Tom Kay to Derbyshire

 By Elizabeth Kay

So why did my dad Tom Kay leave Cumnock? The answer is simple. As, in lots of cases, work. 

Born in 1901 (Tom not Thomas, on his birth certificate) in Spout Row Ayr Rd, he was the eldest of three having two younger sisters, Nannie Kay, the Cumnock librarian and Mrs Jean Smith. He attended school in Cumnock then night school in Ayr. I remember seeing an attendance record for night school and remarking it wasn't very good, only to be told he and his pals could only go if they had the bus fare. Sometimes he walked part of the way. Dad did his five year apprenticeship as a fitter at Drummonds in Cumnock ending on 31st December 1920. He also worked for Montgomery and Howat. Under the 1921 census he was a postman, something he did off and on over a period of around 15 years. 

He did spend time in Glasgow working for, among others, John Brown's shipyard in the 1930s. Of course, we all know what happened to the 534 when work stopped in 1931, due to lack of funds. He did return to Glasgow when work restarted and saw the launch of the Queen Mary on the 26th of September 1934. I still have the ticket, below.  I also have references from Montgomery and Howat and the Post Office dated 1935. 

launch of the Queen Mary

But no other work being available, when in the Cumnock Labour Exchange the following happened. He saw jobs were available for his trade as a fitter in England. Reading this from his side of the counter, he said to the clerk pointing “I wouldn't mind going there” she said OK and filled in the chit. When he read it, the work was in Spondon. He thought it said “London”!  So that is how he came to Spondon, a suburb of Derby in the English Midlands. 

Getting off the train outside the factory, he went in for an interview and got a job. He then walked up into the village of Spondon to find digs. He found some very soon. After working at British Celanese (a chemical company) for around a year.

British Celanese, now demolished.  geograph

He saw a job advertised in London, so he did get to London working as a fitter for a small firm in Euston Rd. He loved London. The highlight of his stay was the coronation of George  VI in 1937. When it became clear war was coming, he decided to return to Derby (Derby never had unemployment problems, having many industries) and got a job at Rolls Royce. He spent World War II working on Merlin engines. Amongst his workmates he met a man who was a member of a local rambling club, "would my dad like to come along?" Well, he was always fond of walking and the countryside, so he became a member and that was where he met my mum, Mabel.

They married in 1941. He first took her to Cumnock in 1940 to show her his birthplace (she came very familiar with Cumnock) and to meet this family. His mother told him never to take Mabel away from her mother, so no more moving about. When I came along after the war, he was still at Rolls Royce but they soon let go the extra folk taken on for the war. 

What to do next? Well, he went back to British Celanese at Spondon as they were taking on fitters. I should explain here, that British Celanese was not just one factory. It was a huge site employing around 20,000 people at any one time with departments for spinning, weaving, dyeing, printing artificial silk. Ever heard of Tri-cel ? They made 90% of the ether used in Britain in the 1950s and yes there was a stink, a pong or as it was known around here the “Spondon Hum”! It was opened in 1916 for the manufacture of cellulose acetate dope for World War One aircraft. It closed in 2015.

Well, when he went back for another job and they looked up his cards they asked is this your address 37 Ayr Road Cumnock? No, he said, "not anymore" and gave his new address. He worked there until his retirement in 1966 having spent the last 10 years as a “time and motion” man and estimator, a cleaner job. 

We spent most of our holidays in Cumnock -  as a child I was taken every year. One visit that I remember was the summer of 1966. As a young man he entered the Flower Show in Cumnock. Often I found reports in the Cumnock Chronicle of shows he entered in the 1920s and 30s and in 1966 he wanted another shot. He was very fond of his roses so we packed up cut roses on the Friday evening in a large cardboard box. They sat in tubes of water with cotton wool. We caught the midnight train from Derby to Kirkconnell, Cumnock station having closed. Then a bus, a double decker Western SMT to Cumnock Town Hall where he took the roses straight in to stage them. He was thrilled to be among the prizes-winners once again. We returned home by coach on Sunday morning and back to work on Monday. 

