Galt and the Freedom of Irvine

Two hundred years ago, in September 1825, John Galt was awarded the Freedom of the Burgh of Irvine, the town of his birth.

Galt visited Irvine with his mother and sister to receive the honour.  He had just returned to Britain from his first visit to Canada on behalf of the Canada Company and was visiting his family.

In his Autobiography he writes –

“We had a long journey to perform in the course of that day, I stepped out of the post-chaise, at the door of the tollbooth, to wait on the magistrates, when, to my astonishment, I beheld my old friend alive, then a very venerable man, sitting in the chair.  The sight upon me for a moment was as an apparition, but I was recalled to myself by the manner in which he delivered the diploma, with an address; Provost Pawkie himself could never have said anything half so good.”

Provost Pawkie is Galt’s main character in his work The Provost.  “Pawkie” in Scots means sly or cunning and Galt describes his book as –“exhibiting a tolerably correct picture of a Scottish borough, I had in view, while writing it, a gentleman, who, when I was a boy at school, had the chief management of the borough council in my native town.”  Galt continues -“I believed he was dead, and had no scruple about choosing him for my model.”

The man being described was Robert Fullarton (1740-1835) who was a councillor in Irvine for 42 years.  Irvine Burns Club have a portrait of Fullarton which you can view here (you will need to scroll down to view it).

Aside from Galt’s surprise that the Baillie was still alive, he also had this to say about the man he met on that important September day in 1825 –

“His speech partook of his character, and evinced a degree of good sense, of tact, and taste, though delivered in the Scottish dialect, quite extraordinary.  Instead of speaking the sort of balderdash, common on such occasions, he passed over everything which related to myself, conceiving, as I suppose, that the honour of bestowing on me a burgess ticket, was a sufficient recognition of my supposed deservings; but he paid a well expressed compliment to the character of my father and mother, telling how much they were held in esteem by their townsfolk, and concluded with saying, that not the least proof of their merits was in bringing up their children to be worthy of a public testimony of respect.”

Perhaps not quite the testimonial John Galt was expecting, but presumably his mother would have been pleased to have been recognised!

Sir Thomas Galt - the middle son

Thomas Galt, the son of John Galt and Elizabeth Tilloch, was born in London on 12 August 1815.  He was educated at Musselburgh Grammar School and Reading School.  In 1828 he travelled with his mother and brothers to Canada to be with his father, founder of the Canada Company.  He and his brothers attended the Rev Joseph Braithwaite’s school at Chambly (now a suburb of Montreal) and later the boys returned to London with their mother. 

Sir Thomas Galt (1815-1901)

In 1833, aged just 18, Thomas and his elder brother, John returned to Canada.  John Galt writes - 

 “While employed on my Autobiography, my two eldest sons resolved to go to Canada.  The eldest, in my opinion very prudently, determined to be nothing but a farmer; the other carried with him a recommendation from the Directors of the Canada company, to be received into their establishment, which I do think was very kind of them to give, after the manner I had been obliged to speak from experience of my own treatment by the Company.” (Literary Life 1) 

Thomas decided to study law in Toronto and entered the office of William Henry Draper who later became Attorney General for Upper Canada.  In 1845 Thomas was called to the bar of Upper Canada and in 1847 he married Frances Louisa Perkins (1825-1909).  The couple had a large family and lived on Pembroke Street, Toronto.

In 1852 he entered partnership with Hon John Ross (1818-1871).  In 1855 Thomas became a Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada and in 1858 he was appointed a Queen’s Counsel.  He acted as Council for various railway companies who were opening up the country at that time.

He seems to have been very highly thought of as this quote from The Barrister shows - 

 “Sir Thomas is one of those kind-hearted men who make the world better by living in it.  He never enters a room but that his cheerful smile and cheery manner cast a ray of sunshine around.  You can notice the effect perceptibly on the countenances of everyone present.  The success of such a man’s life can never be measured by his public acts; he has probably made a thousand hearts happier that he does not know of himself, and so it has been with Sir Thomas Galt."

As well as a civil practice he was also a criminal lawyer.  He was involved in several high-profile cases including in 1872 the trial of Phoebe Campbell for murdering her husband.  She was found guilty and hanged.  In 1869 Galt was appointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Ontario.

He was described in Canadian Portrait Gallery –

“In addition to the attainments properly belonging to him as an eminent lawyer, he is known as a master of style, and his judgements are marked not less by their depth of learning than by the stateliness of the diction in which they are written.”

In 1887 he was appointed Chief Justice of Ontario and was given a knighthood in 1888.  He retired in 1894, but it was said that he often frequented Osgoode Hall, to have a chat with his associates or the Toronto Club where he liked to play whist.  Sir Thomas Galt died 1901 and was buried in St James Cemetery, Toronto.

