DALE, DAVID (1739-1806)
David
Dale was born in Stewarton, Ayrshire to a relatively poor family. Although his father was a grocer, his ancestors were farmers.
Dale himself herded cattle until apprenticed as a weaver in Paisley.
Unsatisfied with the inactivity of this occupation, he moved to Hamilton
and Cambuslang before finally settling in Glasgow about 1763.
There, with the help of friends, he opened a shop in Hopkirk's Land, High
Street dealing in imported linen yarn.
Dale prospered to such an extent that he was able to have a large mansion house built for his family in the newly laid out and prestigious Charlotte Street. Designed by Robert Adam, the house was built in 1782, and had extensive gardens to the back. It was situated at the south-west corner with Greendyke Street and had ready access to Glasgow Green over the nearby Camlachie Burn.
1783 saw Dale made the first Glasgow agent of the Royal Bank of Scotland. He utilised part of his premises in High Street for banking transactions until 1790 after which time the banking side of his business was transferred to St. Andrew’s Square. The increased availability of finance which this resulted in, as well as the influence which the position conferred, gave a fillip to the businesses which Dale had already established and helped to resource future initiatives.
In 1785 Dale had become involved with George MacIntosh and Monsieur Papillon in the introduction of the Turkey Red dyeing process into Scotland when their works were established on the banks of the Clyde at Dalmarnock, the Barrowfield Dyeworks. This factory was finally sold to Henry Monteith in 1805.
Dale's overall good fortune continued as he diversified into other aspects of the weaving business. Initially in partnership with Richard Arkwright and then alone, Dale built his famous cotton spinning mill at New Lanark in 1785 to take advantage of the Falls of Clyde as a power source. He was later to build other factories including at Blantyre, Spinningdale in Sutherland and Catrine in Ayrshire.
Work in factories at this early stage of the industrial revolution was held in low regard by most lowland workers. However, Dale was able to provide a workforce to his factories utilising the Western Highlanders who were being forced to leave their land and migrate. When this source also proved insufficient to meet his needs, he employed hundreds of poor children from Glasgow and Edinburgh. Not only were they provided with work, but Dale ensured they were properly housed and educated.
Not all of Dale ventures proved so successful. He is reputed to have lost about £20,000 in a coal mining venture in Barrowfield. The coal could not be reached due to the treacherous nature of the ground conditions, there being quicksand at the site of operations, and the works had to be abandoned
Dale was renowned for his philanthropic works. At times of threatened famine in 1782, 1791-93 and 1799, he imported large quantities of food from Ireland, America and Europe which he then sold on to the poor at affordable prices. In 1795, he became one of the directors of the new Glasgow Royal Infirmary having made the most substantial donation of any single individual towards its costs.
His goodwill is believed to have arisen from a deep commitment to his religious beliefs. Originally of the evangelical party of the Established Church, he quit like so many others over the question of patronage c.1766. In his particular case it was when the magistrates and council of the city obtained the patronage of the Burgh Churches in 1764-66 and imposed their choice of minister on the Wynd Church in the face of opposition from the congregation.
Along with like-minded friends, Dale gradually embraced congregational principals. He was one of the founders of the Old Scotch Independent Church in Greyfriars' Wynd, known as the "caunnel kirk" in reference to its builder Archibald Paterson, who was a candlemaker and one time partner of Dale at High Street. This was at a time when seceders from the Church of Scotland were still regarded with great antipathy. On more than one occasion Dale had to retreat from the attentions of the mob, especially when he had the audacity to preach in his church without being licensed by the Church of Scotland.
Dale became progressively more popular and well-respected, and his rather corpulent figure became very well known in Glasgow. When he had the misfortune to slip and fall on some ice one day he commented to a friend that he had "fallen all his length." The friend responded that it had been as well that he had not fallen all his breadth. It is believed that Dale provided the inspiration for the Sir Walter Scott character Baillie Nicol Jarvie in "Rob Roy". Dale too had been elected a Magistrate of the town, in 1791 and again in 1794.
A popular story recounted of him was when he had arranged for Directors of the Royal Bank in Edinburgh to attend at his mansion house in Charlotte Street for dinner. When the Clyde was in spate, the Camlachie Burn which ran at the foot of Charlotte Street was inclined to flood, and it did so on this occasion with the consequence that Dale's kitchens and cellar were flooded. Undeterred, the engagement was proceeded with above water level. The meal itself was prepared with the co-operation of his neighbours, but it was felt only his own wine cellar was of a sufficiently high standard to provide the refreshment for the evening. A "sea faring man" was found and, riding on his back, Dale's daughter Caroline was dispatched to the flooded cellar to select the wines for the meal.
Towards the end of his life, Dale started to divest himself of his business interests. The New Lanark mills were sold in 1799 to Robert Owen, who later married Dale's daughter Caroline in the Charlotte Street house. Owen continued to make and improve upon the social provisions for the workers which had been instigated by Dale. Dale purchased the Rosebank estate in Cambuslang from Provost John Dunlop in 1800 to escape the encroachments of the city, and it was there he died in 1806. He was greatly mourned and was interred in St. David's churchyard.
Remarkably,
Dale's house survived until as late as 1953.
It had been used for a number of purposes in the intervening years.
For a time in the mid-19th century it was used as a nunnery by the
Sisters of the Immaculate Conception and then as the Glasgow Eye Infirmary.
At the turn of the 20th century there was an attempt to have it purchased
by the city as a Museum in honour of Dale, but this came to nothing. It passed to the ownership of the Education Authority and was
ultimately removed to make way for an extension to Our Lady and St. Francis'
School.
For a time the David Dale College recalled the memory of this great Glasgow personage, but was later incorporated into the Glasgow College of Building & Printing. A more lasting memorial has proven to be Dale Street, one of the first Bridgeton streets to be laid out in the late 18th century.
Liddell, Andrew (1854); “Memoir of David Dale, Merchant, Glasgow.” Glasgow, Blackie & Son. (Glasgow University Special Collection MU22.a.12)
McLaren, David, J. (1983); “David Dale of New Lanark.” Heatherbank Press, Glasgow.
©Gordon Adams