As a child he took me out on walks in Cumnock but always stopped to talk to someone having been a postie, I think he knew half the toon! His last visit was the summer of 1969 just a few months before he died. Keeping up with current news was easy as his sister sent him the Chronicle every week along with the Ayrshire Post, a football paper and a couple of others. I was quite used to his Scottish accent but it was much stronger when he was amongst his “ain folk”. Before his mother died in 1943, he always had to have his train fare home in the Post Office.

Elizabeth still lives in Spondon.

By D Bruce McCowan

McCowans on the Move

With I Hope a New Face

 
Introduction

James McCowan (1773-1834) had visions of being an industrialist in Canada. But his dream was cut short by cholera on Aug. 28 1834. Baptised by the minister of New Cumnock Parish, James McCowan, closed his last letter on August 20 1834: 

I am Dear Sir your Sincair old friend with I hope a new face, James McCowan. 

As if to say he was turning over a new leaf in a new land,Canada, James and his third son, David, died of cholera eight days later. The letter was never mailed. His wife and six surviving children decided to hold and to cherish the last written words of one who had had the vision to settle "Neigh the Front" -- close to the markets of a growing city on the north shore of Lake Ontario. James knew that this site would lead them to a prosperous future.

 

The following overview of the movements of several Ayrshire McCowan families includes a very short introduction to the fascinating story of Cumnock-born emigrant James McCowan.

 
Moving Into Cumnock
 

The jury is still out on exactly when and why the McCowans moved into Cumnock Parish. But it was certainly many many decades before “Cumnock” was divided into the separate parishes of New Cumnock (1650) and Old Cumnock. A theory is presented on http://mccowan.org/feudalism.htm that the McCowans followed the very powerful Dunbars into the Cumnock area in the 14^th century.

 

It seems the McCowans didn’t move very far at that distant period. Early Strathclyde historian Hugh Lorimer, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, must have had good reason to record: 

 

McCowan is a family name of distinction for hundreds of years in the Kirkconnel area. [Robert the] Bruce had a company of McCowans in the upper Nith district, an honour of which Sanquhar is proud.[1]

 

New Cumnock Parish is adjacent to Kirkconnel Parish (Dumfriesshire) in the upper Nith valley, with Sanquhar Parish being immediately downstream. In his History of Sanquhar, James Brown wrote in about 1891:

 

To his [Edgar's] grandson Donald, David II, who began to reign on the death of his father Robert the Bruce in 1329, granted the captainship of the MacGowans, a numerous clan of the Scoto-Irish then located in the [Nithsdale] district.[2]

 

Mr. Brown had found an entry in Registrum Magni Sigilli Regum Scotorum, Vol 1, App 2: "To Donald Edzear of the captainship [of] Clanmacgowin".

In An Account of the Sirname Edgar, (1873) author J. H. Lawrence Archer explains: 

The Earls of Dunbar, from whom the Edgars are understood to be descended, seem to have parted with their lands in Nithsdale before 1453.

And Archer goes on to quote Chalmers’ Caledonia:

During the reign of Robert Bruce, Richard Edgar possessed the castle, and half of the barony of Sanquhar in Upper Nithsdale… Donald Edgar (Richard's Son) acquired from King David II. the captainship of the clan MacGowan in Nithsdale.

Clan tradition and legends aside… and with tongue in cheek…  the meticulous notary, Gavin Ros, was careful to precisely record the undisputed details of matters before the court in Cumnock -- in 1515 William M’Cowane was “confusedly apprehended” and “not lawfully arrested”.[3]

 It seems a few McCowans stayed in Kirkconnel: on April 26, 1738, the marriage of John McCowan in Kirkonel parish and Janet McCall in Sanquair parish was solemnised by Rev. John Macmillan “among the Cameronian societies”. [4]

An Early Case of Moving Out – A Land Baron Power-Play

 

