PREFACE.
IN 1832 Mr. John Smith, the youngest, presented to the
Maitland Club a volume titled "Burgh Records of the
City of Glasgow," consisting of selections from the
Records of the Town Council from 19th January, 1573. till 20th
October, 1580; and in 1835 he published, for private circulation,
a small volume containing further selections from the same records
of a later date. These selections, which were made by Mr. James
Hill, had previously appeared in the Glasgow Courier newspaper
in a series of articles contributed by Mr. William Motherwell.
The latter volume is titled "Memorabilia of the City of Glasgow,
selected from the Minute Books of the Burgh, 1588–1750," and is
now exceedingly scarce.
In 1868 Mr. William West Watson, Chamberlain of the City,
edited a volume, which was also printed for private circulation, titled
"Memorabilia of the City of Glasgow, selected from the Minute
Books of the Burgh." The selections in that volume extended from
13th October, 1588, till 28th June, 1749.
These volumes contain the only selections from the Records
of the City of Glasgow which are available to the public.
In his preface to the Maitland Club Book, Mr. Smith adverts to
the fact that volumes of the Council Records of a date earlier than
1573 were in existence about the middle of the last century, and that
Gibson, whose History of Glasgow was published in 1777, appears
to have had access to records from which he quotes in 1566. All
these, however, had disappeared previous to the time at which
Mr. Smith and Mr. Hill made their selections, and a careful
search for them by the Editor of the present volume has, unhappily, been unavailing. But it has resulted in the discovery of
four volumes which were not known to be in existence when
Mr. Smith, Mr. Hill, and Mr. West Watson prepared their
selections. These are the volumes—
|
| From 16 May, 1581, |
to 27 April, 1586. |
| From 5 October, 1594, |
to 29 May, 1597. |
| From 21 November, 1598, |
to 27 October, 1601, and |
| From 13 June, 1605, |
to 4 June, 1610. |
The discovery of these records decided the Editor to prepare
for the Scottish Burgh Records Society a continuous series of
selections from the Council Records and from the Accounts of the
Treasurers of the City, extending from 19th January, 1573, when
the earliest extant volume commences. The present volume
contains these selections till 17th September, 1642, and if it
prove acceptable will be succeeded by another at an early date.
The following is a list of the volumes of the Council Records
now in the Record Room of the City from which the selections in
the present volume have been taken—
|
| From 19 January, 1573, |
to 12 May, 1581. |
| From 16 May, 1581, |
to 27 April, 1586. |
| *
*
*
* |
| From 22 October, 1588, |
to 31 July, 1590. (fn. 1) |
| *
*
*
* |
| From 5 October, 1594, |
to 29 May, 1597. |
| From 21 November, 1598, |
to 27 October, 1601. |
| *
*
*
* |
| From 13 June, 1605, |
to 4 June, 1610. |
| From 16 January, 1609, |
to 28 August, 1613. |
| *
*
*
* |
| From 20 September, 1623, |
to 11 December, 1630. |
| *
*
*
* |
| From 28 May, 1636, |
to 17 September, 1642. |
The present selection contains everything which is to be found
in these records illustrative of the constitution of the Burgh, its
municipal government, and the social life of its people. The
repetition of formal phraseology, and of municipal ordinances—
which in all burghs were renewed annually, or at short intervals of
time—has been avoided as far as possible. Nevertheless, it will
doubtless be found that much matter is inserted which has but a
limited and technical interest. In such work, however, more
especially when the original records are frail and practically
inaccessible, the Editor considers it expedient to err on the side
of giving too much rather than too little.
The Editor acknowledges with satisfaction the encouragement
he has received from the Lord Provost, Magistrates, and Town
Council of Glasgow in the preparation of this volume. They have
contributed towards the cost of the transcripts, and have further
authorized the collecting, transcribing, translating, and printing
of a volume of Charters and Documents relating to the City, copies
of which they have also allowed the Burgh Records Society to
print off for the use of its members. The latter volume, which
will contain all the Charters of the Burgh, and other documents
illustrative of its history, from the institution of the Burgh circa
1175–1178, till about the middle of the seventeenth century, is far
advanced, and will be ready in a few months.
These volumes will, it may be hoped, prove a welcome contribution to the early history of Glasgow, and facilitate the labours
of whoever may address himself to the task, still to be performed,
of describing, with full and accurate information, the rise and
progress of the City.
The plan of Glasgow which accompanies this volume appears
on the margin of Ross' Map of the Shire of Lanark, published in
1773. It is the oldest plan of the City which the Editor has been
able to discover, with the exception of a plan of a part of the City
prepared in 1764 with reference to an action at the instance of
William Fleming, Wright in Glasgow, against the Magistrates
and Town Council of Glasgow, decided in 1768. The plan of
1764 has been reproduced in the first volume of "Glasghu Facies,"
edited by Dr. Gordon, and it has not been thought necessary to
give it in this volume. The Editor has to thank Mr. David
Laing, LL.D., for the use of Ross' Map, and for permission to
photo-lithograph the plan.
It has been considered expedient not to give any historical
Preface to the present volume, but to reserve that till the volume
of Charters has been completed. The Preface can then apply to
both volumes.
In this work, as in the corresponding selections from the
records of Edinburgh and Peebles, the Editor owes everything to
the care, intelligence, and accuracy of Mr. Renwick, by whom the
transcripts have been made, the proof-sheets collated, and the
index prepared.
J. D. MARWICK.
2 Great Western Terrace,
Glasgow, 31st March, 1876.
Since the foregoing Preface was printed a volume containing
Records of the City from 18th December, 1630, till 21st May,
1636, has been discovered.
In the course of a casual conversation with John Whitefoord
Mackenzie, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh, the Editor happened to refer
to the two forthcoming volumes connected with Glasgow, and to
express his regret that so many gaps existed in the Records of the
City, when Mr. Mackenzie mentioned that he had received from a
lady, thirty years ago, a MS. volume relating to Glasgow. On
examination it proved to be one of the missing volumes of the
Burgh Records, and Mr. Mackenzie at once courteously sent it to
the Lord Provost, Magistrates, and Council.
As selections from the volume thus discovered cannot be conveniently added to the present volume, they will be given in the
second volume of Extracts from the Records of the Burgh.
J. D. M.
Glasgow, 10th May, 1876.