UNIVERSITY, GLASGOW (1451 - 1870)
The Papal Bull for the establishment of a "studium generale" at Glasgow was granted by Pope Nicholas V on the 7th of January, 1451. It was sent to Bishop Turnbull (1447-54), who had made the application to the Pope with the support of King James II (1430-1437-1460), and was read out to the crowd at Glasgow Cross five months later. The original Bull was among the treasures of the Metropolitan See taken to France by Archbishop Beaton at the Reformation but the modern University retains a transcript made in 1490. Beaton also took with him the University mace which had been made in 1465. Unlike other treasures, this was recovered and returned to the University 30 years later, and is still in its possession today.
The fledgling University was almost completely dependent upon the Church, with its earliest meetings and classes taking place on Church premises. The only organised Faculty, the Faculty of Arts, held its classes in the crypt of the Cathedral or the Chapter House of the Black Friars' Convent in High St.. It was the very early establishment of this College which gave rise to the almost synonymous use of the term Glasgow College for the University in the following centuries.
For a brief period a small tenement in the Rotten Row may have been utilised for classes as well as accommodation; this was the "Old Pedagogy" which survived into the middle 19th century. By 1453, the foundation would appear to have grown sufficiently to warrant a move to a larger, rented tenement on the east side of the High St., to the north of the Black Friars' (or Blackfriars as it became known). This was the nucleus around which the University expanded; its first permanent site and one which it was to occupy for over 400 years.
In 1460 James, Lord Hamilton, donated to the Faculty of Arts a tenement on the east side of the High St. with grounds reaching to the Molendinar Burn and 4 acres of land on the Dow Hill; this was most likely the same tenement which was already being rented. The University's territory was supplemented 7 years later when an adjacent tenement and croft were donated by Thomas Arthurlie.
The provisions of Hamilton and Arthurlie were sorely needed. The earliest years of the University were ones which saw a continual struggle for survival. Bishop Turnbull had been unable to endow the foundation prior to his death in 1454, and it had to survive upon very restricted income from a variety of sources. One hundred years was to see little change in its situation.
In 1563, to help alleviate the desperate circumstances into which it had fallen, Queen Mary Stuart (1542-1542-1587) temporarily allocated the University some Church lands previously confiscated to the Crown. This included the Blackfriars' "kirkroom" with 13 acres of its land and some of its revenues. She later made a grant of Church properties to the Town Council in 1567 - allegedly to win its favour - only 2 months prior to the decisive Battle of Langside. These included the old possessions of the Black and Grey Friars within the town.
In 1573, Glasgow Town Council felt financially able to convey most of these to the University, with Blackfriars becoming the College church. Despite these grants, the income to the University remained insubstantial and was frequently difficult to collect. Also, with the endowments of the 16th century, the University had acquired most of the site upon which it was to develop.
Despite its precarious finances, a major construction programme was initiated in the 17th century to replace the deteriorating medieval structures. This resulted in a complex which was to be described as "one of the finest specimens of Scottish architecture in the seventeenth century." A subscription fund was opened in 1630 to help finance the project and building began the following year which was to continue in stages over the next 3 decades.
There was support for the project from a whole range of Scottish society including Glasgow's Town Council, the Reformed Church and the nobility. King Charles I (1600-1625-1649) promised a donation of £200 in 1633 while in Scotland for his coronation, which he did not actually make - possibly being too caught up in the events of the Civil War which was to end in his execution.
One of the principal benefactors in the building of the old College was Zachary Boyd, Minister of the Barony Parish (1625-53) and at various times Rector, Dean of Faculty and Vice-Chancellor of the University. He died in 1653 and left a substantial bequest to the University which was diverted into the building programme. A commemorative bust of Boyd was placed in a niche above the archway in the Inner Quadrangle in 1658. Another benefactor was the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, who honoured King Charles's promise by paying the University the outstanding £200 in 1654.
When completed in 1660, the
impressive new High St. frontage ran for 285 feet along the east side of the
street, with the main complex of buildings extending back for 300 feet,
surrounding Inner and Outer Quadrangles. The whole was modelled on the layout of
the medieval College, and covered 26 acres. One of the most prominent features
of the new College was the 140 feet high bell tower and steeple rising astride
the archway between the Quadrangles. As a further adornment, the Lion and
Unicorn staircase was added in the 1690s.