The recent book The HogScore in the Great Rink of Time: Ramblings on Curling (Book 1) explains a theory on the probable Cumnock origins of Charles Cowan (1801-1889) of Valleyfield, the famous co-founder (in 1838) of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club. Suffice it to summarize the theory here -- in a land baron power-play, George McGachane was pushed out of his Cumnock, Ayrshire, estate of Barlanathan (aka Barlannachan)... anglicized his surname to Cowan... and moved east in the mid sixteenth century to become the founder of the Cowan of Valleyfield family, the wealthy and influential papermakers and politicians of the nineteenth century. A leap of faith please -- McGachane, McGawn and a dozen somewhat similar spellings are earlier more gaelic-sounding variations of McGowan and McCowan.[5]

Staying Put
 

While there was some degree of mobility of ordinary Scottish folk in the late middle-ages and early post-medieval period, the McCowans in Old Cumnock seemed to have had surprising staying power. McCowan is definitely not a common surname. In a lowland region peppered with such common names as Brown, Crawford, Douglas, Hamilton, Johnston, Mitchell, Muir, Murdoch, Murray, Simpson and Wilson, it is a real wonder that McCowan was -- perhaps arguably -- the most common surname in Old Cumnock Parish in the first half of the eighteenth century. And forms of McGeachan and McGawn – even less common than McCowan -- were easily in the top dozen.[5] This rather supports the premise that a dozen forms of McCowan, McGowan, McGeachan, McGawn etc have the same family root.

 

Notably though, it does appear that when a McCowan slid over into neighbouring Ochiltree Parish, he was liable to further anglicize his surname to “Cowan”. Based on the Old Cumnock parish baptism records, 1704-1750, McCowan households outnumbered Cowan households by 14 to 1. In contrast, in the adjacent parish on the west, the Ochiltree birth register, 1640-1700, indicates about 7 households of each. 

 

To Ayr -- Further Anglicization of the Name – Dropping the “Mc”

 

David McCowan, wright in Ochiltree, clearly had Old Cumnock origins. David and his wife had four children baptized in Ochiltree, 1745-1751. Soon after, the family moved to the west coast – there, David was “Wright in Newton Upon Ayr”. More than likely, he started building sailing ships. It is not certain if David ever changed his surname to “Cowan”, but his son, watch-maker Hugh (app 1757-1840), certainly did at some point.

 

David McCowan, wright, had a brother Hugh. Their father was Hugh McCowan or McOwen who lived in Haugh – he was presumably a wright at one of the mills in Haugh.

 

 

 

A portion of “Pedigree of the Family of Hugh Cowan, Esq, Merchant in Ayr”, 

written before mid-1840

With thanks to the family of McTaggart Cowan, Canada

 

 

The younger Hugh McCowan and his wife, Elizabeth Sloan, had five sons in Mauchline. Also a wright, Hugh died in 1767. Soon after Hugh’s death, Elizabeth and her three surviving sons evidently moved to Ayr and probably lived for a time with her brother-in-law, David McCowan, and his family. One of Elizabeth’s sons, engineer David, went to Jamaica. A recent book We’re Not Here to Put in Time: Ramblings on a Scottish-Canadian Work Ethic(http://mccowan.org/publicat.htm), details logical reasons why her other two sons changed their surname from McCowan to Cowan. They both became very successful professionals in Ayr.

 

Elizabeth’s oldest surviving son, William Cowan (born McCowan in Mauchline) (1759-1841), became a wealthy banker and four-term Provost of Ayr. He was also an Ayr Deputy Lieutenant.

 

Hugh Cowan (born McCowan in Mauchline) (1761-1840) was Dean of Guild of Ayr, Commissioner of Supply for Ayrshire, Provost of Ayr 1816-17, and founding Treasurer of the Savings Bank.  Hugh Cowan was a principal in Mssrs. Cowan and Sloans’ “extensive shipbuilding yards” in Newton Parish, just across the river from Ayr. Hugh had probably learned ship-building from his uncle David McCowan, wright in Newton-Upon-Ayr -- probably a ship-wright. Hugh Cowan frequently acted as Trustee in cases of business bankruptcies in the area.

 

This McCowan / Cowan family in Ayr[6] had a long and generous – in terms of both money and volunteer time -- relationship with Ayr Academy.  Hugh’s son, John Cowan (1798-1878) – aka Lord Cowan – was the donor of the Cowan Gold Medal at Ayr Academy. He was Scotland’s Solicitor General in 1851.

