IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Bruce Street, GREENOCK, PA15 4LL

No longer in use, the graveyard is just off the town centre and contains the graves of many Greenock merchants and seafarers.

No longer in use, the graveyard is just off the town centre and contains the graves of many Greenock merchants and seafarers.

Compared with other memorials in the burial ground, this one is fairly late in date. For another view, in context, see Image The men named first on each side are evidently brothers-in-law. The left-hand side commemorates Alexander Barclay, cooper in Greenock (d. March 1851 aged 84), Margaret Gillies his wife (d. March 1847), and their daughter Helen Barclay (d. 26th Feb 1868). The right-hand side commemorates John Cameron, auctioneer in Greenock (d. 14 Aug 1866 aged 58), his wife Margaret Barclay (d. 29 June 1876 aged 71), and their children Margaret Gillies, Dugald, John, Alexander Barclay, and Margaret Barclay. The memorial is signed "Stevenson". The Greenock-born monumental sculptor Charles Stevenson (1821-1879) had a "sculpture and photographic establishment" near the gate of Greenock Cemetery; see Image

"Mark Davie Portioner Aderston To the memory of his Father Wm Davie who died 21st Jan'y 1826 aged 75" (A "portioner" is the proprietor of a small piece of land that was formerly part of a larger estate.) The Monumental Inscriptions records(*), in their transcription of this stone, have silently corrected "Aderston" to "Alderston", but I know of no such place. [(*) See the end-note. My comment above relates to the Monumental Inscriptions published in 1992; updated editions may have been published since then.] My own opinion is that "Aderston" was mis-carved for "Anderston" (a district of Glasgow). Illustrating that this is at least plausible, the 1834-35 Post Office Directory for Glasgow has an entry for a certain "Davie, Mark – Portioner, Stobcross street", possibly the same person; Stobcross Street was in Anderston. Furthermore, when this stone was carved, in around 1826, Anderston had not yet been incorporated into Glasgow; it was still a burgh in its own right. For views of the stone in context, see Image and Image

The monument is located in the western half of the Duncan Street burial ground. "A sorrowing flock by whom he was revered and beloved erect this monument to the memory of the Reverend Angus MacBean, Minister of the Gaelic Church and Free Church Gaelic Congregation, Greenock. Born at Croft of Tomatin, Moy, Inverness-shire, 16th November 1785, he departed this life in Greenock, 24th December 1845, after a ministry of twenty-four years. 'An eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures'." (That last phrase quotes the King James Version's rendering of Ac 18:24, which is a description of the preacher Apollos. Tomatin, in the Parish of Moy, is at Image) George Williamson, in his "Old Greenock" (Second Series, 1888), explains that the Gaelic Chapel was built in 1791, opened in 1792, and was constituted a Parish Church quoad sacra by an Act of General Assembly in 1834. Its first minister was Kenneth Bayne, born in Dingwall in 1767, who had previously ministered at the Gaelic Chapel of Ease at Aberdeen. He was admitted to the charge of the Gaelic Chapel at Greenock on the 4th of September 1792. He died on the 13th of April 1821. Williamson, writing in 1888, observes that "then, as now, the sermons were conducted partly in Gaelic, partly in English". Bayne's successor was Angus McBean (his surname is usually so spelled, though not in the inscription), elected to that charge on the 10th of July 1821, and ordained on the 8th of November. He had been educated at King's College, Aberdeen, and had been a schoolmaster at Dores. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Inverness on the 1st of June 1813, became assistant to Hugh Calder at Croy, and from there was elected to Greenock. Williamson, author of "Old Greenock", had at one time had the custody of the manuscript collection of McBean's sermons. A certain Dr McCulloch(*), on examining them, thought them worthy of being preserved in the Library of the Free Church College. However, Angus McBean himself had apparently expressed the wish that, on his death, these manuscripts be committed to the flames, and it seems that his brother, acting as executor, did honour that request. [(*) Dr James Melville McCulloch, minister of the West Parish of Greenock.]

On Inverkip Street.

No longer in use, the graveyard is just off the town centre and contains the graves of many Greenock merchants and seafarers. The graveyard is in two sections.