The Inner Quadrangle
In 1705 a Physic Garden was formed on the eastern portion of the grounds, and later transferred to the south of the College Church in 1754. This was used to teach Botany and for research purposes but when it became increasingly difficult to maintain due to the rapid urbanisation of its surroundings it had to be closed in 1810. This left the University without a major facility to teach Botany, and it was intended to replace the garden. However, when Thomas Hopkirk initiated the formation of a Botanic Garden in 1816, the University determined to support this project financially rather than create is own new garden. In return for its support, it was allowed to use the Sandyford site for academic purposes.
The University was one of the first institutions to utilise lightning conductors, one being placed atop the College tower. This action is reported to have been effected following a visit to Glasgow by Benjamin Franklin who had investigated the properties of lightning in his studies and strongly recommended the use of lightning rods to the University. Very little encouragement was probably required given the destructive consequences of a lightning strike to the College Church which had already occurred in 1670.
Although the 17th century buildings were to continue to comprise the bulk of the University facilities for the next two centuries, there were significant additions made during that period. Among these was the Macfarlane Observatory which was built in 1757 on Dowhill. Alexander Macfarlane was a merchant who had made his fortune in Jamaica and when he died, had bequeathed his astronomical instruments to the University.
The Huntarian Museum
The original Hunterian Museum was built in 1804 to house the collections of William Hunter, an eminent anatomist and former student. These were left to the University with a bequest of £8,000. The Museum was the first building to be demolished in 1870, but its new incarnation was included at Gilmorehill where it houses not only Hunter's artifacts but also memorabilia of the old College.
Although, on the whole, the presence of the University in Glasgow was of great mutual benefit, relationships between the town and the institution - the "town and gown" - were not always cordial. It seems inevitable that some friction would arise between the red-cloaked, latin-speaking students and local youth, but on one occasion there was even a pitched "battle" between the students and soldiers of the 71st Regiment of Foot from the neighbouring military barracks.
However, it was not always without some serious justification that such disputation arose. With the growing interest in medical sciences in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the acquisition of cadavers for experimentation by the scientists gave rise to the trade of the dreaded resurrectionists. It would seem that the medical school at the University at Glasgow may have been as guilty of its encouragement as those anywhere else. Between 1744 and 1749 the University was attacked 4 times by mobs which suspected it of such activity.
Jack House (1965) recounts an episode of December, 1813 when some body-snatchers were disturbed at their grisly work in the Ramshorn kirkyard and were seen to have run off in the direction of the College buildings. Suspicion fell upon the staff and students with a mob forming and attacking the house of the Professor of Anatomy, Dr Jeffrey. The Magistrates authorised an immediate search for the body of a Mrs McAlister found to be missing from her grave.
At the house of Dr Pattison in College St. a number of body parts were found beneath the flooring. Pattison, along with one of his lecturers and two students who were found in the house, were arrested but at their trial in Edinburgh the following year they were released when it could not be proven that they had been involved in the crime. Popular belief in his complicity persisted, and Dr Pattison could not safely remain in Glasgow. He subsequently emigrated to the United States.
Almost inevitably an institution such as the University has had many notable personages associated with it. In the old College's case some of these have been of truly world renown, making a major impact on their own society and sometimes the entire world.
Andrew Melville (1545-1622) was Principal of the University from 1574-80, during which time he implemented far reaching changes which resulted in its elevation in status to international importance. Outwith the University Melville was a major figure in the Reformed Church. He was a fervent protagonist of the Presbyterian polity and was instrumental in shifting the Church to a more extreme, puritanical position than had hitherto been the case. From 1576-78 he helped in the compilation of the "Second Book of Discipline."
Robert Foulis (1707-76) established his bookshop and printing business in the grounds in 1741 and was appointed printer to the University in 1743.The Foulis Academy of Arts was established in 1753, 15 years before London's Royal Academy, and accommodated in the College.
Joseph Black (1728-99) was a notable Lecturer in Chemistry when he developed his theory of "latent heat" between 1756-61. The corollary of this was the theory of "specific heat." Black also discovered the existence of carbon dioxide.
John Anderson (1726-96) was Professor of Oriental Languages and later Natural Philosophy. He bequeathed his estate to found another University, but this proving insufficient for the purpose, it went to the establishment of Anderson's College. This ultimately developed into Strathclyde University.
Adam Smith (1723-90), author of the classic and highly influential text on political economy, "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations"(1776), was a student at the University and taught there from 1751 as Professor of Logic, then of Moral Philosophy (1752-64).