 

 

 

 

 

TBD

Possible Very Early (1845) Photograph of Lord John Cowan 1798-1878

https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/66076/john-lord-cowan-1798-1878-judge

Need permission

 

 

 
Professionals in Scotland’s Nineteenth Century Growing Cities

 

Both William (1759-1841) and Hugh Cowan (1761-1840) were born “McCowan” in Mauchline – no doubt they had Old Cumnock origins. Many of William and Hugh Cowan’s descendants were professionals in Scotland’s cities -- bankers, accountants, lawyers, judges, engineers. They must have been a pretty smart hard-working bunch of people. We surmise that they would have done just as well if they’d left their surname as McCowan. 

 

For instance, three sons of William McCowan, farmer in Capon Acre, Old Cumnock, (and presumably a distant cousin of William and Hugh Cowan in Ayr) did very well indeed in professional careers.

 

Hew McCowan (1815-1863) was a banker in Ayr (accountant of the Royal Bank of Scotland) and a director of the gas company. Hew’s son, David, was knighted in 1928 and granted a baronetcy for his generous philanthropy and other good work.[7]

 

Robert McCowan (1821-1880) was a founding member of the Institute of Accountants and Actuaries of Glasgow and its Treasurer for many years from 1864. He can genuinely be considered one of the western world’s pioneers of modern accountancy. Like his brother, David, Robert gave much of his time to various charities and other valuable social institutions.[8]

 

David McCowan LL.D. (1826-1908) was a wealthy marine insurance broker and probably one of Glasgow’s most generous philanthropists of the time. He gave Ayr Academy the foundation of a library as well as funding for the McCowan English and Art prizes.[9]

 

Meanwhile… Prelude to Agricultural Revolution in Old Cumnock

 

The history books will have you believe that the wealthy landlords were the movers and shakers of the agricultural revolution. If more Lowland estate records were deeply investigated, it could very probably be shown that it was actually progressive farm tenants – in partnership with cooperative landlords and estate managers -- who were the real originators of the agricultural revolution.

 

Agricultural change really “took off” in eastern Ayrshire around 1750 – consolidating small holdings into larger farms for example. But some progressive tenants in Old Cumnock had been engaging in this land-use re-organization since 1700.

Lord Dumfries’ archivist kindly sent the author copies of several “tacks” or leases and rental data including:

·      "Orchyardtoune ... together with that cottar [subtenant] tack called the nether house of Mure", 15 years, William McOwan, 1700

·      Barmilkhill, 19 years, Robert McCowan in Robertoun, 1702

·      Robertoun, 13 years, William McOwan in Orchyardtoun, 1713

·      Little Kairn, Craighouse and Glengyron, 13 years, David McCowan in Glengyron, 1728

·      Barmickhill, Hew McCowan in Orcharton, 1742 

These farmers were renting adjacent (or very near-by) farms decades before the landlord started pushing the farm consolidation idea. 

Tenants taking the initiative to rent and cultivate multiple farms in 1700 is one thing, but another McCowan in Old Cumnock was doing just that even a century earlier… 

In the early 1790s, the minister of Old Cumnock parish estimated 100 score – 2,000 – sheep in the whole parish. Many small holdings had, over the previous forty years, been consolidated into larger farms – in the parish let’s assume 50 good-sized farms for easy figuring by 1790. That’s only 40 sheep – two score -- per farm on average. 

The 1614 testament of John McCowan in Whitehill and Changue farms in Old Cumnock shows that he possessed fourteen score sheep[10]. In 1614 he had seven times as many sheep as the consolidated bigger farms had even four decades afterthe landlords started evicting small-time cottars in favour of sheep. This seems rather extraordinary. John McCowan, a tenant working two farms, appears to have been 140 years ahead of the typical wealthy lowland landowner. It seems, he far exceeded what the “improving” landlords were trying to do: re-populate the land with sheep! 

The capacity of the land to sustain the population, and human responses to radical economic change, are key notions in any serious study of eighteenth-century Scotland. To Sustene the Personis: The Agricultural Revolution(http://mccowan.org/publicat.htm) is a modest study of the changing relationship between people and land in Old Cumnock Parish, 1600-1800. In short, not everyone could rent a farm – younger sons and daughters were left out of the family farm transfer process. Doing the farm labour was one available option.