This is a view diagonally across the burial ground, from the south-east corner, looking to the north-west. The slanting memorial in the foreground is one of several for the Fullarton family, who were among the earliest applicants for burial in this ground. The obelisk that can be seen left of centre is for the minister George Moscrip: Image Click on the end-note title for other pictures taken within this burial ground. Thomas Nugent has three earlier pictures of this burial ground – http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2391668 / http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2391681 / http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2391965 – and a picture of its entrance: Image He also has a set of pictures taken in the adjacent Image; see that item for the links.

As an inscription beside the main entrance of the burial ground points out, "within these walls is the final resting place of John Galt, novelist". The plot is shown in the foreground of the present picture; the novelist's father, mother, and sister, and her children, are also buried here. Of the three tablets, the one furthest away reads as follows (note that the "&c &c" is written on the stone; it does not represent text that I have omitted): "Here are deposited the remains of JOHN GALT, formerly Shipmaster and afterwards Merchant in Greenock. He died on the 6th of August 1817 in the 67th year of his age, having uniformly enjoyed the esteem of all who knew him. Also JEAN THOMSON, his Spouse, who died 18th July 1826 in the 80th year of Her age. Also JOHN GALT, their Son, who died on the 11th of April 1839 in his 60th year, Author of the Annals of the Parish &c &c." (For Galt's place of residence at the time of his death, see Image) The middle stone commemorates ROBERT ANDREW MACFIE, his sister MARY, and another sister JANE THOMSON MACFIE. It ends with the following verse: "The saints in early life remov'd In sweeter accents sing And bless the swiftness of the flight That bore them to their King." The nearest stone commemorates AGNES GALT (widow of Robert Andrew MacFie, "late merchant in Greenock"). Agnes was the sister of John (the novelist). It would be out of place to give a summary of Galt's entire life here; the following description concentrates, instead, on his early life in Greenock. Information about other periods of his life can be found elsewhere. John Galt, the novelist, was born in Ayrshire on the 2nd of May 1779 (as far as he knew, he was born in Irvine; at any rate, he grew up in Irvine). The family spent some time each year in Greenock, and permanently moved there in about 1789 or 1790, where they lived in a new house which John's father had built. In the 1830s, when Galt wrote his autobiography, his sister was still living in that house. In Greenock, Galt numbered amongst his close friends Mr James Park, whose father (also called James Park) was a tanner, and whose brothers Robert and William operated a tanwork in Harvie Lane. The younger James died in January 1818. Galt and Park were occasional contributors to the Greenock Advertiser newspaper. Galt worked for a time as a clerk in the offices of James Miller & Co (he describes Miller himself as "one of the fattest men I ever saw", and, though rather pompous, as having great integrity; his good qualities outweighed his foibles, and Galt would later remember him with affection). Miller was the uncle of Robert Ewing; Ewing, who became a Magistrate, would become another of Galt's close friends. Galt later went into partnership with him, in the firm Ewing & Galt. John Galt had a great deal of appreciation for Greenock's Public Library. However, when revolutionary feeling was strong on the continent, the works of certain "suspect" authors were removed from the library, and placed in the custody of Mr John Dunlop (he was the "John Dunlop, Tide Surveyor" who is mentioned at Image). This action greatly displeased Galt and others, and the policy was later reversed. John Galt was a prolific author, publishing some works under his real name, and others under a pseudonym. His early work "Annals of the Parish", which is mentioned specifically in the inscription quoted above, was inspired by a solitary walk he made, one Sunday, to the nearby village of Inverkip. Galt noticed many changes there, and, while he could see that they were undoubtedly improvements, he felt, at the same time, that the town had lost something. The novel itself is fairly typical of Galt's work in that it describes Scottish country life and the effects of social change (the book would also give John Stuart Mills the word "utilitarian"). In his later works "The Member" and "The Radical", Galt would touch upon politics and, in particular, the theme of political corruption. His output was diverse; for example, in one of the works that he published under his "Reverend T Clark" pseudonym, he reworked the Wandering Jew legend to provide a framework "for conveying a more lively, and even a more philosophical, view of the progress of the human mind during the last seventeen hundred years, than any other abridgement or compendium of history". John Galt is commemorated elsewhere in Greenock by a memorial fountain on the Esplanade: Image / Image / Image

Looking towards the station and the Bruce Street bridge from the Duncan Street bridge.