Like The Thistle Seed E-Book

Malcolm Archibald

• Herausgeber: Next Chapter
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Scotland has always given generously of her people to the world.

This book tells the story of some of the many hundreds of thousands of Scots who have contributed to the fabric of modern world. In here are explorers and entrepreneurs, settlers and soldiers, politicians and missionaries, traders and police officers.

They are a diverse lot with only two things in common: they made their home in a foreign land, and they hailed from Scotland. The world is all the richer for the part they played.

Leseprobe

Like The Thistle Seed

The Scotts Abroad

Malcolm Archibald

Copyright (C) 2012 Malcolm Archibald

Layout design and Copyright (C) 2021 by Next Chapter

Published 2021 by Next Chapter

Cover Design by Evit Art

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the author's permission.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following people for their help and information. Professor Charles McKean, University of Dundee; Professor Murdo Macdonald, University of Dundee, Mrs D. Joyner, Groenvlei, Natal, South Africa, Mrs Johanna Lerm, Durban, South Africa, Mrs Gail Smith, Morehill, Natal, May Kidd, Hole Farm, Kirkbuddo, Scotland; Mrs Brookes, Kloof, South Africa, Mrs Mauris Spence, Pinetown, Natal. I would also like to thank my wife for assisting my research and enduring the many hours when I was labouring over an often-reluctant computer.

Like his national emblem, the thistle, the Scotsman was dry, prickly, impervious to weather, hard to destroy, and scattered like the thistle seed. Sanche De Gramont

Introduction

Scotland is a small country on the western fringe of Europe. She has a seventy-mile land frontier with England while the rest of her thrusts into the sea, as if attempting to escape the confines of her own geography. Two thirds of her land is rock, bog or rough grazing. The remainder grows some of the finest crops on earth. At one time, with one-eighth the population of her southern neighbour, she had twice as many universities and one of the most literate populations in the world, yet her people were frequently regarded as barbarous. She had a fearsome military reputation yet as an independent nation had no standing army and no history of national aggression. The national dress and international perception of Scotland is based on a caricature of the Gaelic culture that was once banned and frequently feared by the Lowland population. Scotland, then, is a land of contrasts.

Is it any wonder that such a nation should produce so many wanderers, men and women who helped create the new countries of the world, as their ancestors had blossomed in Europe? And is it any wonder that these same people should compose some of the most heart-wrenching laments for the land they left behind, even as they encouraged others to board the emigrant ships? Is it any wonder that this complicated nation should also produce a fine a collection of odd balls and eccentrics as any on Earth?

As the prickly, ubiquitous thistle is the symbol of Scotland, then the people may be likened to the thistle seed, which spreads so well over the land. Typical of the thistle seed were the hundreds of thousands of un-named emigrants who sailed from Scotland to become the backbone of the new countries. Gold diggers and bankers, farmers and factory workers, lawmakers and lawbreakers, the Scots slid from their homeland like snow off a dyke. While most settled into ordinary, respectable jobs, others rose high in their chosen profession, helped guide their adopted country to its destiny or slotted into a nether world of non-conformity.

There is no part of the world where Scots have not made some impact. Scots have wandered in the most inaccessible parts of Asia, struck out for North and South Pole, crossed Australia and Canada and loomed large in the field of African exploration. For much of the 19th century, Western Canada was a Scottish enclave, South Australia was seen as the most Scottish part of Australia, Scots settled Otago in New Zealand, and numerous remote islands were strongly Scottish. There were innumerable Scottish colonial governors and governor-generals, while Scottish engineers built bridges, harbours and roads that connected the world. It was a Scotsman that helped draft the United States Declaration of Independence and Scots who helped tame the West, when they were not making it even wilder.

Tens of thousands of Scots took to the sea with thousands becoming shipmasters and many founding shipping lines whose vessels crossed the globe. Fighting Scots admirals founded navies in South America, reformed the Russian fleet and gave the United States a fine nautical tradition. Highly educated, the Scots exported their thirst for knowledge, taught in Europe, and founded innumerable universities while Scottish missionaries spread the Word across half the world. Militarily, the Scots had a reputation for courage and loyalty that was rarely matched and never exceeded. As well as fighting for Scotland and Britain, Scottish soldiers participated in some of Europe's bloodiest wars, often on both sides, and helped forge the independence of the United States and many South American nations. Sometimes they were defeated but they were never disgraced.

Other Scots gave different gifts to their new land. It was a Scot who introduced camels to Australia, a Scot who brought Aberdeen Angus cattle to America. There were Scots born American Chess Champions and a Scots born Canadian Speed Skating champion. A Scotsman created the English John Bull, and Scots cast the first dollar sign and designed the flag of Hawaii. Other Scots were more notorious than famous. The treasure of Captain Kidd has never been located, while James McPherson the bushranger hunted the back roads of New South Wales and Alexander McClung was one of the most dreadful of the killing gentlemen of the United States.

