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Blacked out/Shawfield Mansion

PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 1:02 pm
by Timchilli
"Conservators at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum are working on an 18th Century portrait
to uncover a black servant who was painted out." [Full story].

Got me wondering, whatever happened to Shawfield Mansion (built 1712) below?

Image

Where exactly did it stand and when was it pulled down?

Cheers

Tim

Re: Blacked out/Shawfield Mansion

PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 1:21 pm
by John
Timchilli wrote:"Conservators at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum are working on an 18th Century portrait
to uncover a black servant who was painted out." [Full story].

Got me wondering, whatever happened to Shawfield Mansion (built 1712) below?

Image

Where exactly did it stand and when was it pulled down?

Cheers

Tim


From "The Second City" by C.A. Oakley

John Glassford literally had his picture turned to the wall. The Victorians never reproduced his portraits, and an attempt a few years ago to obtain any kind of likeness of John Glassford was about to fail when an early portrait was found. His wrongdoing was that of dying in financial difficulties. He was worth no more than eight shillings in the pound, and his family, in the endeavors to effect an improvement, made things so much worse that his affairs were in part never cleared up.

The merchants began to acquire ground, between High Street and what is now Union Street, for their town mansions and gardens. When Glasgow spread west along Argyle Street, new streets had to be built through these gardens, and the merchants-or their heirs-came out of the sale of their property extremely well. Many of the streets bear the names of these men of the eighteenth century, and while some, for instance, Cochran Street and Ingram Street, were so called because of the high regard in which the men were held, others, such as Glassford Street, were named simply after the owners of the grounds through which they were laid out.

-----------------

I think the building was at the junction of the now Glassford Street and Trongate probably over the road facing Stockwell Street. The house was demolished in 1792.

You can see a reproduction of the painting in the People's Palace.

John

Re: Blacked out/Shawfield Mansion

PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:07 pm
by Timchilli
JohnR wrote:I think the building was at the junction of the now Glassford Street and Trongate probably over the road facing Stockwell Street. The house was demolished in 1792.

John, thanks for this. The Oakley passage makes interesting reading.

So you would put the mansion around this area:

Image

It's unfortunate I can't find any maps produced while the mansion was still standing.

Tim

Re: Blacked out/Shawfield Mansion

PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:16 pm
by John
Timchilli wrote:
JohnR wrote:I think the building was at the junction of the now Glassford Street and Trongate probably over the road facing Stockwell Street. The house was demolished in 1792.

John, thanks for this. The Oakley passage makes interesting reading.

So you would put the mansion around this area:

Image

It's unfortunate I can't find any maps produced while the mansion was still standing.

Tim


Yes. I found an interesting article which gives details of the building dimensions.

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0037-9 ... size=LARGE

Re: Blacked out/Shawfield Mansion

PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 5:27 pm
by eltor2ga
Timchilli wrote:"Conservators at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum are working on an 18th Century portrait
to uncover a black servant who was painted out." [Full story].


Tim


I don't think I've ever heard anything about slaves in Glasgow though I don't doubt there were some around. Just shows how you can fiddle with history if you have the mind to.

Re: Blacked out/Shawfield Mansion

PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 5:29 pm
by John
eltor2ga wrote:
Timchilli wrote:"Conservators at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum are working on an 18th Century portrait
to uncover a black servant who was painted out." [Full story].


Tim


I don't think I've ever heard anything about slaves in Glasgow though I don't doubt there were some around. Just shows how you can fiddle with history if you have the mind to.


The People's Palace also has a silver, slave's collar on display.

Re: Blacked out/Shawfield Mansion

PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 5:32 pm
by onyirtodd
eltor2ga wrote:
Timchilli wrote:"Conservators at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum are working on an 18th Century portrait
to uncover a black servant who was painted out." [Full story].


Tim


I don't think I've ever heard anything about slaves in Glasgow though I don't doubt there were some around. Just shows how you can fiddle with history if you have the mind to.


I have no idea if this http://www.ayrshirearchives.org.uk/exhi ... khist1.htm is true but I'd imagine anything Ayrshire had................

PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 6:42 pm
by eltor2ga
Thanks for posting that link Onny. Very interesting.

Sad to say that I've met quite a few Jamaicans here in London, who have Scottish Surnames.

PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 1:05 am
by HollowHorn
Just listening to a prog on the slave masters of the Clyde, turns out that not only was the black servant painted out, but the face of wife number two was painted over the face of wife number one ::): ::):
Listen again

This one has always intrigued me, it's taken from"Old Closes & Streets of Glasgow 1868 / 1877" by Thomas Annan.
Who was this young black girl? Where did she come from? Where did she go?
Image

PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:39 pm
by crusty_bint
The Glassford portrait
http://www.hiddenglasgow.com/forums/vie ... 0&start=20


The Shawfield mansion was built in 1712 for Daniel Campbell of Shawfield who later went on to become an MP for the city and voted for the hated Malt Tax in Parliament, sparking a riot in the city and the sacking of the mansion (summer of 1725, was a good yin wint it HH :wink: ). Campbell was later awarded compensation to the tune of £10,000 by Parliament - a hefty slice of Glasgows annual budget! - but never quite felt at ease in the city again and sold the Shawfield Mansion the following year.

The Mansion was bouhgt by John Glassford in 1760, who lived there until his death in 1783, the house remaining in the hands of the Glassfords until his son sold it to the builder William Horn in 1792 who demolished the house and orchard garden and laid Glassford St through the fue.

The House itself sat at the mouth of Glassford St and was designed by the great London architect and author of that seminal architectural guide, the Vitruvius Britannicus, Colen Campbell, and was his first recorded work and one of the earliest examples of a Palladian Villa in Britain! The image in the first post doesn't quite show all the detail of the Mansion as it was known to have iron railings surrounding it, rows of fine chimneys on the roof and more mouldings... even a pair of sphinxes guarding the door which I think found thier way to Scotstoun House after it was demolished. Scotstoun House being long-gone too.

PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:49 pm
by Timchilli
crusty_bint wrote:The image in the first post doesn't quite show all the detail of the Mansion as it was known to have iron railings surrounding it, rows of fine chimneys on the roof and more mouldings... even a pair of sphinxes guarding the door which I think found thier way to Scotstoun House after it was demolished. Scotstoun House being long-gone too.

Image

Tim

Re: Blacked out/Shawfield Mansion

PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:51 pm
by Timchilli
eltor2ga wrote:I don't think I've ever heard anything about slaves in Glasgow though I don't doubt there were some around. Just shows how you can fiddle with history if you have the mind to.


This advertisement from the Glasgow Journal of 30 December 1745 offered a reward for the return of the boy to his master, or for information which might lead to his capture. The boy was only 15 years old and probably did not get far. He was alone in the middle of winter in a country he did not know, speaking very little of the language. There were few if any other knock-kneed black people living in Scotland in the 1740s.

Image

The advertisement does not use the word slave, but some Glasgow merchants brought slaves back to Scotland from the Americas to act as servants. The legal position of such servants was unclear until the 1770s when the Court of Session ruled that black servants brought to Scotland did not owe "perpetual service" to their masters - a ruling which effectively established the illegality of slavery in Scotland.

Tim

PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 7:08 pm
by eltor2ga
Very interesting Tim.

I wonder what happened to the boy.

PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 8:41 pm
by HollowHorn
As has been mentioned a few times before on this site:
The Trongate ends at Glassford Street and on the corner you will find
two plaques commemorating a building that once stood on this site,
the Shawfield Mansion.

In 1910 the Pen & Pencil Club mounted the first plaque announcing
that this was where Prince Charles Edward Stewart stayed when he
was in Glasgow. Although his stay was brief, it was enough time for
him to fall for the charms of Clemintina Walkinshaw, the daughter of a
wealthy merchant. Clementina later joined Charles in exile and
together they had a daughter, Charlotte, who was endowed with the
title Duchess of Albany.


1711, site of Shawfield Mansion built by Daniel Campbell of
Shawfield. 1725, following his vote for an extension of Malt Tax to
Scotland, a mob descended on his house on the 24th of June and
virtually demolished it. The following day, 2 companies of foot
soldiers entered the City and in the ensuing riots, 7 were killed and 17
were injured. Campbell received £9,000 damages with which he
bought the Islands of Isla and Jura.
1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie
stayed from the 26th December till 3rd of January, where he fell in
love with Clementiana Walkinshaw. They later married in France.
1793, the House was removed for the creation of Great Glassford
Street which continued the axis of Stockwell Street.

PostPosted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:01 pm
by Timchilli
Found this engraving of Shawfield Mansion:

Image

Apparently the mansion was the home of the City of Glasgow Bank, the Post Office (1840-57) and the Trades House.

I had no idea that Trongate was known as St. Thenaw's Gate in 1454, when the Tolbooth was mentioned as being beside the Cross, at the corner of St. Thenaw's Gait and High Street. Fascinating stuff.

Tim