Provan Hall. Historical Documentary Evidence. John G Harrison

Transcription

1 Provan Hall Historical Documentary Evidence A Report by John G Harrison February 2009 John G Harrison Historical Services 14a Abercromby Place Stirling FK8 2QP (01786) john@scothist.fsnet.co.uk PART OF THE INVESTIGATION AND INTERPRETATION OF PROVAN HALL BY JONES LANG LASALLE, COMMISSIONED BY GLASGOW CITY COUNCIL WITH SUPPORT FROM GLASGOW BUILDING PRESERVATION TRUST AND THE NATIONAL TRUST FOR SCOTLAND. 1

2 Contents Chapter One Summary and Sources 1 Summary 1 Sources and Introduction 3 Chapter Two Property and Ownership Issues 5 Conclusion 12 Chapter Three The Documentary Evidence for Buildings 14 Chapter Four William Baillie, Lord Provand etc 22 Chapter Five Natural and Designed Landscapes 28 Immediate and designed landscape 32 Chapter Six Myths, fables and errors 35 References 39 Acknowledgements My thanks are due to Dennis Gallagher, Gordon Ewart and Gareth Jones particularly for suggestions and discussions and, as ever, for asking the questions I overlooked. The staff of Glasgow City Archives were remarkably helpful; particular thanks to Henry Sullivan for making available his draft listing of the Fullarton Manuscripts. Staff at National Archives of Scotland were also remarkably helpful; thanks, too, to Dr Alan Borthwick of NAS for discussion of sixteenth century Scots legal Latin. Derek Alexander was very helpful. My special thanks are due to Dr Stuart Nisbet for information about the background to the landscape of Provan based on his own extensive work. 2

3 Summary Chapter One Summary and Sources The prebend of Barlanark of Provand is recorded from the early fourteenth century and had earlier antecedents; it pertained to Glasgow Cathedral. Its documented use for hunting and fishing is not incompatible with farming. The first records of a Lord of Provand [dominus de Provand] are from Mr Andrew Stewart was prebend in 1500 but before 1505 William Baillie, doctor of medicine and canon of Glasgow was prebend and in 1507 the lordship of Provand was in the hands of William Baillie, brother of Baillie of Carfin. The Baillies and their kin the Hamiltons of Goslington, held it from then to the 1660s. So, during the course of the sixteenth century, Provand is transformed from an ecclesiastical lordship associated with Glasgow cathedral to a secular lordship in private, heritable ownership. No documentation has been found for a high status house prior to the mid sixteenth century. Given the interest in establishing that the site is contemporaneous with Provand s Lordship (or even older) there was clearly a temptation to concentrate work on the earlier material. However, the unpublished material is extensive and poorly calendared or indexed. The chances of finding anything were slight and, even if a house were mentioned in a document, it would still remain to demonstrate that it can be identified within (or under) the surviving structures. Indeed, dating must depend of archaeological rather than archival methods. Pursuing the fifteenth century risked ending up with nothing at all; so, it was decided to concentrate on the sixteenth and later periods. That said, a secular lordship without a manor would be surprising though the position for ecclesiastical lordships is less clear-cut. By the 1550s Provand was in the hands of Mr William Baillie (of the Lamington and Carfin family) a senator of the college of justice who was well placed to wrest it from control of the church; a crown charter permitting the building of improvements in 1562 is clearly a part of that process and thereafter the property became effectively heritable private property. Charters between the 1560s and 1660s refer to the manor house the mansion the tower and fortalice. The eastern curtain wall supports an argument based on the conventions of Scots architecture that there might have been an earlier forerunner of the present south range; the possibility that the date-stone on the gate is an insertion, must be born in mind. In 1575 Mr William, his wife and their son entered 3

4 into a contract at the Hall of Provand ; that and later documentation confirms it as an occupied house. The hope that researching Mr William would provide further leads for the house was only partly fulfilled; but a considerable body of information is presented about him, both as a basis for interpretation and as a guide to future research. After Mr William s death in 1593 the property passed, via his daughter and heir Elizabeth, to the family of Hamilton of Goslington (later of Silvertonhill). Even before that, some parts of the wider property had been feued and alienation proceeded apace into the 1660s, as the Hamiltons debts accumulated. Debt forced a sale to the burgh of Glasgow in By that time, the mansion though still referred to as such in the documents, must have gone into social decline. A new house existed by the later 1720s when Glasgow sold the buildings of the Hall Mailing along with a modest lot of farm-land, land now insufficient to support a lordly lifestyle. Subsequent proprietors derived their main income from business in Glasgow or further afield. By the mid eighteenth century the main residence was the south range; the north had probably already declined to use as farm buildings and storage. Antiquarians began to notice the site (or at least the north range) in the later nineteenth century though by that time, it was evidently a rather dilapidated farm with a clutter of ancillary buildings. The property was purchased by an ad hoc group of local people, made wind- and watertight and presented to National Trust for Scotland. The former housekeeper was continued as caretaker, living in the south range. The gardens, which had been one of the main attractions, were maintained until about the 1950s. Such documentation as there is for the gardens etc is considered, along with a more general discussion of the wider landscape of the Lordship of Provand up to the eighteenth century. 4