Scattered like thistle seed they may have been, but the Scots seemed seldom to forget their roots. Caledonian Societies, St Andrews Day Parades and Burns Clubs flourish across the globe. There is even a Tartan Day in New York. The descendants of Scots retain and enhance their Scottish culture, generation by generation. Often the Scots abroad seem more Scottish than those at home do, and Old Scotland could learn much from their passion and knowledge of a country that their ancestors were often only too anxious to leave.

This book will list some of the Scots who became known in their new country. There were too many prominent Scots for any book to include them all. As the selection in here is a personal choice, many Scots will disagree with those personalities included, while offering excellent reasons for including others. Such disagreement is expected: diversity of thought was always a Scottish characteristic.

However, this book is intended to give a fair cross section of those Scottish professionals and workers who forged new nations, while not forgetting the eccentrics and outlaws that also claimed Scotland as their birthplace. It does not attempt to list the thousands of prominent people who can claim Scottish blood in a distant ancestor. To do so would include United States Presidents such as Ronald Regan, whose ancestors included the Scottish Revolutionary David Downie who was transported for sedition. Other United States presidents with Scottish ancestors include Nixon, McKinley, Roosevelt and Grant, while U.S. soldiers, seamen, academics and businessmen and women would total many thousand, and that is only in one country. The Scottish contribution is immense and undervalued.

The names in this book are listed alphabetically, and where the names and initials are the same, chronologically.

Like The Thistle Seed

Adams, Captain Alexander (1780 – 1870)

Admiral of Hawaii

Born in Angus, Alexander Adams went to sea on a Geordie brig at the age of 12 and served in the Royal Navy from 1807 until 1810. He was working on the Boston vessel Albatross when he arrived in Oahu, Hawaii in 1811, at a time when the islands were independent of any other power. Settling in Hawaii, he married three times and fathered fifteen children. King Kamehameha seemed to take a liking to the wandering Scot and presented him with land.

The King put Adams in command of the Hawaiian fleet of nine square- rigged and fifteen small vessels, although he apparently needed only the 260-ton brig Kaahumanu to remove an unwanted Russian presence from Kauai in 1816. Adams has also been credited with the design of the Hawaiian flag. Employed as the first ever Honolulu harbour pilot from 1817 to 1844, Adams saw many changes in the islands; he was present when the first American missionaries arrived in 1820 and persuaded the king to allow them to remain. He is also rumoured to have brought the mango to Hawaii from India and was thought of as a very colourful man.

Alexander, Sir William (c1567 – 1640)

Colonist, poet, courtier

Born in Menstrie Castle near Stirling, Alexander was educated at Glasgow and Leiden in the Netherlands. He used this education to become tutor to the Earl of Argyll on his travels through Europe. His writing career began in 1604 when he composed a hundred sonnets on love. Three years later he wrote Monarchick Tragedies, which criticised power and pride and in 1614 he completed his long, complicated poem Doomsday.

In 1613 William Stirling became an usher of the court of Prince Charles, later King Charles I. Knighted in 1614, that same year Alexander was also appointed Master of Requests. In 1621 he used his influence with the king to obtain an area of land in North America that he named Nova Scotia. This grant was far more extensive than present day province of the same name, extending from New Brunswick to Cape Breton Island. It was the intention of King Charles to populate these lands with Scottish 'younger brothers and mean gentlemen, who otherwise must be troublesome.'

Unfortunately there were few takers when Alexander attempted to find Scottish colonists, for at that time most footloose Scots preferred to head for Ulster or northern Europe. As inducement and to finance his idea, Stirling created the Order of Knight Baronets of Nova Scotia in 1624, with the knights accepting their lands at the Esplanade of Edinburgh Castle. Each new landowner had to part with one thousand merks. To swell the trickle of colonists, in 1625 Stirling wrote An Encouragement to Colonies, but still obtained little results.

There were a few Scottish settlers in Nova Scotia by 1629 and a small settlement at Charlesfort until 1632, when King Charles handed the land to the French.

Alexander, however, had other strings to his idealistic bow. As the sole printer to King James VI, he printed the Psalms; he became Secretary of State for Scotland, Earl of Dovan and Earl of Stirling, but still managed to die in poverty. His legacy remains in the name Nova Scotia in Eastern Canada.

Allan, Sir Hugh (1810 – 1872)

Canadian Shipowner and railwayman

Born in Saltcoats in Ayrshire, Allan was the son of a ship owner. He immigrated to Canada in 1826, where he worked with the shipbuilding firm of John Millar and Company, later becoming a partner. In 1839, together with a Mr Edmonstone, he formed a shipping company that later became the Allan Line. By the end of 1852 the government had awarded the company the contract for a line of screw steamers on the St Lawrence, which also became known as the Montreal Ocean Steamship Company.