James McCowan (born est 1720) and Margaret McCowan had three children (that were recorded) born in three different places in Old Cumnock Parish: David 1743 at Little Auchingilne; Robert 1746 at Holme (father of James 1773-1834); and Janet 1754 at Barshear. (The Old Cumnock baptism registers are blank for 1707 to1723 and 1747 to 1750.) All this moving around from farm to farm suggests that James and Margaret did not have a lease on a farm. They may have been farm labourers, perhaps because James was a younger son of a tenant farmer. Or perhaps James’ father had been a younger son of a tenant farmer. Traditionally, the oldest son would generally get the “kindly” rights to the farm lease on the passing of the father.

 

 

Orchardton, Old Cumnock Parish

(photo by D. B. McCowan)

Sampler, 18^th century

This sampler was among the James McCowan family belongings that were brought to Canada in 1833.

The house illustrated in the above early sampler looks quite like Orchardton farmhouse. Orchardton was tenanted by McCowans for at least the first half of the eighteenth century – and probably earlier. It could be that James’ (bn est 1720) family had a connection with Orchardton farm – (but not yet proven).

 

Industrial Revolution – Migration of Wrights to the Large Mill Towns

What to do if you were a younger son of a tenant farmer? Doing farm labour was one option.

A document from Dumfries House in Old Cumnock that was made available to the author is particularly interesting. Lord Dumfries had asked Jas. Lowndes for his assistance in "promoting trades & industry in my village" [Cumnock]. In August, 1784, Lord Dumfries laments in his "draft...answer to Mr. Lowndes": "I found that yearly a number of my farmers sons go to Glasgow Paisley & c to acquire [?] trades  if that could be done nearer home it would be more comfortable to the poor people ..."

 

Two of Lord Dumfries’ "farmer's sons" in Old Cumnock were apparently later attracted by accelerating industrial activity in the Parish of Neilston 25 miles north of Cumnock (and three miles south of Paisley) -- Robert McCowan (born in 1782, a brother of William, the carrier in Capon Acre) and Hugh McCowan (1777-1856) were both millwrights. They had presumably followed Robert's first cousin, William McCowan (b 1765), who was in Neilston by 1799. Mason David McCowan (born in 1775), was apparently in the Paisley area by 1800.

 

Robert McCowan (b 1782 in Old Cumnock) had a grandson, William McCowan (born 1838), who raised a family in British Guiana.  Sgt-Major William McCowan was in the military – an instructor to the local militia. His daughter set up a leading private primary school William had a highly successful grandson -- Sir Anthony James Denys McCowan (1928-2003). Born in Georgetown, Guiana, Sir Anthony was a pillar of the English legal system and a Lord Justice of Appeal 1989-1997.  

Fortune Seeker in Trinidad

 David McCowan (b 1775), stone mason, was a brother of James (1773-1834). David went to Trinidad – here is the back-story as told by James McCowan in his (fictitious) 1834 Immortal Memory of Robert Burns.

 

… By this time Mr. Douglas had come to rest a-top the stone dyke. The young man turned to him and inquired, "So your brother will give me a job as book-keeper on your estate in Jamaica"? Mr. Douglas replied with a nod of his head, "Aye, yes Robert, he will. I know you’ve been studying the improved arithmetic of Mr. Halbert."

 

"Yes" and turning to us, this Robert smiled, "You see lads, keep on learnin’ an’ stay in school and you’ll be able to go anywhere. Do you know Jamaica?" With a bit of a chuckle they both walked off.

 

At the time, David and I did not realize that we had just met Robert Burns, the subject of our gathering tonight. But Burns’ advice to keep on learnin’ we would take very seriously indeed.