5 Sources and Introduction I have been asked to report on the historical-documentary evidence for Provan Hall on the eastern outskirts of Glasgow. It is a complex site. There is a north range seemingly of sixteenth century date with some evidently seventeenth century features. There is a south range comprising a simple house of perhaps late seventeenth or early eighteenth century date. A curtain wall with an arched gateway dated 1647 links the two to the east. A number of modern architectural guides note Provan Hall and give their view of its origins and age though most do not give the evidence for their conclusions or cite primary documentary evidence. Works by Mather and by Gemmell examined the primary documentary source material for the buildings and the surrounding area (known in the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries as the Lordship of Provand). But those were published a century and more ago and since then there has been no attempt to locate new sources or to reexamine the old in the light of modern understandings and interests. The present work concentrated on primary sources and I have been sceptical of claims made in earlier publications which are not supported by referenced, primary evidence; online information was treated particularly sceptically. A short section on the unsupported myths about Provan Hall is included in this Report. An obvious difficulty has been that the nearest approach to a collection of estate papers giving information over an extended period (apart from the sparse details of pre-reformation diocesan registers) are the records of the burgh of Glasgow, who owned the property for some sixty years from the later 1660s. I was disappointed to find that the manuscript sources in Glasgow City Archives could add little to what was already published in the Extracts, which remain a most important primary source. There is a small collection of papers relevant to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century (GCA TD1725 Fullarton Papers). But there is no other source which provides information over even a few years. Consequently, most of the research has been in public records which, of their nature, tend to record snap-shot views of individual events or moments; testaments, agreements, disputes, tax liabilities, property transfers and so on. Searching such sources is bitty and time-consuming since they are found in a variety of repositories and the nuggets are embedded amongst huge amounts of extraneous material. 5

6 An added complication for this area is that, though geographically in Lanarkshire, it was for some purposes in Glasgow Barony or Glasgow Regality and (for some sasine registrations) was treated as though it were in Renfrewshire. Other types of public documents might be recorded in an even wider range of sources so that search cannot realistically hope to be exhaustive. Broadly, I rechecked the great and privy seals of Scotland, the exchequer rolls, the accounts of the Lord High Treasurer and the published Registers of the Privy Council of Scotland, doing some targeted checks in the manuscript great seal register. The main published records for the pre-reformation cathedral were also rechecked. Sasine abbreviates were checked from 1780 and some targeted checks done for earlier periods. Hearth tax, inhabited houses tax and window tax were surprisingly useful and (together) suggest conclusions about the transfer of the main residence to the south range. Testaments were disappointing so far as the residences were concerned (there were no useful domestic inventories or lists of rooms etc); but they did suggest useful options for investigation of landscape and land-use, for the economic basis of the wealth of the proprietors; in two sixteenth century cases the deceased made their testaments or died at Provan Hall. The General Register of Deeds (and its precursor, the deeds registered in the Books of Council and Session) have been intensively searched for roughly the sixteenth century. An example of the sort of snapshot it can provide was that on January 1 st 1575 Mr William Baillie, his wife and son entered into a contract agreement at the Hall of Provand confirming that it was an occupied site (CS7/57 f. 311r-312v). Search of this vast series of records for the fifteenth century and from 1600 onward is problematic as they are only sketchily calendared or are indexed on a year-by-year basis so that only specific, targeted searches were conducted. It would be surprising if other registers of deeds (Glasgow Regality and Barony, Lanarkshire, Commissary Courts etc) did not contain relevant material. But, without better finding aids, effective search would be a major undertaking with uncertain outcomes. 6

7 Chapter Two Property and Ownership Issues For much of its existence Provan Hall was the chief residence of a more or less extensive estate and in its earliest phases that estate was the Lordship or Prebend or Provan or Barlanark 1 which extended to several thousand acres north and east of Glasgow and was in existence by the mid 12 th century (Mitchell, 1889; Episc Reg, p. 25). Initially part of a larger unit, by 1322 Barlanark was a prebend of Glasgow, land providing income to support one of the canons of the cathedral; in that year the canon held it in free warren indicating that the hunting rights were important and he could prevent others from hunting or hawking there (Mitchell, 1889, p. 12; Regesta V, entry 209). It continues to be mentioned in the Cathedral records as an asset up to the Reformation (Reg Episc, p. 55, p. 299, p. 344, p. 347). Most prebends were associated with a particular parish within the diocese and the prebendary, apart from serving as a canon, had to provide for the services in the parish from the income. There was no such parish associated with Provan though the possibility of a chapel within the area has been suggested (Origines, I, p. 5). At the time of the reformation, however, the residual income was associated with Glasgow Primus (McNeill and Nicolson, 1975, pp and Map 47). In 1470 the prebendary and canon was Magister Joannes Sincler who was described as dominus de Provand [Mr John Sinclair, lord of Provand] (Gemmell, 1910, p. 140). On 26 Nov 1500 Mr Andrew Stewart, prebendary of Provand, appeared before the lords of session as procurator (ADC II, p. 447). But then at various prior to 1505 William Baillie, doctor in Medicine, is described as prebendary of Ballanrick of the Provands (NAS CS5/16 pp. 38, 68-9, 104, 113) 2. In 1507 Baillie of Carfin (they were a branch of the ancient Baillies of Lamington, south Lanarkshire) was excused from appearing before the justice courts of the regality of Glasgow for a year as was his brother William, prebendary of Kilbanrik in respect of his lands and lordship of Provan (RSS I p.204 entry 1429). The brother must be the Doctor William, just mentioned. The following decades were to see the lordship become the private property of the Baillies with only a 1 There are copious spelling variants of both Provan and Barlanark; for place-name see Ways Forward. 2 Unfortunately this material was undergoing conservation in Feb 2009 and could not be examined in more detail. 7