The line grew from four to eight vessels, with a weekly service. During the Crimean War of 1864 to 1856 and the Ashanti War of 1874, the British government leased Allan Line vessels as troop transports.

As well as shipping, Allan was heavily involved in railways, being one of the original proponents of the Canadian Pacific Railways. He was also involved in the Montreal financial sector. He funded the election campaign of John Macdonald, the Scot who became premier of Canada. Possibly Allan was returning a favour, for Macdonald had granted him the charter to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. Unfortunately when this arrangement leaked out, Macdonald's government fell.

In 1844 Allan married Matilda and their union produced nine daughters and four sons. Despite his transport links, it is the Allan Memorial Institute of Psychiatry in McGill University that is perhaps Allan's best memorial today.

Anderson, John (1820 – 1897)

New Zealand engineer, politician and shipping magnate

Scots born, Anderson served an apprenticeship as a blacksmith before working in both Edinburgh and Liverpool. Married with one son, he immigrated to Christchurch in New Zealand in 1850. Eventually, now with two growing sons, Anderson established his own foundry. He sent his sons to Scotland to be trained as engineers and set to work to supply the burgeoning colonial economy with iron goods. Anderson made everything from boilers to ploughs, bridges to dredgers and even railways. He also built viaducts and bridges so that his firm became one of New Zealand's major engineering works.

It was not surprising that Anderson should become the first mayor of Christchurch in 1868, a position that only enhanced his popularity. Not content to remain in a single track, Anderson also founded the New Zealand Shipping Line and was one of the first directors of the Christchurch Press.

Anderson, John Henry (1814 – 1874)

Professional magician who burned down Covent Garden Theatre

Born in Craigmyle, John Anderson made his mark in London. Known as 'Professor Anderson, Wizard of the North', he was a professional magician who pioneered advertising to spread his fame. Anderson was perhaps the first magician to send out hand bills and display his name on posters, but he is probably best remembered for his exploits in clearing the Covent Garden Theatre of a drunken crowd in 1856. When he lowered the gaslights he miscalculated his distances, set fire to the ceiling and burned the theatre to the ground. Just like that.

Arbuthnot, John (1667 – 1735)

Creator of John Bull

Not many people in England would realise that their very own John Bull was actually created by a Scot. Born in Kincardineshire, John Arbuthnot was a mathematician, a political satirist and physician to Queen Anne. Most of the caricatures he created have faded with time, but when his collection The History of John Bull was published in 1727, England had a new image. Set against the unreliable foreign characters such as Lewis Baboon of France and the Dutch Nicholas Frog, John Bull is 'an honest plain-dealing fellow, choleric, bold, and of a very unconstant temper', which is how the English perhaps preferred to view themselves.

Baikie, William Balfour (1824 – 1864)

African explorer, linguist and settler

Born in Kirkwall, Orkney, Baikie studied medicine at Edinburgh University. In 1848 he became a surgeon with the Royal Navy, and six years later was included in an expedition up the River Niger. Command of the expedition was given to John Beecroft, British consul in the Bight of Benin. Beecroft's orders were to sail Pleiad, a 260-ton schooner rigged steamer, up the Niger, open trade negotiations and locate the missing German explorer Heinrich Barth. When Beecroft died, Baikie took command, pushing the boat 250 miles further up the river than any previous expedition had reached. Most of Baikie's success was due to his twice-daily issue of quinine to the explorers. Where most exploration trips lost heavily through malaria, Baikie did not lose a single European. What was nearly as unusual, the expedition also made a profit. Baikie, however, did not find Barth.

Baikie was back on the Niger in 1857. He built roads, gathered the first written vocabulary of native words and translated sections of the Bible into Hausa, the local language. As if that was not enough, Baikie also founded a settlement at the confluence of the Benue, becoming the first Briton to live for an extended period in the interior of West Africa. Rather than bringing Britain to Africa, Baikie adopted local dress and customs, wearing a long cotton shirt, living in a mud hut and eating fish and palm oil. He also took a local wife and produced a clutch of half-Scottish children.

Baikie tried to end the slave trade and believed the Britain should send gunboats up the Niger to protect the natives. He set up a market to buy slaves, whom he then freed, becoming so much part of Africa that he was known as King of Lokoja. Recalled home by the government, Baikie died of dysentery on the journey. Not as famous as many other explorers, and without the drama of mind-opening discoveries, he proved that Europeans could live in Africa and proved that malaria could be prevented.