 

For over a week, brother David spoke of nothing but Jamaica and read as much as he could about the British Empire. He soon became determined to make his fortune in the West Indies. In the year 1800 David took his mason’s tools to Trinidad and he is now a successful architect. As for me, I stayed in school longer than most. I wanted to learn about that improved arithmetic that Mr. Douglas had mentioned. I knew I would need it soon enough in business...[11] 

In his – fictitious -- Immortal Memory of Robert Burns, James McCowan goes on to describe his two other – not-altogether-out-of-the-question -- encounters with the Bard in Old Cumnock

 David McCowan, mason in Trinidad, was an ambitious man – his dozen or so letters to James, written between 1800 and 1820, are indeed telling.[12] David’s oldest son was Dr. Robert Thomas McCowan (c 1809-1878). Born in Trinidad, Dr. McCowan was a military surgeon and ship’s doctor. He visited his McCowan cousins in Scarborough at least once. Curiously, for a few years he served as a doctor in Cumnock and was recognized by the Parochial Board for his dedicated work during the cholera epidemic of 1848.

 

The Lowland Clearances: Winners and Losers? 

There is the notion that there were “winners” and “losers” as a result of the so-called Lowland Clearances -- those who were “cleared” from the land would be characterized as the “losers”. Certainly they came out on the “losing end” of a massive economic transformation, but they were not “losers”. “Loser” has a very negative connotation, at least in current Canadian jargon. “Loser” is not the right word to describe these people. Some were outright victims, others were simply unlucky and, admittedly, a few just didn't “keep up with the times”.

 

Nonetheless, let’s use the words “Loser” and “Winner” quite liberally as we take some snapshots of the life of James McCowan, 1773-1834:

·    1773, Loser, born near Cumnock into a labouring family that was likely made landless a few generations earlier (Note: further investigation is warranted)

·    1797, Loser, possibly a veritable serf – “belonging to the works” -- toiling at the coal-face in Cumnock, Ayrshire (Note: Subject to finding clear evidence, he may not have been a serf in the coal mines in the strict legal sense, but perhaps, under both personal and local circumstances, he perceived himself as being effectively “belonging” to the mine, and “bound” to work there.)

·    1799, Winner, emancipation of Scottish colliers

·    1799, Winner, serf-turned-capitalist secures the lease of his very own coalworks in Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire -- he is now a Coalmaster who will provide others with jobs 

·    1813, Winner, erects a steam engine, a fairly early one in that part of the south Lanarkshire coalfield

·    1813, Loser, has two women pregnant at the same time -- must choose which one to marry

·    1816, Loser, all tenants dragged into estate litigation through no fault of their own -- financial woes for all, including the Coalmaster

·    1817, Winner, installs an underground railway and, convincing others of his abilities, he secures more financial backing for his coalworks

·    1817, Winner, contracted to embank the Nethan Water after a severe and damaging flood

·    1817, Winner / Loser, excavates Scotland’s first artificial curling pond but, for two centuries, receives no credit for this innovation 

·    1818, Loser, competition for renewal of the Auchanbeg Coalworks lease is too fierce, but he carries on as coalmaster at his other coal and limeworks a few miles north near Blackwood

·    1821, Loser, bankrupted as a coalmaster and must continue as a farmer on only marginal land

·    1829, Loser, four-fold increase in rent of the farm of East Auchanbeg

·    1831, Loser, bankrupted again but somehow carries on as a cattle breeder

·    1833, Loser, boards the emigrant ship at Greenock 

·    1833, Winner, settles on the fertile clay at the foot of the present Meadowcliffe Drive at the edge of the 250-foot high Scarborough Bluffs. The gully beside this land has incredible water power potential. He called his new home “Springbank”.

·    1834, Loser, barely a year after starting a new life in Canada, he dies of cholera the same night as his third son.

 

Notwithstanding these snapshots at particular points in time, the story of James McCowan is not the story of a loser. It is the story of an ambitious and industrious man of very humble rank who took enormous risks that even the landed gentry would not take. At the dawn of the modern market economy, the story of this collier, coalmaster, grocer, contractor, lime merchant, farmer and cattle breeder is the story of hundreds of lowland Scots who came, oh so close, to great success. Perhaps James McCowan did not become a successful industrialist because the cartel of big coal owners down the River Clyde prevented him. Yes, there was such a cartel, with enormous political and financial clout.

