1641
Considering probably that the position of the national affairs afforded a
favourable opportunity for promoting their claims to municipal independence,
the town council, on 3rd February, 1641, commissioned the provost, with
Gabriel Cunynghame, Patrick Bell, the bailies, dean of guild, and deacon
convener, to consider as to the means of asserting the town's right to elect its
magistrates. (fn. 1) Nothing further, however, appears in the records of the burgh
as to the matter till 13th October, when Walter Stirling was appointed to
proceed to Edinburgh with a commission to Patrick Bell to deal in regard to
it, (fn. 2) and on the 26th of the same month Bell was authorised to do what he
could "in accommodating the business." (fn. 3)
Meanwhile the negotiations between the Scottish commissioners and the
English parliament were being proceeded with, and much disputation took
place as to the sum to be paid to the Scots in respect of their war expenses.
Ultimately on 12th January, 1641, the demands of the Scots were intimated
to the parliament, (fn. 4) and were considered by the commons on the 23rd,
when it was resolved that friendly assistance should be given, leaving the
amount and the mode in which it was to be raised for subsequent discussion; (fn. 5)
and on 3rd February the commons fixed the amount to be paid as "brotherly
assistance" at the sum of £300,000. (fn. 6)
On 24th February articles of impeachment against Laud were passed by
the commons, and on 1st March he was committed to the Tower. (fn. 7) The
arrangements for the trial of Strafford were also being actively prosecuted,
and on 22nd March, his trial by his peers commenced in Westminster
Hall, and continued till 10th April, when a rupture between the commons
and the lords having taken place, the court rose without appointing a
day for its resumption. (fn. 8) The judicial impartiality of the peers did not
satisfy the commons, who resolved to proceed against him by bill of attainder.
In thus dealing with the matter they would no longer be mere accusers but
judges, and the lords would simply be asked to concur in a sentence which
the commons had pronounced. The bill was accordingly immediately
introduced, but the lords proceeded with the trial on the 13th. Novertheless
the commons read the bill a second time, and asked the lords to proceed no
further with the trial. This, however, they refused to do, and the trial
proceeded. But the commons, on the 19th, voted Strafford to be a
traitor, read the bill a third time, and sent it to the lords. Four days later
the king wrote to him to say that while, under the circumstances, he could
not employ him hereafter, still he could not "satisfy (himself) in honour
or conscience without assuring him now in the midst of (his) trouble, that,
upon the word of a king, he should not suffer in life, honour, or fortune." (fn. 9)
On the 27th a compromise between the two houses was come to, under
which the bill was read a second time in the lords; and on the 29th they
heard argument as to its legality. In anticipation, probably, of the issue, the
king on 1st May pleaded with parliament for the life of Strafford; (fn. 10) but on
learning this, Strafford, on the 4th, wrote Charles, beseeching him to give
his consent to the bill, "for prevention of evils which may happen by your
refusal . . ., and by this means to remove—praised be God I cannot say
this accursed, but I confess—this unfortunate thing out of the way towards
that blessed agreement which God, I trust, shall ever establish between you
and your subjects. Sir," he added, "my consent shall more acquit you
herein to God than all the world could besides. To a willing man there is
no injury done." (fn. 11) On the 8th the bill of attainder was read a third time in
a thin house, and on the morning of the same day the king was urged, by
a deputation from the peers, to give his assent to it; on the following day the
privy council advised him to yield; the judges supported that advice; and
four bishops who were consulted—Juxon alone dissenting—concurred.
