Who was John Galt ?

While probably best known in Britain as an author, writing was just one of John Galt's interests and activities.

In Canada he is better known as one of the founders of the Canada Company, set up to encourage emigration to what was then known as Upper Canada.  Galt was the founder of Guelph and Goderich - two successful settlements in the area.

Plaque commemorating John Galt, Founder of Guelph 1827

What is often forgotten is that John Galt was also a lobbyist - helping to ensure that the legislation to allow the construction of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal which opened in 1822.  This was just one of the many successful Parliamentary efforts he was involved in.

Poet, dramatist, editor, reviewer, travel writer - are just some of the other descriptions which could be attributed to John Galt.

It is also important to remember that he was also a son, brother, husband, father as well as being a friend to many people of his day.  His home life as a child in Irvine and Greenock greatly influenced his writing.  His ear for how ordinary people spoke makes those of his books written in Scots a joy to read.

So, the question is - who was John Galt?  

The answer very much depends on who is asking the question!

John Galt and the Coronation of George IV

John Galt was in London at the time of the Coronation of George IV in July 1821 and gave a very down-to-earth account of the proceedings in Literary Life and Miscellanies. 

George IV

“The instant that the performance was finished, the spectators all rose and became as fluent in their talk as the scattering audience after a state play; no vestige of solemnity remaining, if during the exhibition they experienced any.”

Galt goes on to describe the free-for-all that took place after the official ceremony and coronation dinner. 

“If anything were calculated to inspire laughable contempt for the melodrama of earthly grandeur, it was the hurly-burly in Westminster Hall subsequent to the King’s departure.  I can neither repress my derision at the commotion, nor conceive why it was permitted, though “the swinish multitude” were in court dresses.  But there is a stronger infection in folly than in wisdom, and, though I despised the pastime, I could not resist joining in the game.  In the plunder of the tables I got hold of a golden Britannia as big as a doll, with which I made proud a Bishop’s lady and gave to another “gorgeous dame” of high degree, a really beautiful basket of crystal, and bestowed gilded vessels on longing ladies.  But what added to the delight was the discovery that all the magnificence was as artificial as courtesies!  The goblets and imagery, the plates and epergnes, at the coronation festival of the greatest monarch on the earth, were gilded wood and pewter trenchers!  This, however, was wise, and showed the improved intelligence, alias the political economy of the age; but wherefore cheat the eye?  At the time, the coronation afforded me inconceivable pleasure, for I could only see things, bating the occasion, worthy to provide heart-easing laughter; the remembrance, however, like many other sweets, sours in the rumination.  It did more to lessen my respect for the tricks of state than anything I ever witnessed."

Newspaper report about the events.

In The Steamboat, published in 1821 in instalments in Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine and in book form in 1822, John Galt describes the coronation through the eyes of his main character, Thomas Duffle who travelled from Glasgow to London to see the event.  Mr Duffle takes his place in the grandstands to witness the arrival of the lords and ladies attending the King and then the arrival of King George IV himself - 

“who entered with a marvellous fasherie, as I thought it, of formalities … for I could see he was now and then like to lose his temper at the stupidity of some of the attendants.  But it’s no new thing for kings to be ill served; and our Majesty might by this time, I think, have been used to the misfortune, considering what sort of men his minister are.”

 Again in The Steamboat, the aftermath of the ceremony are described.  After the King and nobles leave, the general company were invited to come and enjoy the leftovers!  Or as Galt puts it:-

“But the best part of the ploy was after his Majesty had retired, for, when he departed, everyone one, according to immemorial privilege, ran to plunder the table”, including Mr Duffle, who “was content with a piece of a most excellent bacon ham, and a cordial glass or two of claret wine, and a bit seed-cake.” 

John Galt had a wonderful eye for detailing the absurd and seeing through the conventions and characters of his day. 

Byron's deathbed thoughts

The second Tuesday in October is Ada Lovelace Day, celebrating the incredible achievements of this mathematical genius.

Ada was born Augusta Ada Byron on 10 December 1815.  Her parents were Lord Byron and Anne Isabella Milbanke (1792-1860). She was Byron's only legitimate child and shortly after she was born, her parents separated and Byron went abroad.  She was strictly brought up and educated by her mother and very early on developed an interest in mathematics and mechanics.  You can read about the life and achievements of this remarkable woman here.