8 modest sum in rental finding its way into the church s coffers. Royal patronage was key to their rise and in 1508, William Bailie, doctor of medicine and prebendary of Provand, was given the royal gift of the ward and non-entries of the lands which had belonged to the late William Dalzell of that Ilk and also the marriage of the heir (RSS I, p. 270 entry 1780) 3. By 1547 Mr Robert Baillie, the former prebendary, was dead and the right of nomination was in the hands of the queen though the person she presented would require confirmation by the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral. She (or, rather, James Hamilton, earl of Arran and Governor in her name, since she was only four years old) appointed Alexander Baillie, son of Baillie of Carfin. Arran, as the leader of the Hamilton name, was the greatest local noble and could use such awards to cement alliances with such traditional followers as the Baillies (and the Dalzells). It was very much about politics and interestingly one of the Baillies of Lamington was presently master of the queen s wardrobe and keeper of the park and palace of Holyroodhouse (RSS III, p. 391 entry 2437; ibid, entry 49). But Alexander did not hold the prebend for long, resigning it just two years later having secured the nomination of his kinsman Mr William Bailie by the queen (RSS IV p. 44 entry 260). This Mr William was an academic and a senator (indeed president) of the college of justice for much of his career. It was during his tenure that the first firm evidence for a high-status residence at Provan Hall emerges (see Building). Although at different stages he nominally transferred ownership to his kinsman (Baillie of Ravenscraig) and to his son William, it probably remained firmly under Mr William s control until his death in See Chapter Three for the building and Chapter Four for Mr William who was extensively researched in the hope of finding more about the building. By the time of his death, his daughter Elizabeth was Mr William s only surviving child. She was married to Robert Hamilton of Goslington so Provan passed to her and the Hamiltons. Elizabeth Baillie had several children, of whom the eldest son was Francis. In 1599 the parents assigned Provan to Francis (they had several other estates for their own support). However, they reserved the right to raise 8000 merks from the lands of Provan to provide for their five daughters. In 1586, Robert Hamilton, who had probably just reached the age of 21, had agreed that he would not dispose of any of his lands without the consent of either Mr William or his brother, Robert Bailie of Park and Park s consent was given for the assignation of Balgray to Elizabeth s youngest son Edward (RMS VI, entry 973). Elizabeth herself died in 1609 and her testament makes it clear that her family were still taking considerable income from Provand, including Balgray (NAS CC 9/7/20 p ). A Sir Robert Hamilton of Silvertonhill and Goslington died in 1642 and (even allowing for assignation of parts of Provan to family members) it is clear that there had been further losses (NAS CC9/7/28 p ). 3 There was a continuing close association between the Dalzells and Baillies for many decades and they were probably close allies, the royal grant of the ward and marriage as much a favour to the Dalzells as to the Baillies. 8

9 The small estates carved out from Provan during the Hamilton decades such as Blochairn and Germiston were to be very important for the development of the area since they were insufficient to support a wealthy lifestyle. Rather, they were bought by people who had already made their money often directly or indirectly from the growing trade of Glasgow; their country estate gave them status and the option of escaping from town, to live in the countryside. The sales had, doubtless, provided for the Hamilton daughters but had, of course, diminished their income as the superiorities were worth only a fraction of the property rights. So early as 1624, one of Francis s creditors had a charter for the estate in security for debts owed to him (RMS VIII, entry 670) and over the following 30 years it is not easy to say who had effective ownership as it was passed from hand to hand, mainly as security for debts (RMS IX entry 350; RMS IX entry 690; RMS IX entry 794; RMS X entry 606; RMS XI entry 665; RMS XI entry 901; NAS RS54/1/2 f. 372v-373v; ibid f. 373v-374v; ibid f. 40v-401r). One of the most striking features of the debts is that many of them were owed to the tenants who were clearly people on the rise with money to spare. The nominal heirs and superiors after the death of Francis were, firstly, Edward (his younger brother, formerly of Balgray) and then the Robert whose initials appear, with the date 1647, on the gateway of Provan Hall. The Glasgow records usually call him Robert Hamilton of Silvertonhill, after a modest estate near Hamilton, though he owned several other substantial estates. Nonetheless, by the early 1660s, Robert Hamilton was dramatically in debt; the Glasgow records put the total at 106,000 merks or 66,666 Scots or 5,888 sterling and there may well have been other sums, not relevant to Glasgow s interests (Glasgow Charters II, p ; Glasgow Extracts , pp. 7, 9, 95). Such spectacular sums were owed to a great many different people and there had been numerous legal proceedings against Hamilton over the preceding years; however, the records are too scattered to have been fully checked though their potential is clear. The case brought by James Hamilton of Candieholm, for example, suggests that whilst extensive parts of the estate were attached for debt, the manor place of Provan was still in Robert Hamilton s hands, though no poindable goods could be found there (however, essential farm stock and equipment were not poindable) (NAS DI114/14 p. 327v-329r). It is not clear why Glasgow decided to purchase and there may well have been some pretty opaque decisions 4. It did give them more control over the streams such as the Molendinar which supplied the town s mills though this had not been a matter of great contention previously. Some of the debts were to themselves and to members of the merchant community and that must have influenced them. There was a curious clause in their Great 4 The published Extracts give very full coverage of the process and the details are not repeated here. 9

