IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Main Street, ALEXANDRIA, G83 0NU

Upper Bridge Street Alexandria from the Junction of Middleton Street and Queen Street

This is a view from the other side of Main Street. The main gate is between two pillars. A war memorial used to stand in the kirkyard, just beyond and to the left of that gate, but it now stands beside the present-day Image: see Image

The stone is set beside the southern boundary wall of Image The inscription names Archibald Ferguson himself (he was a painter in Dumbarton), his son David Napier Ferguson, and his wife Grace Napier. The stone is not particularly remarkable in itself, but the story of its being located here does say something about nineteenth-century Dumbarton. Donald MacLeod, in his book "Historic Families ... of the Lennox" (1891), mentions "Three Dumbartonians" buried in this churchyard, one of whom is Archibald Ferguson, "painter, town councillor, and elder of the Parish Kirk; a decent worthy, prosperous man". The other two are William McFarlane, "grocer and proprietor in the royal burgh, an honest, plain, blunt man of the old school, and also an elder of the Kirk" (his memorial is located nearby), and Robert Lang, who worked in a coalmaster's office, and later ran a steam tug (MacLeod says that "he was a smart man, but possessed of a fiery, ungovernable temper"). MacLeod explains the reason for their being buried here; they had been parties to the expensive litigation connected to the shutting down of the old kirkyard of Dumbarton Parish Church (see http://www.geograph.org.uk/article/Dumbarton-Cemetery#closing-the-parish-churchyard where this is discussed at length; the three Dumbarton men were opposed to the closure of the old Dumbarton kirkyard), and, as MacLeod puts it, "rather than lie within the borders of its new and beautiful cemetery, they preferred that their mortal remains should decay and be resolved into dust among 'unco folk'". He follows it up with a remark that "the ruling spirit, in each of the above cases, was strong in death". [That last remark sounds, to me, like a snide comment (those who wished to be buried elsewhere are, in effect, being described as very stubborn). If it is, the reason lies in the politics of Dumbarton life at that time. There was an underlying division into two factions, one of them consisting of the Denny family and their supporters, and another that was opposed to their activities. In the resulting disputes, MacLeod was very much on the Denny side; in fact, he was personally involved in some of the resulting litigation. As a result, a bias is sometimes apparent in his works, and it is as well to be aware of this (though it does not detract from the historical value of his books). For example, the Dennys had been behind the creation of the new Dumbarton Cemetery, which MacLeod described in glowing terms (as quoted above), and they were also behind the moves to have Dumbarton's old parish churchyard closed to new burials. See http://www.geograph.org.uk/article/Dumbarton-Cemetery#closing-the-parish-churchyard where these factional divisions are discussed under the subheading "The Chronicles of Gotham".]

This picture was taken from Church Street. For a view of the church from the other side, see Image The present photograph also shows the kirkyard (Image) and its boundary wall. The structure that is built into the eastern wall is Image The houses at the extreme right are on Image

The picture was taken from the south-eastern corner of the churchyard. The disused church itself is in the background.

Looking southward.

The memorials in the foreground are in the north-eastern part of Image The cross commemorates John Hamilton Ferguson, who died at Crosshill, Glasgow, on the 28th of September 1888. The plaque in front of it commemorates the Fergusons of Napierston, and is shown separately: Image

For the setting, see Image The former location of Napierston Farm is shown in Image