The Smollett Mausoleum

Image: © Lairich Rig Taken: 5 Nov 2012

The mausoleum is shown here straddling the eastern wall of Image The picture was taken from Church Street, outside the kirkyard. I found the use of colour interesting: specifically, the sandstone is grey in the near side-wall, yellow in the end-walls, and red both in the lowest course and in the more detailed far side of the structure. See the end-note for further information. Click on the end-note title for other views. (As noted there, John Rouet Smollett was "Rear-admiral of the Red"; this refers to old divisions of the Royal Navy: there was, at one time, an Admiral of the Red, an Admiral of the White, and an Admiral of the Blue; there were also corresponding Vice Admirals and Rear Admirals, making nine ranks in all. For all his high position, John Rouet Smollett, "an inveterate chewer of tobacco", was a commendably plain-spoken man, without airs or affectations.) As for the rest of the family, the following biographical details are from Donald MacLeod's "Dumbarton, Vale of Leven, and Loch Lomond: Historical, Legendary, Industrial, and Descriptive" (1884): The Smolletts had risen to prominence as merchants and shipowners in Dumbarton from at least the seventeenth century onwards. A certain John Smollett was admitted a burgess of Dumbarton in 1638, and served as a Bailie of the burgh on several occasions, and once as its Dean of Guild. In 1666 he purchased Pillanflatt and Rosruvan from William Lindsay of Bonhill. He died in 1680; his only son, James, born in 1648, became the first Smollett of Bonhill. James purchased the Bonhill estate from William and Anne Lindsay in 1684, and Dalquhurn from Charles Fleming in 1692. James was created Deputy-Lieutenant of the County of Dumbarton in 1715, and was knighted by William III. James married Jane, daughter of MacAulay of Ardencaple (see Image). Of their children, one, Archibald, became the father of the author Tobias Smollett (Image / Image). Archibald was also the father of Jean Smollett, who married Alexander Telfer of Symington, Lanarkshire. Jean eventually succeeded to the family estates. Her son and successor, Alexander Telfer Smollett married Cecilia Renton, daughter of John Renton of Lamberton (the village of Renton was named after Cecilia Renton, and neighbouring Alexandria after the couple's eldest son, Lt-Col Alexander Smollett). Their second son was Rear-Admiral John Rouett Smollett. He first married Louisa, daughter of William Rouet of Auchendennan (see Image), and later Elizabeth, second daughter of the Hon. Patrick Boyle of Shewalton, Ayrshire (second son of the second Earl of Glasgow).

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