Thus pressed, the unhappy king, after long mental conflict, yielded. "If my
own person only were in danger," he said, with tears in his eyes, as he
announced his resolution to the council, "I would gladly venture it to save
Lord Strafford's life; but seeing my wife, children, and all my kingdom are
concerned, I am forced to give way to it." (fn. 12) On the morning of the following
day he signed the appointment of commissioners to give assent to the bill,
saying, as he adhibited his signature, "my lord Strafford's condition is more
happy than mine." One more fruitless effort the unhappy king made to save
his servant by an appeal to the lords to commute the sentence to perpetual
imprisonment, but the houses were inexorable, and on the 11th Strafford
passed with firm step and erect port to the Tower Hill, where the blow
of the executioner terminated his life of disappointed toil. (fn. 13)
On 29th May the town council passed an act in which, referring (1) to
an act of the committee of estates, with consent of the burghs, ordaining
the burghs to have in readiness 150,000 guilders due by the estates to
the factors at Campvere for ammunition and arms provided by them
during previous years "for the weill of the publict and guid of the
common cases now in hand,"—the proportion of which sum payable by
Glasgow was stated to be £8,910 Scots; and (2) to letters directed by
the committee of estates to the provost and bailies for advancing and
having in readiness the town's part of the amount required to pay these
factors—the town council had desired a number of the burgesses to
borrow or give security, each for £500, to make up the £8,910. Accordingly
one hundred and eighty-seven burgesses had, each ten or more of them,
become bound, pro rata, for payment of £500 to the several persons from
whom the amount had been borrowed. The merchants by an act made in
the merchant's hospital before the dean of guild, and the craftsmen by an
act made in the craft's hospital before the deacon convener, had become
bound voluntarily that if the sum of £8,910 should not be repaid by the
estates, they would be content to be stented for the amount, each for his
own part according to his rank, means, and estate. And the town council
engaged, by stenting the inhabitants, to relieve the persons who had granted
these bonds from their obligation to pay the amounts thereby due. (fn. 14) On
26th October a receipt by the factors for the sum due to them was produced to the council; (fn. 15) and on 18th July, 1644, the estates issued a precept
commanding the collector general of excise, and the commissioners and
intromitters with money borrowed for the use of the public, to repay the
£8,910 so advanced, with interest after Martinmas, 1642. (fn. 16)
On 12th June, 1641, James Colquhoun was ordered by the council to be
paid five dollars "for drawing of the portrait of the town to be sent to
Holland. (fn. 17) Perhaps the "portrait" here referred to was a sketch for Bleau's
atlas which was then being compiled at Amsterdam.
As the result of prolonged and keen discussion between the Scottish
commissioners and those of England, an arrangement was arrived at on 7th
August, and accepted by the king, under which he engaged to recognise
as valid acts of parliament the enactments of the estates in 1640; the
"incendiaries"—i.e., those persons who had been the authors of the recent
troubles—were to be punished by parliament; all libels against the king's
"loyal and dutiful subjects of Scotland were to be suppressed;" and "the
brotherly assistance" to be paid by England to the Scots for their sufferings
and services was fixed at £300,000. On the conclusion of this treaty the
armies both of England and Scotland were to be disbanded. (fn. 18)
After the execution of Strafford, the king had to learn that he was little
more than a mere puppet in the hands of the English parliament, but he
indulged the hope that he might receive more consideration in Scotland,
and even secure its aid in re-establishing his authority in England. But
his desire to go north was specially obnoxious to the parliament, whose
opposition was intensified by the information that Montrose was in communication with him, and was urging him to preside in person over a meeting
of the Scottish parliament, and to offer his northern subjects such assurances
as would conciliate and satisfy them. At this time Montrose undoubtedly
regarded with dislike the curtailment of the royal authority both in England
and in Scotland. He did not conceal his suspicion of Argyle, whom he charged
with designs for deposing the king, and, before the committee of estates, he
preferred that charge, and, along with three of his friends, was in consequence
committed to custody in the castle of Edinburgh on the 11th of June.
