BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 225
the next wm married to a Mr. Stoddart, who had realised a fortune abroad ;
the third to James Marshall, Esq., Secretary to the Provincial Bank of Ireland
in London; and the youngest to the late Reverend Dr. Robertson of South
Leith. The rest mostly died when young. The only son who reached manhood
was the late William Jamieson, W.S., who died in 1626. This gentleman
attained a temporary celebrity by his attacks on the Judges of the Court of
Session ; for which, however, he smarted pretty severely-perhaps more so than
the case required.
The third figure is MR. ARCHIBALD M'DOWALL, clothier, North
Bridge, for many years a leading member of the Town Council. He is represented
as holding in his hand a plan of the improvement proposed by the
Magistrates.
His
father, James M'Dowall of Canonmills, was nearly related to the late Andrew
M'Dowall, Lord Bankton. In the entail of the estate of Bankton, in East
Lothian, and certain other property, executed in 1756, he is a nominatim
mbstitute, and is therein stated to be his lordship's cousin.' Mrs. Gilmour of
Craigmillar, the great-grandchild of this James M'Dowall, was consequently
grand-niece of Mr. Archibald M'Dowall. Being the descendant of his eldest
brother, she succeeded to the property of Canonmills, on the death of her
father, while in minority. It may not be out of place to mention that Mr.
Patrick M'Dowall, the father of James M'Dowall of Canonmills, was the first
private banker who discounted bills in Edinburgh. He carried on business
before the erection of the Bank of Scotland, under the Act of Parliament in 1695,
and for a considerable time afterwards.
Mr. M'Dowall was born in 1743, and married in early lie a near relation of
the late Dr. John Macfarlan, minister of the Canongate Church (who married
his sister), and father of John Macfarlan of Kirkton, Esq., advocate, and also
of the present Dr. Patrick Macfarlan of Greenock. He commenced the first
cloth manufactory in Scotland,' similar to those carried on so extensively at
Leeds, and brought a number of workmen from England for that purpose.
This establishment was at Paul's Work, at the south back of Canongate, now
called M'Dowall Street, from which he afterwards removed to Brunstane Mill,
Mr. M'Dowall was a cadet of the ancient family of M'Dowall of Logan,
The Countess of Dalhousie, who happened to be the nearest heir of entail to the Logan and
Bankton estates, was long engaged in a lawsuit with the possessor, so that, failing his brother, she
might be enabled to enter into possession. ' In order to encourage Mr. M'Dowall's manufactory, the Earl of Buchan proposed that such
gentlemen of the Antiquarian Society as intended to be present at the first anniversary meeting of
the Society on the 30th November 1781, should be dressed entirely in "home-made" articles.
Accordingly, they all appeared with clothes of M'Dowall's manufacture, worsted hose, etc. Lord
Buchan, being the last to make his appearance, on looking round, immediately exclaimed, " Gentlemen,
there is not one of you dressed according to agreement, myself excepted ; your buckles and
buttons are entirely English, whereas mine are made from jasper taken from Arthur's Seat." And
very beautiful they were. The bed of jasper is now exhausted.
2 6
226 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
near Portobello. Being, however, unable to compete with the English manufacturers,
the speculation proved unsuccessful.
Mr. M'DowaIl entered the Town Council in 1775, and in politics took the
same side as his friend Sir James Hunter Blair. He was several times in the
magistracy ; and, before his retirement, was offered the Provost's chair, which
he prudently declined, in consequence of the depressed state of his manufactory.
He was a very public-spirited man, and devoted much of his time to the improvement
of the city.
The eldest, after
being unsuccessful as a merchant, settled in Van Diemen's Land, where he
obtained a grant of land, which he has denominated, after that of his ancestor,
the estate of Logan. For two of his sons Mr. M'Dowall obtained appointments
in the East India Company's Service. One of them (Colonel Robert) was nearly
thirty years in India, during which time he distinguished himself at the siege of
Seringapatam, and on various other occasions-particularly in the surprise and
complete dispersion of above 3000 Pindaries-for which he received the thanks
of the Governor-General in Council, and of the Court of Directors. He afterwards
was at the capture of Tavoy and Mergui, of which he was appointed
Governor ; but was unfortunately killed, in command of two brigades of native
infantry, at the conclusion of the Burmese war. The other son who went to
India (Mr. TNilliam), after being about twenty years in the Madras Medical
Establishment, returned to Edinburgh, taking up his residence at Bellevue
Crescent. Two other sons of Mr. M'Dowall entered the mercantile, and his
youngest son (Charles) the legal profession as a Writer to the Signet.
In the back-ground the Lord Provost (Sir James Hunter Hair) is represented
as busily employed in digging and shovelling out the earth ; while Mr.
Hay, Deacon of the Surgeons, and L most violent anti-leveller, is as eagerly
engaged in shovelling it back again. Mr. Hay was a leader of the opposition in
the Council.
This civic squabble gave birth to various local effusions j and, among others,
to a satirical poem in Latin doggerel, entitled "Streeturn Eclinense, carmen
Macaronicum,'ll-in which Mr. Hay is made to sustain a prominent part. After
alluding to the zeal displayed in the matter by Sir James Hunter Blair, and
just at the moment that assent has been given to the measure by the Councillors
present, the Deacon is represented as bursting into the Council Chamber,
backed by a posse of anti-levellers, and in a harangue of most uncouth hexameters,
declaims against the project, and dares his brethren to carry it into
effect.
Mr. M'Dowall died December 1816, leaving six sons.
'
1 This mock-heroic poem was the joint production of the late Mr. Smellie, printer, and of Mr.
Little of Liberton. It will be found in " Kerr's Memoira of Smellie."