![]() He them looked round and saw that the committee were so panic-struck that no resistance would be offered, though they were in the room 4 to 1. The sheriff brought up 8 of the police, whom he stationed in the room below, re-entered the upper room and took up his position under the gas light to prevent it from being put out. They found the whole committee, 16 in number, seated round a table in consultation, with a lot of money spread out before them, and only one light from a gas pendant descending from the roof, lighting the apartment. They at once passed by a trap-door, in the chief room, and to which they ascended by a moveable wooden stair or ladder into the room above, Captain Miller first, the sheriff second, Mr Salmond and Mr Nish following in rotation. Sheriff Alison, Mr Salmond, Captain Miller and Mr Nish then entered the tavern. Four constables were stationed at the entrance of the close, with instructions to let no one out or in 12 others were stationed round the tavern at the front, and 4 at the back, with orders to seize anyone attempting to escape. They met Captain Miller of the Police Force, with 20 constables, at the mouth of the Gallowgate, near to the Cross. The informers told the sheriff that the next meeting of committee would be held on the evening of Saturday 29th July, in the Black Boy Tavern, Gallowgate, Glasgow.Īt 9 o'clock that night the sheriff left his office, with no arms but his walking stick, accompanied by Mr Salmond the procurator fiscal, and Mr Nish, the principal sheriff- officer. They disclosed to the sheriff a plot "to assassinate the new hands and masters, manufacturers in Glasgow, one after another, till the demand of the combined workmen were complied with" that the men shot three days before had been selected at the first victim and that Mr Arthur, master-manufacturer, was to be the next victim. The masters met and offered a reward of £500 for the discovery of the persons implicated in the murder, and three days afterwards 2 informers met sheriff Alison by appointment in a Vault under the Old College, to which the informers were admitted by a back door through the College green. Many violent assaults were made on the nobs or new hands, who took the place of the men out on strike, and at length, on the 22nd July of that year, a new hand was shot dead on one of the street of Glasgow. To cope with this formidable and well-organised body there, was in and around Glasgow, a police force to only two hundred and eighty men.īands of eight hundred to a thousand men traversed the streets, with banners flying and drums beating and the colliers assembled in such numbers as to render any attempt to dispose them, except by military force, out of the question. The effect of these two strikes was to let loose, upon an already over-distressed community, above 80 thousand persons, all in a state of utter destitution, and yielding implicit obedience to their trade leaders. Prices of all kinds of manufactured goods sunk to nearly one half many workers were thrown idle, and the wages of those still employed were reduced, which reduction again led to general and foolish strikes, at the instance of their trades unions, of the whole Colliers and Iron miners in Lanarkshire. In an anecdote of Glasgow, written by Robert Alison and published in 1892 was a story of the Black Boy Tavern, he wrote the following: "During the commercial crisis and panic of 1837 which swept over the country, Glasgow, as a great merchantile and industrious centre, suffered severely. The custom was discontinued, but a record of these stones was kept. In the two following years the tavern keeper was James Boyd, who provided dinner to the Provost, Bailies, and Council and "other honest men." These dinners were usually associated with the riding or "reeding" of the marches, or boundaries marked by march stones, the first perambulation recorded being the date 1st June, 1574. "Well, "said the speaker," I was born there, and now I am Mayor of this town." After a conversation he said, "Tou come from Glasgow." "Yes," said Mr L "Did you know the Black Boy Close?," "Yes," again was the reply. ![]() Warehouse at the Cross.Ī well-known Glasgow citizen, in touring round the world, landed at a township near the Fraser River, Brittish Columbia, and was accosted by a well-dressed well set-up man. The Black boy, recalls the fashion of black boys pages, and in after years the Black Boy Close was notorious for robberies and several murders. The Black Boy Tavern, Gallowgate was situated not far from Glasgow Cross near where the Chrystal Bell's now sits.
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