Augusta Ada Byron

Scottish writer John Galt met Lord Byron while travelling in the Mediterranean in 1809 and they remained friends.  Galt wrote a biography of Byron which was published in 1830.  In the biography there is only one mention of Byron's daughter, Ada.  Galt writes about Byron’s final hours in April 1824:-

“From that time his Lordship grew every hour weaker and weaker; and he had occasional flights of delirium.  In the intervals he was, however, quite self-possessed, and said to Fletcher, “I now begin to think I am seriously ill; and in case I should be taken off suddenly, I wish to give you several directions, which I hope you will be particular in seeing executed.”

Byron then goes on to tell William Fletcher, his valet: -

“Oh, my poor dear child – my dear Ada!  My God, could I have but seen her – give her my blessing – and my dear sister Augusta, and her children – and you will go to Lady Byron and say – tell her everything – you are friends with her.”

Byron continued:-

"Fletcher, now if you do not execute every order which I have given you, I will torment you hereafter, if possible.”

After Byron's death, Fletcher returned to Britain and was dependent on Byron's sister, Augusta Leigh for funds.

Lord Eaglesham and the Eglinton shooting

One of the aspects of John Galt’s writing which is interesting and appealing is the way he manages to retell factual, real life events, sometimes very trivial, within the characters and plots of his novels. 

Alexander Montgomerie, 10th Earl of Eglinton

One of the characters in Annals of the Parish (published in 1821) is Lord Eaglesham who is shot by Mungo Argyle, an exciseman.  Lord Eaglesham can easily be identified as Ayrshire's Alexander Montgomerie, 10^th Earl of Eglinton who, in 1769 was shot by an exciseman, Mungo Campbell.  There is a very interesting account of the incident here.

Galt writes in Annals of the Parish, (Chapter 22) -

“About the end of summer my Lord Eaglesham came to the castle, bringing with him an English madam, that was his Miss.”  “And sure enough it so happened; for the next day, being airing in his coach with Miss Spangle, the lady he had brought, he happened to see Mungo Argyle with his dogs and his gun, and, my lord being as particular about his game as the other was about boxes of tea and kegs of brandy, he jumped out of the carriage, and ran to take the gun.  Words passed, and the exciseman shot my lord … and the same night my lord breathed his last, and the made and wild reprobate that did the deed was then up and sent off to Edinburgh.”

As for “Miss Spangle”, as Galt calls her, Lord Eglinton had a long term mistress, Mrs Brown.  James Boswell (another Ayrshire man) who knew Eglinton well, wrote in his London Journal on Thursday 10 March 1762: –

“I breakfasted with Lord Eglinton.  He generally breakfasts with his family above stairs, whom I shall now paint.  It consists of three.  In the first place, Miss or Mrs Brown, who has lived with him seven or eight years.  She is a good-looking woman, and I dare say is the best of her profession that ever existed.  She is quiet, good-humoured, and diligent at slight pretty work.  She is neither avaricious nor extravagant.  She has a degree of laughing simplicity that is agreeable so far, but when she shows it too much it appears foolish.” 

The Earl of Eglinton was responsible for planning and building the village of Eaglesham in East Renfrewshire, now a conservation area - obviously where John Galt got his character's name from.  Eglinton was also known for introducing improvements to his Ayrshire estate.  He was also a keen horseman and raced his horses at many events around the country.  Galt has Reverend Micah Balwhidder describe the character Eaglesham: –

"His Lordship was of a genteel spirit, and very fond of his horses, which were the most beautiful creatures of their kind that had been seen in all the countryside.”

Smuggling in Ayrshire is described in the Annals of the Parish and the Reverend Balwhidder is not averse to enjoying some of the goods which are available.  Customs officers, or excisemen as they were known, were obviously not well liked!  John Galt's character, Mungo Argyle is described by Reverend Balwhidder -

"Mungo Argyle, the exciseman, waxing rich, grew proud and petulant, and would have ruled the countryside with a rod of iron.  Nothing less would serve him than a fine horse to ride on, and a world of other conveniences and luxuries, as if he had been on an equality with gentlemen.  And he bought a grand gun, which was called a fowling-piece; and he had two pointer dogs, the like of which had not been seen in the parish since the planting of the Eaglesham-wood on the moorland.”