10 Seal charter (Glasgow Charters, II ) which incorporated the lands, houses and buildings of Provan into the burgh itself. On the face of it, that offered significant advantages but there is no sign that they took advantage of it and the legal position of Provan remained frustratingly anomalous, being in Lanarkshire for some purposes, Glasgow for others and (astonishingly) in Renfrewshire for purposes of sasine registration, a confusion which has done nothing to ease the production of this Report. On the other hand, it is important that all the charters from the sixteenth century onward place Provand/ Provan in Lanarkshire for taxation purposes (where it continues into quite modern times); it is not suggested that the Baillies or the Hamiltons charters also granted them rights to property in Glasgow itself ie they did not comprehend Provand s Lordship in the burgh or, to put it another way, ownership of Provand and of Provand s Lordship were distinct. What Glasgow purchased is clearer than why they purchased. They got the superiority of the whole of Provan but five feus were already carved out of it (including Balgray, Blairquhairn ie Blochairn, Germiston and Hugonfield) (Glasgow Charters II p ). They obtained a charter under the great seal on the lands and, in 1669, the entire deal was endorsed by the Scots parliament (Glasgow Charters II p ) though the deal had been closed by late 1667 when they entered into the effective administration and took steps to collect the rent. Whilst Provan included many distinct units, both the buildings and lands associated with Provan Hall were included in this deal. Whether the fact that some of the Hamiltons possessions were left in the mansion house indicates that they had been using it in the recent past is uncertain; that is certainly suggested by the Hamilton of Candieholm case just mentioned. So long as Glasgow owned it, the house and the associated land (the Hall Mailing) were rented to tenants. The tenant in the early years may have been John Hamilton who had a lease of part of Mains of Provan from October 1668 (Glasgow Extracts, , p. 111); a John Anderson, who acted as chamberlain or bailie (rent collector, administrator) is another possibility (ibid, p. 185). The great fire in Glasgow and consequent debts provided the impetus for instructions to the Provost, when in Edinburgh in 1677, to enquire about the possibility of a sale of Provan, to be held feu of the town so they intended to retain the superiority (Glasgow Extracts, , p. 243). In 1690 they were again considering a sale (Glasgow Extracts , p. 446) and later that year, their right to sell was endorsed by Parliament ( again specifically to relieve their debts; several offers were made in 1691 but clearly no agreement was reached (Glasgow Extracts, , p. 11; ibid p. 23). 10

11 There had, evidently, been difficulties about rent collection, maintenance and other issues and from 1692, the council entered into a new lease with three men for the whole of the residual property (obviously on the understanding that they would sublet to others) for a fixed annual payment of 5400 merks yearly for 11 years (Glasgow Extracts , p. 47) and when that ran out they made another similar agreement in 1703 for 19 years to a similar group for 5550 merks pa (Glasgow Extracts , p ; p. 370). This lease was later varied to allow the lessees to work coal deposits (likely to have been of rapidly rising value) and by 1708 one of these men, Mungo Cochrane, was enclosing land round what seems to have been his residence at Riddrie (Glasgow Extracts, , p. 452; ibid p. 490; GCA C p. 68-9; ibid p. 151; ibid p. 296). However, such an arrangement put a further administrative barrier between the buildings at Provan Hall and the body most likely to make and preserve detailed records and after 1708 the records become even sparser until, in the late 1720s (with no further explanation) discussions were afoot for the sale of the residual property of Provan. On 1 st Aug 1729 it was reported that William Stirling, merchant in London, who had seen the advertisements in the press, had offered to buy the whole at 24 years purchase as feus or at 30 years purchase for an absolute right to be held of the crown (Glasgow Extracts, , p ). But by 19 Aug the council had agreed to sell the property to Robert Lang, Richard Allan, William Gray and William Hamilton, equally between them (Glasgow Extracts, , p. 317). One of the lots included the Hall Mailing with the mansion house, the new house and other buildings as well as 55 acres of land (ibid, p ; ibid p. 533; ibid p. 536) so this sale definitively detached Provan Hall from the rest of the estate. The purchaser of the Hall Mailing, including the mansion house with the North and South Mains was James Kirkland of Gartloch (Glasgow Extracts , p. 580) who was bailie of Provan from (ibid, p. 479, p. 485, p. 498; NAS RS54/8 f. 498v sasine for Kirkland dated 28 June 1733). Unfortunately this puts Provan Hall even further from our reach as small properties are the least likely to generate surviving records. In 1766 Glasgow decided to sever its final interest in Provan by selling the residual superiority which they had hitherto retained, even for the feued lands (Glasgow Extracts, , p. 236). The disposition conveyed the right to collect the feu duties but the scheme was devised with a view to creating four votes (the franchise being based on a property qualification) and that must largely explain the very high prices realised (Glasgow Extracts, , p. 336). William M Dowall of Castle Semple purchased the superiority of one of these portions, including the lands of Hall of Provan, with the southern and northern dominical lands of Provan (ie South and North Mains ) and the houses, buildings and orchards. M Dowall s family had made their fortune in the previous generation or so in the West Indies (Glasgow Extracts, , p ; Nisbet, 2008; NAS 11