Met in a foreign country - Galt and Byron

Lord Byron (1788-1824) wrote a fascinating little final paragraph in a letter he had written to John Galt dated 11 December 1813, the letter, addressed to "My Dear Galt" ends -

"I don’t know how other men feel towards those they have met abroad, but to me there seems a kind of tie established between all who have met together in a foreign country, as if we had met in a state of pre-existence, and were talking over a life that had ceased.  But I always look forward to renewing my travels; and though you, I think, are now stationary, if I can at all forward your pursuits there as well as here, I shall be truly glad in the opportunity. Ever yours very sincerely, B"

Lord Byron

Galt met Lord Byron in Gibraltar in 1809 and later in Athens.  They travelled together for a short while before Galt returned to Britain and they continued their acquaintance in London in 1811.  Galt sent this letter to Blackwood for publication in 1823 when he was living at Eskgrove near Musselburgh.  His cover letter to Blackwood reads -

“My Dear Sir – Among a number of letters which I have been lately looking over from Lord Byron, the enclosed, I think, may be published without violating the proprieties of private life, or betraying the confidence of friendship.”

The main business of the letter itself was in connection with Byron's The Bride of Abydos written 1813.  Later, John Galt wrote a biography of Byron The Life of Lord Byron which was published in 1830.  Byron, like Galt was also a great friend of the Countess of Blessington.

The Life of Lord Byron by John Galt is available to read free online.

How the Ettrick Shepherd described John Galt

While portraits can give us a good idea of what a person looked like, it is just as interesting to read other people's thoughts on the looks and personality traits of the subject.  The poet James Hogg (1770-1835) who was known as the Ettrick Shepherd met John Galt in Greenock in 1804 when Galt would have been 25 years old.

Hogg describes being invited to supper at the Tontine Hotel in Greenock where he found – “no fewer than thirty gentlemen assembled to welcome us, and among the rest was Mr Galt, then a tall thin young man, with something a little dandyish in his appearance.  He was dressed in a frock-coat and new top-boots; and it being then the fashion to wear the shirt collars as high as the eyes, Galt wore his the whole of that night with the one side considerable above his ear, and the other flapped over the collar of his frock-coat down to his shoulder.”

Hogg points out what he views as one of Galt’s “peculiarities” – “He walked with his spectacles on, and conversed with them on; but when he read he took them off.  In short, from his first appearance, one would scarcely have guessed him to be a man of genius.”

James Hogg had worked as a shepherd in Ettrick in the Scottish Borders in his youth and was self educated.  He composed songs and poems and admired the work of Robert Burns.  He published a small collection of his work, Scottish Pastorals in 1801 and came to the attention of Walter Scott.  In 1807 he published The Mountain Bard and in 1810 moved to Edinburgh and continued his writing career, meeting many of the great writers and poets of the day and contributing to Blackwood's Magazine.  (John Galt also contributed to Blackwood's "Maga".)  Hogg's best known work, published in 1824 was the novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner.

James Hogg (the Ettrick Shepherd)

This is a verse by Hogg entitled Caledonia -

“Old Caledonia! pathway of the storm

That o’er thy wilds resistless sweeps along,

Though clouds and snows thy sterile hills deform,

Thou are the land of freedom and of song.

Land of the eagle fancy, wild and strong!

Land of the loyal heart and valiant arm!

Though southern pride and luxury may wrong

Thy mountain honours, still my heart shall warm

At thy unquestioned weir and songs of magic charm.”

James Hogg also writes about his thoughts on the works of John Galt - “I like Galt’s writings exceedingly, and have always regretted that he has depicted so much that is selfish and cunning in the Scottish character, and so little that is truly amiable, when he could have done it so well.”

It would be interesting to know Galt's thoughts on those remarks!

Galt and Galvanism

John Galt’s The Steam Boat, is a collection of stories related to traveller Thomas Duffle on a steamboat trips from Glasgow to Greenock, Helensburgh and various other places.  Buried Alive is a story narrated by "a young man with a white face and a slender habit of body" and is a strange tale of death and burial.  Buried Alive was first printed in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in 1821.  Galt tells the story from the victim’s point of view.  

In the tale, the pale young man recalls "… I heard the sound of weeping at my pillow - and the voice of the nurse say, "He is dead."  I cannot describe what I felt at these words.  I exerted my utmost power of volition to stir myself, but I could not move even an eyelid.  After a short pause my friend drew near; and, sobbing and convulsed with grief, drew his hand over my face, and closed my eyes.  The world was then darkened, but I could still hear, and feel, and suffer."