James Watt (1736-1819) undertook repairs to the Macfarlane astronomical equipment in 1756 and thereafter had accommodation at the University as a mathematical instrument maker. He was befriended by Black, and encouraged by him in his work on the model of the Newcomen engine. This gave rise to Watt's conception of the separate condenser in 1765, and the subsequent invention of the steam engine.
William Thomson (1824-1907), later Lord Kelvin, entered Glasgow as a student at the remarkably young age of 10 years, and was its Professor of Natural Philosophy from 1846-99. Included in the wide range of his scientific achievements was his work on the second law of thermodynamics and the formulation of the Kelvin temperature scale.
Joseph Lister (1827-1912) who was Professor of Surgery from 1860-69 during which time he pioneered his life-saving antiseptic techniques at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.
Observations of the night sky requiring a clear atmosphere, the Macfarlane Observatory soon fell into disuse as the murk exuded from the chimneys of the surrounding habitations and works increased as the Industrial Revolution progressed. It was ultimately as a consequence of the press of the slums and industry upon the University that was to see its final removal to the west of the city.
By the turn of the 19th century the buildings were already falling into decay despite valiant attempts to maintain and repair them, and they could no longer meet the needs of an expanding student population. Consideration was given to rebuilding yet again upon the same site, but the immediate environment had become so highly detrimental to study and good health, not to say sustained morality, that this option was discounted. Even the Barracks was finally removed in 1874, one reason given being the poor influence of the local population upon the soldiers' morals!
In 1846, the Glasgow, Airdrie and Monklands Junction Railway planned to build a new University at Woodlands and take over the old site, but this scheme came to nothing. When the City of Glasgow Union Railway Company offered to purchase the site in 1863, this time the proposal was accepted, but access to the site was to be deferred until a new University was built at Gilmorehill. The last meeting of the Senate of the Old College was held on 29/7/1870 and the new University opened for the session of 1870-71.
The irony of Watt's creation and the ultimate effect upon the University where it was produced was duly noted in the press at the demise of the old institution;
"Deep-brooding Watt, sitting in his academic shop, studying great physical powers, evoked from his brain the very spirit...which is about to lay the walls of his student's cell in ruins. It is to the railway that the University is about to yield up its ancient dwelling-place, and, in a few months, there will sweep over the spot where the great philosopher sat the very spirit which he was then chaining to the car of civilisation." Glasgow Herald, 3rd May, 1870.
The old College buildings were not
all immediately demolished on their evacuation, and in 1878 the elaborate main
gateway was still in use as the entrance to the new railway station. At that
time, it was rescued from eventual destruction by a former College student, the
ship-builder Sir William Pearce, who purchased the structure and had it rebuilt
at Gilmorehill as Pearce Lodge. This Lodge retains many of the original
features, and incorporates other architectural elements of the College which
were also rescued. It remains the single most significant vestige of the old
College. The Lion and Unicorn staircase had already been transported to
Gilmorehill in 1872 and now gives access to the Forehall there.
Other memorabilia of more ancient days are preserved in the new Hunterian Museum. These artifacts include the model of the Newcomen engine worked on by Watt, the Blackstone Chair and the commemorative bust of Boyd. The Museum also displays a model of the old College itself.
It is tragic to think that these magnificent buildings were lost to the city so recently as 1870, with so little of note to replace them. There can be no doubt that their survival would have graced the High St. to very great effect today. Some solace is found in the number of illustrations which have survived, one of the earliest being of c.1669 and included in Slezer's "Theatrum Scotiae" (1693). This also showed the old Blackfriars' Church, prior to its severe damage by fire in 1670.
The old lands are still largely utilised by the railways, with a station still at High St., although a portion is used as car park. In 1989 Strathclyde University completed its Andrew Ure Hall of Residence on the High St., and the 1990s saw Millers develop their "College Lands" housing, but there now remains no memorial beyond the designation of "College" given to various facilities in the area to indicate where this historic institution once stood. Even a simple marble plaque which fronted on to the High St. has gone with redevelopments.
Boney, A.D. (1988); "The Lost Gardens of Glasgow University." London, Christopher Helm.
House, Jack (1965, 1982); "The Heart of Glasgow." W. & R. Chambers Ltd., Edinburgh.
Mackie, J.D. (1954); "The University of Glasgow, 1451-1951." Jackson, Son & Company, Glasgow.
University of Glasgow (1951); "The University of Glasgow Through Five Centuries." University Press, Glasgow.
© 2005 Gordon Adams