12 C2/109 f. 100). In fact, the superiority was to pass through several hands over the following decades, being several times used as security for debts etc 5. Although M Dowall s purchase was only of the superiority and explicitly excluded the dominium utile or useful property rights, his great seal charter does add the useful information that the mansion and its associated lands, first feued to Kirkland, had (at some time between the 1730s and 1767) passed by progress ie inheritance, to Bailie George Hamilton. The Valuation Roll for Lanarkshire for 1771 has the following: George Miller; Over Carntyne, Provanhall, Gartcraig George Hamilton; part Provanhall, part East Queenslie James Buchan; part Provanhall s 3d 115 6s 10d 40 11s 10d John Buchan; part Provanhall 40 11s 10d (Timperley, 1976, p. 163). That makes it clear that the lands called Provanhall (the form increasingly often used from the later eighteenth century) were divided into several parcels, though we know from the other sources that the relevant section here is that belonging to Hamilton, noting that his economic base, as indicated by is 5 I am giving this series in detail as it might prove useful at a later stage. Sasine Abridgements Lanark, Barony of Glasgow, entry 288, sasine for Wm McDowall, heir of Wm of Castlesemple, his father, in parts of Provan including Hall of Provan, PR27.101: ibid entry 3138, GR ; ibid entry 3209, 3 Sept 1798 Bank of Scotland seized in McDowall s superiority in security of 10,000; ibid entry Dec 1798 Alexander Houston and Co seized in superiority of parts of Provan etc including Hall of Provan in security of 107,000: ibid entry March 1799 John Henry Scheider, merchant and others of London, seized in superiority of parts of Provan including Hall etc in security of 20,000 on disposition by William McDowall of Garthland GR598.52; ibid entry July 1799 Secretary to commissioners of the treasury under an act for extending payment of overdue loans etc, seized in superiority of Provan on bond and disposition by Mcdowall GR ; ibid Aug 1799 Trustees of the creditors of McDowall including Hall of Provan etc GR ; ibid entry March 1802 Creditors of Wm McDowall, seized in superiority etc including Hall GR653.1; ibid entry June 1806 Trustees for the creditors of MacDowall etc GR ; ibid entries 5995, 6143, 6267; ibid entry July 1807 George Oswald of Scotston seized in superiority including Muir lands of Hall of Provan and North and South Mains on disposition by Parliamentary commissioners PR71.92: ibid entry July 1808 remainders etc; ibid entry Dec 1808 trustees etc remainders GR : ibid entry Feb 1817, Andrew Bogle, late of Island of Jamaica, now residing in the county of Dumbarton, seized in superiority of parts of the 20 land of Provan including Hall of Provan on resignation by George Oswald of Scotstoun 20 Dec 1816 and disposition and assignation 31 Jan 1817 PR : ibid entry July 1817 superiority to Bogle again including Hall of Provan; ibid entry June 1820 Colin Campbell, merchant, Glasgow, seized 7 June 1820 in superiority of parts of Provan including Hall of Provan on charter of resignation etc PR

13 title of bailie was in the city and that his actual holding was quite modest. He appears, also, in the Inhabited Houses and the Window Tax returns until (see Building). Mather (1899, p. 13) says that Hamilton s property was apprised for debt in 1780 and passed to William Coats and then to William Allison Jamieson in 1781 who sold the property to Dr John Buchanan. Search for the relevant sasines (the registers are indexed from 1780) has failed to confirm that claim, though Jamieson paid for insurance of the premises in 1788 (GCA TD1725/3/3/1-4). No sasine for Buchanan s purchase seems to have been recorded and further uncertainties arise since the occupants listed in the tax returns might well be tenants whilst some of the nominal owners were probably only holding the property in security for debts. Buchanan paid 2,900 for the Hall Mailing of Provan with Cunshliebog at Martinmas 1788 and his payments of feu duty to M Dowall and others begin about the same time (GCA TD1725/1/1 items 1, 2 and 3) and he then appears in the Window Tax and Inhabited Houses Tax returns, he paid for the building insurance and so on until his death in In 1794 Buchanan settled the property on John, his natural son, unless he should have legitimate heirs before his death and the son had sasine in 1813, his titles still referring to the mansion house though that was clearly, by this time, the new house rather than the old and now empty old hall (NAS RS3/944 p ; NAS SC36/48/5/79-81Testament of Dr John Buchanan). The son married Janet, daughter of Andrew Wilson of Thornton in the parish of Kilbryde in However, when she died in 1826, he was already dead and the heirs were their two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. Elizabeth, the younger, married Reston Mather of Budhill (Shettleston) and she was still alive in the late nineteenth century, her heir then being her son, William (SC36/51/4/15-18 Marriage Contract; SC36/48/20/ , testament of Mrs Wilson or Buchanan; Mather, 1899, p. 13) 6. 6 Two sasines in security for bonds or debts are noted here as they would be relevant to the wider history of the Buchanan family and of Dr John in particular; Lanarkshire Sasine Abridgements, entry May 1813 trustees of Duncan Buchanan, sometime surgeon in Madras, afterwards in George Street, Edinburgh, seized 22 May 1813 in the lands of Cunchliebog or North Mailing of Wester Cunshlie consisting of 77 acres, parts of the lands of Provan and the lands of the Hall Mailing of Provan with mansion house of Provan, yard, kiln, barn and planting in security of 1000; on bond by John Buchanan of Provanhall 19 May 1813 GR944.68; ibid entry May 1817 John Buchanan late of Ladrishmore, residing in Hutchesontown of Glasgow, seized 17 May 1817 in the lands of Cunchlie Bog or North Mailing consisting of 77 acres and the lands of Hall Mailing of Provan including the mansion house, planting, kiln, yard, barn in security of 600 on bond and disposition by John Buchanan of Provanhall 16 May 1817 PR

