About the beginning of the last century, Greenock, now one of the busiest ports in the kingdom, was but a little fishing-village, consisting of a single row of thatched cottages lying parallel with the sandy beach of the Frith of Clyde, in what was then known as “Sir John’s little bay.” Sir John Shaw was the superior, or lord of the manor, his mansion standing on a height overlooking the town,[52] and commanding an extensive view of the Clyde, from Roseneath to Dumbarton. Across the water lay the beautiful north shore, broken by the long narrow sea-lochs running far away among the Argyleshire hills. Their waters, now plashed by the paddles of innumerable Clyde steamers, were then only disturbed by the passing of an occasional Highland coble; whilst their shores, now fringed with villages, villas, and mansions, were as lonely as Glencoe.
Greenock was in a great measure isolated from other towns by impassable roads. The only route to Greenock, on the west, lay along the beach, and when strong winds raised a high tide the communication was entirely cut off. Greenock was separated from Cartsdyke, on the east, by the Ling Burn, which was crossed by a plank, afterwards supplanted by an old ship’s rudder; and it was about the middle of the century before a bridge was built across the stream. The other provisions of the place for public service and convenience were of a like rude and primitive character: thus, Greenock could not boast of a public clock until about the middle of the last century, when a town clock was mounted in a wooden steeple. Till then, a dial, still standing, marked the hours when the sun shone, and a bell hung upon a triangle summoned the people to kirk and market. Besides the kirk, however, there was another public building—the Black Hole, or prison, which, like the other houses in the place, was covered with thatch. Before the prison were placed the “jougs,” as a terror to evil-doers, as well as a few old pieces of cannon, taken from one of the ships of the Spanish Armada wrecked near Pencores Castle. The Black Hole, the jougs, and the cannon were thought necessary precautions against the occasional visits to which the place was subject from the hungry Highlandmen on the opposite shores of the firth.[53]
The prosperity of Greenock dates from the year 1707, shortly after the Union with England. The British Parliament then granted what the Scottish Parliament had refused—the privilege of constructing a harbour. Before that time there was no pier,—only a rude landing-stage which Sir John Shaw had provided for his barge in the “Little Bay;” but the fishermen’s boats and other small craft frequenting the place were beached in the usual primitive way. Vessels of burden requiring to load or unload their cargoes did so at the pier at Cartsdyke above referred to. When the necessary powers were granted to make a harbour at Greenock, the inhabitants proceeded to tax themselves to provide the necessary means, paying a shilling and fourpence for every sack of malt brewed into ale within the barony; ale, not whisky, being then the popular drink of Scotland. The devotion of the townspeople to their “yill caups” must have been considerable, as the harbour was finished and opened in 1710, and in thirty years the principal debt was paid off.
In course of time Greenock was made a custom-house port, and its trade rapidly increased. The first solitary vessel, freighted with Glasgow merchandise for the American colonies, sailed from the new harbour in 1719; and now the custom-house dues collected there amount to more than six times the whole revenue of Scotland in the time of the Stuarts.
Here James Watt, son of the Cartsdyke teacher of mathematics, and father of the engineer, began business about the year 1730. His occupation was of a very miscellaneous character, and embraced most branches of carpentry. He was a housewright, shipwright, carpenter, and undertaker, as well as a builder and contractor, having in the course of his life enlarged the western front of Sir John Shaw’s mansion-house, and designed and built the Town-hall and Council-chambers. To these various occupations Mr. Watt added that of a general merchant. He supplied the ships frequenting the port with articles of merchandise as well as with ships’ stores. He also engaged in foreign mercantile ventures, and held shares in several ships.
Three months after the death of his father, to a share of whose property he succeeded, Mr. Watt purchased a house on the Mid-Quay Head, at the lower end of William-street, with a piece of ground belonging to it, which extended to the beach. On this piece of ground stood Watt’s carpenter’s shop, in which a great deal of miscellaneous work was executed—household furniture and ships’ fittings, chairs, tables, coffins, and capstans, as well as the ordinary sorts of joinery; while from his stores he was ready to supply blocks, pumps, gun-carriages, dead-eyes, and other articles used on board ship. He was ready to “touch” ships’ compasses, and to adjust and repair nautical instruments generally; while on an emergency he could make a crane for harbour uses—the first in Greenock having been executed in his shops, and erected on the pier for the convenience of the Virginia tobacco-ships beginning to frequent the harbour. These multifarious occupations were necessitated by the smallness of the place, the business of a single calling being as yet too limited to yield a competency to an enterprising man, or sufficient scope for his powers.
Being a person of substance and respectability, Mr. Watt was elected by his fellow townsmen to fill various public offices, such as trustee for the burgh fund, town councillor, treasurer, and afterwards baillie or chief magistrate. He also added to his comfort as well as to his dignity by marrying a wife of character, Agnes Muirhead, a woman esteemed by her neighbours for her graces of person, as well as of mind and heart. She is said to have been not less distinguished for her sound sense and good manners than for her cheerful temper and excellent housewifery.[54] Such was the mother of James Watt. Three of her five children died in childhood; John, her fifth son, perished at sea when on a voyage to America in one of his father’s ships; and James, the fourth of the family, remained her only surviving child. He was born in the house which stood at the corner between the present Dalrymple-street and William-street, since taken down and replaced by the building now known as the “James Watt Tavern.”
JAMES WATT TAVERN, GREENOCK.
[By R. P. Leitch.]