Balfour, Arthur James (1848 – 1930)

Supporter of a Jewish national state

From East Lothian, Balfour was a professional politician. Secretary for Scotland as well as chief secretary for Ireland, he is remembered as 'Bloody Balfour' for the vigour with which he put down Irish rebellion. It is doubly ironic therefore, that this man was instrumental in creating an independent homeland for the scattered Jewish people. His famous Balfour Declaration of November 1917 was a major factor in the creation of the Jewish State, which came into being in May 1948.

Balfour, James (1831 –1869)

Marine engineer and lighthouse builder

Born in Edinburgh, Balfour was one of the famous Stevenson family of marine engineers. After a career as a lighthouse builder in the United Kingdom, in 1863 he was given a three-year contract to the Otago Provincial Government in New Zealand. Four years later Balfour was appointed as the colony's Marine Engineer. His lighthouses made navigation safer around Farewell Spit and Cape Campbell, while he also surveyed the coastline of Taranki and designed the harbour at Timaru.

Balfour's career was cut short when he fell into the sea and drowned while landing at Oamaru. While his lighthouses are his best memorials, there is also a town, Balfour, on the Waimea Plains, named in his honour.

Balfour, Robert (1550 – 1625)

Mathematician

At a time when great religious struggles were taking place in Scotland, Robert Balfour was quietly unravelling complex mathematical theories on the continent. He was educated at St Andrews and then travelled to Europe, where he spent the remainder of his life. Balfour completed his education in Paris and was appointed principal of Guienne College in Bordeaux. At that time Guienne was famous for its arts and theology. Balfour was hot tempered and aggressive, both in his personal life and in his approach to his work. However, he was an excellent scholar. As well as a mathematician with a European reputation, Balfour translated Aristotle's writings from Greek into Latin. Contemporaries knew him as the 'Phoenix of his Age, a scholar worthy to be compared with the ancients.'

Barr Smith, Robert (1824 –1915)

Australian pastoralist

Born in Renfrewshire, Barr Smith completed his education at Glasgow University. Immigrating to South Australia in 1854, he accepted employment with the Scottish businessman Thomas Elder, where he rose to become a partner in the firm of Elder, Smith and Company. Around this time, Barr Smith married Elder's sister, Joanna. As their land holdings increased, the company of Elder, Smith became one of the largest wool brokers in the world and helped raise Australia's profile as a wool producing country.

Barr Smith was also involved in finance, mining and shipping. He was one of the founders of the Bank of Adelaide and established the Barr Smith Library in Adelaide University, while donating large amounts of money to the church.

Begbie, Sir Matthew Bailie (1819 –1894)

Frontier judge

Born in Edinburgh, Begbie graduated from Cambridge University in 1841, and practiced law in England for fourteen years. It was in 1858 that Begbie was sent over to British Columbia to impose law and order on a Crown Colony bustling with a gold rush. As a judge, Begbie had the final say in ensuring that this outpost of Empire did not descend to the gun law that controlled parts of the American West. In 1866, when British Columbia united with Vancouver Island, Begbie was advanced to Chief Justice of the mainland portion; four years later he became responsible as Chief Justice for all British Columbia. He was knighted in 1875.

Bell, Alexander Graham (1847 – 1922)

Inventor

Born in Edinburgh and educated in Edinburgh and London, Bell's first job was as an assistant elocution teacher. With his father and grandfather interested in eugenics, it was expected that he follow the same line of work. Immigrating to Canada in 1870, he moved to the United States the following year. Two years later he was Professor of Vocal Physiology at Boston, working with deaf-mutes and using his father's 'visible speech' system. This work led him to experiment with devices for transporting sounds and on the 5th June 1875 he sent the first telephone transmission to his assistant.

One year later he patented the telephone, following this success by forming the Bell Telephone Company in 1877. Three years later he founded the Volta Laboratory, where he invented the photophone and the gramophone. Later in life he became interested in aeronautics and invented the tetrahedral kite. On a more human level, Bell is remembered for his work with Helen Keller, who he taught to hear. He died and was buried in Nova Scotia.

Bell, Johnof Antermony (1691 – 1780)

Traveller and physician who rediscovered the source of rhubarb

Born in Antermony near Kirkintilloch in Stirlingshire, Bell graduated in medicine at Aberdeen. In 1714 he travelled to the newly founded St Petersburg as assistant to Dr Areskine, the Tsar's physician. After being appointed the physician to Valensky, the Russian ambassador to Persia between 1715 and 1718, he embarked on an even longer journey in 1719 when he travelled from Russia to the court of Kang Hi, Emperor of China. Bell travelled by sleigh, camel and horseback from Siberia into China. Bell recorded his experiences in Travels from St Petersburg in Russia to DiverseParts of Asia, which was published in 1763. As there had never been a European woman inside China, the females of his company were sent back to Russia at the Chinese border.