14 William Mather died in 1891 at Provanhall leaving a widow and his executor was his son, also William; the inventory mentions farm goods, feu duties and debts owed to him but reveals nothing about the structure, the house etc (NAS SC36/48/133 pp ). The farm seems to have become increasingly rundown in the early twentieth century and perhaps in response to the difficulties it was on the market for an extended period in but remained unsold (Scotsman, 28 Sept 1912, p. 3 and passim). William s brother Reston Mather survived until 1934 when he died at Provan Hall at a great age, unmarried and with no close relatives. He had made a settlement a few days earlier in favour of his housekeeper, also residing at Provanhall, Mrs Mary Muir or Holmes; she was actually a relative of some sort. Her wages as housekeeper had been unpaid for some time prior to Reston Mather s death and she had expected to inherit the estate as compensation. However, the estate was so encumbered with debts that, in the event, she refused to enter on the administration which was put in the hands of the Court of Session (NAS CS46/1934/82; CS46/1946/11/89; NTS Archives, Provan Hall box 1). Though the final winding up of the estate took many years, there was precious little left and all Mrs Holmes got was a few items of furniture. Evidently motivated by sympathy the group who eventually purchased the property, restored it and presented it to the National Trust for Scotland, managed to ensure that she would stay on as caretaker into the later 1940s, continuing to live in what had been her old home. The details of the transfer process have not been followed as they are unlikely to add much about structure. The idea of a partnership with Glasgow Corporation was being considered from very early days and had been established by the early 1960s if not earlier (NTS Archive, Provan Hall, box 1). Conclusion It will be seen that this story falls into several phases. Provand enters the story as an ecclesiastical lordship, closely associated with the cathedral. It is wrested from church control into the private hands of the Baillies, particularly Mr William Baillie who (albeit with some Marian sympathies) was a great beneficiary of the Reformation. The later sixteenth and early seventeenth century were (for Provan Hall and for Scotland as a whole) the period of the rise of the lairds. But the focus then moves to the rising power of Glasgow a sign of the town s growing economic clout. From the disposition in 1729 into the nineteenth century the property was in the hands of people whose wealth (directly or indirectly) came from the city and its trade (whether local or international). That is seen, too, in the ownership of the other units which had formed parts of the greater Provan area (Blochairn, Germiston and so on); all were purchased by gentlemen who had grown wealthy by trade. Landed property was much more prestigious than cash from trade whilst a country residence allowed them and their families to spend at least some time removed from the pressures of city life. Even the Mathers in the nineteenth century had interests in coal mines and other industrial concerns as well as having feus of house property in Shettleston Provan Hall and its farm was just a part of their story. 14

15 The transfer to National Trust for Scotland closes a circle which closely parallels Glasgow s own story. The property of Provan Hall follows the great swing from ecclesiastical centre, regional administrative focal point to imperial and industrial trading post and (in recent decades) to its focus on history and heritage. The growth of the city means that the physical landscape, too, is now dominated by urban rather than rural factors. As far back as the 1930s and its takeover by the Trust, Provan Hall had a complex relationship with its increasingly urban surroundings. The story of Provan Hall is the story of Glasgow and the uncertainties still remaining in the detailed documentary history also have their counterparts in greater Glasgow s own story. 15

16 Chapter Three The documentary evidence for the buildings There is no positive documentary evidence for there being buildings at Provan Hall before the mid sixteenth century though the popular literature (most obviously in the blogosphere) asserts that Provan Hall dates from the fifteenth century. Recent scholarly work has been more cautious. Stephenson (1995, p. 81) does not dismiss the possibility of there having been an older house but is positive that the oldest surviving visible structure is late sixteenth century, an example of a late medieval manor house which was probably intended to serve as a hunting lodge. Tranter (1961, p ) believes it was probably erected by Sir William Baillie who obtained the lands in the later sixteenth century. There is a long tradition that the fireplaces at Provan Hall are similar to those at Provand s Lordship, encouraging a belief that they might be contemporary. I am advised by other members of the team that the similarities are not persuasive. In 1562 William Bailie, Lord Provan and President of the College of Justice, had set the lands of Provan in feu ferm to Thomas Baillie of Ravenscraig (RSS V entry 2122) and the charter was confirmed in 1592 (RMS V entry 2209). These charters both mention the Mains of Provand; the word implies the home farm of an estate, cultivated for the proprietor. The Mains was characteristically close to the big house and both North and South Mains are found close to the mansion on First Edition Ordnance Survey etc. There are several variations between the 1562 and 1592 charters, however, of which the most important is that the later one includes the phrase et edificando politiam solo corresponden (RMS IX, entry 350). A charter of 1635, which broadly repeats the terms of 1592, gives the phrase as edificando politiam terris correspondentem (RMS IX entry 350). Neither phrase is totally clear. However, both can be understood to mean roughly with the right of building improvements on the ground 7. An undated (but broadly seventeenth century) account of the principal houses of Lanarkshire includes Provin. But it gives no further details or comparison and, since the account was attributed to Sir William Baillie of Lamington and William Baillie of Carfin some bias might be expected (Mitchell, 1907, p ). 7 I am grateful to Dr Alan Borthwick at National Archives of Scotland for help on this issue. The word politiam is the main problem. It implies improvements though it seems to be associated specifically with Scotland and might refer to policies in the sense of the formal landscapes around the house as well as to the house itself. Search on Google indicates that the commonest source for related phrases is the Register of the Great Seal of Scotland itself eg ac edificando mansionem cum politia, prout solum ad hoc correspondens foret (RMS III entry 288). So, we are dealing with Scots lawyers Latin and even extensive specialist research might not be conclusive as to exactly what was understood in this specific case. 16