Meanwhile the Scottish commissioners in England were irritated at the
opposition of the parliament to the king's visiting Scotland; and they urged
him to adhere to his intention, assuring him of the aid of the Scots in the
re-establishment of his authority. Accordingly, on 10th August, after giving
his consent to a bill confirming the treaty with the Scots, and securing to
their army in England, after they had crossed the Tweed, the payment of
£220,000 which would still be due to them out of the "brotherly assistance," he
set out for Scotland, followed several days later by commissioners appointed
by parliament, ostensibly to see to the execution of the treaty with the Scots,
but really to watch the king's proceedings. Reaching Newcastle on the 13th,
he was entertained by Leslie, and reviewed the troops under his command
there; on the 14th he entered Edinburgh; and on the 17th he attended the
parliament then sitting, (fn. 19) and offered to ratify the various acts which he had
previously refused to recognise. Anxious also, in every way, to conciliate
his northern subjects, he diligently attended presbyterian services; received
the constant ministrations of Henderson; (fn. 20) and on the 30th was entertained
by the city at a grand banquet in the parliament house. (fn. 21) Ere many days
passed, however, he found that, notwithstanding their professions of loyalty,
Argyle and his party, representing the strength of the nation, were determined
to retain in their own hands the substantial powers of government. They
succeeded in obtaining the right to select, and present for the king's approval,
the officers of state, (fn. 22) and Charles realized the fact that in Scotland, as in
England, his powers were greatly restricted; and that he had to submit to
humiliations which he was powerless to resist or resent. (fn. 23)
On 6th September the king granted a charter under his privy seal in which,
—referring to the fact that the temporality of the archbishopric of Glasgow had
fallen to his disposal by the abolition in Scotland of the estate of bishops
and archbishops, to the close connection which existed between him and
the family of Lennox, and to the fidelity and service of James, duke of
Lennox and Richmond,—he, with the consent of his officers of state, disponed
to the duke and his heirs male, whom failing, to his heirs and assignees
whomsoever, the lands and barony of Glasgow, with the castle, city, burgh,
and regality thereof, and all lands which had in ancient times belonged
to the archbishop, wherever situated, with the heritable right to nominate
and annually elect the provost, bailies, and other officers of the city as freely
as the archbishops had done. He also constituted the duke and his successors
lords of regality of the barony of Glasgow and Bishops Forest, with all the
powers which attached to that office. He also granted to the duke and his
heirs male the superiority of the subjects so conveyed, and appointed the
feu farmers, tenants, and possessors of the fee to hold it of the duke and
his heirs in feu for the yearly payment of the fermes and duties specified
in their infeftments. He, moreover, incorporated the lands, lordship, baronies,
burgh, and regality, into a temporal lordship and regality, to be called "the
lordship of Glasgow," and to be held by the duke and his successors for
payment to the crown of two hundred merks Scots (£11 2s. 22/3d. sterling),
but without prejudice to an act of parliament in favour of the burgh concerning its liberties. (fn. 24)
In the beginning of October it was rumoured that a plot was on
foot to kidnap or murder Hamilton, Argyle, and Lanark (Hamilton's
brother), to invade parliament, to regarrison the castle, to try by military
tribunals obnoxious members of parliament and assembly, and to introduce
borderers and highlanders into the city. This rumour created the wildest
excitement, and the three noblemen concerned left the city on the 12th,
on which day also the king personally informed the parliament of all he
knew of the matter. A heated and prolonged discussion followed, in which
the king, who felt that he was virtually on his trial for complicity with
the plot, took an active part, and demanded a full public investigation,
but he was overruled, and a committee of investigation was appointed
to enquire and report on the whole matter. While this investigation was
in progress, the three fugitive noblemen returned to Edinburgh, and confessed
to the king that they had probably over estimated their danger. So the
excitement subsided, and the matter was dropped; (fn. 25) —superseded in point
of interest by the Irish rebellion of 1641. (fn. 26)
On the return to Scotland of the army from Durham and Newcastle, (fn. 27)
the great bulk of it was disbanded, and it became obvious to the king that he
was to receive no aid from it against the English parliament. This and the
shifty policy by which he alternately endeavoured to secure support from the
unbending parliamentary presbyterians and from the nobles, who equally hated
parliament and presbytery, was carefully noted by Hampden, who was then
in Edinburgh, and was reported by him to the leaders of the English
parliament. In England, too, the growth of religious fanaticism and the
dispersal of the disbanded soldiery had produced disorder which no power
then existing seemed able to suppress. Puritanism and episcopacy were
arrayed against each other in irreconcilable hostility, and, while awaiting the
result, the king wrote from Scotland in October—"I command you to assure
all my servants that I am constant to the discipline and doctrine of the