While this story plays just a small part of the narrative in Annals of the Parish, the events which took place in 1769 played a part in the history of Ayrshire.

Address to John Galt by the people of Guelph

In 1829 John Galt was ready to leave Canada and return to Britain to face questions from the directors of the Canada Company who were dissatisfied with his running of the Company.

John Galt founder of the Canada Company.

The people of Guelph, the town he had successfully founded just two years previously showed their support for him shortly before his departure.  It was signed by 144 heads of families.  It read -

"Sir – We, the undersigned inhabitants of the town and township of Guelph, learning that you are about to leave us, beg to express our sincere regret, that we should be deprived of your presence, and the satisfaction and pleasure it has ever afforded us.  We trust and hope, that your absence from amongst us will not be of long duration and that you will accomplish the objects of your journey, whatever that might be.

We would wish to express  to you the obligations which you have conferred upon us, in the prosperity which had flowed upon us ever since we became united with you and the Canada Company – many of us having come here in dependent circumstances, who are now in fair way to became independent, and all having improved their circumstances under your fostering care.  By the measures you have adopted, over lands in many instances, have in the space of eighteen months doubled or tripled their value, and we do not look on our obligations as the less, that the Canada Company has shared in the advantage.

You have set an example to the province in the formation of proper roads and bridges, and showed by what means the progress of the settlement of the colony can be accelerated a hundredfold, by your measures, which have created this town and township.  Finally, we beg you to accept of our best wishes for your happiness and prosperity whatever you may be, and we request you to thank the Canada Company for all the benefits they have conferred on us, and the greatest of these we consider their having sent you amongst us."

Unfortunately John Galt did not ever return to Canada despite this wonderful recognition of what he had achieved in the short time he had been there.  On his return to Britain, money problems and bad health stopped him from travelling abroad.  He continued to write and published several novels and articles for various publications.  He died in Greenock in 1839.  However his three sons all settled in Canada and contributed to the success of that country.

The Annals of the Parish

One of John Galt's best known books is The Annals of the Parish published in 1821.  Its secondary title, The chronicle of Dalmailing; during the ministry of the Rev. Micah Balwhidder, written by himself, provides an explanation of what the book about.

It tells the story of a small Ayrshire community seen through the eyes of their minister Rev Balwhidder who relates the changes over the years as well as a bit of gossip about his parishioners.  It is a wonderful book and freely available to read online.

The John Galt Society have an online version of the novel read by members of the Society made to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the book's publication.  You can view and listen here at Annals of the Parish @ 200.

John Galt's first love?

There is very little evidence from his work that John Galt was in any way a romantic - evidence would show quite the opposite.  In his novels, many of the marriages that take place are for purely practical or financial reasons.  In the Annals of the Parish, the Rev Micah Balwhidder, after the death of his second wife recounts the the reasoning behind choosing his third -

 "I was now far down in the vale of years, and could not expect to be long without feeling some of the penalties of old age, although I was still a hail and sound man.  It therefore behoved me to look in time for a helpmate, to tend me in my approaching infirmities."

It comes as a bit of a surprise then to learn that in his own younger life, John Galt had a secret love!  She was someone he met before his departure from Greenock to London in 1804.

The Greenock Advertiser published this article in December 1849, ten years after Galt's death -

"For half a century the late John Galt kept in his desk, never seen by human eye save his own, the miniature of a young lady who was, we may suppose, his first love.  The likeness was taken when the lady was about to proceed to the south of England for the benefit of her health; but the hopes of lengthened days from the change of climate were doomed to be disappointed, as she there died.

During his varied career, our clever townsman seems ever to have retained fresh in his memory a tender recollection of her who first called forth his affection.  Very shortly before his death, Mr Galt gave the portrait to his friends, with directions that it might be presented to some one of the relatives of the lady who had not any other remembrancer of her, and this wish was complied with."

It seems that John Galt also kept some verses which he wrote at the time.  The article continues - 

"It [the likeness] was accompanied by the following lines, which were written on hearing of the lady’s decease.  They are chiefly remarkable as among the earliest, perhaps the very earliest, effusions of Mr Galt."  

The second verse of the poem reads -

"How sweet was that face and mild its expression,
As a lamb on the lea in the evening beam;

And kind was that heart, and soft its impression,

So soft as the moonlight that sleeps on the stream."