17 Baillie s daughter Elizabeth married in 1580, her marriage contract providing that he would receive the young couple in house with himself and sustain them for four years, though it cannot be said with certainty that the house was necessarily Provan Hall; the reason for this very unusual arrangement is unclear (RD1/19 f. 103r-104v). On 1 Jan 1575, Mr William Baillie, his wife and son entered into a contract about leasing some land At the Hall of Provand, the first indisputable evidence of the site being inhabited (NAS CS7/57 f. 311r-312v) and in December 1585 Mr William s illegitimate son John entered into a contract at the Hall of Provand (NAS RD1/24(1) f. 340r-v). Meanwhile, Baillie s wife Elizabeth Durham, died at Provand in 1585 (NAS CC8/8/19 p ), in 1593 William Baillie himself gave up his testament and died there (NAS CC8/8/26 p ) and in 1599 Baillie s daughter granted a charter for the lands to Francis Hamilton, her husband apud manerium de Provand [at the manor of Provan] (RMS VI entry 973); the confirmation of her charter cites the earlier documents but incorporates the phrase cum fortalicio et mansionibus [with the fortalice and mansions] as assets incorporated into the tenandry of Provand. By 1624, Francis was already in some financial difficulties and one of his creditors was given a charter in security over the estate which now specified not only mansions but a tower (RMS VIII entry 670) similar phrases appearing in connection with similar charters into the 1660s (RMS XI entry 665; ibid entry 901). The testament of Elizabeth Baillie (daughter of Mr William) who died in 1609 mentions Mains of Provan and shows that she and her husband had a continued interest in the estate but makes no mention of Provan Hall as an identifiable residence (NAS CC9/7/20 p ). The testament of Elizabeth s son, Sir Robert Hamilton, who died in 1642, estimates the furniture of the house with his clothes and other items as worth 66 13s 4d (a very modest sum for such a house) but had excluded the heirship of goods to be assigned to the heir. But the house was not necessarily Provan Hall. It also mentions a debt owed by John Kirkland in Hall of Provand but, as with the earlier examples, this does not mean he occupied the big house rather, just the area (NAS CC9/7/28 pp ). When Hamilton of Silvertonhill sold the property to Glasgow in 1667 he was to remove from the maner place of Provand and from the office houses, yards, orchards, barns, byres, stables and pertinents and from of so much of the land as was possessed by himself, one sasine given at the said tower, fortalice and maner place of Provand to be sufficient for all the lands (Glasgow Charters II , p ). The most obvious explanation of this sequence would be that the 1562 charter granted permission for buildings which subsequently appeared, in the form of mansions, fortalice, tower etc. However, there are further difficulties with the language. The present (very modest) tower would provide 17

18 protection only for the north and east sides of Provan Hall and, assuming that the appearance of defensibility was still an issue, something would be required to cover the south and east of the complex. The word fortalice also presents problems. The Dictionary of the Scottish Language defines it as a fortress or fortification ( though the examples usually include a fortalice as only a part of the complex of buildings such as the tower and fortalice or the mansion and fortalice and so on. It might be understood to be just the curtain walls or to imply further defensive structures but other examples seem to imply that a fortalice was habitable and it might even be named as the place where legal notices were to be served etc 8. The distinctive gateway in the eastern curtain wall is dated 1647 but the wall is not keyed in to the north ranges so the line of the wall could be later or older whilst the eastern gateway could be an insertion. The wall to the west is less substantial. Defensive works to the south, close to the lip of the steep slope falling to the meadow and loch and on the site of the modern South Range, would certainly make sense and would explain the plural word mansionibus (with the mansions). However, the possibility that the document refers to mansions elsewhere in the lordship cannot be discounted or the word could be merely conventional. A missing tower house would bring Provan Hall much closer to the usual pattern of high-status Scots houses of the sixteenth century, with the stubborn adherence to a native partiality for vertical building (Cruden, 1960, p. vi). Some sort of defensive structure might be expected at its south west angle to cover the south and west flanks, obscured from the surviving tower. The southern range might, after all, be the site of the oldest or the original structures. Wings containing residential accommodation were not-infrequently added to older towers. Though actual defence was less and less important (or achievable in the face of developing weaponry) in the course of the sixteenth century, an essential basic measure of defensibility was retained and it was still important to retain the outward symbols of aggression (Fawcett, 1994, p. 277). The charter permitting edificando politiam has already been mentioned and the phrase building of improvements would not be inconsistent with the addition of a wing to a previously-existing structure. A structure with a tower-house or similar structure at one side and a more modern, domestic range at the other, would have parallels at Castle Campbell or even at Creighton (Fawcett, 1991, p ) albeit both are on a grander scale than Provan Hall. We are used to seeing the tower surviving denuded of its more domestic ranges on account of its massive walls and connotations of antiquity; survival of the domestic wing is obviously less common. But then Provan Hall has an unusual 8 I have conducted a fairly extended search for examples without forming any firm conclusion beyond that it always carries the idea of defensibility and of prestige; there are phrases such as in their towers, fortalices and other houses in RMS III entry 1543 but most examples (as in the Provan Hall ones) give no precise impression of what was involved and it might have carried a big diversity of implications, even at the time. 18