We are all grateful to renowned Canadian artist Doris McCarthy 

for donating her part of Springbank to the Ontario Heritage Trust.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

With I Hope a New Face in Scarborough, Upper Canada

  

Source: Globe and Mail, May 12 1923.  (ProQuest Historical Newspapers on-line.)

Robert “Bob” McCowan (1855-1931) was a Scarborough Township Councillor 1913-1915, a Deputy Reeve 1916-1918 and 1920-1921 and Reeve 1923-1925. The Reeve was, more or less, the Township mayor.    Reeve Robert was a grandson of James McCowan (1773-1834). Another of James’ grandsons was Alexander McCowan (1853-1939), Member of the Provincial Parliament 1905-1913 and Sherriff of York County for over 20 years. A great-grandson was David A. McCowan (1898-1983), inventor of the Phototeria. Another great-grandson, Clark Young (1893-1982), was inducted into the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame. A great-great grandson of James McCowan was Hollywood film director, George McCowan (1927-1995).     The “shrewd ancestor” (referred to at left)  was Robert’s grandfather, James McCowan (1773-1834) who brought his family to Lot 20 Concessions B and C straddling Gates Gully and overlooking Lake Ontario. A bankrupted coalmaster from Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, James knew the value of proximity to good markets – the nearness of the growing town of York via the Kingston Road.

 

 

Cumnock-born James McCowan (1773-1834) and his wife Margaret Porteous took their family of eight to Scarborough, Upper Canada, in the spring of 1833.

Imagine packing up your belongings and emigrating to the forested wilderness in Scarborough. When the early Scottish settlers came to Scarborough two centuries ago it was probably like stepping back in time twenty or thirty or maybe even forty years – back to a subsistence existence where you ate only what you raised and you bartered for what you needed. Getting what you might have wanted was usually out of the question in the early years. 

These bankrupted Scots could never own land in Scotland where centuries of economic order held ordinary folk to the tenant class at best. Searching for a paradise of their own in 1833, this place represented their first potential opportunity to own land. They named their new place "Springbank" because of the numerous springs in the side of the very steep hill along the north.

Place... the land... farming... the backbone of the Ontario economy for 150 years. But, alas, when James first arrived in Scarborough, most of the readily workable land had already been taken up -- the days of free land grants had ended. But he had a solution. James' youngest brother William wrote to his fatherless nieces and nephews at Springbank in 1836, asking:

 

...of what extent your piece ground is as we think that by the way you write you are into a bit of ground... 

 

That bit of ground at Springbank... the 35 acre farm was rather isolated from Upper Canada’s main artery, Kingston Road, by two deep gullies and by the steep hill which marked the shoreline of the pre-historic Lake Iroquois. But this isolation had not bothered the experienced coalmaster, contractor, farmer, innovator and merchant, James McCowan. He was a determined man -- in Scotland he had installed a steam engine and an underground railway -- among the first of each in that part of the south Lanarkshire coalfield. He knew the importance of energy. As a relatively early adopter in the use of coal to fuel a steam engine, he could very easily harness the energy of the falling water in the two ravines which flanked his land-holding at Springbank. He could mill lumber for construction projects. He had not been afraid of travelling the dangerous roads to his other coal and limeworks five miles away -- not to mention carting his product to the populous markets in Glasgow. 

 

Yes, James McCowan knew the value of being near good markets. So he settled his family "Neigh the Front". Blazing a trail up the steep hill, down into Gates Gully, across the top of his dam, and up the other side -- fully half a mile to Kingston Road -- was absolutely no problem in his opinion. Now connected to his markets, Springbank would ultimately bring back relative prosperity. But his dream of renewing his industrial ambitions was cut short by cholera on August 28 1834.

 

Notwithstanding this, the family, with indomitable energy and perseverance, fought the battle of life and, although a severe one, victory crowned their united efforts.