church of England, established by queen Elizabeth and my father, and that I
resolve, by the grace of God, to die in the maintenance of it." (fn. 28)
On 5th October William Cochrane of Cowdoune appeared in the council
and produced a commission from the king, dated at Holyrood on the 2nd, in
favour of Sir Robert Gordon as his commissioner in relation to the election of
the provost and magistrates for the following year. The council, who had
agreed on the 4th to propose William Stewart for the provostship, thereupon
appointed some of their number to proceed to the castle and submit his name
to the commissioner. After they had done so, he inserted Stewart's name in the
blank commission, and returned it to the deputation who presented it to the
council, and Stewart was thereupon elected, and took the requisite oath. A
leet of six merchants and three craftsmen was then prepared from which the
commissioner might select two merchants and one craftsman to be bailies for
the following year, and from it he nominated John Anderson and James Bell
of the merchant rank, and Manasses Lyill of the craftsmen rank, who were
received by the council, and took the requisite oath. In these elections,
however, the council protested before the commissioner that what was done
should not prejudice their former rights, old use and possession, nor what was
competent to royal burghs. On the 8th thirteen merchants and twelve
craftsmen were elected councillors, and on the following day the council
ordained that in future no bailie should be received in office after he had
completed the year for which he was elected until he had been two years out
of office. On the 13th John Barnes was elected dean of guild; William
Neilson, deacon convener; John Clark, treasurer; John Gilhagie, visitor;
Archibald Faulds, water bailie; and William Hindshaw, master of work. (fn. 29)
The parochial arrangements of the city at this time engaged the attention of the town council. On 14th August, 1641, a commission was issued to
Patrick Bell as to the division of the parish of Glasgow, empowering him
to supplicate the king (1) to dissolve the parsonage from the bishopric;
(2) to provide for the maintenance of the ministers out of the bishopric as
formerly, and for the maintenance of a minister in place of the bishop; and
(3) to grant a competent allowance out of the revenues of the bishopric for
upholding the great kirk and the support of the poor of the bishop's hospital
and grammar school. (fn. 30) On 9th October the town clerk was directed to
prepare a letter to Bell, then in Edinburgh as the town's commissioner,
instructing him to deal with the king "for the customers to the weill of the
toune as other tounes dois." (fn. 31) On the 13th Walter Stirling was appointed to
take the commission to Bell, in order that he might "deale for the tounes
liberteis for electioune of thair magistrates and obtaining ministers
stipends;" (fn. 32) and on the 26th Bell was authorised by letter to do the best he
could as to "accommodating the business" in regard to the election of the
magistrates—the town council engaging to approve of whatever he should do,
with the advice of Stirling and any of the other commissioners of the town
who might be in Edinburgh at the time. (fn. 33) The result of these negotiations
appears to have been the obtaining from the king on 7th November of a
Signature of Mortification in favour of the provost, bailies, councillors, and
community of Glasgow, by which he assigned to them for the support of a
minister to serve the cure in place of the archbishop, for the repair of the
high church, and for assisting schools and hospitals, the teinds, parsonage
and vicarage, of the spirituality of the archbishopric, and specially the great
and small teinds of the parsonage and vicarage which had some time
previously been united to the archbishopric, with the teinds, parsonage and
vicarage, of the kirks of Drymen, Driffisdale, Cambusnethan, and Traquair. (fn. 34)
On 11th November the king also granted a charter, at Holyrood, under
his great seal, by which, after narrating that the nobles and others appointed
to inquire into the state of the university of Glasgow, had reported that the
least sum required annually by that institution was £226 9s. 3d. beyond its
then rental, he mortified to the university and its members the lands of the
bishopric of Candida Casa (Whithorn or Galloway), with the abbacy of
Tungland, the priory of Whithorn, the abbacy of Glenluce and others annexed
to that bishopric; with the teinds and other duties of the churches and
parishes of these benefices (except the deanery of the chapel royal of Stirling);
but subject to the burden of the stipends of their ministers. (fn. 35)
Five days later, viz., on 16th November, an act was passed, by which,
after setting forth the facts that in past times the approval of the archbishop
to the election of the magistrates of the city was necessary, and that after the
abolition of episcopacy, Ludovic, duke of Lennox and Richmond, had been
infeft in the archbishopric, with all its privileges, including the nomination
of the magistrates of the city, it declared that the burgh of Glasgow, being
one of the best peopled and prime burghs within the kingdom, should have
free liberty to elect such persons as were most fit both to serve the prince and
govern the burgh as other burghs of the kingdom had. The king, therefore,
with the advice of the estates, and the consent of James, duke of Lennox
and Richmond, who had then the same right to the archbishopric and its
privileges as had been granted to duke Ludovic, his uncle, ordained that the