 The work ends -

"But consumption’s pale hand, with a touch cold and pining,
Has wasted those charms; on a strange distant shore
The lily was withered, wane and declining,
It bowed it sweet head, and it never rose more."

It would appear that John Galt's first love remained for a long time in his thoughts.

John Galt's Hobby Horse

In 1835 John Galt (1779-1839) was living in his sister's house in West Blackhall Street, Greenock.  Badly incapacitated from a number of strokes, this did not stop Galt's imagination from devising what can only be described as an early form of exercise machine.

A quote from a "Greenock Paper" found in the publication "Museum of Foreign Literature and Science" (Volume 26) 1835 reads:- 

“John Galt’s Hobby-Horse – Mr. Galt, being incapable of locomotion, has lately invented a machine which gives him exercise somewhat similar to riding.  It is of the form of a cross, the transverse beam moving on a pivot like a balance.  From each arm hangs a stirrup-iron, and on the top of the upright are two pullies, through which two cords are reeved, fastened to the extremities of the transverse beam.  The unfastened ends hang down in front, with bell-pull handles.  When using it, the invalid is seated on an elbow-chair, his feet placed in the stirrups, while he grasps the handles, and gives it motion by drawing the cords, raising and depressing the ends of the transverse beam." 

This contraption could have been what Galt described in his Literary Life and Miscellanies (Volume 1) when he wrote -

 “At last I hit, as I supposed, on a more agreeable diminution of leisure than dictating stories, and an old youthful habit was invited to return.  I imagined that there was not such a waste of thought in mechanical experiments, as in literature; and accordingly, I resorted to this very questionable kind of indulgence.  Having formed in my own mind the model of a machine that promised some amusement, I resolved to make one, and with that view ordered cuts of leaden pipes, and boxes to be made, and anticipated the pleasure I should derive from the experiment.”

Unfortunately for Galt, while his mental inventiveness was still to the fore, his physical strength was waning.  He writes, "... alas, I forgot the weight of the lead, and when I came to handle my materials, I found myself, in some instances, unable to lift them, though they did not exceed many pounds”.  He employed a man to assemble the machine. 

From a young age Galt had been interested in how things worked.  In his Autobiography he writes - 

"While yet at school I had a bias for mechanics ... Among other things I attempted to make a hurdy-gurdy, in a box, and was magnificent in shows."  

He says that his best work was "an Eolian harp, which was occasionally shown off in the staircase window, especially when my mother happened to be absent, for its mournful melody put her in the vapours, as she said, and I was obliged to give away the "wind organ" to a schoolfellow."  It is not surprising; an Aeolian harp is played by the wind and must have filled the house with very eerie sounds. 

These are just a few of the instances which show the inventiveness and curiosity of John Galt - traits which stayed with him throughout his life.

John Galt's - The Battle of Largs

As well as being National Poetry Day, today, 2nd of October 2025, also marks the anniversary of a famous battle - the subject of a poem by John Galt.  On 2 October 1263 a battle was fought at Largs between Scotland and Norway - the Battle of Largs.  Scotland won the battle.  Largs in North Ayrshire sits on the coast between Irvine and Greenock and was well known to John Galt through his travels with his family from his birthplace, Irvine, to Greenock where the Galt family settled when John was ten years old.

Tales of the heroic battle obviously had an effect on the young Galt.  One of his earliest published works was The Battle of Largs – A Gothic Poem a long and almost fantastical tale of events in 1263.

Till spent by an excess of strife,

The wretched Danes, to shelter life,

Back to their boats by vengeance driven,

Like chaff before the storms of heaven

Tumultuous fled.  But now the main,

Urg’d by the winds, retreat made vain;

The white waves, vext to anger, tore

The vessels from the slaughter-shore,

And in fantastic eddies whirl’d,

To wreck the floating refuge hurl’d.

John Galt devotes a whole chapter to his thought on the work in his Literary Life and Miscellanies (volume I, chapter V) stating - 

“The Battle of Largs is a sort of Gothic epic; and I remember very well that it cost me a great deal of research although distinct from the composition.”

It was published anonymously in 1804 in his first year in London, but was not well received although Galt was reasonably proud of it.

Each year Largs has a Viking Festival and there is a visitor attraction Vikingar which tells the stories of the Vikings and their culture and history.