 

James' three surviving sons became proud owners of almost 800 acres of Scarborough's fertile soil. In 1876 his eldest son came back to Springbank as the owner. Robert McCowan (1813-1886) proudly told his own seven children about those trying but rewarding early years at the edge of the Bluffs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

	James McCowan’s letter of August 20 1834 was written to William Begg from Springbank, Scarborough, eight days before James’ death of cholera. This letter is an Upper Canada medical history treasure, not just for its references to the cholera deaths in the neighbourhood but, in particular, for McCowan’s first-person description of the early symptoms of cholera. “Dite” seems to refer to his “diction”, that is, how he was putting his words together in the letter.

 

More Reading About Cumnock Folk -- www.mccowan.org/publicat.htm

 

·      To Sustene the Personis: The Agricultural Revolution, D.B. McCowan, James McCowan Memorial Social History (48 pages)

·      Fairs and Frolics: Scottish Communities at Work and Play, D.B. McCowan, James McCowan Memorial Social History (56 pages)

·      The McCowans of Cumnock, Lesmahagow and Scarborough, D.B. McCowan (28 pages)

·      Neigh the Front: Exploring Scarboro Heights: 142 pages

·      http://mccowan.org/feudalism.htm: Land, Feudalism and Clan McCowan, D.B. McCowan

·      The Scots of Scarborough -- James McCowan Memorial Social History

o   V1#1 – The Scottish Diaspora Tapestry – The Scots of Scarborough Exhibition: Celebrating the Relationship Between Scots and the Ontario Forest (36 pages)

o   V1#2 – Thinking Like Telford – 2016: Scotland’s Year of Innovation, Architecture & Design (36 pages)

o   V1#3 – The McCowan Farm in the 1920s (by Bob McCowan) (36 pages)

o   V2 (#1,2,3,4) – We’re Not Here to Put in Time: Ramblings on a Scottish-Canadian Work Ethic (with Bill McCowan) (154 pages)

o   V3 (#1,2) – Well Taught the Value of a Shilling: Numeracy, Financial Literacy, Earning an Honest Living & Related Ramblings (with George Edward McCowan) (80 pages)

o   V3 (#3) – At the Home of the Bride’s Parents: A Century of St. Andrew’s Weddings (32 pages)

o   V4 -- The Hog-Score in the Great Rink of Time: Ramblings on Curling (With John Rae McCowan) – Book 1 – (The Outdoor Natural Ice Era in Scotland, 1500-1900) (142 pages)

o   V6 (#1) – Scarboro’s First Burns Supper: Values of the Immigrants – A Living History Snapshot of Jan. 25 1834(24 pages)

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[1] Hugh Lorimer, F.S.A., A Corner of Old Strathclyde, Andrew Spence, 1952, p. 101.

[2] James Brown, The History of Sanquhar, 1891, p. 41.

[3] Protocol Book of Gavin Ros, N.P., as transcribed by the Scottish Record Society, 1908.

[4] The full theory and background are explained in The HogScore in the Great Rink of Time: Ramblings on Curling (Ayrshire Archaeological and Natural History Society -- https://aanhs.org/publications/).

[5] Based on Old Cumnock Parish Church Baptism searches, 1700-1750, in “Scotland’s People”.

[6] A Chronicle of the Family of Gairdner of Ayrshire..., William Henry Bailey, 1947 (Including the Cowan descendants of Elizabeth Sloan and Hugh McCowan, wright in Mauchline)

[7] The Hog-Score in the Great Rink of Time: Ramblings on Curling -- Book 1  (http://mccowan.org/publicat.htm)

[8] Well Taught the Value of a Shilling: Numeracy, Financial Literacy, Earning an Honest Living and Related Ramblings. (http://mccowan.org/well_taught_the_value.htm).

[9] We’re Not Here to Put in Time: Ramblings on a Scottish-Canadian Work Ethic  (http://mccowan.org/publicat.htm)

[10] Scottish Record Office, CC9/7/9, Testament and Inventory of John McCowane, Quhythill, Parish of Cumnock, 1614. Transcription (commissioned by the author) by A. Rosemary Bigwood M.A., M.Litt., Edinburgh, 1985.

[11] Scarboro’s First Burns Supper: Values of the Immigrants -- A Living History Snapshot of Jan. 25, 1834.

[12] We’re Not Here to Put in Time: Ramblings on a Scottish-Canadian Work Ethic  (http://mccowan.org/publicat.htm)