, Colin Dunlop of Carmyle, and Alexander Houston of Jordanhill. The original contract was for 25 years. At its expiry in 1775, only three of the six founders remained, Castle Sempill, Carmyle, and Jordanhill. George Oswald and James Dennistoun of Colgrain had been in the meantime assumed. The five old partners then retired, and Robin Carrick was rewarded for his long labours by heading the new copartnery.
(9) His house was the northmost house on the west side of Virginia Street. It looked north into the grounds of the Virginia Mansion, and in front, across the great garden of the Shawfield Mansion and other vacant ground, it looked east to Candleriggs and beyond it. To secure this eastern view Mr. Oswald owned the building stance across the street, and kept it as a garden.
This garden was immediately north of Wilson Street: the building at the north-east corner of Wilson Street, long occupied by the Savings Bank, stands on part of it. George Oswald bought the house and garden in 1770 from Alexander Speirs of Elderslie, and sold them in 1793 to John Dunlop of Rosebank.
(10) There is a great deal about Richard Oswald in Shelburne's Life, lately published. Shelburne had not only the highest opinion of his talents and character, but a strong personal attachment to him, and Oswald's death in 1784 is named as one cause of Shelburne's continued retirement at Bowood after the break up of his ministry. Dr. Carlyle of Inveresk, in his Autobiography, speaks of having known Oswald when in Glasgow, and of his great knowledge and ready conversation, and he tells how, in spite of weak eyes, he managed to indulge the family love of reading. He afterwards knew him in London, when a man of wealth and importance. Carlyle (who was an accurate if ill-natured writer) says that Oswald's first capital was his share, some thousands of pounds, in a rich prize which his cousin's privateer took : so that a great Scotch estate was probably founded on the ruin of some unlucky Frenchman or Spaniard.
(11) Louisa Johnstone died of consumption at Lisbon in 1797. She was a great beauty, as Raeburn's fine engraved portrait still shows. It was to her (under the more manageable name of Lucy) that Burns wrote "O wot ye wha's in yon toon." Perhaps he wished to make some amends for his savage attack on her predecessor and her predecessor's husband. This attack was quite unfair. But one must make allowance for Burns. Late on a winter's day, worn out by a long ride through wind and snow, he had arrived at Bailie Whigham's little Inn at Sanquhar, and was just preparing over a smoking bowl to make a night of it with the Bailie, when a grand funeral cortege wheels in. It was old Mrs. Oswald, on her way down from London to be laid beside her husband at St. Quivox. The inn was small, and Burns had to turn out, and, on his wearied beast, battle through the storm across the moor to New Cumnock. There, as soon as his fingers were thawed, he took his revenge in "Dweller in yon dungeon dark."
(12) Alexander Oswald latterly became Alexander Haldane Oswald, having proved his representation of the ancient family of Haldane of that Ilk, and received Arms and Supporters accordingly. He represented them through Agnes Haldane, mother of Mrs. Oswald of Shield Hall. It is to his enquiry into this subject that we owe "The Lennox Book," one of William Eraser's valuable works. Perhaps our Mariolaters may value it above them all from its new Darnley and Queen Mary matter.
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