Bell marvelled at the Great Wall, described chopsticks as 'a couple of ivory pins' and wrote about elephants, greenhouses, porcelain factories and the horrors of foot binding. Bell was full of praise for Chinese civilisation and mentioned their friendliness to strangers and 'decent treatment of women.' On this trip he became possibly the first Scotsman to visit Peking.

Probably more important, Bell dug up some rhubarb plants and carried them carefully to St Petersburg. At that time rhubarb was seen as a vital medicine to cure constipation but although people knew that it came from the East, nobody seemed sure of its exact source.

After further travels in Persia and a spell as a merchant in Constantinople, Bell returned to Scotland to write about his adventures. In 1746 he married Marie Peters, a Russian woman, whom he seems to have taken back to his estate as Antermony.

Bennett, James Gordon (1795 –1872)

American journalist

Born in Keith, Moray, James Bennett emigrated to the United States via Nova Scotia. Settling in New York City, he began a career as a newspaperman, working his way up until in 1826 he was appointed Associate Editor of the New York Enquirerand Courier, where he fought for the right of the press to report trials without seeking permission from the courts.

In 1835 he founded the New York Herald, one of the most innovative newspapers of its time. Published daily, which was unknown, and selling for a cent a copy, which was cheap, the Herald's aim was to be self-supporting, rather than rely on a political party or business for funding. Naturally, it aimed for a large circulation and also led the way in steam technology. Bennett's editorials were uncompromising, and he was abused, horsewhipped and boycotted but still succeeded in producing one of the most popular newspapers of the era. Bennett is also remembered as the father of the James Gordon Bennett who sent Stanley to search for Livingstone. Incidentally the expression 'Gordon Bennett!' refers to the son, not the father.

Bennie, John (1796 – 1869)

Missionary, the 'father of Xhosa Literature'

Bennie was born in Glasgow in October 1796. In 1816 he joined the Glasgow Missionary Society and three years later was sent to the Cape Colony. Bennie was posted to the mission station at Chumie, smack in the middle of the Neutral Zone near the Great Fish River. On one side were the expanding white colonists, on the others the Xhosa, vanguard of the Bantu who were pressing south.

Learning Dutch, then Xhosa, Bennie started a school for the local peoples. Bennie was to produce an English-Xhosa dictionary and was the first European to put Xhosa into writing. Marrying a Dutch woman, Margaretha Magdalena Mare, he was ordained in 1831. By that time he was working on the Ncera River but left the station during the Frontier Wars of 1834-35, when the Xhosa burned down the buildings. In 1843 he visited the newly established Trekker's Republic of Potchefstroom-Winburg, the first minister to do so. His subsequent book contains the first mention of African-built stone structures in the area.

Bennie has been termed “the father of Xhosa literature” Teacher, linguist and missionary, Bennie represents all that is best in the Scottish missionary tradition.

Berry, Alexander (1781 –1873)

Australian merchant and settler

The son of a tenant farmer, Fife born Berry studied medicine at St Andrews and Edinburgh and became a medical officer in the East India Company. He worked with the Company until 1808, and then immigrated to Australia. By 1819 Berry was settled in Sydney and working as a trader to raise money to buy Shoalfield, an estate with nearly 400 convict and ex-convict tenants. He became wealthy from growing tobacco, maize, barley, potatoes and wheat.

By becoming an Australian landowner, Berry had succeeded in rising through the class barrier, which was a thing virtually impossible in Scotland at that time. However, there was a shadow on his success. Berry started as a kindly landlord but became harsh later. Known as the Laird of Shoalhaven, he was over 100 when he died, owning 40,000 acres. As well as his commercial concerns, Berry studied the geology and anthropology of the colony and served in the Legislative Council from 1828 until 1851.

Binny, Archibald (c1762 – 1838)

First man to cast the American dollar

Born in Edinburgh, Archibald Binny immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1795, where he met townsman James Ronaldson. The following year they started the firm of Binny and Ronaldson, America's first type foundry. The firm published America's first specimen books in 1806 and reputedly cast the first ever dollar sign.

Bishop, Isabella (1832 –1904)

Traveller, writer

With an Edinburgh background, Isabella Bishop, born Bird, was the daughter of a minister and became one of the greatest women travellers of her time. Of stocky build, Bishop suffered from a painful spinal condition that necessitated her spending much of her time lying with a scented handkerchief to her forehead. However, the first hint of adventure seemed to dissipate her condition and Bishop became an indefatigable traveller.