The narrator then goes on to recall his misuse by the undertakers who "treated what they believed a corpse, with the most appalling ribaldry."  Next comes the horrific tale of funeral and burial.  The earth is thrown on his coffin - he can hear the sound but can do nothing about it.  He thinks about how his flesh will rot and decay, buried in the earth -

"In the contemplation of this hideous thought, I heard a low and undersound in the earth over me, and I fancied that the worms and the reptiles of death were coming - that the mole and the rat of the grave would soon be upon me.  The sound continued to grow louder and nearer." 

This story could have been taken from an event which was widely publicised in various newspapers and periodicals in January 1819.  It was the ghoulish report on the death of Baron Hornstein who was said to have been buried alive in the family mausoleum.  The report reads: -

“Extraordinary Occurrence – Extract of a letter from Bavaria - We have witnessed here a superb funeral of the Baron Hornstein, a courtier; but the result is what induces me to mention it in my letter.  Two days after the workmen entered the Mausoleum, when they witnessed an object which petrified them!  At the door of a sepulchre lay a body covered with blood – it was the mortal remains of this favourite of Courts and Princes.  The Baron was buried alive!  On recovering from his trance he had forced the lid of the coffin and endeavoured to escape from the charnel-house – it was impossible! And therefore, in a fit of desperation, it it is supposed, he dashed his brains out against the wall.  The Royal Family, and indeed the whole city, are plunged in grief at the horrid catastrophe.”  (January 1819).

But the pale young man has more to relate, there are a couple of surprises for the reader.  After being buried he suddenly feels hands about his neck, and he is dragged from his coffin and his body thrown into a carriage.  He has been taken by the body-snatchers or resurrection men!  

He is carried into a room, stripped of his shroud and placed on a table.  He is now in an anatomy theatre where galvanic experiments are to be made on his body - "The first shock vibrated through all my nerves; they rung and jangled like the strings of a harp." 

Once again, John Galt was reimagining dramatic reports which had appeared in many publications describing actual events of 1818.  In November 1818, Matthew Clydesdale was tried for murder in Glasgow.  He was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, after which his body to be handed over to Dr James Jeffrey, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Glasgow to be publicly dissected and anatomised.  The hanging took place in public in front of the Jail, attended by a large crowd.  After Clydesdale’s body had been left hanging for an hour, it was placed in a coffin and then taken by cart the University where the experiments were to be carried out - again in front of a large crowd.  Dr James Jeffrey (1763-1848) conducted the experiments assisted by Dr Andrew Ure.

Describing one of the “galvanic experiments” Dr Ure wrote - "The pointed rod connected with one end of the battery was not placed in contact with the spinal marrow, while the other rod was applied to the sciatic nerve.  Every muscle of the body was immediately agitated with convulsive movements, resembling a violent shuddering from cold.  The left side was most powerfully convulsed at each renewal of the electric contact.  On moving the second rod from the hip to the heel, the knee being previously bent, the leg was thrown out with such violence, as nearly to overturn one of the assistants, who in vain attempted to prevent its extension."

More experiments followed including - "The supra-orbital nerve was laid bare in the forehead, as it issues through the supra-ciliary foramen, in the eyebrow: the one conducting rod being applied to it, and the other to the heel, most extraordinary grimaces were exhibited every time that the electric discharges were made, … every muscle in his countenance was simultaneously thrown into fearful action; rage, horror, despair, anguish, and ghastly smiles, united their hideous expressions in the murderer's face, surpassing far the wildest representations of a Fuseli or a Kean.  At this period several of the spectators were forced to leave the apartment from terror or sickness, and one gentleman fainted."  Dr Jeffrey eventually cut Clydesdale’s jugular vein thus ending the galvanic experiments.

Similarly, "the pale young man" tells his fascinated audience - “When they had satisfied themselves with the galvanic phenomena, the demonstrator took the knife, and pierced me on the bosom with the point.  I felt a dreadful crackling, as it were, throughout my whole frame – a convulsive shuddering instantly followed, and a shriek of horror rose from all present.”

So, how did the victim of being buried alive and horrific experiments survive to tell his tale?  Well, John Galt's story Buried Alive is available to read online - why not read the whole fascinating account!

Dr Andrew Ure

Andrew Ure (1778-1857) had been an army surgeon and became Professor of Natural Philosophy at Glasgow's Andersonian Institution.  He had an interest in all aspects of science - chemistry, mechanics, astronomy and was a regular contributor to the Philosophical Magazine owned and edited by John Galt's father-in-law, Alexander Tilloch.  

Read more from The Steam Boat by John Galt here.