19 history of ownership by the City of Glasgow more likely than a private owner, perhaps, to be pragmatic in such matters? No further documentary evidence has been found for the buildings, either in the fifteenth or sixteenth century. But, so early as 1470 Magister Joannes Sincler was dominus de Provand (Gemmell, 1910, p. 140 citing a primary source in Glasgow University Archives), closely corresponding to the presumed building of Provand s Lordship. The Bailie family had strong associations with the property from at c (Chapter 2, Property; RSS I entry 1429 p. 204). In 1553 there was a protest against Provand being involved with court of session decisions; given William Baillie s subsequent involvement with the court, this can only refer to him (ADCP, 1932, p. 623). By the late 1550s, Mr William Bailie was regularly including lord of Provand amongst his titles, alongside canon of Glasgow, prebendary of Ballanryk and person of Lamyngtoun (Gemmell, 1910, p 77; NAS RD1/2 f. 296). As will be seen elsewhere in this Report, the lordship of Provand generated very substantial income. Lord of Provand was the sort of title which would usually be associated with a substantial residence whilst it would be very unusual for such a wealthy estate not to have a lordly residence as a focus of power and of administration. On the other hand, prior to the reformation this was not a normal secular lordship and our knowledge of the previous lords is sketchy. In spite of the lack of earlier documentation and the terms of the 1562 charter licensing improvements, I would be surprised if some sort of lordly house did not exist prior to that date, certainly by the 1550s. It is entirely possible that there was a fifteenth century house (including a fortalice and other defensive and more vertical features) even if no physical evidence now survives above ground. Apart from the surviving date stone (1647 on the eastern gateway) there is no evidence for building work during the Hamilton decades. It might be thought even more surprising that there is so little evidence for the decades it was owned by the burgh of Glasgow, either in the published or the manuscript records. In May 1668 the council noted the mansioun hous of Provand was much decayed (Glasgow Extracts , p. 104) and arrangements were set in train for repairs. Around the same time 66 13s 6d Scots (100 merks or a little over 5 Sterling) was paid to [the laird of] Silvertonhill (the former owner) for unspecified items left in the mantioune hows of Provane (ibid p. 493). On 1 Oct 1674 James Anderson, chamberlain of Provan, gave in his accounts for the six years The charge (notional credits and income) was 20, d Scots and the total discharge 20,728 3s 11d. On the face of it, he appears to have spent a huge sum but the discharge includes over 3000 of unpaid rent and might also include other unspecified old debts and other items not actually collected (ibid, p. 185, confirmed from GCA, C1/1/15). Lugton (1901, p. 41) suggests that about 1668 a new roof was put on, dormers were inserted and the old turret stair closed off and 19

20 replaced by the steps now giving access to the second storey. Unfortunately, neither he nor Hurd (1939, p. 71) who repeats this entirely credible information with added confidence, provides any reference and no such detail has been found in the published or the manuscript council records which tend to record only the totals spent without giving details of that was done so even the 1668 work must remain as unconfirmed. Some work was authorised on the floors and windows of the mansion house of Provan in 1698 (the expense not to exceed 20 Scots so not very extensive) (Glasgow Extracts, , p. 258). And in 1709 a payment was approved for work at the hall of Provand for window brods (shutters) and for work on four storm windows and making five timber tirlesses (Glasgow Extracts, , p. 671); a tirless is a grid or grating whilst storm windows are projecting windows such as dormers (Pryde, 1996) though we cannot, on that evidence, be sure that they correspond to the dormers seen today. The GBPT Report of 2003 states that what is now known as Blochairn House [the south range] was originally a one-storey building, constructed at the same time as Provan Hall and possibly used for horses and implements. the current Blochairn House is believed to have been re-developed in a plantation style in the eighteenth century, during the ownership of Dr John Buchanan. However, the report does not provide the evidence for the one-storey building nor for its original date or use. Buchanan, as will be seen elsewhere in this Report, owned Provan Hall only from 1788 too late for the main upstanding structure of the south range. Hurd (1939, p. 71) is the first to date is as early as the late seventeenth century (presumably on grounds of style) others suggesting early eighteenth century; that is the date range suggested by what can be seen today, albeit there have clearly been later alterations, some perhaps indeed carried out for Buchanan. The oldest surviving illustrations (a view of c. 1898) shows only the southern façade and on that and all later views, the exterior is harled whilst all interior surfaces are now obscured by plaster or panelling. The documents do, however, provide a strong hint for a date before 1729 and sale by Glasgow Burgh Council. One of the lots was the Hall Mailing of Provan, with the mansion house, yards, kiln and barn, burdened with the South Mains (which was being offered separately) having use of the house called the New House for the first year and thereafter of carrying away the stones and timber (of the New House) (Glasgow Extracts, , p. 536). The terms are repeated in the later feu charters. There is no sign of the Burgh of Glasgow paying for building a new house for the tenants over the previous decades but, as discussed in the Property chapter, from the 1690s the whole of Provand had been leased to a partnership who sublet it and dealt with the tenants. Further, it was not unusual for tenants with some degree of security of tenure to invest in new buildings with an 20