When she was 22 a doctor recommended she take a long sea voyage for the sake of her health. Bishop sailed to North America. That was the first long trip of a lifetime spent travelling, often in arduous conditions and in some of the least known regions of the world. In between short stays in Edinburgh, Bishop travelled to the United States and Canada, Australia and Japan, India, Tibet and Persia, Korea, Hawaii and Armenia. It is unlikely that half a dozen of her contemporaries had visited all these places. Of her writings, Lady'sLife in the Rocky Mountains, written in 1879, is perhaps the best.

In the early 1880s she married the Reverend John Bishop, but when he died in 1886 she immediately resumed her travels, taking to horse to tackle the Sahara Atlas Mountains. Six years later the Royal Geographical Society made her their first female Fellow. Bishop continued to travel all her life and when she died in Edinburgh at the age of 70, she was set for another major expedition to China. It is only a pity that she is not better known.

Black, Niel (1804 – 1880)

Australian pioneer pastoralist and politician

Son of a tenant farmer from Cowal, Black was fluent in Gaelic and English. He became a proficient farmer and as a representative of the company of Niel Black and Co, he sailed to South Australia in search of land. After visiting various localities he decided that the 'Scotch settlement' of Port Phillip district was most suitable. Obtaining a 44,000-acre run, he named it Glenmoriston and set about creating a profitable enterprise. As the years passed, Black bought up a neighbouring run, and then extended his holdings in the Western District. In 1857, on a trip to Scotland, he married the much younger Grace Greenshields. The marriage produced three sons.

During the 1860s Black obtained a freehold title for most of his land. By that time he was one of the finest stockbreeders in Australia. He bred pedigree Cotswold and Merino sheep, while his shorthorn stud at Mount Noorat was thought to be the best south of the equator. In 1859 Black became a member for Western Province in the Victorian Legislative Council, a position he held for the remainder of his life.

So famous did Black become that in 1867 Prince Albert visited the lavishly decorated Glenmoriston. Unfortunately, in 1869 Black lost Glenmoriston to another partner. Instead he obtained a run in the Southern District, which he believed to be inferior. A hard working, Presbyterian, Black was capable of intense generosity and gave quietly to what he believed were deserving causes. In his prime, Black was one of the best and best-known farmers in Australia.

Black, Samuel (c1785 – 1841)

Fur trader, warrior, and kidnapper

Born illegitimately in Aberdeen, Black lacked formal education but taught himself Latin, Greek and geology. In 1802 he immigrated to Canada, becoming a clerk in the XY Fur Company. By 1804 he was with the North West Company, and became involved in the struggle against the Hudson Bay Company around Red River. It was Black who waged a virtual guerrilla war against the HBC by staging false Indian attacks, stampeding their horses, setting the night-time forest ablaze and robbing their trappers of sleep. He also staged the kidnap of a leading HBC factor, an exploit, which earned him, the appreciation of his colleagues and a finger ring inscribed 'to the most worthy of the worthy Northwesters.'

When the two companies merged in 1821, Black was specifically excluded from a position with the HBC, until Governor Simpson, knowing the strength of the Black legend, insisted on his recruitment. Black became attached to a mixed race woman named Angelique Cameron, who helped nurse the plant collector David Douglas when he was sick and who gave Black four children.

In 1824 Black spent much time in exploring the Finlay River, and in 1837 became chief factor, but was murdered four years later.

Blackwell, Alexander (c1706 – c1747)

Adventurer

Born in Aberdeen, Blackwell was reputedly a son of the principal of Marischal College. After his education, Blackwell moved to London but his attempt to become a printer failed when his English rivals combined against him. Thrown into a debtor's prison for bankruptcy in 1734, Blackwell was saved by his wife. She drew and engraved an amazingly detailed Herbal, to which Blackwell added the description. By clearing his debts, the sales of this publication bought Blackwell out of prison.

By 1742 Blackwell was in Sweden, where he revealed medical knowledge by curing the sick king. Appointed the Royal Physical, Blackwell also managed a model farm, at a time when agriculture was becoming something of a royal passion throughout Europe. Unfortunately, Blackwell seemed to have made enemies as easily as friends for in 1747 he was arrested on a false charge of treason and executed. It is said that when the headsman came with his axe, Blackwell apologised for laying his head on the wrong side of the block. He excused himself by saying that it was the first time that he had been beheaded.

Bogle, George (1746 – 1781)

Asian diplomat and traveller

Born near Bothwell in Lanarkshire, Bogle graduated from Edinburgh University and joined the East India Company. In 1774 Warren Hastings sent him as envoy to the Tashi Lama of Tibet, who had written to Hastings on behalf of Bhutan, a neighbouring Himalayan kingdom that had clashed with the Company.

The first known Briton to cross the upper range of the Tsanpu, Bogle was a successful diplomat. He also became friendly with the Lama, although he spent only six months in his country. 'Farewell, ye honest and simple people,' he wrote as he left Tibet, 'may ye continue to live in peace and contentment.' However, despite his personal feelings, his detailed account of the trade possibilities between India and Tibet was extremely professional. On his return to India, Bogle and the Lama continued to correspond.