burgh should, in future, have as free liberty in the annual election of its
magistrates, at the accustomed times, as any other burgh in Scotland, subject
to this special condition, that the provost, bailies, and councillors should
present yearly to duke James and his successors, or their commissioner, if
then in the burgh, at the castle, a leet of three persons, of whom the duke, or
his commissioner, should nominate one to be provost for the following year,
and the person so nominated should be received and admitted and duly
commissioned by the council to that effect. If, however, the duke or his
successors or their commissioner were absent at the time of the annual
election, then the council might elect the provost for the following year. (fn. 36)
On the same day two acts of parliament were passed, the first ratifying
the act 1567, c. 13, and ordaining that where any prebends, altarages, and
other foundations of that nature existed within royal burghs, the magistrates
and councillors, who had been formerly patrons of these foundations, should
in all time coming be the superiors thereof, by whom the vassals and tenants
should be entered; (fn. 37) and the second ordaining all superiorities of land and
other properties previously held of bishops and their chapters to belong
to and be held of the crown, subject to the infeftments and rights of the
vassals. It was, however, declared that the act should not prejudice the
rights, inter alios, of the duke of Lennox in the superiority of the lands and
baronies which belonged to the temporality of the archbishopric of Glasgow,
but that the vassals should hold their lands of the duke and his successors
in time coming. It also declared that neither it nor the reservation should
extend to the deanery or sub-deanery, nor to anything held of the dean or
sub-dean. (fn. 38)
On the following day two acts were passed in favour of the burgh—(1)
one confirming the several charters, privileges, and rights therein specified,
and particularly the charter dated 16th October, 1636, (fn. 39) with the precept and
instrument of sasine following upon it; (fn. 40) and (2) another ordaining a confirmation to be expede in favour of the provost, bailies, and council, ratifying
the signature dated 7th November, 1641, (fn. 41) with the charter and infeftment
to follow thereon. (fn. 42)
On 17th November the session of parliament which began on 15th July,
1641, was terminated, and the next parliament was appointed to meet in
June, 1644. On the 18th of November the king returned to London. (fn. 43) But
before leaving Scotland he conferred honours on men who had been his
uncompromising opponents. The earl of Argyle was made a marquis; lords
Loudon and Lindsay and general Leslie were created earls; lord Livingstone
of Almond, who in 1640 had been Leslie's lieutenant-general, was also made
earl of Calendar; Loudon was made chancellor; Argyle, Glencairn, and
Lindsay were made jont treasurers; vacancies were created in the privy
council and on the bench by the degradation of royalists; and among the
changes in the court of session, Johnston of Warriston was made a judge,
with a knighthood and a pension of £200. (fn. 44)
While in Scotland, the king received intelligence of the outbreak of the
rebellion in Ireland, (fn. 45) and reported it to the estates, who appointed a committee
of nine "to advise the best course for the present to be taken in this business." (fn. 46)
The result was that it was resolved to send a strong force to that country;
and, on 8th December, the marquis of Argyle appeared before the town
council, and exhibited an order of the privy council upon them to provide
boats and barks for the transportation of a force of 5,000 men. Arrangements were accordingly made to comply with that order, (fn. 47) and about 4,000
men, under the command of Leslie, then earl of Leven, with General Munro
as his lieutenant, were landed at Carrickfergus. Taking possession of
several towns and places, they held these as a security for their pay, and
refused to recognise any orders save such as came from the privy council of
Scotland. (fn. 48) Leslie had ere long to return to other duties in Scotland, and
the chief command, not only of the Scottish troops, but also of the English
soldiers who were associated with them, numbering in all 10,000 men,
devolved upon Munro. (fn. 49) On 27th February, 1645, the committee of estates
fixed the proportion of the Scottish soldiers of this force, who were to be
maintained by the town, at 110, and their monthly pay at £990 Scots
(£82 10s. sterling.). (fn. 50)
The relations between the town and the duke of Lennox, and his agents,
at this time seem to have been most friendly, and the town council were
careful to secure or to acknowledge the good services of those who could
promote the interests of the city. Thus, on 1st December, 1641, some
Holland cloth, Scotch linen, and plaids were ordered to be sent as a propine
(gift) to Master Webb, the duke's servant, as a testimony of the town's
thankfulness to him for his pains taken for the town's business." (fn. 51) Thirteen
days later, a letter was ordered to be sent to the duke, thanking him
"for byganes" and "entreating his favour in time coming;" and another
letter to Webb, with a propine of sixty ells of linen cloth, two gallons of
aquavitæ, four half-barrels of herring, and two pair of plaids. (fn. 52) On the 27th,
the master of work was directed to send to the town's advocates and agents
their fees and herring, and to Mr. Robert Bruce, the duke's agent, two halfbarrels of herring. (fn. 53)