THE HOPKIRKS OF DALBETH

Thomas Hopkirk was one of the celebrated Tobacco Lords. He was also one of the original partners of the Glasgow Arms Bank founded in the early 1750s. Until the middle of the 18th century he had lived in High St in a tenement known as "Hopkirk's Land".

In about 1754 Hopkirk purchased the Dalbeth estate from Henry Wardrop but although the family used it, they also continued to use their town house in Glasgow. His son, James built a new mansion house at Dalbeth which afterwards became the permanent residence of the family. He resided there until his death. James's son, Thomas was born at Dalbeth in 1785.

This Thomas Hopkirk was educated in Glasgow. He matriculated at the University in 1800 but did not graduate. This was a common practice. Many of the sons of the mercantile class had their schooling supplemented with a few years of higher education before embarking upon a career in trade or commerce.

He was an ardent botanist and maintained an extensive collection of plants at Dalbeth. He was also an enthusiastic researcher of local flora and in 1813 he published his Flora Glottiana; A Catalogue of the Indigenous Plants on the Banks of the Clyde and in the Neighbourhood of the City of Glasgow. It was one of the earliest local Floras. In the same year he published his Catalogue of Plants, which listed the plants both indigenous and exotic which he had cultivated in the garden at Dalbeth. According to this there were no less than 2,253 kinds of plants. By 1815 he lists an additional 1,135 plants.

Hopkirk hoped that a public park could be created to display these and other plants. In 1816 he succeeded in forming a Society with the aim of establishing a Botanic Garden. Funds were raised, a site acquired at Sandyford and on 15th May, 1817 the work of laying out the Garden was begun. In an act of great generosity, Hopkirk donated his entire Dalbeth collection to form the nucleus of the Garden.

In 1818 the Crown made a donation and granted a Royal Charter. The Gardens themselves were run by the Royal Botanic Institution of Glasgow. The main work of laying out the grounds was carried out by Hopkirk who was elected Vice President of the Institution, and by Stewart Murray, the first Curator.

The expanding city encroached upon the site, and it was decided that the Gardens should move to a new location at Kelvinside purchased in 1839. The new Gardens were finally opened to the members of the Institution on 30th April, 1842, the year after Hopkirk's death.