Bogle was described as a 'gentleman of distinguished ability and remarkable equanimity of temper.' He died in Calcutta in 1781.

Bridges, Sir William Throsby (1861 – 1915)

Australian soldier

Born in Greenock, William Bridges was educated at Ryde, London and Ontario. In 1879 he joined his family in New South Wales, where he worked with the Department of Roads and Bridges. In 1886 he joined the New South Wales Permanent Artillery, and fought in the Boer War, where he caught typhoid. His progress in the military ranks saw him as Chief of the General Staff. In May 1914 he became Inspector General and in August that year was ordered to create an Australian Imperial Force of 20,000 men for the First World War. General Bridges led the Australian force to Egypt and Gallipoli. Regarded as cold, he was respected for his courage and was touring the front lines when a sniper shot him. The king knighted him on 17 May, the day before he died.

Brisbane, Sir Thomas Macdougall (1773 – 1860)

Soldier, Governor of New South Wales and astronomer

Born at Brisbane House, Largs in Ayrshire, Brisbane entered the army at 16 years old. He saw active service in Flanders, the Caribbean, North America and Spain, gradually rising in rank until he became a major general in 1813.

In 1821 Brisbane was appointed Governor of New South Wales with orders to enforce discipline after the relaxed regime of Lachlan Macquarie. He started off by reopening the penal colony of Norfolk Island, Britain's own Devil's Island, and then granted freedom to the press. Firm with convicts who were still serving their allotted time, he allowed civil liberties to Emancipists, men and women who had survived their sentence. Despite the objections of Protestant landlords who were afraid of those Emancipists who were Catholic, Brisbane also granted religious tolerance.

Brisbane introduced vines, tobacco plants and sugar cane to the colony, while also helping horse breeding. However, he took vigorous action against the bushrangers, mainly ex or escaped convicts, who preyed on settlements and travellers. In 1825 Brisbane founded the mounted police, sometimes known as dragoons, or 'goons' to track bushrangers down. He gave orders, largely ignored, that the native peoples were not to be molested and tried to enforce prohibition on the rum-thirsty settlers of Newcastle and the Hunter River.

A keen astronomer, in 1822 he set up and paid for an Observatory near Government House in Parramatta. Naming it the 'Greenwich of the Southern Hemisphere' he catalogued 7385 stars. The Royal Society awarded him the Copley medal for his work, terming Brisbane 'the founder of Australian science.' Brisbane was also the founder and first President of the Philosophical Society of New South Wales, and he encouraged exploration. A party of explorers that he sent out discovered the Brisbane River.

Brisbane also believed in free immigration, so that Australia would not only be a penal colony. However, higher authority did not always agree with him, even falsely accusing him of immoral pursuits with female convicts. Perhaps closer to the truth was the charge of neglecting his duties to study astronomy.

Brisbane's best memorial is the town of Brisbane in Queensland, which he started as a remote penal settlement for hardened offenders. To his peers Brisbane was a “mild and pleasant man”, while his Christianity was as sincere as his astronomical research.

Brog, Colonel Sir William (d 1636)

Soldier in Dutch service

Brog was the colonel of the first Scottish regiment to participate in Dutch service in their long war for freedom against the Spanish. He recruited his men in a number of ways. The Crown sent some, such as the outlaw Grahams of the western border, but others were volunteers, fighting for the Protestant cause or for money. There were also a few pardoned criminals.

Brog had a long career in the Dutch wars. He was a sergeant major in 1588, being promoted to captain two years later. By 1600 he was a lieutenant colonel, and a full colonel from 1606 until his death. An engraving of him in the British Museum shows a serious looking man with a long, neatly squared beard and what may be a scar across the bridge of his nose.

Broom, Robert (1866 – 1951)

South African Palaeontologist

Born in Paisley, Broom studied medicine at Glasgow University. He worked as a midwife in Australia but despite his fascination for the unique fauna of Australia h immigrated to South Africa in 1897. Between 1903 and 1910 he was Professor of Zoology and Geology at Victoria College, Stellenbosch, but lost his position when he argued in favour of the theory of evolution.

Broom became an expert in the animals of the Karoo district and in 1920 became a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1934 Broom accepted the position of palaeontologist at the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria and argued that Australopithecus africanus was one of humanity's direct ancestors. In 1947 he discovered the remains of an Australopithecus skeleton which had walked in an erect position. Broom calculated that the skeleton was between one and two million years old.

Broom's publications include Finding the Missing Link and The Coming of Man. He was sometimes considered an eccentric, wearing a formal suit to hunt fossils but also capable of stripping stark naked on a whim. His energy was terrific and, having just completed his writings on the australopithecines, his dying words were, 'that's finished and so am I.'

Brown, Robert (1773 –1858)

Botanist

Born in Montrose, Brown studied medicine in Edinburgh University but did not graduate. At the age of 22 he was commissioned as Assistant Surgeon in the Fifeshire Regiment of Fencibles, but disliked the military and resigned as soon as he could.

Always interested in natural history, Brown spent over three years as naturalist on board Investigator cruising the coasts and islands of Australia. Of the more that 3000 specimens he collected, around 1800 had never before been catalogued. Brown became the world's leading expert on Australian flora. It took him four years to fully describe his finds, but when his Prodromus FloraeHollandiae was published in 1810, it was described as 'the greatest botanical work that has ever appeared. Despite its academic success, Brown's book was a commercial failure, perhaps because he wrote in Latin

Brown, William (1738-1789)

Founder of Quebec's first printing business

Born near Kirkcudbright, Brown was sent to America as an assigned servant, at the age of fifteen. One of the fortunate bonded men, Brown found a good master, a printer in Philadelphia who taught him the trade. In 1760 he moved south to Barbados, where his health marred an attempt to establish a printing business. However, he was more successful when he moved north and in 1763 Brown established Canada's first printing business in Quebec.

Brown, William (1752 –1792)

Surgeon general of the Continental Army

Born in Haddington, East Lothian, Brown studied as a doctor and immigrated to the American colonies. When the Revolution started, Brown joined the Continental Army, rising to become Surgeon General. In this position he wrote the first ever Pharmacopoeia to be published in North America.

Bruce, James,of Kinnaird (1730 – 1794)

'The Abysinnian'

Born in Kinnaird House, Stirlingshire, Bruce studied law at Edinburgh University but decided to enter business with his father-in-law. When his wife died within nine months of their marriage, Bruce changed the direction of his life, travelling to Spain and learned Arabic. With the death of his father, Bruce inherited the family estate, but instead of living as a landed gentleman, worked for the War Office.

Bruce acted as consul general in Algiers between 1763 to 1765, simultaneously examining and recording Roman ruins in North Africa. As his knowledge increased, Bruce decided to discover the source of the Nile.

In 1768, disguised as a doctor named El Hakim Yagoube, Bruce travelled to Abyssinia by way of the Nile, the Red Sea and Massowah. Accepted by the Emperor of Abyssinia, he became Lord of Gish, campaigning against local rebels and soaking up Abyssinian culture and traditions. It took him two years to reach the source of the Abbai, the headstream of the Blue Nile. After following the Blue Nile to its junction with the White Nile, he struggled back to Cairo. It was the French, rather than the British, who were impressed by his achievements when he returned to Europe.

In 1790 Bruce, often known as 'the Abyssinian' published Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile, but critics scoffed at his description of details of Abyssinian life, such as slicing steaks from a living cow. Mainly it was the educated elite who refused to believe in the barbarity of Abyssinian society, preferring the fables of Prestor John and the myth of the noble savage. Bruce's accounts were later found to be entirely accurate.

Bruce, Sir Michael, 11thBaronet of Stenhouse and Airth (1895 – 1962)

Soldier and adventurer

In his autobiography Tramp Royal, Bruce states “beside our allegiance to God and the King, we young Bruces were taught another loyalty: to Scotland.” He followed this plain fact with a life of almost constant adventure. As a boy Bruce was better at horse riding than arithmetic, he flew in one of the first aircraft to be seen in Britain and when he was just seventeen, Baden-Powell endorsed his application for the South African Police. After spending his teenage years quelling brothel riots and hunting murderers and lions through the Rhodesian bush, Bruce volunteered for military service in the First World War.

Bruce experienced a varied war that started with a skirmish with rebel Boers in South Africa and continued with service with the Royal Artillery at Gallipoli, where he was twice wounded. He faced rioting mobs in Egypt before fighting at Delville Wood in France, where he was again wounded and shell shock. After a traumatic time in hospital, Bruce was released, but a train struck him. Back in action, he was blown up by a shell in the Somme, returned to London and helped uncover a German spy ring. His return to the Line saw him participate in one of the last British cavalry charges where, nearly inevitably, he was wounded.

After time spent on an African farm, Bruce worked as a stunt extra in the film industry, joined in a riot against ex-patriot Germans in Rio de Janeiro and worked as a cattle hand in the Pampas. After a hectic time in a salt works, Bruce worked his passage around the Horn on a windjammer, crossed the Andes on foot, fought through a South American revolution and hunted gold in the Amazon. He also survived a stampede of wild South American cattle before marrying Doreen Greenwell in an England that must have seemed very quiet.